Category: Beauty

UpCircle Skincare: A Summary

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Tom treated me to the amazing UpCircle “Let’s Face It” bundle which is filled with so many skincare products. So where do we start; the set is a little pricey, but you get a lot for your money! I was lucky to have Tom to buy it for me!

The following products are included:

  • Your choice of Coffee Face Scrub (Floral, Citrus or Herbal)
  • Organic Face Serum
  • Face Mask
  • Face Moisturiser
  • Cleansing Face Balm

The little note included in the box which is pictured above tells me who packed my box. Barbs was the lovely person who did and I was also left a little note to say that the serum will be on it’s way soon!

To soften the blow of not having the serum yet, I got a tube roller instead which I was pretty ecstatic about! The purpose of the tube roller is to get the most out of your face scrub tube by squeezing all the product out from the very top!

A week later, the serum arrived on my doorstep!

The whole set is great and it’ll take me a while to make my way through the products as I’m still making my way through some existing scrubs, cleansers and moisturisers but I wanted you guys to see the set in all it’s glory.

I can’t wait to try the products. I gave everything a good sniff and it all smells amazing. The face scrub and serum are made from repurposed coffee grounds and you can smell it in the serum. It’s not strong or potent but it is there.

The reviews are great so I’m really looking forward to using it all. It’s been featured by Vegan Beauty Girl, both on her blog and on her Instagram. I’m particularly excited about using the face mask, but I’m still making my way through the Sand & Sky one.

As soon as I use these products, I’ll be writing separate blog posts to give a full break down and review of each thing so you guys get an in-depth description of the individual products.

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Self Care Sundays: Issue 10

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It was my 29th birthday yesterday. I remained very low key this year and kept myself busy in the lead up to my birthday by catching up with my loved ones which was lovely. I took the week off in order to fully prepare myself for turning another year older!

To relax after a busy week, I treated myself to another bath bomb!

Lush Santa’s Grotto

I’m still making my way through the Christmas Lush Haul but it’s coming to an end now which is a relief as I was treated to a few new Lush bits for my birthday!

Santa’s Grotto was a lovely bath bomb. It filled the bath with gorgeous blue and green colour, and a little more bubbly than the usual bath bombs. The smell was a subtle floral scent which was lovely and relaxing.

I lay in the bath and just took in my surrounding and relaxed. It’s important to take a bit of time for yourself to unwind so I recommend everyone takes some time for themselves. Whether it be a relaxing bath or cwtching up with a nice book.

The Cruelty Free Beauty Box Deluxe [February 2020]

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We’ve had to wait a little while longer for our February boxes as The Cruelty Free Beauty Box were waiting on a supplier to complete the boxes. These issues can’t be helped, but the box was most certainly not disappointing!

Here is a summary of my first impressions!

This box contains the following:

  • Balade En Provence Solid Night Cream (RRP £19.95)
  • The Salt Parlour Bath & Body Oil (RRP £16.95)
  • PITT BALM Deodorant Balm (RRP £5)
  • Ben & Anna Toothpaste White (RRP £8.95)
  • Lue by Jean Seo Fade (RRP 14.95)
  • London Copyright Eyeshadow (RRP £4.50)
  • Moo Free Cinder Toffee (RRP £3)
  • Good4u Veggie Protein Shots (RRP £1)
  • Bamboo Desire Massage Hairbrush (RRP £12.95)

The value of the box adds up to a nice £87.25. It’s not their best value box to date but I am so excited to try so many of these products!

Pictured above is the Ben & Anna toothpaste. I’ve used Ben & Anna products before. I bought a deodorant stick in Amsterdam last year when I had forgotten to pack my own and I absolutely loved it. The only thing I didn’t love was the price point!

I haven’t yet tried the toothpaste as I haven’t finished my existing tube, but I love the minty smell and it looks nice and easy to use. And with the added bonus of being in a recyclable glass jar, this looks like a promising swap!

Another 2 products I’m excited to use is the PITT BALM deodorant balm and the Balade En Provence night cream block.

I love a good deodorant spray swap and I’ve found balms really nice and easy to use, as well as really refreshing. The PITT BALM comes in a handy sized tin which can be carried in your handbag for those pit emergencies! I recommend checking out their website for their full range of products.

The Balade En Provence night cream block looks great. With lots of companies moving towards less packaging and naked products, this looks like a great swap. In the previous box, I received a gorgeous smelling hand cream which is incredible so I have high hopes for the night cream.

You’ll likely be seeing a few more blog posts in future with the details of these products when I finally get round to trying them.

