Two fashion students with a love for cosmetics. We're not experts but we know a thing or two.
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Saturday May 26, 2012
I’ve recently got into wearing more lipstick, particularly matte lipstick and one of the main ways to keep the lipstick looking great is lip balm. I’ve experimented with lots of lip balms over the years, clear ones, scented ones, you name it. We were recently asked if we wanted to try out the Carmex Moisture Plus* range which is a lip balm which is ultra hydrating and comes in 5 different types, from clear to tinted shades such as Pink, Peach, Plum and Berry, all sheer shades. I’ve known about the Carmex brand forever but I’ve never tried their products till now. My friend Sacha carries a little pot of Carmex lip balm with her everywhere so when the opportunity rose I thought it would be a good time to try their product out. I think tinted lip balms are great, it’s the perfect kind of casual look for your everyday lipstick wearer and is great at keeping lips moisturised without looking too plain. I received the shade Peach which is a lovely natural “your lips but better” shade. Each Moisture Plus lip balm has vitamin E and aloe along to keep your lips extremely soft and SPF 15 to help protect your lips against the sun.
When I applied the lip balm it applied easily with a slight tingly, minty feeling which I love lip balms to have. It also smells really lovely and sweet and the slanted tip applicator made it easy to apply. If you’re looking for a little bit more colour then I’d try out the Plum or Berry Tints however if you just want a casual lip balm which you can wear any time of the day then I’d really recommend the Peach shade! You can purchase the Carmex Moisture Plus in Boots for £4.49 or at these retailers if you’re from the US. Take care,
*PR Sample
Tuesday May 22, 2012
If there’s one type of cosmetic I usually avoid, it’s fake tan. It’s one of those things which you have to follow a few guidelines or it will go horribly wrong. I remember the first time I used fake tan was with a set of tanning wipes from New Look, that should of put me off buying them all together, why would a fashion retailer sell fake tan and why would it be a good idea to buy it?? In the end I was left with streaky orange legs (a la georgia nicolson), a completely pale body and those lovely orange palmed hands, not really worth all the hassle is it? After going through a number of different tanning products and gradual tanning creams I thought enough was enough and embraced the pale look, even on nights out, shock horror!! After attending an event at the Academy of Makeup we were both given Wow Brown Fake Tan* to try out. We’ve been asked to try tanning products before but usually said no because it would be better going to someone who would use them but after hearing about the brand and the fact that the tanning lotion is more of a natural light tan I decided to give it a go. There’s a few steps you need to take before applying the tan so I thought I’d share my fake tan routine for anyone who’s new to tanning and the process which has worked well for me. 1. Exfoliate
The way fake tan works is that it clings onto dry areas and dead skin which is why when you tan there are areas which appear darker than others. You want a good body scrub which isn’t too harsh on the skin but rough enough to buff away any dead skin to ensure an even tan. Be Beautiful’s Invigorating Ginger and Lime Salt Scrub is a great one to use with all natural ingredients and essential oils so your skin will feel very soft after exfoliating. We reviewed it here if you’re interested! If you’re tanning your face too I’d recommend using a less harsh scrub, all St Ives scrubs are great product to use. 2. Moisturise
After you’ve exfoliated, it’s really important to moisturise. This ensures that all the dry areas on your skin have enough moisture so that you don’t end up with dark patches. The driest areas on your body are elbows, knees and ankles so make sure you moisturise these areas the most! It’s also good to point out that if you have blemishes which are healing or flaking that if you put tanning lotion on them, they’ll appear darker on your face so make sure you’ve moisturised these areas well even if you have oily skin. For the face I’d use the Clinique Dramatically Different moisturiser, it dries quickly and you can get it in two forms, one to suit dry skin or one to suit oily skin. For a body moisturiser I’ve been using the Clarins Renew-Plus Body Serum as I’m trying to use up my moisturiser samples but any fast drying moisturiser will do, it’s also a good excuse to use up all the moisturiser samples from beauty boxes like Glossybox! 3. Tan
I was told by the lovely girls from WOW Brown that the best way to tan is by using either latex free gloves or a tanning mitt. I found that it was easiest to use gloves as you can blend the tan easier and get into all the hard spaces where as a tanning mitt would be better for mousse tanning products. I find it best to use a little drop of lotion at a time and dispense more when I need it, it will help you blend out the lotion evenly and you’ll waste less product that way. Start by putting the lotion in your gloved hand and rubbing it in circular motions on the skin starting from your feet to your legs, stomach, shoulders, neck, head, arms then hands. By starting from the bottom it means when you bend down you’ll crease the tan on your stomach less and you wont end up with orange hands and feet. 4. Tan Development If you use this particular tanning lotion it should dry very fast so you wont have to wait around for it to dry too long. I did the ultimate test with this tanning lotion having white sheets and I experienced no transfer whatsoever and I was probably in bed about 10 minutes after I put the lotion on. If you’re not so confident about ruining your sheets or if you’re using another tanning lotion, i’d suggest wearing a onesie to bed then you’ll be transfer free! Hop into bed and wait 7-8 hours then wash it off when you wake up! 5. Maintaining the Tan I wasn’t originally aware of this at first, but once you’ve washed off the tan in the shower after it’s developed for 7-8 hours, if you apply the body lotion you originally put on before tanning, over your tan then it will last longer! If you do this each day then your tan will less be less likely to become patchy and will gradually fade in a good way if you don’t want to top up the tan. This tanning lotion for me lasts around 4-5 days on one application so it’s just personal preference whether you want to top it up or not! There we have it, my fake tan routine! I hope this was helpful to some of you who haven’t tried fake tan before or even those who have but are looking for new things to try out! Take care,
*PR Sample
Thursday May 17, 2012
The Cosmopolitan Magazine Blog Awards are back for the third time running and we’re here to ask for your help! We were lucky enough to be a part of the awards in 2011 and we’d love the chance to attend again. We’ve come a long way in a year of blogging and gained so much support from you all and we’d love the opportunity to share our content with a wider audience. If you like reading our blog and feel like we deserve your vote, please vote for beautyaesthetic.co.uk under the “New Beauty Blog” category here: http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/blogs/cosmo-blog-awards-2012/cosmo-blog-awards-2012_nominate We’re looking forward to providing our readers with more high quality content and we’d be extremely grateful if you took the time to vote for us. Thanks so much! Sami and Lisa xoxo
Wednesday May 16, 2012 Here are some questions from our lovely readers! We’ve condensed all the questions we’ve been recently asked into one post for you all. For more of our questions answered posts click here.
