Friday, April 30, 2021

Highlights from the Beauty Spotlight Team

 


Jen from Laugh, Love, Contour is currently running a giveaway! Be sure to enter and win some goodies from Yubi Beauty and Doubledown Cosmetics!


Prime Beauty and Fashion Flash have the best Mother’s Day inspired giveaway – try for books, cosmetics, fragrance and a $100 Amazon gift card!!


If you’re still shopping for a Mother’s Day gift for a skincare enthusiast, Never Say Die Beauty has four luxury skincare brands that she enthusiastically recommends!


Lola’s Secret Beauty Blog is obsessed with high quality makeup brushes, and just reviewed the Hourglass NÂș 7 Finishing Brush. This gorgeous multi-tasking Kabuki-style brush is perfect for laying down and blending cream, liquid and powder products. A+



Permanent Makeup? How does it sound to not have to reapply your eyeliner everyday? Have your eyebrows already arched to perfection or a lip color that won’t smudge? Well, now you can with Permanent Makeup. Find out “The Pros And Cons Of Permanent Makeup” as shared by Barbie’s Beauty Bits.



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Monday, April 26, 2021

Starting With My Foundation: Pink Super Moon Giveaway

 Greetings, dear readers, and happy Monday! I missed you last week, but my second Moderna vaccination really kicked my behind and I was not particularly functional. I'm still not fully *there*, but tonight is the Super Moon, I've been thinking A LOT about things, and I have been putting off this giveaway far too long already. It's time. Let's do this.




For those that have been following me for the past year or more, you already know I've been through a lot physically and mentally the past 13 months. While my blog is usually my sanctuary against the stressors of day-to-day life, it just because too much for me to keep up with. I certainly tried, but there was always another hurdle presenting itself. I had this giveaway planned for my 9th blogiversary earlier this year, but it got pushed back with my brother's sudden passing. I thought perhaps I would turn it into a Galentine's giveaway; that obviously didn't happen. Then I thought maybe my birthday.....and nope, the mental toll of my knee surgery setback paired with my 1 year COVIDversary was too much. I've had this prize pack sitting on my table in the office, and I kept thinking "now should be the time". After much introspection for reasons that really don't matter here, it's time. Tonight is a full moon, the first Super Moon of the year. Tonight's full moon is in Scorpio, and it brings about transformation as we are challenged to confront our past traumas and fear and pushes us to take control of our boundaries, anxieties, and obsessions. After walking by this bag "starts with foundation" earlier today, I realized there really is no better time for me to hold this giveaway. So let's do it, dear readers, let's finally make this happen!



This prize pack consists of the following:

-Starts With Foundation Cosmetic bag (Doubledown Cosmetics)

- The Standard blush (Doubledown Cosmetics)

- Trio of Vegan Lip balms: The Present, The Punk, and The Future (Doubledown Cosmetics)

- Blend Sponge Set with Travel Pouch (YUBI Beauty)


Enter with the Rafflecopter widget below!




a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Friday, April 9, 2021

Nitric Oxide Activating Serum: Your one and done serum for your skincare needs!

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope you had a wonderful week! It's been an intense one around here as my physical therapy activities have changed. I don't mind the extra pain it brings on too much except it amplifies my insomnia which then trickles down to how functional I am during the day. I'm running on caffeine at the moment, but I really wanted to get this post up. While I have a few minutes to myself now, I better get to it and put this post together. Let's do this!


Press Sample


I've been mindful to follow a good skincare routine for the past several years in general, but now that I hit the big 4-0 two weeks ago, I really need to be making some serious commitments to certain products. One such product that wandered into my life is the Nitric Oxide Activating Serum by Pneuma Nitric Oxide, LLC. N1O1 is the first anti-aging skincare that uses a Nobel Prize winning discovery to defy aging skin by correcting the cause of wrinkled and damaged skin. Now I will tell you I am always quick to raise an eyebrow and say "mmh hmm" when I see a brand tout a claim using key words, but this has been backed by 20 years of research and shown effective in four clinical studies. Now that's not something to ignore!


