Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish

So another weekend coming to an end and back to work in the morning. I've had a great weekend this weekend with the family so that's left me in a good mood today.

Onto today's post, both L and I have been loving skin care lately and taking a much bigger interest in it and trying other brands. (I had a recent splurge in Clinique and I'm loving there stuff, post coming soon). After Red magazine gave the free sample and a muslin cloth to try, we were both impressed with it. It's such a different cleanser, so thick and moisturising on the face and I enjoyed using the cloth.

L was so impressed she went out and picked up more straight away. I'd left mine longer before trying out due to being back in love with my Lush Herbalism cleanser. Now I regret that.

After seeing the great offer a few weeks back (Thanks Lola for sharing) I couldn't resist getting more. We decided to share the postage cost and ordered together. 

We chose the express delivery as the deal was just before L went away. I was so excited when she text me the next day to say it had already arrived and that it had come with lots of goodies.

It was with 4 sachets of their sheer skin tint (1 in each shade) and a 30 ml sample of cleanse and polish and another muslim cloth. L had the cleanser I had the skin tint. I love that with higher end brands they are always generous with there samples. I love trying new things.

I'm impressed with the sheer skin tint and will review full soon.

It also came with a colour chart detailing all of the new make up range and the shades. Also helpful was space by the shade of each shade so that you could compare it to colours you already own if you are ordering on line. I'm eyeing up the bronzer after reading rave reviews.

Another nice touch was a little note saying who had packed your package up for you.

And a big thick book showing there full product range with descriptions and prices. I've loved having a flick through this. L did mention that for a natural company though there was a lot of maybe unnecessary packaging that although it was a nice touch could have been done without.

All of that for one bottle each of 100ml cleanse and polish, I'm wondering next time whether to assume we'll get more good samples and it might be worth ordering separately to get all the freebies.

We will do a full review on Cleanse and Polish soon if anybody is interested in this product, I know we are late to the party on loving this product but it's definitely one that we will be repurchasing a lot now.

Love L and M

xxx

A little side note - after using the Cleanse and Polish sample I did indeed rush out to buy the full size, at 14 pounds (I'm using an American keyboard that doesn't have a pound sign, how inconsiderate!) it included a full 100ml of product and 2 muslin cloths in a bag along with the instructions card.

I really do believe that even after a week of using it my skin felt like velvet, my spots had cleared up and any blemishes had definitely decreased in size. I've now been using it ever since and I swear my skin has improved even more after the benefits of long term thorough cleaning.

I vote everyone should be using this baby!

L xxx

Review: Vita Liberata

As a pale girl living in Wales where the sun rarely shines but the rain empties down rather regularly, fake tan is a very prominent member of my product collection.

I tend to go through rather a lot of Dove's summer glow body lotion with a hint of fake tan just to keep myself looking a more human colour!

I've tried many tans before but this one was new on the market, and on offer, hurrah!

I bought this Vita Liberata Self Tan Gel from Boots whilst it was reduced to a much more purse friendly £14.99 from its original price of £22.49

The packaging states:

If you have very pale, hard-to-tan skin then this is your product. Organic extracts have been specially formulated to turn you golden brown in an instant and last for days (even after showering).

I fully believe this person is me! I was a bit nervous at the thought of using a product titled 'Extra Rich Silken Chocolate' as although I wanted to be tanned, I didn't want to be orange or even worse, mahogany!

Let's get the details out the way...the reason I bought this tan (aside from the discount) was the fact that this tan is:

Paraben Free

Perfume Free

Not tested on Animals

and lastly...Organic!

I was tempted by the mousse as I always am, I find them much easier to use than sprays and I've never really tried a lotion.

But decided it was time to try one, particularly as I worked out that the mousse was so much more expensive per 100ml than the lotion.

For once, being thrifty paid off!

This Vita Liberata tan went on an absolute dream!

I'd been scrubbing and exfoliating and moisturising for a good few days before I applied this product, meaning that I had a good base to start with.

After reading the instructions again since my applications I am a little concerned...it says to use 2-3 pumps of product per limb and I most definitely used at least 6 ha, and that was on my arms!

The packaging btw is beautiful, showing a wonderfully bronzed body on the side that to be honest is probably very true to the colour that I turned out to be!

I also like the packaging of the tan itself, brown so wont get covered in mucky hand prints from tanning but shimmery and quite simple in design.

The nozzle was so easy to use, and whilst the tiniest bit comes out for each pump i would much rather this than too much and then waste the product.

As you can see from the product on my hand, 1 pump is a tiny amount!

Maybe my pump is working incorrectly if you are meant to use 2-3 pumps as I'm sure that wouldn't cover most peoples arms surely?!

It's quite a dark colour but blends easily and evenly, giving you a tanned colour instantly and meaning it's very easy to see any missed parts.

