Spending Ban Update 6

The spending ban is definitely getting easier as the weeks go by. Is anyone else finding this? As much as I'm wanting products I'm finding it easier to just swatch all the pretty things on my hand and then put them back. I think this week is also easier as I'm off home to my parents on Saturday and have two lipsticks waiting there for me that my mum has kindly got me.

I have broke the ban this week. A deal in boots was too good for me to get for my mum and not pick on up for myself too. I love the original Stylfile (blogged about here) it's an S shaped file to easier shape the nails. So when I was in Boots and saw the Emergency Stylfile for £2 I had to pick up one for me and one for my mum. She's a fan too. I love that it's protected in a coil and has a file on one side and a buffer and smoother on the other side for any nail breaks.

This is the first beauty related item I've bought that hasn't been essential like make up pads or deodorant (both of which I had to buy this week). Apart from the shoes I showed in last week's post I've not bought clothes either.

On top of the £4 spent on the files L and I have booked to have our make up done in Mac before we go out for her birthday. We did it last year and that was what introduced me to higher end make up. So a year on we thought we'd do it again. That cost £30 and is before the ban is up it will be after 90 days so one splurge then isn't too bad. I think I'll add on a few extra weeks to make up for it.

The list of products I want is ever growing with so many new products constantly being released. I just have to keep telling myself I don't need it.

My Wishlist.

MAC Brick-O-La (this has been there since the beginning. I've still not seen it in person)

Urban Decay Setting Spray

Illamasqua Pigment Base

Origins Cheeks and Balance

La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo

Daniel Sandler Water ColouR Blush

Elf Brush Cleaner

Stocking Tights

Maybelline Colour Tattoo

Rimmel Appocolips

Laura Mercier Undercover Pot Concealer 

Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation or the Tinted Moisturiser. I want to get samples of both of these.

This time I'm adding:

Maybelline Super Stay 10 hour tint gloss. I love the formulation of these. As I'm adding these I'm taking off the Rimmel Appocolips. Here I reviewed Forever Fushia

Maybelline Super Stay 14 hour lipstick. I'm a huge fan of Maybelline lip products. I love all the shades especially Always Plum

How are your bans going?

Love M

xxx

Spring Series: Body Care

As it's March (this year is speeding by already!) we decided to start up a new series of posts for Sunday's.

With Summer coming up, in case it's in April again, we've decided to start a series of posts on how we get skin ready after the drying effects of Winter and Spring/Summer trends for clothes and make up.
We'll be doing them every Sunday in the hope that by the time we've finished them some good weather will be here!
Our first one is on body care, hope you enjoy :)

Body Scrubs

Through winter my skin goes horrible, especially my legs, they get so dry and no amount of moisturiser seems to help. Plus honestly I get lazy with moisturiser. I hate getting out of the shower and having to be cold while I rub in moisturiser! Now hopefully warmer weather is nearing it's time to prep my legs as I'm hoping soon I can wear skirts.

For body scrubs I love the Next Spa Sugar Body Scrub. Unfortunately I can't find this one online so I'm not sure if it was just a Christmas product. The texture of this scrub is one of the best I've used. It's very thick and almost jelly like. It smooths onto the skin and gently exfoliates with a good size particle. It leaves skin feeling moisturised leaving it with an oily feeling after. I love that it has a glitter sparkle through it. The only downside is the smell. As this is from the spa range it's a very fresh almost woody scent which does make you feel like you are entering a spa which is nice but for me I prefer more sweet or fruity scents. I will be looking out for this in shops and hopefully I'll be able to find it again. We were lucky enough to get this at a Next Blogger Event.

Body Butters

I'm a huge body butter fan. I love the thickness of them and the instant moisturising feeling they leave. I usually use Body Shop body butters, I love the variety of scents these leave and you can quite often get them on offer. They smooth onto the body easily and leave a nice scent on the skin.

I love how big the pots are and a little does go a long way. I tend to prefer body butters to lotions as I like that they are thicker.

Body Lotions

I did get the Soap and Glory Smoothie Star Body Lotion for Christmas. I love the scent of this. It's sweet and creamy smelling and I love that it comes in a pump bottle as it means when I'm wearing fake nails I don't get loads of product under my nails. This sinks in easily and leaves my skin well moisturised. It has converted me from body butters and as it's lighter it will be better for during the day on hot days.

I also like Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Pump Lotion. I love Palmer's products as they smell amazing. This is again a pump lotion so it means I don't get product under my fingers.

M xxx





Body Scrubs

I am what you would call a 'Soap and Glory girl' through and through. When it comes to scrubs the first thing I think of is their Sugar Crush scrub.
I absolutely adore this grainy substance which smells very strongly of sugar and lime, basically it's like a mojito and I just love it.

 

I also love their Pulp Friction scrub which foams and has more of a fruity smell and feels more moisturising because of the foam.
I pick and choose which one I fancy using depending on my skin condition at the time, and of course the smell I'm after! I find they do a really good job at sloughing off all of the dead skin cells so the new ones can push through and make moisturiser easier to sink in.

Body Butter

I'd never really used a body butter before I received a Soap and Glory one a few years ago, so they were a new thing for me. I have now become obsessed with how luxurious they feel on my skin especially after winter where my skin has taken a bashing from the cold and heating in the house.

