Ez SKINCARE TIPS | MY SKINCARE ROUTINE

Hi Everyone!

Here's my 3rd post for StyleMeAfrica

In a way, a skincare routine can be quite overwhelming, but I have learnt that as you indulge in it, overtime you find that you become better able to streamline it to suit your needs. This is exactly what happened in my case.

In the beginning, during my quest for the ‘perfect skin’ (which, by the way, does not exist), I tried out every latest ‘fad’ there was, clarisonic, foreo, you name it! But I have now discovered what routine works best for me and today I am here to share that.  Please note I am not advising you follow my exact routine, Skincare is very much a personal subject, what works amazing for Jane may be horrible for Susan, so please I am not recommending anyone follow my routine, I am no expert, and I am simply sharing!

Disclaimer out of the way, let’s get into it!

My Skincare Routine: PM

My routine in the evenings is much longer than in the morning. Because after a long day, I need to make sure I get all the makeup and grime off.

Pre-cleanse – Cleanse – Exfoliate/Mask – Hydrate/Tone – Oil/Serum

Pre-Cleanse

Yes, I am a double cleanser and you will see why in a minute.

For my first cleanse I use Baby-oil and Baby-wipes. “Why Baby products?” you ask, because I personally believe anything formulated for a baby’s skin will be mild enough to work for even the most sensitive of adult’s skin. The wipes pictured above, are the absolute best art getting the job done, they are much thicker than regular wipes and very ‘wet’, so just glide smoothly over the skin without tugging. I literally only need one wipe for my entire face. I use the baby-oil to get my eyeliner & mascara off. This combination literally tackles ANY sort of eye makeup, no matter how waterproof… Trust me, I’ve tried it out on everything. I just pour a little bit of oil into a wipe, and then hold it over my closed eye for about 15-20secs and then wipe, everything comes up. One thing I’d advice strongly is to make sure the baby-oil is safe enough to go over your eyes, there are some oils that state ‘avoid eye area’, so please, read the instructions on the back. You can always substitute the baby-wipes and oil an actual makeup removers if you prefer.

Cleanse

After I’ve got my layer of makeup off, I then reach for one of the oils, balms or gels above. I apply these to dry skin ALWAYS. The reason for this is kind of similar to why I apply my conditioner to dry hair, which I explained here. So I apply it to my dry face, using the tips of my fingers, bringing it down to my neck (always extend whatever skincare product you use on your face, to your neck and décolletage…. Always!). After I have massaged my cleanser in, I then emulsify my adding some water to my face and massage again. I don’t rinse my cleanser, I take it off using a flannel. A flannel is really just a fancy name for ‘face towel’ and these are readily available in Lagos. I bought most of mine at Ebeano Supermarket for NGN300 a pop! So I wet the flannel in warm water (the hotter the better), wring a little of the water out and then wipe my face and neck. I repeat until it’s all off. It’s not absolutely necessary you use a flannel to get the cleanser off, you can rinse. But experience has taught me that the flannel is better able to get everything off than just water and your fingers. Also I use a new flannel everyday, because do you know how much bacteria can reside in a wet flannel??? So I suggest you buy about 8 flannels, one for everyday of the week and the 8^th one for when you’ve put the other 7 in the wash. By ‘one for everyday’, I mean you can use the same flannel for your morning and night routine. So use the flannel a maximum of 2 times before you have to wash it.

Exfoliate/Mask

Once my skin is now nice and clean, it will be better able to benefit from anything else you would like to apply. I use a mask, once a week usually on Sundays. And the masks I use are pictured above.

To exfoliate I typically use an acid toner (right) or the exfoliator on the left, which is a powder that’s ‘activated’ by mixing in some water and then applied to the face. I know most people use those cleansers that’ve got micro-beads and stuff and it makes you feel you’re actually ‘scrubbing’ off the dead skin. But I have found that exfoliating using BHAs and AHAs also gets the job done

Hydrate/Tone

After all the cleansing and exfoliation I re-hydrate my skin by spritzing some Rose Water on it. There are various toners out there for different skin needs, I just prefer to use this.

Oil/Serum

And lastly before I go to bed I massage some oil into my face. People still believe that oils are no good for oil-skin and that couldn’t be further from the truth. Oil is actually good for you skin, especially for repairing it overnight.

My Skincare Routine: AM

Cleanse – Moisturize

My morning routine is very ‘short and sweet’, I don’t like to do too much, because of time. And also I may be wearing makeup and I don’t like to layer so much.

