How to deal with pale skin (and my favourite cruelty free make up products)

Having pale skin can be a real pain in the butt. I have to protect my skin from the sun every single time I go out no matter what the weather. Tanning? Forget it. I tend to avoid the sun as much as possible to be honest. The other struggle is finding make up products that don't make you look like you've just dipped your face in mud.

If you knew me in secondary school then you can vouch for how bad my make up was. I was constantly sporting that horrible orange line on my neck. The trouble wasn't that I didn't know how to apply make up, because I did, there was just never any products available for skin as pale as me. Granted there is a lot more now, which is brilliant, but when I was growing up there was no Fenty Beauty or Kat Von D foundations.

Looking after my skin is a full time job. If you haven't read my Skin Care Routine post yet then I recommend reading that just to get an understanding of what I go through every day looking after my skin. As someone with acne prone skin I always wanted a high coverage foundation or concealer to hide my pimples and also my freckles (I love freckles now but I don't have any anymore!), but alas, none were available.

Working with make up has given me a great opportunity to explore different brands and products to find out which ones work best for me and my (nearly) translucent skin. The best drug store brand I've found that caters to pale skin is GOSH cosmetics. They have lots of different base products in shades perfect for pale to medium skin. From their powers to their liquid foundations I've found something that works for me. I currently just use the GOSH cosmetics CCC stick in light 003 and the GOSH mineral full coverage foundation powder in Ivory 002. These two products alone provide me with great coverage and they're the perfect match for my white skin.

Quite a few brands now do lightening and darkening drops to mix in with foundations to alter the shade. My favourite are the MUA cool lightening drops. They work really well with my cool skin tone without making my product too yellow.

Although there are a lot more products for pale skin now than there was about 5 years ago it can still be hard to find shades that suit you right. This works for dark skin too. It's just as hard, if not harder to find shades to dark-very dark skin. But I think that now the make up industry is taking steps in the right direction, so I think we can expect to find more variety and choice when it comes to cosmetics. And honestly, black-owned make up brands are taking the industry by storm and creating all these beautiful, diverse products; so that is something really exciting to look forward to!

Thank you for reading

Bx

Photos from superdrug.com

Skin care routine! - Lots of Body Shop products

I have recently changed up my skin care routine because my acne decided to make this huge comeback and attack my face. My routine depends on a lots of things like if I'm wearing make up or whether it's morning or evening, either way I use most of the same products. 

No matter what I use the Body Shop Aloe Vera Toner to clean my face of any oils (my face is so incredibly oily) and get a good base for make up if I decide to wear any that day. I also use Witch Hazel across my T-Zone and down to my chin, mostly where my acne is most prominent and also where my pores are huge. I use this to just help clean up any dirt or oil that's trapped in my pores. I also think, I don't know if I'm just making this up, the Witch Hazel helps minimise my pores so my make up doesn't sink in to them. After I've cleaned my face I simply moisturise with the Superdrug Vitamin E SPF 15 face moisturiser then add Solait Anti-Ageing Face Fluid SPF 30 to give my skin extra protection against the sun. That is it for my morning routine, I try to keep it as minimal as possible so my skin is able to breathe. I then go ahead and apply my make up as usual for the day.

If I've been wearing make up I use the Palmers Cocoa Butter Formula Skin Therapy Oil to remove all my make up. I love this product as it gets rid of really stubborn make up like waterproof mascara. It also leaves my skin feeling incredibly soft. I have also noticed since I've been using the Oil the redness in my skin has really toned down, its not as prominent as it once was. I haven't used this product throughout Winter yet when my skin obviously gets a lot more sensitive so I'm going to continue to use it and I'll let you all know how it goes throughout November and December. Once I've used the Skin Therapy Oil and I've removed most of my make up, I use the Body Shop Aloe Vera Cleanser, as you can probably tell I am in love with Body Shop products. I love what they stand for and I've definitely invested more in their products since they announced they were leaving their parent company to because a completely cruelty-free brand. That's so important to me as I only use cruelty-free products. It also helps that their products are amazing too! The cleanser really helps with my sensitive skin (I'm allergic to a lot of skin care products) as it doesn't cause any redness in my skin whatsoever. Its a thick creamy formula that cools my skin when I use it. Once I've run that over my skin I can clearly see that it has removed even more make up I missed the first time with the Oil. Once again after using the Cleanser I go back to use the Aloe Vera Toner I used in the morning to remove any Oil left over and also to triple check all my make up has been removed, usually by then it has been. I swipe Witch Hazel over my T-Zone and chin again to try and prevent any more break-outs. Once I've done this, if I have any pimples already, I use a small amount of Tea Tree Oil on a cotton bud on these spots. The Tea Tree Oil helps heal up these imperfections when I'm sleeping and I always wake up to either no pimples or very very faint/small pimples. Its a Godsend, really. Finally, I apply Superdrugs' Vitamin E Night Cream to just give my skin a bit of moisture after the amount of cleaning I've just done on my skin.

