Ali Hamylton Cosmetics has had a long standing account with a pharmacy chain and they have gone into recievership.  Now I know that happens, businesses go bust all the time, but the process of receivership is really unfair. For example;

In this case all orders taken from December onward will not have to paid.  So the business, that could see it was going out of business at this late stage, has NO RESPONSIBILITY for the orders it made as the ship was sinking!  The blissfully ignorant business owners like Ali Hamylton that honored the order taken just sent the orders out...how does that work?!  Shouldn't the business that KNOWS it is going down the toilet be responsible for the most recent orders as much as the oldest?  If I KNOW I have no money, and I take my credit card to the local shopping center and have a ball, do you think the credit card company is going to say "that's cool, anything you bought in the last month doesn't count?  Not bloody likely!

In this case the larger accounts will be paid out first and the business is not responsible for paying out accounts under $2000. Wow, so if you are owed under $2000 forget it, you don't matter.  How does that work?!  Who decides which business needs those funds more than others?  I find bankruptcy laws so unfair.  That people can go out and reak havoc, going into debt all over the place, and then go into receivership or declare bankruptcy and then go on with their lives only having to pay a percentage of their mess.  Do you think the guy who owned the pharmacy chain has to give up is BMW, or his holiday house?  I'd be surprised, everything is more than likely in someone else's name.

I know this isn't relevant to how you do your makeup, it is just an issue that is a little up my nose.  I keep hearing all manner of excuses about why business is so challenged, that the GFC is effecting us all, that times are tough, that it's all Julia's fault...or in this case 'we didn't know this was going to happen'.  But surely, being an isolated country at the bottom of the world should benefit us.

I know I am niaeve and idealistic but how about we just try a couple of things on for size;

Support your local community; Buy your fruit and veg from your local green grocer or butcher instead of a large multinational supermarket, give gift vouchers for a local business instead of some mass-produced trinket made in China...haircuts, window tinting, makeovers, car services, dress shops, restaurants, cleaners... makeup web sites :) anything that someone would otherwise pay for themselves rather than a vase that will go into their cupboard.

Start a community food exchange; Find someone with chickens and swap eggs for fresh herbs from your garden.  A girlfriend of mines husband is a keen fisherman and she now swaps fish that he catches for veggies from her neighbours gardens, how local and fresh can you get!

Just give it a go, it is only our intention that needs to change...and as for the pharmacy chain where this little rant started, I am p'd off, it is a really tough start to the year, but Ali is a tough old bird who knows if you get pushed over 7 times you only need to get up 8.

Big Love,

Isn't it funny when you get to the stage in your life when you catch yourself consistently saying "when I was young..."?  I am well and truly there!  I find that I am talking about the differences between my childhood and that of my children all the time.  It's not as bad as "when I was young we didn't even have shoes", but it is more like..."when I was young there weren't so many preservatives in the food, when I was young there wasn't so much to watch on TV, when I was young hanging out with your friends meant going to the beach or the latest doozy... When I was young we weren't even allowed to wear makeup to school!"

The moment I said that I created a makeup monster.  You see, I said no makeup to school, so the makeup was put on at school, and slowly, slowly the makeup got heavier and heavier and heavier.  By judging whether or not the makeup should be worn, I missed the opportunity the teach HOW to wear the makeup.  It wasn't until one night when we took the kids out for a birthday dinner and I took a photo and saw my little makeup monster staring me in the face that I saw the error to my ways.  There she was, foundation too heavy, wrong colour, no blush so looking pasty and a little ill, tooooooo much eye liner (what is it with teenagers and eye liner?!) and covered in pimples from not cleansing properly...I was ashamed of myself.  Here I was being pious and missing out on something fantastic.  So we finally sat down and had that "makeup for school" lesson.  One of those if you cant beat 'em, join 'em moments.

The first thing we did was cover how to remove your makeup properly.  She took a little bit of convincing, all her friends said that using an oil on your face is bad, and they should know!  I mean who am I with my 20+ years of experience, what would I know?  But she listened and tried the coconut oil out.  It took two weeks and a couple of amazing breakouts, but after that her skin was clear as a bell (and believe me bells are clear!).  So take a look at my skin care blog for that lesson.

