April was a semi-chill month: I (Sarah) am well into my four-month hiatus before residency begins in July, and Safiyah had final exams to round out the spring semester, but nothing too crazy. We had some fun times: Safiyah’s birthday was a couple of weeks ago so we did one of our favorite silly things in Central FL: a cafe crawl. If you’re unfamiliar with Central FL (or only know it for the theme parks), there are a few cool subcultures popping up in our area and a few finally being highlighted, all centered around one of the global love languages: food.
Anyway, the plan was for us to make a few small repairs in the studio towards the end of the month and unpack some things from my apartment (had to wait until after Match Day in case I’d have to move again!) but the “repairs” ended up taking over the last week and a half—a small sink leak turned into a mini explosion, small flood, and major repaint job. Things have settled down now but wow, that was an ordeal, especially when you have a father in a cushy tech job who believes he can DIY blue-collar work because you can “YouTube anything.” In between all of this, for the hospital onboarding process I had to get bloodwork done to ensure immunity against common bugs, obtain my official medical license (!!!), and sign about ten thousand papers that I actually had to read. Additionally, I have a ridiculous amount of student loans that I have to start paying back soon, but my plan is to log my 120 payments over the next ten years and hopefully have the rest forgiven via Public Service Loan Forgiveness (had no idea this was an option until well into my third year of medical school and can you imagine my relief when I matched at a non-profit university?!). Unfortunately with the current administration, everything is up in the air, topsy-tuvy, upside-down, and inside-out, but we can only hope they don’t touch public servant jobs during the Department of Education shrinkage. So with all that, let’s get into some more optimistic things, like stellar products for the month of April:
-Handy Little Label Maker: We’re not sure why we never picked up a label maker before but this one was $15 on sale and WOW we’re nuts about this thing. It connects easily to an app, prints super fast, and the ink doesn’t smudge at all. We have labelled and organized all parts of our lives lol.
-Caudalie Moisturizing Fig Body Oil: oh my word, we love this. It’s a thick, rich blend of Argan, prickly pear, and grape seed oils but smells of fresh, green figs. Caudalie says it can be used on the body, hair, and more, and we actually prefer to use it on the hair for added shine and lasting scent (like, two days of scent!). Is it groundbreaking? No, not at all. But if you’re looking for a little luxury body/hair treatment that’s great for scent-layering (especially if you’re into fig scents like us), this is nice. We have the 50mL size—not widely available everywhere, but we purchased at Cult Beauty back in October and they still have it, for only around $27 (and it goes on sale frequently).
-Sunscreen stars for the month:
Beekman 1802 Solar Milk Clear SPF 50: think Supergoop Unseen, but way less gloopy/yucky and much more traditional primer-like. This has a very thin texture compared to the typical transparent silicone-based sunscreens out there, but we found that it actually dries down on our skin and stays matte. We’ve been reaching for it a lot to just throw on and get out the door or to wear under light makeup.
Beauty of Joseon Aqua-Sun Relief: very few sunscreen beat the easily melted-in texture of this fluid/lotion sunscreen. It’s not a matte finish, but a semi-matte, well-absorbed one, so it just wears incredibly comfortably. We placed a restock order for it at Stylevana last week in case the tariffs cause price hikes, shipping delays, or other issues. Our code: SHOPSHELF also gets 10% off if you want to do the same.
Ultra Violette Velvet Screen Mattifying Mineral Sunscreen: honestly we were super resistant to purchasing this sunscreen but a few of our IG DM regulars peer-pressured us lol. One person found a coworker with a similar skin tone to ours and filmed a demo, just to convince us! And you know what? It’s an incredible sunscreen: thick texture, blends in very easily, extremely minimal white cast on us thanks to the mild tint and emollient texture, but it’s not greasy or heavy-feeling on the skin—it dries semi-matte! Feels like you primed your skin with a good moisturizer, and it wears very nicely under makeup. It’s the nicest mineral sunscreen we’ve tried to date, and yes, we have been reaching for it over chemical options, which is the true test. We shared a demo video between the two main Ultra Violette formulas that you can watch below to get an idea of application:
-Phytosurgence Skin Spark Cream Blush “Smoked Collection” in Incense, Sear, and Scorch: this is our favorite cream blush formula by far. These little gems have a thick, whipped texture, high pigment that blends out and melts easily, and semi-matte finish that adheres well to skin for hours. The Phytosurgence color selection is unbeatable as well: moody, rich, natural tones that are incredibly flattering to a wide variety of people. Sear is our favorite of the bunch—it’s a mauvy-berry with a cool, brownish undertone. Check out our swatches below:
-The New Savant The Usual Candle: we had two candles from The New Savant on rotation this month, The Usual, and Early Light, both previously purchased during their BFCM (and we still have a few stockpiled to get us through the summer). Unfortunately Early Light was limited edition and not currently available, but their scents do come back after some time. Both of these candles have coffee/espresso notes, with The Usual leaning more chocolatey/mocha and ever-so-slightly bitter, and Early Light warmer with a milky, biscuit-y note. The New Savant makes some of the most interesting, complex scents we’ve found for around $40—some of our other favorites that are currently available include Cloud Gazer (milky tea + lavender) and Morning Matcha (crisp, milky matcha). We have a Blue Mercury store located in a nearby town and found a few of these in store the other day, so if you’re hoping to catch a whiff, check them out there!
-Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Blush in Creme Bruelee: we’ve been on a blush kick over the last few months trying different formulas—both cream and powder—but the DM formula is exceptional in our opinion. These are thin, emollient, and high-pigment balms that blend in quickly and set very well. They contain Danessa Myricks’ “Upsalite” technology which helps adhere the product to skin and maintain a matte-ish finish without accentuating skin texture/dryness. We have a few of these from an autumn gift set purchased last year, but when the new shade Creme Bruelee dropped, we knew we had to snag it. It’s a true warm brown on our skin tone, but will appear plummier on lighter skin tones and more beigey-nude on deeper skin tones. Regardless, it’s incredibly stunning and we genuinely think everyone can enjoy a shade like this as a “blonzer!” Take a look at some comparison swatches below:
-Soft Services Theraplush Hand Treatment: this is a rich, balmy occlusive hand cream that features a nice low, comfortable dose of retinol at 0.05%, and deep skin conditioning agents such as colloidal oatmeal, glycerin, panthenol, PGA, and more, so it’s less of a hand cream and more of an actual treatment. We use it at night before bed and have noticed major improvement around our cuticles these last few months (our main problem area). Soft Services is running a Mother’s Day promotion for a free refill pod with orders of two or more Theraplush Sets until May 11th and we honestly think this is a beautiful gift for the moms in your life. Ours is a huge fan of the original fragrance-free version!
-Steve Madden SAG Brown Leather Boat Shoes: we’ve been waiting for boat shoes to make a comeback and they finally have—with a nice twist. These are a semi-affordable leather upper option with a gorgeous aged brown look and solid laces. They’re also crazy comfortable, we can wear them for 6+ hours (with socks though) without an issue. We’re into more unisex/masculine-leaning shoes for sure and these definitely fit our taste. If you want something a bit more sleek, Everlane has a gorgeous option.
-Music Picks:
Behind the Green Door by Night Beats. New song from a hypnotic, psych-rock/blues artist that just kicks butt every time. Check out his songs “Hot Ghee,” “New Day,” and the entire “Who Sold My Generation” album.
Djo’s new album: “The Crux” is good, very 80’s rock ballad-inspired, but we like it!
-Food Favorites: didn’t try a ton of new recipes this month except this sheet-pan chicken kebab recipe and it worked out amazingly. We have attempted kebabs on various skewer types over the years but they never hold, so this method was so much easier. We seasoned it on our own with sumac, cumin, and fresh parsely, but as long as you follow the general steps, it should come out solid. We served it with a nice little saffron rice and sumac-pickled red onions. Chef’s kiss!
Alright, let’s get into some flops—products or things in general that did not work out this month:
Milk Makeup Kush High Roll Brow Tint: one of the worst eyebrow gels we’ve ever come across, the brush is insanely saturated with product and it dries crazy fast, so your eyebrows will look like a cartoon character and the only thing you can do to fix it is wash your whole face. The other Milk brow products are good, so we really think this is a design flaw.
Ceremonia Yucca & Witch Hazel Deep Hydrating Shampoo and Cupuaçu & Castor Deep Hydrating Conditioner: we love Ceremonia’s hair oil and have repurchased it a handful of times at this point. Their heat protectant spray is also fantastic. But this shampoo and conditioner duo is designed to deposit moisture to dry hair and they simply did not deliver, especially for the price. We found we needed to use a LOT of conditioner but it had trouble even adhering to our hair, so it would just slide right off and down the drain. The shampoo was okay, but honestly a bit drying. We much prefer Saltair’s Moisture Bound duo to get the same results. We’re also working through some Dove haircare right now and really enjoy them, so keep an eye out for reviews on that in the coming weeks.
That’s all we’ve got for you today, cheers to a happy, healthy May ahead :)
I LOVE reading about the flops!! So many bloggers only talk about their HGs or Loves so it’s so refreshing to hear a different take on hyped products/brands. Super duper useful (especially in this economy)! Please keep doing that.
Trying out the hand treatment, very excited. xx