If there’s ever a time to have fun with your look and style, it’s summer.
This is the time of year when we try out new hair colour, clothes, lipstick and even makeup. Quite a few of us (including myself) tend to stick to simple nail polish, nothing to outlandish, just enough to make a classy statement.
This summer i urge you…and myself…to explore nail art and textured nail polish!
To create spaces that you would leave clear or fill with a different colour, you can use strips of tape, confetti or shredded paper from the art supplies section.
Use multiple colour to create a cool gradient or ombre look, or just keep it a simple one tone colour.
If you’re looking for nail polish with different textures, glitter, or with bits of confetti, check out the stock at our nearest Fontana Pharmacy.
Have fun!
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Have you tried the L.A. Girl Lip Glaze Lip Paint? They’re new at Fontana and they’re a big hit!
If you’re curious about how they look and feel, here’s a great video with swatches!
Enjoy 🙂
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Here’s a helpful video on how to create a gorgeous look with something from your youth! Chiney bumps!
Enjoy!
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Every woman tries to find new ways to keep her face looking flawless throughout the day and I’ve found a couple sneaky tricks to maintaining just that.
Matte lipsticks have become extremely popular over the past 12 months, especially after MAC launched their Retro-Matte line. Now you may have a colour that you would love to wear as a matte lippie but how can you turn a lipstick with satin or sheen finish into a comfy, wearable matte? Easy.
Take a single ply tissue and place it on your lips, then dab a brush in some translucent powder and apply over the tissue. Voila, you now have matte lipstick!
Oil control is quite possibly the number one issue women have and we clamor for a quick fix. Here are a few ways to keep you looking easy, breezy and slayed to the Gods all year round.
Milk of Magnesia can be used as a face primer that is applied before your foundation. It literally blocks oil from permeating through your foundation and you will look cool and collected for hours. Don’t be afraid of the white residue it leaves behind once it dries, your foundation will cover it right up and no one will be able to tell!
Oil Blotting sheets are super helpful while you’re on the go to remove excess oil from your face, but if you don’t want to fork over that cash, go to your local stall man or gas station and pick up a pack of Rizzla wrapping paper. Those sheets look mighty familiar don’t they? They’re cheaper and do the job just as well. The only draw back is having to explain to your friends why you have Rizzla in your bag, Ha!
Adding powder to your face before your liquid or cream foundation. What?! Crazy right? Yes this strays from the textbook makeup application format but it has been proven to keep your face oil free throughout the day so it’s worth a try. Have fun with your makeup and feel free to share any of your genius tips! 😉
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Yogurt – Particularly greek yogurt. It’s high in protein which helps your skin to stay firm and resist wrinkles.
Walnuts – They’re loaded with copper which assists with collagen production and Omega-3 fatty acids which helps to maintain and promote elasticity. Keep them handy for a snack between meals.
Sunflower seeds – They’re packed with Vitamin C so a handful of these each day will help protect your skin from sun damage. The oil from sunflower seeds is great with healing cracked lips and heels as it’s rich in essential fatty acids.
Berries – Strawberries, cranberries, raspberries and blueberries are filled with antioxidants which helps maintain a clear skin and they’re also packed with fibre.
Beetroots – According to Glamour magazine Beetroots are “high in vitamin A, as well as potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, and vitamin E, which is essential for epidermal health and healing.” Which mean it’s excellent for cleansers to remove toxins from your body. Use it in your next smoothie!
Kale – High in vitamin A, C, K this powerful leaf has anti-cancer elements, is beneficial to the reduction of blood cholesterol levels and reduces the risk of heart disease. Eat more kale!
Avocado – High in protein, dietary fibre and low in sugar, Avocados boast a full house of vitamins such as A, B9, B5, B6, C and E2. It’s the perfect addition to your next salad or sandwich.
Garlic – Love or hate it, garlic is good for you. Whether cooked or eaten raw, the benefits of garlic are outstanding. It is high in cholesterol, has anti-inflammatory properties and helps fight high cholesterol. It’s also used to prevent food poisoning. You can even pop it like a pill every now and then to help boost your immune system.
Eggs – Imagine, one egg contains 6 grams of protein and all 9 essential amino acids.The yolk is packed with Selenium and Zinc which help to keep the skin clear.
Green tea – Filled with powerful anti-oxidants, Green Tea inhibits the growth of bacteria, infections and promotes healthy skin.
Eat Good, Feel Good, Look Good!
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It doesn’t matter how much your makeup costs or what the packaging promises to do for you, without a clean face, your makeup just won’t apply as it should.
