Oil as Anti Aging

What are the oils that can be used as Anti Aging ?

Aging is Inevitable
As I have written in the previous blog called "Oil and Our Skin," I believe that some oils do give more benefits to our skin as natural skincare compared to manufactured skincare. We all know that dryness could cause aging, wrinkles, itch, flakiness. We are aware that sunlight could cause aging with its free radicals and leave us dark spots or skin discoloration, not to mention having sunburn after being exposed in the sun for a long time. We also notice that being old may cause having sagging skin because of losing collagen and elastin. Yes, we all know that all those could happen to anyone of us. Sunlight is something inevitable if we like to go outside for a walk, hiking, tanning, playing at the beach, etc. Age is unavoidable as I am writing this blog, I'm aging by seconds, minutes, or maybe an hour or two!

What to do now? We always count on some skincare. But, the only question is are they really dependable to prevent me from aging? I mean, I understand they have dermatologist's approval; they also have some people to try and test their products before launching which is great. The thing is that sometimes some skincare contain harsh chemical ingredients. Every time I looked at the ingredient list on an item, I would frowned and stunned because I'm like "I don't understand what in the world is this, this, this..."
This situation has led me to be more aware of choosing a skincare product. Honestly, I would love to make my own skincare. But, sometimes when I read the recipes, it takes at least ten to twenty ingredients to get a well-balanced and effective skincare. For that reason, I give up. The best thing is that Qi Qi Naturals is owned by my best friend, Kiki. With her passion, she makes wonderful skincare from natural ingredients. Even better that most of them are organics. So, thanks to her, I don't have to make my own skincare, yay!

Oil Checklist
As we know that choosing the right skincare is crucial because we want to have the maximum benefits of each product we use. We want to make sure that we prevent ourselves from sign of aging prematurely. Yes, we, ladies, want to look youthful and radiant no matter how old we are.
A good natural skincare product will always include at least one of the oils below.

I believe many many more can be added to the list. However, for example, knowing that your product contains Jojoba Oil and Almond Oil at the same time might be such a relief. I hope this helps you to find out which products are good for you. So, really. Oil does work as anti aging and it gives you more benefits than a manufactured skincare could give at some point.

Keep our natural beauty! Ciao!
-dora-

Here's the list:

Vitamin E Oil
It helps treating skin from sunburn, scars, acne, and wrinkles by speeding up skin cells regeneration. Vitamin E is also known for its antioxidant properties.

Coconut Oil
If you like to have simple skincare and your skin is not so sensitive, you may consider to use Extra Virgin Coconut Oil as your face oil. In fact, according to my research, a lot of people have been using EVCO alone as night moisturizer. Coconut Oil contains antioxidant agents that help prevent aging and fight free radicals. It's believed to help with wrinkles and flakiness.

Olive Oil 
It is rich in vitamins and antioxidants and highly effective in neutralizing damaging free radicals. It also helps balance your skin's moisture without clogging pores.

Castor Oil
As antioxidant, it nourishes our skin and fights aging signs. In addition, it also has antiviral properties.

Camelina Oil
Rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, it improves skin elasticity. It also has Vitamin E that works as an antioxidant to protect our skin from free radicals.

(Sweet) Almond Oil
This oil helps nourish the skin making it smooth, delay aging, lighten dark complexion, eradicate irritation, inflammation and skin rashes, soothing itchiness and moisturizing. It makes skin supple to touch, glow and look healthy.

Jojoba Oil 
It absorbs easily to our skin without feeling greasy, clogging pores or blackheads or promoting acne. It rejuvenates cell growth and helps dry and damaged skin by improving skin elasticity and suppleness because of its vitamin E content.

Rosehip Seed Oil
Full of vitamins, antioxidants and essential fatty acids to correct dark spots and hydrate dry, itchy skin, reduce scars and fine lines. It rejuvenates the skin and leaves the skin glowing.

Kukui Nut Oil
It could penetrate the skin easily and leaves the skin feeling silky and smooth without greasy feeling in addition to its antioxidant agent that protects the skin from free radicals.

Avocado Oil
It contains vitamin A and antioxidant, nourishes, moisturizes, cleans skin, eliminates wrinkles, condition hair and protect against harsh environment.

