My Skincare Routine

Ello lovelies!

Over the last few months I've had quite a few requests for a skincare post so i thought it was about time i got one up! I'm pretty boring with my skincare and more or less stick to the same staple products with the odd new thing thrown in every now and again for good measure. For reference i have quite dry / sensitive skin and over the past year or two my skin has been slightly problematic with breakouts every so often, nowhere near the severity of acne, but still enough to get right on my nerves! I've found a routine that is more or less perfect for my skin, i just need to find a way to battle pesky blackheads! So onto the products!

Simple Cleanser & Toner

I've been using these two for absolutely years! Having a beauty therapist lecturer as a Mother has meant I've been cleansing, toning and moisturising from my early teen years. These aren't very glamorous and are cheap as chips, but they do the job. I generally only use the cleanser on my lazy days, when i can't be bothered to cleanse and polish or whack out the Clarisonic. The toner i use on a daily basis and if my skins being overly problematic i add a drop of tea tree to a spray bottle mixed with toner to help calm it.

Soap and Glory Fab Pore Minute

This second or third tub on this little beauty. I use it twice a week on my nose to try and combat my blackheads, it helps temporarily but has no real long term effects. But it makes my pores feel and look smaller in the short term.

Rose & Co Apothecary Rose Petal Salve

One of the only good things i received in a beauty box. Feels so much nicer on the lips than Vaseline and i find it a lot more nourishing. Has its place permanently next to my bed before i go to sleep to banish dry or cracked lips.

Oilatum Natural Repair Moisturiser

This really does live up to all the hype. I've been using this almost constantly over the past year and i really would not be without it. If you suffer with dry skin, you need this. Again its not a fancy product but it does the best job at moisturising the skin. I picked up an Embryolisse at IMATS and it does not stand up to Oilatum, its just not as moisturising. I really could not recommend this product enough.

Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish

I really don't need to say much about this do i? Its so hyped online and I've got to agree with all the hype, its a fantastic product. Works great with a muslin cloth and with my Clarisonic, i love it!

 
Etat Pur Salicylic Acid

A new addition to my routine. I'm using this at night in an attempt to rid my nose of blackheads, I'm not sure if its having a huge effect yet, but I'll be sure to do a full review once I've given it a good ol' testing!

Elemis Fruit Active Mask

Its a good mask, but its not my favourite. Elemis is on the pricey side for me and I'm currently out of my favourite Papaya Enzyme Peel Mask and desperately trying to be good and use this one up. On the plus side Fruit Active smells AMAZING, maybe even better than Papaya Enzyme, i just prefer the results with the peel.

Origins Drink Up Mask

I recently reviewed this beauty, you can read that here! Again its another corker of a product, great for dry to normal skin.

Clarisonic Plus

I'm a bit naughty when it comes to using my Clarisonic Plus every day, but when i remember i really do love it. Do i think its worth the money? Meh probably not, the Mia or Classic is a much better choice although still an expensive one. With regular use i really see a difference in my skin, it feels smoother and i have a lot less break outs, i just need to be better with using it! I really don't use the body brush in this either and would of done fine with the Classic model, but no, i had a Veruca Salt moment and wanted the PLUS! Hehe.

So that's it! My entire current skincare routine.

What are your skincare staples?

xox

theBalm - Mary-Lou Manizer Highlighter

My first theBalm purchase!

After my slight disappointment with lightscapade I'd been on the hunt for another highlighter and after being recommended this online i started searching for reviews, just after a few i was sold so started the hunt online. Again its another Feel Unique purchase they had 20% off at the time so i picked this up for £12, which isn't half bad. Although i do think Feel Unique package their cosmetics poorly, the first one i received was smashed to bits! Packaged in a thin Jiffy envelope with minimal padding, a bit stupid really. The second one arrived in the same packaging, but luckily it survived, hurrah!

I'm a sucker for packaging and i think the compact is incredibly cute!

" Meet Mary-Lou Manizer, a seemingly innocent honey hued luminiser that catches everybody’s eye. This highlighter, shadow and shimmer diffuses light so your skin looks softer and younger while adding a subtle glow. Layer it on your lids for luxe-looking lashes, sweep it on your check for a sexy sheen, or use it as an all-over finishing touch before you head out for the night."

Now this is my sort of highlighter! You don't need a lot of product to add a gorgeous pearly sheen, but its not at all glittery and i don't find it emphasises my pores too badly either. Its described as a champagne gold, but i think it would work well on most skin tones and it doesn't lean too warm for me. I've been using my Real Technique's contour brush to apply it and I've been loving it! Think Lightscapades actually going back in the stash as i think this is going to have pride of place on my dressing table, its gorgeous!

As per usual, rubbishy swatch but you can see the beautiful sheen it gives to the skin, its just stunning. Overall i think this is a wonderful highlighter, you get a ton of product and at £12 isn't horridly expensive. If you're in the market for a new highlighter, give this one a little try! Hopefully you'll love it as much as me.

