SPF for Darker Skin

A common misconception that I have heard too many times to count is "Oh if you have dark skin you don't need to wear sunscreen" or "all SPF's leave a grey/white ashy tint on my face"

Now although the weather forecast in the UK seems to have missed the memo that it's June and should be summer, I'm here to dispel that beauty myth and also add on that sunscreen isn't only for when the sun is shining.

So where does this beauty myth originate from?

Your skin gets it's colour from melanin (the pigment which naturally gives skin it's colour) and the darker you are, the more melanin you have within your skin, which then offers a greater natural level of sun protection. This is because melanin absorbs UV rays from the sun, thus providing some measure of defence for your skin.

In fact research suggests that darker black skin has a naturally higher SPF (sun protection factor) of approximately 13.4, and paler white skin has an SPF of 3.4, with other skin tones falling in between those two ranges.

A key point to note is that higher levels of melanin slows down the skins natural production of Vitamin D from the sun, so it is worth having your vitamin D levels checked. 

Now while this might sound like it confirms the beauty myth that you don't need to wear sunscreen if you have dark skin, this doesn't mean that you aren't getting any sun damage by not protecting your skin or that it isn't adversely affecting your skin.

There are so many benefits to wearing an SPF and for me, aside from protecting my skin from premature ageing, it also helps tremendously with my hyperpigmentation. By inhibiting any further darkening of the scars I am trying to fade as well as preventing new scars from forming.

Review: Joliette Caribbean Radiance Range

Brands that have a story and heart behind them always tug at my heart and Afrodeity is one of those brands.

Afrodeity was founded by mother and daughter team Alicia and Joliette around the knowledge of healing herbs, oils and butters passed down through the generations.

It’s an online store that retails natural Caribbean Inspired hair and skin products. Their ultimate goal is to help small farmers in the Caribbean reinvigorate the declining agricultural industry and to stop a dependence on importation of essential foodstuff.”

I love supporting small business owners who are doing fantastic things and have met Alicia the founder a number of times and each time have been inspired by her story and journey.

So when Alicia asked if I would like to try their newly launched skincare line named Joliette – the Caribbean Radiance range, I couldn’t wait.

In Alicia’s words "I created Joliette in honour of my mother, for whom the brand is named and for my daughter and her growing head of gorgeous curls"

The whole range is a natural based line that incorporates natural fruit extracts such as papaya, strawberry, lemon and cranberry, alongside a number of oils and butters. Namely olive, coconut, apricot, sunflower, shea and vitamin e. The line is designed to help to even out your skin tone and promote a radiant complexion.

If you are not a fan of scented products though, then you might struggle with these as they are heavily scented. However it’s a gorgeous coconut scent. Think real natural coconuts and the face moisturizer also has a strong scent of the different fruit extracts. I’m usually wary of anything that is heavily scented, particularly for my face but I haven’t had any sort of reaction, which I think is largely due to Alicia’s background as a chemist.

Joliette Caribbean Radiance Facial Cream Wash

Described as a “unique 2-in-1 blend of a cream cleanser and a foaming face wash. It nourishes and protects the skin whilst actively illuminating the skin with natural fruit extracts”.

I am really enjoying using this cleanser either in the morning or as the second part of my double cleanse in the evening. It is smooth and creamy and feels more like a moisturiser than a face wash, and it doesn’t leave my face with a squeaky overly clean feeling, instead its soft and lightly moisturised.

Ingredients include: liquorice extract, papaya, cranberry, strawberry, lemon and mango fruit extracts.

£14.00 for 150ml

Joliette Caribbean Radiance Facial Scrub  

Described as a “2-in-1 blend of cream cleanser and moisturising face wash with exfoliating volcanic pumice to leave skin feeling clean, clear and ready for action.”

For regular readers you will know that I am not a fan of grainy face scrubs, I instead prefer chemical exfoliators or if I’m going to use a grainy scrub, I much prefer finely milled textures such as crystals, powders or rounded jojoba beads. That’s because I find these are much gentler and effective on my skin. I find that the grainy ones tend to scratch and aggravate my sometimes-sensitive skin.

So unfortunately the grains in these were way too harsh for my skin. I do however enjoy using it on my body.

Ingredients include: Apricot kernel oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, papaya fruit extract, cranberry extract, strawberry extract, lemon extract, mango fruit extract.

£12.00 for 150ml

Joliette Caribbean Radiance Facial Moisturiser

The Caribbean Radiance Moisturiser has been designed to” illuminate and tone skin whilst creating a smoothed out, even skin tone.”

One of the beautiful things about this moisturiser is that it has an SPF 25, a great sun protection with the addition of zinc oxide, which thankfully dries to a completely sheer finish that will not look ashy or white on darker skin tones.

It does have quite a number of oils in it, which I initially thought would make my face look shiny, however although the oils do come through after some time, my face just looked the same as it normally does with no extra shine. I found it be lightweight but with the perfect amount of moisturising properties.

I can’t attest to it’s evening out of my skin tone, I think I would need to use it for longer to really asses that. You are meant to be able to use it both during the day and at night, but I personally would only use it during the day due to the SPF properties.

Ingredients include: liquorice extract, papaya, cranberry, strawberry, lemon and mango fruit extracts.

£14.99 for 60ml

You can find out more about the brand and purchase the Joliette products on their site here 

Have you tried anything from either the Joliette range? What did you think?

3 Lip balms to Weather Proof Your Lips

Don’t you just hate it when you pop your lipstick or gloss on and it just emphasises how dry your lips are?

