Beauty Routine - Part 2

So, where I last left off, I had just found a blush without any metals, and was going to talk to you about my beauty routine and how it applies to the wedding day.

I currently wear makeup every day for work, and when I have things going on on weekends that I leave the house for, not including errands. I usually try to give my face at least one day off per week.

Since I have so many problems with my skin, I used to go to the dermatologist multiple times per year, trying to find solutions for the issues.  The dermatologist would prescribe something new every trip, and some of them would work, and some of them would not.

No matter what, I would always have acne, and it's at its absolute worse a few days before that time of the month. But, it seems like that's just hormones, so there's not much that can be done about that.  The other problems I was having however, should have been treatable with topical medications, but no matter what we tried, nothing seemed to be working.

I stopped going to the dermatologist about three years ago, when it turned into me wasting money going to appointments and filling prescriptions for medications that weren't working.  Instead, I decided to try just using normal soap and then sunscreen as a moisturizer.  Even the oil-free sunscreens though were causing my face to be greasy and just felt too heavy, not to mention that my makeup was essentially melting off of my face by the end of the day.  So, I decided to try the face wash and moisturizer that Bare Minerals came out with.  It's a dry face wash that you add water to to form a paste, and wash your face with that.  That seemed to be working for a while when we were living in Indiana, but then we moved back to Rhode Island, and the humidity seemed to really make everything melty again, and the face wash didn't really seem to be helping out my skin any longer.

I gave up, and just started using Aveeno Body Wash on my face, and then using their Daily Moisturizing lotion on my face after washing.  I have been doing this for a few months now, and have noticed that my face is so much less oily, and that it isn't as dry in some of the places that I had flaky skin.

So, in terms of the wedding day, I will be doing my own makeup.  I don't want to look overdone, and want to look like my normal self, but I also know that for photos, the makeup needs to be a bit heavier.

Here are some inspiration pictures of what I'm trying to go for:

Image via Project Wedding

Image via WeddingByColor

I really want something that looks light, where my eyes aren't too dark, and my lips are just a slight shade of pink.  I have decided that I will be wearing my glasses, so my eyes will need to stand out a bit more than normal, but I typically don't like the look of eyeliner, so I'm going to have to experiment a bit.  

Any thoughts or suggestions on how I should go about doing this? Because, oh, by the way, this is going to be DIY.  I can't take any risks with makeup artists doing my makeup because of my allergies to so many products. Suggestions on products?

Beauty Routine - Part 1

As I believe I have mentioned before, I have the world's most sensitive skin.

I have rosacea, dermatitis, and adult acne.

I used to use liquid foundation, because I thought that it would cover my rosacea while also keeping my skin moist, since I have combination skin on my face - part dry and part oily.  The problem with that is that the dry parts of my skin, where my dermatitis is, would just end up looking really flaky and scaly under the liquid foundation, and I could literally peel pieces of skin off my face in the afternoon, even if I scrubbed all the dead skin off that morning.  That's what the dermatitis does. Sounds lovely, right?

So, back in October 2009, my mom came out to Indiana to visit, and I had done some research prior to her arriving on new makeups, and specifically, mineral makeups.  After reading hundreds of reviews of Bare Minerals, and how so many women with rosacea found this to be the perfect solution to hiding their redness, and it actually helped over time to reduce the redness. I thought to myself, "Perfect. This is exactly what I need." Mom and I drove the hour to the Bare Minerals store, sat down, and the beauty consultant gave us each a mini-makeover using the makeup.  I loved the way that it looked, and so my mom bought me the starter kit as a belated birthday gift.

Image via Bare Escentuals / Bare Minerals Starter Kit 

Less than one week into using the product, my eyes started getting really itchy and swollen, and then I began getting little bumps on my cheeks, and those were bright red and also itchy.  I stopped using the makeup immediately, knowing that that was the one variable that changed in the last week.  I immediately hopped on Google, searching for "Bare Minerals itchiness."

And, so guess what I found...

Bare Minerals Original Formula contains metal, in the form of Mica and Bismuth Oxychloride.

Both of these two ingredients are actually ground up metals, which are used to give you the shine and glow from both the foundation and the bronzer that comes in the starter kit.