Whats your favourite highlighter?

xox

Darling Girl Cosmetics - Satin Stains

A little while back i placed my very first order with Darling Girl Cosmetics and i was not disappointed! The most exciting products of my little haul was their Satin Stains, I'm really loving lip products at the moment and finding more wearable indie lipstick / stain colours makes me a happy bunny! Now I've not got quite used to my new camera so my lip swatches aren't the best quality, but I'm learning! So hopefully you'll get some better quality shots out of me in future but for now they'll have to do, hehe.

Darling Girl describes their Satin Stains as...

"Satin Stain Lip Creme's are a cross between a lipstick and a lip gloss.  They are highly pigmented and once the gloss has worn away you are left with a beautiful wash of color."

Babygirl
Babygirl is my favourite out of the two i own. Its a gorgeous peach that has a really lovely sheen that has made a really lovely, fresh, summer colour over the past few weeks. I generally get about three hours of wear time out of it but didn't find it overly staining, more of a thinner consistency liquid lipstick. Although it is of a thinner consistency its opaque in one swipe and is a non sticky formula which gets a huge thumbs up from me!

Lola

I really couldn't get Lola to work for me which is a shame because its such a gorgeous colour! It just doesn't suit my complexion and without a lip liner i could not get it to stay put on the lips. It moved around quite a bit and bled around the edges, but then again i do have an awful habit of playing with my lip bars so this isn't 100% down to the product.

Overall I'll be getting some good wear out of Lola but really do wish they were a little more staining. If you're a fan of liquid lipsticks i think you'd really enjoy these, and at $5 a pop they are really worth a look.  On my next order i need to get my hands on Pink Slip as it looks gorgeous!

Have you tried anything from Darling Girl Cosmetics?
You can check out the website here!

xox

My Travel Makeup Bag!

Heya lovelies!
Hopefully by the time this post is up i shall be in sunny Florida so thought it was apt to show you what i pack in my travel makeup bag! The bag itself if i remember rightly is Benefit's Gabbi Bag that i picked up many years ago and to be perfectly honest i kinda regret buying it, i think it was over £20 and has been used all of once... bad, i know! So i really wanted to try and get some use out of it, its sturdier than the rest of my makeup bags and has a little more padding which makes it great for trying to get bits and bobs home in one piece. I just wish i owned a few more travel sized brushes to pop in it!

For me this is packing light!

For normal trips around the UK my makeup bag is considerably bigger and I'd probably cart around a brush roll on top of all that. But bearing in mind the Florida heat and my love of shopping i thought packing the bare minimum was probably the best idea, if i desperately need something its just yet another excuse to go shopping! hehe! I spent a good while going through my collection working out what would be the best products to take, working out what could get damaged in travel or melt in the heat that i wouldn't die over if i lost, so i came up with this little lot.

See? It really is the bare minimum!

I'm quite pleased i managed to get this down to four brushes. My Elf Kabuki for blush, my Royal and Langnickel kabuki for powder, Crown Small Chisel Blush for contour and a travel size Sigma E25. I don't think I've ever gone with such a small range of brushes, but since you'll see my lack of eyeshadow later on that pretty much explains it. But these are just the basic four, so that if needs be, i can whack on a whole face of makeup pretty easily.

Okay, so i am a dinlo and have missed one of the key items out of this photo... My Sleek Contour Kit! There was no way i was lugging Lightscapade and Laguna round with me because there would be tears if i smashed or lost either of those, but Sleek's little kit is the perfect replacement!

Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturiser and Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream are the only two base products I'm taking and honestly it was a real struggle for me not to pack more. I'm a foundation whore and wear multiple ones each week, but the Laura Mercier one is perfect for day wear as it has light coverage and if i need a little more coverage I'll whack out the Missha Perfect! The Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Conceal is  MUST, it hides my dark circles a treat and Maybelline Stay Matte powder thrown in to set it all. Deciding on blush was another hard one but in the end it came down to one powder, one cream! Nars Orgasm and Stila Petunia.

Again minimal products for lips and eyes, just enough to tame my brows, do a winged eyeliner and orangey-coral lip! All photographed it looks a hell of a lot more than it really is, i mean... no shadow?!

Hopefully I'll have a nice haul to share soon!

What are your travel essentials?

Thanks for reading!

xox

Le Teint Touche Éclat Foundation - Review

Heya lovelies!

Unless you've been living under a rock the past few months you would have definitely seen one of the latest offerings from YSL, their new Touche Eclat foundation. To be honest I'd been lusting after if since its release as its been getting some seriously good press. So when i noticed a free seven day sample offer i jumped at chance to give this foundation a test drive. And as you tell by the fact I've purchased the full size, i love it!

