These cookies are my humble attempt to replicate the ones that used to be (and still are, for all I know) sold at the coffee shop in my college library. Here’s today’s iteration, perfected over the past four years: I’ve tweaked the recipe a bit since 2014, so I thought I’d post an update for… Read More Pumpkin-Walnut-Chocolate-Chip Cookies 2.0
I’m back, bearing makeup! For the first time in the 4.5-year history of Auxiliary Beauty, I went over a month without blogging. A lot happened in those six weeks: I moved to a new apartment with my boyfriend; finished my summer job at a university office and began an adjunct gig in Jersey City; got more… Read More Glosses of Autumn, Part 1: Bite Prismatic Pearl Gloss in Rose Pearl
Since I’m moving this month and need to limit both my spending and my accumulation of new crap, I’ve put myself on a replacement-only beauty no-buy until the end of August. It’s been pretty easy so far: I’ve been so consumed with other problems that I haven’t had much brain space for makeup. But since… Read More My Best No-Buy Tips
Despite the flood of new eyeshadow palettes in the past few years, I own just a few: Modern Renaissance, Naked2 Basics, a nine-pan custom theBalm palette, and a magnetic palette containing, among other things, slightly less than half (five shades) of a depotted theBalm Nude ‘Tude. The newest palette in my collection is Modern Renaissance,… Read More Anti-Haul: Mauve/Plum/Purple Eyeshadow Palettes
Oh, Bite Beauty. The intensity of my love-hate relationship with this brand is second only to that of my love-hate relationship with Glossier. On paper, Bite is my ideal beauty brand. It makes nothing but lip products, offering a wide range of complex, well-balanced colors. It releases thoughtful, interesting limited-edition collections, most of which are… Read More Bite Beauty Spice Things Up Collection: Smoked Za’atar and Star Anise
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from living in central New Jersey for the better part of a decade, it’s how to choose humidity-resistant makeup. (I would say “humidity-proof,” but nothing is truly humidity-proof except mosquitoes.) In a part of the world where the humidity index routinely hovers above 90% and occasionally creeps up to… Read More Making Up with 95% Humidity
I bought this product with store credit earned through my Glossier referral link. Thank you to everyone who has clicked on my link and helped me buy products to review! Glossier has existed for three and a half years, and I’ve been searching for the perfect subtle mascara for almost that long: that is, ever… Read More Glossier Lash Slick: My Platonic Mascara?
I’ve fallen behind on my promised Glossier reviews (surprising no one, I’m sure), but here’s the first of two Glossier-centric posts that I hope will make up for my dereliction. I’ve been testing Glossier’s new mascara, Lash Slick, for the past month, and I finally set foot in the Glossier ~*~showroom~*~ earlier this week. This… Read More A Visit to the Glossier Showroom
I recently had a realization that I’ve been pondering ever since: I’ve been passionate about beauty for seven years, and I’ve had a beauty blog for four of those years, but I’ve never considered myself particularly good at makeup. Believe me, I’m not fishing for compliments; I’m simply stating the truth as I see it.… Read More What Does “Good at Makeup” Mean to You?
It will surprise none of my regular readers to learn that if I could wear only one category of makeup for the rest of my life, it would be lipstick. (I could probably use nude lipstick as undereye concealer, right?…right?) I wear lipstick every single day. I’ve tried almost every color category of lipstick. I… Read More Lip Liner: An Overdue Appreciation
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