Rachel Ellen: beauty

Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts

Tuesday, 5 December 2017

beauty 17:50

Does cocoa butter cause spots?

Cocoa butter is a vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean. It's used in chocolate and in some toiletries. It has a long storage life, and has moisturising properties that are often recommended for prevention of dry and itchy skin.

For many people, cocoa butter is an excellent moisturiser. It is thought to have been used for improving skin tone as far back as 1000 BC. But is it good to use on acne prone skin?

Moisturising is important for all skin types (even oily skin) and can help clear acne, but it's important to get the right product.

Though cocoa butter has excellent moisturising properties, it also has pore clogging properties.

The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology analyses different natural oils and have assembled a rating system to rate how much they clog pores:

"The Journal has assembled a massive list of the comedogenic properties of skincare oils. Comedogenicity is a measure of a substance’s ability to clog skin pores, and the Journal has invented 6 ratings. 0 = will not clog your pores. 1 = low chance of clogging your pores. 2= moderately low chance, 3 = moderate chance, 4 = fairly high chance of pores being blocked, and 5 = a very high chance." (source)

Cocoa butter scores 4 on the comedogencity scale (the same score as coconut oil).

For some people, cocoa butter based skin products will be a great solution to dry skin. But for those who regularly suffer from acne, it's probably best to stay away and opt for something that would rank a lower score on the comedogenicity scale.

Do you know any moisturisers that are good for acne prone skin?

Tuesday, 1 August 2017

university 13:25

Placement Haul

by Rachel

As you'll see in my last post (here if you missed it) I was at the Good Housekeeping Institute last week for a placement, and what an exciting week it was.

I helped to prep samples that were being sent out to testers, I helped to find future products to test, I helped to taste food ( i know, what a hard week), I attended three PR events and spent my lunch times hanging around Soho.

I just wanted to put together a list of all the freebies I got through the week, can I use the hashtag #blessed yet? (the answer is no)

On the first day we were preparing brow products, and the ladies I was working with let me take home a few of the spares they had, that B. brow cream is absolutely life changing in the brow department, I am in love with it. On the second day, the lady in charge of me had a few spare Palmer's products (as you do) and let me have them, they are such nice products and feel lovely on my skin!

At the end of the third day I was asked if I wanted to accompany one of the girls to a press event for Mary Kay, which of course I did! I've never been to a press event before and it was really exciting. They had rose wine slushies, somebody doing nails, somebody else creating ombre lips, and the most gorgeous set up!

They were very kindly giving out goody bags on the way out, which contained two of their new gel semi-shine lipsticks, a felt tip eyeliner, a body lotion, fragrance mist and shower gel.

On day four I went to two press events, the first had a range of independent companies. One of which was Chocolate and Love who gave us a few bars of chocolate to try (which obviously I ate and forgot to take a picture first). Another was The Handmade Soap Company, they gave us two hand creams each to try out, and they smell incredible!

After that we headed over to the Primark Home press event ( I know, I was SO excited). I got to see all their Christmas stuff, a massive Harry Potter selection and a few beauty bits.

I really can't wait for their Christmas clothes, there are these woolly dresses which I cannot wait to arrive in stores. They didn't have a good bag to give us, but gave us both a little envelope. When we opened it we found it had a £50 Primark gift card!!! I can't even tell you the excited noise I made, I was SO excited! Can I just be a professional PR event attender please?

On the final day, I had no press events to attend, and no spare products, but at the end of the day they gave me a goody bag of products to say thank you for the week.

This has ended up being a long post of bragging about all the things I got, but honestly I had such a great week, I met up with a few friends through the week, I ate amazing food and had this great experience.

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Thursday, 29 June 2017

beauty 11:59

The NARS scandal

by Rachel

Big news in the beauty world this week, NARS are starting selling in China.

