Six Makeup Bag Essentials Every Girl Should Have

With prom, graduation, internship interviews, and family weddings, there seems to always be an event you have to get ready for. Be prepared for anything with these must-have tools and products.

1. The perfect foundation shade. Even if you don't wear makeup every day, it's good to have foundation on hand for those times you want to look ~flawless~. Brands such as CoverGirl, L'Oréal, and Clinique have a wide-range of shades for both fair and dark skinned girls, as well as everyone in between. If foundation feels too heavy for you, a tinted moisturizer, and BB and CC creams are lighter options that are great for every day. Get tips for finding the perfect foundation for you here.

2. A multicolor bronzer. Choose a mosaic bronzer with multiple colors, and you'll be able to wear it year round. Dust on the lighter, more highlighting shades during the winter months when you're paler to give your cheeks a gorge, natural-looking glow, and swipe on the darker bronze shades for an easy summer tan without the sun damage.

3. Tweezers that really, really work. Ditch those blunt tweezers that make it impossible to pull out tiny hairs. Invest in a sharp pair of quality tweezers, and you'll have them forever. Tweezers are a life-saver when you need to clean up stray eyebrow hairs at the last minute, or when you find a hair on your body that really shouldn't be there. Tweezerman makes super-cute mini ones in bright, fun colors that you can get sharpened for free, so they'll last forever, making them worth the splurge.

4. Waterproof mascara. If you only have one mascara in your makeup bag, make it waterproof. That way, you'll be prepared for everything, from a pool party to a movie cry fest with your besties. Just be careful when you're removing it. Waterproof mascara can be tough to get off; use an oil-based makeup remover so you don't pull at your lashes. Clinique High Impact Waterproof Mascara and Maybelline Greatlash Waterpoof Mascara are makeup artist faves.

5. A set of makeup brushes. Don't just rely on the little brushes you get with your blush or eyeshadow. Having the right tools is key, whether you're trying to nail the perfect winged eyeliner, contour your cheeks, or just get a natural glow. For the most bang for your buck, start with this list of must-have brushes, which will allow you to experiment with makeup without spending a ton of money on a tool you'll only use once.

6. Nude eyeshadow palette. Having an eyeshadow kit with beiges, tans and browns in it will have you basically set for life. You can go from a natural, everyday look to a glam smokey eye. If you're really into eye makeup, invest in the Urban Decay Naked palette, but you can also find a great dupe at the drugstore.

How to achieve the effortless 'no makeup makeup' look

A good old, full glam makeup with full coverage base and dramatic eye look is favorable to most makeup lovers. However, although it is acceptable to do whatever your heart desires when it comes to makeup, not all of us have an excuse to go out with such a look every day. In everyday life, we still want some makeup, but one that is a little toned down, less eye-catching and more natural, which is famously known these days as the "no makeup makeup" look.The "no makeup makeup" look initially means to not look like you are wearing any makeup, while actually wearing quite a bit. The main purpose of any makeup is, as a matter of fact, to recreate your natural beauty in a more "perfected" way.

For example, when you go out, the sun naturally shines on the high points of your face. Thus, with makeup, you recreate that process by applying highlighter on your cheeks, brow bones, cupid's bow, and other parts you wish to highlight on your face. Similarly, your cheeks have a natural color to them, which, should also be recreated after applying foundation to bring back that natural beauty. However, today, makeup is an art and goes way beyond its initial purpose and creates some masterpieces with loads of glamour. The "no makeup makeup" look is the look that is closest to the initial purpose of makeup, perfecting your natural beauty.

The main component of the "no makeup makeup" look is to avoid any heavy face makeup. Although personal preferences take place when it comes to covering your skin, to be as close to natural as possible, skipping the foundation step and replacing it with a CC or BB cream, which offer light coverage, is quite helpful. If you have any acne, dark spots, discoloration or any scars that you desire to cover, using a lightweight concealer instead of foundation would not only preserve your naturalness, but it will also let your skin breath more.

