I'm A Beauty Editor, And These Are The April Beauty Launches I'm Obsessed With

Makeup artists have been “overpainting” and “underpainting” with blush forever, but it’s still relatively new to me and this cheeky new blush palette from Patrick Starrr’s ONE/SIZE beauty is the perfect product for testing out your beauty artistry. The palette comes with three deep pans of different blushes. You’ve got the flex cream on top, the full impact matte powder in the middle, and the hyper sheen powder on the bottom. All three blushes are infused with dragonfruit extract for extra grip and extended wearability.

Kerry McConnell, Director of Education at ONE/SIZE, explains that flex cream is what you use to paint. Underpainting is when you start with cream and layer matte and sheen powder on top. Overpainting is when you start with powder and lock in the color with a cream. Underpainting creates a strong, brightly-lit glow while overpainting creates more of a glossy effect. With masks coming off and complexion makeup coming back on, this is a great product for toying with trending beauty looks for spring and experimenting with different techniques.

Patrick Ta is a beauty boss and his palettes are no joke. Supermodels like Gigi Hadid and Joan Smalls rely on Ta to give them glossy, glowing looks for runways and red carpets. Ta creates effortless, wide-eyed glam with products from his own line, and this new palette, a mix of creamy base shades and pressed powders, hits the sultry, supermodel mark.

As I mentioned, spring makeup is all about depth and dimension and these shadows *serve* it. The palette features two cream bases and 10 pressed powder shades that run the gamut from matte to satin to pearlescent so you can create any finish you can imagine. I’m especially excited about the pearlescent shades, which can be layered over dark colors to create a gleaming, smokey effect or paired with lighter shades to create a brighter luminescence.

I have been setting my makeup with Urban Decay setting sprays since college and while I will not be telling you how long ago that was, I will say that Urban Decay has been keeping my makeup set for years. This new setting spray is a member of the “good for your skin” makeup family and can be used in two ways: as a setting spray, obvi, but also as a pre-makeup skin booster. The name of the game here is hydration and the ingredients in this setting spray promise a dewy finish.

The new formula includes vitamin C and cactus flower to help brighten and soothe skin and is designed to provide a smudge-, smear-, and budge-proof finish for up to 16 hours. In other words, it’s perfect for any all-day activity that promises you’ll be a sweaty mess by the end of it. (Looking at you, festival season).

Juvia’s Place is a beauty brand that truly celebrates Blackness and, as of Thursday, March 31, its Culture Collection is available at Ulta making it newly accessible to folks all over the country. This brand *knows* how to deliver color payoff and intensity and its Duochrome Liquid Eyeshadow is 100% pure vibrancy.

Starting as a liquid and drying down to a powder that catches the light with both glitter and pearl pigments, the shadow is available in three shades at Ulta: Kenté (a rich, rosy red), Ankara (a deep, luxe gold), and Fula (a warm, opalescent metallic). These shades definitely fall on the technicolor side of spring makeup shades and are going to be so much fun to play with.

MAC has been making makeup for all skin types and tones since before I could hold an eyeshadow brush, so when the brand launches new skin products, I always get stoked. This primer smoothes and hydrates skin, creating a lit-from-within base to build on. Since spring and summer beauty is all about dewy, luminous skin, this primer seems tailor-made for this exact moment in time.

Instead of a tacky or creamy base, this new primer is a dew-inducing gel featuring ingredients that not only hydrate skin, but lock in that hydration: hyaluronic acid, glycerin, and jojoba oil are the biggest standouts to me.

I love it when skin care brands give us makeup because it usually means it’ll be good for your skin in addition to giving you glow, shimmer, or color. Pai Skincare is known for making incredible organic face washes and moisturizers, and it's now serving up some gorgeous good-for-your-face makeup in two new shades.

The Impossible Glow is a skin care-makeup hybrid that delivers the kind of depth and luminosity you get from top-shelf liquid highlighters, plus hydration and brightening thanks to hyaluronic acid, sea kelp, and lemon fruit water. Previously available only in bronze, it has two new shades in its lineup — rose gold and champagne— that you can build up or sheer out depending on just how blinding you want your highlight to be.

The latest Jenner-Kardashian beauty collab is my favorite so far. Whenever celebs release products it seems like they would genuinely use, I get hyped. Both Kylie and Kendall Jenner love a matte smokey eye in natural tones, which is precisely what this pressed powder palette ($49, Kylie Cosmetics) delivers.

I appreciate that all the shades are matte, especially because I have more than a few palettes where all but one finish is used up. If you love a matte finish, this is the only palette you’re going to need for almost every look you want to create. (If you prefer shimmer, definitely look elsewhere.) The shadows even run the gamut from warm to cool tones and include some neutrals as well.

Ethique is one of the brands doing the most to support the environment. Case in point: The brand’s first lipstick is vegan, palm oil-free, plastic-free, and compostable. You can bury the empty tube in the garden of your choice and it’ll break down and feed the soil.

Ethique’s lipstick comes in seven, satin-finish shades and each tube contains the equivalent of two to three tubes of traditional lipstick, meaning it was literally built to last up until, you know, it’s time to bury it in the yard.

