My MOST LOVED (& Hated) Products in September | 2024 Best of Beauty

Hello, I have a lot of great beauty and lifestyle products in today's video, some updates and several fails. Welcome back to my channel. Welcome. If you're new, I have a lot of things to share with you today that really stood out to me the most in both good and bad ways over the past month or so. So let's go ahead and get into my current favorite and least favorite products from September. I'm starting off with the hot new limited edition hourglass ambient lighting edit unlocked palettes. This looks like the dragon palette, but it's actually not. I customized the evil eye palette insert number two to be inside the dragon cover. Customization is an option through the hourglass website. If that's something you're interested in, I'll have that link sourced for you down below in my description box along with the regular palette ordering link and everything I'm sharing and wearing in today's video as I always do. And I'll have as many products as possible linked through the YouTube shopping icons, but they don't always have everything. So if you don't see something there, check my description box because everything is always there. So I'm going to do my best to keep this as short as possible because I feel like I could probably be pretty lengthy. So first off, there's a reason why hourglass releases these every single year and why people continue to scoop them up. These are huge sellers for hourglass. The artwork is beautiful. They have matching brushes, so they're very giftable, but the quality on the inside is fantastic. And this palette is no different. I've been playing around with it and it has the same beautiful baked formula that we know and love from hourglass. Each and every one of these applies to the skin beautifully, is easy to work with. They're just such buildable formulas that enhance your complexion and leave you with this diffused, airbrushed, softened finish. So each palette they released is configured a little bit differently. And the palette I purchased, again, the evil eye palette, don't be thrown off by the dragon, is swatched here on the bottom row. The top row you're seeing is the elephant palette. This is the last palette I purchased that is somewhat similar. So I just wanted to take a look at these palettes next to each other to see how close, how different they are. They both contain soft light finishing powder and the highlighters are different. You have more of a gold tone champagne highlighter in elephant, whereas this highlighter is this rose gold shade. I wasn't sure if I was going to like, but I really do. And I want to say this is the first palette I've seen hourglass do, I could be wrong with three blushes. So we have a blush here, here and here. I didn't think this one oasis glow was going to show up, but it should show up on light to medium skin tones. And this bronzer is more of a neutral cool bronzer than in my elephant palette. And I also want to know that 5% of net profits go to the non-human rights project. So I am someone that really enjoys these palettes. I reach for them to use on quick multitasking days where I just want to reach for one palette. They're great to travel with. They're great to gift someone. Now, depending on how long you're comfortable using your palettes, your powder products, you don't really need this palette. Pretend like it's evil eye if you have elephant already, because the shades are pretty similar. It even has the finishing powder that's in here. And I mean, it's getting a little bit old, so you might want to replace it. If you've never had an hourglass palette before, this is a good one. They're always good. And it is a great gift for the beauty lover in your life. I've been enjoying it. I just wanted to give you my perspective. These are palettes that live around my vanity because they're just so easy to reach for. Laura Mercier reformulated her caviar eyeshadow sticks recently. And around the same time, she launched new caviar lip liners. I've already talked about both of those, but these caviar smoothing matte lipsticks go along with those matte lip liners. And I have not talked about these yet. So I don't have much luck with matte lipstick formulas. I find them very drying and uncomfortable to wear. But I figured if anybody could formulate a really good matte lipstick formula, it would be Laura Mercier. I have good luck with a lot of her products. So the first thing I noticed was the packaging. It's very substantial and luxurious. It has that lovely magnetic closure. And then I noticed how matte these look. The side of the bullet, the top of the bullet, it is a matte lipstick. And then I noticed the scent. These are very fragranced. It's kind of a floral plasticky scent. I can smell it from here. And I'm a little bit stopped up today. It's pretty overpowering. Now these are designed to be hydrating, smoothing, blurring, and long-wearing. And they do glide on to your lips very nicely and smoothly. This is the shade Blush Chanel, by the way. They have a nice opacity to them. And at first, they do feel very comfortable. But shortly after, just like most matte lipsticks, my lips start to feel dry. And the texture and dryness is emphasized, unfortunately. I was so excited when I received these in PR. I liked the packaging and the shades. But even if these would have worked as far as texture and wear goes, the scent is so overwhelming. I'm not sure if I could have worn them anyway. I would love it if she would formulate something that's creamy or satin and unscented. That would be fantastic. So this leads me to what's on my lips right now, which I'm loving. This is NARS Explicit Refillable Satin Lipstick, which also has really nice, elegant packaging with a magnetic closure. The shade that I'm wearing is Blame. This is a lovely, lightweight, creamy, satin-finished lipstick that's nice and long-wearing for this type of formula. And it's unscented. The pigmentation is really nice. I don't have lip liner on underneath this today. You can see that satin finish right there. It's infused with rosehip