Product Review: Altilis Beauty

Hello My Dear Readers,

I have been on a roll when it comes to my skincare. Not because I am wearing less makeup— but I am loving how the skin looks on my makeup free days. I have been experimenting with a few products for some time. I like to really take my time when it comes to reviewing skin care items. It takes more than two weeks to effectively see if a certain moisturizer or serum is in fact working.

Today I am reviewing the indie brand Altilis Beauty Line. I bought the entire line a few months back and it is all I have been using on my face. I learned about the brand back when it was still owned and operated by Kenna Whitnell who does have her own YouTube channel. She did a video that provided viewers with an in depth look at her skincare line. She mentioned that her skincare line uses breadfruit and other sustainable ingredients proven to help your skin. I like that the line was created using a natural extract which was being sourced sustainably and given Kenna’s background as a chemist, I decided to give it try.

The entire line which is listed as Infloressence on the website. It comes with the cleanser, the serum and the moisturizer that can be used both day and night. At the time of my purchased, this cost me about $80. Since then, it seems that the price has gone up and it is currently listed on their website for around $90.99. Another big change, Kenna no longer owns the Altilis Beauty line. She made a YouTube video revealing why she parted ways with the line that she created.

I tried really hard to love this line… but the products somehow made my skin drier than normal. The cleanser worked fine, it doesn’t feel like it leaves my skin too stripped. The biggest issue that I had was with the serum and the moisturizer. The serum feels a little too emollient and almost greasy. I did not like the feeling of it at all on my skin. I would wait about a minute to let it absorb into my skin, but the greasy feeling was still there. I added the moisturizer and it didn’t feel like I was putting anything on my skin. Despite feeling greasy, it didn’t feel like I was adding the ingredients needed to really give my skin the much needed moisture. It felt greasy while and tight at the same time. I needed to add a little of my “Good Molecules Squalane Oil” to really feel like I was adding moisture.

Since, I spent $80 on this line, I kept using them while waiting for my skin to get used to the new ingredients. Sadly, it was a lot of the same thing. Greasy while also still managing to feel really dehydrated. I found this really bizarre because on the website, the products are promoted as helping to restore the skin’s natural moisture barrier. I imagine that my skin simply did not like the breadfruit ingredient or it just didn’t have what I needed for my dehydrated skin. For those who have a sensitivity to smells, there is a bit of a smell that is almost acidic. I can quite place my finger on it so I assume it’s simply a smell from the breadfruit flower.

I have used up all of products in this line—and I will definitely not be repurchasing. The ingredients just didn’t react well to my skin type. While I didn’t make me break out in any way—just the state of my skin took a turn for the worse and this line is all I have been using. My skin got so dry that I needed to find a sleeping mask to somehow add some moisture to my skin. This is how I found the Laneige sleeping mask and the toner that helped with my skin.

My advice to you, I would purchase the samples first to do a little trial run and see if it works for your particular skin type. Remember, just because it didn’t work for me doesn’t mean it will not work for you.

I hope you found this blog post useful. As always I hope you guys are staying healthy. If you guys have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment.

Much love as always,

-Kat

Quick And Easy Makeup Brush Spot Cleaner

Hello Everyone!

It has been a while since my last beauty post and I apologize. My work schedule became a little hectic and when I was not working, I was trying to catch up on sleep! In case you did not know I work for a local television station as an Assistant Producer so I wake up really early!  But now I am back on track and I have product reviews coming up as well as makeup looks and so much more!

Now, I love using makeup brushes but I am not a fan of cleaning them up afterwards. I must admit I slacked off quite a bit in the “cleaning the brushes” department and I had to dedicate one day out of my week just to deep clean all of them!  After doing a little bit research I realized how unhealthy and unsanitary not spot cleaning your makeup brushes was! Especially the foundation brushes or any other brushes you use to apply any face product.

The buildup of bacteria can not only contaminate your makeup but also cause breakout on your skin and even blemishes! YUCK! Now, I must admit I was not of fan up buying any makeup brush cleaner because they can really hurt your budget, so I began to research a natural and inexpensive way to clean my makeup brushes. The ingredients are quite simple: all you will need is Isopropyl Alcohol ( the higher the alcohol percentage the better), Tea Tree oil, and an empty spray bottle.

If you haven’t used tea tree oil before be warned the smell is quite strong! Tea tree oil kills bacteria naturally and is quite effective as a antibacterial to use deluted on break outs and those bothersome piercings!

Now once you have your ingredients you will want to add 1/3 of the tea tree oil to your spay bottle and fill the rest of it up with the alcohol. I used the 91%. If it appears murky at first give it a good shake and wait for it to clear! You may want to label your spray bottle as a reminder it is your makeup brush spot cleaner.

grab a paper towel spay it on there and begin to clean your brushes away!

This works wonders and the tea tree oil will continue to disinfect your makeup brushes as they dry. This is perfectly safe to use on natural brushes and synthetic. I purchased the tea tree oil at Trader Joes and the alcohol at my local drugstore.

I hope you guys give this a try, trust me I love this spray and it makes the cleaning process so much easier. Until next time my dearies, take care!

-Kat

oh! if you try it let me know your thoughts!