green beauty

The Debate: The Problem with Instagram

~ detailorientedbeauty ~ 4 Comments

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 →

My Top Blemish/Congestion/Inflammation Fighting Nighttime Routine

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(Disclaimer – this post is not an ad, sponsored or paid for and does not contain any affiliate links. All products PR/Brand/Retailer sent unless otherwise stated.)

When I posted this routine on Instagram a few weeks ago it got a lot of questions, so I thought I would break down the entire lineup on the blog and explain how and why I used each product. One of the reasons I wanted to do it is because it worked so well for me. Even though skincare can only do so much, I am still very grateful for what it can do because in this case, it saved my skin from a full on meltdown. The other reason is that a lot of the questions were about some of the newer products in my stash like CAIS 5%, the Mahalo and Siam Seas balms and then others simply wanted to know about the “FM 5-day cycle”. I know I have mentioned my own personal 4-day routine cycle (that post is coming soon) but this is completely different to what I did here because it was based around using NIOD’s brilliant Flavanone Mud for five nights in a row. Continue reading →

Best of British: Top 10 Niche Retailers

~ detailorientedbeauty ~ 19 Comments

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(Disclaimer – this post is not an ad, paid for or sponsored and there are no affiliate links.)

This post has been long, long, long overdue on the blog. As you will have read from my 2017 #SkinGoals, a family emergency lead to an unexpectedly long hiatus from blogging and this write-up (which I had been working on for months) never got finished. It was originally scheduled to go up over the summer, then on Small Business Saturday (both US and UK dates), then before Christmas (then after) and now here we are. I have been so excited to talk about this for such a long time now and I can’t wait to finally share all my favourite places to shop with you. Continue reading →

The Debate: 2017 #SkinGoals

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One of my favourite things to do in the new year is make lots of fun lists with my goals/plans/resolutions/intentions (whatever you want to call it). I find it so helpful and exciting to look back on the previous 12 months and see what I want to change, achieve and work on. I find having that sort of guidance and direction gives me something tangible to focus on and I do it for everything from places I want to travel to and books I want to read. I’m a secret list lover at heart, so here is one of the 5 #skingoals that are my primary focus for 2017. Continue reading →

The All Day 5 Mask Ultimate #SundaySpaDay Routine

~ detailorientedbeauty ~ 6 Comments

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#SundaySpaDay has been a long tradition on Instagram and it’s one I used to look forward to a lot before I got to too busy to really enjoy them properly. I didn’t really do them at all over the summer, but these past few weeks I have made an effort to bring back the facial fun and this is my current favourite routine. I have done this three times now and the results have been so great that I thought it was time I shared it with you. Enjoy! Continue reading →

Long Overdue Huge Empties Post

~ detailorientedbeauty ~ 9 Comments

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It has been far, far too long since my last empties post (here), so brace yourself for an epic rundown of everything I finished up over the past few months. I love these type of posts because it’s so helpful to reevaluate my thoughts on a product once I’ve used it all the way to the end. It’s important to me to see if my first impressions still stand or if my feelings have totally changed, as it has done with some of these. Most of the products included in this post have been fully reviewed on the blog already, so this is just a brief final overview of my thoughts and experiences, a “last impressions” if you will, before the empty bottles hit the trash. Not everything here was used up by me and not everything was a success, so keep reading to find out which ones I loved to the very last drop and which ones didn’t get that all important “repurchase” seal of approval. Continue reading →

Skincare Confession: My 30 Seconds Or Less Two-Step Routines

~ detailorientedbeauty ~ 14 Comments

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As some of you will have noticed from my recent inconsistent posting on Instagram (sorry about that), I am pretty busy at the moment. There has been no time to share my skincare routines with you all, but worse than that, there has barely been any time to actually do them! As shocking as that may seem, it hasn’t been all bad as on the days when I have been too tired for even just a “simple” cleanse, tone and moisturize, I have found some pretty impressive 2-step combos that have done a great job of taking care of my skin in 30 seconds or less, which has been so helpful. Continue reading →

Summer Favourites: Part 2 – My Post Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation Skin Heroes

~ detailorientedbeauty ~ 11 Comments

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As anyone who has had a breakout before will know, healing the blemish is only half the battle. The discoloured (red/purple/brown) “post inflammatory hyperpigmentation” mark that gets left behind can look worse than the actual spot ever was and take even longer to heal. Of course, this doesn’t happen to everyone or in all cases and depends on many factors like skin tone, size and depth of the blemish or whether you picked it etc etc, but when it does happen, it’s pretty frustrating. As I have brown (Indian) skin I am prone to PIH as a rule, no matter what I do or don’t do but this time I was pretty lucky. I’m guessing that because my skin was in great shape before the reaction and because I was able to heal my skin so quickly, the PIH wasn’t all that bad. I was easily able to cover them with concealer and wasn’t worried about it at all. Continue reading →

Summer Favourites: Part One – How I Healed My Skin From A Bad Breakout

~ detailorientedbeauty ~ 14 Comments

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July and August were extremely busy months for me and because of that I barely had the time (or energy) to consistently post my skincare routines on Instagram. What you missed during those months was me being reckless and excitedly trying a bunch of new products all at once (I know, I know) and ending up with a pretty intense bad reaction. For the first time in years I had multiple big, red, painful blemishes and it was not pleasant. Luckily, I was able to very quickly heal my skin, so in this post I wanted to share with you the star products that helped me do that. As it was summer, my morning routine was all about sun protection, but in the evenings I was able to fully concentrate on tackling the breakouts, and as that’s when the majority of the healing took place, this post is going to focus on the routine that got my skin back on track. Continue reading →

Current Favourite Mask Routine

~ detailorientedbeauty ~ 4 Comments

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One of the things I missed most about not sharing my skincare routines on Instagram is the discussions I had with all of you. I missed talking about the products and how and why I used them and getting really helpful feedback and tips. Now that I am getting back into sharing my routines I just had to do a blog post on this one because I’ve done it twice already and each time I can’t get over how much better my skin looks. The star product in the lineup is the Sacred Ground Mineral Mask from MOSS and it’s really what inspired this post because I have so much to say about my experience with it so far. It’s an incredible product and one I think you all need to know about. Since it’s such an involved routine I thought it would be good to fully explain how and why I use each product and what each step entails, so you know exactly what I did and could recreate it yourself. Enjoy! Continue reading →