seed oil and hyaluronic acid to lock in moisture and feels really comfortable and lightweight. Now, I was sent several shades from the brand initially, but none of them worked for me. They were either too dark or brown-orangey, aside from a red that I'll wear periodically. But you know I'm in love with the formula when I immediately go out and buy a shade I can wear on an everyday basis, which is what I did here. Now, this is described as a neutral pink, which I disagree with now that I have it. I did order it. I think it's more of a neutral peachy pink, peach cut with pink. I can pink it up a little bit with a pinker lip liner underneath. I like it for everyday. It works. I see myself purchasing more of these for sure. I've been using and loving this for a while. I have no idea why I haven't talked about it until now, but here we are. This is the Makeup by Mario Soft Sculpt. What's the official name? Multi-use bronzing and shaping serum. I have it in light medium, which looks deep, but it works really nicely for my light medium skin tone. So, I didn't get this right away. I was very skeptical of it because it does have this built-in radiance luminosity, which can sometimes work against you if you have texture, fine lines, or pores you don't want emphasized. I thought this might be better for younger skin, kind of like his foundation is, but I decided to test it out anyway, and I fell in love with it very quickly. It's one of the easiest products of this type to work with, and it's very, very versatile. It gives this incredibly sheer, natural, sun-kissed, radiant, healthy glow. So, I went ahead and applied some to the back of this hand. I just blended it out with my finger really quickly so you could see the finish on this hand compared to this hand. I thought it might end up too dewy radiant for me with my combination skin. Sometimes radiant products are a little bit too shiny for me in my shine-prone areas, but it's not. It's a very soft, radiant product that gives just the right amount of sheen, and this isn't budging. This is fully set down. It doesn't feel sticky or tacky, but it fuses with your skin and sort of becomes part of your skin almost after it's set down. It's a beautiful product. I love that you can pump some onto the back of your hand and dip your tool into it and apply it wherever you want, over your bare skin or over foundation. You can unscrew the cap and apply it directly to your face with the doe foot applicator and blend it out that way. And because the tone is pretty neutral, you can contour with it or bronze with it. You can build it up or leave it more sheer. I like this so much more than I thought I was going to, and I'm so sorry I haven't shared it with you before now. If you were on the fence like I was, you may want to give this a try. I think it's great for all skin types. I almost talked about Cali Ray Blurry Blush last month, but I had some unresolved mixed feelings that I'm not sure I've resolved yet, so I figured we'd just talk about it. If you've tried this or any other product I'm sharing with you, let me know in the comments. Let me know your thoughts. I always love reading and commenting on your thoughts in my comment section. So this is supposed to be a transfer-proof, long-wearing, buildable, diffusing liquid blush with skin diffusing, oil absorbing, hydrating, pore minimizing ingredients. It sounds really magical, right? The shade that I have is Dope, which is a rosy mauve. That's how they describe it, but I feel like it's a little bit more vibrant than that. I really do like the color. I blended it out sort of here on the back of my hand. So when you first apply this to your skin, it's very opaque. It almost looks like paint. What I like to do is dip my brush into it and work the product in and then apply it to my cheeks. You know, it almost looks like I get no pigment at first because it's such a sheer, slow build, but it does build nicely. And I kind of like that because I like a sheer wash of color sometimes. Now this sets extremely quickly, which you may or may not like. I find I can only work one cheek at a time and I need to blend really fast. And I can keep building on top of that if I find that's not enough pigment. I can do this side and then move to this cheek, assess, and then go back to the other one. And it looks really beautiful when I apply it over my bare skin or foundation. I have not had success with this over powder, which can happen with cream and liquid products. I find it always looks patchy when I apply it over powder. It's just a little tricky, I think because it's more of a matte finish and because it sets so quickly. I mean, you can see here it's just got kind of a diffused matte finish to it. So if you don't like that finish to your blushes, you may not like this formula. I also want to point out that the tube, the component can get pretty messy. So if that's something that's going to bother you, you may not like this blush. So this has copper peptides in it, which are fantastic for your skin. They help protect your skin barrier. They help with texture and help condition your skin and calm redness. And it of course has niacinamide because everything does these days. That's going to help with your skin tone and help minimize pores. And it's got kaolin clay, which is part of the reason it's got such a matte look to it, that blurred look. And that's what helps with the oil absorbency. And these do wear all day and they are transfer proof. So that part I do like. So I didn't fall in love with this like I wanted to. I just have other blushes that are a little bit less tricky to deal with. However, I live in a really hot, humid environment and sometimes it's good to have a product like this that is budge proof. It's going to stay on no matter what. So I think it has a place. That's why I sort of have mixed feelings. If you have oily skin, if you have problems with your blush slipping off your face, this might be one you want to look at. Why did I wait so long to try Tula Blurring and Moisturizing Priming Filter? This is so nice. It was requested many times for me