Beauty and Skin Care, Lifestyle

Beauty Finds: Translucent Loose Powder, Charlotte Tilbury, Nude by Nature, Lily Lola & Honest Beauty

by natjtanLeave a Comment on Beauty Finds: Translucent Loose Powder, Charlotte Tilbury, Nude by Nature, Lily Lola & Honest Beauty

Summer’s here and so is keeping oil slicks at bay. The last 2 summer’s I’ve been trying to finds a translucent talc free, due to talc being possibly carcinogenic, silicone free loose powder to keep the shine at bay. I don’t use primer as I don’t want another product wanting to clog my skin and I want a little shine as I don’t like the all matte look. 

In the winter I skip powder however however when the heat and humidity arrives, forget dewy skin. This girl has a full on oily slick look. I have learnt to work with my oil skin not fight it. Finding the right moisturiser helps as does BB cream or tinted foundation. For the days when I know full oil slick’s inevitable I like a little loose powder on my T zone. Loose cruelty free, petroleum (aka plastic) ingredient powders for some reason are more expensive than pressed power and harder to find. Or maybe I looked in the wrong place. Out of the four I tried, only one is now in use and even then I’m thinking shine is down to the products underneath and keeping hydrated. Excessive shiny oily skin is often down to being dehydrated. I should also point out I don’t bake. Too many lines and I only do BB cream or lightweight foundation.

With all my cosmetics I like cruelty free, vegan if possible, clean ingredients, natural ingredients. No nasty toxic ingredients like petroleum and it’s alias (3rd or 4th generation I sometime use depending on ewg.com), parabens, SLS’s, phthalates,  etc. I try to avoid palm oil as I prefer orangutans having forests. With skincare it’s easier, with make up it’s harder. My skin type is oily, sensitive, acne and yes, now anti ageing as those lines…

Charlotte Tilbury Charlottes Genius Magic Powder Under Eye and Face 1 Fair

Soft focusing light defusing loose powder

A genius, light diffusing loose powder that blurs, visibly reduces dark shadows and boosts radiance. Use all over face, matching skin tone for an enhanced complexion or a lighter shade for under eyes for a brightening effect.

I wanted to try something by Charlotte Tilbury. She’d launched a little earlier in Sephora Spain and I’d been hearing so much on YouTube by beauty YouTuber’s I no longer watch about her line. I wanted a translucent powder but I also wanted to try one of her products. I’d checked out reviews before and should have left it on the shelf. The sales assistant said even though it’s not translucent as the range then didn’t have one (maybe they do now) being ‘fair’, it’s the right shade for me. You know I ignored that little voice that said no.

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Lifestyle, Nature, Photography, Travel

Muir Woods and Muir Woods National Monument

by natjtan2 Comments on Muir Woods and Muir Woods National Monument

You can’t go to Northern California and not take time out to checkout Redwoods and Sequoias some of Earth’s oldest and tallest trees! On holiday vaccay easier this year to San Francisco, Hawaii and the Big Sur, we wanted to see for ourselves these amazing trees. 

Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks were under snow and when P looked to see how far Hawaii was from California, Hawaii won. Luckily just north of San Francisco is Muir Woods and Muir Woods National Monument, a National Park filled with Coast Redwoods and Giant Sequoias. 

Most of the photos are noisy with ISO as it was my first time shooting in such light. I wasn’t sure of the levels shutter speed or aperture so please excuse the noise and look of some photos.  As usual I’m a bad editor cutting down photos.

If driving there you have to book up in advance the parking ticket. No advance ticket, no entry. About 1-2km from the park are signs reminding you last chance to book up before as there’s no mobile or wifi coverage once in the park. Parking is $8.50, entrance $15 per person. Under 15’s free. A shuttle bus is available from near by towns.

The main show is the monument, a mostly boarded loop trail in the thickest darkest part of the forest. Redwoods are the stars here. I wanted to do the Panoramic Trail (once the ocean view walk before the trees grew blocking the vista) however time was an issue before the park closed. A ranger recommend the Canopy trail, a 4.8km/3mi approx 2 hours hike that connects with Lost Trail and and part of Fern Creek trail looping back to the entrance. He mentioned it’s great for lefties. Being mixed handed I loved the trial until it looped back in favour of righties. The path flowed. We got there around midday on a Sunday with the trial already getting busy. If you want peace and quiet, no human voices go early. It was so obvious we were the tourists in our winter coats while the locals were in t-shirts and tank tops. No way was it warm enough! It was the same temps as back in Barcelona and everybody there was in winter coats.

