A Budget Moisture-Boosting Mask

I've been eyeing this one up for a while but kept forgetting to pick it up until recently. While I normally like something a little more luxe in my skincare, Una Brennan happens to be the maker of one of my favourite cleansers ever and so I was just itching to try some more from their range and my verdict?

Okay. Slow down. It's not the Superfacialist by Una Brennan Cleansing Oil that I'm constantly harping on about, but it is nice. I found that the mask applies nicely to the face and sets down in a semi-clay-mask type way, only not so firm. When you have the mask on, it feels like there's a hit of hydration every time you move your face a little which is nice and I can imagine that, for this reason, it would be a lovely mask to wear in the bath.

It says "Suitable for even the most sensitive skin" but I'm not sure how truthful this claim is, I don't normally get any sensitivity (especially not with products that target dehydration as a skin concern) but this mask left me a teeny bit red in the face on removal. My skin felt nice and soft after use however it's definitely not the nicest hydrating mask I've ever used for a 10-minute hydration hit I prefer the Clarins HydraQuench Cream Mask but if you have a little more time on your hands then the Origins Drink Up Overnight Mask still reigns supreme for me in the hydrating mask category.

That being said, it's still a nice product and a good budget buy if you're trying to stretch last months pay-check and it would also be good for the more youthful among us if you're out every weekend and you feel like your skin needs that extra boost.

A Mini Clarins Moment

The other day I nipped in Boots for some shampoo and got distracted by a big sign by the Clarins counter that read: "Buy any two products, one to be skincare and get a gift bag with three travel-sized products". Naturally, I was all over that and while the products I'd picked up were just a back up of my Clarins Milk Cleanser and a mystery product that we'll talk about some other time, the mini's I picked up were so worth mentioning on here, as a couple were products I'd been itching to test out for a while.

The product I was most excited to try was the Instant Eye Make-up Remover, it's one of those bloger-hyped products that I just needed to try. I was actually going to pick up the full size until I noticed it was one of the options for the free gifts (why buy if you can try it for free first?). It's a bi-faze make-up remover that's intended for use mainly on the eye-area and although I don't wear water-proof mascara, this removed a normal face of make-up for me just great. I've said it before and I'll say it again I absolutely love my Una Brennan Cleansing Oil for make-up removal and the Clarins offering doesn't quite match it for home use, but I can imagine due to the size and nature of this product, it is definitely something I'll be reaching for when packing my over-night bags.

I'd already tried their HydraQuench Cream Mask and liked it so I had high hopes for the HydraQuench Cream. While it's for normal to dry skin, a small amount of this works great on my combination/dehydrated skin and the sample is really generous. Nothing special but it does the job.

The Final product I picked as my free gift was their Pure Melt Cleansing Gel which I'd assume from the name is intended to be a pre-cleanse but after using it a couple of times I've decided that I like it best as a morning cleanse. It's one of those gel-to-oil/balm cleansers that's reminiscent of my old favourite Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel, but that lovely rose scent isn't present in the Clarins. While the difference in scent makes it less of a luxe experience for me, at £20ish for 125ml it does beat the Oskia (£30ish for 100ml) on price and might be worth a try if you like the Oskia but don't like the price.

Spring and Summer Style Staples

I've recently been having one of those rare-but-real moments in life where I'm pretty set on the beauty front and was stuggling to come up with new ideas for beauty-blog posts. After sitting there for a good few days, racking my brain over what I could write about in a week's worth of posts I decided that enough was enough. I began the blog for fun and had to just go with what I fancied or it would lose it's joy factor.

With that in mind I thought I'd indulge myself today on a topic I'm constantly falling in and out of love with: Fashion. and I figured if I was going to bring a fashion element into the blog, then where better to start than with my seasonal must-haves? So here we go, Jodie May Fashion: Part 1.

Topshop Leigh Jeans are the foundation for a casual spring outfit for me. I hate trying on jeans and so Topshop's denim section is a blissful shopping experience, I can just buy the size I always get and I know they'll just fit. No changing room dramas necessary. I have them in the basic denim blue and a distressed black and I'm currently looking into picking up a pair of printed or white ones to amp up my spring/summer wardrobe.

The next style category that I feel I pretty much live in for work or play is what I call the Not-So-Basic Tee. They're a slight twist on a classic t-shirt, maybe a shoulder detail or an interesting hem-line or surprise in the back, just something with a bit of interest to it. My favourite one at the moment is a basic oversized black t-shirt with lace shoulder inserts that I picked up from H&M a while back.

