Category Archives: Face

Cleansers, Face

African Black Soap

My dream skin would be described as, “velvety.” People would compare my cheeks to rose petals, and dairy products (cream, etc.). Now, I’m not gonna front, I have nice skin. But, that only makes it more obvious when things go wrong.

I’d been pretty happy with my Fresh Soy Cleanser, but then it got to be 108 degrees. After that, things went downhill pretty fast. Between my Cymbalta and the heat, I’ve been a pretty disgusting pile of sweat. Like, I saw Craig Robinson on tv talking about how he always keeps a towel on him because he sweats so much, and I actually thought to myself that it didn’t sound like a bad idea.

A sweat towel.

Seemed like a good idea.

That’s gross.

I started breaking out from the sweat and the heat, and then, to make matters worse, I started ignoring my #1 skincare rule: DON’T PICK AT IT. I would be sitting on the couch in the evenings, poking my zits with my bacteria tipped nails and trying to squeeze them without even looking in a mirror. Obviously, they got worse. I had one zit that was so stubborn and angry, I had begun to take steps towards accepting that I might have this zit for the rest of my life. Only in death would I be free….

I’d seen African black soap mentioned here and there, and I’d been curious if the praises about it were true. So, when I ran across Nubian Heritage’s bar of black soap at the health food store, it seemed serendipitous.

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Drugstore.com, $3.59!!!

“Nubian Heritage’s authentic African Black Soap combines shea butter’s healing and hydrating properties with the ancient medicinal properties of palm ash, plantain peel, tar and tamarind to balance and resolve problem skin. Our deep cleansing formula aids exfoliation and promotes new cell growth to reveal radiant, fresh, even and healthy skin.”

This stuff is the real deal, you guys. It lathers up thick and luxurious, and it feels soothing and moisturizing on your skin. I’m not even talking about after you rinse it off, I’m talking about while you’re washing your face. It feels good, and it smells wonderful. The box is sitting here on the table next to me, and I keep picking it up to sniff it. After you rinse it off, your skin will be cleeeeeean. At first, I was worried, because my skin felt “squeaky” clean, which is bad; cleansers that leave your face feeling like that are most likely stripping oil out of your skin. But, after I dried off, and felt my skin again, it was SO SOFT. So soft, and so fresh and so clean.

After the first use, my everlasting pimple aka conjoined forehead twin, was nearly gone, and the other little ones I’d been picking at, just flaked off and disappeared. I have this bright red blemish in the soft, tender area right below one of my eyes, it’s been there forever. I didn’t even think it was a zit, I just thought it was a red mole or something. After a week of using this soap, it has shrunk a lot and it isn’t near as red. My dry patches don’t exist at all, my pores on my nose are clean, and my zits have been kept at bay, even as the heat has gotten worse.

I wanted to get the most accurate read on this soap that I could, so I’ve been using it for a week without any other products. No other cleansers, no other moisturizers, I didn’t even use any of my exfoliating tools. It even removed a full face of makeup, mascara included, without leaving behind any trace of color at all. Now, I feel idiotic because this soap is so cheap, it works amazingly well, and I’ve been chasing after expensive products all these years. I’m into it though! It’s so much chicer to be able to be able to nonchalantly say your skincare products are under the radar and/or cheap. Right? Like, “Oh, my beautiful skin? It’s just this really cool black bar of soap that’s made from ancient ingredients. Cleopatra probably used something like it. It costs $3.”

I am extremely confident that this soap will lead me to the heights of high priestess of the velvet-cheeked promised land. I hope the rest of you join me! I can tell you right now I won’t be gracious about my new station in life.

I’ll probably start alternating my new soap with my Fresh cleanser, but I like this soap way better. It’s like the saying, goes, “Once you go black, you’ll never go back!”

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Face, How-To, Links, Video

Makeup Color Wheel

It’s the end of the day on Friday, blow off 15 minutes to watch this brilliant video and learn nearly everything you need to know to pick makeup colors that will beautifully complement your eye and skin colors.

This video is so informative, and the visuals make everything really easy to understand. Pleeeeease watch it! Trust me, you’ll be so glad you did.

Into The Gloss has a time marked summary of the video if you already know color theory, or want to get a quick idea of what you’ll be learning.

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Beauty Tools, Face

Brush Up, Part 3

AKA THE BRUSHENING.

Ok. We’ve covered all the basic brush essentials, and now we’re going to get into some brushes that aren’t necessary if you’re a meat and potatoes kind of makeup person. If you are, I don’t know what you’re doing here. I deal in excess, honey. Always, always, por vida.

These last three tools don’t come out for every face, but they always make an appearance for a going out face, or a photo face. I don’t highlight and contour to go to Target, I can barely manage to convince myself to put a bra on.