Another key point to looking natural while wearing makeup is to use cream products instead of powders. Although powders are very helpful in both setting and smoothing the skin, they can easily make your face look cakey.

When it comes to the eyes, less is more for natural makeup. The crucial element here is a mascara that gives you volume and length but not a lot of drama. Avoiding eyeshadow and tight-lining your eyes with a pencil close to your eye color not only avoids any over-the-top appearance, but also further emphasizes your natural beauty, as your eye color would appear brighter with the tight-line trick. For instance, if you have green eyes, lining your eyes with a green eyeliner would make your eyes look greener than they are.

Last but certainly not least, the lips should be accentuated with a soft touch. As it is probably one of the most attention-grabbing part of your makeup process, it is quite easy to do too much on the lips and instantly turn your look from daytime to nighttime glam. To avoid this situation, it is better to be safe than sorry, meaning that one should lean toward colors that are closer to your natural lip color, which is usually a nude color. However, choosing the perfect nude may be one of the trickiest processes for a makeup lover and novice. Thus, trying a wide range of nude colors, including ones with peachy undertones and pinky undertones, would be very beneficial for an everyday "no makeup makeup" look. Besides, rather than going with a matte look, choosing a semi-matte, satin or even a shiny lipstick helps achieve a more natural look just like with face makeup.

The Oversized Jean Jacket Should Be Your Only Jean Jacket

Many would call the denim jacket a wardrobe staple, and with good reason: It goes with everything, from corduroy to florals and all of the textures and patterns in between, and adapts to a wide range of personal styles (hence why it's been a mainstay for decade). You probably even have a few in your closet as we speak. But let's get one thing straight: There's kind-of nothing worse than one that's too tight to wear.

If you've ever ever struggled to get into a jean jacket that's a little too small, you know how difficult it can be to lift your arms or put your hands in the pockets. It's uncomfortable, and a situation that can be easily avoid by making one simple switch: opting for an oversized cut, rather than your standard one.

Now, we're not saying you have to go full-on Saved by the Bell and bring back the acid wash too, but there are plenty of modern takes on the extra-large silhouette that are just as versatile (and stylish). Click on, and feel free to check this closet must-have off your 'need-to-buy' list once and for all.

We Tried 100% Natural Makeup To See How It Measured Up

Makeup is truly amazing, I think we can all agree on that.

But some makeup can be filled with chemicals and preservatives, and comes in packaging that is not great for the environment. More and more brands and products these days are focusing on being cruelty-free, sustainably-sourced, and eco-friendly. And that's GREAT.

So when we had the chance to try lipsticks, mascara, and eyeliner made out of actual FOOD, we jumped at the chance.

These lipsticks, from Luk Beautifood, are 100% natural with no toxins, and are kind of like a cross between a gloss and a balm.

Plus, they're packaged inside a cloth which can be reused as a screen or glasses wipe. Love a bit of upcycling! They come in 12 different colours, but a lot of them are pretty similar.

Most of them range somwhere between nude and deep red, so we tried out a few different shades.

Jemima: I tried the Cranberry Citrus which looks like a really deep red, but went on lighter than I expected. It's definitely more of a balm or a stain than a lipstick, but I like it for the days when I don't want a heavy lip look. Also I feel like it's much better for my lips than the usual lipsticks I use which tend to dry them out. And as a bonus, it tastes and smells amazing. I just wish it would last for a bit longer on my lips, I have to reapply every hour or two to keep the colour strong.

Sohan: I was skeptical about lipstick made out of food tbh. I mean, how good can it really be? I’m a matte liquid lipstick gal at heart so this product was quite different to what I am used to. I tried the Vanilla Chocolate, and it felt a LOT like lip balm, specifically paw paw ointment – except it had colour! And it’s better for you! The shade I chose looked really dark at first – I thought for sure it would apply as a deep brown. In reality, it was so sheer that it looked semi-transparent, which means my natural lip colour was still a tad visible. As you can see, it applies as more of a brown-nude, and actually feels sooooo soft and nourishing.

