Nutty for Coconut Oil

In the beauty world, coconut oil has become somewhat of a holy grail product. It's been a favourite curly hair product of mine for some time now but I've only just discovered how many other uses it has. I've read countless blog posts that swear by it, some even going to the extreme lengths of chucking away their most treasured (and probably expensive) beauty products and replace them with the oil. It's said to moisturise the skin, define curls, act as a hair mask, leave in conditioner, act as a shaving cream, encourages world peace, cures world famine, (the last two are a joke, but you get the gist). Coconut oil seemingly solves all beauty problems and at such a cheap price no-one's complaining. But let's face it, coconut oil did not come from the wizarding world of Harry Potter and can't possibly be this magical and universal... can it?  

For a week, I put my normal beauty products to one side and replaced it with a 500ml tub of  Superdrug's Coconut Oil for £8.99, not bad considering all of the beauty products I replaced it with come closer to £40. You don't need to buy such a big tub and I've seen smaller tubs at a fraction of the price, but I'd just been paid and was feeling like the Queen... who ended up a very poor Queen by the end of the day.

Hair

As a curly haired girl, I'm always on the lookout for products that can moisturise my hair and reduce my frizz. This is often an expensive process of discovery and more often than not I'm disappointed. I was most excited to try this out on my hair as I'd heard nothing but good things about how it works as a hair mask. 

 I applied it to dry, not wet, hair and scalp which I had never done before and it felt alien. I then left it on for two hours and I have to admit, the two hours that followed were not very comfortable. I felt very dirty and greasy, and my hair looked like it hadn't been washed for years. To top it off, I had to collect a parcel from the postman with my greasy mop of hair piled on my head which was a fun experience... maybe next time I'll save this as a night time routine. 

The first time I tried this it would. not. wash. out and I had stringy hair for days. On a re-run, I used less product (maybe a tablespoon) and used a shampoo that lathers up nicely and it washed out and left my hair so soft! Normally, I have an issue with knotty hair but the brush slid through it like butter... I doubt I even needed to use conditioner. However, I did not get the frizz-free results the internet had boasted and my hair was still quite frizzy at the crown. However, my hair was shiny and the curls last a day longer than they do without the coconut oil, so I didn't have to walk around hiding my hair in a plait on my day two hair.  

Skin

Coconut oil on the skin is extremely hydrating. If you can get past the slightly greasy feel and the time it takes to soak into your skin then this is the perfect moisturiser. Beauty bloggers everywhere, praise this as a facial moisturiser and at the start of the week, I did too... until the spots came. It is certainly not a light moisturiser and half a teaspoon is too much product. If used at all, it's more of a night time intensive moisturiser but it's very clogging for the pores. As someone who doesn't get spots very often, I managed to get three on my nose and I suspect the coconut oil is to blame. In saying that, as long as you avoid the general T-zone of your face it's extremely moisturising. I have never come across a better undereye moisturiser in my life. I've always struggled with dark circles and this decreases their appearance drastically. I wish I took a before and after photo of my dark circles, but I really didn't expect it to have any effect on them, especially in just a week! What will happen in a month? Toward the end of the week, I'd only apply the oil to my body and undereye and a little goes a seriously long way.

Another honourable mention for the oil is its use as a shaving cream. My legs have never been so soft and there are no razor bumps in sight. Plus, because it's oil based, water just beads off it in the shower and doesn't wash it off your leg unlike shaving cream; That's always a plus to me.

Conclusion

I had such high expectations from this product and was actually left a little let down that it didn't make me look like Kate Moss. But when I look at it realistically away from the hype the internet surrounded it with, it really isn't such a bad little product. It doesn't completely take away the frizz from your hair, but it defines the curls and acts as insurance for your curls for an extra day. The biggest problem with it is that it is very much a trial and error product with how much product to use on your hair and skin. When they say a small amount, they mean a tiny amount. If you try anything from this article, use the coconut oil as an undereye moisturiser, especially if you're struggling with dark circles. It's shaping up to be my favourite eye moisturiser of all time.

Saza

xx

     

A High-End Look on a Shoestring Budget?

I wanted to get my hands on a much-hyped Urban Decay Naked Palette for years, but I could never justify the £38 price tag that accompanied owning the eyeshadows. I also couldn't imagine any eyeshadow being much better than my beloved, holy-grail Sleek eyeshadows. Finally, I succumbed to the inevitable and purchased the Naked 3 palette, because I felt the rosy tones complemented my skin tone and green eyes much more than its predecessors. But the question is, have I wasted my money? Can I recreate a similar look using my favourite Sleek eyeshadows?

