I Tried Over 50 New Beauty Products In The Last 3 Months, and These 3 Are 100% Worth It.

And 2 new-to-me products (maybe not to you) that are simply delightful. DELIGHTFUL!

Feb 05, 2023

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You watched 30 Rock, right? So we’re on the same page that it’s one of the best shows of all time, correct? Cool. Anyway, not sure how it has been for you all since Mercury and Mars went direct but personally I feel like Liz Lemon, below.

In times that feel chaotic or busy, I tend to self-soothe in a couple of ways. 1.) Competitive spring cleaning and 2.) Testing new beauty products. It’s weird, but it works for me.

Happily, I’ve had some truly cathartic cleaning projects—including spending a full day and not insignificant amount of money on a team of professional organizers to sort out my parents’ horrifyingly stuffed garage, WHICH IS NOW BETTER (story to come)—as of late, and I have fallen in absolute love with a few new products.

And when I write “in love,” I mean, I can’t stop using them and have yammered on about all three relentlessly, and am now formally sharing with you. I also want to discuss a couple of older products that just pinged on my radar, which I’m sorry I didn’t know about earlier, but hey: now we’re here.

Anyway, as always, if I’m recommending them, they are truly 11/10s for me, and I hope you like them just as much.

New and Noteworthy!

Shani Darden Triple Acid Signature Peel

Beloved skincare queen Shani Darden is back with a new product for 2023, and when I tell you it’s legendary—I mean it. If you are one of the lucky ones who has experienced an in-office facial with Shani or her team, you know that one of the best parts is her spicy acid peel, which burns so good, has zero downtime, and gives you a seriously gorgeous glow.

If you don’t have a standing appointment with this guru, you can at least get some of the magic at home with her new Triple Acid Signature Peel, which comes in a kit with eight single-serving pods of her bespoke acid blend, a beautiful brush for applying it, and a clay neutralizing mask you massage on over the acid solution.

Like all of Shani’s other products, she manages to formulate it in a way that’s efficacious and gentle, which feels like a paradox, but trust me it’s true. I tried this peel last week, and was blown away by how smooth and glowing it left my skin, and no, your skin doesn’t actually peel after you use it. It just looks like its best self.

The whole process takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish. Using the brush, you apply the peel solution to clean, dry skin (avoiding lip and eye area; I also put some on my neck and chest), then wait between one and two minutes before applying the clay mask on top of the peel. This is where the spice happens; my skin feels hot for a minute or two when I’m rubbing the mask in, but then it stops and just feels calming. Ten minutes later, you rinse off the mask and peel with warm water, then moisturize and go to bed. Be sure to skip the active ingredients that night (I don’t use any other products on peel nights besides a very gentle moisturizer), and then always, always, always use SPF the next day.

KS&CO Nurtured Brow Collection

When it comes to brows, there is only one woman who I trust, and that’s the incomparable, peerless Kristie Streicher. She’s a straight-up beauty legend with a wide range of clients (including Adele!) and an impeccable reputation, so when she first mentioned that she was working on her own products, I was thrilled. THRILLED. Are there a million brow products on the market? Yes. Are those products created by an artist who has over two decades of daily, hands-on experience? Nope—until now, at least!

Kristie’s created an edited assortment of brow essentials, including a Microfeathering Brow Pen (in three shades), a Sheer Tinted Brow Gel (in two shades), a Clear Strong-Hold Brow Gel, and the cutest no-crease leaf hair clips you’ve ever seen. I own, use, and love them all, but I’m particularly obsessed with the clear brow gel and the brow pens.

I don’t know about you, but all of the brow gels on the market that I’ve tried tend to be one of two things: too wimpy or way, way, way too laminated looking. Kristie’s is perfect; strong, but never makes you look tried-too-hard laminated, but also actually works.

