AsoS TimE

I had a lovely little delivery from Asos this week, these always make me happy :-D
Me and the boy are going to Glastonbury in less than a month!!! ( so excited as I've only been to Reading Fest before) .
I've started to think about things I need.. a poncho is one of these. Glastonbury is one of those festivals where it will be ridiculous hot yet you can guarantee at least one day of rain so I need something I can slip on at a moments notice and is easy to carry round with me.

I hope it doesnt rain but if it I does I now own a poncho in a bag and its polka dot.

I will be doing a few blogs on my preparations for Glasto, both skincare and clothing.
We are also off to Bruges in Belgium so thinking about what to take there so I  bought the most amazing black velvet ballet pumps, for only £20 which shall walk me round the city.

ColoUr cHaNge

Time has come to dye my hair, I had been a lovely sea green up until February and when I decided to dye it I thought getting it back to brown would not be a problem- I was wrong.

Crazy Colour - Pine green

Firstly the green wouldnt lift so I had to go really dark brown, something I really want to do. After two washes I noticed the green was beginning to return in the ends but in the form of a swampy green, not a good colour.

I thought I would leave it a few months before dying it again, just to give it a rest and hope the green wouylkd eventually wash out- it hasn't. So today was the day.

Ive bought a medium copper brown colour, a mousse dye colour by John Frieda. Last time I used a mousse dye was one of my first hair colouring experiences, it was a Wella mousse in shade plum and it was messy. Maybe this was done to inexperience(I was 13) or maybe the mousse was just very difficult to control, it went everywhere much to my mums disappointment.

This experience was much easier, you mix the two products together and then just squeeze the bottle and foam magically comes out, it isnt messy, doesnt drip,  it stays in a neat pile for you to disperse through your hair then just leave 30mins and rinse. I would definitely use this product again as it was so mess free, with no stained skin and the end colour is a beautiful reddy brown. I'm just hoping the green has gone ( fingers crossed) . Next is time to get it cut!!

End Of dAy FacE RoutiNe Pt DeuX

So here is part deux of my evening facial routine, sorry its taken so long finishing it.
My final cleanser is Garnier Pure Deep Clean foam wash, this is my "help me my skin is breaking out! " go to as its full of magical salicylic acid.
Salicylic acid is a liquid exfoliater so it is really deep cleaning, making your skin super clean and tightening those pores (which I need ). Im not usually an advocater of foam washes as alot if them can strip the skin too much of its natural oils but this one is really effective on my skin, if you are slightly sensitive then maybe one to avoid though.
My toner is the raved about Pixi Glow Tonic, I'd read about this product for months on many beauty blogs mainly off my favourite skincare women - Caroline Hirons. People kept complaining it was constantly out stock due to its demand but I managed to buy mine online with ease.

I love it! Its full of aloe vera which is softening for the skin, ginseng which is a natural supply of oxygen to the skin and horse chesnut which stimulates the skin and circulation which means your skin is left glowing. It also contains glycolic acid which loosens the dead skin so gently exfoliates and is also alcohol free so is safe enough to use twice a day without the worry of stripping your skin. I dont think I will ever use another toner, well not until I can afford to buy P50 ( another Ms Hirons favourite).
To end with I use my favourite night product, I'm on my third bottle of Estee Lauder Advanced night repair- Synchronised recovery complex 2 its the serum of Queens (not that I'm a queen but I can imagine they use this).
This night serum is tried and tested to revive your skin, smooth wrinkles and make it feel fantastic, its a little bit of magic in a tiny bottle. This serum is not cheap £45 for 30ml but I've found a bottle lasts me a year and thats using it every night so actually its worth the pay out.
I also use a eye cream if I remember but there we have it my eveninh routine, at the moment anyway im sure it will change in the next few months :-)
Let me know what you like to use..
Happy Cleansing !!

The BoYs 30th!!

Today was the boys 30th we had good food and lots of cake.

I had his favourite food made into a cake - BLT sandwich and pack of frazzles

So much icing! 

The night has ended in a traditional dirty pint bleaugh

BIRTHDAY BOY!

End Of day FacE RoutiNe Pt 1

When it comes to your face I think one of the most important things you MUST do is wash it every evening. No excuses even if you are drunk, even if you don't wear makeup every day, NEVER go to bed with a grubby face it will only lead to blocked pores and bad looking skin.
Today's blog is about my evening skincare routine, the products I am using at the moment, it changes every few months although some products in this list I return to time and time again. This is  a two parter blog as I there are quite afew products to discuss :)

So the first thing I do is to remove my eyemake, the cleansers I'm using do remove mascara/eye shadow etc but if I've been wearing a lot of eye shadow/gel liner then I reach for this -  Bioderma Sensibio H2O Michelle water.

