Oil vs. Water

I’m talking about foundations, concealers, cream products.  We all want to know how we can recognize oil based products over water based products.

Let me give you some information right off the start:

• Water based products with little or no oil content must be high quality, otherwise, it will just run off your face, even after setting.
• If a product says “oil free”, there may still be some oil in it. Companies are allowed to call their products “oil free” if they have 3% or less oil.
• Oil based products are good for dry skin, but should be kept away from oily skin.
• Water based products are good for oily skin.

So how do you tell what you’re looking for?  If you’re looking for an oil based product, look for these signs:

• If it comes in a stick or a pot
• If it’s not runny
• If you have to apply with your fingers for heat
• If the coverage is more opaque

If you’re looking for a water based product, look for these signs:

• If it is runny
• If it comes in a tube
• If you have to apply it with a sponge
• If it gives light/sheer coverage

There are acceptions to the very tell-tale signs though.  Loose powders and pressed powders.  Loose powders have no binding agent, and therefore are dusty.  But pressed powders have to be held together somehow – and that is with some oil content.  With pressed powders, they can go both ways – to act as a loose powder or to act as an oil based product.  When applying a pressed powder with a sponge, you get a more creamy and opaque finish.  When applying it with a brush, you get a dusting just like a loose powder.

Check back in a little while, because I’ll have a foundation video for you soon!!

Face Shapes

Finally, in my new class, Makeup Artistry 1, we’re getting into some of the course meat, and so I have more things to share with you.  This week we talked about face shapes.

Probably, you don’t know what your face shape is. And if you do, you’re probably wondering about some tricks to cheat your face shape into a shape you actually like. So let me first define the face shapes so you can get a sense of what shape you have:

• Oval – all face shapes want to be this shape. If you have a normal forehead, and a tapered chin, you have an oval face shape, and there is no need to use any corrective methods.
• Round – is just that. The face is a complete circle.
• Square – The jaw is very angular, and the overall face is very equal in proportions.
• Heart – Often the telltale sign to distinguish the heart shape from the oval is the widow’s peak. The forehead is also broad, and sometimes the chin will be pointy.
• Diamond – the cheek bones are the main event, and protrude.  The hairline will make the forehead seem narrow, and the chin will taper.
• Pear – The jowls will be the largest part of the face, and everything else will taper upwards.
• Oblong – The face is long, and there is no real definition or tapering.
• Hexagonal – The face consists of a boxy shape with many angles at the temples, forehead, and chin.

If you like your face shape, you don’t feel the need to correct any shapes in it at all. If you do want to correct it, makeup and even hairstyle can help. I’m going to tell you how to correct these shapes with makeup, but I must warn you that if you heavily contour with daytime makeup, your face will probably just end up looking dirty.  Instead, for daytime makeup, focus on the highlights, and save the heavy contouring for nighttime.

• Oval – no correction needed here. All other face shapes want aim to be oval.
• Round – contour the hollows of the cheeks (this is normal and can be done with daytime makeup), and highlight the chin to make it appear lower.
• Square – minimize the jawline with contouring at the corners (not something you want to do with daytime), and also contour the temples. Highlight the nose to bring it forward.
• Heart – contour the temples to reduce the look of the forehead. If the chin is pointy, contour some of that away as well. Highlight the cheekbones and nose to take away from the forehead.
• Diamond – highlight those cheekbones, because you know everyone wants them!  Also highlight the temples to bring them out and look more full.  Contour away a pointy chin.
• Pear – highlight the forehead, and contour the jawline to minimize jowls.
• Oblong – highlight the cheekbones to bring out some shape, and contour the temples and hollows of the cheeks.
• Hexagonal – simply contour away angles in the forehead, temples, and cheeks.

Remember!  Highlighting is used to bring features forward, and contouring is used to push features back.  In any face shape, focus on the best qualities, and use those first and foremost to distract from other shape corrections.

Recently Tattooed….Again.

Would you like to know all about my new tattoo experience?  You can read all about it on my Superman Disposition blog.

