Author: HairWeavings Editorial Team

Oil-Free Concealers to Keep Your Pores Clean & Clear

Whether you have oily skin or are prone to congested pores courtesy of your favorite makeup products from time to time, switching to an oil-free formula is key to maintaining healthy-looking skin—with or without makeup on. This is especially the case for foundation and concealer. Aside from blackheads and blemishes, using a heavy or super-emollient concealer formula underneath your eyes can also cause pesky milia bumps to form due to clogged pores.

Oil-free concealers are also great because they tend to last longer, resist caking and crease, and aren’t as likely as richer options to settle into (and therefore, enhance) the appearance of fine lines and crow’s feet after just an hour or two of wear time.

Water-based (as opposed to oil-based) and water-resistant concealers are also an excellent choice for oily skin types, not only because they’re practically budge-proof, but because they also won’t exacerbate excess shine. Ahead, we’ve rounded up our favorite oil-free formulas that will seamlessly camouflage breakouts, redness, dark circles, and everything in between without leaving you looking like an utter oil slick.

Read More

Oil-Free Concealers to Keep Your Pores Clean & Clear

Whether you have oily skin or are prone to congested pores courtesy of your favorite makeup products from time to time, switching to an oil-free formula is key to maintaining healthy-looking skin—with or without makeup on. This is especially the case for foundation and concealer. Aside from blackheads and blemishes, using a heavy or super-emollient concealer formula underneath your eyes can also cause pesky milia bumps to form due to clogged pores.

Oil-free concealers are also great because they tend to last longer, resist caking and crease, and aren’t as likely as richer options to settle into (and therefore, enhance) the appearance of fine lines and crow’s feet after just an hour or two of wear time.

Water-based (as opposed to oil-based) and water-resistant concealers are also an excellent choice for oily skin types, not only because they’re practically budge-proof, but because they also won’t exacerbate excess shine. Ahead, we’ve rounded up our favorite oil-free formulas that will seamlessly camouflage breakouts, redness, dark circles, and everything in between without leaving you looking like an utter oil slick.

Read More

Affordable Skin-Blurring Moisturizers That Won’t Emphasize Pores

Enlarged pores are one of the most frustrating skincare woes I can personally think of. And while using a pore-filling primer or mattifying foundation to conceal them is often a good course of action, I find these products can often clog your pores even more, and therefore leave looking even bigger. As you’re probably aware, even if you have oily skin like myself, it’s still important to prep your skin with a lightweight moisturizer before makeup, which is precisely why using a pore-minimizing moisturizer is key. You’ve likely heard this before, but I’ll say it again: when you don’t give your skin any moisture, it compensates for the dehydration by producing even more oil. With that being said, using a formula that’s overly rich, thick, and full of oil isn’t going to help blur your pores or fine lines and it certainly won’t help keep shine at bay.

Now, I’m not suggesting that prepping skin with a blurring and oil-controlling primer won’t help, but if you can get the same pore-refining benefits from your moisturizer, why not go ahead and skip a step to save time and money? There are plenty of solid two-in-one hydrators that keep your skin’s oil levels balanced and minimize the look of large pores. Like I said, as someone who struggled with keeping my shiny t-zone from looking like a straight-up oil slick on the daily and my pores from peering through my foundation, I can attest to the magical powers of the products below.

Read More

Blackpink’s Lisa Loves This Soft Matte, ’90s Brown Lipstick

If you’ve been looking for the perfect orange-brown lipstick for the summer, well, have we got a gorgeous option for you. Lisa from Blackpink’s fave M.A.C. lipstick right now is Powder Kiss Lipstick in Marrakesh-mere and we think you’ll love it, too. The brand revealed Lisa’s gorgeous new campaign in which she’s wearing the muddy shade along ’90s-style shade along with another throwback accessory—the black choker.

Lisa became a M.A.C. ambassador back in October 2020. “M.A.C. is truly at the forefront of trendsetting, which reminds me every time I see a M.A.C. campaign or the incredible looks their artists create backstage at fashion weeks around the world,” she said at the time. “It’s an honor to partner with a brand with such an incredible heritage and unrivaled expertise in makeup artistry. I am thrilled and looking forward to this journey!”

This new campaign continues the long-term relationship with the K-pop star and the beauty brand.

Instagram PhotoSource: Instagram

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

mac powder kiss

M.A.C.

