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Review: Origins Haul

The Origins counter at Boots really excited me when I asked the lady at the counter if its natural and she replied yes. So I bought a few...

Thursday 27 September 2012

How to heal over exfoliated, damaged skin!

Damaged skin be it due to over exfoliation, chemical peels, medications and other harsh chemicals can be very hard to deal with. Skin feels irritated, raw, red, wrinkled and flaking of skin may occur. Makeup may seem like a good idea to cover up, but it can sometime exasperate the problem and make damage appear worse that it is.

I should state the reason that I'm writing this is because I'm currently sitting on my laptop typing, while the left side of my face is severely damaged due to increased sensitivity by retin - a, it looked fine, but i had to go on and put tea tree cream on the side of my spots which had a few spots, nothing major just tiny little bumps, but the tea tree has just made my skin red,raw, and scab like... not nice, if i open my mouth to eat for example, the skin is unable to stretch so looks and feels like sand paper!!! ugh!

Now I don't know anything that can make your skin as good as new in a second, but there are things you can do at home to ensure skin renewal is at its optimum level. Some of these you may already be doing, but you may be doing things you think will either cover damaged skin, or help it heal faster, but really it's just making things worse!
  1. Do not exfoliate further!!  This might seem obvious to some, but when you have you to leave the house in 10 minutes and your skin is peeling to no end, that bottle of exfoliator seems like your last choice! This will only make your skin more damaged, raw, and you might end up with a scab rather than a bit of flaky skin!
  2. Treat your skin very gently!  Try not to use facial wipes, even if they're organic, the fibres tends to be very abrasive to skin, especially sensitised skin. Be gently with your towel or facial tissues(best to use a towel) so pat dry gently. 
  3. Really think about what your putting on your face! The products used on your skin whilst it was normal, may be detrimental in a sensitised state. For example I steer clear of my normal vitamin C lotion when i have over exfoliated, as vitamin C will only cause your skin to shed further. Don't assume just because a product is natural it will be safe for your skin. The very cause of my damaged skin was because i assumed my tea tree cream was organic, hence would be safe for my skin.  DUMB!!!
  4. Put things on that are known to treat damaged skin! Products rich in Vitamin E are great for skn renewal, especially and oil like product or a balm.This will prevent the skin from drying out as the skin is exposed and thin. Try to treat it like a burn. Sweet almond oil, Grapeseed oil, Rosehip oil are all good sources of vitamin e, except the latter which is a source of Vitamin A. Do patch test these, as a further reaction on your skin is the last thing you want!
  5. Work from the inside out!... Your skin is re building it self, it is doing this all the time so truly you should be providing it with the essential building blocks it needs ALL THE TIME, but it would not hurt to up the water intake, and eat foods rich in vitamin E, protein, essential fats, Omega 3,6 and 9. 
  6. It takes about 28 days for the skin to renew itself, but the initial damage should go away in less time!! Im hoping to rid my skin of this damage in 3 days!! Luckily i don't have any where to be, so i can hide out in my room, lathering my face in balms!!
I thought i would add what I'm doing right now to get rid of the damage, and to cover it up when you just have to be out in public! 

When I'm at home I am putting glycerin on my face after washing with a facial gel( to further the healing, cleanse with full fat milk-- do not use cotton wool, it will just be abrasive to sensitive skin, apply the milk with hands in circular motions, best done when you don't have makeup on). The glycerin is diluted wiht a little water( dilute with more water if you live a particularly dry environment, Im in London so its pretty humid over here!). The glycerin will stop the skin drying out. Then i apply aloe vera gel, for it soothing properties, And lastly sweet almond oil. Your gonna look like a grease pit, so don't answer the door bell! 
I would normally also apply rose hip oil  as well at night, but ive run out :(. And in the day even if I'm in doors, i will skip the aloe Vera and apply my OY! SPF 15, even if I'm indoors as it contains aloe Vera, green tea and chamomile, which are great for damaged skin to calm the skin. 

