Category Archives: beauty products

Gather Your Wing Women at ULTA!

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ULTA & Benefit Cosmetics are your beauty besties when it comes to looking your best. Just like the wing women in your life—your sisters from another mister, your BFFs forevs—we’ve always got your back. Which is why we’ve partnered up to host Wing Women events at select ULTA locations on weekends from August 8-24, 2014!

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In addition to bestie freebies—like the real turn-ons set including deluxe samples of they’re real! mascara & watt’s up—with a $40 product or service purchase, we’ll be giving exclusive makeup lessons with they’re real! push-up liner. If you haven’t tried the lash-hugging gel liner everyone’s talking about, now’s your chance to try & learn from the pros—for free!

If you can’t make it (or just want extra goodies, you smartypants), we’re also giving away $500 of your fave Benefit products to 3 lucky Benebabes! Just visit here & RT the contest Tweet by 8/24 to be entered to win.

Hope to see you at ULTA with your wing women!

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Loving Lavera…

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My love for Lavera Shampoo started with a hunt for a bargain. I don’t like paying a lot for shampoo, I mean I totally will if I’ve tried everything else and nothing is working for me, or I’m sold on the swishy ingredients list and marketing lingo, but I’ll always try something cheaper if I can.
We’ve gone through a lot of shampoo in this house, both myself and Michael have fussy scalps that get itchy and sore if we use anything harsh (usually if it’s not natural) and we’ve tried a lot of shampoo labelled specifically for a sensitive scalp that works for one or two bottles and then the pain returns and we need to move on. Hair does actually get used to products, so switching it up is no bad thing at all. We’ve been using Lavera (the blue bottle) for just over a year, and it’s just now that I’m starting to need something new.

The Lavera Basis Sensitiv Moisture & Care Shampoo, £6.95, is that perfect blend of cleansing with no build up or greasy residue, but leaves my hair so soft, shiny and conditioned that I rarely needed conditioner. Made with almond milk, aloe vera and avocado it sounds like a fancy green smoothie. It kept my scalp in perfect condition and my hair feeling healthy bottle after bottle (I think I’ve gone through 5 or 6!). What I also love about this shampoo and the other Lavera shampoos that I’ve been using, is that they foam up. I can’t be dealing with a shampoo that has no bubbles, I never feel like my hair is clean!

The green Freshness and Balance Shampoo, £6.95, was a purchase for Michael who’s hair gets oily quicker than mine, but I’ve been using this too if I’ve used a little too much dry shampoo or hair oil. It removes residue with ease and leaves hair feeling clean, a little squeaky perhaps but not super stripped or dry. I do always follow up with a little conditioner though.

Lastly, I purchased the Volume & Strength Shampoo, £6.95, most recently because postpartum hair loss is real, guys. I feel like I might be bald soon at this rate! 😉 I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference in hair loss slowing down yet, but I do like how it makes my hair feel. The formula contains Vitamin C and Green Tea to strengthen those all-important roots. Perhaps I need to use this exclusively to see a major difference because I still like to use the Moisture & Care most often.

I’m now on the lookout and ready to try a few new brands and products in the bathroom because I think my hair is used to these now. Michael is starting to complain about his hair too… maybe it’s the warmer weather!
I did just see that they have a new 2-in-1 Deep Care & Repair Shampoo and Conditioner which sounds diiiiivine! Perhaps I’ll pick up a bottle of that for testing purposes, of course 😉

Have you tried any Lavera haircare? See the full range here (Note that they are all vegan except for the pale pink Gloss & Bounce range)

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What Beauty Confidence Means To Me

 
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THIS IS A SPONSORED POST IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LIPIVIR

The beauty industry thrives on our insecurities, worries and concerns; it’s there to point out that we have spots that need covering, fine lines that need targeting or lashes that need lengthening. However, it’s also there to provide the tools we need to feel confident and fabulous when we need it most – whether that’s via a radiance boosting face cream, a bright red lipstick or a shampoo that keeps your colour vibrant. I adore everything about the industry and choose to take away the positives rather than the negatives, believing that those bods in white coats are busy trying to find solutions to our problems rather than forcing us to buy into something we don’t really need. Personally I’ve always looked at my huge stash of products as a tool kit to reveal who I think I am, rather than a way of concealing or creating a new identity; it’s empowering and confidence building to know I can cover up those early onset greys, dark circles and fine lines under my eyes, so I don’t have to worry about them interfering with my day. The benefit the beauty industry brings is choice: choice to address concerns or worries, choice to create who you want to be that day, choice to age at your own pace and choice to feel confident in your own skin. But what about beauty confidence?

Beauty confidence to me is about knowing I’m projecting my best image to those around me, without worrying about the little details. It’s about knowing my skin feels great, my nails are done, my grey hairs are covered and that I don’t have to worry about a breakout or cold sore appearing when it’s least convenient. Beauty confidence to me is about the little things that make a huge difference, but when they work you don’t even realise the impact they have; from cuticle oil to help my nails grow strong, to body scrubs that help reveal fresh glowing skin, to my favourite concealers that ensure focus is on my eyes – not what lies beneath. Beauty confidence to me is about knowing my body is changing as I age, but embracing it wholeheartedly and celebrating the fact that it works hard to keep me moving rather than putting it down for daring to be imperfect; it’s about understanding that there is beauty in all of us and in our differences, and that if we were all the same the world would be a very boring place to be. Beauty confidence is about doing whatever makes you feel good, and minimising the potential to make you feel bad.

Fortunately lipivir understand that the appearance of a cold sore can be confidence draining; they understand that it can make you want to hide away, that you may not want to look people in the eye and that the discomfort can interfere with your day. They understand that to have beauty confidence you have to be armed with the tools to ensure you feel your best, so they set about creating something to help: a lightweight gel that can be applied around the edge of lips to help prevent the appearance of cold sores. (The HSV1 virus that causes cold sores reactivates by sending signals between particles to ‘wake-up’ and start replicating so they can spread; lipivir has a special formulation that disrupts these signals so they don’t arrive. Its special formula is made of a biologically inactive substance which interferes with the signals, ‘jamming’ the viruses’ communications and preventing outbreaks.)

It’s these little steps in our regime that can have a huge impact, knowing that we have the tools at our disposal to stop those pesky inconveniences from appearing altogether. Beauty confidence is about stepping out the door with your head held high knowing you’re looking and feeling fabulous – and you’re going to kick some ass. I’ve been trying lipivir for a few weeks alongside one of my best friends who suffers from horrendous cold sores and it’s definitely helped us both to feel beauty confident. Although it’s hard to tell whether or not something has been effective when it’s a preventative measure, the fact there’s a simple way to stop those ‘oh no’ moments is a godsend in my book. Alongside my nail strengthener, retinol enriched night creams, semi-permenant brows and regular pedicure appointments, it proves that there are little ways to ensure you feel beauty confident 365 days of the year. Thank goodness for the beauty industry.

What does beauty confidence mean to you?

To find out more about lipivir, visit their website: www.lipivir.com
You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Read my previous post, How To Ensure Healthy Kissable Lips All Year Long, for some more top tips.

This is a sponsored post on behalf of lipivir; all opinions and recommendations are my own.

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Bourjois Swimming Cool Collection

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I think you’d say about the Bourjois Swimming Cool Collection that it’s about colour nuance rather than blazing, full on shades. Putting that in context with Parisian Summer which focusses on a warm glow complexion it works so well for fresh, rather than intense spring and summer looks. The Sweet Kiss Glosses are colour whispers on the lips – light feeling, transluscent and shiny. If you’re afraid of red, this is the way to do it with Carton Rouge (above) because it gives you red in a low key way. The downside is that they’re not long lasting, so you need to be okay with topping up (I am – I don’t mind it at all).

Bourjois Swimming Cool Collection

Sweet Kiss has followed the trend for oil-based lip products – there’s a slick of vegetable oil in these that gives lips a soft, conditioned feel. They’re £7.99 each. The shades above from bottom to top are: Sandsation, Rose Qui Peut, Incognirose and As De Pink.

Bourjois Aqua Blush

The Aqua Blush from the Bourjois Swimming Cool Collection has stolen my heart – they’re exactly the kind of blush I love to use; super-light in pigment, extremely blendable and cool feeling on the skin. I’ve been using them with a kabuki to give a wash of colour that’s completely seamless on the complexion. I have found that you need to build the colour though – start with a small amount and keep brushing on a little more until you have that ‘flush’.

Bourjois Aqua Blush

The shades are: Berry Nice, Pink Twice, Inge-Nude and Cocoricorail. They’re all colours that sit naturally but give a pop of freshness. I’m obsessed with these – on my tone, which is light olive, I can wear all four colours. There’s a 12 hour last claim on these which on me didn’t work for that long, but they’re well worth £8.99 of anyone’s money! The collection is available from June.