Let Me Take A (Honest) Selfie

Dove has produced many campaigns about beauty and their recent ‘Selfie’ campaign shows how beauty is simply a state of mind!

Girls of the Monument Mountain Regional High School and their mothers were asked to take an honest selfie; no filters and no edits. The honest selfie had to incorporate their insecurities. The girls and their mothers’ explained their insecurities in the video and how they get ready to take a selfie. From the positioning of themselves in the selfie to the makeup they use to hide their flaw, many girls expressed how difficult it was to get the perfect selfie. The honest selfies were then printed and arranged in an exhibit in the high school for everyone’s viewing pleasure. Students of the high school wrote compliments beneath the selfie mostly on what that person’s insecurities were. The experience allowed the girls and their mothers to realise just how beautiful they were and appreciate it. Many of them changed their opinion on their insecurities and embraced them!

Photo sourced from: www.trendinspiracio.hu

Michael Crook, a professional photographer and the women who worked with Dove on this campaign used this experiment to tell the girls that social media allows you to redefine beauty through taking a honest selfie. Many girls get influenced by social media on what beauty is but social media also gives you the power to redefine beauty.

So my advice to you is to take an honest selfie and share to with the world because after all beauty is confidence!

- Manisha

Click below to watch ‘Selfie’ campaign and be inspired:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFkm1Hg4dTI

DIY Home-y

This world has a funny way of making things super complicated real fast.
Now let's see, everything in this world can be used, recycled and grown, if you think about it your great, great, great ancestors used everything as it came, no gimmicks, no chemicals no LIES. We often tell ourselves not to eat chemically processed food to maintain a fit body, but what about the face? Fun fact your face in the largest organ of your body! (Yes start appreciating it more often).
So here are 2 of my favourite do it yourself (DIY) home recipies, I'd that's what you want to call it for your face and body!


Honey lip scrub, moisturiser and exfoliator

Thats right ladies, three benefits in one! Since everyday almost seems like winter in Australia recently, your lips are bound to start cracking and flaking around the edges because of the harsh weather and winds. This gentle method of scrubbing and exfoliating at least once a week will take you a long way and your lips will thank you.

Lip scrub with 3 simple ingredient
 | Photo sourced from http://blog.modcloth.com

Ingredients:

• 1 Teaspoon of honey
• 1 Teaspoon of brown sugar
• Small amount of Olive oil (to maintain moisture)

Mix all the ingredients extra well, add honey for more constancy, or more sugar for a grainy texture and of course more exfoliating, play around with it, and dont forget to store some for later. Mhmm the honey tastes so good, you'll be tempted to lick it off, DONT DO IT.


Lemon face scrub

This one is my absolute favourite, with countless research and youtube video demonstration i finally found my go to product to apply all over my face on days off. Growing up as a teenager in high school i've always had battles with pimples, not severe ace but painful zits that would keep coming back on a regular basis. So after countless useless products i went through, you can imagine my surprise when i realised two ingredients easily found in your kitchen was the long sought after solution. Lemon and sugar! Not only does it help remove dead skin cells, but helps with acne scaring and refreshes your face with a definite glow!

Ingredients

Lemon & sugar scrub |
Photo sourced from http://www.livingwellspendingless.com

• Lemon
• Sugar
• Honey (optional)

Yeap! Its as easy as that! Make sure you pack in enough sugar granules to provide a grainy surface on which you can use a cotton pad to exfoliate your skin in a circualr motion, HOWEVER be gentle on your skin, lemon is highly acidic and can be too rough on your skin, again depending on your skin type. My advice try some of the mixture on the small back of your hand and wait for any unexpected reaction. If it does come down to a sensitive reaction, (mine definitely did), i suggest adding honey. Yes you can probably imagine by now i have jars of honey lying around the house by now, but all jokes aside, adding a touch of honey smoothens your skin and make your face feel so soft you'd be surprised! With that being said, don't limit the scrub to just your face, have fun with it, use it as an all natural body scrub when you're having a shower, it'll do wonders!




Hope you try them and enjoy them, dont be afraid to try something new, and if there is anything i've taught you is to be bold and go experiment, theres no regrets with good life choices.



Until next time lovelies
-Mahak

We all have a story to tell!

