Nip + Fab Glycolic Fix Serum

A few weeks ago I did a series of posts about high-street products and you may remember me talking about a couple of products from Nip + Fab that I loved. I wanted to try a few more things from the brand to see if their non-pad-format products were as good as the pre-soaked-pads from them that I've enjoyed using and so I picked up their Glycolic Fix Serum to give that a try, and heres my verdict.

So firstly, this product comes in 30ml container which seems to be a reasonable amount for a serum and the product also claims to be 4% glycolic acid and is marketed as an overnight serum. The fine print on the back says to use the product every night for 2 weeks to see results which made me question it a little.

Glycolic is a good ingredient for exfoliation, why should it take 2 weeks to see results? And being the skincare fanatic that I am, I find it disheartening when I feel like I have to use the same product every night to make it work. I like to mix up my serums and treatments so that I can keep on top of all of my skin concerns without having to layer products excessively so this just didn't seem like a product that would work for me. I did use the product for a few nights (generally my trial period for products is 2-4 days depending on how soon I see results) and I didn't notice a difference at all.

Another thing that put me off was the scent, it's got an almost citrusy scent that smells very artificial and when you're spreading the product onto your face for me, it just added to the feeling that using the product was less of a treat and more of a chore.

If you want an exfoliating product Nip + Fab do have a product that I'd recommend over this serum, their Glycolic Fix Facial Pads are much more effective and I'd say try those instead.

The Beauty-Ban Wish List

As I mentioned in my Shopping My Stash post (clicky link here), I've been on a month-long beauty-buying ban this July, and with that I've developed a slight lust-list of products that I can imagine I'll be picking up as soon as August hits. I guess you can can take the girl out of the shop but you can't take the need to shop out of the girl, *sigh*. I figured that, while I won't be able to give reviews of any of these products until I actually pick them up, it might be interesting to see what I'm lusting after and why. Also, spoilers for upcoming review posts are always good, right?

Firstly, Anna from ViviannaDoesMakeup has been on top form enabling-wise lately when it comes to the Charlotte Tilbury Goddess Skin Clay Mask and I'm fighting hard to resist the hype right now. I've been eyeing up some Charlotte products for a while now so I see a treat-filled trip to Selfridges on the horizon to get me some of that action.

I've also been seeing a lot of hype round Revlon's Gel Nail Polishes recently, and while I'm not a huge nail polish lover, these seem like a product for me as they're pitched as a super-long-wearing polish option, and I might be able to get on board if I only have to paint them once a week.

I've been seeing an awful lot of LilyPebbles looking very 90's chic in a combination of MAC Soar Lip Pencil and their Mare Lipstick and it's got me itching to try the two. I've not made a purchase from MAC in ages but I love their lipsticks and already have a few and my stash could always use a new lip liner, the only MAC lip liner I have at the moment is the shade "Redd" but it's lovely.

The REN Wake Wonderful Night-Time Facial hasn't been blogger hyped yet as far as I can see but I've seen a bit of marketing around it and apparently it's a relatively new release from REN. I've tried a few of their products before and they've worked great for me and night-time facial type products are something I generally really like so I'm waiting patiently to pick one up.

And finally, a Hirons recommended product. Would it be a lust-list post without one? The Peter Thomas Roth Un-Wrinkle Peel Pads. While at 22 years old I'm not in need of anything un-wrinkling just yet, these are AHA based exfoliating pads and they sound lovely. I've been interested in picking up some Peter Thomas Roth products ever since Anna from VDM first mentioned their Pumpkin Enzyme Mask and I can see a Cult Beauty order on the horizon.

So that's the round up of the top 5 products I'm needing in my stash right now, if you've got any recommendations I'm all ears and I'm also open to requests for post ideas or products that you'd like to see reviewed on the blog. Give me a shout if you have anything in mind!

Cleansing With Elemis

I recently picked up a couple of mini's of some Elemis cleansers. Now Elemis for me are one of those brands where, because their products are quite pricey and I don't hear a lot of bloggers raving about them very often, I often give them a miss when I'm picking up new products to try. when I'm picking up new products I usually pick up things that I'm interested in personally and base my posts around products that I'm just purchasing for myself but I figured people might want to hear about these so here we go.

