beauty

Part 4 – Making Space For Change

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Before reading please consider supporting these vital causes: Justice for Belly Mujinga, Justice for Breonna Taylor, Justice for George Floyd, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Justice for Tony McDade, Justice for David McAtee, Bail Project, Black Visions Collective, Black Lives Matter US, Black Lives Matter UK and The Cut – Where to Donate, Sign, Follow.

As I said in the first post of this series, George Floyd’s murder did not happen in a vacuum. It happened after years and years of Black people being treated as worthless and “othered” by every industry out there, especially this one. This one that says “sorry no shades for you”, or “nope no invitation for you” or “oops no budget to pay you”. Black people and some allies in the industry have been calling this out for so long (cc Jackie Aina and lots of Estee Laundry posts and highlights) and in the UK virtually nothing has changed. Continue reading →

Part 3: The Oskia Incident

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Before reading please consider supporting these vital causes: Justice for Belly Mujinga, Justice for Breonna Taylor, Justice for George Floyd, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Justice for Tony McDade, Justice for David McAtee, Bail Project, Black Visions Collective, Black Lives Matter US, Black Lives Matter UK and The Cut – Where to Donate, Sign, Follow.

Edit – I originally wrote this in October 2018. Any edits for further information will be in blue. Updated 06/06/20 with Oskia’s PR manager’s response.

I originally wrote this article (here) back in February, but ended up shelving it for a number of reasons. One of them is my health (both physical and mental, which you can read more about here – my articles are no longer on the VH site), which has taken up most of my energy this year and left me very little time for Instagram or blogging. I always intended to share it at some point, but had no specific timeframe in mind until this past weekend (now 5 weeks ago edit now almost two years ago). What happened left me feeling so upset, frustrated and angry that I just had to share it now because I cannot stay quiet on this issue any longer. Continue reading →

Part 2: Original 2018 Article

~ detailorientedbeauty ~ 3 Comments

Before reading please consider supporting these vital causes: Justice for Belly Mujinga, Justice for Breonna Taylor, Justice for George Floyd, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Justice for Tony McDade, Justice for David McAtee, Bail Project, Black Visions Collective, Black Lives Matter US, Black Lives Matter UK and The Cut – Where to Donate, Sign, Follow.

Edit: This was written in February 2018. It is the original, unedited version so some references will be out of date, but I thought it was important to share it exactly as I wrote it back then.

This is a topic I have wanted to write about for quite some time now because it has been on my mind for a good couple of years. Thanks to social media we now see more of brands than ever before and that has proven to be both positive and negative. Since becoming a blogger I have become increasingly aware of the pervasive lack of inclusion in the skincare world and I feel it’s time to share my thoughts and experiences. This is not an easy subject to discuss, but I think it is an important one considering the current racial climate we are living in. Continue reading →

Part 1: My Experience With Racism In The Industry

~ detailorientedbeauty ~ 6 Comments

Before reading please consider supporting these vital causes: Justice for Belly Mujinga, Justice for Breonna Taylor, Justice for George Floyd, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Justice for Tony McDade, Justice for David McAtee, Bail Project, Black Visions Collective, Black Lives Matter US, Black Lives Matter UK and The Cut – Where to Donate, Sign, Follow.

Edit: Written on 03/05/20

This is extremely hard for me to write about at a time like this but I cannot stay silent anymore.  It seems like the whole world is protesting yet another series of murders by the police on innocent Black men and women (all while a pandemic that disproportionately kills Black people rages) and a lot of people are finally waking up to the racism in the world, but when it comes to the beauty community and industry, we cannot pretend like this a new issue.  Continue reading →

Copper Amino Isolate Serum 2:1 Review & Comparison

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(This post is not an ad, sponsored or paid for. The product was sent for review purposes. No affiliate links.)
Ingredients: (COPPER CONCENTRATE) Aqua (Water), Copper Gluconate, Isoceteth-20, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin. (ACTIVATOR) Aqua (Water), Glycerin, Tripeptide-29, Tripeptide-1, Myristoyl Nonapeptide-3, Trifluoroacetyl Tripeptide-2, Acetyl Tetrapeptide-2, Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, Glycogen, Propanediol, Pentylene Glycol, Dextran, Dimethyl Isosorbide, Ethoxydiglycol, Isoceteth-20, Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin. 

