May Recap:

Favorites, flops, & reflections

May was a packed month: product photography shoots every week, family events and visitors, back-to-back amusement park hopping, impromptu herb farming, and prepping for big changes to come later this summer.

(1) found a new pop-up Vietnamese coffee shop (2) thai red curry soup recipe we tried (3) Safiyah found a gorg gift/floral shop in Mount Dora, FL (4) took our mom to a farmer's market for Mother's Day (5) Mother's Day pastry haul (6) obligatory castle pic @ Magic Kingdom

We don’t have a slew of new beauty product favorites this month—a lot of March and April’s picks carried right over: Experiment’s Molecular Mesh lotion, Ultra Violette’s Velvet Screen, Danessa Myricks’ Yummy Skin blushes, etc. which is a good thing, as it shows consistency in our routines, but also in the lack of need for new, new, new (anyone else getting absolutely sick over the same 3-5 kinds of launches?). We’ve got a handful of products below that did stand out quite a bit though, so let’s briefly review:

Prequel Lip Visor SPF 30 Balms: we got a ton of use out of these plush, glossy, minty balms this month and made a significant dent in the clear version already. They’re the most comfortable sunscreen lip balms we’ve ever tried, but to be clear, not the best lip balm formula—they’ll slip around a bit, need to be reapplied a lot, etc.—but for ease of application and ensuring protection on the lips? We’re totally on board.

Versed Cashmere Color Balms: Versed’s newish makeup line is severely underrated in our opinion. The tinted sunscreen truly performs like a foundation (highly comparable to the Ciele skin tint), the blush sticks rival that of Merit, Rhode, and other on-trend brands, and we find ourselves reaching for the Cashmere Color balms over our Violette FR Bisou Balms because the tones are a bit deeper and neutral-leaning. Definitely a line that suits the more “effortless,” worn-in makeup style that’s popular these days, but with a wider range of tones than most brands that currently cater to this aesthetic. Not to mention the affordability aspect. We’re not sure why this line isn’t being hyped to the nines.

Merit The Uniform Tinted Mineral Sunscreen 45: this has been on our faces non-stop since receiving it a few days ahead of launch (so about two weeks total only, but our thoughts are solidified now). It is a truly innovative formula in our opinion: sure, there’s some sun protection here but honestly we don’t care about that much (our recommendation is to always adequately protect your skin with an untinted sunscreen prior to makeup application), we’re more focused on how long-wearing, skin-like, and comfortable this is to wear for upwards of 10-12 hours. Merit utilized a pigment dispersion technology that allows the color component of the sunscreen to fully conceal the white cast of zinc oxide, so it feels like a regular skin tint, and we treat it as such. Our expectations were for this to either feel like a thicker gel-based tint on the skin, or a thin, emollient option. It is neither—thin, yes, but blurring and more velvety on the skin. Most comparable to something like Lisa Eldridge’s skin tint, but not quite as gel-like, so the risk for pilling is lower. We’re taking it on vacation with us next week!

Tarte Tubing Mascara Primer: a totally unnecessary product, but it really does work to reduce flaking and smudging throughout the day. This wasn’t a huge issue for us in the past, but as we start to use more mineral sunscreens around our eyes, we’re finding mascaras don’t hold up well in the heat and humidity. If you specifically have issues getting mascaras to work for you, definitely give this a try over other primers as its quite comfortable to apply and wear throughout the day—there’s no crunchy, cracky feel and the wash-off process is so easy! Whoever on the Tarte team thought to make a tubing primer filled a need that no other brand is exploring successfully right now.

Calecim Recovery Night Complex: as far as barrier-strengthening, deeply hydrating, reparative treatments go, this may be as high on our list of favorites as NIOD’s Copper Amino Isolate Lipid 1%. Calecim tackles the skin’s extracellular matrix differently than NIOD’s copper peptide approach via their PTT-6 peptide/growth factor blend, but it’s easier to incorporate regularly into an evening routine thanks to the slightly thin gel texture. It also plays very well with more advanced treatment serums like resurfacing blends, retinoids, brightening agents, etc., so the risk of irritation is low. We don’t reach for this every night, but when our skin is peeling, tight, a little irritated, or just feels…overworked a bit. By morning, it’s significantly calmer and feels replenished. A new staple for sure!

Educated Mess Sake Bomb Moisturizer: this is the one for all of our fellow gel cream lovers looking for deep hydration, but minimal product lingering on the skin as summer approaches. We have quite a few gel picks, but this one has a unique formula centered around powerful humectants, fermented extracts, and encapsulated peptides to encourage long-time hydration (in the sense that it will provide lasting moisture throughout the day, yes, but also strengthen skin overall to help it retain moisture better). It’s one of those slightly silky gel creams—not overly silky to where it feels suffocating in humidity though—and it’s held up well on our skin throughout the day, especially when paired with more velvety sunscreens. We’re also testing out the Freeze Frame serum from Educated Mess but don’t have thoughts to share on that yet, besides how much we like the cooling effect.

Some Non-Beauty Things:

Music:

-Shane Guerrette is an up-and-coming bluesy-rock singer that we’ve been listening to for about a year now. His new EP is coming out soon but one of the new songs released is “Strung Out on You.” Absolutely beautiful.

-When we’re working in the studio/study on big brand projects, the Neo-Psychedelic Rock playlist on Spotify is on repeat—some newer favorites from that list include: Origins by Tennis, Is There Nightlife After Death? by Alan Palomo and Neon Indian, and for a funky international instrumental mix: Year of the Snake by BALTHVS.

TV/Movies:

-You guys peer-pressured us into watching The Pitt (had to renew our Max subscription!) but you were totally right. We made our mom sit down and watch it with us and she has a new appreciation for the stories we have told her from our times in the emergency department. Great storyline, great representation, and great acting overall tbh. Will we watch it again? Absolutely not, too stressful lol.

-We used to be big action movie people—we still are, but we couldn’t make it to the theaters this month despite the back-to-back releases of media we know we’d love: The Accountant 2, Thunderbolts, Sinners, etc. but we did get around to sitting down at home and watching the new Gladiator movie one afternoon. It was way better than what the internet influenced us to expect, not better than the original, but a darn good watch regardless.

-We rewatched The Good Place as well. The lighthearted comedy mixed with deep exploration of morality and what it means to be a good person beyond religious, political, cultural, and even philosophical expectations makes it a timeless show for us. More people need to watch it, especially today.

Food:

-If you ever visit Central Florida (or if you live here!), take some time out of a morning to visit Buttermilk Bakery in Winter Park. It’s a small walk-up bakery that produces a different menu each week, but you can preorder goods the morning of to ensure you’ll get the pastries you want. We ended up visiting them a few times this month and here’s a quick list of the incredible bites we got to snag despite getting there mid-morning: mango lime donuts, passionfruit tres leches, blackberry lime scones, bianco croissant tarts, kimchi cream cheese focaccia, coffee walnut croissants, and more.

-In between the pastry frenzy, we’ve been ramping up our seasonal salad game. We were able to pick up dino kale for 99¢, huge red cabbages, heirloom tomatoes, and other lush seasonal fruit and veg at some local farmer’s markets, so we tried our hand at this salad recipe and it did not disappoint:

melizcooks

A post shared by @melizcooks

We paired it with steaks and a cilantro/greek yogurt/jalapeño sauce and it was a phenomenal meal for the springtime.

Flop(s):

We officially put the Regimen Labs Azelaic Advanced serum to rest. We bought it right when it launched at the beginning of the year but the smell is just a smidge above rancid and it seemed to be fermenting as the weeks went on haha. They have since improved the formula and sent anyone who purchased the first iteration bottles a 30% discount on the new formula (which we’re holding onto for now), but we decided to try something else entirely, the Allies of Skin Clarifying Serum with azelaic and kojic acids. So far so good, you’ll likely read all about it in next month’s roundup!

That’s kind of it for product flops this month. We don’t have a ton of flops on a regular basis—we won’t try a product we know we won’t enjoy, so few things surprise us, but this month had a good amount of hits, especially in the sunscreen department.

That’s a wrap on May. We’re looking forward to afternoon showers, mid-day matchas, and longer afternoons in June. Wishing you all a healthy, safe month ahead.

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