Beauty Fix: Travel-friendly brushes, BB cream queries and how to rid yourself of a red, sweaty face post-workout
You might have oodles of items in your makeup bag, or perhaps just a few key items. No matter the contents, we all have that one beauty product that baffles us. It could be something we’ve purchased and never used, or perhaps it’s just the endless search for the one product that will radically change the way we approach makeup. Well, search no longer! This week Beauty Fix is here to solve some of the most pressing makeup bag mysteries.
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I’m always on the go and could really use some makeup brushes that I can toss into my bag for touch-ups, but am concerned about keeping the brushes clean as they float around in my purse. What are my options?
I’m a huge supporter of makeup application with professional brushes, but it can be hard to maintain when you’re out and about for the day. However, I totally hear you on the cleanliness and hygiene concerns, especially when you think about all the different environments and surfaces you sit your purse on. The last thing I’m going to do is toss a brush with no cover or case into my bag. No way! Some great options: EcoTools Recycled Retractable Kabuki Brush and Foundation Brush ($16 and $9 respectively, farleyco.ca). As the brush names imply, these are retractable brushes with aluminum casing and cruelty-free bristles that can be thrown into your bag without fear of getting dirty. Perfect.
Post-morning workout, my skin is sweaty and red. Is there anything I can use to calm it down and reduce redness?
Kudos on the a.m. workouts! Highly beneficial and a great start to your day, but exercise obviously leads to sweat production and skin tone can really dial up in terms of redness, which isn’t exactly ideal to venture into work with. While there’s always makeup to assist you in covering up redness caused by exercise, a more ideal option would be to try to treat the redness with a milky facial cleanser that contains skin-soothing ingredients, such as Pure + Simple Sensitive Skin Cleansing Milk ($20, pureandsimple.ca), which contains oat protein to reduce inflammation and calm down skin.
I’m trying to switch to all-natural beauty products as my existing purchases run out. Right now I’m on the hunt for a foundation. Any suggestions?
That’s quite the shift to make, but many have done the same due to concerns over the sheer number of ingredients that go into each beauty product used and concern over how ingredients in beauty products interact (or, worse, react) with each other once on the skin. The thing about all-natural beauty products is that items like foundation will still have a very minimal amount of preservatives in them simply to extend shelf life. If that’s something you can live with, explore a product like Lush Colour Essentials ($16, lush.ca), which offers a range of creamy products in multiple shades that can be worn as concealer or foundation, or mixed with a moisturizer to create a tinted moisturizer. These little pots of colour will help you even out your skin tone, and also contain physical sunscreen for skin protection and highly moisturizing rice bran.
What’s the difference between tinted moisturizer and BB cream?
A lot, to put it briefly! German dermatologists created BB creams (Blemish Balm creams) to be used by patients who were healing from laser skin procedures. The creams migrated to Asia and caught on like wildfire. Formulations there tend to soothe skin, contain relatively high levels of SPF and anti-aging ingredients and may even contain whitening agents. In Asian markets, they are revered as an all-in-one foundation, concealer and moisturizer with pigmented coverage and long wearing power—though generally BB creams have only one to three shades to choose from. BB creams in North America have been tweaked to address the market that they’re in, so more colours are available, but the formulations here are still catching up to the powerhouse formulations of Asian BB creams. Now can you understand what all the fuss was about? That’s a lot of work for one single product! When you compare tinted moisturizers to BB creams, you’ll notice that tinted moisturizers have a thinner consistency with many shades to choose a colour match from. Tinted moisturizers also have little to no anti-aging benefits, lightweight coverage with a lower SPF level and shorter overall wear time. If you’re looking to swap your tinted moisturizer for a BB cream, Maybelline‘s Dream Fresh BB ($11, well.ca) comes at a price point that’s trial-run approved.
I’m very good at only going to clean salons that use disposable or metal spa tools, but should I be doing something to sanitize the nail files and clippers I use at home?