The first cleanser I picked up was their Tri-Enzyme Resurfacing Facial Wash and I'm a little on the fence about it to be completely honest. I like it from the point of it being a lazy girls dream because in theory it's your cleanse stage and your exfoliation stage in one. This meaning you could strictly speaking use this, eye cream, moisturiser and go, but the formula does have some problems, especially for a pricier product. Firstly, the product actually says on the back "avoiding eye area" meaning to properly wash your face you'd have to use a different cleanser all over and then use this, which seems like a bit of a faff really. You should be able to use a cleanser on your whole face. My second point about the cleanser is that it's nothing special really. For almost £30 for the full size, the smell isn't luxurious, it doesn't feel particularly indulgent during use and it doesn't leave my skin feeling hydrated and supple after use. Generally I think there's a lot better out there for the money and so this was a bit of a miss for me.

The second product I picked up was the Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm, I love a good cleansing balm for my second evening cleanse so I was excited to try this. For me, the scent is too fresh to be an evening cleanse but I actually really like it in the morning for a more indulgent morning cleanse and my skin seems to really like it. It's more of a gel consistency than something like the Emma Hardie Amazing Face Moringa Cleansing Balm but more balmy than the Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel, for me the texture of the Elemis sits perfectly in the middle of those two products. I do like this but I still think I prefer the Oskia and the Emma Hardie as for me, they're both products I wouldn't have a problem using in the morning or the evening.

So not a great pair for me, I can't see myself taking the plunge for a repurchase on either of them as it stands, but they'll definitely make it to an empties post so I'll update you then.

Getting Lippy with No7

My mantra in life is quickly becoming "a girl can never have too many lipsticks" and I swear it's not just to justify the boarder-line unreasonable amount of lipsticks I seemed to have acquired over the few years that I've knowingly been a beauty obsessive. So when I saw that No7 were doing a promotional lip crayon set I went a little crazy and added that beauty to my basket (Pre-Beauty-Ban, this post has been waiting in the wings for a while).

For a 4-colour lip set, this one is a really good selection of colours. A sheer red, a summery orange, a your-lips-but-better pink and a bright pinky-purple-y raspberry-esque shade. The packaging for the set is nice and simple and the packaging of the actual lip-crayons themselves is practical, a glossy back with lids and bases that indicate the shade. My only quibble with the packaging of the lip crayons is that while the twist up functionality is practical from a sharpening point, I prefer a non-twist up just because I think the pointed nib makes for cleaner lines during application, but other than that, I can totally get on board with these.

As for how I like the colour selection for my own personal use, the orange-y shade is the only one that I'm not sure I'll get a lot of wear from. I've experimented with oranges before and so far the only one that looks anywhere near right on me is "Sounds Like Noise" from the MAC Hayley Williams collection that came out a while back so I can see that particular shade ending up in my orange-cosmetic-suited sisters collection within a few months. The pinky shade is lovely for an everyday pink and I like the red despite having many sheer-sheeny red lip products. But my favourite shade out of the whole bunch has to be the purple (pictured to right). Like I mentioned, it doesn't look as purple as the packaging suggests it would be when applied on the lips but I love the colour regardless, it's more of a bright pink with purple-y undertones. There's just something about this kind of shade that brightens up my face a little and I can see this being my weekend lip of choice for a while.

A Therapie Skincare Duo

I've been dying to get my hands on some Therapie products ever since I first heard about their Himalayan Bath Salts, they're hailed at giving you the best nights sleep ever and while I definitely don't have any trouble in that category, a girl loves her sleep. I did actually think that they were a bath/body brand until I heard about a serum that she'd made for LilyPebbles' mum, and as soon as I found out about their skincare range I was all over that.

So today wont feature the bath salts (but good things come to those who wait) and we'll be focussing instead on a couple of their skincare bits that I picked up recently.

Something I've really been loving trying out lately is serums, and Therapies Cherish Skin Repair Serum is a bloody good one. It's got that almost oily texture that I love and we wont even go into the smell because I could possibly right a novel in ode to the scent of this product, let's just leave it at lush. For me this product does sit on the skin for a while before it sinks in so I'd call this a PM serum, while the sits-on-your-skin feeling isn't for me in the morning, I love a product that I can really work in for overnight.

This serum is really hydrating on my skin to the extent that I could go moisturiser free in the morning if I fancied (not that I do) and leaves my skin feeling refreshed and plumped by morning. It also works equally well used as an overnight oil on it's own as it does as a serum under your regular night cream. My only complaint is that I think the essential oil content may have cause a break-out on my chin upon first use, but I'll have to keep using it to make sure that this product is the one to blame (I've been testing so many things lately that it could be one of a few).

