Welcome to Tried, Loved, and Illustrated
My little corner of the internet where two of my favorite things collide: designing and buying way too much makeup. I'm a product designer by day, which means rating, ranking, and over-analyzing everything is basically my personality. So naturally, my beauty shelf gets the same treatment — except here, every product gets hand-illustrated instead of photographed.
Think of it as an illustrated makeup diary. Every issue, I round up the products actually in my rotation, draw them out, and give you the honest verdict. No sponsored fluff, no "everything is amazing" — just what I reach for and why.
Let's get into Issue No. 01.
Dieux — Air Angel Peptide Plumping Gel Cream
♡ Tried it & liked it
This has become my perfect 1st step to my routine. The moisturizer I put on before applying sunscreen and makeup. It's a lightweight, fragrance-free gel-cream with peptides, and everything I want in a daytime moisturizer: no scent, feather-light on the skin, and it leaves me feeling plumped rather than greasy. Makeup goes on so nicely over it.
My one gripe: the metal tube kind of cracked from me squeezing it every day, so product started escaping out the sides. Honestly? That might've been user error (lol), so I'll be gentler with it next time. Definitely ordering again.
Glossier — Stretch Fluid Foundation
★ Essential
I've been using this foundation for three or four years now — if that doesn't say essential, I don't know what does. It's a skincare-based gel-cream formula with a natural, skin-like finish, and the color match is what keeps me coming back. The range is genuinely inclusive at 32 shades, so it's easy to find your exact match (I wear Light 4). Each bottle lasts me a good while, too. Best part: I can wear it sheer on a low-key day, then layer it up for a fuller, more glam look when the occasion calls for it.
Rhode — Pocket Bronze
✦ Trying it out
New to my rotation, and so far I'm charmed. It's a creamy, blendable cream bronzer (shade Sunbed) that taps on easily with a finger. I love how dark this shade is for summer — it makes me feel like I'm fresh off a vacation. On simple makeup days it gives me that wash of color without feeling heavy at all.
And okay, the packaging: I don't know why, but the little capsule compact makes me irrationally happy. Seeing it sitting on my makeup counter is its own tiny joy. Still figuring out exactly where it lands in my everyday routine, but it's off to a strong start.
Mine's in Sunbed. Shop it →
Tarte — Tartelette™ Tubing Mascara
★ Essential
This mascara is my favorite — I'm on my fourth tube. I usually grab the travel size, partly because I'm not that committed to any one mascara, and partly because the smaller size nudges me to replace it more often (hygienic girl things). It's a tubing formula, meaning it wraps each lash in tiny polymer tubes instead of caking on pigment.
Here's why I'm obsessed: it stays put completely until you actually wash it off. No raccoon eyes, no flakes on my cheeks by 3pm, and removal doesn't involve scrubbing my lashes off — it just slides away with warm water. Once you go tubing, it's really hard to go back.
Glossier — Pro Tip Liquid Eyeliner
★ Essential
This is the eyeliner. I've been doing a winged liner since high school, and I've never found anything this easy to use and this long-lasting. It's a brush-tip liquid liner with a precise, flexible applicator — whenever Glossier has a sale, I buy like six at a time, because I use it every single day and love having backups (or handing one off to a friend in eyeliner distress).
The only thing I don't love is that the tip can get clogged if I'm working over heavier or glittery eyeshadow — but I don't do those looks often, so it's easy to avoid. My real worry: I think they might be reformulating it, because it was marked "last chance" during the last sale, so I panic-bought four more just in case. Praying to the Glossier gods that this is a glow-up and it comes back ASAP, because it's so good.
The end.
That's Issue No. 01 in the books — a mix of my ride-or-die essentials and a couple of things I'm still trying out. That's kind of the whole point of this series: real rotation, real verdicts, evolving in real time.
If you want to see these illustrated, the full carousel is over on my Instagram @samxlopez. Tell me what to review next — my cart is always dangerously full, and I can't wait to share more of my faves.
See you in Issue No. 02. 🧡
– @samxlopez
