Ingredient Spotlight: Rose

Who doesn't love getting roses!?
...Did you know that roses have plenty more uses than just looking beautiful and smelling heavenly? They're actually an incredible ingredient for all skin types! I suggest using rose water if anything, it's incredibly gentle and it smells wonderful.

So what are the benefits of rose water on the skin?

It is incredibly anti-inflammatory, therefore, it helps with redness and irritation on the skin. If you're looking for a quick fix for tightness and redness, I suggest LUSH's Eau Roma Water, which is a toner water with rose and lavender to balance out cranky skin. It works wonders!

It also works as an astringent when used to tighten pores, pulling out impurities. Over time, using rose water might even help the look of enlarged pores! Who knew?

Related to rose water being an astringent: it is amazing at unclogging pores and removing gross stuff that's built up in your pores over time. I like to spray my Eau Roma Water on my pillow before I go to sleep at night to keep the cleaning process going on each of my cheeks when I flip over!

I've heard some mixed things about the next process I'm going to tell you beauties about, so if you prefer not to do it, you don't have to by any means. I have not tried it because the use of lemon on the skin on the face has had more bad reviews than good when I've done my research, but one of my co-workers told me about a remedy that has done wonders for her skin, and when I tell you her skin is perfection, her skin is baby-smooth without an uneven patch or blemish anywhere. So what does she do?
Well, she told me she went to a market and picked up pure rose water in a spray, then she takes half a lemon and rubs the peel on her face and applies the rose water afterwards. She says it has completely stopped her breakouts in a natural way that smells amazing and it hasn't irritated her skin. I'm going to have to give it a try and let you all know how it goes, but if any of you have tried it/try it, please leave me a comment and let me know how it works!

Thanks for reading beauties, until next time!

Ultrabland Review

Hi beauties! I have another review for you today for a product that after this week I might just be a little bit obsessed with.
LUSH Cosmetics' Ultrabland!

This stuff has become my beauty holy grail. It is a cream cleanser, which means that it most definitely doesn't lather. How I like to use it: I wash my hands thoroughly and make sure they're really clean. I scoop a quarter-sized amount of Ultrabland into my hands and rub them together, then rub in circular motions from my jawline to my forehead...making sure to wipe over my eyes and remove my makeup.
(Yes guys, this stuff removes makeup better than a makeup remover wipe...in my own opinion of course)
All you have to do from there is take a damp cotton pad and wipe off the excess. I personally love the exfoliating cotton pads that I get from Target, I just feel cleaner afterwards.
It has lots of almond oil, honey, and beeswax to nourish the skin and rose water to soothe. Somehow, this cleanser works for everyone. It was originally created for one of LUSH's founders when she went to Liz Wier (another founder of LUSH) and begged for something that would help with her excema on her face. They came up with Ultrabland on the spot and it has become a LUSH best-seller ever since.
With good reason. I'm giving this product a 1000/10, it has evened my skin tone and cleared up blemishes in a week. I've used this every night for the last 5 nights, and the ridiculous turnaround in my skin is hardly even explainable. I can't thank LUSH enough for making such an insanely beautiful product.
Don't let the texture and thickness turn you off, beauties, at least take a sample of this baby home and take your makeup off with it. Let me know how it goes!

Ingredient Spotlight: Tea Tree

How many of us love natural alternatives for treatments that can dry the skin out (like benzoyl peroxide)? I know I do! So this week's ingredient spotlight is the amazing tea tree!

Tea tree does of course come from a tree, however it is a different plant than the plants that produce tea leaves like the kind you put in your boiling water. While those leaves are meant to be used internally (and sometimes externally) in order to reap the benefits, the tea tree plant's oil is meant to be used topically for more uses than you ever imagined!

Tea tree is super antiseptic, making it great to use on cuts, burns, and even allergic reactions to reduce inflammation. Some people even put it in their hot bath to reduce things like coughs and bronchial infections/irritations. 

But for beauty purposes, tea tree is like the holy grail that no one knew how to find! It is becoming a much more popular ingredient now, and we have finally decided to give a natural alternative a chance and make our skin stunning.
Tea tree can be used for athlete's foot to reduce itching and inflammation, so this can be thrown in your shoes in a powder or apply the oil topically to soothe the skin.
It has also been known to be used on the scalp to treat dandruff, so to keep your scalp from flaking, try a shampoo or conditioner with tea tree! It'll keep your hair strong and save you from flakes!
But I think what we all want to know about tea tree: what can it do for the skin?
Tea tree has been found to be an amazing anti-inflammatory that can reduce acne! It has been found that while it will not work as quickly, tea tree is a much more natural way to treat acne in the same way as 5% benzoyl peroxide gel. How crazy is that? It's much more gentle on the skin than benzoyl peroxide, keeping the skin healthy and bright while fighting redness and post-acne scarring. 