Cleanse

There isn’t any need to double-cleanse in the mornings. So I just cleanse my skin like normal and then hop in the shower

Moisturize

Once I’m out I apply my face cream, and it must have SPF in it. The one I typically use is pictured above. After which I carry on into my makeup routine and that’s pretty-much it!

I also supplement my routine with regular facials, I tend to get one once a month. Someone once asked me are Facials an absolute necessity and I responded Facials are like exercise for your face. Exercise is good for everyone, but do we all exercise?

Laters,

Ez xxX

Ez SKINCARE TIPS | SKINCARE FROM THE INSIDE OUT

Hi Guys,

Here with my 2nd Guest-Post on StyleMeAfrica

Most people are pretty-much so used to hearing “You should drink more water” these days, that they’ve started to think it’s just a polite saying like uttering “Bless you” when someone sneezes. But I am here today to share with you my personal experience on how upping my water in-take dramatically changed the appearance of my skin from the inside out.

Water-intake Background Story

Let me start with a brief history of my water intake… For years, and I do mean years as this was pretty-much my entire university life, I hydrated exclusively by drinking Coca-Cola. I mean, I was addicted. Don’t know how many people realize there’s caffeine in all Cola drinks, just like in coffee, so you can easily get addicted to it. Mine was so bad, I even started to prefer a supermarket brand of Cola (Tesco Cola), to actual Coca-Cola and you can imagine how much more suger and additives would’ve been in that. So yeah, I pretty much drank Cola for years, I did drink water, but it wasn’t a healthy amount.

Ok, so you have some background knowledge of what was going on on my insides. Let me know tell you about my outward appearance. Surprisingly, my skin was pretty good. I had the occasional hormonal spots, you know the one that lets you know your ‘monthly visitor’ is on her way, and a few mild breakouts here and there. So, physically it appeared to me and everyone around me that my skin was faring well. But I knew it could be better.

Up Water In-take

picture credit: deviantart.com

At the start of 2014 (yes, only last year), I decided to up my water in-take and relegated Coca-Cola to being a ‘treat’, once a week on Sundays. I started every morning off with a 500ml bottle of water, I made sure water was the first thing to hit my stomach everyday to flush out my system, and then ensured I drank at least 2Litres of water per day. A week after I started doing this, I began to breakout like no other, like it was so bad. I decided to do some research and found this to be normal, as it was just the toxins leaving my system. So although  I wanted to quit, because my skin was literally going crazy as I was also taking Hairfinity to boost my Healthy Hair Journey at the time. That did not help much, you can read all about my Hairfinity Experience here. But anyways, I persevered because I believed water was in no way harmful to the body, I mean  something like 70% of the entire human body is made up of water. After about a couple of months my skin began to clear up.

Lemon Tea Daily Detox

Photo credit:ungiornonellavita.files.wordpress.com

While doing all my research to figure out if my breakouts due to water intake was normal, I discovered different teas that further intensify this daily detox I had embarked on. I settled on Lemon-Ginger-Honey (LGH) Tea. I drink this every morning, 5-days a week. I skipped out the weekends because I felt it would be too much acidity for my system. I always believe everything in moderation, you CAN overdose on something even if it’s good for you.

LGH tea is very very quick and easy to make. All you need is hot water, fresh ginger, juice of a lemon/lime and honey

Thinly slice fresh ginger, about a quarter size. Put the slices in a mug and then pour pipping hot water over it, cover and let it sit for about 5-10mins. While the ginger is infusing into the water, squeeze half a lemon or one whole lime and then pour the juice into the hot-water and ginger. Let that sit for another 10mins, then squeeze in some honey. You don’t need too much honey, just enough that you don’t make funny faces due to the sourness of the lemon/lime lol. And that’s it. Now this is the first thing to hit my belly every morning, and after waiting 40mins I follow with a 750ml bottle of water. Yup, I have upped my morning water intake. Drinking water was a struggle at first, but you will get used to it. It’s all about cultivating a habit.

The Benefits

photo credit: livestrong.com

The benefits of LGH tea are numerous and can be found all over the internet, but a few benefits are: Improves Digestive Function, Promotes Skin Repair, Strenghtens Immune System, Cleanses and Revitalizes Urinary Tract, Detoxifies Liver, Curbs Appetite, Flattens Belly, etc.. It just generally improves your overall health and wellbeing.

