A Face Angel: how to get rid of makeup

I am slowly, but surely, making up with makeup. For one, it takes time to apply. I am no good at applying it, and even worse at getting it off. The fact that most of my work is on retreat (full face of makeup, hello, who are you?) if wearing makeup demands travelling with remover wipes and extra oil-based cleansers, you can forget it.

Environmentally-far-from-friendly, time-consuming and doesn’t  do the job properly anyway. I wake up in the morning still to a pair of panda eyes and lipstick on my top teeth. Then there’s the pile of wipes on the bedside table that look like Pete Burns went to town on.

Besides, if I need a pick me up then I do Facial Yoga Workout. That works wonders. For those too busy to do a full Facial Workout, watch the video below for 3 of my top Facial Exercises to combat wrinkles and start turning back the clock. If you’re a busy bee, then this is 3 minutes of your time that you should make. After a Facial Yoga Workout many people find that they do not need to apply as much makeup as they would normally.

For those occasions when I do want a face full, I’ve tried something new. Face Halo. They’re reusable, compact and chemical-free. Life is good again.

www.facehalo.com

Face Halo - The Modern Makeup Remover - works with either cold or warm water to loosen your makeup. Its HaloTech fibre strands reach deep into your pores to remove and trap makeup, giving your skin a healthy and invigorating clean in half the time. You don’t need to rub or scrub, and the pads are machine washable. And there’s one for the body too. You’ve thought of everything guys. You are angels.

Now that’s one way to get rid of makeup. Want a better foundation for your makeup? Work it out! Here is a 3-minute video below to work out the wrinkles in between your eyebrows, lips and bring elasticity back into the neck and jowls.

Facial Yoga, Facial Fitness - whatever the name, it's all Facial Exercise. And it is VERY beneficial for you and your skin.

Watch below for the Full Facial Yoga Workout - if you haven’t got time to watch it now, you can Save it For Later on YouTube :)

Ishga: so much more than water

Skincare is simple

Be consistent

I find it hard to make time to relax and take good care of my skin. Right now, at the age of 32, I am getting away with it. Only just. I remember my mum banging on at me 10 years ago about the importance of a skincare regime. That was back when I thought I was invincible. Back when I didn’t think I would ever have back pain, wrinkles, or a tendency to talk out loud whilst I write a text message. The soft traces of what will soon become my fully-fledged crow’s feet are a twinkling nod to the many joy-filled hours I have spent over the course of my life laughing with the friends with whom I have been blessed to have had these eye-creasing moments with. Endless laughs and incessant holidays have made less of a dent on my bank account than they have on my skin; I should have listened to mum and started Facial Exercise earlier. Still, it’s never too late, and it’s never too little.

Skincare done well can heal from both the outside and inside. You can use it for both prevent and reverse the signs of ageing. Let me tell you about my 3 most useful ways to relax and feed my skin, even for a girl who’s busy, travels light, and doesn’t like to waste money on products she knows she’ll never use up before their sell by date.

• hydration

• facial exercise

• pick or rotate your desert island product - currently Ishga

HYDRATION

Water is so important for your skin! It helps rid the body of toxins, keep skin clear and can give you a more radiant glow. You can learn more about what water does for your body in my article Effortless improvements in your fitness and body fat composition just by drinking enough WATER.

FACIAL EXERCISE

Facial Yoga, Facial Fitness, it has many different names but all boils down to the same thing: the face has muscles of its own and these can be worked to support healthier complexion and skin. Exercising the muscles of the face gives your skin a firmer foundation (which means less likelihood of wrinkles) and it increases blood flow to skin cells (more nutrients!) and lymphatic drainage. Working the muscles of your face is a vital health and beauty practice that is both preventative and can help reverse the signs of ageing. Our faces are on show far more than anything from the neck down. When we place so much importance on the appearance of our bodies, why not pay some attention to the muscles of the face?

If you’d like to know more about Facial Exercise, join me at The Yoga + Beauty Retreat next weekend 5th-7th April in the Cotswolds.

MY SKINCARE SAVIOURS: seaweed, sea salt and water

Seaweed is one of the world’s most naturally abundant sources of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, anti-oxidants and essential fatty acids. Seaweed extracts and powders deliver many anti-aging, hydrating and skin renewing properties.

Pure natural unrefined sea salt retains over sixty naturally occurring trace elements such as Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc. All of which are essential for good health and well-being. I love swimming in the ocean as the sea water it makes a clear difference to the appearance of both my skin and hair after a dip. Minerals found in seawater and natural anti-oxidants have anti-ageing properties which help nourish, hydrate and protect the skin.

If making sure I’ve drunk 8 glasses of water and doing the odd scrub and face mask makes me feel happier about the prospect of bumping into my ex boyfriend and his new lady in the shops, then that’s a sound reason to make sure I do it.

Ishga is an organic seaweed skincare brand from Scotland. Its name, Ishga, is derived from the Gaelic word for water. Every product is packed with Hebridean seaweed and sea-rich minerals from coastal waters surrounding the Outer Hebrides that are recognised as being amongst the most pristine in the world. They collect seawater from the surf as the waves break on many of the beautiful island beaches, and pure water from the Isle of Lewis’ blue-clay bottomed spring which, according to folklore had healing and therapeutic properties. This is hydration and nutrition on a cellular level (with a nod to its origin and keeping it ethically on fleek).

Is Body Image All About Mind Image?

