Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer in SX06, SX07 AND SX08

As regular readers of my blog, you may now know that I seem to really like the number 3. I have my 'Top 3' series and coincidentally I have managed to 'collect' three of the Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancers over the past year and a half. These little pots are quite an investment and they're definitely from the luxury side of makeup, but as you can tell simply by the fact that I have more than one, I love love love the sensual skin enhancer! I wanted to write this post as an attachment to my original review of the shade SX08, which you can read here.

The sensual skin enhancer costs £38 for one pot and you get 0.63oz = 17.86g of product. It is expensive but when they say a little goes a long way, they really aren't kidding at with this stuff. I've been using SX08 since the end of 2014 frequently (maybe 2-3 times a week) and I've still not reached half way down the pot. So in terms of price, the initial cost is a bit of a splurge but actually you'll only have to repurchase every 2-4 years, provided it doesn't go off completely and so I think it's worth the money. Also each of my shades I purchased on some sort of sale, the first two I got when beautybay had a 20% off sale so they only cost me £30.40 which is a total bargain considering how much you get. Definitely recommend waiting for the end of year/black friday sales!

The main reason why I wanted to do another dedicated post to these was because a lot of people have trouble with this product when they first purchase it and I hope this post will provide you some insight in how I make these work for me on a regular basis. The K.A Sensual skin enhancer is the most full coverage concealer product that I own - it is incredible and can hide a LOT. I have very dark circles, so I have to colour correct with a peachy tone and having a bright under-eye area is key for me. Maybe not for every single day, but whenever I'm going out for lunch or dinner, for a special occasion or if I want my makeup to look a little better that day, bright under-eye area makes the world of difference! Before I discovered this product it would take a lot of effort to achieve that bright under eye look and at least 4 different products. The beauty of the sensual skin enhancer means I only need to use a corrector on the darkest parts of my under-eye and then a layer of this blended out over the corrector and all over the area I want to be brightened is enough to achieve a flawless look!

Sensual skin enhancer has such high coverage that you can use it for multiple purposes, although I tend to just conceal and highlight with it. The best way I have found to use it is:

1. Firstly to ensure my whole face is well moisturised, because the better prepared your skin is, the greater it will adhere to the makeup. 
2. Take a little of the product on your ring finger and warm it up, so what I mean by that is pat the concealer between both your ring fingers. As the formula is so super duper creamy, I find it applies and blends so much quicker and easier when you warm it up first, versus applying it with a brush or straight from the pot. 
3. Gently pat the concealer in the inner-corner and downwards, then take the remaining product under the eye - BUT not directly under the lower lashline. If you over-load it in this area and have fine lines like I do, you are sure to get a lot of creasing straight away because the formula is extremly creamy. So leaving a little gap is the only way you'll avoid this. 
4. If I have more time on that day I'll start blending out the product with my ring finger, as the warmth of my finger does a really good job. If not I'll go straight in with a beauty blender and pat away until its all blended INTO the skin and looks beautifully flawless. 
5. I then straight away set under the eyes with a yellow powder, previously it was only the Kat Von D contour kit one (reviewed here), but these days I've been obsessed with a fantastic cheaper alternative here. 
6. and recently the step which has been making the whole look appear airbrushed, is the good ol' baking technique! Except I will never keep the powder on for too long, 30 seconds is enough. I tent to re-spritz my beauty blender before dipping it in a loose powder and then carefully press the sponge all over the under-eye area. This provides a layer of powder which literally works as a barrier against creasing. But remember 30 seconds, because I find that if I leave it on for longer, my under-eyes look very cakey and overly dry and awful.
7. FINALLY this is a step I'll only do if I need my makeup to last for longer than 14 hours, I'll spritz my beauty blender with a makeup setting spray (currently loving the pixi beauty one) and then i'll push the sponge all over the area I've just baked. This acts as another layer of protection and in the heat/looooong makeup days it will ensure your concealer will stay put!

So yes there are quite a few steps, some that I don't do on a daily basis, but it is well worth it for the finished result. Plus the fact that I only have to use two cream products (corrector and concealer), V several concealers means I actually save time and hassle! 

