Inside the Skincare Drawer

I'm always intrigued to know what other people use in their skincare routines, and mine is something that I don't think I've ever shared on my blog! I do admit, that some products do get changed around and I'm still trying to use everything I feel is necessary but I'm still not 100% with my routine, is anyone? I thought I would share it with you all anyway and maybe some of you lovely people could give me product suggestions, but skincare is something that I really want to completely happy with, you only get one face after all!
So my skin type is oily/combination, sensitive and acne prone, could the combo get any worse? I don't think so! So obviously my main concerns are keeping oil at bay while making sure that acne and redness is reduced as much as possible! I do also suffer from small dry patches which can be a right pain and so I use a mixture of products to target different things! My AM routine starts with the Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish which I have been using for as long as I can remember, and I think I'm now on something like my fourth or bottle and that's when you know you love it well! I just find that my skin feels super clean whenever I use this and it's so gentle on my skin -  I do think I use the light version though! But this is a great cleanser for anyone who is starting out in their skincare routine because it's almost a one size fits all! I don't have one toner that I necessarily stick to, but at the moment I have been reaching for my Lush Tea Tree Toner Water because my acne has been playing up and it soothes my skin, while helping to dry out the blemishes! I also have the Liz Earle Instant Boost Skin Tonic, which brightens up my complexion whenever I use it and this is also great for people with sensitive skin because it contains no alcohol!

I have two serums that I like to use, one of them is The Body Shop Vitamin E Moisture Serum and I find that this one is great because it hydrates the dry patches on my skin, therefore making the application of any makeup on top a lot easier however I am now on my second bottle of the L'Oreal Skin Perfection Serum which I found really helped the way my skin looked and felt, which is does claim to do! For a drugstore serum it can be seen as a little pricey, but honestly for the price it is worth it! My skin looked healthier and fresher all the time, I do need to pick up a new bottle thinking about it! When I do remember to wear an eye cream, the one I reach for is The Body Shop Vitamin C Eye Reviver Duo which holds a cream in one side and a liquid the other, and what I love about this is that the side with the liquid also has a metal roller ball, so when you put it on it really soothes and cools the eye area! As far moisturiser goes, there is only one that I've been reaching for just recently, and that is The Body Shop Vitamin C Moisturiser which makes me skin look so healthy and glowing while giving it enough moisture to tackle my dry patches but not take my oily areas over board! This also smells so fruity which I love, the only thing I wish this did have was some kind of SPF, but it's great for everything else so I can't complain!
Now moving onto my PM routine, this contains fewer products and because I mostly finish work at 1am, it does mean that I tend to skip steps which I know I shouldn't do! Anyway, to remove the mess on my face, I use The Body Shop Camomile Cleansing Oil that everyone has raved about because it really is that good! It does remove almost all my makeup, aside from waterproof mascara (which we all know is a pain) and I just massage it into the skin before taking it off with a wet muslin cloth, it's as easy as that! I do sometimes use the Garnier Micellar Water after my first cleanse to make sure that everything is gone, especially when I've been wearing foundations like Estee Lauder Double Wear, which really clings to the skin! This micellar could be used as a cleanser on it's own but for me I don't feel like this cleans my skin thoroughly enough! 
Something that has become an absolute holy grail since entering my routine is the Dermalogica Clear Start Overnight Treatment which has really helped with most of my acne, but I will admit that for me this wasn't an overnight transformation with my skin, and I know if I have forgotten to use it because my skin will hate me! Along with this, I will sometimes use the La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo and these two together just tackle blemishes to the best of their ability! I do need to find something to help fade my scars now though, oh how I love my skin! The final step in my nightly routine is to use The Body Shop Bouncy Sleeping Mask which I love! This product is something that I feel I will repurchase again and again because I've found that it has really helped how my skin looks in the morning, because it's a mask that sinks in overnight to really plump and brighten the skin! This could be seen as pretty pricey for the brand but I would honestly recommend this to everyone and their dogs!

