Product review: KIND TO SKIN REFRESHING FACIAL WASH GEL (Simple)

Product review: DEEP ACTION FACIAL WIPES (Clean & Clear)

Make-up remover is an essential product, because if you don’t wash off your makeup before you go to sleep, it facilitates build-up of germs, causing your skin to get greasy and look bad. The cleansing wipes that I have been using recently are Deep Action Facial Wipes. 

Product reviews: SOFT ROSÉ LIP BALM (Nivea), STRAWBERRY HAPPY LIPS (Blistex) and CLASSIC MOISTURISING LIP BALM (Carmex)

As with the skincare products reviewed here, I bought these three lipbalms as part of a ‘3 for the price of 2’ deal at Boot’s. The Blistex and Carmex products were £2.69 apiece, so the cheapest, the Nivea lipbalm (£2.49), came free.

Product reviews: MANGO and VANILLA BODY BUTTER (Boot’s)

Back in March, when going through airport security before my holiday in Prague, it transpired that due to a last minute reshuffle of things in suitcases, I’d put my expensive Body Shop blueberry body lotion in my hand luggage rather than my check-in luggage. 

As you can see, the size of the container is substantially higher than the limit of liquids you’re allowed on a flight, and so, a perfectly good container of body lotion which was only about 80% used was unceremoniously confiscated from me.

Now that the sun’s finally shining the UK, I now need lotion to apply to my legs, lest they look too dry when wearing sundresses, so I had to replenish my body moisturiser supply. I bought these two items as part of a ‘Buy one get second half price’ deal. 

Product reviews: ESSENTIALS MOISTURISING CREAM, 3-MINUTE CLAY MASK and EYE GEL (Boot's)

These three ties were all £1.50 each, but they were all part of a '3 for the price of 2' offer, so they worked out to be £1 each.

Review of two concealers: MAC SELECT COVER UP SHADE 25 and BOBBI BROWN SHADE 6 BEIGE

I recently had to replenish my concealer supply, due to me using up the MAC tube pictured above, and me wishing to avoid looking like this chap below due to the bags under my eyes:

Product reviews: BLUEBERRY BODY BUTTER AND PEACH BODY SCRUB (The Body Shop)

Post-Christmas sales, I treatment myself to two Body Shop items to make my daily showering routine a teensy bit more exciting. They were the blueberry butter and the peach body scrub, pictured below, both 200ml in quantity.

One aspect of both products that I can't fault is the design of the containers. I love the colours and the simplistic use of just one fruit on the front. After I've finished the products, I'mma keep the containers to store my jewellery!

Review of some magazine freebies

I got the May/June editions of Company, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire. Two of them had Elle Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen, two of my favourite working young actresses in, and I fancied the look of the freebies that came with the other. As the three freebies were all above the quality of the usual chocolate bar/malfunctioning mascara that you usually get, I thought I’d give my thoughts on them.



Nail polish:
- The turquoise one is not a particularly flattering shade, and will be relegated to the back of my nail polish drawer. - The peach one, however, is utterly adorable. I’ve been wearing it with a sparkly pink topcoat on my finger and toenails and it’s a perfect pastel look for the Summer, especially given I have sparkly pink flip-flops as well. LOVE.



Nip + Fab Dry Leg Fix:
Having ‘shiny legs’ is somewhat of an obsession of mine, especially during the Summer, and given that this is a product devoted solely to that, I was enamoured immediately.
The smell is minty, but not obtrusively so, and application is easy: just squirt out as much as you require and spread on your legs.
It is very effective, and one application will keep my legs smooth for a whole day. Love this product; wish there was more of it to go around!

Aromatherapy Associates face products:
- Still yet to use the cleanser
- The Face Mask is lovely; it hydrates your face without feeling too ‘sticky’ like other face masks. Application and removal are also extremely simple.
- Moisturiser: wonderful, worked wonders on my face when my skin was going through a dry patch! Again, I just wish there was more of it!

Soap and Glory Sugar Crush Review.