The Nitric Oxide Activating Serum comes in a two chamber package system. Simply pump once from each chamber, mix together, and apply to your clean skin twice a day.



This is what the serum looks like when pumped onto the hand. I've not yet mixed these together, and you can see one side is clear while the other is an amber shade due to the Vitamin C in this portion. While the larger bubble is just from dispensing one of the pumps, notice the small bubbles where the two sections meet together.


Here, I have mixed the serum together and let it sit several seconds. The nitric oxide gas has been activated, which is causing all the bubbling. This is then applied to your skin. As a result of the nitric oxide activation, certain skin types could show a pink tone, but it is temporary and disappears after a few minutes. This was disclosed to me before trying out this product, and I can confirm both: my skin does turn a little pink and it does not last long at all.


After mixing together the serum a little more and letting it sit for about five minutes, the bubbling is present but minimal. I'm not sure exactly how long you can let this sit before applying before it loses effectiveness, but you don't want to mix it and let it sit around in a container, for example.


N1O1 Nitric Oxide Activating Serum can be used as a stand-alone skin serum; it has been shown to:

Decrease wrinkles
Decrease the appearance of pores
Increase skin tone
Improve skin texture
Decrease pigmentation (Including those stubborn spots on my skin)
Decrease oiliness (A note of this below)
Decrease redness, and
Decrease acne

All in as few as four weeks! As I already mentioned, this can be used as a stand-alone product, but it can be used with your already existing skin care products. Due to nitric oxide's ability to improve circulation and get nutrients to the cells of your skin, it will enhance the effectiveness of your current products.

I have really enjoyed trying out this product, but I do want to give a little caution, particularly when it comes to decreasing oiliness in your skin. It is extremely effective at doing so, and I noticed this result after just the first day of use. As a combination skin girl with slight oiliness overall, I did find it left my skin feeling more dry than I prefer. For those that like to use a serum and skip the moisturizer, you may not be able to do this comfortably with this product unless you are already starting out with extremely oily skin. Based on my use, I found my skin could only use it once a day -OR- I had to use a richer moisturizer both day and night; I already used a richer one at night prior to testing out this product. Because this is a luxury skincare product and I'm not fond of a richer moisturizer under my makeup, I have opted to use it just once a day, even if the results may take a little longer to be noticeable. I have noticed a rapid fading of recent hormonal acne-caused dark spots and I have a couple stubborn spots that look less noticeable. As I typically only have one or two pimples pop up around my menstrual cycle I am not the best judge about its effectiveness on decreasing acne, but I can say I didn't have my usual hormonal acne this past cycle. I cannot promise it is due to this product or just a fluke as I haven't used this for months on end, but it is promising!

The N1O1 Nitric Oxide Activating Serum is available for purchase here. It retails for $245, but it is currently on sale for $180 at the time of this post. It is most definitely a luxury skincare product, but if you have the means to try it out and incorporate it into your skincare regimen, it's worth it!



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Saturday, April 3, 2021

Sunny Days and A Zoya Darling Floral Dotticure

 

Press Sample

It's been a toasty week as we've been in the 90's, and I think we just might hit triple digits at some point this weekend! The plants have been loving the weather and throwing out blooms, and I had to grab the Zoya Darling Collection for another floral manicure.


I really loved my Monet/Impressionist painting-inspired florals from the previous week, but I wanted a more obvious floral look this time around. I opted to go with a quick dotticure version for a fast nail art design.


To create the look, I started off with Zoya Tweedy as my base shade. I then used a dotting tool to create different sized petals using Val and Joyce. I then dotted Mara over Val and Kayleigh over Joyce.


I love dotticures because you really cannot mess them up, and you can come up with some cute designs if you want something other than a randomly sprinkling of dots (which I also love).

Have you picked up Zoya's Darling Collection for Spring 2021? Zoya has also released their new EasyNeon Collection as a preorder for those eager to get some eye-searing brights on their nails! I'm enjoying the spring shades a lot right now, but with our temps soaring, I'm going to want to brights soon!

Until next time, dear readers, have a wonderful day!
XO!



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