Delhicious Hello Beau-Tea-Ful Body Scrub

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For regular readers of my blog, you will already be aware of my conscious effort to take better care of my skin. Earlier this week, I posted about Sknfed’s Cleansing and Exfoliating Cubes.

In the same Cruelty Free Beauty Box I received in December, there was a bag of Delhicious Body’s Hello Beau-Tea-Ful Body Scrub.

The packaging is very enticing and all the gold foil is beautiful. I’m not going to lie, it’s not the most practical of packaging. When I’m having a shower, the last thing I want to do is try to open a bag with wet hands.

Once you finally get the bag open, you’re greeted with the gorgeous smell of tea leaves. If tea is not to your liking, I don’t really recommend these scrubs as the smell is quite pungent, but as a tea lover… It’s a completely different story!

Like most of other scrubs, you apply to to wet skin and rub all over. This scrub was much messier than the Sknfed cubes, but did a great job. It did the job and I felt well scrubbed afterwards. I didn’t feel as soft and moisturised as I did after using the Sknfed cubes, but this is still a great scrub.

If you’re looking for a good exfoliating scrub for a good price and tea is right up your street, then this product is definitely for you. It smells great and the product does a great job of exfoliating your skin. I may not be rushing to buy it again, but I wouldn’t turn my nose up at it!

If you’re anything like me and you’d prefer a more indulgent product and with more convenient packaging, read my post about the Sknfed Cleansing and Exfoliating Cubes!

Sknfed Cleansing and Exfoliating Cubes

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I’m trying to get into more regular good skin habits which includes exfoliating and moisturising my skin more regularly. In the last Cruelty Free Beauty Box I received, there were Sknfed Cleansing and Exfoliating Cubes.

They came in a cute little cardboard pot with a lid, and when I opened them, the smell that came out was absolutely divine. They smelt delicious, but I can’t imagine that eating them would be safe!

I finally got round to use them last week and they were so easy to use. It is recommended to use 1 – 2 cubes over your body and I ended up using 2.

It was really easy to crumble and scrub all over my skin, and the smell was absolutely gorgeous. It had a delicious chocolate and coffee smell to it, and what I really loved about the cubes is that they were so easy to wash off, but it left my skin feeling moisturised and soft.

The cubes didn’t last particularly well in transit as you can see from the image above as a few of them have broken and crumbled. It’s not a problem as they crumble when you use them anyway!

Sknfed are a completely vegan brand, creating natural, cruelty free skincare products. You can read about them on their website here.

I cannot recommend these exfoliating cubes enough. They are so easy to use and smell so good. They feel like an incredible treat for your body with the benefit of cleansed and soft skin at the end of it. Honestly, I love them and I’ll definitely be buying them again!

Self Care Sundays: Issue 9

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I was too lazy to run myself a bath so I had a nice shower with a shower bomb and had a very interesting experience with

Lush Not Sleepy Shower Bomb

The Not Sleepy shower bomb made such a nice change to the lengthy baths and bubble bars I use.

It filled the shower with gorgeous citrus smells and I used it over my body as a scrub. It was refreshing and calming at the same time and I finished my shower feeling invigorated.

As with most Lush products, I love this shower bomb. It’s a different option for people which is nice and does the job perfectly.

Spacemasks

In the evening, I decided to relax with the Spacemask that I received in my Cruelty Free Beauty Box in December.

To describe it as an interesting experience would be accurate. The mask itself was great. Soft and comfortably hooked behind my ears.

Waiting for the mask to get hot felt weird, and the actual heating feeling felt super strange and to be completely honest, a little uncomfortable. I started to feel a little woozy from the heat so I took it off after about 10 minutes.

As soon as the mask was off, I actually felt great. The steamy feeling hit and it was super soothing and refreshing.

Although the after experience was lovely, the actual experience ruined it for me and I don’t think I will be buying these or using them again. It definitely wasn’t for me.

Self Care Sundays: Issue 8

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Another Sunday has come around, and another pampering and relaxation session.

I’m still making my way through my Christmas Lush haul and the Pixi FortifEYE patches which you can read about here.

Here is what I used this week…

Lush Snowman Dreaming Bath Bomb

This was a lovely simple bath bomb with gorgeous smells and colours. Lush described it the scents as lavender and cedarwood oil. I smelt lavender and the smell wasn’t over-powering and overwhelming.

It was an incredibly relaxing smell and it was nice to soak into. A lovely post-Christmas treat!

Lush Candy Cane Bubble Bar

As much as I love a bath bomb, I really love bubbles. I think I’m going to have to start giving up on bath bombs and only buying bubble bars.

