January is the time when a lot of beauty brands release their mid winter & spring collections. It's also the time when the new trends start popping up and things are beginning to change throughout the beauty industry.

It's truly an exciting time and probably one of the most exciting months. It's exciting behind the scenes as someone who works in the industry but also truly exciting as a consumer. During the holiday season, brands don't usually release new items because they're releasing value sets & limited edition packaging.

Now is the time when we no longer see the same old products & shades; everything is new and I'm so excited!

Browsing the Just Arrived section of Sephora, Ulta, and Nordstrom is my favorite pastime and it's even better this time of the year. I have my eye on a few buys and am waiting to hit the "Place Order" button, only because I'm trying to be good and not shop too much.

In January, a lot of brands put out their complexion products, so foundations, primers, and concealers are usually all the rage. That being said, I'm super excited for a lot of items in that range.

I'm also excited for a lot of the trends this year: athleisure beauty & fresh skin (no makeup makeup look) are two of the hottest trends this year & I'm PUMPED.

I want to dive into a few launches I'm really excited for and need to purchase ASAP. They have great reviews and they're all in my cart. They are for sure definite beauty buys for this month!

Nars Radiance Primer with SPF Bite Beauty Agave Lip Balm GlamGlow Plumprageous Nudes Collection Skin Fitness Kit Sephora Micellar Cleansing Milk Tarte Lifted Sweatproof Mascara Urban Decay Optical Illusion Complexion Primer

It feels like every day my beauty collection grows and grows. As I've said before, I'm starting to get overwhelmed with everything but I'm always swapping things out and giving things away to family and friends.

There is one product that I will never ever part with and I'm so happy I finally jumped on the band wagon.

GlamGlow has always be known for their face masks and skincare. They popped up in the beauty world a few years ago and since then, have blown up. They've won every beauty award you could think of and within good right. Their products are amazing.

GlamGlow started out with just face masks but they've expanded into cleansers and lip treatments as well. I've only tried two of the face masks and one of their eye treatments but I'm hoping to get into more products soon. GlamGlow is nice because they have different masks and cleansers for everyone and every skin type. If your skin is dry, they have a mask for that; if your skin is oily, there is a mask for that. You can even multi mask, which is putting two different masks on at the same time, in different areas of your face.

There is one downside of GlamGlow though; the products are also very expensive. $69 for a face mask is way to pricey for me and for the average person, but I can see why someone would spend that much, it's definitely worth it. The good news is that you don't have to pay $69 for the face masks because at Sephora, the brand has released mini sized masks and cleansers which are a fraction of the price. You may go through them faster but it's better to spend $20 at once than $70.

Last winter when my skin was freaking out, I tried the GlamGlow ThirstyMud (in the blue jar) because it's for deeply dry skin and helps hydrate. I haven't used this much, just a few times, and it's not like a typical mask. It shows up clear on your skin and really moisturizes it. I've heard people use this as an overnight mask or moisturizer. I haven't tried that yet but it's definitely a great alternative use.



The mask that is probably most famous is the one in the white jar, and the one I have a full size of. Don't worry, I didn't pay full price. If you remember reading my Beauty To Know post on BeautyKind, you know that I got the Supermud Clearing Treatment with a coupon code.

The SuperMud is supposed to clear your skin and rid it of any impurities. It brings everything to the surface and gets rid of all the dirt inside your pores. It's actually kind of fascinating.  The mask is a dark grey color but when you apply it to your face and let it dry, it turns light grey. You could actually see your pores clearing out. It's so weird and so cool.

The mask tingles a little bit and has a very minty smell and you could feel it working as the color turns. My skin feels like a baby's bottom when I wash the mask off and it just feels a lot smoother and cleaner.

I was having issues with blackheads and whiteheads a few weeks back and I used the SuperMud mask once a week to help clear my skin and it worked wonders.

Whenever I run out of this mask, I will for sure be purchasing the smaller size from Sephora.

If you're in need of a truly amazing face mask, try GlamGlow. If you're looking to splurge, try one of their gift sets or get the smaller $20 size. You surely won't regret it -- there is a reason these are so raved about!

Have you ever tried GlamGlow? What did you think?

This is a sponsored post but all thoughts/comments/opinions are my own.

I think we'll make this a new series on Royally Pink... I love talking about beauty, and there is always a new product or brand or store I want to talk about. I need to get more organized in how I discuss things on here so I think "Beauty to Know" is a perfect fit.

For now, we'll start off with a relatively new shop to the beauty scene, one that has great products and a really great message behind it: BeautyKind.