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Inspiration, Nature

May 2020 Flower Moon

by natjtanLeave a Comment on May 2020 Flower Moon

The best month of spring is May. Not only because it’s my birthday month, flowers start blossoming letting you know summer’s a month away hence May’s full moon name, Flower Moon.

This May it was extra special being the last of 2020 super moons (when it’s closer to Earth making it look bigger) and the first moon of some sort of freedom from Spain’s covid-19 lockdown. We were finally allowed outside to exercise! Okay, it was age time slotted freedom, but we were allowed out after 7 weeks cooped up. Flower Freedom Moon.

I didn’t take many photos of May’s moon phases. Like April’s Pink Moon they’re a little same same. No trees, building framing la luna. I’ve included this month some of the wildflowers that the councils didn’t cut due to the lockdown and sunrises. Some thing a little different. 

Birthday Moon

May’s other moon names include Mother’s Moon, Milk Moon, Corn Planting Moon.

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Lifestyle, Recycle Less

Detergent Free, Eco Friendly Laundry: Eco Egg vs Magnesium Pellets

by natjtan2 Comments on Detergent Free, Eco Friendly Laundry: Eco Egg vs Magnesium Pellets

Having eczema sensitive skin I always opt for environmentally friendly laundry detergent that’s fragrance free. Eco friendly as I care about nature, fragrance free and harsh toxic, chemical free as I never know when I have a bad flare up usually once a year what caused it. 

Ecoegg

I used the laundry Ecoegg for about a year and as promised an update on its use. It was fine for the first few months, then I started not to be happy with it. It’s cheap. I only paid about €15-20 inc shipping for refills throughout the year which is great. I for sure noticed I wasn’t buying laundry detergent every month and the pennies saved. The white balls are mystery however they are harmful chemical free, biodegradable and vegan which react with the water. The black tourmaline pellets to lift stains by energising the water. Ecoegg state what the tourmaline pellets do, but I find it shady they don’t mention what the white pellets are made of. I did find one site that listed the ingredients but as it’s not Ecoegg themselves I can’t be sure it’s the complete list of ingredients. They recommend disposing of the used white pellets in the bin as they haven’t been tested on wildlife or plants (so how eco friendly? The ingredients separately are? Together are? They contradict themselves here by saying not harmful to aquatic life). I think for light washes it’s okay and at low temperatures. However it’s not great on whites, leaving them grey. It also washes out colours from clothes. This could be the dye, cheap clothes but after one wash, lighter colours such as pinks, greens they started to fade noticeably after just one wash (see photo below). It could also have been that my washing machine died this year and wasn’t washing as good as previous.

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Animal Kingdom, Nature, Photography

The Magic of Parc de la Ciutadella

by natjtan6 Comments on The Magic of Parc de la Ciutadella

The past few weeks during time slotted exercise hours I switched the coast for the park. As much as I love the sea I needed some greenery!

It was a little emotional my first ride cycling past the zoo and around Parc de la Ciutadella. After 7 weeks lockdown indoors, 2 week cycling up the coast, then being hit with greenery, birds singing and flying everywhere, I nearly burst into tears. I had missed what being outside surrounded by trees not just the sea felt like, how I missed being surrounded by nature. Now we’re in phase 2 the beaches are open to sunbathe and take a dip, exercise hours dropped save the over 70’s time slots, we’re allowed to go outside as many times as we want. That said the park only has it’s peaceful magic in the mornings. The afternoons and evenings the place gets loud with humans. When I can I’ll still take my early morning bike rides to the park for its quietness. I get to see the sea up close cycling there and back. That is until the zoo opens where when everybody’s at the beach if you time it right it’s like you have the place to yourself (my view on zoos here) when I can do both the beach and zoo. A little balance of both.

The ducks and geese early morning like to preen and sunbathe as do the turtles. Later on in the day I’ve noticed they either hang around the easy spot for food or take a nap.

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