Moving on to the three shades, swatches and why I even have three! In short, internet swatches are quite confusing and I didn't and still don't have a Kevyn Aucoin counter near-by. My nearest is either London or Birmingham, so I kind of just guessed using other blog posts to help. I'll describe each shade in as much detail as I can below:

SX06: This was the second shade I purchased because I needed one for brightening and as far as the internet had told me, 07 was far too pink for my olive skin. 06 is VERY brightening and yellow in tone, so if your skin pulls more on the neutral side, this may be too intense for you. I rarely use this alone, the only time I would is if I'm going for the SUPER bright intense highlight look, which I have done for some special occasions. However if you're planning to use this on a regular basis, I think 06 would be the ideal concealing and brightening shade for you if you're Punjab in NARS or 21 in Dior. For quite a while I had been mixing this with 08 to create the perfect everyday brightening shade, which does work well don't get me wrong - but for the mornings when I don't have time to be sitting there creating my perfect blend (which is every morning now I'm in teacher training!), it was too time consuming. 

SX07: Is the newest as you can see from the second photo, there is a tonne of product still which makes me really really happy! As I explained above, I didn't NEED a shade inbetween, but it would definitely be handy so when I saw another deal for 15% off I grabbed my chance and picked it up. Whilst online swatches and descriptions had led me to believe that this colour would be too pink, I did see someone on youtube, who has a slightly warmer complexion than I have use it - and it looked great on her. You can see in the swatch above that its not as yellow as 06, however for me this works perfectly for everyday as I don't always need to have such a bright shade for a daily basis. In fact I KNOW I shouldn't be going into school with a fully highlighted and chiseled face loool, so I definitely avoid 06 and I'm pleased to report 07 works really well! If you're stromboli in NARS or 31 in Dior this is the ideal brightening shade for you, which can be used as a concealer under the eye, or a cream highlighter on all areas you want to look brighter. 

SX08: Was the first shade I purchased and this is the shade that actually works to conceal redness, spots, blemishes, anything skin-coloured I used a tiny bit of this and the Lisa Eldridge spot concealer technique. Of course I'll only do this for a special occasion, ain't nobody got time for spot concealing on a daily basis! I will from time to time use this for a normal day, because like I said I don't need to have that over the top brightened look going on for an average day. However since purchasing 07, I haven't used this much. I will use 08 on my mum who is one shade deeper than me, and it works beautifully at concealing her under-eyes and providing a slight brightening effect too. So purchase this if you're Barcelona or the shade deeper in NARS - but I would recommend you to try and get to a counter first!

I know it's not easy, but try to source out a counter because it IS an investment and I would hate for anyone to spend a lot of money on a shade they aren't happy with. Anyway this is the end of my review of one of my most favourite products of all time. If you don't go for full coverage products normally, or you already have a concealer you're happy with for the under-eyes you don't need to pick this up. If however you're a fan of the super flawless under-eye and highlighting in general, I think you'll love this as much as I do! I genuinely cannot imagine my makeup routine without at least one of these and it is well worth the money because it lasts for a very long time. I don't envisage myself getting to the end of these pots for months and months to come.

Do you have a HG product you love so much that you need more than one shade in?

Thank-you for reading ♥

 Bloglovin' | Tweet Me | Instagram | Facebook

Follow

Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer in SX06, SX07 AND SX08

As regular readers of my blog, you may now know that I seem to really like the number 3. I have my 'Top 3' series and coincidentally I have managed to 'collect' three of the Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancers over the past year and a half. These little pots are quite an investment and they're definitely from the luxury side of makeup, but as you can tell simply by the fact that I have more than one, I love love love the sensual skin enhancer! I wanted to write this post as an attachment to my original review of the shade SX08, which you can read here.

This or That | Marc Jacobs #instamarc light filtering contour powder in Mirage V Wet'n'Wild megaglo contouring palette in caramel toffee

Hello everyone! I can't tell you how great it feels to be back to writing a beauty post after the most intense, action packed fortnight ever. But more on that in the monthly catch up post, because today I'm going to be sharing another 'this or that' with you all. These posts were not designed to always compare dupes, the intention is more to look closely at two similar products and decide which is more worth my money and which one I'd purchase again. Having said all that this one in particular is a bit of a dupe and I'm SO happy with what I'm about to share with you all!

