I'm on a Powder Trip

I've been a cream blush girl for the last six months of so but I have a feeling that is all going to change.

I'm not usually one to go shopping during the Christmas sales but this year I did make a couple of strategic purchases, Soap and Glory's Powder Trip* being one of them. I picked it up with a Gift Card I'd received from a friend and I'm really glad I did because these powder products have been on my wishlist for a very long time. This set contains three of Soap and Glory's mainline powder cosmetics; Solar Powder, Love At First Blush and Glow All Out. Initially, I was most excited about trying Solar Powder (the two shade bronzer) but it didn't actually turn out to be my favourite of the three - another reason why palettes are great, you try products you wouldn't otherwise! 

Solar Powder Multi Shade Bronzer
Solar Powder features two bronzing shades, the dark shade is matte and the lighter shade has subtle shimmer  (the pink shimmer overlay disappears after a couple of swirls of your brush). Both are suitable for pale skin so I don't think this is the best product for anyone with medium-dark or dark skin, I simply don't think it would show up. However, on very fair skin both shades are workable. The light bronze shade offers a very light shade which is great for subtle all over bronzing. If you mix the two shades together (which is my favourite way to use this product) you get what I would consider the perfect contouring shade - a light/mid matte brown that offers a very natural looking shadow when used in the contours of my face. Then there is the darkest shade which when used alone offers a deeper colour for more dramatic contouring or (when I have a bit of a tan in the summer) for all over bronzing. All in all I really love this bronzer and am glad I've finally tried it! The colour lasts really well on my skin and the the powder is incredibly easy to blend meaning that the finished result (however you decide to use it) looks great.

Love At First Blush Multi Shimmer Blushing Powder

I didn't expect to like this blush because it looks very shimmery. Now, it is just as shimmery as I expected but it is in a glowing, radiant way rather than a glittery-disco-ball way. It seems to be a hybrid product, combining a blush and a highlighter. Swirled together, the colours combine to offer a medium pink that is very wearable. However, it is possible to just pick up individual triangles if you want a more rosy or a darker colour - if you do this then you get a lighter and a darker pink shade, both of which offer the same radiant, glowing sort of colour as when you mix them all together. I really love how this looks on days when I want a radiant complexion. Coupled with a highlighting primer, this is a really lovely product to reach for day or night when I want my skin to glow.

Glow All Out Luminizing Face Powder
 The colour is suitable for use all over pale skin as I would imagine it would be for darker skin tones, but I wouldn't recommend using it all over the face as it is quite shimmery (although not glittery). But as a powder highlighter, used precisely wherever you want  to add some glow, I really like it. It is quite warm toned but I have cool undertones to my skin and I still like how this looks on me. I've paired it with coral and pink blushes and I find that it helps add more shape to my face as well as give my skin some radiance. I don't have any powder highlighters in my collection at the moment so I can see this easily become a staple of mine!


All three of these Soap and Glory products are available individually for £11 from Boots. I'm really impressed with them and would definitely recommend all three! Have you tried any of these? Or any other Soap and Glory cosmetics?

Baby Soft Skin

Over the last month I've been reaching for the same two products over and over. They've been doing everything that I want and my skin has been amazing, especially for this time of year. I stumbled across Palmer's Cocoa Butter Body Scrub when I was perusing the aisles of Superdrug and I was intrigued. Now, I'm not a huge fan of Palmer's skincare products but their bodycare really does kick butt. I love Palmer's Cocoa Body Butter and I liked the idea of a Body Scrub with the same scent. I'm really glad that I picked it up because it leaves my skin so much smoother and softer without being too harsh and it's really great value for money. When I get out of the shower I then follow up with Soap and Glory's The Righteous Butter which is seriously hydrating without taking forever and a day to absorb. When I use this moisturiser (especially after exfoliating) my skin is softer than soft, as close to being 'baby soft' as I could ever imagine. Together, these two are a dream team. I just wish they'd last forever- I'm already dangerously close to finishing both of them. 

