Neutrogena Deep Clean Daily Scrub

Hi there!

I've long been a skincare junkie and blogging has clearly made that worse; my endless drawers of facial skincare are testament to that addiction. When I was in America in 2012 I picked up many a product and one of those products was the Deep Clean daily scrub from Neutrogena which helps to provide long lasting shine control.

If I remember rightly this comes in at around $5 and it is worth EVERY CENT. It's one of the products I ask my friend over in america to send me whenever we do a product swap only it was such a long time in between the two bottles I was getting serious withdrawals from it!

As you can see from the tube, its a bright blue scrub with bits in and comes in 125ml tubes.

It claims to clear away 85% of built up oil and keep you shine free for hours with the use of rice protein. I was skeptical at first but I'd travelled to america for university for 2 months and didn't take a scrub with me so needed to get a cheapy to keep me going as my skin wasn't enjoying the humidity and heat that North Carolina offers.

I used this once or twice a day after cleansing and it cleared my skin up a treat! I couldn't believe something that was a scrub could be used twice a day and at such a great price could clear my skin completely of any blemishes and redness leaving uniform and (almost) flawless skin....how amazing!

It also kept my skin oil free ALL DAY LONG which considering I was mostly digging in mud for 5 hours a day and it was over 30 degrees I think is pretty impressive.

I realise this isn't a review that means you can go out and buy it straight away as sadly this is still only available in America and however much I wish for it, it is yet to make it to these shores.

You can find it on ebay here, but sadly even though the products are around £5/6 the postage can be £8 itself!
It would be amazing if they brought it to these parts of the world but for now I will have to stick to swapping present packages with my friend over there. if you travel over to the US I would definitely recommend you trying this.

Have you tried the Deep Clean range? Do you have any fave American products that you can't get hold of in the UK?

L xxx

Fitness Friday: Sticky Chicken

Hey there!

A late night post from me today, had a MANIC week in work and thought I'd scheduled posts until they didn't appear....oops!

This week I've got one of the best recipes and tastiest ways to make any meal exciting with just 3 ingredients. My mum found this and it is actually amazing, I'm obsessed and felt the need to share!

I've made Sticky Chicken this time, but you can make this with just about anything including salmon which I 100% recommend too.



So basically all you will need is soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and honey.

Not only is this a super simple ingredient list, it's also fool proof to make making it the perfect kind of recipe!

All you need to do is mix three tablespoons of each of the ingredients into a bowl like so:




It can be a little hard to stir in as the honey sinks to the bottom but try your best and then pile in whatever you're putting it with. Diced chicken was my choice this time and with the three tablespoons mixture you can add up to 600g of chicken.

My packets was 375g but I prefer to have lots of sauce left over so i stick with this consistency.






So after you've mixed the chicken with the sauce leave it for at least half an hour, the longer the better. Every now and then mix it around again to ensure all of the chicken gets a good covering and as much of it is marinaded as possible.

After that, get your hands on a wok, add the oil of your choice and cook it up!



Make sure the chicken is completely cooked through and then cook it to your own desires, i personally like to reduce the sauce so its really sticky and so I leave it a little longer on a low heat.



As i said you can pretty much cook any meat or fish in this. I've marinaded salmon in it also and then baked it in the oven and its perfect for those summer days when a barbecue seems like too much effort. You could eat this with salad, stir fried veg, cous cous with grilled veg and a whole host of other things including my absolute favourite sweet potato chips!

Have you tried a similar recipe? Do you have any other ideas of what you can use it for?

I'd love to see any other recipes you might have. This one is one i know will be getting lots of use from me throughout the next few months!

L xxx

MAC Eyeshadow Refill - Sable

Hello lovelies!

Pinch punch first of the month!

I wrote a post last week about my amazing new Illamasqua lipstick which was bought for me by a lovely person that you might have heard of (yes you guessed it thank you M!)

The other half of my present was an amazing addition to my MAC eyeshadow palette. I've been saying for ages how I needed more to add to it, I've got quite a few random colours that have been bought for me over the years and I'm in desperate need of some additional colours to blend my palette together better. This has filled the perfect gap!

As I have a palette M has bought me the refill which is perfect, I can slot it straight into one of the gaps and apply my eye make up as I wish. She knows me too well!

This shade is called Sable and its a 'gold plum with a bronze pearl' according to MAC's website.

The photo below shows the shadow taken with a flash and the one below that without a flash:

As you can see, my palette below has some pretty random shades, some very light, some very dark and a few brights. I've bought the large palette and an eyeshadow insert so that I can fill it up and keep my collection together. I'd definitely buy another insert, ideally I'd have a neutral side and then a darks and brights side as it is double sided and I'd love to make the most of it.

Sable clearly fits in perfectly with my small collection of nudes. I have Shroom, a limited edition shadow I cannot remember the name of and All That Glitters so I definitely needed a darker shade to create the perfect nude toned eye for day to day.

Sable is the perfect colour to blend into your crease for a wearable day to day eye for work, lunch, dates and can help to create a beautiful smokey eye with a gold bronze tinge to it. You can see swatches on my hand below:

With flash you can see how the light really catches it and makes it shimmer, it's so pretty I've been swatching it for days! 

Here it is on the eye, applied to the outer corners and blended across the lid of my eye. This is a light application and you can definitely apply it more heavily for a stronger and darker eye look. This is the look I go for on a normal work day with a bit of liner.

It's enough of a shimmer and shapes my eye enough to make sure its not boring and flat.

What do you think of Sable? Do you have a palette you're adding to? What shades would you recommend to complete my palette?

L xxx

Life Lately

Evening All

I thought I'd do a bit of a life update/picture post today. 

This week I've been loving the gym and exercising. I'm back to building my running up slowly while increasing weights and classes on other gym days. I can't wait to start to see a difference. I do feel fitter and now find I have to do at least two classes a time.

L and I are big superhero fans so went to watch Spiderman 2 on Saturday! It was amazing. I'm so in love with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. The film kept me gripped and I did shed a tear haha!

It was my housemates birthday on Monday so we headed out for drinks on Sunday. A few too many long island ice teas, shots and prosecco were consumed and washed down with nachos! It was a great evening and full of laughs! As I've not baked in ages I made a huge chocolate cake for us too. It was lush, so chocolately!! We also then headed down to Cardiff bay last night for dim sum and Chinese! I love the bay and the food was amazing!!

A few good days were topped off by finding out a mark for my practical exam in uni! It was such a relief to do so well in it. Now I'm hoping the stress of the work I handed in on Monday can follow suit and I can get at least 60 in it!

Now for the rest of the week. It's looking set to be a good one!

Love M

xxx