So I purchased the Marc Jacobs #Instamarc Light Filtering Contour Powder in Mirage Filter 40 a year and a half ago (look at all that pan!) and I reviewed it in detail here. When I purchased it back in May 2015, Marc Jacobs was only available to purchase from Sephora, however it is now available in Harrods if you're a U.K reader and this particular duo costs £33.00...which is a lot of money, but that's pretty standard for a luxury makeup item. The reason I was so drawn to this duo was the beautiful yellow powder. It works extremely well at brightening up the under eyes, setting concealer and reducing creasing and bringing so much light and balance to the face. I can't imagine my makeup routine without a yellow powder and the Marc Jacobs one works really well because it is very finely milled and doesn't cake up at all. I also see an instant brightening effect which I love! The darker side is one of my favourites too because it is a brilliant grey contour shade and one of the best in my collection. To make things even better, the packaging ticks all the right boxes - the size, the mirror, the sleekness.

Things were going fine and dandy with the Marc Jacobs but then Wet'n'Wild released a VERY similar version, which is clearly heavily inspired am I right?? They also released two different shades too, just like the #instaMarc range. I didn't pick it up right away as I don't like wasting what I already own and I wanted to wait to see what other bloggers and YouTubers had to say about it. Of course from what I saw I was very impressed and convinced, I hopped onto beautyjoint here and purchased it for $5.99 = £4.62! A HUGE difference in price point! Now lets get onto comparing the two and see if which is most worth it.

Packaging:
Of course Marc Jacobs wins hands down, you have a sleeker packaging with a fancy button to open it up. The huge mirror is a big bonus and its also the reason why I tent to slip this into my makeup bag, as I can do my full face makeup using it. You definitely get what you pay for in terms of MJ, however that's not to say that the Wet'n'wild one is of bad quality. Sure its only plastic, but it does the job and I must say its pretty sturdy too! On the back of the wet'n'wild contour duo there is a little guide for how to use the dua, similar to the one which comes in the Marc Jacob kit too.

Amount of product:
If you purchase the Marc Jacobs powder you get 9g of highlight and 9g of contour. The wet'n'wild contains 12.5g of powder altogether, so technically you're getting 50% more product in the MJ one, which I'd expect considering the price.

Yellow powder:
For me it was very important that the wet'n'wild yellow powder was at least almost as good as the #instamarc, as thats the main reason why I purchased the expensive one. To my absolute DELIGHT, both yellow powders perform exactly the same. If I was going to pick any differences I'd say the wet'n'wild one is a tiny bit brighter which works a charm for me. I have tried both powders on at the same time, one under each eye and I've noticed very little difference which made me really happy. Yes the Marc Jacobs is slightly finely milled, but you really can't tell the difference between the two when applied under the eyes and I am so smitten with the cheaper alternative!


Contour powder:
There is a large difference between the contour shades however, with the Marc Jacobs being a lot more of a realistic contour tone. I definitely couldn't achieve a realistic contour with the wet'n'wild one as it is far too warm. I do use it as a bronzer, but I think if the company had just been a little more careful they could have created the perfect duo! I think the contour shade in the other duo from the same line is more of a cool tone, so you could purchase that alongside it, but I personally won't be because I already have enough contour shades in my collection to keep me chiseled.

This or that?
At a sixth of the price I think the wet'n'wild contouring palette in caramel toffee is an absolute must have and as many pros as the #InstaMarc may have - I'd have to pick wet'n'wild as my winner! Although I much prefer the contour shade of the marc jacobs, I have plenty of contour powders in my collection and the yellow highlight powder of the wet'n'wild is just the little bit more pigmented which means it works just that little bit better than the MJ one. The reason why I invested in the Marc Jacobs duo in the first place was because I wanted a really good yellow powder and having found an even better one in a six dollar product leaves me very satisfied indeed!

Have you tried the gem that is the wet'n'wild contouring palette?

Thank-you for reading ♥

 Bloglovin' | Tweet Me | Instagram | Facebook

Follow

This or That | Marc Jacobs #instamarc light filtering contour powder in Mirage V Wet'n'Wild megaglo contouring palette in caramel toffee

Hello everyone! I can't tell you how great it feels to be back to writing a beauty post after the most intense, action packed fortnight ever. But more on that in the monthly catch up post, because today I'm going to be sharing another 'this or that' with you all. These posts were not designed to always compare dupes, the intention is more to look closely at two similar products and decide which is more worth my money and which one I'd purchase again. Having said all that this one in particular is a bit of a dupe and I'm SO happy with what I'm about to share with you all!

Teacher Training Journey Part 1 | Why, Which Route and Application

Hello everyone, another requested post from me today so I hope my regular reader don’t mind. This post is my first on my teacher training journey and as I began thinking about it roughly around this time last year, I thought it would be beneficial to write up a post now for those of you about to begin your final year at University. This is going to be very text heavy and I will be going into as much detail as I can, so I recommend you get yourself a cuppa before you begin.

