Contour Countess

One of things I lernt in 2016 that I will be bringing over in 2017 will be my skincare. My goal is to really take my skin and my skincare routine serious. So for anyone that may have this as a new year’s resolution please have a read it may help you with how to start and make a call of action on how to go about updating your skin care routine.

At the last leg of 2016 I just knew I had to do something with my skincare I just had to boost it up just a little bit to conquer some more issues that I was noticing when I turned 31 or It could have just been a age denial issue that I was going through but ether way it had to be done. This was something that I didn’t just wake up one morning and did, there were issues that I was noticing over severely months.

Let’s talk about my skincare routine before the 2.0 update shall we, So in my younger years my roaring 20’s I never held a beauty routine not a steady one at all just some products here and there. There was never any commitments made I was young who would want to commit in their 20s who would want to be locked down in to a beauty relationship anyway? Over the last 3 years I have held a very stead very plain beauty routine of a night and within that time I played around with some beauty products. Anyone that shops at Mecca or Sephora often enough gets flooded with the foils sachets of beauty products. Naturally for me I just had to play around with them they were for free why not, so don’t think that I just went out and picked the first product that I saw.
So for most of these three years I have been just doing the plane Jane thing of washing my face, toning and moisturizing. This all came about when I purchased my Clarisonic. This was a new year’s resolution I’m calling this the 1.0 version and to do this I needed to get in to a beauty routine. I did my research on this and at the time it was everywhere and everyone was talking about it. I believe this changed my skin for the better when I purchased it in my late 20’s and it really did

I remember the first time I used it I feel in love. It was two days after NYE and naturally for me NYE involves parties and makeup and I hadn’t worn make up since then it was two days out from memory. Oh my god you should have seen the access makeup that came out I was shocked and surprised as well as disgusted to know that was still in and on my face. To see it left over on the brush was truly a WOW moment. That’s when I wanted to put a ring on it and new that this was good beauty stock. Yes my skin purged around week 2 and yes I stuck through it pimples and all and my skin came out for the better.

I was also on the hunt for a facial cleanser to go with it so that was a bit of trial and error but about 4 to 6 months in I found a great cleanser for it which I believe works hand in hand with each other. And I still love both of them today and as they say if it ant broke don’t fix it! So I’m leaving those products  in but I just knew there was some additions to make.

It’s the season to get pretty am I right? So if you were not aware it’s officially our summer here in Australia and with that being said its time to bring out our summer bronze. At this stage I’m as white as a piece of reflex office paper which for me I feel like sun just reflects of me that’s how white I am. So with this opportunity I thought I would bring to you my tanning routine the truths and maybe a myth thrown in and what makes mine so different is that I’m in fact really dry like dehydrated dry like flaky skin dry on my legs. Yep it’s a thing and it’s annoying and I feel like to get a perfect tan this entitles a little more prep, So my skin texture is totally different to my face it’s a thing and I’m not the only person in the world that has a really hot showers which do not help just being real
When I was working for a tanning manufacture 8 years ago I can tell you it’s come a long way. There was no three hour tan that you can just buy of the shelf and take home the one we had was only supplied to the salons. And there was hardly any mouses on the market and there are so many more choices out there for doing it yourself at home.

MYTH : for the dry laddies out there. Yes you can shave, shower and exfoliate day of tan doesn’t matter if it’s at home or you’re going to your local salon to get your tan done. Yes you can do all of these above the day of tan.




 The Prep Work :
I start by exfoliating the crap out of my legs my favorite products to exfoliate with are, soap and glory Flaky and the lush salt scrub. These are great for the dry skin laddies out there as they get the excess dry skin off. The harsh the better I say unless your sensitive then I would just concentrate on a normal exfoliate two to three times prior to tanning.
Moisturizing defiantly I try to moisturizes twice a day before I tan just so it can sink in and hydrate my skin I do this after I exfoliate each night leading up to my first tanning application. I do not recommend moisturizing day of tan as this creates a barrier on the skin and there for the tan will not have anything to adhere to.
Shaving yes good old shaving I do this day of tan in the shower reason being is that if you shave the day after your tan or mid-way through you will strip it so if you have that event on don’t do it.


The truth: The difference between the normal and the dry skin laddies. Normal skin have the natural oils that don’t populate dry skin as much this is the one reason they should not complete the tasks a head on same day. The reason why the dry skin laddies can is we populate too much and have a high turnover rate for dry skin/ dead skin cells. This is in fact what your fake tan stick to the best this is why us dry skin laddies can and should do this day off as we have too much dry skin/ dead skin cells.


