Tower 28 began in April 2019 in Los Angeles, and it is named after a lifeguard tower between Santa Monica and Venice Beach, a name chosen to suggest inclusivity. Its founder, Amy Liu, spent years in marketing at Smashbox, Kate Somerville and Josie Maran, and she has had eczema for her whole adult life, which is why the brand was designed for sensitive skin. It was the first beauty brand to follow the National Eczema Association's guidelines across its entire line, and its tagline is #ItsOkayToBeSensitive. The products are free of fragrance, essential oils and chemical SPF filters. The names are playful and Californian, from BeachPlease to ShineOn to SunnyDays, and that is the personality you meet first in this group. BeachPlease Lip + Cheek dewy cream blush and the Getset Blur + Set matte powder blush cover two finishes. The Swipe serum concealer with 18-hour wear and the Swipe serum foundation with medium buildable coverage handle the base, and the Big Blender brush helps with blending. Then come the lips: the ShineOn Lip Jelly in hydrating non-sticky oil, milky and plumping versions, plus Lipsoftie tinted lip treatment, the Lil' Softies lip kit and a JELL-O lip jelly duo. The Milky Lip Jelly shades are named after alternative milks. For pink lip ideas, see a guide to balms, oils and sheer tints, and an everyday makeup look shows how a small routine works.

The skin group is where Liu's own story matters most. The SOS Rescue Spray is built on hypochlorous acid and came from her own experience with eczema, and the SOS line here includes the SOS daily hypochlorous acid spray, the SOS intensive rescue serum, the SOS daily balancing gel cleanser and the SOS daily skin barrier redness recovery moisturizer. Next to them sit makeup-skin hybrids: the SuperDew highlight balm, the Sculptino soft contour cream, the SunnyDays tinted SPF and the LipSoftie hydrating tinted lip treatment balm. A good test for any sensitive-skin routine is to add one new product at a time, so you know what each one does. What I would skip is putting the Sculptino contour cream over a heavy powder base, since a cream contour wants to sit on bare skin or a cream base. For gentle cleansing, a guide to face wash for sensitive skin covers the idea, and tinted sunscreens can help you pick a shade.

The last group is for trying things. The SOS stressed skin mini starter gift set and the SOS Spring Kit are the easiest way into the skin line. The X JELL-O Lil' Pudding snack set is the playful gift, and the BeachPlease luminous tinted balm and the GoGo cooling shimmer stick, also in an 8H eyeshadow version, add color. The MakeWaves mascara mini is small enough for a pocket, and the SOS Faceguard broad spectrum SPF 30 is the daytime pairing, much like the ideas in a reef safe sunscreen guide. The starter sets are also good for gifts, because each holds a few small sizes that let someone test the brand before choosing a full size. A simple way to use the shimmer stick is to run it along the lid with a finger and leave everything else bare, which suits the brand's easy California mood. In our fashion dreams she keeps the mascara mini in a pocket and the shimmer stick in her tote.

My Tower 28 look would be a swipe of the concealer, a bit of BeachPlease on cheeks and lips, and a ShineOn jelly in the bag. Amy Liu built it because sensitive skin needed a brand of its own, and it shows in the fun, simple names. Picture her at the beach after work with a rosy cheek and a bottle of SOS spray in her bag.

For more in the same spirit, take a look at Kosas Makeup and Skincare and Rare Beauty Makeup and Fragrance.