Neal's Yard Remedies Nourishing Orange Flower Daily Moisture

Good morning!

Today's review is of Neal's Yard Remedies Nourishing Orange Flower Daily Moisture. I picked this up from Waitrose when the weather started to change before Christmas and have been using it a lot over the last few months. I bought it during a 10% off sale but it costs £23.75 from the NYR website.

This moisturiser contains Neroli for nourishment and Pomegranate oils for moisturising, soothing and protecting your dry skin.

This is a 95% organic product - one of my favourite things about products from NYR. Not only do they create wonderful products but they are also as organic as possible and the brand as a whole have the best ethics for protecting the planet. They even boast having the UK's first high street retailer to be certified Carbon Neutral, amongst many others.

They also list all ingredients, and here they are for this moisturiser:

Aqua (Water), Prunus armeniaca (Apricot) kernel oil*+, Helianthus annuus (Sunflower) seed oil*, Centella asiatica (Gotu kola) extract*, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetearyl glucoside, Aloe barbadensis (Aloe vera) leaf juice powder*, Citrus nobilis (Mandarin) peel oil expressed*, Punica granatum (Pomegranate) seed oil*, Citrus aurantium (Neroli) flower oil*, Cananga odorata (Ylang ylang) flower oil*, Avena sativa (Oat) kernel extract*, Sodium hyaluronate, Tocopherol, Alcohol denat.*, Cetearyl olivate, Sorbitan olivate, Xanthan gum, Benzyl alcohol,Benzyl benzoate, Benzyl salicylate, Citral, Citronellol, Eugenol, Farnesol, Geraniol, Isoeugenol, Limonene, Linalool.

In my opinion the amount of natural ingredient such as oils and extracts is really impressive. I know some people may be allergic to certain oils but at least with NYR you will be safe in the knowledge of finding it in the ingredients list!

I've been applying this lotion to my skin morning and evening and it has been thoroughly hydrating my skin. I do find that it does take a while to sink in so I've resorted to using it as a night cream and it works perfectly for that.

The white lotion sinks in and doesn't leave any residue but I do feel that on my skin it takes a little while to absorb and so using it in the morning isn't ideal.

That said it makes my skin feel lovely when it does eventually absorb the moisturising and protection comes into play.

I'm also really impressed that this is a 100ml bottle for just under £24. Many of the jars from NYR (which I would really love to try, particularly the Frankincense Hydrating Cream!) cost the same for a 50g jar so I think this is definitely getting more moisturiser for your money.

That said though, I'm not sure I'd be able to use this year round as my skin isn't typically 'dry' all year round. It's been a great boost for my skin whilst it has been suffering courtesy of the cold winds and the contrasting hot air conditioning in work.
I'd recommend this for anyone who does have dry skin year round as although it has worked well at moisturising it really isn't heavy at all, and with a serum would be the perfect combination for dry skin that doesn't like to be overloaded with product.

Have you tried the Orange Flower Daily Moisture? Do you have a favourite Neal's Yard Remedies product?
There's so many I'd love to try I'm going to have to make a shopping list, their Frankincense line is supposed to be amazing!

L xxx

Review: Lush Oatifix

I'm a big lush fan and love trying out new products. The lush fresh face masks are some of my favourite face masks. I love how they are made using fresh ingredients and are cool to apply to the face as they have to be kept in the fridge.

I keep trying different face masks at the moment as my skin is playing up a bit. I seem to get really bad skin around my spots so decided I'd try a mask to add some moisture to my skin.

Oatifix is described as being good to cleanse, soften and moisturise dry, sensitive skin. I've been enjoying using this as it's not irritating my spots and isn't breaking me out. This mask smells amazing. It's full of bananas, vanilla and oats which make it smell amazing. It also contains oils to help reduce redness.

It is quite a lumpy mask and can be a bit messy to apply. It does seem to melt onto the face and feels comfortable while it's on and doesn't make my skin feel tight. When I was it off the oats help to lightly exfoliate my skin. It leaves my face feeling so soft.

In the pictures I've used the mask twice and there is still loads of product left. I think I should get about 8 masks out of this one which will be two a week for the month which makes the masks pretty good value.

This one was actually free for me as I took back 5 pots. As lush try to promote recycling if you take back 5 clean black pots you get a free face mask.

Have you tried lush face masks? Which one is your favourite? I really want to try the love lettuce one next.

Love M

xxx

Antipodes: Divine Face Oil

This post has been a looooooooooooooong time coming.

I have been a huge fan of this face oil ever since receiving it in the Selfridge's Beauty Box last year.
I have raved about this to anyone who would listen to me but for some reason felt that writing my post on it would just be lost in a load of others all saying the same things so I didn't type up anything.

But I'm still in love with it and want to add my voice to the mix!

Antipodes are a really cool brand, all the way from New Zealand using natural and organic ingredients to make super sonic products with a multitude of benefits.
Now sold in 9 countries around the world the company only started in 2006 which is amazing to have got this far and just shows what reliable brand it is.

Divine Face Oil contains organic avocado oil and rosehip which scientifically stimulates synthesis of collagen production in human skin cells by up to 51%.
It's packed with antioxidants and essential nutrient rich oils which smell of jasmine and sweet orange.