A nice one for the AM is their Restore Aura Spray, it's a spray mist that's super refreshing for the morning and again I love the scent, it's super zingy and will definitely wake you up. I will say if you only have a budget to pick up one of these products, I'd go for the serum as the mist is a princess product if I've ever heard of one. The mist is so fine that you end up having to spray quite a lot before you feel a difference on the skin. Can't say wether or not I'll repurchase this yet but I will say it's comparable to the Caudalie Beauty Elixir but it's actually a teensy bit more affordable.

KIKO Do Face Masks

I've been dying to get my hands on some KIKO products ever since I watched Lily Pebbles tutorial where she used one of their eyeshadow sticks (conveniently placed link: here). So a few weeks ago I made an order and while I haven't managed to form an opinion on everything I picked up just yet (watch this space) I picked up a few bits from their skincare range and I thought I'd let you know what I thought.

While the packing is a little bit basic I do think they look quite nice for a budget mask and personally, I like it when budget brands don't get too fancy with their packaging - for me it says that the company have spent money trying to make the formula of the product as good as they can make it rather than spending money trying to tart up a product to the extent that they have to sacrifice the quality of the product. I also like that the colour of the packaging relates to the colour of the product, so if you get the mask in the green bottle, the mask itself will be green etc.

I thought I'd found a fail-safe product in their Hydrating Mask, I've tried lots of different hydrating masks before and while I don't love them all, I find that generally even the not so great ones get on with my skin quite well, but this surprised me. Firstly, it's quite a thick, creamy formula, a lot heavier than hydrating masks I've tried in the past and it has a tingle to it that I really wasn't expecting. The mask also has a light floral scent to it that is pleasant, but for me it does seem to be artificial and I actually found it to irritate my eyes quite a bit which has never happened to me before. It sets on the face after about 10 minutes of wear and then you remove with a damp wash cloth. For me it just wasn't hydrating enough and I think there are much better hydrating masks out there.

I was quite intrigued about the Peeling Mask, firstly because I haven't used many of them in the past but secondly because it has a AHA warning and my skin loves a good acid exfoliating product. Again it applies like a thick cream and set down like a clay mask before removal. The scent on this mask is a non-offensive florally scent that didn't cause any irritation on my skin or my eyes. This one also has a slight tingle to it but I didn't mind it because I expected that from an AHA-based mask and it left my skin feeling smooth, soft and nicely hydrated.

And finally I picked up the Purifying Mask. This one seemed like a really good pick as, again, it has an AHA warning on the box. For an AHA based product it didn't have much of a tingle but it did leave my skin feeling silky soft and, as it contains glycerin, it wasn't as drying on my skin as some other purifying masks I've used in the past (I'd still want to go in with a serum, oil or moisturiser over the top though). As well as the AHA's it also has a slightly grainy texture to it, soft of like little grains of sand suspended in a creamy formula which can feel a bit odd to apply. The only thing I wasn't massively keen on with this mask was the scent, it's quite a herbal scent that, for me, kills the luxury/relation feeling of a pamper routine just a little bit.

All in all? A mixed bag, I'll definitely use up the Purifying Mask and I really enjoy using the Peeling Mask so that might end up being a repurchase in the future. The only one that I really didn't get on with was the Hydrating Mask.

By Terry Aqua Tint Lip & Cheek Colour Touch Duo

I picked this duo up from FeelUnique recently because they looked intriguing. I've been a big fan of Benefit's Benetint for quite a while now and the red shade of these looked like a suped-up more summery version of that product so I thought I'd give these a go.

This duo came with a red shade and an orange shade and since I've been having a moment with orangey/coraly coloured clothing I was super excited to try the orange and I really like it. I think it works amazingly on the cheeks but you need to be careful especially if you're pale because these stains really do pack a lot of punch and it's fairly easy to go overboard. It takes a bit more work to layer the product up to a colour that I was happy with for the lips but I enjoyed the overall look of the matching cheek/lip colour once I'd put the work in.

The red for me was a little weird. I love the actual colour of the shade on both my lips and my cheeks but there's some big chunky glitter in the formula that makes it difficult to use. On the cheeks while the red tint looks quite natural but the chunks of glitter give a look that isn't really what I want on my cheeks. Again with the lips, the actual colour looks lovely but the shimmer puts me off. If you wanted to just use the tint on your lips you're going to get a matte lip with bits of glitter in it and so the only way I'd really wear this shade is on the lips with a gloss over the top. I will say that this shade does look lovely under a slightly red-tinted gloss.

