September Favourites

Bioderma Sensibio H2O Reverse Pump Bottle
Bioderma will probably always be my favourite micellar water. I've used this stuff for years & I'm not planning on changing that anytime soon. I won't bore you with another rave about this wonderful makeup remover but there's a reason why I've included it in this post. A couple of months ago Escentual started stocking a reverse pump bottle of Bioderma. How cool is that?! It took me a while to finish off my old bottle but I finally got to buy this one a few weeks ago & I love it! I always used to end up drowning my cotton pads in the stuff which was a little wasteful. This pump allows you to control how much product is being put onto your pad so you won't waste a single drop. You don't even have to pick up the bottle, just lift the lid & press down. The lazy girl's makeup remover just got even lazier.

Eucerin DermoPurifyer Toner
Having previously reviewed Eucerin's DermoPurifyer Active Concentrate I was keen to try some more of their products. I'm currently obsessed with reading /r/SkincareAddiction. Like me, they're huge advocates of chemical exfoliation & one product that lots of people seemed to be having great results with is this Eucerin DermoPurifyer Toner. Most of the DermoPurifyer range features lactic acid which is a gentler AHA than glycolic acid. This toner contains 2% lactic acid & would be a fantastic addition for anyone with blemish prone skin. It smells a lot nicer than the Active Concentrate so I much prefer using this product. I only use it at night, maybe twice a week as it can be quite drying. Alcohol is fairly high up the ingredients list so I'm guessing it's down to that. Even though I've only been using it twice a week the results were pretty instantaneous. Some AHA products take longer to work on my skin than others but I really noticed a big difference to my skin within a couple of weeks. My skin is prone to closed comedones & I developed quite a few recently from testing out a retinol product. This toner has managed to clear up my skin completely. It's totally amazing & so much cheaper than the likes of Alpha-H Liquid Gold, Pixi Glow Tonic, Clarins Brightening Toner or P50.

John Frieda Full Repair Touch-Up Flyaway Tamer
For some reason I've been experiencing quite a bit of hair breakage recently. I guess all the bleach & heat is finally taking it's toll :( When my hair is freshly washed I have a few broken strands around my parting which tend to stick up & make me look like a bloody cockatoo. For a while I had to run a comb full of hairspray over those hairs to make them stay flat but I felt like this was drying out my hair & possibly exacerbating the problem. I normally use the John Frieda Full Repair range in between washes with my silver or pink toned Bleach London products. Boots had a 3 for 2 offer on recently so I decided to give this Flyaway Tamer a go. I'm so happy with product & wish I'd found it sooner! It's kinda like a hair serum with a mascara wand to brush the product through your hair. It doesn't make my hair greasy or flat, it just smooths down those awful sticky up broken strands so that everything looks perfectly healthy again. It features inca inchi oil to help repair the hair & gives it a polished finish. The tube format means that I can easily slip it in my handbag for touch ups on the go. I'd definitely recommend this if you've had any noticeable hair breakage or are just fed up of flyaways.

Rimmel Apocalips Lip Velvet in Orange-ology
I completely skipped over the original Rimmel Apocalips Lip Lacquers as I was just never that interested in them & I got tired of seeing 50000 reviews of them on Bloglovin'. Boots had a 2 for £10 offer on all Rimmel products a few weeks ago & I was instantly drawn to the new matte Apocalips Lip Velvets. My current favourite is Orange-ology which is a bright tangerine shade. The colour reminds me of MAC Morange which is one of my favourite ever lipsticks. I would also consider this to be a dupe for the Hourglass Opaque Rouge Liquid Lipstick in Riviera. Even though these are supposed to be matte lip creams they still have a slight sheen to them. The formula is very silky & creamy, taking a while to dry down on the lips. Many matte lip products can be drying & start to crack on the lips but this lip velvet is so moisturising and feels very comfortable to wear. Drugstore brands are finally getting matte lip products right!

