Beauty Edit : Summer '17

Here's to clear hydrated skin, here's to cheeks glistening in the sun, here's to long lashes and plump lips, here's to that radiant summer glow!

Here's to a few products that will help you achieve that look all summer long! 🥂

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If you have any summer skincare, makeup and fragrance recommendations, share them with me!

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*Photo source*

4 Korean Skincare Products To Try

Korean Skincare or K Beauty has been all the rave this past year and I am finally trying to dive right in. K beauty has been on the rise due to their innovations with skin products. Healthy, youthful, glowing skin is a constant goal, so new and improved products are always coming out, products that show lasting results are pushed. The ingredients and formulas used are amazing, which puts Korea up there and a head of the game when it comes to the world of skincare. 

Blithe Splash Mask in Soothing Green Tea

The splash masks are a new innovative way to cut a normal 20 minute mask time down to 15 seconds. Which is great for when you're super busy and pressed for time. This product has a concentrated blend of lactic acid and botanical extracts,so it retextures and smooths the skin. It also creates a glowing, supple appearance to the skin and will increase its radiance over time. These "masks" come in two other scents and retails for $45 at Sephora and Glow Recipe. 

J. One Jelly Pack

Claims to firm skin, hydrate and grip onto makeup as apply for a flawless and plump complexion. So basically this product is a 2 in 1 moisturizer and primer. Which is great because I love multiuser products, that help cut down on steps in your daily regimen. This product a jelly texture that melts right into the skin and would work wonderfully with oily skin people. Numerous reviews claimed this product help keep them matte and shine free, it also kept them smooth and refined their pores. This retails for $42 at Sephora and Glow Recipe. 

COSRX Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence 

Made up of 96% snail secretion filtrate, this product from Cosrx will repair and intensely hydrate your skin. Its packed with tons of vitamins and minerals from the snail secretion like hyaluronic acid and copper peptides, that will help rejuvenate the skin. It will aid in preventing and repairing any damage done to the skin from acne and hyperpigmentation to reveal a new healthy glow. This products retails for $21 at Urban Outfitters.

COSRX BHA Blackhead Power Liquid

A treatment made up of 4% natural BHA (Beta Hydroxy Acid) a chemical exfoliant, this product will go deep into the pores and clean any impurities and clean away any dead skin cells. It claims to hydrate, plump and brighten the skin while renewing skin cells. This product is strong treatment so it is suggested to be used at night after toner and if used during the day it is important to wear a SPF. This product retails for $22 at Urban Outfitters.

I would definitely check out Glow Recipe and Soko Glam for more Korean products. If you know of any more good sites or brands please let me know, so I can check them out! :) 

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5 Natural Ingredients I Use On My Skin...

For the past few years I've been all about using more natural ingredients in all my beauty products, especially when it comes to skincare. A pretty simple and easy way to incorporating more natural products into your regimen is to go through your kitchen and do a good old DIY. 

Now trust and believe me when I say not everything that is natural will work and benefit your skin, I went through trial and error to find what actually helps for me. And these are the top 5 ingredients that I am currently using in my daily skincare routine.  

(Watch the video above to see all the products)

Vitamin E Oil

How: I use the capsule, soft gel vitamin e pills, I pop them open and store the oil in a jar. As a moisturizer, I only apply the oil all over my face, only at night because its a very thick and kind of sticky oil.
Why: There are many good benefits from vitamin e on the skin and the main benefit I use this oil for is as a spot corrector. I notice that my acne scars heal so much faster when I am using this oil consistently. It is said that this oil prevents and repairs free radical damage so it encourages cell regeneration that helps to lighten and smooth the skin.

Sea Salt
How: In warm water I dissolve 1 tablespoon of salt in the water. Make sure to use sea salt and not regular table salt, there is a difference.
Why: Sea salt absorbs dirt and toxins, so in a way it is detoxifying and deep cleaning your pores. Due to its high mineral content sea salt helps balance the skin and retain moisture. Which is why I like to use it as a facial spritz, in the morning before I apply moisturizer or any makeup I spray this all over my face, and throughout the day I do notice that I am not as oily as I would be if I didn't use this spritz.

Oatmeal
How: I either grind the oatmeal into a powder or use as is from the package, I add water and apply all over my face. I use as an exfoliating cleanser in the morning and I usually keep it on for a longer amount of time as a mask.
Why: Oatmeal is super soothing for the skin, my skin always looks so much brighter, plump and radiant after I use this. The minerals or vitamins in the oatmeal just help heal and soften the skin and keeps it glowing, which is what I love most about this.

