Cruelty Free of the Month

Hey everyone!

A lot of the time, I get asked what is my favourite... (etc, etc). I've decided that monthly, I will let people know what my favourites are of the cruelty free products which are out there.

Why cruelty free? is a common question asked. My answer is pretty basic. An innocent animal should be brought close to death just for me to feel or look beautiful or confident. Instead I base my beauty and confidence in the products that I back. It sends a strong message.

How can I buy cruelty free? There is a comprehensive list on the PETA website of products that do not test on animals. This has become a must read for me and I reference it regularly whenever I am online shopping or in a shopping centre. I've downloaded the list to the home screen of my iPad and iPhone so that I can easily reference. If you are not about this, simply look for the bunny.

Any product that has these logos are proud supporters of animal rights.

Company of the month? The company of the month for me is Moo Goo. I love so many items in their range. The shampoo, condition, udder cream, milk wash, goats milk soap and anti-aging wrinkle cream are some of my gems at the moment.

Moo Goo came about from a family of dairy farmers who were wanting to benefit the cows who were uncomfortable with the milking process - enter the original Udder Cream. The founders were so impressed with the results of the Udder Cream on their animals that they then decided to harness the product into one that can be used on humans - less greasy and thinner in consistency.

A company which is environmentally friendly, animal friendly and targets common skin issues effectively through "no gimmick" products is a huge tick in my books!

Have you tried this range before? Let me know in the comments section what your thoughts are!

Love always,

Kim

Review: Milky Foot

Hey everyone and welcome back!

One night last fortnight I was scrolling through instagram and I saw a post from a friend of mine. She was trying out a product called Milky Foot. I was intrigued and naturally went to the hashtag. Let me tell you - wow it was gross! But I thought I may as well give it a go! As someone who wears heels 90% of the time, I was in desperate need of something to revitalise my feet - so I gave it a shot. No harm in trying!

There will be no pictures from me about this, because feet are pretty gross. Especially while using this product. If you want to see anything, you can of course Google some progress shots!

For those of you who do not know - Milky Foot is an exfoliation cream that comes in little booties that you put on your feet for 45-60 minutes and rinse off. After application, you wait. Within 7 days you should have milky soft feet.

I purchased Milky Foot from my local discount pharmacy ($25AU). Later that night during my feet up and relax period before bed, I put on the little booties and watched the TV.

My first initial thought was that the product smelled horrid - and believe me, it does - however in saying that, feet are pretty gross anyway! So I continued to put the booties on. When my feet were in the booties, they were cooled. The cream gives a nice cooling sensation for your feet - perfect for tired feet!

After waiting 60 minutes (I figured I would go the full time for best results) I went to the bathroom and rinses the gel off my feet. So far, my feet only felt relaxed.

Day 1: The next day, I went for lunch with a friend. While walking around town I noticed that my feet were sensitive. I could feel every stone under my foot and my feet were tingly while standing still. After getting home, I noticed my first "blister" forming. This is a much faster result than the package stated!

Day 2: In the morning, the blisters were still just forming. On my right foot was the starting off 11 blisters and only 5 on my left. They're not uncomfortable for blisters, they just look a little funky. On this day, my feet were extremely dry. It felt as if my feet have become drought affected. They were dry, rough and felt scratchy on every surface.

In the evening, I noticed that I was peeling on the tops of my feet. The skin that was coming off was scaly and dry and the skin underneath was perfectly smooth and soft. If you are one of those people that enjoy peeling sunburn, you're going to enjoy when this starts!

The appearance was dry and scaly. Nothing too exotic. My left foot though, having has mosquito bites on them (two! the gross little things!) had a small red patch around it. My other foot also had a red patch where it was peeling over my tattoo. The patches are similar to those you get from waxing.

Day 3: I was walking around in the city doing meetings and a little bit of shopping (of course!) When I arrived home and took my shoes off I noticed I had shed a lot of skin. And I mean A LOT. The heel was bald on the bottom and starting up the sides, the toes were peeling and the balls of my feet were peeling.

I spent the next few hours walking around the house, cleaning and doing laundry. Just as I was about to leave and head back down to my family, I noticed more peeling. It was peeling right across the bottom of my feet and they felt so soft and looked amazing!

There is still a lot of peeling which is needed, but it did come a long way on this day!

Day 4: This day was much the same as the previous days. Still a lot of shedding and a lot of patches. It almost looked as though the really rough parts (heels from wearing high heels) are not going to shift and that something like a ped egg would need to be used to finalise the process.

The red patches that had come up on the tops of my feet on day two were coming and going on this day. I'm not sure what caused this reaction, but I think it may have just been from thin skin. I get these patches on the inside of my arms when I wax them, but not on the top. So I believe it was just the type of skin. It's a relief to know it has gone though within two days!

Day 5: I spent a few hours walking around the city again on this day. The shedding had slowed a lot but still wasn't budging on the particularly problematic areas of my feet. I noticed on this day too that my feet smelled terrible. I wasn't sure if it was from the shedding skin or if it was from wearing flats on a really hot day. I don't think I've ever used that much deodorant on my feet before!

Day 6: The problem areas finally peeled off on this day! My feet were feeling fantastic! There was still some shedding to go, but 95% of it had gone. I wore socks and high tops to see if it would aid it with the shedding and when I took my shoes off at night, it was gone! There was very little left. Before going to bed, I put a moisturiser on my feet over night to give some more moisture back into them:

Day 7: The final day! The moisturiser over night helped. There was still some dry patches but most of my feet felt amazing. The dry patches were mainly on the top of my feet and a little on the sides. These completely disappeared on day 10. 

My overall thoughts on this product is ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT! 

Have you tried this before? Let me know your thoughts!

Love always,

Kim xx

Comparison: Which is better for...?

