Saturday 20 August 2011

My Soap and Glory essentials

Every Christmas for 3 or maybe 4 years I receive at least one present that upon unwrapping contains the iconic blank and pink packaging of a Soap and Glory gift set, and my heart always soars as it is my favourite body care brand.

For years I have been a chop and changer when it comes to shower stuff, body lotions and creams and often get seduced by something new and shiny with promises of sparkle, softness, moisture, firming, yada yada yada.

Soap and Glory is one brand that I use 99% of the time and buy it as well as wait for my gift box, which having a great mum, is usually the biggest gift set in Boots!

My favourites are

This is heaven. The smell is divine and it is packed full of exfoliating granules, which I love! It is like a spa strength scrub and it really zings up my skin and the oils in are really moisturising too. The scent lasts for hours. 9 hours post shower and my arms are still soft and fragrant. A must buy for lovers of body scrubs!


This has the same fragrance as the Flake Away scrub and is a gorgeous rich and buttery (who'd a thunk it?!) texture and is readily absorbed without being greasy. I tend to use this more in the colder months, when the scrub and mositure rich body wash won't really cut it alone.
A little goes a long way, although the pot makes it tempting to just dive in and scoop out a handful!


Again, the same Original Pink fragrance. This is a lovely body wash and lathers up really well if you use the body puff (there own super sized puff is amazing!) Skin is left feeling soft and sweet, and in warmer months I find I don't need to follow on with a body moisturiser.


This is a fairly new S&G product. I got it in a gift pack as being a devoted Flake Away fan I would have other wise ignored this! It smells like breakfast, in all honesty the name gives that away but I wasn't expecting it to smell of sweet, honeyed porridge!
It is a nice scrub, it is not as hardcore as Flake Away, so people of a softer nature will love it. It is amazingly softening, thanks to the oats, shea and honey.

Now for my fail safe, speedy shower cream!

This is the bees knees. I adore it, it smells fresh and fab, and totally different to the Original Pink, which I love but sometimes want a fresh scent. This lathers up a treat, using a fairly small 10p sized blob. I use a body puff but once that is lathered and I have bubbled up I also rub with my hands, and this releases little blobs of moisturiser and it feels totally amazing! Skin is hydrated and radiant once out of the shower and dry. A fail safe that appears to be off the Boots website, and S&G's. Which is concerning!

Friday 19 August 2011

Review - Simple wipes

I confess my sins today. I slept in my make-up. I know, I know, shoot me now. I actually forgot I was wearing it, but thats another review!
So this morning I used a wipe. I am a fan of using wipes to take off the general make-up and I also like to use a cleanser as well. But alas today I did not have time.
On taking the wipe out of the pack I was pleased at how thick and lux it felt, really soft as well. Sadly this is the only good news, I wiped, and wiped in circular motions to get the grime off and it just didn't feel 'cleansing'. The wipe felt quite dry, so I have put the packet to store upside down to see if the next one is more wet.
There was no real smell, no irritation and no dragging of the wipe.

The real problem came when I came to tone, two pads of toner, all coming up with make-up on them still! This tells me the wipes were not so good. So when my daughters friends have gone I have to go and cleanse my face again!

I guess if you come home from a big night out, these wipes would be better than nothing (says me, bit rich eh!) but I wouldn't recommend them for daily use, unless you use them pre-cleanse.

Thursday 18 August 2011

Nails, nails nails





Make-up time. Mainly nail polish! Now I do not wear make-up on a daily basis, even if I am leaving the house. Apart from a few scars and the odd teenage breakout (at 31! thanks!) I think my skin is ok, although I hate hate hate my ruddy farmers wife cheeks!

Anyhoo, nails. My nails are NEVER bare. I am aware in some beauty circles this is a crime, but why would slightly yellow nails bother me when I have them covered all the time?

Now, I am not quite sure on my skin tone anymore! Facially I used to be more pinky, but now I have a tan (yuck!) I seem to suit warmer shades. The same is for my hands too, they have taken on a yellowish tone, as opposed to blue. But I still like to mix it up with a wide range of colours.

So this is my first nail review!


Don't be fooled by the colour on the website.This is not purple. It is black shot through with purple shimmer. It takes on an almost inky blue after 2 fairly thick coats. The brush is a pain, very thin. But this is not a problem for me, been doing my nails for y

ears and am used to all sorts!

I find these some of the best, hard wearing 'high street' polishes. No chips, and often I get nail regrowth at the cuticle before any tip wear. As my nails grow quickly this is usually after 5-6 days.



Here are some pics. In
this light you can see the purple shimmer.


Whereas the bottom two pics seem to have the inky blue tones visible.

My Simple Skincare, first use review

Ok, so my first review of this was going to be post make-up but I like to cleanse etc pre make-up so decided to try this.