If you didn't know, Chinese law dictates that animal testing is required by any foreign cosmetics company. So, although European law bans animal testing for cosmetic ingredients and final stage cosmetics, some brands aren't cruelty free as they sell in China.

L'Oreal, who own NARS have already been selling in China, among many other brands (honestly, look it up, you'll be shocked!)

But L'Oreal's branch of NARS (NYX too - though they aren't currently selling in China) had remained cruelty free, though many advocates of cruelty free make-up would not include them due to other L'Oreal branches.

But recently, NARS released this statement:

"We want you to know that we hear you. The global elimination of animal testing needs to happen. We firmly believe that product and ingredient safety can be proven by non-animal methods, but we must comply with the local laws of the markets in which we operate, including in China. We have decided to make NARS available in China because we feel it is important to bring our vision of beauty and artistry to fans in the region. NARS does not test on animals or ask others to do so on our behalf, except where required by law. NARS is committed and actively working to advance alternative testing methods. We are proud to support the Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS), a globally recognized organization at the forefront of advancing non-animal methods in China and around the world. NARS is hopeful that together, we can work toward a cruelty-free world. For more on the good work IIVS is doing, see: http://bit.ly/2rVjnwV"

And, of course, everyone is outraged. Many brands are working to stop animal testing worldwide, and L'Oreal are taking a step back.

I think the thing I hate most about this post is how they have made it out as though they had no choice. As though it would be unreasonable to not sell their products in China. They seem to be asking for forgiveness, or for sympathy.

They could have continued as they were, and worked towards removing other L'Oreal companies from markets that force animal testing. Or, at a push just used the brands they were already selling to push the message that alternatives are needed.

Well NARS, guess what? Many people are already boycotting your products and I think more will follow. A lot of respect will be lost for a well loved brand. I think you've really made a big old flop of the PR on this one.

Although my own make-up bag isn't only full of cruelty free brands, I think I need to start working towards that. It's not the most difficult and all my make-up brushes already fit the bill.

What do you think of this?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Monday, 10 April 2017

university 14:53

Storing Make Up

by Rachel

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about how I store my make up. Most people on the internet seem to use those plastic transparent drawers, I have to say I'm not a fan (this post explains why).

At home, I have the MALM white dressing table from IKEA, yeah that one that everyone has. It's so great for make up as the drawer is so wide so you can fit all you need in there!

But at uni, I'm not so lucky with furniture, I have to work with a dark brown TV table that has one drawer. I made do for a while but it just wasn't what I wanted.

Then I remembered I had these drawers (which were bought to store uni work... oops)

I thought they'd be the perfect place to keep my make up organised and safe from damage.

In the top I store any face related products, foundation, concealer, highlighters, contours that sort of thing. Don't judge the number of Revlon foundations, in BnM they were selling them for £5, when they're normally £12.99, the shades and types are a little limited, but absolutely worth the buy. (UK people check BnM out to see if they still have this deal!) But also, don't buy that bronzer, orange 'r' us.

The next drawer is dedicated to eye and eyebrow products, shadows, liners, primer and mascara

And lastly, which is looking a little bare, is the drawer for lip products. This isn't even half of my lip products, most are sitting at home.

I get that this way of storing make up may be less organised than the plastic drawers and containers but I like that I can hide everything away and make it look really tidy. It stays out of sunlight and stays away from dust. And I can actually see the colour rather than just a range of black lids.

How do you store your make up?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Thursday, 23 March 2017

review 17:00

Sleek Make-Up Review

by Rachel

Today, I wanted to write about a couple of make up bits that I've had for a little while and think they are well worth the money. They are both by the brand Sleek which I'd never had any products from them before so it was exciting to try!

First, the Sleek highlighter palette in solstice. So many bloggers have spoken about this palette and it does live up to expectation. It was a little more than I expected, at £10 it seems pricey for a cheap brand, but you do get 4 colours.

Superdrug website describes the product as "This versatile face and body highlighting palette suits all skin tones and includes two baked powders, one luxurious cream formula and one silky shimmer powder."

The two baked powders are my favourite, I always get compliments when I use the purple one, although it is a bit strong and glittery. I like to save it for evening wear now.

The cream one is really nice for under your eyebrows. I've had this palette for a few months now and used it plenty, but look at the products, they don't look like I've touched them! I couldn't imagine this EVER running out.

The other product is the Matte Me lip cream in the shade Shabby Chic

It's a really pretty mauve shade and was only £5, it's super matte and long lasting, but is incredibly drying. Anyone with particularly dry lips shouldn't try this.

I made a video of the lip cream on, please ignore the state of my lips, but this is over a lip balm and still quite drying and tacky, but minimal printing.

Sleek does seem to be a good affordable brand and I'm really pleased with my purchases!

Have you ever bought anything from Sleek? What do you think of their products?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Sunday, 5 March 2017

fashion 22:49

International Women's Day

by Rachel

Wednesday is international women’s day. As a 23 year old female, I feel I might actually be on my way from a girl to a woman (you know like when a stranger refers to you as a lady #sogrownup).

There are a lot of women in my life that have made a huge difference to me, family and friends included.

But I thought I’d talk today about Hayley Williams of Paramore and why she was important during my teenage years in my growing into a woman, and maybe some of you can relate.

I was about 13/14 when I became a fan of Paramore, and that Misery Business hair style.

I didn’t learn about feminism and the deeper things of being a woman in my teenage years, in fact I was pretty unaware of gender inequality still existing, which is sweet really.

For a while, I didn’t really know how Hayley Williams could be someone I could look up to, I was never going to be a singer (I sing like I’m being stood on)

But being a fan of Paramore and of Hayley Williams, taught me not to be afraid of being a girl. She always had mad hair styles and colours, she had crazy make up and cool clothes. She wore skirts and dresses but she was still punky as hell. She wore things with studs but also wore leopard print and pink.

"This is what I've learned, in my life: Headbanging is crucial. Growing up is hard to do. There's nothing wrong with wearing a dress."

Being interested in your own appearance is always associated with self-obsessed girls, and apparently negotiates your intelligence. But it was an important development for me to learn you can like make-up and clothes, but also be a human being who has important things in their life.

But also, being interested in your appearance, doesn’t mean you have to conform to a standard way of dressing. You can wear clothes that other people think are weird, you can have hair styles people don’t agree with, and that doesn’t matter because that’s your style.

“I’m really into healthy self-expression; That’s why I dye my hair, that’s why I wear stupid clothes, that’s why I don’t care that my bangs look like Spock from Star Trek.”

She taught me that it’s important to pay for music when you can, even when it is so freely available to you.

"Support music every day because there isn’t a day music won’t be there for you”

She taught me that a woman can stand up in a male dominated environment (the rock music world) and have a voice, work hard, and get what she wants.

I know there are a lot of inspirational women in the world, but for me, Hayley Williams was just such a big part of my teenage years, in a time when all the other bands I liked were male dominated, she was so important in realising, its OK to be a girl. That being a girl isn't a hindrance.

This year, International Women's Day have a hashtag #BeBoldForChange and I think that's important to me and in relation to this post, let's not be afraid to be bold, but also be a woman.

On international women’s day, celebrate the women in your life appreciate all they do because women are pretty badass after all.

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Thursday, 26 January 2017

beauty 17:01

Rust Eyeshadow

by Rachel

If you follow anything in the beauty world, bloggers, vloggers, that sort of thing, you've probably heard of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance palette by now. everyone is going crazy. I wasn't really prepared to spend £41 on this, I'm too poor and that is way too much on colours I've not really used before.

The colours that I was quite interested in were the reddy-pinky -rusty colours. So Red Ochre, Venetian Red, Love Letter, Antique Bronze.

So I decided to go to Boots and Superdrug to see if I could find something that might be a similar colour, but I think everyone in Sheffield has had the same idea, any palette with a slightly similar colour, or any single pot of eyeshadow that's anywhere near these colours is absolutely sold out.

The ONLY thing I found with that kind of colour (I'm not joking) was this NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Rust. I've never seen anyone review them before but I thought it was worth a try

The pencil is a little tough, but I think if my bedroom was a little warmer than -15 degrees it might be softer.

The colour is quite burgundy rather than red and has quite a nice colour pay off.

For anyone wanting to try that kind of colour without splashing out the £41, I think this is a really good idea

What do you think of these red colours for eyes?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Thursday, 15 December 2016

beauty 17:09

Too many new things

by Rachel

On Tuesday the 6th, I went to The Clothes Show. Unlike everyone else (it seems) I have never been to it before and I ended up going to the final day ever in Birmingham before they move to Liverpool.

I didn't actually buy any clothes, although there was some really nice stuff. I got quite a bit of make up and skin products due to the deals that were on. Maybe I need to go to a make up show.

Here's a nice big list of the things I got and my initial impressions on some of them.

First thing was the £3 show bag, which had a few bits and bobs in. I haven't actually used many of these things. The nail varnish is lovely, and below, I have paired it with a couple of the other Barry M nail varnishes from the day. The other thing I have used is the popband, pictured top left. It is supposed to be comfortable on your wrist and work as a bobble. I have quite smooth heavy hair so maybe it's just me, but it didn't hold very well.

So the Barry M stuff. At their stall, they were selling this little set, with the make up bag for £10. For me, it was worth it for the nail varnishes, never mind the other bits.

The nail varnishes are great, apart from the blue one that needs a particular top coat to use. The first and the fourth shown in the picture are the two I used on the picture further up, they are currently sold as a pair in Superdrug. They dry reasonably quickly compared to the last Barry M varnishes I have had.

The lip products and the palette are a little disappointing and some a little unusable (the loud mouth lip thing, it's sticky and a really unpleasant colour.) But the lip balm, is quite nice, it's a little moisturising and is purple tinted. I think I'll stick to just the nail varnishes with Barry M in future.

Glamour magazine had a stall and they were offering a gift bag with all of the below, January's magazine, and a years subscription for £9. As someone on a magazine journalism who buys the mag every month, this is a great deal!

The coconut shampoo and conditioner is really nice, I was in need of quite a good conditioner so I'm really pleased for this! I'm excited to use the St. Tropez fake tan, I've never used their products before, let's see f they can convert me from St. Moriz. I love the bottle for the finishing spray, I don't think it's any different to many hairsprays but a really great size!

And of course, the part we've all been waiting for, Spectrum brushes!

Spectrum had a stall there which was absolutely swamped. I did initially want the pink handled ones which are everywhere but they were sold out. Then I spotted this set, which is almost the same as the set in the glam clam (£59.99), without the brush carrier, these brushes were £25, that works out at £2.50 a brush can you believe it? B06, which is an eyeshadow blender, is my favourite so far. The brushes are super soft and completely vegan and cruelty free, which is great. They only pick up a little bit of product, which is good in most of the brushes, however the large one, I would prefer it to pick up more product.

If you need a good angled contour brush, this w7 one has done me proud for quite a while now, I picked it up for about £3 when I first wanted to try contouring and it's amazing. The only real difference between that and the spectrum one is that it picks up more product. So with a light hand, it's a really great brush. It's £6.95 on the website, but have a look around cos their stuff is cheap in a lot of places.

What do you think of anything I got from the show? Will you attend the new Liverpool show in the summer?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Wednesday, 12 October 2016

beauty 17:11

Goodies From The Body Shop

by Rachel

Last Friday I visited Meadowhall in Sheffield with my boyfriend for him to look for a birthday present for his Gran. On our journey we ended up in The Body Shop (no surprises, it's the title of the post) and when I was in there I was told about a little deal they had on.

