Tuesday 31 March 2015

March Favourites

Its actually slightly scary its almost April. That means Christmas was over 3 months ago. What?! Although it did snow on Friday, which I found strangely comforting, as though the weather was still clinging desperately onto Winter too. I do love Spring (it means it's almost my birthday for one thing) but sadly it also means exam season is fast approaching. Anyway, onto my favourites for this month, with a little bit of everything.

First up is this pot of Coconut oil from Superdrug. I simply scrape a little bit out, and rub it between my hands until it melts. I use this everyday in the ends of my hair and it makes it really soft. it can also be used as a air mask, which I'm planning to try out this evening, and all over your body as a softener. Not too sure about that one, I think you'd just end up very greasy!



I've also been really loving this Treatment gel from Elemis' Clear Skin range. It's a targeted spot gel, and it makes a very visible difference to my skin. I put it on in the evening and when I wake up the spot is a lot less red. After a couple of days the spot is a lot smaller and has dried out (gross, I know). by far the best spot gel I've tried.



This is the Wake Me Up concealer from Rimmel. I have it in the shade Ivory, which is slightly lighter than my skin tone so it works really well as a highlighter. It's very blend-able and brightens the under eye area nicely.


Helen x

Sunday 29 March 2015

La Roche Posay Efficlar Duo Review

It seems as though every blogger has been talking about the Effaclar Duo range, so I thought I'd throw my opinion into the mix. My sister actually bought this for herself but it didn't suit her skin type as her skin was going through a very dry and this is suited for oily skin. My skin was going through a pretty bad stage with lots of spots and so I thought I'd give it a go as it's had so many rave reviews.



The set costs £32.50 from Boots, and consists of the Purifying Foaming Gel, Clarifying Toner and Corrective Unclogging Ant-imperfection cream. The foaming gel is soap free, and is designed to 'reduce excess sebum and leave skin feeling clean and fresh'. To use this I got my hands wet, squeezed out a small amount (you don't need much) and worked it into a lather before massaging it all over my face. I like using foaming cleansers because they make my face feel so much cleaner. although I have heard that foaming cleansers are actually bad for your skin-something to do with turning it alkaline? This says its pH is 5.5, which is on the acidic end of the scale (from what I can remember of my chemistry lessons) so I think that means its fine. Let me know if you have a better understanding of all of this and can explain it.

I  like the toner-it smells good and dos leave my face feeling tighter, but not stripped of moisture like some toners do. This is also non-comedogenic. Comedogenic means something that will block pores, potentially causing blackheads. All sounds good to me. I  suffer from blackheads on my nose and whilst using this did notice that they reduced. I think the cream is my favourite part of the set though. I used this all over my face in replacement of my moisturiser. I think the US version has slightly different ingredients however and is more potent so if you're in America just use it more as a targeted spot treatment. This calmed angry red spots and also worked well under my makeup.

I used these three products solely for around  2 and a half months. Did I see an improvement in my skin? Well, it's quite hard to say because I think the reason my skin was so bad was hormonal, so as soon as that time passed it cleared up anyway. That being said, I do think this helped. I had lots of horrible big under the skin spots, a few of which came to the surface and looked even worse and using the Effaclar Duo dried them up well. It also claims to fade marks, and I'd say this is what I was most impressed by. Big red marks healed well and within a couple of days had faded lots and weren't nearly as noticeable. However, I don't think it prevented new spots from forming, and so I've now changed my skin care routine a little, which I'll do a post on soon.


Has anyone else tried these products? What did you think?

Helen x

Sunday 22 March 2015

Moisturiser for lazy people (me)

Okay, confession time. I am so lazy when it comes to moisturising. Like, really bad. Before Christmas  my arms had got to the scaly stage and were just so itchy, so my sister gave me a not so subtle hint in the shape of some Scottish Soap Company body lotion. It smells lovely and I did use it religiously every night (promise) for a while but, like I said, I'm lazy and also forgetful so after a while just used it every couple of nights. Then just when I remembered. Which wasn't often. Yes, I know this is bad. After all, it only takes a couple of minutes to slather some lotion on and wait for it to dry. But (add to the list) I'm impatient too and just wanted to put my pjs on and go to bed. So my arms and legs reverted to the horrible scaly look.