I did take photos of my limbs after using this product but unfortunately they've disappeared off blogger :S

But you can just about see in the picture above where the tan had started to develop into a beautiful even colour that looks really natural.

I would say I was worried I'd look like an extra off the Simpsons, it's quite yellow toned which I've never noticed before with a self tan so maybe bear that in mind if you use it!

I definitely didn't turn out that way though, the colour was absolutely beautiful and true to their word did take a good few days to fade.

It even comes with detailed instructions on what to do and not to do, for example with this tan you shouldn't moisturise before application, which is something I've always done with other tans to help it sink in evenly and most of them suggest you do this particularly around knees, elbows etc

Overall I was really impressed with this tan, I love St Tropez but it's expensive and this was a welcome break for my purse.

After 3 different full body applications I can safely say there is plenty left in the bottle and am not even half way through, whereas with the St Tropez mousse the bottle would be near empty by now.

Have you used this brand of tanning products before?

M has had a spray tan done with their products and absolutely loved it too.

I will certainly be checking out the other products they have available...as soon as I get some money rolling into my account again!

What other tanning brands do you use and recommend?

L xxx

NOTD: Max Factor Pretty in Pink

A while ago I bought 3 nail polishes from Max Factor as part of Boots endless 3 for 2 deals which we of course absolutely love!

I've already blogged about Fantasy Fire and Silver, now the final one is Pretty in Pink:

I saw this colour and instantly hoped it would replace my beloved Antique Coral from Natural Collection.

I think it's the first nail polish I've actually thrown out because I'd finished it, and the colour was perfect for so many occasions.

I did think that it would be a better formula and a longer lasting colour, as the Natural Collection one needed a good few coats and the colour did seem to fade after a little while.

As well as that, Natural Collection products are among the cheapest of high street brands, and Max Factor is rated much higher on the scale.

However I was sadly mistaken and quite frankly, without being rude this nail polish was shockingly bad.

The colour was streaky, changed shades after a few hours and regardless of top coats used chipped off so easily that even in these photos they're chipped and they were taken on the day I'd painted them!

You can see the chip on my index finger on the photo above and below, and I was so disappointed as I was so pleased with Fantasy Fire and Silver that this one was world's apart.

I'm almost tempted to believe that the one I bought was from a bad batch that maybe didn't work out right, or the chemicals got separated!

In some photos the nails look really good, but I promise you they were so streaky and even after 3/4 coats it made no difference.

I was so disappointed with this and wouldn't recommend it to anyone, M was tempted as the colour was so nice but I made her buy another one instead! I honestly thought it was awful and do not expect this from Max Factor at all.

Also, I know this is being picky, but the shade is clearly an orangey, peachy coral type shade...why call it Pretty in Pink?!

Bit of a negative post for today I suppose but at least I should be able to warn you to test it out before you buy it! Hopefully mine was from a bad batch and therefore all the others come out perfectly fine.

Have you tried any of the other mini's from Max Factor? Any shades you'd recommend?

I absolutely love the collection as a whole, so many shades and such a good price at £3.99!

Though I'll be testing them out on my nails before I buy from now on...

L xxx

Review: L'Oreal False Lash Telescopic Mascara

I'd been after a new mascara for a while, and had my beady little eye on this beauty, but missed the bandwagon when it first came out and so the only option was to pay the full price of around £10.49 for it (I think!)

Luckily for me my mum has an excellent memory and bought it for me for my birthday!

I am of course talking about the L'Oreal False Lash Telescopic Mascara.

At first glance, I loved the design of the mascara, its sleek and silver and looks a little futuristic, which always makes me think that they've found a fabulous new formula that nobody else has yet.

I was particularly excited about the 'False Lash' part, I have long eye lashes luckily but they're very straight and so you don't really notice them so much until you're up close or I have my eyes closed, not a good look FYI!

I was hoping this would give my lashes the extra flutter and be able to reach all of them with the snazzy brush.

I believe Cheryl Cole's advert for this involved her actual lashes and no falsies for once which I would say is pretty impressive!

I've been using this for 2 months and it's now starting to dry out.

At the beginning the brush was overloaded which I find with most mascaras and always end up wiping them off at the beginning.

It did however make my lashes look longer and separated them out more than others I have used in the past.

Unfortunately the photos I took of before and after seem to have disappeared which is annoying!

It definitely did make a difference to my lashes but I'm not sure this was much better than Rimmel mascaras I have used which are much cheaper.

I did like the brush/comb combo as you can see in the pictures, the multiple teeth really did separate out my lashes quite a bit but I felt that was the only thing this mascara did that others don't anyway.

I'd buy this mascara again if it came down on price or was on offer, i did like it just not enough that it's worth the extra on top of others that are cheaper!

Have you used this Telescopic Mascara before? Have you used any others recently that you think are amazing?

I've just bought the Maybelline's Illegal Length to try out!

L xxx