Arosol Vs Mouse : Honest to god go for the mouse firstly there is no butane , and less alcohol in a mouse so there is less ingredients to dry you out. Soundly mouse is just easier to apply and control then the spray and to be honest if you can apply moisturizer every day you can apply the mouse with ease.


So it’s obvious I complete all the steps above so once that little task is complete I go on to the tanning application. I do suggest to purchase any of those tanning mitts on special as they do really grantee an easy application process it actually saves you from having the bad tan hands as well and it doesn’t matter what brand you pick up to be honest. As long as it does the job.
I always start with my legs first apply the mouse direct to my mit / hand and start applying in circular motion’s it does help if the mouse is tinted then you have a guide of where you have applied it makes life so much easier I try and use a pump for each side of my leg so in theory two pumps for below the knee there pump for thigh area. After you finished each section run you mit / hand over your knee as you really want to have minimal product on those prone to crease areas as those areas will collect the excess tan product. As I have mentioned you can have your tanning product on for as little as 1 hour to overnight it really depends on how dark you want to go really the darker the longer. But for those they just don’t like to be sticky and smell like tan all day your fine to shower it off after an hour I use to sleep in it overnight but I just don’t any more. When I am ready to wash the excess off I try not to jump in a very hot shower as this does dry you out even more but also I avoid any sort of shower gels as they do tend to strip the tan also and this will happen if you do that in this stage. So I just gently run over my legs and arms with water to wash


TRUTH : you can leave the tan on as long as you want , generally 1 hour for it to develop on wards is a great start. It really is up to you at this stage I don’t have patient to wait so I generally wash of after 2 to 3 hours.

TRUTH : Have you ever noticed your fake tan on day 3 maybe 4 looking a little scaly? This is in fact the fake tan sitting on clusters of your dry skin yes gross I know. But it’s true it’s not the products fault or the spray tanner it’s in fact just clusters of your dry skin. It’s the down side of being dry


MAINTENANCE :
I personally try to avoid moisturizing on the day after the tan and I do avoid using a loafer as well as this acts as an defoliant and tends to strip the tan on me. I do moisturizes on a daily basses this step is important as it does nourish the skin and make the tan last longer for us dry skin gals.
When the tan is over one of the ways for me to tell that my tan is at its end of life is when I start noticing my legs go a little scaly this tends to show around my ankles and shins. This tells me that it’s time to start over again. Also needing to shave my legs also helps to determine that I need to start again If I shave let’s say day two of my tan this too will strip that layer off and it’s just not a pretty look this is one of many reasons why I love shaving on the day of tan.
So when it’s time for the tan to go I just repeat my prep work again just to get that old tan off so this will work ether way if you’re going to reapply or if you are just giving up on the tanned life.

I hope this blog post was helpfully in some way I would love to know your tanning secrets or even you favorite tanning products love CC xx

I know I have been absent from blogging but we all know how hectic life is at the end of the year so I thought that this may be a great way to get back to the swing of things. Now let’s just say like majority of the world I too was licking my wounds and nursing a sore head on new year’s day so let’s be real there was no blogging happening.

So my initial goal was to be more organized and structured with my blogging this year it sounds like a new year’s resolution but I just think it’s a little cliché. I feel like it just sets me up to fail.I’m turning it around with what I learned and goals because we all love to use the #goals aim I right laddies? for now I’m going to keep the goals to myself just for a little bit.
So what I have learned in 2016.


Skincare, okay this is something I do want to touch further on in another blog post which I will be starting on this month. So what I have learned is to invest more on my skin care products and really take the time out to look after my skin not only does my skin benefit from this but also me I get to take some timeout for myself so it’s a win really.

Another one for skincare I have to admit is that I’m a 31 years old and have only started to wear sunscreen daily. Yep 2016 this happened and it’s so important to wear sunscreen the sun can be so damaging and It’s something that you don’t see straight away but you will see the effects of sun damage down the track and that scares me and it brings on the signs of aging and no one wants that and I certainly don’t want that.

Research , Yep may sound like a task but in this stone age the information is actually at a finger tips just ask Siri, please don’t we all know that she never hears us correctly. But there is always google not just for the technically things but it can help you in ways from your high end or bigger purchases like fridges or washing machines to that recipe you saw 6 of friends like on Facebook that’s is asking for half and half what the hell is half and half ? Just google it trust me you will be surprised what answers you will get and the reviews I found those to be so helpful for the bigger ticket items like my car this helped.
So these are just some of the things that I learned in 2016 I wish everyone a very prosperous 2017 and hope everyone is feeling a little better now and not so much under the weather from way to much champagne !!!
And don’t forget please tell me what you learned on 2016 leave me a comment below I would love to know

Love always CC xx