Yes, you go and break through that mirror
| Photo sourced from http://www.mymodernmet.com

We often like to compare ourselves to some person, that gorgeous celebrity or perhaps a person walking past us with flawless hair, and we wonder "gosh what i would do to look like that!", but heres the thing, if we all adopted ONE look, ONE set of hairstyle and ONE set of features *cough* plastic surgery *cough* i think we'd all look mundane!

A picture is worth a thousand words is a cliche saying that goes a long way, our face is an empty canvas on some days we like to paint a set of rugby red lips or feather eyelashes and on other days? We learn to embrace. Now if you think about your DNA is something sort of an accessory, if you please, something so different and unique and entirely you get to have.

Venturing onto the topic of confidence, i think a lot of the upcoming generation lacks in, and its considered a norm, both men and women, which is truthfully really sad. We need to embrace the way the shape of our eyes curve, the laugh lines around our face, what do those lines tell you? What story? Peeps i know i can't be the only one to say i appreciate an empty canvas, its intriguing to see the characters that shape your face, without makeup.

One thing i've learnt is the amount of time it takes to get ready, when in fact i could spend that time doing other things, and this includes an extra hour of sleep, YES we all love our sleep, and dont lie! how many times have you rocked up late to dinner parties because you weren't ready on time *raises hand*. We as a society went through the phase of #NOMAKEUPCHALLENGE which i applaud to the person who invented it, it not only provided a platform for women, especially younger generations to learn to embrace a empty face, let alone posting in on Instagram and social platform that engaged countless of women, ranging from celebrities to everyday friends. Inspiration is what I'm talking about!

Gwyneth Paltrow no makeup selfie | Photo sourced from http://media.salon.com

So what have we learnt lovely creatures? Yes Burno mars was right, you are beautiful Just the way you are, but most important life would be so much more productive if we were confident and learnt to tell stories through our face rather than a full canvas of makeup, and let yourself be genuinely free.

Until next time.
- Mahak

What order should I apply makeup in?

Here is something that I get asked on a lot! In what order does makeup go? 

It really depends on personal preference on which part to do first. Some like to do eyes first and then the face, and vice versa. So here I put it down in order of the categories- face, eyes & lips. So whether you want to do eyes first or your face...just follow the steps and move on to the next section. 

As a professional makeup artist, I follow the following order to ensure my clients' or my makeup lasts the longest possible. 

Face:
1. Moisturize
2. Prime
3. Apply foundation
4. Conceal (under eyes can be done after the eyes are finished)
5. Set face with setting powder
6. Contour/Highlight
7. Apply blush
8. Finish with a Setting Spray 

Eyes :
1. Prime
2. Do eyebrows
3. Eyeshadow
4. Eyeliner
5. Curl eyelashes
6. Mascara
7. False lashes (mascara the false lashes with real ones to blend if necessary) 

Lips:
1. Apply concealer/foundation (will allow the lipstick’s true colour to show)
2. Line lips with lip liner
3. Apply your lipstick/lipgloss
4. Conceal around the lips to clean edges (for dark/bold colours)

I hope this made sense and helped answer your question. Let us know how you do yours and also how these steps worked for you all !! 

Au revoir ladies!
Myura Kumar xoxo

Introduction - Our Holy Grail Beauty Product?

Hello everyone! Before you delve into exploring our blog, it's best that we introduce ourselves. From left to right, our names are Amy, Myura, Mahak and Manisha. We are four Macquarie Uni students who are passionate about the makeup and beauty world. Although we're young, between the four of us, we've had a lot of makeup highs and lows. We've learnt a lot.

So, you may be wondering - girls, what is your ultimate holy grail product? Something that will make me beautiful every time I use it, without fail? Well, good news. It comes directly from you, its benefits will transcend every part of your life, and it won't cost you a cent. No, it's not a cream, a mask or a magical gel. It's CONFIDENCE. That's it!

Our blog is not a run-of-the-mill beauty blog. We believe that makeup, when applied correctly and tailored to you, can make you more confident. It is not simply a tool used to hide your 'problem areas', but rather, something that can enhance the features of yourself that you love most. So you can show the best and happiest side of yourself to the world.

Okay, you must think we're on crazy pills or something. This could be up there in the list of the corniest things you've ever read. And you might click off this blog right now and go watch some videos of pugs on skateboards. But if you're just a little bit curious about the #beautysiconfidence revolution, and also want some great makeup tips and tricks for expressing the real you, take a look around! We may surprise you.

Amy