Its amazing!  If you haven't tried it go buy a bottle now, its the go to for most mua (I get mine from Escentual.com) but other places do it, this is the original and I think best water cleanser. I adore French pharmaceuticals and discovered this in Paris 2 years ago after seeing it repeatedly mentioned on Pixiwoos YouTube videos.
Its fragrance and alcohol free, very gentle on even the most sensitive skin and so easy to use. Just soak a cotton wool pad and hold on your eye for 30 seconds and voilà all traces of makeup gone, so that means no rubbing or dragging at the eye, which is important as the skin in this area is very delicate and wrinkles so easily.

The three cleansers

 Onto my first cleanser, this was a Christmas pressie from my mummy as its a bit pricey, but I think worth the pennies -
Emma Hardie Moringa Cleansing Balm. This product hydrates and cleanses your skin at the same time, you can use it daily but I tend to use it twice a week as I've got rather oily skin and find overuse can be a little bit much for my skin.
Its contains Moringa extract and Vitamin E both of these products rejuvenate, balance and improve the conditon of your skin especially if its feeling dry and dull. When using this product I also take the time to do a mini face massage to get the circulation going, a fantastic way to reduce puffiness around the eye area. This cleanser is simple to use, you just mix a few drops of water with a little bit of the balm (you don't need much as it is very thick) then massage the face, eye and neck area and it melts away all the grime and makeup of the day. To remove it I soak a flannel or Muslim cloth in warm water squeeze out excess water and then wipe over, the slight roughness of a flannel leaves the softest feeling. My skin feels amazing after this and not dry in the slightest, a real treat for the skin.
My second cleanser is an all time favourite, another French company La Roche-Posay Effaclur Purifying Foaming gel.
This product is one I tend to reach for when I've had one too many gins as it removes everything in one go.
All the Last Roche- Posay range is super gentle and aimed towards those with sensitive skin, this cleanser is perfect for oily/combination faces. It contains salicylic acid which is used to combat acne/problem skin, it reduces the amount of sebum (oil) on the skin while also gentley resurfacing the skin by using a chemical exfoliation which also soothes and calms any redness.
It removes my makeup leaving my skin feeling clean and refreshed. I like the simple gel formula,  you just wet your face, take a small amount of product and massage into your face and rinse nice and simple. You can buy La Roche -Posay in Boots aswel as Feeling Unique.com and its mid range price, usually £11.

I'm going to leave the final cleanser for tomorrow, its my go to when my skin is acting up and breaking out. I will also tell you about what toner, serum and eye cream I'm using.  So until tomorrow
Xx

pretty in PinK

"Going to the chapel and we,re goin' get married"...

I'm getting married in 4 and a bit months which is very exciting and daunting at the same time. I've got the amazing Sherrie Sparkes (www.sherrie-sparkes.com) making me look pretty for the day, so I've started thinking about what look I want to go for.
I'm thinking something peachy/natural looking A la Lana del Ray ( well that's my idea so far) .
So I've been trying out a few products from a new brand I've recently discovered -  Zoeva (available from the fantastic pomltd.com )
I've got a Powder brush 106, Luxe colour blush in Rush Rush and a Lip crayon in Tender Rose.

These colours are both gorgeous pinks perfect for any blushing bride, I'm especially enamoured by the lip crayon. Its a perfect rosy pink and the texture is so soft, goes onto the lips smoothly and has a slight glossy sheen but with no stickiness. I personally wouldn't use a liner but you could for a more defined look. My only real issue is you have to sharpen the pencil and as its a chunky crayon you need a fat sharpener.

Tender Rose above and Rush Rush below


The blusher is a pressed formula, with apricot oil and Vitamin E which makes it so soft on the skin and really easy to blend to give a lovely natural flush. It looks very pink when you first open the packaging but once you get it on to your skin the finish very pretty and would look great on pale skin (like mine) and those with an olive tone.
The face brush is multi purpose and can be used for loose or pressed powder or a blush brush. I've tried it for both, with its fat bristles it doesnt pick up too much product and spreads the colour evenly and its so soft. The brush is also friendly to animals as it has synthetic bristles which is always an important factor to me when choosing my products, the price is also very reasonable especially when compared to MAC ones (which I love but cannot justify spending on ).
I will definitely be trying out other tools in this range to add to my growing collection of Real Techniques  brushes, which are my favourites and if you haven't tried you NEED to, they are fantastic.

The look below

BaNisH tHosE Bad skin days aWaY!

My skin is not my friend at the moment, bad skin population = me.
I was in London yesterday (bridesmaid dress shopping! ) and travelling back on the train I could my chin breaking out -bleaugh.
For some reason im getting constant breakouts at the moment, dont know if its my diet, not enough water, too much gin but whatever it is my face is angry.
So I've decided to show you my 3 favourite deep cleansing masks, these 3 are ones ive returned time and again to rescue me.

