Claire

Lush Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub & Ocean Salt Facial Scrub: Review

Lush Scrub Review
As a bit of a fake tan addict, scrubs are HUGELY essential to my weekly beauty routine. I’m usually a pair-of-exfoliating-gloves-from-Poundland kinda gal (and the tramp strikes again), but I figured it was time to get scrubbing serious about things. I have a full time job in a real industry, for goodness sake. It is no longer ok to be buying my beauty essentials for £1 (I say this as I remove my makeup with a £1 cotton pad).

I love Lush and there has only been one product I wasn’t happy with – the henna disaster that I blogged about here. I think that that may have been more to do with me not really understanding what henna is and also being a genuine idiot, however. So, these scrubs were something of an excitement for me and I was a genuine eager beaver to try them out. TO YOU I SAID GOOD DAY, DRY SKIN.

SO…lets start off with the Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub.

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It’s described as being a “fragrant blossom-scented sea salt scrub for your body and hair.” Smell-wise, it’s amazing as most Lush products are. It is also an exciting bright blue, which made me feel quite the fancy lady. The salt grains are quite fine and there are two ways that you can use the Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub. You can either use it on dry skin for more vigorous exfoliating OR you can use it in the shower, where I found that it lathered up a bit more. I tried both and I think I preferred using it in the shower – mainly because it meant I didn’t get salt all over my bathroom floor.

My verdict: I really love this product. It exfoliates well, although I would say that the more stubborn bits of tan were a bit more difficult to shift (I had to revert back to the gloves for those!). I think I’m going to use it when I just want light exfoliation during the week – it’s not harsh at all so I reckon could be used pretty regularly. Their claim about being able to use it in your hair I’m not so sure about. I did give it a go in the interest of blogging. It’s supposed to give volume (because of the salt), which I could kind of feel before I chucked on loads of conditioner and probably lost any volume that was present anyway.

Next up we have…the Ocean Salt Facial Scrub.

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I was really impressed with this bad boy as well. It’s apparently got loads of sea salt, organic limes and avocado butter to wrap it up in a wonderful package of cleaning, brightening and softening magic. It’s marketed as a face exfoliator but it can also be used on the body too. The salt grains are a lot bigger in the face scrub than the shower scrub and the smell isn’t *quite* as nice. Saying that, I’m more of a fan of flowery smells than fruity ones, so others might disagree.

My verdict: Excellent and an honour to our Queen and country. My skin felt SO amazing after using this. I suffer from skin that’s a bit uneven and looks royally crap without some kind of primer or makeup. But after the Ocean Salt facial scrub, it actually looked relatively normal! I would say that it’s a harsh exfoliator though – if you have very sensitive skin then this one probably isn’t the one for you. I have quite a sensitive lip/chin area and it stung a bit when I first used it – especially when I went at my exfoliating circles with brute force. Keep a gentle hand, my friends, when using this. It isn’t necessary to get too wild!

Friendly warning: try and not get either of these in your mouth. They are very salty.

Claire

August Glossybox: Review & First Impressions

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As you may know if you read my review of last month’s Glossybox (which I somewhat dramatically titled A Tale of Disappointment and Woe), I’m new to the Glossybox club and was somewhat disappointed with the my first delivery. God hates a quitter though (probably), so I decided not to cancel my box and to see whether this month offered me something a bit more exciting.

The theme this month is ‘High Flyers’, and the box is ‘filled with beauty goodies for the girl on the go’. To keep in with this idea, the products come from all over the world and are under 100ml – supposedly so that you can take them on planes with you (thoughtful, or a convenient excuse to fob us off with some teeny products? You decide). So, what’s in my August Glossybox?

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Oceane Femme Makeup Remover Pen

This product is the one that jumps out to me as the most interesting this month. I’ve seen makeup removing pens before – I think e.l.f. potentially do one, but don’t hold me to that. I’m intrigued to see how well this works, as I do tend to cause havoc when applying eyeliner and mascara. Could this product replace the tried and tested ‘cotton bud and a bit of saliva’ removal method?! We shall see. This isn’t available in the UK yet, so doesn’t have an RRP, but for a full size product with three replacement nibs (on a side note, I hate the word nib), this seems to be quite a good addition to my makeup bag.

