Tag Archives: no makeup

Jul20

My Quarantine Beauty Routine

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My Quarantine Beauty Routine

Hi! Living in a lock down state has definitely put a damper on my beauty routine. In fact, I can probably count on under ten fingers the amount of times I’ve put a full face of makeup on since March nineteenth. Sure, it’s nice to be feeling myself after I beat my face but, at the end of the day, it’s not like Johnny and I do anything so what’s the point?

Every once in a while I’ll put some mascara and blush on but, for the most part, my face has been au natural. Because of that, I have really just been enjoying doing face masks on my already blank face in the evening. I have also incorporated a night time skin care routine into my beauty regimen. I used to not have one, as I never took my makeup off before bed. But, now, I always apply my serum, eye cream, and moisturizer before bed too.

Although I miss doing my makeup, I like sleeping in before work more! Lol, what I really miss is shopping. I’m not comfortable making my rounds in a store like TJMaxx or Target yet. And, when I find some cute, in season clothes online I realize that no one will probably see me in it till next year so what’s the point? I mainly have just been ordering my skin care online and extra hand soaps from Bath & Body Works when I need it.

On the bright side, this lack of shopping and applying makeup has saved me money. The lack of going out to restaurants and bars and doing my eating (And drinking!) at home also saves me money. So, when the fateful day comes that I can finally have a TJ’s shopping trip without having a panic attack, I know the haul that will be purchased will be totally guilt free. Score!

What do you miss doing most while in quarantine? How have your normal routines been affected? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Dec16

Unpretty

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Unpretty

Hi everyone! Ugh, I’ve got to say, it’s been a really shitty past few weeks. Since my wisdom teeth surgery. I have been in a lot of pain and I just can’t seem to shake it. My sleep schedule has been thrown off completely, as I now wake up multiple times during the night to deal with the constant throbbing, which then results in bathroom breaks, and me not being able to fall asleep again for another hour or so.

And, because I am not sleeping well, I am so damn tired upon awakening that I can’t even get myself ready for an agonizing day at work. Not to mention that it would hurt too bad to try, anyways! I legit haven’t done my hair or makeup in well over a week now and it’s really starting to get to me.

I always pride myself on getting dressed to the nines to go about my day. It makes me feel good to know that I truly put my best face forward and when I’m out and about on the job, the most professional form of myself is out there. So, my self esteem has taken a beating post-op because of my no makeup streak.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I live for my no makeup days during the weekend. It doesn’t get much better than sporting a fresh face after being on the old nine to five grind for the week. But, almost two weeks of being au natural is pretty excessive for me, especially when my face has been bruised and swollen for the majority of it. And, because the pain has been so bad, I’ve been dressing for comfort, which Lil Red never does! Combining all of these circumstances has left me feeling downright Unpretty, and I just want to get back to my normal self.

Reading this, I’m sure it’s easy to say that I’m being too hard on myself. And, I know I am, which is the crazy thing. But, I hate not feeling like myself and this surgery has left me feeling so broken. Even now, I feel like I’m totally rambling but, ugh, I just needed to get all of this off my chest so thanks to all of you so much for listening. ❤

How do you get yourself feeling back to normal after being in the doldrums? What are some of your natural pain relief tips? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Feb2

Makeup Free Days

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Makeup Free Days

Howdy! Back in the day, I used to complete my makeup routine almost daily – even if I was staying home for the day. As the years progressed, I realized just how silly this was and began slowly easing into Makeup Free Days. This originally started out as a Sunday occasion, but now, I spend at least half of my week with no makeup on. It’s crazy!

I wouldn’t say that I have this sky high confidence that makes me feel okay with no makeup on. It’s honestly more of a lazy girl thing. I apply my makeup and do my hair when I’m working in the community. But, if I am working from home or just running random errands during the day, I really don’t see the point of painting my face. Once I realized that going out in public with no makeup on wasn’t the end of the world, it became easier and easier to leave the house bare faced.

Of course, makeup free days save me time, but my skin and wallet are also definitely thanking me. I’ve noticed that my skin has looked increasingly healthier as I make my way through the year, because the products that I use after washing my face really gets a chance to sink in and work as opposed to being suffocated by the makeup on top. And, days without makeup equals using less of it, which equals buying less products, which equals more money in my pocket!

