A Time-Sensitive Sunscreen PSA

and tips from Brooklyn's eyebrow expert

Hello!

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes! I had a great time. I share a birthday with my brother-in-law, so my sister and my husband threw us a joint party. The theme was dress like the year you turned 21, so I popped in my hoop and rediscovered my love for Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Mushroom. (Tragically this color is not at Sephora, thus not on sale, but my other favorite, Stash, is.)

Should I get into eyeliner again?

Also a reminder that yearly subscriptions are still $44 through the end of the month. Paid subscribers get access to weekly Office Hours and monthly giveaways, though in honor of my birthday, we’re doing weekly! Congratulations to Katie for winning this week! Look out for an email from me.

Yesterday I got a facial (yes, my turn!) with my gal Lara at Carrie Lindsey Beauty, who is pretty much the only person I’ve let give me a facial in years. She’s also responsible for my brows–and the brows of multiple family members–which, after years of being shaped to perfection by Lara, finally achieved a big accomplishment.

You see, the very first time Lara did my brows, she explained that the goal is for your brow hairs to all have the same birthday. When I decided to share this anecdote today, I texted her to clarify: “a hair cycle takes 28 days (ish), so if you’re tweezing a little here, a little there, they all get different birthdays. If you let go and let god, they will start to sync up. Sometimes it takes a bit, but very often they get the memo after a while.” To achieve this she advises you need to get your brows done every 4-6 weeks and not touch them in between. I’ve been following this strictly since last summer. Previously, I was cheating and going more like every 12 weeks.

I texted Lara before my appointment yesterday because I realized, to my amazement, that my brows hardly had any stray hairs. The shape was nearly the same as it was 6 weeks ago. They were a little fuller and in need of some touching up, but they were finally on the same growth schedule and lookin’ pretty damn good. A very happy birthday to all of us.

Lara was kind enough to share her brow product recs. Boy Brow remains her #1 rec for tinted brow gel (“if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”), but she’s been loving the Patrick Ta Brow Gel when she wants clear. For adding strokes, Glossier Brow Flick. She also currently has her eye on the got2b Glued Brow & Edge Gel, but hasn’t tried it yet. I asked her if she’s ever tried my favorite, the Valentino Brow Trio and she said “trio sounds like too many things.” Which, ya know, she’s not wrong, but in my defense, it’s basically a pencil, liquid micro-pen and brow brush, so maybe just a duo with a brush.

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There are basically two categories of questions I’ve received in the past week: the Sephora Sale and how the tariffs will impact our ability to buy sunscreen. I’ll start with the easier one.

As of today, the Sephora Sale is open to all tiers and goes through 4/18. That’s 20% for Rouge, 15% for VIB and 10% for Insider. The Sephora Collection (great brushes!) is 30% off for all. Below you can find my recommendations by category and you can read the 11 things I specifically highlighted here. (P.S. I had the pleasure of chatting with the Kate McLeod today–more soon–and it just reaffirmed how special her products are.)

TOP 15 / SKINCARE / HAIR / BODY / MAKEUP

In Office Hours yesterday, someone asked if the sale is worth shopping if you’re not Rouge. Yes and no. Obviously, Rouge is the best deal, but for many small, indie brands that only have yearly sales during the holiday season, 15% or 10% off might actually be the best savings you’ll find outside of that time (but always check the brand’s direct site for a welcome offer, which might be more). Another thing to consider is that sometimes purchasing at Sephora can actually help a small business. Getting a contract at Sephora is hard, but keeping one is even harder. In addition to reaching sales goals, the brand, via its customers, needs to prove to Sephora that they’re worth stocking. Ideally, they need to prove that they are worth stocking both online and in-store and once in-store, they need to be worth investing in a display and marketing. Sephora is always paying attention to what brands people are buying, but especially during their sales. This is very simplified and there are many other factors at-play, but my point is that your purchases can help support your favorite small businesses. Don’t take this to mean you should spend money during the sale if you weren’t planning to, but it’s just something to note if your decision was based on the discount alone.

