Collage: Irene Kang; Source images: Courtesy of brands and editors Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story Ever wonder what it’s like shopping with a beauty editor? Welcome to Counter Service, a new series where we visit our favorite beauty boutiques IRL. We’re visiting the curated spaces and places that make shopping in person oh-so worth it—and you’re coming with. On a recent commute to the Allure office, commerce market editor Sarah Hoffmann picked up a new base routine from Laura Mercier and rediscovered the joys of loitering in a Sephora.
Ever since I started working at Allure , my time spent browsing for beauty in person has significantly dropped. Instead of methodically examining store testers, I comb through my email for exciting launches and take notes from fellow editors, who are basically walking beauty encyclopedias. But when I was younger, I was a Sephora tween before the phenomenon even had a name (or press coverage). I lived to wander the colorful aisles of my suburban mall Sephora location, making a thrilling (and typically travel-size) purchase once I had stashed up enough hard-earned babysitting money.
A recent flare of unhappy skin brought me back to my mall-dwelling roots. An uncouth mix of stress and chlorine exposure recently left my skin simultaneously drier and more breakout-prone than it's been in quite a long time, and my usual routine of a quarter-size drop of skin tint just wasn’t cutting it anymore. I knew I needed a head-to-toe revamp of my base routine, and that there was only one brand for the job: Laura Mercier . Shade matching is key when buying complexion products, so it only made sense to do my swatching IRL, which is how I ended up in a physical Sephora store for the first time in maybe years. It felt like returning home.
The In-Store Experience What I Added to My Cart Final Thoughts The In-Store Experience The core of Laura Mercier’s line is to help you create the “ The Flawless Face ” look, which is her natural, skin-forward approach to base makeup. Her philosophy is reflected as soon as you step up to her Sephora display. As you walk up to the brand’s gondola, the first two shelves you see are wall-to-wall complexion, but not the traditional foundation and concealer you’d expect. Laura Mercier is one of the brands that put tinted moisturizer on the map, and the Natural Dewy version is exactly what my angry skin ordered. The coverage is just enough to mask minor discoloration and minimize the look of blemishes, but unlike traditional foundation, your real skin peeks through.
After sampling a few shades on my jawline to pick my perfect shade (the line includes warm, cool, and neutral tones), I shifted down the display to the Ultra-Blur Translucent Loose Setting Powder . This powder was in my top three most-coveted products from when I was a budding beauty devotee. It came recommended over and over again by the beauty YouTubers I trusted like older sisters, and from the occasional copy of Allure magazine (hehe) that I managed to convince my mom to buy me at the grocery store checkout.
I don’t normally use a lot of powder products in my makeup routine, but something as dewy as the tinted moisturizer I’d just picked up needs a little bit of help toughing out New York’s sickeningly humid summers. If you’re afraid of cake face, let Ultra-Blur be the powder that you face your fears with. Sampling in store will show you how fine and soft the texture is—it’s genuinely difficult to ap...