So I divided my eyes into high end and budget then began with the transition colour. For the Urban Decay, I packed my brush with the shade Nooner a mauve-ish colour that would be perfect for the pink-brown eye look I was going for. On the Sleek side, I used Propose in Prague from the Vintage Romance palette which from the swatches on my hand seemed like a fair match... this was when I encountered my first problem. The sleek colour looked slightly different on the skin than it did in the palette. It came out a lot more orange than It looked.  To try and counter this I took a tiny amount of Eye of The Storm from the Storm Palette and tried to infuse the sleek with the same brown undertones as Nooner in the Naked 3. It worked a lot better, but still didn't achieve quite the same finish as the Urban Decay.  I also found that I had to pack a lot more Sleek product onto the eye compared to Urban decay, a comparatively minuscule amount. 

UD on the left, Sleek on the right of my terribly blended eyeshadow.

Despite my arm turning brown from all of the colour swatching and comparing, the dark outer corner colour still did not match completely. On the Urban Decay side, I applied Factory and on the Sleek side I used Court in Cannes but found it wasn't dark enough to match the incredible pigment of the Urban Decay; so once again I used a little more Eye of the Storm and surprised myself when I got a relatively similar finish in colour. However, what really surprised me was the similarity of the centre eyelid colour . I used Urban Decay's Mugshot and Sleek Lust in L.A. Urban decay actually lost out in pigmentation here but did have a much smoother well-blended finish. 

Sleek on the left, Urban Decay on the Right.

The same can be said about the inner corner highlight colour I used. On the Urban Decay, I used a mixture of Dust and Buzz, because I didn't like the powdery texture of Dust (even though I guess that is the point). Perfect Storm from the Storm palette is almost an exact dupe for this highlight colour. I couldn't tell the difference.  

            

                         Urban Decay on top, Sleek on the bottom... but I can't tell the difference.

Can anyone justify the price?

Here are a few pictures of the finished look. It's nothing complicated and could probably have done with a little more blending (but ain't nobody got time or the arm strength for that) but what's important for this post is the colour. I actually think that from a distance you couldn't tell that you were wearing two very different eyeshadows and ultimately the colour match is quite similar.

Urban Decay on the left, Sleek on the Right.

However, where I can achieve this look in minutes with Urban decay, it took significantly longer on the Sleek side. This is because I had to layer colours to get a similar colour. As a result, the Naked side was better blended and appearing of a higher quality. You use less product (literally, just a few taps of a base shadow brush) and as I said before, you achieve the end result in a much shorter amount of time.

Urban Decay 

Despite much layering, and using way more product the Sleek side did not achieve the same level of pigmentation. It also settled into the fine lines of my eye more, because there was so much more product. This could be corrected with an under eye primer, but for the sake of testing, I didn't use one. The sheen isn't quite as strong and it didn't blend quite as easily. But it still looked beautiful for such an affordable price.

Sleek

Before I wrote this article, I didn't expect to see such a difference between the eyeshadows and expected to write 'just get the sleek, don't waste your money', but I don't think I can say that anymore! Although they achieve a similar finish in colour, the blend ability and amount of pigment used made a real difference between the high end and the budget, where the Urban Decay ultimately won out. Do I regret buying the hella expensive Urban Decay palette? No, not at all. But at £8.99 the Sleek palettes are certainly nothing to turn your nose up to! With a little layering, you can achieve a similar colour to the Naked 3, which is no mean feat considering the price difference and how Urban Decay is renowned for their unique eyeshadow shades. I didn't realise the luxury of a quick, easy to blend, no fuss eyeshadow until I bought a Naked Palette but the Sleek eyeshadows will always have a place in my heart; I'm forever recommending everyone I know to buy one. Because everyone has to have at least one Sleek palette in their lives.

Saza
x

Blend Like You Know What You're Doing

For so long, I've put off making a blog purely devoted to all things beauty mainly because I never thought I'd be any good at it.  Makeup has always been something I enjoyed (or obsessed over) in private; but for some reason, people seem to enjoy my makeup and assume I know what I'm doing, when in reality I wing my way through hair and makeup like I wing my way through life. After years of obsessing over beauty guru's and what with more and more people asking for my advice when it comes to makeup and curly hair,  I figured maybe a blog isn't such a bad idea. I'd quite like to show people the hair and makeup tips and tricks that I have picked up on over the years. I also quite like the idea of being a realistic beauty blogger, who creates a variety of looks that are easily replicated and within a reasonable budget. Just try not to take me too seriously. Try as I might, I've never been too good at being serious and I plan on taking you on a trip through all my beauty success and inevitable failures. Hopefully we will have a few laughs along the way. 

My first tip: Blend like you know what you're doing. It's what I do and sometimes it works!

Saza

  x