Bentonite Clay 
How: I apply water to clay and apply as a mask. If you want extra detoxifying benefits you can use apple cider vinegar instead of water.
Why: This clay mask helps pull all the toxins out of your skin, which aids in reducing and soothing my really bad breakouts and softens my skin. So I only really use this when my skin is kind of out of control or irritated.

Honey
How: Scoop out of jar and apply all over the face, leave on for a few minutes as a mask and rinse off.
Why: Honey is antibacterial and full of antioxidants, so it helps keeping any breakouts at bay and soothing the skin. It also just adds that radiant glow that I am always looking for in skincare and makes the skin super soft. For extra benefits I sometimes mix this with bentonite clay.

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"No Makeup" Makeup Routine

My "No Makeup" Makeup Routine

A fresh face with a slight glow. Light and natural, not too much going on, is how I like my makeup. A beat face, dramatic makeup looks are not my cup of tea, although I do love how some people do them and rock them, personally I just cant deal with all of that. Plus my eyes get pretty sensitive so I would probably just end up ruining my makeup anyways. So today Im just sharing the few steps I take to create my everyday “no makeup” makeup look. 

Obviously be sure to start with a clean moisturized face. First thing I do is a apply a primer, right now I am using the Hylamide transparent foundation (see review post here), then I will lightly dust my face with the NYX translucent powder. I find that I stay shine free longer when I apply translucent powder first rather than after foundation or whatever is put on. Next I will opt to either use my NYX concealer or Bare Minerals foundation powder (I don't use the two together unless my skin is really acting out). I don't use any heavy foundations because I like to keep my base light. I am also looking for a tinted moisturizer, so if you have any recommendations let a girl know 💁🏾. 

After my base is set I go straight to my brows, right now I am using the Estee Lauder double wear eye pencil and I just fill in whatever needs to be filled in. After I apply a light contour to my face with NYX concealer that is two shades darker than me and I will put on top the Bite Beauty multistick in almond for a pop of color to my cheeks (see review post here), plus my haloscope highlighter from Glossier. Lastly I apply some lip balm or gloss and call it a day! Applying a lip color or mascara is optional for me sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t, but I do like Bite Beauty for the lips and Physicians Formula for the lashes. This all takes about 10 minutes so its a pretty quick and easy step in my morning routine!

You can find most of these products at Ulta. 

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Hylamide Photography Foundation

Ive been so into everything beauty lately, reading blog posts from Into the Gloss and Byrdie. So I currently have a lot of products on my list to try out and maybe review here on my blog or youtube (channel here). For the past week I've been testing out the Hylamide photography foundation in transparent from Deciem. 

This product claims to "visibly target fine lines, textural irregularities, color imbalance, and aids in immediate surface correction. The foundation is made with fractionated silica complex and prismatic hue corrections, so you look better in photos." 

Now as far as the foundation claim, I did buy it in transparent so I was not expecting it to have any coverage (which it didn't) so I would consider this to be more of a primer, not a foundation. Maybe a tinted primer or moisturizer if you buy it in the two other tinted shades. The product comes out as a whitish hue and being that I am a brown girl when I first applied it I had a slight white cast on my face, but it did melt away as I continued to rub it in. Once it settled into my skin it gave me this soft focus blur filter type of look and I loved it! My pores shrunk and my skin looked so soft and smooth, it was like the perfect base for my powder foundation. I do believe this helped my foundation stay on longer, I walked through rain and snow and I didn't need to touch up anything, my skin still looked good. Also I didn't get as oily as I usually do, so i think this product also helped a bit with that as well. I definitely will keep this product in my make up bag, I am loving everything about so far! I [4/5] 

Find the product here 

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Glossier x Bite Beauty

For the longest time I've been eyeing a few products from the beauty brands Glossier and Bite Beauty. I recently received the Bite Beauty multistick [in "Almond"] as a gift and I bought the Glossier stretch concealer [in "Deep"] and haloscope [in "Moonstone"]. 