Michelle: So I don’t normally wear lipstick – I much prefer gloss but hate the stickiness that comes with most of them. Because I have freckles on my lips, and don’t really like covering them up, I picked Chai Shimmer, one of the lightest shades. The lipstick smelled really nice, kind of like cinnamon, and was super smooth and moisturising. My date was late and an hour after I initially put the lipstick on, it was still on my lips feeling moisturising af. Plus it has little specks of glitter that stay on your lips and it’s honestly my favourite thing when lip products do that!

Tahlia: I chose the plum-coloured lipstick as I’m a fan of a darker shade. The colour, however, wasn’t as dark as I would’ve liked, and was more red than a deeper purple or plum shade. I applied the lipstick at about 8am, and it had faded after a few hours – by the time I had finished my coffee, at about 10.30, the vibrant color was gone, but a slight hue remained on my lips. I think if you’re after a subtle lipstick that makes your lips feel soft and hydrated this is a great choice... but if you’re after something more vibrant or with more depth and long-lasting ability it might not be the choice for you.

Next up, we tried out mascara made from black tea and berry pigments.

Jemima: Yes, this is a terrible selfie but I wanted to show what it looked like before and after. I was expecting this mascara to be about as good as a $2 one you get from the discount store, in terms of aesthetics. But it actually went on really smoothly, and managed to do a pretty good job of lengthening my lashes and making my eyes look really open. It also lasted the whole day, without any fallout like you can get with lower-quality mascaras.

Tahlia: The first thing I noticed was the fruity smell of the mascara. When applying it, it took two coats for my eyelashes to look noticeably different, but it was a smooth application and not clumpy at all. I can be prone to adding one too many coats of mascara at times, but this product gave my lashes an overall softer look while still adding length. It also didn't make my lashes look spidery or clumpy. I didn’t take my makeup off until 9pm that night, and my lashes still looked good. Even better, it wiped off fairly easily (a lot better than my usual Maybelline choice) without having to rub my eyes too hard with cleansing wipes.

Then we tested an eyeliner which is 100% vegan and natural.

Sohan: I usually opt for liquid or gel eyeliner, just because it's easier to apply, but I was so surprised at how creamy and opaque this one was! The creamy factor made it so smooth to apply on the top of the lash line. I reckon the trick is to apply lightly, without too much pressure. It's such a rich colour that you don't need to press down hard. The staying power isn't amazing (it does wipe off easily) but honestly you shouldn't be rubbing your eyes when you have makeup on anyway.

Michelle: Normally, my favourite type of eyeliner is pen – I find gel can be too fiddly and pencils are normally too rough and tend to tug on your skin. But this pencil eyeliner was actually surprisingly soft and smooth. It was a little difficult to get the wing point as sharp as my normal pen does, but it was nice for a more subtle look. I used an angle brush to soften it and it gave a nice soft line that was still crisp. However, by the end of the night there was quite a lot of smudging going on so I wouldn’t recommend it for any ~situations~ where you sweat a lot. Lol.

So, what's our verdict?

Every product we tried definitely exceeded our expectations. They were all surprisingly high-quality given their totally organic ingredients, and had pretty good staying power. The downside – they're a little more expensive than the usual cosmetics we buy. But we'd recommend them if you want something less synthetic or if you have sensitive skin. You can get all the products we used here.

A guide to buying makeup online

Those of us who have chanced purchasing a foundation from the Avon catalogue only to discover, when it arrives, that it makes us look like a jaundiced Oompa Loompa, will know the perils of buying makeup without trying it out first.

While 60% of shoppers regularly head to the internet to buy books, music, movies and video games, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers 2017 Total Retail Survey, a relatively modest 37% now purchase health products and cosmetics online rather than in-store. Now, with the online fashion powerhouse Asos announcing the launch later this month of its first colour makeup range, featuring an array of alluring products and shades for less than £10, that picture looks set to change.

But when it comes to cosmetics, how can we safely make the move from the counter to the keyboard?

