Welcome Back to 2016: Goodbye Australia

A very belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all! How have you been? I had the opportunity to spend December in Australia, visiting both Perth and Melbourne during the festive season. Let me tell you, this is a must-visit country. Utterly gorgeous and dynamic landscapes, incredible food, weather, beaches and people, amazing wildlife and habitats and there are countless things to see and do. 

Interestingly, Australia seems to be especially organic - or at least take a special interest in it. While I'm speaking primarily foods here, it has migrated into beauty and cosmetics (how fanatic for those of us who are green-inclined). Natural ingredients featured heavily among a lot of Australia's own independent brands, closely followed by organic brands. Naturally, I brought a few of these home with me.

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Packing light and reducing my skincare routine has never really been my strong suit, so you can imagine the struggle I had trying to minimise my routine into something that really was travel friendly. This means, I had to take only the best-of-the-best, the crème de la crème. That's a toughie when you have as many options and as many favourites as I do. But, as I am wont to do, I soldiered on, and brought with me a routine that was simple, effective and complimentary to my skin and the Australian climate. 

Okay, maybe I tell a slim lie. I did take slightly more than what's pictured here, including some additional skincare, haircare, bodycare, suncare, flight essentials and make-up. What's featured here is my daily routine plus weekly face masque, so let's take a look from left to right:

S.W. Basics Make-Up Remover  

This little, and I mean little, bottle of oil, has only three organic ingredients: sweet almond oil, olive oil and jojoba oil. This golden oil is the master of make-up removal, easily sweeping away dark and heavy make-up without a second glance. To be paired with a cleansing cloth, this oil smells scrumptious, feels silky and gets the job done right. 

S.W. Basics Make-Up Remover can be purchased from abeautifulworld for £14.00 / 59ML.

Aurelia Probiotic Skincare Miracle Cleanser

Now, you may consider 'Miracle Cleanser' to be a bold claim, but this luxurious jar of creamy cleanser certainly lives up to its name. Very delicately cleansing the skin with a silk-like cream, this cleanser super effectively clears the skin and reveals a very supple and nurtured complexion. Providing softer feeling skin, this cream cleanser is hydrating and masterfully cleansing. 

Aurelia Probiotic Skincare Miracle Cleanser can be purchased from Cult Beauty for £34.00 / 120 ML.

Bloom Skin Essentials Hydrate Toning Mist

Last July, when I first discovered Bloom Skin Essentials, I nearly gave up my skincare search altogether. These products have remained solid staples in my routine ever since (you can read my full review here). Hydrate is, as I'm sure you can already guess, wonderfully hydrating. Just a few little spritz of this toner provides my skin with all the hydration it needs in an instant, keeping me fresh faced, toned, hydrated and revived. 

Bloom Skin Essentials Hydrate Toning Mist can be purchased from Bloom Skin Essentials for $36.00 / 118ML.

SkinOwl Eye+

This minuscule jar is loaded with cucumber enzymes which have absolutely altered the way I perceived eyecare (reviewed fully here). This powerful gelatinous concentrate has smoothed, revived and brightened my under-eye area, helping to fix my dark circles and smooth my dragon scales. This concentrate smells divine and feels divine as the gel-like texture absorbs easily and provides a cooling sensation to the skin. 

SkinOwl Eye+ can be purchased from Cult Beauty for £36.00 / 0.8OZ.

Bloom Skin Essentials Nourish Facial Oil

This is the silkiest and most nourishing oil I have ever used (full review here). Catered specifically for your skin type, the Nourish for Oily Skin is the perfect compliment, helping to balance oil production, stimulate a healthy blood flow and regenerate and maintain normal skin structure. This oil absorbs brilliantly and keeps my face balanced, hydrated and shine-free throughout the day. 

Bloom Skin Essentials Nourish Facial Oil can be purchased from Bloom Skin Essentials for $48.00 / 30ML.

May Lindstrom The Honey Mud Cleansing Silk

The May Lindstrom line-up has to be the Queen when it comes to luxury green skincare. The Honey Mud can be used either as a tough-working cleanser or as a softening masque. I prefer the latter, as the scrumptious honey-chocolate scent is something I like to indulge in. This thick, mud-like masque converts my skin into a dreamily soft and supple complexion, providing healthier looking and feeling skin in a 10 minute to 1 hour treatment, depending on your preference. 

May Lindstrom The Honey Mud Cleansing Silk can be purchased from Cult Beauty for £64.00 / 100ML.

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Simplifying my routine in this way has really made me re-evaluate the products I use. Admittedly, I picked nothing but stellar products for this routine, bound to deliver incredible results, so maybe there is a little bias. However, reducing what I use, the complexity of the ingredients, using only natural and organic, has really had a positive effect on my skin. I really am quite content with how my skin looks right now and I have this routine (and that Australian sun) to thank for it. 

