Skincare Haul

Recently I have been on a bit of a mission to try and find a new cleanser that I can use on days that I am being lazy and don't want to use an eye makeup remover and have no clean muslin cloths or flannels! 

I had asked at a few beauty counters but they were being professional and kept saying they always recommend an eye makeup remover... Then I saw on Essiebutton's blog that she had bought Avene's gentle cleanser, I thought a gentle cleanser would be perfect to use to remove my eye makeup, and I read some very good reviews on makeupalley, so I took advantage of Boots 3 for 2 offer.

 I thought I would share my skincare haul as I love seeing other bloggers posts, and it helped me find a new cleanser to try! I have been using the products for about a week now so I can tell you my first impressions.

Eau Thermale Avène Gentle Gel Cleanser - £11.50

So far I really like this cleanser, as the name suggests it is very gentle and leaves my skin lovely and soft. The cleanser is pretty good at removing all my makeup, there are still traces of mascara but it's nothing Bioderma wont take off very quickly, so I would still class this as my lazy day cleanser! I really like the packaging, the pump means you only get the amount of product that you need.

You can find it here from Boots.

                        Eau Thermale Avene Cleanance Anti-shine Regulating Lotion - £10.50

This moisturiser caught my eye when I was looking at the cleanser on the Boots website, and it had great reviews on makeup alley. I really like this moisturiser it leaves my skin feeling matte and I do think it helps keep the shine away, although with tricky foundations (Revlon nearly naked foundation!) you still need to apply powder around lunchtime. 

You can find it here from Boots.

La Roche-Posay Hydraphase Eyes - £14.50

I have the Hydraphase mask (post here) which I love so I thought I would gamble on this as I needed a third item for the 3 for 2. So far it's ok, I haven't noticed any difference around my eyes maybe it needs a good while, but it's good to know my skin is being hydrated.

You can find it here from Boots.

Clinique Moisture Surge Intense Skin Fortifying Hydrator - £20 

I bought this from Boots.com when I bought my new Revlon Lip Butters (post here), it wasn't part of the 3 for 2 offer. I don't have dry skin but during the winter (and spring apparantly) the cold weather has been battered my skin leaving me with dry patches, so I have been using this as a rich night cream or over night mask. I really love it, I have noticed a huge difference in how soft my skin feels and my skin also feels less sensitive. 

You can buy it here from Boots.

I love reading Haul posts so feel free to leave any links for me to read.

Elaine

Uh-oh I've been shopping

Recently I have been overhauling my skin care routine, I was beginning to realise that my Simple face wipes and foam wash just weren't cutting it anymore, I also learnt that my skin was dehydrated, which seemed strange to me as my skin is combination/oily, but my skin is actually lacking in water, so I have been trying to invest in products to help my dehydrated skin so that it can become more balanced and trying to drink more water.

So when I found out a couple of weeks ago that Escentual.com had a 1/3 off french pharmacy brands I jumped at the chance to get some new skin care products, the offer is running throughout September, if you spend over £30 you also get free delivery, which is great. I have spent more than I ever normally would trying to get good skin care products as Caroline Hirons says on her blog "If you would spend more on shoes, handbags, lipstick, jeans or fashion in general than you would on high quality skincare - you will be a sixty year old woman (and man) with a vintage wardrobe and a face like an alligator" so to find an offer like this was perfect timing!

Avene Hydrance Optimale Legere - Light Hydrating Cream, £8.99 normally £13.50
This moisturiser is also available with SPF, I chose not to get that one as I intend to use this at night time or during the winter months as I am happy with my Olay day moisturiser which contains SPF 15.

La Roche-Posay Hydraphase Intense Masque, £10.56 normally £16
I used this tonight and so far I really like it, my skin feels throughly moisturised and very soft, review to come soon.

Vichy Purete Thermale Refreshing Toner - Normal to Combination Sensitive Skin, £7.26 normally £11
I have used this a couple of times and my skin does feel refreshed and very clean, but I have noticed I have had quite shiny skin recently and I'm not sure if it is due to this toner... So I'm going to keep trying it out and let you know what I think.

Avene Thermal Spring Water - 150ml, £4.33 normally £6.50
I admit I only bought the big can so that I could get the free delivery, but I am excited about using this product to set and also refresh make up.

Not content with this, when I got paid at the weekend I went straight to Boots...

Indeed Hydraluron - Moisture Booster with the purest hyaluronic acid, £24.99
Caroline Hirons raves about this on her blog, and when I was looking through her clinic she strongly recommended it to a lot of people who had dehydrated skin which was nearly everyone, so I'm looking forward to trying this out and I have to admit I have high expectations. Although for the price it won't be something I will use everyday but as and when it's needed, which may be quite often now it's getting colder.

Botanics Radiant Youth Hydrating Eye Cream, £5.99 normally £8.99 
I figured if the rest of my face needed a drink then so did the skin around my eyes. I have been using this daily since I bought it, and I really like it as it sinks into the skin quickly and isn't tacky. 

Collection (2000) Lasting Perfection Concealer in Light, £4.19
I bought this ages ago in fair and I have never 100% been happy with it, the colour always felt too light for my skin tone even though I am quite pale, I know concealer should be a shade lighter than your foundation but when I used this in fair I looked odd. But after a week or so of hardly any sleep I needed a heavy duty concealer so I bought this one in Light and mix the two together and it gives me the perfect shade, I really wish I had done it sooner!

