My Skin Story

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be telling you my skin story! This post will include my bare face, gross photos of acne, and a lot of talking. So if you're not up for that, feel free to skip this post!

I decided to make this post because I've been testing skincare for about 6 months! I thought it would be useful for you guys to see what my skin is like and what I'm looking for in my skincare, so that my skincare reviews will make more sense.

What's my skin type? 

• Combination skin, with an oily T-Zone and dry cheeks. 
• Prone to blackheads and have large pores. 
• Lots of acne scars and hyper-pigmentation.
• Hormonal breakouts and mild cystic acne 
• Allergic reactions (possibly Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, and Steareth 20)
• Fine lines, wrinkles and redness

What am I looking for in my skincare regime?

• Acne treatment
• Allergies
• Whitening/Brightening
• Anti-Aging

Acne

As a teenager I was never plagued by pimples and zits, however, blackheads and enlarged pores have always been an issue for me. I was on the contraceptive pill at a fairly young age for extreme PMS, which was very successful until my second year on university when i ran into problems with migraines and visual disturbances, and had to come off it. Ever since I stopped that pill, my skin has gone from; oh yeah, pretty good, to, ohmygod what happened to your face. 

My main problem is my chin. I get a few pimples on my forehead and cheeks (never really my nose, that's where the blackheads dominate) but my chin is really just a landmine. This photo shows my chin on a really good day. There are like, 3 small pimples, sure, but what we're really looking at there is the scarring. The cystic pimples scar the worst, even if they don't come to head they still leave a huge hyper-pigmented scar. 

I try not to take photos on days where my skin is absolutely disgusting, because it means a lot less work editing the photos afterwards, and it just makes me feel sad to look at my skin in such a bad state. I can't show you how bad it gets, but it does get pretty bad, so finding skincare that helps me banish the acne is always first on my list!

Allergies
One morning, after having a lovely calming face mask the night before, I woke up to find my chin covered in small pus filled bubbles like this. (Enlarge if you're brave)
 

It took me months to figure out that it was caused by a skincare allergy (although it really should have been obvious). I suspect that I'm allergic to Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, and Steareth 20, which are common acne triggers. I first noticed the disgusting chin allergy after I was using one of my favorite face masks. After I took off the face mask and let the serum absorb into my skin, I found that my chin was SUPER itchy, so instead of being intellegant and washing the serum off, I scratched at it with my long nails. In the morning I found that the places I scratched (aka: everywhere) had erupted into tiny yellow pus bubbles, and I cried for hours. 

The first time it happened was the worst, (the above photo is pretty mild, I don't want to make you guys vomit) and it was all over my chin. It was so itchy, painful and humiliating for a grown up 20 something year old to have! It took 3 weeks for the allergy to go away. If you want to read a similar story, but on a horrifyingly large scale, check out BunBunMakeuptips Facial Story. (WARNING this post is incredibly graphic)

Whitening / Brightening

Many people are quite disgusted when I say that I use Whitening skincare. This is a common misconception where people think I want to bleach my skin to make myself look whiter! Whitening skincare actually brightens your complexion, and lighten scars and hyper-pigmentation. I do not bleach my skin.

Also, I'm not a vampire! My pale skin comes from my fathers English heritage, and my warm/yellow tone comes from my mothers tanned Olive skin. If I tanned for long enough, I would have Olive skin too! So why don't I "just get a tan" instead of complaining about not being able to find pale foundations? Four Reasons.

1 - Tanning darkens scars and hyper-pigmentation. No thank you!

2 - I have a facial birthmark that tans faster than my face. I take great pains to make sure that it's hidden 99% of the time, like leaving my hair down and taking photos from one side only etc. If you guys are curious I can make a separate post about it, but for now I'll just leave it here.

3 - One time at the beach, I was very badly burnt on the tops of my shoulders. My back was protected by my hair and my face was away from the sun, so I was very fortunate that it was only my shoulders that were burnt. It's the worst burn I've ever had, my shoulders bubbled and blisters in the most horrifyingly disgusting way and it was the most pain I'd ever had from sunburn. I was left with freckle covered shoulders (which I think are actually pretty cute now thankfully) and an obsession with sunscreen on my shoulders. Unfortunately this didn't spur on an obsession for sunscreen for my face, so whenever my body saw the sunlight, my shoulders were protected by sunscreen, neck and chest was protected by hair, but my face was left to fend for itself.   

