Top Summer Beauty and Fashion Tips and Awkward First Post

Photograph not mine, all copyright goes to it's owner

I, the person who didn't know much about make-up a few years ago am now writing a blog post on make-up. Wow, I never knew that would ever happen and to be honest I am pretty surprised myself.

Since it is summer (well, duh?!?) I have to make sure that I share some of my main beauty tips and tricks which have helped me throughout this scorching hot summer, with the hope of helping others.

In this blog post, I will be giving you tips, tricks and advice on how to deal with summer. The mentioned tips and tricks are what I found useful and what I can truly recommend and can 100% say that it was helpful for me. The views that I have shared with you are purely my own, so don't let my views influence your choices! Remember, your life, your choice!

Photograph taken from http://sumfinity.com/hdr-photos

First and foremost, there is always a need for sunscreen. Once the sun comes out, all you want to do is go out and sunbathe, I know, I want to too. That is all fantastic, after a whole year full of rain, rain and nothing but rain in gloomy England, I can't think of one thing I want more than the sun coming out. That means that when the sun peeks out of the clouds, everyone automatically goes into panic mode literally filling up the whole beach at Brighton and Southend and going to the shops in bikinis. All in all everyone goes bananas.


The problem here is, I tend to not put any sunscreen on due to my high hopes of getting a tan, but that doesn't always work (I normally just look like a lobster). However, joke aside, it is very important, more than anything else this summer to stay protected from the sun and not look like a lobster. 

Here is some information I found, which initially gave me quite a fright. 

"One in five Americans will be diagnosed with skin cancer and this number is increased ultraviolet from the sun and tanning beds."

One in five. That is scary. It makes me want to crawl under my duvet and hide or just become a vampire. Maybe Ian Somerhalder could be there, what do you think?Also, did you know that ultraviolet light exposure is responsible for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer? Yup, to all those Home and Away lovers, the one that killed Romeo. I still miss him.Seriously now though, did you also know that sunscreen keeps you looking young? The number one cause of premature aging of the face is ultraviolet exposure. By wearing a good amount of sunscreen, you are slowing down the development of wrinkles and leathery skin.By applying a good amount of sunscreen. you are making sure that there is no way in which the UV light can get to you.

I love moisturizing.  So, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that there are now sunscreens which also act as a moisturizer. The one that I used is the Nivea Protect and Moisturize SPF 50. Apart from it's amazing smell, it also provided very good protection from the scorching hot 36 degree sun in Bulgaria. So, now you have two steps in one, making everything so much easier and saving me some time!

Photograph is not my own. All copyright goes to it's owners.

Secondly, foundation. Oh, the struggle of finding that perfect foundation, then finding out that the store that you were at had none left of your chosen shade to trying to find where the other closest shop is. I spend days looking for the perfect foundation. It has come to the point in my life where I am ready to give up foundation, however, when I look at how red my skin normally is, that thought evaporates into thin air.

Throughout the summer I tend to get very oily skin and due to the heat, sweat. That is normal for everyone, so no need to keep it a secret.

Before going to my holiday, I decided to go in search of the perfect foundation for me. I tried the Rimmel 'Wake Me Up' foundation to begin with.

Photograph is not my own and was found on Google Images

It does give a very good 'I've woken up a long time ago and am feeling refreshed' look for a couple of minutes, but when I go outside it goes everywhere and by the time I come back home, there is literally no way of noticing that it is foundation I had on.

However, I truly love using this foundation in the winter, spring and autumn. It provides a great boost of radiance (and confidence, may I add), which I need due to school and early mornings. It's really great because it gives you a little bit of shimmer, and you know how I love that shimmer! (Actually you don't but now you do!) I have heard so many fantastic beauty bloggers talk about it, and I definitely think that their views are amazing, however, they only work for specific skin types, which I guess doesn't apply to everyone.

The one I went for was a bit more expensive, but I thought that after a few years of getting really cheap foundations and make-up altogether, I should be a bit more girly and make sure to have at least one item on the high-end spectrum. 

The foundation which I went for is the *drum roll please* Benefit 'Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow!' foundation. It gives the lightest coverage possible and has a very nice matte finish, which means no frying pan foreheads and oily T-Zones! Woohoo!

Photograph is not my own, copyright goes to the owner

And to top it off it has an SPF 25... What more could you want? All in all I can truly say, this is well worth the money that I paid for it.

When applying this, I normally apply it using my all time favourite brush- the Real Techniques- Blender Brush which is hands down the best brush to use for my foundation routine.

Photograph is not my own, all copyright goes to the owner

The two products mentioned above are the more important ones for me this summer, so these next remaining 8 are going to be much shorter. 

Number 3, here we go! 

Sunglasses. I can't live without my sunglasses, and due to that I always have to but a new pair because they break too easily... 

This year, I bought mine from River Island and they have done me a fantastic job in making me look like a human being and not a bug like last year's sunglasses... 

As I mentioned for the sunscreen it is important to guard yourself again those evil UV lights. Making sure that the sunglasses have a UV filter is very important and it means that you won't get blinded by the sun.

Here is what my sunglasses looked like- I really loved this design because it's just funky and unique!

Photograph not my own, copyright goes to respective owner

A little bit on the crazy side now... You need bright nail varnish. On my holiday I only brought my OPI Russian Navy nail varnish, which was just horrendously dark for the summer. I however happened to stumble across a great little souvenir shop where they actually sold nail varnishes and picked up a few little bottles enough to last me for this trip. Most of the colours that I picked up were pink and orange because I felt those two colours described summer pretty well. 

So take my advice and don't go on a summer holiday with a dark nail varnish. 

I know, I give such great advice. (British sarcasm at it's best) 

Waterproof mascara is a must in the summer. I have some really bad allergies during the summer which means that I will start crying out of the blue every once in a while, meaning that I need something that is not going to make me look like a murderer. (Also, I get emotional quite a lot, mainly when I see cute puppies or squirrels)

A great mascara and the one that I have been using for this whole summer is the Benefit 'They're Real!' mascara, which I find to be the best for use in these type of weather conditions, because once it's on, there's no taking it off until you cleanse your face in the evening.

Soooo, here you have it, my top 5 summer beauty tips. I hope that they are in some way helpful to you for the remaining half of August while it's still summer!

If you have any specific topics you would like me to talk about, please drop me an e-mail on the e-mail specified below!