Eight weeks ago I was asked to be a part of a project. This project offered me the opportunity to dress up in a vintage 1950s swimsuit, have my makeup done, and pose in an iconic luxury estate something akin to a Miami beach house in Oxfordshire. The catch? Well there was none really - I was working with a professional photographer and peers I consider friends yet I had no idea how uncomfortable I would feel until the moment I sat down by the pool in that gorgeous red vintage 1950s swimsuit at the time to pose. Yet not pose. And look cool, as well as perfect. This was the narrative in my mind.

Vikram Kushwah, incredibly talented fashion + art photographer, opens up the conversation about body image and does it with colour and integrity. His series ‘Women in Bathing Suits’ explores the subject of body image and diversity in the female form. In this series of portraits, the sitters - from various ethnic backgrounds and professions - shed light on how they perceive their bodies, as well as how the complexities of their form and/or societal ideas of beauty affect their psyches.

The photo was incredibly difficult to sit for - I felt self-conscious, awkward, self-conscious about my awkwardness!! It felt difficult to share this without berating the parts of myself I do not like.... which is ridiculous! Sharing my experience - as well as the series of photos Vikram took from the shoot - with my friends and peers gave me overwhelming insight and reassurance, that it’s not just me. I have read messages from both men and women who experience the same feelings of insecurity and self-beratement, equally without reason nor rationale. Here were my very honest thoughts about body image, and my reflections based on the responses that followed:

'A lot changes in the journey from how I see myself in the mirror to how I picture myself in my mind. Body image in my life has been something all-consuming. Sometimes I like what I see, but mostly I have berated my shape rather than celebrate it, the scars, the curves, lumps, blemishes, bumps. I don’t believe the problem is body image at all, it’s more “mind image”- the “not good enough” attitude that I think many of us women and men have adopted without respite.

Yet I do love my body. I am deeply grateful to be in this body. And I look after my body as best I can. I do criticise my body, most parts of it, regularly. Still, I know and love the body that is mine, and remind myself that this battle going on inside of me is happening in the minds of most of my peers, the strangers I pass on the street, even the models who walk into my yoga class. Yoga, dance and pranayama have helped me to be in my body, to let my mind go, and for a short moment that ridiculous concept “not good enough” is far, far away.'

~ Victoria Adams

As an aside, when Vikram asked me my swimsuit size, what I really wanted to say was

“could you order me 3 sizes in case it doesn’t fit me?”

I can’t remember what I actually said. I should also say that of the photos taken I was at my most natural and “beautiful” as far as I’m concerned in one of the outtakes, laughing and having fun with my friend Julie. I remember the moment it was taken. In that moment there was no photographer (in my mind) and no self-judgement, only an opportunity to laugh and be myself with my dear friend. I am so grateful to have this photo: in it I do not see two beautiful girls in swimsuits, I see friendship.

I don’t know where in my lifetime it came from, but there is so much pressure to look “perfect”. I’m not sure I really know what perfect means, or even how I’d know if I got there. I have scrutinised my photograph. I have picked it - me - apart and then blurred it all back together again to see its beauty. I am sure that many of you will relate to this screening and scrutinising, whether we’re talking about professional pics or Facebook tags. We all pick at ourselves, man or woman. Critical over body, over decisions we have made in our past, over decisions we haven’t even made yet in our future.

Would you speak to the person sat next to you on the train in the same way that you speak to yourself? As my grandmother said, they’d give you a slap what for! Yet we deem it acceptable to self-flagellate ourselves as if we were our worst enemy? I have sat with circles of men and women, and seen them brought to tears at being told how beautiful they are in their entireties, not just their physicality. In their eyes I see them release years, often decades, of grief that has been buried, churned and recycled to the point that it has effectively become a trauma. This trauma that we have lived with, and continue to live with, as if it needn’t be dealt with or even spoken of. Why? Is it because we know it is a misplaced cause to put so much pressure on ourselves? Do we know on a gut level that, really, we are enough “just as we are”? I don’t know how to answer this.

All I know is that we are losing the opportunity to connect with others on an authentic level because we are so all-consumed by worry and fear that we are “not good enough” in the eyes of others. When actually some of us have failed to connect because the ones deeming us not good enough ares our own Selves.

Lose your story. Trust that you are enough, and that the love you convey to and for yourself can spread and inspire the same in others. Do not stress, or self-flagellate: for every 5 minutes you’re upset, it takes 8 hours to get out of your body’s stress response. And that’s not good for the wrinkles ;)

Every time you use your voice, it sends out a message to every cell in your body, as well as to the people around you. Be grateful for your body - it has gotten you this far. When you are having “one of those days” remind yourself that this fight going on inside of you is probably going on inside the man or woman you just passed on the street, or inside of your “perfect” best friend, who was too embarrassed to talk about it, or too busy to stop to notice and practice self-care and self-love. If the concept of body image is about how our mind perceives our body, can we change the narrative that has taken us out of our bodies? How do we get out of our heads? How do we stop being so hard on ourselves?

Maybe it’s as simple as reminding others and, in the moment we point out to another, we come to the realisation in ourselves: we are all good enough.

Vikram and @julieelagrace thank you for the beauty in your work and in your friendship. Check out www.vikramkushwah.com for more portraits of the beautiful and inspiring women who took part in the shoot.

Please share this post if you wish, I would love to know your thoughts on body image, mind image, and the constant chatter that goes on inside our heads. You can reach me @victoriaadams on Instagram.