Perfect Foundation

Yes! The day has arrived! The day I've been waiting for all my life!!! Well, not really. But I'm really excited! I found, in my opinion, my perfect foundation. Every girl who uses make-up wants to have that one foundation that works best for that person. And I have found mine! So what is it, you ask? Well, I'll tell ya! Loreal True Match! In the shade N7 Classic tan. I've been searching Youtube like crazy looking at reviews and finally decided to give this a shot because I figured with 3 different undertones and over 30 shades to choose from, I had a pretty good chance of finding the right shade for me. And I did!

Because I've been working on the condition of my skin, and I've been seeing results, I noticed I don't need a very full coverage foundation. And I really thought that this foundation was going to be light, but buildable coverage. But I was afraid that the more I built, the cakier and faker it would look. But to my surprise, this foundation looked pretty natural, even with 2 pretty thick layers. Which is what I want. Who wants to look like they smacked a liquid mask on their face? Not me!

So I originally got this foundation in the shade C7 which is the cool undertone, because I thought I was very yellow. Probably because my sister always called me a "yellow baby" since I'm the lightest in the family. But apparently, just cuz I'm light, doesnt mean I'm yellow, because this was not my shade...

Thank goodness for the return policy at Wegmans, I went back and got the Neutral shade N7. And I'm so glad I did, cuz the difference was amazing!

Don't mind that random strand of hair on the side

The only thing that I'm not so thrilled about is that the spf17 in the foundation makes me appear ghostly in pictures. But I promise, it looks better in person. Here are some more pictures!

Just a reminder of what it is that I'm dealing with here :-)

whoa, close up! haha

So, I'm still working on my skin and getting rid of the spots, but until I get my skin in the shape that I want it, I'm happy that I can cover it up with this for now.

Reviva Labs 10% Glycolic Cream

Okay, so as promised I have returned with my reactions on my new experimental trial of Glycolic Acid. I've been using it for about a month now and I think that's enough time to give my honest opinion on this method. So I will start off by saying that overall, I like it! When I first used it, I felt nothing, and when I woke up I was disappointed. But I think I just had unrealistic expectations. I skipped a day, to let my skin recuperate, and then used it again a day later. This time around, i felt a slight sting when I put it on, and when I woke up I noticed that my skin looked and felt smoother. My pores around my nose had shrunk (shrank? shrunken?), and the number of blackheads on my nose decreased. All that in two uses! Although, I didnt really see much of a difference in the appearance of my dark spots. But after seeing the smoothness of my skin, I was willing to continue with this stuff. And I'm glad I did, because I'm starting to really see a difference! Whoo hoo!

Now I'll admit, it wasn't me that noticed the differences, but my boyfriend! I was about to sleep and he said "Aren't you gonna take your make-up off?" And I wasn't wearing make-up! Yaaay! Haha! Now don't get me wrong, I still have spots, but I don't have to wear as much make-up, and I'm starting to really feel comfortable in my own skin. And that is the most important thing to me. I know what you're thinking, "stop blabbing and show me the results!" Okay okay! I will, jeez calm down! Haha, enjoy!

Compared to my pictures in my older posts, I think my spots
 are a lot lighter but are weirdly all bunched together 

And I have one new dark mark near my nose.
but it's still lighter now than it was before. 

This is how I look with just a little bit of make-up! Even after a
long 12 hour day without any retouching. Impressive? I know!

So, as you can see, no miraculous results, but I'm happy with how it is so far. I've been on the look out for a full coverage foundation for months, but I decided to instead focus on fixing the problem instead of covering it up. But now, I just happened to give my old foundation a shot, and voila! It covers pretty well! But overall, I have to use the cream more frequently, because I have been kinda slackin. I haven't been using it as often as I'm supposed to. So I'll keep you posted on my progress from here!

Whoops!

Hey everyone!

In case anyone has actually been following me, I'm so sorry I haven't written in what seems like forever, but I totally forgot what email I used for this blog. But I figured it out, and have sooooo much to talk about. So sorry again for that, and hope to continue to help any of you out :-)

Glycolic Acid!

After what seems like hundreds of web pages, I think I might have found something that could possibly work really well for my skin....Glycolic Acid! Sounds scary, doesn't it? I've been getting more and more drastic when it comes to my skin, but I think this is my last step before really taking a plunge. The exact product that I'm talking about is Reviva Labs 10% Glycolic Acid Cream. I read up about it and scientifically, it sounds pretty good.