Now this isn't really a huge surprise, because I'm allergic to many different types of metal, which causes me a lot of problems in the jewelry category, and apparently, the beauty products categories.  So much, that I must wear pure metals, i.e.: .925 Sterling Silver, over 14k White Gold, and Platinum.  Sometimes the metal backs of pants buttons irritate my skin, and need to be painted over with clear nail polish.

Ok, back to the makeup part of this story:

I was allergic to Bare Minerals. So, now what? I found a mineral makeup that worked really well for covering my rosacea, didn't cause flaking from my dermatitis, but make me all blotchy and swollen and itchy.

So, I turned to Google again, and googled different mineral makeups.  Every. Single. One. Has at least one of those two ingredients.  Yep, just my luck.  So, I contacted Bare Minerals to see if they had any suggestions, and they did!

Bare Minerals has a Matte Foundation, which does not include any metals. So, I scooped that up, and I've been using it every single day since then, with absolutely no issues!!!

But, the other problem was the bronzer, which Bare Minerals does not have a Matte version of.  Since I had bought out the rest of Clinque's Soft-Pressed Powder in Rhubarb at my local store(s) the year they discontinued that shade, I just decided to go back to using that everyday as a blush and partial bronzer.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, where my last compact only has pressed powder around the edges, and is completely worn through to the bottom of the casing in the middle...yep, time to buy some more blush.

Almost-gone Blush / Personal Picture

So, I headed over to the mall, hopped into Macy's, went to the Clinique counter, grabbed their blush, looked at the ingredients list, and guess what I saw.  Mica. And guess what else is there.  Bismuth Oxychloride.  Great, allergic to that now too, since they changed their formula after I bought all my compacts.

I'll tell you, I went to every single makeup counter at all of the department stores and all of the specialty makeup stores in that mall. I spent almost 2 hours looking for a new blush, and not a single place carried one without Mica or Bismuth Oxychloride in it.

I ended up going to my best friend Google again, and searching for metal free makeup - 1 result.  A $22 compact only sold at Ulta - Amazing Cosmetics Amazing Seven Blush Matte.  It's cream based, and I have yet to buy it or try it out, but I'll let you know how it goes.

Amazing Cosmetics Amazing Seven Blush Matte / Image via Ulta

Next, I'll tell you about my trials and tribulations with other beauty products, and how this actually relates to the wedding day.

Have any of you had problems with metals in makeup?  Anyone use the Amazing Cosmetics Amazing Seven Blush Matte?  Opinions?

Nervous Stressball

The title of this post is related to me.  Guess how.

Any guesses?

Here's a hint: those are two very good descriptors of how I am feeling right now...

Give up??

FI and I submitted our very first offer on a house tonight!! And while he's playing it really cool by just laying back and watching the hockey game on TV,  I am stalking the listing online, mapping out directions, and "painting" the house in Photoshop, all while anticipating either a text or phone call.  

Please cross your fingers for us!

PS - I've gotten a ton of new pimples on my chin from the stress about this from the last few days - I hope that this doesn't happen closer to the wedding. Any ideas on how to avoid this?!?!?!

And what for my eyes?

So, glasses or contacts?

That's the debate we are currently having. If you remember our engagement pictures, both FI and I have glasses on.  When we first started dating, we both wore contacts. As we got more comfortable with each other, and more lazy, we started wearing our glasses more.  When I started my first full-time job, it required getting up pretty early, and I decided that I would rather have a few extra minutes of sleep and wear my glasses than get up a little earlier to let my eyes wake up before putting in contacts.  This turned into wearing glasses full-time, and I have done this for the last three and a half years, and so has FI.

Now, both of our prescriptions have changed and neither of us have contacts that would work for us, so we are trying to decide whether or not to gradually get ourselves back into wearing contacts or just to stick with glasses. Honestly, I'm not all that happy with the way my face looks right now with the weight I have gained over the last few years, so I'm not sure I would want to wear contacts, but I'm also not sure I want to wear glasses. It kind of seems like I would be hiding behind them.  But, then again, everyone has known me with glasses full-time for the last three and a half years. So would changing from glasses to contacts by kind of "not me?"

What are your thoughts? Have you been in this position, deciding between glasses and contacts for the big day? What are the pros and cons you have weighed? Help, please!