All in all, tea tree is a do-it-all ingredient that you can find in oil form at your local Whole Foods store, or you can just order it online! Careful though, you might get addicted to using it for just about everything!

Winter Skin

Hi again beauties!
This is an important post for those of you who have super temperamental skin around this time of year. Think about it: all things holiday come out, the glitter starts flying, you can start wearing adorable sweaters and your comfiest (but most stylish) boots...and your skin gets crazy unhappy.
You get flaky, combination, sometimes even oilier than you are in the summertime. What the heck is happening?!
You may ask yourself "but I take such good care of my skin, what am I doing wrong?" (I know I do!) Here's the low-down, you're not doing anything wrong, you may just have to modify your routine a teeny bit.
See, here's what happens: during the wintertime, the air loses a lot of its humidity and excess moisture. This results in dry skin because the environment is essentially sucking the moisture your skin has right out of it. Also, we're putting the heat on to keep warm, right? And while it's always nice to feel toasty and warm, our skin doesn't appreciate all that dry heat!
What can we do to protect our skin for wintertime, you ask? Here:

1) Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!
Remember when I said your skin might even get oilier than it was in the summertime? This is especially for you. What happens is when the skin loses moisture, it leaves it feeling tight, taut, and dry. But your skin will try to overcompensate for the dryness by producing lots of excess oil.
So no matter what skin type, I suggest finding a moisturizer with glycerin, which will lock moisture into the skin, but will also add a layer of protection. It will keep the skin feeling extra soft all winter long. 

2) Use warm water, not hot!
Sounds weird, right? But you're actually better off taking a warm shower rather than a steaming hot one. The reason why is because scalding water breaks down the lipid barriers on your skin that keep you naturally hydrated, and when you're getting out of a shower that left you feeling like you might have been set on fire and fail to moisturize, it can lead to intense irritation, craking, dryness...we definitely don't want that. 

3) Invest in a humidifier.
This will add moisture into the air in your room while you sleep, ultimately leading to much more hydrated skin than skin exposed to just a blast of dry heat.

Hope this helps, everyone! If you have any extra healthy winter skin tips, leave them in the comments below! Stay fabulous!

Ingredient Spotlight: Honey

Time for another ingredient spotlight! This time we'll be focusing on honey, one of the most underrated ingredients in the beauty world.

Sure, you sweeten your tea with it, you might even eat some right off the spoon when you're trying to help your allergies along (local honey helps!) but do you know what it can do for your skin?
Honey is a natural preservative. In lots of face products, you don't need any parabens or other preservatives because honey will keep your products fresh!
Honey is also naturally antibacterial, making it safe to put on acne. It's antibacterial properties can help speed up the healing process of cuts, open wounds (such as popped pimples) and facial inflammation! Cool, right? It also promotes moisturizaton of the skin, so while it antibacterializes pores and helps clear your skin up, it also helps with elasticity and hydration! Sometimes I like to apply pure, raw, organic local honey to my face (about 2 tablespoons), and let it sit on my face for around 15 minutes. When I rinse it off (and lick it off my lips because I can't help it...) my face feels tighter but not dry, and I see a significant difference in the brightness of my skin when I wake up the next morning. No complaints here!
Honey is also an anti-irritant, so it can be used in just about anything to keep skin calm, balanced, and in perfect condition. It's also safe to be used on very young and sensitive skin because it helps protect against free radicals!
Plenty of products contain honey; to name a few from LUSH: Brazened Honey, Honey I Washed the Kids, Fair Trade Honey shampoo, It's Raining Men shower gel...the list goes on!

Let me know if there are any ingredients you'd like to see next time. Can't wait to do another one of these!

Birthday Haul!

Hi beauties! It was my birthday on Monday the 21st, and what was on most of my list was makeup and skincare (of course), so I thought I would share some of the stuff I got with you. I'm going to be reviewing these products as I use them, so stay tuned for that too!

1) Urban Decay Vice 2

I'm so excited to try this one out, I have the first Vice palette and I really like it. Some of the colors are a little chalky in the first and I didn't swatch the second yet, so we'll see how it goes. I love Urban Decay, 99.9% of the time the quality of their products is amazing.

