It’s 20% off at Sephora time! Our wishlists and recommendations

As summer draws to a close, we will cope the best we know how: by dreaming of what we are going to use our Sephora discount on (or have in Lyn’s case!)

We made a special Sunday trip to Sephora to get a first hand look at what’s out right now–which we shared on our Instagram story–and picked our favorites.

And then we looked through our stuff to see what we are loving that might be a little on the high end but still recommend and things we are running low on that we can’t live without.

Here are some things that we are either planning to stock up on, or splurge on, or think YOU should buy as our proxy:

Jess:

Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer

A handful of years ago, the three of us were having a rambunctious girl weekend in NYC. It was hot and smarmy in SOHO, so we bopped into a Sephora for a spritz, as we do. A lovely Sephora employee (cast member? What is their official designation??) saw me wilting, and asked if he could introduce me to this primer. “But I have makeup on already!” I worried aloud. He told me not to fret, as it didn’t matter- it would still be magical, and hey, it’s what Madonna uses. SIGN ME UP. My face was instantly human again!

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Halo Beauty–did it change my life?

If you’re not familiar with Halo Beauty, you’re probably not familiar with Tati Westbrook, the YouTuber/beauty influencer/glam guru who developed this supplement designed to give you amazing hair/skin/nails.

 

I go in waves with watching YouTube videos where I’ll watch a ton and then go a few months without watching any. But when I do watch them, Tati is definitely one of my favorites.

Her sheer quantity of uploads is impressive. Girl puts in the work! And you can tell she is very thoughtful in the type of videos she posts with a large range of topics although all are makeup/skin care focused. I appreciate her point-of-view and her clear knowledge and passion for products–which I totally feel! I can tell she believes in miracles–and so do I.

And she’s not 22, which I appreciate.

So when she announced her launch of a supplement, it rocked the influencer beauty world in a very non-story story kind of way.

I’ll let her explain how she came to create the product:

And if you have an hour to kill and want to immerse yourself in some silly YouTuber drama, you can click here.

But regardless of all that noise, I decided to give the supplement a try (as you know if you follow us on our Instagram page.)

And I just finished my first month on it.

Here’s what I think in a simple pro/con list:

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Let’s Try “Lifestyle” Ice Creams!

Have you noticed something going on?? Something in the freezer section of the grocery store?? So many “ice creams” are now trying to be all “hey! Hey! I’m totes healthy! You can eat the whole pint and it won’t blow your calorie budget for the day AND you can get some protein! Do it! Dooooo iiiiiitttt!! Ice cream for health!!”

I mean, it sounds good, but also a little bit like a clown trying to lure me into a van with candy. Are they worth the hype? I caught about 700* people buying Halo Top the last time I was at the grocery store, so maybe there’s something to it. Let’s try a bunch and find out!

HALO TOP CREAMERY

Halo Top was invented because the founder was hypoglycemic and wanted a delicious dessert that wouldn’t spike his insulin, which is a valid reason to make such a thing. Somewhere along the line, fitness influencers and Crossfitters adopted it (22 grams of protein in a pint! #gainz) and it has become crazy popular. I mean, have you seen how much freezer real estate it gets at the store?? They even sell it at Walgreens!

My husband has some dietary reasons to avoid huge amounts of sugar as well, so it seems like there’s always a pint or two of Halo Top in our freezer- this one was easy to check off the list! I will agree that it is a pretty good ice cream replica, and a bonus is that it comes in a billion flavors, and even a few non-dairy alternatives, so there’s something for everyone. BUT it is sweetened with stevia, and I hate stevia. Like, haaaaaate it. For one, I really don’t like how it tastes, but even if I could get past that, if I eat stevia, it’s basically like I’ve eaten 100 very explosive bees all armed with tiny steak knives. So I get really mad when a thing says “no artificial sweeteners!!!” and then I dig deep into the ingredient list and fucking stevia is lurking around. NO THANK YOU.

So this whole stevia thing has my list narrowed down to lifestyle ice creams that also don’t have stevia, which is…. a shorter list.

ARCTIC ZERO

“Fit Frozen Desserts!” “Lactose Free!” “Gluten Free!” “Fat Free!” “GMO Free!” are things listed all over the package for this guy. It should also include “Flavor Free!”. I tried Cookie Shake, and it was sad. Not terrible, per se- it was, chocolate-ish? But so boring that eating the whole pint wasn’t even appealing. You know it’s good when you forget it’s even in the freezer- I never finished eating it beyond the first half inch down.

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