What's in my Bathroom? Products I'm Using Now

I love reading posts about what people are using right now, but shamefully, I've never done one myself.  So here goes...

Cleansing and Scrubbing

At the moment, I have two cleansers on the go - Polishing Hot Cloth Cleanser from The Sanctuary and Visibly Clear 2-in-1 from Neutrogena.  I've only just started using The Sanctuary one, but I've been using the Neutrogena one for a while and I really like it.  I'm using Liz Earle's Instant Boost Skin Tonic as a toner, which I've reviewed before and I love.  For exfoliation, I use Origins Modern Friction about once a week, and Radience Exfoliator from The Sanctuary daily - I'm trying to use up The Sanctuary one, as I don't really like it.

Moisturising

I got two serums last week - Kiehl's Ultra Facial Micro Serum and Nourishing Facial Serum from Doozle.  I'm currently using the Kiehl's in the morning, and the Doozle in the evening, and liking them both.  I've got four moisturisers on the go - I'm using Liz Earle's Skin Repair Moisturiser mainly as a night cream, and The Sanctuary's Illuminating Moisture Lotion, Origins' A Perfect World and No. 7's Protect and Perfect Day Cream all during the day.  The No. 7 one is my current Sunday Sample.  All are pretty nice and I'd repurchase all of them bar the No. 7 one.

Shower

I'm currently using two shower gels - Nivea Happy Time, which is from my stash and is a bog-standard, pretty nice shower gel, and Body America's New York Cheesecake which I got last week.  I quite like the look and feel of the Body America one, and it has a foaming pump which I love.  However, I'm not convinced on the smell yet - it's strawberry scented, and although it contains real strawberries, it has a slightly artificial smell that doesn't wow me.  For my body scrub, I'm using The Body Shop's Shea Body Scrub which I recently raved about and I still love.

Hair

I'm using a huge array of hair products at the moment.  I'm using 2 shampoos - one from Aussie which is really nice, and one from Naked which I hate.  I really need to just finish it up - there's not much left!  I've got loads of conditioners on the go - Aussie 3 Minute Miracle, Liz Earle for dry hair, Timotei Revive, half a tube of Colour Lock Conditioner and Bumble and Bumble Creme de Coco Masque as my treatment.  I like the Aussie one - I've used it before; I love the Liz Earle one - this is my third repurchase; the Timotei one is the last of a huge stash of 6 Timotei conditioners I bought last year - I used to love them, but now I find them blah.  I've used the Bumble and Bumble Masque twice now, and I absolutely love it.  I'll do a full review shortly.

I'm still loving Morroccan Oil, and use it everytime I wash my hair.  I've got a L'Oreal Tec ni art serum that I occasionally use when I remember, but tends to be a bit greasy.  I've also got a L'Oreal Tec ni art straightening balm (not pictured) which I also find makes my hair slightly greasy.  I'm still loving Flirty Curls Scrunching Jelly from Umberto Giannini that I use when I natural dry my hair for curls.  I've got a mini Charles Worthington hairspray - I need to buy a full sized hairspray as this is all I have, raided from my minature stash.

So despite my best efforts with my Beauty Diet earlier this year, I seem to have loads of products open and on the go again.  Perhaps I should restart it to at least clear my conditioner shelf!

What's in your bathroom?

Thanks fr reading! xx

Holiday Beauty Favourites

I don't know about you, but I really like mini bottles and samples of products and I save them for overnight trips and holidays.  I also love the small sized bottles you can buy for holidays as well.  I was really organised this year and I had mini sizes of almost all my toilettries to take with me - almost unheard of for me.  I did have to take two bottles of mini shower gel, shampoo and conditioner as one of those small bottles was never going to last the week.  Nevertheless, the weight of my toiletries was not very heavy, which meant more room for makeup!

Here is a selection of my favourite holiday products:

Moroccan Oil has become a staple of my haircare routine and I originally bought this travel sized bottle.  Since them, I've bought a full-sized bottle, but kept the small bottle to use for travelling.  I bought a mini tube of Umberto Giannini Flirty Curls Scrunching Jelly after using some of my sister's at Christmas.  My holiday haircare routine involved wash, condition, Moroccan Oil and then the scrunching jelly - then leave to dry in the sun!  No heat or straighteners were involved at all, and I loved my no-hassle curls.

I've recently started using Batiste dry shampoo, so I picked up a mini-can of the Tropical fragranced shampoo for my hols.  Although this does have the slightly grey colour to it, I forgive it for its amazing smell.  Basically, it smells exactly like pina coladas - my holiday drink of choice.  I kept getting a whiff of my hair and deciding to have another drink!

I used No 7 Anti-Dark Spot Facial Sun Protection SPF 50+ everyday on top of my moisturiser.  I did break out in a couple of spots, however, it did stop my pale skin from burning and I didn't even get a smattering of freckles.  I don't really do tanning, especially on my face, so this was an advantage for me.

Clinique Take the Day Off eye makeup remover worked brilliantly at removing my eye makeup every night. I hadn't packed very much cotton wool, so was rationing it to one pad to remove both eyes!  However, it was possible to do this with this Clinique remover - it worked so much better than my usual makeup remover.  Although it's pricy, I got it as a gift with purchase at Bonus Time, and I would get it again!

