Review: Etat Pur Actives A20 and A01

A while ago I placed an order with Etat Pur and bought a few items including the micellar water which you can find here

I was super intrigued by the products on their website particularly the 'Actives' products and so I bought myself the A20 Zinc Gluconate which helps to restrict sebum secretion and to eliminate spots, and A01 Q10 which helps slow down appearance of first wrinkles.

First up is the A20, I was really excited to try this out as my skin is so oily and shiny that it needs to be kept at bay all day long which is seemingly impossible.

I was hoping this product would help me combat my shiny face syndrome and initially I think it did.

Firstly I LOVE the packaging and the dispenser design on this product, it is so easy to use and the bottles are really cute.

You can see in the photo below the tip of the bottle and underneath where the white plastic part of the bottle is there is a squishy area which you press to dispense a drop onto your hand.

This was genius and I love it.

You are told to dispense around 3-4 drops to cover your whole face which i would say is the correct amount for me.

At the beginning of using this product I do think it helped to combat my oiliness and I rarely had any spots.

I brought it with me to America to give it the full test and I'm afraid I thought it was absolutely awful.

As soon as I got here I broke out and no amount of this stuff would save me, as soon as I stopped using it my spots disappeared!

So I would have to say for me that I wouldn't buy it again as it doesn't seem to work for my skin which was disappointing, maybe another product will work better but I'm not willing to risk my skin breaking out as badly as it did. I haven't had that many spots since I was 15!

Next up was the A01 which is in the same design bottle with a different coloured label.

This product was different to the A20 which was clear and slightly green tinged, the A01 is a thicker yellowy cream that still dispenses easily out of the bottle but is noticeably thicker than the A20.

I was worried at first as I thought this wouldn't work with my skin due to its oiliness but actually the results were pretty good!

You can see the difference in colour and consistency from the A20 here.

The A01 however felt like a serum in the way that it easily absorbed into my skin without leaving it feeling greasy and I was able to apply my moisturiser almost straight away after application without any kind of peeling or greasiness.

As for the results I'm not sure that it has a quick effect on the wrinkles but it's designed to help fight first wrinkles so maybe that's why.

My skin does feel like it's smoother when I've used it and after longer term use I think it may have helped prevent any more wrinkle from appearing but this is always hard to tell.

Skin is so subjective that it's hard to review skincare products!

I think I would round up the review by saying that the A20 didn't work out for me and I have actually thrown it away as I kept thinking it would work and it broke me out again.

I'm sure this will work for some people but sadly not for my skin.

The A01 has had a positive effect in that I don't seem to have been given any more wrinkles by mother nature, but it will take a longer time to see how effective this is.

Again, I was surprised how well the A01 worked with my oily skin so I would definitely recommend that people with oily skin try this too!

With my order I also got these 2 freebie samples which are so cute!

I've brought them with me to America also so that I can use them on the plane, they're perfect size for that.

Have you ordered anything from Etat Pur? I love their website and how the products can be tailored to suit any skin problem, definitely easy to use too!

L xxx

Top 10 Missed Items

A little while ago I posted what I managed to pack into my suitcase for my 7 week trip (here).

I needed a lot of stuff as a requirement of the course so with my 23kg limit there wasn't much room to bring many luxuries and as a result of this I'm missing a few things!

Mostly as you can imagine I'm missing my vast array of toiletries, clothes and shoes that I have to mix and match with.

I only brought vest tops, shorts, 2 pairs of jeans and a cardigan as well as the obligatory pack a mac and thin hoodies.

As a girl who wears dresses a lot of the time and loves accessorizing, particularly choosing make up every morning the lack of choice is KILLING me!

I have bought a few items since I've been here that I can mix and match each day and this is satisfying my need for choice temporarily, but there's also lots of other things I'm missing too.

So another more personal post today, as it's all I can think about!

In a sort of order here's the top 10 things I'm missing:

1. My beautiful dog! My dad's recently had an operation so hasn't been walking him, so I've been taking him every day and I miss him so much! I always do, but more so lately, he's so clever and I miss teaching him new tricks!

2. I suppose I should mention my family and friends up here too...haha of course I miss them too and obviously could not fit them into my suitcase as they all requested! I can contact them all when I have wifi which is luckily most of them time so it hasn't been too bad. FaceTiming my dad on his iPad is always entertaining!

3. The gym! Never in my life would I have thought I would miss the gym, but after going 4 times a week for 5 months I genuinely do, and I miss the classes so much I'm tempted to make up my own ha.

They do have a gym here but it has random opening times and as I have to eat meals at certain times too, it gets a bit awkward and I've only made it there once!

4. Tea! Oh my goodness the first week I was here I couldn't find tea anywhere, until I found Starbucks which because of it's opening times and my class hours I could only go to at 8am.

Luckily I've now found 2 other places that have it on campus so I just have to plan ahead, still miss it though!

5. Healthy food! I've been trying to eat healthily since January and have mostly been eating rabbit style food with a lot of chicken so at the beginning it was a big shock to have so much food available that was definitely not healthy but tasted so good!

I've managed to tone it down a bit and am limiting myself to 1 dessert from now on (their cakes are miniature ones and 1 just isn't enough...!)

6. Make up in general! I do have a certain amount of make up with me that should in theory be fine for my 7 weeks away, especially as I did come here to complete a uni course that spends the majority of it's time outside in dirt. 

BUT the inner beauty addict inside me is not satisfied, and at the beginning insisted on wearing make up in ridiculous heat and humidity which resulted in me breaking out in spots for AGES.

I've learnt my lesson now and wear minimal make up and it's got a lot better, doesn't mean I don't play around with it in the evenings though ;)

7. Lipstick. I love wearing it now whereas I wouldn't have gone anywhere near it before! I'm so used to wearing it that here where no one wheres anything except a bit of mascara I'd feel so overdressed but I can't wait to put it back on!

