5 natural solutions to oily skin

There are times when having oily skin can feel like the worst. Constant breakout, having to wash your hair every 12 hours, constant shiny skin. Of course the good news is that oily skin doesn’t age as much as dry skin. So we look like teenagers for longer, albeit with all the teenage skin problems.

There are many expensive ‘solutions’ for oily skin, however before you fork out the big bucks, give these natural remedies a try with stuff that can be found in your own kitchen.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes contain vitamin C which is good for fighting off spots, and also natural oil-absorbing acids. To reep the benefits, cut a tomato in half and rub the gooey side over the skin. Leave to dry and then wash off. You may look a little silly, but it’s worth a try.

Egg Whites

Whisk up a bowl of egg whites until stiff and apply to skin for 15 minutes to get all the skin clearing benefits of vitamin A.

Lemon juice

The astringent and antiseptic qualities of lemon juice make it great for drying and clearing up your skin. Mix with honey to make a face mask with the added antibacterial qualities that honey brings.

Yogurt

As well as having plenty of health benefits when put INSIDE your face, yogurt also comes with benefits when put ON your face. The lactic acid is a great oil absorber. Just apply natural yogurt to skin for 15 minutes.

Cucumber

Vitamins A and E are the best ‘beauty’ vitamins, and cucumbers are full of both. They also have cooling properties which help with angry breakouts, and magnesium and potassium for oily skin. Run cucumber slices on your face (yes, seriously) and leave overnight.

Easy Radience at & Other Stories

& Other Stories is one of my favourite shops in London right now. And not only do they have great clothes and jewellery, they also have a bath and beauty section stocked with all the goos you could ever need. Their self-rated no.1 product at the moment is the Twinkle Pearl Radience Cream

At £18.50 this highlighter can be used below, on top of or mixed in with your foundation. I personally always like to add a drop of highlighter to my foundation to achieve an all over glow.

This particular highlighter is dangerously shimmery. Seriously, the reflection might be seen from space. Use with caution when driving so as not to blind other drivers.

If you prefer a solid cream based highlighter, Stories have got you covered. They do a highlighter quad for £15 supplying you with all the shades you could ever need to turn your face into a mirror ball.

I recommend both these products, and they would also make great Mother’s Day gifts.

How to: the 5 minute smokey eye

Smokey eyes are meant to look effortless. But in reality they often take about 50 stages of immaculate and precise blending, shading, contouring…who has the time! But with a product like a black powder eyeliner, you can create a smokey eye look in five minutes or less.

I use this No. 7 Smokey Powder Eyeliner and it looks like this

After priming your eyelids, apply the shadow like an eyeliner 

Then take a fluffy blending brush (I use Mac 217) and blend and smudge the line

Repeat on the lower lash line 

Then add a sweep of kohl liner on the lower water line and finish off with a ton of mascara

Clean up the loose powder, finish off the rest of your face, and enjoy all the time you just saved!

 

Why makeup is NOT false advertising

I’ve been seeing a lot of these sexist posts lately

I just think some points need to be made.

• A woman is not a product to be sold. The idea that people refer to makeup as advertising supports an attitude that treats women like commodities.

• Women are not wearing makeup to please that percentage of small minded men who are posting these memes. They wear it for their own damn selves.
• Beautiful makeup is art and the skill and creativity should be appreciated as such.
• These women are beautiful in the before pictures too.
• Women should not be criticised because these men think they have naturally glittery eyelids. That’s just dumb.

• Women do not wear makeup to ‘deceive’. We are not that desperate for the approval of these misogynists.

• Most women who wear makeup do it for themselves. There are some, though, who wear it because it makes them feel more attractive to guys/girls they are attracted to. That is also ok. What is not ok is constantly criticising a woman’s natural appearance, her skin, her nose, her eyes, to the point that she feels she needs to wear makeup WHICH SHE IS THEN CRITICISED FOR.

So these sexists can keep their swimming dates. None of these women would ever say yes to them anyway.

The super easy way to remove glitter nail polish

Who doesn’t have glitter nail polish on, this time of year? Which means we will all have that same struggle when it comes to removing it. But never fear, the Internet is here.

My personal technique is to apply a base coat first that’s reaaaally easy to peel off. OPI make a base coat specifically for this purpose. It’s called Glitter Off and it’s £8.95. Apply any glitter nail polish on top of this and a couple of days later you will be able to just peel it off. It’s by far the easiest option.

Alternatively, you could take the long way round. You will need nail varnish remover, cotton balls, and tin foil.