Vichy Normadern & GlamGlow Supermud

Lush -Brazend Honey

So these are them, I will start with Brazend Honey, my fav from all the fresh face masks Lush, do this product is amazing, I guarantee once you try this and see the effect you will forever cherish this mask.
Vegetarian friendly and preservative free this skin saver is full of natural ingredients from the honey and eggs to sooth your skin and calm your redness, lime to brighten and revive a tired complexion, kaolin clay to cleanse nice and deep and lastly ground almonds to exfoliate and leave new dirt free skin.
I cant say much more than I ♥♥♥ this product, after using it your skin is super clean yet sooo soft, go try.
My second product is by those French lovelies at Vichy, its gentle on the skin as its soap and alcohol free.
The worst thing you can do to oily/spot ridden skin is strip it using an alcohol based product - Step away from the Clearasil, you are doing your skin no favours. It may feel squeaky clean straight after but your skin will then produce double the amount of sebum because it feels it needs to rescue itself.

 Vichy Normadern is a  3 in one product- mask and cleanser/ scrub so if feeling impatient you can just wash and go but I likes the mask. This is a clay based mask and like Brased Honey contains oil absorbing, deep cleansing kaolin . It soothes and unclogs the pores to leave my skin feeling fresh and ultra clean.
My final product is the holy grail of masks-
Glam Glow Supermud, this is the A lister favourites ( so I've read). This product is the second release  from the Glam Glow family and kicks spots and breakouts in the butt. This is another mud mask full of kaolin clay and AHAs ( alpha hydroxy acids) these are the best way to banish the dead skin cells away.  It brightens and clears my skin after one use, one of favourite things about it is as it dries you can see it getting down and dirty into each pore ( bit gross bit so satisfying that you know it's clearing your skin up) .

Glam Glow doin'  its thing

You can use Glam Glow as a full mask or target those nasty spots, as much as I love this product the only downside is the price at £44 for 34 g it aint cheap but I've had mine for just over 6 months and I'm 3/4 of the way through the pot which I don't think is too bad.
All of these mask are applied to dry, cleansed skin and left for 10- 20 mins, I dont see the point of leaving any longer as the work is those first 10mins.

Let me know your favourite mask or tips for clearing troubled skin. :-)

The LuSh TiMes

I work for Lush part time and I must say it is a fun job, surrounded by lovely face and body products which I can play with all day imy idea of a good time (the discount doesnt hurt either :-))

I was at work yesterday and got to see the  new products we have recently got in,  some new soap and a new ballistic called Granny Takes a Dip.

Add caption

It smells amazing with warming ginger, black pepper and lemon oil, I can't wait to try that one. The psychedelic colours merge into a rainbow effect once put into the bath.

Woooo..pretty

      

 The new soaps are called Parsley Porridge which is full of many anti bacterial goodies such as Tea tree,Thyme and Parsley. I think this would be a great addition to the kitchen sink area also its full of Aloe Vera gel so leaves your skin super soft (handy after washing up too much)

The second soap is a fruity little number called Mangificent its full of dried mango, zingy sicilian lemon oil and happy inducing neroli, just what we need for these sunny days :-).

Happy Bank Holiday!!

BouRjOis CC CrEam

As ive mentioned in previous blogs I've been trying not wear foundation on week days just to let my skin breathe and in a quest for a better complexion. Im still using concealor(obviously) but sometimes feel my skin needs some coverage. Ive been reading about different BB and CC creams for awhile now and thought id give one of them a them a try. I went to Boots and purchased Bourjois Perfect 123 Colour Corrector cream, I've read some glowing reviews about this product and at £9.99 was well priced.

It claims to have 3 correctors( hence the name) with its anti redness, anti fatigue and anti dark spots it also has an SPF15 . There are 4 shades to chose from I chose the lightest 51 in Ivory which matches my skin rather well.

Shade 51/Ivory

 I really like this Bourjois range, my go to foundation at the moment is from the same 123 collection in shade 52.
 I love the coverage I get from that so was looking forward to this newest addition and it did  not disappointed. Lightweight and easy to apply over moisturesd skin, I also used a Smashbox primer (due to my large pores this helps smooth/fill them out).
My skin was noticable different, the redness disappeared, evened out my complextion my my skin look brighter, more alive and at 7.30am this can only be a postive thing. I still applied my corrector and concealer under my eyes as I need extra coverage in this area.
Please excuse the towel and silly look on my face it was early :-)



  Im off to Glastonbury in 8 weeks!! Which is very exciting. This will definitely be in my essential festival kit, I will be doing some blogs in the run up to Glastonbury.
My festival guide to which clothes/skincare/makeup im going to take.
After such a postive experience im going to investigate other CC creams, I've looked at Olay and Clinque( when I has moneys) so will see how they fair in comparison, I will let you know.
Which CC Creams have you tried? Positive/Negative experience let me know.
Have a good friday!!