If I've not been wearing any make up I do exactly what I did in the morning with the added extra of using Tea Tree Oil on any imperfections I have. I may also use a 99.9% Aloe Vera Gel which also helps soothe and cool my skin after all the scrubbing I've been doing to it.

A couple times a week in the shower I use the Body Shop Seaweed Face Wash for oily/combination skin. This helps to balance the oil I produce and I've honestly noticed a huge difference. My skin is nowhere near as oily as it was a few months ago. It's a lot easier to maintain and I've noticed it when I wear Make up too. My make up stays put all day, even around my problem areas like my nose and chin. I cannot recommend Body Shop products more! They have loads of different products for every skin type! I can't fault them at all.

Okay, I know I know, EVERYONE says this. But it really does work. Drinking water. I promise you my skin has been incredible since I actually started drinking water. I absolutely hate plain water so I add a couple slices of lemon to my bottle and I'll also squeeze some juice in to the water. It's so beneficial. Lemons are probably one of the healthiest foods you could eat. They help fight illness and they really cleanse your body. Even if you didn't want to do this, drinking a cup of hot water with a lemon in every morning and night also holds so may benefits. I've even lost weight since I started drinking lemon water, and it's the only thing I've changed about what I consume! I promise you, the benefits outweigh the cons. 

I know my routine is a lot of products, and I also know it may be way too many for you. But finding a good skin care routine that works for you is amazing. It's really helped with my confidence as my acne is really reduced along with the redness in my skin I've actually started feeling confident going completely make up free. Its just all about finding something that makes you feel good and does something for you.

Thanks for reading!

Bx 

Introduction to myself

Hey Guys, so my name is Brenna and I've decided to start my own blog. I intend to blog about beauty (makeup, hair and smellies), fashion and lifestyle really. I'm really in to all of these things and I really wanted to write about them. I'll be writing reviews for products I use and try out, also my opinions on the latest fashion trends or shows.

So, a little about me; I have two dogs, and three hamsters. My dogs are named Tilly and Herb. Tilly is a Labrador X greyhound and Herb is a border collie X lurcher. I love them both to pieces. My hamsters are named Hershel, Judith and Fez. Yes... Hershel and Judith are named after The Walking Dead characters! And Fez is of course named after the best character from That 70's Show.

I live in Cornwall, UK. I intend to either move to London or Ireland within the next year for a new adventure. It's beautiful down here but when you can't drive it's rather boring.

I love reading, I have a huge collection of books. My favourite novel is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I also intend on writing my very own novel in the future. I'm a huge fan of The Walking Dead of you hadn't have guessed already! I also enjoy Game of Thrones, although I wouldn't say I'm the biggest fan in the world. Horror movies are my favourite genre of film; I am yet to find one that truly scares me unfortunately! My favourite films include Rocky Horror Picture Show, Disney's Hercules, Carrie Pilby and Trolls. Music is one of my favourite things in the world, I love love love The Neighbourhood, Ed Sheeran and Lady Gaga. I'd say I have a well rounded like for all sorts of music.

I love tattoos and have seven of them. They all have personal meanings to me which I wont share on here just yet, maybe I'll a blog post about them in the future! 

Drew Barrymore is one of my favourite human beings ever. She is such a style icon and woman power model. I am a strong believer of woman power and I think all women are beautiful, majestic beings. 

I apologise for the most boring first blog post in the history of first blog posts, I thought this would be a good ice breaker. Feel free to follow me on all my social media, I often follow back!
Twitter: brewdarrymore
Instagram: brennaahenryy
Snapchat: brennaahenryy

Thank you all, and please stick around for all my future blog posts!:)

Bx