Testing Glossier, Into the Gloss's Slam-Dunk New Beauty Line

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When we heard that our favorite beauty blog, Into The Gloss, was launching their own line of beauty products…

I'm kidding. If you want to read that article, go literally anywhere else on the internet.

By now you know that Into The Gloss just launched Glossier, one of the most talked-about new collections of the season. Glossier was developed by Emily Weiss, the site's founder and creative director, with the help of Alexis Page, who has almost a decade of product development at MAC under her belt.

Into The Gloss has always had a "cool girl "aesthetic, but more than that, it's always been the place to go for comprehensive, honest, approachable beauty coverage. So when they announced that they were releasing their own beauty collection, essentially every other beauty blog on the internet lost their minds. Mascara ran. Lipstick was smudged. Everyone was foaming at their perfectly lined mouths.

A photo posted by Glossier. (@glossier) on Oct 10, 2014 at 5:22am PDT

I was excited, if a bit skeptical, when ITG finally unveiled the project, which they had been teasing for weeks on Instagram. For starters, I was very interested in seeing what Into The Gloss would bring to the table. After all, they had no excuse to get it wrong. Also, I was relieved that it was a collection all its own, not a monthly beauty box. Dear god, not another.

The collection consists of a face mist, a moisturizer, a skin tint, and a balm. Glossier is not about aspirational beauty. You're not covering anything up or hiding behind a cakey foundation. Rather, it's about giving you bright, beautiful skin to make you look your very best.

The concept of a beauty brand launched by a beauty blog is insanely exciting, but carries with it a lot of expectation. I took the collection for a spin over the weekend to let you guys know how products really measured up.

Soothing Face Mist, $18

I'll be honest, I've never been a face mist guy. After writing beauty for so long and trying every product under the sun, I still just don't get them. But the Glossier Soothing Face Mist is formulated with rosewater, aloe, and glycerin, so even though you're simply misting your face, it's very hydrating, making a great base for your skin to absorb everything else you're going to pile on top of it. It's lightly rose-scented, but the scent doesn't hang around, which was a relief for me because floral scents make me want to die.

A few spritzes and my skin looked tight and dewy. I loved how the spray makes my face look and feel, even when using it alone. It's also a great way to freshen up your makeup throughout the day without loading more on.

Priming Moisturizer, $25

I try to avoid calling any one product "the product," because I know that everyone looks for different things in their skincare and beauty. But I can say this: Glossier really shut it down with this one.

The moisturizer is made with what they're calling a mushroom super-hydrator to deeply moisturize and plump skin, while calming honey and tea extracts work to balance redness and combat inflammation. A blend of antioxidants helps protect against cell damage and an oxygenating agent helps skin breathe.

It's somewhere between a cream and a gel, and absorbs instantly upon application. Glossier gives my skin the most glowy (not shiny, never shiny), and, yes, I'm sorry but "runway-ready" finish, while still drying down and feeling clean. It's one-step Fashion Week skin in a tube. It's J.Lo skin on a Jenny From The Block budget. It looks great, it feels great, and it's my new go-to.

Perfecting Skin Tint, $26

Let's get one thing straight off the rip: The Skin Tint is not a foundation. It's literally just a tint for your skin. Diamond powder helps make skin look brighter, blurs imperfections, and minimizes pores, while glycerin locks in and retains moisture throughout wear.

It plays well with other products, though, and works when paired with concealer. And it does everything a BB cream is supposed to do, but better.

Have you ever had a BB cream (OR A BOYFRIEND) that kept all of its promises? I haven't. Even when they come in a range of shades to match all skin tones from light to dark—as all beauty products should—I've never found one that truly matches my skin. The undertones are either too green or too pink. That, or they fail to dry down, streaking and moving around my face and coming off on my clothes like a cheap foundation.

The Skin Tint in "light" actually matched my skin. While it's buildable, it remains pretty sheer, so it doesn't look streaky or cakey, just flawless. It's subtle, but it's the kind of thing you notice in flash photography when you're out with your friends. After all, let's be honest about the one reason we all want great skin: selfies.

I wore it out the night I got it and a couple of my friends complimented how good my skin looked, which is saying something, because I have really mean friends.

Balm Dotcom, $12

All the rumors are true. This is a do-everything skin salve that works wonders on your lips, knuckles, elbows, and cuticles, all of which are about to be ravaged by winter. Castor seed oil, beeswax, and lanolin team up to make a balm that's super thick to hydrate and make a barrier against the harsh winter winds. It's an essential you can carry around in your pocket—a true Holy Grail product.

The two biggest products to come out of the US beauty industry in the last three years have been BB creams and pore perfectors. It's worth noting that the products in Glossier's Phase One package do everything these trendy items promise to do, like evening skin tone, blurring imperfections, and minimizing pores, but without all the heavy ingredients. Glossier does it better with less.

Glossier Phase One is a near perfect execution of Glossier's mantra, "skincare as makeup." I've never tried a collection that makes my skin look this healthy and bright while feeling like I'm wearing nothing at all. All of the products are lightweight enough that they won't clog pores, but not so light that I had to reapply halfway through the day. If the first collection from Into The Gloss is this strong, I'm eagerly awaiting what they've got for us in Phase 2.