I also have a few other products that I use in my skincare, just not so regularly and the first of these is the Lush Catastrophe Cosmetic Mask which I could sing and dance about for days because it's that good! I slap a good layer of this on, and it's so cooling and soothing on the skin, that I never want to take it off! But seriously, this has ingredients in that are really good for the skin, and I find that once I've washed this off, my skin looked less red and acne prone which for me is incredible! I also like to exfoliate every two to three days to keep my pores clear and take away any dead skin (tmi?) and for this I tend to use the Garnier Pure Active Exfoliating Scrub which is designed for people with oily and acne prone skin and so I'll keep using this until I find something better! Some of you may have noticed no face wipes yet and I technically don't own any for the face, but I do have a packet of the Simple Kind to Eyes Wipes and the only time I really use these are when I've been wearing an excessive amount of eye makeup that I want to remove before going in with my oil cleanser, as it just makes it a lot easier! And I find that these ones don't aggravate my eye area too much which is always a bonus!
I hope you all enjoyed a little look into my skincare! Do any of you have any suggestions to what to add in or replace, I'm always looking to try new products! Or do any of you use some of the products that I do? I'd love to know!

A Body Shop Haul

Over the past couple of months, I have been buying a lot of things from The Body Shop and so I thought I'd share with you what I've picked up! I always like to see what other people are buying as I always think it helps towards my own decisions on purchasing a product so I hope that some of you will find this helpful!

I have quite problematic skin and most of the time I'm prone to having a lot of acne, and so I thought that I would try out a couple of things from the Tea Tree range! The first thing that I picked up was the Tea Tree Skin Clearing Lotion and I have just been using this on any seriously problematic areas to see if it will improve the appearance of break outs! To go with this I decided to try out the Tea Tree Night Lotion which I have been using every night since I got it, and it's my night time "serum" as such because I put this on after my toner but before moisturiser. The purpose of this lotion is to help improve the appearance of any breakouts as well as old scars and pigmentation problems, and so hopefully with continuous use of this product, I should see some sort of improvement with my skin!

I'd been looking around for a new serum for a while now after nearly finishing my old one and due to my skin being quite dry recently, I thought that I would try out something that has a lot more moisture in it. So, that's why I decided to pick up the Vitamin E Moisture Serum after trying a couple of things from the Vitamin E line before! And since I've been using this every morning in my routine, I do feel like my skin hasn't been anywhere near as dry and so I'll continue to use this and hope that my skin appreciates the added moisture in my routine!

I'm someone who doesn't really use face masks as often as I should, and because my skin can be quite sensitive, I'm always rather worried about what to use but I decided that I would try out the Warming Mineral Mask and I have been using this weekly, and I love the way it leaves my face feeling so clean! The heat from the mask, opens up the pores and so I feel like it deeply cleanses and cleans, and this is what I like about this mask! I could imagine this being lovely in the winter, when it's cold, as it really does heat up on the skin!

Another line that intrigued me is the Aloe range and this is something that I can use on my sensitive skin without having to worry about it being irritated and so I decided to pick up a couple of things from this range! The first being the Aloe Calming Facial Cleanser and the first thing that I liked about this was that it come in a 200ml bottle and so for me, that's a lot of product as I don't tend to go through cleanser that quickly! However, I love that I can put this on and it feels like it really cleans my skin without irritating it because it has nothing harsh in it (this cleanser doesn't even smell of anything)!! I have been using this almost every day, but I must admit that I still do love my Liz Earle Cleanser! The second product that I purchased from this line was the Aloe Protective Restoring Mask and this is something that I don't use too often, because it's more of a treatment for the skin that provides extra hydration which is what I feel like my skin has been needing! And so I've really been loving this, and this has even helped in the more oily areas of my skin!

I bought one make up item that I had been looking at for quite some time and I think it might be a dupe for the Nars Copacabana Illuminator and this is the Radiant Highlighter the only difference between these two products is that one is slightly pinker than the other! But I have been really enjoying using the highlighter under my foundation to just give that healthy glow to the skin, and this can also be used on top of foundation as a highlighter, but I do prefer it underneath the foundation!