Glossier Haloscope : "Moonstone"

For the winter months I just wanted a subtle highlight, nothing to out there and in your face or obvious, so opted for the limited edition moonstone shade instead of the golden/bronze Topaz, which I feel would be perfect for my skin tone during the summer months. This glides on very smoothly and is a nice consistency. This shade does seem to have little specs of glitter in it, which I don't like too much because my skin gets really oily and then it just doesn't look right after a while. So I only ended up using this on my lids and under my brow area, I think it looked best there for me. All in all i give this a 3/5 and I'm def going to try the topaz shade once summer rolls back around. 

Glossier Stretch Concealer : "Deep"

So when I first rubbed my finger into to the pot to apply this I loved how creamy the consistency felt but when I actually wore the product I hated it. When I purchased this I did not realized that there were oils listed in the ingredients. I have oily skin so of course this just wasn't going to work out for me. I applied this on my cheeks, under eyes, nose and chin and looked like a greaseball, even with a powder on top. This product only looked okay when I had applied it under my eyes on top of a powder, so I will continue to find different ways this product could possibly work for me but I will not buy this again. I'll stick to my NYX concealer, plus its cheaper any ways. 2/5

Bite Beauty Multistick : "Alomnd"

I've literally been wearing this non stop everyday on my lips and cheeks. It is such a creamy consistency and moisturizing on the lips. This shade is like a mahogany brown and is a great color for the darker skin tones. I also like how great this shade is for that monochromatic makeup look, it gives that nice little pop of color. It blends well into the skin and with other shades, love that I can use it on my eyes, lips and cheeks. This is my new favorite product! I want to get so much more shades of this, I wish it were a little cheaper. 4/5

The next products on my Glossier wishlist are the serums, let me know if you tried them and/or what are your favorite products by the brand?

Glossier showroom photo source*

Use this link to get 20% off your first Glossier purchase* - http://bff.glossier.com/ePSse

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The Ordinary Serums

For quite some time now I've started using only organic beauty products. Mainly in skincare I've been through a number of products that had claimed to be organic but the products itself were completely ineffective. Recently I've decided to look more into the product's ingredients rather than if it is just labeled as organic or natural. So how I go about this is by 1. looking at the length of the ingredients list - if it's too long / too many things going on I am not buying it (think simplicity) and 2. I read through each ingredient and put it into the EWG - all the ingredients must have scores of 4 or less (my ideal range is 1-2 and 4 is max) and have no links to being a carcinogenic and/or toxic build up. It sounds like a lot but trust me it isn't and you pretty much remember certain ingredients that pop up a lot in beauty products. Also to me its worth it / important because I'm one of those people who don't want to put to many harmful chemicals in or on my body.

With that being said the organic serums I've purchased recently have not been doing it for me, I need something that packs a punch. Something that doesn't take too long to show results. Something that is actually providing some type of benefit to my skin. I discovered this new brand, The Ordinary, through Instagram and decided to give them a try. They were inexpensive and had free shipping so why not? I've only had them for a week or two, and what I've seen so far has been good, my skin is feeling it. The serum I use the most is Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%, it's labeled as a high strength vitamin and mineral blemish formula and it truly is just that, I applied it on my breakout and the next morning it had gone down. The next one is the Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 serum which provides some hydration to the skin.

All in all, I really like these serums and the packaging, also the price points. I would def recommend. Now I'm looking for a good face mask and some sheet masks.

This is not sponsored btw.

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Pep VoxBox w/ Influenster

"Put a little pep in your step."

This past month Influenster has sent out a college themed voxbox. If you don't know what influenster is, its basically a site where you can sign up to discover and read reviews on new products and if you qualify you can receive free products test and review. In this box I was given 3 coffee k-cups, a Max Factor mascara and eye liner, Simple cleansing wipes, 7th Heaven peel-off mask, and Pure Ice gel tech nail duo. 

Review: 

Coffee - Since this is a college themed box, of course they threw in some coffee which were perfect for those early days and late nights, truly my favorite thing to come out of this box. They were all so good. {4/5}

Nails - My 2nd favorite thing would be the gel tech nail polish. Its not exactly like gel nails but it drys pretty quickly and the color was really cute and perfect for the fall. The only con was the fact that I did get some chipping on the third day. {4/5}

Skin - The Simple wipes are something I'm familiar with, they were gentle on skin and do a good job of getting all my makeup off and not drying out my skin. {3/5}

7th Heaven Tea Tree Peel-off mask was pretty good, the peel did not hurt to take off, it had a nice tingling sensation when applying and left my face a bit brighter and softer. {4/5}

Make up - Max Factor mascara and eyeliner are just your ordinary drugstore mascara and liner nothing to special about them, just gets the job done. {3/5}

Follow me on Instagram here to see more of the products in my Instastories!