Then we covered foundation.  The very best foundation to wear for school is the dual finish, applied with a brush.  No concealer, that is just too obvious.  The dual finish with a brush is soft, subtle and gives you just enough coverage.  If you need a little help with colour matching, or if your daughter needs more coverage than that for school then send me a photo and I can design something specific for her.

Then we went on to the blush explanation.  The thing is, if you wear a foundation you must wear a blush.  The funny thing is you end up looking like you have less makeup on if you do...wear more to look like less.  Wearing foundation takes all of the natural colours out of your face, mainly the colours that you don't want which is good, but you have to put the good colours back. Sydney is a perfect, soft blush just for this purpose.  It's not too peachy or pink and no shimmer to catch the sunlight, just a natural shade of warmth (if warmth is a shade!).  Apply a little to the apple of the cheek, (that's the front of the cheek bone, stand in front of the mirror and give yourself a huge grin and you will see the two little apples I am talking about), and then blend in small circular motions back toward your ear.  Be careful here, we don't want stripes, remember we are going for subtle.

Now, as much as they will protest, no bronzer!  The shimmer monster is in that bronzer, and this is the culprit that will get your girl busted for wearing makeup at school.  Bronzer out of school is great, add a little extra life and glow to the face is brilliant!

Now for the eyes.  My suggestion is to have groomed brows and lashes.  You can do this yourselves, just watch my video on how to tint and shape your brows, and also to have a regular eyelash tint, this way we don't need much mascara to get the definition that she will be looking for.  Then I would use a soft, subtle, brown liner.  Get as close to the lashes as possible with a sharp pencil, put a fine line on the outer 3rd and then blend it with a cotton bud.  Then curl the lashes and put a very small amount of mascara on the outer tips.  Finally a little bit of lip balm and voila! Beautiful, soft, virtually undetectable makeup.

I hope this helps you, let me know how you go.

So what do I do for skin care?  Well, I do my best to keep it as natural and simple as possible.

  My makeup remover/cleanser of choice is 100% pure Coconut Oil.  I can hear gasps of fear emanating from my readers…. "I'm not going to use an oil on my face!"  But don't be so quick to make that decision.  Coconut oil is a miracle product if ever there was one.  And the very next product in the Ali skin care range would be just that, 100% pure, cold pressed coconut oil... who knows, might not be as far away as it sounds.

There have been all kinds of accusations of the poor coconut.  Once upon a time it was believed to be bad for your heart because of its high saturated fat content, but it has now been proven to help prevent heart attacks, not cause them!  But what has that got to do with my skin you may ask… well, coconut oil is really high in Lauric Acid, it's 50% lauric acid actually!  And when lauric acid is present in the body it is converted to monolaurin, a monoglyceride that exhibits antiviral, antimicrobial, antiprotozoal and antifungal properties.

So what does this mean to your skin?  Well most acne is caused by bacterial infection especially if we pick that spot (which we say we don't/wont but we always do!) and then it gets red and inflamed.  So ideally we would eat more coconut oil to keep our monolaurin levels high, but even when it is present on the skin coconut oil does all of these things as well as being moisturising!  WOW!

I use about a teaspoon of oil on a warm, damp face and gently rub it all over my skin, through my makeup until I look like something scary, and then I wipe it off with a wet microfibre cloth.  I use a microfibre cloth as these little wonders not only gently remove all of that makeup, they also slough off dead, flakey skin so you can kiss that scrub goodbye, no need for that extra step!  After that I splash some extra water over my face to get any excess off.  Now, while it is still wet your skin is going to feel like it's oily, but fear not, as soon as you dry it voile it will feel super clean and so, so soft.

After that I go to bed, no night cream for me :)  According to Dr Haushka "The skin is most active at night and 'night creams' do not allow the skin to breathe and detoxify naturally. They can actually be counterproductive. Before sleeping the skin should be simply hydrated, cleansed, then conditioned or toned."  Now, I don't tone because when you cleanse with Coconut oil the ph level of your skin balances out over time, but if you are a mad keen toner then it's totally up to you (to me it is just another unnecessary expense and step).