I will update this post to show how many days it will take to heal my very damaged skin!


Ok so It took about 4 days for my skin to heal by doing the above routine. My skin was stil peeling yesterday(4th day) but it was well enough for me to do a facial (rose akamuti) and hair removal( threading) . All in all I think a mixture of rosehip oil and glycerine really helped my face!!.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Review: Oy! medium face the sun spf 15 moisturiser

OY!  which stands for 'Organic Young' is a line of skin care for young skin by Green People. This is the first product from their line I have tried, and as its so good I will soon be trying their other products.

I first received this moisturiser as a sample from naturisimo.com. I applied it over my usual moisturiser to protect my skin from the sun, due to increased photosensitivity due to Retin - a use. I expected my skin to go oily and my makeup to just slide off in the heat and humidity as i already have oily skin and SPF's in the past have just exasperated the problem, whether they are natural or not. However as soon as i put the moisturiser on, it left a very comfortable moisturised but matt finish to my skin, and it did not leave a purple tinge to my olive Asian skin tone, which i usually got with SPF's.

My Lily Lolo mineral makeup went on perfectly on top of the SPF and almost felt like it was helping the makeup stick to my face, but in a good way. On an average day, my skin will start to go oily within an hour, and I would have to retouch as soon as I get into uni, but this time when i had to touch up there was no ugly oily mirror like shine, but more of a moisturised kind of sheen to my face. Even a few hours after that it was great and I have major oil issues!

It seemed to good to be true, so when my sample finished I wanted to check the price, ingredients etc to see the damage... I was pleasantly surprised!!  Not only was this an SPF moisturiser thats great for oily skin(rare!!) and sensitive skin type, but its also an tan accelerator increasing tanning by 25%, fights spots, UVA/UVB protection and feeds skin omega 3+6 . On the ingredients side of things it was free from the major nasties; sodiun laryl/laureth sulfate,parabens,lanolin,phthalates,propylene glycol,alcohol(ethyl,ehtanol),harsh foaming agents , irritating emulsifiers, synthetic fragrance,silicone,PABA sunscreen,colourants,PEGs, petrochemicals,urea,DEA, or TEA.  And is 82% certified Organic, not 100% but still good enough!.

I think the spot fighting and oily balancing properties may be due to the aloe vera and green tea amongst the ingredients.

This product is fairly traded too.....And for you veggies and vegans out there.. its been certified by the vegetarian and vegan society!

The price is good for such a multi-purpose product, its £10.50 from naturisimo.com for a50ml bottle, a little goes a long way for me as i use my normal Jason ester C moisturiser underneath.



Rating: 10/10

Sunday 23 September 2012

Review: Retin-a 0.01% GEL

I know this blog is about natural beauty, but i simply have to write about a product regardless of its content, when it is life changing.

For about 2 years now acne has been causing a bigger problem in my life than it had in the past. The large spots were gone, but the acne had become more ''comedonal'' so i had more blackheads,whiteheads,large pores and oiliness. I was not able to combat this with a usual good skin care routine, or diet. So I had to change my usual acne medicine ' duac once daily gel' which is for acne spots rather than comedones, to retin -a. 

Retina- a is good for skin with comedonal acne, wrinkles, to prevent ageing, to increase collagen in skin etc.

Now Retin - a is trickier to use than ordinary benzoyl peroxide acne creams. It has more side effects, and requires additional skin care to  give optimum results and to ensure side effects are kept to a minimum.  Side effects include; peeling, irritation, dry skin, dehydration, sun sensitivity and more which i have not experienced. Despite all this, I have been using Retin-a for a month now and I will never go back to anything else.

The first week i started using Retin-a gel, i used it without a moisturiser, and every other day... BIG MISTAKE!. My skin can usually handle anything, I do not get irritated unless its an ultra strong chemical peel. But this made my skin peel like crazy, there was endless flaking, skin was drier in the morning, but a perk was my pores already looked smaller, and they were started to look like craters!!. I was told that the skin had to get used to the Retin -a, so peeling was to be expected. 

