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Back To School Makeup Routine Inspiration

I love the back to school season for so many reasons. In a way, it gives me a chance to start over and start fresh with my goals. It's sort of like a new  'new year' hahah! Oh, and you cannot forget the cute stationary. Even though I incline more on practicality of something rather than how cute it looks, there's no doubt you can find a good match of both these days- which makes schooling so much more fun!

I don't go to a regular school at the moment (I'm a distance learning student!). But if I would, this is how I'd wear my makeup to school everyday. It's pretty minimal, with a few multi-purpose items that are my personal favourites for when I'm on the go. 

I hope you can find some makeup inspiration for yourself from this routine, so- happy reading!

♥ FRESH MINIMAL MAKEUP FOR SCHOOL ♥

1. Moisturize 

I start by prepping my skin with a good moisturizer. Preferably with something that has SPF of some amount - considering Saudi's daily weather!

2. Conceal

Some of us don't need it, while some of us can't go without it. I'm definitely from the latter! Concealing is such an important step for me to look (and feel! ) fresh + presentable. I personally prefer using a light to medium coverage liquid concealer that also brightens while it covers. However, if you already have a favourite formula that you can't go wrong with, there's no reason to use something else! :D

3. Set

I then go on to set my concealer and moisturizer with a powder foundation. I have dry skin, so finding a powder foundation that didn't accentuate the dryness was a challenge since most powder foundations cater to normal/oily skins. Alhamdullilah, I did  end up finding one for me though! 

The one I use is the by Dior- Diorskin Forever Compact Flawless Perfection Fusion Wear Makeup SPF 25. This product deserves a review in and of itself (coming soon!) but for the time being, I will let you know that it's a must-have in my makeup collection. It gives the perfect amount of coverage for daily wear without having to use a foundation.

4. Brows

Eyebrows make a huge difference to the overall look and are especially more important when it comes to minimal makeup. I highly recommend trying a few different brow routines to see which works. You'll be amazed at the difference they make! I ignored my brows for the longest time but now, I can't go without doing something to them! I fill my brows with the Milani Brow Tint pen which is great for everyday- provides just the right amount of tint, frames my face, and I cannot go overboard with this when I'm on the run.

5. Curl lashes + Clear Mascara

I personally don't prefer wearing regular mascara daily because it can be quite a challenge to remove at the end of a tiring day. So I just curl my lashes and apply a clear mascara to give an awake look with lifted lashes.

6. White/Nude Waterliner

Next step, I line my waterline with a white or a nude pencil to make my eyes look fresh and awake. This doesn't work for everyone though as it depends on your skin tone. If you prefer black you can always wear that of course! Or just go plain if white and nude are both a bit harsh for the overall look you are going for. Alhamdullilah, it works for me so that's what I do!

7. Lip Balm

The last and final step I do is apply a nice moisturizing lip balm. You can also use a tinted lip balm for some colour if that's what you like ^_^

... and you're done!

If I have more time and want to take this up a notch, I like to apply Benefit's Benetint as blush and lip tint as an extra along with High Beam highlight for an extra fresh, put-together look. These two products are my favourite for on-the-go looks!

So, what do you think? How do you like to wear your daily makeup? I know some girls absolutely love their black kohl, and some can't go without their favourite lipstick/lip gloss. I'd love to know your routine!

Also, what are you most excited about for the new school year? Comment below and let me know! ^_^ 

Have a great day!

P.S. Do you know about the super international giveaway? Click here. Good luck!

♥ Soul food for the day ♥

“Bravery is believing in yourself finding your voice & fulfilling your mission in life.” 
― Haleh Banani

Favourite Of The Moment: Rimmel Lipstick in 214 Firecracker

You know how sometimes, we think we want something having a clear idea about it but then end up loving something else altogether? Yes, that is pretty much the story with this lipstick.

I've always thought that my to-go lipstick will be a MLBB- "My Lips But Better" kind of shade. Up until now, I haven't found my ideal MLBB so I didn't have a go-to lipstick as a result. Until I tried Rimmel's lipstick in Firecracker that is. (I know I probably sound way too dramatic than I should, but hey! That is  how the story goes hahah :D )

I shared a 'Show & Tell' on Instagram with this lipstick a few months ago. It was part of my *cough*splurge*cough* lipstick haul (lol!).

Rimmel's Lasting Finish Lipstick in Firecracker (214) is quite a unique colour. I would say it's in the Coral category, yet it lacks a kind of neon effect in the way coral colours are usually portrayed. 

It has the slightest hint of an almost 'burnt orange' that makes it one of a kind. It's far more wearable in person and on the lips than you see in the swatch (see pictures below). I am absolutely loving this right now! I kid you not- this has actually become my go-to lip colour! Something that I totally  did not expect. I can also see this looking amazing on a variety of skin tones (I am an NC15 in case you are wondering!).

Not only is this a beautiful shade but it is also non-drying, does not travel outside the lip line unnecessarily (a problem I've come across with quite a few lipsticks!), it makes your lips look lush, does not wear off in an unsightly manner, and has some of the best longevity I've experience with a lip product!

This goes with pretty much any kind of makeup look! It especially looks beautiful with a minimal, warm toned makeup look-- clean base, lightly bronzed face, peach blush, a neutral highlighter, champagne shadow, dark mascara, and this lipstick = love! At the same time, it looks equally fabulous with a heavier eye look! 

This lipstick is all the rage  in my makeup routine at the moment. Really!

Which makeup product has sweeping you off your feet these days? Share the love! ^_^

♥ Soul food for the day ♥

“It's not what you say but how you say it which makes a world of difference. If people are responding negatively to you and you are not sure why just reflect on your tone of voice, body language and facial expressions. Have everything synchronize: your words & your actions in order to have a positive impact on your loves ones ♥” 
― Haleh Banani

African Paradise Body Conditioner by Lush Cosmetics - Review

African Paradise is my first product from Lush that I've tried--- and finished entirely already!

Yes, it's that good.

This is an all natural body conditioner by Lush. Now, body conditioner is something we don't get to hear about every day, so allow me to explain...

Essentially, this body conditioner is to the body what hair conditioner is to hair. After washing the body with soap/shower gel as usual, you take some amount of this conditioner, smooth it over the body, and then rinse it off. Result: instant moisture!

You are free to skip your post-shower body moisturizer after using this- it's that good! If you find applying body moisturizer a chore- this will make hydrating your body ten times easier, quicker, and less messy!

Having dry skin issues day in and out, this conditioner relieved me from using my daily hand cream. Alhamdullilah. A good result with this product has held true for me, and I hope it does for you too!

Review card time!
Decide for yourself if you think this is something that will be worth a look :)

So, comment below and let me know- do you think this will be helpful in your body care routine? Why/why not? I'd love to know! ^_^

If you have dry skin issues like myself- do give this a try. I'm positive you'll benefit from it as much as I did!

In other news, I'm contemplating a regular 'chat' post series of sorts on here like I'm doing for my personal blog. Mainly because I feel it's fun to talk about a variety of things in one short post every now and then! However, I haven't found a series idea yet. If you have some ideas, please share! It could be anything beauty related or a mix of beauty and life. I'm just really out of ideas at the moment and would appreciate any input!

See you in my next post!

♥ Soul food for the day ♥

“My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, 
and I intend to end up there.” 
― Rumi

High Beam Liquid Highlighter Review

I know friends- this post is long overdue. I sincerely apologize for the delay. Life happens, I'm sure you awesome folks understand and so, I will get right to the point!

O High Beam highlighter, how I love thee.

Swatches

I am absolutely loving this. The more I use it, the more I love it.

The packaging is designed like a nail polish. The one you see in the picture above is a sample size from a set I purchased by Benefit. It still is the same nail polish application concept but just smaller than the original.

