How I Changed My Skin:Part I

This is going to be a series of posts that goes over how I have noticed a huge, positive change in my skin. I have oily skin and have dealt with acne for 10 years. The very enlarged, congested pores, oiliness and breaking out monthly was really getting to me, and this routine I have been using has really made a difference. I have not broken out this month for the first time in memory and I can't believe it! Now my skin is not perfect and I am not sure it ever will be, but the overall tone, texture, and clarity has improved so much, I have to share the products I am using. All of them seem to help to make a difference.

Now onto step one in my skin care routine.

Part 1: Removing Makeup/Oil Cleansing 


While I know that oil cleansing scares the ever loving crap out of some people, especially those with oily skin (me included), there has been no better way to remove all the stuff from your skin so your cleanser can clean effectively and work like it should. This kind of cleanser really cuts through any kind of hard to remove makeup (foundation to waterproof mascara), sunscreen, oil, sweat etc, even for oily skin, and doesn't break me out at all.  It's really amazing!

As you can see, I have been using this a while, to make sure it worked and didn't break me out. It's great! 

The kind that I currently use is Boscia's Makeup Breakup Cool Cleansing Oil. While it is an oil, if it makes any sense, it doesn't feel too oily or greasy on your skin. I would shudder to think about some oils I have felt rubbing all over my face at the end of the day..yuck! It glides really nicely on the skin, doesn't really foam (I know some do), but lathers up a bit when mixed with a little oil and really dissolves everything.

All I do is take one pump and glide it over my dry skin. When you rub this around your face, I was shocked at how quickly literally everything was dissolved on my face. It took about two seconds and my long wear makeup and sunscreen is broken down, and my face is washed clean. Its amazing! I find rubbing it on dry skin really helps the makeup dissolve the best and then I mix it a bit on my face with water and rinse off. I feel no oily or greasy residue after either, which is great! This one is done at night, if I am wearing makeup or sunscreen, or if I am particurlarly oily and/or sweaty and is skipped if I do not feel I need it. I usually need it though and most nights I use it.

I don't just use a cleansing oil, however, since I do have oily skin, I want all the residue or lingering gunk to be washed away..so proper cleansing is next for me, and will be covered in Part 2!

xoxo

Estee Lauder-Who Knew?!

Do you ever have a brand that just isn't in your consciousness or one that has never captured you before until you tried one product randomly and thought "Wow-who knew?!" This has been my experience recently with Estee Lauder. For one reason or another the thought of Estee Lauder in general doesn't really excite me all that much. I don't know if it's because it has been around so long, and I associate the brand with my mother or grandmother, but it just never really excited me enough to want to purchase anything from them in a long time.

That all changed when I was looking for a new foundation and was told I have to try Estee Lauder's Doublewear. I hadn't thought of Estee Lauder before, but have heard great things about the foundation before, so I went out to try it.  I walked on over to the Estee counter and got myself the foundation (which I love btw), but while I was there, out of boredom or just perhaps because I have a problem with shopping, I picked up a few of their color items as well from their new summer "Michael Kors Very Hollywood" and "Bronze Goddess" collection...and I gotta say, I am in love!

Foundation to me is more of a utilitarian necessity than anything else, and I don't care what brand it is from, as long as it works and doesn't break me out. But I was surprised at the color items I bought there, and how wonderful and exciting they were! I got three products besides the foundation and I really do like them all. They are great quality, and look beautiful on. It makes me want to go get more from them! Where were you all my life Estee Lauder?!

The first two products are from the Michael Kors line and they are his blush in "coral sunset" and a lipgloss in "honey blonde" and they are both gorgeous! The blush is pigmented and looks like a beautiful flush on the skin. While I dislike the packaging and think the stupid, worthless blush brush should be done in with in favor of more product, I think it is a beautiful and quality blush. While it is shimmery in the pan, I do not find it to be shimmery on the skin.

In the pan

Swatch on finger (sorry, no makeup today so I can't show it on skin!)

I also love the lipgloss and it is one of my favorite colors on my lips. Pigmented enough to give a sexy, nude shine, but not too much to make you look like a corpse. It does have a strange purfume scent to it, which I didn't dislike but I would have preferred it to be unscented, as the scent is distracting. The color is so gorgeous though, I will suffer for it! It is also a little bit sticky, which I enjoy since it stays on the lips a little longer than one that slides around on you.