Grapeseed Oil 
It helps regulate our natural oil production, assists with skin repair while it has mildly astringent, antioxidant and antiseptic properties packed with skin-brightening vitamin C.

Butter
Kokum Butter
It contains of fatty acids and antioxidant agents which reduce degeneration of the skin cells and restore elasticity of the skin.

Cocoa Butter
It also has antioxidant agents to slow the signs of aging.

Horsetail Butter
It's believed to treat cutaneous dryness, rebuild and regenerate damaged skin cells from rashes, wrinkles, acne, burns because of its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant actions.

Raw Shea Butter
It's believed to help improve skin, hair, beauty and health because it renews, repairs and protects the skin against aging/wrinkles and harsh climate.

Essential Oils
Rose stimulates the skin and helps from dry and aging skin.

Sweet Orange (aka Orange Oil) slows down aging process and leaves the skin look radiant and glowing.

Vanilla works as antioxidant and anti-inflammation. It also promotes repairing damaged skin.

Immortelle (Helichrysum) has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits to help skin with acne, allergies, sunburn, ezcema and aging signs.

Sandalwood relieves rashes and itches, eczema and psoriasis, soothes acne and slows skin aging.



Note:
All those ingredients above are used by Qi Qi Naturals.
I didn't write about them in details. The list are genuinely by me, but the contents are from the internet, collected bits and pieces when I did some research. I may have rephrased it with my own words. Thanks.

DO and DON'Ts Part 4: Eye Makeup

Hi Lovelies!

Eye Makeup 

It's almost Spring! Sure thing we want to look fresh in Spring time when it's no longer so cold but not hot like Summer time. So, what colors are wonderful in Spring time? Any colors like flowers (nice bright color) such as pink, violet, light blue, mint, orange, gold and white will give us fresh look especially to be put on eye area. Yay!

Is Eye Makeup that important? Personally, I do believe 'eyes express one's beauty' because eyes can show people who the person is. So, yes, eye makeup is important as to emphasize a woman's beauty by giving a straight and bright look through her eyes. It sure does make a difference. Hence, let's talk about DO and DON'Ts for Eye Makeup!
(Please note that I'm not a Makeup Artist nor an expert, everything I do I learn by own experience or any tutorials/articles, so you might have a better way)

Eyebrow Filler (It could be eyebrow pencil/cake/powder)
Do
1. Choose natural color that looks like your eye brows'.
2. I usually use the cake type filler or powder on light brown/grey/taupe. Grey match with my skin since my skin is medium n yellowy.
3. I like powder that comes with brushes and wax. Usually one brush is for sort of combing my brow to make it neat in one direction and organized shape while the other one is for applying the wax and powder. The reason I don't like pencil is because my brows are wide but thin; it's hard to fill and shape my brows using pencil.
4. I haven't tried the eyebrow shaping kit and look forward to try it; however, in shaping my eyebrows, I only work on slightly giving extra color on where the hair is. I like to keep their natural shape. I don't work over or expand my eyebrows.
5. Check and choose products that are using natural ingredients if possible.
6. Eyebrow brush/comb is really recommended to fix eyebrow hair and stimulate growth.
Don't
1. Work over on your eyebrows, eyebrows that are too thick look ridiculous and people end up looking at your eyebrows, not to your eyes! Eyebrows that are too big/oversize (for example almost touching each other at the nose) make you look angry or scary. Err... yeah, really.
2. Forget to clean your brushes. When I'm lazy, acne will happily show up on my eyebrows!
3. Forget to clean your makeup when you're home.
4. Use if you have any skin problems.

Eyeliner (pencil/liquid/gel)
Do
1. Choose the form of eyeliner you're comfortable with. So far, I like the liquid eyeliner the most because it gives a bold look and it's easier to make cat eye. (I don't like smudgy look from pencil.)
2. Choose Waterproof type if you like to line your waterline.
3. When it comes to choosing color, I definitely like dark color such as black, dark brown, purple and dark jade. Since I'm Asian, I have single eyelid therefore dark eyeliner really helps to bigger my eyes.
4. I usually apply from inner corner to outer corner on my top lash line. As for bottom lash line, I apply by mood how do I want to look like on that day (sometimes I put all the way sometimes outer half while I use shimmery cream color eyeshadow for inner half or sometimes I use the shimmery cream color eyeshadow only. It depends).
5. Some products use natural ingredients to get their color from cocoa powder or charcoal. 
6. Clean your eye makeup with makeup cleaner once you're home. This is the most important to avoid red eye. 
Don't
1. Don't touch your eyes area too much while wearing eye makeup, either you mess up the makeup or you may get red eye.
2. Forget to clean especially if you're using waterproof eye makeup.
3. Don't use liquid eyeliner over three months to avoid irritation from the brush. (But honestly, I break this rule since I don't wear makeup everyday).

