Beauty Tips, My Night-time Face care routine; for younger-looking glowing morning-time skin!

Since starting Beauty Therapy i have learnt a lot about Skin, (obviously) and my own skin in particular, for instance; I'm 26 and i have not one line nor wrinkle yet...YET. It WILL happen. It comes to us all... but that compared to some of my younger friends, between the ages of 19-24, who have un-believeable crows feet, brown furrows and even cheek/chin sagging. I thought it was mere good-fortune and excellent genetics, but no! Alas it is my years of methodically and almost obsessively looking after my skin.
Not one make-up wipe (mostly), i don't smoke, i don't drink, my caffeine intake is minimal, i drink plenty of water, i wear SPF15 moisturizer daily, without fail, despite my Italian heritage my skin stays a pasty white, there's no olive tones here! And apparently because I've done this since i started wearing make-up when i was 13/14 my skin isn't far off the condition it was back then. Obviously naturally you'll loose collagen, time and environment and stress are all factors but this is your basic list of things you need to keep yourself and your skin young and healthy;

Night- after the makeup comes off!

1- Take your make up off without fail!!!

Next morning-No make up

No! a night out on the town and you coming home drunk ISN'T a good enough excuse to neglect your skin. You still need to take that make up off, all the damage you've already done tonight drinking and smoking/passive smoking is enough to keep your skin desperate for air for a few days so you must do all you can do to relieve if of the stress it'll be under, and taking off your slap is essential. Soap and water is only acceptable if you put on lathers of excellent non-greasy moisturizer after, as soap doesn't tend to help your skins natural PH levels and can dry your skin out, and the fact your pours are open and exposed from cleaning, if your prone to break-outs or spots a non oily or greasy moisturizer is the only option, there's no point in cleaning your face and replace it with more stuff it has to flush out...
Ideally you want to be using a good Cleanser, Toner and Moisturizer and get yourself into a good routine. The products don't necessarily need to all be the same brand- but test a few out, avoid high alcohol toners if your skin is dry, they're more for people with oily skin as the alcohol dries your skin out, (that is also why makeup wipes are bad, nay TERRIBLE as they're basically just scented cloths of alcohol) Obviously most beauty products are labelled for your skin type so Dry, Combination, Oily, Mature etc... Get used to doing this Cleanse-tone-moisturize routine EVERY NIGHT without fail. You'll end up with breakouts if you miss a couple, and after a good few you'll notice it in dry patches on your face, and eventually in the future as lines on your face!



2- Drink Water.
Simple, and what it says on the tin, drink your 2Ltrs of water a day to stop your skin drying out and becoming a flaky mess.

3- STOP TANNING
Yes, okay pasty white isn't a fashionable look, but when you're 40 and look 60 and us pale-faced sun-avoiders are 70 looking 40 you'll be the one who's miffed. If you must have your glow, or orange hue- fake it! But make sure you still use a good high SPF Everywhere on your body. On top of your fake tan. UV rays can get you even on a cloudy day, the sun always emits this radiation, so if its light out, there's rays about... and that means your skin's going to be working its butt-off to protect itself and you. So help it out a bit!

4- Treat yourself.
Your skin needs a good deep-cleans every month, so use a light slightly abrasive facial scrub, or a mask...or even go and get a facial treatment at a local salon. You'll love it, your skin will love it and if you cant really afford premium salons, go to your local collage's beauty school. they will require models and the prices are usually significantly reduced, and you'll be in good hands as no college tutor would let their therapists in training do a bad job.

5- All beauty products have use by dates
Every single thing you put on your face has a use-buy date, from 3 months, to 34 months, as indicated by this little symbol on every product you own. If its out of date it wont do anything it says its supposed to, no anti-aging, no SPF, no nothing... so use it up or if its out of date...get rid!

 





















So thats the basics, I'll be doing a post on identifying your skin type next week. So stay tuned for that. As usual don't forget to follow me on all my usual haunts;
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March Birchbox

Hey followers! Thanks for checking back, i haven't disappeared i've just been super-busy!

This months Birchbox may well be my last for a few months, and i'm so sad that i'm going out on such an AWESOME BOX. I was kind of hoping it'll follow the usual trend of a few good boxe's and then a rubbish one, but i can safely say Birchbox havent been a let down yet.