I’m a bit of a lip balm obsessive, particularly in winter when the heating and frosty air just seems to draw all the moisture away from your lips.

Here are my 3 current favourite industrial style hydrating lip balms to give cracked, painful and chapped lips the heave ho.

Yu-Be Moisturising Skin Cream £13.50

Developed in 1957, this lovely moisturising skin cream is one of Japan's best selling vitamin-enriched skincare creams. With a rich glycerine formula, it goes on like a cream but immediately sinks in as you rub it in. It’s the lightest of the 3 and has a nice matt finish so is great for applying your lipstick afterwards.

It does have a bit of a camphor fragrance when you apply it, but this fades away quite quickly afterwards. It’s also multipurpose, so can be used anywhere else that feels a little dry.

Lanolips 101 Ointment - £10.99

I had heard so much about this, but had resisted until recently when I was out and had forgotten my makeup bag at home. Don’t ask! Anyway the freezing cold air was seriously drying out my lips and I could feel those little painful cracks starting to appear! So what was a girl to do? I leapt into my closest Boots and picked one up. All I can say is I finally understand what the fuss is all about.

This little tube completely soothed my dry and somewhat painful lip and applying another layer before bed, I woke up with soft, smooth lips.

It’s made out of 100% Ultra Medical Grade Lanolin and its extremely thick so you might need to build some arm muscles to get it out of the tube if you leave it out in the cold, but once on it melts into a smooth un-fragranced and nourishing balm.

Let's talk about skin: What is Skin of Colour

Image Credits - Iman

One the things I love about beauty is that it isn’t a one size fits all type of world and what works for one woman, isn’t necessarily going to work for another.

Having your most amazing skin is about truly understanding your skin and what works and doesn’t work for it, be from your skin type to skin condition (more of this to come in the series) to your skin colour.

Whilst having lunch with a good friend the other day, who is on the complete opposite end of the diverse beauty spectrum to myself, with pale Caucasian skin and the straightest of hair ,we got talking on the differences in our skin tones and our beauty concerns.

This prompted her to ask me a question she said she had pondered about a couple of times having seen the term “woman of colour/ skin of colour”.

Her question was in two parts

1.         Does woman of colour only refer to black women?
2.      Does skin of colour really differ to Caucasian skin aside from the actual tone?

In the last census in 2011, 13% of the UK population identified themselves as either Asian, Black or Mixed Heritage and it’s a demographic that is experiencing the fastest growth here in the UK.

So I thought this was the perfect opportunity for a blog post to look at the definition and characteristics of skin of colour, if it differs and how this could affect your skin care routine.

First up:

What is skin of colour?

People with skin of colour are generally classified as those with non-white heritage. This includes people of Asian, Black, Mixed Heritage and Indian descent.

Does it differ from Caucasian skin?

Skin is skin so doesn’t really differ too much on an anatomical level, however there are a number of differences in the characteristics between skin of colour and Caucasian skin which can affect how your care for your skin. The most notable are: 

Let's talk about skin: The functions of skin

Do you ever wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and think oh 'h to the no’! We'll that was me a month ago when I woke up to discover some mammoth spots on my face. The spots had also clearly invited some of their friends to play in the form of uneven skin tone, clogged pores and bumpy surface.

Skin, and more specifically my issue with my skin, plus my breakouts and scarring is a topic I have touched on here in the past. More recently I talked about my hyperpigmentation in this post, which so many of you seemed to resonate with.

I was really fired up after that post and determined to start my journey. One week later I was armed and ready, and 3 days after that I had a serious reaction to a product that left me needing to take a course of antihistamines, loads of omega 3 fish oils and to go on the Dr Perricone 3 day diet, which consisted of mainly salmon, berries and salad. It calmed my skin down after a few days but left me terrified to use anything for a while. Just when I thought my skin was returning to normal is when I woke up and discovered my skin looked like a bit of a hot mess and needed to be sorted out.

Skin is such a touchy subject, especially when you don't feel that you have the best of skins. No matter how much we try to shy away from it, our image or our perception of our image plays a big part in how we feel and can dictate and define our mood, confidence etc. We all have to show our skin (especially our faces) to the world everyday and let's face it even the least vain of us would always like to put a clear and smooth face forward.

So I decided that enough is enough!

Rather than putting a plaster on a wound that really needs stitches, or in this case rushing out to purchase more lotions and potions, I took a step back and did what I should have done a very long time ago. I decided I needed to learn.

Beauty Talk: Hyperpigmentation lets talk about it

Not my usual kind of beauty blog post today, but I’m in one of those reflective moods, you know those moods where you just have way too many thoughts going on in your head, so I thought why not do one of the best things possible and lay those thoughts to paper or internet in this case…

I strongly advice you grab a cup of tea and settle in for the read :-)

Unless you have been living under a rock recently, I’m sure most of you have heard about the pop singer Dencia and her infamous new cream called whitenecious! This was followed by the beautiful speech Lupita did at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards ceremony, which completely brought me to tears and more recently followed up with the cringe worthy interview Dencia did on Channel Four!

But just in case you have missed it, here is the image and both videos that have sparked off the world to discuss issues surrounding shadism, bleaching, body confidence and which prompted my reflections for this post

Maybelline Fit Me Foundation & Concealer Review

I recently picked up the Maybelline Fit Me concealer from Superdrug as I had heard so many good reviews about it, and whilst I was there, I decided to try out the foundation seeing as they had all the darker shades available.