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Emite Eyelash Curler

This eyelash curler retails at £20, making it the best quality item in this month’s box. I already have an eyelash curler that I get along fine with, and to an extent think an eyelash curler is an eyelash curler – but then, Lauren once did tell me a horror story about a girl who SNIPPED OFF HER LASHES with a dodgy curler, so maybe it is the sort of tool that’s worth having a decent one of.

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Jelly Pong Pong 2-in-1 Eyeliner & Shadow

It’s definitely the idea of products like this that first drew me to the Glossybox subscription – my main interest is makeup and I wanted to try brands I hadn’t encountered before, such as Jelly Pong Pong. At first I thought this would be a double-ended product, and was surprised to see that it’s actually a chunky pencil which is supposed to serve as both eyeliner and eyeshadow depending on how you use it. I’m a little suspicious of products that try to do more than one thing (2 in 1 shampoos and conditioners, I’m looking at you!) but maybe this will work just fine.

I’m a little devvoed to have received the plum shade rather than the black or bronze as I’m generally not a fan of coloured eye products, but I’ll still give this a whirl. Who knows, maybe I’ll become a huge coloured makeup fan and bring back the pink mascara I wore when I was fifteen. Hopefully not though.

It apparently retails at £10.50, which I would never pay for an eyeliner personally (unless it came with a generously portioned serving of cake) but which definitely bumps up the overall value of the Glossybox this month.

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Philosophy Facial Cleanser (Sample)

What is this – a facial cleanser for ants?! Okay I’m just being snitty – I know sample products are a normal thing in Glossyboxes. Also, this apparently costs £17.50 for a full sized bottle, so I suppose it falls into the luxury product range. It’s a 3 in 1 cleanser that is appropriate for all skin types…. woohoo? As always, it’s hard for me to get excited about skincare.

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Juicy Couture’s Viva La Juicy Noir (Sample)

At first I came close to throwing a hissy fit when I saw this second sample product in the box. I then re-considered and decided it was actually nice to get a bit of perfume in the box, plus I do really like Juicy Couture scents so I’ll definitely use this up quite quickly. On first impressions I love the smell, and a full sized bottle could make its way onto my birthday wish list as my perfume reserves are running dangerously low.

I think one of the worse things you can do when you get your Glossybox is to see what other people have got in theirs. Of course I did this though, and first of all read the beautiful Vicky from Stone’s Got Style’s post on her box. I think it was this that made me angry about my two samples, as Vicky received a full-sized Tresemme hair conditioning treatment as her fourth product, which my ratty old weave would have been crying out for.

Generally, though, I don’t think it’s a bad box this month. My first three products are all pretty solid and would definitely appeal to a range of people. I’m still not wowed by Glossybox and am interested to hear from anyone who has subscriptions with other companies. Also, let me know in the comments section what you all received in your boxes!

Claire

Nivea Daily Essentials Skincare: Review

Good morning, special friends.

It is Saturday and today is the day that I continue my birthday celebrations, despite the fact that my birthday isn’t until Monday (clearly turning 22 is a big deal that warrants 3 weeks of celebrating). I’m going for dinner and drinks in Birmingham tonight, which is all very exciting – apart from the fact that my gentleman friend refuses to accept that the shorts I want to wear are dinner appropriate. He is wrong. When will boys learn that they have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to fash?

I’m talking skincare today, which is something that I am very passionate about. Not because I’m particularly an expert in the world of skincare, but because I like the idea that a cream or cleanser will make me BOOTIFUL. If you follow us on Twitter (hint, hint – follow us on Twitter), you might have seen me bang on to various people about how I have terribly oily skin that is prone to breakouts, which often make me look like I have a boil affliction. I once had a HUGE spot that Claire affectionately referred to as my boil and I get the feeling that she was quite sad when it finally disappeared. Interestingly enough, I have only recently begun to use skincare that is appropriate for my skin type. Don’t ask me why, it is probably because I wanted to pretend that I had lovely normal skin that only needed a spot of tinted moisturiser. Using products specifically for oily skin has made a big difference and I only get the occasional breakout these days (mostly when I’m stressed because I have nothing to wear).

A few months ago, I invested in some fancy skincare from Clarins. I did a blog post about it, which you can read here, and promised a review when I had got a bit more use out of it. Well, I have now just about finished the cleanser and toner and I really did like it. However, I didn’t think that it was anything massively special and certainly not special enough for me to fork out £20+ every few months (I am tight. I am sorry). With this in mind, I decided to go for something a bit more high street this time around and headed to Boots to make my decision last week.

