We’re all about a two-for-one here. If we’re making an effort to put on makeup, it would be great if the ingredients would also do something a bit magical for our skin. Tinted moisturizers with vitamin C are a great way to make that happen. Not only do they cover up any imperfections while letting your skin breathe, but they also can help reduce the appearance of dark spots and hyperpigmentation, brightening your face throughout the day. Of course, that’s not all these babies do.

If we’re all about a two-for-one, well, many of these do even more than cover and brighten. With broad-spectrum SPF, they also help protect skin from UVA/UVB rays. (Though, you should probably reapply. Try a powder sunscreen!) Many of these also contain other skin-calming ingredients including black currant and peony-root extract. It’s like foundation and skincare in one. You can’t go wrong.

Shop some of our favorite tinted moisturizers and find the right shade and formula for your unique skin. Because the coverage is sheer-to-medium, you have more flexibility with finding your exact shade match.

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 and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Honest.

Honest Clean Corrective Tinted Moisturizer With Vitamin C SPF 30

Not only does this tinted moisturizer cover imperfections without hiding your skin, but it also delivers a burst of brightening vitamin C.

Buy: Honest Clean Corrective Tinted Moisturizer With Vitamin C SPF 30 $21.99

Andalou Naturals.

Andalou Naturals Vitamin C Sheer Tint SPF 30

This vitamin C-infused BB cream is made with organic, non-GMO, gluten free, sustainable, fair trade and cruelty-free ingredients.

Buy: Andalou Naturals Vitamin C Sheer Tint SPF 30 $8.12

Neutrogena.

Neutrogena Radiant Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30

Antioxident-rich vitamins A, C and E give this tinted moisturizer skin benedits.

Buy: Neutrogena Radiant Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30 $12.99

Nars.

Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30

Fans love the way this tinted moisturizer evens the skin tone and also helps to reduce the appearance of dark spots caused by hyperpigmentation.

Beautycounter.

Beautycounter Dew Skin Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30

Black currant, peony-root extract and vitamin C enhance brightness while SPF 30 protects skin.

I lost my mother recently. It wasn’t to Covid-19, thank goodness, but it was very sudden. Because of the virus, I was not able to make a planned trip to spend Easter with her this year.

Indeed, and like so many other families who have lost a parent in the last few months, none of her four children were able to see her during the last few months of her life.

What I Notice

When you lose someone you love, memories of them resurface when you least expect it. Some friends here in London sent me some beautiful flowers when they heard of my mother’s death. As I went to change the water one day, I found myself reaching for the sugar bowl.

My mother always told me that if you changed the water on flowers every day – and added a teaspoon of sugar – the flowers would live longer. She was full of practical, everyday wisdom like that.

Then my husband opened our pantry and noticed a jar of instant decaffeinated coffee lurking in one of the back corners. The jar was a holdover from my mother’s last visit some two and a half years ago, the last time she was able to travel alone.

I don’t think either one of us ever actually clocked that jar before. It had blended into the obscure architecture of the back cupboard, along with other, long-neglected items like a bottle of yeast extract and a can of Brunswick Canadian style sardines.

Suddenly, that jar was all we could see. Neither one of us could bring ourselves to throw it out, even though there is no way on God’s earth that either one of us will ever drink instant coffee in this lifetime.

Rituals and Values

Another thing that happens when a parent dies is that you begin to appreciate all the myriad ways you’ve begun adopting their idiosyncratic habits. Ten years ago, I wrote a blog post about five ways I was turning into my mother.

These included things like carrying a large library book with me everywhere I go, lest things get dull, doing extensive back exercises every morning, much to the chagrin of my teenaged children, and re-purposing everything I possibly can to save money, including – yes – tea bags.

That list of shared behaviors has grown. When my mother moved from the last house she owned into a small apartment in an independent living facility, she could only bring one bookshelf.

A voracious reader (see library books, above), she had amassed an impressive collection of novels, history, and plays over the course of a lifetime. But she chose to bring only poetry with her to her new home. I’ve never read poetry in my life. A few months ago, I started reading it too.

I’ve also begun replicating her values. My mother became active in the League of Women Voters when, as a young mother with four children, she moved to a new town where she didn’t know anyone.

That political commitment carried on for the next 50 years. Right up into her mid-80s, she was still making phone calls for her local congressional candidate of choice.

I’ve never been particularly politically active, save attending the odd protest here and there and supporting causes I believe in on social media. This year, I joined a team of virtual volunteers, leading the charge to get out the vote among Americans living overseas.