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Ok, now let’s chat about the tariffs. I share your concerns! Economics was not my best subject, but I’ll try my best to recap what I’ve learned in bullet points.

*I ALREADY HAD TO UPDATE MY ORIGINAL POST RE: ASIAN RETAILERS. If you followed my guidance and purchased from Stylevana, the tariffs went up even more. You can chat or email Stylevana support to cancel your order and then place a new order at Olive Young, which is for now the only somewhat affordable option. Sorry 🫠*

• The short answer is, I don’t really know, nor does anyone. As I’m sure most of you are aware, things are changing every single day. It’s also different for Asian retailers and EU retailers. Plus, even US brands are going to become more expensive since most source at least some component of their ingredients/packaging outside the US. Fun!
  

• ASIAN RETAILERS:

  • As of right now, tariffs are in effect for South Korea, China and Hong Kong. For SK it is 25% of the order total, for China and HK, it is an astonishing 104% of the order total.

  • SEPARATELY, on May 2nd for China and HK: the de minimis exemption of $800 or lower ends, so there will be additional $75 charge PER ITEM, going up even more on June 1st.

  • Olive Young ships from South Korea. YesStyle and Stylevana ship from Hong Kong.

• EU RETAILERS:

  • As of right now, the EU tariffs are 20%. Some EU retailers have already stopped shipping to the US or have increased shipping prices/prices of individual items.

  • As of now, your best bet at finding EU sunscreen is on Caretobeauty.com or Cocooncenter.co.uk.
    

• BUYING SUNSCREEN:

  • My favorite sunscreen of all time, which I’ve turned countless people on to, is the Isntree Hyaluronic Acid Watery Sun Gel. I placed an emergency order last week from Stylevana, which, lucky me, arrives at US customs today. I don’t know what will happen, so I also placed another order from Olive Young (shipping from Korea). The link above takes you to the Olive Young homepage, just search for that product. Make sure it’s the gel, not the cream!

  • If you love a sunscreen that comes from YesStyle or Stylevana, I would instead try to order from Olive Young at this point. Make sure to only buy products labeled in-stock. [In my original email, I said to order from Stylevana ASAP so it arrives before May 2nd. But then the tariffs went up even more overnight, so Olive Young is now the only semi-reasonable option. So sorry to anyone who already ordered from Stylevana. You can email them to cancel your order before it ships.]

  • Unless it has an expiration date that is sooner, unopened sunscreen lasts 2-3 years from the manufacturing date. It should be 3 years, but factor in shipping/warehouse time, so more like 2 to be safe. (The Isntree Sunscreen that I have in front of me right now says it expires June 27th, 2027.)

  • EU products usually don’t have expiration dates, but you can go by the batch code for the date of manufacture and assume 2-3 years or look for a little hourglass symbol, which is the Best Before End Of (BBE) date for unopened products.

  • And what if you don’t want to go through with all of this? Try the Ultra Violette SPFs that are now available at Sephora. If you’re super acne-prone, the Laneige SPF is a good choice (not saying UV is bad for acne-prone skin, I just can’t say 100% yet.) I also have recently been loving the Allies of Skin SPF which is clear, sort of like Unseen, but evaporates and has no residue. You can use code JOLIE for 20% off.

    

    So far have only tried the Supreme Screen (yellow, amazing) and the lip balm (thicker than I was expecting, vanilla scent, no SPF taste)

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Sephora Sale Chat

Need a rec? Have a rec? I opened this chat for all for the duration of the Sephora Sale.

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Office Hours Reminder

Join us for Office Hours on Sunday! This exclusive weekly opportunity is available to paying subscribers.

Every Sunday at 5pm EST, I’ll begin a new thread for the week in Substack Chat, where you can ask me anything. Every Monday from 5-6pm EST, I’ll be in that chat live, answering questions for the hour. That way, if you can’t make it, you can submit any time after 5pm Sunday and still get an answer. If you can make it live, join in! You can ask questions in real time and (hopefully) interact with others in class ;)

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I’ll be back Thursday with a new On the Line! See ya then.

xx,

Jolie