My Autumn/Winter Essentials So Far - B xo

So I’ve seen LOADS of people posting their Autumn/Winter Favourites/Essentials already this year, and every time I see one, I think to myself; wow. It’s only just really started to get yucky weather wise (In the UK anyway). So while I have a few bits that I would class as Autumn/Winter Essentials, I want to make it clear to everyone that these may change, or get added to, as Winter goes on! Okay, here we go.

We’ll go to skincare for my first product. It is, of course, Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. You all know by now that I am head over heels in love with this product. Since I started using it a few months ago, I have not strayed from the path, I have been completely faithful. I haven’t even been tempted to stray. This is probably my favourite skincare discovery ever. I started using it in the summer and I’ll be honest, I did wonder if it would work as well for me in the colder months, as skin needs change depending on the weather. I had nothing to be worried about. I’ve used this constantly and had no problems whatsoever. Far from it, my skin has improved dramatically compared to before Liz Earle waltzed into my life. It removes every scrap of makeup with minimal effort and leaves my skin feeling quite frankly, luscious. At £13.25 for a 100ml bottle (more than I think I have ever paid for a skincare product, constantly at least) at first glance this may seem a bit expensive (to those of us that rely heavily on high street products). However, once you have tried this product, you will realise that you have got yourself an absolute bargain. You can’t afford NOT to buy it!

My next Autumn/Winter Essential is also of the skin care theme. It is… Astral Moisturiser! I am a bit of a moisturiser whore, I don’t mind admitting. I flit from product to product, never really finding anything that really floats my boat and just plodding along with products I deem average at best. When I ran out of my little Liz Earle moisturiser (which was really nice, just not for me), I was at a loss as for where to head next in my ever long moisturiser quest. Then one day when I went into Superdrug for a browse, I spotted this on display at the front of the shop. I recognised it immediately as a product that my aunty used to use. It was her holy grail of skincare, and I remember seeing it in her bathroom from when I was a tiny toddler to when she died. And as if that wasn’t enough of a sign, it was on offer. I think I paid £3.50 for a 500ml tub (or something along those lines). I LOVE this moisturiser. And I really never thought I would say that, but it is fantastic. My skin gets dehydrated quite quickly, but once moisture has been restored, it’s okay. This means that I normally struggle to find a moisturiser that deals with both skin situations. This does it, no problem. It goes on smoothly, sinks in to the skin beautifully and has left my skin feeling soft and radiant. I’m VERY impressed. And as it is getting colder here in the UK my skin needs a bit more help. I don’t imagine I will be leaving this behind any time soon.

Moving on from skincare to hair, another thing I would be lost without this winter, is Aussie Miracle Moist Shampoo. Again, this tends to be a little bit more pricey than the kind of shampoo that I used to buy but after using it religiously for a few months now (I’m getting much better at this sticking with products thing), I can totally see why. I tend to try and wait until I see this on offer to buy it, but regardless, it is definitely worth the price tag. No matter what I do to my hair, it is always dry. Before I started using Aussie, it would often be so dry that I had to condition for about 10 minutes before I could even dream of getting a brush through it. I have no more of that. The condition of my hair has really improved since I’ve stuck to this shampoo, and it smells gorgeous too!

My next product, is a fairly recent discovery. However, it’s one of those things that everyone has been raving about for ages and I’m just late to the party. It is, of course, the Revlon Colourburst Lip Butters. There has been SO much hype around these, I thought, I just can’t hold out any longer. These are around the £7 mark, depending on where you buy them and whether they’re included in some sort of offer. A little pricey for what seems at first glance to be basically a lip balm. Or so I thought. I was wrong. At first, I didn’t really get this product. Now that I do, I absolutely love it. The formulation of these are quite unique. They apply like a balm, but have the pigmentation of a lipstick. I find these to be uber hydrating and lovely, they make my lips feel gorgeous. The shade range is VERY impressive, although a lot of high street shops don’t stock them all. The staying power isn’t great, but as this isn’t actually a lipstick, I’m fine with that. The only negative comment I have about these is the packaging. I don’t like it. It seems cheap and impractical and just, not to my taste at all. Apart from that, I think these are brilliant. Definitely worth the hype and I hope to be expanding my collection sometime soon.