Why choose teaching?

Before I start talking about the route I have picked and why, I want to talk about WHY you may want to go into teacher training. I have just completed my second week of training and I can honestly say I have never been so exhausted in my life!  The journey to becoming a teacher is very tiring and I think its important to know that to go into teaching, you are not doing it for the money, or for the security of the job. You are doing it because you love children, because you enjoy learning as-well as teaching and because you yourself want to play a part in shaping the next generation’s future. These things are crucial and if at this point you are unsure about either of these things, then it is worth rethinking your decision. A teacher’s day is not 8am-4pm, although of course it varies but I have already, in my first week of training, been in my school at 7:45am and come home at 6:30pm. As a teacher you spend a LOT of your time working and that is a reality which is vital to keep in mind. In many ways it is much more than a 9-5 job, and I think its valuable knowledge to go into the process with this in mind. You really have to want to teach for the sake of teaching, intrinsic motivation is key!

The different routes

Moving on to the routes into teaching, there are a few and it is worth having a look on the UCAS teaching website as there’s a lot of information on there, with videos too explaining the key points of each route. If you haven’t got a degree yet and definitely know you want to go into teaching, you can do a 4 year degree, which will be entirely focused on education and should provide you with a PGCE qualification too. You do not need a PGCE to teach in the UK, however this qualification means you are qualified to teach worldwide. It was vital for me to pick a route which allowed me to work towards this qualification as I plan to move abroad in the future and experience life outside of the U.K. You do need to get Qualified Teaching Status to work as a teacher in the U.K and this is available to complete through almost every university, as well as many collages. There are also some schools which offer teacher training with PGCE, but you will not have to go to University yourself, it is all done through the school. 

A lot of people choose to do a degree in their area of interest and then go into teacher training, which is the path I personally took. Although I had a pretty good idea that I wanted to teacher in first year, I didn’t necessarily want to spend a whole 3 or 4 years studying to be a teacher and decided to do a degree in developmental and educational psychology instead. I LOVED the course, aside from the statistics element I really enjoyed what I was studying and that made a big difference to my university experience. The two main routes are University based ITET training and School-led ITET training, with the latter being government preferred. I don’t know much about the University route, however from what I have read and been told, this type of training is done in blocks. So you will spend a few weeks in University lectures , earning the theory of teaching in the traditional university way which we have all experienced. Then you will spend a few weeks in a school and so on. This route is great for people who prefer the university based style of learning. 

The School-led route AKA School direct is what I have chosen because it made the most sense for me personally. We spent 3-4 days within our school and the remaining 1-2 days in the training school. This means we are directly immersed in school life from day one and for more than half the week every single week of the course. So we not only get to build bonds with the children in our class, but we are constantly learning from the teacher we are shadowing and others across the school. It has only been two weeks, but I already feel like I've soaked up a fountain of knowledge! I really like having a few days with my class and then coming back with other trainees to discuss our week and encourage each other. It’s really beneficial to see so many people from different walks of life, on the exact same journey as i am and we are all a really supportive bunch. I already feel like I can turn to anyone in the room and ask for advice, so just having that support goes a long way! Within this programme there are two strands, salaried and non-salaried. Getting a place on a salaried programme is VERY difficult, you usually have to have three years of working within a school and their support to obtain this. I tried because I have been tutoring for over 3 years, however that wasn't enough. So it's worth bearing that in mind.

The third route which I briefly looked into before I began second year is Teach First, which is an intensive course over 6 weeks, where you're trained to be a teacher during the summer and you begin teaching in September. It is not the most accessible course, my nearest was in London and as I'm not willing to move out of my home yet, it would have been a very expensive decision to make. Anyways as I really don't know too much about it, I'd suggest you spend some time reading their website.

Applying

This part is quite straightforwards, you have to apply through UCAS just as you did with University and they have a course searcher tool which is a life saver. You search your post code or what course you're wanting to apply for (school direct, university based etc.) and they provide you with a list of courses. When you click on the courses you can read more about the training provider and get an idea of what they offer, what they expect and what you can expect in terms of the interview too.

