Category Archives: beauty look

Let’s get real, Benebabes—we’re DYING for a spring makeup refresh! With all of the spring cleaning going on, we need to reboot our cosmetics collection too, but it can come with a hefty price tag. Our solution? The nice package! kit builder! Nice package is a custom makeup kit with one of each type of item: complexion, cheeks, eyes, a free gift AND a makeup bag! At only $79, we get the best of Benefit for a steal!

We LOVE knowing what our fave beauty gurus put in their nice package! so we caught up with Ashley of MakeupbyAmarie, to find out what’s in hers. Ashley is one of our faves because her videos cover everything from lifestyle to beauty to fashion—we can always count on her for ah-mazing tips & tricks! She does fun & easy how-to vids, & you ALL know we’re a sucker for gorgeous, EASY looks!

Ashley’s complexion pick is one of our classic go-tos—the POREfessional primer! She tells us that she loves the way it smooths her skin to create the perfect canvas before foundation—but her fave part about POREfessional? That it has a little bit of tint so she can wear it alone when she feels like going natural! She even went so far as to say it’s her holy grail primer! We’re totally blushing!

Ashley’s cheek choice is hoola. She loves to do the hoola because it adds dimension & brings color back into her face after the flattening effects of foundation. We couldn’t agree with our gorgeous friend more—hoola is our contour must-have!

You already know we’re uhhhb-sessed with her eye pick—roller lash! She tells us that roller lash is her newest go-to mascara because it gives lashes a lift while separating each individual lash for a natural, fanned out, crazy-curled look. The 12-hour formula & hook ‘n’ roll brush on our fabulous new mascara has her proclaiming, “it’s perfect.”

Last, but certainly not least, Ashley goes for benebalm for her free gift. Our rose-tinted moisturizing balm is super buildable and gives the perfect just-kissed finish to any look. Ashley tells us she needs it in her purse on-the-go for when she needs color & hydration at the same time!

After hearing this fab guru’s flawless nice package! picks, we’re more positive than ever that we’re going to stock up for spring with nice package! We’re feeling so inspired, we might just have to copy Ashley’s choices—the girl knows how to get gorgeous! Dying to know more about Ashley’s nice package? Check out the look she created for her YouTube channel using her choices here!

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I mentioned this idea in my Affordable and Smaller Gifts video and thought I’d show you the finished result. Himalayan pink bath salts (the “in” thing of the moment and often extortionately priced) rustically packaged up in a Kilner jar (or something prettier, if you have it) and finished off with a rather kitsch artificial rose. I’ll tell you why I like this as a gift: 1) it’s an enormous amount of bath salt for your buck – and these are effective, lovely bath salts not weird peach-smelling ones that will possibly give you thrush or some other kind of gynaecological situation; 2) the Kilner jar is reusable and inherently useful, so there’s no wastage; 3) you can pick up everything at your supermarket as you whizz about snapping up the last of the mince pies and sprouts and goose fat and so on.

The cost of some of these luxury Himalayan salts online can cost up to £10 per 100g – mine, which are distributed by “Dr Salts” (no idea, have never heard of him!) cost fifty pence per 100g. Now – as I have said previously – I do not know whether there’s a significant difference between the two versions; perhaps they are sourced differently or one batch is more ethical or one type has been blessed by naked virgins at midnight. I have no idea, and I will endeavour to do some finding out on this in the New Year. But I’ve checked the ingredients list on both luxury and budget versions and they say the same thing: salt.

So, grab a Kilner and a hefty bag of these lovely, detoxifying beauties and get pouring. I used a large jar so that there was space for my faux-rose, feel free to use a jar half the size and fill to the brim. I suppose it looks more generous, in a way. But if you do want to go down the decorative route then you can find fake flowers at those big hobby and craft stores and at quite a few florists (ironically!) and also in the supermarket if you’re lucky. A nice alternative could be to write a little note on brown paper, curl it into a scroll and tie with some twine before popping into the jar on top of the salts. Message-in-a-bottle style. You could say something along the lines of “Himalayan Detoxifying Bath Salts: The Ultimate SOS”. Or similar. Knock yourselves out!

Here are the salts online, for those who want to take a look: Sainsburys.co.uk. They also do salts at Waitrose – if you’ve seen them anywhere else then do put it in the comments, for the benefit of your fellow good readers!

The post The Emergency Himalayan Salt DIY Christmas Present! appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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Body washes are never the most thrilling beauty products to write about, but this little number from Weleda very much deserves a proper mention. It’s difficult to find shower gels and body cleansers that are gentle and non-drying but that actually work; lots of the effective ones leave my skin too squeaky and stripped, many of the “kinder” versions seem to be a little wishy-washy and useless.

Weleda’s Citrus Body Wash was one of the more surprising beauty heroes to emerge from my holiday washbag; I had pushed it down to the bottom of the testing pile because I didn’t like the idea of a citrusy scent, but used it as an emergency measure when the Korres showergel that was in my hotel room failed to step up to the mark. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the citrus scent wasn’t your run-of-the-mill “lemon and lime” but more of a mediterranean cologne kind of smell. I didn’t mind it at all, though I think I’d still probably prefer the Wild Rose or Pomegranate versions. Scent aside, I just thought that the body wash was a perfect holiday product; moisturising, non-squeaky, but effective enough to cleanse off sunscreen and salt water and chorine smells and all of the other less-than-desirable things that cling to your person when it’s hot and sweaty.

I had a few little tubes of this, and you can buy them in 20ml sizes from Weleda, but it’s much more cost-effective to get a 200ml and decant into travel bottles. You can find all of the different scents on Amazon for around £7.75 per tube with free delivery – the Wild Rose is here. Slightly pricier than your average shower gel, but not outrageously so, and it has a really luxe feel that makes it worth every penny.

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