Shop around

"The rise of respected beauty sites such as Beauty Bay means people aren't just shopping for products but for ideas," says Gina Kane, makeup artist to celebrities including Victoria Beckham and Sienna Miller. "If you go to a branded counter in a department store, you are never going to get the same range of unbiased information." But how to discover something new without getting stuck with a product that doesn't suit you? "There are sites where you can fill in information about yourself and what you usually buy, and over time they will send you testers for products they think you might like," she explains.

Try before you buy

When it comes to foundation – and to a lesser degree, lipstick – Kane advises sampling the product first. "It is so personal, depending on the oil content and pH balance of your skin," she says. "I could give the same product to 10 people with ostensibly the same skin-type, and within half an hour it will look different on everybody. For that reason, the testers you can buy on eBay are a really good idea."

Colour match

"Getting the colour right is so important, and it is very difficult to see the true colour of a product on a computer screen, as it will never be exactly the same," says Kane. "Sites such as Match My Makeup will match up your current shade of foundation to another brand, and will also give comparisons on quality of products and share dupes."

Read the small print

Burberry makeup artist Jessica Clark recommends checking a brand's customer service tools: "Some retailers [such as Feel Unique] will send sample products if you cover the cost of postage. Otherwise check the returns policy first; many will take the item back or exchange it for a better shade."

And keep reading

A number of companies, Clark adds, use professional makeup artists to answer questions from customers. "If you upload a picture and describe the finish you want, they'll give you their expert opinion." Some online retailers, including Maybelline, Smashbox and Sephora, use technology that allows you to "try on" new shades, virtually. "But personally I think these are still unsophisticated and more a bit of fun than anything useful," she says.

10 Super-Moisturizing Lipsticks That Won’t Dry You Out

We love lipstick. It's more of an obsession, really. We love the way it wakes up our face. We love how it can take our look from day to night in literally, like, 10 seconds. We love being able to add a pop of color on an otherwise dreary day. We love the way it feels. OK, that last one, not so much.

There's a million things to love about a great lipstick, but the tight, flaky, dry feel it usually delivers sucks. Unless you happen to find an ultra-moisturizing brand that delivers both color and hydration, that is. It's kinda our own little version of heaven.

The bonus: The best moisturizing lipsticks we've come across run the gamut from $6 to $60 and everywhere in between, so you don't have to worry about sacrificing your quality of life in favor of the quality of your lipstick—talk about a win-win.

You'll find the makeup artist favorite Clé de Peau Beauté Extra Rich Lipstick at the crosshairs of lush hydration, outstanding color selection, and packaging fit for a queen. We expect greatness from a splurge, and this smooth, long-lasting formula certainly delivers on all counts.

For a reliable, easy-to-wear formula packed with pigment regardless of shade, the luxurious-feeling Smashbox Be Legendary Lipstick has you covered. The color goes on vibrant and opaque in one swipe, and the shea butter infusion will leave lips feeling creamy, not chalky.

We like anything that claims to follow through on two promises, and Dolce & Gabbana Passion Duo Gloss Fusion Lipstick does exactly that. A glossy high-shine core is surrounded by a saturated matte pigment with a super-smooth feel. The former hydrates and adds depth, while the matte color allows for that color-pop wow factor, especially in the show-stopping brighter shades.

All hail cupuaçu, the unpronounceable tree nut responsible for the miracle butter that gives Jouer Hydrating Lipstick its incredible moisturizing properties. There's nothing to not love about this gloriously smooth formula—it's so good we use it in place of a clear lip balm when we want to double down on hydration and color (which we do, often).

There's a substantial reason the chunky, easy-to-use Tarte Power Pigment pencils have developed a steadily growing cult following over the past few years. While many moisturizing "lip tints" compromise pigment in favor of the hydration factor, this go-to stain does no such thing. There's a shade for every imaginable circumstance—we'd be hardpressed to choose a favorite.

The subtly plumping By Terry Rouge Terrybly covers all the bases when it comes to soothing, repairing and imparting gorgeous, long-lasting color on the lips. If you have fine lines or loss of lip volume, this one's for you: It's packed full of the brand's anti-aging firming technology to give lips a youthful makeover.

