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Thursday 24 August 2017

Skinstitut Review

An Australian online beauty store called RY (Recreate Yourself) contacted me a while back and asked if I would like to be sent some skincare to try out. I had never heard of Skinstitut before but as it is an Australian owned brand that doesn't test on animals I was open to giving their products a go. This review is going to be 100% honest and I have no interest in sugar coating anything.
Side note: this is not an ad (lets be real, I've never ever been paid to write about a product but I just feel like I need to be transparent!), I was simply sent the products and was not obliged to produce anything in return. 

What I will say though, is that since being introduced to RY, I've seen they have really good deals so if you're based in Australia then definitely check them out because they stock some great brands. I was lucky enough to be sent five products from Skinstitut and here is how I got on with them...

The L-Lactic Acid Cleanser is the product I was most excited about because I have a cleanser to remove my makeup but I wanted one to use afterwards as I prefer to double cleanse. This leaves my skin feeling so soft so I'm really glad this has been introduced into my skin routine.
I really try to make sure I apply SPF every single day, whether it's sunny or a gloomy day in winter. The Age Defence SPF 50 they sent me hasn't broken me out and it is perfectly nice to apply makeup over so for me that's pretty much all I look for (apart from the obvious sun protection). I really like the Enzymatic Micro Peel because I don't own anything like it. At the moment I have a clay face mask but that's it so I really like this one for brightening and smoothing out my skin. I've been using it 2-3 times a week and I really like it. The texture is quite odd because it's just like applying a moisturiser rather than a mask but you wash off after 15 mins and it works really well. One product that I haven't used quite as much is the Moisture Defence Ultra Dry moisturiser, only because moisturisers can break me out so I'm a little bit wary. I think this one is OK so far but to be honest it just seems like a relatively normal moisturiser (even though it claims to be for extra dry skin). It is quite thick in texture but it sinks in really quickly, after a few minutes it almost seems like I didn't apply anything at all so I'm not sure quite how effective it is. The last product is a facial mist (Multi-Active Mist), it smells zesty and fresh and I really like face mists when I just want a little extra hydration or to freshen up the look of my makeup.

Overall I think the products are really nice and not too expensive (by Aussie standards anyway). However, my one complaint is that the packaging is not the best. It is absolutely fine for the thicker products and for the spray (although it looks a little bit boring - which really doesn't matter but I probably wouldn't have looked at them in store), however the cleanser just pours out the hole a little too easily. There is nothing to keep the product in so you have to be mindful of that. Packaging aside, I think the products are nice and I would definitely purchase the cleanser and enzyme peel. I also like how the products smell really fresh so they're lovely to use in the morning.

The products all usually retail at $45 but are on sale for $30.15 on RY at the moment :)

Monday 14 August 2017

The French Woman Myth

Vogue.com articles
First things first! The title might suggest I don't think french women exist... I can tell you from experience that french women do actually roam the earth. They are real people! What I actually want to write about today is a media fixation on french women and the whole concept of "how to be more french". There are several reasons why I think this is problematic and why the portrayal of french women as all being the same is also not. the. one.

The first reason is that there is no reason whatsoever why we should all aspire to be like people from somewhere we're not from or people who are entirely different to us. It's not only to do with the beauty aspect of the elusive stereotypical french woman, we need to stop aspiring to a fictional, idyllic type of person. French women don't all smoke, they don't all stay skinny while eating croissants and cheese everyday and they're not all nonchalant women whose beauty routine consists of not brushing their hair and only applying a lick of mascara and voilà! There is also this idea that french women don't think about their appearance or their weight and that they don't exercise. This concept of being cool, natural and effortless is deceptive. Most of us, french or not, make an effort when we want to look good and that's OK. What is wrong with looking like you care?

Probably the most annoying part about this representation of the french woman is that she is pretty much exclusively portrayed as a type of Brigitte Bardot or skinny Parisian brunette smoking a cigarette kind of figure. She is always very natural looking and on the slim side. This completely excludes the millions of women in France who are not a part of that stereotype. What about the many french women of northern african decent for example? In fact what about women from the Basque country? Why does the portrayal of french women only reflect those that fit a very specific mould? France is a multicultural country with an array of women from different cultural backgrounds who come in all different shapes, sizes and skin colours. They're just as french as any of the french movie stars from the 60s and 70s.

What is really strange about how french women are portrayed is that the media is still obsessed with women like Brigitte Bardot (who btw is racist af - chic!) and Françoise Hardy aka women who were in the limelight decades ago. Why do we want to be like women from the 1960s? What's wrong with women from 2017?

There are so many reasons why I find articles and guides on how to be more french or Parisian really problematic and something we should move on from. But I'll leave it here for today!

Lets all just aspire to be the best versions of ourselves #cheeeeese :D

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