It’s a little surprising to me how within a handful of years, I went from caring so much about what complete strangers might think if I left the home in anything but full makeup perfection to running about town fresh faced for three or four days of the week. I guess that’s part of growing up. Getting older sucks. But, feeling okay makeup free is something that I’m definitely okay with!

Has anyone else had a makeup free epiphany similar to mine? How often do you apply makeup during the week? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Aug8

Face Mask Festivities: Lush’s Don’t Look At Me Edition

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Face Mask Festivities: Lush’s Don’t Look At Me Edition

Hi everyone and welcome to the first post of my Face Mask Festivities mini series! Today, I’ll be discussing one of Lush’s face masks called Don’t Look At Me. This is one of the first products that I bought from Lush and I enjoy it well enough. This is also the first beauty product I’ve ever owned that you have to refrigerate! Take a look at some product pics as well as some shots of yours truly and let’s discuss:

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Okay, first things first, just know that the pictures seen of me throughout these series are a rarity. Few pictures of me without makeup exist, let alone pictures of me with a face full of face mask! I always take a minute to admire the lovely people who post pics of themselves in their face masks because I think that it’s incredibly brave. So, I channeled every one of you and just did the damn thing! AYYYY.

Now, let’s talk about this here product made by KEVIN!! My first impression of using Lush’s Don’t Look At Me face mask, aside from the striking teal color, is the smell. This mask smells crisp and lemony and I love that because it’s incredibly invigorating. You know what else is invigorating? Applying a COLD face mask to your face!! Because this product needs to be refrigerated, it was a bit of a shock when it came to putting the mask on. But after a couple of minutes, the coldness dissipated and the fifteen minutes of having the mask on my face were extremely pleasant.

When it comes time to wash face masks off, I always do it in the shower. Washing anything off in the sink just leads to water water everywhere, and I am not about that life. Once the mask if off, I wash my face as usual and then I complete the process by wiping my face with micellar water, cleaning my piercings with witch hazel, and using a moisturizer with a thicker texture. For my moisturizer, I prefer to use Yes To Coconut’s hydrating souffle moisturizer to give my face a special treat after putting it through the skin care ringer.

I thought that this face mask was really refreshing and my skin definitely looked more radiant after using it – even in the not so great bathroom lighting! The initial cold of the refrigerated mask left my skin feeling tingly and fresh for the duration that I had it on. I liked the way that this product smells and I also appreciated how easy it was to get on and off of my skin because with some face masks it’s a total pain in the booty boo. I believe this mask was about twelve dollars, which I think is totally reasonable but I don’t want to get too attached to it because the nearest Lush to me is about forty minutes away. Despite that, I absolutely will be enjoying using up the rest of this face mask!

So there you have it, the first post of my Face Mask Festivities mini series, Lush’s Don’t Look At Me Edition! How do you like to pamper yourself? What is your favorite face mask to use? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Feb9

My Makeup Free Weekends

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My Makeup Free Weekends

Hey everyone and happy Tuesday! I hope you all are having a great start to your week. So for the past few months I’ve been making an effort to give myself some makeup free days. I settled on doing makeup throughout the week and living makeup free over the weekends. At first, my days of being au natural were torture and all I wanted to do was plop myself in front of the bathroom mirror and do my daily makeup routine. That was then, this is now though because now I live for my days of having a fresh face! Let’s discuss:

As the weeks progressed of having my makeup free weekends, all of the benefits began to pile up. One of them being that it’s a total money saver! Thanks to my days of not applying a single drop of makeup, I haven’t had to buy any new makeup products in months. On an average month, I would say that I’m not wearing makeup for at least a third of it. That’s ten days of no eyeliner, eyeshadow, blush, and all of my other makeup must haves. Not using my favorite products regularly has stretched out my usage of them tenfold and has really stretched my dollars, as well!

I’m the first to say that I’m a total freak about my skin. Good skin care products as well as face washes and exfoliators are an absolute necessity for me. I’ll do anything to keep my skin as fresh as can be and I pride myself on my porcelain complexion. Over the TV, internet, and magazines skin care can be made out to be so complicated. There’s nothing hard about wearing no makeup though! I’ve noticed that my skin has become so much softer overall due to my au natural days. It makes sense when you think about it, though. For ten days of the month I have no makeup to scrub off of my face, no products clogging my pores, and a fresh face allows my moisturizers and treatments to really soak in and do their jobs. Score!