Then, in the morning I cleanse again… you would be amazed at what comes out of your skin at night!  After that I moisturise with Phyts Creme Ylang on my face and Phyts Fluid Contours around my eyes. What a beautiful product Phyts is, the efficacy of their certified organic range is amazing, and the Creme Ylang is so soft and gentle that my ridiculously sensitive skin doesn't go crazy with it!  There are heaps of fantastic moisturisers to choose from in this range, ones that hydrate, oxygenate, deal with rosacea… you name it.  If you would like a hand in choosing one that would be right for you drop me an email and let me know about your skin I would be more than happy to help.  I have to admit, I have been a big part of fixing MANY skin care problems with this simple process.

You can buy good coconut oil from most health food stores, make sure it is cold pressed and preferably organic.   Not that I think organic is the be all and end all of everything, quite the contrary, I truly think that there is a whole lot of hog wash that goes along with the "organic" industry as I don’t believe that the cost of production is as much as the increase in price, but when you buy an organic cold pressed coconut oil it hasn't been heated and no chemicals have been used to extract the oil so you know you are getting the good stuff for your skin.  You can buy microfibre cloths from Bunnings if you like, I do as they sell them in bulk packs.  I buy a pack of 10 every few months.  And you can buy Phyts by clicking on the Creme Ylang image or through the following link;

http://www.phyts.com.au

I hope this has been helpful for you, let me know how you go with it, you will have to commit to it for at least 6 weeks to get some true results, I look forward to hearing your success stories!

You will get your Starlight, Mascara and pencil for $49.95... that's a saving of $15.90, nothing to be sneezed at this winter :)  Just click on the Buy It Now below and it will all be done for you.

***Buy It Now***

Happy Winter!

It is official, all orders over $100 (before GST) will get Free Express Shipping... so why pay for Australia Post when you can get a lip balm, or an eye pencil!  I know that is what I would do.

HAPPY SHOPPING!

We finally have our first venture into the realm of organic skin care :)  And what better place to start than a lip balm, considering that the majority of what goes on our lips ends up in our stomach!

Ali's lip balm is made from;

• Olive Oil - I am pretty sure you will all know what this is.

• Bee's Wax - And this... makes it smell like honey too.

• Shea Butter - And this too :)

• Rhus Verniciflua - In case you didn't know (which I didn't) Rhus Verniciflua Peel Wax is a wax obtained from the peel of the fruit of Rhus Verniciflua... which is also known as the fruit of the Japanese Sumac.

• Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax - Carnauba wax is extracted from the leaves of the Carnauba palm, Copernicia Cerifera, a plant native to Brazil.

• Ascorbyl Palmitate - Ascorbyl Palmitate is a compound composed of of Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) and palmitic acid, a naturally occurring fatty acid.

• Vitamin E

• Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil - Sunflower Seed Oil

All of these ingredients are certified 100% organic with a NaTrue Certification, so if you wanted you could truly eat it... not that I recommend that! Better to put it on your lips as it is smooth, silky and hydrating with a soft, honey aroma.

AND now for the very best part!  To celebrate this new venture I am going to give it to you to try!  From now til the end of February, spend $60 or more and you will get a free full size sample of the new lip balm (Valued at $9.95).  Easy for me to do because I know you will be hooked for life :)

Happy Shopping to you all,

Paul and Me with our long boards.

Paul and I want to let you know that we wish you all the happiness that you could ever imagine this year and that laughter is ringing in your ears!  Happy New Year to all.

PS.  Stay tuned for Ali's new, totally organic lip balm! Kxxx

It is that time of year... the 10 days I have been looking forward to for sooooo long.  I am going to be out of the office until the 2nd of January so your orders wont be processed until I get back.

I hope you all have a SUPER CHRISTMAS and a wonderful New Years celebration.

Much love to you all, and look forward to seeing you next year.

Woohoo!