to try it out. And now I see why it has such good ratings. And it seems to me that it's great for all skin types. So there are four tints that have these blurring pigments. When you first squeeze it out, it almost looks whitish, but then it blends into your skin and sort of diffuses imperfections with very sheer coverage and gives kind of a lit from within glow. So I applied a very, very small drop to the back of this hand. And I think that you can see if a hand can have a lit from within glow that this hand has something that this one doesn't. Now the shade I have is Sunrise for medium skin tones. I probably could go with the shade Lighter. This is a silicone based primer with probiotics and superfoods. So there's all kinds of good things in here and it can help even out your skin tone over time. So they say you can apply one to three pumps depending on your preference. As the last step in your skincare routine before makeup, I would say play around with it. The last step of my skincare routine is sunscreen. So I have been using this as a primer sometimes because you know I play around with different primers, but it's been my first step in my makeup routine used as a primer. Did I say there was an untinted version too? If you didn't want to tint but you still wanted all the benefits, you do have that option. But I've really enjoyed this. On a similar note, we have this new launch from Merit. This is Merit Great Skin Priming Moisturizer, which they say is really great for all skin types. This is supposed to be a lightweight cream that provides time release hydration and can help your skin feel firmer and more elastic within I think they say as little as a week while soothing your skin and prepping it for makeup. It has peptides and some really great hydrating ingredients. So there's no added fragrance, but I do notice a scent with this kind of a plastic-y scent that does dissipate. And even though this is a lotion in a pump bottle, it's a little bit thick and it leaves a dewy glow to your skin. So if you enjoy the dew, you will definitely like this. If you don't, it's probably not going to be the product for you. I mean, you can see that on my hand. What I found interesting about the instructions for this was that it says to apply and then follow immediately with your next step, either sunscreen or makeup, before it fully dries down, which I did some days. Other days I let it dry down. Some days doing that just affected my routine too much. My skin doesn't like something in this. Every time I used it, I ended up with little sporadic bumps towards the end of the day. I have rosacea and can show reactions very quickly. I have sensitive skin. Sometimes this just happens. This doesn't mean it's a bad product. It doesn't mean you'll have the same reaction. I'm just here to tell you my experience. I also get oily very, very quick with this, which isn't a surprise because I have combination skin that's pretty normal around the perimeter and I get oily during the day and I live in a very hot human climate. This isn't lightweight enough, in my opinion, for those of us that have any shine breakthrough and that live in somewhat warm climates, even though it's in a pump model and has a lotion consistency. I would love to see Merit come out with some lighter weight products that feel less oily on our skin. For those of us that still want hydration but that do make our own do during the day. I feel like that's something I would love to see because I love Merit as a line. This is going to be a quick one, but I wanted to let you know in case you love Persona's lip liner formula like I do. She launched three new shades and I think you can see by how they swatch, how pigmented they are, and how easily they glide on. There's no tugging with this formula. It's perfect for slightly over lining or wearing alone. So in the middle here, we have my personal favorite, which is Marrakesh, a warm pink nude, and the one closest to me is Pumpkin, a warm, rich terracotta, and then this beautiful brown. It's warm, rich tones called Americano. I think there's something here for everyone. Loving these shades, as usual, love the formula. So I just wanted to share that update from the brand because there really hasn't been anything she's launched that I haven't liked. Pur recently launched these on point eyeliners, which I was kind of excited about. I love a good no tug creamy eyeliner. That's what these are supposed to be. They're skincare infused. They're also supposed to be blendable, which tells me they're going to smudge easily. It's basically supposed to be a very easy to use gel eyeliner formula. These twist up and there's a built-in sharpener, which I always love to see. So I don't know if you could tell from that application when I applied it. I applied it a little more slowly than usual because it doesn't have a completely smooth glide for me. There is a little bit of tugging when I apply these to my eyes. I received both brown and black, and these just don't apply as freely, as smoothly as eyeliners. I generally like to use dew and they don't smudge as easily either. I find I had some issues smudging them. They would kind of smudge away. So I was a little bit disappointed with these. I looked at the reviews to see if it was just me and the reviews are pretty split. Some people feel like me. Some people think they're fantastic and they glide on with no problems. I'm thinking of texture on our eyelids. You know, it's just kind of hard to deal with. And I want an eyeliner that is going to glide on quickly and smoothly, and I unfortunately am just not getting that from these. There are a few peptide serums that I rotate that I love. I'm pretty picky about that texture because it needs to be nice and watery and lightweight and wear well under makeup, and not all peptide serums are like that. But I am happy to say that Timeless Matrixyl Synth 6 fits that criteria. I don't know why I've never tried this before. It has a nice watery, lightweight texture that sinks into my skin beautifully, but it feels hydrating at the same time. And this is an effective, powerful