#66 Tagged 10 Products I'd like to try in 2010

So after seeing this tag over on Yinka’s blog vexinthecity I thought it was a fantastic idea, and here is my tag post on 10 products I would like to try this year.

Touché Eclat

I have heard so many fantastic reviews about this product but for some reason I just haven’t gotten round to trying it out. My eyes have recently started sporting a few shadows so this is a need to get

Revlon ColorStay Foundation in Caramel or Cappuccino (if I ever get to try them)

Ok, now this one is not from lack of trying!!! But for some reason every time I go into any Boots or Superdrug they only seem to have Mocha as the WOC shade. It’s starting to get annoying and I’m almost convinced there is some kind of conspiracy plot going on. If anyone knows where I can find these shades in London please let me know

Nars Gina & Orgasm Blush

I’m a bit of a blusher virgin and this is the year I want to change this. I am liking these two blushes with the pink, peach and orange tones, I think they are just soooo pretty!!!

Illamasqua

I know, I know – How have I not tried anything from this brand? Described as being colour-intense, colour-true and long lasting, I’m planning to try it out this year.

Becca Foundation

Again, have heard so much about this brand but never tried it

Mega-Tek

I recently heard about this on Yinka’s blog (check out the link above), did some research and now I’m definitely ooogling after it. My hair is quite long but it has fine strands, so this sounds like it will give it a major boost. I’m slightly nervous about the horse references though, and keep wondering if I might develop some neighing tendencies afterwards (lol) thankfully Yinka is trying it out first so I’m keeping my eye on how it goes for her.

Espa Gentle Deep Cleansing Balm

I love oil cleansers, especially at night as they always make me stop, breathe and give my face a proper cleanse. It must be all those deep and therapeutic oils that send subliminal messages to my brain! This one is meant to deeply cleanse and decongest the skin using pure plant extracts, natural emollients and essential oils of rose damascena, soothing spearmint and balancing geranium. I can already feel the daily stress melting away

Darphin Purifying Balm

For the last couple of months, I have been getting some pre time of the month breakouts and seeing as my skin tends to scar quite easily, I need to find something that will help without resorting to acne specific products which always dry out my skin really badly, and then leave me dealing with dry dehydrated skin afterwards. So with claims of purifying and unclogging blocked pores as well as healing breakouts, this is a product I definitely want to try.

Nude lip liner, lipstick, gloss – anything!!!!

Ok, not technically a specific product –but I would really like to find a nice nude lip that works for me. I have quite dark lips so sometimes shades seem to get a little lost or just disappear entirely but this year I am determined to find a lip product that (a) looks good on me and (b) shows up. Any ideas please let me know

Well that’s it …(for now, knowing me ) – does anyone have anything that they would really like to try out this year?

Xoxo

#63 Question about scarring

One of the things I love about beauty is that it brings us together – we all have something we can’t live without, we all want to be beautiful in our own individual way and most of us have a beauty bug bear or question. I received an email a little while ago from a reader who wanted to find out some information about breakouts and scarring

Question

I’m on warfarin so I bruise easily and lately I have started to break out a lot. So whatever small scar I have, it turns into a huge scar! So, in short am looking for something that will clear my scar big time!!! I used to use Garnier cleanser/scrub and that was ok-ish but the Olay was on offer so I decided to get the Regenerist Polisher and Cleanser. The cleanser made me breakout a lot, I still use the Regenerist serum as at 26 pounds I wasn’t going to let it to go to waste! Now, am confused whether to treat my skin because it bruises easily or treat my skin breaking out from using Oil of Olay Regenerist Cleanser. What to do?!

Anyone who is a regular reader of my blog will know that the subject of scarring is one of my biggest beauty bugs – so I completely understand and sympathise

First up – you need to STOP using the Olay Regenerist Cleanser - It doesn’t matter how much it cost you, if your skin is breaking out then it sounds like your skin obviously doesn’t agree with something in the product and I don’t think continuing to use it is going to do you any favours. I personally am not a fan of the whole “oh your face needs to break out if the product is working theory” to me I have enough to deal with without also needing to treat my skin following the use of such a product. So unless you are sure that the serum isn’t causing you to break out as well then I would stop using that too

Next I would say you need to treat the breakouts first before you treat the scarring – with skin of colour we have more melanin in our skin which makes our skin more reactive, so a breakout, rash etc can act as a stimulus and trigger off the production of melanin which results in a dark mark or in scientific terms post inflammatory hyper pigmentation. As you mentioned being on warfarin means you bruise easily –so it’s important to reduce the damage and scarring being caused by your breakouts. You need a skincare regime that will help to deep cleanse your skin, exfoliate to remove the dead skin cells and a good moisturiser to put moisture back in the skin.