Although they have their own section of the website here and again I'd highly recommend you having a little browse around on here because there's a lot of helpful info! You have about a month till you can apply for teacher training next year, UCAS application opens on the 18th of October so you have a good amount of time to think about which route is good for you. The first step for the application is the basic name, date of birth, education thus far etc. It can take a while to complete, but the good thing is you can save and return later - which is what I often did! Then you have the option to apply for three courses and they don't all have to be the same type. For example your first choice could be a school based one, second could be a university based one and third could be another school based. Places are allocated on a first come first serve basis, so it is important to get a little bit organised NOW and make your decisions before the start date (18/10/16), to avoid disappointment. 

You'll need to have two references before you can submit your application, I asked my manager to be one and my dissertation tutor and they both got back to me within a week so I didn't have to wait too long. However if I had to apply again, I'd ask my references a good fortnight BEFORE the application open date begins so in that first week I could submit everything and have that peace of mind. 

In order to train to be a teacher, you have to complete the professional skills test which consists of a maths and an english test. The first time you sit them is free but if you fail, you'll have to pay for the second round. These are not as hard as you may have heard - my biggest tip is to practice online as much as you can! The mock tests are available here which you can access once you've signed up on the gov website. The reason the practice tests are so important is that they really give you a feel for what the real thing will be like, the format of the test, the timings and the visual layout are really helpful to see. I sat my tests in January of this year and it was a relief to get them out of the way before my interview process began, so start looking at these as soon as possible.

Personal Statement

Yes, another one of those is required! This is the part I procrastinated the most, because I honestly didn't know how I'd articulate why exactly I wanted to go down this path and what I could offer to children's lives should I get past the application! However this section of UCAS really helped and I tried to keep it as straight to the point as I could. I did delete a lot of corny stuff, but it is important to keep at least one or two really honest and perhaps slightly cringy things in here, because it shows that you are passionate about wanting to teach. Reference to your previous experience working/volunteering in schools or working with children is a biggie that you have to include. Definitely get someone to read over it before you submit it as once you've submitted your application, you can't make any changes and it will be the only one used for all courses that you apply for. 

Once you've completed everything and your references have sent in their required pieces, you can proceed to pay. It costs £24 to apply for teacher training and this covers Apply 1 and Apply 2. Essentially the first time that you send off your applications, the course providers that you have chosen have 40 days to review your application and get back to you with an interview date. Once those 40 days are over you'll have a certain amount of time to decide which of your offers you want to accept - and you can only accept one! You'll get a welcome email from UCAS just before this, with an ID number that'll let you track your application and if you aren't successful, you wait for 'Apply 2' to open up. Then you have the option to apply for different programmes, but one at a time rather than picked 2 or 3. 

Personally I only applied for the School direct course as I knew it was the only one I wanted to do, however I applied for both salaried and non-salaried. Sadly as I've already mentioned I got rejected from the salaried 😪 but I was happy to receive an interview date for the non-salaried!

I was going to cover the interview process in this post, but its already VERY long and lengthy. So in approximately a month I'll be writing that post up for you lovelies, meanwhile I hope this has been helpful. Please do leave me any questions you have below and if you have any specifically about the interview process also let me know so I can include them in that upcoming post! My hands are aching and its way past my bedtime now, so I'm off but I shall be back soon with a makeup related post this week for sure.

Thank-you for reading ♥

 Bloglovin' | Tweet Me | Instagram | Facebook

Follow

Teacher Training Journey Part 1 | Why, Which Route and Application

Hello everyone, another requested post from me today so I hope my regular reader don’t mind. This post is my first on my teacher training journey and as I began thinking about it roughly around this time last year, I thought it would be beneficial to write up a post now for those of you about to begin your final year at University. This is going to be very text heavy and I will be going into as much detail as I can, so I recommend you get yourself a cuppa before you begin.

Why choose teaching?

Before I start talking about the route I have picked and why, I want to talk about WHY you may want to go into teacher training. I have just completed my second week of training and I can honestly say I have never been so exhausted in my life!  The journey to becoming a teacher is very tiring and I think its important to know that to go into teaching, you are not doing it for the money, or for the security of the job. You are doing it because you love children, because you enjoy learning as-well as teaching and because you yourself want to play a part in shaping the next generation’s future. These things are crucial and if at this point you are unsure about either of these things, then it is worth rethinking your decision. A teacher’s day is not 8am-4pm, although of course it varies but I have already, in my first week of training, been in my school at 7:45am and come home at 6:30pm. As a teacher you spend a LOT of your time working and that is a reality which is vital to keep in mind. In many ways it is much more than a 9-5 job, and I think its valuable knowledge to go into the process with this in mind. You really have to want to teach for the sake of teaching, intrinsic motivation is key!