Benefit They're Real Push-Up Liner
Now this isn't strictly a 'fave' product as generally I do think it's a bit crap. The tremendous hype around the They're Real Liner was almost enough to put me off buying it but the liner lover in me couldn't resist giving it a go. Used to line the lids I just can't get to grips with it. The formula is far too thick & dry to apply smoothly. Despite being assured by a Benefit counter girl that it wouldn't transfer at all, it leaves me with horrid random black lines above my eyes. For me it's just not as good as a regular liquid liner or a gel liner with a brush. However I hate to see a product go to waste, especially an £18 eyeliner, so I decided to keep using it. I've been using this to tightline my eyes only and for that purpose it works brilliantly. I've always struggled to tightline my eyes as most of my eyeliner pencils are quite hard & it can be difficult to get them to show up. The soft texture & high pigmentation combined with the silicone nib means that it's really easy to tightline with. I never used to bother with this step but it makes a huge difference to the appearance of my lashes & ties in well with my cat flick liner to make my eyes look super defined.

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John Frieda Luxurious Volume Hair Tutorials

You might have noticed that I love experimenting with my hair. I've dyed it nearly every colour under the sun and dramatic hair cuts simply don't phase me. I've had everything from an asymmetric pixie cut to the 'Rachel' to a scene kid mullet (oh dear...). Creating different hairstyles on my own however is something I'm not too good at. Thank the lord for YouTube & all the wonderful hair tutorials on there. It's much easier to try out a new style after watching a video guide several times. At the minute I'm embracing my longish hair and I like to use products that can give it oodles of volume. Next time I pop into Boots I plan on buying some of the John Frieda Luxurious Volume products. I was using their Full Restore products but the Luxurious Volume Touchably Full shampoo & conditioner now come with colour protection which is great news for my bleached blonde hair. John Frieda have just unveiled some fabulous hair tutorials on their YouTube page using some of the products from the Luxurious Volume range. If you're into big hairstyles then you should definitely check them out!

Big Bold Waves


I've always wanted to recreate this kind of hairstyle but never knew how! Big bouncy hair is always a good look & this doesn't seem overly difficult. The John Frieda Fine To Full Blow-Out Spray used in this video sounds like a potential dupe for Oribe Maximista. I'll definitely have to try it out & compare the two.

Floral Curls


This cute but edgy rockabilly style would be perfect for anyone with shorter hair. I love the floral hair pins as they soften up what is otherwise quite a masculine look. I'm not sure it would suit me personally but I'm sure there's plenty of short haired girlies who could totally rock it.

*Written in collaboration with John Frieda

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March Favourites

John Frieda Full Repair Heat-Activated Styling Spray
I recently invested in the whole of the new John Frieda Full Repair range as I've read so many good reviews about it. Plus it was 3 for 2 in Boots so it would've been rude not to! I love the deep conditioner as it makes my hair feel amazing but the real star of the show has to be the styling spray. You basically spray this all over your hair after towel drying and after using heat tools on it your hair is left feeling very soft & looking very shiny. It really helps to keep your style in place all day. I blow dry my hair & use my Babyliss Big Hair styler every time I wash my hair so using heat activated products means I can still use these tools without having to worry about excessive heat damage. I highly recommend the whole range.

Good Things Deep Pore Anti Blemish Cleanser
I read about this product on Jennie's blog and I immediately went out and bought it. Its kind of a hybrid cleanser/toner product. This stuff smells absolutely incredible which makes it a real pleasure to apply. I like my toners to have a bit of oomph to them and my Liz Earle one didn't seem to be doing much to my skin anymore other than refreshing it. I really like using this because its pretty much a lazy girl's cleanser. When I can't be bothered with washing my face properly at night I remove the bulk of my makeup using Bioderma then I use this afterwards. You just put some on a cotton pad and wipe it on your face. You can see all the dirt coming off in the cotton pad so its easy to tell when all the makeup has gone. I find this has really helped to clear up my skin and although it might seem a bit harsher than other toners it doesn't dry out my skin at all.

Embryolisse Lait-Crème Concentré
I only got this stuff a week ago but it was love at first application. I felt that my Dermalogica Active Moist wasn't doing as much to my skin anymore as I still had dry patches if I didn't use a primer or serum under my foundation. I've heard a lot about this product and Sam from Pixiwoo always uses it so I figured it must be good. It hydrates my skin beautifully, evening out my dry and oily patches. Its very comforting & soothing on my skin and leaves you with a perfect base for makeup. I got mine from Screenface where it was £20 for 75ml including shipping.