If you haven’t tried the Powder Kiss formula yet, it’s about to be your new favorite. Now that we’re able to take our masks off in a lot of places, it’s time to bring lipstick back. This formula is a soft matte—no dryness here. It’s made to give lips that just-kissed, blurred effect that was made so popular by Korean beauty. It features moisture-coated powder pigments that condition and hydrate lips, with the cushion feeling of a balm. It’s not shiny though—it’s all matte.

Wear it like Lisa with M.A.C.’s Powder Kiss Soft Matte Eye Shadow in My Tweedy, Strike A Pose and What Clout ($20 each at M.A.C.).

STYLECASTER | Ashley Benson Interview

Read More

Understanding and Thriving in the Different Stages of Retirement

Retirement

For nearly 40 years, I’ve been providing financial guidance and advisory services to individuals, couples, multi-generational families and small businesses.

As a result, I’ve worked with clients who have lived well into their 90s. Others have passed away shortly after retirement. Some have suffered the death of a spouse, sibling, child or even a grandchild.

Some people have divorced earlier in their careers or post-retirement while others enjoyed retirement as a couple to the very end. I’ve had the privilege of helping people transition from their working careers to retirement, manage their financial lives throughout their retirement, and pass down their legacy to the next generation.

In regard to legacy, it isn’t always monetary. Often legacy comprises the core principles and values that are most important to retirees.

Retirement Is an Emotional Transition

Working closely with my clients, sometimes over decades, has given me deep insight into how people react toward retirement, which is one of the biggest transitions you’ll experience in your lifetime. It is an emotionally-charged period characterized by some of the following emotions.

Anxiety is associated with making the decision to retire, fearing you will run out of money or living longer than expected. Concerns for the surviving spouse or other family members is often a worry. Figuring out how to provide for the care of surviving parents, or a special needs adult child or both while making your own decision to retire is another concern.

There are often conflicts arising from opposing views between spouses. For instance, the husband wants to live “high on the hog” while the wife is fearful of not having enough to survive. The revisiting of old emotional or legacy issues from the past may often derail plans in retirement.

Retirement Can Be an Exciting Stage of Life

With the retirement stakes so high, no wonder the divorce rate among people in their 60s is rising! The good news is, it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, you can experience the opposite: a thrilling stage of life where you’re active, excited and motivated to experience life in ways that you never have before.

In the end, I’ve observed that retirement isn’t about a certain age or amount of money you have. Rather, retirement is about when work – in other words, earning an income – becomes optional.

My book, When Work Becomes Optional, distills what decades providing financial advice to my clients has taught me. It answers the following critical question:

What decisions make the difference between a comfortable retirement and a challenging one?

Why Retire? What Do You Want to Get from the Stages of Retirement?

Perhaps you don’t want to work anymore. Maybe your parents need you to take care of them. Perhaps you want a fresh start after the death of a spouse or a divorce. Or, maybe you’ve received an inheritance or you just want to hit the road in an RV.

Regardless of your retirement reasons, I’ve observed a common thread most people who have planned for retirement share: the dramatic and sometimes scary shift from living on earned income to living on all they’ve saved up for retirement.

In other words, people who’ve planned for retirement have spent their whole lives saving and investing, contributing to retirement plans and supporting kids through college. They have scraped and saved for this moment. But once they finally embark on this stage of their lives, I’ve observed that many suddenly realize the following:


Retirement isn’t the goal. Instead, it’s just the 50-yard line or half time in their financial lives.


So, if your life is a race, then retirement is the half-way point. Given that retirement means you have a new period of life ahead of you, living it well requires planning for it and regularly performing course corrections. In order to live to the fullest, right up to the end, I’ve identified five distinct planning stages that people experience throughout their retirement.

The first stage is Transitioning followed by the Go-Go Years. Next come the Slow-Go Years and No-Go Years and then the end of life or “Gone” period.

These five distinct stages do not directly correlate with age. Rather, they have more to do with maintaining both your financial and physical independence. With each stage come new challenges. To pass from one stage to the next requires adapting to changes in circumstances, such as health and mobility, and making decisions that can forever impact your overall wellness as well as the lives of your children and grandchildren.

Are you transitioning to retirement or already retired? Did you save enough money and prepare enough for retirement? Which of the stages of retirement are you in? Please join the conversation.

Read More