All in all I think these are pretty hit-and-miss, especially when you consider the By-Terry price tag that comes with them. I love the orange and I've heard great things about the pink but if you're looking for a high-end red liquid stain I'd recommend Benefit Benetint over the By Terry equivalent as the Benefit is a very similar shade without the big chunks of glitter.

So I Finally Got My Hands On A Beauty Blender

So I recently blogged about the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge, but I've been dying to get my hands on a Beauty Blender, if only to see how it compares. Mainly because the Beauty Blender is £16 here in the UK, which is a lot of money for a sponge if you ask me, especially when the Real Techniques is around the £4-£5 mark.

My first comparison is the size/shape of them the Beauty Blender is slightly smaller than the Real Techniques and the point on the top is thinner which makes it easier to blend your concealer in with. However the BB doesn't have the flat edge that the RT has and when I'm using the RT I find that the flat edge is this the bit that I use the most. It does have a slight flat bit on the very bottom but it's a smaller surface an so wouldn't be usable in the same way. That being said, the actual texture of the Beauty Blender is a lot softer than the Real Techniques so if you'v tried the RT and found it at all scratchy or irritating, the BB might be for you.

I guess the big ticket question is: Would you repurchase? For the Real Techniques, at the price they pitch it for, it's a great little tool and I do really like it. And I suppose my opinion of the Beauty Blender is similar, I do really like it, but the problem is this: It's a makeup sponge, it will need replacing (and replacing often at the rate I'm currently using them) and for me, £16 is a bit much for a tool that will need to be a fairly regular purchase. It's not like a high-end brush where you spend X amount and then it will last a good few years and if I'm honest, I don't think I can be spending that so often on the same tool. I think I'll save it for a birthday/Christmas and I do enjoy using it, but I'll be mixing it up between the two for cost-effectiveness. That being said, if a new £16 sponge every few months is in your budget, the Beauty Blender is really nice.

The Cheapest Way To Shop (Shopping My Stash)

Lately I've realised that starting this blog was possibly one of the most expensive things I've done in a while. Not that actually creating or updating the blog costs me anything at all (I want to make it clear that I don't pay anything for the actual blog itself, it's a free service), but since I've started blogging, I'd allowed my beauty buying habits to get a little bit out of control. Every purchase in Boots has become "Blog Material" and I've used needing product for posts as an excuse for many an impulse buy.

So in an attempt to rein it in (because I can't even look at my bank statement this month) I've decided to leave my purse alone for a month and try to use up things that I already own. And in doing so I've rediscovered some products that I forgot I even had.

A product that I got for christmas and pretty much forgot about instantly was Benefit Lollitint. I don't really go for liquid cheek products in the winter and I had more than enough new lip products to chose from and so this just got left behind. However now that it's summer and I'm wanting a light flush on the cheeks Im finding myself sort of discovering this for the first time. I dot it onto the cheeks and blend with fingers which makes it great for travel.

A product that I used on the daily back in my late teens that got pushed aside when some new purchases came into the picture is the Urban Decay Deluxe Palette. I recently found myself at a camping festival and this came in so useful. It's a little palette with 9 shades and a decent sized mirror and it's full of bright colours, but also has 3 neutrals and your basic black so it's everything you need for a festival palette. need to get more use out of this because it's great.

I've had a lazy moment for lip products and have just wanted pretty no fuss lip colours that are hydrating and I've been reaching for the Revlon Lip Butter in "Cotton Candy" a lot lately. It's a no-fuss light pink that not's too warm or too cool, a super easy option and my lips love it.

Something that I come back to every summer is MAC Paint Pot in "Rubinesque". It's a lovely peachy gold that's sheer and sheeny on the lids and that packs a punch for summer staying power. The dent in this product just shows how much I like it and while I like the Maybelline Colour Tattoos but they just don't compare to this on the shade front.

And finally, a skincare rediscovery: Sarah Chapman Intense Hydrating Booster. I shelved this pretty quickly when I bought it because for me, Hydraluron wins hands down for the hydrating serum of choice. That being said, the Sarah Chapman is still nice (and was far to pricey to waste) so I've brought it to the front of my skincare stash in a bid to get some use out of it.

High Street Heros - Other Beauty Bits

So for the final installment of my High-Street Hero's series, I thought I'd touch on hair, nails and body. As usual I've bunched these categories together because they tend to be the beauty categories that I neglect a little bit and so I didn't have enough favourites from any of them to put together dedicated posts for them, but I still didn't want to miss them. So without further a due:

A product that I've been repurchasing for years now is the VO5 Heat Protect Spray, i just love this product as it's light, smells nice, protects my hair and isn't something that going to break the bank every time I find myself needing to make a repurchase. I have tried other heat protect sprays in the past and have liked them, but I always go back to this one. Bonus points for the spray-mist application method.