I am a HUGE fan of Nivea products. I think they are fantastic quality for the price and they have a smell that I just love (it reminds me of using Nivea suncream as a child, I am transported to the beach every morning and evening!). I did a review of their In Shower Moisturiser a while back, which is one of my favourite beauty products at the moment, but I also am a big fan of their Irresistibly Smooth body moisturiser. I sort of gravitate to the Nivea skincare range when I go to Boots or Superdrug and while I did try to shop around, there wasn’t really any contest. I picked up a cream cleanser from the Daily Essentials range as well as a Daily Essentials moisturiser. They’re both geared towards combination or oily skin, so I was eager to see what difference they actually made.

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Daily Essentials Refreshing Cleansing Lotion:

This promises to cleanse, hydrate, remove makeup and give a fresh skin feeling. I have a bit of a disclaimer to make; I don’t notice a huge difference between cream cleansers. Most of them do what they promise – at the end of the day, how hard is it to take makeup off really?! BUT saying that, I do really like this one. It smells great, it’s sensitive enough to use around the eye area and I would give it top marks for hydration. It hasn’t caused any breakouts and my problem chin area has stayed spot free! It’s really cheap too, so definitely worth picking up if you are looking for a budget friendly face cleanser.

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Daily Essentials Oil Free Moisturising Day Cream:

This is definitely my favourite buy of the two. I have found it to be an AMAZING base for makeup especially; it really controls my shiny t-zone. I don’t even bother using primer under my foundation anymore, this stuff does the job of both moisturiser and primer in my eyes! It’s really light and feelings quite cooling when you put it on, which is nice when you have to wake up at 6am every day. I have quite large pores and this moisturiser doesn’t clog them in the slightest. My only beef with it is that it is quite a small tube and I can see myself getting through it very quickly. But saying that, it is also very budget friendly so I will be perfectly happy buying it again in a month or so. I’m finding it the best day cream I have used to date – thoroughly recommend it ladies!

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Have any of you tried these before? What do you reckon? I had a chat with a blogger on Twitter this week about the benefits of sticking to a skincare routine and not chopping and changing products too much – I think I’m definitely going to stick with these two for a while!

We also have a Bloglovin account, so give us a follow if you want to keep up to date with our posts! 🙂

Claire

Lush Caca Brun Henna Review.

‘Ello lovely human beings,

Today is a slightly different post to our usual blog frolics. Today, I am discussing hair, hair dye and my first venture into the world of henna.

Backing up a little bit, my hair career (is that a thing?!) has been extremely varied. I started off a little ginger curly haired afro child, migrated to a strawberry blonde (with the help of highlights!) in my teens, bleach blonde and vibrant red at uni – finally settling on brunette when I graduated and decided to become a grownup. Here’s a little collage for your viewing pleasure.

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I’m really loving being a brunette at the moment, but I have found that my hair’s condition hasn’t really got any better. Because my hair is quite light naturally, I look genuinely ridiculous when my roots start to come through. This means I have to dye my hair every month or so to keep myself looking less like a middle aged man and more like a 21 year old girl. Obvs this is WUBBISH for my hair and has meant that I decided to move away from chemical dyes.

I hotfooted it to Lush because I heard they did henna dye and after a rather complicated explanation from the lovely sales lady, I bought what looked like a smelly green bar of chocolate. I got it in the shade Caca Brun, which is just the plain brown henna shade. Whilst being somewhat intimidated, I also felt very smug and convinced that I had become some kind of Buddhist hippy in the space of about 10 minutes.

According to my new best friend at Lush, the henna takes about 5 hours to develop and is extremely messy so I prepared myself as fully as possible to do the deed a couple of Sundays ago.

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This was my henna kit! Not as extensive as some blogs I saw, but it was actually fine and I’m glad I didn’t have too much crap around! The stuff really is messy…

DSCN0132Hair grips | Chopping board | Knife | Gloves | Shower cap | Pyrex bowl | Kettle | LOTS of newspaper!

The general idea is that you grate the henna, mix it up with hot water to form a consistency of thin yoghurt and then apply to your head while it is still very hot. You obviously don’t want to scald yourself, but the henna becomes hard and thick when it dries, so virtually impossible to spread onto your head! I forgot to add a grater into this picture, so took another one to be thorough and in case you have forgotten what a grater looks like.

DSCN0149You can see how weird the henna looks in this picture – it’s so green! I mixed it up with hot water and it formed a liquid, which can only be described as looking like baby poo. Needless to say, I was very apprehensive about putting this stuff on my head.