Have you tried either of these? What do you use to keep your skin soft and smooth?

The Sweet Stuff: Soap and Glory Smoothie Star Body Lotion

Soap and Glory's Smoothie Star Body Lotion available in Boots for £10

Moisturising for moisturising's sake can be a chore. We all want soft, smooth skin but sometimes those five or ten minutes that we spend massaging in oils and lotions can cause us to exhale one long sigh. But one small delight that can shorten that aforementioned sigh is a delectable scent. If something smells good enough it encourages you to douse yourself in it night and day, and, ultimately, there's no point in hoarding beauty products and not using them. It does your skin no good, nor your wallet.

I am certainly guilty of accumulating many a body lotion and body butter but recently I have been powering through one moisturiser in particular. Two factors have encouraged me to reach for it over other products I own; it has a pump (I could compose a poem to that small wonder), and it smells like sweet, vanilla-oat cookies. Soap and Glory's Smoothie Star Body Lotion smells blooming wonderful- it's warming and sweet without being overly sickly and it lingers enough to leave me smelling like I've just wandered through a bakery.

Scent aside, the Smoothie Star Body Lotion itself is very good quality. I like to use it in the evening because it doesn't sink completely into the skin immediately but it doesn't take too long (maybe five minutes). However, I do also use it in the mornings when I want to layer up vanilla scents (to complement the Vanilla/Cinnamon shower gel from Korres that I've been using recently). The lotion intensely hydrates my skin and leaves it noticeably softer and smoother. Given that this comes in a hefty 500ml bottle (which, believe me, will last you ages) I think that it's worth the £10 price tag - I'm personally incredibly pleased with it and would definitely recommend it. It doesn't have the sort of scent that I'd typically reach for but it really is a rather lovely product and now that the colder months are drawing in upon us I think its a suitable addition to any beauty routine.

Have you tried any of Soap and Glory's Smoothie Star range? What moisturiser are you using right now?

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The Drugstore Concealers I Love and How to Apply Them

I'm not a girl blessed with perfect skin. 

My skin's sins are many and more often than not they are intolerable. I suffer from dark circles under my eyes (I blame genetics for about 30% of this and my erratic sleep pattern for the rest), I suffer from hyper-pigmentation left by acne scars and therefore it almost goes without saying that I also suffer from spots/pimples/blemishes - whatever you want to call the little devils. 

As much as foundation is my friend when it comes to evening out my face's overall appearance, when it comes to the details I look to concealers. The devil is in the detail and without concealers my make-up is not only incomplete but it is positively lacking. I am happier when I use only concealer than when I use foundation without concealer, and I know that this is the case for many other people.

Concealer is therefore an important part of my routine and I wholly rely on affordable drugstore options. Today I'm going to talk you through the four products that I use, usually not all at once but I'll explain when, where and how they each come into play. I'm also going to include how I apply my concealer to different parts of my face including any tools that I use to do so.

Soap and Glory Body Washes: Sugar Crush and Clean On Me

For the past six months I've not been much of a shower gel sort of girl and have definitely been favouring shower oils. But with the weather getting warmer and my skin less dry I have started to enjoy using shower gels again and the two gracing my shower at the moment are both Soap and Glory offerings. 

The front runner is definitely Soap & Glory's Sugar Crush Fresh and Foamy Body Wash, it's sweet lime scent is an absolute treat and I enjoy nothing more than slathering this on me. True to it's word it is both fresh and foamy, the lime scent is wonderfully fresh and invigorating and it makes it wonderful to use in the morning or if you have a post-work shower it's a lovely pick-me-up. Whether you apply this straight on to your skin or if you use a loofah, sponge or pair of exfoliating gloves, Sugar Crush Body Wash foams up mightily and a little (two pumps in my case) does the job- making this 500ml bottle a long lasting pleasure as I can see it lasting me months.