Eyeshadow
Do
1. It's nothing to worry about wearing eyeshadow. If you're a beginner like me, you are looking for natural colors, enough to make your eyes look brighter. Natural/nude/neutral colors are good for everyday look. 
2. Get a palette that has at least 3 colors. 3 is good number because we need bright color for inner corner and brow bone, medium for crease and lid and dark for lash line or as eyeliner. However, I'd rather to get a palette that has more colors in it. More is better! Why? Because you can mix and match to get a different look and create new colors. 
3. Read the ingredients. Since we are aware of makeup products may contain chemical ingredients that are harsh for our skin, go natural!
4. Learn and practice for application. It's fun, really! You can find a lot of tutorials over internet, on youtube, magazines. So, I don't need to teach you anything. Just spend some time at home to try! Experiment.. Experiment...!!
5. Use eyeshadow primer/eye balm before applying to make the color pop and optimizing the eyeshadow by avoiding using too much or wasting it. 
Don't
1. Overwork or use the whole colors in your palette if your palette has 6 colors or more.
2. Forget to clean your brushes. 
3. Forget to clean your makeup when you're home.
4. Use if you have any skin problems.

Eyeshadow Primer
Do
1. A good eyeshadow base usually have transparent/nude like color. Choose nude color or similar with your skin color or foundation that you use. If you like a hint of shimmer, some brands have those in shimmer.
2. Apply from inner corner, eyelids, all the way to brow bone (under eyebrows) and outer corner. I usually only need a tiny dot on each eye.

Don't
Generally it's same as Foundation and other eye makeups.

Mascara
(I'm not a mascara type girl and I don't like mascara because it makes my eyes feel heavy, but... here we go!)
Do
1. Choose the color like. Black and Dark Brown are my favorites.
2. You want to use just a little bit and get the excess tint out first before applying to avoid clumps or stickiness and moreover ruining your makeup!
3. Well, if it's too late and it ruined a bit of your makeup, grab a Q-tip and clean it. Put concealer when needed. Use face/powder brush to smear it. Blend it.
4. Choose the waterproof kind because eyes are sensitive and without you know it, tears come out!
5. You may use the eyelash curler first. When applying, try to push it to the top a little bit, it will help curling your eye lashes.
6. You may use paper to avoid ruining your eyeshadow. It saves time than ruining the makeup and dealing with it.

Don't
- refer to other eye makeups


Tips for All Makeup
# If it's hard to find natural ones, try to find some products that claim to not using certain chemical ingredients (for example: paraben free, sulfates free, phthalates free, GMOs free, fragrance free, etc). 
# The application should be 1. eyeshadow primer. 2. eyeshadow. 3. eyeliner. 4. mascara.
# If you like to use pencil eyeliner/eyebrow, use the good sharp eye pencil sharpener to sharpen it a little bit but not too sharp. As long as it's evenly sharpened. 

Personally, I don't wear makeup when I'm home. I don't have to. When I'm being lazy or don't feel like it, I would only put on my moisturizer/face oil, suncreen, BB cream, eyebrow filler (ergh, my weakness, super thin eyebrows) and sometimes just eyeliner. I try to avoid using too much chemical ingredients when possible and to choose natural skincare and makeup.


Have fun !! See ya'll on my next blog!!
Keep your natural beauty, love your body !! :-) 


-dora- 
 

DIY Natural Gel Eyeliner in Brown
Mix well: 1 part Aloe Vera Gel (upto 2 parts, optional), 1 part Coconut Oil, 1/4 upto 1/2 part Cocoa powder. 
As simple as that! Remember to use clean brush when applying and store in cool dark place.