Hair Colouring

As you guys probably know, I have some funky coloured hair, and have had a lot of it in the past. I started out with blue way back in grade 9 when I was 15 – more than 10 years ago now. And after a 10 year run with black hair, I was interested in a change again. That started about a year and a half ago, and I wanted to take you through the methods I used to tell you what worked and what didn’t.

To start off with, I simply started growing my black hair out. My natural colour, however, is a very light blond, and you know the stark contrast there made no sense. I was interested in growing out my black hair so that I could put other colours into it, and so naturally, I started dying my blond roots purple.

After a while of that, I was getting anxious, and so I tried a hair colour remover. The one I tried was by L’oreal, and I think they do not make it anymore, because I was lucky enough to find one box of it shoved off to the side in the store, and I haven’t seen anything like it anywhere since then. It didn’t do the best job anyway. It took the colour out of the bottom and underneath parts of my hair, but nothing else. And not only that, but it did turn those parts orange. I have to admit, I knew it was going to turn orange, because of the nature of black hair dye. Blacks are made from layers and layers and layers of red, so there is really no way to get a true blond out of them.

So, as you can see, a mess of orange, black, and purple.  From there, I let it rest for a few months, and then got really sick of waiting, and resorted to the bleach. The bleach I used was Manic Panic’s Flash Lightening, and since I wasn’t lifting any harsh colour, it worked really well for me.

However, for my husband, who had dyed black hair, it didn’t work at all. It only barely lifted the colour and he was left with this dark pumpkin orange that we couldn’t do anything with at all. Manic Panic’s bleach is a white based bleach, and therefore is not going to knock out any orange or yellow that bleaching will cause. For that to happen, you have to resort to a blue based bleach, such as Inebrya by Ice Cream.

This blue based bleach comes in a packet of powder which you must then mix with a separate developer. The developer shown here is volume 40%, since we were lifting black.

As you can see, this blue completely knocked out the orange brassiness that could have resulted from my husband’s dyed black hair, and we got a beautiful light blond colour out of it. The problem with this stuff is that it is strong, and it caused a lot of damage. So if you’re going to go with this method, I wouldn’t suggest taking black out with it, I wouldn’t suggest using a 40% volume, and I would suggest reading the directions very carefully. We underestimated just how strong this stuff was. But it wasn’t a disaster, and we got the desired results in the end. So now me and my husband have matching red hair.

By the way – the hair colour we use is called Special Effects. It is a demi-permanent, so it does not wash out (but does fade after a month), and is completely cruelty free.

Sirius Beauty

I had been doing some research into the Clarisonic skin care system after hearing about it in my skin care class.  For those of you not sure what exactly the concept is, here we are:

• Cleans with a vibrating brush
• Uses sonic waves to bounce the dirt off your skin and out of your pores
• Skin actually feels clean, as it removes 6x the amount of dirt that manual cleansing does.
• Uses your own skin cleanser and exfoliator with the brush
• Can be used in the shower or tub, on face and body.

So, the Clarisonic is quite pricey, and can be up to $255 for the brush and an array of brush heads. Enter SIRIUS Beauty Skinsonic.  It cost only 50$ CND, and is the exact same idea as any other sonic cleansing system.  I received one for christmas, after telling my mom about it, and so far I am loving mine.

• I have sensitive skin in the winter, and using the sensitive skin brush head for my face, I’m experiencing a beautiful cleanse, no irritated at all, no redness, a reduction of oil buildup throughout the day, and a reduction of comedones in my congested areas.
• I am using the normal skin brush head with body wash on my neck, chest, and back in the shower, and I am having some wonderful results.
• It is really quick to use, and I think I spend less time washing my face with this brush in the mornings than I did washing it manually. So if you think that using a brush every morning and night would be too much of a hassle for you, it’s actually proven to be very convenient.