Clean On Me isn't quite as agreeable to me scent wise although I don't doubt that it will be right up some people's street fragrance-wise. What I like it for is that is creamier than Sugar Crush and is advertised as having a 'built in body lotion'. On my dryer skin days I usually turn to this (sometimes mixing in a cheeky pump of Sugar Crush if I'm really craving a boost of freshness) and I do notice a difference. I tend to use more of this, maybe three pumps instead of two, although this is probably needless as it foams up just as well as Sugar Crush.

Overall, I'd recommend both. Both are a pleasure to use and seem incredible value, plus I can't get enough of pump action products at the moment. There is something immensely satisfying about pumping out products  and if you don't believe me then you need to give it a try! You can find both of these in Boots for £6.00* and £6.50.

Do you like either of these? What shower gel are you using at the moment?

Angelica

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Collective Beauty Haul: High-er End Treats

Sooooooo... I went a little bit crazy on the shopping front. I've had a wish list the length of my arm for a while now and all it took was the promise of a few bargains for me to finally crack out my debit card and submit to the shopping urge. Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't get all of these beauties on the same day but rather over the last three or four weeks. I've tried a couple of them out but some of these items only arrived in the post this morning so in their cases it'll be more of a case of showing you them rather than having much to comment on!

Up first is my Escentual order, 30% off many french pharmacy brands (and a lovely £5 discount on the much acclaimed Dior Nude BB Cream) was too much for me resist. I picked up a 100ml bottle of Bioderma's Micellaire Water (with the intention to stock up on it later in the month if I like it),  Bioderma's Photoderm AKN Mat SPF 30 Mattifying Fluid and Dior's Nude BB Cream in shade 001. Look out for a review of each other these over the coming month! 

This purchase was very much made in the spur of the moment. With FeelUnique offering me a 10% off code I just couldn't help myself, Antipodes Divine Face Oil has been luring me in with its promise of plumper (and less oil prone) skin for the last few months. Along with my order came a lovely little perfume freebie.

I also made the most of Boots' 3 for 2 offer on skincare, one item has escaped this post (a Garnier moisturiser) but truth be told I don't really like it so it is not great loss, although I will still be reviewing it later this month. I was excited to finally get my hands on some Hydraluron (you can see I've stocked up!) and I'm currently trialling this with the hope of reviewing it next month. I haven't started using the Peptabright but I love the sound of it, I have a few marks left by blemishes which I'm hoping it can set straight. The other two products, both Soap and Glory, are wonderful and I've been using them daily since I bought them. I'll definitely be reviewing them both soon!

Lastly, I placed a small order with Naturismo so that I could pick up Jason's Vitamin E Oil 32000IU which is scar/stretch mark treatment. It isn't what I expected at all (but in this case that is a good thing) and I expect promising results for this. I'm testing it out on both scarring and stretch marks to see if it makes any difference. I don't expect I'll be reviewing this for a while as I'll want to use it for a month or two to see if it really works. In the meantime, I also picked up some Elemental Herbology sample sizes (Naturismo is brilliant for samples) and I'll be giving them a go and probably reviewing them all together. 

Sometimes you have to treat yo'self, and that I certainly did. Spending is going to be curbed in the meantime (although I do have a small Fragrance Direct order still to arrive, naughty me). I have a hell of a lot of products to test out and a whole backlog of reviews which I'm going to be catching up with. It's going to be a busy month, but a really fun one!

Have you been shopping recently? Found any absolute wonder products that you'd recommend?

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April Empties

A Disappointing Product: Soap and Glory Peaches and Clean Deep Cleansing Milk

There is no doubt in my mind that Soap & Glory are a great brand. There are a number of their products that I really love and have even recommended to friends, and to readers of this blog, in the past. After reading a lot of hype about their cleanser, Peaches and Clean, I was really excited to use it. I got it as a gift for Christmas as a part of their Best of All Kit and finally got around to using it about six weeks ago. Since then I have had a really difficult relationship with it. 