As for the product itself, the application is easier than you'd expect from a liquid product. I like to apply this by drawing lines along the tops of my cheekbones, down the middle of my nose, and dot it under my eyebrow. Then, with a clean finger I blend until it's all nice and highlighted! It dries from a liquid to an ever-so-slight powder finish. You can definitely go without setting it with another powder highlighter.

The result of the highlighter by itself- softly glowy highlighted cheeks. Can definitely be worn with minimal makeup!

The fact that I can use this product, by itself, without needing a setting agent is what makes it such a favourite. It has taken a place in my to-go makeup routine for when I need to look just put together enough in a rush! Alhamdullilah :D

I'm positive you've already heard a lot about this from YouTube as well. However, it is also one of those products which makes you think- "Ok, so this works for her. But- will it work for me?".

I've made a quick review card for you to decide yourself! Is it worth it for your beauty (and wallet)? You decide! :)

I also mentioned in my previous post that there is very little difference between this and the NYX highlighter. The only difference is that NYX has a stronger highlight with larger glitter particles that makes it more suitable for nighttime wear whereas High Beam has a 'soft glow' effect to it with dispersed sparkles. NYX's highlighter also dries quicker and so it's trickier to blend compared to High Beam.

I personally enjoy using both according to the demand of the occasion. High Beam is my choice for the daytime/lighter looks whereas NYX is what I reach out for nighttime occasions/weddings!

What do you think? If you already own high beam- please share your thoughts. If not, would you consider purchasing it after this review? I love conversation :D

Until the next post, have an awesome day!

♥ Soul food for the day ♥

"And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth, 

"You owe me."

Look what happens with love like that.

It lights up the sky."

- Hafez

8 Ways To Boost Your Winter Skin

Winter skin can leave you looking and feeling blue.  But with simple solutions that everyone can practice, your skin can beat the winter blues and look radiant and healthy.

Produced by the team at Skinfo Skincare. Skinfo is a great place to get the perfect products for your skin type and situation.

Guest Post: How Anti-Oxidants Help Protect Your Skin Against Aging

Here is a guest post on behalf of skinfo.com
educating us about anti-oxidants and the
role they play in protecting the skin against aging.
We found it truly insightful and hope you do too!

-VicinityMakeup

________________________________________________________________________

The beauty world has been buzzing for many years about antioxidants, the powerful “cure-all” for  nature’s effects on skin. Although many products, creams, powders and even foods claim antioxidant benefits, many still don’t’ know what they are, how they work or what antioxidants can do for your skin.

Antioxidants are both nutrients (i.e. vitamins and minerals) and enzymes (proteins in your body that assist chemical reactions.) These elements help reduce the effects of oxidation, or the stress that occurs when free radicals (chemically active atoms) grab electrons from cells, protein and DNA. In other words, antioxidants protect healthy cells from damage. Oxidants are necessary for many biological processes like metabolism and breathing. Although it’s impossible to avoid some damage from free radicals (as some are a normal part of our bodies) antioxidants can help protect your skin from the free radicals found in environmental factors: pollution, sunlight, smoking and alcohol.

A healthy diet combined with antioxidant-rich skincare products can benefit your skin in a variety of ways. 

Here are a few of the top ways:

1) Increased Collagen Production – Collagen is the main protein that gives your skin elasticity (or, in other words, a tight, youthful skin tone.) Collagen is highly susceptible to free radical damage; collagen is easily broken down, causing wrinkles. Strengthen your skin and neutralize free radicals by applying an antioxidant night cream daily. This type of cream is often thicker than daily moisturizers, and can work with the restorative process of sleep to improve skin ton and allow collagen production to continue.

http://www.smashinglists.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Moisturize.jpg

2) Reduce Age Spots  -- Age spots, sometimes known as liver spots (or solar lentigines to doctors), are harmless discolorations of skin. They often appear and darken over time, and happen when sun exposure speeds up the skin pigment melanin, which becomes clumped together. To reduce the appearance of age spots, search for a daily sunscreen that includes vitamin C. The sunscreen can help stop future melanin overproduction, and the vitamin C is known to lighten age spots already existing on the skin.

