Over the last couple of months, I’ve received lots of questions from readers about lipstick colors. I’ve been doing a lot of overhead shots for jewelry posts (to highlight earrings and bracelets), and in those shots my lipstick/lip gloss combos ended up being seen up close as well.
I used to wear the same lipstick almost every single day (for years and years), but for the last several months I’ve been switching it up, which is why I’m imagining that y’all have become interested!
So today, I’m going to share the lipstick and lip gloss combos that y’all have been asking about. I thought it would be good to have all the answers in one place. After that, I’m also going to share all of my very favorite makeup and beauty essentials. I’ve done quite a few beauty posts for different retailers over the years (Sephora, Nordstrom, Macy’s, and Amazon), and today I’m pulling all of my favorite items from all of those different posts together for one big BEAUTY FAVORITES post. The products I’m highlighting today are items that I use all the time, most of them daily.
FAVORITE LIPSTICK AND GLOSS COMBOS
Let’s start with the lipstick and lip gloss combos! I NEVER wear a lipstick without a lip gloss, although I often wear lip gloss on it’s own.
COMBO #1
Ruby Woo is a red lipstick that I found a couple of years ago when I was looking for a bright red lip color before July 4th. Ruby Woo is supposed to look great on all types of skin tones and with all different hair colors. It’s definitely a blue red, which is great, because I don’t love a red that leans orange.
My sister introduced me to Clarins lip comfort oil when we were at the ranch once, and I bought it the day we got home. I wear “Honey Glam”. It glides on so smoothly and provides high shine and just a hint of subtle sparkle. It also mellows out a really bold lipstick color. It’s very hydrating and feels great on.
lip combo: Ruby Woo lipstick / Honey Glam lip comfort oil

COMBO #2
I added this lipstick to my makeup bag last year, and now I reach for it all the time. I’ve found that the Charlotte Tilbury lipsticks have great staying power, but aren’t drying. This one is “Love Liberty”.
This lip gloss is fantastic. It goes on so smoothly, and I love the subtle shimmer. I got “Fenty Glow”, which is accurately described as a shimmering rose nude. And it smells like peaches and vanilla. It’s not overwhelming at all though, it’s just delightful.
lip combo: CT Love Liberty lipstick / Fenty Glow Lip Luminizer

COMBO #3
I’m wearing the same lipstick that I am in Combo #2, but I switched up the gloss.
MAC lip glass in “Love Child” is gorgeous. Mac lip glasses are high gloss and give a glass like finish, hence the name “lip glass”. Love Child is highly pigmented and very shiny, so it can definitely be worn on it’s own, which I often do. But it also looks great layered over different lipstick colors. It lasts several hours, it’s not sticky, and it’s just plain pretty. There are so many gorgeous colors to choose from with this product!
lip combo: CT Love Liberty lipstick / MAC “love child” lip gloss

COMBO #4
I saw this lip gloss stick on another blogger’s instagram. Bridget talked about how she was in a wedding and everybody in the bridal party looked good in this one color, and I was intrigued. I was even more intrigued that it was called a lip gloss stick, so I had to try. The color I have is GORGEOUS (mine is called “One Mauve Time”). It looks great with a full face of makeup, but it also looks great with a makeup free face. It’s just a realllllllllllllllly pretty and sheer color, but it also comes in several other beautiful colors.
It’s not sticky at all, and it just feels really slick and smooth on. It doesn’t last all day long, so I do have to reapply, but I love the color and look so much that I don’t mind.
This lipstick is the only one I wore for about 5 years, and I still reach for it all the time. The color of it in the tube looks MUCH DARKER than it appears once it is actually applied.
lip combo: Fashion Icon lipstick / One Mauve Time lip gloss stick

COMBO #5
lip combo: CT Love Liberty lipstick / Honey Glam lip comfort oil

COMBO #6
This NYX Butter Gloss is too good to believe. First of all, IT’S $5. FIVE DOLLARS. It goes on soooo smoothly, it’s not sticky, and it feels great on. It’s got a silky feel, and it’s very moisturizing. I wear this over lipstick to add shine, but I also wear it on its own pretty frequently for just a shiny lip with a little bit of color.
lip combo: “Love Child” / Praline Butter Gloss

COMBO #7
Sometime last year I realized I needed to up my lipstick game a bit, so I set out to find a couple of new colors. I knew that I wanted a great nude, and Pillow Talk is the nude I settled on after reading several articles on “the best nude”. It has really pretty soft pink undertones. It’s a matte lipstick, which I normally don’t like, but it’s not drying. And I always wear a gloss on top, so even thought it’s matte, the gloss I layer on top gives me the shiny lip that I prefer.
