Saturday 31 January 2015

Skincare: Sensitive Skin!

Hello everyone! So last week I made a skincare post, and I wanted to do a few more of those because I really hope at least, that they might help someone. So today I am going to be doing sensitive skin. This is something I have suffered from for a really long time so I have quite a few tips and tricks on how to deal with it.

Skincare
When it comes to skincare with sensitive skin, you have to be quite particular, otherwise you could end up with oily skin. I have previously been told by doctors that it is recommended that you do not use makeup remover wipes to take off makeup, but by a liquid based products instead. Now without a doubt, I have to recommend the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water.
It is amazing at taking your makeup off, and is very reasonably priced for the amount you get. Also, if you are like me and get sudden outbreaks of dry skin, then I would recommend using E45 products. Moisturisers are also a good way to combat the dry and sensitive skin as it is giving the skin more moisture. It is also recommended that you wash
your face 2-3 times a day.

Makeup
Again you have to take good care of your Makeup routine when you have dry and sensitive skin. I often found that many foundations and powders would either make my skin blotchy or the finish would appear cakey. However, recently I have been using the Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation. I would recommend it as it is very soft and light on the skin but still provides good coverage. Some other foundations that have been recommended are Mac Studio Sculpt SPF 15 Foundation, Make Up Forever- HD Foundation and Maybelline Fit Me Foundation.

Tuesday 27 January 2015

Wilko Brushes! (Try Out Tuesday)

Hello and it is Tuesday, which mean I try out a new product and review them! Today I am going to be reviewing Wilko's Brushes which have fairly recently been brought out. I have been wanting to use this in a Try Out Tuesday for a while, but I wanted to give it a fair assessment first. I believe that in the total range, there are 10 brushes, 5 face brushes, 4 eye brushes, and 1 lip brush. They are very well priced, ranging from £2-£4. However, I have only purchased 2, the Stippling Brush and the Eye Make-up Smudger.

The brushes are packaged in a plastic zip-up pouch, which I guess is quite handy and re-usable. Covering the brushes is a plastic cover to keep the shape, which is very convenient. And of course, it doesn't go unnoticed that they resemble Real Techniques brushes with the use of the orange metal handle. I must admit, for the price, these brushes are very sturdy and I've had them for about a month and no hairs have come out yet, even after cleaning them.

Stippling Brush
This was the first brush from the range that I purchased and it is available for £4. I have never purchased a stippling brush, but I knew that they help achieve the airbrushed kind of look. The first thing I noticed about this whole range of brushes is how soft they all are, but being a stippling brush, this almost becomes a disadvantage. Although I like the feel of this brush on my skin, I found it far too soft to actually blend or apply much product on to my face. I also thought that the brush may have needed to be a little bit denser so it could pick up more product. I would say this brush was good if you like very minimal and light coverage, but I don't think I can rate this more than a 2.5/5.

Eye Make-up Smudger
Now this brush retails at £3, the same as all the other eye brushes in the range. Again, this brush was incredibly soft, which was actually a bonus for me because I have very sensitive eyes. The hairs on the brush are very dense so this makes it perfect to smudge eyeshadow. I had previously owned a eye make-up smudger brush from Cath Kidston for triple the price, and it doesn't even compare to this. I would 100% definitely recommend this brush, I would rate it a 4.5/5.



Saturday 24 January 2015

Current Style Wishlist!

Hello everyone! Recently, I have been addicted to looking at clothes on online shops and just trying to find outfits that I would really want to wear. For ages now , I have been trying to figure out what my style is and, I think this has helped me a bit. I mean, I still don't know what category it would fall under, but I get a lot of my style inspiration from things and people that I have an interest in. For example, I absolutely adore Zoe Benson's, from American Horror Story, style, as well as YouTubers such as TheLineUp and FashionRocksMySocks. Anyway, over the last few days of endless scrolling on websites such as Sheinside, Choies, BooHoo, Topshop and New Look, I have been able to put together a little wishlist of clothes which have given me style inspiration. Now from the picture below, it is quite evident that I do not like to wear colour much. In fact, the two things that I have been really in to recently are monochrome outfits and oversized coats. I also really like the look of chunky shoes with a good platform on them, despite that fact that I'm already tall. But anyway, I just wanted to share some things that I have been enjoying style-wise recently, so I hope you enjoyed!