8. Dresses! I miss being able to wear dresses, and generally have a choice of what to wear, as not only do I only have certain things with me, I can only wear long trousers to Uni (because of bugs and plants etc) and hiking boots. So whilst it's absolutely BOILING I have to suffer with trousers on when I'm DYING to put shorts on. Booooooooo :(

9. Alcohol. I'm nowhere near coming out in cold sweats as I'm honestly not an alcoholic....however with the weather being so damn good all I want to do is sit in a beer garden or bar terrace outside in the sun with a cocktail.
Where I am was a 'dry county' up until 2 weeks ago and alcohol wasn't served anywhere bar Walmart so hopefully it will become a little more accessible now!



10. Using products! Strange but true, I miss going through my drawers and cupboards of products to see what I've got left and will be using next. It feels really wasteful to have not brought everyday toiletries with me and to buy them here knowing I have mountains to get through at home!
I'm looking forward to getting back on track with my Beauty Rehab series and hopefully making a dent in my mahussive collection!

What do you think of my top 10? What would you miss if you went away for such a long time with minimal luggage?

L xxx

NOTD: Barielle Shades Bridal Collection

Hello and good morning! 

Currently writing this in my dorm room in America when I should be sleeping but instead I've stunk my room out with nail polish so I'm wide awake!

On one of my recent shopping trips to different malls around North Carolina and Georgia I've picked up quite a few beauties (all for the blog obviously...) the first that you are seeing is this amazing set of 'Bridal' nail polishes from Barielle.

Firstly I'd like to point out that no, I am in no way anywhere near getting married but the colours were so pretty I couldn't resist, who doesn't love a box of nude nail colours!

As you can see from the box there are 5 different colours, a solid white, shimmer white, coral nude, pink nude and general flesh coloured nude.

I did buy these from TJ Maxx (who on earth knew they had the same store but with one letter difference? Anyone know why this is? I'm intrigued!) but anyhow for half the price at $9.99 i couldn't resist picking them up.

They were a little dirty in the box and i had to clean them when I opened them up but aside from the the bottles were all sealed and in tact.

The colours look beautiful lined up, I'm tempted to set them out somewhere in my room as they look so good!

As I couldn't resist testing them out I quickly painted each nail with a base coat, and 2 coats of each colour, you should be able to tell which is which as they are in the same order as shown above:

(Please excuse the state of my nails...they're doing pretty good all things considering but 6 weeks of digging in the mud results in all manner of nail/hand problems and I can't apply moisturiser fast enough!)

I love the three nude colours as they go perfectly with my skin tone which is rare as my skin is so pale! The shimmer white I know won't use as much but it is still a pretty colour and the solid white will be perfect for nail art/french manicures.

In fact I actually love all of them which is pretty cool considering I bought them on a whim with the 'nobody else can have this bargain' kind of attitude!

I have painted my nails with the coral coloured nude (middle finger) to see how they fare over time as I'm not sure they're very thick so could chip easily.

We shall see!

Have you heard of Barielle before? Do you love going into TJ/TK Maxx and picking up some bargains??

I absolutely love it and bought quite a few things....I have bought lots from departments stores and Sephora too. 

Would you like to see a post on what I've bought during my 7 weeks in America??

Let me know!

L xxx

Tea Pigs

Today is a bit of a random non beauty post. I hope you don't mind. As I'm think L has mentioned in some of her America posts (or it may be one coming, sorry if it is) we are both huge tea lovers. Non tea lovers this may not be a post for you.

Since the new year I've tried to reduce my intake of regular tea. I was on 7-8 cups of tea a day and thought it was too much so switched to healthier options such as green tea and peppermint after the obligatory cuppa in the morning (milk no sugar please, made for me each morning by my OH, we have a deal going so he makes me tea. Nothing better than a cup being bought to you haha).

Getting used to green tea took a while. L struggled and couldn't face it. It's a unique flavour that takes getting used to. I like the fact it boosts antioxidants etc. If you fancy trying it I'd recommend trying green tea with pineapple or apple and pear, I know twinings do these as it adds a slight sweetness. To be honest switching from normal tea to green tea I can't say has made a huge difference but I feel it's better.

So the point of today's post. My new 'high end' love. Yes I believe tea pigs are the high end of tea. I was introduced to them by one of my lovely work ladies. Instantly I was intrigued by the silk tea temples the tea sits in and couldn't wait to try them.

The next time the lady I work with placed her order online at tea pigs she ordered me some too. I got the chocolate flake and green tea and peppermint blend.

I also got sample packs of these. You can buy tea pigs online or there are local stockest listed online and cafes local to you that sell them. Link to that here

I was blown away by the chocolate flake. The tea comes in silk tea temples and is leafs that swell up when water is added to them. The chocolate one has actual pieces of chocolate that melt into your tea. I personally prefer to drink this black. It has a subtle chocolate flavour but not sweet or overpowering the tea.

How pretty are they. (ok I sound weird now)

I like that on the back of each tea if gives a description of the base tea and how you should drink it. Being a tea novice I'm not sure what should and shouldn't have milk. The more I try the more I prefer non milk. My mum is kindly buying me the mix and match set where you get 12 different types of tea and two of each type.

Sorry if my tea talk has bored you but I really would thoroughly recommend these to anyone and the sample packs are a great way to test it. The average price for 15 tea temples is between £3.49 and £4.29 (I think) and some teas can be bought in 50 packs.

Have you tried tea pigs. Everyone I know that has loves them. I'm saving L a chocolate one for when she gets back from America.

I'm off to brew a pot of chocolate tea now.

Love M

xxx

I'd love to know if any of you try these xx