Skincare

Skincare

Free L’Occitane hand cream with Marie Claire.

October 5, 2013

I did a little squee when I took a look at this month’s magazine freebies. L’Occitane hand creams are my absolute favourite and there were three limited edition fragrances on offer (and the original dry skin hand cream which is the best hand cream ever!)

I went for the “rose tenderness”, but I will keep my eye out for the other two limited options “subtle violet” and “jasmine passion”

They really are the most amazing hand creams, and you get a lot of hydration from only a tiny amount without leaving your hands feeling greasy.

RRP is around £8.00 for 30ml so even if you don’t want to read Marie Clarie you’re getting the hand cream for less than half price at £3.90.

I also discovered three samples inside the magazine if you want a bit more bang for your pennies;

L’Oreal Everriche shampoo – 10ml

Palmers Cocoa Butter Formula – 5ml

Viktor & Rolf perfume swatch

Totally hellbent for my favourite brands as freebies!

– Gem

Skincare

Honeymania Range The Body Shop

October 5, 2013

After seeing this pop up and becoming ever more envious when beauty bloggers from around the UK were posting pictures of their new hoard, I couldn’t wait any longer and had to grab the Shower Gel, Body Butter and Body Scrub.

Being a bit of Body Shop fanatic, I wasn’t overly worried about the products being great, but I was in two minds about what the fragrance would be like – after all – honey is a bit of a strange thing to smell of right?

As per usual, it arrived promptly within the next few days, was packaged in a lovely reusable little brown box (this is the least I’ve ever ordered online!) and I couldn’t wait to crack it open. The body butter I tried straight away, lovely and thick it applied nicely as do all of the body butters in their range. I have to say, I was surprised at how moisturising it was and my skin felt soft for most of the day. I was definitely impressed and am thinking about switching to this from my Vitamin E range … I know right!

My only downside to The Body Shop, is that some of their body scrubs and polishes don’t make me feel as though I’ve exfoliated. The best by far is the Chocomania and the Shea butter scrubs and I absolutely adore these. Although the Honeymania scrub isn’t as course, it made me feel very hydrated. It felt more like an exfoliating body butter due to it’s thickness and was so luxuriously creamy that I kind of wanted to have another shower just so I could use it again.

Finally, the body wash – which cleaned me – there’s not much else I can say on this, other than it didn’t dry my skin out despite being fragranced. Which by the way, is beautiful. It smells of honey, but not in a weird way, it can not be explained, which means you will probably have to try it for yourself!

Overall I am well chuffed with this, usually when buying new items I like to smell and test them before purchase, but luckily The Body Shop once again outdid themselves.

Totally hellbent for ad-hoc internet purchases

-Pants

News, Skincare

The Body Shop Vitamin E Skincare Range Part 2

October 5, 2013

Here is Part 2 of my Vitamin E blog.

From left to right: Moisture Cream, Illuminating Moisture Cream, Intense Moisture Cream, Nourishing Night Cream

Moisture Cream:

This was the first Vitamin E moisturiser I bought. It’s light weight, gives enough hydration to last the day and is wonderful for mixing with foundations. I absolutely loved the texture of this and how my skin felt when I used it for the first time, I blame my Vitamin E devotion on this product alone as I was hooked instantly!

Illuminating Moisture Cream:

My first experience of illuminated face creams – this gives off a slight pink shimmer/glow. Much nicer than the Superdrug illuminating Vitamin E cream, but I have to be in the right mood to wear this. I find if I am having a “natural” looking day, I might opt for this to give me a flush of colour without using foundation, but less is definitely more with this!

Intense Moisture Cream:

My winter go to cream – moisturiser for dry skin, should be so thick that if you turn the tub upside down, it stays put. This is one of the best moisturisers I’ve found for combating my horrible dry skin during the central heating induced Winter months. With the cold seasons ploughing towards us, I will be reaching for this sooner rather than later.