Soak the cotton balls in nail varnish remover. Apply the ball to the nail and secure it by wrapping the top of the finger in tin foil. Do this on every finger. Then sit back and watch TV. After 10-15 minutes, unwrap your nail. The nail polish now should be much easier to budge. There is no trick to this, it’s just literally soaking your nails in chemicals.

Of course, you could just leave it till February when it will have all chipped off anyway. Very grunge.

But the take away message is, don’t let it’s difficulty to remove stop you from using fabulous glitter!

 

The Force Awakens Hair Tutorial

I have just seen The Force Awakens and I loved many things about it. The most spoiler free and beauty blog appropriate aspect was Rey’s hair. Remember, this is the same franchise that brought us the Leia buns so it’s not a surprise there’s another iconic look within the 7th instalment.

This look is incredibly simple. I have recreated a very rough version for you. First you need to pin back the very front section of your hair.

Then your hair will need to be separated into three sections. Take each section and tie it back into an easy loop bun. You can do this by just not pulling the ponytail all the way through.

Do do this for each section and leave two strands of hair free at the front in the ‘side burn’ area.

But for a much more comprehensive tutorial and a neater look, check out this video tutorial.

May the force be with you.

How to tie a scarf like Rosie the Riveter

Rosie the Riveter, whilst being a feminist icon for decades, is also a bit of a style icon. To get her practical bandana look is pretty simple, too. All you need is a scarf. You don’t even need hair.

If you do have hair, however, tie it up to start with. Fold your scarf into a triangle. The rest is better explained through pictures:

(Pinterest) (Freckled-fox.com)

Its fairly simple and it’s a very handy way to cover up a bad hair day.

What’s the deal with all this glitter?

Glitter is everywhere. Which is apt seeing as it gets everywhere when you use it. It was all over the ss16 catwalks and it will soon be all over our faces.

Eyeshadow, lip stickers, nail polish, highlighter, eyeliner. They can put it in anything.

These Glitter Lips (£12.50) have been around for a while.

But now would be the perfect time to cash in on this trend. Alternatively you can buy loose glitter and apply on top of lipstick/gloss with a q-tip. OCC have loose glitter for £9.50. This can be applied anywhere. Lime Crime have a Glitter Helper for £13.38 that works as a base for lose glitter, helping it stay in place. Use for improvising your own glitter eyeshadow.

For eyeliner I recommend Urban Decay’s Midnight Cowboy glitter eyeliner (£14).

It comes in six dazzling colours and is by far the simplest way to embrace this trend.

Nail varnishes have had glitter lines forever, however anyone who has ever used glitter nail polish knows that its almost easier to remove the whole nail than to remove glitter from them. So investing in some nail wraps or stick ons makes much more sense. For example, Elegant Touch’s Jelly Dazzle and Jelly Twinkle press on nails (£7.95)

By far the easiest way to glitter nails at home.

For some sparkle on your cheekbones, try one of the Mac pigments. The glitter pigment in Reflects Gold (£16) would be perfect for the Christmas party.

So go forth this Christmas season, or however long this glitter trend lasts, and shine!

Cookie Lyon’s best makeup looks

For all the other people out there addicted to Empire, Cookie is probably the main reason we keep coming back. She is tough, fierce and she has never looked less that 100% fly. Apart from her coats, one of my favourite things about her is her makeup. These are all the times her makeup rocked it.

That time when her lipstick matched her coat.

That at time when her red lips and smokey eyes had her looking like a  21st century music mogul Cleopatra.

That time when she rocked a vintage fringe AND purple lipstick.

That time she showed us how to wear brown lipstick

Even when she’s showing us a softer side, she’s still killing it.

Carry on, Cookie.

Cute things to do with short hair

Pixie cuts and bobs are all kinds of cute. They look great all on their own, without any styling or adornments. But if you do want to do something different with yours, you have almost as many options as those with longer hair.

You will need plenty of bobby pins and hairspray for the following.

First of all, you could pin it all up in a faux updo with bobby pins. Just tousle and curl it first and then twist and pin till you get the desired effect.

Faux-Hawks are another great look that is actually easier to achieve with short hair. Back comb and hairspray the top section and then pin it in place.

Try a simple side braid at the front.

If you don’t know how to French braid, follow this pictorial.

For a look that appears complicated but is actually incredibly simple, try either the double twist, or the triple twist.

Or finally, wrap your hair up in a gorgeous silk scarf!

With these ideas, you’ll have all your long-haired friends desperate for the chop.