Then my mum (again, a not so subtle hint) bought me this. It's the Vaseline spray and go body moisturiser and is, quite frankly, genius. It works in the same way as a spray on sun lotion, but without the horrible greasy feel afterwards. Just spray on, rub in and wait a few seconds for it to sink in, and you're ready to go. Brilliant. I actually enjoy using it, perhaps just due to the novelty factor and so I've been using it morning and night. Is this a new me? My arms are certainly hoping so.

(It's also reduced at Boots at the moment-even better. No excuses!)



Is anyone else lazy when it comes to beauty? 

Helen x

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Weekend away: London

I spent all of Friday wishing my lessons at sixth form would go quicker, because after my last lesson my mum and I caught the train down to London. I've been a handful of times, and recently went with my politics class in January but was very excited to be going back. We met my sister off her train from Bristol and made our way to out hotel. We stayed in the Travel Lodge at Covent Garden which was great as there was a tube station 5 minutes away and was very central.

We did a lot of walking around, going for breakfast and then exploring Covent Gardens on Saturday morning, which was really nice because we got there for before the rest of London had woken up so it was very quiet. Then we walked to Trafalgar square and marvelled at the street performers (how do they manage to levitate with nothing to support them?!) before going to St James Park for lunch as it was warm enough to eat outside. It felt like summer. After a spot of sun bathing we headed down The Mall to Buckingham Palace. By this point we were a bit weary so went to the Tate for tea and scones and a much needed sit down. The evening involved just as much walking (my feet were aching by this point) as we went to Leicester Square to pick up cinema tickets and then to find some tea-we went to GBK which was lovely as always. We then went to the cinema before catching a very busy tube back to the hotel and collapsing exhausted.













Sunday was more relaxed-we went to the British Museum and got lunch before going to Hyde park and then getting our trains home. I love London because its so different to where I live, which is a small rural town. There's so many people and so much going on, yet some areas are still quiet and don't feel like a capital city. The architecture is also beautiful, with so many lovely old buildings. I find it very tiring though and am always pleased to go home. Hopefully we'll be going back soon!








Helen x

Thursday 5 March 2015

Recent Purchase: Nail Polish

I've never tried a Jessica polish before, so I was very happy when my mum brought this one home after a TK Maxx shop. She proudly told me it was only £2, which I think is pretty impressive!
Its a completely different colour in the bottle to on the nails; its basically a clear polish with a slight shimmer to it when you put a couple of coats on. Its very subtle, but just looks a little more interesting than clear nails.



My friend actually bought me this but I'd been eyeing it up for a while. Its a Topshop one- I think its in the shade Float. Its a pretty pale pink to add to my ever expanding pink polish collection, (although I never think of myself as a pink person). I like Topshop polishes because you only need about 2 coats to build a really nice even colour. This is one of the mini polishes which I also love because the consistency of the polish tends to go gloopy before I actually use it all up. 




Helen x 



Sunday 1 March 2015

Books Of The Month



This month I've been enjoying reading an old favourite The Careful use of Compliments by Alexander McCall Smith, the fourth book in the Sunday Philosophy Club series. I love McCall Smith's writing; its so thoughtful and funny, and extremely life like. You can imagine bumping into his characters on the street and a conversation occurring like those in the book. They feel like friends and so its a comforting read, great to snuggle up with. The series is centred around Isobel Dalhousie, a philosopher and her partner and young son. Its set in Edinburgh, a city I've always loved and these books make me love it even more.  You can buy it here.

Another book I couldn't put down is The Secret History by Donna Tart, which you can get here. Its the first Donna Tart book I've read but I'll be reading more now. The book is about a group of American College students, who become friends (though its a rather dysfunctional friendship) but it all starts to unravel and ends in them killing one of their friends (that's not a huge spoiler, don't worry-it tells you in the first sentence). Its very gripping, with so many twists and turns to keep you reading. Having said that, its very focused on Ancient Greek philosophy which is probably fascinating if that's your thing, but its not mine and I found myself getting a bit bored by it. Like yeah, we've got that point, now move on. Although the intricacies of the philosophy side was probably lost on me, I did find the general moral idea of the book interesting-we are almost persuaded to empathise with the murderers.
Another criticism: I didn't like any of the main characters. I don't really think you're meant to, but it often makes a book easier to read if you actually care about the people in it. In fact, I just found them all increasingly irritating. However, that didn't stop me reading it, as I wanted to find out whether they managed to find their brains and common sense and actually manage to get themselves out of the situations they found themselves in (they did-by killing him). That all sounds quite negative, but I did enjoy it and would recommend it-just prepare to be irritated by fictional characters.

Helen x

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