The lovely Liza at Glambeautys tagged us in a skincare post that’s going around that the moment. If you haven’t already, check out her blog – it’s one of our favourites and her ‘how to contour’ post is top notch. Fifi from FifiMcGee also tagged us in this skincare tag, so I thought we’d better hop to it and get one done.

I decided to do this tag because, like any brilliant team, Claire and I both have different interests in the fashion/beauty blogging world. I’d definitely say Claire is the fashion expert and her outfit of the day’s are genuinely fantastic (it doesn’t help that she is a teeny tiny person and looks fabulous in everything). On the other hand, I’m more of a beauty fan and I get excited about things like moisturiser, skincare and makeup. We dabble in both, but as I have a bit more of a skincare routine, I though I’d take the lead on this bad boy.

So…what IS my skincare routine?

1. Describe your skincare routine in five words:

Fresh, Moisturising, Experimental, Thorough and Regular (snore snore and snore. There’s nothing fun about routines!)

2. What is your skin type?

THE WORST KIND – oily and prone to breakouts. It’s very upsetting and the skin type nobody really wants but I do my best to keep things in check. When I do breakout, the spots I get are horrible. Darn you skin, darn you. If I could I would carve off my skin and transplant it with someone else’s but I’ve heard that most people would think that would be a terrible idea. And also vaguely strange. And possibly death inducing.

3. What is your favourite skincare product?

At the moment, my favourite skin care product is my Nivea Soft moisturiser. I initially bought it to use as hand cream but it can be used on the face too. It smells lovely and isn’t too heavy. Perfect as a day moisturiser and base for makeup. I love the Nivea brand so much right now that I want to marry it and have lots of really moisturised babies (ew, gross).

4. Top blemish zapper?

Sudocrem is always brilliant, but I like using witch hazel and tea tree oil if my spots are particularly bad. Which they always are.

5. Face wipes….yay or nay?

I’m not using them at the moment and they aren’t great for your skin, but they are useful when you haven’t got time/can’t be bothered/too drunk to do a proper makeup removal.

6. Toner….yay or nay.

I love toner – it helps to remove any cleanser left on my skin and it also REALLY wakes me up in the morning! At the moment, I’m using one by Clarins because I’m really fancy. So fancy that I plan to invest in a yacht and sail around the world with Jay Z.

7. High end skincare or high end make up?

I would rather buy high end skincare because I think that you can really notice the difference in quality, which is something that isn’t always true with makeup. In an ideal world, I would have both but a gal’s gotta compromise!

8. You’re in a French pharmacy and can only buy one item, what would it be?

I’ve heard LOTS of good things about Bioderma, which is a brand I’ve not yet been able to try. I’d love to try some of their products aimed at oily skin – particularly the Sebium H20 cleanser to sort out my greasy head.

9. Top skincare tip.

Always remove makeup and stick to a routine. My skin has got a lot better when I regularly cleanse, tone and moisturise. Everything looks better when your skin is looking good too and makeup is definitely enhanced when you don’t have to faff around covering up spots. Also, you can feel smug that you have a skincare routine and look at the lesser people who don’t in horror while saying ‘Oh darling, you simply must moisturise. THINK OF THE WRINKLES.’

Well there you have it gals, that is my skincare wisdom shared and hopefully appreciated. As this is a very picture-free post, I thought I would treat you all to a picture of my face to finish it all off in style (I hope you can all hear the sarcasm in this, I don’t think that my face is a treat. Except for my millions of male suitors, of course).

We would also like to tag these lovely ladies, if you haven’t already done the skincare tag before 🙂

– Becky at BeckysMakeup

– Ambi at Bombay Rose

– Lauren at Living In A Boxx

– Sophie at That’s What Sophie Said

– Tori at Tori’s Tales

– Georgia at Fashion Oyster

– Imogen at Imogen Massey Beauty

We all fondly remember the girl in ‘The Amanda Show’ and ‘What I Like About You’ (though I think ‘The Amanda Show’ should have been a bit of an indication that she is in fact somewhat cray. It wasn’t ok.). Thinking back to my childhood years, she actually played quite a big part of my TV watching schedule. Claire and I were discussing this and even her recent films have been quite great, ‘Easy A’ was genuinely brilliant and nothing more needs to be said about ‘She’s The Man’.