When I want a true nude/ reallllllllly soft pink look, this is the combo I go for!
lip combo: Pillow Talk lipstick / Honey Glam lip comfort oil

COMBO #8
This particular combo is one I find myself reaching for again and again. Together, it’s just a great berry color that looks good with so many different outfits.
lip combo: Fashion Icon lipstick / One Mauve Time lip gloss stick

Okay, that’s it for lip combos for today! I’ll make a point to be better about sharing the lipstick/lip gloss combos in future posts.
OTHER MAKEUP ESSENTIALS
This NYX Pore Filler is MAGICAL.
I’ve been using Smashbox Even Skintone Primer for a while now, and I still love it. I feel like it provides a good foundation for the rest of my makeup and evens up my skin tone a bit.
HOWEVER, this Pore Filler Primer is a game-changer. When I read one reviewer who struggles with large pores say it was like “grout for your face“, I was SOLD. I absolutely love and am SO IMPRESSED with the results this product gives, and I truly feel like it smooths/minimizes the large pores on my nose. It IS grout for my face. And I’m here for it.
I’ve started using this primer as more of a spot treatment (all over my nose), and I continue to use the Smashbox Primer on the rest of my face.
And it’s just $14! I would pay three times as much for this product.
These next two products are a couple of my holy grail products.
I combine the Drunk Elephant Sunshine Drops with my Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream…and I’m telling you….MAGIC happens.
Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream / Drunk Elephant Sunshine Drops
Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream – This is one of the products I added into my routine about a year ago after reading about it on several blogs and in several “BEST OF” beauty articles. Lots of users compared it to the much more expensive La Mer line, but said they preferred this product! That was it, I was convinced I needed to try it. Officially, it’s a cream that floods skin with moisture for a glowing complexion in a flash. A little goes a long way with this cream, and it’s not greasy, but it is incredibly hydrating. There is a very light rose scent to this cream, and I don’t normally care for rose, but it doesn’t bother me at all.
I’ve been using it for at least a year now, and I’m now devoted to it. It has a cult following.
Drunk Elephant Sunshine Drops – This product is awesome. AWESOME. You can wear it by itself, or you can mix it in with a moisturizer or serum. I obviously mix it with the magic cream. The combo gives a really pretty light coverage and “glow” immediately! It doesn’t give full coverage, but I LOVE IT, and I wear it as my foundation now every day that I wear makeup.
This product also has a lot of amazing ingredients in it that are great for your skin. It’s made of vitamins, antioxidants, platinum peptides, and barrier-supportive fatty acids that defend skin from environmental free radicals. YES, PLEASE!
Below you can see how I just add a pump to the magic cream and then blend it together before applying it all over my face and neck. I’m telling you, it just gives your face a wonderfully healthy looking GLOW.
Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream/ Drunk Elephant Sunshine Drops
The eyeliner and the lash primer are products I’ve used for years and absolutely swear by. I have never found a mascara that I really love for long term, but I’ve stuck with these two products for a really long time now and I know I will continue to use them for years and years.
Stila Eyeliner – This liquid eyeliner is one of my tried and true products that I cannot live without. It is by far my favorite eyeliner product I’ve ever used, and I can’t imagine ever switching. I use the grey (it’s called “alloy”) because the black is too stark for me. It glides on SO easily, and it stays on with no smudging during the day. Now, don’t let the “liquid” title scare you. It is like a very fine tip marker that you just easily glide on for a very clean line, and you can decide if you want a thin or a thick line. It doesn’t skip, it doesn’t smudge (it really does stay all day), and it’s so easy. I can apply it in 1 stroke using only one hand! No need to pull the eye taught or anything!