Lumea Update #3

Well, it's been quite a long time since I've posted one of these up hasn't it! If you have no idea what this post is about to be about, check out number one and number two. It's focusing on the Philips Lumea which is an IPL device, designed to slow down hair growth. I won't go too much into the details of what it is, but if you're curious check out the links above.


Last time I wrote one of these was post 3 treatments and I really did have the intention to type up another update after 6 treatments and let you know how it was going. However as each treatment took a good fortnight in-between, it was almost inevitable that I would become too busy to keep it up throughout the busiest months of my degree! I so wish I had forced myself to take out the time, but unfortunately when one is THAT stressed out, zapping an IPL machine for a good 1.5-2 hours is not a priority. I did then restart but I had about a months break. The good thing about the break was I could see how much it had really worked and that's what I'm going to be talking about here.

After 4-5 sessions, how much hair stopped growing?

The biggest thing I noticed in terms of results was that hair really has SLOWED DOWN in growth and that is true for all area I have been treating. Bald patches, where hair has stopped growing altogether have been more of a mixed bag and this is due to the intensity of 'zapping' I choose to do. If you read my first post you'd understand what I mean, that you can choose how strong you want the zap to be, but it is based on your skin-tone. It's not necessarily about how high of a pain tollerance you have (although yes level 5 is the hottest ping about the skin and can feel a little uncomfortable for sure. Though it is worth the faster results if you are in the safe zone depending on your skintone).


Under-arms: This is the area I have noticed the most impressive results in terms of hair regrowth time which is AMAZING! Hair grows back thinner and much much slower, meaning upkeep of hair removal is much quicker. However in terms of bald patches, only 15% of the area is hair-free so far. Still I'm more than happy with the treatment of my underarms so far because it was just one of those annoying areas that I wished I could ignore like leg hair y'know?

B-L: Y'all know what I mean, we're all sisters here haha although it does make me cringe writing the full thing out on my blog, so B-L shall have to do. Anyways again I'm really happy with the speed of hair regrowth after 4-5 fortnightly sessions. MUCH MUCH MUCH slower and a lot less thicker. Probably about 20% of the hair has been removed for good and again I'm really pleased with these results.

Thighs: This area much like the one above is more sensitive, so I do have to hold my breath a little and try to get it over and done with. Hair has been slower to regrow but its been one of the worst areas for ingrown hairs which is no fun. I'd say approximately 25% of my hair on this area has stopped growing back. I wish it was more but I can definitely blame the fact that I use a lower setting because of the size of the area - in my last treatment I did grit my teeth and step it up to a level 5 though, so hopefully this'll show results!

Shins: One of the most noticeable areas in terms of results, hair regrowth is very patchy and slow, with about 40% of the hair not growing back! The downside though is that my shins are the WORST area when it comes to sensitivity with shaving and I literally have scars on my legs from when I've scratched them because they've become that dry and itchy. I definitely need to use Aloe Vera gel for more than a day after shaving to try and combat that, because I almost don't notice how much I'm scratching my legs up, until half an hour later when they start stinging really badly. Thats a major downside about this whole process for me, as the pain is almost not worth the 40%...almost!

Arms: Finally the area where I have seen the biggest improvement in terms of bald patches and lack of hair regrowth altogether, the arms! This is definitely because my arms are the least sensitive area to hair remove from and I have always used intensity 5, hence the best results. Hair regrowth is very patchy and thin and barely noticeable.

Facial Hair: This is a bit of a funny one, because there is not really any patchiness in my upper lip hair. However the hair is thinner and less noticeable, so now I can go three weeks without touching my upper lip and you can hardly tell. What also makes me really happy is that the horrible green tinge that asian girls can sometimes get when the upper lip hair has grown quite a bit is hardly noticeable now! In terms of side burns, slight patchiness noticed and again hair has slowed down.

General Usage Tips:

- Start with the sensitive areas first (face, b-l, thighs) because the longer you use this, the hotter the Lumea becomes.
- If you have sensitive skin like mine, which hates shaving make sure you're exfoliating before AND after and apply Aloe Vera gel to the legs after they're dry.
- Ingrown hairs can be treated easily with the stuff I reviewed in my second update (here), love and heavily rely on this because ingrowns are the worst.
- Like I said in my last post, if you're treating a lot of your body hair like I am, it is easier to split up areas between two days. However if you don't have time to do this and just want to spend sunday evening zapping away, make yourself a youtube playlist of videos you want to catchup on or put something on netflix, because it can take quite a while to get through larger areas like the legs!