Unless you’ve been living under a horrible, dark and lonely rock for the past year or so, you will be aware of our new form of Amanda Bynes entertainment. Amanda Bynes’ twitter account is literally gold dust. If you’re feeling sad? Go on Amanda Bynes’ twitter. The man got you down? Go on Amanda Bynes’ twitter. Hangover depression got you in a spiraling tornado of guilt and sorrow? Go on Amanda Bynes’ twitter. Basically, my answer to everyone’s woes at the moment is to hop on everyone’s favourite microblogging site and scroll back through hours of comedy gold, selflessly provided by Amanda herself.

What I have actually realised is that Amanda is something of a life coach. There is many a day where I find myself annoying Claire with unavoidable life questions. There’s only so many times she can hear ‘DOES THIS BOY LIKE ME’, ‘IS MY FACE TOO ORANGE’ and ‘I JUST WATCHED BLACK MIRROR AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT LIFE MEANS ANYMORE’ in one day. The poor girl would go even madder than she already is. With that in mind, I had to find someone else to counsel me in my times of trouble and that person has turned out to be Amanda Bynes.

Amanda on relationships:

Don’t bother playing hard to get:

At the end of the day, Amanda has shown us that if you like someone, it’s better to let your feelings flow. Going in for the kill and letting them know how you feel is a good way of showing them that you really care.

This is a great example. What is the point in fannying around playing coy and sneaky when you can just tell your intended beau that you love him? Granted, it might scare him off but who wants a boy that gets frightened that easily anyway?

If the man of your dreams rejects you, this isn’t the time to save face. It’s better to let it all out and get those feelings out there. Bottling emotions up inside can lead to a bigger breakdown later along the line, so wear your heart on your sleeve. If it makes you feel better, insult the man you used to love – it can get rid of that pent up aggression.

Know what you want out of a man:

It’s safe to say that most of us are looking to eventually get married and find ‘the one’. It’s a tough dating world out there and these days, it’s becoming more and more difficult to find that perfect person to settle down with. To make the situation easier, Amanda has shown us that you should make a list of what you do/don’t want in a relationship. This really helps to narrow down the pool of potential suitors.

Helpful, right?

It’s worth letting your man know you’re in demand:

It’s a sad fact of life that our relationships are influenced by the people around us. For example: that boy down the road that you thought was a loser actually has millions of women after him. Suddenly he doesn’t seem like such a snore. Suddenly you question your judgement. Is he actually fit? Are his khaki crocs in fact endearing rather than repulsive?

By letting your potential suitors know that you are a man-magnet, you are effectively showing him that you are something worth having. It’s quite difficult to do this subtly, so think about taking Amanda’s approach.

It’s forward but ticks the right boxes – it’s all about showing you’re unavailable. We all want what we can’t have, right?

Amanda on beauty:

Exercise is important:

We all know that exercise is important for our health and this is something that Amanda often champions on her twitter account. She is an avid gym-goer, so it may be worth taking a leaf out of her book if you’re looking to get into shape.

But it’s worth remembering that you can’t expect results straight away.

If you feel like you need a change of exercise routine, why not take up a unique sport or activity?

But don’t worry if people hate on you for it, they’re just jealous.

Physical attractiveness is important:

While personality is important, lets all be honest and admit that physical attractiveness plays a big role in society. There’s a reason why we all dedicate so much time and money on makeup, haircare, the gym and other efforts to improve our appearance. It doesn’t mean we’re shallow, it’s probably just an ingrained mating instinct to create the best children possible (science, isn’t it great). Amanda might take aesthetics a little bit too seriously but she does emphasise the importance of taking care of your physical appearance. If Amanda doesn’t care, then who on this green earth would?!

Amanda on haters:

Lawyers are there for a reason:

Why do lawyers bother going to university for aeons, having boring lives and wear terrible suits all the time? Probably because they earn lots of money from people like Amanda. At the end of the day, they’re there for a reason and if someone is mean to you, the best thing to do is sue them for defamation. No one likes having stories made up about you, especially if they’re not true. The best way to react is badly. We’ll have none of this ‘be the better person’ or ‘the best way to defeat a bully is to ignore them’ nonsense. Get right in there with a lawsuit and show them that you mean business.

For more Amanda Bynes gold dust, follow her on Twitter @AmandaBynes. It’s guaranteed to make your life infinitely better and you might just learn something along the way. I don’t think it would be exaggerating to say that she has changed mine and Claire’s life for the better – there are days when we look at each other and think ‘WWABD’. She dishes out the life tips willy nilly and they simply can’t be ignored.

Skincare Tag: What Is My Daily Routine?

So…what IS my skincare routine?

Life Tips from Amanda Bynes.

Amanda on relationships:

Amanda on beauty:

Amanda on haters: