Instagram Nails #21

Insragram Nails #20

You're Such A Square

I fight an endless battle with my nails. Specifically the condition of my nails. I recently went back to an old job that is particularly hard on my hands in general but on my fingernails specifically. After two short shifts they were breaking, splitting, peeling, and chipping. I kept racking my brain for a solution and finally I think I've figured it out.

After a broken nail i decided I was going to file them all back. After realizing that the rounded shape my nails caused breaking in the center it occured to me that squaring them off might help to mitigate the breakage. So far so good. Not only do I have zero chips or flakes but I have significantly less tip wear than I expected. (The photo above was taken right after polishing.) The real test will come after a day at work but I suspect even if they sustain some damage it will pale in comparison to what I'm used to.

I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Instagram Nails #19

The Bold and the Christmas Gifts Set

 

I am in love. It's always nice to be a beauty lover this time of year, because beauty brands tend to release value sets of some of their most popular products. I got a look at this Tarte Amazonian Clay blush kit from one of the many bloggers/youtubers I follow (I can't remember which. Sorry!) and knew immediately I had to have it.  At full price this Tarte blush formula is 25$ for .2 oz of product. This set buys you .4 oz of product in four colors for 34$. Woohoo! I had my eye on the cult color "exposed" from the core collection but when I saw this (and saw how close the color "stellar" is to "exposed") I thought this would be a great way to satisfy my desire for new blush while also satisfying my shopping guilt. Success! Bonus, this kit comes with "angelic" a beautiful golden highlight color.

I haven't had too much play with the brighter colors yet ("fantastic" and "magic") but they swatch and blend beautifully.

 

Bottom line. These are high quality blushes at a great price in a brilliant makeup bag friendly size. Go get these before they're gone! To boot, if you are a collector, the half size means these actually stand a chance of getting finished someday! An additional bonus, if you are into more naturally incline makeup these (and all Tarte products) are formulated without a long list of nasties found on most other cosmetic ingredient lists.

Instagram Nails #18

Halloween Detox

Ah Halloween how I love thee. It's true, I love an excuse to dress up and behave like an 8 year old. My skin on the other hand was none too pleased with me after my weekend of facepaint and Gin...

 

 

This was just one of my costumes, but I'm pretty sure this was the one that made my skin go crazy. (must have been the 79cent face paint from Kmart...) I thought I would take a minute to share with you guys all the things I've used this week to get my face back in fighting shape..

 

 

 

1. Face Flannel/Washcloth- Using any oil based cleanser I have been giving my face a nice long massage every night to make sure that any excess dirt or makeup really gets off my skin. ( you know how it goes you go out, you come home, you pass out, makeup be dammned.) After a weekend of neglect I think this is the one things my skin appreciates the most.

 

2. LUSH'S Greased Lighting- I have been a faithful user of this spot treatment for nearly 2 years, The reason I like it is because it disinfects spots without severe drying or flaking of the surrounding skin. I love it when a product can be hyper-natural and still deliver chemical results and for me this one does.

 

3. Alpha Hydrox Treatment Gel- I have a whole post dedicated to this here.(link!) I cannot rave about it enough. It helps with skin texure and especially breakouts!

 

4. Elma&Sana Organic Argan Oil- I got this vial of oil off amazon about a year ago for around 13$ with shipping. (link!) I was using this on my hair and saw some results, but my favorite place for this is on my face. I was having trouble finding a moisturizer to use on nights when I'm not using the Alpha Hydrox that didn't make my spots more clogged. I reached for this on a whim and was suprised to find that this not only didn't make the situation worse, but actually seemed to aid in improving things.

 

This is just my emergency skin routine (as it stands now) and is of course specific to my skin concerns. Although I think that all the products mentioned here could easily help a wide variety of people in one way or another.

What are some of your emergency skin fixes?