Skincare Routine {Acne-Prone Skin}

Hi guys welcome back to my blog.

Today I'm talking about one of the most important things in my day and that's my skincare routine. Due to my oily and acne-prone skin I can't go a day without using skincare products and it's rather vital to helping my skin look at least slightly better. 

Before what I'm currently using I was using the Clinique 3 step Anti-Blemish set which I did find really good and did see a difference but considering the price I was expecting a bit more and as I got it as a gift I needed to find something to replace it as it has completely ran out... So I went to the body shop! They have many different skincare ranges for each skin type and my skin type matched the tea tree range.

 I picked up the:
 - Tea Tree Skin Clearing Foaming Cleanser
 - Tea Tree Skin Clearing Toner
 - Tea Tree Blemish Fade Night Lotion
 - Tea Tree Flawless BB Cream

Now I'll talk you through what I do in the mornings and evenings

Morning: In the morning I use all the products in the order above to really clean my skin and help my skin look better and sometimes use the BB cream on days where I want less of a heavy foundation base if my skin is particular sore. This is too light for me as there isn't a very big shade range but I just deepen it with a darker foundation or some bronzer. I would recommend this as it is a good coverage for a BB cream and leaves my skin feeling light and fresh.

Evening: I cannot use as much product in the evening due to the fact I use prescribed medication for my acne. So first I use the foaming cleanser and then I go straight onto using my Epiduo and leave this on overnight - you cannot get this in a drugstore unless your doctor has prescribed it to you so if you feel like you have acne then go to the doctors and ask. I do not apply a toner as it reacts with the cream and makes my skin very dry and sore and leaves it stinging.

So I hope you found this blog post interesting and if you have the same skin type as me then hopefully you found this useful!

Beauty Brand Focus: MUA

Hi guys! 

   So today I'm starting a new blog series called Beauty Brand Focus, I'm also going to be doing these for Clothes brands so stay tuned for them. These posts will be going quite in depth into products from a selected brand and I will be giving my opinions of them, let me know if you like this idea and hope you enjoy reading.

This Beauty Brand Focus as the title suggests is on MUA (MakeUp Academy) I have quite a few products from this brand and they are all very affordable so I thought this brand would be a good one to go through. These products are all sold in Superdrug or on the MUA online store which ships internationally.

http://www.muastore.co.uk/

http://www.superdrug.com/brandshop/mua#.U_5XCMVdU1I

Eyes

Eyeshadow Palettes-

These are one of the main things MUA are known for, the eyeshadows are all very pigmented and good quality and are even classed as dupes for the UD Naked Palettes. I have the Heaven & Earth Palette £4 and the Immaculate Collection palette £8. I love these palettes so much and would definitely recommend, they are a complete steal for the price and the colours are amazing. The colours in the H&E palette really suit my eye colour (blue) and are some of the nicest eye shades I've come across.

 

Eyeliner-

I have the MUA extreme felt eyeliner pen and this is good but I find it quite difficult to apply which isn't great so I don't use this very often.

Face -

I currently only own one 'face product' from MUA but have tried others in the past. I have the 'Undress Your Skin Shimmer Highlighter' and I really do like this product, it adds such a nice glow to my skin and for the price(£3) you can't go wrong.

In the past I have tried The mosaic blush in English Rose and I really love that product, the pressed powder which was nothing special but for £1 it is worth it, and the matte perfect foundation. I bought this due to the fact I have oily skin and although it was an alright foundation I wouldn't agree with the fact it's shine controlling and also it didn't last throughout the day.

Nails- 

 

I currently own 4 of the MUA nail polishes - deepest purple,bold blue, pistachio ice cream and one from the love hearts collection in UR FAB (which I don't think they sell anymore.) I definitely prefer the new packaging as they look like the essie bottles. The dark shades are very opaque and you can get away with only one coat,butwith the lighter shades they obviously are not as opaque so you'd definitely need more than one coat. The colour range is also amazing as there's 30 different shades to choose from and at £1 each you can't go wrong.

and last but definitely not least... Lips -

These,along with the eye palettes are what MUA is most known and popular for as they have the amazing £1 lipsticks.

I have 3 of these lipsticks - Shade 2,3 and 13 and for what they're priced at they are incredibly pigmented, and even though they aren't that moisturising I can't complain. I love   shade 2 and it's one of my favourite autumn/winter lipsticks. 