The money saving is nice and it’s cool to have my skin improve but the best thing I’ve gained from my makeup free days is confidence. When I was applying my makeup regularly before, you couldn’t pay me to step out in public with no makeup on. I always had to be done up even if I was just staying in for the day. I thought that I had to have makeup on to be pretty and I wouldn’t settle for anything less.

Now, I spend my weekends out and about running errands, working, and hanging out with friends without an ounce of makeup on and I’ve never felt better. I sometimes have days where I’ll catch my makeup free face in the mirror at a store and wish that I did my beauty routine that morning – but don’t we all? However, I must confess, that it’s Sunday (I like to prewrite my posts) and I am wearing makeup! My boyfriend and I have a few Super Bowl parties to attend and I wanted to get dolled up for them! But fear not, I made up for my negligence of my makeup free rule on the weekends by flaunting a fresh face on Friday. 🙂

My Makeup Free Weekends have done nothing but good for me and I can’t recommend my regimen enough. Does anyone have a similar makeup free routine to mine? What are the benefits that you’ve found from going makeup free? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Dec1

Ballin On A Budget

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Ballin On A Budget

Heyyy everyone and happy Tuesday! As a college kid, I’m always looking for ways to save a buck in everything from beauty and clothes to eating out and buying textbooks. In the past few weeks I’ve demonstrated some frugal efforts at its finest in my beauty routines and now I’m here to share them with you! Let’s discuss:

1) Dye your hair at home!!!! – Back in the day, I would get my hair dyed and cut monthly. I was obsessed with keeping my hair as fabulously red as possible (I still am) and would eagerly shell out about seventy bucks per month at the salon to satisfy my needs. Once I started school, I knew that my hair dying habit had to die. I began to search Target and drug stores for the box color that would match the color I would get done at the salon the closest. Lucky for me, I found a perfect if not better match in Vidal Sassoon’s London Luxe collection. Their Runway Red box color is literally the best thing that’s ever happened to me because now I pay a whopping eight dollars per month for salon quality color!

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I went from spending over eight hundred dollars yearly to about ninety dollars thanks to using box color on my luscious locks. Every month I now look forward to my pampering time when I throw on a robe, apply my hair color, and watch the water turn red as I wash it out. There’s nothing better! And the sweet smell of savings and freshly dyed and washed hair ain’t too bad either!

Have makeup free days: In the past month, I’ve spent at least twelve days makeup free. These are the days when I’m working on school work from home, when I’m having girl time with my best friend, or hangouts with my boyfriend (because if he can handle my bad breath in the morning he can handle seeing me makeup free, damnit!). I used to do my makeup every day no matter what but then I realized that it’s kind of silly to do that when no one but your family is going to see you in it. Now I only apply my makeup on days that I know for a cold hard fact I’ll be going out and about running errands, to school, or date nights with my beau.

By not using my makeup every single day, I’ve been stretching out how long the product lasts. My black eyeliner, for example, usually needs replacing after one month but as November comes to a close, I still have a little less than half of it left. This has dwindled down my spending at Target significantly because I no longer have to go to the store to do my monthly stock ups. Yes, I’ll be buying the products eventually but if I decrease the amount of eyeliner I buy per year by three, that’s saving close to twenty dollars! And that doesn’t even include mascara, eye shadows, blushes, and whatever other products you might use! My makeup free days have been stretching my dollar for this month which means more moolah to spend on holiday shopping!