The Sirius Skinsonic comes with:

• The brush (obviously)
• Sensitive skin brush head
• Normal skin brush head
• Massage brush head (very nice)
• 2 Exfoliation brush heads
• All for only 50$. Pretty good.
• Replacement brush heads can be purchased for only 14$ for a 2 pack.
• https://www.siriusbeauty.com/skinsonic/order/

Cruelty Free

My final exam for my skin care class was last night, and went by so quickly.  As far as I know for now, I have 100% in that class, a pretty good start to my January semester of Makeup Artistry 1. So while I’m not going to have any more amazing skin tips for a few weeks, I wanted to make my post about animal testing in the cosmetics industry, as it is a very important thing for me.

 

The thing that really made me aware of animal testing in cosmetics was this picture:

I saw it randomly on a Facebook ad from PETA, and I have to admit that before I saw this picture, I was blissfully unaware of anything to do with animal testing at all.  But this picture hit home so hard with me, that I immediately made a change.  I did some research about what actually goes on with animal testing, and some of the horrors are not limited to bunnies getting hair dye smeared in their eyes (as this picture above), and guinea pigs having soaps pumped into their stomaches. Just these two things alone was enough for me, and I didn’t have to read any more before I was completely converted.

On PETA’s  website, you can download and print lists of companies that are cruelty free, and also lists of companies that still use animal testing, which is a handy tool that you can keep in your wallet and refer to when you are buying new products.

If you are a new recruit into the world of cruelty free products, there are a few things that you should look for on products to be sure that you are supporting the right people.

• 
• The cruelty free bunny from PETA’s website, which is proudly displayed on the websites of companies who do not test on animals.
• 
• This guy is present on products.  You will sometimes only see the bunny, sometimes only see the writing, and sometimes see them both together.

So, for a quick reference, I want to say that the majority of drugstore makeup IS tested on animals. There are a few acceptions:

• Hard Candy – exclusive to Walmart, it is a really great product and value.
• Nivea
• Physician’s Formula
• Live Clean
• Revlon
• St. Ives (however, St. Ives is the only division of Unilever that is cruelty free).
• GOSH – exclusive to Shopper’s Drug Mart.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but most of the drugstore brands you know and love DO test on animals. Steer clear of:

• L’Oreal
• Garnier
• Gilette
• Unilever
• P&G Beauty (that means Cover Girl is cruel)
• Rimmel, Maybelline, and practically every other drugstore makeup brand.
• To name a few.

What can you do to avoid buying from cruel companies and still not have to go out of your way/budget?

• Buy organic.  Mainly organic companies are not going to be doing any animal testing.
• Print the list from PETA, carry it around, and avoid mistakes.
• Do not buy drugstore hair dye, go to a salon (it’ll last longer anyway so it’ll save you money).
• Stick to drugstore products that you know are safe, according to my quick reference. I use these products, and I would endorse them any day.

Please, get active, get aware, and make this world a less cruel place.

What is PH

Let me start off by saying – I received my very first facial last night. It was free, and was done by my aesthetics teacher as a demonstration to my class (of only 5 other students). I learned some things about my skin that otherwise I’d never have known:

• Living in Canada, we a prone to change skin types according to the seasons, because our seasons are so radical. Don’t get me wrong – we are still born with those skin types, but just different sides of them come out in the different seasons.
• In the winter, I have very dry, very sensitive skin.
• Extra moisture and products for dry/sensitive skin in the winter will actually seriously even out my skin tone, because the inflammation will be taken away.

An experiment all in the name of beauty.  Now, I enjoyed the facial, and my skin feels great, but I wouldn’t pay to have one done again. I guess I’m just not that kind of girl.

So onto Fun Fact of the Week Dec 8

You’ve heard about PH – Potential Hydrogen – most likely when it comes to hair care.  But the same principles apply to your skin as well. A PH scale goes from 0 (acidic) to 14 (alkaline), where 7 is neutral, characterized by water. The skin falls at 5.5, which is a normal neutral for the acid mantle (the protective barrier), and ranges from 4.5 (dry skin) to 6 (oily skin).