I plan on using the lumea fortnightly for another 4-6 times (I've already used it twice and kept up with the dates). The reason I'm doing this is because last time I was unable to finish recommended treatment time and I want to see if this'll really weaken the hair more than the results I have seen already.

I am overall really happy with this purchase, it does what it says on the box and slows down hair regrowth. So if you buy it with this in mind and don't expect hair to stop growing back completely then I think you'll really like it. If you have very very thick body hair and you're sick of spending so much time removing it, this will cut your hair removal time in half and there will be patches where hair doesn't grow back full stop! Right now it is available for £250 here and I think thats a bargain of a price compared to the original £400.

Would I repurchase? Yes, because it has made life that little bit easier and in all honestly there is not one method that truly removes hair permanently - even salon laser hair removal which costs hundreds per treatment, requires touch up treatments for it to last. So using a device from the comfort of my own home, that's slowed it down is awesome! Plus after the initial fortnightly treatments, you only need to use it once a month which is much more manageable. I hope this post was helpful to those of you who have been requesting an update, let me know if you have any questions!

How do you deal with hair removal? Or do you just not deal with it at all haha, I'd love to hear your thoughts ^_^

Thank-you for reading ♥

 Bloglovin' | Tweet Me | Instagram | Facebook

Follow

Lumea Update #3

Well, it's been quite a long time since I've posted one of these up hasn't it! If you have no idea what this post is about to be about, check out number one and number two. It's focusing on the Philips Lumea which is an IPL device, designed to slow down hair growth. I won't go too much into the details of what it is, but if you're curious check out the links above.

My go-to / 'everyday' makeup routine

Hello everyone, it has been over a week since I have had the chance to sit down and blog because I have started my teacher training journey and all I can say thus-far is that I'm VERY TIRED. It'll inevitably get a little easier once I get out of the erratic and super relaxed university lifestyle (i.e no real routine and plenty of late nights followed by lie-ins). I thought I'd ease back into blogging with my go-to makeup as of late. This was kind of my everyday summer makeup, because I had a lot more time of course and this is kind of like my favourites post of August too, because these are the products I reached for again and again.

My base of choice has been the Charlotte Tilbury Light Wonder Foundation in 7 (£32.00), I wore this throughout my London trip and pretty much every-time I wore makeup in August. It is so beautiful when applied, whether my skin was in a good state or more on the dry/rough side, some how light wonder foundation manages to not accentuate any flaw whilst still providing enough coverage to get me that 'my skin but lets face it, way better'. My skin glows like no tomorrow, without looking sweaty or disco-balling. In fact it looks VERY similar to that famous tutorial Charlotte T did on her youtube channel, recreating Amal Clooney's wedding makeup. I've probably watched it about 20 times, if you don't know what I'm on about this is what I'm talking about! Just to give you an idea of how much I love this, I'm thinking about purchasing the shade 6 for the winter time, as 7 will be far too light. Now I own a silly amount of bases, so to even consider picking up another shade of one I already have really speaks volumes.

Application: I've liked applying this with the Real Techniques Buffing brush, I find it doesn't alter the coverage unlike when I tried it with a damp beauty blender. 

Concealer wise I have been OBSESSED with the Soap and Glory Kick Ass Concealer in medium (£10.00) and I really cannot believe I have skipped over this time and time again in the highstreet! This is probably the most perfect corrector shade I have ever tried for my dark circles, I've recently been using the Benefit erase paste again, which I used to swear by and it has nothing on this at all - plus its double the price! As for concealer, I've been using the Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer in SX07 (£38.00) which is true HG status for me and I adore it. The coverage is fantastic, a little goes a long way and when set correctly. I have a detailed post of the SSEs coming up in the near future because they're rather expensive and not the easiest to work with, but I can't imagine my makeup routine without it now, so it must be pretty fantastic.

Application: The corrector I always apply with my ring finger in the darkest areas under my eyes. One layer is more than enough to actually correct the darkness and it doesn't cake up at all - so great! I've recently been doing most of the concealer application with the same finger too, getting the majority of it blended in and then finishing off with the beauty blender before setting. 