Elaine

Birthday Haul

It was my birthday last week and I thought I would share with you all the lovely presents my family and friends got for me... they all know me very well!

Ralph by Ralph Lauren

Sweet Delicious by DKNY

(2 of my favourite perfumes!)

Real Techniques Expert Face Brush

Flying Fox Shower Gel from Lush

Urban Decay Nail Varnish in Carnival (NOTD here)

17 Nail Varnish in Parma Violet - one of my favourite nail varnishes you can see an earlier post where I have used this colour - here.

17 Nail Varnish in Forever

Benefit Sugar Bomb Lip Gloss

Elaine 'Carrie'style necklace (lovelovelove)

Accessorize Necklace

3 month subscription to She Said Beauty (Yay) - My friends obviously were listening to my ramblings about Glossybox! haha!

My mam and sisters were asking me for ages what I wanted for my birthday and the only thing I could think of was a bag for when I go to Paris in a couple of weeks (yay), and it was the typical thing of when you go shopping for something specific you can never find it so they gave me some money towards a bag when I find one.

So I went shopping a couple of days ago and found this gorgeous bag from Zara for £29.99, perfect for nights out in Paris!

Sorry for the stock photo - my camera broke when I was trying to take pictures of this bag!

I'm not sure if you can tell in the pictures above but the bag consists of two pockets on either side of the bag, so the bag itself is quite a bit smaller inside than it looks, but I don't mind it will just encourage me to stop carrying around as much stuff!

I really love the metal stud detailing that goes around the middle of the bag, and the cute small box shape of the bag. 

With the rest of my birthday money I got this cute bag from Primark for only £4 and got a new contract iPhone 4!!!! I love my new iPhone, I have been dying to get one for ages and I haven't put it down since I got it! 

Rachel also got my this 'hilarious' extra present! I guess I go on about my annoyingly large pores a bit too much! haha!

Watch out for a new series of posts on my hunt for a new foundation with a medium coverage that really compliments my skin but can handle how oily it can become. 

I finally built up the courage to ask the shop assistants for samples of foundations instead of buying straight away (although how nice the assistants have been has varied!!) and I am really pleased that I did or I would have wasted a LOT of money by now! 

Are there any foundations you can recommend?

Elaine

Just Been Paid - Haul

Whats the best thing to do when you have just been paid? Get your hair cut and go shopping! So that's exactly what I did...


I went and got my hair cut at Savannah's salon in Newcastle, which also sells Aveda products so I thought I would treat myself to Aveda's Phomollient a styling foam that I swear by to add body to my hair, it costs £14 for 200ml which is more than I normally pay for my hair products but you only need to use a small amount so it lasts a long time. As I bought a product from the Pure Abundance range I also got a free 30ml sample of Aveda's pure abundance style prep spray, I can't wait to try this and will do a review soon!

French Connection have a great sale on a the minute, there are soo many dresses in the sale for £39 or less!

French Connection Lori Dress

This dress was in the sale at only £15, an absolute bargain for such a perfect summer dress, the only downside with this dress is that it's a bit see through... so I will maybe try to wear it with nude undies or more likely with leggings.

I also got a lot of hayfever tablets and packs of tissues (very boring), is anyone else suffering as much as me?


Elaine

Recent Purchases - mini haul

Just a quick post to share with you some of my recent purchases. While Superdrug had the 3 for 2 on I had a HUGE list of products I wanted to get, unfortunately they never had stock of anything I wanted (sort it out Superdrug) so this mini haul is a lot smaller than I expected.

Sleek Blush BY3 - Lace £9.99 (bought in Superdrug 3 for 2) -  I have been looking for this for so long in Superdrug, I'd given up on finding it so I went in for a different blush but when I asked to see if they had the other blush in stock the sales assistant found the palette and tons of others in the drawer (why don't they have them out!) I've already used this loads and love it, review to follow soon - although I'm not sure anyone really needs to read another review on it.

Revlon Colourstay Foundation - Buff £12.49 (bought in Superdrug 3 for 2) - I used this foundation years ago but stopped wearing it when I wanted a lighter coverage, I bought this as although I don't wear medium to full coverage foundation daily its always handy to have for really bad skin days. Although I wish that I'd waited and got the new SoftFlex ColourStay.

L'oreal Lumi Magique - £8.49 (bought in Superdrug 3 for 2) - I've wanted to try the Lumi range for awhile but the foundation colours really don't work for me and I'm not in need of another primer so I went for this instead. I love the packaging but if I'm honest I'm not sure its really working for me.

nspa Nourishing Eye & Lip Treatment - £2.50 (Usually £3.00) ASDA - I was in need of a new eye cream and as this was only £2.50 it was a bit of a impulse purchase. I haven't used it yet but the smell is delicious!

BM Beauty Finishing Powder - £8.00 EthicalSuperstore.com  - I loved the samples I received from BM Beauty and I absolutely adore their brushes so I have high hopes for this powder. I've played about with it and its seems lovely and light, not at all cakey. I will of course review it fully asap.

Revlon Lip Butter - Tutti Fruitti  - £5.99 Boots (Usually £7.99) - Elaine LOVES this lipstick and I've had my eye on it for awhile, I've got quite dark lips so the lip butters don't do too much for me but its a easy and light alternative to my Topshop Infrared lipstick - I also love using a bit of it on my cheeks when I don't have any blusher with me.

Do you use any of these products?

Rachel