Summer Sun Protection

Well it's that time of year again! Who's excited? 

With all the fun activities that come with the sunshine and warm weather it's really important to protect our skin from the sun. I re-watched a video I seen last year about UV rays and skin and after watching it again I knew I wanted to make a post about the importance of sunscreen. Here's the video in case you wanted to check it out. It's about 3 minutes and trust me, it's pretty cool!

Did you watch it? What did you think? Crazy, hey?! 

So for those of you who don't know, there's a difference between sunblock and sunscreen 

 Sunblocks, such as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, are highly effective in protecting against both UVA and UVB rays, the types of UV radiation that cause sunburn and skin cancer. Sunblocks often appear white on the skin. Sunscreens tend to be less visible on the skin and absorbs UV rays and does not reflect them 

Here's an article all about it if you're interested! 

 http://www.news-medical.net/news/2007/08/07/28543.aspx

Sun screen is my ride or die. I wear it even in the winter. After years of trying different ones I found a few of my favourites and I'll share those with you later on in this post.

I'm going to cover just a few reasons why you should be wearing sun screen and it's importance so let's get right into it.

1. Sunscreen has proven to slow down the process of wrinkles and premature ageing skin.

2. Sunscreen has also been proven to decrease the growth of skin cancer.

3. Prevents sunburns and tanning -  I'm sure we all knew that. 

4. Helps even out your skin tone

5. Great for hydrating the skin.

I have three sunblocks that I use almost every day. I have one for my face and two others for my body.

So for my face I'll use Neutrogena Clear face SPF 30 

I don't know about you but I get a bit of anxiety putting new products on my face. I have pretty clear skin and would really like to keep it that way. I tried this sunblock while I was home alone one weekend and no breakouts or texture came to my face. I even put make up on over top and went outside. I had no signs of burning and it didn't make my make-up move which is just an added bonus!  I purchased this for $14 at Shoppers Drug Mart

 The next product I use is Sunbum SPF 50

First off, Yum! This smells so good to me! This product is a sunscreen and I use it all over my body if I'm going out. I've used this for years and I have no complaints expect one, I can only ever find travel sizes so I'm constantly repurchasing this at least 3 times every summer. Part of me doesn't mind because it works so well. I paid a little over $10 for mine. Give this little beauty a try. I'm sure you'l love it.

Last but of course not least we have Coola- sport SPF 30
This product is suppose to be organic but I don't care about that, yeah yeah shoot me. moving on.. This one is my go to mostly because it smells so fantastic but a little bit goes a long way which I love. I do find myself having to re-apply every other hour which isn't so bad since I do the same with my other block, I just find it wears off faster than the others but it's still my favourite! I paid $36 for this at Ulta online. Coola also has amazing lip balms and other great sun protection products. If you can, go smell a few haha you won't be disappointed. 

Alright that's it. Those are my must have sunblocks and screens. Don't forget to further protect your skin by wearing hats and keeping hydrated. Stay healthy this summer, everyone!

                                                                       Xxoo - Katie 

My Hair Routine

Time and time again I'm getting complimented on my hair and people always have so many questions like, "Is it natural?" "How did you get it so long?" and "How do you keep it so healthy?"

First things first. Yes. =) My hair length is natural. The colour is not but it is very similar to my natural shade.

As for the next two questions, I've never really known how to answer them. I just let it do it's thing and wash it a few times a week haha! 

With so many people asking about my hair I decided why not make a post so people can refer to it if they want after they ask me questions. So let's get started.

First things first...When it comes to my hair I'm actually quite lazy. I go days without brushing it. Why? Because I can't be bothered. I throw it in a pony tail or a bun and I go on with my day.

Same goes for washing my hair. I wash it a maximum of 3 times a week, sometimes less. Now before you start saying "Ew" Hold on a hot minute and let me explain this. Haha

I have really thick hair. Now combine that with thick strands and the length, I'm going through shampoo and conditioner like crazy. It gets expensive, especially since my hair care products are not exactly cheap. 

My hair will start to look oily after 3-4 days and that is when I wash it. I shampoo right when I get into the shower and massage my scalp and hair for 2-3 minutes. I like to think the longer I take the cleaner my hair will be but I never have the patience. So, moving on. I rinse that out (Obviously) I wring out my hair to make sure all the shampoo has washed away and then I get my hair wet again. This is when I apply conditioner. A little conditioner with extremely wet hair goes a long way (Also reduces a wax build up on your scalp which can cause dandruff and other conditions) On that note, I never apply conditioner to the top of my head unless I'm dry, but the back on my head and the rest of my hair gets the product.