Thursday 22 January 2015

Skincare: Oily Skin

Hello everyone and today I want to start a new series on this blog where I talk about skincare and how to deal with different types of skin. So I just thought I would start it out with Oily Skin and hope this might help someone out there.

I guess I will start out with the science part of all of this, but still very important, and this is how oily skin is caused. Now there are many factors that can make oily skin occur and once you can identify these causes, it will make it simpler for you to prevent it. Some causes are things such as the weather, hormonal changes, medications, overuse/ incorrect use of beauty products, unhealthy diet and stress. Obviously, some of these factors can be prevented such as unhealthy/ unbalanced dieting and incorrect uses of products, but there are causes such as genetics which can not be cured. However, there are tips on how to control and maintain oily skin and I am going to be sharing these tips and tricks that I have discovered.

When it comes to skincare, a lot of people assume that it's just cleanser, toner, moisturiser etc. However, having oily skin can make skincare a lot more complicated than you might assume. The first tip that you need to know is that things such as moisturisers and exfoliators can actually make oily skin worse because it is giving you excess oil that your skin does not need. So if you still want to use a moisturiser, make sure you are using one which is light and oil-free. Similarly, if you use a cleanser and toner, make sure it is alcohol and acetone free. It is also suggested to use a clay masque once a week to help tighten pores and prevent them from getting clogged as blackheads is a very standard result of having oily skin. I  would recommend the 'Quick Fix Facials Anti-Blemish Mud Mask' because it targets oily skin in particular and I found it very effective.

The next thing is makeup. Obviously, when having oily skin, it is very difficult to maintain your makeup for a whole day because the oil smudges and rubs the makeup off. Now it's no secret that primers can help with that, but I just wanted to recommend some primers that I have found to be really beneficial. They are Benefit's Porefessional and Revlon PhotoReady Perfecting Primer. With foundations, it is advised to use matte or mineral based foundations because it prevents excess oil. Some recommended foundations are Revlon ColourStay Makeup for Combination/ Oily Skin and Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-In-Place Makeup. You can also buy blotting paper sheets which absorb the oil in your face and are really affordable and convenient.

So there are some tips that I have discovered about how to prevent oily skin. I will hopefully be making more of these kind of posts. I hope this helped you or that you found this interesting!

Tuesday 20 January 2015

Champneys Facial Cleansing System (Try Out Tuesday)

Hello everyone and today is Tuesday, which means I try out a new product and I review them. Today I am going to be reviewing the Champneys Facial Cleansing System. I got this product for Christmas so I've had quite a while to try the product out and determine whether I liked it or not.

When I got this product, I was hoping to find a good dupe for the Clarisonic  because obviously, it is very expensive. Now this cleansing system retails for £14.99 at boots. However, it might just be my shops near me, but I had to buy this product online because Boots just didn't sell this in their stores. Anyway, in this cleansing system pack, you get two types of brushes as you can see in the picture, one which is all white and one which has a black ring in the middle. The all white one is for cleansing and the black and white one is for exfoliating. You also get 2 of each of these brushes and have to replace them after 4 months. When I first got this product, I immediately noticed how soft the brushes were, obviously the exfoliating brush was slightly more coarse but still soft nonetheless. Now I will admit, I have had this cleansing system for less than a month and I have noticed a significant difference in the texture and softness of the brushes, which obviously is a result of me using it. On the instructions, they suggest to use it everyday, however, I have very sensitive skin and for the exfoliating brush in particular, I found this to be so uncomfortable and painful to use every day. Since then, I have been using the cleansing brush every other day and the exfoliating brush once a week and I have noticed such a difference in my skin. It is clearly so much softer and I haven't been getting as many spots. 