One of my favourite products that I've bough just recently is the Vitamin C Eye Reviver Duo which I have used every day since I've had it! I love that one end has a roller ball with a liquid and the cooling sensation is used to help reduce any puffiness around the eye area and the other end has a cream that's applied with a die foot applicator and this is a yellow toned cream that I think helps counteract with the dark colours in the under eye area! This is a product that is packed with vitamin C and so it's really goof for the skin and since having this product, I've really wanted to try more from the Vitamin C range.

My most recent purchase from The Body Shop has been the Drops Of Youth Bouncy Sleeping Mask and this is a mask that has been designed to be left on overnight and it helps to improve the look of skin, making it bouncier and more youthful and I'll be using this every night to see if I can see any signs of improvement! This product is something that is a little more pricey but you do get 90ml of product and the texture of this product is almost like memory foam and so I feel like this would take a very long time to get through, and so if it does work, it is well worth the investment!

Have any of you tried these products? As I'm sure I will be leaving some in depth reviews once I've had the chance to try out all of these products for a while! But in the meantime, have any of you got any other recommendations from The Body Shop?

Abigail
xo

Beauties That I Continue To Love

I thought I would share will all some of the beauty products that I continually love and some of them I've been using for quite some time and others are fairly new into my routine. But when you when you love a product, you just know, right?!

The Body Shop is somewhere I'd only really considered going for skincare until a a year or so ago, and boy was I wrong! I always knew they did make up, but I kind of assumed it wasn't the best, and I can say I'm truly thankful to whoever swayed the decision on me trying out some of their beauty products! Both of the products from here are pretty well known within the beauty blogging world, just because they were so highly talked about at one point, and the first is the Instablur which I guess can be considered a spin off for a product such as Benefit's Porefessional! I have a few reasons why I prefers Instablur, but the main is because it doesn't dry out my skin anywhere near as much as the Porefessional, and I honestly think the consistency is so much better for filling in things such as pores and so I love using this as a primer! 

And the second product that I use a lot, is the Honey Bronzer, and the reason I constantly go back to this bronzer is for the simple fact that it is so light, and for a pale girl like me, the muddy look isn't the way forwards and so the lighter the bronzer, the better! They do have this bronzer in darker colours and I honestly think it's an all round great bronzer and I'd highly recommend it if you haven't already tried it!

For anyone who reads my posts or follows me on my twitter or instagram it will come as no surprise that I cannot live without these next two products, I think I use these every single time I do my make up (and then wonder why I run out so quickly)... The first of these two is the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer which has been used by pretty much everyone, and for the price of this concealer, you really can't go wrong! It's coverage is amazing without being the slightest bit cakey, and the although the shade range isn't great, the lightest shade works for me and so that's all I'm really asking for!

The other highly loved product in my collection is the Soap & Glory Archery Brow Pencil and the reason I know that I can't live without this from now on, is that I recently used the last of it up without having any back ups (rookie error)! But when I went to buy another one, it was sold out, and I was without my beloved beloved brow pencil for a good three weeks and until I managed to find it in stock, my brows did not look like they usually would! They do only have two shades in their range but I find that they are pretty universal as far as one for brown haired girls and one for fairer and blonde haired girls go!

I put off buying this next product for a long time, just for thinking that I didn't need to buy a lip balm that was almost £10 because is a lip balm really that good? But yes, yes it is and I was proven wrong! I am of course talking about the Nuxe Reve De Miel and even in the not so cold months, this is a lip saviour especially for those who like to wear lipstick a lot! I tend to stick this on once I'm at the end of my skin care routine both in the morning and at night, and it keeps my lips hydrated for a long time! And I've not had a lip balm that can deal with seriously chapped lips like this once can! 

Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette, the product that all beauty bloggers either own or consider owning (and will probably end up owning at some point) but who needs another eyeshadow palette, right? You do! This has the nicest variety of shades so you can make it work for day time and night time looks, and I also think  the shades would work for pretty much every skin tone because there's something in there to suit everyone's likings! And who doesn't want an eyeshadow palette that literally smells like chocolate?! I really want to try more from this brand and have so many things sat on a never ending wishlist! 

Powders are something that I really tend to struggle with because I have a t-zone that tends to get super oily and so as the weather gets warmer, I feel like I have to a billion powders on standby because I'll go through them super quick! And one that I have been loving for a while now is the MAC Mineralise Skin Finish Natural because it's one that seems to hold off letting the oil come through for quite some time before I feel like I need to touch up! And this powder, is one that is very light on the skin, doesn't transfer too much colour and doesn't look at all cakey on top of foundations and so I think this will probably be my go to during the warmer months to fight off that oil!

The last product that I use to death is the Nars Pro Prime Smudge Proof Eyesahdow Base and I'm going to need to get a back up soon, because I feel like this will run out, and I just won't know what to do with my eyelids! But this keeps eyeshadow in place so much longer than any other primer I have used, and when it says smudge proof, it really does mean it! Sometimes I can come home from work looking like a right mess (I regret nothing) and if there's one thing that I know will still be in place, it's my eyeshadow and I'm someone who was always pretty dubious about wearing eyeshadow and liquid liners for long periods of time for the fear of it all creasing, fading and just looking generally disgusting but I don't have to worry about any of that any more and I don't think 'll ever change from this primer - which is a pretty bold statement!

Let me know if you have tried any of these products and agree (or disagree) with me because I'd love to know! Also share what you love in your make up stash, I'm always on the hunt for new things!

Abigail

xo

January Favourites

Most of my favourites for this month are either completely new products to my routine or stuff that I have loved throughout 2014 and so I've kept them as part of what I do pretty much every day!

The two new products that I have been using a lot are the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette which I have been talking about way too much but it's just too good of a plate to not rave about! Although I don't do many ‘evening looks’ this palette can be used for daytime and evening because there is so much colour choice with darker and lighter shades available! And it smells like chocolate when you're using it, what more could you want? And the other is the Nuxe Rêve De Miel which is like heaven for your lips – especially in the cold winter weather! But I just slap some of this on my lips when I need it and just before I go to bed and it lasts so long that I barely feel like I'm thinking about having chapped lips!

I haven't had a particular foundation that I've been going to back to this month as I feel like my skin has been all over the place and I've been using whatever feels best for my skin on the day! But no matter what foundation I've been wearing, you can guarantee that I've been using The Body Shop Instablur primer underneath because this is a primer that managers to smooth over everything and just creates an even base for foundation to be applied on! I've also been using the Honey Bronzer from TBS as well because I'm fairly pale in the summer and so the winter is terrible, I somewhat resemble Caspar the Friendly Ghost and so the lightest shade of this bronzer is nothing too in your face or orange as others would call it! Perfect for all those pale skinned girls out there!

Speaking of being pale, I've also been using the MAC Mineralise Skinfinish Natural as my setting powder because I find that the shade Light is pale enough for me to not have to use a translucent powder as the MSF does give the smallest amount of coverage without altering the colour of my foundation! However if you are more tanned, the same shade is great for an under eye setting powder! 

A skincare product I've been using for a while now is the L’Oreal Skin Perfection Advanced Correcting Serum which is a serum that claims to perfect the look of skin by minissmising the look of pores and hydrating the skin to make it look more youthful. And I can say that I have felt a difference in my skin since using this and I'm now on my second bottle so it can't be half bad! I've always been conscious of my pores and I find that the combination of this and the Instablur primer, I'm not worrying anywhere near as much which I'm happy about!

The last favourite for this month has to be the song Real Love by Clean Bandit and Jess Glynne, and I know this isn't a new song but it's one I have been listening to non stop, I just love Jess’ voice so much!