According to "science" in skincare, Glycolic acid penetrates the outer layer of skin, and dissolves the substance or "glue" that holds the dead skin onto your face. So when it loosens up that glue, it releases the dead skin. It's basically an extreme exfoliator. And we all know that exfoliating it the best thing that we can do when we're trying to remove acne scars from our faces!

I've read from reviews that the 10% cream burns a bit, especially if you don't start off with the lower percentage of 5%. But I'm a rebel, and jumped right on that 10% one. I just received it in the mail, and am soooooo excited to try it. I put a small piece on the inside of my forearm as a test, and its been 5 hours, and so far I haven't had any kind of reaction, so I cant wait to slather this bad boy on my face tonight before I go to bed.

I'm gonna give this a shot tonight, and report back to tell you my thoughts on the product so far.

Wish me luck!
Kristina <3

Acne scarring and hyperpigmentation

Hello!

So first official blog post, and its serious. One thing that I noticed that I just could not find information relating to me specifically is advice on Hyper-pigmentation acne scars for my skin. I'm gonna throw it out there and let you know that I am half Puerto Rican and half Black. Growing up, I had pretty bad acne and typically people with my skin tone get dark marks after the pimples go away. I'm also a bad girl, and tend to pick or try to pop pimples (awful, I know), so I am left to deal with these dreadful scars that are a constant reminder of my past. I have been attempting to cover up these dark spots for far too long, and I dream of the day where I can just wake up, wash my face(to remove eye boogers...gross) and walk out the door with confidence. So far, I've always tried covering them, but not really treating them. So I decided, New Year! New Skin! And I've started my skin journey to get that flawless skin that I've always deserved. As scary as this is, I've decided to post my before pictures here, and my pictures of my skin the way it is now, so that you can see the progress I've gotten, and any progress that I will hopefully be getting in the future. I really hope  that I help at least one person out.

 These first two pictures are when I first started. They were taken around January. Attractive...I know haha

And these two pictures are now! Not much of a difference. It's been about 3 months, and I still look pretty much the same.. As you can tell, my methods so far have not given me the dramatic results that I want. But anyway, back to the post!

Have you seen that Garnier commercial with the dalmations, and the lady starts talking about dark spots? I decided to go out and give that a try. I picked it up at my local RiteAid for $17 (ouch, a little more than I expected to pay for it), but I didn't care because I was so excited to find this magical spot corrector. After using it for 2 months, I have to admit...not impressed. First off, it made me break out! Break outs are what cause the dark marks in the first place! So this did not make me happy. Secondly, it didnt really do much. I've been taking before and after pictures, and I cant really tell the difference. But I do like it as a moisturizer, so I will continue to use this until the tube runs out.

Another thing I tried to do, was actually pretty drastic for me. I discovered and bought this thing called a "derma-roller" and what I am about to tell you, might scare you. It's basically a roller for your face, only thing is the roller has a bunch of needles on it that is meant to puncture your skin. I know, I know it sounds terrifying. But it's not like its a torture device or anything. The needles are tiny, and the purpose of them are to puncture the skin just enough trigger your skins natural ability to produce collagen. When the needles puncture your skin, the skin goes "ouch!" and begins the healing process by producing more skin cells to replace the "damaged" skin. Now, your skin isnt actually damaged. The derma-roller tricks your skin into thinking its damaged, so that the new skin cells reproduce. Now the trick to this is to give the skin some time to start producing new cells , so that the old skin cells are ready to "fall off". This is good, so that your new clearer skin comes to the surface. A few days after derma-rolling, I help my skin out a little by exfoliating, just to help the old skin kinda slough off. Between this and the Garnier Dark Spot Corrector, I think it helped a bit. Unfortunately, I think when I disinfected it by keeping it in a cup of rubbing alcohol for too long (overnight) the wheel started to rust. So it stopped spinning and kept getting caught on my skin. OUCH! So even though it has been showing some results, I think I'm going to give it a rest, and try some other methods and hope I can get faster results. The warmer weather of summer is coming, and I'm growing a bit impatient. So I'll keep you updated on the different products I'll be using until I receive the clear skin that I want.

Til next time!
Kristina!

Welcome!

Hello all you gorgeous people!

My name is Kristina, and this is my first blog (So be nice!) If you're anything like me, you google and youtube for advice with make-up, skin care, and hair tips. Also, if you're like me, its frustrating to go through pages and pages of information, only to discover that either it doesn't apply to you, or its waaay out of your budget (I'm a college student...do you really think I'm going to spend $30 on a lipstick?), or that its just way too confusing to understand. Yes, I've been there, and it is annoying. So, with this blog, I intend to tell you what things work for me and what doesn't. So, read on, and enjoy! :-)

Kristina <3