An Trustworthy Assessment of Tower 28 Magnificence 2023

The SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray—derms love it, 500+ Sephora shoppers love it, and now I do, too. The calming face mist’s key ingredient, hypochlorous acid (which is made naturally by your skin, BTW), has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties—thus banishing blemish-causing bacteria, while soothing skin redness and irritation. It also smells like pool water, and I kind of love that. Whenever I’m dealing with gnarly breakouts, a compromised skin barrier, or am just feeling a bit sensi, the SOS Spray is what I’ll be reaching for first. It’s already semi-affordable by today’s standards, but it’s worth investing in the jumbo refill bottle ($68)—it’s that good.

A riff on the brand’s cult-classic facial spray, the SOS Intensive Serum is essentially hypochlorous acid in serum form. It packs all of the skin-calming and purifying benefits of the SOS mist, in a lightweight, watery gel texture. I apply 2-3 pumps all over my face after misting, and my skin chills out immediately. By morning, my skin is pretty much reset—blemishes are visibly less angry, signs of irritation are quelled and I’m a happy camper. What’s more, makeup artists swear by the Rescue Serum to prep the skin before applying makeup, and judging by the immediately glassy look it gives my skin, I understand why.

If you love a dewy-yet-pigmented blush look, you’ll love the Beach Please Luminous Tinted Balms. The super emollient balms come in a range of summer-ready shades (I’m wearing “Office Hours,” a sun-kissed mauve, in the above photo) and couldn’t be more user-friendly. Tap them in with your fingers or stipple them on with a brush, you’ll get a fresh-faced, radiant flush without fail every time. You can even use the balms on your lips and lids for a monochrome look. The balms are made with skin-nourishing ingredients, like green tea extract, aloe vera and shea butter—and in true Tower 28 fashion, they’re free of anything that could irritate sensitive skin or clog your pores. Pretty pigment and blendability aside, though, I found these to be a tad too dewy for my liking—but anyone with dry skin is sure to love them.

If you’re going to try anything from Tower 28—make it the MakeWaves Mascara. This mascara gives you a little bit of everything: it lengthens, volumizes and gives my stick straight lashes a bit of curling help thanks to its curved synthetic brush. A trio of flexible bands makes it easy to wriggle through my lashes, and ensures every last one is seamlessly coated. And if you want a bolder look, MakeWaves’s buildable formula can be layered without clumpiness. The cherry on top? The tubing formula is easy to remove (all you need is warm water and light massaging), and seriously budge-proof. I can even apply it to my lower lashes without racoon eyes!

Sunny Days is a tinted mineral sunscreen, but unlike others on the market, Tower 28’s buildable, light-to- medium coverage is better than foundation—and it’s safe for sensitive skin (*chefs kiss*). The lightweight formula covers up redness and evens out my skin tone while still letting my skin breathe. What you get is a natural, satiny finish, that’s devoid of cakey-ness. And while I usually skip makeup when my skin is in the middle of a breakout, Sunny Days is the one of the few I can reach for worry-free thanks to trusty skin-soothers like aloe vera and prickly pear.

Take the glassy shine of a lip gloss, add the moisturizing feel of a lip balm and subtract the stickiness, you’ve got the Shine On Lip Jelly. These cushiony, smoothing glosses defy all logic in my book—giving me a sheer wash of color (there are also clear and ‘milky’ shade options), juicy shine, while leaving my lips feeling pillowy soft and hydrated for hours. And instead of “glossing” over dry, chapped lips, the Shine On Lip Jelly gets to work on solving dryness with an ultra-nourishing blend of oils (like apricot, castor, avocado, raspberry oils—the works!). Even more incredible, they’re under $20! So there’s no going wrong.

For a radiant, tanned look without the skin damage, Tower 28’s Bronzino is for you. It has a similarly emollient, balmy consistency as the brand’s Beach Please blushes, in five gloriously bronze, shimmery shades. While I was admittedly skeptical about the shimmer at first, it’s hardly noticeable on the skin, and gives the bronzer a beautiful, glowy (but not glittery) finish. I use “West Coast,” a warm medium bronze shade that’s just as gorgeous on the eyes as it is on your face. I buff it out around my cheekbones, across my nose and lightly dust it on my forehead and temples for an easy sun-kissed look. If you can get past the shimmer (and use a separate contour if that’s what you’re used to), Bronzino is totally worth picking up—especially if you have drier skin.

I kind of love that slightly sweaty dew you get after a few hours in the sun—and Tower 28’s SuperDew is that in balm form. There’s absolutely zero color or shimmer in it, just the most natural-looking shine. And just a touch is all you need for a “glass-skin” effect. In keeping with the rest of the Tower 28 lineup, SuperDew has super great ingredients—we’re talking skin-soothing chamomile, antioxidant green tea and nourishing shea butter—so it essentially takes care of dryness while imparting a luminous glow. If you’re not a glitter gal but still want to highlight, pick this up ASAP. You can even use it on your eyelids for a glossy look!

One of the brand’s more recent launches, the Sculptino is the secret to achieving a chiseled, contoured look with barely any effort. It’s like Bronzino’s matte, shimmer-free sister. It comes in four shades that are somehow neutral and slightly warm at the same time—and it applies like a dream. The silky soft formula can be applied with a brush or your fingers, and because the formula is sheer it’s nearly impossible to mess up. When I’m in a hurry, I’ll dip my fingers into the compact and sweep Sculptino on my usual contour points (hollows of the cheekbones, temples and jawline) before haphazardly blending it out with my fingertips. The result? A sculpted and defined complexion in seconds. It’s a YES from me.

One thing about me is I can’t say no to a tinted lip balm, and the JuiceBalms are no exception. These super smooth balms give your lips a punch of pigment and juicy shine, and promise to leave your pout more hydrated than before. My only gripe is that they’re not all that moisturizing. The formula, while pigmented, is too thin and slippy to give my dry lips any meaningful hydration. That being said, the popsicle-like pigment and dewy shine couldn’t be more perfect for summer. So while these aren’t my first choice when it comes to a moisturizing lip balm, the wearable shades make them worth keeping in my makeup bag.

If it wasn’t already clear that Tower 28 has fully mastered multipurpose products, this last product ought to do the trick. The OneLiner Multi-Liner is an endlessly versatile, matte pencil that can be used on the eyes, lips and face to create a bounty of different looks—it’s the only makeup pencil you’ll ever need. I have the shades “Fill Me In” (a rosy nude) and “Draw Me” (a chocolatey brown) and I use them both all the time. “Fill Me In” is my lip liner of choice—though scribbling it onto your cheeks as blush is a delightful experience I’d highly recommend you try—and “Draw Me” is my go-to eyeliner, smudged out along my lashline. Both glide smoothly without skipping or dragging, and they stick around throughout the day. And for only $15 bucks? They’re so worth a try.