The Guru IndexReviewersSusan Yara
Susan Yara
Beauty Journalist

Susan Yara.

Susan Yara is a longtime beauty journalist and skincare founder who reviews cleansers, complexion, and body-care picks with an industry insider's eye. Followers love her seasoned, no-fluff perspective on what's genuinely worth the shelf space.

Why Are They A Guru?
Longtime beauty journalist and skincare brand founder (Naturium) whose seasoned, no-fluff perspective comes from years reporting inside the industry.
Founder · Naturium
25Products
18 approved100% approval rate
0 skippedDoesn't pull punches
0 hot takesWhere they break from the pack
By the numbers

What they review most.

Every take, in full

Every review.

All 25 products Susan Yara has reviewed, grouped by product type. Click a product to see the full guru consensus.

All takes Approved only Skip only Against the gurus
Other4 reviews
"I do love this contour stick though, it's really nice. This is one of those kinds of contour sticks where you need to really tap it in."
~Mixed
75%of gurus approve
"One of my uncles got us the Nespresso machine and it's way more useful to me than I thought. I can use it to get hot water for my tea, I can use it to froth milk too if I want to. I thought it was purely going to be something that Will would like but I'm actually pretty enjoying it too."
Approved
80%of gurus approve
"The SkinCeuticals Triple Lipid Restore 2:4:2 is a corrective moisturizer that has lipids, ceramides, and fatty acids all the things that our skin needs to retain moisture."
Approved
74%of gurus approve
"This is by Stratia, it's their Liquid Gold. It's a barrier repair cream and it just happens to have some of my favorite soothing ingredients like camellia sinensis in it as well. There is niacinamide, and I suspect my skin can handle this now, and I'm right. I'm not feeling any sting or tingle from it, so that's good."
Approved
82%of gurus approve
All 2 takes on Liquid Gold
Microneedling Treatment u0026 Cosmelan Peel For My Melasma! | Susan Yara
"This is by Stratia, it's their Liquid Gold. It's a barrier repair cream and it just happens to have some of my favorite soothing ingredients like camellia sinensis in it as well. There is niacinamide, and I suspect my skin can handle this now, and I'm right. I'm not feeling any sting or tingle from it, so that's good."
New Skincare Products I’m Trying: Youth to the People, Versed, and More! | Susan Yara
"I think that people with really sensitive skin could use this product. It has nice oils in it, it has niacinamide in it so you're actually even getting a brightening effect to your skin, but people don't realize that niacinamide does so much more and it actually helps to strengthen your skin barrier as well. So this is just a really nice product. It's got this beautiful gold tone to it too."
Lip3 reviews
"I love these from NARS because they obviously give a little bit of color, they feel balmy on your lips, they give a little bit of shine and everything."
Approved
80%of gurus approve
"I used to buy this all the time. This is a brand new one though. I like to always have a little bit of a nude color underneath my lipstick and that's what makes my lipstick stay and it also makes my lips look like they're bigger. It's so pretty, one of the best lipstick colors ever made."
Approved
79%of gurus approve
"I've talked about the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask a few times and how much I love it, and I've seen comments from people being like, oh, it's not thick enough for me."
Approved
61%of gurus approve
Blush & Bronzer2 reviews
"I used to always use that really expensive Chanel Cream Bronzer, the one that's in a little tub, and that one looks a little bit more orangey. If you're trying to figure out if that's one that you want, it's really nice and it blends beautifully, but it's a little bit more bronzy orange."
~Mixed
82%of gurus approve
"I especially love this contour stick. It's not super dewy when you put it on, which I like because it is easy to blend and then it just sets perfectly. If you blend it too much with a brush it seems like it almost disappears, but if you just kind of tap it and especially tap the edges of it, then it just looks really perfect and seamless on your skin and it gives you this kind of satin finish. So it's a really nice product to use for contouring and it's the right kind of brown tone. Also it's got that cool tone to it instead of that orangey brown bronzer tone. There's a really big difference in my opinion between wearing like a contour stick that has that cool tone versus that bronzer color that feels a little bit warm."
Approved
87%of gurus approve
Body & Tan2 reviews
"I did try Loving Tan recently and I've got thoughts about it. I love the color that it gave me, it's just a little bit more pro to use. I'll talk about it later once I've got a better handle of it."
~Mixed
68%of gurus approve
"I love this because besides having a physical exfoliant to it, it's a very gentle scrub. There's a very gentle physical exfoliation to it, but what I really love is that it has AHAs and BHAs in it. It has glycolic acid, it has salicylic acid, and it has lactic acid in it. I think this is just one of their best products and it's one of the best body exfoliators I have ever used. So I almost always have this in my shower."
Approved
94%of gurus approve
Cleansers2 reviews
"This is the Necessaire Body Wash. I have a brand new bottle and it's the eucalyptus scent. I'm one of those people where if I'm going to use a body wash and I also have an exfoliator in my shower and there's a set, I'll buy the set. It's not that I love this body wash. I think this is a fine body wash, it's a very nice body wash. But I just happen to be using the eucalyptus-scented exfoliator, so it just makes sense to me to get the matching set."
~Mixed
76%of gurus approve
"This is actually a really good way to help unclog your pores. One of the other things I like about this is that it feels really nice and luxurious when you pump it into your hand, you can feel it's like a really nice thick kind of texture to it. Some cleansing oils are really thin and they don't feel very luxurious and they don't really melt down well on your skin when you apply them and start to massage them. This is like a massage oil, it feels so luxurious when you put it onto your skin, everything starts to melt down immediately and it emulsifies really beautifully and it rinses beautifully. Another test for me is how it feels around my eyes. There is no stinging around the eyes, it did not make my eyes feel blurry. For me it was perfect. It really does a great job as a first cleanse."