It's probably worth me stating that from the very start I was quite cautious about using Soap & Glory's Peaches and Clean Deep Cleaning Milk as I had heard that another blogger had a terrible reaction when they first used this product. As excited as I was to try it, I did skin tests on my neck (three tests, one per day for three consecutive days) just to make sure that my skin could handle it. If there's one thing I don't need it's a bad reaction to a product on my face! Anyway, it passed this first hurdle and I started using it on my face soon afterwards. The first thing I really noticed was the scent of it. With a name like Peaches and Clean I imagined a fresh, fruity scent that would be sweet and gente and would just generally make the whole face washing experience more pleasant. Sadly, I was thoroughly disappointed. Peaches and Clean smells a lot closer to some sort of Peach cocktail. It smells really fake and, to my nose, a little bit alcoholic. I don't like the scent of it at all and it initially it almost put me off it entirely. I've since gotten used to it but the scent alone would make this an instant no-repurchase item for me (which would have felt like a terrible waste as there is a whopping 200ml of product).

A positive aspect of Soap and Glory's Peaches and Clean Cleansing Milk is the packaging and also the colour. I love the colour of the bottle and product, it's really girly without looking scarily artificial and the packaging, as per usual when it comes to Soap & Glory, is really cute. I also absolutely adore the pump aspect of the bottle. Using this with wet hands is child's play and it's really hard to waste product with a bottle like this. If you like to cleanse in the shower then this is probably the sort of packaging you'll like as it's easy to use and completely mess free. It's also great if you use a messy sort of product to remove your make up- slippery hands can be such a pain if there is tricky packaging.

However, and this is the BIG deal breaker, the actual cleansing power of Peaches and Clean on my skin has been incredibly poor. For a product that claims to be a 'deep cleaning milk' it hasn't left my skin feeling particularly well cleansed and I've actually noticed that my blackheads have gotten worse since I started using it. It's very creamy which makes it feel nice and gentle and I think maybe it is just too gentle a product to tackle my skin but I'm in two minds about this as I tend to use relatively mild products most of the time due to my sensitive skin. Also, if people have had terrible skin reactions to using this I don't know if I'd be happy describing it as gentle! Since I started feeling a little bit like I was wasting my time I decided to up the ante and incorporated a facial cleansing sponge into my routine (which I'll be briefly reviewing soon) and this has helped Peaches and Clean work a little bit more effectively but I do think that this is all the sponge's hard work, not the cleanser's. Overall, Peaches and Clean just doesn't do a good job. I've really tried to give it a fair chance, I've stuck with it for what feels like forever and used four fifths of the bottle, but it hasn't improved my skin and it hasn't started to work better. I think I may actually give up on it now as I'm sick of my skin looking so average, especially with summer looming so close in the distance. It would be nice to feel confident with a bare face like I did at the end of January.

All in all, I really would not recommend this cleanser. If you want to try some Soap & Glory products I'd veer towards the bath and body products myself, this skincare item has left a lot to be desired and for £7 in Boots I really don't think that it is worth the money.  Personally, I'd highly recommend checking out Laidbare's cleanser instead. It worked fantastically, especially compared to Peaches and Clean, and smells so much nicer too.

Have you tried Peaches and Clean before? What Soap & Glory would you recommend trying instead?

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January Empties

REVIEW: Soap and Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub

This little beauty was part of the 'Best of All' kit that I got for Christmas and I'm really glad it was as this is not something that I'd have picked up otherwise. Soap and Glory's Sugar Crush Body Scrub is a big pot of exfoliating goodness and it might surprise some of you but I've never used a product like this before! The exfoliaters I've used before have all been in solid form (like in soaps or exfoliating bars) so using something in a pot like this was quite a novel experience, and I really liked it!

This sugar scrub has the most delicious zesty lime scent to it but remains quite sweet because of the sugar content. I can't get enough of the fragrance, I literally opened it earlier just to sniff it (I'm such a weirdo sometimes, haha!) and in the shower, especially in the morning, it is just such a pleasure to use. 