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^^^ Thanks, Ryan. ❤

So there you have it, just a few of the ways that Lil Red is Ballin On A Budget! What are some of your money saving secrets? What box color do you swear by? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

May12

Lil Red’s Fresh Face Facial

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Lil Red’s Fresh Face Facial

Hello, hello everyone! So as you can see by my featured image photo, I’m going nude, au natural, bare faced – in other words makeup free to discuss my without fail facial! I worked as the assistant manager at The Body Shop for over half a year, and it taught me a lot about skin care and products. Now that my older sister is working there as my prodigy, it’s so fun to instill in her some Body Shop knowledge – and still get some awesome discounts on their products! Holla! Thanks to my vast knowledge on skin care, skin types, and everything in between, I’ve been known to give a mean facial at home to my sister and my mom. This past weekend I decided to treat myself (and my sissy!) to one of my fabulous facials to freshen up my skin and go bare faced for the world. If there’s one thing that I get complimented on a lot, it’s my creamy complexion. It’s very important to me to maintain my healthy pale glow, so constant skin care is a must. Here’s another pic of me going au natural, and then we’ll discuss some facial fun with a plethora of Body Shop products!

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^^^ My face is bare and I don’t care….too much anyways 😉 So I lined up all of my Body Shop products in the order that I use them for a Lil Red’s Fresh Face Facial, take a look and then I’ll discuss each item! Please don’t mind my dirty bath tub!

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Step 1) Dampen skin with warm water and apply the Warming Mineral Clay Mask and let it sit for five minutes. I absolutely adore this product. The mask is made with ginger and a bunch of other good stuff and begins to warm as soon as it touches the skin. The warming sensation from the clay literally attacks your pores for a deep cleanse. After five minutes of having the mask on, almost all of the blackheads that live around my nostril piercings disappeared. Needless to say, I was a very happy camper about that! After your mask is done sitting, wet a cloth with warm water and gently wipe off your skin.

Step 2) It’s time to wash your face! You can use whatever cleanser you please, but I recommend that it’s a cream base rather than a gel to avoid drying out your skin. I used the Pomegranate Softening Facial Wash to give my skin a nice, gentle cleansing after my pores were stripped from the mask. Wash your face well so you remove any remaining clay and grime, and don’t pat yourself dry quite yet!

Step 3) This step will be different for everyone depending on their skin type. If you have “normal” skin, like myself you should be fine with using a facial scrub like the Tea Tree Squeaky Clean Scrub straight from the container. However, scrubs can be a bit harsh on acne prone skin, so if you do have acne I recommend mixing up the scrub with the Vitamin E Hydrating Toner just like how you would mix it with water before using on the skin. Using a moisturizing toner mixed with a somewhat harsh scrub should eliminate any unpleasant burning or stinging. If you have normal skin, apply the toner after you’re done with your scrub. Tea Tree products are specifically used for acne, but even if you don’t suffer from it, the scrub will leave your skin feeling exhilarated and your pores will be squeaky clean just as the name of the product says!

Step 4)  Apply a treatment. Now is a good time to apply topical acne cream if you use it. If not, I like to put on an eye cream as my treatment, like the Nutriganics Smoothing Eye Cream. The skin around the eyes is so sensitive and can dry out very easily, so it’s so important to keep the windows to your soul hydrated! There’s plenty of great eye creams at The Body Shop to choose from – I’m also particularly fond of the eye cream in the Vitamin E line as well!

Step 5) Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!!! Like the eye creams, The Body Shop has an abundance of excellent moisturizers to choose from. During my most recent facial I used their new Vitamin C Glow Boosting Moisturizer but any kind will do! Each line from Aloe to Vitamin E to Pomegranate has their own moisturizer – so it’s up to you to pick the best one for your skin type. I’m all about my skin having a radiant glow to it, so I’m simply thrilled that the Vitamin C line finally has a moisturizer!

Step 6) This step is optional, but I’m including it because it’s part of my skin care regime. To end a facial or my daily skin care routine I always apply the Vitamin C Skin Boost to tie everything together. This fantastic product gives an instant glow to your skin and leaves a lovely matte finish, which is the perfect way to complete a fresh face facial. Having smooth, matte skin is also a bonus if you plan on applying makeup afterwards, but I don’t recommend it – let your skin breathe!!

Next time you or your girlfriends need a night of pampering, make sure to follow my guide for the Lil Red’s Fresh Face Facial! All of the products that I mentioned above can be purchased in stores or online at http://www.thebodyshop.com. Have a fabulous night and please make sure to check out my most recent article “Monday Update: Online Shopping, Lil Red Style” for some amazing pieces up for grabs! What’s your favorite product from The Body Shop? Do you have any questions about the products or steps? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah