Sephora Favorites: Clean Beauty Kit Summer 2020 Review + Look

Swatches (top to bottom):

• Aether Beauty eye shadow in metallic rose

• RMS beauty Living Glow face/body powder

• Ilia Color Haze/Multi-Use Pigment in Before Today

• Lilah B lip oil in b. elegant

• Kosas lip balm in Pulse

Shamefully, I made it one week since my public announcement that I'm not buying anymore makeup because the sheer quantity of stuff I have is giving me anxiety. However, these new items have brought me significant joy, so... diet starts tomorrow? Here's a little run-down of the items in the Sephora Favorites kit that I caved in buying (with a gift-card! So I didn't spend anything out of pocket!).

Aether Beauty eye shadow in metallic rose:

I was not expecting this to be one of my favourite eye shadows of all time. This is probably my favourite pressed eye-shadow that I own and it's just a dinky lil pan glued in an envelope. I love that they are a sustainable brand with zero-waste, zero-plastic packaging, however they really lost me when they went hard on the "healing power of crystals" angle.

This shadow is so blendable, so pigmented, so smooth... I'm tempted to get the full size palette. Tempted! However, as someone who is not really into multi-color eye shadow looks (I'm too lazy for that!) if they come out with a mini palette of metallic shades... I could be down.

RMS beauty Living Glow face/body powder:

RMS hasn't won me over with their non-cream formulations...until now! This powder is such a winner. It is so unbelievably beautiful inside and out. Seriously, the little travel-size square is beyond adorable (and recyclable), and the product itself? 🤤. I usually hate loose powder products because everything ends up above the sifter and never falls back into the main chamber. So, I really appreciate the little powder puff that sits in the well to prevent that from happening.

I want to dust my entire body with this stuff. I have not been a big body highlighter person, but this stuff is such a home run. It's an amazing warm highlighter that gives off a golden-hour glow.

Ilia Color Haze/Multi-Use Pigment in Before Today:

Like, Glossier's Cloud Paint, but less messy! (Also, more expensive). Ilia hasn't super won me over as a brand stan, but since this one came in a kit, I like it. I don't think I would repurchase because it's too expensive and at the end of the day, I'm still preferring cream blush over any other formulation.

I didn't love this on the lip because it was too much on the dusty side of "dusty mauve". However, in my video below, I use it to layer under my Tower28 lipgloss to create a corally lip shade.

Lilah B lip oil in b. elegant

I like it a lot. I find it's longer lasting than the Kosas lip oil, feels lighter than a regular gloss, yet still gives off mega-shine.

Kosas lip balm in Pulse

This is an awesome tinted lipbalm. The packaging is a little funky. I haven't purchased it before because the testers have always been so gross. I think it's because you can't twist the lip balm back down. The flat shape is kind of strange, but it's actually quite practical for "girl pockets", especially those teeny tiny pockets that come in the waistband of leggings.

The mintiness reminds me of the classic Burt's Bees.

Tarte Surfer Curl mascara

I like this mascara more than the Ilia one because it doesn't sting when I wash it off. I also find that the Ilia mascara's brush doesn't give me a very consistent look from eye to eye. Like, some lashes end up super long and others end up looking kinda clumped together. It's weird. Not this one though. The brush reminds me of my beloved Hourglass Caution mascara, and it build very similarly as well. Lots of defined, yet volumized lashes. As for living up to the "curl" in "Surfer Curl", she be alright.

Summer Look Using Products from the Sephora Favorites Kit!

Products mentioned in the video that were not a part of the kit:

RMS Living Luminizer Glow Quad Mini:

Honestly, if you get one thing this year, get this mini palette. It has my favorite highlighter of all time magic luminizer, but recently I've been pretty obsessed with the champagne rosé luminizer.

I just love RMS cream products so much. I am very excited that they are releasing more minis because it takes me forever to go through a single gram of product, so the full-sizes aren't worth it for me.

Nudestix Tinted Blur Stick:

Expensive, but I can't find anything similar. This is my go-to complexion product just to mattify my sunscreen and blur my pores. The coverage is pretty much negligible.

Read this before you buy Nudestix!

Kosas Revealer Concealer:

She's fine. See my review/thoughts here.

Tower28 Lip Jelly:

Eh. I wish this was more pigmented. It's not sticky, but it feels heavy, like a lip mask. I was super disappointed the first time I put it on, but I'm liking it a little bit more now. The flavouring was overpowering the first time but it's less noticeable as I've gotten used to it. The overall combination of heaviness and flavouring made me think of a Lip Smackers gloss I had back in the day. I guess what I really want is a clean version of my Chanel Coco Rouge gloss.

I love the Tower28 brand story and founder story, but the products just haven't resonated with me. I don't like balmy textures on my face, so that might be it. I really like their affordable pricing in the clean beauty realm.

What really impressed me was the little stamp on the carton that said this is a carbon neutral product. That's AWESOME.