Beauty in Countered

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Foundation Challenge

I used the FitMe! Foundation from Maybelline for my day out. I prefer the matte versus the dewy formula because my skin is oily but, both are poreless which is obvious. If you look at the pictures below you will see how it made my skin look super smooth and fairly flawless. Now I can’t say 100% flawless because I need to do a lot of work on my own skin. 

That’s beside the point, yesterday was a sticky humid morning. The kind that typically makes make up melt off. Instead, this stayed in place as you can see in the photo from hours later. That was after trying to avoid a downpour also! So this product definitely gave me great coverage all day long. I must say I was truly impressed and the match up on my skin was fantastic. 

It’s extremely lightweight, and I felt like I wasn’t wearing make-up at all. It goes on very easy and doesn’t require a lot for coverage. Perfect for the girl on the go who doesn’t want to spend a lot of time on her make-up in the morning.

The only unfortunate thing about this product, FitMe! Is it left me with some serious acne this morning and a pretty ugly looking rash? Although, I have admitted before I have sensitive skin, so I’m not sure if this is a side effect. But on the plus side I was able to use this to cover up the rash, and maybe I shouldn’t have, but now I get to go face the music or the mirror and see what the results are on day two of wearing this all day. 

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Foundation challenge! 

Look at how close this is to my skin tone! 

Flawless coverage...even hours later after brunching and humidity and getting rained on!

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Facing My Night

So, as you can see I spent the last few nights masking in the glow of beauty (ha!). Now, I went into some detail about the all over face mask, but I think I am more of a multi-level masker. Recently, I started using Three Time Sublime in the shower (3 in 1 cleanser and mask), you will notice I am an avid fan of multi-tasking. This is something that I found to be crucial when I was working in the beauty industry, and most products that boast this ability do NOT follow through as promised...you’ll learn this a little later. Except for this product, probably because it is a skin cleansing product. 

As you can see it is a wash, a scrub, and a mask and it can provide all of these things. On a regular basis, I use this to just wash my face. Wet skin, rub in, rinse off and go! Now, it does not benefit the oiliness, unfortunately, but it leaves my skin feeling smooth (every single time!) and immediately “squeaky” clean. When I am in the shower, I take advantage of the masking part. 

This is when you apply the product to wet skin and leave it to sit for about 3-5 minutes. I do feel like this does temporarily decrease the oiliness of my skin. It is a very temporary effect even those days that I don’t wear make-up it seems to only get me through about half the day. 

I haven’t seen a difference in the overall texture of my skin, which the scrub part should help with. This could be because the scrub is extremely soft, it’s not a heavy granulated scrub like many others. It’s almost completely odorless too! So, those of us with sensitive skin can enjoy this product daily. 

As for the mask, you saw pictures of yesterday, there are a few things I would like to touch on. 

First, it did make my eyes water the longer I had it on creating some kind of irritation. Definitely that cooling type tingling sensation all around the area of the mask. There was no leftover residue either after I took it off which was incredible. 

I do have to credit this product for being awesome!

I will admit one of the regular beauty regimens that I need to learn to better implement is regular sleep. I barely got any last night and had an important meeting this morning, and instead of the typical excessive puffy, tired looking eyes, I spent most of my day looking refreshed. Bags were diminished and sags were minimal...this would have been my dream through my early to mid-twenties. Now, unfortunately, the time has caught up with me, and I can’t play the game of 3 hours of sleep but, with this product, I can at least smooth it over to maybe 5 hours. 

I do not condone lack of sleep by any means but, I know it happens and it’s always better to be prepared than look your age. 

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Yesto EyeMask night....Find out the results tomorrow!

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Pluck This!

First, I would like to start with letting everyone know my skin still feels pretty awesome after that mask the other day; very smooth and firm. 

Now, last night I decided that my brows needed to be cleaned up! I purchased a Finishing Touch Flawless Finisher for Brows.

Keep in mind if you are interested in using one of these - GET THE ONE FOR BROWS! The one for your face has a much larger tip and could be a little tricky to get a decent shape out of, whereas, this one can be used on facial hair and gives you the better option for an arch. 

This is the mess that my brows were before using this pretty nifty little device. 

Some of the downfalls are that it does get fairly hot the more you use it. My skin is ridiculously sensitive (you’ll see although my skin feels better using that mask caused me to breakout!) so, it was a little red after but, compared to waxing the redness dulled rather quickly. I also didn’t get the typical dry patches I do from waxing, and there was not itchy or real irritation. And it is 1000 times less painful than waxing, in other words, I couldn’t feel anything! No snags, no pulling, no pain. 

The overall result doesn’t look as clean as a typical wax either. And I will admit I had to do some touch-up work this morning! That’s the amazing thing about this little device though, it can go anywhere! I could leave it in my car or anywhere there is a mirror in my house. It’s only $20, and it’s battery powered. 

And that convenience, to me, can be the key especially when it comes to brow waxing. I just find it to be tedious and with my sensitive skin, I have to make sure I am not going anywhere for at least 2 days after a good wax. Those two factors alone made me think maybe twice a year I'll get my brows cleaned up and reshaped really well but this little guy is going to be my new best friend.

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So, I have never done an at-home face mask, can you tell?

And I started with SpaLife Anti-Aging Collagen Gold Facial Mask. I choose this for a few reasons, first off I thought it would be more gold and not yellow. Second, I never do any anti-aging treatments and I feel like maybe I should introduce these things to my skin. 

I should correct myself I am actually a big fan of #microderm but not for the anti-aging properties it’s just a benefit. So how does this compare?

Well, it’s really slimy I spend a good 3 or 4 minutes just trying to unfold this thing without ripping it and as you can see the application was a little difficult. Once I did get it on I continued to smooth it out as it sat on my face and interesting enough it felt like it was tightening but, still slimy. 

They suggest it sits on for about 15-20 minutes, I couldn’t hold out the entire time so I hit the minimum time. It started to feel really uncomfortable and it was slipping off my face a little bit. 

Now, that it’s off I spent about 5 minutes rubbing in the remaining serum that was left on my face. It’s been about 10 minutes and it’s fully dried. Areas of my face, mostly my cheekbones, feel pretty tight at this moment and my skin does feel exceptionally clean. 

Well, see tomorrow if it keeps up! I do have to admit though it’s not even comparable to a real facial and it has nothing to do with the results. That is one indulgence I think as a professional I would always suggest. At least twice a year get your facial professionally cleansed but, really do it for the amazing face and scalp massage!

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Do You Care For Your Hair?

As I mentioned I spent plenty of time in the beauty industry. Therefore, I have my absolute favorite brand name product for damaged or dry hair. I do swear by it, I have never found anything as amazing! As you can see my air is thick and ridiculous and recently it has been a bit on the dry side (don’t tell underneath the darkness is about a year of bleach ombre...yikes!). 

I still love my hair and thought I would take a step back from my favs to explore some drugstore beauty and what better a store than #traderjoes. I’m pretty much obsessed with everything that I get from there so why not take their hair mask for a whirl. It’s organic, and it has coconut oil in it (which I used to be completely obsessed with also). 

#hairmask trial:

I do have to say the texture of it is incredible. It’s extremely silky and smells fabulous! But it is obvious that there is coconut oil in it except, unlike coconut oil, it doesn’t leave a build up on your hair. It is pretty light for being a leave-in mask, and it’s perfect for your shower caddy because it only stays in 3 to 5 minutes!

It did leave my hair extra soft, maybe a little too soft, my curls didn’t last very long. Neither did that softness, I feel like shortly after I curled my hair, the dryness came through in full force. 

Although, that didn’t work in my favor what did was the fact that it really helped with my scalp. I have been experiencing some dandruff recently in certain areas, and it has definitely taken care of that...no more scalp itch. Even though it left me feeling less than silky smooth all day long at least, I don’t have oily hair and can still rock some three-day hair this week!

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“Truth.” by @kandeejohnson on Instagram http://ift.tt/1NeZ9QT

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Curious to know about the over the counter side of beauty?

Check it out. 

https://samileighwrites.blogspot.com/

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Being Socially Cool with Gender

               Facebook has over 50 different gender options for you to choose from, yet many days we are still arguing the basic equal rights for male and female in the world of social media. Woman tend to be the targets for the most abuse and negative responses on social media often falling victim to unsolicited materials, harassing emails and commentary, and even stalking. We are shown images that create negative body images in our minds and push us to pursue a gender stereotype that we may not agree with just to keep up with the ideals of our fans and friends. Now with the ever expanding notion of what gender is what can social media do to help relive stigma to all genders?

               In the wake of tragedies in recent years social media has shown their support by taking a stand against violence and hate speech in the LGBT+ community. They have taught those communities who did not have the education words like pansexual and gender fluid. These are the future social media influencers who created the communities that you supported in their times of need, that you share the join of their marches for freedom, and respected their pride on your social media news feed.  You will be the same person who shares or comments on the recent story about Vogue’s insensitivity and misrepresentation of gender fluidity. Do you have the knowledge to understand what gender fluidity is?  Will you be the same person to comment on Jaden Smith’s latest outfit with disdain and mock him for his choices? It’s much easier to support a community with ignorance than take the time to understand. Although, as women we aren’t considered a community this is why to this day we still face adversity much like new and emerges communities sometimes it’s the ignorance of the rest of the world that draws their support. Those must remember though social media takes everything into account and shows everything and all it takes is a little browse through your history to show the true you.

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This notion that there's this impenetrable world out there is ridiculous. These cultural memes translate across the races and you don't love the word community because it suggests a monolith you like communities.

Brooke Gladstone, WNYC

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Does Twitter reflect on that young of an audience? Is Instagram forming the next generation's body image? Do we think enough about the media our children and ourselves are ingesting and positivity reflect back?

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The comfort of community, seeking support, being brave, facing the world. Are we becoming more accepting or do we feel more comfortable still being 'faceless' behind a screen. Either way celebrating gender online and being fearless have taken great leaps!

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This is connected to a larger series that breakdown preconceived notions that we have about one another. Sometimes you have to be shown things from someone else's perspective to remember there is more than one. Sometimes social media is a great ground breaker for comfort to find that perspective.

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Remember everyone has an opinion and don't sea-lion those you know because yours may not be the same. Keep the scroll going cause we've all heard enough about how you feel about the summer weather and 15 year olds that you never would have dressed like! Political views and politics deserve our respect too!