The Comfortable All-Occasions Dress is my I-would-be-wearing-sweat-pants-but-I-have-to-leave-the-house-today clothing must have. I have a few of these dresses in my wardrobe at the moment and they're what I reach for most of the time for work because they're just easy. Dress, jacket, shoes, handbag, tights if it's cold and your done. The definitely save the 15-minutes of deciding on an outfit in the morning.

As a working girl who needs everything and the kitchen sink with her on the daily, Big Handbags are a must for me. I'm that girl that's off to the gym on the way home from work or who's off to a weekend trip straight from work on Friday's. Im never without an umbrella, my make-up bag and a near endless supply of snacks, you get the picture. I recently picked up a lovely pink one in the Accessorise sale and I'm obsessed with it.

Statement Jewellery is a nice way to either change-up a look with a mix of basics OR can be a nice way to pull accessories together. I recently picked up the gold chain in the picture (again) from Accessorise and when I wear the chain with coloured accessories (I.E a pop of colour in the handbag or the shoe maybe) I feel like it just pulls the outfit together that little bit more.

The Wait is Over! Serozinc Hits Boots

As an avid reader of Caroline Hirons' blog, I have been one of the many disappointed Brits that have had to do without the much hyped Serozinc. So you can imagine my delight when I walked into the boots the other day to pick up a pot of eyecream for my mum (+1 daughter point) to find a shelf full of these beautiful blue bottles.

I'm slightly surprised that I managed to leave the store with just the one bottle. So I hurried home (as fast as a user of public transport can during the rush hour traffic in the centre of Manchester) and excitedly got into my skincare routine early. My verdict?

I really like it. It's a lovely fine mist that leaves your face damp but not soaked, it's a lovely calming sensation on the skin, and provides a little bit of slip for your serum/oil/whatever step you're going to next. When I woke up the next day my skin felt noticeably less bumpy and hydrated. Still think some more testing is required but so far it looks like it was worth the wait.

My Top Three For Healthy, Happy Hair

While I'm not a big hair-styling enthusiast, colouring my hair and using hair lightener definitely takes it's toll on my locks and so I've been getting more and more into haircare over the last few months. I could do a bigger post on my full haircare routine if anyone would be interested but for now I thought I'd keep it short and sweet and just focus on my top 3 nourishing picks for dry and colour-damaged hair.

So the priciest product in this line-up by far is the Oribe Supershine Moisturising Cream, at almost £50 a tube this bad boy is definitely a luxury product but I picked up a mini of it in the January sales this year and I think it's great. I haven't tried many leave-in conditioners but you only need a tiny amount of this so I'm finding that even the small size is lasting me a good while.

For the low-maintence girl there's the good old traditional conditioner. My favourite one right now is the OGX Renewing Argan Oil of Morocco Conditioner. I love this because not only does it smell great *sniff* but it's a nice thick formula that really grips to the hair in the shower. I find that even some of the more luxury brand conditioners feel a bit flimsy to me. I apply this to the mid-section and ends of my hair, wash and exfoliate my body and then rinse it out, just so I can try to keep the conditioner on the hair for as long as possible whilst also managing not to be in the shower for 2 days. Leaves my hair soft and shiny, and the bottle looks lovely on my bathroom shelf.

But if that's not enough, you could always go in with a little of my 3rd option: a hair oil. I've been loving the Percy and Reed Smoothed, Sealed and Sensational Volumising No Oil Oil lately. I hate the feeling of product in my hair so for me, this is a great option, it's so light that you barely know its there. It can leave a little grease to the hair so I generally use it when I'm doing a bun style just to nourish the mids and ends while I run my day-to-day errands.

My MAC Palette So Far

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I'm not the biggest fan of MAC's eyeshadows. That being said, their colour selection is pretty much unrivalled and their build-your-own palettes are beautifully simplistic and even though other brands have come out with their own DIY palettes, I still think that MAC have the monopoly on them due to the design of their packing. So lets have a tour around my (not even half full) 15-pan-palette.

The first shade I picked up from MAC was Brulé, a basic. It's a matte skin-tone shade (on me it is anyway) that I can use all over the lid or to blend out a one-colour look. I have tonnes of shades like this but I decided that if I was making up any kind of palette, I probably wouldn't reach for it as much if it didn't have a basic shade like this in it.

Another neutral shade that doesn't seem to exciting it Petina, this is a more recent purchase for me. At first glance it's a bit of a plain jane eyeshadow colour but it's great for those days where you want something on the lid but don't want to spend ages blending or applying multiple colours. It's also great for toning down more interesting colours. My favourite shade to mix with Petina is Greensmoke, another newbie to my collection. It's as close to a neutral as you can get whilst still bringing a tiny pop of colour to the table.