After the Soap and Glory Thick and Fast mascara leaving me most unimpressed, the brand had saving to do with its Sugar Crush body scrub.

 

Compared to the Soap and Glory Flake Away, Sugar Crush is much more comfortable. The former was borderline painful on application, whereas the sugar granules of Sugar Crush are altogether finer and softer, and thus, take to the skin much better.

 

In terms of functionality, however, the Flake Away has Sugar Crush beat. Flake Away not only left my skin feeling totally smooth, but shiny, too. Sugar Crush doesn't really do either, and I'm entirely convinced it washes away dead cells either. Granted, it leaves my legs smelling sweeter and more ready for moisturising, but therein lies the problem: with Flake Away, I could often use that product in isolation, and my legs were ready to be bared. With Sugar Crush, it's imperative that I apply oil/moisturiser on my legs after usage, otherwise my legs still aren't quite presentation ready.

 

Thus, if I were to purchase another Soap and Glory body scrub, I'd definitely opt for Flake Away. However, having used both and neither being just quite right for me, the next time I buy body scrub, I reckon I'll explore options from another brand altogether.

Grade: C

Having recently rebranded this site as a lifestyle blog a couple of weeks back, I’m going to share a few reviews of items that I use in my “lifestyle”.

When it comes to beauty products, I am one of the most low-maintenance. I’ve never fake tanned, dyed my hair, and the only make-up I wear on nights out is lipstick/lipgloss to bring out my mouth a bit (my eyes are a lost cause, they are far too small for even make-up to salvage, so I abandon the top half of my face entirely and try to focus on the lower). But, moisturiser is one of my most relied up weapons in my arsenal, and I moisturise once in the morning and once before going to bed at night. The need to ~shine up~ extends to the legs (or such was the intention, but the weather in Britain this summer didn’t really allow for any occasions to get one’s legs out in the first place). Therefore, on Boots’ 3-fo-2 deals on Soap and Glory products, I picked myself up two beauty products for the legs – one to smoothen them during a shower and the other to apply after they’ve been smoothed, as well as my favourite kind of make-up around, lipgloss.

The lipgloss, at £9, is by far the most I’ve ever spent on a cosmetic item, but I considered it worthwhile immediately. When you apply it, your lips experience a kind of “fuzzing” sensation, and honest to god and not at all any kind of placebo effect, my lips genuinely swelled as a result of them! Now, for someone who idolises Lana del Rey and her luscious lips, this made the lipgloss an automatic win, but the scent, the shimmer the gloss gave to my lips and the general aura of sexiness the product brought to my face meant that it sat head and shoulders above all my other lipglosses.

My memory of the prices of the other two products for the legs are, but knowing me and my borderline annoying obsession with counting the pennies, they would have been £9, give or take two or three quid, due to the nature of the 3-for-2 deal (that is, I would not have considered it mathematically or economically sound to get one or two things that was drastically cheaper or more expensive than the third, as that wouldn't bve making the most of the offer.) In terms of use, the Flake Away tub goes first: I apply it in the two or so minutes that I don't have the shoerhead running when I'm waiting for my hair conditioner to set in. You take a mall chunk and basically spread it across your legs. The texture of the product means that it scrubs away any dead skin and leaves your legs completely smooth. The act of scrubbing isn't totally comfortable, but it doesn't hurt either, and as any young woman who looks after her looks will attest to, no pain no gain. And then, after all this is done, you shake the nozzle of the Glistener, apply in small patches across your legs, et viola, perfectly smooth skin!

The only flaw in all three of these products would be thus: 1) the lipgloss - I got drunk and lost the damn thing. ;____; I was heartbroken! 2) the Flake Away scrub - the initial discomfort of using it, and 3) the Glistener - it has too much glitter and sparkle on it, sparkle which very easily transfers itself to the rest of your body (say you use your hands to rub it in, then casually run your hands through your hair. The glitter will somehow find its way onto your forehead). But aside from that, they are all wonderful products, with a great fragrance, easy to use for the make up n00b, and do their jobs wonderfully.

Lipgloss: A+
Flake Away: A-
Glistener: B+/A-