*Milk; The beauty routine

Despite my lazy nature, I always make sure that I make time to do a pampering session every once in a while. My beauty routine consists of 3 steps; exfoliate, cleanse & hydrate. In this post I will walk you through my routine step-by-step and hopefully it will give you some tricks and ideas for your own pampering session.


Exfoliate

I have sworn off physical exfoliators for a looong time and now I only use the Cure 'Natural Aqua Gel' to exfoliate my skin. The gel is unscented and quite watery so it is easy to massage into the skin. As soon as you start rubbing it in, little flakes of dead skin start to form (Sounds gross, I know, but it is completely pain-free!). What I love about the Cure 'Natural Aqua Gel' is that it never leaves my skin red or irritated after exfoliating.

Cleanse

Mud & clay masks are fantastic for deep cleansing and unclogging pores. I do tend to get a lot of blackheads and whiteheads around my nose and chin area and have found that clay masks are a much more effective (and less painful!) way to remove them than those good old pore strips. Both the Origins 'Clear Improvement' and Aesop 'Primrose Facial Cleansing Mask' perform very well but I'd have to say that I prefer the Aesop one because it dries quicker and is also a bit easier to remove.

The 'Primrose Facial Cleansing Mask' is great for dry/mature skin and if you have oily skin you can opt for the 'Parsley Seed Cleansing Mask'.

Hydrate

My favourite step of all is applying a hydrating mask. I make sure that I always follow up with a hydrating mask after exfoliating and deep cleansing because after these steps, the skin is able to absorb any skincare product more effectively. This is also a great time to bust out those fancy anti-aging treatments.

The Skinceuticals 'Hydrating B5 Masque' contains hyaluronic acid and vitamin B5 to effectively restore moisture back into the skin. I love this mask because it does not have an overly complicated ingredients list so it minimizes the changes of irritation. Plus it is also fragrance and paraben-free.

Tip #1 Use a facial steamer or a bowl of hot water to open up your pores before applying facial masks for better absorption.

Extra steps & tips


The last step is optional, but it is a great way to increase blood circulation in the face for a healthy and radiant glow. Increasing the blood circulation also helps to flush away excess water retention and toxins. Remember, NEVER (!!!) massage your skin without applying any kind of oil of cream beforehand as massaging/dragging dry skin may result in sagging and pre-mature wrinkles.

Tip #2 Cut up small pieces of cling film and apply it on top of your facial mask for better absorption; also great for allowing lipbalms to sink in more effectively.

I like to massage my face using The Body Shop face roller with some Haba 'Squalane Oil' starting from my chin rolling upwards following the jawline all the way to the side of the ears- this can help define the jaw by relaxing the jaw muscle and getting rid of water retention. If you don't have a face roller you can also use the knuckles of your index and middle finger.

I admit that I don't do this very often because I am a lazy fart, but everytime after massaging my face, it does look slimmer.





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*Milk; update & current favorites

Again, it has been a while since I posted an update. I am currently doing my placement and it has been extremely difficult for me to adjust to 40-hour work weeks. Good news is that not only am I surrounded by beauty products at home, but now also at the office! * grin *

Although I have been paying nearly zero percent to my appearance due to lack of sleep (I'd rather sleep 10 more minutes than to do my hair and make up in the morning.) I have a few products that made me look slightly less crappy.


The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil

I finally understand what 'stressed skin' means. My forehead has been breaking out with tiny bumps and tea tree oil seems to keep it under control. I use a cotton swab to gently sweep some of the oil on my forehead. I prefer using tea tree oil over my Origins 'Spot Remover' since the bumps aren't actual pimples. Tea tree oil is also less drying and does not irritate the skin.


Bobbi Brown Corrector



In order for me to actually look like a human-being, I camouflage the dark circles under my eyes using the Bobbi Brown Corrector in 'Peach'. This product corrects and neutralizes the brown, purple-ish shadows under the eyes rather than concealing them. You can choose to wear concealer on top to further brighten the under-eye area, but I don't find it to be necessary. After 6 hours of wear it can start to sink into fine lines for those who suffer from dryness around the eye area like me, but it has been the longest lasting concealer/corrector I have tried thus far. You only need the tiniest amount to achieve good 'coverage'. I believe that the less you apply under the eye, the smaller the chance of creasing.