Approved
86%of gurus approve
Concealer2 reviews
"This is their True Skin Serum Concealer in the color Yucca. It's actually a lot of coverage, but that's okay since it's gonna essentially be my makeup for today. It's very glowy and very hydrating."
~Mixed
72%of gurus approve
"It has this green tone to it and it has SPF which we can never get too much SPF. I put it around my nose where I naturally just get redness and it tones that down so you can see how that color kind of changes, and then you go and you put your makeup on on top of it and you end up looking so much better. It's really nice."
Approved
86%of gurus approve
Serums2 reviews
"The TNS Advanced Plus Serum is a stem cell serum with growth factors that help to brighten skin, tighten, help with elasticity, and promote collagen."
Approved
84%of gurus approve
"This is pure azelaic acid at 10%, meaning it is the highest percentage of azelaic acid that you can get over the counter. For me, I feel like the ten percent is perfect. I use this every single day, morning and night in my skincare routine. It is so nice and light, it feels almost like a really light lotion on your skin. I use it as the last step of my serums and then I apply my moisturizer on top of it. Azelaic acid is pregnancy and breastfeeding safe, so it's great for everybody, even people with sensitive skin."
Approved
86%of gurus approve
Sunscreen2 reviews
"This one from Cetaphil is really nice to keep with me because it feels a little bit more light, so I can also use it and enjoy it myself, not just on my kids."
Approved
75%of gurus approve
All 2 takes on Sheer Mineral Face Liquid Sunscreen SPF 50
What's in My Bag? | Susan Yara
"This one from Cetaphil is really nice to keep with me because it feels a little bit more light, so I can also use it and enjoy it myself, not just on my kids."
My Updated Favorite Sunscreens from Garnier, Cetaphil, and more! | Susan Yara
"I like this one specifically from Cetaphil because it truly is like a liquid texture to it so it's easy for me to use it's easy for me to spread on my kids really quickly when they're fighting me when I'm putting sunscreen on them and it just feels really nice. It leaves a little bit of a white cast but it's so subtle on my skin tone. I have not tried this on any darker skin tones than me but on my skin tone on my kids it looks perfectly fine. I also find that it's really nice under makeup because it has a little bit of a mattifying effect and it's also fairly affordable. It's 15 dollars for 1.7 fluid ounces. I know that's not a ton of sunscreen but I feel like that liquid texture really gives you an even coverage of it so you're not wasting any of it."
"This has been one of my favorite sunscreens this year. I've been using it for a few months now and I just love this and it's really affordable. What makes this sunscreen amazing is that it's a moisturizing sunscreen so it's really easy to use. If you have oily skin, even me with my kind of more dry skin during the summertime when I'm a little bit more normal, you can use it as your moisturizer."
Approved
86%of gurus approve
Eye Makeup1 review
"It gives you such long lashes, it doesn't flake, it doesn't smudge. It's a really nice mascara. It doesn't smear all over your face either. I definitely still use my oil cleanser to get it off, but I've heard you can also remove it with water."
Approved
73%of gurus approve
Haircare1 review
"Nizoral is by far the best anti-dandruff shampoo that I have ever used. Sometimes I feel like I have to use it often and sometimes I feel like I can use it like once a month for just maintenance, but it's really easy to add into your hair care routine. It's technically safe for hair color, but what I tend to do is right before I'm about to get a touch up for my hair color I'll go ahead and use this on my scalp, then I'll go get my hair colored, and then for the rest of the month continue using the different hair products that I already have been using and then just kind of go through this cycle of using Nizoral basically like once a month."
Approved
82%of gurus approve
Mists & Essences1 review
"An ampoule is a serum that has a very high concentration of an active ingredient, and in this case it's the centella asiatica extract. It has this really nice, almost hydrating feel to it. I like centella asiatica when my skin feels a little bit irritated like it has been lately because it's just super soothing to the skin almost immediately, and it's also very hydrating. It's a really light serum that absorbs almost immediately. It feels really light on the skin and is really nice and calming."
Approved
67%of gurus approve
Powder & Setting1 review
"This is the Tatcha Silk Powder. I do like that it's really nice and fine. I just tap it where I put the concealer, not too much, and then I go into these little areas really really simple, tip of the nose where I don't want to be too shiny."
Approved
68%of gurus approve
Retinoids1 review
"I've tried everything to get my skin used to tretinoin and I just cannot tolerate too much of it, it's just too strong for me. I used the Crystal Retinol 3 from this brand and I loved it, I was able to use it like three, four times a week without any issues. Now I've graduated to the sixth version and I can tell you already I tried to bump it to more than two times a week and my skin got really sensitive to it, but it's still less sensitive than I get with tretinoin. So I'm gonna still try to really make my way through this because I want retinaldehyde to work so badly for my skin because it is such an awesome ingredient."
~Mixed
76%of gurus approve
Tools1 review
"My experience so far with these razors is that they are amazing on my legs and pretty much my underarm area. I do shave my bikini area and I have found that this isn't my favorite razor for that area. When it comes to coarser hair, I think it's because it has this really nice big cartridge on it that feels really nice and smooth when you're on a big area, but in a bikini area for instance it can be a little bit harder to use. It's not as smooth of a shave as my good old Gillette, so for that area I prefer my Gillette. If you do rely on your razor for your bikini area, this isn't my favorite for that."
~Mixed
65%of gurus approve

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