As with all of the innovative brand's moisture-rich, guilt-free lip products, the incredibly pigmented formula of Bite Beauty Luminous Crème Lipstick, which is creamy and luxurious-feeling on lips, is also teeming with healthy antioxidants and food-grade natural color. That's a win-win situation if there ever was one.

You don't need to be a glamour girl to get down with the ridiculously good line of Tom Ford Lip Color. Take your eyes off the gorgeous packaging just for a second: Rare nut butters and gently fragranced flower oils are responsible for the soft, creamy glide of this covetable lipstick. The finish is one of our favorites—it has just the right amount of sophisticated satiny glow to make it not quite fully matte.

We hear so much about the amazing hydration benefits of omega fatty acids, so we figure it's about time that someone put them in a lipstick. For full coverage, saturated color that's more vivid than it has any right to be, the buttery bareMinerals Marvelous Moxie Lipstick takes the cake.

Who knew? It turns out that one of the most pigmented moisturizing formulas we've ever had the pleasure of applying can be found at the nearest drugstore for under 10 bucks. We're obsessed with the more dramatic colors in the Colorlicious Lipstick collection—they seriously rival most of our pricier lipsticks in how often we reach for them in the morning.

This Nail Polish Makes My Toes Look Instantly Healthier

As temperatures climb and we enter the season of exposed feet, we're here to help, with all the best tricks for keeping your feet presentable, as well as comfortable. While this week happens to be the start of Fleet Week, we're doing our own take as summer begins. Welcome to Feet Week on the Strategist.

The idea of brightly painted toenails fills me with revulsion. I know I'm in the minority here, but for whatever reason, spackling one's gnarled stubs of foot keratin strikes me as the modern-day equivalent of people from the Middle Ages bathing biannually, and otherwise attempting to mask their own stench with what was almost certainly rancid essential oil. Feeling gross? Cover it up! It's just too crude a solution.

That said, if you're going to walk around all summer in open-toed shoes, you have to do something about your feet. In an ideal world, you give yourself a pedicure every week, but nobody has time for that. A good hack is Dior's Nail Glow, which I'm pretty sure I first discovered in an airport duty-free store. The copy in the advertisements for the product says it's a "nail enhancer," which I'm tempted to mock, but it's actually an accurate product description. The varnish is a translucent magenta in the bottle and goes on rosy-clear. By the time it's dried, the pink part of your nail is a little pinker, and the white part is a little whiter. The process is mysterious. How does a magenta polish make the white parts whiter? I don't know, but it does. (Dior calls it an instant French manicure, and I'd agree.) The chipping is basically invisible, and having naked-seeming toenails makes your feet look tanner in comparison.

The effect is that clean-looking appearance your feet get after a day at the beach: repeatedly rinsed in salt water and incessantly exfoliated with sand. Nail Glow is all I use in the summer. I've never gotten a compliment on my feet, per se, but I've also never been ashamed of them, which is good enough for me. Just a few weeks of Nail Glow'd toes will make your past pedicures seem downright medieval.

How to Create Winged Eyeliner

Here at Stylish, we want our readers to look their best 24/7, so we're taking a page from Us Weekly's On-Air Correspondent Christina Garibaldi's playbook for our video series: Morning Makeup Tip. Garibaldi gets glam daily for the cameras, learning the easiest tips and tricks while she gets her makeup done.

In today's tip, Garibaldi gets the scoop from makeup artist Karla Duarte on how to properly create eyeliner wings.

Winged liner can be tricky, but when executed properly, can dramatically emphasize your eyes..

Duarte shows Us the tricks to creating a winged liner look with ease.

Martha Hunt Dishes to Stylish on How She Feels Instantly Sexy

Bringing sexy back! Martha Hunt hosted a Victoria's Secret event at The Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, August 1, to promote the brand's new Body by Victoria collection that offers three lining levels ranging from nothing, something, to everything. The 28-year-old model dished  her tips for feeling sexy and confident to Stylish.