Estée Lauder Idealist Pore Minimizing Skin Refinisher
I've recently become really interested in serums as I felt my skin could do with a bit of a boost. I'm a big fan of Estée Lauder products so I figured I'd give their Idealist serum a go. You apply a couple of pumps of this to your skin before your moisturiser in the morning. This works as a primer for your foundation as well as making your skin feel really nice. It does minimise my pores and helps to get rid of any dry patches because it aims to resurface your face. It has also helped to fade acne scars I have. Its really expensive so I don't know if I would repurchase it but I do really like using it. It has definitely helped my skin out a lot but I think I might just stick to putting some Advanced Night Repair into my moisturiser instead.

Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair
This stuff is simply amazing. I often buy Estée Lauder products so I've always had tons of samples of this floating about the house from those gift with purchase deals. I kinda dismissed this product as I only bothered using it once before and I didn't really notice a difference then. Recently my skin has been a little bit on the dry side so I went through my drawers looking for samples of serums to mix into my moisturiser at night. I used this every night for about a week and it made my skin feel really soft & look even toned. It has also helped to get rid of any spots I had as well as stopping the appearance of new ones. I think this serum is mainly meant for anti-aging properties so thats an added bonus, hopefully I won't get any wrinkles if I keep using it! I've since gone through two of the little samples bottles and I purchased a 30ml bottle from BuyaPowa. I heard that theres a small amount of this stuff mixed into the new Estée Lauder Invisible Fluid foundation (which I am also loving) so if you use that you can keep on reaping the benefits throughout the day. Either that or mix a couple of drops in with your moisturiser before you apply any foundation. This stuff is definitely worth its price tag and I don't think I could go without it now. I'd recommend getting this over Idealist but they do work brilliantly together if you're wanting a different serum for day and night.

Revlon Lip Butters
I've gone a bit mad with the current 3 for 2 offer in Boots. The hype won me over and I finally managed to grab some of the Revlon Lip Butters. I have never bought any makeup from Revlon before, their products just never appealed to me. But these are something else! They're more like a moisturising lipstick than a lip balm. They all have excellent colour payoff and give my lips a lovely sheen. They wear really nicely & fade evenly leaving a subtle stain on my lips. I picked up Strawberry Shortcake, Peach Parfait & Sweet Tart. None of the other colours really appealed to me so I can't imagine myself buying any more of these but I really love the colours I got. I've not worn anything else on my lips since I got these and for someone with a rather extensive lipstick collection thats quite an achievement.

Maybelline Color Tattoo 24 Hour Eyeshadows
Another extremely hyped product. These cream eyeshadows are great worn on their own or as an eyeshadow base. They don't crease on my eyelids at all and last until I take my makeup off at night. I picked up the colours Eternal Gold, On And On Bronze & Permanent Taupe. My fave is definitely the bronze one, it looks so lovely on its own. I would definitely get some more of these. I really want the white or silver to use as an inner corner highlight but all the point of sale stands I've seen only have four slots which have these three colours and then either the grey, blue or purple. Hopefully they'll release the rest of the colours soon.

Twinings Green Tea*
In my kitchen I have a whole cupboard filled with loads of different varieties of tea. Most people seem to think I'm a bit odd for preferring herbal teas over a regular cuppa. I think its mainly down to the health benefits they provide plus they taste great and only contain like 1 calorie. I remember chugging down raspberry tea to help bring on labour when I was nearing the end of my pregnancy and I always have copious amounts of echinacea tea whenever I'm poorly. My all time favourite herbal tea is Twinings Pure Peppermint. Its just so refreshing and it really helps to calm my stomach. I've had at least one cup of it every day for the past five years.

I was recently contacted by Twinings to see if I'd be interested in trying out some of their new green tea range. I'm already a big fan of green tea, I love the taste and its no secret that it can help to boost your metabolism. Its also full of natural antioxidants. I'd only ever had plain green tea so I was really interested to try some of the new flavours. My local Sainsbury's only had a few of the new range but I decided to try the Pomegranate Green Tea & Jasmine Green Tea. Both have a definite green tea taste but are very different. The pomegranate smells divine and tastes slightly fruity whereas the jasmine is a lot more delicate and floral. I think I prefer the jasmine one because it tastes exactly like the wonderful jasmine tea you get in Chinese restaurants. I'd love to try some of the other flavours. The mango & lychee and pineapple & grapefruit green teas sound especially nice.

If you want to try some Twinings tea for free then you can get two free samples by 'liking' the Twinings Facebook page. I'd suggest picking the Pure Peppermint & Pure Camomile, they are definitely my teas of choice.