For daily and evening moisturiser I used The Sanctuary's Brightening Facial Illuminating Moisture Lotion SPF15.  I got this with a spa kit I bought after Christmas.  Whilst it's too light for winter use in the UK, it was perfect for my skin in the hot Cuban temperatures.

Finally, my holiday perfume of choice was Hugo Boss Orange Sunset.  I got this for Christmas, and whilst I love the smell, it didn't appeal to me for a winter fragrance.  However, I was splashing it on every evening on holiday, and loved the summary fragrance, which is feminine without being too sweet for my nose.  I'll definitely be getting lots of use out of this in the summer!  I just need a mini size for my travels now!

So these were my beauty favourites for my holiday.  I also had some makeup favourites as well as nail polishes; I'll do another post on these separately.

Don't forget to enter my Mac Wonder Woman Giveaway!

Thanks for reading! xx

Goodbye 2010 - Review and Products of the Year

Happy New Years everyone!  I know it's a little early, but I thought I'd say it whilst I can!  I'm still not sure what my plans are for this evening, but I'm planning on getting dressed up and doing a full face of slap, so even if I'm sitting at home watching telly, I'm going to feel glamourous!

Anyway, I thought I'd do a round up of my year, since it's been an interesting one, and include a few products that have rocked my world in 2010.

I started out in 2010 stuck in a beauty rut.  I had had the same hairstyle for about a decade, and used to do the same makeup everyday, occasionally bringing out a bit of eyeliner for special occasions or red nail polish when I was feeling daring.  I was beginning to get paranoid about the signs of ageing and the grey hairs that were appearing, but doing very little about it.

All this changed when I went to a fancy dress party as Audrey Hepburn.  I was a bit clueless when it came to doing my hair and makeup for this event, so I googled her style, and a load of YouTube videos popped up.  As my boyfriend was stuck in Hong Kong because of the ash cloud, I was able to watch all the videos guilt free, and became hooked!  I tried (and succeeded) in pulling off a very complicated hair-do for the fancy dress party and even did my makeup to a pretty good standard.  And then I started discovering my YouTube Gurus and fab tutorials, and my love of makeup was reborn! I think I have at least five times more makeup now than I did when I started the year!

I then found beauty blogs, started my own in July, and the rest is history.

Here are some of my favourite products from 2010 - and I have all you lovely people to thank for introducing them to me.  Without you all, I wouldn't have bought them, and I love them all, so thanks very much!

Firstly, I've been using the bareMinerals Mineral Veil from Bare Escentuals.  I had been using the cheapest Boots 17 powder before I discovered Mineral Veil, and I'm so glad I did.  This is actually my second pot of it, as I've now used up my first one.  It's really light on the skin and does keep me more or less matte all day, which is something other powders have never done for me.  It also stops my makeup from shifting, so I love it!

I've become a complete convert to Teint Miracle by Lancome.  After having a couple of samples of it, I finally splurged on a full size bottle - it's so worth it.  It offers a good coverage, whilst not feeling like you are caking yourself in foundation.  It lasts all day and gives my skin a nice finish.  At £25, this isn't a cheapo foundation, but it's also not super-expensive, so it's definitely a foundation I will purchase again.

I've included the Naked Palette by Urban Decay as one of my favourites.  There's not really much more to say about this, other than it's brilliant value, has great colours, is a lovely formula, looks good, and is just about the most useful eyeshadow palette you could ever own.

My other favourite eyeshadow of the year is Taupe Grise by Chanel.  I've already reviewed it here, but I will repeat that it's such a beautiful colour and has even displaced Shale by Mac as my favourite.

In 2010, I've been getting into blushers in a big way.  My favourite, and the first non-high street blusher I purchased was Ladyblush cream blush by Mac.  It's not too dark a colour, but adds a lovely rosey glow, and it reminded me how much I used to love cream blushes when I was younger (but had gone back to powder for some reason).  I tend to reach for it first when it comes to blush, so it's become a staple of my makeup bag.

My absolute favourite skincare product this year is Starting Over moisturiser by origins.  This was one of my favourites in November, and I'm still loving in now.  I can see that this will become a winter staple for me, I'm so glad I found it!

Another great skincare product is the Revitalising Hand Saviour from No 7 (reviewed here).  This is such an indulgent product, but it has made a massive difference to my hands this winter.  It's another beauty staple that I'll be repurchasing.

And finally, my haircare product of the year is the Moroccan Oil treatment.  I bought a travel sized bottle in November, and I've used it every time I've washed my hair since.  It's a lovely hair oil, it smells lovely and it really does tame the frizz.  I'm nearly out of this bottle, so I'll be repurchasing a larger bottle soon.

There are a few beauty products and treatments that haven't been so successful this year.  These include my disasterous spa day, the fact that my Brazilian Blow Dry did absolutely nothing to my hair, and Powderflage by Benefit - the most useless product I have ever bought.  But there have been more sucesses that failures and I feel I'm a more discerning consumer of beauty products now than when I first started blogger, when I'd buy anything because of the hype.

So that's it for 2010.  Let's hope 2011 is an interesting and happy year for everyone - I'm certainly looking forward to it!

Happy New Year everyone!  xx