Monday 23 September 2013

Wishlist #1

At the moment, I'm craving new things. Maybe this is to do with starting university so I'm feeling an element of 'new academic year, new season, new start' (Gosh, I hate it when people say that!) and I just want to start a fresh with some of my beauty and skincare products, so here's a wish list!

1. Clarisonic Deep Pore Cleansing Brush Head £21




I'm in dire need of a new brush head for my clarisonic, I don't use mine too regularlly but I'm starting too, and after watching Suzy from Simply Suzy I decided that I needed this one, having only used the sensitive one and as Suzy uses the same cleanser as me, I really want to try out her combo of cleanser and brush head. I think I'm also going to do an in depth review of my Clarisonic as it's one of those love it or hate it, is it worth the money products.

2. Origins Drink Up Mask £22




I've heard loads about this mask and my friend Lisa from bought this and mentioned it in her blog post on 'The Triple Threat Face Mask' I really want it! I think I'm going to try track down the smaller size of this and see how I get on with it. I have combination skin but I find the oily, spotty side of my skin much easier to deal with than the dehydration!

3. Tom Ford Shape and Illuminate £55




After hearing much about this product I just SO want to try it! I love to contour and prefer creams and I'm yet to find the perfect highlight but this product looks pretty much perfect. I wonder, that opening the door to Tom Ford Beauty is going to be an dangerous idea, especially considering I could walk from uni to the counter, as the metro station is in Fenwicks...oh dear!

4. Alpha H Liquid Gold £31.50



I think I just need this! after feeling like I've pretty much perfected my basic skincare, but I still feel like I need a few extras to get my skin in tip top condition and my main issue with my skin is the texture, and this promises to help! After hearing about this for months, I think I'm ready to take the plunge!

5. Illamasqua Nail Polish in 'Facet' £14.50





I love nail polish, but I'm a nail biter and useless at painting my nails. After recently getting gel nails and loving them (my nails are so strong and lovely underneath too!) I'm starting to love painting my nails, I love colours like this, OPI Metro Chic is my all time favourite polish and I think this polish looks just as beautiful! 

So here it is, these are some of the things I'm craving at the moment, what things are you currently lusting after?

Wednesday 18 September 2013

Kerastase Nectar Thermique Review

My hair, is my pride and joy. After a hair dye disaster I cut my hair short, much shorter than I'd ever had before, and I started growing it out. Much later after that disaster, around 2 years ago I went to a new hairdresser and had my black dye lifted out to a very dark brown. She had used two products on me that made my hair feel so soft! I bought them both (online, for cheaper prices). One of the products, was Kerastase Nectar Thermique, now I'd heard it mentioned before and seen it on blogs, and I'd used one product from the brand before, a hair masque, but I'd never used any Kerastase styling products before as they are quite expensive at £18.90 a pop! This product can be bought for around £16 online.





This product is a hybrid of leave in conditioner and heat protectant as well as smoothing your hair and preventing frizz. It's a thick, white cream, which you apply a 'walnut sized amount' to your hands and then rub through your hair, I apply this mainly to the ends of my hair but as it's my heat protectant, I also take a light amount right up to the root, but very lightly. I find this product gives my hair so much shine, and does product my hair from the heat effectively. This is brilliant if like me, you regularly fail at using a spray in heat protectant (I also hate the smell of almost all of them!). This product smells really good, it's lightly fragranced but I can't described what with, it's a nice, and inoffensive smell. 






I'd actually put my hairs growth in the past two years partly down to this product. Of course, it doesn't make my hair grow, but it does protect your hair from the heat and condition it, and I think this has meant that at my regular trims, my hairdresser has taken much less off and my hair has grown much longer and so much healthier than it did in life before this product! I had a small period of time when I didn't have this product and bought it back as soon as I could. If you're after a smooth blow dry, some heat protection and a little bit of extra conditioning, then this is a great product.

What are your holy grail hair products? 

Thursday 12 September 2013

A Skincare Haul

Over the past year, I've become really interested in skincare. I've always known the importance of looking after my skin, but never really found the right products that gave me the results I was after, not since I tried my first set of proper skincare when I was about 14, Clinique 3 Step, which at the time, I loved and now wouldn't touch with a barge pole. I think my interest in skincare has really stemmed from reading the wonderful, no nonsense skincare blog of Caroline Hirons, (you MUST read her blog) and since applying, slowly her tips, tricks and following her product recommendations, my skin has never been better. 

Through Caroline's blog, I discovered the brand REN. Some products skincare products which I lust after are well out of my price range at the moment, but I find REN to be very affordable, and very effective, two things which are my top priority when looking for skincare. At the weekend, my lovely Mum had a 20% of Marks and Spencer voucher, if you didn't know, lots of great skincare brands are available in larger M&S stores and online, so I decided this was the time to stock up on some products, so here's what I got 

Goodies!

First, I decided to repurchase my favourite ever cleanser. Now, I know I've previously raved about my Clarins foaming cleanser, but this blows it out of the water! I still love that cleanser, but I'd choose this one over it. This has a clay base making it feel like a mask each time that you use it. When I'm using this product, my skin is much clearer, brighter and softer. 



REN Clearcalm 3 Clarifying Clay Cleanser

Then I chose to buy the Clarifying Toner, now I know some people don't do toner but I definitely do! Toner is NOT for removing the last bits of make up on your skin though! if you need toner to do that, you need to wash your face properly! Nor does it close your pores, this toner balances and lightly exfoliates your face, this one is affordable and easy to get hold of, so I thought I'd give this a try before I think about splashing out on P50.


REN Clarifying Toning Lotion

I also decided to get REN's balm cleanser. This is a balm which you can use you remove your make up, my ClearCalm does not remove make up, and shouldn't be used to do so, so I wanted something that would be suitable for a first cleanse to remove make up and sunscreen, and I decided to go for this one as I've had a sample before and it doesn't hurt my eyes, and I can never be bothered to use a separate eye make up remove before I take off my face make up.


REN No.1 Purity Cleansing Balm



My last purchase wasn't from REN, but instead Nuxe. A brand I'd seen before but never tried, this was sort of an impulse purchase, recently my lips had been so dry they'd been cracking, although I drink my weight in water each day (Okay, maybe not my weight, but I do drink more than 2lt) so I don't think I'm dehydrated. I bought this because I'd heard it mentioned on blogs and thought I'd give it a spin, I liked the texture and my Mum thought it was lovely, so I bought two of them. One for her, and one for me. My Mum is a woman who has, for the past 20 years slathered some vaseline on her lips before bed, and after using this for a few days has told me that she's noticed a big different. 


Nuxe Lip Balm


I think I'm good for skincare for a while now! just need a new moisturiser and a hydrating toner and I think I'm all good! What about you? do you love skincare too?