From Siobhan and Alexandra: Guys, get excited: No More Dirty Looks has its first permanent outside contributor!

You all know her already. Her name is Rebecca Bailey and she’s been beasting in the comments section for ages. As such, she’s become a super important part of this community. We have a hard time imagining the site without her and we (like you) always want more, more, more. So we asked her to start a column.

Here’s why: She’s incredibly knowledgeable and is always quick to help out readers with their conundrums. She’s smart about beauty, and thoughtful about lifestyle, and her candor and insight sort of…keeps us going! When we aren’t sure if a post was too off-topic or weird, there’s Rebecca weighing in thoughtfully. Plus, she’s a product whiz and a DIY woman with so much to share. So please join us in welcoming her.

Here’s her first amazing post, featuring 5 products we have not yet tried—but now want to. She’ll be here every two weeks.

Since childhood, I’ve had sensitive skin. My lips in particular are a mess if I try to use conventional products. Do you want to hear about the pain and the oozing?  No, you don’t. I spent decades thinking I simply could not wear lip color. Enter the NMDL girls and my introduction to truly clean cosmetics. Now, anyone can be sensitive to any ingredient, even clean stuff.

But if the brands I’m about to review are OK for me they will probably be OK for 99% of people.

In addition to being sensitive, I’m super picky about smell/taste/texture, and I like my products to add something nourishing to my skin.  These don’t taste all “lipsticky,” they feel nice on, wear well, and have healthy plant oils, antioxidants and many organic ingredients.  I also like packaging to be both pretty and functional.  Check.

I love my RMS, and I own just about every lip product they make. But the brand has been discussed often here so I wanted to review a few brands that I don’t see much about. Everything I’m covering is super clean, gluten free, and mostly vegan (a couple products have beeswax).  For reference, I have a very pale olive complexion, but I think most of these colors would work for many skin tones.

1. Real Purity Lipstick Great price ($13), gorgeous and functional packaging, and the color selection is spectacular.  My favorites this time of year are Dusty Mauve and Tangerine. Dusty Mauve is a really unique color with a bit of purple and some luminosity, and it wears longer than any lip color I’ve ever tried.  The shimmer makes it look fairly pale in bright light, but in dim light it looks darker. If, like me, you are both intrigued by and fear orange, then try Tangerine. It is shimmery sheer, subtle and lovely. Into reds? Try Regal Red (looks bright pink on me) and Clover Red (bam! red with a touch of orange). The sample program makes it fun and easy to try them out.
2. 100% Pure Lip Glaze These are something between a gloss and a lipstick, somewhat shiny but not too much, enough color but not super saturated. Only $15 and adorably packaged, silver-bullet style. This company uses fruit pigments, so their stuff tastes and smells fruity at first, but it wears off to neutral pretty fast. They are local for me so I tried almost everything in their Oakland boutique, and bought Fig. Nice and creamy, kind of gives a little something extra to my natural lip color, with a bit of shine.
3. 100% Pure Lip Creamsticks These are big, fat pencils with creamy color ($15).  They are dual function, liners or all-over color. I like that you can be precise in application if you keep it sharp. I have Perfect Naked Berry. It’s so pretty.
4. INIKA Mineral Lipstick This one is more expensive ($27), but I could not resist. I have Tuscan Tales, which is a terra cotta shade I’ve not seen elsewhere.  It’s in a simple, elegant tube, and feels moisturizing even though it has a more matte finish than most lipsticks.  I sense something special here, I think it’s made by fairies.*  I’d love to try more from this brand but I haven’t found a way to do samples yet.
5. Afterglow Lip Love Lipstick This is another brand that I wish had a good sample program so I could try more colors ($24 for a tube). I bought Autumn, a very pretty auburn red, which I love. I also have Merlot, which is an altogether different thing from the rest on this list. It looks crazy dark in the tube. I find I really must blot with a tissue and then it turns out much like a beet stain, but with more staying power.

Have you tried any lesser known brands that are fabulous?

*I have no actual evidence that it is made by fairies.

We have a tough question to ask you, one that we’ve been asking ourselves.

If you could only use 5 products—total—what would they be? Yep, it’s that childhood game, and we’re gearing up to make it a challenge, so think carefully: What would you take with you on a desert island?

Alexandra would probably take Rare Elements Conditioner, Tammy Fender Repair Balm, RMS lip-to-cheek in Rapture (though she’d shed a big tear for Ilia’s Bang Bang), Afterglow Concealer in Praline, and a good bar of soap. Or no soap—the ocean will clean her!—and her Laura Mercier waterproof mascara instead? Ugh, tough decisions.

Siobhan would take her Acure Shampoo (hydrating enough for her to forgo conditioner), Tata Harper’s Refreshing Cleanser, Laura Mercier Minerals (they’re clean!), 100% Pure Mascara and, like her pal, the Tammy Fender Repair Balm.

Now, tell us in the comments what you would take, and begin to mentally gear up for one of our most exciting (and challenging) challenges yet!

I promised you guys a full review on this concealer, so here she blows: I am absolutely wild about Afterglow’s Triple Eye Treatment, which for me works as an all-around concealer. Under eyes, sure—though circles like mine never fully cover—but I also use it around my nose, chin, and over any scars and discoloration. It’s the amazing thing about clean products, isn’t it? They just tend to be all-purpose.

Now, how this little gem came to be in my possession is somewhat muddled at this point. A few months ago we told you about our friend’s wedding. That day, somewhere between champagne toasts and waterproof eyeliner, Siobhan must have palmed me this little container of Praline-colored cover-up. [Siobhan's note: Yes, that's exactly what happened. Champagne, champagne, champagne, concealer swap, champagne.] I don’t think I used it then, but when I got back to Los Angeles I ended up trying it on a day when I was out of Jane Iredale and my RMS was in another bag.

Oh happy discovery! As luck would have it, I find this concealer to be a perfect marriage of those two other favorites: a little less thick than the “Un” Cover-Up, a little less liquid than the Jane. Which is not to say I won’t still have those in my arsenal or that I love them any less—but I’m having a bit of a “just right” moment with my Afterglow.

The ingredients are perfectly clean as well. Here they are:

Ingredients: cocos nucifera (organic coconut) oil, simmondsia chinensis (organic jojoba) seed extract, cera alba (organic beeswax), theobroma cacao (organic cocoa) seed butter, althaea officinalis (organic marshmallow) extract, camelia sinensis (organic white tea) extract, titanium dioxide (CI 77891), iron oxide (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499)

And don’t be confused as we were to see marshmallow—Wikipedia informed me that it’s actually a plant. [Siobhan's note: "Oh my god! It's a plant!"]

Have any of you tried this product? Discovered any other concealers that we have yet to mention?