Nourishing Night Cream:

More recently, I have been experimenting with other moisturisers, but when I use Vitamin E, I use the night cream to go with it. Similar to the Intense Moisture Cream, this is much thicker in consistency, so when I wake in the morning I don’t feel like I’ve had my head in a tumble dryer. It has that luxurious feel when you apply it without making your skin feel suffocated.

Since I own almost all of The Body Shops Vitamin E range, I also recommend the following:

Totally hellbent for (in case you hadn’t noticed) Vitamin E everything

-Pants

Skincare

The Body Shop Vitamin E Skincare Range Part 1

October 3, 2013

As much as I like to mix and match, the Vitamin E collection from The Body Shop is a use together must. I thought about separating all of these lovely things to review but I just can’t split them up! Therefore this is part 1 of 2.

From left to right:

Mini Vitamin E Day and Night moisturisers
Vitamin E moisture Serum
Vitamin E Cleanser & Toner (including minis)
Vitamin E BB Cream
Vitamin E Body Butter

The mini moisturisers I will talk about in part 2 of this blog, but honestly, this is -the- best Skincare range I have ever encountered. I am utterly obsessed with everything Vitamin E based and adore the packaging, the smell and the textures of all of these products.

Moisture Serum:

I use this underneath my moisturiser and my face feels like it wants to do a happy dance from the feeling it gives. The only time I don’t use a serum, is when I am wearing heavy makeup and I’m wearing foundation.

Cleanser & Toner

I bought the mini set to begin with to try these out, and was hooked instantly. Although they have a fragrance to them, my skin does not react at all. I have never experienced stinging, redness or the feeling of my skin drying out and my skin feels thoroughly cleansed afterwards. I keep the mini bottles and fill them up when I go away which is also an added bonus. I do the same with my moisturisers)

BB Cream:

I picked this up last time I was in store to try it out. It’s my least loved out of all their stuff. The texture is nice, but as you may be able to see from the picture, it’s quite dark. My favourite thing to do with this, is to mix it with my foundation instead of putting on moisturiser first. I get a nice but of coverage then and my foundation seems to go on better.

Body Butter:

Whenever I go into The Body Shop, I generally end up leaving with one of these. I love the texture and it’s not too greasy, this is definitely an every day body butter for me. Plus it kind of completes things when you have just Vitamin E’d your face to death!

I would definitely recommend trying this out if your Skin is more dry/sensitive. Make sure you stay tuned for Part 2!

Hellbent for owning absolutely everything in a range!

– Pants

Facemask Friday, Skincare

Facemask Friday – Superfruits Exfoliating Mask

September 27, 2013

We all love a multi-tasker right? Well this facemask is something I’ve never come across before, but when you think about it it just makes perfect sense! The mask contains ground up strawberry seeds so as you apply it you have a built in exfoliator!

The scent of this alone is worth raving on about, a mix of strawberry, blueberry, cranberry and raspberry that doesn’t feel synthetic and isn’t too overpowering once it’s on your face.

It dried in just under ten minutes, and rinsed off easily. Though my skin looked and felt much cleaner and brighter when I got out of the shower, I don’t think it really did too much for my massive pores on close inspection. This wouldn’t stop me from buying it again though as the overall results and the gorgeous smell more than made up for it.

Available from Superdrug for 99p.

Totally hellbent for natural berry scents.

– Gem

Skincare

Free Body Shop Hand Cream!

September 23, 2013

I found this amazing offer just in time it seems – for the next few days you can get a completely-free-no-strings-attached Body Shop hand cream worth £5!

All you have to do is download and print the voucher from VoucherCodes.co.uk or even easier you can just download their App and show the clerk your voucher on your smartphone!

This offer runs out on Thursday 26th September so make sure you get there fast!

I’ll be trying to get my hands on the wild rose, which cream do you fancy?

Totally hellbent for a freebie!

– Gem

Skincare

Avon Naturals – Spiced Orange & Ginger

September 20, 2013

Autumn is definitely here, and the first thing it makes me crave is thick warm comforting scents.