The Gift of Writing

The greatest gift my mother gave me – and certainly the one with the longest staying power – was teaching me how to write. My mother wrote plays, children’s stories, and a terrific family history I’ve had occasion to re-read in the wake of her death.

When I was in high school, she would sit with me for hours and go over my essays, advising me on structure, wording, and tone. Everything I know about writing I learned from her.

When I took some time off years ago to work on a novel, she sent me a poem about writing, which I posted on my blog.

It was partly a poem about resilience: about falling down and getting back up, which is, of course, what writing is all about. It was also about how much we feel is riding on those words. But it was also about mothers and daughters, and how we connect through the shared struggle of writing… and life.

I end this post with the closing verse of that poem, called The Writer by Richard Wilbur: 

It is always a matter, my darling,

Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish

What I wished you before, but harder.

Have you experienced the death of a parent? What have you noticed about your habits since? Is there a difference regarding which parent has passed? Which of your parents’ habits do you cherish the most and embrace as your own? Please share with our community and let’s have a soulful conversation.

It is often suggested that babies should be born with a manual, because it is so hard for new parents to work out how best to look after them. We, mothers, know that we managed somehow or other. But now it begins again, as we are faced with being a grandmother.

So how do we learn to be grandmothers?

Be an Instinctive Grandmother

Of course, some people are ‘naturals’ whether as mothers or grandmothers. It wouldn’t occur to them to look for an advice book or to ask friends – they just know how to do it.

I watch these women in awe, as it certainly isn’t me. I didn’t have a clue when my first baby was born, although I was probably a little better by the time I had a second.

Nor, nearly 40 years later, did I have much immediate sense of how to be a grandmother, much less a good one. It certainly didn’t feel natural to me from the start, as it all felt so long ago.

Learn from Our Grandmothers

In my book, Celebrating Grandmothers, where nearly 30 women talk about how it feels to be a grandmother, many explore this issue.

A few describe their own grandmothers in some detail. Of course, those women of the past varied hugely – not only in their social backgrounds but in their behaviour. Some were memorably strict, while others were distinctly full of fun.

My interviewees shared that their experiences of these women had influenced them as grandmothers. Especially in those cases where they had spent a lot of time with their grandmother or she had a strong personality which impressed certain values or attitudes onto them.

This is not my case. I had little to do with my own grandmothers, as one lived too far away – the breadth of the USA was a serious hindrance in the 1950s – and the other had only limited interest in the role. Neither helped me much when my time came.

Learn from Our Mothers

Of course, your grandmother is not the only potential influence in this arena. Our mothers, too, were grandmothers to our children, as were our mothers-in-law.

Some of the women I interviewed felt that they had learned a lot from them, watching how they had played with their children or had taken an interest in teaching them.

But I, again, did not have much luck in this situation. By the time my children were born, my husband’s mother had died, and my own mother was, again, too far away as I had moved overseas. And, as she was a very dedicated career woman, I am not sure how involved she would have been had she lived nearby.

In any case, I had little in the way of role models.

Turn to the Grandmother Experts

Nowadays, we all learn from ‘experts’ on all sorts of issues and being a grandmother is no exception. There are numerous books on “how to be a good granny” – as well as my favourite, “how to be a bad granny.”

There are also a growing number of websites devoted solely to the joys and challenges of being a grandmother or touching on the topic quite frequently. Including, of course, this one.

Many of us have doubtless learned a great deal from their advice – from how to avoid saying the wrong thing to how to cope with modern equipment. But it did not occur to me to look for such information online or in a book.

For example, when I was writing my book, which is definitely not a ‘how to’ book, one friend asked if it would explain how to fold down a modern pushchair (stroller). Perhaps we have all struggled with that one.

Make It Up as You Go Along

I think that most of us make it up as we go along. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

We probably make some of the same mistakes we made as mothers. But I am sure we make many fewer, because – although it may not seem like it when the first grandchild is born – we have been there before.

Like with a second child, the knowledge is just lurking there, waiting to come out. We cuddle and burp the baby without thinking about it. We encourage the toddler to toddle and, as they grow, we talk to the grandchildren about the wonders of life, from the sublime to the ridiculous. It comes naturally.

Some do not want to take a great part in this adventure, but most of us find it enormous fun – and incredibly rewarding.

As we used to say playing tag, “here we come, ready or not” and you are probably readier than you think.

Where did you learn how to be a grandmother? What help were your own grandmothers or mothers? What would you say to a new grandmother? Please share in the comments below.