So at this point I let the conditioner sit in my hair and during this time I finish my shower. I don't need to explain that part do I?  Alright. 3-5 minutes have passed. I skip the whole rinse and repeat thing. Who has the time? Seriously...Who actually has the time for that!?

Boom. I'm out of the shower! Yay! (I hate showering. takes way to long and I see it as an inconvenience but I do it because well I have to lol)  I'm perpetually lazy so I wrap my hair in a towel and climb into bed and watch a few cat videos or online shop for up to 45 minutes. Then I brush my hair.

Yeah, I know.. "Brushing your hair when it's wet is sooo totally bad for it." Guess what? I don't care. I HAVE to brush my hair when it's wet, if I don't I'll have insane knots and as I mentioned above, I'm lazy. Don't have time for that. So I start brushing my hair, I brush my bangs first and then I split my hair on both sides and brush from the bottom to the top. 

Once all the knots are gone I fluff my hair so it's not all stuck to my head. At this point I'll add in a heat protector. (If I remember. I usually forget) Now I blow dry my hair. High setting on high heat. I dry my hair the same way I brush it. Bangs, bottom, then top. About half way through I'll switch the hair dryer to cool and finish my hair that way. 

I never completely dry my hair. I dry most of it but I leave a little bit damp in the length because A) I've been drying my hair for a half hour, my arm is tired. and B) I don't want to damage the hair that's already dry even more. 

Next I brush it and style it, this means moving my bangs to one side and smoothing out the lions main I just created. 

That's pretty much it. that's all I do.  

Sometimes if I notice my hair looking dull I will run a small bit of coconut oil through my hair. It adds a nice natural shine and makes my ends look extremely healthy.

If I'm in between trims and my hair is looking rather rough, I wait until I know I'm showering the next day and before bed I take a generous amount of coconut oil and saturate the last 3-4 inches of my hair in it. I put it in a secure bun, go to sleep and rinse it out when I wash my hair the next day. This gives my hair a beautiful shine and adds great softness.

As for haircuts, I cut my own hair. I stopped getting my hair cut professionally when I was 15 due to some awful experiences. Anyway,  DO NOT TRY THIS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING! Seriously the last thing you want is to make a mistake you can't fix. I'm self taught and took a hair cutting course in high school. With that being said, obviously  I'm not a hairstylist and I don't have the education of one but I do know enough to trust myself and my scissors. I'll trim an inch or two off my hair whenever coconut oil stops giving my ends the results I want when I saturate them.

I love my hair and try to maintain it as best as I can. Maybe my routine will help you achieve goals you have with your own hair! Let me know! =D <3

                                      Xxoo - Katie

My Favourite Winter Nail Polishes

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So winter is fast approaching, for many of us, we already have snow so I thought, instead of complaining about the cold weather how about a blog post about some of my favourite winter nail colours! So I've gathered five polishes that I've been using the most these past few weeks. So enough talk, lets get right into it!


OPI - Just A Little Rosti At This

I LOVE THIS COLOUR! I'm currently wearing it as I type this. It's the perfect burgundy shade for fall. This is such a warm, luscious, and creamy colour, I cannot get enough of it. This shade is so pigmented you could get away with one coat but two just makes it SO much better. Other than the colour another reason I love this polish is because it's pretty much the same shade as my favourite lipstick from Rimmel London #107 From the Kate Moss collection. I love when little things like lips and nails match, so naturally this made me super happy!

OPI - Give Me Moor!

This shade reminds me of a strong unopened bottle of cabernet sauvignon. which kind of makes no sense because the actual colour is way more purple. I really enjoy this colour when I feel like wearing my (fake) leather coat. It makes me feel like some sort of rebel vampire. Don't judge! 
This polish needs two coats since it's a bit translucent, but that second coat packs a mean punch and really gets dark. I love wearing this polish and then adding the next polish over top so add a little something special!