The newest fragrance from Avon Naturals seemed to promise just that with it’s creamy apricot colour and image of a juicy orange, cinnamon sticks, star anais and ginger.

The scent is only available as hand & body lotion, shower gel and fragrance spritz, which is minimal considering their last naturals scent releases spread across haircare and body whips too.

I’m a big fan of the naturals range, but the spiced orange & ginger scent just seems a little too artificial for me, especially the fragrance spritz.

The fragrance spritz is a re-brand and slightly different formula from the Naturals room and linen spray, meaning it can now be used both on fabrics and on skin. As much as I love a good multi-tasker I think I will be sticking to it’s original use, the scent is just too thick and unnatural to wear on the body. I don’t want to walk around smelling like a seasonal air freshener!

The shower gel and hand & body lotion are much lighter on the scent and will do just fine throughout autumn, but I hope Avon pulls out something amazing for a Christmas fragrance.

Shower gel 200ml £2.60

Hand and body lotion 200ml £3.00

Fragrance Spritz 100ml £4.00

Available for the intro price of 99p each in Avon campaign 17 from your local rep or the Avon website.

Totally hellbent for autumnal delights

– Gem

Skincare

Thanks Mister Postman – Nip + Fab

September 19, 2013

I recently tried out the Nip + Fab dry leg fix, after bagging some with a magazine.

I love this so much that when it was gone, I had to order some more! At the same time, I accidentally ordered the Skin Fix Web Exclusive Kit for £7.99 not to mention that it was also 20% off too. About two days ago, my order came. Instead of my dry leg fix, I ended up with dry hand fix! Feeling annoyed that the one thing I desperately wanted from the order, was the one they had sent the wrong thing for, I dropped them an e-mail.

This morning, the postman came again and delivered yet another shiny black box, which had my dry leg fix in!!! This is the second customer complaint I’ve had this week and the second time it has been resolved completely in my favor, so Nip + Fab, I love you and your speedy rectification of my product purchased!

Looking forward to trying out the Skin Fix Kit too.

Totally hellbent for ending up with more than I bargained for

-Pants

Festivals, Make-up, Skincare

Gem’s top five festival life savers for summer 2013

September 17, 2013

Did you see Amie’s blog about her festival survival kit? Well I thought I’d like to share some of my own top products for getting by with a minimal cosmetics bag! Some were so good we both chose them!

Now i’m not going to lie and say this is all I took (because I took a LOT of cosmetics with me to every festival this summer) but I could probably get away with just these items (and a stage make-up bag if we were performing of course!) if I absolutely had to!

Avon Maffifying Mineral Face Cream SPF 30 & Coola Mineral Tinted Moisturiser SPF 20

Exploding blusher accident on the Coola! =(

I’m usually not a fan of wearing anything under 50SPF, but the 30SPF Avon mattifying mineral face cream was far too good in comparison to the usual greasy shiny sun protection! I combined this with the Coola 20SPF tinted moisturiser and managed to avoid burning on my face at all.

How silly I felt after wearing sun protection on my skin for Hammerfest (Wales in March…AND the bands are indoors!) yet forgot to apply any for the boat to Wacken (North Sea in August). The results were harrowing…

But by keeping this topped up at ALL times other than on that silly boat my skin is brown not burnt which I am very very thankful for! My Dainty Doll 0001 foundation still looks like corpse paint on me against my tan, but as autumn and winter set in again I will become my (happily!) pale self again soon!

Coola £23.29 from Beauty Expert

Similar Avon on offer for £3.00 from Avon

Simple Eye Make-up Remover

I’ve loved Simple’s skincare since I was old enough to know what cleanser is, but this is probably my all time favourite Simple product (and it comes in uber-cute mini size!).

I’ve used much more expensive eye-make up removers, but none compare to this at all! Just a dash on a cotton pad clears even the heaviest panda eye-liner in a mere moment.

Most people will swear by face-wipes at festivals, and for convenience they are smashing of course, but I prefer to take mini cleanser, toner and make-up remover and do it properly.