That, resulted in this. My face is a totally different colour from my neck, chest and shoulders. It's crazy, and it makes it hard to get Foundation and BB Creams to match, because they have to be quite full coverage to cover the redness and tan. Now I'm religiously using facial sunscreen, and am looking for brightening skincare to undo the damage I've already done. If I could go back in time, slap myself and then tell myself to wear sunscreen everyday, I would.

4 - I like being pale! 

 Anti-Aging

Excess sun damage results in a sped up process of aging, and I'm not keen on that. I would rather use Anti-Aging skincare before I get substantial wrinkles and fine lines. Once the wrinkles set in, it's much harder to fix, than it is to prevent.

At the end of the day, I can buy as much expensive makeup as I want, but if the skin underneath hasn't been taken care of, then it's never going to look good. Here is un-edited proof of lovely makeup on bad skin. Don't judge me too harshly.

I'm not ashamed of how I look without makeup. I'm making this post for the benefit of my followers who may have the same problems as I do, and as a preface to further skincare reviews that I will be doing, so that I can reference back to this post.

Everyone has problems and nobody is perfect, so if you feel like you want to judge me for the way I look, take a look at yourself first, and make sure that there's nothing that you feel insecure about too. 

*PHEW* If you guys got to the end of this, I have a huge hug and a hi-five for you! If you have any product recommendations for me, I would absolutely love to hear them!

Big Lobster Weeked: Why customer service is so important

Hello Princesses!

I wanted to share a small haul from last year which I always think about as my Big Lobster Weekend! I can't find a Hey Big Lobster gif, (Parody of Hey Big Spender) so sassy Zoidberg will have to do!

A lot of people ask me how I can afford so much makeup and skincare, and honestly; it's all to do with working hard, saving and not spending on other frivolous things. It does help that I don't have children, don't smoke, don't drink or have expensive hobbies (other than beauty of course!) and I plan my purchases very carefully, a lot of them are second hand, on sale, or I buy from sites that have very low prices but very long shipping times.

My Big Lobster Weekend happens after each school term (if I haven't blown my budget), where I take my "spending" money and go spend it! This time I took my little sister up to Auckland with me to visit some of the more "high end" cosmetic stores that we didn't have in Hamilton, such as Mac, Bobbi Brown, Benefit etc.

We had an awesome time, but the trip definitely highlighted some rather exceptionally good, and bad customer service. We spent a lot of time at the Onehunga Dressmart, and Smith and Caugheys in the city as well as eating Sal's pizza and Moustache Milk and Cookies. Mmmm!

It doesn't really look like I bought much, but the items I did buy were really high quality and I needed to pay for the petrol, food, parking etc as well.

First up is POREfessional from Benefit. This little box included mini sizes of "that gal" and It's Potent! Eye cream, for the same price as POREfessional alone. The Benefit girls also threw in a tester of Stay Flawless for me to try because we had talked about the differences between the two primers.

My next purchases were from Bobbi Brown. This was my first time at a Bobbi Brown store and I was absolutely shocked at how pale their foundations go, as well as the fact that they are all mostly warm / yellow based! *cries thankfully* I purchased a Long-Wear Even Finish Compact Foundation in 00 Alabaster and the Long Wear Cream Shadow in Bone.

As usual for me, I went around all of the stalls asking for testers of their palest warm toned foundation. I almost never buy foundation before taking testers home because they almost always turn out too dark! With Dior I didn't even have to ask, they were handing these little booklets out! The little empty looking glass jar in the middle is from Lancôme.

At the end of the day we popped into Daiso (love this store!!) and I found these super cute night gloves and makeup holders! The makeup holders are great for liquid liners that need to be stored tip down and mascaras that roll around.

This brings me to the talky part of this post. Customer service, and why it's so absolutely important. I've been in Food Service and Retail for 4 years so I know what it's like to be on that side of the bar, but I also know what it's like to be a customer. If you haven't worked in the Fast Food business, for minimum wage, with no breaks in an 10 hour day, serving over 400 people an hour, then I have absolutely NO sympathy for your bad customer service.