Have you guys got any products you'd be totally lost without in the Autumn(Fall)/Winter Months? Let us know in the comments below :)

B xo

August Monthly Favourites - B.

I have quite a few things to talk about this monthly favourite’s post. In fact, August has been such a good month for new discoveries that I had to be quite brutal with what made the cut for my favourites! There are of course some months where you stick to your old faithful products, or just don’t find anything new that you like. This month I’ve been a bit more adventurous (and naughty with my pennies) than normal, and it has definitely paid off.

The first thing I need to talk about is of course, Liz Earle skin products. I know, I know, we’re a bit late to the party on this one. All of our favourite youtubers/bloggers have spoken about this at one time or another, and I’ve been wanting to try it for a long time. After using up what was left of my Dermalogica skin care bits, I decided to take the plunge into the world of Liz Earle. So during a shopping trip to Liverpool, I popped into Debenhams to speak to a lady at the counter about it. I could have just ordered online, but I wanted to have a chat to the SA and see if she had any advice/general product information. I must say that the lady was lovely. I find that some assistants at beauty counters have no interest in matching you to the right product, they just want a sale. This experience was the complete opposite, and I came away feeling that I had the perfect product for me. I bought the cleanse and polish starter kit. This is basically a travel bag of sample sized products to try out and see whether they suit your skin, before you invest in full size versions. It contains cleanse and polish hot cloth cleanser, instant boost skin tonic, skin repair moisturiser for normal to combination skin, and two muslin clothes. I think I paid £21 for this, which I thought was reasonable. The lady at the counter told me that these should last me around 2 weeks and by then I would know for sure whether I liked the products, if my skin liked them, and if the type of moisturiser was right for me.

I admit, I was a little sceptical. I had literally not heard a bad word said about cleanse and polish and I thought, surely this product cannot be THAT good. I was completely wrong. This product really is THAT good. In fact, it’s not good. It’s amazing. I have tried pretty much every kind of makeup remover/facewash type product you can possibly imagine and I have never known anything to be as lovely as this. I wear quite a lot of eye makeup on a daily basis, and I have quite sensitive eyes. So I thought, there is just no way that this is going to get all of my makeup off and not sting my eyes or take a mammoth amount of scrubbing. The instructions say to take a small amount (the full sized version says one pump) of cleanse and polish and rub it into your skin, makeup still on. You then take your dry muslin cloth, wet it in warm water, and wipe off. The muslin cloth acts as a gentle exfoliator for your skin. This really works. It removes all of my makeup, every last scrap. Even my waterproof mascara. It also leaves my skin feeling gorgeous. I’ve noticed such a difference in a very short space of time. It’s so quick and easy that I have no excuse not to do it. I’ve also been following up my cleanse and polish routine with the skin tonic and the moisturiser and my skin feels amazing. I really cannot recommend this product enough – I sent Sam a mini to try as I wanted to share the discovery! She has done her own mini review in her monthly favourites video, go and check it out on our youtube channel! 

My second favourite of the month is something I picked up whilst shopping with Sam a few weeks ago. We popped into boots and they had a 3 for the price of 2 offer on Soap and Glory. I know this is a brand that a lot of you out there love, but I had never really tried before. Sam herself uses some of their products so we chose a few for me to try out. I bought the butter yourself body cream, sugar crush body scrub, and the smoothie star deep moisturising body milk. Whilst I have been enjoying all of these products, one of them stands out miles ahead of the others. I absolutely adore the body milk, it is seriously one of the best moisturisers I have ever used. The smell of oats, yoghurt, honey and cocoa butter will not be for everybody but I think it is utterly devine. It sinks into the skin so beautifully and the smell lasts really well. The consistency is lovely, not too thick, and it doesn’t take too long to dry in. I get some patches of eczema and this has cleared them right up. I used to be quite lazy with moisturising, but since this product came into my life I’ve been using it religiously, night and day. This product is a little bit more expensive than the kind of moisturiser I used to buy, but not so much that it would be classed as high end. And yet, it feels like a luxury when you apply it, and throughout the day. My skin feels soft and smells so lovely, it’s so pampering. Well worth the £10 price tag – I love it!