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I ploughed on though, and whacked loads of it on. They recommend starting at the back and working your way across the head, so this is what I did. I also concentrated on my roots, because that’s where I wanted most of the colour.

At the end of it, this is what I looked like! I piled the henna-ed hair on top of my head to make putting the shower cap/plastic bag on easier. It also made me feel like I was going to a fancy ball.

DSCN0155I am a moron, I am sorry.

I popped on my shower cap AND a plastic bag because I was worried about dripping. I looked genuinely mad.

A few things I noticed while hennaing my hair. It is REALLY heavy once it starts to dry/harden on your hair. In fact, I felt like I was carrying an extra person around all day. I was basically Professor Quirrell. It also drips, a lot. I ended up wrapping an old towel around my plastic bag head because even with my precautions, it dripped lots! Other than that, it didn’t stain my skin at all (I wiped all the bits on my head/ears) and it didn’t stain my kitchen either.

It also smells quite strange. Not necessarily unpleasant, just a little bit like wet hay, incense and cats.

Five hours is also a long time to wait. I discovered that Safe Haven is a terrible film.

So, what was my verdict?

Ah, henna. You cruel, cruel mistress. After all that effort, smelling of cats and discovering that who I thought was Nicola Sparks was actually Nicholas Sparks (WHO KNEW?!), the henna basically did nothing to my hair. My roots are now a delightful shade of weak tea, resembling nothing brown in the slightest. My hair, if anything, is a muddier colour than it was before. I didn’t even feel the lovely conditioning feeling that everyone raves about when using henna.

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This is a useless picture I took on my iPhone but hopefully you can see the tragicosity that was my hair. Double vom.

IT BASICALLY WAS 5 HOURS OF MY LIFE WASTED THAT I WILL NEVER GET BACK. And I had to throw away my pink pig shower cap, which had ears and a tail and amused me on Monday mornings.

Back to the drawing board it seems…the drawing board being a cute salon in Oban, Scotland. They fixed my hair and now I look like this, marginally better I think!

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Excuse the pout, I thought I was Kate Moss for a minute.

Claire

5 Cheap Beauty Buys For Under a Fiver

Good afternoon you lovely bunch! As any regular readers of this blog will know, Lauren and I make no secret of the fact that we’re bargain hunters – in fact, we probably blabber on about being skint a bit too much and you probably think we’re desperately hinting for you to send us money in the post (note: we are). View Full Post

Claire

The Best Beauty Products For Summer.

I’m vaguely aware that we’re basically half way through summer at the moment and we should all be being fashiony and thinking about autumn/winter BUT I SAY NAY. We still have at least a month or two left of warm-ish weather and lots of us have holidays abroad to look forward to  (except for me and Claire…we are peasants.). View Full Post

StylingoAdmin

Body Shop Shampoo: Review

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Hi. My name is Bells and I blog over at Bells’ Little Ones. My hair is very important to me. Well, it is to any girl right (any normal one anyway!)?

Somehow (I suspect through a blog) I got it into my head that my life hair would be changed forever if I started using a silicone free shampoo. Apparently this yucky stuff can be found in most shampoos and conditioners and over time, builds up on your hair. End result? Dull, limp, flat hair with no shine. Oh dear God.

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Apologies for my early morning unattractiveness

Obviously, like Claire I am a totally natural blonde *ahem* but I often find every few months that this unexplained darker hair starts taking over the top of my scalp. Weird huh. Anyway, when my hair is dirtier these so called ‘roots’ often show up a lot worse – see exhibit A below. I find myself washing my hair every day (yes, the hair in these horrific ‘before’ photos was only washed 24 hours ago…. shocking) which I know is not good for it but what can I do when these pesky silicones are sucking the life out of it?

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Don’t judge me!

So what was I hoping to get out of this shampoo? Well obviously I was hoping for hair that looks like Scarlett Johansson’s but that might be an unrealistic expectation for high street shampoo. However I was at least hoping that my hair would feel fresher, less heavy and still have the volumising effect that I look for in a good shampoo.

