Post Baby Beauty and Makeup

Post Baby beauty

23/5/2017

Hello lovelies,

So last year I spent wedding season and into the winter months pregnant. I waddled with my kit all over the North East getting lots of brides ready for their big days. I finally hung my brushes up for a short while and had my son Harry, 8 days late on the 16th February weighing 7lbs & 7 ounces! It was the best day of mine and my husband's life and he is just the most perfect, happy little boy.

2 week old Harry - Image by the talented Jen Hart

I wanted to do a blog about this, firstly to let you know why I've been quiet but also I wanted to share with you some little tips/quick fixes on the postpartum side of Makeup and Beauty.

I am a first time Mum and certainly no expert but wanted to share some of my experience with you on this subject. I know a lot of my lovely brides have gone on to have babies and some who are currently expecting and felt I wanted to share this with you.

After labour, the sleepless nights and no longer having any time for yourself, these little things might make you feel just a bit like 'yourself' again!

Dry Body Brushing
Finding time to even just have a wash is difficult in the early days, but when I did I used a big body brush and scrubbed all my dry skin away. It makes your skin feel softer, but also helps to get rid of all those toxins, hormones and rubbish out of your body that has accumulated over 9 months. It totally kick starts the lymph system and gets rid of excess fluid of which you have a lot of after labour. It also wakes up your body, I felt particularly sluggish. It gives much needed energy, improves circulation and can start to help shift some of the baby weight! A Brucie bonus.

Skin and Hydration
The first thing that shows lack of sleep is your skin, fine lines become deeper, darkness under the eyes, spots and dryness can all make you look like death warmed up! The biggest thing you can do to help your skin is to make sure you drink water. You always make sure baby is fed but remembering to drink and feed yourself is difficult. Fill a big bottle and keep it with you and aim to drink it all every day. In addition to this moisturise and use something that is high in hyaluronic acid to flood your skin and help it retain moisture. An eye cream, especially one with a rollerball that you can keep in the fridge will take down puffiness, help to fight ageing by plumping fine lines, it will also improve the circulation in that area to make you look less tired.

5 Minute Makeup
No longer having the luxury of time to apply my makeup how I used to I totally slimmed down my daily routine. I changed products specifically to make it a simple, effective and a much quicker application. Swapping out powder products for creams is a great tip as you can use your fingers to apply, therefore it is speedier but they also give you that dewy glow that you now may be lacking!

Dewy skin equals healthy skin, making you look well rested and no one needs to know its totally false! BB creams are easy to wear during the day, or a light foundation, if you haven't got time just conceal areas where needed!

Multi-use products are also great and time saving such as cheek and lip tints for example. Stick applicators are great as you can literally draw them on and blend with your fingers. There are products available for all areas on the face such as cream eye shadows, blushers, contour, highlight and light reflective concealer pens really can make the difference for the eye area.

Curling your lashes can really help you look more awake if you have really limited time. LVL lashes are a treatment that perms and tints your lashes and lasts for up to 8 weeks, so you don't even have to worry about them on a morning, this is something I plan on getting!

One last thing, your body has just been through a massive ordeal, but you've done something amazing and brought life into the world! So if you aren't feeling too hot, give yourself a break and when someone offers to let you have a nap, a break or just 5 minutes - let them and look after yourself!

See below for some of my top postpartum beauty and makeup products. I hope you find them useful!

Much love

Laura
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