Anyway in this months box we had;
NOMS! Thats right this moths boxs' theme was "Good Enough to Eat" and boy it was!!!

This months "Lifestyle Extra" was Propercorn usually £0.90 per bag. I got the flavour Sweet Coconut and Vanilla, they also do Lightly Seasalted, Soured cream and Chive, Fiery Worcester Sauce & Sun-Dried Tomato and Sweet and Salty.
The Coconut and Vanilla Flavour i tried was a bit bland at first, but it was so yummy after a few mouth-fulls. Something i will definetly be buying.




The Balm Cosmetics 'How 'bout them Apples' Cheek and Lip Cream, £26-£32 for full size pallet with all 6 Shades price depending on where you buy it from.
I don't usually use a lot of blush as i spend most of my morning trying to cover up my red cheeks. But this creme adds a nice healthy glow, i found i would use it along with bronzer to add a fresh sun-kissed look to my skin. The fact its a cream also means you can choose the opacity of the product, and its multi use so lip balm and cheek colour. I got mine in the shade "Pie" plus there's some FIT Cowboys to perv at on the inside so the packaging gets a million thumbs up! :p


RMK Make Up Base Soft, silk, smooth and slightly toned, has a really light vanilla smell to it, leaves your skin easy to work with for foundation and concealer base. A tad pricey at £28 but i've used my 15ml sample every day since i got my box at the begning of the month and it's not even half empty, so a good investment. It doesn't leave me with breakouts after either like some primers do, as it's so light i find it doesn't clog up my pours.


Colour Club Nail Polish last month Birchbox sent out and e-mail asking subscribers to choose a nail polish colour from this amazing brand, i choose the pastel green colour called "Breakfast At..." as i understand most people did indeed get the colour they selected and i'm totally in love with it. Of the four colour options (green, blue, gold and white) i choose the green because it was something different for my polish collection. I have a lot of different shades by different brands but they're all mostly warmer reds, pinks, golds browns and blacks, i just love this colour. Only downside, that even with my hardest wearing base and top coat's it still chipped after a day or so. :( £15 for the full set of 4.


Laura Mercier Souffle Body cream is AMAZING that is all...
But seriously i want to eat it. I know i cant and it's such a shame but it smells edible and the scent lasts all day on your skin. £27 for an average size tub, but worth it! I haven't even used a quarter of my sample in 3 weeks so it really lasts. Highly recommend it, everyone's been complimenting me on it.


Yin Yang Natural Moisturiser £13.95. this is my least favorite, i don't like the smell at all, it does the job and leave your skin feeling awesome but i'm not sure i want to put it that close to my nose every day.


So that was all in this Month's Birchbox. As i said i doubt i'll be getting one next month but i have a few awesome things coming up so stay tuned. And as usual dont forget to follow me on
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Thanks! XXX

I FAIL at being alone...

I've always been what i thought of as a "lone wolf" kind of person, very self-sufficient, don't need anyone etc... then i realised when i first left home to go to university in Wales, that in fact, this wasn't true...like at all.
When i was first born, i shared a room in a cot with my parents in a teeny 1 bed flat. From birth right up to the age of 5 and a half when my sister was born we lived there, all together, then we moved to a bigger house and i shared a room with my sister. That was the case, including all the usual arguments, room boundaries and the addition of my brother (who got his own room to himself) right up until i was 19 and left for uni.
University was the first time i'd had MY OWN ROOM. It was awesome, but at this point i'd already met someone, (my now husband), and 2-3 nights a week he'd come up and stay in my uni room with me on his days off work. And i'm not even sure university counted as being alone because i shared halls with 4 other people! Then there was a shared house where my partner and i shared a room, and lived together. Then, after leaving university we moved into a friends house for a few months, then got our own flat... now we have a house we rent!!!
So... in conclusion, all those time's when i was younger, i felt like i had no friends, no one around, that i was "alone" i was ALWAYS with someone, or someone was always around. And Now for the FIRST TIME EVER in my life i am literally all alone in my house for more then a couple of days and i feel like i've gone utterly mad after less then a whole day! I literally have cried my eyes out on and off all day; i'm bored, so i moved ALL OF THE FURNITURE around and then got tired, argued with the cats, the cats argued with each other, then i got in a huff because i couldn't get the room to look how i wanted it, then i cried again, then i made dinner, then i carried on tidying up after i'd DESTROYED everything (because i was bored) and now i've just found myself in tears again because i'm making my usual hot drink before bed and i wanted to ask my Husband if he wanted one, and of course he's away, and it was just so depressing to see just one cup on the side...Way to go lone wolf...really pulling your independence out of the bag!!!

