How to make your skin glow

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I really didn’t think I would be writing about this so soon after setting up my brand-new blog. However, since building up enough confidence to show you my face on my daily insta stories, I’ve been asked so many questions about my skin and make up.
I am by no means a skin care expert. I have simply invested time in reading skin care blogs and watching beauty gurus on YouTube in my quest for smooth skin. As a child, I suffered terribly with eczema and spent a large part of my childhood hiding my skin and hated people looking at me. Thankfully, I grew out of my eczema in my early teenage years and although I still use steroid creams from time to time to keep it at bay, I have been left with very dry skin.
I am constantly looking for hydrating serums, creams and oils for both the face and body, in the hope that I can make my skin plump and quenched. Within your beauty regime, I’m a firm believer that you should invest your money in quality skin care and good foundation. Everything else can be scrimped upon. That expensive Tom Ford lipstick you bought won’t look good if your foundation just isn’t sitting right! If you have a good canvas, everything that you choose to decorate it with has the potential to look wonderful! I plan to write a much more in-depth blog about my skincare routine soon, but the purpose of this is talk about The Glow. As a dry skin sufferer, matte skin is not for me. Anything that makes my thirsty skin look like it’s had a good drink is for me! Follow my key steps and no matter what your skin type, your skin will be glowing for days!
Firstly, you need to know where you want the glow. You want the high points of your face to shine, such as cheekbones (all the way up the orbital bone), the bridge of your nose and if you’re really going all out, you can also dab some highlight onto the top of the shoulders and collar bone. The key is blending. Let there be no obvious end to the glow, fade it out so that it becomes part of your skin, not sitting on top. A beauty blender is your best friend for this job. You may want to matte down the shine on the forehead, between the brows and nose with a powder such as Rimmel Stay Matte.

EXFOLIATE
If you are on a quest to achieve that radiant glow from your skin, you must exfoliate. No matter what expensive products you layer on top of your face, if the skin beneath is dull or dry, nothing will look good. When old skin cells build on the surface, it can leave it looking rough. These cells will clog your pores and cause blemishes and can result in excess oil being produced. Oily skin is not glowy skin. It is completely futile to moisturise your flaky skin if you have skipped this essential step. The moisturiser will simply glide over those loose flaps of skin, pushing them down temporarily. Exfoliating will rid these pesky flaps! Aim to exfoliate twice a week to leave your skin fresh and healthy. There is a plethora of products on the market for this. These will generally be physical exfoliators – the ones full of tiny beads which buff at the skin or chemical exfoliators. Chemical exfoliators are not as scary as they sound. These work by using chemicals to aid cell turnover such as fruit enzymes. I use both. I use the lush cup o’ coffee twice a week. If you’re a coffee lover, you’ll be in Starbucks scented HEAVEN. It invigorates the skin with its rich aroma and is packed full of finely milled ground coffee beans which gently buff the skin into silky perfection. I also use Pixi glow tonic every other night. This has been made famous by Caroline Hirons. She is the skincare queen. If she recommends a product, you know its good. The tonic is an exfoliating toner that firms the skin. It contains glycolic acid which helps to brighten skin and remove dead cells leaving the skin radiant.

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MOISTURISE
Now that you’ve exfoliated and removed all that dead skin, it’s time to moisturise. Choose a hydrating moisturiser. As I have dry skin, I want my skin to feel plumped and intensely nourished. I use different products in the morning and more intense products for night time. I love nothing more that slathering on rich oils before bedtime and I like to still feel some product on my face in the morning. I can’t bear to wake up with my skin feeling tight and uncomfortable. My recommendations are my daytime creams that provide a nourished base for make-up. I’m going to include recommendations here for both high end and low end. I bought a decadent golden tub of Estee lauder revitalising supreme + at Christmas and I’ve never looked back. It makes my skin feel like velvet. So beautifully nourishing. This cream is GORGEOUS. Much kinder on the purse strings is my belovedAvene skin recovery cream. This is specially formulated for those with very dry skin. It literally melts into the skin and leaves it so soft and smooth and it works fantastically under make up