Morgan Taylor - Fame Game

I wouldn't classify this polish as a glitter polish, even though it is, but rather a shimmer polish since the sparkles are so tiny, AND it's easy to remove. Wait what? A glitter polish that's easy to remove? Yup. It's true. they actually exist! Morgan Taylor is a fairly new brand to me, I only ever started working with and seeing these polishes when I was in school. They were decently priced and had a great range of colours so I picked a few up. This polish looks good on it's own but I find that it looks best with a white base coat, or as an overlay. This polish reflects blue, green, yellow, and orange so it goes over top of top of pretty much any colour! It adds just a nice little pop of sparkle and reminds me of fresh fallen snow, you know.. the kind that glitters. =)

Morgan Taylor - Where's My Crown
This is my go to Christmas colour for my accent nail. two coats of this and your nails are evenly coated. Even one coat to add a little shimmer to your nails looks amazing. I love the amount of glitter in this polish and the fact that the glitter all the same size and shape, it makes the nail look so flawless because there is never a space without glitter. I love to pair this polish with my OPI Just a little rosti at this. Adding it to my accent nail over top of the OPI makes my nails scream Romantic Christmas! haha Because this is a glitter polish, it lifts off of the nail quite easily so I highly recommend a base coat and a top coat.

 Last but of course not least

Morgan Taylor - Sapphires, Rubies, and Emeralds Oh My
Honestly the name pretty much says all you need to know! what makes this glitter polish so incredible besides the glitter is the base of it. The base of this polish is a sheer dark purple so when I got it I instantly fell in love but I was a little nervous to use it because I thought the base would cover up the sparkles and the polish would just look chunky on the nail but I couldn't have been more wrong, the glitter shines through the base effortlessly! The glitter is purple, pink, blue, gold, and green, it's like a little bottle of Mardi Gras and totally remind me of Esmerlda from the hunchback of Notre Dame. I chose this as a winter colour because of how dark of a polish it is, you can wear this without a dark base and get away with it the base colour and the amount of glitter make it possible. Like the polish above, this does need a base coat and a top coat although this never lifts off my nail like the glitter polishes above. but still base and top coat are always a must for longer lasting polish!

So I hope you all liked this blog post, I'll be back with some more of my favourite polishes for the winter season in an upcoming post so stay tuned for that. and like always if you have any questions, comment below or ask me on any of my social media pages which you can find along the side of my blog! enjoy your day everyone! Thanks for reading =)

Katie - Xxoo

My Night Time Skin Care Routine

So I'm the type of girl that likes to try new products! I'm constantly looking at reviews and seeing what my favourite You Tubers and Make Up artists are raving about. I like to turn to them for some of my beauty needs and I really turn to them regularly for cleansers, toners, creams, eye creams, whatever. So after many empty bottles, blemishes and black heads. I have found a few products that I love and swear by! 

 So for starters I like to cleanse my face with Clean&Clear Morning Burst Hydrating Facial Cleanser in the scent cumber melon. This cleanser has tiny beads that you massage into your skin and they burst as you cleanse, I'm sure a lot of you guys are familiar with this product as it's available at almost every single department and drug store around.

 So after I cleanse I go in with a more expensive product. A toner by Mario Badescu. It's made for combination skin and a little goes a long way!! This toner "Lotion" as the industry calls it smells like it works. and believe me it does. This product is available on the Mario Badescu website/ Here's a link to the site:    Mario Badescu

Now after my toner I like to go in with my night cream ad for this I use

 Toléra

**purchasing this product is a little tricky since you can only purchase it online as a professional  esthetician or dermatologist or you can go into your local spa and see if they sell it. Mine does and my school provides this line of product for me to use on clients and fellow classmates.**

And that's about it for my night time routine. Have you used any of these products? Tell me what you like to use and what you thought of this post. I'll be back with my day time routine in a few days!

Have a great day everyone!

 xxoo-Katience Rich Emulsion - Nourishing and Desensitizing Cream by Dr. Renaud

Make Up - When To Throw It Away!

We all have old make-up products that we don't use any more. you know the products that sit in the bottom of a drawer of the purse you used last summer. Rediscovering them, for me is so exciting and I'm embarrassed to admit that some times I apply the product immediately Which is not always good since make-up expires, so when does it expire and how do you know how long a product will last once it's open?

The answer is quite simple.

 If your product doesn't have a best used before date like this one: ( 06/12/2016) 

look for this. 

This icon simply means that once the product it opened, it can be used for up to a year, other products with this icon may say 18 M or 24 M which just represent the amount of months the product will stay good for. Of course you can still use the product after the date, but be cautious because after the 12 months or how ever long your product has, the properties in the ingredients start to wear down and break. which ultimately leaves you with a useless and ineffective product.

Then there are some products that don't seem to have any dates or icons on them, maybe they have work off of you just cant see it. so I've found a very helpful picture online to help you out with the longevity of your products. check it out and make sure to leave a comment if you found it helpful! 

                                                                xoxo-Katie

My Make Up History! Part 2

All right, so yesterday we left off with the make up I used back in grade seven. Today I will be discussing the products I use now and what I like about them!

Lets Get Started...

These days I like to wear all kind of make up. everything from eyebrow gels to contour, I love it.

So lets start out with my bare face and build on the products I use.

Concealer

I use MAC prolong wear concealer in the shade NC20. This is my favourite high end concealer because it lasts all day and stays where I put it. I use this concealer only under my eyes,  With this concealer, I buy a few shades lighter then my skin so that when I put on my foundation, my eyes don't look dark. they open up and look a lot bigger than what they actually are. This product runs for about $20.00. on the rest of my face, if needed i use the BH Cosmetics concealer palette and I use the second shade. I apply this around my nose, forehead and any blemishes I may have. For this concealer I paid $3.95 ( BH Cosmetics always has wicked deals, everything is always almost 50% off or more!!!)

Foundation!

I don't wear liquid foundation very much but when I do, I just go and buy CoverGirl. I really like their clean line for sensitive skin. I use the shade Buff Beige 225. This products costs anywhere from $8.49 to $9.00

Powder Foundation

After constantly trying many, many brands of powders, I have found my perfect match! It's Revlon Photo Ready in the shade light/medium 020. I don't know if I'll ever use a different powder. This one lasts all day long, looks flawless and has amazing coverage. I use it everyday that I wear make up. this products costs anywhere from $13.00 to $17.00. This is totally worth the money if you want drug store make up with amazing coverage!

So after I complete my foundation I get to work on my eyes. I start off with Urban Decay's eye shadow primer potion which I have found to be quite popular. this product lasts a really long time and it costs $15.00

I change up my eye shadow everyday, it's rarely ever the same. I have a few palettes and single shadows. I won't list them all out but I'll share the ones I used the most back in July.

BH Cosmetics 120 eye shadow palette 4th edition. In this palette I like to use the browns and golds as well as the blues.  I paid $15.95 for this product. Again, BH Cosmetic always has sales on their products so I got 50% off!

 Some other shadows I use are from make up geek. Make up geek is PHENOMENAL! You get high end quality for drug store price! some of the shades I use the most are:

                                                                    Barcelona Beach

                                                                            Corrupt

                                                                          Ice Queen

                                                                       Shimma Shimma

I love these shadows and they all cost $5.99


So after my eye shadow is complete I use Essence Gel Liner in the shade Midnight in Paris 01 this product is $3.99 and although it's cheap, it lasts all day and I never have to touch it up. it stays where I want it to and that's good enough for me. it glides on well and is very pigmented!!

Mascara

I use two mascaras all the time. for my first coat I like to brush through my lashes with L'Oreal Paris Voluminous False Fiber Lashes in the shade black lacquer . This product costs $12.99

For my second and third coat I use Revlon voluminous power collagen mascara. This is by far my favourite mascara. It makes my lashes so long and look so full. I keep buying this product over and over again. It's fantastic and it costs anywhere from $7.99- $9.99

 Eyebrow time!!!

I use BH Cosmetics automatic brow pencil in the shade Blonde. This product costs $2.95. Again, it's on sale. This brow pencil has lasted me so long and a little really does go along way!!

Bronzer

I use Physicians Formula Powder Palette Mineral Glow Pearls in the shade light bronze pearl.
this product has just the right amount of shimmer to really give you that healthy sun kissed glow. I apply this to my cheek bones and just above my temples. This product costs $19.99

All right....last but not least lips!

Recently I haven't been adding much colour to my lips I've been keeping it simple with my Nivea Lip Butter in the scent/flavour Raspberry Rose . Wow! this lip butter lasts such a long time! It's not sticky or oily. It' just right. I paid $2.99 or this. Side note... the other scents/flavours available are caramel cream (Omg) and vanilla macadamia (Yum) and just a plain original one. You have to try these lip butters out! They are so fantastic! I rave about them all the time to my friends!

So there you have it! he current make up I use. I hope you guys enjoyed this post. see you soon!

                                                  xoxo-Katie