I like to call the Hydration Sprays the true multitaskers. As an esthetician, I know the benefits they give to the skin thanks to their clean, skin-loving ingredients. And, I’m a makeup artist, so I see how well they work with our makeup when I’m working on events and photoshoots.  From delivering a boost of hydration, setting your foundation, helping to calm irritated skin or balance oily skin, these hydrating mists are truly a gamechanger in your daily routine. With buzzwords like “dewy” and “glass skin” being used nowadays, Hydration Spray is the perfect item to be used throughout the day to keep your glow on!  Let’s take a deeper dive into each Hydration Spray and its benefits: Pommisst Hydration Spray It’s our bestseller and not just because it smells divine! Botanicals like Pomegranate, Rosemary and White Tea Extracts make it a powerhouse of antioxidants. Ideal for all skin types. While all our sprays set makeup, Pommisst is a facial mist that works hand in hand with your SPF to help your skin repair itself and recover more quickly from sun damage. Talk about a gamechanger! Remember, the Pomegranate Extract is what protects skin from free radicals that cause hyperpigmentation. If you are investing in treatments that address hyperpigmentation, Pommisst should be the last step in your makeup routine to help prevent further hyperpigmentation. Pro Tip: Pommisst can be used as more than just a hydrating mist, use it on color treated hair to help combat brassiness! Balance Hydration Spray My oily-skinned or acne-prone women, fear not, this spray is ideal for you! I know many of you stay away from any products that say moisturizing or hydrating. True you don’t need extra oil on your skin, but hydration (water-based) is what your skin is thirsting for. Extracts of Grapefruit and Orange Peel in this hydrating mist help to balance sebum production. When your skin’s natural oils mix with sweat and humidity it can create a breeding ground for bacteria and blemishes usually follow. Balancing sebum, keeping the bacteria at bay and delivering hydration is what this spray does best. If you travel a lot this spray doubles as a toner for oily/combination skin, just saturate your cotton pad and swipe all over your face. One less item to pack! D2O Hydration Spray This moisture-packed facial mist is perfect for those with dry skin. Algae Extract is a powerful humectant that “draws” moisture to the skin. D2O also contains Ylang Ylang which helps to soothe the skin. I love to keep my Hydration Spray in the fridge on hot, humid summer days for an invigorating pick-me-up. D2O also works wonderfully on post-laser skin to help calm redness and irritation. Pro Tips: Spray liberally on your brush to create liners out of any powder eye shadows. Calming Lavender Hydration Spray I feel like this Hydration Spray doubles as aromatherapy. Lavender delivers that feeling of calm to the mind. Chamomile helps to calm sensitive, red or irritated skin. The real star ingredient? Myramaze Extract, this provides deep hydration and helps to minimize the appearance of fine lines. While it is ideal for dry, sensitive skin, anyone needing to create a moment of soothing calm can use Calming Lavender. Pro tips: Use Calming Lavender at night! My personal nighttime ritual includes this hydrating mist; I keep it on my nightstand. After my nighttime skin care ritual, I spray this on my face, then on my pillowcases. It signals to my mind and body it’s the end of a day. Time for regeneration of the skin, body and mind! I hope this inspired you to make sure to incorporate a Hydration Spray into your routine. Summer is upon us now, that means travel plans! I invite you to get our full size (3.4 oz) or our Mini Hydration Sprays (.4 oz) for your carry on.  Both are TSA approved, and all our sprays are refillable.

I’ve always marveled at this ocean planet. 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water and 96.5 percent of it is contained in the oceans. Actually, it’s really one ocean with bits of land popping up here and there. How is it we’re so lucky to have a planet with an ocean that is capable of sustaining such an abundance of life forms on land and sea? Where did the water come from? Scientists have theories but nothing is certain. Do other planets have water? Evidence points to oceans on other planets, but Earth is the only known planet to have consistent, stable bodies of liquid water on its surface. That’s because Earth is in the habitable zone, meaning that it isn’t too close to the sun for the heat to evaporate water and not too far to freeze it. And then there’s the perfect amount of gravity which holds the water where we want it to be. I know that exploring space is as exciting as it gets, but we know so little about this miracle planet that we live on, that I wonder why we aren’t more curious about it. A NASA employee once told me that the amount of money that goes into exploring the source and maintenance of life on Earth, the oceans, is a rounding-error in the amount of money spent on space exploration. It boggles my mind! Is there anything out there that is more beautiful than where we already live? The Importance of Coral Reefs I think we need to protect and nurture Planet Earth, and the only way we can do that is to try to understand it. One thing we do know is that the oceans are under stress. Climate change is literally changing everything. Take, for example, our barrier reefs. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is so huge that it can be seen from space. It stretches over 1,400 miles. It’s home to billions of marine species and is the world’s largest living organism. It’s importance to our survival can’t be over-estimate, all reefs are important to our survival. Why? Well, selfishly from a human point of view, they protect our shorelines from the ravages of storms that are becoming more and more frequent due to the extreme fluctuations of ocean temperatures. Storms erode coastlines taking homes and livelihoods with them. Over half a billion people depend on reefs for food, income, and protection. The net economic value of the world’s coral reefs is estimated to be tens of billions of dollars per year. And what of the reefs themselves that are often called “the rainforests of the sea?” About 25% of the ocean’s fish depend on healthy coral reefs. That’s a lot of fish! They find shelter and food, reproduce, and rear their young in the nooks and crannies formed by corals. (And here I have to digress and recommend a documentary called “My Octopus Teacher.” If you haven’t seen it, put it at the top of your list. It won’t disappoint.). Reefs are fundamental to a healthy ocean.  