"Today, Yves Saint Laurent introduces Le Teint Touche Éclat Foundation. A bold, unique formula to target shadowy areas and define contours. A magic light infused within a weightless fluid. A texture that has no mask-like effect. A formula free of opaque powders that evens the complexion and erases imperfections, enhancing the face’s natural features."

 

I went for the lightest pink toned shade BR10 but in hindsight i should have probably gone for the 20 as its marginally too pale for me. But they do have an impressive shade range in cool, warm and neutral tones so there should be a match for everyone! The first thing i love about this foundation is the texture, its light but has a surprising amount of coverage. Its also illuminating without looking greasy or shiny, more of a "lit within" glow rather than looking sweaty, which gets a huge thumbs up from me. I apply it with my fingers as i find this was the best method for me and would describe it as a medium, satin-ish finish. It doesn't need setting but i found it lasts a little better on the skin with a dusting. I generally get a good 6 - 8 hours wear but i have dry skin, so it may perform differently on more oily skin types.

At £28 it isn't cheap but its actually not as much as i would of expected out of YSL. I managed to pick mine up on Feel Unique with 15% off and their usual free delivery which worked out about the same as duty free would of been, bargain! I've included a little swatch below but it really doesn't do the foundation any justice, more for just a colour guide, it looks so natural and radiant on the skin.

Overall i really couldn't recommend this foundation enough! If you're looking for a light, radiant foundation with decent coverage definitely go pick up a sample and try it out for yourself. Its possibly my favourite discovery of the year so far, and thats saying something!

You can check it out on the Feel Unique website here.

Have you tried it? Do you love it as much as me?!
Let me know.

xox

My not so little USA wishlist!

Anyone i know in real life will probably at this moment in time want to throttle me, its got to the point where I'm even annoying myself. But on Friday i jet of to (hopefully) sunny Florida and I'm SO EXCITED I COULD DIE! (hehe, Despicable me). It's my first holibobs without the parents and my first one in about three years, so I'll blame my constant excitement on those factors. I get to spend both mine and the Bf's birthday out in the sun spending our days in theme parks, it doesn't get much better than that! Needless to say I've been accumulating quite a big ol' list over the past few months of some of the USA goodies i hope to get my paws on...

1: Tarte Blushes

2: Zoya Polish

3: Hard Candy Products

4: Neutrogena Healthy Skin Foundation

5: Covergirl Lash Blast Mascara

6: Anastasia Brow Products

7: Wet & Wild Mega Last Lipsticks

8: Wet & Wild Eyeshadow Palettes

9: Bath & Bodyworks Candle

10: Bath & Bodyworks Fragrance Mists

11: Maybelline Colorstay Whipped Foundation

I fully intend to go round Walmart Supermarket Sweep style shoving all the makeup goodies i can grab in my trolley, maybe not to that extreme but I'll probably look like one of those crazy ass shoppers you see online, ha! So *fingers crossed*, my haul will more or less look like this in a few weeks just with some added Disney goodness, or whatever else my shopaholic hands get hold of. I've got a couple of posts lined up while I'm away so it won't be all quiet here, but i intend on tweeting updates while away, so if you don't following have a little clicky on the Twitter button to the right!

Thanks for reading lovelies!

xox

Teeny Weeny Hair Haul

When it comes my hair, I'm pretty damn boring with it. So buying a few new hair bits is a bit novelty to me as i usually stick to my tried and tested ol' favourites. I needed new dry shampoo, love volumising products and had had my eye on trying out a salt spray for quite a while now, so with all of these being on offer in Superdrug at half price or less i snapped up all three!

Batiste Cherry Dry Shampoo
Generally Batiste gets right up my nose. There aren't any fragrances i've liked and i generally find them waaay too powdery for my liking and with my mostly black / dark coloured wardrobe, no one likes looking like a dandruf snowglobe! But... I'm a sucker for anything cherry scented and at around £1.50 wasn't breaking the bank if i didn't like it.

Fudge Sea Salt Spray
I already love it. It smells like summer. Its beautiful. I've used this for the last two days and i cannot stop sniffing my hair it smells that good! Does leave a bit of stickiness if you over spray... BUT IT SMELLS SO GOOOOD!

VO5 Plump Me Up Dry Shampoo

I've only had a chance to try this once, but its nowhere near as powdery as any of the Batiste ones I've tried in the past, so it gets an initial thumbs up from me. Not overly volumising from what I've seen so far, but just the fact it isn't powdery is good enough! I couldn't find either of the dry shampoo's online to link you lovelies but keep your eye out in your local Superdrug for them.

So thats my ickle haul. I *should* have some new beauty goodies to share with you before my holiday, that is if they arrive in time. And i've got a few travel posts lined up too. So as per usual I'm off to stalk the post man. hehe.

I've added a little poll in the sidebar, i'd love to get some feedback from you lovelies. So if you've got a second, go vote!

Have you bought any new hair goodies lately?

xox