Origins Drink Up Intensive & The Body Shop Face Roller


The last favorite is actually a duo of products which I have been using quite frequently this past month. I ran out of all my sheet masks so I resorted to the Origins 'Drink Up Intensive' overnight mask. Although the mask is nothing new, when used in conjunction with the face roller it feels like a mini facial. It is a great perk-me-up for in the weekends. The roller helps massage the face and stimulates the blood circulation for better absorbtion of the face mask and leaves your skin looking refreshed.

Lastly, this post is not complete without showing you my absolute favorite person of this month, my baby nephew Jamie!


He is only one week old and all he does is sleep, drink and burp but we absolutely adoooore him!

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*Milk; current favorite products (short reviews)

Benefit High Beam

This product does wonders for my somewhat sallow-looking skin. I have been mixing it with my foundation and it gives me wonderful glowy skin! Unlike other highlighters, this product is not glittery or shimmery, but has an irredescent glow to it. 'High Beam' is a silvery, pearly pink whereas 'Moon Beam' is a peachy gold. I highly recommend this product for those with dry skin and have trouble creating that natural glow with any 'dewy' foundation.


Koji Dolly Wink Liquid Eyeliner


Not only is the packaging super adorable, the product itself is an idiot-proof eyeliner with great lasting power. I initially bought it to put in my make up bag and use it for touch ups, but it works better than I expected! The lasting power is similar to a gel or cream liner, but application is a lot easier since you do not need a seperate brush. The applicator tip is slim and firm so you can draw a thin line very easily. It does smudge a little now that my eyelids are oilier in the summer, but applying a bit of powder or primer on the lids should fix this problem.


The Body Shop Vitamin E Lip Care SPF 15


(I peeled off the label for the ingredients list )
My lips are often severely chapped and this really does help nourish them. It does not contain petroleum jelly/petrolatum unlike many lipbalms and it also has an SPF of 15. It does not have a very high SPF factor, but that does not matter because I re-apply my lipbalm quite frequently. Another reason why I love it is that it is also paraben-free!


Aveda Volumizing Tonic


I use it on clean, slightly damp hair and then I blow-dry it using a large round brush. It works pretty well for my fine hair, but nothing A-MA-ZING. It looks pretty good when I just finish blow-drying but after a while my hair will gradually start losing its volume. Perhaps using a hairspray would solve the problem but I have yet to find a good hairspray that will not weigh my hair down or make it feel crunchy. I love the fact how it does not leave any heavy or greasy feeling on my hair, in fact it feels there is no product at all. I wash my hair every other day and even on the second day, my hair feels very clean.


Laneige Strawberry Yogurt Peeling Gel


This has almost completely replaced my exfoliator. I find that I only have to use an exfoliator on certain areas such as my chin and my forehead which tends to get bumpy during that time of the month. My skin does not get irritated at all when I use this. No stinging or redness at all! The granules do not feel harsh because they are wrapped around in a layer of gooey gel which allows it to glide on the skin. It does have a strong, artificial strawberry yogurt scent, so I do not recommend this product if you are very sensitive to fragrance.

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*Milk; The Body Shop Shimmer Waves (review)

My 'Love Your Body' card from The Body Shop was expiring and I only needed one more stamp to get my €15 discount so I thought I might as well take advantage of it.

I looked around the store and there wasn't anything in particular that I liked, but then I saw the shimmer waves I remembered that Bubzbeauty also had them. They come in 3 different shades and they cost €22 each. (Quite expensive!) Thankfully, there was a promotion going on and together with the discount I only paid €19 for two palettes!





The 'Bronze' one is my absolute favorite out of all three palettes. The colors are very versatile in my opinion and the pigmentation is great. I'm surprised at the quality, but then again, they charge a whopping €22 for it.

I couldn't really decide between the pink or peach palette; both were nice but since I already have a few pink eyeshadows I went for the peach one.





For some reason the 'Peach' palette is much more shimmery than the 'Bronze' one and some of the shades look pretty similar.

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase but I don't know if I will buy more make up from The Body Shop in the future. I swatched a few of their single eyeshadows but the pigmentation wasn't all that great and for some reason a lot of their products are very very shimmery.

And we already have 41 followers! Thank you guys so much for following our blog and leaving such nice comments. We really appreciate it. Hopefully we'll be able to organize a 50 followers contest soon.

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