Setting wise, theres nothing better than the Kat Von D Shade + Light palette ($45.00) coming to the UK really soon 🎉 which is definitely HG status for me. I love mixing the lightest colour with the yellow shade and it both sets and highlights the face perfectly. When I don't use this palette, I massively notice a difference in my makeup so it is another staple. If I have time I'll lightly bake under the eyes with the Coty Airspun loose powder ($8.99), which works really well to set down such a creamy formula like the KA SSE!

Application: Real Techniques Setting brush (£4.89) for the yellow powder and a damp beauty blender for the bake!

Moving on to the cheeks, this summer I have been using my usual blusher of choice: NARS Deep Throat (£23.00) which is basically the most beautiful blush for everyday that was ever invented. I tent to stick to the same KVD palette for bronzing up the face, using the middle shade in a 3 shape for adding warmth and the shade on the left to sculpt out the cheeks. For highlight, Laura Geller's Gilded Honey (£21.00) has been my go-to. When I first got this, I didn't love the baked formula but if you use more of a stiffer brush it picks up the product better.

Application: for blusher I use pretty much any synthetic round brush, my favourite of late has been one from an ebay set I reviewed here. I've been using the large fluffy powder brush in the same set for bronzer and for highlight it's been all about the Morphe M501 (£6.25). Like I said the bristles are a little more firm as a natural haired brush, which makes it excellent for picking up powder formulas. 

Finally moving on to the eye makeup (as I change up the lips all the time), I have really loved wearing a warm eyemakeup look whenever I've had the time. When I went to London, I decided to use my lovely ABH palette to create a quad of shades I could use everyday. Since then I've not actually switched them out because I've been enjoying them so much. The red shade is ABH Sienna - basically the most perfect terracotta brown there ever was in all the lands, a little bit of this in the crease and along the lower lashline is all I need to add some depth and warmth. The shade to the right of Sienna is ABH Peach Sorbet - a lovely all over the lid colour for brightening up any look and it is perfect for everyday too. Going clockwise, I had to pick MUG's Mirage - my all time fave brow bone highlight. It is a beautiful satin formula which is slightly off-white and again works fantastically as an inner corner highlight too for everyday. Finally the most wonderful crease shade to ever exist: MUG Creme Brulee SO MUCH LOVE FOR THIS EYESHADOW! You can already see I've made a bit of a dent in it and it is by far a game changer. Yes it looks like nothing much in the pan, but trust me it makes a world of difference.

My eyeliner of choice has been The Balm's Schwing Liquid Liner (£13.50) which is SUPER pigmented. It's actually the darkest liner I have ever used in my life and the best part is the colour lasts all day. Sadly it is not without its issues however, if you happen to get water on your face it transfers instantly and runs down the cheeks very dramatically. Still it works well for the most part and I can create a dramatic sharp line with little to no effort. Finally, last but not least, my mascara of choice in the Tarte Gifted Mascara (£21.52) which has knocked benefit's They're Real out of the water for me. It separates and adds volume like no other mascara, it layers up well and the best part is that it's really easy to remove, major dealbreaker! 


So that is my go-to makeup routine, especially for the summer time. Of course I switched things up now and again, however I did largely stick to these products and I wanted to share them all with you. I do however want to reduce these kinds of posts in which I talk about loads of products, they're getting really uninspiring for me to type and I feel like they're kind of repetitive too. Just to let you know, I am currently deep into my teacher training course and I am REALLY busy. However I do want to continue blogging and reading other blogs and commenting whenever I can, just bear with me! The next two posts are going to be quite specific as they have been requested and on my to-do list for quite a long while. After those posts I'm not really sure, but I imagine I'll be trying to switch up my content a little and do more focused reviews as they're the most 'useful' posts I feel like I share!

What are some of your staple makeup products that you reach for without even thinking about?

Thank-you for reading ♥

 Bloglovin' | Tweet Me | Instagram | Facebook

Follow

My go-to / 'everyday' makeup routine

Hello everyone, it has been over a week since I have had the chance to sit down and blog because I have started my teacher training journey and all I can say thus-far is that I'm VERY TIRED. It'll inevitably get a little easier once I get out of the erratic and super relaxed university lifestyle (i.e no real routine and plenty of late nights followed by lie-ins). I thought I'd ease back into blogging with my go-to makeup as of late. This was kind of my everyday summer makeup, because I had a lot more time of course and this is kind of like my favourites post of August too, because these are the products I reached for again and again.