The Struggle

Now, you’ve read all this and you feel “Oh, she makes it seem very easy”, let me tell you, it was HARD!! Unless, you already have a high water intake, then this should be a walk in the park with you. But I practically had to go cold-turkey, and it has definitely been worth it. You really just need to be your own motivation, think of the end result and let that be your ‘driver’. You will also have to give it some time before you start seeing results, but I guarantee you will see results.

My skin has never looked better, people have always assumed “Oh Ez, you had good skin before anyway”, but does that mean it couldn’t be better?

People are always typically after the topical solutions: “What lotion should I use on my face?” “What cleanser?” “Maybe Clarisonic is the answer to all my woes”. NO, getting your insides right is so important. Skincare experts will always say “Drink water”, but because we are so used to hearing it and we want a ‘quick fix’ it always falls on deaf ears. I am here to tell you, it really works. It does involve a lifestyle change, conscious effort and some time before you reap the benefits, but it’s worth it.

In my next post, I will be sharing with you how I switched up my actual skincare routine. 

Laters,

Ez xxX

Ez BEAUTY TIPS | HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR HAIR EXTENSIONS

Hi Everyone!

Before I get into this post, I have got some exciting news to share... Over the course of being a blogger, I have received requests to guest post on sites or write an article for a publication, but I never felt confident enough to do it at the time. And the one time I committed to one such request, it was a terrible fail!

This time round I feel confident enough to share my beauty knowledge and I am praying I will do a good job :). Below is the product of my first contribution.

StyleMeAfrica is a site that celebrates all things African fashion and style, and they approached me to infuse some beauty for the month of June. My first post is about how to care for your hair extensions, I have already talked about this here on the blog, but with this post I provided step-by-step instructions and added more details. Enjoy!

Step 1: Condition

I like to start with the extensions dry. I read somewhere that you should look at hair strands like you would a sponge. When dry, a sponge is better able to absorb more liquid, than if it were used to accomplish the same task when wet. Same applies with hair extensions, starting the cleansing process with them dry causes the strands to benefit a lot better from the products being used.

First things first, tie up your bundles using a rubber band (you may use a hair band if you prefer), tie the band as close to the weft as possible. Then proceed to apply a moisturizing conditioner of your choice, distributing this evenly through the strands, avoiding the weft. Run a wide-toothed comb through to further ensure the conditioner is distributed evenly. Once you have completed all the bundles you pop them all in a carrier bag or covered in a bowl, and leave to sit for about 15-30mins. Dependent on how damaged/dry your extensions are, you can deep condition using heat by placing them in a microwavable bowl and popping that in the microwave for about 2mins, then let it sit out for another 10mins. Ensure you don’t leave the conditioner in the extensions for too long.

Product –The conditioners I recommend are: Herbal Essences, Tresemme or Hairven. But feel free to use whatever good moisturizing conditioner you have.

Step 2: Shampoo & Rinse

To rinse, you will begin with a shampoo. Apply some shampoo to the wefts, add some water just to the wefts to get some suds going, then wash using the palm of your hand going over the weft in circular motion. Focus the shampoo on just the wefts, and once you feel you’ve washed enough then rinse.

Rinse holding the weft under the faucet and letting the water run through the bundle. The shampoo being rinsed downwards from the weft through the actual extensions, allows it also work through. Run your free hand downwards, over and over in one direction, until you rinse out all the shampoo and conditioner. You will not need to apply the shampoo directly to the hair strands, shampoos can be stripping/drying and we don’t want that. The shampoo running through from the weft is enough to get the job done, trust me

Product – Shampoos I recommend are pretty much the same brand as the conditioners I listed above.

Step 3 Air-Dry:

You should air-dry your extensions by laying them out flat or hanging up on a laundry line. You can spritz some moisturizing leave-in conditioner if you must. A small amount of leave-in, do not drench. If you are in a rush, you may use a hand-dryer after spritzing the extensions with some heat protectant. If you use heat protection, you won’t need a leave-in, too much product will weigh the hair down. So bear in mind that if you don’t feel you need to use a leave-in, please skip that step.

This cleansing steps will work if you have a weave installed. Just apply the conditioner to dry hair as normal and cover with a plastic cap. To shampoo and rinse, dilute some shampoo in an applicator bottle or spray bottle and apply directly to the wefts and plaits on your scalp. Make sure you get every line. This will help cleanse the wefts and as your scalp as well. Rub your fingers through each plait, just to work the shampoo in, and then rinse through as normal.

Laters,

Ez xxX