RELATED: Yesterday, I went to Starbucks at 7:00 AM without a bra on, but nobody could tell because I kept my arms crossed over my nips. Pretty smart, huh? Nobody every knew what I had under there.

Yuck. I can’t stop thinking about meat and potatoes makeup.

Let’s go.

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Sonia Kashuk Concealer Brush, Target

I love this brush for precision concealing and highlighting. The pointed tip makes it so much easier to get in the small areas under eyes, and the nose.

Like I said, I don’t always use highlighting, but when I do, working with product off the back of my hand, I highlight around the eyes, down the center of the nose, chin, and sometimes above the mouth. You use highlighter on and around the things you want to accentuate, to bring attention to them and make them more prominent.

This brush also came out of a set, but this Sonia Kashuk foundation brush would do the same job.

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Sigma Beauty, Large Fluff E50, $12

Never  walk away from your makeup without dusting powder over concealer or highlighter colors. It’s the law. And you, my friend, are not above the law. What do you want? Dusted or busted? Don’t get busted or you’ll get thrown in beauty jail. You and other beauty offenders (eyebrow manglers, hair crunchers, felony non-moisturizers, and repeat dick wagglers [regular jail was full, beauty jail is coed]) will be behind bars, and don’t bother having someone bake a cake with a file in it, they know all about that.

I use this brush to stay out of beauty jail. A light brush of translucent finishing powder makes your concealer smoother and keeps it in place.

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Beautyblender, Amazon, 2 for $21.47

I love everything about this little tool. It’s adorable, it feels good in my hand, and it works beautifully. You can use it dry or damp to apply foundation or blend, I prefer to use it damp. Using it to apply foundation gives a soft, smooth, and almost airbrushed finish; while the dampness of the sponge stretches your cosmetics and gives great build-able coverage. I sometimes use it damp, with no makeup, to press over my finished face and blend any edges or lines that may still be present from contouring and give everything a seamless look.

The name brand BeautyBlenders are kind of expensive, and they do sell similar sponges at Sephora and Target, but I can’t vouch for them. They’re just sponges, right? What’s going to happen? They blow up?

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I hope everyone found this series helpful! Good brushes can come from all kinds of different places. I have and use brushes that came from makeup counters, drugstores, and art supply stores, just keep an eye out and you’ll curate a great collection too.

Are there any brushes or tools you’re curious about or any problems you’re having with current brushes? Does everyone know about washing their brushes, or would that be helpful too? Let me know!

And hey, don’t forget about God’s makeup brushes: your fingers. Just keep those washed too, ok? Maybe more frequently than your actual brushes.

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Blemish Control, Face

Mario Badescu Drying Cream

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Mario Badescu Drying Cream, $14

Let’s keep this short and sweet. This stuff totally works. You should buy it.

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Hahaha! Jay kay! You know I can’t stop talking. But, since I’m on last minute vacation with my MANTASTIC MANIMAL, I am going to keep this short, by my standards.

I got a little sample jar of Mario Badescu’s Drying Cream at Ulta last week. It was a gift with purchase sample, obviously, since yet another shitty thing about Ulta is their refusal to give out samples.

Ulta – 1, Sephora – 1,000

I gave Ulta a point because they never had me in for a bunch of interviews, talked scheduling with me, and then DIDN’T HIRE ME. Minus one point from Sephora, plus one for Ulta.

Anyways, that was years ago, I’m past all that now. My righteous anger boycott of Sephora only lasted a couple weeks.

Mario Badescu Drying Cream is a blemish cream that dries up your zits so you can move on with your life. Most blemish creams dry up and flake off once they’re on your skin; this one is sort of weird because it’s creamy like makeup, and it stays that way on your face. Their site says you can use it under your makeup to conceal and heal your blemishes, so that’s pretty cool. On Wednesday, I got this really angry looking pimple on the side of my nose. It was really big, like the tip of a pencil eraser. And, of course, I couldn’t stop touching it, even thought I totally know better. Before I went to bed that night, I remembered I had the Drying Cream, so I put a little on my zit. When I woke up in the morning, it was almost completely gone! It had shrunk way down to just a little dot, and it wasn’t red and pulsating anymore. Science is amazing, right? No more having to suffer through embarrassing adult pizza face. The only down side was, since it doesn’t dry down, it’s easy to smear. The first night I had it on, I kept saying to myself, “What is that weird smell?” and wiping my nose, like an idiot. It doesn’t actually smell weird, I’m just forgetful.

I love this product! It’s really fantastic. But, the joke’s on them! I only used a teeeeeeny bit, and it worked right away. I’m going to use this free sample forever!

For some reason, Mario Badescu doesn’t allow Sephora and Ulta to promote these on their websites. So, you can buy Drying Cream directly from Mario Badescu’s site, HERE. Or, you can buy it in store at Sephora and Ulta.

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