The Repurchase | St Tropez

I can't help but think of fake tanning as risky. So much can go wrong, too dark, streaky, missing patches, runs.. need I go on. However, sometimes you just have to take the risk and so to ease myself gently into the tanning world, I opted for the St. Tropez Gradual Tan. I knew nothing about it before I separated with my money and picked it up from boots but I wasn't let down. 

St Tropez is a well known tanning brand and I'm sure every one of you reading this has heard of the brand. Exactly the reason I went for this product. 

I bought it before I went to Latitude festival last July as I needed something to spruce me up a bit before I pranced around the festival with my legs out. It is the perfect product for tanning noobs like myself. 

It's a cream/lotion product which you can slap on with your hands, no mit needed! It's designed to be applied regularly on a day to day basis to let the product develop gradually over time. However I didn't use it like this as such, applying a layer, letting it dry and then applying another layer all within an hour. It stills takes a few hours to develop but you end up with a beautiful natural golden shade that doesn't really need any re-applying for a good 3+ days. 

All in all, a fabulous, easy to use, natural tanner that's not going to break the bank and I'm now on my second bottle of the stuff! 

Pick it up here for £14 

The Skincare | Exfoliating Toners

If you're a follower of the wonderful Caroline Hirons, you'll be all to familiar with these three products. All of which are skin exfoliants in the form of a toner which means no more abrasive bead exfoliators! Hooray! 

Just over a year ago I hit crisis point with my skin. I never had what I would consider 'bad' skin and to me it was just fine but once I left school it deteriorated into outbreak galore. Having gone from 'good skin' to a face full of outbreaks I started to panic and tried untold of rubbish products to try and miraculously clear up my face. Nothing worked and I was actually left feeling quite low and self conscious about my appearance. 

And then I found Caroline.. 

Across her blog Exfoliating Toners kept cropping up so I began to look into a few of the ones she had specifically mentioned. The first one I tried was the Ren Clarimatte Clarifying Lotion (formerly known as the Clarifying Toning Lotion). Within a few weeks of using it twice daily the breakouts I had been experiencing had already started to clear up and by the time I had finished the bottle, my skin had returned to its (mostly) blemish free state. Once I had used up every drop of the stuff, I left it a few weeks before repurchasing and sure enough my skin began to play up again. Instead of ordering the same Ren toner, I popped to my nearest Clarins counter and picked up their version of an exfoliating toner, the Gentle Exfoliator Brightening Lotion. 

The Brightening Lotion from Clarins is also another recommendation from Caroline, so I had every faith it would do the job just as well as the Ren lotion had. Although I didn't see the results as quickly as I had previously whilst using Ren Clarifying Lotion, it did sort my breakouts out and by the time I was half way through the bottle my skin had began to clear up again. 

I have since repurchased,and used up, another bottle of Ren toner and I'm now half way through the Pixi Glow Beauty Elixir. This again is another product the fantastic Caroline Hirons has recommended and out of the three it's my favourite. It was by far the quickest at producing noticeable results and i'm absolutely loving it. 

In terms of price they're all relatively affordable -
Clarins £20 - £25
Ren £18 (however I have seen it for about £12 on some websites!)
Pixi £16

Do let me know if you've tried a similar product and have seen great results! 

The First Day Of Spring |

So today is both the first day of spring as well as international day of happiness and what better way to spend it than out in the fresh air!

Spending my day with this little lady was a bit of a spur of the moment plan. My trip into Cambridge ended up being called off so,  after a spot of breakfast we piled into the car and headed off to a big country estate. It is an absolute gem situated just outside of my town and as well as a fantastically facilitated children's play park, there's also a tea room, a gigantic maze, sports facilities in addition to the hundreds of acres open to walk, cycle or run until your hearts content! 

The estate is full of rows and rows of blooming daffodils and it looks absolutely beautiful at this time of year - nothing could have made it feel more like the first day of spring! 

Southwold |

 

After all the beautiful weather we have been having, myself and a friend decided a trip to the seaside was definitely in order. Of course mother nature was against us and when I woke up on the morning we had arranged to go, the sun was barely visible amongst the dull, gloomy clouds. We stuck to our plan though, wrapped up in numerous layers of clothes and piled into the car heading for Southwold, just over an hours car journey from where I live. 

The route there is beautiful. A majority of it consists of rolling countryside along the quiet backroads of (not so sunny) Suffolk. We passed clusters of colourful villages filled with dainty little cottages and old fashioned windmills, as well as eyeing up a few country pubs with good'ol hearty menus. 

Once we arrived at Southwold beachfront and parked up the car, we took a stroll across the pebbly beach heading towards the main town. After a lot of wondering around we decided to opt for an underground tea room for lunch, which was set in the cellar of an art gallery. It sounds a lot more exciting than it was. In reality it was a little overpriced cafe, serving basic sandwiches and crisps, but it done the job and the hot chocolate was pretty tasty. 

After a bite to eat we headed back along the streets of the little town for another mooch around the quirky shops and stalls, only to be disappointed by the weather which had taken a turn for the worst. The wind really began to pick up and it had started to drizzle. Even my multitude of tops and knitwear weren't going to be enough to keep me warm in a storm on the coast so we began a brisk walk back towards the car. 

Southwold is a really beautiful unique little coastal town and is definitely worth a visit if you live not too far away (just maybe in the summer months to avoid gale force winds). 

Unlike a lot of seaside towns, Southwold has managed to hang onto it's quirky charm and hasn't been taken over by too much tourism. There isn't lots of purpose built entertainment facilities in the town but I think this just makes the town even more special. It's a wonderful place to visit for sailing, cycling, walking, crabbing and relaxing in the summer sunshine and if you put your mind to it you can really have fantastic time here.