So, on opening this I had the essential sniff. It smelt of nothing, well not quite nothing, its that non smell. No chemicals, no perfumes etc. I must admit to being a sucker for a nice smell!
I dampened my face and lathered a 5 pence piece sized between my damp palms to create an impressively creamy lather, no synthetic looking, washing up bubbles here!
I removed the product with a damp muslin, I use nothing less these days as I love the feeling it gives me and my skin.
All in all, actually a little gem, and not bad for less than £3.50 for the full 150ml size.


Onto the toner. I will admit I do not use, nor generally like toners. Cliniques Clarifying lotion for one is a horror for my skin, and it is not sensitive. I use http://www.superdrug.com/toner/garnier-pure-astringent-200ml/invt/596619/&bklist= when I feel my pores have taken on a crater like appearance, thank you mother nature.
I am also partial to the fine smelling, non stinging and glorious http://uk.lizearle.com/cleanse-tone-moisturise/instant-boost-skin-tonic.html it is a heaven for the skin.

Back to the Simple range. Honestly? Just a bit meh. It had the same non smell as the cleanser, felt fine using it, but to be frank I could have just put water on the pad and I wouldn't have known the difference. There was certainly not traces of any grime or cleanser on the pad. It was just a bit pointless. Although for die hard toner fans, I would say that it is worth using if you have sensitive skin but don't want to skip toning, nor do you want to use virtual paint stripper on your delicate face!


Final step. Hmm, well firstly the bottle is super annoying. It is not a pourable moisturiser, it is in a bottle that has no pump. When you squeeze said bottle it gives you far too much and its not the kind of bottle you can put it back into! Pump bottle or jars for me!
Gripe over. Smell wise, it actually has a smell. It is a light, kind of natural smelling smell. Not really anything to write home about.
Performance wise it is quite thick, but feels light on the face, hence the name I guess! Due to the amount that came out I did have to wipe my hands to continue massaging it into my skin. It left my skin feeling moisturised but in no way heavy and was light enough to use on my oily t-zone. 1 hour later and my skin still feels lovely and moisturised.
I like it, but not sure how it will hold up as a night time moisturiser, but I shall report back in the morning!


Watch this space, trying these a bit later, or maybe tomorrow

I have won a prize!


Many thanks to www.mydaily.co.uk!

So I got this -

It is a travel pack by Simple. Tbh I have never really tried much in the way of the cheaper end of face care.
Having said that I am also a little useless with keeping up my face care routine (I know, sacrilegious huh?!) But for my (hopefully) eventual followers, I shall test this for you!
I shall use twice daily and let you know what I think!

Which involves maybe showing pics of my face post make up removal with said products to test the effectiveness, feel any tremors? Yep thats me, feeling nervous at what I have just promised! So, I shall report tonight after make-up removal for first impressions. Then again in 7 days to let you know how it has fared on my ageing skin!

Wednesday 17 August 2011

My new obsession!

http://www.lipglossiping.com/

Ok, review time.

This. Website. ROCKS!

I stumbled across it when looking for some nail polish swatches and book marked it, then spent half hour reading through random bits.
Well I have visited each day since and today I spent (unintentionally!) 3 hours reading it (I did cook, sort out eldest son and speak to hubby a coupla times too!) everytime I thought I had read enough, there at the bottom lurked another link I wanted to read, and then comes to A-Z of brands, and being a make-up junkie myself I had plenty to read through.
Then there is the great Wall Of Nails, now I have polishes galore so this struck me straight away, oh the heaven!
The reviews are honest, to the point and very down to earth. Charlotte, who writes the blog, is very down to earth, she is in no way like a scary counter girl of your local department store!

On the page there is also recipes, ramblings, skin care etc but I have been so enthralled with the make-up that I haven't really looked there!

All in all, I love this site and it will be a go to before trying any new make-up trends!

London Town!

Ok, so yesterday I went to London to (finally) meet some ladies who had shared the ups and downs of pregnancy with me in 2006.
Now, I will readily admit to being nervous as a nervous thing. What to wear? Make-up or no? What to do with my hair? I know that they would not care either way, but for someone with 'issues' it was a fairly big deal.

Anyway, went for soft make-up, which promptly got sweated off in a run-for-train-carry-impossibly-tall-4-year-old. Which we missed anyway. Damnit! This on top of the grime which appeared to just attach itself to my face made me wish I had stuck with my usual bare faced look!
So, hair, easy in hot weather ponytail, oh what a shock!

BUT....

I wore a DRESS! Nearly took it off again, but I was pulling on my trousers and just thought 'uh' sooooo in a fit of confidence I threw on my tights, grabbed my dress and put it on and then hunted down my beloved boots (http://www.schuh.co.uk/black-dr-martens-triumph-1914/1407187020/tt/1/) and told mum I was ready to go before I changed my mind, and my clothes!

I actually felt great. So I shall be wearing dresses more, go me!