Set the Mood
"A bath helps (with feeling sexy) along with any kind of oil, candles, and good music," the everyday angel reveals. "I definitely put on a certain kind of music. I love Frank Ocean," she continues. "Also a good pair of high heels. That goes really well with lingerie."

Lovely in Lingerie
"My favorite type of lingerie for day-to-day is the demi bra. It's the perfect bra because it gives you subtle shape and it's very comfortable and it disappears under clothes. If you want to show it off, you can add a little lace too." As for her favorite bra and undies colors? "Personally, my favorite is black, but my next favorite would be red, but red is for special occasions," she dishes.

Fresh-Faced
"I like to keep it pretty simple actually," she says. "I like to feel really fresh— maybe a lip stain, like the Victoria's Secret velvet lip matte stain. I'm not even kidding, it's my favorite lip right now. I've been wearing it all summer. And I just like a little bit of mascara and a nice stain. And glowing skin, I'm all about glowing skin."

Fit and Fabulous
"Workout wise, lately I've been switching it up to all sorts of stuff, like pilates and yoga. I also took a pole dancing class recently and had the most fun ever, so I highly recommend pole dancing classes."

Sexiest Self
"I feel my sexiest when I'm wearing matching lingerie. Even if it's under my clothes, it's an empowering feeling knowing that I have it on," she tells Stylish.

The number one mistake you’re making with nail polish

If you find that your at-home manicure chips a lot faster than after a visit to the salon, you could be making a very common mistake with your nail polish: namely, shaking the bottle.

In an interview with Allure, nail artist Simcha Whitehill broke down why shaking your nail polish is a huge no-no.

Whitehill, who goes by Miss Pop on social media, said that doing so "traps the air inside [the bottle], which creates those tiny pockets" of air. Those air bubbles are then sometimes transferred onto your nails and leave noticeable holes in your manicure — which can cause your nails to chip more easily.

How you load more polish onto the brush is important as well, according to Whitehill.

"Bubbles can also form when you shove the brush back in the bottle, so never pump the brush in and out the neck," Whitehill said.

Instead of using force, Whitehill suggests an alternative, gentle method. "Always just roll a bottle in your hands like you're rolling out playdough," she said.

Would You Buy a Mini Fridge Just for Beauty Products?

Not too long ago, I was passing through Bangkok and stopped by my friends' new townhouse on the way to the airport. A little sweaty from the long car ride, I showered in their master bathroom, where I spied an unfamiliar sight: a glass-doored mini refrigerator filled with skin products. Forget wine refrigerators, temperature-controlled storage for SK II Essence and Créme de la Mer seems like the pinnacle of leisure luxury to me.

That same trip, a new moisturizer — a very pricey moisturizer, Kypris Pot of Shade: Heliotropic ($68), which I love — went south on me, suddenly betraying a funky smell it didn't have when I first cracked it open. It was hot as hell, and something had gone wrong. If only I'd known to keep it cool like my friend, Sarah Chang, who shares bathroom fridge space (and the duties of running a restaurant empire) with her husband, chef Ian Chalermkittichai. She said they stretch out their products' longevity by protecting them from tropical heat. "We travel a lot and stock up on products duty free," she said. "It's better to store our stock in the fridge than in a hot closet. Also, it's quite refreshing to keep toner and cream cool when it's hot out."

Now Thailand is tropical year-round, but it's not all that different than a New York summer. I'd always meant to keep things in my apartment refrigerator, hearing somewhere once that it was better for them, but somehow that not-so-long walk from bathroom to kitchen always tripped me up. Would a bathroom mini fridge be the answer? I called up Los Angeles dermatologist Dr. Jessica Wu, author of Feed Your Face, to find out.

As it turns out, Sarah and Ian's bathroom refrigerator wasn't such a strange concept to Wu. "I have a number of patients in Texas who have their contractor install one. New homes are being built with cosmetic refrigerators." In addition to skin creams and makeup, they use them to keep bottled water and champagne (of course). These cosmetic refrigerators — a phrase I didn't realize existed until talking to Wu — discourage bacteria and fungus, and keep products fresher longer.