I have devotedly worn liquid eyeliner since middle school. I’ll mix things up and apply it with a brush if I’m feeling fancy, but it’s been almost impossible to convince me to even try any kind of pencil liner — until now.

The KVD Beauty long-wear gel eyeliner — out now in 10 shades — is shaped like a pencil, but goes on as softly as a kohl liner. The color payoff is vibrant and this stuff *does not budge*. It wears the way KVD Beauty’s iconic Tattoo Liquid Eyeliner wears, which is why, when it launched, I was excited to try it. Turns out, it’s just as impactful, but more lightweight, than its predecessor.

A different kind of eyeshadow gel, I’ve been obsessed with these little pots of shimmering, multifaceted color since they launched in late March. As of today — drumroll, please — they’re available at Ulta, which gives them an air of newness and gives me an excuse to gush about how much I love them.

You can sheer out the pigment for an Instagram glitter filter look or build it up for some next-level Euphoria-style glitz. One of my favorite parts of this product is that the shimmer doesn’t break down over time — it’s as eye-catching on Hour 6 of wear as it is when freshly applied — and it doesn’t feel heavy, despite the visual impact. Simply put, it’s next level.

I love a neon manicure and I love when a nail shape vibe is extra, so this limited-edition set of press-ons from at-home mani experts Olive & June was destined to be on my list of beauty favorites this month. The long almond shape is a great choice for someone not 100% ready to commit to coffin nails, but who still wants to make a statement.

The Olive & June press-on system is notoriously easy to use and this collab with Riley Hubatka is serving up trends you’d expect to spend upwards of $60 getting done at a salon. Each set comes with 42 press-on nails in 21 sizes (made from recycled materials!), a dual file and buffer, a wooden cuticle pusher, non-damaging glue, and a prep pad, all for under $15. Seriously. What are you waiting for?

New to the U.S., Florasis is one of those brands that makes almost-too-pretty-to-use products. Florasis does some beautiful engraving work on their products, including this sculpting palette that features four gorgeous shades of bronzer and highlighter.

I like a custom glow, so this palette is right up my alley. The powders are soft, silky, and ultra fine, which means they apply just as smoothly with a wet brush as a dry brush. Since this summer is all about glossy skin, the ability to amp up a highlight is a must-have for me. Last, but not least, the powders range from shimmer to matte, so you can play with color *and* finish.

Nobody does a rhinestone or glitter beauty look in under 5 minutes better than SIMIHAZE. Sure, you could painstakingly apply single rhinestones in the shape of your choosing to fuss around with loose glitter and adhesive or you could snap up this set of 11 stickers for an almost infinite array of festival-approved looks.

I once wore SIMIHAZE eye stickers through a rainstorm and they did not budge. They’re also easy to use and you can go through a few rounds of applying them without them losing their stickiness, unlike with some other stickers where you best nail the position on the first try. They’re truly gorgeous, but they are pricey which is why my heart literally leapt when I saw just how many sticker sheets you get in this latest drop.

This handy little pen is an absolute necessity in the age of graphic eyeliner and ornate, Euphoria-inspired eyeshadow looks. It literally erases even the blackest eyeliner with a smudge-free flick. This little marker really works and I don’t start any lewk-looks without it.

It’s the only “eraser” I’ve ever encountered that doesn’t leave liquid behind or pick up and re-deposit color. It basically replaces makeup wipes and Q-tips dipped in makeup remover, cuts down time devoted to agonizing over the evenness of your cat eye liner, and costs less than $15.

This palette technically launched at the end of March, but sold out so fast that I couldn’t get my get hands on it until this month. Thankfully, it’s been restocked and I’ve been able to play with every high-pigment shade in this XXL palette.

The shadow pans are much larger than your standard palette, which means you can really explore some big looks from unicorn makeup to neon graphic liner looks. The shades start sheer, but are marvelously buildable and blendable. You can really amp all 25 shades up to levels of intensity I’m used to only being able to achieve with water-activated pigments or liquid liners.

Lip gloss is back, folks, and this gorgeous new one from Hourglass Cosmetics is one for the history books. The Hourglass Cosmetics Phantom Volumizing Glossy Balm does everything you want a lip gloss to do without being sticky, but it’s also one of those rare glosses that delivers color very well. This is not the lip gloss we were wearing in middle school. This is high-impact gloss for grown adults.

The shade range spans from pale pink to deep purple and includes vibrant tangerine and fuschia. It’s hydrating without being slippery or creating that wet, heavy feeling lip glosses can sometimes leave behind. The colors, all of them vibrant while maintaining a level of sheerness that feels very now, never veer into “too much” territory thanks to their sheer buildability.

This foundation — the latest drop from iconic MUA Bobbi Brown’s beauty brand Jones Road Beauty —just might be my go-to base for summer. What The Foundation creates a dewy finish that blurs out uneven tone and texture while leaving you with a no-makeup makeup finish.

It also just feels amazing. Since it’s technically a tinted moisture balm, it goes on luxuriously and melts into the skin. It’s very buildable, but does max out around a medium coverage — the perfect amount of foundation for this year’s summer of dewy, fresh skin.