Diorshow Eyelash Triple Volume Lash Primer – I SWEAR BY THIS PRODUCT and have for years. I sweep it on my lashes right before I put on my mascara. It both lengthens and plumps my lashes with white fibers, but they don’t fall off into my eyes. It’s pretty magical. It goes on white, so you do have to wear mascara over it, but the white doesn’t show through after the mascara goes on. I do one eye with the lash extender and then the mascara before moving to the other eye. I’ve found that my results are best when the mascara goes on before this product dries.
Stila Eyeliner / Diorshow Eyelash Triple Volume Lash Primer
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BEAUTY AND SKIN CARE ESSENTIALS
Glow Screen is my favorite new product. I’ve been using it for a couple months now, and I can now say I’m a devoted fan. It’s a primer that has a beautiful tint to it that leaves you with a really pretty and glowy finish! There are many days this summer that it’s been the only “foundation” I wear, and other times I wear it under my Sunshine Drop/Magic Cream combo that I talked about earlier in the post. It has SPF 40 and hyaluronic acid! And it doesn’t leave you greasy or oily. Of course you should have SPF on your face every single time you leave the house, and this Glow Screen makes it easy!
The whole family uses Supergoop. Supergoop Body Mist is my favorite. It sprays a fine mist and applies so easily and evenly! The Glow Stick is an easy way to reapply sunscreen to your face, and I never go without lip balm sun screen after I got that terrible sunburn on my lips a couple of summers ago.
Click HERE to check out all that Supergoop has to offer.
This Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask is a product that I now swear by. I keep it on my nightstand and use it every single night. Like, I can’t go to sleep if I don’t have it on, and I travel with it too.
I don’t suffer from dry and flaky lips, which is what this product really targets, but I do love going to bed at night with super moisturized lips and my goodness does this product deliver. It has a great little silicon applicator that it comes with so you don’t have to stick your finger into the product (full disclosure, I use my finger), and the product totally glides on your lips. For me, it just gives me extra silky and smooth lips. If you suffer from dry and flaky lips, this is going to be a game changer for you. If you apply a thick layer at night, when you wake up the next morning, the flakes are going to be sitting on top of the skin. They then recommend taking a damp wash cloth to wipe the flakes away.
It has over 8,000 5 star reviews, and I have several friends that swear by it as well.
(Please take a minute to look in the background to see the sweet fuzzy baby head up top and my super skinny and toned arms peeking out in that picture on the right. #thattonedarmdeservesrespect)
Breakouts aren’t something I thought I would still be dealing with at my age, but here we are. Now, they aren’t frequent, but they do still happen. For the past couple of years, I’ve been spot treating any little bumps that popped up with the Colleen Rothschild clay mask, and it worked pretty well, but now I feel like I have a secret weapon.
This tiny little bottle is packed full of salicylic acid that powerfully spot treats blemishes. My spots disappear faster, as does the redness that always goes along with them. And I’ve found that it dries the spot out, without over-drying my skin or causing me to peel. The second I even start to think that a blemish is about to pop up, I cover it up with just a dab of this gel. A teeny tiny little bit goes a long way. #alittledabwilldoya
If like me you are still struggling with occasional blemishes, I highly recommend giving this product a try!
The Peter Thomas Roth Hydra Gel Eye Patches have gained some serious popularity over the last couple of years.
I was first introduced to them in April of 2018, and I’ve been using them ever since. When at a conference, one of my friends brought these out for all of us to try. One use, and I was hooked. We all were.
So, how do you use them and what benefits do they have?
You use the enclosed spatula to gently lift and separate a patch from the others, and then you apply the patches under your eye to clean and dry skin.
If you apply with the pointy side up, you will target under eye puffiness and wrinkles. If you apply with the pointy side down, you can target your crow’s feet. They feel nice and cool on your skin when you put them on (I’ve heard some even keep them in the fridge), and I leave them on for 10-15 minutes. The caffeine that’s in them helps de-puff the eye area, and the 24K gold will leave your skin appearing firmer, lifted, and brighter! #YESPLEASE
They are expensive, but I really do notice a marked difference after using them. I don’t use them every day, only when I look extra tired or have extra puffy eyes.
