The Binge-Beauty-Buy Guide
My most-purchased, most-cherished, most-holy grail items.
Dear Baby Beautician, (because we all are…)
Wanna know a secret? I’m a maximalist/minimalist, when it comes to beauty items. I love doing (/having) the most & also doing (/having) the least. I think beauty requires nothing externally & I also completely adore the external trappings + tools of beauty. I’m a walking dichotomy.
And I think we all are, in different ways.
What I mean is, if you read my “Summer Glow-Up Tips” letter, you know that I believe the biggest glowy change you can make to your appearance is 1000% internal. You could use zero beauty products, but shift your inner world completely, AND STILL have the biggest glow up of your life. (*In this article I also mentioned that for over a year I didn’t buy one singular beauty item, but instead focused on my inside-out glow, which is entirely lit from within.) However— I’ve also been, since my earliest memory, beauty-product enthused.
I was the little girl ripping out perfume samples from magazine ads, I found at the dentist office & saving them in her treasure box at home. I was also definitely known to sneak into my mom’s bathroom at age seven & try on anything her cosmetics bag had to offer. (I’d casually walk downstairs with mascara rimmed raccoon eyes & nonchalantly reply, “Huh?” when my mom ask what was on my face.)
I remember being a young teenager & asking (no, begging!) my mom to checkout Kevyn Aucoin’s “Making Faces” book from the Orem public library & then I’d devour each page. When Youtube beauty creators were popularized (my favorite at the time being Kandee Johnson), I’d stay home on a Friday night, tucked in bed, watching from a laptop & taking notes. I loved any magazine article that gave out “beauty awards” each year to different brands + products.
I was so beauty enthused, that during my time in aesthetics school, I only missed one singular day of class (on the day of my grandpa’s funeral) because I actually WANTED to be in school, learning. This was huge, because my kindergarten-12th grade schooling was mostly me trying to get out of going— this scorpio sis knew how to fake sick. After years of thinking I was a terrible student, imagine my surprise when I excelled in beauty school! Because I wasn’t bored!!
Even now, as a thirty-something adult, my happy place, my version of Holly Golightly’s Tiffany’s, is walking around Sephora & beauty departments at high end stores. I don’t even have to take anything home! Even casually browsing is so cathartic (put in Airpods so the sales associates leave you in peace BTW). If I have the mean reds, or just time to kill, I’ll walk around a Sephora, swatching + sampling everything on my hands + arms. I love reading reviews on their app. I love scouring for the BEST of the best items. I love discovering ultimate beauty hacks + tricks. I want the best things for all of us. We deserve it.
This is honestly how Cafe Binge was born! As a beauty-product-enthused aesthetician, I started my Instagram account with the intention of sharing only the best of the best, the most “binge-worthy” beauty items. My rule was that I had to buy something at least three times before I shared it with my community. What I shared HAD to be good. It had to work! I’m not into shallow lip service. I won’t share a link I can’t fully back up. Trust is absolutely everything for Scorpios— so I wouldn’t share anything that I couldn’t recommend with my whole chest!!!
I love being the beauty guinea pig for us. I’m Sephora Rouge. My beauty closet cup runneth over. I have a lot of stuff! I’ll test anything, but like in an altruistic way— I’m doing it for all of us!!! (This is how I justify my beauty purchases…) I’m a beauty product maximalist… but I’m a minimalist from day to day. I want to use less + pack the most powerful punch!
In going back to my roots, of both the origins of @cafebinge & the roots of who I have always been (a beauty-product-enthused junkie)— here is a list of my favorite beauty items + tricks. The things that I ACTUALLY see a difference in doing/using. I scanned my Amazon, Sephora + email purchase histories, to truly discover what has worked for me time & time again. I discovered what I’ve repurchased many times. I did my “perfect face” makeup, & while I did, took notes for you, jotting down little beauty tidbits. The list might be chaos, but like… organized chaos. A beautiful little brain dump.
I usually do a small “binge-worthy” section on the bottom of each Scorpio Secret, but today, we’re doing a full writeup!
Obviously what people value, in terms of “beauty,” is different. What suits people differs, because we’re DIFFERENT. We have different skin tones + textures, different face shapes, eye shapes, lip shapes. We have different preferences. So while this is my master list, & most things could be applied to most people, what works for me doesn’t have to work for you! Maybe I recommend a blush, for it’s finish + consistency, but a different shade, from that same brand would suit you better. Intuitively shop always. Throw out anything I say that doesn’t work for you. (& feel free to share *your* favorites in the comments section on this love letter.)