I picked up Gleam after being drawn in by it's neutrally sparkle. To me it looked like a slightly more interesting All The Glitters and in hindsight, I probably should have picked up that instead. Gleam swatched well in the store, but doesn't really work with a brush and creates a tonne of fallout, it's also quite sheer so you have to use a lot of product to get the colour that's in the pan. generally not a shade I use very often and I can see myself switching it out once my palette fills up.

Another sheer shade is Shale, however it doesn't have the massive fallout problem that Gleam has, so it can be worth the extra bit of effort since it looks really pretty if you take the time to build it up. It's a mid-tone purple with a satin-y finish that works well blended all over the lid on it's own or wth other colours. I like to use it with a tiny bit of Sketch blended either into the crease or along the upper lash line to add a little bit of smokiness to the look. Sketch is a deeper purple-y colour with some shimmer.

And there we have it. short and sweet as it's only 6 shades but I'll keep updating as the palette starts to come together.

Friday Review - Percy and Reed Smoothed, Sealed & Sensational Volumising No Oil Oil

I've mentioned on this blog many a time that I'm not a hair-product enthusiast, so when I find something new that wow's me I'm really impressed. With that in mind, I can't say I was entirely thrilled to open my most recent Birchbox to find a generous sample size of this product, the Percy and Reed Smoothed, Sealed & Sensational Volumising No Oil Oil (try saying that 10 times fast), because I knew hair products weren't really my things (AND I mentioned that on my BB profile), but I tried it anyway, and am I glad I did.

This light hair oil is another one of those restorative but not heavy hair products that are prefect for girls like me that are somewhat low maintenance with their hair and don't like to feel product weighing it down. I add a tiny pump to the ends of my hair after blow-drying to tame any feeling of fried ends (I'm so overdue a hair cut) and if you do a day 3 bun (or a day 4 bun, I know, it's shameful), this is nice in the lengths to tame any fly-aways in a really nourishing way.

I wouldn't run it through the lengths of my hair on hair-down day, just as with it being an oil it can add that slight oiliness to the hair that isn't particularly visually pleasing, and I wouldn't take it anywhere near the roots (the roots don't really need a product like this anyway) but other than that, it's a really lovely product.

A Face Fit For A Wedding

The other half and I found ourselves at a wedding last weekend and with it being the first time the two of us were going to that kind of event I got really excited about getting to really dress up and obviously, I anted to share that with you guys.

While I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to wear black to a wedding, I saw this gorgeous black dress in River Island and I couldn't resist, I figured since we were only actually attending the reception it wouldn't be so bad and tried to drop a bit of colour into the mix with the oil-finish clutch bag from Whistles.

The bag was pretty much where all my colour matching came into play because the oil slick made it pink and green and I found it quite hard to match but I found a good match for my fingers and toes in Butter London's Nail Lacquer in "Knackered" which has that same pink/green effect with a tiny bit of glitter that in 2-3 coats builds up to a beautiful finish on the nails.

I then played up the eyes using a mix of MAC shades - "Petina" and "Greensmoke" to create a really subtle, light green smokey eye just as a nod to my chosen colour scheme. With green on the eyes I went for a more nude lip and went for a light layer of The Lipstick Queen's Big Bang Illusion Lip Gloss in the shade "Cosmic" and then Maxfactor's Creme Blush in "Soft Pink" helped give my skin that healthy glowy skin you'd hope to have at a wedding.

My Cleanser Collection

So first up is the Oskia Renaissance Cleasning Gel, I'll try to keep this one short and sweet because we all know I love this. It's a light gel that, when applies to a dry face, feels almost oil-like in texture and can be used on even the most sensitive of skins. Plus the smell, need I say more?

The Athony Glycolic Facial Cleanser has been reviewed on this blog before (Here) and is a good second or morning cleanse. I personally use it in the morning when I want a quick skincare routine as it negates the need for an acid tone step.

Emma Hardie's Amazing Face Moringa Cleansing Balm is one that everyone must have heard of my now, the citrus-smelling balm was my gateway into "proper" skincare. Before I found this I was washing with a foaming cleanser and then slapping on a BB Cream and hoping for the best. This is a lovely cleanser that's thick and not moisture-zapping at all, can be used as a second cleanse or to remove make-up but I find it a little heavy for morning-use.

The Omorazicza Cleasning Foam may be a controversial one in my collection with it being a foaming cleanser, but I generally save this for when I'm staying out overnight. As much as I love my oil and balm cleansers, wash cloths get complicated for overnight stays and so I just throw this in my overnight bag and it does the trick. It has a lovely light scent and isn't too stripping on my skin.

