What beauty products do you buy over and over? On The Beauty Group, a Facebook community co-founded by the Cut and the Strategist, beauty obsessives chat all day long about the products they love — the ones so good they’ll make you hit that little “auto-refill” box at checkout. So we decided to turn the question to some of our favorite beauty pros.
It all started with a Google Doc. Away and Into the Gloss alum Dianna Cohen had friends constantly asking about her hair routine. She started writing it all down, and the document, containing advice she had been cultivating for years, started circulating. “I read forums, chatted with dermatologists, and the hair stylist I’ve now seen for ten years, and I finally found a ritual that transformed the health of my hair over time.”
Out of that, her new haircare-based line, Crown Affair, began. The DTC startup, which launched with The Towel (made with a moisture-wicking microfiber), The Comb (available in two styles), The Oil (a blend of Japanese ingredients meant for all hair types), and The Brush (a comparable dupe to a Mason Pearson brush), was designed to keep things easy, but it was founded on the same quality and efficacy principles as the rest of Cohen’s beloved beauty products. “If something is made with quality materials, you’ll feel the difference and see a change in health of your skin and hair for years to come,” Cohen believes.
Even as a beauty founder herself, Cohen has a crucial reminder for everyone: Beauty is ultimately personal and specific to your lifestyle —You are the expert of your own routine, not brands. “I’ll invest in more expensive fragrances, skin-care, and hair-care products, because that’s really important to me — I can tell when the ingredient quality just isn’t there in those categories,” she says.
With her own makeup, Cohen opts for a decidedly high-low mix. She always ends up sticking to her drugstore favorites — Maybelline’s Line Stiletto Ultimate Precision Liquid Eyeliner is a non-negotiable (“I’ve tried dozens of liquid eyeliners through the years, and this one just stays in place, looks crisp and doesn’t dry out through the day!”).
Read about Cohen’s must-haves below, including Biologique Recherche’s Masque Vivant (“My pores are noticeably tighter and skin looks brighter”), Drunk Elephant’s C-Tango Eye Cream (“After only three days, I could see the difference in the skin around my eyes”), and rms’s Living Luminizer (“It gives a natural, easy glow”), and make sure to join The Beauty Group for exclusive discount codes to shop her picks.
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