My current make-up and skin care products

Hi all,

it's been a while since I have been blogging last. Life is crazy busy and I am hardly having any spare time in front of my computer. I rather go to the beach or meet with friends in leisurely moments. Nevertheless, I missed catching up with you all! I hope you've been doing well and enjoying life.

Today, I wanna share with you what new make-up I've been using lately and I am giving you a quick overview of my skin care routine. I hope I can inspire you to fall in love with organic vegan beauty products. They have turned my skin around!

A recent brand I have come across is INIKA. This beautiful all organic vegan brand delivers for all sophisticated ladies out there. The packaging is absolutely gorgeous and the colours are very smooth in texture and quite intense, not at all fair in colour like other natural brands can be. This high end brand has covered just about anything in their range. Their special edition looks are an absolute highlight and the kits save some money, too. I have purchased two eye-shadow colours that were part of a special edition. The ladies at the store could not give me the full kit, so I received a discount. The eye-shadow colours are called lust and seduction, and are wonderful metallic mineral powder eye-shadows. The lipstick is a new summer special called coral and the lip whip comes in a beautiful peach colour.

Another brand I just learned about and love is 100% pure. This cruelty-free brand uses fruit pigments to achieve the colour spectrum of their range, fantastic! So far, I tried the pot rouge blush in the shade ballerina. It gives a subtle shimmer on the sheeks and is not irritating at all. If anything, it nourishes the skin. The same goes for the fruit-pigmented lip glazes in lychee and vixen. It surprised me how great the texture of these lipsticks are and that they stay on the lips well. Go fruits, you're the best!

A brand that I have discussed previously is Alima Pure. Their mineral foundation has become my standard foundation powder and it is really great for my skin. You can read my initial review of the mineral foundation and foundation brush here. I wanted to renew all my old eye-shadows and blushes with mineral powders. This is because pure mineral powders do not expire (if you manage to not contaminate them - I do not dip my brushes into the containers directly). They are also not irritating my skin and deliver natural sun protection as a bonus. So, I invested in a concealer (sand), two luminous shimmer blushes (sahara & freja), two luminous shimmer eye-shadows (paris & aubergine), and three pearluster eye-shadows (amethyst, glow, & zen). I also scored the tea-pigmented natural definition mascaras in black and brown. Those two naturally won't last forever because they have moisture in them and get in contact with the eye area directly. I have tried the mascaras already and I am very content! By the way, the aubergine eye shadow was more grey than purple when I tried it but I have to give it another go. I applied the eye-colour in artificial light and may have misjudged the shade.

I have talked about this before but I am not shy of mentioning it again. I have acne-prone skin and need to be very selective with the products that I can use. This is true for make-up as well as skin care products. A brand that I have made only good experiences with is Miranda Kerr's own range called Kora Organics. I use it for cleansing, peeling, blemish care, misting, moisturizing, light coverage, and overnight facial treatments. I almost have too many products to mention but I use at least one or two of them daily.  I mix the soothing day and night cream and the tinted day cream to achieve a light coverage with a bit of sunscreen protection. I spritz the calming lavender mist on my face at night, especially before going to bed at hot summer nights. It soothes my skin and gives me a cooling feeling before going to sleep. The energizing citrus mist is just that - a fresh morning start into the day! When I wear make-up, I use it to seal my make-up. The blemish gel is a little rescue potion whenever needed. At home, I usually put fresh aloe vera gel onto my newly developed blemishes but I can hardly do that when I'm out and about! This is why the little gel tube comes in handy. On days when I feel like my skin needs some extra love, I go to sleep with the hydrating mask on. The next morning, I can always see how my skin has healed considerably! On other nights, I put the luxurious rosehip oil on my skin before going to bed. This treatment is a little more subtle but often all I need. I wash my face with the foaming cleanser and about once a week with the exfoliating cream instead. I take the time about once a week to apply the enriched body lotion all over my body. Since I've been using Kora Organics, my skin has become softer and less irritated. I am very grateful for the improvement and I am hoping that my skin issues will disappear completely. My biggest enemy is myself because I start picking my face when I am stressed! I do not notice that I am doing it until some time later. This is why I also want to get into meditation or mindfulness exercises. I feel that my stressed-out mind is the root of my skin issue. It is hard to identify stress-triggers when they come in the form of e-mails, workload, tasks, news, etc. Where have the good old straight-forward roaring bears gone?!

Have you identified any triggers that can cause you instant stress reactions? How do you go about them? What do you think of organic cruelty-free make-up and skin care? Let me know, I am looking forward to be hearing your thoughts :)

Much love and tranquility (the natural way!),
ur blk_gypsy