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PRIME
There are so many options when it comes to primer and it completely depends on your skin type. If you’re oily you’re going to opt for something mattifying for your make up to cling to. Smash box photo finish is an all-round good one. Smoothing out the skin and filling in your pores allowing foundation to sit beautifully on top. I prefer to use a pearlescent product to give my skin that extra hydration boost! Mac strobe cream was the first one I discovered. It really packs a punch, providing the dullest of skins with a glow as it enhances the effect of light on the skin with its pearlescent particles. However, L’Oreal have a dupe for this in the form of their M agic lumi light infusing liquid facial primer. I just wish it came in a larger bottle as I go through a lot of this iridescent goodness. But it helps build up the Boots Advantage points and boy do I go to town on those!

FOUNDATION
Choosing the correct foundation is so important. Dependent on your skin type, formulations that work well on one, may not sit so well with the other. If your foundation doesn’t look good then nothing else will. I have lots of different foundations I like and narrowing it down to my favourites is somewhat challenging as I have quite a stash! Let’s focus on what you can get for your hard earned cash. My absolute favourite foundation of all time is Laura Mercier silk crème. It gives a flawless coverage and really makes your skin look incredible. I reach for this on special occasions and nights out. Or if I’m having a bad skin day as it hides a multitude of sins! It’s the perfect hangover foundation. For every day, I absolutely love Bourjois 123 perfect CC cream. It called a CC cream, but to me it’s a foundation. It just makes the skin look healthy. Don’t forget that Chanel own Bourjois and a lot of their products are very similar, just very different price points!

CREAM BLUSH
Blusher is the one make-up step you should never skip! It can take your skin from looking lacklustre and flat to perky and healthy at the sweep of a brush! My face needs blush. I’d never look complete without it! Powder blushes do have a place in my life. I love Benefit Coralista and Mac Warm Soul (both give a stunning warm sheen) but Stilla convertible colour blushis a game changer! It’s cream blush and therefore looks more natural and dewy. It’s like magic in a pot. It gives the skin a tint of colour on the cheeks that really makes them pop and appear hydrated. My colour is gerbera. It gives a dose of peachy pink goodness to the cheeks making the skin look lit from within. I adore it. I wouldn’t like to count how many I’ve been through!

HIGHLIGHT
Now for the biggie. Highlighter. Oh, how I adore a highlighted cheekbone. I have a drawer full of them. But the dust is gathering on my unused stash and I have two firm favourites which I rarely cheat on. I have dabbled, purely due to curiosity, but I know where my bread is buttered and I always return to these gems. Firstly, I’ll start with powder highlight. I feel that powder highlight looks best in photography. If I’m going out in the evening I will pretty much always opt for this option. The Balm Mary Lou-manizer is perfection. The champagne glow is so intense and will make you cheek bones pop like nothing else. You can put it on lightly with a small brush if you don’t want to look too done, but there’s no denying that this highlight packs a punch. Here is a photo of me wearing it recently at a wedding:

I saved the best for last. Are you ready for this? This product is as close to life changing as any cosmetic possibly can be. I’ve only had this product in my life for about six months, but those six months have been richer for it! The Iconic London illuminator is contained in a little glass bottle that comes with a pipette. I’ve maybe used it 100 times and the amount inside the bottle has barely been dented as you need so little of the product. This stuff has the ability to make you glow like a little angel on the dance floor. It’s just as gorgeous in day time as it is in the evening. It comes in three colours, I use original, which gives a golden glow. If you’re paler skinned, go for shine. I believe glow would be used to give a bronzed glow to the body or your face if your dark skinned. You can also mix it in with your foundation to make the formula more dewy.

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Just look at that glow. I didn’t use a flash here so just imagine how it could look in photos. It’s like liquid metal. The photo below shows that it doesn’t have to look over intense either. Excuse the resting bitch face pose but it was necessary to catch the angle I wanted!

I hope that’s answered some of your questions and feel free to pop your comments below. I would love to know what your favourite products are to get that glow factor.

Good luck and get glowing!

Love

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