A cleanser/exfoliator that I have used and loved is Elemis Tri-Enzyme Resurfacing Facial Wash. It stimulates the skin's natural cell renewal cycle, actively smoothing and refining, whilst gently sloughing away dead skin cells which dull the complexion. I love that it doesn’t contain SLS which I find can cause my sensitive skin to be reactive and I found that it really helped to polish and improve the texture of my skin as well as help to fade my scars. The only thing with it is that you need to use it on already pre-cleansed skin as it isn’t a cleanser as such, that you would use to take off your makeup. In the mornings I just use it immediately but at night I pre-cleanse to remove makeup etc. I would also suggest that you look into using a mask once or twice a week – combined with a steam (but don’t steam your face more than once a week).

To fade the marks I would suggest a combination of exfoliation, skin brighteners, an oil and daily use of an SPF. Exfoliating regularly helps to clear clogged pores and to polish and break down the pigment in the scar. I prefer to use non gritty exfoliators and firm favourites that I turn to are the Elemis Tri-Enzyme Resurfacing Facial Wash as mentioned previously, Origin’s Modern Friction (read a previous review here) and Demalogica’s Daily Microexfoliant which I think is fantastic for creating an even surface and an instant brightening boost – they say it can be used everyday but I tend to use it every other day otherwise I find my skin seems to get slightly oily and sensitive. Skin brightening ingredients (completely different to skin lightening) will help to suppress the excess melanin and to even out your skin tone – ingredients to look for are Vitamin C, Mulberry, Bilberry etc. At nightime I love using oils and have used Bio Oil in the past which my face seemed to love, another oil that was recommended to me recently is Cosmetics a la Carte's Rose Elixir, It was recommended by Ateh, she used it on a scar on her hand and it faded it really quickly, see the review here atehjewelbeautyinsider.blogspot Follow this up with a good SPF every day to protect your skin from the sun’s rays which can exacerbate discolorations. If you would like to give your skin a big jump start then a professional facial that focuses on exfoliating and fading scars will really help and you can work on maintaining the results at home with the right products. Finally another important thing to note is that unfortunately there is no quick fix so you have to be patient and commit to a proper routine to keep it under control. I hope this has been of some help and wish you the best of luck. Keep me posted on how it works out

P.S check out my previous post on Lumecin Overnight Treatment and Darphin Clear White, they are both products that are meant to help with scarring and brightening the skin. However I have only just started testing them out so I can’t really tell you how they have worked for me yet but check back in a few weeks for a review.

Xoxo

#61 All things bright and beautiful

So one of my main beauty resolutions for this year is to sort out my skin and improve its look and feel. One of the way’s in which I want to do that is to fade away my post breakout scarring and even out my skin tone.

That is why I am so excited about the two products that dropped through my door recently. Here is a little info about the products that I have taken from the press release. I will be testing both products out over a period of time and will write a review of how they work on my skin.

Darphin Clear White Brightening & Soothing Serum


First up is Clear White Brightening and Soothing Serum from Darphin. Described as an intensive brightener that works to reduce the appearance of brown spots and uneven pigmentation as it soothes, smoothes and clarifies dull, tired skin.

It promises that I will have:


1) More unified skin tone
2) Brightened, enlivened complexion
3) Reduced appearance of dark spots
The Ingredients

It uses ingredients that are well known for brightening and fading away marks
Vitamin C, Mulberry Extract, Apple Extract, Scutellaria Extract, Licorice Extract, Rice Extract, Gentian Extract

Lumecin Overnight Brightening Gluco-Protein Treatment

The second product is Lumecin Overnight Brightening Gluco-Protein Treatment. It looks like a prescription product and is described as a “revolutionary, overnight topical skin treatment that helps restore the look of brightness, smoothness and texture to your skin”.

The Claims

1) Overnight, improves skin’s moisture barrier strength, smoothness and texture
2) After four weeks of continual use, increases the look of brightness and pore size appears reduced
3) With continued use helps fade the look of brown spots and discolorations

The Ingredients

Lumecin uses a combination of five key ingredients that immediately start working to improve your skin’s appearance.

1) Protectami - improves skin’s smoothness and texture by helping to optimize cell turnover, allowing new cells to emerge.
2) Glucosamine – gently exfoliates skin’s surface to visibly increase brightness and even out skin tone
3) Hydrolyzed Protein - helps improve skin’s natural defense shield through skin moisture barrier repair.
4) Urea, natural moisturizing factor found in skin’s outer layers, helps reduce the appearance of pore size and smoothes skin’s texture by helping loosen and release pore clogs.
5) LumaFade Complex - a unique blend of ingredients with skin brightening benefits, helps to visibly diffuse and fade dark spots and discolorations caused by hyper pigmentation.