I also have 3 of the lipsticks from the One Direction range - Rock Me, Be Mine and I Want, these are £3 instead of £1 due to the fact they're marketed as 1d products but they are still completely worth the money. I Want is probably my favourite as it's an orange toned red so I find it more wearable than most other reds I've got and it's a beautiful colour.

 with flash

without flash

                                                  Swatches (from top to bottom) - I want,

                                                  Rock Me, Be Mine, Shade 3, Shade 2, Shade 13.

So that was my first ever Beauty Brand Focus, I hope you enjoyed reading and have found out about some new products, if you would like another of these on a specific brand then please leave it in the comments and I will be sure to do one and also let me know if you liked this! thank you

Disclaimer- I have not been sponsored by MUA to write this post i am just writing this purely to show my opinion on their brand and products.

Mini Bourjois Haul

Hi guys!

So a couple weeks ago Bourjois were doing a 3 for 2 offer in Boots so of course I decided to take advantage of that and pick up a few bits. I'm not sure if the offers still on but it's worth having a look!

Healthy Mix Foundation - £9.99

I really needed a new foundation as I only have one other one and I'd wanted to try this one for absolutely ages so I'm so glad I finally picked it up, If you're wondering I am in the shade 53.

Healthy Mix Concealer - £7.99

I haven't heard all that much about this concealer but I really needed a new one and I thought it would go nicely with the foundation as it's from the same range, this is in the shade 52- Medium.

Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder - £7.99 

I have been wanting to build up my bronzer collection for a while so I thought this would be a good product to get. I got the lighest shade, 51 as although I'm not pale but more olive skinned, I wanted to make sure it didnt look muddy on my face and I can always build it up if it's too light.

So that was my little Bourjois haul, I hope you enjoyed reading and If you would like a review of any of these products just let me know.

Trip To London

Hi guys! 

              So on Saturday (2nd August) me and family went down to London to spend the day there, we only live an hour away but we don't really go to London all that often and I would love to go more regularly, this time we went was more to actually go round the whole of London rather than just to the shops, we went on an open bus tour and went on a boat ride down the Thames, I also went to Hamleys for the first time and went down Oxford street,regent street and Carnaby street-which was probably my favourite. The photos I took of London got deleted somehow but I've still got some pictures from the Brandy and AA on Carnaby Street. We also had dinner at Garfunkels which was soo nice. 

On the walk back to Marble Arch we visited Kiko, which I had previously visited when I was in Paris last year but I only picked something up for my sister so I made sure I got a couple things this time,especially because there was a sale on.

The first thing I picked up was the Glow Touch lip and cheek in the shade 103 Heavy Honeysuckle, this was meant to be 6.90 but was reduced to 4 in the sale, I love the packaging and picked it up after hearing Gabb from Velvetgh0st talk about it in one of her videos.

The other thing I picked up was the Eyetech look eyeshadow in the shade 102 Metallic Rich Gold, it has a creamy texture and is described as an automatic eyeshadow pen and has a sponge applicator there is 14 shades to choose from and was 4.10 down from 5.90 in the sale.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and looking at the pictures and if you would like a review of any of the products from Kiko then let me know in the comments.

-Amber x

Birthday Haul~2014

Hi guys, I'm actually back this time and am writing 3 other blog posts to go up this week, as it's summer I have more time to blog and can make sure I get properly back into it.

This post is my birthday haul,it's long overdue but better late than never. I turned 15 on the 18th June and would like to share most of the things I received for it.

The first thing that I got for my birthday and was probably my favourite present was a ticket to Capitals Summertime Ball which took place at Wembley Stadium on the 21st June where I got to see my favourite band 5sos for the 5th time and my favourite singer Ed Sheeran who was absolutely amazing

My other big present was from my grandma and it was a fujifilm instax mini 8 bundle which is so pretty and I had been wanting one of these for absolutely ages so I was so excited to finally have this

 I got this lovely mint Ted Baker washbag and the medium sized shopper bag from my parents and I'm so happy to have got these as mint is my favourite colour and I love Ted Baker.

I got this bag as a lovely gift from my godparents and I believe it is from Topshop.

I had been wanting a nail stand for ages so my parents ordered me a customized one after getting my sister one for her birthday and it's so handy and the fact it's personalized is even nicer.

I also finally got another Mac lipstick in the shade 'Girl About Town' which I had wanted for ages after seeing many good reviews and I hadn't got a colour like this.

So that was my birthday haul, I also got some clothes and a few small things but that's all I'll be showing you today,hope you enjoy reading and please follow me if you haven't already.

-Amber x

Skin Social #skinintern

Hello! I decided rather than doing a video to enter this i would submit a blog post as i don't feel I have the confidence to make a video explaining everything, this is also something I'm hoping this opportunity will help me with.