Being the sorority girl I am, I love anything that involves philanthropy. When you combine that with my love of beauty products, you pretty much have a match made in heaven.

BeautyKind has a pretty good variety of beauty products, all high end. Whenever you make a purchase on BeautyKind, 5% of your purchase is donated to the charity or cause of your choice. There are over 10,000 causes to choose from; everything from JDRC to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

If for some reason you don't see your cause listed on the website, you can contact BeautyKind and let them know that you'd like to see and they'll do their best to get it up there.

The cause I chose is the American Cancer Society -- as a college, we supported Relay for Life, and cancer is a cause close to my heart, unfortunately, like so many others of us out there.

So here's the fun stuff: when trying to find some things to buy, I knew I didn't need any makeup. When I saw that GlamGlow was featured, I knew I'd buy that. I received a $50 off $75 purchase and to get a GlamGlow mask for under $30 was way too good to pass up.

I'll be doing a separate review of the GlamGlow SuperMud Clearing Treatment next week but so far so good! I also bought a Butter London Nail Polish in All Hail the Queen. You can expect a Manicure Monday feature soon!





The package came wrapped up beautifully and safely -- they even threw in a few skincare samples! I think BeautyKind is a fabulous retailer. The selection on the website is a little small but to combine a love of charity and beauty, well, it doesn't get much better than that.

Lucky for all you fabulous readers, when you sign up using my link you get $25 off your first BeautyKind purchase. I also get $25 in BeautyKind credit (just wanted to disclose that; if you don't feel comfortable using the link, no worries!)

Sign up for BeautyKind here.

Has anyone ever used BeautyKind? What cause would you support? 

A lot of people hate on foil packets, you know those little samples you sometimes get in subscription services or thrown in as extras from an online Sephora order?

They can get annoying because sometimes they're so small, you can't tell if you really like a product. Weirdly enough, foil packets have never bothered me as much as they have other people. Some people really despise them but I've always welcomed any sample of any make up product I could get my hands on.

I was never good about getting into the habit of using the countless foil packets that were stacking up in my drawer but finally came up with a little system that works for me. Since then, I've been using a lot of foil packets and I figured it was a great idea for a post!

I took all my foil packets (there's a lot) and put them in a ziplock bag. I put them in my top desk drawer (that I organized to use as my makeup drawer because I just had too much makeup!) and I'll look through it so often to see if there is anything new I could try.

When I start to use a foil packet and I know there's some product left, I put it in another ziplock bag so I could go back and reuse them.

I've found some real gems (some that are a little too expensive to purchase) and it just goes to show you that foil packets really are worth it because they give you ability to try products for free, before you buy the expensive full size.

These are some of my favorites I've found through foil packets:



//Urban Decay Naked BB Cream: This is an oldie but goodie. A few years back, when this product first came out, I had a foil packet and fell in love. I immediately went to Sephora and bought the full size and two years later, I still have some left in the full size, $34 tube.

//GlamGlow BrightMud: I blogged about this earlier in the week and I have to say, this is a prime example of foil packet discovery. I would have never spent $69 on a product I have never tried, especially a skincare product, but because I had the chance to try it out, it quickly is becoming more appealing.

//Too Faced Coco Powder Foundation: I had been eyeing this foundation for so long and then finally got a sample in my Too Faced Better Than Chocolate Essentials kit. I'm skeptical about samples for powders because I find it so odd to swirl a brush onto a piece of paper but surprisingly, there is a good amount of product here. I used this once and was smitten. It has great coverage, smells like chocolate, and isn't cakey whatsoever. Now I know I like the product so if I want to spent $34, I could.

//Hourglass Illusion Skin Tint: This is one that I just used last week and oh my goodness, I'm in love. I love tinted moisturizers and when I was looking through the bag for any goodies to try out, I found this. I decided to try it out and it's stunning. It doesn't give a crazy amount of coverage but it gives the most beautiful, flawless look to your skin and gives you a lit from within glow. I used it a few times and still have some left. As much as I love this, I will not be spending $55 on a tinted moisturizer.

//Fresh Lotus Youth Preserve Face Cream: I have a love affair with the Fresh brand. Their lip balms are godly and even though I haven't tried any of their full size skincare products, it's on my list. I tried this cult favorite face cream and immediately knew why people adore it. It's super creamy, moisturizing, but not so thick that you feel greasy. It's a perfect face cream, especially for nighttime.

I need to get into the habit of using more and more of my foil packets but for now, I think I've found some great products!

Shop my foil packet picks below!



What are your thoughts on foil packet samples? Have you found any holy grail items from them? Tell me in the comments!