I love how thick it is and it obviously smells amazing.
I do also like the Body Shop butters, they are on a similar standard and have a great variety of flavours. Satsuma is my next one to try!

Body Lotion
Again, having received the Soap and Glory bag I also like the Body Milk that M likes. The pump makes things so easy!
I also like the Vaseline and Dove moisturisers as most of the time they are so easily absorbed into your skin that you rarely need to wait long for it to sink in, so these are my favourites for week days and after the gym when I haven't got much time but don't want to skip it.

A product I would love to try is a body oil. I've tried baby oil and it was too thick for my skin and took forever to absorb. I've heard drier oils are better and the Palmer's cocoa butter is one of the ones I've heard rave reviews about and definitely need to try. Do any of you have any recommendations??

So there's our first Spring Series post, what do you think? Do you use scrubs often?

L xxx

  

Review: Origins Make a Difference Plus+ Rejuvenating Treatment

I'm sure you'll know my love for Origins products is seemingly never ending!

I picked this up in Boots just before Christmas when their 'spend over £60 on premium brands and get £10 of points' offer obviously caught my attention.

I'd seen a few reviews on this and as my skin increasingly needs more hydration but nothing heavy, it seemed like a worthy investment.

There are three different versions in the Make A Difference range, depending on your skin type there's one to suit you.

Although my previously oily skin has become more combination now that it requires increased levels of hydration, I still went ahead and picked up the Rejuvenating Treatment for combination/oily skin after speaking to the skin consultant.

On a side note, don't you hate battered boxes??

Never mind eh!

As you can read for yourself, this contains Rose of Jericho, Lychee and Watermelon for hydration and to repair dehydrated skin.

As usual, I was attracted to the brand via their big love for creating products without chemicals nasties. 

Their list is so extensive that this really impresses me and M, we're big fans!

Enough of gushiness....back to the product.

I do love the packaging that Origins use, it's always clean looking and the colours are all complimentary.

This looks great sat on my dressing table next to GinZing!

As directed, I applied the treatment to my skin morning and evening within my normal routine.

The biggest feature that I love about this product?

THE SMELL!

All Origins products smell pretty good, this one smells particularly fruity and fresh.

I can imagine it will be GREAT to use in summer where the smells will remind you of summer holidays.

This gel seems to melt into your skin and feels amazing.

It hydrates all of the dry patches on my skin, even the oily parts which can be an issue to hydrate without making it turn into an oil slick.

Basically, to sum up this has been a dream for my skin and a real 'treat'ment which I would definitely buy again.

It is a little pricey coming in at £33, but my methodology is that you only get one skin in life and you need to look after it.

On top of that Origins is a brand that uses a minimal amount of chemicals and give great advice, as well as being pretty generous with samples of other products.

I'd buy from them again and again, especially in Boots, as you get lots of points from your purchases ;)

Have you tried any of the Make a Difference range? What's your favourite moisturiser?

How much would you spend?

L xxx

Review: Tresemme Liquid Gold

It's ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonly blooming Friday!!!

Thank the lord! Even though I've had a day off this week and consequently have to work on Saturday I am so glad it's Friday. It means that my day in work on the weekend will be quiet and I can just chill out and do nothing as I have made no plans for Sunday apart from gym and EAT. Woop!

As you'll know hair oils are pretty big news, and I was excited when Tresemme brought out their addition to the mix, Liquid Gold.

It contains Argan Oil and comes in a really easy to use pump as shown above, and comes with a lid. This is VERY important so it doesn't spill everywhere as I can imagine this would be an absolute NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHTMARE to clean up.

That being said, I managed to 'lose' mine in my overnight bag for such a long time I thought I'd lost it.

After much rummaging and confusion however I found it had fallen through the lining and was actually in said bag the entire time, hurrah!

So I quickly started using this again over the past few weeks whilst I was still on the spending ban.

If you've read any of my posts on that ban you'll see that I have spectacularly broken my ban after a trip to the Cosmetics Company Outlet (CCO) and now I'm just trying to be really good....

So, back to the oil.

Having used the Macadamia Oil hair mask and fallen in love with it, promising myself that I would buy a tub of it as soon as the ban was over I used this oil without much hope.

So I am quite happy to admit that I have been proved wrong and my expectations of this were exceeded.

Not only is it really easy to use and control how much comes out, it sinks into your hair really well and so far I haven't experienced any oily residues after using it on wet hair before I dry it nor on dry hair to tame those pesky frizzy bits.

Now I must admit I am lucky in the hair department due to having relatively straight hair with a bit of a wave in (think Kate Middleton...probably on a bad hair day) so I don't really need much in the way of taming the frizz but as for helping my coloured hair stay in good condition it has helped quite a bit.

So not only does this get a thumbs up from me it has so far stopped me from purchasing the considerably more expensive Macadamia oil......this actually only costs £4.99 at Boots right now!

This is an absolute bargain, and after checking the most recent prices I have spotted some other things from Tresemme I'd love to get my hands on.

Has anyone tried the Keratin Smooth Deep Treatment Masque? It sounds pretty good to me!

What do you think of Tresemme? Have you found cheaper high street products to be as good as more expensive boutique and designer ones?

L xxx