I have very short, very sparse eyelashes (thankfully, I’m not a character in an old-timey storybook, so I’ve never had to bat my eyelashes like a damsel in distress). When I was younger, I tried out a few kinds of mascara, but I never found one that didn’t smudge after just a few hours…even when the label claimed that it was supposedly waterproof and smudge-proof! Maybe I have a very oily eye area or something. Anyway, I eventually gave up on my search for the perfect…

On a recent trip to Sephora, I picked up a small travel size of IT Cosmetics CC+ cream (yes, I’m a sucker for browsing through those little product bins while waiting in line). This product bills itself as “Your Skin But Better” (and it even trademarked that phrase). After taking a quick scan through the massive ingredient list, I saw that it contained physical sunscreen ingredients (a mix of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide), so it offered full protection against the full…

Before I started getting mildly obsessed with sunscreen, I used to think that anything with at least SPF 15 was enough for daily wear. I didn’t know the difference between a physical and a chemical sunscreen. I had never heard about UVA and UVB rays. I spent many years applying a thin layer of Oil of Olay Sensitive Skin Moisturizer with SPF 15 in the morning, and never bothering to reapply any sunscreen throughout the day. Later, I moved on to La Roche Posay BB Blur, which is primarily…