So first things first, I'm Amber Clark and I'm 15 years old and live in the South East of England and I love makeup,skincare,blogging,reading and youtube.

 One reason why I think I would be good at this is due to the fact I have a beauty and fashion blog which i will link here : http://amber-v-clark.blogspot.co.uk/ you may see i haven't been active on it lately but i've had exams so I'm getting that back up and running later this week. Skincare is something I'm very passionate and interested about and so is blogging and writing so I feel like I would be helping people out and people would value my opinions whilst not getting bored with what i'm discussing,i'll always find new and interesting things to discuss and people will hopefully be able to tell through my writing the fact i feel strongly and passionately in what i'm talking about(i never give false opinions.)

Another reason I think I would be suitable for being a skinintern is due to the fact i have acne, this may seem like something that would suggest i do not look after my skin enough but it's something that I think some teenagers can relate to- or if not at least to people dealing with some spots and/or oily skin. I would be able to explain to people that having spots is not always about how 'clean' you are and I know a lot of knowledge about it, I have tried many many skincare products throughout about 4 years to see what could help deal with it and i've managed to finally find some that actually help- including the clinique 3 step, some simple products and epiduo(something prescribed from the doctors.)

I've also discovered some tips on skincare through the internet, myself, and the doctors which are things including: acne is not caused by stress or poor hygiene. It can also not be cured by drinking lots of water, although I find that it does make my skin look better overall and adds to my confidence and eating clean is another way that majorly increases my confidence and self-esteem.

Thank you for reading! and i hope you found it (at least slightly) enjoyable and will consider making me a skinintern, hope to here back soon:) - Amber x

Recent Haul

So I bought a few things during January and in the first part of this month and today I'm going to show you them, hope you enjoy reading..

This I got way back at the start of January and it has been in my january non-beauty favourites,but it is the Lady Gaga Fame 50ml Giftset, when I got this it was on half price so instead of being £32 i got it for £16 which I think is a really good price. It comes with the 50ml perfume and the shower gel and body lotion which are both 75ml, all of them have black fluid and I love the scent.

Another thing I got in January was this 'extra lasting' mascara from Avon, I haven't opened it yet as I've currently got 5 mascaras open so until I finish them I won't be using this but my mum put in an Avon order and I just picked any mascara, so when I open it and start using it I'll do a review.

This was one of my favourite recent purchases and again I already featured it in my January beauty favourites  and it is the mac pro colour x4 palette,but I'm so happy I bought it,instead of having to use my eyeshadows out of just the pan it's much easier and compact now I've got this palette to put them in. This is £6.50 from mac.

I also only bought one top this month and it is the 1975 tour top which I got when I went to their concert on the 9th January, I honestly wear this nearly every day and put it on as soon as I get home from school because it's quite oversized and very comfy! I love having this just to remember the experience because it was such a great night. You can also get their tops online here and the tops are around £20.

A recent purchase was this tartan snood from New Look which I wear everyday to school because it's absolutely freezing in england at the moment,but it's very comfy and I really love tartan. (sorry for the terrible pictures)

My absolute favourite recent purchase has been these chelsea boots from new look, they give me really nice height but are so comfy and really easy to walk in and i love the look they give because they make my legs look longer. I actually didn't have any black boots before this so these were definitely a necessary purchase! These are £24.99 from New Look.

I also have bought a few skincare items recently because I ran out of some stuff so decided to try some new products.

First is the Clearasil daily clear superfruits oil  shine wash, this is citrus scented so it smells so nice and leaves your skin really very fresh, it says to use this every morning and evening and I've been using this for about a week and have noticed my skins clearing up so I would definitely recommend this if you have oily skin/acne-prone skin. This retails for £4.99 but is currently on 1/3 price at boots.

I also got this eye-makeup remover gel from the boots essentials cucumber range, as I'm stopping using makeup wipes to remove my eye makeup because I have very sensitive eyes. I chose this one as it's very affordable at about £1.50 and I have 4 other products from this range already.

Lastly for skincare I got these face makeup wipes/cleansing wipes as i'm using the last of my bioderma sparingly and it claims to help prevent breakouts, so I use my cleanser to remove my face makeup and then use this after for any excess makeup and to help with my oily skin, I believe these are £1.5o.

The final thing I bought this month was a vip ticket to soccer six, If you don't know what that is, it's a football match that celebrities take part in for charity and it's in London and it's on the 21st February so if your interested in going the ticket link is here and their twitter page for info is here

So I hope you enjoyed reading about all the products I have bought within the past month and a half, I'm also going shopping this half term so another haul will probably be up soon.

Thanks for reading!