While I've recently developed a love for the Bumble & Bumble Hairdressers Invisible Oil Shampoo, it's eye-wateringly expensive for a shampoo, and so I like to rotate it with the more budget friendly L'Oreal EverPure Shampoo. I've been through multiple bottles of this now and I really like it. It doesn't contain any sulphates so it's great for my coloured hair and is less irritating on my skin (if anyone is currently suffering from horrific back acne I'd suggest looking at your shampoo because my skin has gotten to much better since switching to a sulphate-free shampoo).

For once I've only got one conditioner in my shower and that's the OGX Argan Oil Conditioner, it's just so nourishing on my hair and it's smells nice without being over-powering. I do like to do a hair mask on the weekend for a suped-up hit of hair hydration but day-to-day this does the trick perfectly.

A hair favourite that fills me with sadness is Batiste's Hint of Red Dry Shampoo, mainly because it's been out of stock for the last 4 months and I've had to go without it for such a long time that I'm worried it's in the process of being discontinued. It's my favourite dry shampoo and it's great for hiding roots if you're as bad at getting to the salon to have your hair re-coloured regularly as I am. Come back into stock soon Batiste! I need you!

For those with naturally wavy hair, I'd recommend the Naked Style Devine Curls, I picked this up on a whim and it became a favourite pretty quickly. This is the only hair styling product I ever take on holiday with me as it gives my naturally wavy hair some real curl that I love. It works in any temperature so I can use it when I'm at home too, I wash my hair, blow dry my roots and then scrunch this into the ends and let them air dry and I get some really nice curls from it.

And my final hair favourite is Ion Volume Dust, I'm not too sure how available this product is but I pick it up from Sally's and Salon Services (thank you mother for being a nail technician so I can get insane deals on beauty products). If you pick this up anywhere it's a great dupe for + Fluff Dust and it's basically one of those powders that you work into your roots to get volume.

A couple of Soap & Glory body favourites are their Heel Genius foot cream. A minty foot cream that absorbs into the skin quickly, it' designed to be applied and then worn under socks overnight but as I can't sleep in socks I use it on the weekends when I'm just hanging around the house (most of which is time I spend working on these posts actually) and it leaves my tootsies feeling nice and soft. My other favourite from them is their Pulp Friction body scrub. I've tried lots of other body scrubs in the past but I always go back to this one because it really is my favourite. The squeeze-tube bottle is a great delivery method and the formula is quite creamy so it sticks to your skin in the shower and makes for an easy exfoliation job. Also, the scent is amazing.

I thought I should include a nail polish favourite in this post because while I don't usually bother painting my finger nails, my toes nails are always painted and my favourite budget polish brand is definitely Top Shop Nails. They're so affordable and the formula is great and even better? The colour selection is insane for a high-street polish brand. Much love.

And finally a scent favourite. Now perfumes pretty consistently fall outside of my £15 budget for this series of posts so I had to think slightly outside of the box and then I realised there's a budget scent that I use constantly! The Soap & Glory Body Sprays are my scent-purchase of choice for work just because no-one wants to be using their £100 perfumes for the office now do they? I do often get compliments on their "Glam-A-Lot" scent but I also like the "Mist You Madly" fragrance.

And there we have it. Slightly shorter than the other instalments with just 10 products in this post but like I said these are categories that I struggle with. Back to my regular posts next week!

High Street Heros - Skincare

Part two of the High Street Heros series is going to be focusing on skincare. There's a range of products in here from the products that I'm considering buying back-ups for to the ones that I don't use often but they do what they should.

So I'll get this one out of the way, because we all know it's coming: the Superfacialist by Una Brennan Vitamin C Brighten Cleansing Oil is my absolute favourite high-street cleanser and it's the product that I use to take of my make-up pretty much every night unless I'm trialling something or trying to use up other products. Love.

Another product I've mentioned a few times on the blog that's become a staple in my skincare rotation is Serozinc by La Roche Posay. It's a spray-mist zinc-sulphate solution that I use in the "toner" stage of my skincare routine and it's great for clearing up the skin if you have any break-outs or blemishes.

