November Favourites

Soo.. this is my first ever favorites post and I plan to do them at the end of every month so that I can share with you the new things that I tried and liked for that month. Hope you enjoy them and find them helpful. Also feel free to tell me about your favorite products in the comments. A lot of products in this post will be from Avon because I have loved and used their products for years but now because I started my blog I’ll try to use products from a lot of different brands (mostly drugstore) p.s. I finally made an instagram account (programmerstyle) so now you can follow me there too :D

1. Makeup favorites

-Avon Big&Daring volume mascara: I’ve tried a lot of different Avon mascaras and this is the only one that managed to impress me besides their Luxe one. I have small eyelashes and this mascara makes them look a lot bigger. It gives volume since it’s a volume mascara but in my opinion it can also count as a decent lengthening mascara too. I have it in black. ($9 currently by one get one half off)

-Avon Ultra Color Absolute Lipstick in Tender mauve: First of all this lipstick has different packaging on Avon’s site so I think the color of the packaging depends of the country you live in. This is my favorite “everyday” lipstick color. It’s the perfect mix of brown, pink and purple tones + it doesn’t feel drying on the lips at all. I am deeply recommending this lipstick to you. ($9 currently $5.99)

-Oriflame Beauty Eyebrow Kit: This kit is an all time favorite because I have used it for a year and still can’t find something that I will like more. (that’s why it looks grouse on the picture). I prefer to use eye shadow to fill in my brows than a pencil and this kit is amazing. It has two small brushes which do their job amazing, 2 shadows (light and dark brown) and wax. I just love it!

-Oriflame Universal Cream- Tender Care: This is a universal cream that I only use as a lip balm so I don’t know if it really counts as a makeup product. This smells amazing I have it in chocolate, I’ve also used the caramel one and they also have a coconut one that smells amazing. Not do they smell great but they make your lips very smooth too.

2. Skincare (Bath & Shower)

-Planet  Spa India Intensity Invigorating Body Scrub with Black Sesame Seed extract and Sandalwood oil: This is the body scrub from Avon’s Planet Spat range that I’m currently using. (but I’ve tried different ones and I must say I like all of them). I really like the scent of it and it leaves your bath smelling very good when your done showering. It’s a gentle scrub so you can use it every time you shower.

-Planet Spa India Intensity Body Butter with Black Sesame Seed extract and Sandalwood oil: I like my body scrub and body butter to smell the same I guess. Again amazing scent, this body butter moisturizes  your skin very nicely and lives it feeling soft :D

3.  Hair

-L'Oréal Paris Elvive Arginine ResistX3 Shampoo and Conditioner: First don’t worry my hair isn’t falling but it’s really damaged and it’s breaking that’s why I decided to give these shampoo and conditioner a try (and JLo’s commercial). I mean they are good shampoo and conditioner considering their price. They sure made my hair feel and look better than before when I didn’t use them and as a bonus they make the hair smell lovely.

Programmer to the rescue

So I’m starting this thing on my blog which I called ‘Programmer to the rescue’. So it’s basically me sharing a tips and tricks with you about beauty, skin care and let’s hope  about fashion and organization as well. I think I am going to do one post every two weeks if I don’t change my mind. Wish me luck! :D

Cleaning your makeup brushes

In order to achieve a perfect smooth look and to get the best of your makeup you need the help of your makeup brushes, which makes me totally stupid for doing a post on how to clean them before doing a post about them. So before I tell you which makeup brushes you need in your starter kit and how to choose them in  some of my next posts, I will learn you how to clean them.( How smart from my side?)  

So first thing first please if you apply foundation everyday use your clean hands to apply it and use your brush or sponge only for special occasions when you want an air brushed look. Those babies have a lot of bacteria on them which will stick on your face when applying your foundation and probably cause your skin to break out. Another very important thing is to wash your makeup brushes every time after you used them on another person. The worst thing you can do is to use your makeup brushes on other people, they are called your make up brushes for a reason. Please don’t make the same mistake I did and use your makeup brushes on your friends. I mean I washed mine brushes after I used them on my friends but still the thought that they’ve been used on others will always be there when I use them on my face and we all have different skin problems. So if you are doing makeup as your job use different makeup brushes for yours makeup and yours clients makeup and if you are good at makeup and your friends want you to do their make up it’s fine to help them and make them look gorgeous, just ask them to do it with their makeup tools. If you use your makeup brushes only for doing your makeup try cleaning them once a week

So after our talk about what not to use your makeup brushes for and how often to clean them lets talk about how to get them clean after you used them. The most logical way that anybody can think of is to use a makeup brushes cleaner. But the problem that I have which made me searching for other way to clean my brushes is that as long as I’m informed they don’t sell makeup brushes cleaners anywhere near me or maybe I just can’t find them. Also I know that for some of you that can find them, the good ones are just too expensive. So to help myself out and to also help all of you I’ve done a research and I found the best way to get my brushes clean. The magical product that I clean my makeup brushes with is the Johnson’s baby shampoo (3$ I believe). Here is the point- you want to clean your makeup brushes from all the dirt and bacteria so baby shampoo is a great way to get them clean but it’s not harmful and field with a lot of bad chemicals because is made for sensitive baby skin. I know that there are people that clean them with shower gels, hand soaps or even dishwashing soaps but if you ask me a baby shampoo is a much smarter option. Also I know that some people are moisturizing their makeup brushes with hair masks and conditioners which I don’t approve. You need to clean your brushes from all the products, oils and bacteria not to apply on them products that will help these things to stick on your brushes even more, plus conditioners and hair masks have silicones, wax and a lot of other chemicals which are supposed to make your hair softer, shinier etc. but are not meant and won’t do any good for your face. Don’t forget that your makeup brushes hair at the end is meant to be used on your face! So if you really think your brushes need moisture try adding a bit of olive oil in your cleaning routine. I don’t do this but is a much better option than hair masks and conditioners since is natural and not bad for your skin. For those of you who work as makeup artist alcohol is a good option for disinfection and I’ve heard it’s ok to use it to disinfect your brushes just apply the alcohol on a tissue paper and go back and forth with the brushes over the paper. After you disinfected them wait for the alcohol to evaporate because you want your brushes to be alcohol free when using them on your face and dabbing them in your products.

When it comes to the cleaning process of my brushes, I do it by wetting my brush with cold water in my sink, putting one drop of the shampoo on my hand and then move the brush on my hand with circular motions. After that I rinse the shampoo from my brush and squish it to get all the product out of it (I know squishing is not the best thing for my brush) and than I put the brush on a clean towel to dry. But before I do that I bring all the hairs together so the brush won’t lose its shape after it dries. Let your brushes dry horizontally or vertically down so the water won’t enter in the neck (the metal part of the brush) so you will provide the hairs from your brush loosing up.

I hope that I helped you. So now go and clean your makeup brushes. <3