tea tree oil

This little nugget of goodness seems to have been a massive life-saver, so I just had to tell you about it.

Tea tree is one of the Earth's natural disinfectants. It's antibacterial properties are amazing for the skin and it has been used in wounds since the 1920s and 30s.

A few days ago three angry, painful spots appeared on my face, so I decided to add this to my skincare routine. I cleansed and toned, massaged a generous amount of the tea tree oil in, then used my night cream as normal. (I've used it before in the day too, but used less as it can make you look shiny.) In the morning all three spots were basically flat and didn't hurt any more.

You can get a little pot of this from The Body Shop for £7

I've been really absent over the last few weeks due to a mixture of being uninspired and the fact I've been saving every penny for my trip across Canada which I finally booked the flights for today (yay!) If you've read my blog from the beginning (making it sound like I have loads of followers lol) you might have noticed I've deleted posts before and changed things round a lot. I'm a very fickle person and I've been contemplating moving my blog over and using my Tumblr instead. Or starting a whole new one. Or just carrying on here.. I don't know! Just thought I'd say that. Natalia xx

insanity workout | thoughts

After deciding the 30 Day Shred wasn't enough of a challenge, I thought I'd step things up and see if I could survive an Insanity workout. Insanity is supposed to be spread over 60 days, but instead I do the workouts randomly to stop me becoming bored of going to the gym. It's always best to change up your workouts to keep your body guessing and not to let it get accustomed to what you're doing or you might hit a plateau. 

I don't have a huge amount to say about it other than that it is intense and very hard work. The best thing about it is that Shaun T and his super fit class mates actually struggle to keep up with the workouts themselves and all have to take breaks and are panting in the background, so you know it's tough! You don't need any weights or anything but yourself and the DVD. I've been picking random episodes, which are about 40 minutes long, to do two/three times a week as well as going to the gym (not on the same day though). I always feel really detoxed afterwards- you will SWEAT. I definitely recommend it if you want a real workout!xx

PS. For more fitness stuff and motivational pictures follow me on Tumblr x

thought of the moment | foundation fingers

Recently I keep having little thoughts I'd like to blog about and share, but they're not really substantial enough to do a proper post on. So my solution is to start a series on my blog called 'Thought of the Moment' where I discuss any beauty thoughts that pop into my head! The first one is about applying foundation with your fingers...

As a beauty blogger or someone who is into beauty, I can imagine feeling under pressure to do things the way you think you 'should' be doing them. Recently I'd got into a place where I thought applying foundation with a brush was always better than fingers- gave a better finish etc. But after watching one of Lisa Eldridge's videos from her foundation series I decided to go old school and use my fingers.

Due to the seemingly never-ending winter we've had, my usually annoyingly oily skin as become decidedly combination and a few areas have been uncharacteristically dry. My well-loved Clinique anti-blemish solutions foundation hasn't been sitting on my skin as well as it could and has been looking a little dry and cakey in places.
Applying it with my fingers has completely eradicated this and I'm much happier with the out come now. Unlike trying to buff it in with my Real Techniques buffing brush, massaging it into my skin as I would a moisturiser has allowed me to really blend everything in and work it into areas that were misbehaving. I've also found, because you can blend it so seamlessly, on a day to day basis I don't need to put foundation all over my face but only in the centre where I need coverage like cheeks, nose, and blend it out towards the edge of the face.
I also find you get a lot more control with your fingers, and in places where I want to build up the coverage I can press/pat another layer into the skin, whereas with a brush you'd just be buffing more on top and moving it around.
I hope this post was vaguely interesting and maybe inspired you to go back to basics and remember how good your natural tools are at applying makeup. Although we all know you can't go wrong with a Real Techniques brush!xxx

sculpt your face

Thought I'd try something a little different and show you how I 'sculpt' my face. I saw someone on Twitter asking if anyone had done a post on contouring before and I'd never seen one so thought I'd show you what I do. 

 As you can probably tell by the dead-looking, flat skin tone, in the above picture I only have foundation and concealer on my skin.
Using a NARS bronzer in the shade Laguna (I use this when at my palest like today, and when I wear fake tan too, it's brilliant) I've added shape to my face by putting it in the places shadows would naturally fall if my face was more sculpted. To find the place in my cheeks I sucked them in to make a 'fish face' and put the bronzer where the hollow appeared- usually from around the centre of the ear towards the corner of the month. I also put some on my temples, either side of my nose to make it appear more slender, and under my jaw.

To give my skin some colour I put NARS cream blush in the shade Penny Lane on the highest points of my cheeks. I then used MAC's Mineralise Skin Finish in soft and gentle to get that glowy look that everyone loves. Apply this to the high points of the face where the sun would naturally hit it, so the highest points on the forehead above the temples, on the cheek bones where I put the blush, and bit down the bridge of the nose.

The products I used are all 'holy grail' status for me and look great on so many skin tones, but you can obviously use whatever you want!

I really hope you liked this post and found it useful as I really enjoyed creating it! I know some people will know all this already but hopefully any makeup beginners out there enjoyed it. Please feel free to leave a comment, Natalia.xxx

30 day shred | thoughts

The 30 Day Shred is a workout DVD by Jillian Micheals which runs over a month with three different levels, each lasting 10 days. It's high intensity interval training (HIIT) and each circuit is split into three minutes of strength, two minutes of cardio, and one minute of abs. Jillian leads the workout but there are also two other girls, one of which does the proper moves and one which does simplified versions. If you follow me on Twitter you'll know that I'd been doing the 30 day shred recently, but actually stopped after day 18. Although I can't give a full review of it, I still want to share my thoughts.

I found level one pretty easy. I'd get a bit out of breath but nothing I couldn't handle and I didn't sweat very much. The only parts I found challenging were the arm workouts like the press ups at the beginning. I think that was the only move that I simplified throughout, by putting my knees on the floor as I can't really do many proper push ups! I didn't find the ab workouts challenging at all, my legs were aching almost constantly through level one though as I was also doing a 30 day squat challenge along side, but I still managed to do all the moves and go to the gym a few days as well.

Level two was a bit of a shock after level one, it's much harder but afterwards I still found I was only sweating on my face, I'm used to sweating much more after a workout in the gym. Again it was a challenge for my arms, and I found some of the moves very difficult in that respect, but it wasn't enough of an over-all body workout for me and I didn't feel like I'd done enough afterwards.

I started reading other reviews and found that apparently level three isn't much different to level two so decided to stop and just start going to the gym again instead. It's strange because I don't consider myself to be particularly fit and still often think of myself as a beginner, but I guess I've come further than I thought!

Obviously loads and loads of people have got amazing results from this and I definitely recommend it if you're starting out on your weight-loss journey. But I think it is a little bit tame for those who are used to working out (still feels weird to put myself in that category) and I think I'm going to try some Insanity workouts soon which is a scary prospect as they are crazy!

Hope this was interesting and it was good to see a review from a slightly different perspective. Natalia.xx

PS. I found the squat challenge on Carly's YouTube channel (which I loveeee) and will leave a link to it here. I'm seeing some great results from that (which I'm still doing, five days left!) the muscles in my lower thighs just above my knees in particular are so much bigger and more pronounced. The first day left me practically crippled for three days, but after that it got so much easier really quickly!