Beauty Monday: "You can OVER exfoliate?!" Wait...what does stripping mean?

We are always hearing about exfoliating, but rarely does anyone ever explain what it does for the skin.

Exfoliating is meant for the removal of dead/dull skin, to unclog pores & speed up cell renewal. 

Caution: Before you go all scrub crazy, if your under the age of 30 I suggest exfoliating once a week. If you are over 30 you can go 3 times a week, as skin renewal does start to slow by that time. Over exfoliating can lead to stripping the skin causing breakouts and irritation. Of course,everybody's bodies are different so it might take a bit of trial & error to figure out what works for you. 

There are two ways to exfoliate, mechanically & chemically.

Mechanically:

Electronics -  One of the more popular ones at the moment that beauty bloggers and magazines have been raving about is the Clarisonic brush. And yes, I love it too. It's beautiful. Leaves the skin feeling so good and clean. It has one brush but the inside of it and onside of it revolve in opposite motions, creating 300 movements per second. It even has a timer of 30 sec. per facial part (forehead, nose & chin and each cheek side) get 30 seconds. It's great and because it is "gentle" I was using it every morning (bad idea). My skin became stripped (when your have taken off more natural oils of your skin than needed), I knew because I was breaking out more than usual & my skin became more sensitive. I gave my skin 1 month to recover, now, I use it once a week.

Scrubs: like a cleanser, come in either gel or cream form with abrasive materials in it such as sugar or salt crystals, micro-beads, crushed almonds sheds, ect. Likewise, use this once a week, I love Arbonne's Exfoliating New Cell Renewal scrub because you can also use it as a mask. Which is what I do with it once a week. But remember when using a scrub don't rub rigorously as it will irritate the skin because you are already using abrasive products on your skin already.

Chemically: These are scrubs that contain salicylic acid, aglicolic acid, fruit enzymes, citric acid or malice acid. Strong concentrations are used by medical professionals and in lower-concetrations sold over the counter. 

Hope this gives you a bit of insight on exfoliating and understand how it works and how much of it you should be doing. 

        Nomadic Beauty

Why should I cleanse my personal makeup brushes??? + Clean: Organic Brush Shampoo Review

Whether you are a makeup artist or girl that uses makeup, you most likely have makeup brushes that need cleaning.

WHY do you need to clean your brushes??? 

Other than for hygienic reasons when working on person to person as professional, your personal brushes will build up bacteria. Any liquid makeup in your  brushes will build up bacteria and then cause you to break out because you are smearing that built up bacteria all over you face...I know, when I put it that way it can give you the creepy crawlies.

Now, you may say "But I only use powders" Well, your face has oils right? Even if your face is squeaky clean because you just washed it, your brushes will still pick up some of your natural oils. 

One of the most frequently asked questions I get from my clients is "How do I clean my makeup brushes?"

This video below is how I USED to clean my brushes. Shampoo (regular hair shampoo), condition (regular hair conditioner), and rinse with warm water. Which was a process in itself.

http://instagram.com/p/sBUc33pCB5/?modal=true

But last week I stopped by one of my favourite stores, Blur Makeup Room on Queen St. W and picked up a product called Brush Shampoo.

I tried it out today to clean my brushes after a busy week of shooting and bridal, I instantly fell in love with this product! I grabbed two containers of water, dipped my brushes in one to wet them, swirled them in the Brush Shampoo, then rinsed them in the second container. Left my brushes super clean without vigourosly massaging the life out of my foundation brushes. (Makeup artists, you know my predicament)  

All in all, why do I LOVE this product??? It get's all the makeup out of your brushes, it saves you time on your brush cleaning, it's organic & smell organic (smell like you've just walked into a yoga studio) & just makes life a lot easier! 

Where can you find this awesome product? At Blur Makeup Room http://www.blurmakeuproom.com/products/copy-of-clean-organic-olive-oil-brush-shampoo

Comes in many different delicious scents. Check it out!

Nomadic Beauty

Clean brushes = a very happy makeup artist

Cleaning brushes. Shampoo, condotion, rinse & reapeat for 50 more brushes. Prepping for tomorrow's shoots!

TIP: NEVER stand up your brushes while drying. Standing them up to dry will cause the glue to unglue and the wood to rot. Always lay them down on a flat surface.