You could get any three single items for £20, and that includes the big pots worth £28, so really, how can you say no? My favourite smell from The Body Shop is the British Rose, it's just so gentle, but unfortunately, they didn't make that in the big pot, so instead I picked up two big pots of the Moringa body butter, quite a flowery smell, nothing overpowering, and a smaller pot of the British Rose body butter.

So, £28+£28+£14= £70 worth of stuff for only £20!!

But that's not all...

They had another deal (another! I hear you say) that if you spent over £25 you got a free tea tree set. As my boyfriend had chosen something for his gran, we had spent the more than enough.

Within this set I got:

Skin Clearing Mattifying Toner
Skin Clearing Foaming Cleanser
Mattifying Lotion

Which in total should be £20, totally for free. So I spent £20 and got a heavy bag full of stuff! So pleased.

Unfortunately the deal isn't still on, but they have just put a sale on (I only know cos we went back for more, gotta think of Christmas!)

This post does sound like it's in line with The Body Shop, but it really isn't, I was just so excited!

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Monday, 20 June 2016

list 16:45

Unpopular Opinions - Beauty

by Rachel

I always like seeing people post things like this, sometimes it's nice to find out that you're not the only person with a certain opinion!

Today I will write about things that I either see raved about in beauty blogging or just generally beauty related, I might just do other unpopular opinion posts about different topics if you all like them!

1. My first unpopular opinion is that I really don't like the see through plastic make up organisers. Firstly, they are just cheap plastic perpex, there are so many pretty small drawers out there, why these! Secondly I think they look messy, I want drawers to hide things that look like clutter. And as for the stand up lipstick ones, how on earth do you know which lipstick is which! And you can't put them upside down because most lipsticks don't have flat tops!

2. Make-up palettes, they are all the rage right now, there are palettes for everything! Eyeshadows of course they always have, but now all different kinds of makeup. My problem is that any palette I've ever had I pretty much use one or two shade and never look at them again. Below are a few of my own palettes, as you can see, some get used loads, most get totally neglected!

How people spend £50 on things like that eg. the Alice in Wonderland palette below where, to me there are quite a few totally unuseable shades (green!). I'll stick to my individual products and smaller cheaper eye shadow palettes!

3. Mascara, yes mascara. Just in general, I think it's awful to wear. I naturally have quite long dark eyelashes (yes I am so glad), so I don't wear it unless I am going out somewhere (like on a night out, to an event, for a meal - something nice like that). I hate the heavy hard feeling on my lashes, and it's horrible to get off, well unless your eyes water then it's a jet black waterfall! Maybe I just need to poke myself in the eye to get it off?

4. Loreal true match foundation - a well talked about foundation in the beauty blogger world and a lot of bloggers really like it. Me and my mum both got it separately and bought the complete wrong shade, I got too dark, she got too light. It may have been us being stupid but maybe the colours aren't very clear? When I tried hers cos the colour was better suited I had the problem that it's super liquidy and highlights every crease, wrinkle and imperfection on my face (mum had the same problem) I should have known really, on the front it says "precisely matches skin colour and texture" Well the picture below says precisely, my bottle says perfectly? Anyway I'm pretty sure I want a foundation to do the opposite of that!

5. I might get an onslaught of blogger type abuse for this but Mac Lipsticks, the most talked about little black lipsticks! Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate them and I've only tried a small few of them. I think the colour selection is incredible, but for £15 lipsticks they leave my lips in an absolute state (remember using that word in like primary school "staaaaate" ha!). I think the matte formula are the most drying thing ever, after splurging a bit on this Nars one and scrimping a bit on the NYX one mentioned in this post I'm really not a fan! They're both much more moisturising and creamy. And i definitely think there is much nicer lipstick packaging, sorry not sorry.