YSL touché éclat. If you know me at all you will know that this has been on my wish list for a looooong time. I had my birthday last week and was lucky enough to be bought the highlighter – I was so excited! I have used this product every day since I was given it; it is amazing. Seriously the best highlighter I have ever used. It’s so subtle, but the glow that it gives your skin is really beautiful. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure if I’m using it right, I’m still getting to grips with it. I apply it under my eyes, down my nose and just above the top of my lip line. It really does make my skin look so healthy and…well, glowing. The packaging is really lovely as well and although this is definitely a luxury purchase I feel that it is worth the money and I will be buying again when mine is all gone.

<My last but certainly not least favourite of this month is a bit of a sentimental one. Now obviously this isn’t a monthly thing, Sam is one of my favourite things all year round but I feel like I should mention her now. As some of you may know if you’ve watched our first vlog, we didn’t meet in the most conventional circumstances. But since then, we have become so close, she’s my best friend. That title isn’t really enough for her; she is an amazing girl. We’re so alike it’s scary. We get on so well, and she knows me better than anybody. She’s always been there for me, even when I’ve been a cow or I’ve made stupid decisions or whatever, she’s never given up on me. Similarly, she knows that she’s pretty much stuck with me for life and there is nothing that I wouldn’t do for her. Sam is one of my favourite ever human beings and that is why she is here, in my monthly favourites. Love you, S. xxo

B x

Elemis Tri-Enzyme Resurfacing Gel Mask

After me sending them an email Elemis sent me some sample sachets through the post, including two sachets of their Tri-Enzyme Resurfacing Gel Mask. I tried it and absolutely loved it and was devastated when I used both sachets up. I always meant to get a bottle and completely forgot, but then in an odd turn of events when I was cleaning my wardrobe out this weekend I found a tube in the bottom I'd obviously acquired somewhere along the way and thrown at the bottom of a pile without trying. Yay for unexpected surprises!

Finding this has had me falling in love with it all over again. It comes out as a clear gel that smells sweet and almost citrus-ey. You need very little to cover your entire face (excluding mouth and eyes) then you leave it on for ten to fifteen minutes (consider this time an excuse to lie back in the bath and flick through our blog...). When on the skin this has a really weird feeling, it tingles as it dries and it feels for all the world like when you breathe in cold air after eating a mint, which isn't a bad thing given that it really reassure me that it's working. After this simply wash off (use a flannel, if you use your hands it seems to just re-moisten the mask), then do whatever you normally would do.

I'm usually pretty dubious about face masks, I've had ones that make me break out, ones that smell horrible and ones that literally just don't work, but this smells lovely and seems to leave me with clean, shiny, fresh skin. At £48 this isn't a cheap product, but given that it's a once a week ritual I'd say it's definitely worth the money, I'll be repurchasing when I've used up all the samples I can get my hands on!

Sammy xo

Figs & Rouge Cherry Blossom

Anyone who read our June Glossybox post will know that I tried Figs and Rouge lip balm in Coco-Rose and I just... despised it. I love the packaging, I loved the colour and the shimmer and the way it made my lips taste but I could not get over the taste which was just like biting into paracetamol and it literally made me heave.

However, I wanted to love the company and so I found myself ordering the Cherry Blossom version of the lip balm. I thought all that needed to be sorted was the taste, so logically the Cherry Blossom would have everything I loved about Coco Rose only with a nice taste, but I was a little disappointed. The taste is ten million times better and tastes for all the world like red powerade, but there is no sheen to the lip tint, one of the things I loved about Coco Rose. The packaging is sweet, but not as retro as Coco Rose and the texture is a lot more like jelly, making it much harder to apply especially using the tube straight onto the lip.

