Ideas for DIY home facial

Do you ever feel insecure about what ingredients goes into your skincare products? Although I’m easy with products I use, I have girlfriends who get paranoid about what goes into skincare products. Besides splurging on FANCL products each month because the skincare there is paraben-free, there are other remedies to go natural.

If you aren’t feeling too lazy to mix a bowl of home-made remedy for your face, I do have a few recipes for home-made masks that I would like to share. In this country where everyone is in a rat race fighting for survival, you darlings deserve to pamper yourself with a yummy-smelling home facial treatment.

To go fruity and look radiant, mash a banana and add pear juice. Mix it with 2 tablespoons of natural yoghurt to make a creamy paste. Leave it on for 20 minutes, then rinse. Although it smells really, really good, try not to eat it.

To tighten your pores , use a brush to brush egg white all over your face. Leave it on for 15 minutes before rinsing off. While you are having your egg white facial, be sure not to laugh or you will have permanent lines. Or at least that’s what my mom warned me.

Anti acne – Apple is a key ingredient for a blemish free complexion. Mix equal amount of grated apple and honey. Wash your face before applying the mixture. Leave it on for 15 minutes before rinsing it off. Like the banana and pear juice mask, try not to eat it.

If you would like to reduce the appearance of fine lines, smooth it out by taking seedless green grapes and crush it to pulp and apply after you use 2 tablespoons of flour to make it into a paste. Apply it, ignore the smell, leave it on for 15 minutes before rinsing it off. If you choose not to eat antioxidant stuff, maybe you can leave the magic on your face and hope it works.

For brightening dull skin and reducing inflammation, mix your moisturizer with anti inflammatory cream like Elomet and Dermasome with about 5 tablets of crushed aspirin. (I use Elomet, Dermovate and Dermasome for my eczema.) After wearing it for 10 minutes, rinse off with warm water. Try this combination and observe the difference!

Before trying, be sure to choose one of the five options available because I will not guarantee that your complexion might be better than ever if you mixed all the above ingredients (pear, banana, apple, yoghurt, eczema cream, grape seeds) and use it all at once.

Good luck!

Brighter eyes

I have a thing for eye brightening serum or gel with the rolley-rolley ball bearings. It feels good on my skin and feels like the product would penetrate deep into my skin cells after being massaged in by the metal balls.

Soap & Glory Eye Brightening Moisture Serum ($26)

It is hydrating, but isn’t as effective as the Biotherm Aquasource Eye Perfection.

(I know Ginvera has the ball bearing eye cream/gel/serum too, but I don’t think I will try that. I have the Garnier one, it didn’t work for me.)

This brightening cream has a hint of lavender in it, unlike the Aquasource one which is transluscent. I feel that it is the lavender colour which reduces dullness, like lavender concealer. It will only make eyes brighter temporarily each time after usage.

For about a year now, I have been using Biotherm Aquasource Eye Perfection ($69). At the beginning, it was really effective. My fine lines disappeared and skin around the eye area became more moisturized. But gradually, my eye didn’t look as bright as when I first used it.

Then, I realised that my skin is already immuned to the product. I should constantly remind myself to change my skincare every 3 months.

Lesson learnt. No more going for the rolley-rolley balls. Perhaps using my finger to massage good gel or cream in  would be more effective. There are thousands and thousands of skincare product out there in the market, and I don’t believe I won’t find one that works for me.

Bvlgari Gem Essence

I was at Avalon last weekend and the people who hosted the event gave out Bvlgari skincare as a door gift.

It was awesome because I love freebies, I love skincare, and I love my friends for giving me theirs, although I don’t understand why they don’t want to keep it because all girls need skincare products. I think they saw my enthusiasm when I got excited over the little Bvlgari paperbag, and decided to give theirs to me to satisfy my ‘aunty’ needs. But whatever, aunty loves them.

Here’s what I got:

These are samples, but here are the actual products:

Serem Precieux – Intensive regenerating concentrate

Regard Precieux – Intensive regenerating eye contour cream

Creme Precieuse – Intensive regenerating day cream

Lotion Precieuse – Intensive regenerating lotion

UV GEM – Cellular shield high protection (SPF 50 UVB PA+++)

I can’t wait to use all of it since I seldom buy luxury skincare products. Let’s see if it is any better than cheaper alternatives.

Okay. Here’s an abrupt end to my pointless entry.

 

A step nearer to perfection

Do you always complain about having bumps on your face, uneven skin tone, dark eye circles and wrinkles?

Well, I need to repeat this - There are no ugly women, only lazy ones.

I know we’re all tired and busy, but a step nearer to perfection would be taking just five minutes to do your skincare regime at night.

I too am guilty of not doing my skincare regime on a daily basis because after a whole day, it would be quite tiring to decide which cream from which jar should I pile on my face at night.

A proper skincare regime will not change your face overnight, but it will help you look better in the long run.

It is not possible to get rid of wrinkles entirely, but sufficient moisture would lighten the appearance of wrinkles. It is not possible to get rid of dark eye rings entirely, but massaging some eye serum around the eyes would let the blood around the eye area flow and you’ll look significantly better the next day.

Apart from that, great skin could make makeup look better without the bumps and uneven skin tone. There will be no need to pile on foundation till it looks really unnatural on the face.

If you’re reeeeeally too tired to do skincare, at least remove your makeup as soon as possible when you reach home so your pores will not be clogged and your skin can breathe.

Also, it is good to head out for a facial treatment every once a month. Therapists have this magical ability to remove crazy microscopic stuff from the pores, and their equipments make my face more radiant than before. I even get to de-stress and relax for an hour before facing reality again.

If you’re taking these steps to make yourself look better and hence feel better, well done! If not, I suggest you start your skincare regime tonight.

Remember, it’s never too late!

Fan brush – The multi-purpose brush

This is a must-have brush for me because of its ability to do so many amazing things on my face!

Here’s how a fan brush look like, if you don’t already know:

The fan brush

I am sure many of your have seen this before because it looks really unique and there’s no way you could miss it if you’re shopping for makeup brushes.

Now, the main reason why I use the fan brush is because it makes makeup look really natural on the face. If you don’t want to look like you have alot of makeup on, this tool would be perfect for you.

Taylor Swift with natural looking blush

I am quite tempted to throw all my brushes away and keep just this because using this brush would give makeup a very natural finish, especially when a stupid kid asked me a few days ago why do I wear makeup and said that my makeup is thick. I wanted to explain that wearing makeup would help females look more professional and increase their confidence level but he’s just a kid. If makeup is so bad, surely his mommy would avoid it at all cost and not wear it even on her wedding day? Let’s not go into details about the theatrical and television makeup that people wear for the same reason. Stupid kid.

Ok! The uses of the fan brush.

#1 Natural looking blusher

If you want a natural looking blush, the fan brush will enable you to create a softer look as compare to the blush brush. The shape of the brush will also very nicely help you with contour angles that you desire.

#2 Repair makeup

Uhoh. We accidentally dropped some flakes of eyeshadow on our cheeks while smoking our eyes. Worry not, the lightness of this brush can help you brush away the specks.

#3 Replacing the foundation sponge

Instead of using the foundation sponge to cake up your face, why not try using the fan brush? This will create a natural finish and application with the fan brush is extremely precise.

#4 Highlighting and bronzing

Let’s get perfect highlights and contours with the fan brush. Harsh lines can be blended away without removing the makeup, allowing the bright and dark to merge beautifully.

#5 Facial

Pamper yourself at home with a facial treatment. The fan brush can be used with skincare and will feel gentle on your face. This brush can also be used if you mix your own powder mask. What’s the best thing about this brush? We need not worry about skincare being uneven on our face and we might even be able to save on product by minimizing application!

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I hope you have been enlightened about this multi-purpose brush.

If you would like to purchase a fan brush, click on “makeup shop” at the top right hand corner.

Toodles!