Luann de Lesseps’ Pink Velvet Moto Jacket at the Costume Store

Real Housewives of New York Season 12 Episode 12 Fashion

Luann de Lesseps started off last night’s spoOoky new (finally!) episode of RHONY on a very pretty note with the pink velvet moto jacket she wore to the costume store with Leah and Dorinda. Which at time of writing is still up for grabs in size medium and on sale for only $60, however we probably won’t be able to say the same in a few hours once this post gets pushed to the “lower level” of our site.

Fashionably,

Faryn

Click Here to Shop Her Vince Camuto Jacket on Sale

Originally posted at: Luann de Lesseps’ Pink Velvet Moto Jacket

It’s not a surprise beauty editors get a lot of samples. It’s important for us to try a product before we’re going to recommend you spend your hard-earned dollars on. Not every item that hits our desk (or, right now, our apartment floor), delivers the way we wish it would. But many do! Some of the best new beauty products for 2020 get us excited enough to want to tell all our friends and even replace them when we run out.

That’s why we started this new series, to give you a peek at what we can’t put down this week—and the week after that and the week after that. These range from at-home peeling masks to self-tanners to even dandruff shampoo and lip balm. You can shop them at Amazon, Sephora, Ulta or your next Target run. We get our beauty products anywhere and everywhere.

Shop some of our favorites this week and check back here for more reviews and new products you need to know about.

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 and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Image: Virtue.

Virtue Exfoliating Scalp Treatment

I’ve always liked the idea of scalp scrubs but sugar-based ones often left my dry hair feeling even more brittle. But this whipped cream actually conditions strands while detoxifying the scalp. It contains BHAs to slough off dead skin cells on the scalp, as well as coconut, jojoba and Kalahari melon oils for allover hydration.

Image: Tarte.

Tarte Maracuja Juicy Lip Trio

According to Tarte, these new lip trios sold out completely of their first shipment on QVC—a whopping 20,000 units. I can totally see why. This formula is equal parts lipstick and gloss and leaves lips feeling hydrated for hours. There’s a surprising amount of pigment and they even plump the lips temporarily. 

Image: Algenist.

Algenist Blue Algae Vitamin C Dark Spot Correcting Peel

If you suffer from dark spots and hyperpigmentation, you know how tough it can be to lighten those areas. This resurfacing at-home peel features a unique blend of AHA, BHAs and PHAs, vitamin C and the brand’s Alguronic acid to reduce the appearance of acne scars and dark spots. Using just once a week, I found my skin looked brighter and smoother already.

Image: Ciate.

Ciaté London Dewy Blush

There are a bunch of blushes in tubes like this but I’m especially into Ciaté’s vegan and cruelty-free ones lately. The gel-like tinted balm makes cheeks looked flushed and natural—not overly made up. Even better, each shade smells like fruit.

Image: Jupiter.

Jupiter The “Gotta Get” Set

It’s so often that dandruff shampoo helps get rid of scalp flakes but isn’t so great for your hair—especially the color. This new line not only takes care of your scalp but also your strands, too. Zinc pyrithione is the active ingredient to banish flaking and irritation and decylene glycol helps control oil. The addition of coconut oil helps hydrate the hair and scalp. It’s sulfate-free and safe for color-treated hair.

Image: Haus Labs.

Haus Laboratories By Lady Gaga: Le Riot Lip Gloss

Lady Gaga came out with nine more shades of her Le Riot Lip Gloss, including this Barbie-pink in Diamond Heart that I cannot stop wearing.

Image: Kinship.

Kinship Mint Mud Deep Pore Detox Mask

This vegan and cruelty-free mask isn’t one of those mud masks that reduces oil by drying out your entire face. Instead, it uses Bentonite and Kaolin clays to clear pores, as well as lactic acid to exfoliate, Moringa to soften skin and Kinbiome to promote a strong moisture barrier. My skin felt clean and smooth with one use—not tight and overly dry.

Image: Dermstore.

SkinMedica TNS Advanced+ Serum

Stylecaster Deputy Editor Alana Peden has seen serious results with this serum that encourages skin cell turnover and helps boost collagen and elastin levels. “If you can mentally overcome the sticker shock of this anti-ager, do so,” she says. “It’s worth every penny. A combination of growth factors and peptides provide a powerhouse of rejuvenation to your skin. It’s the closest thing to Botox in a bottle that I’ve tried, and let’s just say that strangers assume I was born in the ‘90s. Spoiler alert: I wasn’t.”

Image: Fresh.

Fresh Sugar Lime Mint Hydrating Lip Balm

Peden also calls this newbie a “refreshing summer cocktail in lip balm form.” Make someone smile in these trying times and gift them this chic hydrator, or indulge yourself.