When I topped up the bath with some more hot water, I decided to fill the bath with my beloved bubbles so I used the Candy Cane reusable bubble bar.

You simply run it under water and let it produce all the bubbles you want. It leaves you with a lovely, bubbly and red bath smelling of lemon and bergamot.

I would definitely recommend a bubble bar. It’s so nice to have bubbles and it makes it feel like a real bath! Lush have a huge range of bubble bars so have a browse online.

Self Care Sundays: Issue 7

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January has come to an end and I’m still slowly making my way through the Christmas Lush haul that I received, so here’s another edition of Self Care Sundays with more wonderful Lush products!

As we move into a new month of 2020, it’s important to keep taking time to relax and recharge for your own health and benefit.

Along with my usual bath products, I’m still making my way through the Pixi FortifEYE patches and the Sand & Sky Pink Clay Mask which you can read about in my previous Self Care Sundays post.

Rose Jam Bubble Bar

I loved the Rose Jam bubble bar. It’s bright pink and smells fantastic, as well as covering my fingers with glitter!

It didn’t take long to dissolve and fill the bath full of gorgeous scents and amazing bubbles. Some rose scents can be really overwhelming, but the scent of this bubble bar isn’t strong and was really relaxing to be in. I must have spent almost 2 hours in the bath, enjoying my relaxation time.

Lush have hit it out of the park with this bubble bar. It is easily one of my favourite ones so far and more importantly, it is still available to buy on their website.

At £4.95 a pop, it’s not the cheapest bath product out there so it’s definitely a once in a while treat, but it’s definitely worth it.

stylPro Brush Cleaner

Many of you know that I have no control over spending my money…

My lovely friend Emily received a stylPro brush cleaner for Christmas and was showing me how easy it was to clean her brushes. I naturally was amazed and bought one for myself to share in the joy!

There is no excuse not to wash your brushes regularly with this product in your dresser. It saves so much time by cleaning and drying in one hit.

I got my stylPro on QVC when they were on introductory offer for £29.99. It’s gone up since so it’ll be something to consider if you’re thinking of buying it.

The set came with all equipment, with the addition of 2 make up brushes and the make up brush cleaner. The set contains the cleaning bowl, the brush cleaner and dryer. Most interesting though is the fact that the make up brush cleaner is vegan!

Based on use, it seems to be an oil based cleaner, and it is excellent. Combined with the brush cleaner and dryer, it is so convenient to use and strips the make up off my brushes so easily. I looked at buying the cleaner separately but it’s quite expensive so I’m not 100% sure I’ll buy it again soon, but I’ll have to see how easy it is for me to clean my brushes with the usual soap and water!

It’s so easy to use and the silicone collars come in so many different sizes that there’s going to be at least 1 that will fit on snugly on your brush.

I haven’t used the make up brushes yet but they seem nice enough.

The stylPro Brush Cleaner is a game changer. It makes cleaning so easy that there really isn’t an excuse to skip a brush clean anymore! I can do all my regular use brushes in under 15 minutes, clean and dry, ready to use again.

Kat Von D ‘XO Vinyl’ Lip Cream

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It’s been a long time since I’ve used a lip gloss. I don’t generally get along with them as I find them sticky and heavy.

As always… along came Kat Von D Beauty and their brand new products… The ‘XO Vinyl’ lip cream. It was announced before Christmas and came to the UK in the new year. Of course, I treated myself to some new make up… because I have no restraint!

  • Carnation
  • Packaging

I bought 2 in colours Carnation and Lolita. Both are more neutral ‘nude’ shades, with Carnation a little on the pinker side than Lolita.

The packaging is beautiful. It has the classic Kat Von D gothic lettering which makes it stand out on your dressing table, as well as showing off the gorgeous colour.

I am not going to deny that I am a huge Kat Von D Beauty fan, but I’m not exaggerating when I say I love this new product. I’m pictured above with the XO Vinyl Lip Cream in Carnation on, and it’s such a flattering shade of pink. I can imagine it looks great on different skin tones.

It has the perfect amount of shine to it and doesn’t have that horrible, thick, sticky feeling that I know a lot of lip glosses have. It dries quickly and feels incredibly lightweight.

I found that the staying power was much better than most lip glosses but didn’t have the same staying power as the Everlasting Lipstick which I was expecting.

As a summary, I would absolutely recommend the XO Vinyl Lip Cream. It comes in 6 different shades and the quality of the lip gloss is amazing. As I mentioned above, it’s lightweight and the colour is flattering. I wore it all night, have a few drinks and some buffet food and it was still on by the end of the night.

If you can go check it out for yourself before buying, you definitely should! It will take no convincing from me as the product will speak for itself.