Earlier this month, I was really honored to join New Beauty Magazine for their Tastemaker event, as one of their tastemakers! Hosted at the New Beauty offices in Rockefeller Center, it was basically speed dating, with beauty brands — my kind of dating! Each tastemaker had their own table and then brands would rotate visiting me (on a timer) and tell me about their companies and new product launches. There were so many cool indie beauty brand, many of which I worked with in the past so it was exciting to catch up with the founders and hear about the progress their brands had made. While there wasn’t time to meet with every brand in attendance, here were some of my favorites and brands you should have on your radar:

Grande Cosmetics

Grande Cosmetics also has a special place in my heart. I discovered them when I was judging the ICMAD awards a few years ago and they blew it out of the water! Their liquid liner won my vote for the category because it was by far the best product choice in the category. EVERYTHING I’ve used from the brand since has blown me away, I love their GrandBROW-FIll! Their latest addition is a Grande Lips, a collection of lip plumpers available in clear and six additional colors, including my dream pink! It’s the best plumper I’ve used yet, it tingles and plumps and they offer a great shade range. This is a brand to have on your radar! Check it out at sephora.com

Dermarche Labs

Dermarche Labs has a variety of products including Roloxin Lift, which funny enough I was at the launch of this event in 2014! It also won the Allure best of beauty award that year. It’s the perfect mask for when you need to rebook skin since it instantly lifts, hydrates and reduces the appearance of wrinkles and pores. How it works is you activate the formula by massaging the sachet in your hands for 20 seconds, then cleanse and lightly dampen your skin and apply the formula to your face for 7-10 minute or until it dries. Then rinse it off and apply your moisturizer or continue with your regular beauty routine — your skin will feel instantly more even, and your skin will be so soft and glowing! I also learned about two new products Fullfill, which is a big dose of Hyaluronic Acid which is a plumper and wrinkle filler. As well as Biorewind which is two part serum — an AM Full-Spectrum Antioxidant Serum and PM Pro-Grade Retinoid Repairing serum.

LiftLab Skincare

Another really cool brand which is basically from my hometown in Massachusetts. I first learned about Lift Lab from Caravan Stylist Studio when they gave me a sample of their face wash. It was phenomenal.  It was