2) Anastasia Catwalk Palette

I've never tried Anastasia's products before, but I fell in love with that deep maroon/purple second from the left in the top row and that's what ultimately made me ask for this...little did I know I'd love all the colors! I just tried this palette today and loved the quality of the shadows and how they wear throughout the day. I should have taken a picture to show you guys, but I was in a rush out the door on the way to work and then totally forgot :/

3) Stila All Over Shimmer Liquid Luminizer highlighter

I've been in dire need of a good highlighter- I was considering buying Feeling Younger from LUSH but for some reason decided against it, however I'm kind of glad I did. (Sorry, LUSH, I still love you!) I fell in love with the pink shimmer of the luminizer, and I'm really excited to try it out under my brows, on my cheekbones, and on my cupid's bow!

4) Stila Color Balm Lipstick in Bridgitte

I'm always looking for new lip balms, and I was dying for something in a nice wine color for fall. This one looks perfect, and I'm hoping to really get the full effect of a lipstick with the moisturizing effects of a balm! Fingers crossed

5) Urban Decay Glide On Lip Pencil in Ozone

This thing is awesome. I haven't tried it with lipstick or any color yet for that matter, but it claims to work in the same way as a lip pencil/liner. But it's clear. That's right, when you apply it you can't see it. Crazy, right? I'm hoping it doesn't mess with the color of my lipsticks, that's the ultimate goal. Usually you can see the outline of my lip liner because I try to be really precise with my lipsticks, so I don't always go to the edge of my lip liner with my lipstick in the hopes that nothing will feather. Again, fingers crossed!

6) Lorac 3D Liquid Lustre

I'd swatched this about a year ago at Sephora and fell in love but never found a practical use for it...so I figured I would ask for it for my birthday! I can't wait to put this over my eyeshadows around the holidays, glitter always makes me feel festive! 

As far as beauty products go, that's what I got for my birthday this year! I'm hoping to put up some reviews of these products soon, let me know if you've tried any of them and how you feel about them! Until next time, beauties!

How to Deal with Combination Skin

We all know how frustrating it is when our skin doesn't behave. Sometimes we break out. Sometimes we get so dry that we get flaky and sore. Sometimes we get a little bit of both. 
Wait, what? How can I possibly have such horribly dry spots but an oil slick in my T-zone?
Well, beauties, this problem is way more common than you think. Actually, believe it or not, tons and tons of people in the world have just that same problem: uncomfortably dry skin in some spots and oily spots that break out easily in others.

So how do we deal with something as complicated as skin with a split personality?
As it turns out, drying out the oily spots is not the answer. Moisturizing with the right kind of cream may be the answer to your cranky skin's problems! It's going to take quite a few tries, but eventually, the right product will fall right into your lap.

Why would I moisturize oily spots, you ask? Sometimes, what happens is your skin becomes so dry that it begins overcompensating in the oil-production area. That means that maybe your skin has gotten so dry that your skin is producing 5x the oil it normally would if it were at a balance.
Adding moisturizer to these areas on the skin will eventually tell the pore to calm down with the oil, because the moisturizer has it under control. Then the dry spots will start to get back to that lovely smoothness we all strive for, and the oily spots will follow suit!

So how do you find such a magical moisturizer? Well, there are plenty of steps. Find out what you're sensitive to. If you have allergies to certain ingredients, stay clear of products with those ingredients in them. They can cause your skin to flare up, resulting in redness, irritation, more dryness or more oiliness. Skin is so temperamental isn't it?

If you tend to be mostly on the oily side, try an oil-free moisturizer. This will keep from adding to the oils your skin is already producing, but it will moisturize those dry spots. This will keep your skin at a nice balance without irritating it. 
If you tend to be mostly on the dry side, try a moisturizer geared towards sensitive skin. I tend to try the more natural route, you know, working at LUSH and all, so I use either their Celestial or Gorgeous moisturizers.
(I just recently started using Gorgeous, I'm going to do a review some time in the very near future!)
Both are packed full of skin-loving ingredients like almond milk and vanilla in Celestial to soothe, and wheatgrass in Gorgeous which nourishes. Both moisturizers really feed your skin without causing irritation. Actually, Gorgeous is the same formula Princess Diana used in her moisturizer!

Another option is LUSH's Imperialis. This stuff is magic. Want to know why? It has cocoa butter to moisturize, but it has lavender. Lavender is a crazy awesome ingredient to have in your skincare routine (if you read my previous post, you know why!), it evens out the way skin produces oil; basically it keeps sebum production under control.

Let me know all about your skincare routines for combination skin, beauties! I'd love to hear what you use!