TANNING PRODUCTS
Isle of Paradise Self Tanning Drops – This is one of those blogger products that I’d been hearing about for well over a year before purchasing. I’d been dying to try them and had tried to grab them several times, but they were always sold out.
Well, the drops finally got restocked and I jumped on them!
The verdict? Did they live up to all of the blogger hype?
The answer is HECK YES. This product has blown me away.
Here’s what you do. You mix drops of it into your favorite moisturizer (I use this Charlotte Tilbury one). The more drops, the deeper the tan. You rub it all over your face, being careful not to miss any spots. And within a couple of hours, a “tan” develops. It’s magical really.
I appreciate that you can control the deepness of your tan with the number of drops you use. They call it “controlling your glow” and I’m here for it. I grabbed the medium formula, and I typically use 3 drops with moisturizer. I feel like it gives me an even bronze glow that’s not streaky or orange.
I think it’s best to apply it at night so it can develop while sleeping. When using 3 drops, the color fades in about 3 days, so I think I will probably use this product about twice a week right now. When I up the number of drops, the “tan” might stick around longer and I might go longer between uses.
I would like to direct your attention to my arm in the picture below. Do you see the horizontal stripe below my wrist and the vertical stripe down my forearm? That’s my sun-kissed glow, y’all! I tested the product on my arm before using it on my face, and I think it shows the results quite nicely!
I apply it at night, so I wake up with a glow. Make sure to wash your hands very well after applying, or it will color your palms.
Isle of Paradise Self Tanning Drops / Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream
Almost every single time I’ve shown a picture of myself in shorts this summer, I’ve been asked about my “tan.” Last year I started using Fake Bake and was crazy impressed, but when the original formula sold out last month, I ordered the Fake Bake Darker and love it too! It comes with a mitt that makes it so easy to apply without streaks, and you can see the formula going on which also promotes even application! Love that healthy glow!
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HAIR ESSENTIALS
My mom and sister started using the Colleen Rothschild hair products before I did, and they convinced me I needed to try them! My mom swears that these products restored her hair to a much more healthy state. If I had to pick just one product, it would be the Smooth and Shine Hair Serum. I put it on right after I dry my hair at night, AND MY WORD it makes it so smooth and shiny! It’s incredible. The Quench and Shine Restorative Mask conditions my hair beautifully and leaves it sooooo soft, while taming fly aways and frizz. I use this product every 3-4 washes. The microfiber hair towel works like a freaking charm. After brushing my hair and ringing it out a couple of times, I wrap my hair up in this for at least 10 minutes (longer if time allows). It pulls the moisture out of my hair and really cuts down drying time with the dryer. (I’ve tried the shampoo and it was good, but I REALLY LOVE the products below.)
Smooth and Shine Hair Serum / Quench and Shine Restorative Mask / microfiber hair towel
After I wash my hair, I use the Revlon One Step Dryer and Volumizer to dry my hair. I typically wash my every every other night, and then in the morning I pop these rollers into my hair. Yep, I use rollers.
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FRANGRANCE
I’m a long time fan of Jo Malone fragrances, and I definitely have tried and true favorites, but I always like trying out new scents as well. They can all be worn on their own or mixed and matched, and I really enjoy trying out different fragrances. This Honeysuckle and Davana combo totally caught my interest and the beauty consultant said it was one of their most popular new fragrances.
It’s a light honeysuckle scent (totally reminds me of the honeysuckle vine in my backyard when growing up), but it has staying power!
If you think most perfumes are too strong, you should really consider trying Jo Malone. The scents are light, fresh, and not overpowering at all. You can see I have quite the collection going.
TIP: When I get to choose my free samples from Nordstrom when making a beauty purchase, I ALWAYS choose a Jo Malone sample if it is an option. They are great for travel or to just throw in your purse for a refreshing pick me up during a regular day. I also always choose a mascara if there is one offered because they are great for travel too!