That shopping day I received some of the best, and worst customer service in my life so far. It's definitely not so absolutely disgusting that it's the worst thing you've ever heard, but I was NOT happy with it. This is one persons opinion at one point in time, so don't be too offended, I'm sure they're all lovely people really ^^

Let's start with the people that exceeded my expectations!

Benefit

I walked into their little stall and tinkered with the primers for a couple of minutes before I was approached by a friendly young lady. I told her what I was after, which was POREfessional and also that I wanted to know what she would recommend for me between POREfessional and the 15hour primer. She offered to take off some of my makeup so I could try the primers and I politely declined, because I knew that Benefit doesn't have a foundation pale enough for me. I asked instead if she would trial it on my baby sister (who has perfect skin and only wears tinted moisturizer. SO UNFAIR) The lovely Benefit lady proceeded to apply the primer and a foundation to my sisters face. My sister was looking for a brow-kit and something to cover her wicked dark circles, so the Benefit lady had something to help with that too. She also finished off her makeup with Bronzer, Blusher, Highlighter, Eye Shadows, Eye Liner, Mascara and Lipstick. She didn't have to use those products because we weren't interested in them, but she did, and it really turned my sisters opinion on high  end makeup. She says that her skin has never looked, and felt better. Now she's saving up for a huge Benefit splurge next time. 

The Benefit lady told me that I could buy POREfessional in the tester box (still a full sized POREfessional) for the same price as the normal POREfessional, so that's what I did! I'm so glad she told me to get the testers too because I quite like "that girl"! All in all, she was really friendly, professional, and helpful, without pushing excess products that we weren't interested in on us. 

Estée Lauder

I've heard some girls having really bad experiences with Estée Lauder, but mine was great! A young lady came to help me and I told her that I was looking for the palest, warm toned foundation that they had. She did a quick colour test on the side of my face and offered me two tester pots of foundation she thought would be suitable. The tester pots were full to the brim with product and labeled. Estée Lauder also called me a week later to ask how the testers were going, which is so thoughtful! The Estée Lauder lady was very friendly, professional and actually quite quick in picking the foundations that would be most suitable for me!

Bobbi Brown

This is the most exceptional customer service I've ever had, (bar one absolutely lovely Clinque lady that became my personal foundation finding assistant). A lovely young lady approached me and asked if she could help. I quickly explained that I was looking for a pale, warm toned foundation and she took me up to one of the chairs to do a little patch test on the side of my face. We looked at the colours, and one of them (00 Alabaster, yeah that's right, I'm paler than 0 hehe) looked like a good match, so I agreed that she could take off one side of my makeup to try the foundation (one side had already been butchered anyway so why not), and it was beautiful. I was so absolutely happy with the colour that I wanted it straight away (even though it was super expensive O_o) 

I also for a product that would stop my eyelids from creasing so bad, and I was set up with the Long Wearing Eyeshadow in Bone, which is pale enough to match my face! The Bobbi Brown girl was SO helpful in finding me a good fitting pale foundation, we talked about Korean BB Creams, and she even analyzed my skin and told me that instead of having oily skin like I'd always assumed, I actually had very dry cheeks, so it's more combination skin. She didn't tell me that I should "get a tan" or that I needed darker foundation, she actually listened to what I wanted, not what she thought I wanted. She was super duper friendly, very professional and I left the Bobbi Brown stall with very light pockets, but a happy little heart.

Now for the, not so great customer service. :c

MAC

This is probably the only time I've had bad customer service from MAC. I wanted to know what type of NC foundation would be the palest and most suitable for me (studio fix, studio sculpt etc) and the girl didn't really know, and didn't really care. She initially offered me NC25, which is just way off, and when I asked how many testers I could have, she of rolled her eyes and went to check. Apparently I can have three. Which three would be best for me? She didn't know. Ok. When she came back with the three testeres there was not enough product in each tester to do one face of makeup.

