Tuesday 27 March 2012

Skin Food Finish Powder



As well as the Aloe Fresh Pack I ordered mentioned in my last post, I also ordered Skin Food's Peach Sake Silky Finish Powder. It is a light powder much like those translucent powders you get with other brands. IT smells of what it says - peach and sake (ok sake may taste bad to you, but it doesn't smell too bad and the rice used to make sake is actually good for your skin, and yes I like drinking sake  =] ).
Most times after applying everything on my face, it still looks a bit oily, and this powder helps it to set and to keep it matte.
What I really like about this is for myself personally, it can manage to keep my face matte all day, yet it has never dried out my skin (so far) and it makes my skin feel extra soft.
It claims to apparently "Helps to relieve skin troubles caused by excess sebum". I'm not too sure about it helping skin troubles as I regard this as part of my make-up routine, but if it did contribute to helping my skin be better like it is now, then well done! =]

Find this product also at www.sasa.com

Thursday 22 March 2012

Aloe Aloe!

A lot of beauty junkies will recommend one thing if you have dry skin, redness or dull looking skin: aloe vera. This plant (though it may look like a cactus plant, it actually belongs to the lily family) contains aloe gel inside its leaf. The gel contains amino acids and vitamins including vitamin B12. You could use the aloe vera straight from its leaf but many of our products containing aloe vera will be "stabilised" - stabilising is a process in which it will prevent its goodness from degrading as it would without.
You could also drink this as a juice and it will provide you with your vitamins etc. as well as helping your digestive system.
It is also known to:

  • aid acne problems with it's anti-bacterial properties
  • sunburn as aloe vera is a coolant as well as a healer
  • reduce and eliminate minor skin pigmentation
  • rebalances the oil on your skin -its gel-based means it will "check" your oil as well moisturising your skin.
For more information on aloe vera benefits go to (and this is me making a reference haha): http://www.thealoevera.com/aloe-vera-benefits-to-skin.html

I recently tried out an aloe vera-base product by Skin Food - a Korean brand.


The product itself

I am indeed in love with this product! Very often I would have redness and dull skin, sometimes dry-skin when I'm not careful. Using this has benefited me as I have seen a reduction of redness on area like my forehead and around my nose. My skin can get so dull because I lack fluids so much and of course my insomnia not only makes my mind suffer but my skin. It has help rebalancing my oil levels too.
It is also so simple to use and if you have 5minutes in the morning, well isn't this a great quickie for a morning facial?
I don't use it in the morning because I'm the late-girl so I don't even have 5minutes to spare. Often I will use it during the night after I've removed my make-up. As you massage this product, you begin to feel a coolness on your skin (yes it does smells nice like most aloe products). After I wash it off, my pores seem a little bit smaller and your skin will be softer and brighter.

This also was a quite an inexpensive product so it's worth a try. You can purchase this at www.sasa.com (if the page turns out chinese, you can change it to english at the top righ-handside of the page.) they do international shipping (shipping fees will vary but you can watch out on when they do free shipping offers).

And what a sunny day it has been here today (I took a drive and drifted into Selkirk haha!). I hope the weather is/was good where you are and if not, there's always tomorrow.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

MUA Work

It's not very often do I do other people's make-up as most people now could do their own. Ever since I started uni (and doing a fashion degree) I embark on various photoshoots -no I don't mean being a model, but helping out on a shoot and in some cases, I help with the make-up.
I don't claim to be a make-up artist though, I still believe this is a hobby I fully enjoy (more like an obsession), bit of fun for me (actually the only bit of fun for me nowadays haha!).

So given the opportunity to do some make-up work in uni has kept me happy. I've also realised that our models are so beautiful when they come in bare faced, I almost don't want to put anything on them! My skills are limited, and I'm always reluctant on doing anything too dramatic (like using bright colours). perhaps in the future I would.
Anyway, I guess all you want to see are the photos, and less of my blabbing-nonsense. ;)




Sara-Jayne


Jade




Clare
I can't be bothered to explain each of the shoots concept, have a stab at guessing yourselves I suppose.
Credits to all the models, the photographers and the rest of the team.

Now, I'm just going to demolish the rest of my birthday cake! haha!

Sunday 18 March 2012

BB CREAM: L'oreal Nude Magique

It's interesting seeing the gradual growth of BB creams in the UK recently. Most of them leave me to disappointment and screaming "I want my money back.", but perhaps I should look at these BB creams in UK drugstores from a different angle: perhaps I should look at them without comparing to Asian BB creams and look at them individually as a product.

A few weeks ago, I embarked on L'oreal's new Nude Magique BB Cream whilst I was "browsing" around Boots. As much as I am on a strict budget, I gave it a 10seconds thought and purchased it anyway.
L'oreal Nude Magique in Fair Skin Tone
swatch
 As far as I know, the BB cream comes out as a white liquid with purple pigments. As you smear and blend this white liquid it will gradually set itself to match your skin. Of course, you may be asking will the colour completely match your skin colour? My answer is, it's close.
Top: bbcream on | Bottom: bbcream off
Even though I chose its lightest shade (typical with BB creams there was only two shades), the result was that it was slightly darker than my own. If you have very pale skin then you might want to give this one a miss. However, I'll be honest- I like this one. The darker tint doesn't bother me, in fact I see it as giving myself a little tan. If I blend it properly and use a right amount I won't look like an orange. My advice is, don't be tempted to use too much because this product takes a bit of time to oxidise before you could see it's colour coming through and in fact the colour comes on faster when swatched on your hand than your face (don't ask me if it's true to everyone, try it yourself, this is purely my findings).
This claims to give 24hour hydration to your skin, but I haven't exactly noticed much about this factor, if you have or about to try it, let me know if you have noticed anything of this hydration malarkey. It comes with SPF12 - typical of BB creams to have SPF but I'm surprised how low it's SPF is. BB creams are normally advertised to have a little bit more than just SPF12, but I guess this is is just me comparing it to the Asian products and let's face it SPF12-15 should be enough for the typical British weather (but I would wear a little higher on a sunny day).
Overall, I like this product. It's unlike the Garnier BB Cream where it's just a tinted moisturiser with very low coverage (or none at all)- a waste of money dare say. Nude Magique has coverage as it is build-able. The down-side of course, it will not (on my skin anyway) make my skin look like it's "bare" but it does give me a good glow and a hint of colour to get me out of being a pale Asian (I must note though, the colour does have a touch of pink undertones, but it goes on fine if you have Asian skin like mine so long as you watch the amount you build-up).

This one gave hope that maybe not all western BB creams are that bad. This one as an individual product worked out fine. Will I try another BB cream? ....only if it's on offer (I'm in a bad case of still being a poor student and unemployed).  

Also I would like to say a MUCH MUCH MUCH  belated "Happy New Year". I have been keeping myself busy even during my Christmas break. And since semester2 of uni started, over the couple of months the work just kept on piling (and the pile is still lurking since my procrastination has grown within me once again the last few weeks). However, I am enjoying this. I enjoy this new change in life. I enjoy of not about changing myself, it was all about improving myself.