Sunburn. The joys of Summer. Every person, at some point in their life, will experience sunburn. I have today. The upside to being pale skinned and hanging laundry outside in the sun to dry while wearing a tank top and no sunblock!

No, I'm kidding. Sunburn is not fun. It stings, it feels tight, hot and itchy - eventually it peels. Or in the case of myself thanks to prior sun damage, it just gather white dots in the redness.

In 2008 on New Year's Eve, I went to the beach on a 46C (115F) degree day. Due to the weather being so hot, I decided to seek the comfort of the water instead for its cooling effect - not even thinking I had better put sunblock on. The result was third degree burns. It was horribly painful. I spent 3 weeks sitting on my couch, unable to move, unable to shower properly and unable to wear a shirt properly - I was living in a stationary position in a towel. After the first week, I started to notice bubbling in the skin. It looked like I was breaking out in a horrible skin disease. After a few days, the small bubbles started to cause bigger bubbles. Eventually I had a blister filled with fluid down the entire section of my upper arm - from should to elbow. The welt was sticking out from my skin due to a fluid build up. It was probably about 5cm in height - it was big and it was gross. Bare in mind that throughout this I was still stinging, I was burning and I was in excruciating pain.

After week 2, the blisters reached their limits and started to burst. It was the most disgusting feeling I have ever had in my entire life. There was no more burning or stinging and the heat from the burn was gone - I only had the blisters left. Imagine sitting on the couch, feeling comfortable at last, watching TV and relaxing - suddenly, your skins pop and liquid is running down you across your back, arms and face. It's pretty disgusting. Lesson learned - sunblock is your best friend!

So that back story brings us to how I have burned so easily. The first thing is, of course, I am pale. When I say pale, I mean if you turn off lights in a room, I will be glowing. Admittedly I achieve the glowing because I avoid the sun, but that's a whole entire different topic. Today while hanging washing, I didn't feel the need to put on sunblock. I wasn't going to be out there for a long time, so I didn't think it was necessary. The sunburn that I had in 2008 has left my skin severely damaged and susceptible to severe burning. Thinking that a 20 minutes session in the sun would have no effect, I decided to ignore it and go out without a sunblock on - hence the redness, burning and heat that is apparent on my showers and chest.

I gathered all of the moisturisers I own in my house, which is a lot, and I searched each one to see reviews against sunburn. Two of the products have stood out against the others as being perfect. Both of these moisturisers are highly praised in reviews and their ingredients are boasted about for being beneficial to treat sunburn as well an array of other ailments.

These two items are:

  
  LUSH Dream Cream         &         MooGoo Udder Cream 

(my right, no tattoo)                          (my left, tattoo)

Over the next few weeks, I will post updates on how much sunburn is progressing with each of these products. I will be using one product on one side and the other, of course, on my other side. This will be able to give a fair comparison of which product is more effective.

I will be using both products morning and night. Photos will be taken before each application to see the progress since previously viewed - rather than an update a day, I will complete an update every few days with the progress of a few days together - after all, I don't want to bore you daily with it.

I'm about to go to sleep tonight, but I have completed an application tonight. So far from the first application, I can tell you that the MooGoo Udder Cream smells a lot more appealing that the LUSH Dream Cream does - even though both are completely AH-MAY-ZING.

The MooGoo Udder Cream has already absorbed into my skin - within 10 minutes! - and it's left it feeling a little bit dry. LUSH Dream Cream has left a layer of moisturisation on my skin which feels like it may be more hydrating for my skin. But we will see tomorrow!

Talk to you soon.

Love always,
Kim

Welcome

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my blog!

If some of you have been following me already, you will know that this is not my first post ever - you are correct! It's a newly revamped page. I decided the last one was not doing wonders to drag me back. The last name was specific and if I'm not going to stick to a solo topic then the name and design was not going to be a draw in for myself, nor for my readers.

I am hoping to launch this to be better, bigger and more regular. I will mainly be writing on weekends due to lack of free time throughout the working week. This doesn't mean that I will only post on weekends - it can mean I may store some posts to make public as I go through the week, or I may just post straight away.

Anyway, enough of that, let's go into who I am!

My name is Kim and I live in Melbourne, Australia. I'm almost 26 (next month, wee!) and I live alone with my cat, Dexter who is 5. I grew up in country Victoria, but moved to Melbourne when I was 23 years old. There was several reasons in which to move - main one being better opportunities. The move has so far paid off for me in that aspect - I have a full time job! Though I will eventually move on, it's paying the bills and buying a lot of junk that I probably really don't need.

When I was 20 years old I decided I wanted to become trained in beauty therapy - so I did. The course has trained me in cosmetic chemistry, skin science and biology, anatomy and physiology and nutrition, as well as the basics of make up artistry, facials and body treatments, massage, manicure, pedicure and, of course, gel and acrylic nails. Call me crazy, but after all the hard work I had put into the qualification I decided that working in a salon was not what I wanted to do. I walked into salon after salon, attempting to get a job and I was looked down upon. It's clear from looking at me, I'm not a prim and proper, pretty girl typically - I'm more the girly tomboy that wears makeup, has soft skin and isn't afraid to roll in mud. So, beauty salon was not for me.

I was deflated. I had spent a lot of time to gain my qualification, in one of the most grueling years I had ever been through, and it didn't pay off. I've now decided to turn to other avenues - ie a blog!

So what can you expect to see on here? Well...

• Quick tips
• Hauls
• Empties
• Reviews
• Tutorials
• Advice
• Recipes
• Fashion

And the biggest benefit - all products will be cruelty free!

I am really excited to get into things and start making this blog into something more than a blank page. I really hope you all enjoy reading!

If there is anything that you would like me to post, feel free to pop me a request - either in a comment or via email.

Talk to you soon.

Loves always,
Kim