Imagine that your face is a canvas, ready to receive paint on it. If that canvas has particles or residue on it, the masterpiece you want to do, just won’t be perfect. Let us cover a few simple steps on what to do before you apply makeup.
1: Cleanse – Wash your face. Whether you’re a water only kinda gal or you have your favourite oil cleansing wash, ensure that your face is thoroughly washed.
2: Astringent or Toner: I don’t find this step absolutely necessary for everyone but for the oily faces ladies like myself, it helps to keep the face from looking like a greased pan throughout the day.
3: Moisturize: Now this is very important. This is your first primer. Try not to use anything too greasy because then your makeup will just move all around your face when and applying and throughout the day.
Makeup Removal
This is really tricky. Us girls use so many different products to take our makeup off. We’ve seen the commercials, some work and some don’t…but here are my two cents.
Baby oil – Add a dab to paper towel or a rag and that stubborn eye makeup will come right off. You can use pretty much any natural oil, even your hair oil sheen spray.
Baby Wipes – Works like a charm. If you don’t want to fork over “makeup wipes” money, these will work just as well. Just make sure they’re thick.
Face cleansers: These don’t always do a good job so i do the 1-2-1 step. I do an initial clean with baby wipes, then i wash with my face cleaner, then i do a final clean with another baby wipe. Do this, and you’re all clear. You can even add a little oil to a corner of the second baby wipe to take care of stubborn eye makeup.
I Hope this helps you ladies! Stay tuned for more tips. 🙂
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The way most fragrance ingredients impart scent is through a volatile reaction, which almost always causes irritation and some amount of inflammation. Research has established that fragrances in skin-care products are among the most common cause of sensitizing and allergic reactions.
You might be thinking, well my skin doesn’t look irritated or inflamed so the fragrance must not be a problem. In reality, skin on the surface often keeps the fact that it’s being irritated a secret with no reaction at all. Below the surface, irritating ingredients can cause collagen to breakdown, get in the way of skin’s ability to fight environmental damage, and hamper skin’s ability to heal. All of this can be taking place in the lower layers of skin without any obvious signs on the surface! The irritant reaction you don’t see or feel is nonetheless hurting your skin’s ability to reduce wrinkles, firm skin, or look younger!
For those with sensitive skin, especially when the problem is rosacea or acne, fragrance can be seriously irritating and that will show up on the surface. Fragrance of any kind (including natural fragrant oils) should be avoided at all costs.
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Below we present five beauty lies that many people believe. Perhaps you have come across this information in a magazine or online, or heard it from your doctor, a friend, or a family member. No matter how you got this misinformation or where you heard these lies, we’re here to set the record straight—to give you the most up-to-date, reliable information so you can take the best possible care of your skin! Knowledge is beautiful!
Lie #1: Dry skin? Drink more water!
The truth: We see this tip all the time, and wish it were true; after all, it doesn’t get much easier than just drinking water! But, have you ever met someone who said that their dry skin went away from drinking lots of water? It doesn’t happen. The truth is dry skin isn’t about water consumption. If all it took to get rid of dry skin was drinking more water, then no one would have dry skin, and companies would stop selling moisturizers—and we all know that’s not the case! The causes of and treatments for dry skin are far more complicated than just drinking water; plus, drinking more water than your body needs will only result in more trips to the bathroom.
Lie #2: You can repair damaged hair.
The truth: Countless hair-care products, including hair masks and so-called “deep” conditioners, make claims of repairing hair, as if all the damaging things we do to it (coloring, straightening, brushing, sun exposure) can be mended by using these types of products. The truth is hair is dead. Period. It’s dead, which is why it doesn’t hurt when you get your hair cut and because it’s dead, it cannot be repaired or permanently revert to its normal state. You can no more mend a hair strand than you can mend a dead leaf. What does happen when you use good conditioners and good styling products is that your damaged hair can feel smoother and softer and it can look shinier and more healthy, but it’s not repaired. These products provide only a temporary fix—if you don’t keep using them, you hair will go back to looking and feeling damaged. If a hair-care product could truly repair your hair, you’d need to use it only a few times and then you’d be done, but clearly that isn’t what happens!
Lie #3: There’s a product that can get rid of cellulite.
The truth: The 85% of women who have cellulite would love it if this were true, but, alas, it’s just one more falsehood. The cosmetics industry, and lots of doctors and aestheticians, want to sell you products and/or provide treatments (especially expensive ones) claiming to slim, trim, tone, and de-bump your thighs, but if any of those worked, who would have cellulite?