The products that we use are very important to maintain the PH balance of the skin. If the balance is not maintained, bacteria and other pathogens can get inside and cause problems, because the barrier is compromised. While we are cleansing, toning, and moisturizing our faces, our PH balance goes all over the scale, but it is the job of the products to always bring us back to 5.5. If you skin a step in the process, you are at risk of leaving your skin’s acid mantle compromised, and therefore leaving yourself at risk for breakouts or other problems.

Define Your Skin Type

Forgive the lack of post last week, as I had a test and assignment in my course, and there was nothing of interest to post.  Looking back on it, I should have made the post about cruelty-free products and companies that I had planned, but another time.

For now, I want to share with you some information about SKIN TYPE!

• You are born with your skin type. You will always have that skin type, but the condition of it may change slightly over time.
• It is genetically determined.
• It depends on how much oil is being produced, and how many lipids you have (lipids are between skin cells, helping to hold them together.)
• Your skin condition is another thing.
• You are not born with a skin condition, it happens to you based on external factors.
• Sensitive skin is the only thing that can be a type or a condition, depending on what it is based on.

Okay?  So here’s how you can determine your skin type:

DRY SKIN

• Does not produce enough oil, and is lacking a protective barrier and lipids.
• It will feel rough and tight.
• Pores and follicles in the T-zone will be very small.

OILY SKIN

• There is an excessive amount of oil being produced.
• It will have comedones and blemishes all over the face.
• Pores and follicles in the T-zone will be large, but the pores and follicles will also be visible other areas of the face.

NORMAL SKIN

• Has a good water and oil balance.
• Some blemishes are normal in the T-zone (we’re talking one or two, and usually based on hormonal changes)
• Pores and follicles in the T-zone look like a normal size, and they are not visible anywhere else on the face.

COMBINATION

• You are either oily/dry, or oily/normal. Oily is always part of the combination.
• T-zone is usually oily, and the other areas of the face are either normal or dry.
• Some blemishes are common.

As for me, I have a normal skin type.  I had thought before that because I was prone to acne, that must have meant I had an oily skin type, however, now I know that it was most likely internal factors causing the acne.  Define your skin type, and make sure you’re using the right products!

Free Radicals and Anti Oxidents

Pay attention to this – this is important stuff!

I’m sure you’ve heard of free radicals – they are oxygen atoms which are running rampant in your body, because they are missing an electron.  They must find an electron, or risk death, and they are bumping into everything trying to steal one.  Once they succeed in stealing an electron from a random healthy cell, that cell dies, because it doesn’t have the ability to go around stealing electrons. Free radicals are created by damage from the sun, smoking, drinking, stress, and some few other factors.

So what can we do about these oxygen atoms running around killing everything?  Something needs to be done, because these free radicals can lead to cancer and other terminal issues.  Enter anti oxidents!!  We hear about them all the time, we know they are good for us, but what are they actually doing?

Anti Oxidents are electron-rich atoms that enter the body, seek out the free radicals, and gift them electrons before they can start running around killing other cells. Once the free radicals have the missing electron, they are neutralized, and do not cause any damage.  And it shows – we glow, and we feel great when we have anti oxidents in our systems.  So now that you know, make an effort to get lots of them every day.

Whitening and Brightening

Fun Fact of the Week November 10th

Skin whitening products are a new trend lately, working to even skin tone and hyper-pigmentation. But do you know how they work?

Melanin is what gives skin its colour, created by skin cells in the epidermis called melanocytes. When they are activated by the sun or any other UV light source, they become darker as a shield to protect the dermis from receiving any of the harmful UV rays. Skin whiteners work by inhibiting the melanocytes so that they don’t become activated, and therefore don’t give the skin any colour.

But inhibiting the melanin production is actually quite dangerous. If the melanin is not creating a protective barrier, UV rays can enter the dermis, creating nasty permanent damage. People who are using skin whitening products should always wear hats and sunscreen when they are going outside in the sun to avoid the possible damage to the dermis that can occur.