What do you think about these 5 things? Do you love or hate them? What are your beauty related unpopular opinions?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Thursday, 26 May 2016

hair 17:00

Plaits 'R' Us!

by Rachel

Like many people, recently I've been trying out many different plaits. I think they make such nice hairstyles and keep your hair off your face!

For ages I couldn't do french plaits, I just couldn't get my head around it, I felt like I needed three more arms, several more fingers and a lot less hair! But because I was seeing them more and more I decided I wanted to learn. My poor mum became my model whilst I was practising, three brothers isn't very helpful! (neither is her hair, I thought I had a lot of hair but hers is SO thick *sorry mum*)

I actually figured it out after watching a Zoella video (this one, she does 4 hairstyles in the video) But she does dutch braids instead of French which I find so much easier! Dutch braids are essentially the same as French but instead of plaiting the strands over each other, you plait them under. See Zoella's video if that makes no sense!

I'm still not perfect at them, I find it really hard to pull hair tight as I am really head sore! But the best piece of advise from that video was to not look in the mirror when you do them as it is so much more complicated to try and watch yourself!

Next I tried a single dutch braid, which I love, it goes so thick and keeps my hair out of my way, although it fell out a lot through the day due to the layers in my hair! Reminder, don't have layers cut in next time Rachel! I say this everytime and always forget! Yes I do have squishy shoulders on this picture from the angle that I took it!

Most recently I've figured out how to do french plaits in my fringe area, I've found this so hard to figure out, I watched a video by Missy Sue which is here, and she explained it so easily and gave other variations depending on what you want! The only thing that ruins it is my large amounts of broken/baby hair!

I just need to wait for my hair to be a bit longer and I can start with my fish tail plaits again which I think are really pretty!

What plaits do you like? Do you struggle to do them too?

Thanks for reading

Rachel xx

Monday, 16 May 2016

beauty 17:00

NYX Haul

by Rachel

A Haul? Am I officially a blogger now that I've used that word?

So NYX, a lot of people have heard of the brand by now, if not, it's a relatively cheap make up brand which has just recently come to the UK, I've seen it in Selfridges in the Trafford Centre but I believe it is coming to Boots stores too. I'll let you know the prices of all these products as I review them.

I am by no means a make up expert, but I hope I can give a decent review!

NYX Eye Shadow Base - White (I didn't even know there was other colours!) - £5.50

I have never used an eye shadow base before but I've had trouble with my eye shadow creasing lately (sweaty eyelids - TMI) So I thought I'd try it out, I am in no way willing to pay for the Urban Decay one no matter how good I'm told it is.

Because I've never tried something like this before I was very surprised by it. It actually applies white onto your eyelids (lighter as you spread it out but still visible) and it was very creamy. I applied it with an eye shadow brush but I think finger application would be good too. I wore it with Loreal eyeshadow (this one) over the top for about 5 hours and didn't have any creasing (which is great for me and that eye shadow!) However when I wore it with a mix of a Revlon and a Rimmel eye shadows in the evening at a party I got creasing after only a few hours, maybe I was just a little too warm!

I think I might need a little more practice with it, I can see me using it a lot with the hope that it stops creasing!

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Black/Grey - £5.50

Tuesday, 5 December 2017

Does cocoa butter cause spots?

Tuesday, 1 August 2017

Placement Haul

Thursday, 29 June 2017

The NARS scandal

Monday, 10 April 2017

Storing Make Up

Thursday, 23 March 2017

Sleek Make-Up Review

Sunday, 5 March 2017

International Women's Day

Thursday, 26 January 2017

Rust Eyeshadow

Thursday, 15 December 2016

Too many new things

Wednesday, 12 October 2016

Goodies From The Body Shop

Monday, 20 June 2016

Unpopular Opinions - Beauty

Thursday, 26 May 2016

Plaits 'R' Us!

Monday, 16 May 2016

NYX Haul

Rachel

Tags

Popular

Sponsor

Blog Archive

@templatesyard