One that I absolutely love but I don't mention so much on here is the L'Oreal Revitalift Filler Renew Serum. This is the one that comes in the bottle that looks a little like a needle, but don't be put off by the packaging, it's lush. It's a hyluronic acid serum similar to the Sarah Chapman Skinesis Hydrating Booster and Hydralyron by Indeed Labs and while I must admit that Hydraluron is my favourite of the 3, the L'Oreal is a good pick for those with a slightly tighter budget as it's under £15.

My budget facial oil pick is the B Replenished Facial Oil. Facial oils are one of those products where you get what you pay for and obviously, this oil isn't going to do what more expensive oils do for your skin but it's a nice pick and I do use this on quite a regular basis. If you have a bigger budget a few more pricy picks I like are the Clarins Lotus Facial Treatment Oil, Sarah Chapman Morning Facial and MV Organics Rose Plus Booster.

My go-to evening eye cream is the No7 Beautiful Skin Overnight Revitalising Eye Balm, it's a lovely hydrating eye gel that does the job. I use it overnight because I think it could be a little too thick for under make-up although I must admit I haven't tried it under make-up yet.

A good does-the-job product is the First Aid Beauty Foaming Cleanser, in texture, this is very comparable to the Omoravicza Cleansing Foam and the only reason I'd repurchase the Omoravicza is because for me, smell is a big part of my skincare ritual and that's the one thing the First Aid Beauty version is missing. Other than that, it's lovely.

Speaking of First Aid Beauty, their Ultra Repair Cream, is available in a generously sized tube for under £15 and it's my miracle cream. Whenever my skin is sore or irritated or generally unhappy, I reach for this and it brings my skin back to normality. Can't be without the stuff and have recommended it to lots of people. Love.

The First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads would have also had a place in this lineup, but unfortunately, they were slightly outside of my £15 budget for this post, but a very comparable product that's even more affordable is the Nip & Fab Glycolic Exfoliating Pads. These are so similar to the First Aid Beauty version but come in under the budget for a good amount of product, they're a pre-soaked acid toning pad that exfoliate the skin gently.

Another pre-soaked-pad product from Nip & Fab that I've been enjoying lately is their Dragons Blood Hydrating Pads. Now I'll admit, being a Targaryen fan girl (sorry for all non-Game-of-Thrones fans for that reference) I may have seen the Dragons Blood reference and been intrigued on the name alone, but I did notice that these also contain hyluronic acid, which we've already established is an ingredient that my skin particularly enjoys. For me these are a hydration layer that I'd use if my skin was more in need of moisture than exfoliation, I wouldn't use them in conjunction with an exfoliating toner.

I've been enjoying the Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask for a while now and was keen to find a dupe and with me being a big fan of Una Brennans Superfacialist products already, I picked up their Rose Hydrate Mask to see if it was comparable. While it's not strictly an overnight mask if you apply it thinly it soaks into the skin and wont need removing but I just use it as a 5-minute-fix and it works well. Not quite a dupe but it's still a nice pick.

And then the rest of these are products that I don't necessarily use in my rotation all the time, but if you fancied a new budget item these are pretty good. I've actually gone through 2 bottles of the Good Things Miracle Mattifier Moisturiser before developing a love for facial oils that has left most of my once-loved moisturisers feeling a little unloved. This is specifically for an oily skin and it was great at keeping you hydrated whilst also providing some oil control.

While I really love the Omoravicza Deep Cleansing Mask, it's eye-wateringly expensive and I'm currently trying out a lot of clay masks at the moment but a budget option that works well is the Aroma Actives Skincare Deep Cleansing & Purifying Clay Mask. It's an almost skin-coloured clay mask that feels cooling and slightly tingly on the skin and dries down quickly. It doesn't leave my skin as dry or tight feeling as other that I've tried but it does leave me wanting to apply some kind of moisturising product afterward but it's a nice pick for around an 8th of the price of the Omoravicza.

When I'm feeling lazy and a proper cleanse isn't on the cards I have 2 products that I whip out. The Garnier Micellar Warer is great for those mornings or evenings where you just can't be bothered, it's gentle on the skin and not stripping at all but it removes make-up and general grime from the skin quickly. I do have a confession to make here. While I don't agree with using face wipes to cleanse all the time, sometimes, a good old face wipe is just what you need. Maybe your on the road or maybe it's just been a late one and you just want to get straight to bed, but when I'm reaching for a face wipe, I'm reaching for the Soap & Glory Off Your Face 3-in-1 Daily Purifying Cloths. Remove makeup nicely, gentle on the skin but still have a slight bit of an exfoliation to them. A good one to have on hand for emergencies.