The third product I got was from the "Bronze Goddess" collection and it is their "bronzing blush." It is a melange of bronze and coral-pink together in a zebra pattern (so cute) that you swirl together and get a great sunny coral-pink glow to the cheeks. It is not super pigmented, but glowy and gorgeous, so I like it best on top of another blush for a statement look (I like statement blush).  It is a cheap package, in that you can feel how plastic and light it is, but the result on the skin is so pretty, I like it anyway.

When swirled together

While the products do have some drawbacks (smelly lipgloss, and cheap packaging and that stupid brush), the product really surprised me in a good way and I think it is a line worth taking a second look at.

Do you have any brands that you have experienced this "who knew?!" phenomenon? Let me know or do a post on your own blog about it and paste a link in the comments. I think it would be a fun tag to do to learn about new brands or lines perhaps some of us haven't thought about before for one reason or another.

xoxo!

Contest Winner, Awards and Thank You's : )

Thank you all so much who participated in my very first contest! I am so excited to send out the prize, and want to hold another one very soon. On that note, if you ever have suggestions for another prize you would like to see, feel free to email or comment me to let me know. I was thinking the next prize will be Lush related, since so many of you can't find it in your respective countries (and its fab of course!)

But for now, I wanted to announce the winner of this NARS prize.

Set #1:

16

I just typed in the number of comments and went to randomizer.org to get a number. It was 16, so I took the 16th comment is Lorraine from Lowster! Sorry if you don't like this method, but I thought it was the best one for the circumstance : ) 

For those that didn't win, I will be having another giveaway very soon!

I would also like to thank the gorgeous Pippa from her beautiful blog Clashing Time for giving me the cutest award!

She is darling, and her blog is a pleasure to look at, you must check it out! She also just started an anti-bullying blog, Clashing Time Anti-Bullying, which I think is brilliant and sweet of her. Bullying, in any form or medium, is not acceptable to me. You need to go and support her blog to make a stand against  people who apparently have nothing better to do than become victims of their own self-loathing by putting other people down. In life and online I have experienced this, and it hurts. We should all be here to support each other : )

I would also like to thank one of my other favorite bloggers Stella for tagging me on her blog for a "3's of me questions" tag. I know you all are dying to read that from me. I am working on it, but wanted to thank her first since I am so slow at these tag things. Thanks Stella! Go to her blog now..it's wonderful!

I would also like to thank Couture on her blog for giving me the Happy 101 award. Her blog is lovely, go check it out!

All the tags and the passing on of these awards will go up as soon as I get back home. A little rest for a few days because I have been working 24/7, but I will catch up on everything after this : )  Thanks dolls!

xoxo

My View:Mac Liberty of London First Thoughts

I am home visiting my lovely parents and brother, who is on spring break from law school for a few days, but I wanted to post a quick picture of the MAC items that came in the mail for me from the Liberty of London Collection. I haven't had time to test them out other than swatching them, so I will review them further when I get a chance, but wanted to post some pictures in case anyone was debating whether or not to buy things from there. Sorry about the distracting marble background. I am not at my house and didn't have a great place to take the pictures.

I was unsure of the packaging at first, but I actually really like it! So fresh and springy! Although when my mom saw it, specifically the bird on the lipgloss, she said "Holy smokes! It looks like Ed Hardy!" LOL..I didn't even know she knew what Ed Hardy was, but I can assure you it is much prettier and feminine than most of that stuff.

 Shell Pearl (a beauty powder) looks beautiful! It is a peachy-pink sheer powder that when swatched looks glowy and sheer, not shiny or glittery, which I like. It would be a beautiful highlighter on any complexion.  I would get this one while you can, it really is gorgeous!

Shell Pearl 

Bough grey was more like Bough *sigh* to me. I had such good hopes for it and at first looks great, but when swatched doesn't have the best texture or color payoff..and by that I mean no color payoff and a crappy texture. Way to miss it on this one MAC. It was HORRIBLE when I swatched it. I couldn't even see anything. I would skip unless you have seen it in person and disagree.