This is not sponsored, all opinions are my own*

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Beauty // Solutions 24 Clinical

Recently I was contacted by the brand Solutions 24 to try out their new line of products. Their new collection is available in 2000 Walmart stores and will be available in multiple Ulta stores later this year. This collection consist of three corrector sticks that focus on specific skin issues like dark circles, dark spots, and puffy eyes. Now this line is a 4 week system, so it will take that length of time to see drastic results in your skin. 

This is merely a first impressions post and I will let you know how everything goes in an update. My main focus are my dark circles and puffy eyes. I have been using these two sticks for the past week and I have seen a tiny improvement, my eye area looks less puffy, and a bit smoother. When put on the skin they have a nice refreshing and cool feel that I like, it kind of wakes up the eye area. The dark spots stick can be used on your face, neck, chest etc. which is nice because I have a few dark spots on my back I will like to fade. These products are nice and simple to use, just apply after cleansing morning and night. They are not messy, non greasy and for me they do not irritate the skin. I also like the packaging, which is compact and small. I cant wait to continue using these products and see how they work out for me. If you have any issues that these products can solve, I think they are worth a try and they are pretty affordable. Check them out here, here & here.

Brand website here.

Problems each stick solves:

Puffy eyes : Puffiness around eyes, sagging under eye bags, eye area wrinkles, dry and tired looking eyes

Dark circles : dark circles under eyes, darkness on eyelids, dull skin tone, aged and tired looking eyes

Dark spots : dark spots, age spots,sun damage, post acne marks, uneven skin tone, freckles and naturally darker areas

Till next time

xxMel

* disclaimer : the products featured were gifted to me, these are my own honest opinions

Current Beauty Favorites

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So I want to start incorporating more beauty posts on my blog and I believe a favorites post would be a great start. My current beauty favorites for the month of January are Tea Tree Oil, Nyx Matte lipstick, Andalou Naturals Lip Remedy, and Monoi Tiki Tahiti Oil.

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Tea Tree Oil: Seriously this product has been a miracle worker! This is the thing you use when your skin is all out of control and those spots start popping out of nowhere. Tea Tree Oil will put your breakouts under control. Just make sure you dilute it or it will burn your skin. I add a few drops to a moist cotton pad. 

Nyx Matte Lipstick: The lip color I have is "Perfect Red" and is known to be a dupe to Mac's Ruby Woo. At first I wanted to buy Ruby Woo but decided to purchase the Nyx lipstick since it was cheaper. And I love it! It doesn't dry out your lips and stays true to it's matte claims. 

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Andalou Naturals Lip Remedy: So I purchased this product because it claims to renew, repair, and regenerate cells, and with this cold weather wreaking havoc on my lips this seemed like the perfect product for me. This product is super healing and gives my lips a smoother look.

Monoi Tiki Tahiti: Coconut oil is my holy grail product! I use it for everything but I wanted to try a new oil with a bit of a fragrance. This product is great because its a Coconut oil blend with Monoi and a warm vanilla scent. This will keep your skin supple, hydrated and moisturized. A really great product for the winter months.

* Purchase items here & here

I hope you all enjoyed this post!

See ya soon!

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BEAUTY: Ulta Haul

For the past few months I have not bought or wore any make-up...which was huge shocker because I was such a make-up junkie. One day I did a make-up cleanse, I cleared my draws of half empty, unusable  and unwanted products. With my draws now empty I decided to head over to Ulta.com and buy some of my basic/essential make-up products. Luckily they were currently having a sale, buy one get one 50% off, that is pretty much why I have two of each product. I just love a good deal.

1.NYX High Definiton Concealor Wand (CW 08 - Nutmeg)
2.Physicians Formula Organic Wear Mascara (Black)
3.Ulta Automatic Lip Liner (Bloom & Spice)
4.Revlon Matte Lipstick (Pink Pout)
5.Revlon Super Lust Lipstick (Blushing Mauve)
6.Prestige Eyeliner (Charcoal)
7.Ulta Extreme Wear Mousse Blush (Berry Glow & Nude Glow)

P.S - This was my first time trying out the Ulta Blushes and I didn't really like them. I do not like the consistency, there is too much sparkle or glitter in them and the color does not show up well at all.

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