Guest Reviewer Needed for Xen-Tan

Hi! :)

I'd like to ask all of the readers of Navilicious Beauty if they would be interested in writing a guest review for the blog about Xen-Tan's Sunless Tan. I received a 30ml sample in this month's GlossyBox which unfortunately is of no use to me, so I thought of asking someone who will use it to review it for the blog!


Deep Bronze Luxe Weekly Self-Tan with instant colour for face and body - Dark.

 And here is what I'd like the review to include:

- Information about the product, where to buy in the UK and in your country if you're not from the UK, etc
- Images of the product, and before and after images
- Detail about the product in whichever format you think is best providing information on whether you like it or not

If you are interested please leave a comment below including the following:

- Your blog name/address

- Skin tone (fair/medium/dark)

- Whether you've used Xen-Tan before

- If you've used any self-tan product before

- Your e-mail address

If there are many comments I will use random.org to choose a comment promptly, if you have been chosen to review I will e-mail you by Monday 25th July 2011 and send the Xen-Tan to you.

Thank you so much for your help!

An Interesting Piece of Information...(Guest Post)

Hi!

This is a very interesting post that I've kindly been permitted to use as a guest post for my blog, by the lovely Colin from Colin's Beauty Pages.

I asked a question on twitter and got a very prompt and informative response, please read on...

"An interesting question from NavT who does the Beauty Blogging Away http://beautybloggingaway.blogspot.com/  blog.
Does regular cleansing, toning, moisturising thin the skin? :/ it feels like it does, and a lot more sensitive, thanku

Well it certainly can.

The topmost layer of the skin is called the stratum corneum.  This is incredibly thin - half the thickness of photocopier paper - while at the same time being an amazingly good barrier to nearly everything.

But it isn't completely indestructible.  The barrier properties are very dependent on a particular structure of the oils in the skin and these can be disrupted by too much of some of the ingredients of cleansers, toners and
moisturisers.  This can and does leave the skin dried out and sensitive.  I have done this to myself quite often when working on particular projects - particularly when I was starting out and didn't fully understand what I was doing. 

One strategy is to read blogs like this one and find out which ones are the worse and carefully seek out the fomulations that are mildest.  But it is probably easier just to not tone, cleanse and moisturise so much.  I imagine beauty bloggers might be some of the people who are most prone to overdoing it given the numbers of products they seem to try.  I love the enthusiasm but don't forget that you can have too much of a good thing."
I think we should all rush to Colin's blog and keep up with all this information! Although beauty blogging is great fun I think as is correctly pointed out we need to be very careful with what we use and how much of it we use!

Thank you so much for reading! :)

My Guest Post On Beauty Bloggings

My Guest Post on Jenn's lovely blog - Beauty Bloggings

Name: Nav :)

Blog: Beauty Blogging Away http://beautybloggingaway.blogspot.com/

A little about you: My nickname's Nav and I don't feel ready to reveal my full name to the internet just yet so I've stuck by that for everything on my blog. I'm 18 years old and addicted to all things fashion and beauty even though I considered myself to be the biggest tomboy type around when I was younger! I'm a bit of a science fanatic and I enjoy academia very much, I also tend to want to do and try everything so lists of things to achieve are very high at the minute...although my exercise routine has gone down considerably I do want to get back into shape and become a lot more healthier...finally I'm a bit of an insomniac...hope I haven't bored you already!

A little about your blog: My blog is obviously beauty based, but I'd like to expand a little into the fashion/book world too...I've started a "book club" on the blog and I hope you will be able to contribute! I mainly review products and I like to talk about general beauty/skincare related stuff too, and I've started a few features on there which I haven't been able to stick to because unfortunately I don't get 1st hand information on launches etc just yet! :) I'm not one to smooth over the terrible aspects of a product and all my reviews are 100% based on my interactions with the product itself.

Why did you start Blogging: I started blogging because I love to write, ever since I was a teeny toddler (or possibly older to be honest!) I've loved writing and I enjoy expressing myself with words. Beauty and skincare is something I gained an interest in at about 16 due to my terrible acne prone skin which thank goodness has now improved, but I find that I collect makeup items more so than use them on a daily basis, but I'm trying! So blogging is a form of relaxation for me too, I get to do what I enjoy and I love hearing about others experiences with the item on discussion. I also feel that I'd like to save people money by clearly pointing out the crappiest products ever! Not that I clearly damage the brand! LOL I think that the beauty industry has become so vast in the past couple of decades and it's difficult finding a product that you love and want to repurchase over and over again. I thought my blog might help with those major decisions! :)

Post: I was really struggling with what to post on this lovely blog as a guest post but now I think I've thought of something pretty important to most women. It's confidence. I've always had confidence in myself but never with the way I look. I'm not happy posting pictures of myself because there's always something too this or too that or not enough of that and so on. I always want to look better and when I do look average or nice, (in my opinion only), I realise that there's something inbetween my teeth or a tragic hair is out of place. My skintone hasn't been even since I was bout 8, because I got acne at a very young age and ever since then it's been a blemish haven for my face, besides the fact that my skin has improved, blemishes seem to come up whenever they fancy.

In terms of applying makeup to make myself look better, I've always enjoyed this and never made it a miserable task in a desperate attempt to look better, I understand that not everyone is going to look perfectly divine on all occasions and I feel that the media have made this more and more difficult for people to understand, especially younger women and teens. I've met and seen on television 12 year olds that are wearing makeup, to be honest I'm not sure why because they look great the way they are. Lipgloss is fine, maybe a little eyeliner, but I thought foundation was to even out skintone and the kids I've seen with it caked on have pretty perfect skin apart from the odd zit here and there.

I feel confidence is something very unique to each individual. Some will feel better with more makeup on and that's absolutely fine, because it's the way you feel about yourself, and if you're going to perform better in everything that you do, then why not? I personally find that achievement gives me confidence but I'm yet to find my confidence in my looks...I have found however, that if I make an effort on every single part of me I feel good, but I don't have the time to spend 2 hours getting ready every morning. If I've got a nice hairstyle, decent makeup, accessories and clothes I feel better about myself for sure, but time is an important factor and I think that's also why companies are bringing out multi-tasking products to help busy women feel great with their ever-increasing workloads!

Confidence is obviously a very important factor in our day to day lives, how do you feel about it? And what gives you confidence?

I don't want to bore everyone, and I hope this post was of interest to you, please do check out my blog, I would really appreciate it!

Thank you for reading, Nav x

Check out the Post on Beauty Bloggings here!