Lancôme

I was, as always, looking for the palest foundation, and the Lancôme lady assured me that she had one pale enough, easy peasy! She took a small corner of makeup off to test her first sample, and found that it was just way too dark. She took slightly more off, and, oh that's too dark too. This happened again, and again until I was left only half face of makeup, and she STILL couldn't match me. I ended up with a super lightly applied BB Cream, that almost matched my skintone. She also gave me the smallest most pathetic little tester I've EVER seen (It's in the clear bottle in the pictures). I'm sure she meant well, but the whole experience for me was quite awful. I did tell her that I was very pale and very very hard to match, but she made me feel quite silly, and assured me that she wouldn't let me leave the stall until my face matched. I spent about 45 minutes trying on foundations, much to the annoyance of my sister and other shoppers waiting. *cringe*

Chanel

"It's Chanel darling" pretty much sums this one up. The Chanel lady assumed that either I was someone that either couldn't afford Chanel, or someone who didn't look like they should be buying Chanel, and made me feel like a grubby street urchin.When I asked for their palest, warm toned foundation, she asked me why I thought I needed a warm toned foundation. Um, because I'm quite yellow in colour. She then asked me what foundation I normally used, and I told her I liked Korean BB Creams, because they were lighter than Western BB Creams. "Oh no darling, you cannot wear Asian cosmetics! They are made for Asian skin and you are Caucasian!" UH ok, I didn't know Caucasians are banned from wearing Asian cosmetics. Chanel's foundations do not go very light and they do NOT do tester pots. "Oh no darling, Chanel does not do testers, it's terribly unhygienic! We have samples, but not in your colour".

The Chanel lady was unhelpful, rude, slightly racist (weird for me to experience) and totally disdainful of me because she probably assumed that I couldn't afford Chanel, or I wasn't aware of how great Chanel was or something like that. She did show me to the La Prairie counter and told me to "save up" to buy nice makeup. Thank you, Chanel lady, for the advice.

I don't actually enjoy being negative, but I find it very interesting to talk about this subject with other beauty guru's and Makeup Obsessives. Customer Service is SO important, because you never know who people are, or what they're capable of! They might bad mouth you online, or in person, so just be careful about how you treat the people that you think are inferior to you. It doesn't take too much effort not to be rude, racist or disdainful, trust me, I know.

Have you princesses ever had exceptionally bad, or exceptionally good customer service?

Happy New Year!

Hello Princesses!

Happy New Year!

I hope you've all had an amazing 2013! Tonight I ended up staying home, being sick and watching movies. But I still had fun ^^ Austin Powers is on at the moment, (love that movie!!)

I've never been much for new years resolutions, but I thought I would make a couple this year! 

In 2014 I want to work on more regular blog scheduale, better social media interaction and a fitter healthier me ^^

2013 wouldn't be complete without one final selfie, (since it is the year of the selfie!)

I hope you're all having an amazing New Year wherever you may be in the world! How was your 2013? Do you have any new years resolutions for 2014?

My Week in Photos

Hello Princesses!

 This week I'm trying to catch up on past event that I never shared with you! This post is going to be one huge photo spam!

For the League of Legends World Championships, the bf, flatmate and I went up to Auckland to watch the finals at a bar. The BarcraftNZ team had the whole bar dedicated to the Lol finals with 1v1's, quizzes, dance-offs and a raffle to add to the fun! We also got cute little wrist bands, lanyards and arm bands to show we were old enough to be there. 

Last year I watched the finals in my pj's on the couch in my living room, and to be honest I'm not sure which venue I prefer! The bar was WAY too loud, (I had to stuff tissue paper in my delicate ears because I'm such a girl) it was hard to see the screen and people spilling drinks on my feet is not fun, but the atmosphere was awesome! Whereas at my house the TV is great, nobody spills things on me and nobody stares at me trying to figure out why I'm watching LOL, because my whole flat is watching it anyway. *shrugs*

The light was too dim in the bar to take selfies, so I was stuck with the awkward bathroom selfie. But you can't see the toilet so it's still classy! (sort of) 

 Afterwards we went out to a ramen bar for dinner! :3

The next weekend I was at the Wallace Corporation University of Waikato Blues award night!




 

*Whew* that was a lot of photos! What did you guys get up to this week?