3) Reduced Acne – Acne isn’t just a teenage problem; many adults suffer from this problem, too (in addition to other skin issues, like age spots or wrinkles.) Acne can be caused by different things, but if you have oily skin, this can be a culprit. Vitamin A is an amazing antioxidant to help with acne for several reasons. Vitamin A helps reduce the overall level of oil in the pores of the skin, and also move deep into pores to remove keratin plugs, which are also a known cause for acne. For adults suffering from acne, search for a daily wrinkle cream moisturizer that includes Vitamin A that can help you get clear, wrinkle-free skin tone.

4) Anti-Inflammation – Dry, cracked and inflamed skin not only looks painful, it feels painful. Individuals with dry skin can experience flare-ups due to weather or environmental factors, but antioxidants can help calm skin and restore moisture. Alpha lipoic acid, found in pine bark and green tea, have great anti-inflammatory properties and can increase circulation and promote cell regrowth. With this antioxidant, you’ll see a more even skin tone and less stress on your skin.  If you’re faced with inflamed skin, try a natural cleanser with green tea to soothe and restore.

About the author

Amanda is a social media manager for a health care organization by day and a blogger and freelance writer by night. She's also a mom to an amazing 2 year-old boy and wife to a great guy who indulges all her celebrity gossip. Amanda loves coffee, fashion, Twitter, makeup, nail polish, and cats (not always in that order.) Her work has been published on family.com and blogher.com. For more celebrity gossip, fashion, beauty and DIY, visit Amanda's blog, It's Blogworthy (http://itsblogworthy.com) or follow her on Twitter and Google+.

Shop and Tell #4 - Drugstore Lipsticks and Swatches

Heyyy alllll :) I thought I'd do a show and tell for these lipsticks I got in the past month. All of these ended up becoming some of my FAVES. I got some crazy brights, and some neutral pinks. Hope you all enjoy the post :)

1. Maybelline ColorSensational Vivid lipstick #902 Fuschia Flash

    Its just a crazy bright pink with purple undertones with a slightly glossy finish although over time it dries kinda matte. I saw makeupbycamila2 on YouTube use this in one of her videos and I just knew I had to get it cos I've nothing like it!! On my bare lips, it comes out more purple than a pink, but when I conceal my lips first and then apply it, it comes out more pink :) 

2. Maybelline ColorSensational Vivid lipstick #910 Shocking Coral

   I think the name itself describes it the best. Its a beautiful shocking coral color with a slightly glossy finish but it looks matte over time. Once again, it comes off more orange on my bare lips, so I like concealing my lips before applying to get the true color of this lipstick. For some reason, in the first picture the lipstick looks more orange. I took another picture just so you can see its true color :)

3. Rimmel Colour Show Off lipstick #110 Pink Gossip

    I was shopping with my bestie when we spotted a buy two get one free sale on all the cosmetic brands in Centerpoint. Both of us went CRAZY and bought three lipsticks each from Rimmel! So the first color I gravitated towards was this one- its a bright pink with warm undertones and a matte finish. If you look closely on the tube of the lipstick, you can see some golden sparkles but when applied you can't really see them. 

4. Rimmel Lasting Finish by Kate lipstick #102

    This is a beautiful neutral pink with a matte finish which looks very natural on the lips. Its a basic pink that all girls should have because it goes with every makeup look! 

 

5. Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick #070 Airy Fairy 

   Its a pink nude with a finish that feels like its right in between a glazed and a frost. Perfect for those days when you want a nude lip without looking washed out :) 

Here are swatches of the lipsticks I've mentioned-

(from top to bottom)

1. Maybelline ColorSensational Vivid #902 Fuchsia Flash

2. Maybelline ColorSensational Vivid #910 Shocking Coral

3. Rimmel Color Show Off #110 Pink Gossip

4. Rimmel Lasting Finish by Kate #102

5. Rimmel Lasting Finish #070 Airy Fairy

Where to get these:

I get all my drugstore brands like Maybelline, Rimmel, NYX, etc from Centerpoint in Andalus Mall.

