Body Love Archives - Page 2 of 4

Skin

07/24/2017 By Sarah 2 Comments

Summer is all about being confident in your skin. We spend our days getting closer to nature and embracing the outdoors. I always feel like my normal makeup routine is too heavy for natural summer days, and end up striving to lose as much of the primping process as possible. My hair goes in braids at night for natural waves, I attempt to get a tan (or use self tanner) for a more healthy natural glow, and I focus more on my beauty and skin products to have a clean canvas for less makeup.

Going with a “no makeup” look can actually be super easy, provided you start with the right base- healthy skin! I used to believe that I’d have good skin days and bad, and my confidence would rely heavily on those good days. But after some years of blogging and trying out so many different products, I’ve found that it’s possible to have those good skin days 90% (if not more) of the time, when you treat your skin to exactly what it needs! When your skin is healthy and radiant, your confidence is there to be your true self and not feel the need to hide under makeup. I end up looking for enhancing products to throw on and go that aren’t “makeup”- which I can say really confuses the workers at Sephora and Ulta, haha! I will be excited to share my perfect product discovery for my non-makeup look in an upcoming post!

But for now, I can’t tell you enough how important it is to start your beauty routine with an amazing skincare routine. Hello Aglow‘s artisanal botanical skincare is basically what I recommend for everyone because it’s friendly for all skin types, is natural, and actually WORKS.

I can honestly say that even I am skeptical of products after using many that I didn’t like. It happens that a lot of skincare products I’m sent end up sitting on a shelf, and my hubby ends up trying them because he gets all my hand-me-downs, hahaha. Sometimes I don’t give products enough time to see their full potential, so when Josh starts using them and I see his skin looking kind of amazing, I’m all like WAIT what did you use?!

I can hands down say while in Paris, Josh and I both fell in love with the Hello Aglow complete kit. And we have 2 different types of skin! I don’t know what else to say, other than if you’re on the hunt for what’s going to give you the perfect skin blank canvas, I recommend starting off with Hello Aglow! The complete Clear Skin Kit has everything you need. But if you want to start small, the Radiant Cleansing Nectar is a MUST for getting truly cleansed skin.

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Get Your Glow On

06/29/2017 By Sarah Leave a Comment

Okay guys, I’m going to start sharing with you my absolute favorite products. Being a blogger for years, I’ve gotten to try a whole range of different skin and beauty products, and I’ve honed in on the ones I actually really love. The brands I trust and are loyal to, and now want to share with you! First on the list is Hello Aglow. I loved them so much, it only made sense to add them as a new sponsor for the blog.

I only want to rep brands that I’ve had good experiences with… yes, I’ve had bad experiences with some products… a lot, actually! Which makes the good ones stand out even more! So now there’s less shady experimenting on your part, as I basically was the test guinea pig and found all the ones worth trying. And I’ll keep updating the blog with all the new ones I discover!

So, a little about my routine with Hello Aglow:

I currently use only 3 skincare brands in my daily routine, and I switch between the 3 regularly from morning to night, or day to day, depending on what my skin is craving.

Every day or every other day, I use the Hello Aglow Radiant Cleansing Nectar on a cotton pad before bed. I soak the pad with four quick dumps from the bottle, and lightly wipe my face with the nectar. Then with the clean side of the pad (or with a new pad, if your face was really dirty), I gently buff out my skin in a circular motion- this is where the glow comes from!!!

I’m not lying when I tell you this stuff cleanses like no other cleanser. It seems the oils in the Nectar really pull out all the leftover dirt and makeup out of my pores. Like, even after I take a shower and wash my face, the cotton swab will be completely brown with all the excess dirt that my normal cleanser didn’t get out of my skin. Living in CA is really dusty, so this is a MUST HAVE product for me. Like I said, I use it every night or every other day depending on how grungy my skin is feeling. Also good for cleansing when you start to feel too oily, too dry, or broken out.

I use the Clarifying Hydration Dew before the Nectar, sometimes even after too- about 4-6 sprits on my face. This stuff is so refreshing and I think helps balance the skin to prepare it for the oils of the Cleansing Nectar. But I also use it any time of the day to refresh my skin. Hot, dry days call for this spray even more. It smells like roses and all things lovely.