What makes all of this worse, with a somewhat generous sprinkling of irony, is that i suffer very badly with Social Anxiety, and it usually results in some form of Agoraphobia too. So while i'm sat at home feeling all alone, i also don't want to go outside and see anyone, or even have anyone come round, because my brain doesn't like that either. I'm DOOMED.

I'm going to bed alone, to watch Pokemon, probably play Pokemon Y, with my two cats, crazy cat lady style... i'm no lone wolf... piisssh. Closest thing i'll have to a strong independent "wolf" status is the fact i howl when i cry.

...coming soon....
What i HATE about having Social Anxiety and Agoraphobia...and why people who don't have it should experience it at least once.

Review; Vinted.com and the App

In Brief; extremely Flawed.

While i understand some of its security features are in place so that nothing dodgy goes on, all it does is create an air of "Vinted is the most backwards and dodgy thing i've even used", and furthermore it's usually good to know some of the vital information and elements up front.
If you downloaded the App from an add on Facebook, like i did you're in for a shock. I uploaded 6 items to sell, and it tells you there and then- when you enter a price to sell for, how much you'll actually get and how much they'll take, which is good, and uploading items using your phone is easy, but the problems started when i actually did sell something...

As someone on a lower income them most, when you sell stuff, through experience using Ebay or Etsy you get the money into your Paypal account and you can use that money to then post the package, NO! not with Vinted, they don't use Paypal either... when someone buys something from you, Vinted STORE all of the money until you send the item, you also have to send the item with a tracking number, otherwise they message you constantly informing you that you haven't posted the item, even though you have the post office reciept, and you waved it Goodbye yourself, and then if you still haven't entered a tracking number they will refund the buyer after 5 days, because OBVIOUSLY you didn't sent it. Then after flapping about this for 3 days you find out there is an "everything is okay" button that the buyer can press if they get the item and you didn't use a tracking number anyway, but that only shows itself on the 4th or last day before the threatened refund, and in the mean time you're constantly pressured for a tracking number that you clearly don't have! There's not even an option for "i don't have a tracking number" it just bullies you into entering random numbers hoping they'll work so you don't get your head flushed!!!
Also if you sell more then two items to one person you have to sell it as a "bundle" otherwise you have to post the items individually to the same person, with individual tracking numbers. They don't tell you this either! No where have i found any information about a "bundle" until they eventually e-mailed me back and informed me of it. They wont accept the same tracking number twice even if both of the items are in that bloody same package.
Oh and don't bother e-mailing for help. They reply pretty much instantly but take ages to get to the point, and end up replying to you 3-4 times before they understand your question and then they talk to you like you're the idiot, even though you've included all the links, pictures and fudging tracking numbers you can get your hands on.

If you research it online too, other complaints include Taking money out of your bank without permission, if you buy something and you want to use the money that is in your Vinted account from you selling, sometimes they don't use that they just use your bank and leave the Vinted account money sat there. But then if you try and withdraw the Money in the Vinted account to your bank it can take 5 working days- or it just doesn't acknowledge you want your money at all and it just keeps hold of it and you end up feeling like your in an eternal battle for the last Doughnut even though YOU bought them.

In short, it seems like a scam, and it probably is a scam, but its great for window shopping, i'd advise if there is anything you do want on there to contact the member, get them to take down the listing, e-mail them you're address, pay them via Paypal and do it all WITHOUT VINTED!!!

Also as a side note...STOP ASKING PEOPLE FOR SWAPS IF THE ITEM LISTED ISN'T FOR SWAPPING! THEN MOAN THAT "NO ONE WILL SWAP"- LOOK FOR THE DAMN SWAPPING ICON MORONS!