How much do they cost?

Maybelline Vivids for 51 sr each.

Rimmel lipsticks for around 42 sr each.

I really hope you enjoyed reading this post and it proved helpful. If you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comment section below or contact us on our Facebook or Twitter.

How I Store My Lipsticks + Kyara 2 Drawer Acrylic Container review

Hiiiii everyone! :D

Today I'm very excited to share with ya'll how I organize my lipsticks and a sort of a review on this storage item. 

Earlier I used to store my lipsticks in one of those acrylic cubic lipstick holders which was great but I always ended up getting dust on my lipsticks that way, also- my nieces are ALWAYS out and about to get their hands on my makeup, so that didn't help either. However I continued to use it regardless until I ran out of storage space, and had nowhere to store my new lipsticks.

I ALWAYS wanted to get the MUJI acrylic containers (kinda still do, cos they have more sizes), but the lazy me didn't want to go through all that hassle to order it online. 

So, I began on a hunt to find something similar here in Jeddah. And I found this:

The Kyara 2 Drawer Jewelry Box

What it is:

A two drawer acrylic desk, ideal for storing pieces of jewelry and in my case- lipsticks

Where I got it:

At Home Center in Al-Andalus Mall

How much I got it for:

49 sr

What it looks like:

Here are some pictures so you get an idea of what it looks like from all sides and angles :)

MY THOUGHTS:

-As you can tell, these drawers are clear acrylic see-through- so I love how I can see the color and name of the lipsticks.

-It is lined with this black thing that kind of resembles shelf-liners- which is good because it will keep your things from sliding around in the drawers. Although it is easily removable if you don't like the look.

-The drawers slides in and out easily, thanks to the handles on it.

-The entire drawer is made up of a comparatively thicker acrylic than most drawers I've seen on the MUJI website- so I'd say its pretty heavy duty and durable.

-Although one thing I'd like to share is how BUMMED I was when I found out the drawers are not stack-able. Although they do stand side by side very well- kinda looks like this:

Here are some more pictures with my lipsticks in, so you can see what it looks like with the lipsticks in-

As you can see in the picture above, in my top drawer, it fits around 8 lipsticks when placed vertically.

And in my second drawer, you can see that the longer lipsticks don't fit vertically, so I store like 5 of my longer lipsticks horizontally and 3 of my other lipsticks vertically.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase as this drawer stores all of my lipsticks very well! I think, being a concealer junkie, it'd be ideal to store lots of concealers as well.

Who would I recommend this drawer?

I'd recommend this to anyone who was looking for acrylic drawers to store their makeup such as lipsticks, concealers, jumbo pencils, paint pots from MAC, or the Maybelline color tattoos etc. 

And HAPPY SUMMERS to all of you out there!! I know I'm very late at this but my summers started only about a week ago, and inshallah I will try my best to post a lot more frequently now :)

I really hope you enjoyed reading this post and it proved helpful. If you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comment section below or contact us on our Facebook or Twitter.

Spring Clean Your Makeup Bag [Tip Of The Day]

Head on over to handbag.com to know all that you need in order to clear away the makeup clutter! I personally feel the steps are quite relevant without getting too technical on how to know the bad makeup from the good and to clean away the makeup mess.

I recently "spring cleaned" my makeup collection and and ended up with a bag full of products I haven't used- in a long time, won't use, or are as good as new *hides* lol!

It may be surprising but I love how light I feel after that- Alhamdullilah! All those products, not being put to better use is a real shame on my part. InshaaAllah I will be giving them way to family and friends as soon as I am able (after I sanitize them properly ofcourse!).

FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR THE HOW TO: http://www.handbag.com/beauty/news/a468330/how-to-spring-clean-your-makeup-bag-with-help-from-clinique.html

Here is a snap of the items that (sadly) had to be put out of my makeup collection :(

Hope you enjoyed!

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Until then, tc!