I will be trying the Mocha Orange version, because I really want to find one of these products that I love everything about, but I can't help feeling like between these two I have to pick between the look and ease of use of the products and the taste, because neither product has all three aspects, at least not in my opinion.

I love this company, but none of their lip tints so far have captured my heart quite like I wished they would. Watch this space, I'll review the mocha orange version as soon as I get the chance to try it.

Sammy xo

Vaseline Spray & Go Body Moisturiser

I'm a moisturiser junkie, no doubt about it. I tend to buy any that are on offer, and that means that I usually have drawers and drawers full of bottles I've used literally once. Having said that, I couldn't just walk past when I saw Vaseline Spray & Go (£4.99/190ml and only available in Boots for the time being.) There are three different types Essential Moisture, Cocoa Radiant and Aloe Fresh. I tried Aloe Fresh and Cocoa Radiant but I wasn't keen on the smell of Aloe Fresh, so I settled for Cocoa Radiant instead.

I quite like the can, the whole design and idea makes it seems much more extravagant than the original moisturiser designs (which are still available). I wasn't entirely keen on the whole idea of the product though, I was worried getting the right amount of product would be difficult and it would either leave parts of me unmoisturised or it would be greasy and much too thick. I needn't have worried though, the spray distributes fairly evenly and goes on quite thin and watery (see the above right picture) and can literally be rubbed in straight away to leave no grease or residue (bottom right picture). It definitely lives up to the idea of spray and go, because although I can still feel it on my skin, it just feels soft and not "sticky" like other moisturisers (even the bottle version of this moisturiser, in fact.)

All in all, this is a call between whether you'd rather have ease or more money in your pocket. In my mind, there's absolutely no doubt that this is a more convenient product, after your shower you can spray and put your pyjamas straight on, in fact you could even do it before leaving to go out without worrying about your skin uncomfortably sticking to the residue, however it is more expensive than the traditional bottle version (which is £2.99/200ml), however I'm more than willing to spend that extra £2 just for the convenience.

Sammy xo

Lush Volcano Foot Mask

Lush is one of those shops I seem to go in not looking for anything in particular and yet I still come out with at least £10's worth of products the staff convinced me that I couldn't live without. To clarify, their Volcano Foot Mask was one of these products. I love face masks, and so the idea of a foot mask intrigued me and the staff member helping me pick which foot product was best for me couldn't give it high enough praise (really, it was like she was being paid for it or something...). In the end, my curiosity won out and I ended up walking out of the shop with a pot that I had convinced myself that I simply needed in my life. In my defence it was only £5.75 (for 125ml) and I have paid more for worse products in lush in the past.

 

Amongst an array of natural ingredients the foot mask boasts pumice, papaya, china clay, tomatoes and potatoes. It's gritty to the touch (presumably the pumice) and when applying I found there to be tiny pieces of red peel (presumably the tomato). It's quite thick in texture, easily thick enough to cover the tattoo on my foot to the point that you can't see it with just one layer. The packaging says to cover your entire foot and then wrap it in plastic, the girl in the shop told me sandwich bags are enough to keep it from drying out so that's what I used. Granted, I looked stupid for the ten minutes I left it on, but it gave me a hell of a lot of amusing snapchats to send to people.

The sensation of the foot mask is something I can only compare to eating a mint and then breathing in winter air, that tingly, cold type of feeling. I used a pumice stone on my feet first and the gritty texture of the mask really got rid of all of the dead skin, so when I washed it off my feet were smooth, and stayed tingly for a good half hour afterwards.