Hi lovely, thanks very much! Our theme is the Glimpse theme from Sweeetposh on Tumblr but has been heavily adapted by us and a new column added in, hope this helped! x
Thanks very much love, my skin is far from flawless though! I’ll check it out, good luck with the blog :) x
Hi lovely, ooh good luck with the blog! I’d recommend getting involved with twitter for a start, it’s a great way to find other bloggers and put your name out there, there’s a beauty bloggers chat every sunday if you follow the #bbloggers hashtag which is great for tips and to share your link. I’d also register your blog on tons of blogsites such as bloglovin and hellocotton so people can follow your content wherever they prefer. I hope this has helped and let us know when you get set up! xx
You can get them from pretty much any department store, not sure which ones in US but for UK it would be Debenhams, House of Fraser, John Lewis etc. But you can also get them directly from the Clinique website :) x
Thanks love, we’re glad to have helped! x
I have the same problem with that too, which is why I don’t wear much eye shadow also! Pixiwoo recently done a great tutorial which I found really helpful here: http://youtu.be/VfFrnOefJZU although it’s for asian shaped/mono lids it’s still really helpful in showing the ways you can apply the eye shadow for smaller eyelids! Another way I’d suggest would be to take a grey or brown eye shadow and put it into your crease as it will make your eyes appear bigger and make you look like you have a larger crease. Hope this helped! x
Aww thanks love, that’s so sweet! x
I’m not entirely sure if you can get rid of stretch marks once you have them but you can definitely make them less visible. I’ve heard creams with cocoa butter such as Palmers Cocoa Butter work wonders and applying fake tan can also minimise the appearance of the stretch marks. I’ve also heard if you take Vitamin C supplements or just increase your intake of Vitamin C it can help boost the collagen production to help prevent them from getting worse throughout the early stages. Hope this has helped! x
Hey lovely, It depends what kind of fashion blog you want to make, whether it be fashion news or outfit style posts. If you figure out which part you’d like to focus on it would be a great place to start. Saying that you could have a mixture of both, but if it were me I’d look at other fashion blogs for inspiration and find out which areas of existing ones you enjoy most and that you feel you would be good at. Also I’d recommend signing up to the Independent Fashion Blogger’s email newsletter (heartifb.com) they have amazing advice for fashion bloggers! x
I’d recommend using the foundation I use which is the Clinique Anti-Blemish Solutions (Acne solutions in US) foundation which is amazing for people with acne or acne scarring. All Clinique products are fragrance free and good for sensitive skin so it shouldn’t irritate your skin and are mostly pink toned so it won’t appear orange on the skin if you have the right shade. I’d say it’s medium coverage so it’s not cakey at all, it feels really light on the skin and it’s enough coverage to hide spots without needing to use any concealer. I can’t recommend it enough, I’ve gone through at least 6 bottles and it sounds like it would work for you. Hope this has helped! x
It might take some time for your skin to get used to the climate change. I’d suggest maybe changing your foundation to one which is much more long lasting in hotter weather and is oil free. I’d also recommend using a primer, focusing on the T zone area before putting on your makeup (Avon Magix is one of my favourites) and use a heavier moisturiser so your skin takes in more moisture to stop it producing oil to compensate for the loss of moisture. Hope this helped! x
Thanks for your question! I think most people get approached through using Twitter as brands and PR’s find lots of blogs that way. We’ve never asked or emailed anyone to receive products, it’s just always been by chance if someone comes across your blog and wants to contact you. If it’s something you really want I’d suggest interacting with brands on twitter, following lots of people in the industry and bloggers, using the #bbloggers hashtag and have your email address easily visible on your website then you’ll probably be approached. I don’t think there’s any way to rush the process, it just kind of happens by chance! x
Thank you! You could focus more on beauty news, such as new product launches, new collections etc. Or you could go along the tutorial route? Just whatever you feel more comfortable writing about! Britishbeautyblogger.com and Cultofpretty.com are a great example of more beauty news related blogs. Karla from karlapowell.co.uk has a mixture of beauty news and makeup looks which she’s created as a makeup artist and annamarie.tumblr.com posts a picture of her “daily face” with different makeup looks she’s created each day so they’re all really interesting blogs to take a look at. Hope this has helped! x
Sami and Lisa xoxo
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