But you don't have to be the wife of a Texas oil magnate with $200 eye creams to get a "cosmetic" fridge. In Korea, refrigerators specifically marketed for cosmetics have been popular for the last few years. Prices range from $40–$150 on Amazon for compact refrigerators, most of which you could easily tuck into the corner of a small bathroom. When you add up the cost of all your products, even drugstore ones (good lord), a cosmetic fridge seems like a pretty good investment to lengthen their potency. That fancy face cream I lost to extreme heat costs more than most of the compact refrigerators out there.

There are products for which refrigeration doesn't matter or isn't ideal. "It's less of an issue with serums because they are already liquid and less likely to separate compared to creams," says Wu. Oils, which can solidify at lower temps, should be kept at room temperature or warmer.

But for others, a compact refrigerator can be the ideal storage. "Certain ingredients break down more quickly," says Wu. "Retinoids are heat- and light-sensitive." The same goes for products with vitamin C. Nail polishes can separate when exposed to sitting out awhile, and the molecules of perfume can break down over time — not just fading, but actually changing its fragrance as well. Lipsticks can also break, smudge, or melt if kept on a vanity in direct sunlight.

"Water-based toners and mists also take to the fridge," says Wu. "Keeping them cool in the refrigerator can also help cool down the skin and relieve inflammation, rosacea, or itching."

Of course, you can just store your stuff in a kitchen refrigerator. However, if you're prone to forgetting to use your cream because it's out of sight, Wu recommends skipping the fridge and keeping it in the coolest, darkest place in your bathroom, like the cabinet under the sink. Heat rises, so the top shelf behind your bathroom mirror just might be the worst spot for your retinoids, vitamin C products, nail polishes, lipsticks, and perfumes. That all said, having one cream turn bad is enough to convince me that a $40 bathroom mini fridge might be a worthy investment for my lazy ass.

The 5 Best Moisturizers for Combination Skin

Ladies with combination skin (as in, your T-zone gets oily, but you have dry patches elsewhere), don't you feel like you get the short end of the stick? There are tons of products specifically for oily or dry skin, but fewer for your unique blend of the two. If you've ever struggled to strike a balance between adding moisture and controlling shine, look no further, because these are the five best combination-skin moisturizers on the market right now.

Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel

If you haven't tried a gel moisturizer yet, it's time. This one from Neutrogena hydrates without making your face feel slippery or look shiny. It also absorbs immediately, meaning you can apply makeup right after moisturizing. Heads up that a little goes a long way, so this small pot will last you for quite a while.

Tatcha The Water Cream

Using Japanese botanicals, this cream from Tatcha clarifies and refines skin. Wild rose tightens pores and smoothes the skin's texture. Leopard lily helps to control excess oil and supports natural skin turnover. And green tea, rice and algae restore radiance. This soothing formula also imparts a super-subtle glow that's less shiny and more "yes, I really am this goddess-like."

Garnier Moisture Rescue Refreshing Gel Cream

For $6, you can't beat Garnier's gel moisturizer. In addition to feeling really refreshing and cooling on the skin (a trademark of gels), it's super lightweight and breathable, making it the perfect first layer for your daily skin-care and makeup routine. Your skin will be markedly more supple without that heavy, covered-up feeling you get from other moisturizers.

Susanne Kaufmann Face Fluid Line F

Yes, this one's a bit pricey, but if you can afford to splurge, it's worth it. Made in Austria from high-quality, organic ingredients, Kaufmann's Line F is formulated specifically for people with oilier T-zones and drier cheeks. Like all of the products in Line F, it contains a blend of calendula blossoms, camomile flowers and witch-hazel, all of which are meant to slow oil production. It also smells like a spa.

Lush Enzymion Moisturizer

If your face is on the oiler side of combination, Lush's Enzymion moisturizer is for you. A blend of astringent citrus fruits (including papaya and lemon) help mop up excess oils and cleanse your face of the dry skin that has built up throughout the day. Then avocado and evening-primrose oils replenish essential vitamins and minerals. This guy goes on smooth and matte and pretty much renders oil-blotting papers obsolete.