The lipglass in Frankly Fresh is very pretty. Typical MAC gloss, which isn't my favorite gloss formulation ever, but this one is a coral tinged pinky-nude that really is very fresh and pretty looking. Might have to buy a backup, it really is lovely, even on pigmented lips.

I will have more pictures and swatches up later, since I think I shall hit the local MAC store around my parents to maybe get a couple more things. Bad Logan! The collection is so different and new, I find it a pleasant and refreshing change from MAC, which I think sometimes just turns out stale, rehashes of their old stuff and labels it as "new." This is a collection definitely worth looking at!

Also, I know I have lots of thank you's and tags/awards to do, and I will get on that very soon. Just wanted to spend a couple days without work or worry with the fam : ) Love you all!


xoxo

Contest Reminder!

My contest ends soon, on this Tuesday March 16th,  for the NARS grand prize (a choice of blush or the Temptation set)..so if you haven't already, scroll down a few posts and be sure to enter! Winner will be announced Wednesday March 17th.

Prize:

Or your choice of any NARS blush!

Thanks to all the lovely ladies that have entered so far!

xoxo

Lush Bath:Part II

Sex bomb, sex bomb, she's a sex bomb....

Isn't that an old song, or am I going nuts? Possibly a little of both, huh? ANYWAY...So today I bring you my second bath bomb that I used out of my "Let's Get Fizzical" set from LUSH. Here is another look at what the set looked like.

Today (obviously) I used the "Sex Bomb" bath bomb from the set. I remember it being my favorite from years ago when I last used bath bombs from LUSH, and it did not disappoint me this time either. Here is what the little baby looks like:

Sex Bomb Bath Bomb-the bottom half is pink also

So cute right?! It is really fragrant even after you plop her in the bath too, which I love. Some of the ones I have used don't smell at all after you plop them down in the water, and I don't find that acceptable! I want the water to be a pretty color and to smell yummy as well.

Plop, Plop...Fizz!

This one is really fragrant in a beautifully sensual way. Reminds me of my Chanel Coco Mademoiselle not in that it smells exactly like that, but has the same warm, jasmine, sexy "mood" fragrance emitting from it like Chanel. It turns your bath a really pretty pink color, and doesn't emit any junk that will clog up your drain. The only thing that the bath bomb has in it is paper-thin rose petals (synthetic soap like, not real ones) that float around and disappear with the warmth of the bath.

The water turns a pretty light pink color 

I love this bath bomb. I think if you want a good first bath bomb experience, I would go look at this one. Although I did find it more uplifting in the scent than relaxing, so keep that in mind.  I am going to keep going through the rest and look for one that is relaxing ( I love relaxing scents) but I still love this one and will definitely repurchase it!

xoxo

My View:Urban Decay Lip Primer Potion

Perhaps because it is overshadowed by the cult-like popularity of its eyeshadow primer cousin, but the lip primer potion by Urban Decay is a product I feel that doesn't get enough love. Well I love this stuff, and think it is an underrated product in the Urban Decay line. Sometimes I like what it does to my lips so much I wear it alone.

It is a balm-like consistency that smooths out and primes the lip for other lip products. While it isn't traditionally something that is meant to tone down the color of very pigmented lips (like MAC lip erase) as it is a clear consistency while applied, I find that it does smooth my lips out so nicely that the color isn't as noticeable or distracting as my lips are pre-product... and trust me, it looks like I had a fight with a cherry popsicle with nothing on, I should know. 

It kind of makes your lips look like "your lips but better" or puts your lips through something like a soft focus filter on a camera the way it perfects the lip's canvas. If you have full lips, or lines on your lips you should check this out, it really makes my lips so much better looking. It also does make your lipstick stay on slightly longer, although I don't find it makes my lip products wear all day or anything. But it makes my lips look airbrushed, so product wear aside, I love this baby! 

xoxo 

I also wanted to thank Sarah for tagging me for another award. Her blog, Sarah xo, is one of my favorites, and she is such a sweetheart! You made my day Sarah, thank you!

I will get on that tag asap, but as you know, I am painfully slow at being able to make posts with all those links in them. Whew, takes a lot out of this blonde's head..haha Thanks again Sarah, love ya!

Don't forget to enter the contest below!