the beat: Patio
Welcome to The Beat, a new TGE feature where our fave artists/bands/people give us tips on makeup! The most feature to ever me! Today we welcome Patio.
Loren
Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Liner- Jet Black
I don’t wear a lot of makeup because I don’t love how it looks or feels. I also have big features and I think too much makeup can look a bit crazy on me. Instead, I just try to keep my skin clean and hydrated.
But I love black eyeliner. In high school, when I discovered Nico and Edie Sedgwick and Italian and French New Wave, I started winging my eyes because I wanted to emulate those types of classic looks. I’ve pretty much stuck with that ever since.
The best liquid eyeliner is Stila—no question. It’s perfectly pointy and basically foolproof. It’s allowed me to get my cat eye down to like, 90 seconds (though I rarely manage to get it exactly even on both sides).
Yves Saint Laurent TOUCHE ECLAT Radiance Perfecting Pen
This is a very luxe item that I unfortunately cannot live without. It’s super light coverage and adds a nice finish to your face. It doesn’t look like makeup—it just makes your eyes look bright and refreshed.
Cosrx Honey Ceramide Full Moisture Cream
To achieve the aforementioned moisture, lately I’ve been turning to Cosrx products like the Honey Ceramide cream. I just turned 30 (!!!) and unfortunately my skin has grown more temperamental with age. This cream is like a perfect silky comforter for your face—the expensive kind that is thick and heavy yet still somehow feels weightless. However, it’s not expensive at all, which is a gift considering I used to drop major dollars on fancy French products. I owe this discovery to Alice, who was the first to recommend I try Korean skincare.
LP
Spironolactone
I still get the kind of breakouts at 28 that people write “can’t-wait-til-this-ugly-teen-duckling-gets-to-grow-up-and-be-a-swan” comic strips about. They started roughly when I turned 19 (the time at which you hubristically think “maybe I’m just the kind of person who gets only the occasional pimple!”) and have continued to get bigger, gnarlier, and more persistent every year. I’ve tried EVERYTHING - antibiotics, all of the prescription topicals, Proactiv, everything from every country, rubbing toothpaste on my face, birth control pills, giving up yogurt, etc. etc. They either didn’t work, made the problem worse, or had side effects that were too life-altering to endure. Consider, for instance, my ill-fated 1.5 months using the NuvaRing - best skin of my life, highest probability of breaking out in uncontrollable sobs when trying to decide what to order at restaurants.
The absolute only thing that has ever really worked is the Spironolactone that I take semi-religiously every night. Turns out that this blood pressure medication is also extremely good at controlling hormone-related oddities from cystic acne to the full cup size increase I used to get while PMS-ing. If you’re also struggling with serious and persistent acne, get thee to a dermatologist (and then keep going until you find one who will prescribe you Spironolactone! This is a story for another time).
Supergoop Skin-Soothing Mineral Sunscreen SPF 40
Did I mention I break out? In addition to my usual hormone-related skin mishaps, I’m also extremely sensitive to a whole bunch of ingredients, ESPECIALLY ones that are supposed to be “natural,” “good for you and the planet,” and/or “essential so you don’t look like a raisin by 30.” I’m still figuring out which ingredients provoke my skin’s strongest reactions through trial and error, but one major irritant for me is oxybenzone - the primary ingredient in roughly 110% of sunscreens. I thought I’d be doomed to doing my best with hats and powders forever until I found Supergoop’s mineral line thanks to a very helpful employee at the Tribeca BlueMercury. This sunscreen has never once made me break out! In fact, it makes my skin feel very calm. Most importantly, it has never let me down in a high-sun situation. I now wear it every day!
Glitter!!!!
I love to very subtly apply outlandish makeup. I’m really bad at the standard “your face but better” makeup techniques and have absolutely no idea to this day what “contouring” really is, but if a product is sparkly, “the wrong color for my skin undertones,” or toeing the line of compliance with standard office dress codes, I’m all about it. I am also, above all, very lazy. I’m not one to reapply a lip color after it starts to fade off or to be able to paint my own nails or execute balanced winged liner like my patient bandmates. This brings me to my favorite makeup substance - glitter.
Glitter is the lazy girl’s “fun makeup.” All you have to do is smudge it on to your desired thickness, preferably over a bit of eye primer if you want it to stick around, and you’re good for hours! There’s all different kinds of glitter - subtle shimmer, enormous flecks in squishy jars of goop, metallic foils, Studio 54 disco jewel tones - and depending on how lightly or heavy you apply, you can ALSO wear it to your office job. My current favorite glitter collection is Violette’s Blue Dahlia eyeshadow palette from Estee Lauder. It’s pushing me out of my comfort zone a bit and into the land of greenish-golds, colors I swore as a teen would be my absolute least favorite forever but that I have grown to love. Violette’s YouTube videos are also the only makeup tutorials I ever watch. She is the queen of casual glitter. Her tutorials are super easy to follow and the videos themselves are the height of “drinking a tea-based cocktail in a beautiful bar alone at 5pm” lifestyle thirst trapping. Obviously, I stan. The only one of her tutorials I have yet to master is this Klein blue smokey eye one - but practice makes perfect, right?
Alice
This is an eyeshadow that looks and feels like lip balm. It’s very easy to tap on with a fingertip and also very forgiving (you can just rub it off if you mess up). I have the color “Smoke” to get a grey wash on my lids for a casual look or to build up to a more dramatic black if I want to get spooky. A+ packaging and ingredients.
Oils
I love a product I can apply to my hair or face and then rub into the rest of my body. I mostly use marula oil and coconut oil. Marula oil is light, odorless, and has antioxidants, so I use it on my face and the ends of my hair. After I bleached my hair, it didn’t like any sticky or crunchy styling products, so a light oil works best to smooth it down. Coconut oil is for my body because it’s heavier and cheaper, and the smell is soothing. Oil blends are nice too - Everyday Oil smells amazing and works great on hair/face/body.
Earth Science Olive & Avocado Hair Masque
Hair conditioner is a scam. Use a “hair mask” instead in the same way you would use conditioner. It works better. This one costs the same as conditioner and is paraben-/sulfate-/cruelty-free.