All in all, I probably would recommend this product. There are several flaws, such as the brushes getting rougher, but for £15, I think it's pretty damn good! I would product rate the Champneys Facial Cleansing System a 3.5/5. 


Friday 16 January 2015

Would You Rather Beauty Tag!

Hello everyone and first of all, I would like make a huge apology for not uploading anything for two weeks. I went back to school recently and I've been having to do coursework and homework, and I just haven't found a lot of time to sit down and make as blogpost. But hopefully, in the next week or so, I will be able to sort things out and I will be back to posting regularly. Anyway, today I'm going to do the 'Would you rather beauty tag'. 

1.Would you rather lose all of your mascaras, eyeliners, lipsticks and lipglosses, or lose all of your palettes and eyeshadows?
Okay, I'm going to bend the rules a little bit here, and I think I would say I would lose all of my palettes and eyeshadows because I'm pretty sure you could just smudge your eyeliner out a bit and create a smoky eye look. And on most days, I don't wear eyeshadow anyway.

2. Would you rather chop off all your hair or never be able to cut it again? 
This is a hard one because the question doesn't specify whether or not my hair would grow back. I mean, if I chopped my hair off and it grew back, I would choose that one. 

3. Would you rather have a coral cheek or a pink cheek?
I think I probably have to go with a coral cheek because I'm currently really into the smoky eye, nude lip and bronzed face kind of look. Also, pink blush really doesn't suit me.

4. If you had $1000 to spend, would you rather buy clothes or makeup?
Okay, in an ideal world, I would probably split it, but I would probably spend it on clothes. I mean, I have a huge interest in fashion, but lets be honest, you kind of need clothes more than you need makeup. 

5. Would you rather apply lipstick as eyeliner, or eyeliner as lipstick?
Once again, I'm going to bend the rules. The question didn't state what colour the lipstick has to be, so I would say lipstick as eyeliner because you could just apply a nude lipstick and it wouldn't look too bad.

6. Would you rather only shop in MAC or Sephora?
Seeing as I am an British teenage girl who has never walked in to a Sephora shop before, I would probably have to go with MAC, although it would get pretty expensive.

7. Would you rather only use one eyeshadow colour or one lip colour for the rest of your life?
Tbh, this question stressed me out so much, haha. I would probably have to say only use one eyeshadow colour because I am permanently experimenting with new lip products that I just couldn't stick to one colour for the rest of my life.

8. Would you rather wear winter clothes in the summer or summer clothes in the winter?
Okay, this one was easy. Definitely winter clothes in the summer, seeing as summers don't get too hot in England for a large amount of time. 

9. Would you rather have dark nails or bright nails all year round?
100% without a doubt, dark nails all year round. Specifically, matte black nails because I just love the way it looks. 

10. Would you rather give up your favourite lip product or your favourite eye product?
I would probably give up my favourite lip product. I really thought about this, but I don't know if I actually have a favourite lip product. But my favourite eye product is the Benefit They're Real eyeliner, which I don't think I would be able to give that up because I love it so much. 

11. Would you rather only be able to wear your hair in a ponytail or a messy bun?
So I'm more a ponytail kind of girl, but I probably would have to say a messy bun.

12. Would you rather never be able to paint your nails again or never use lipgloss?
Probably to never use lipgloss again because I don't really like the finish of lipgloss and I don't wear it much anyway. 

13. Would you rather shave your eyebrows and have none at all or sharpie them in everyday?
I would probably sharpie them in everyday because my eyebrows are already quite prominent, that without, I would just look completely insane. Also they never said what colour the sharpie had to be, it could be brown and then maybe, it wouldn't look as bad.

14. Would you rather live without makeup or nail polish?
Definitely go without nail polish. Because of being at school and the rules, I'm not allowed to wear nail varnish anyway, so I have to go majority of the year without nail polish.

Okay, those are all the questions for the 'Would you rather beauty tag'. Seeing as this is a tag, I tag anyone reading this to answer these questions. Also, hopefully, if everything works out, I may or may not have some very helpful beauty posts coming soon.