The next week I used it about 3 times a week, peeling was more minimized and confined to the mouth area only. I had to avoid the sun, and use a spf of 15 at least, as retin-a makes skin more sensitive to the sun and burning, but oddly enough it can also reduce previous sun damage. Anyway iv started using OY! natural spf15 which is great for oily skin and if you have a darker skin tone, its practically invisible.( will do a separate review because its such a fab SPF)  Blackheads and whiteheads have cropped up more, i think this was due to the skin peeling which was showing up blackheads and whiteheads which were covered underneath skin layers. It was also the time of the month so the additional acne may have been hormonal. 

The third week, i used Retin -a twice a week as i was going to start uni and wanted less peeling. The peeling was covered with moisuriser alone, but seemed to show up with mineral makeup. However I did not have any peeling this week as I was used Retin -a with glycerin. I applied my normal moisturiser, then i applied glycerin mixed with water, and once it had dried  i used retin a.  

This week, I no longer have irritation, flaking. The blackheads and whiteheads are virtually gone. I find it hard to see some of the pores that were medium sized before. The larger pores are now medium sized, and i hope with time they will disappear too, as my doctor advised it could take up to 6 months for full effects to be seen.  My skin is also less oily, and feels more plumped up already. 

I didn't think anything could shrink the look of my pores, or get rid of my blackheads, but retin-a has and in such a short space of time too.

Rating: Would give 10/10, but peeling can be frustrating so 8/10

Saturday 22 September 2012

Review: LILY LOLO Lash Alert natural mascara

Ive been looking for a natural mascara that wouldnt break the bank and produce the same look as a 'fake' mascara. Lily lolo natural mascara does exactly that.

Lash Alert Natural Mascara

The mascara comes in a small 10.5 ml bottle, a little smaller than most mascaras, but a little goes a long way. The mascara is very dark, so accentuates lashes more as its a dark black matte colour rather than glossy, so it absorbs more light, appearing darker. It does lengthen a little, but it makes lashes look more thicker than any other mascara ive used.  It goes on very easily and smoothly, only a few strokes are needed compared to other mascaras, where i have to apply on more and keep brushing to ensure no clumping of lashes. This mascara does not produce a spider lash effect. I have had mascaras wich are able to sepereate the lashes better, but its good enough, as it doesnt clump lashes together either.
You can also apply mroe coats during the day for a fuller doll like look. 

One negative is that during the day, you may get tiny specks of the mascura that have fallen of the lashes and 
have landed on your face. But this can be easily sweeped away. 

It costs £9.99, wich is hardly much for a good quality mascara that wont irritate your eyes and is healthier for you than other toxic mascaras.

Rating : 9/10.. purely because of the flecks that falls sometimes

Friday 7 September 2012

LILY LOLO FOUNDATION REVIEW AND COMPARISON WITH BARE MINERALS AND JANE IREDALE

HOW I CAME TO MINERALS:

I have tried allot of brands of foundation from drug stores and some expensive branded foundations but as they contain ingredients such as perfumes, synthetic chemicals, parabens, and other nasty ingredients I feel they made my skin dehydrated, red, sensitive, flaky and gave me blemishes. The expensive brands were great for the Kim Kardashian look but in the long run using them everyday especially with acne and generally troubled skin gave me slight wrinkles around the eyes and mouth, and without make-up my sk  in looked horrible and yes I needed more and more make-up So I decided to use a Natural ingredient Foundation and so Lily Lolo came along. I thought switching from unnatural liquid foundation to natural mineral Lily Lolo powder foundation would be really hard but it was the best thing I have ever done for my skin.

You don't have to worry if you cant live without liquid foundation as you can turn Lily Lolo Foundation into a creamy liquid (Liquid minerals recipe below). I have not tried it with the other brands but it probably would work the same.

