I Tested Products From 5 New Beauty Brands and Here Are My Thoughts

I love a good product innovation, but I especially love when they work—and boy does this work. This isn’t a foundation or a concealer; it’s a complexion product that’s essentially used as neither and both at the same time. It’s for pinpointed coverage wherever you need it, which I typically find doesn’t work very well. But this blends into my skin so evenly and looks natural with only a little bit of product. I'm wearing this with the Auric highlighter below in the above photo, and you can tell it doesn't completely cover everything, but that's why I love it. It looks just like my real skin, but better. I know I’ll use this all spring and summer—and I’m already preparing to order another shade as I start self-tanning. This product gets a solid 10/10.

This one wasn’t as much of a hit for me. Is it bad? Not at all. It actually is pretty great. But for how much product you get and the performance, it’s just more expensive than I’d typically spend. I despise the packaging ploy in which the cap is bigger than the actual product, and this does that, which annoyed me before I even tried it. If you want a lovely, clean brow gel, this is certainly your girl, it’ll just set you back a bit when you could just buy ELF’s Wow Brow for $6.

Priyanka Chopra’s newest venture is Anomaly Hair, a new line sold exclusively at Target featuring eight products all under $6. My shower is filled to the brim with shampoos and conditioners I won’t finish until 2025 at this rate, but I was in the market for a new dry shampoo after a recent stint of incorporating some harder workouts into my routine while simultaneously trying to sustain my hair color longer.

I have a love/hate relationship with this foundation. When my skin is peeling and flakey from overexfoliation and Retin-A use, it’s a major pass for me. A few times I wore this, and my skin looked worse than it ever had. But when my skin is in better shape and is moisturized and not so textured, it looks gorgeous, is so lightweight, and stays on all day. It’s kind of hit or miss with me and this foundation, but I definitely can see myself using it when my skin is more on the oily side this summer for a step up from a tinted moisturizer without a heavy product on my face.

Of everything I tried, this is my favorite. Since it arrived in my mailbox, I haven’t used another bronzer. It blends effortlessly into my skin regardless of what foundation, powders, concealers, or other products I’m using. For my skin tone (which is sitting at a solid “light with perhaps a hint of medium” right now, and I have a neutral olive undertone), the “Light” shade matches me really well. I raved about Charlotte Tilbury’s Airbrush Flawless Bronzer last summer, and this is half the price and just as good if you ask me.

Blush is slowly becoming my favorite product in my makeup collection (especially while working from home and spending so much time on Zoom calls that make my face look flat and one-dimensional), so I knew I had to try this new cream blush. The shades are so gorgeous, it was hard to choose! I love how these have a cream-to-powder finish; it’s moisturizing but stays put all day, which is something I often struggle with when it comes to other cream blushes. I apply this with a brush and blend it in with my fingers, and it blends flawlessly every time. This also has the perfect amount of pigmentation. If you hated the Rare Beauty blushes because of their high pigment, you’ll like this. It’s buildable without being too light, making each shade pretty versatile on a range of skin tones.

This is a classic glossy lip balm, but I’ve been reaching for it constantly. I love the way it makes my lips feel, and I notice they’re more hydrated at the end of the day if I’ve applied this a few times. I’m obsessed with Kopari’s Lip Glossy, and this is a new product I’m adding to that rotation.

I hated this the first few times I tried it because it clung to every dry patch on my face (which was a lot). However, when my skin is more balanced, I really do like this, and I love how it holds my makeup in place. I would suggest this mostly to those with normal-to-oily skin, but someone with a dry skin type who does lots of skin prep beforehand might like it still. When my skin is more oily in the summer, I’m sure I’ll use this a lot.

After watching Sam’s launch video, I ordered Pyrite, which she described as the perfect highlight shade for olive skin tones, and she was right. Highlighters are always either yellow-gold or an icy-pink on me—there is no inbetween. This shade emulates my actual skin tone, so it blends in and looks like my actual skin versus looking like a colored highlighter. If you’ve used Charlotte Tilbury’s Hollywood Flawless Filter, this is very similar concept: I use it as a primer under makeup, as a highlighter over makeup, or mixed in with my foundation. Glow Lust is just a little thicker, making it a bit easier to use as a standalone highlighter than Charlotte’s formula. I also find that it looks glowier on me, whereas HFF makes my skin look more moisturized. If I had to choose, I’ll keep buying Auric solely for the shade range and how gorgeous it looks on my cheekbones as a highlighter. I even use it over powders, and it blends seamlessly.

This serum is made for all hair types, but with my straight, thin hair, I hack how I use it a little bit. When I first used it as a serum, I used one drop and mixed it into my Olaplex No. 6 leave-in, and it left my hair feeling a little greasy, which isn’t out of the ordinary for me. Oils and my hair typically don’t mesh well, unless it’s super lightweight and made for thin hair types. My hair was so soft and smooth, but it had a bit of an oily feel on my ends. After a few uses with this result, I started using it as a nighttime serum all over my hair. While I sleep, I lose a good deal of the oily residue, and I’m left with soft, manageable hair the serum promises. I can only speak to my hair type, but based on the texture, I’m sure this is a dream on thicker hair, especially coily and textured hair.