Sunday, September 4, 2011

Monthly LOVES: August

Hi Dolls! Thanks for stopping by - Here are my LOVES for the month of August. I don't have too many as I have trying to spend less lately, lol...but these are some good ones I have recently adopted. Please feel free to comment and ask anything you like! :) 
Loves
1. The POREfessional by Benefit: a face primer that smooths & reduces the appearance of large pores
2. Hawaiian Ruby Guava Body Butter and roller-ball perfume by Pacifica: I am loving this soft fruity scent for summer and both are super convenient to carry in your purse. 
3. Deep Down Detox Ultra Cleaning Mud Mask by Formula 10.0.6: Love this, I use it 1-2 times a week to really deep clean my pores, and it doesn't sting. 
4. Keratin & Green Tea Restructurizer by Aphogee: I actually haven't had this an entire month yet, but love the ingredients; I purchased this as an alternative to the Chi Keratin Mist and it was only a little over $6 at Sally's and the lady said I would be fine to use it on dry hair too; will have to update on actual results after longer term use.   
5. Neutrogena Naturals Purifying Pore Scrub: Love that this is a gentle scrub for my acne prone skin, I use about every other day to clear pores and gently resurface skin.
6. Boots Expert Sensitive Cleaning & Toning Wipes: I wanted some gentle makeup removing wipes for my acne prone skin and these were the least expensive of the hypoallergenic sensitive wipes, they work great.
7. Go Cocktails: I love these! they are little sugar free packets that add a favor to your cocktail with only 5 calories! The one I have is Appletini & it's super flavorful. You just add to a vodka water & it saves so many calories compared to those super suger-y cocktails.
8. Inglot Pallet: I believe this is a newer pallet from Inglot, I could not pass it up when I realized it has all the essentials in one! Includes a face powder, brush, and 2 eyeshadow spaces and you can select your own colors from many options. 
9. BrowPerfection by Presitige: This was a very inexpensive brow gel I found at Ulta. I never really used brow gels, but this is completely clear with no clumping/residue
10. Gelish Soak Off Polish (Tiger Blossom): I believe I have mentioned this product before, but I'm even more excited because now they sell a DIY kit at Sally's! I use to go to the salon to get them, but this was the 1st time I have done on my own, it was pretty easy too - the additional photos are of the kit & my nails. 
11. Olay Professional Pro-X Advanced Cleansing System: I love this! I never got the clarisonic because I thought it was over priced for something that doesn't even spin (although I'm sure its great - so many people love), but I got this Olay brush for $25 as an alternative and it really works great to clean deep down
12. MyFitness Pal app: I have had this for a while and getting back into using it, but I love this app for my phone! If you are trying to eat more healthy or have a weight lose goal, this helps so much and makes you realize how many calories & sugar is truly in some food and actually helps me to figure out healthier alternatives to get the most out of my calorie allotment!


Thursday, September 1, 2011

How I clean my Makeup Brushes

Hello! One of my good friends asked me today to remind her how I clean my makeup brushes which reminded me that I had been meaning to post how I do so on my blog. So, here we are - this is just how I prefer to deep clean my makeup brushes. I clean them daily with a brush cleaning spray from Sephora, but about on a weekly basis I clean them in the following way. I have adapted how I clean them from some of my favorite youtube gurus like,  Michelle PhanKandee Johnson & SunkissAlba. I have super oily, acne prone skin, therefore I avoided the olive oil and dish soap as used in some of their videos and opted for an antibacterial soap and jojoba oil instead, which is suppose to be ok for acne prone skin. Below are my steps. Enjoy! :)

Step 1: grab antibacterial hand soap, jojoba oil and a white plate (so u can see the makeup color as it fades) 
Step 2: squirt some soap & 1 drop or 2 of oil on the plate; wet only the hair section of the brush (avoiding the handle) and rub the brush in a circular motion against the plate, rinse.
*Repeat this step until no color is coming of the brush and it rinses clear.  
(note - using the raised edge if your plate to rub against get out the stubborn makeup, if you have an even more textured plate - even better, to create a washboard effect)
Step 3: wipe the brushes dry with a paper towel and hang with brush side down to dry. 
I choose to do this using self-adhesive velcro sticking a little piece on each brush and I keep the other halves in the inside of my medicine cabinet so they are hidden & I never have to remove. I usually do end up removing the velcro from the brushes after they are dry if they get in the way, but you get so much velcro in the package it's to big deal to stick a new piece every time.   
*Thanks 4 reading, please feel free to comment :)
 
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