And finally, while I normally use a moisturiser/facial oil and then a separate SPF, for days when I'm in a rush I like the Sainsburys SPF 15 Day Cream. It's a light moisturiser that plays nice with makeup and has a decent amount of SPF in for the weather we usually get here in England, and it's super affordable at around £2 a tube.

High Street Hero's - The Make-up Edition

In a bid to write posts that were maybe a little more budget-friendly, I've lined up what I'm calling "High Street Hero's" for this week, which is going to be a series of 3 posts that are basically a "15 under 15" type post. I wanted to put a price limit on it because I've been noticing recently things I like in Boots that are high-street brands are creeping up in price ever so slightly, and now L'Oreal eye-creams are on par price-wise with brands like Kheil's and I didn't see the point in recommending products like these as "budget" offerings.

So to kick things off we'll start with the Soap and Glory Sexy Mother Pucker Gloss Sticks, particularly in the shades "Nudist" and "Plum Jam". These are the perfect no-fuss lip colours that you can generally apply without the need for a mirror. They're sheer and super glossy which makes them a good comfortable lip colour and while they don't hang around too long they are pretty much my make-up jogging-bottoms equivalent.

One that everyone and their nan will have mentioned on blogs and YouTube channels a like is the Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeliner Pencils. If the colour selection for these was as good as the range of Urban Decay 24/7 Liners, I'd have given up on buying UD liners long ago because they are pretty much just as good. The Rimmel ones come in a decent array of colours and my picks from the range are the nude, the taupe and the bright blue.

A product that I've harped on and on about on this blog is the Maxfactor 2000 Calorie Curved Brush Mascara. It's just a brilliant mascara for length but it still gives a little bit of volume and (most importantly) makes my limp lashes hold a curl without the need to go waterproof.

A couple of Soap & Glory base products that you'll have also heard me mention on multiple occasions are their Solar Powder and their One Heck of a Blot Powder. The solar-powder is a blogger-rated bronzer and it's lovey. As a pale-complexion girl I often struggle to find bronzers that work for me but as this one has the 2 shades in 1 I've really been enjoying using it. The one-heck-of-a-blot is now my go-to setting powder, have recently repurchased for the 3rd time!

The L'Oreal True Match Foundation is an oldie but a goodie. I've been using this on-and-off for years now and I always come back to it. The shade selection is brilliant and it's one of the few high-street foundations that is a perfect skin tone match for me. Super pale girls might want to give this one a try.

Another foundation I've been really enjoying lately is the Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation. While their lightest shade is definitely more my summer colour I find that mixed with moisturiser it gives a nice coverage that isn't too obviously dark on my complexion. I've been loving it now the wether in England has finally started to brighten up as it's giving my skin that slightly sun-kissed glow that we all crave this time of year.

My Holy-Grail brow product is the Soap & Glory Archery Brow Pencil. While the shade selection leaves much to be desired I find that the shade "Hot Chocolate" works well for me. I love the thin-nibbed pencil and the spooly brush on the other end of the product is a very nice one. I do mix it up with brows quite frequently lately but I'm finding that I keep coming back to this one.

So for a while I didn'y bother with high-street eyeshadows as they generally only came in singles, so when you could buy a high-end palette where for £36 you got 12 shades and it worked out at £3 a shade, it made very little sense to me to be paying £5-£8 for drugstore single shadows. Then the L'Oreal La Palette Nude (Blush) hit the high-street and I found myself getting excited about high-street eyeshadows for the first time. Okay, so the pigmentation and blendability isn't as good as my much-loved Urban Decay shadows, but for what you pay, it's a beaut.

One that I've mentioned before but not for a while now is the Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvets, AKA my favourite high-street lip products ever. I have the shades "Hot Pepper" and "Frambourjois" but I'm also eyeing up "Olé Flamingo" at the moment. They're just a great long-lasting matte lip that's comfortable and easy to apply. That being said, avoid the shade "Grand Cru", have read many a duff review on that shade and it seems to really let the line down, hopefully they'll reformulate that shade eventually.

Another budget eyeshadow find for me was the Soap & Glory Lid Stuff palette. This palette does come in a few different shade ranges but I like the one with the more neutral shade selection just because those are the types of shades I reach for most often. Not as god a deal as the L'Oreal as you get 4 shades for around £10 but the shade selection and the quality of these for me is what sells it.