COMPARISON:

Using Mac Minerals or Rimmel Minerals is not the same thing as they may contain 100% natural minerals but they are not 100% natural products as a whole so you will still be putting allot of unnecessary chemicals on your face that it really doesn't need.

I have now been using 100% natural Lily Lolo Mineral Foundation for over 6 years and it was the first ever natural makeup I have tried before venturing into other brands but always coming back to Lily Lolo.

The reason I tried other brands like Bare Minerals and Jane Iredale was because I have to mix two different shades of Lily Lolo foundation "Cinnamon" and "Butterscotch" and I thought other brands would have one perfect shade. I found that none of the other brands had a shade close enough to my skin tone and even after mixing two shades they were very far off.  Bare Minerals Matte foundation was too reddish even the yellow undertone "Golden Medium"one made me look like a tomato. I tried so many of the Jane Iredale colours from the Amazing Base Range and they were either too light or too dark, too purple or too ashy but not in the middle.

However I do feel that Jane Iredale powder was long lasting and the look on the face was very soft and glowing and it didn't show up my smile lines or separate from the creases on my face even in the summer. I used Jane Iredale Amazing Base mostly on top of Jane Iredale Liquid Minerals which was also the wrong colour. I feel Bare Minerals would come second to Jane Iredale because it had a really nice soft finish and it was also long lasting. Now this doesn't mean that Lily Lolo doesn't apply nicely because it does have a flawless finish and I do look great but I think the others give a nicer sheen and it could perhaps be because the powders look like they are more finer and perhaps because they have more ingredients. Lily Lolo use only a few ingredients and most of all it does not contain some of the sensitising ingredients such as Bismuth Oxychloride  that some other natural mineral make-up brands contain like Bare Minerals Original foundation. I have read Bismuth Oxychloride doesn't effect everybody but for some it can be very irritating. Jane Iredale contains Dimethicone which isn't considered harmful but some people may get irritations. 

Jane Iredale amazing base foundation contains natural SPF20, Bare Minerals and Lily Lolo Foundation contains SPF15 except for BareMinerals Ready SPF20.  I don't need to use sun lotion but that is because I have a darker skin tone so I don't need a high SPF but if you have pale skin I would suggest using sun lotion too. All three brands of foundation don't feel heavy and I actually forget I'm wearing make-up.Jane Iredale is more expensive than Bare Minerals and Lily Lolo and I got less mineral powder compared to Lily Lolo which is the cheapest.

Overall Lily Lolo Foundation colours work better for me and I get more minerals for my money. However I do feel that Bare minerals and Jane Iredale may have been better in terms of longer lasting and in the heat if the colours were right for me.

LILY LOLO DURING THE SUMMER:

I have combination skin mostly but its really oily during the Summer where I have occasional face make-up melt downs, I feel that my make up stays on longer when I apply Lily Lolo foundation with my liquid method as I touch up only once at the end of a working day as oppose to the original powder application. If I use Lily Lolo Foundation with the original powder application I have to use Aloe Vera Gel under my moisturiser as a natural primer and a primer such as Bare minerals primer on top of my moisturiser as well as Lily Lolo Matt Finishing Powder on top of my Foundation and I apply this before I start work around 7.30am and I will fix it around my nose and mouth just with the powder foundation around lunch time and tea time as I am most oily around those areas. I will touch up again but all over the face with my powder foundation and finishing powder when I'm leaving work as its extremely hot in the trains when I am going back home. So I always prefer my liquid method.

LILY LOLO DURING THE WINTER: 

Applying Lily Lolo Foundation during the winter I feel I don't need the Finishing Powder as it stays on longer. I am happy to apply it in both powder and liquid form. However I still use Aloe Vera under my moisturiser as a primer.


Rating: 8/10 , would give 10/10 if they had more darker ranges in the concealer powder and perhaps more yellow toned foundations.

For How to Make your Mineral Powder into Liquid Mineral Foundation Please follow the link Below-
http://natural-beautyaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/how-to-make-liquid-foundation-from-your.html