Trying to navigate and separate cellulite facts from fiction isn’t easy, but there is a bit of positive news. There are a few options, such as some lasers and retinoids, that may make a difference, but even these treatments, which do have some potential for working (and we mean only the “potential” for working; it’s not a sure thing) rarely live up to the claims asserted. Still, a bit of improvement, as opposed to merely wasting your money, is definitely a turn for the better!
Lie #4: One special ingredient (like vitamin C or peptides) is all aging skin needs.
The truth: Given the advertising, it would seem that most cosmetics companies believe this is true—that one ingredient alone can do it all—because they perpetually launch products with one showcased ingredient, be it plant stem cells, a special melon extract from the south of France, or a plant oil from Morocco. Although there are lots of special ingredients that are great for skin (and hair), the truth is that giving your skin what it needs to act younger and be more healthy is far more complex than providing it with one ingredient, no matter how good it is.
Skin is the body’s largest organ and it needs an array of beneficial ingredients to protect and repair itself from environmental assaults and the effects of aging. Looking for skin-care products with one superstar ingredient cheats your skin of the range of ingredients it needs to significantly improve. Think of it like your diet: Vegetables are nutritional powerhouses, but if you eat only vegetables, you soon will be malnourished because veggies alone don’t provide everything the body needs to maintain itself and stay healthy.
Lie #5: Parabens are bad for you, so avoid products that contain them.
The truth: The “parabens = bad” myth is so pervasive that many people have opted to take a better-safe-than-sorry approach. We can’t say we blame you for being cautious, but make sure your decision is based on facts, not on media-fueled misinformation. As it turns out, parabens are actually some of the gentlest preservatives used in cosmetics.
Parabens may come in the form of butylparaben, ethylparaben, isobutylparaben, methylparaben, or propylparaben. They’ve been linked distantly (meaning in limited studies on only a handful of subjects or in animal studies) to breast cancer due to their weak estrogenic activity and their presence in a tiny number of breast cancer tissue samples. That cancer connection, however remote, has some people worried. The truth is: There is no research proving parabens should be avoided when shopping for personal-care products, for yourself or for your family, at least no more so than avoiding plants that have estrogenic activity.
According to published research and global cosmetics regulatory organizations, from the United States and Canada to Europe and Asia, parabens, especially in the small amounts present in personal-care products, are not a problem. According to these studies (and assuming the parabens get into the body), parabens are “fully metabolized before they enter the blood stream,” which is more than can be said for some plant extracts with estrogenic activity, but no one is trying to scare you into avoiding plants.
In a review of the research into the estrogenic activity of parabens, the study’s author concluded that based on maximum daily exposure estimates, “it was impossible that parabens could increase the risk associated with exposure to estrogenic chemicals.” Although more cosmetics companies have opted to avoid parabens, those who continue to preserve their products with them are not making a mistake. Parabens are among the most effective (and safest) preservatives around. Indeed, their undeserved reputation has left many cosmetics chemists scrambling to find equally effective options.
The next time you come across a beauty tip or a claim that sounds too simple, too good to be true, or downright scary, you can almost always count on it being a beauty lie—and you can count on us to help you understand why!
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Oily skin is hard to control because it’s the result of genetically determined hormonal changes in your body, and you simply cannot control hormones topically. The hormones responsible for oily skin are called androgens—the male hormones—and they are present in both men and women.
Androgens stimulate healthy oil production, and while that truly has benefit for your skin, it is a problem when androgens stimulate too much oil to be produced! When too much oil is produced, the pores become larger to accommodate the excess oil production. Excess androgens can also cause the pore lining to thicken, which blocks oil from getting out of the pore, and that can result in blackheads and white bumps.
Not sure if you have oily skin? It’s recognizable by a few classic characteristics:
- Your face is shiny only an hour or two after cleansing, and usually appears greasy by midday.
- Your makeup seems to “slide,” or disappear right off your face.
- The more oily areas of your face have blackheads, white bumps, or acne.
- The pores are visibly enlarged, especially on your nose, chin, and forehead.
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Though we often think of acne breakouts as a facial issue, for those who struggle with blemishes on other parts of their body, such as backs, neck, thighs, or buttocks, they know all too well how frustrating this can be. Regardless of where a blemish occurs, the same solutions that apply for breakouts occurring on your face apply from the neck down, too:
- Do not use bar soap or cleansers–the ingredients in bar cleansers can clog pores
- Do not use abrasive body scrubs (acne cannot be scrubbed away)
- Use a gentle cleanser that’s water soluble
- Apply a well formulated exfoliant with salicylic acid to acne and breakout-prone areas
- Follow the exfoliant with a topical disinfectant that contains benzoyl peroxide
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