Beauty Shelf: Honeymoon Makeup

The Top Shelf makeup products that performed through five weeks of heat and sweat.

I love makeup. I love colour and texture and packaging and ritual. I love deciding what shade I want my lips to be, combing on brow gel, and bouncing on blush.

A little bit of choice in each category makes the act of getting ready feel more creative to me, so I heap expectations onto an edited travel makeup bag. The products have to work together (both in terms of formulas and colours), be lightweight and safe to roll about in a suitcase (no glass foundation bottles, enormous compacts, or weighted components - as beautiful as they are), and be easy and fun to apply.

For this trip, my makeup also had to work (and last) across a range of settings - a week of work, countless days of swimming and hiking and sweating, fancy dinners, a very special wedding.

Basically, they had to be Top Shelf.

So here’s a peek into the best of the best. Five hero products from five weeks in Europe

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A note before we hop in: Just because someone on the Internet recommends something, even something that sounds right up your alley, doesn’t mean you need to buy it, right away or ever. Often, we can achieve a feeling of novelty and newness by revisiting and appreciating what we already own.

And if you are in the market for something new, get a sample (little sample pots are also handy - I reused one to decant some liquid highlighter for this trip), or swatch it against your skin first, if you can.

1. Wink Ink Super Mascara, Mecca Max

I am picky about mascara, because it’s the product I’ll apply even if I wear no other makeup, the one I’d take to a desert island. I want my lashes to be thick and full and black. Natural brushes only (I find silicone brushes don’t pack the volume on, or get on with my sensitive eyes).

For years, I couldn’t find the Goldilocks tube, so I’d use two: one for a base layer of length, curl, and my lower lashes, another for volume.

But for at least 18 months, I’ve been a convert to this one from Mecca Max. It gives lift and volume and it builds and builds and builds - I can paint on the layers for a night out, then lightly brush on a whisper of a coat for a day around the house. It doesn’t flake or smudge or smear, even when my sensitive eyes water.

And it’s priced like a drugstore mascara , which is a big tick for a product you should renew every three months (to avoid transferring bacterial build up to your eyes). But the price is a bonus; the product holds its own against its high-end counterparts, which I chucked money at for years: MAC Haute & Naughty (before it was discontinued, RIP), Too Faced’s Better Than Sex, and Lancome’s Monsieur Big.

I’m onto at least my fifth tube.

2. Eaze Drop Blurring Skin Tint, Fenty Beauty

I have oily-combo skin and this is the only skin tint that doesn’t melt into a beige, greasy puddle within an hour.

It’s got just enough coverage to even out my complexion without looking heavy or detectable, and it gives a natural, soft matte finish that lasts the whole day.

I own just two foundations, and this is the one I’ve worn everyday for more than two years, since it launched in early 2021. I’ve still got a bunch of product left in my second bottle, so the cost per wear is great. And in typical Fenty fashion, the shade range is too.

I’ve got my eye on the new Eaze Drop Blur + Smooth stick, which hasn’t launched at Sephora Australia yet, but promises the same result in a stick format.

3. Luminous Silk Concealer, Armani Beauty

This is my perfect under-eye concealer: Light to medium coverage; no cracking or creasing, either under the eyes or around the face; and a smooth, natural finish. I can dot this around on bare skin too, and it blends right in, undetectable.

It feels like the slightly thinner, more sophisticated big sister of the iconic Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer.

4. Supercheek Cream Blush, Sexy Berry, Beauty Pie

I have lusted after Beauty Pie products for years, wishing we had access to its membership model here in Australia.

So, when a week working in London posed the opportunity to have an order shipped to my hotel, I pounced (I tried the same thing with Merit Beauty, also out of reach for us Aussies, but the courier wouldn’t deliver to a hotel).

I bought a handful of things, including this little pot of berry-coloured cream blush. On my skin tone, and with a light hand, the colour mimics a healthy, sunburn-y flush (without the burn) but it could be built up to match the intensity in the jar.

While lots of cream blushes don’t work for me because they remain dewy and sticky, this one sets down to a natural finish that stays put. On some days, I rubbed it into my lips too for a monochromatic, bitten appearance.

For something similar/available in Aus: The colour and formula is very close to the LYS Higher Standard Satin Matte Cream Blush in the shade Self Love, available in Sephora and well-priced at $24. It’s great bang for your buck because the compact is huge, but the size and awkward triangular shape made it inconvenient for travel.

5. Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil, Rare Beauty

Lip stains are my favourite lip products at the moment, especially on holiday - impactful but low maintenance.

These relatively new Rare Beauty versions (they’re a stain, not a lip oil - the name is misleading) deliver a long-lasting stain that wears evenly (no streaks, cracking, or patchiness). The colour selection is great, the packaging sleek, and the applicator holds enough product that one dip is all you need, while being small enough to ensure the liquid doesn’t slide outside the lip lines and risk staining skin.

My favourite shade is the summery but wearable Serenity (which you can see in action in the snap below), followed by the more muted Delight.

They made the biggest beauty impact on my trip - in pictures, my lip colour was the obvious clue as to whether I looked ‘made up’, because the rest of my makeup was mostly hidden behind big, prescription sunglasses. I always knew my lips would be stained with colour, and could add a clear balm on top, without a mirror, throughout the day.

These Rare Beauty stains might be the best new product I’ve tried this year.

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Finally, a big thank you to the wonderful

Jodi Wilson

, who writes

PS: more than an afterthought

(a gentle, well-crafted read that’s well worth a look/subscription). Jodi recommended Top Shelf in her Sunday newsletter, which sent a whole bunch of people my way. Welcome! And thank you for being here.

why words matter

Tell me in the comments: What are your Top Shelf makeup products? The ones you’d trust to take on a big trip?

And if you have a friend who loves beauty, books, or both, invite them to join us? We’re almost at 100 subscribers across the first two posts.

Until next time, when I’ll share my top travel skincare picks. Then - more book content!

Britt