Overall, this probably is something I could have lived without, but it's really nice to use and I love the feeling of it, both during and after use. It's a nice luxury to have there after a hard day at work, especially if (like mine) your work involves you being on your feet and running up and down stairs all day, and knowing all Lush products are animal testing free is nice for your conscience. I'd definitely say buy this, even if it's just to amuse your friends with photos of you with grey feet tucked neatly into sandwich bags. 

Sammy xo.

Dermalogica Facial Treatment (mini review)

Okay, so this morning (Tuesday 16th July 2013 11am) I went for my first ever Dermalogica "facial". In the last few years I admit I have completely fallen out of the habit, and kind of out of love, with beauty treatments. I know exactly what you're thinking - a beauty blogger who doesn't show much interest in beauty treatments, what?! So I'm going to stop you right there. Calm down, there's no need to panic or start doubting my sanity or whatever. I am a seriously girly girl. I love any kind of R&R, getting glammed up being pampered etc. I just had a few dodgy salon experiences, plus when money is a bit tight I'd rather spend and splurge on something like a new makeup product. So when my step-mum came home all excited last week to tell me that our local salon was doing half price Dermalogica facials (just on a tuesday, some kind of promotional offer), I admit I was more than a little bit skeptical. But my aunty uses dermalogica, plus I'd seen some comments on the internet from you guys about it so I thought I'd put my name down.

I arrived just before 11 and the receptionist sat me down with a survey literally longer than my arm to fill out. I don't really like giving the ins and outs of my life out on forms but I thought, they obviously need the details for something, so I'll just fill it in and reserve judgement. The survey is actually your customer card. It takes note of things like your current skincare routine, lifestyle, allergies, types of medications, and what their habits are. I found out later that this is so the skincare specialist doing your facial can design your treatment specifically to you, so that you get the most out of it and so that they can avoid any problems or areas of hypersensitivity.

So I was led into a small treatment room at the back of the shop, where the specialist told me to drop down the straps of my top and get into the bed (under the covers, on one of the hottest days of the year...). She came back a few minutes after, and had a chat with me about how I felt generally about my skin. What my main areas of concern where and which kind of products I was using. She also examined my skin, in depth. I was told that my forehead was quite dehydrated, and the patches of redness I get on my cheeks are actually because I use a cleanser and toner that's too harsh for my skin type. I was under the impression that I had oily skin and therefore should be using a cleanser and face wash specifically for oily skin. This is actually incorrect, and as I only have an oily T-zone, I don't need such a product.

 The specialist didn't actually tell me what she'd be doing to my skin, so unfortunately I can't go into too much detail about what happened in the next hour and a half. This did nothing to ease how skeptical I was. However, after just a few minutes under her touch I was the most relaxed that I have ever been. She started off with some inhalation techniques, cupping her fragranced hands over my face and encouraging deep breathing. To be perfectly honest I kind of zoned out not long after this. There was a lot of cleansing and massaging of the face, shoulders and neck.The first part of the treatment was done under steam, which was very pleasant, and even though I was practically in another world I was aware of the specialist using different kinds of products on different areas of my face; adding and removing cleansers, oils, masques, exfoliaters and many more things I'm sure. She did tell me that she had mixed together two different types of face masks to make the perfect blend for my skin type, and as she applied this I became aware of a pleasant tingling sensation all over my face. She then quietly told me that she was leaving me under the face mask for 10 minutes and then she'd be back. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep at this point, it was honestly the most chilled out I've ever felt in my whole life. By the time the treatment was finished (90 minutes long), even the 5 minute walk home was a struggle as I felt so relaxed I could have just slept the whole afternoon. I left the salon with my skin feeling as though it had been cleaned right down to the pores. It was the softest I think it's been in about 10 years, and had a visible glow despite me being so sleepy! I was also given a pouch of sample products suited to me, to try out. All this for just £20 (I know it was an offer but still) really was an unbelievable bargain. I would definitely pay full price for this treatment if I had the money, and could not recommend it highly enough. My skin feels amazing and even 10 hours later I'm still so relaxed I think I'll get into bed now! Check your local salons to see if this is available near you - I love it.

B xxo