£1.50 from Superdrug

Benefit POREfessional

Unlike Pants I am lucky enough to have reasonable eyebrows without having to draw them on, so my one make-up essential would have to be something that covers up my horrendous pores! Benefit POREfessional is simply the best product ever. Just a dabbing over the T-zone and chin makes my skin look a billion times better.

Last year we had our car broken into on the way to Wacken and one of the things stolen was my huge make-up bag. Having lost hundreds of pounds worth of full size products and brushes I decided to decant all of my more expensive products into small clear tubs (handily saving myself a lot of space too!) and I surprised myself by not even using half a tubs worth over the whole summer festival season!

£24.50 from Boots

Anamatomicals Spray Misty for Me & Avon Footworks Cooling Spray

I make no secret of the fact I hate the heat, and Wacken was UNBEARABLY hot this year! Amie already mentioned the Anatomicals Spray Misty for me (that we both received in our July Glossybox) but I also had the foresight to pack my Avon Green tea and Mint Foot Cooling Spray.

Let me tell you, after standing in heavy boots in 30 degrees for a few hours this was pure heaven.

Both products have moved into my gigging cosmetics bag, as even in the colder months it gets very hot and sweaty under stage lights, and they are perfect for a little pick-me-up if I don’t have chance to cool down between the stage and press/merch desk/greeting people!

Anatomicals £6.00 from ASOS

Avon Footworks £3.15 from Avon

Lipsmacker – Coca Cola Cherry & Nip+Fab Lip & Nip fix

I always get that horrible dry cracked lip feeling during festival season and it drives me bloody mad! Since falling in love with the Nib+Fab Lip+Nip fix however, I’ve not suffered chapped lips at all – even out in the sun all day!

Unfortunately the Lip+Nip fix has been discontinued but the Dr. Lipp Nipple Balm for lips is an almost identical product.

I’m a bit of a fangirl when it comes to lipsmackers and I have every flavour I can get my hands on, but this is my very favourite! I had one of these stashed in every bag I took so I knew I would never be without, this particular one also has a red tint, so saved me having to worry about lipstick too!

Nib+Fab discontinued =( / Dr. Lipp Nipple Balm £11.50 from Beauty Bay

Cherry Coca Cola Lipsmacker £3.50 from Claires.

So now we say goodbye to festival season ’13, but at least you can be well prepared for next year with these amazing finds!

Totally hellbent for 317 days to WOA 14

– Gem

Make-up, Skincare

Double Whammy – Benefit PORE-fessional & Gerda Spillmann Make-up Primer

September 16, 2013

From Left: Benefit The PORE-fessional, Gerda Spillmann Hydro Pearls Make-up primer.

I’m always on the lookout for things that make my makeup stay put on stage. I’m in love with the Benefit PORE-fessional, but I don’t always need to use this. Alas, since I was having a particularly bad face day during the last two gigs, I used this around my cheek area but decided to try out one of my beauty box delights, Gerda Spillmann Hydro Pearls Make-up primer.

I found the Hydro Pearls a little watery when I applied it, however it went on more like a moisturiser which seemed to give me more coverage. My foundation went on brilliantly and I was very impressed by the durability.

I finished putting my makeup on at around 16:30 in the afternoon, played a 40 minute set with Dakesis and came got home around 12:30am.

Despite sweating my behind off on stage, the end result is pretty damn impressive!

These were taken before bed & makeup removal – the second one obviously being for pure comical value!

Oh yeah … did I forget to mention the blonde? This is a temporary measure – I figured that having a break from Red, would a) allow the current fashion world to pick a new color and b) make it super super bright when I dye it again.

To conclude, this is definitely a product I will be using more often for gig days and will put on my “must buy in the near future” list.

You can buy Gerda Spillmann Hydro Pearls for £30 shiny pennies via the Birchbox website and you can pickup Benefit The POREfessional from Boots for £24.50.

Totally hellbent for 2 being a prime number ;o)

Pants