Review: Lush Dream Cream

My boyfriend always goes into lush for my Birthday and Christmas present and will get me a few bits from there. When I opened this at Christmas I was so excited to see it as in lush they always rave about it but with my love for body butters I never wanted to part with the cash for it. It comes in at £10.95 for a pot this size.

It's taken me a while to use it as I keep reaching for my body butters but as I'm fast running out of them I decided it was time to give this a chance.

The list of ingredients sounded promising lots of moisturising ingredients such as cocoa butter and natural oils. It does contain parabens though which didn't thrill me to see.

As you can see it's a cream coloured lotion. It's quite thick and sunk into the skin easily. Though I felt like I needed a lot and my skin didn't feel as moisturised as when I use a body butter. I also felt like I was using it up quite quickly. 

For me this was just ok. And definitely not worth the money. Although the product is vegan friendly it still contained nasties such as parabens that L and I try to avoid in new products we are buying.

I'm a huge lush fan but unfortunately this just didn't wow me!

Love M

xxx

A trip to town after pay day

I always find I'm the worst after pay day. I seem to think I have all the money in the world and forget I shouldn't be spending. I'm sure it's not just me.

L and I popped into town on Saturday morning bright and early to bag ourselves some Origins freebies. Did any of you ladies pick them up too?

I only intended to really pick them up and a present for my brothers girlfriend. Of course that didn't happen though.

Here are my goodies - 3 Origins moisturisers, Lush Herbalism cleanser, Lush Breath of Fresh Air toner, Mac Lipstick, Fanfare, Bed Head Superstar shampoo, Catwalk Oatmeal & Honey Conditioner and a set of weights.

We had planned to go to town and visit each of the Origins counters. Origins had a great offer on on Saturday if you took back any full size skincare product they would give you a free 30ml moisturiser. No catches they just wanted more people to try there products. I think this is a great way to try a brand. Did any of you pick these up?

I got two of A Perfect World this was the one recommended to us and one Starting Over just to try. These are great natural products free from parabens and lots of other things. We plan to do a full post on Origins soon.

Next came a stroll to the MAC counter. After selling some bits on eBay I decided I deserved a lipstick. I picked up Fanfare, which will appear in a Lipstick Monday post next week and L had managed to save six empties so could pick up a freebie. I also now have £10 on my beauty card so that's going towards next months MAC lipstick. What colour do you recommend next?

My brothers girlfriends birthday is this week and she'd asked for a MAC eyeshadow. After testing some out on my hand I went with Satin Taupe, it was such a gorgeous colour and formulation I think I'm definitely going to have to pick myself up some soon. What's your favourite colour MAC eyeshadow?

A quick trip to lush was needed to pick up my essentials. I walked in there with blinders on and refused to look at anything else. I have a tonne of bubble bath at the moment so as much as I want bubble bars it seems silly to pick them up.

This is probably my all time favourite toner. It works amazing on my skin and really helps prevent it getting to greasy. I find it lasts well too. My last bottle was a Christmas present and has only just run out. I use it twice a day most days. It's great for if I get in from work and feel my skin is greasy a quick spritz and I'm instantly refreshed.

Lastly we popped into TK Maxx. It's great for picking up odd bits and pieces. I love there homeware.

I wanted to pick up some weights so I could start doing my workout dvd. I bought it back in February stuck at it then for 10 days and got brilliant results so really need to get back into it. When I did it in February I was using water bottles as weights. Cheaper but not as effective.

These were only £7.99, I love that they are soft grip weights and at 3lb they will be perfect for with the DVD.

Whilst there L's devil side came over her and she persuaded me to head to the beauty section so I had to pick up a new shampoo and conditioner even though I have just ordered a Moroccan oil set.

With my extensions I've found the high street brands usually contain silicone (usually listed as diemethicone) which at first I thought would be ok to use even though I was told not to. It really has been causing my extensions to slip out though as the product goes under the micro ring. (posts on my extensions and silicone in beauty products). I decided to pick up these as well as the ones I've ordered as they were cheap. The shampoo was also SLS free. Extra bonus there.

I've used both of these prior to writing this post just to give quick thoughts on them. First thing about both products, they both smell amazing, especially the conditioner. I had to mix the ones I got as the conditioner for Superstar shampoo contained silicone and the shampoo for the oatmeal and honey condition contained ammonia laureth sulphate which L informed me was worse than SLS. I find I'm definitely more aware of what chemicals are in the products I use. It makes shopping longer though. I have had bed head products before and really loved them so was pleased to pick them up cheaper in TK Maxx. I will definitely be going back there for more. They are huge bottles and so far definitely seem worth paying the extra for. As an added extra I love the pump tops. They just make it easier.

Have you been purchasing anything this weekend? Have you tried any of the bits I got?

Love M

xxx

COTW: Parabens

Hi all, hope you are enjoying our Chemical of the Week posts.

Any feedback you could give us on them would be very much appreciated, particularly if you could let us know if they're helpful and if you would look forward to reading more.

The previous two can be found here and here :)

Most people won't have heard of parabens, which when you consider that 90% of cosmetic products contain them is a little worrying!

What are they?

They come in many forms (ethylparaben, methylparaben and less commonly isobutylparaben and many more) and if you read the ingredients of whatever product you have at hand you will more than likely find that it contains at least one.