They both sound fantastic and I have really high hopes, especially as I have seen good reviews for both products. So I can’t wait to try them out and let you know how I get on. Have any of you tried either one of them or any other brightening product? How did you find it?

Xoxo

#55 Bag Spy: Whats in your bag? - Ateh Jewel Beauty Insider

Drumroll please!! Today’s Bag Spy come courtesy of journalist extraordinaire Ateh from atehjewelbeautyinsider. An award winning beauty journalist who regularly writes for a list of well known and respected titles such as Vogue, Grazia, Sunday Time Style, In Style Magazine, The Telegraph's Stella Magazine, and Red Magazine to name a few, so to say I was honoured when she agreed to do a bag spy is a major understatement. But I think what touched me the most when I approached her was just her personality, she was just so down to earth and nice (no journalist diva here) and was even thanking me for approaching her …while I was doing a little bow and saying We’re not worthy, were not worthy! Check out her blog atehjewelbeautyinsider.blogspot for some insider knowledge into the beauty world and enjoy her bag spy and mini bio below.

Thank you for asking me to reveal the contents of my beauty bag! I have been beauty mad since a kid and I used to apply my mum’s make up and cut her hair (only a mother’s love would allow this). By the time I hit university I used to buy electrician’s toolboxes to keep all my make up bits and pieces in and would make up girls for first dates and balls. After I graduated, I read History at Bristol University, I decided to put my two loves together – writing and beauty and started work at In Style magazine just after the first issue launched. I then spent a year at Tatler before going freelance in 2002. I love writing for different titles such as Vogue, Grazia, Daily Mail, Metro, Sunday Times Style, Daily Express and Black Beauty and Hair magazine and love the drama, self -expression, artistry and sense of well being the beauty industry and products can give women and has given me. Here’s a glimpse into my beauty stash.

Dermalogica, Special Cleansing Gel

I love this facial wash as it’s soap free, so it doesn’t strip the skin and contains calming and balancing lavender and balm mint extract. This is my daily skincare essential

Eve Lom, Cleanser

I love the ritual and ceremony of using this Bentley of cleansers, as the creamy texture is great for massaging and boosting the skin’s circulation before using the muslin cloth to gently remove it. I have combination skin and the mix of clove, chamomile and eucalyptus is really decongesting.

Crème de la Mer, Lip Balm

I actually think I am in love with this lip balm with it’s miracle broth, marine extracts and vitamins. I do love a good lip balm and this is the best one I have ever come across. Jamelia also loves this lip balm we bonded on how much we love it!

Ole Henriksen, Blue/Black Berry Enzyme Mask

I mask twice a week and it makes a big difference to the quality and texture of the skin. This one by Ole who is a lovely man contains calming lavender, skin smoothing papaya enzyme and the berries, which are packed full of antioxidants.

Aromatherapy Associates, Renew Rose & Sandalwood Facial Oil

I use this oil every night on my skin, as oils are a great way to deeply hydrate and add a glow to your skin as the skin recognises the oil and makes it penetrate quicker. The quality of AA’s products are amazing and it’s a joy to use before bed.

Darphin, Hydraskin Serum

I use this serum twice a day as it leaves my skin looking plumped and is super hydrating.

Nars, Sheer Glow Foundation in Benares

Anyone with a darker skin tone will tell you it’s a nightmare to get a great foundation as the colours from most brands don’t go dark enough or the undertones are wrong, which make you look ashy or too red. However, this is the first foundation in my 31 years that I truly love and is a great colour match.

Bobbi Brown, Lip Gloss in Merlot

Bobbi Brown is great for darker skin tones as all the products are packed full of pigment, which means it shows up on my skin. This lip-gloss is very natural and gives a soft glow to the lips, which I like to wear everyday.

Shu Uemura, Eye shadow

I had the chance to meet Mr Uemura before he died and it was such an honour and a privilege he was a true visionary and I love his products. These eye shadows are packed full of pigment and look amazing on all skin tones especially darker ones. I am loving IR Brown 810 and P Gold 350 at the moment.

Chanel, Joules Contraste in Imprevu and Enchantresse

Chanel blushes are packed full of punch so they are good on my skin. I find these blushes leave a healthy glow on the skin and make your whole face look alive. I know lots of black girls don’t do blush because they think it doesn’t look natural but I disagree, try popping a blush on your cheeks it will rock your beauty world.

And thats it, thanks again Ateh - you were great! talk about a fab list of products - I am liking the sound of the Ole H mask and the Chanel blushes.

Make sure you check out her blog

Xoxo