But coral reef ecosystems are severely threatened. Pollution, sedimentation from run-off, unsustainable fishing practices, and climate change are leading to coral bleaching and death. In 2005, the U.S. lost half of its coral reefs in the Caribbean in one year due to a massive bleaching event. Between 2014 and 2017 unusually warm waters affected 70% of coral reefs. The Great Barrier Reef lost hundreds of miles to bleaching. What Can You Do to Help Our Beautiful and Essential Ocean Reefs? Even if you live thousands of miles from an ocean, the weed-killers and fertilizers you use will eventually flow into the ocean. Find green alternatives that won’t harm coral reefs and marine life. Research where your seafood comes from and if it's caught sustainably. Overfishing is one of the biggest threats to coral reefs. You probably think that buying wild-caught shrimp is a better choice than farmed, but the methods for catching shrimp are devastating for the oceans. It’s too long to explain here, but this article will tell you everything you need to know. Be conscious if you buy aquarium fish. How were they obtained? Recycle and dispose of trash properly. Somehow so much of our trash ends up in the oceans. Whenever I walk the beach, I take a garbage bag with me. I’m shocked at how much plastic I pick up that has washed ashore. I’ve seen plastic bags wrapped around coral, choking it to death. Don’t buy coral ornaments or jewelry If you love to scuba or snorkel, avoid touching or standing on reefs. Anchoring your boat on the reef will damage and potentially kill the delicate coral animals. Volunteer! If you live near the coast, volunteer in local beach or reef cleanups. If you don’t live near the coast, get involved in protecting your local watershed.  Using Reef Safe Sunscreen There is more but I’m going to end with a plea about sunscreens and wearing one that is considered reef-safe. Several common sunscreen ingredients have been shown to be toxic to coral reefs. Again, whether you are in the ocean or not, what you wear will eventually wash off and end up there. Millions of people wear sunscreens and have no idea that they are negatively impacting coral reefs. What Sunscreen Ingredients Are Not Reef Safe? Key ingredients to avoid are Oxybenzone and Octinoxate. Additionally, look out for Benzophenone-1, Benzophenone-8, OD-PABA, 4-Methylbenzylidene camphor, 3-Benzylidene camphor, and Octocrylene. These can affect corals' reproductive cycle, damage DNA, and worsen the effects of coral bleaching. Active sunscreen ingredients that are considered reef-safe are Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide. A quick word about the amount of protection from SPF ratings. (By the way, SPF only refers to UVB protection). An SPF 15 protects from 93% of UVB rays. SPF 30 protects from 97%.  Afterthat, the difference in protection is small. SPF 50 blocks 98%, and SPF 100 stops 99% of UVB rays from reaching your skin. To achieve these high SPF ratings, disproportionately more chemicals have to be used. Check out our Sun Protection Guide to learn more. What Sunscreens Are Reef Safe? jane iredale uses reef-safe sunscreen protection in all our mineral powders. The highest rating is our Powder-Me SPF 30 Dry Sunscreen at an SPF 30, which uses Titanium Dioxide as its active ingredient. Its convenient brush makes it so easy to apply and reapply, and it comes with handy refill canisters. I’ve been wearing it for years and I don’t see any reason to change now, even though my days of sunning are far behind me. Better safe than sorry!

As summer gradually comes to an end, I'm soaking up the last moments with some fun, bright lip colors featuring our new ColorLuxe Hydrating Cream Lipstick. I tend to wear a lot of black, so pinks, oranges, and corals are my go-to lip colors to add a playful touch to my look. I'm also gearing up for fall by experimenting with deeper, bolder hues. Burgundies, plums, and rich reds bring a sense of warmth and sophistication to my makeup look.The ColorLuxe tube feels soft and sleek in your hands. The lipstick glides up smoothly and the cap feels snug and secure. There is a color swatch sticker on the bottom of the tube making it easy to grab the right shade from your kit.  I've been on a bit of a vermillion kick this summer and Poppy matched my nail polish and necklace so I took this as a sign to begin my ColorLuxe journey here. Poppy is a warm medium-dark orange red shade that melted onto my lips and felt super nourishing. I'm impressed with how much pigment it has while still feeling weightless. I'm absolutely obsessed with this lip color. The second photo was taken a few hours later, I had a couple glasses of water and a snack in between. The color is still going strong with no touch up! The formula has dried down a lot but my lips still feel moisturized.   Next up in our hydrating lipstick lineup is Peony, a cool medium fuchsia shade. Peony has a fun, cheerful vibe — when you wear it you can’t help but feel happy and energized. I'm going to have this lip color on hand for end-of-summer parties.   Candy Apple is a gorgeous cool-toned shade of red that invokes thoughts of sweet treats and warm, cozy sweaters. This is the perfect fall lipstick to wear to festivals and pumpkin patches.   Passionfruit, a cool dark fuchsia shade, is the perfect balance of boldness and playfulness, making it an ideal choice for both casual and formal events this fall. This shade is definitely going to be one of my go-to fall lipstick colors.   Lastly, Bordeaux. This shade surprised me. It's a deep burgundy that at first glance seemed too dark for me, but once applied it gave off a romantic and sophisticated vibe. Perfect for a fall date night. I'm in love!  My overall thoughts — ColorLuxe is a moisturizing lipstick that feels light, creamy and nourishing like a lip balm but has the color and staying power of a lip stain. I found that I would forget that I was wearing it and was pleasantly surprised by how pretty my lips looked when I would catch a glance of myself in the mirror. My favorite part is how easy it was to apply it, one swipe gave me all the color I needed. If you want a nourishing, lightweight yet highly pigmented lip color I definitely suggest giving ColorLuxe a try — and don't be afraid of the bold & bright colors!  If you’re not sure which color to try first, check out our lip color quiz to find the perfect shade!