My Skincare Favourites- Simple & Affordable products that work!

Hey everyone, today I have a post on my favourite affordable skincare products. Contrary to what many people think, I don't believe you have to spend a fortune on skincare to get the results you want. The perfect moisturiser or micelllar water for you could be sitting in your local Superdrug or Boots waiting for you to notice it! 

One skincare brand that I always go back to is Simple, because they are just so straight forward and contain no horrible ingredients perfect for sensitive skin like mine. But the best part is that their cream cleanser and toner are both £2.99 each! Other favourites of mine include Burt's Bees beeswax lip balm (which I've mentioned before because it's so amazing!), clean and clear blackhead clearing cleanser and the life-saver which is Sudocrem!

I haven't always been so interested in skincare and I've noticed such an improvement since I decided to start taking care of my skin and recently I've been liking to try out different products! After Christmas I purchased a power cleansing brush by Champneys in the sale for £19.99, which is a great price, compared to some other brands and  I've been really impressed with it so far!  Just yesterday I ordered some things from a Japanese skincare company called DHC, who I've heard great things about, so I'll definitely do a review on those after I've tried them out!

 Sudocrem, Witch Blemish Stick with Tea tree & Burt's Bees Lip balm.

B.Pure Micellar water & Clean&Clear blackhead clearing cleanser.

Thank you for reading, I'd love to know all your favourite skincare products and if you have any affordable miracle workers that you've discovered! x

Lily Collins Inspired Makeup Look

Hey Everyone, today's post is a Lily Collins inspired makeup look.

Over the last few years Lily Collins has become quite a style icon and very well known for her big wonderful eyebrows! I have personally always loved her style and more recently I've noticed how lovely her makeup is as well.

The above pictures are actually from last years Paris Fashion Week, but it was my favorite look of hers. I just think she looks really cute, but also well put together and her makeup is flawless, so I thought I would do a makeup look inspired this.

(The lip colour I have on here looked a lot more like Lily's in real life, but in the pictures it looks a lot more red-toned.)

Products I used: Rimmel Stay Matte primer, Cargo one base concealer and foundation (o1), Benefit boi-ing boi-ing concealer (o1), Sleek blush by 3 (Pink Lemonade), Benefit Hoola bronzer, E.L.F Cream eyeliner, Cargo high pigment eye liner pencil, Benefit They're Real mascara, Superdrug lash volume edition 20 lashes, Maybelline brow drama (dark), Sleek eyebrow stylist (dark), Rimmel Apocalips lip lacquer (304 Eclipse).

Thank you for reading & I hope you can take some inspiration from this look! x

Spring Floral Nails

Hey everyone! 

Nails for spring/summer 2014 on the catwalk have been very simple and mainly consist of nude or pastel shades. So I thought I'd do a bit of a mixture of everything, nude, pastel and floral! 

I think I first did this design last summer, but put it on all my nails, so to try and make it more simple for this, I just put the design on the ring finger, which I actually really like! 

I hope you like this design and feel free to try it out for yourselves, it's actually a lot easier to do than it looks at first. I would love to see any of your spring inspired nail art, you can tweet me pictures on my twitter, @aiysha_beauty.

Nail prepping: Sally Hansen maximum growth cuticle pen, Sally Hansen strengthening polish remover, Superdrug buffing block, Naio nail file.

Polishes(left to right): Models Own (Grape juice), Maybelline Color show (Mauve kiss), Barry M nail paint (Raspberry), Barry M nail paint (Mint green), Rimmel lasting finish (Fancy a dip?).

Thank you for reading! x

Beauty is Pain

I often hear many people around me saying how appearance and beauty has such little importance in the world. People who take pride in how they look or those who maybe go to more extreme lengths to change the way they are tend to get shunned as shallow and a little dumb. But if the beauty industry and everything surrounding it is so unimportant, why have both men and women gone to such extremes to achieve 'perfection' even in times of war, poverty and injustice?

Dating back to the 18th century people have gone to the uttermost lengths to achieve beauty to the point of poisoning themselves. 

Throughout the century men and women wore white lead powders and pastes on their faces and pink rouge was applied heavily on the cheeks. This often caused lead poisoning and their skin would often blacken and become rough in texture. Excessive use of lead also caused eyes to swell and baldness was very common, but sometimes it even caused death.

Whereas today we have the gift of concealer to cover blemishes and scars, in the 18th century patches made of leather or black taffeta were worn cut into the shape of hearts, birds or stars. Where you placed these patches on your face, determined your political allegiance, sexual orientation and personality.

Big hair for women was very popular and it took so much time and money to create the extravagant up-dos that they would leave their hair up for months on end, making it difficult to sleep. Many men and women resorted to shaving their heads and having wigs made because lice where very common and the scratching was almost unbearable. Eyebrows were also often shaved off and penciled onto the face much higher up or fake ones were made using mouse skin! How awful does that sound?. 

As lots of people at the time had rotten teeth, false teeth were invented to replace them. Wood or bone threaded on a wire was put in the mouth, but these were very painful and inconvenient. 

As you can see beauty and cosmetics have come a very long way since then and it is no longer necessary to poison yourself to achieve a certain look.

Not to mention corsets during Victorian times, that were tied so tight that they caused broken ribs and a deformed posture.

 So has our sacrifice for beauty got more extreme, or is it actually far better?

We live in a world obsessed with cosmetic surgery, extreme dieting,  beauty pageants and real life barbie dolls. Taking pride in how you look does not equal vanity, it shows that you have respect for yourself and that is not a bad thing. I think the real problem is people thinking they need to completely change their appearance, rather than just enhancing it.

Thank you for reading! x