On mornings or nights where I want feed my skin all the healthy stuff, I follow up with the Flawless Nourishment Cream. This stuff is a really fine cream that can feel oily, but I promise you it’s light and soaks in right away, adding to that radiant glow that this skincare line is known for. You only need the slightest amount- which I rub between my fingers and gently rub into my face. This stuff is like food for your skin, and I feel like it’s the best to use before bed as it feels like a super fine face mask. Or if you want to go makeup free for the day. Otherwise, give your skin a little time after using before applying foundation. And if it feels too oily for you, finish off with some sprits of Hydration Dew, which helps it absorb and dry a bit faster! I use this cream on days where I don’t need a heavier/thicker moisturizer.

As for the pink clay Clear Skin Elixir, I use this stuff rarely, as it’s my go to for when my skin is just generally misbehaving and needs to be “reset”. I generally don’t break out, but when I do, I know it’s because my skin is imbalanced. Or if I get a scaly dry patch of skin, which usually happens around my nose area. I’ll apply this face mask at night and it draws out all the toxins and impurities, to leave me with balanced skin in the morning. The mask usually is gone by morning, but you may have to wash off any excess product. Definitely a good one to have on hand when the season changes or travel affect your skin.

I totally 100% recommend Hello Aglow to anyone, wether you have great skin or difficult skin! It just works for any skin type and really is the healthy stuff you want to be using on your face. Remember, anything you apply to your skin absorbs into your blood stream within 30 seconds! So I always say, go for something good enough to eat, because you are literally feeding these products to your skin (the biggest organ in your body)!

Stay tuned for more posts about my top recommended products, coming up in the near future!

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Summer is a Season of Self Love

05/22/2017 By Sarah 3 Comments

With summer around the corner, I’ve had a desire to cleanse and renew. From health to the products I put on my body, to my personal style and photography.

I’m really going after the areas of my life that need tended to. Stresses and my insane schedule have left me pretty down for the count, and my health has taken a bit of a bashing because of it all. In times like this, I have to re-establish some of my core values, such as my self-worth, what I find my identity in, and what will keep me healthy and happy. Working to please everyone else NEVER ends up doing you any good. I work and exist in an industry that constantly takes away from my peace of mind. Wether it’s fighting to stay confident in myself and my work, finding the time to do what I love and makes me fulfilled, knowing my value and value of my work, and putting myself out there every single day, a lot of the time with nothing in return… it can be extremely taxing. I am constantly churning out content. I’m constantly putting intense amounts of energy into making that content my own, while also something inspiring that people will enjoy. And a lot of the time I have to please clients and jump through tons of hoops. And then there’s the whole stress of the Instagram game in general, and trying to constantly reach my audience, like Hercules swimming through the sea of souls to reach his Margaret. It feels pretty much equally exhausting, and probably will have the same aging effect on me!

I won’t lie, I have meltdowns. I worry abundantly. I brainstorm 24/7. I research and learn with my husband as much as possible. I try to nurture my inspiration in the free moments of the day, often late at night. I chase down whatever inspires me and I use that as fuel to keep me going. When I’m so busy doing all the things, I lose a bit of myself. Or maybe a lot. Each season provides something so different for me, I’m literally always on my toes, with very little time to decompress from the new or stressful experiences. Which is where I’ve been finding my health suffering because of it.

So, without going into too much personal stuff, I just wanted to share with you how, after spending today doing some research online and some soul searching, I’m feeling a renewed inspiration to… well, basically, to “treat myself”. Not to make it commercial like social media has, but to literally tend to myself. I’m not a super machine that can run 24/7 at 100%, none of us are. And when you never stop, I’ve come to realize that you can’t really heal properly from the things that have torn a little bit of you here and there. Sometimes life doesn’t seem to let you stop… I just gotta take another gig to pay the bills. I just have to please this client. I just have to put sleep on the back burner to get this edit done. I just have to not have a life for this week, and this next week, and now months have gone by… all so I can make shit happen so my world doesn’t collapse in around me.

Well…. drama aside… I finally took the time to find out what it is exactly I NEED. And, no surprise, it has a lot to do with mental healing that will then become physical healing. When your life in constantly spinning out of balance, it will begin to affect you more and more. And you have to deal with it before it gets so bad that you stop one day and ask how you got so messed up. I’m stopping myself now, and asking what I need to do to put myself back in balance. I’m excited to explore these new avenues of healthy lifestyle choices and share them with you!