Jo Malone Honeysuckle and Davana / all Jo Malone fragrances
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Colleen Rothschild Products
I couldn’t have a BEST OF BEAUTY post without at least mentioning my deep and abiding love for Colleen Rothschild.
And you need to know, even though there’s not an official sale going on right now, you can almost always use the code STMT20 for 20% OFF your order. Click HERE if you are out of anything or if there’s something you’ve been wanting to try! I am ordering their new Gua Sha Beauty tool!
Okay, ladies! That’s all for today!
I’m curious, do you have any tried and true beauty favorites because of my recommendations? OR, if there’s something you swear by that you think I need to know about, leave your suggestion in the comments!
Dana says
I could read beauty posts all day, every day! Makeup is just so fun. You should really try the Beautycounter lip gloss. I promise I don’t sell it or anything, but it is so good. The rosewood color is the only one I’ve tried and it’s like the perfect color. I love the Clarins lip comfort oil and LaNeige, too. And the little silicone applicator makes me like the LaNeige even more! I taped the little package to the top of the lid so I never lose it now. 🙂
Shay Shull says
I just hit “add to cart” way too many times. ??
Erika Slaughter says
I’m WITH you on that GLOW sunscreen!! YES!!
Robin says
So this is funny.
What I’ve bought AND LOVE because of you: the magic cream, the sunshine drops, the isle of paradise drops, the eyeliner, the eyelash primer, the self tanner, and tons of Colleen Rothschild products which I have my 2 sisters hooked on as well. Today I’m adding the NYX primer and gloss (they are so cheap!) and the perfect red lipstick. Thanks for always being my personal shopper!
Sheaffer says
This is awesome, Robin! So happy you love everything too! xoxo
Donna says
I love beauty posts! I have several things from today’s post, but most recently I bought the CR hair products after you shared what your mom thought about them. I’m probably closer to your mom’s age than to yours, and like her, my hair had started to get dry and brittle. These products totally changed my hair back to more manageable and healthy. It’s softer, shinier, and just looks better. THANK YOU!
Sheaffer says
So happy to hear this, Donna! I’m OBSESSED with the hair serum and can’t believe how soft and shiny it makes my hair! xoxo
Bernadine says
quarantine life is treating you well, Sheaffer! Skin, hair, summer tan & outfits all on point the last couple of times i came to visit your blog! x
Sheaffer says
You’re too sweet, Bernadine! Thank you for your kind words! xoxo
Renee says
I really do like this post, but it is hard to wear lipstick when every where I go, I have to wear a mask.
Sheaffer says
Hi, Renee! I’m not wearing it much now either, except for pictures. If I have it on at home (just to feel good), I wipe it off before I go anywhere.
Michelle Diniakos says
Do you feel like the pore filler clogs your pores?? And the face tanning drops… I’m worried they will make the brown spots on my face even darker…..
Sheaffer says
Hi, Michelle! The pore filler doesn’t clog my pores at all! I was worried about that, but haven’t had any trouble. I do think you need to be careful with the drops. I have one spot on my face that I’ve wondered if it looks darker when the drops are applied, but it’s temporary, so it eventually fades if it does. Hope this helps! xoxo
Michelle Diniakos says
Thanks sheaffer!! That’s super helpful!!❤️❤️
Jodi says
Love seeing your beauty faves! How is the Drunk Elephant/Magic cream combo different than using the Isle of Paradise drops with the magic cream? When do you choose one combo over the other? Do they essentially do the same thing?
Sheaffer says
The Isle of Paradise drops are like a self tanner. I typically apply at night every 3-5 nights depending on what I’m doing. The Drunk Elephant drops are like a sheer foundation that I apply like makeup in the morning! Hope this helps, Jodi! xoxo
Jodi says
It does!! Thanks for the response! xo
Jennifer says
Wait!!! You use the Glow Screen under the CT cream? I feel like such an idiot – I’ve been doing it wrong and this makes total sense because I felt like the two of them together is too much – too shiny and thick!
Sheaffer says
That’s what I do! I just treat the glow screen as a primer when I use it! xoxo