The Body Shop

Skincare

Working 9-5 (made easier with nails)

October 25, 2013

As mentioned in a previous post, I have now been self-employed for two months, leaving behind the NHS, a well paid job, an almost Senior position and a life spent inside prison walls. (Yes I was a prison nurse.)

Although I still work as a nurse occasionally to keep my practice up, one of my main issues was with the direction of the NHS in general and my general frustrations at not being heard with my ideas being pushed aside. It had been in the works for a long time but one day, I sat down with my other half Brains and decided it was time to leave. I switched my life of caring for others for a life of perching my arse in my home Office. I am now a developer working alongside Brains and our web development company “BIOSTALL“.

One of the biggest perks of my new job, is being able to do whatever I like. I mean don’t get me wrong, I have to work hard because time is money and … well … without that there would be no shinies. It does mean however, that in between coding I can apply a few coats of Varnish or write a few blogs.

Anyway, the whole purpose of this post was to share with you the hilarity that is my desk …

This is just a random selection of some “go to” items on my desk at the moment. Some nail varnishes, remover, hand cream and tools for when I have the urge to repaint my nails or I get some inspiration. Behind my is all of the shiny things Gem and I purchased on our accidental shopping haul.

I doubt I would have got away with any of this in my previous employments and I’m so proud of the day I handed my resignation in and finally took the plunge. My advice to all of you, is to do whatever you want to do. Life is too short to be unhappy and if things don’t work out, it’s not the end of the world. Live life to the full!

On a completely random side tangent, I also remembered this little beauty.

Since October has been the subject of many a hand cream, I found this the other day amongst my cleared out work things. This is The Body Shop’s Hemp Hand Protector and it was my staple hand cream when I washed my hands about a zillion times a day. (What with the whole healthcare and infection control thing I had going on.) I had completely forgotten about it and have now returned it to it’s former glory by giving it a home on my desk so I can use it as I please.

You can find it at The Body Shop either online or in store for just £4.00. With 40% of this week, you may as well have a shop!

So in summary, do what you will providing you aren’t hurting anyone else and get all over the Hemp Hand Protector Cream from The Body Shop.

Totally hellbent for doing whatever the hell I like

-Pants

Facemask Friday, Skincare

Facemask Friday – The Body Shop Warming Mineral Mask

October 18, 2013

Like Gem, I am a fan of face masks and as you all know, I may have more than a slight obsession with The Body Shop. This is a mask that I haven’t used in a while but before gig day tomorrow, I felt it was appropriate to bring a little pampering into my Friday evening!

This Warming Mineral Mask is the perfect mask for a dull, miserable day/evening. It doesn’t set and dry hard, however it warms when rubbed into the skin and washed off. It reminds me of sitting in the steam room at the gym, and smells a little like it too. I think it must be the ginger fragrance that does that (yes our gym has a fragranced steam room.)

I am not always a great fan of masks that don’t “set” but they have their advantages. What I like about this one, is that it’s easy to wash off and I generally do this in the shower anyway, but if you were to wipe it away with a sponge/cloth you don’t have to scrub your face to remove it all.

The results are amazing, my skin feels really invigorated and stays soft for a good few days afterwards. So next time it’s raining outside, you are having a night in or are feeling a little stressed try one of these out.

If you are sensitive to products, The Body Shop staff are lovely and very helpful and always give me small samples to try out first before I commit to buying. (Probably because they know I spend all my money there!)

You can buy The Body Shop’s warming mineral facemask directly from their website, or in store for £10.00.

If you have tried this out, I would love to know your thoughts?

– Totally hellbent for cosy masks

Pants

Skincare

Nip + Fab Dry Hand Fix and other lovely treats!

October 17, 2013

It’s rather handy to have a different skin type to your best friend. I have very greasy skin and Amie very dry so when freebies or bonuses come our way we can have a nice switch-around.

I am now the happy owner of the Nip + Fab Shine Fix, Nip + Fab Dry Hand Fix, Avon Naturals Lilly and Gardenia Body Whip and a little sample of The Body Shop warming mineral mask.

I want to give the Shine Fix a good few days to try out, so I’ll have a review on that sometime next week. The Body Whip is a product we both use a lot, but Amie didn’t like the fragrance of this one so I’m going to swap a cherry one that I ended up with two of.

Amie is going to be reviewing the facemask on Friday, so look out for that. I’m guessing it’s going to come highly recommended!

Which brings us to the Nip + Fab Dry Hand Fix. I’ve been aghast ever since the Pistachio body butter was discontinued, and actually got to the point where I’ve been craving the scent! Amie HATES the smell, but received it as part of a special offer on the Nip + Fab website so yay for me it’s now mine!

It takes a lot for me to be drawn away from my favourite L’Occitane hand creme (which you can currently get for free with Marie Claire!), but today I’ve not reached for it once. In fact I don’t think I will reach for it until I’ve used this all up!

As far as doing it’s actual job, the Dry Hand Fix does exactly what is says. It’s very moisturising but not greasy, absorbs quickly and leaves hands feeling very very soft. For me though it is ALL about the delicious pistachio and almond scent, and though I still miss the body butter this is fulfilling that craving till I can track some down!

Available for £4.50 from Nip + Fab

Totally hellbent for surprise treats!

– 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

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

Festivals, Make-up

Gig + Field x Stage Face = Big bag

July 11, 2013

Dakesis recently played for the 16th birthday of an amazing girl called Alice. Since she is already so metal, she had a mini festival with her own band playing and asked us to do a set.

So, I thought this would be a good example to show you one of my more “basic” gig sets. Obviously this gig was a little more low key and since I was planning on spending a great deal of time drinking in a field, I wasn’t overly bothered about how I would end up looking. Despite this, I do like to ensure I have all the essentials to remove my panda eyes before bed!!

In order, here are some of my lovely essentials:

1 Makeup Case

2 Old duster for cleaning my brushes whilst out and about

3 The Body Shop’s Vitamin E Day and Night Cream

4 The Body Shop’s Vitamin E Moisturising Serum

5 The Body Shop’s Vitamin E mini cleanser and toner

6 Dainty Doll Foundation

7 Kindle

8 Elf Studio Eyebrow Kit

9 17 Miracle Matte Pressed Powder

10 The Body Shop’s Vitamin E BB cream (I mix this in with my foundation)

11 Nivea Visage Refreshing Facial Cleansing Wipes

12 Nivea Hydra Moisturising Cream

13 Jelly Pong Pong Fairy Lashes Mascara (my new love, from my Glossy Box)

14 Christina Aguilera Secret Potion Perfume

15 Nivea Roll On Deodrant (Keeps me fresh all day long)

16 Elf Brush Cleaner

17 Elf Makeup Lock and Seal (an absolute requirement for stage makeup)

18 Rimmel Exaggerate Liquid Eyeliner

19 The Body Shop’s Shimmer Cube Palette Eyeshadow Blue/Grey

20 Elf Brightening Eye Colour in Drama

21 The Body Shop All in One Blusher

22 Ecotools Kabuki (From Boots, bought this on a whim after I desperately needed one, and this was the only one I could almost guarantee would be cruelty free)

23 Various brushes – The Body Shop Eyeshadow Brush, Bobby Brown brushes, Elf angled foundation brush (studio range).

There is a lot more to my essentials list that this, but you get the idea! Look out for reviews of some of these products in the near future too!!

I will leave you with a thoroughly amusing picture of camping chair makeup application & the sight of hair in much need of dying!