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I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed and I was impressed with the volume I achieved (no upside down blow drying necessary… come on, I know you’ve all done it!). However, I wouldn’t say that my life was changed in any earth shattering way, it slightly irritated me that I couldn’t seem to work up a really good lather with it and, at £6.50 for a 400ml bottle (so £13 for your shampoo and conditioner set), it’s a bit more expensive that your average products. I’ve always been an avid user of the (no doubt silicone filled) Herbal Essences range which are more reasonably priced at £3.79 per bottle, even when they aren’t on offer…. which they nearly always are.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to stick with this new silicone free approach – while I can’t deny that my hair does feel cleaner and I do like to support shops like The Body Shop for at least trying to save our planet a teensy bit, I’m not sure if my purse strings will allow it! However if I persevere and find myself only needing to wash my hair every other day, I figure the extra cost will balance itself out, not only in the amount of product used but also in wasted time and shower water! One final photo…. the dreaded roots test! A vast improvement I’m sure you’ll agree!

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If you want to see how my little shampoo experiment pans out (oh the important tasks I undertake for the good of womankind) then feel free to bombard Claire and Lauren with emails and tweets begging them to invite me back!

Claire

Skincare haul | Clarins and Nivea Review

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Skincare has never really been my forte. I’m definitely the type of girl who just used whatever mum bought from Tesco and that was that. I would go as far as saying I bothered to take my makeup off most nights (and feel proud whilst doing it) but other than that, my skincare regime has been pretty poor. Recently, I’ve been noticing how WUBBISH my skin actually is. I suffer from pretty much everything terrible; large pores, oily t-zone, blackheads, prone to breakouts etc etc (WHY. WHY MUST YOU SPITE ME, FACE). A bad skin routine hasn’t really helped this either and as I have become an old and wise twenty-something, I have decided that things have to change.

For people who have read a lot of our blog, you might have noticed that Claire and I are not ashamed to be bargain lovers. We’re firm believers in Primark, cheap tan from Bodycare and general poor person behaviour. This is partly because we are a bit poor (rent and council tax is something neither of us are fans of) but also because spending £20 on a plain tshirt when you could get it for £3 seems a bit silly. Saying that, I have come to notice that spending a bit of money on certain things does go a long way. For example, shoes that don’t feel like you’re walking with a thin bit of cardboard between your foot and the pavement are quite pleasant. Makeup that doesn’t give you a giant head rash is also preferable. And now I have joined the ‘skincare that doesn’t cost £2 is probably a good idea’ club.

This all came about approximately 3 days ago when I was having a lovely conversation on Twitter with a beauty blogger who had done a Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel review (check her blog out here – Shot of Beauty). She got me thinking that it was probably time to bite the bullet and invest in some decent skincare and when I went shopping on Sunday, there was a Clarins offer on. It was fate. I shed a few tears. I clutched at the box with unadulterated happiness and shelled out £20 for a Clarins set. It wasn’t the cleansing gel I had my eye on but you can’t really shake your head at a bottle of cleansing milk, a bottle of toner, a little tube of exfoliator AND a washbag for £20. It’s definitely a good start and a good way to ease myself into the world of proper, grown up face care.

As I mentioned, the set included Cleansing Milk (with gentian), Lotion Tonique (with iris) and their Gentle Refiner exfoliator (with microbeads, ooo-er). It’s designed for oily/combination skin, which is grand because this is what my face actually is. I’ve only been using it for a few days, so I can’t give a full review but what I can say is that I have noticed a difference already. My skin looks a lot smoother, it feels fresher and I find that I don’t have to powder my nose as much throughout the day. The exfoliator seems to have done a good job with minimising my blackheads so I am excited to see what a few weeks of using the three together will do. I’ll keep you all updated with the results and do a more detailed review later on!

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I also bought a product that I have heard quite a few mixed reviews on. I needed a new moisturiser, so decided to invest in the Nivea Express Hydration Primer from Bodycare for £2.99 (not breaking the bargain habit quite yet). I’ve actually been really pleased with it. It’s kind of a mix between a moisturiser and a primer so it feels a bit strange when it goes on. It doesn’t have the texture of either really and the only way I can explain it is that it is a watery gel texture. Saying that, I feel it gives the best of both worlds. My skin feels moisturised and my makeup is staying on a lot better than before, so a definite win-win in my books! What do you all think? Have you tried this before?

All in all, quite a successful skincare haul and I’m looking forward to seeing what difference it makes to my skin in the coming weeks. I’ll never have perfect skin but hopefully it will begin to even out and look a bit more fresh with proper care.

Give us a follow on Twitter, we love to chat everything fashion and beauty and would love to hear more from all of you. 🙂