I like the Garnier Micellar Water for rushed mornings. It's my "I need to cleanse but I don't really have time to' cleanser. A quick sweep of this and then a good moisturiser or face oil does the trick in a pinch. It's also nice as a first cleanse in the evening to remove make-up, although I've found something I like better for make-up removal recently in the:

Superfacialist by Una Brennan Cleansing Oil, This is my go to make-up removal step most nights and is good for all types of cleansing, first cleanse, second cleanse, morning cleanse? No problem. It's light and refreshing but has the power to really shift all the gunk and grime from the day, and it's so affordable that I can't see myself being without it.

Another foaming cleanser that I haven't given up on is the First Aid Beauty Foaming Cleanser. Like the Omoravicza it's light and not stripping like most foaming cleansers and is good for a morning cleanse or for travel. I think sometimes I just need a foaming cleanser, old habits die hard, right?

The Clarins Face Cleanser is one of my favourites. Although yo can get the same results with much cheaper cleansing milks this one just tops them all. I think it's the smell that sells it to me but the texture is so light and fluid that while the results may be the same as the more affordable alternatives, the experience of using this cleanser is just lovely.

I have a small sample size of the Omoravicza Thermal Cleansing Balm in my collection. This is one that I thought I'd love but I just can't stand the smell. The full size of this would be the most expensive cleanser in my collection and I much prefer using others and so I won't go back to it once I've finished the mini.

Soap & Glory Peaches and Clean is another affordable cleansing option. This is a light glycolic milk cleanser. It's kind of like the Clarins and the Anthony had a baby. Personally I find this to be a very strong glycolic cleanser and while I always leave glycolic cleansers to sit for a few minutes, I find myself rinsing this off after maybe 30 seconds as the tingle really kicks in quickly with this.

I recieved the Cailyn Dizzolv'It Make Up Melt Cleansing Balm in a LoveMeBeauty Box and have enjoyed experimenting with it. It's a greasy balm that I think works best (as suggested) for makeup removal and I wouldn't use it for anything else because of this. The full size is around the £30 mark and for the money I think the Una Brennan is more versatile, but it's still a nice pick.

Friday Review - NUXE Reve De Miel Lip Balm

So £9.50 for a lip balm might seem a bit steep to regular repurchasers of products like the mini tins of vaseline, but after buying a few of these lipbalms in tins, I was finding that my lips were getting really dry, and no matter how often I reapplied the products, my lips weren't getting any better. In fact, I daresay they were getting slightly worse.

I haven't really struggled with dry skin anywhere until I hit 22 so I was a bit dumfounded as to what was causing the problem and how I could fix it and then I stumbled across this blogger-favourite. I had a Space NK N.Centive reward to cash in so this purchase only really set me back £4.50 and I'm so glad I made the investment. The texture is lovely, the taste is wondeful and it doesn't leave any kind of weird discolouration on your lips, so if you're wearing it out and about you won't be getting weird looks from strangers (or is you are, it won't be because of this product at least).

The formula has a beeswax base and also contains shea butter, a range of oils (olus, sweet almond and grapefruit peel to name just a few) as well as honey that work in combination with each other to really hydrate the lips whilst managing to taste really pleasant.

All in all, a lovely formula that I will be restocking once I run out. Love.

April Favourites

My First Favourite this month has been the By Terry Ombre Blackstar in “Misty Rock” it's a gorgeous medium-pink cream shadow with subtle silver shimmer that gives it an almost wet-look on the lids. It's perfect for a one-shadow sweep look and the twist-up-stick format make's it super easy and quick to apply. I've been wearing this 4/5 days for the last few weeks and it's just become a staple.

I've been wanting a softer brow for the upcoming spring and summer months and so I've been trying out the Model Co More Brows “Medium/Dark” which is essentially a tinted brow gel. I think the shade is a little on the cool side for my red hair but I love the effect that this product gives on my brows. I've pretty much used it everyday since I got it.

Again with spring in mind I've cracked out the Maxfactor Creme Blush in “Soft Pink” which is a lovely soft pink (as the name would imply) I stipple this on to the cheeks with a Real Techniques Expert Face Brush and it gives a lovely my-skin-but-better glow to my face.

A spring fragrance favourite is Diptique's Do Son Fragrance, I cant even begin to describe it but it's light and fresh and sweet. Just what I like in a spring fragrance. The notes are said to be: Tuberose, Orange Tree Leaves, Berries and Iris.

and finally the NUXE Re De Miel Lip Balm which will be featured in my weekly review post on Friday. This is just a lovely lip balm. Tastes like a lemony cake and actually hydrates the lips unlike some lip balms that just sit on top of the lips and need reapplying every half hour. I use this before I put on make-up everyday and it keeps my lips nice and soft.