The brow pens are the best I’ve ever tried and the color…wow. I’ve whined about brow product colors in this newsletter before, but most of them just have too much red in them, and the color doesn’t look great IRL. Unsurprisingly, that’s not the case with the new KS&CO iteration. The color is incredibly realistic, the super fine pen helps you make tiny, hair-like strokes (even if you’re all thumbs), and I just cannot recommend them enough.

Tower 28 Beauty JuiceBalm Tinted Lip Balm

Full disclosure: I really, really, really like Tower 28 Beauty. Their MakeWaves Lengthening + Volumizing Mascara (which also made Allure’s Best of 2022 List and promptly sold out, but it’s back in stock now!) is one of my 10 Best Beauty Products of 2022, I’ve written about my love of the brand’s SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray and BeachPlease Lip + Cheek Cream Blush (Happy Hour is my favorite color), and I interviewed the brand’s founder/CEO Amy Liu for Second Life last year, so yes, I’m partial.

That said, no matter how much I like a brand, if I’m not into one of their new launches, I just don’t say anything at all. Which is how you can know that I’m truly excited about Tower 28’s new tinted lip balm, which comes in the most juicy, lovely, I’m-ready-for-spring colors. I personally like Squeeze, which is a bright coral that you can blot down, and Shake, which is a your-lip-but-better pink, and there is also a good berry called Drink and a neutral brownish option called Mix.

I’m a sucker for a chubby lip pencil, and have tried everything on the market, at every price point. Most aren’t pigmented enough, and also can feel almost…slimey? But these balms are different. Optimistic, luxurious, and in a clean formula, they’re simply a must-have for spring and beyond.

New To Me (Maybe Not You); Still Worth Discussing

Harry’s Body Wash in Fig

While I will never kick a fancy shower gel or soap out of the shower, generally speaking, this is not the category I like splurging on. But I still want my showering experience to be nice, you know? So you can imagine my delight when a friend showed up at my house recently (hi Jill!) with a bottle of Harry’s Body Wash in Fig, and I realized that this insanely yummy option is also very affordable!

If you decanted it and told me that it was the newest product from say, Byredo, I would probably believe you. It’s that lovely. The formula doesn’t dry out or strip my skin, the scent is wonderful, but also dissipates nicely, so it doesn’t interfere with my perfume, and it’s available at Target. What’s not to love?

Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua Foundation

At the end of last year, makeup artist Kate Lee did a story for WhoWhatWear.com on her favorite Chanel beauty products that really caught my eye. Kate is incredibly talented and has worked with Chanel for ages, so if there’s anyone who would know the best products from the brand, it’s her. Then this foundation pinged on my radar again last month, in that wildly viral Mary Phillips video, when she used it as one of her key products for a naturally glowy look.

Color me intrigued.

You know where this is going: I obviously immediately bought it. (Again, I used a few different find-my-shade matching sites to figure out which shade I was, and folks: it worked like a charm. It’s in the January 15th newsletter, if you want the exact sites.)

Not sure what I was expecting, but I was definitely blown away by how lightweight this formula is; it truly feels like water. It has a light scent that reminds me a tiny bit of vacation (idk), and I find it really easy to work with. It doesn’t settle into my fine lines, it blends beautifully, and the coverage seems quite buildable. Kate said that it gives the “appearance of an elevated, natural complexion,” and I think she is spot on in her wording.

Look, foundation is kind of like bras—everyone has unique and specific needs—but if you’re like me and want something that’s a tiny bit more than a Glossier skin tint (Does it do anything for you? Be honest.), but less opaque than Ilia’s iteration, this Chanel product might be for you, too. It’s particularly nice during the winter, when an otherwise beloved stick foundation product feels a smidge drying? But that’s just me. You might disagree and that’s fine; we can like different things! (Can you tell someone online yelled at me recently? Hahahhahahaha yeah.)

Okay friends, that’s it for now. As always, if you’re so inclined to share this newsletter, I’d think that’s grand. If you want to follow me on @hillarykerr, I’d love it. And if you have anything to say or ask (preferably nothing terribly mean), please drop me a note either via DM or in the comments below.