When it comes to blush, Maxfactor have got it down. I've got a couple of their cheek products and I think both are brilliant. For the powder-blush lover their Creme Puff Blushes are lovely, lots of bloggers compare them to the Hourglass Ambient Light Blushes but since I don't currently have one of those I couldn't validate that claim, my faouvirte shade from the range is "Nude Mauve". And for the cream blush wearer? Their Miracle Touch Creamy Blush, particularly in the shade "Soft Pink" is delightful. Blends nicely and gives just the right amount of colour, I like to apply this one with a Rela Techniques Expert Face Brush.

Another Maxfactor base product that I've been loving is their FaceFinity Primer. It's basically suerglue for your foundation and it also has SPF 20 so if you like your make-up to have some SPF to it, this is probably something you'd like. It glides on the skin like a moisturiser and dries down under foundation for a super long-lasting base.

And finally a fairly recent find of mine, the Soap & Glory Hocus Focus Highlight, this to me is very much like Benefit High Beam. It's a liquid highlight that can be applied before foundation, on top of foundation light a targeted highlight or, my personal favourite, mixed into your foundation for a subtle all-over glow.

Review Friday: Bumble & Bumble Prêt-á-Powder

On a recent trip to Boots (note to self, avoid Boots during sales and/or triple points events, my bank balance never thanks me for it) I couldn't help but notice that Bumble and Bumble had released a trial size of a product I'd been itching to try for ages: their Prêt-á-Powder. The full size was £20+ and for something I just wanted to try I was struggling to part with the cash but at £7.50 a pot, the trial size wasn't too painful to purchase so I thought I'd give you the low-down on my feelings towards it.

One slightly bothersome factor of this compared to dry shampoos that I've used in the past is the application method doesn't make for a quick-fix solution to a greasy hair problem. Really, I use dry shampoos mainly when I'm in a rush and don't have time to wash my hair before I have to be out of the door, and while the Prêt-á-Powder doesn't take nearly as long as washing, drying and styling my hair from scratch, it definitely takes a little longer than it could do. That being said, the fact that you massage it in with your hands makes it more of a 2-in-1 product. The volumising qualities of this product are very similar to the effect you'd get from a product like the Osis+ Dust It volumising powder, but with a dry shampoo added in.

I will also mention that to get the desired effect in my hair, I did have to use quite a lot of product so I can imagine that it would need to be repurchased frequently if it was a product I was using regularly. however the fact that you need a lot of product to absorb the excess shine means that it's quite difficult to go over-board and end up with the weird white/grey patches that some dry shampoos leave. Also, the scent of the product is clean if slightly powdery but not over-powering.

June Favourites

So it's favourites time again and I really can't believe how quickly this year is flying by. I've been trying a lot of new things this month but only a small selection have found a spot in my weekly rotations so I thought I'd let you in on what I've been loving this month.

I have quite a few make-up favourites this month and one that I've already mentioned in a post this week is the L'Oreal Infallable 24 Hours Matte Foundation, which I picked up as it seems to be warming up a little bit in England now and I've been wanting to try some more long-lasting foundations in an attempt to mark 2015 as the year I finally escaped the shiny-nose-syndrome that I've suffered every summer since birth. While it hasn't quite managed to keep me 100% all day long it's definitely the best foundation for oil control I've tried to date from the high street.

Another product type that I don't always gravitate to but I reach for a lot in the summer is bronzer, and the one I've been reaching for this month is the Bourjois Maxi Delight Bronzer. This thing is massive so I can imagine it'll be in my collection for quite some time as I only use a little bit in the place of blush to warm up my complexion a bit for the summer months.

My final make-up favourite for the month is my No7 Stay Perfect Shade and Define in the shade "Cool Mink". This isn't my favourite texture for a creamy eyeshadow stick (I much prefer the By Terry Ombre Blackstars but trés expensive) but the colour of this is a lovely everyday neutral that you can just smudge on and go. I would still use an eyeshadow primer with this product just because it can get a little crease-y after a long day without one.

Now for some skincare, a product I've reviewed on here recently that I've been using like crazy this month is the Clarins Lotus Face Treatment Oil which is an oil that is specifically targeted toward those of us who have a combination/oily skin. I've been using this most days in the place of a morning moisturiser as it's hydrating enough for m skin but sits really nicely under make-up and seems to help with oil control throughout the day. Love.

A skincare favourite that I can't believe hasn't made it into a favourites post before is the No7 Beautiful Skin Overnight Revitalising Eye Balm. I did post a dedicated review post for this a while back but I've been loving it for a while now and looking back through my favourites posts I can't find it so it seems to have slipped under my radar. It's a lovely eye cream tat I use pretty much every night that it moisturising but not too heavy.