The consistency of it is quite gel-like and the sugar granules are really fine (you can see this in the photo below). What this means is that you can get a great exfoliation without it feeling at all rough, which if you have sensitive skin like me is essential. I've used this about five or six times and after every use my skin is left really smooth and soft without being irritated. It doesn't moisturise the skin as it exfoliates which might be an issue for those of you with really dry skin or who don't like moisturising after they shower. I do always have to moisturise after using this or my skin feels a little bit taught but those of you with normal skin might be fine.

All I have to say really is that I'm a convert! I'll definitely still be using my trusty exfoliating soaps (especially L'Occitane's Almond Delicious Soap) but this Sugar Scrub is really fantastic for all over body exfoliation and the fragrance has me hooked. I can see myself using this up relatively quickly and I will definitely consider repurchasing this, although I do have my eye on Soap and Glory's other sugar scrub, the Breakfast Scrub.  It's worth noting though that if you like the sound of the lime scent but aren't a fan of body scrubs, Soap and Glory have just released a body butter with the same fragrance. I'm seriously tempted to try it as the scent is just so good.

If you want to get your hands on Soap and Glory's Sugar Crush Body Scrub you can find it in Boots for £8*. I'd highly recommend it!

What's your favourite body scrub?

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REVIEW: Soap & Glory Hand Food and Heel Genius

As you might have seen in my Christmas Beauty Haul I received the Soap & Glory 'Best of All' gift set for Christmas, and among the 9 products were these two lovely products. I've never tried any Soap & Glory products before (apart from their Thick and Fast mascara which I didn't love). I also haven't ever really followed Soap & Glory as a brand so, although I know that they're popular, I didn't really know what to  expect! I have to say though, the first thing I noticed about both of these products is the packaging. I absolutely love the colour and the font and the descriptions on the back of both were really cute (I've taken photos to show you). I know we shouldn't choose skincare on the packaging it comes in but liking the aesthetic of a product is never a bad thing!

Heel Genius is a fantastic product. I instantly really liked it and when I used it for a few days and saw that it really worked and that my skin were continuing to get softer and smoother I was really happy. This product is cream but feels a lot like a gel when you apply it and it has a minty scent (like a lot of foot products) but it isn't very strong. This is essentially a foot mask, you apply this on your feet before bed, slip on some cotton socks and wake up with softer feet. It is so easy to get into a habit of using this daily that I almost can't believe I haven't always been using a product like this! I'm hooked on this and it has become a part of my routine that I enjoy using. I'd definitely recommend it.

I think this is cute!

Hand Food is definitely the most hyped Soap & Glory product that I've come across so far. Everyone seems to love this, on #bbloggers chats I have been endlessly recommended this for my dry hands! I've been a faithful use of L'Occitane's hand creams for a while now and although I still really do rate them for their quality, I have to admit that Hand Food is pretty darn amazing. I threw this into my handbag because my Body Shop hand cream which I'd taken back to London with me exploded without mercy in my bag one day- those metallic tubes look really nice but if you try and fold those babies tears will eventually be shed! Anyway, as a result, I've been using this since Boxing Day which I know isn't ages but I've already noticed an improvement in my knuckles which I really struggle to keep moisturised at this time of year. This hand cream also smells really lovely without being so strong as to annoy you or those around you, and it sinks in really very quickly. Even when you accidentally apply too much, which I do all the time (it's no fault of the packaging I'm just a moisturizer glutton!) The packaging of this really is another strong point for those looking for something to keep in a handbag as it is unlikely to explode and the lid isn't a removable screw top which can get dropped into, or inexplicably lost, in your bag. Lastly, the price really appeals to me. You can pick a 125ml tube of this up from Boots for just £5.50 which I think represents excellent value for money.

Again, cute!

Overall, I've been really impressed with Soap & Glory and am looking forward to trying some of the other skincare products from the 'Best of All' kit. It also came with some Soap & Glory vouchers so if any of you would highly recommend any of their other products do let me know what I should put these towards!

Angelica

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