polypeptide, which I love because it targets wrinkles and fine lines by stimulating your own natural collagen production, which we lose as we age. That's one of the reasons why I'm always talking about incorporating a peptide into your skincare routine. I apply this after cleansing and toning, and it just feels really good. It can just help your skin look more healthy, youthful, and plump over time. I love incorporating peptides into my skincare routine. I've talked more about that in other videos. I'll have those linked down below. But if you haven't tried Timeless, it is one that I have added into my peptide rotation. I think it's great for all skin types, and I'm glad I finally tried it. This is Innisfree Green Tea Seed Hyaluronic Cream. I ran out of the other moisturizer I was using and remembered I had this, and I've been reaching for this at night and really loving it. It's lightweight, fragrance-free, and it's supposed to be great for all skin types. It has green tea, which is rich in antioxidants and amino acids, and five types of hyaluronic acid for deep hydration, and a green tea barrier complex that hydrates and fortifies the skin barrier with squalane and ceramides. It's got kind of a lightweight gel cream consistency that I almost thought was going to be too light for nighttime but a little bit too much for daytime, but this is giving me everything I want for nighttime. My skin just feels really, really good after I apply it, but it doesn't feel greasy. It almost feels kind of cooling as I apply it. My skin just feels really good but not greasy afterwards, and I feel like it's been doing some really nice things for my skin. This is another product I wasn't expecting to like as much as I do. I thought it was just going to be a temporary thing, kind of a placeholder until I repurchased a moisturizer that I already know and love. But I mean, I've used quite a bit let me just open it again. I mean, there's quite a bit gone from here. All areas, the normal dry and oily areas of my sensitive skin really love this. Now I believe this is a reformulation. I didn't try the original version of Josie Maran Vanilla Vibes Whipped Argan Body Butter, so I don't have a benchmark. I can only give you my experience with this new version. This is all I've ever tried. So this is the refillable jar, and this is what you put into the jar. It's pretty cute how it comes, but I do wish the day-to-day jar had more of a solid lid. This is a very creamy, rich, yet lightweight, it's not sticky or heavy cream. It sinks right into my skin, and I love the scent. I find it's just enough, and it sort of dissipates. It doesn't affect any perfume I'm wearing. They describe it as a warm amber blend of a gourmand essence of creamy Madagascan vanilla that flirts with sparkling bergamot against a backdrop of earthy cedar. How's that for a description? It has avocado and argan oil and shea butter among other ingredients that moisturize and soothe and help with skin elasticity and firmness and provide you with essential fatty acids, antioxidants, and vitamin E. So there are some really nice things in here too, along with just moisturizing ingredients. I've been using it a lot. I've hit the bottom of the jar. I enjoy using it. I find that a lot of moisturizers that have a good sensorial experience to them often don't give me enough hydration for my dry body skin, and ones that do don't really smell that great or don't smell at all, which is fine, or I have to really work to get them to absorb into my skin. This gives me everything. It absorbs quickly, hydrates thoroughly, and has a nice light really beautiful scent to it. It's kind of a shame that this gets thrown away though, because this is the cute part. I wish this was a little cuter. Up until a few weeks ago, for a long time, I've been feeling not very good, very lethargic. I've had a lot of brain fog. I've not been sleeping well. I know I'm fully in perimenopause, so I've been following the menopause doctor experts over on Instagram, and they put a lot of focus on eating extra protein, way more than I'd been eating before, and eating less starchy carbs, less bread, pasta, cereal, things like that. Now, I always felt like I didn't eat that much of those things, but I'm trying to focus more on vegetables, fruits, even over gluten-free alternatives. I won't get into all the weeds, but my point is that I discovered a really good cauliflower crust pizza that I couldn't even believe was cauliflower crust. It was so good. It's Milton's. Have you heard of this brand? I'll put a picture here on the screen. It didn't really taste like cauliflower crust. I've had a cauliflower crust pizza before. Some is better than others, but I'd never had this brand, and it is delicious. It's so good. If you haven't tried it, you should try it. It's such a great option to have on hand if you're trying to eat less starchy carbs, but you still want something good. I had to share it. I know a lot of us are trying to eat better, eat healthier, so that we genuinely feel better and have more energy. It's a struggle. Believe me, if you want me to share more things I'm discovering, I can. Just let me know in the comments. A couple of months ago, I shared a show that I fell in love with that I highly recommended for you to watch called The Americans if you hadn't seen it before, and it was recommended to me many, many times to watch Homeland, which I'd never watched for a very specific reason. Well, I caved, and I loved it, and I get why it had all the accolades and all the raves, and that finale was really good. The Americans finale was good, and this finale was just as good, so thank you for that recommendation, and if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it to you. I have more favorites videos here with products that I still recommend, even though we've passed those months, so if you haven't seen those, you can check those out here. I hope you enjoyed this and found it helpful. If you did, give it a thumbs up and subscribe if you're not already. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next time. Bye!