It’s fantastic that you’re conscientious of sanitization when it comes to nail tools used by salons (as we all should be!), and that desire to have sanitized tools definitely can carry on to your own set of tools at home. Nail files are kind of tricky, so listen up. If you use an emery board, be sure to not share it. It’s made of paper and cannot be effectively sanitized, so it’s best to keep it for yourself. If you are prone to loaning them out, keep Revlon‘s Box ‘o Files ($4, well.ca) on hand—that way each of your friends can have her own mini file! As for glass files and metal tools, they should be washed with soapy water, dried and then thoroughly wiped down with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball to disinfect the surfaces entirely.
. As the brush names imply, these are retractable brushes with aluminum casing and cruelty-free bristles that can be thrown into your bag without fear of getting dirty. Perfect.
Post-morning workout, my skin is sweaty and red. Is there anything I can use to calm it down and reduce redness?
Kudos on the a.m. workouts! Highly beneficial and a great start to your day, but exercise obviously leads to sweat production and skin tone can really dial up in terms of redness, which isn’t exactly ideal to venture into work with. While there’s always makeup to assist you in covering up redness caused by exercise, a more ideal option would be to try to treat the redness with a milky facial cleanser that contains skin-soothing ingredients, such as Pure + Simple Sensitive Skin Cleansing Milk ($20, pureandsimple.ca), which contains oat protein to reduce inflammation and calm down skin.
I'm trying to switch to all-natural beauty products as my existing purchases run out. Right now I'm on the hunt for a foundation. Any suggestions?
That’s quite the shift to make, but many have done the same due to concerns over the sheer number of ingredients that go into each beauty product used and concern over how ingredients in beauty products interact (or, worse, react) with each other once on the skin. The thing about all-natural beauty products is that items like foundation will still have a very minimal amount of preservatives in them simply to extend shelf life. If that’s something you can live with, explore a product like Lush Colour Essentials ($16, lush.ca), which offers a range of creamy products in multiple shades that can be worn as concealer or foundation, or mixed with a moisturizer to create a tinted moisturizer. These little pots of colour will help you even out your skin tone, and also contain physical sunscreen for skin protection and highly moisturizing rice bran.
What's the difference between tinted moisturizer and BB cream?
A lot, to put it briefly! German dermatologists created BB creams (Blemish Balm creams) to be used by patients who were healing from laser skin procedures. The creams migrated to Asia and caught on like wildfire. Formulations there tend to soothe skin, contain relatively high levels of SPF and anti-aging ingredients and may even contain whitening agents. In Asian markets, they are revered as an all-in-one foundation, concealer and moisturizer with pigmented coverage and long wearing power—though generally BB creams have only one to three shades to choose from. BB creams in North America have been tweaked to address the market that they’re in, so more colours are available, but the formulations here are still catching up to the powerhouse formulations of Asian BB creams. Now can you understand what all the fuss was about? That’s a lot of work for one single product! When you compare tinted moisturizers to BB creams, you'll notice that tinted moisturizers have a thinner consistency with many shades to choose a colour match from. Tinted moisturizers also have little to no anti-aging benefits, lightweight coverage with a lower SPF level and shorter overall wear time. If you're looking to swap your tinted moisturizer for a BB cream, Maybelline's Dream Fresh BB ($11, well.ca) comes at a price point that's trial-run approved.
I'm very good at only going to clean salons that use disposable or metal spa tools, but should I be doing something to sanitize the nail files and clippers I use at home?
It’s fantastic that you’re conscientious of sanitization when it comes to nail tools used by salons (as we all should be!), and that desire to have sanitized tools definitely can carry on to your own set of tools at home. Nail files are kind of tricky, so listen up. If you use an emery board, be sure to not share it. It’s made of paper and cannot be effectively sanitized, so it’s best to keep it for yourself. If you are prone to loaning them out, keep Revlon's Box 'o Files ($4, well.ca) on hand—that way each of your friends can have her own mini file! As for glass files and metal tools, they should be washed with soapy water, dried and then thoroughly wiped down with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball to disinfect the surfaces entirely.
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