Skin Dossier I: The Current State of Affairs

Eight months ago, I delved into the colossal world of skincare. I was confused, alone, experimental and, most importantly, I had no idea what I was doing. Today, not a single sentiment of that has changed. While I do now have experience - I understand my skin better, I can recognise ingredients that do and don't work for me, I finally get the deal with face masks - there is still so much to learn.

Like me, I suppose the majority of us can be fairly self-deprecating, but in terms of physical appearance, this can often be a little over-critical than modest. 

I have never been comfortable in my skin.

There, I said it. While this is a statement a lot of us can relate to, varied by our own measure of self-worth, it's a very difficult fact to come to terms with. I can't fix, change, or transpose my skin. While I can improve it, it will never measure up to the flawless idealogical standards I give to skin.

This means I need to get comfortable. I need to get real.

As I'm sure we've all seen by now, Em, My Pale Skin released her YOU LOOK DISGUSTING film to highlight how the pressure of social media reinforces unattainable idealogical standards, the degradation of self-worth and the sickening bile that spews from troll culture. But she is a real person, with real skin and she has the confidence to show who she really is.

While my skin has improved dramatically over the past eight months - primarily because I now actually wash it - it is still far from this thing we like to call perfect. My pores are still dark and large, my t-zone is still overwhelmingly oily, I still get blemishes and inflammation, I have scars and marks and lesions. But so what? That's just my face. It does the job of being a face. But it's taking its toll on my confidence. But so what? Because I am measuring myself to a standard of skin that's faked.

I think its important to document my journey through skincare, and the most effective way of doing this is showing you my skin. This is a very tough thing to do, to expose myself in this way. The real me. But if we don't make a movement against unrealistic expectations of men and women, who will?

These are perhaps the most un-gratuitous pictures of myself. These photographs are uploaded at full resolution (5184 x 3456), please click them for higher quality. There are no filters or photo-manipulation. I am wearing no make-up, just Trilogy Certified Organic Rosehip Oil. I am lit only by the natural light from my window.

It is an important step for me to document how my skin changes - if it changes - but it is also important for me to get comfortable with this skin.

This is my skin. 

Baresome, Now with Pinterest!

I've been living in the Pinterest button drawer for a little under 2 years now. As a professional artist, I have many boards related to all things art, design and tutorials and many secret boards related to all things beauty, skincare and make-up. The latter of which, really isn't applicable to my main audience, so I keep it as a secret catalogue for any products I want to put on my wishlist.

This is where I've really missed a trick.

I recently read London Beauty Queen's post: "The Social Slot: How to Utilise Pinterest for Your Blog and Grow and Audience". And, well, quite frankly, it made me feel like a dummy. It explains how LBQ uses Pinterest to direct traffic to her blog. Foot traffic aside, I really shouldn't be hiding my pins because they don't suit my main audience. I should just make a Pinterest catered towards my beauty/skincare/make-up audience. 

So here it is, Baresome, now with Pinterest! 

The way I worked my secret boards was similar to that as a wishlist, storing my favourites then removing any pins which I had later purchased. Now I will be keeping all my pins and placing any purchased products into an additional boards, linking back to any reviews published here.

Hopefully this will also serve as a guide to anyone hoping to find products for skin needs similar to that of mine. A head start, if you like, before I'm finally able to save up the £165.00 I need for the Crème de la Mer: The Oil Absorbing Lotion. Race you?

Bare Some

I have been plagued with terrible skin for as far back as I can remember and in as many unappealing forms as are available. From subsurface blackheads, mirror-like shine to flaky psoriasis, you name it, my skin has been there and bought the t-shirt. And I still suffer through a lot of these issues today.

I had never really taken to doing anything about my qualms. I only started to wear make-up 18 months ago (but does an eyebrow pencil and mascara really even count for all that much?), which is when I endeavoured to target all the problem areas of my face.

I am unfortunate enough to have some alarmingly visible concerns - and without letting a little self-bias take the wheel - are far greater than anyone else I have ever encountered.

A major clincher for me currently is my skin type, which takes three marco forms: oil, grease and shine. And as a subset of this, three micro forms: oversized pores, blackheads and an uneven skin tone. While it is easy to disclose these issues, their gravity is far more difficult to convey. This is taking a rotten effect on my self-esteem. It's become a stress, a worry, a demand for attention. I can squash these taunts with lotions and serums and balms and any other over-typed temporary fix that gets shoved into my Google search, but I can't find the kill switch. There must be a kill switch, right? Right.

I'm going to find one.

From my perspective, trailing the best rated, the over-hyped, the underdogs and anything with the buzzwords matte-finish, shine-free and oil-absorbing slapped across the label is my only futile hope to finally kick this thing into oblivion. It may work or may not work for me and it may work or may not work for you.

This isn't an overnight affair, I'm in this for the long haul. I can't be quick to disregard - though I'm prone to do so if I don't observe immediate results. Some products help over time. Some products are only designed for a temporary fix. Some products are just plain useless. But I can't discover that without benefit of the doubt, patience and will power.

So bring it on cosmetics, show me what you've got!