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. 

The Brand Focus | Kiehl's Pt. 2

Previously I mentioned a trip to my local Kielh's store where I picked up the Ultra Facial Cream [read here]. The trip in to the old New York style apothecary also resulted in me coming away with a new eye cream, which I was also in absolute desperate need of.

Although I had heard of Kiel's avocado eye cream, I hadn't previously done a lot of research into the product so I was quite unsure about what I was taking home with me. It claims to provide intense hydration to the eye area whilst containing Avocado Oil, Vitamin A as well as fatty acids all of which sound like they'd round up to make a good hydrating product - I am a little uneducated on the elements that make up an A* eye cream so this is a very vague assumption on my part!

After finding time to do a proper scour of the internet looking for other peoples views on this product the excitement to use the Creamy Eye Treatment had begun. A whole hoard of reviews mentioned the decrease in fine lines around their eyes after using this product, as well as noticing results in how hydrated their eye area was after just a small amount of time using the product.

After nearly eight weeks of trying this out I'm somewhat unimpressed. The cream has an incredibly thick consistency, which once applied to the eye area goes to an almost watery texture, I've never come across anything like it before. It's not at all sticky and it applies fairly easily.

Results wise, there hasn't been a lot. Although my eye area doesn't necessarily feel 'dry' it definitely doesn't look hydrated. I still have fine lines making an appearance, despite the many reviews that claim this product helps to diminish them.

Like with the Ultra Facial Cream I went for the jumbo pot (28ml) as it's better value for money and retails at £33.00, however there is a smaller (14ml) pot available for £20.00.

I didn't get on with this product and was left a little disheartened by the lack of results I saw from using it, nevertheless you may see great results with the avocado cream. Everyone's skin is different and just because it didn't work for me does by no means, defy whether it will do the job for you!

The Brand Focus | Kiehl's Pt. 1

Being in desperate need of a new daily moisturiser I set about the inter webs looking for something that was going to do the job. I stumbled across a few mentions of the Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream and decided to give it a bit more of a thorough research before parting with my pennies.

It's designed to be a light, but still hydrating, cream that prevents the loss of moisture without being too rich and heavy on the skin. Ideal.

After reading enough A* reviews and finding very little that states against this cream I decided to call into my local Kiehl's store and pick a tub up.

Ive now been using the Ultra Facial Cream for about a month and my views are mostly positive. It's a lovely light formula, just as stated in the product description, making it perfect for daytime wear.
It melts into the skin relatively quickly without too much blending in and fuss, aswell as  providing a smooth base for makeup.

In terms of effectiveness I'd give it an 8 out of 10. Reasons being that it has appeared to keep my skin hydrated, having had no dry patches occur since I started using it, however I don't feel as though my skin is super hydrated. By this I mean, it doesn't feel plump, fresh and hydrated as I would hope from well moisturised skin.

Obviously other elements affect the condition of skin and so I'm not saying that this product isn't doing a fabulous job. I'm just saying it's not perfect and I'm still on the look out for something a bit more hydrating.

I got the 125ml 'Jumbo' size (RRP £43.50) because the lovely sales assistant pointed out that it was better value than the 50ml (RRP £24). Looking back I wish I'd got the smaller of the two as I had never tried it before. 125ml is a lot to get through and I'm already on the hunt for something I think I'll prefer a little more. Definitely check out this product if you're on the look out for a light, hydrating day cream, maybe steer away if your skin falls into the 'very dry' bracket though!

The Purchases| Mini Winter Haul

   

I've had my eye on a few high end foundations for a while, and a trip into Cambridge bought too much temptation and home with me came both Chanel's Vita Lumiere Aqua & YSL's new Youth Liberator Serum foundation.

 Chanel claim that this foundation creates a 'second skin' & a 'lit from within' glow. I agree. To an extent. I really like this foundation, it's lightweight, not heavy at all & I have found I can build it up to a near medium coverage. Although it's not got quite as much coverage as I would like throughout the winter, paired with a concealer, I have found myself wearing this as my everyday foundation. Rarely switching it up.

It's not incredibly dewy but it does seem to give off a slight glow, making the skin look quite radiant and healthy.

It applies easily, just like Chanel have stated within the product description, claiming that 'applying foundation has never been this easy'. It also recommends to apply using just your fingertips. I haven't tried this method, having only applied  it using my Zoeva 102 Silk Finish brush which works wonderfully, however I will give it ago with my fingers.

Overall it's definitely a winning foundation, and widely mentioned across the blogging scene for good reason.  I think it'll prove to be the ideal foundation through the summer months because of its lighter texture and coverage. It retails at £32.00 and you can find it at most department stores.

I spent a long time contemplating whether to include the YSL Youth Liberator Foundation in this post. Not because of the product itself but because unfortunately this, along side a couple of other products, got stolen out of my clutch on a night out a few weeks back.
As a result I no longer own it, and didn't have long enough to try it out and build up a proper opinion of the product.

In comparison to the Lumiere Aqua, it's thicker and has a higher coverage. Ideal for the winter months. It gives off an incredible glow, much more so than the Lumiere Aqua whilst still remaining natural.

I'm not going to go into any more detail about how I found it to be because I'm going by memory and my judgement from when I last wore it (over two weeks ago) is probably somewhat inaccurate.

In terms of price, it retails in the range of £34 - £36 and like the Chanel Vita Lumiere Aqua can be found in most department stores.

Whilst browsing the YSL counter in John Lewis, I spotted the Rouge Volupte Shine lipsticks. I'd had my eye on these for a while as I wanted something slightly sheerer than you're usual lipstick & with this  luxe packaging who can resist!?

The colour range for these is fairly vast, and after much deliberation I made up my mind with Shade 2 Pourpre Intouchable. What appears to be a dark wine colour, actually translates onto the lips as a glossy balm-like violet colour. 

It's simply beautiful. I bought it on the basis of it being an evening shade, however since having it I've not stopped wearing it day or night. It's a perfectly wearable daytime shade for the winter, whilst being as equally well suited to evening looks. 

They retail at all department stores, like the other two products, for around £25.00 and they are absolutely worth every single penny.