It has so many benefits to skin it's almost unbelievable. You can read them on the back of the box in the picture above but essentially it's anti aging, hydrating, rejuvenating and absorbs UV light from the sun to protect skin.
Sounds like a miracle oil!

I apply a few drops of this to cleansed skin morning and evening when my skin is feeling a little dry and dehydrated (which is most of the time lately!)
You rub in the oil in upward motions and pay special attention to spots, scars and any other blemishes including lines.
This to me was really weird, at the time I hadn't ever used oils on my face and was so worried about my skin breaking out etc but I really had nothing to worry about!

The dropper is my favourite part of the product because it reminds me of old medicines and being a scientist I automatically am drawn to glassware and it can't get much better than when it contains organic skincare too!
It's so easy to use and control the drops and the oil sinks into your skin so quickly.

One of the best things about this oil?? It's only £19.50! This is a bargain considering the effects and it's lasted me almost a year and I'm still not close to finishing it.

The oil is suitable for most skin conditions but particularly useful for dry and combination skin.

I've found it brilliant at hydrating my dry patches, and I feel it's cleared up so many of my blemishes and scars as the red spots on my face are fading pretty well.
The biggest factor about this oil is that it hasn't made my oily t-zone any oilier than it normally would be which has been perfect and something I was really worried about.

I'd fully recommend this to anyone and cannot wait to get my hands on some other Antipodes products.
I've heard absolutely loads about their Aura face mask containing Manuka Honey (one of my favourite New Zealand products from my family living there!) and the Juliet Skin Brightening Gel Cleanser.

Hopefully this combination of products will get my skin to behave itself.
Dealing with an oily t-zone and then dehydrated skin on the rest of my face with scars is really getting to be hard work!

What have you tried from Antipodes? Do you love organic and natural skincare?

L xxx

Review: Vichy Cleansing Gel

I picked this up a few months ago when there was a new deal in Boots, I think when you picked up 2 other products this came free? 

I'm not exactly sure but this normally retails at £12.50 on my last check, which as a free gift is a great deal!

I love Vichy as a brand, everyone seems to be loving French pharmacy brands as a whole and this is no exception.

I have previously raved about the Normaderm moisturiser and this is the Deep Cleansing Purifying Gel.

I've been using this as a cleanser in the mornings.

My cleanser of choice is Liz Earle but as I have so many to try and to use up I often trial these in the morning.

This cleanser has almost gone now as I've been using it for such a long time.

It's a foaming gel that you use on wet skin and rinse off (I use my muslin cloth for this).

When using this I find I have a 'squeaky clean' face afterwards and the tight feeling on your skin.

I know some people aren't fans of this feeling so thought it was worth a mention.

It's not my favourite feeling, I used to love it but as my skin is now drier I feel a cream cleanser is better for me.

This is perfect for the morning as I know my skin is clean of oil for the day and a light moisturiser will see me through the day before applying heavier creams at night.

One thing I did love was the squeezy tube.

I like to vary how much cleanser I use depending on how much make up I have on my face and it's nice to see how much you've got coming out and how much you have left. 

Also I loved that they were each sealed individually, always a plus with all the bacteria around!

If I enjoyed the squeaky clean and tight feeling on my face I would definitely buy this again, a little goes a long way and this definitely helped keep my skin oil free.

What Vichy products are your favourites? Do you like the Normaderm range?

L xxx

Review: Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream

I was so excited to pick this up...it cost me a bargainous £4.50 which quite frankly I am still shocked at 2 months later!!

It is the legendary Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream which I have lusted after for YEARS and YEARS!

Even the packaging with it's simple white box and red logo makes me smile and go gooey inside which is a bit ridiculous for a box...

I have the American version of the box which has some drug facts on the back, something we don't have in the UK which was different.

I love the design with the 8's in a pattern in the background too, simple but still looks really good.

I was a bit surprised to see the colour of the product, as even though I've wanted it for ages I haven't ever actually seen it!

So being brown I was a bit shocked, clear or white was what I was expecting but never the less this was not about to put me off.

You can see from the picture that it's quite thick, it almost looks and feels like grease which was both alarming and reassuring depending on what I thought I'd be using it for.

Dry skin? Eye make up remover? Taming brows? Woohoo!

However using it anywhere on my face and hair was a bit of a reluctant thought as both are on the oily side.

I've heard it's one of the best things to use when you have a cold and have really dry skin on your nose, but I don't want to use it there and erupt in spots either!

However when you rub it in it seems to sink straight into your skin which drinks it right up

It leaves a lush sheen to your skin which I photographed above, the back of my hand felt amazingly soft for ages afterwards and my left hand felt awful ha.

This was definitely a welcome product in my collection, though I'm still not sure about using it on my face.

I think this will have to be reviewed in the winter when the weather will dry out the skin on my face and i will likely get some kind of cold/flu that seems custom around Christmas!

I've also heard it's great for on flights, your cuticles, heels, and in some cases as a highlighter.

Do you own the 8 Hour Cream? What other uses do you have for it?

My skin has been erupting all over the place lately, have you found the 8 hour cream made it worse/better?

Please let me know!

L xxx

(Edit: I just read that it contains salicylic acid which is very good at getting rid of spots and controlling oil. I will give it a go and see....!)