After being insanely excited about this NIOD launch for months, of course it would finally happen during my unplanned and longer than expected Insta-break in November. I had initially planned to write about it in time for launch, but that sadly didn’t happen and I am very sorry because I know how many of you were waiting to hear more about it. I got a lot of DMs and emails about CAIS2 while I was away, so in this post I want to address the questions that were asked, share my experience with the new formula and give a comparison to the 1% and 5%. Continue reading →

NIOD – The Complete Review

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(Disclaimer: This review is not an ad or sponsored and all opinions are my own. No affiliate links. )

April 2020 Update: I will be launching my Personalized Skincare Routine Program shortly. To register your interest, please leave a comment here.

Even though when The Ordinary had its surprise debut last year and caused a major commotion in the industry, NIOD have always been the original game changer in my books. I was already very familiar with DECIEM when NIOD arrived, having used Fountain since it first launched back in 2013, as well as Hand Chemistry (now The Chemistry Brand) and then HIF when that came along, so when Brandon Truaxe finally introduced his very first official skincare line I was more than ready to get on board. Continue reading →

The Debate: The Problem with Instagram

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This article has been a long time coming because Instagram has changed a lot over the past several months and not just by design, but in how we use it. This year I have noticed a pretty big shift in how we behave, post and interact etc, and I know I am not the only one who’s picked up on this. In particular, the skincare community is not quite what it used to be. What started out as a fun way to share a burgeoning passion for skincare and connect with others has morphed into some sort of social media high school with cliques, gossiping and even bullying. I have been surprised, shocked and saddened by a lot of what I have seen recently and it has been so disappointing. There have been times when I have felt anxious over something that has happened on Instagram, wanted to cry over what has been said to me and even considered deleting my account more than once. Continue reading →

The Ordinary – The Complete 27 Product Review

~ detailorientedbeauty ~ 78 Comments
(Disclaimer: This review is not an ad or sponsored and does not contain any affiliate links.)

We have come a long way since the original 10 launches from The Ordinary back in September and what a whirlwind these past few months have been. There seems to be no stopping this industry revolutionizing right now and they just won ‘Best Anti-Ageing Brand’ at this year’s The Sunday Times Style Beauty Awards to top it all off. This is an incredible achievement for such a new brand, but completely speaks to the powerful impact it has made on the industry and on consumers like me and you.

I have tested every single product for months now and want to not only share my experiences and results with you, but also give you an in-depth look into how each ingredient should work for you and what each product could do for your skin. This is an exceptionally long review, but it includes all 27 products currently available in the lineup. I wanted to have all the information in one place so you can keep it as a reference to learn more about an ingredient, specific product or decide which products to include in your own skincare routine. I hope this article will help you find the right products for your skin and make it easier to understand what you might need to be using and why. Continue reading →

NIOD Copper Amino Isolate Serum 5% Review (Discontinued)

~ detailorientedbeauty ~ 28 Comments

(Disclaimer – this review is not an ad, sponsored or paid for and does not contain any affiliate links. All products PR/Brand/Retailer sent unless otherwise stated.)
Ingredients: COPPER CONCENTRATE – Glycerin, Copper Tripeptide-1, Aqua (Water), Methylglucoside Phosphate, Copper Lysinate/Prolinate, PPG-26-Buteth-26, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Chlorphenesin, Phenoxyethanol. ACTIVATOR – Aqua (Water), Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, Glycerin, Dimethyl Isosorbide, Ethoxydiglycol, Decapeptide-22, Ogliopeptide-78, Palmitoyl Decapeptide-21, Zinc Palmitoyl Nonapeptide-14, Myristoyl Nonapeptide-3, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Pentylene Glycol, PPG-26-Buteth-26, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Xanthan Gum, Caprylyl Glycol, Glyceryl Caprylate, Phenylpropanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Chlorphenesin, Phenoxyethanol.

I love how some things come full circle. Two years ago Victoria Health debuted the Copper Amino Isolate Serum 1% from NIOD, Deciem’s (at the time) newest skincare venture in the 2015 May Newsletter and on Tuesday I was featured in this year’s May Newsletter talking about my love for the 5% version. The honour of being featured on The Podium (alongside the Wayne Goss no less) was exciting and humbling, and led to lots of messages in my inbox asking all about CAIS 5%, so I thought it was time to get my thoughts and experiences out there because I could not love this wonder product more and you need to know why. When CAIS 1% first launched (review here) I immediately bought it, fell in love and pretty much started this blog a few months later so I could write a post about it because I was that impressed, and now almost two years later I have been blown away all over again. Continue reading →