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How I kept my skin fresh for Fashion Week

03/10/2017 By Sarah 4 Comments

So everyone knows flying multiple hours on a plane, loosing sleep, landing in a foreign country, and harsh weather can make your skin do all sorts of weird things. I expected the worst for Paris fashion week, so I cam prepared. And I was seriously surprised at how great my skin stayed throughout the whole week! My secret? Hello Aglow.

Building up to Fashion Week and before my flight, I made sure to pamper my skin and keep it clean so no built-up dirt of skin cells would cause blemishes to show up later. I also took skin vitamins.

Once landing in Paris, I felt like crap. I hadn’t slept a wink throughout the 11 hour flight, and I had a horrible kink in my neck. First thing I did when arriving at our Air BnB was clean my face and mist with Hello Aglow’s Clarifying Hydrating Dew, which is so important to get all that airplane junk off your skin. (I usually keep face wipes with me for the flight for when I feel extra bleh.) This amazing “dew” is rose petal and cucumber infused anti-bacterial face mist for soothing hydration. Um, yes and yes. Everything that’s needed after a long flight and hours spent in 2 different airports.

Second, I cleansed with the Hello Aglow Radiant Cleansing Nectar with a cotton pad. It’s naturally rich in nutrients your skin will love, and gently exfoliates, refines, and detoxes pores. A must have for keeping my skin balanced in a new environment.

Third, I like to follow up with a dab of the Hello Aglow Flawless Nourishment Cream, fortified with pomegranate, pumpkin seed, and rose hip oil for lavish skin rejuvenation. This stuff is heavenly, and I use a small amount before bed and again in the morning. Rosehip is especially amazing for its anti-agains properties.

I kept a strict regimen of cleansing n the morning and at night, and I found that my skin behaved better than ever! Even after running around in the cold, wind, and rain for a week straight. My skin survived and looks flawless. While I, on the other hand, have almost died of a cold…. I can officially say that this stuff seriously does its job, and it’s one of the prettiest skincare sets I’ve owned. Bonus!

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Skinfix

01/01/2017 By Sarah Leave a Comment

Hello babes! I’m popping by from my hiatus to share with you something I’ve currently come to love! And that thing is Skinfix!

I know I’ve been MIA after NYE. But I haven’t been taking a vacation. Instead, I’ve been working every day and late nights on some exciting new projects, one of which is about to launch any day now! That being said, my skin is taking a major beating with all the lack of sleep. It’s been pretty much non-stop since NYE night, so when Skinfix reached out to me, I was very interested in their Brightening Eye Cream. I was also excited when they surprised me with their Moisture Boost Serum and Lip Repair Balm.

Here’s what I have to say about these products…!

First 3 days trying Moisture Boost Serum and Brightening Eye Cream… I was in love! I’m not kidding you when I say the skin on my face became soft as a baby’s bottom. I noticed a shrink in my pore size, which gave a much smoother feel and appearance to my face. The eye cream did as it promised, and added a bit of life back to my dark under eye shadows. It sort of filled them out and brightened them. I did notice some skin sensitivity under my eyes when using both morning and night- all you need is the tiniest little dab of cream, and you must rub it in very gently, as this area of your face is delicate skin. My advice would be to apply only the tiniest amount when you have dark circles, first thing in the morning. And give it a little time before applying makeup! The Moisture Boost Serum played nicely with my skin, and smells like fresh cucumbers. But I also noticed some skin sensitivity when applying it, and then applying any other product with fragrance after. So, a big plus for the ultra smooth skin, but I’d definitely avoid using multiple products with fragrance added on your face. Or space them out through the day.

As for the Lip Repair Balm, it’s totally on the top of my list for dry lip solutions. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I can never find a chapstick or balm that doesn’t actually dry out my lips more. This Balm didn’t give me that problem, so I vote yes and call it a keeper.

Altogether, Skinfix products have treated me much nicer than a lot of other products have, so I definitely recommend! Just keep in mind that your skin is a sponge, so be aware of what products you layer up on! If you have weird skin symptoms, it may be just from strong product combinations. When that happens, stop using everything and introduce only one product at a time to see how your skin handles it. This Moisture Boots Serum is a good one to start with!

XOXO

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