111 East
BEAUTY
Cotton swabs, blotting paper, and my lipstick-of-the-day are usually the only items in my arsenal of on-the-go beauty products. But for any beauty-loving music reveler dancing on the grassy polo fields in Indio this month, these items alone won’t be enough to combat hours of merriment, temperatures that fluctuate between scorching and frigid, and Lawrence of Arabia levels of swirling sand and dust. With a well-edited beauty kit, however, you can handle necessary touch-ups and amp up your look for nighttime drama without lugging around your entire makeup collection.
Spoiler alert: There’s no escaping our desert dust. I suggest making peace with the gritty stuff, because you’ll be covered in it long after the last musical notes fade.
Charlotte Tilbury’s new Quick ’N’ Easy makeup kit ($75, www.beautylish.com) in Natural Glowing Look is a mobile dream. The kit includes a mini Wonderglow primer, which can be worn alone or under foundation for luminescent skin. A Beachstick blush in Moon Beach gives cheeks a lovely peachy glow. Colour Chameleon in Amber Haze is a bronze-y eyeshadow pencil that can be applied directly to the lid. The mini Legendary Lashes mascara will make your lashes beautiful and feathery. This mascara tends to smudge on me — perfect for a lived-in, I-woke-up-like-this look. And finally, the Matte Revolution lipstick in Very Victoria is a taupe-ish pink that’s both casual and sophisticated. These items come in a zippered case compact enough to toss into your festival-ready bag, with plenty of space to stash an extra item or two.
Wander Beauty’s New York Minute Makeup Kit ($39, Sephora) was my introduction to this travel-friendly beauty line. Every piece in this kit deserves a place in your makeup collection, but I particularly like it for a day-to-night transition. One coat of Unlashed Volume & Curl Mascara creates more length than volume and is exquisite for daytime. A second and third coat make full, dramatic, nighttime lashes.
Eyes on the Fly Dual Cream Shadow and Eyeliner in jet black and concrete jungle (which is best described as a smoky taupe) can be worn, similarly to the mascara, barely there or built up for more intense pigmentation. The mascara, eyeliner, and shadow do not move, smudge, smear, or flake. Once the products set, there is no budging them — no matter how much head-bobbing you do. The Carryon Lip and Cheek Gel in Pink City is a light wash of color that feels weightless on the cheeks and hydrating on the lips. The kit includes a pouch just large enough for all of these goodies and not much else.
A whimsical bonus: As soon as I saw Milk Makeup’s Tattoo Stamp ($12, www.milkmakeup.com), I imagined it was designed specifically for Coachella and Stagecoach. It comes in five designs (star, heart, yin yang, peace sign, or smiley face) and can be applied anywhere on the face or body, which sounds potentially dangerous if you spend too much time in the beer garden. Toss the pen in if you want to tattoo friends or acquaintances, and you’ll be prepared. You won’t need to reapply the black ink symbols because the stamps will stay wherever you place them. This is my kind of product.