Sample Sunday - The Body Shop Coconut Body Scrub

I know I've not been great at keeping up with my Sample Sunday Posts, but my sample stash is once again getting out of control.  I had a bit of a tidy up yesterday and all my samples don't fit into my sample box.  So I'm restarting this feature in the hope to get them under control and maybe find some hidden gems.

I've been getting my legs and underarms waxed this year, and have been loving the smoothness of it.  However, the worst thing about waxing, apart from the hairy weeks you have, are the ingrown hairs.  This has meant I've been devoting quite a lot of time to body scrubs, something that I'm usually too lazy to do.  I found this sample of Coconut Body Scrub from The Body Shop in my stash, and having been impressed with their Papya and Shea Butter scrubs, I thought I'd give it a go.

My first thoughts were that the smell of coconut was a bit strong for me.  Although I love the smell of Pina Coladas, I wasn't initially that impressed with the smell of the scrub.  However, writing this some time after using the scrub, the scent has lingered to a pleasant, tropical aroma and I actually really like it.  I suppose it depends if you like coconut or not.

As for the scrub, I looked at the first swatch dubiously, as the large black grains in the mix looked sparse and like they wouldn't get a good scrub on.  However, I was wrong about this.  The actual scrub itself has fine and densely packed scrub particles that gave just the right amount of scrubbiness.  In fact, I ended up loving this scrub. I used it on dry skin before I got into the shower and my skin feels so smooth and soft now.  I have to say that this is up there as one of the best scrubs I've ever used.  It makes your skin soft and best of all, there's no oily residue (although as I've blogged before, I was partially converted by the Body Shop's Shea Butter Scrub which did leave a residue).

I used up the whole sachet in one application, and there was only just enough to do my whole body.  However, I find with scrubs, you don't need repeated applications to see if they work or not.  They either do or they don't.  So, this works for me, and this is something that I would repurchase.  In fact, I liked it so much, that I will repurchase it next time I'm at the Body Shop.

Have you tried this yet?  What do you think of Body Shop scrubs?  I've been impressed with all the ones I've tried so far.

My Problem Areas - Part 2: My Feet

In the second of the series looking at my problem areas, I'm going to talk about one of the less glamourous areas of my body - my feet.  I'm not going to include any photos of my feet, so you can breath a sigh of relief!

I have absolutely terrible feet.  I get hard skin on my heels that I can just about deal with using a foot file, but really horrible thick callouses on the pads of both my feet that I have never been able to get rid of, and which have become painful over the last couple of years.  This makes wearing heels painful (although I do persist) and makes the callouses even worse.  It also isn't pretty when I get my feet out. No matter what I do, I can't get rid of them.  You name it, I've tried it, using corn plaster after corn plaster, salicylic acid creams, scrubs, various different foot files, gel socks, Flexitol cream... basically the works, apart from those scarey looking tools with blades.  I've even tried "diy surgery" which basically involves cutting off the hard skin with nail scissors - really, don't try this, it doesn't work, it just makes it worse.

Whenever I've been for a pedicure, the therapist hasn't ever made a dent on my calloused feet, despite everytime hoping they would have some miracle.  However, the one thing I've never tried, and probably the most sensible thing, is to go to a Chiropodist.  Durh!

I've literally spent hundreds of pounds, if not thousands over the years.  If I'd been to a chiropodist earlier, I could've saved myself an absolute fortune.  I trotted (or hobbled on my poorly feet) down to my nearest chiropodist yesterday morning, and for the very reasonable sum of £29, she almost transformed my feet.  Using two blades, she removed all the dead skin on my callouses, relieving all the pain in my right foot.  She informed me, however, that the very large callous I have in the centre of the pad of my left foot is, infact, a corn.  She removed as much of this as she could, but said that I would have to look at other options to get rid of it completely.  There wasn't enough time to discuss this at the appointment, but I will definitely look into this in the future.  She also made a padded support to ease the pressure on this corn and showed me how to make one for myself.  This was much appreciated as I had a long drive and was going to be shopping after my appointment, two things that can be really paintful.

Interestingly, I don't find running painful, but walking and driving is a different matter. I'm sure that running is making my feet worse though, so now I'm doing more of it, I intend to look after my feet properly with regular foot care appointments with the chiropodist.  I'm also going to make a big effort to maintain my feet in a good state so hopefully I won't need to go to often.  If you are suffering from foot problems, even if they're relatively minor, I'd say to get yourself down to a Chiropodist pronto and prevent them getting worse.  Of course they are available on the NHS as well, if you're prepared for a bit of a wait.

What do you do to keep your feet in tip top condition?

Monaco Baby, Yeah! Monaco Grand Prix Fashions

This weekend is the pinacle of the Formula 1 racing calender with the Monaco Grand Prix taking place around the streets of Monte Carlo. Yeah, it's Monaco, Baby!  It's my favourite race of the year and it's such a glamorous occasion - all the celebrities come out to play.

Something you may not know about me is that I'm obsessed with Formula 1.  I love it all, I can't get enough!  I even queued up in Cribbs Causeway car park for FOUR HOURS one November morning to meet Jenson Button for 2 seconds whilst he signed a book for me...sigh.  But it's not all about the hot men.  I'm equally as interested in tyre wear, pit stop strategy and the DRS Zone.  Yes, I'm that obsessive

I thought I'd collect together some classic Monaco Grand Prix images during the years, as well as fashions from previous year's Grand Prix - it's the most stylish event of the Formula 1 season.

Grace Kelly - Princess Grace is the quintessential Monaco Style Icon

The Swimming Pool Complex - Look at those yachts

Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren Mercedes

Image from the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix

Image from the 1973 Monaco Grand Prix

Pharrell Williams, J-Lo and Marc Anthony - J-Lo is rocking a flower print with gravity defying boobs

The lovely Jenson Button with his stunning girlfriend, Jessica Michibata in a lavender body-con dress

Jude Law and Lewis Hamilton - who's hotter?

Nicole Scherzinger in electric purple - continuing the gravity defying boobs theme

Kelly Brook - Looking Beautiful in Navy Blue

Liz Hurley - Queen of the gravity defying boobs in light blue 

All images are from Google Images

One of my ambitions is to go to the Monaco Grand Prix - I must start saving as I'm going to do it luxury all the way.

In the words of Jenson Button after winning this fantastic race in 2009, "Monaco baby, yeah!"  Are you looking forward to the glitz and glamour?

Thanks for reading! xx

Chanel Le Vernis Nail Colour in Mimosa - Summer 2011 - NOTD

Well, this colour really didn't appeal to me, until I saw it in the flesh and it screamed "BUY ME" at me.  I think I need to get over my Chanel addiction, as it's hurting my wallet A Lot.  Anyway, I was sold, so this little beauty came home with me.

I actually think that I can get away with yellow nail polish - I didn't think I could, but it looks OK and not too sallow.  I think it will look better on my toes, but you really don't want to see them!  The sales assistant asked me if I was going to wear it on my toes, so I think this is how it is designed to be worn, or maybe how most non-beauty blogger will wear it.  She clearly wasn't aware that most of us bloggers think nothing of wearing outlandish nail polish and changing colours several times a week.

Evidence of some bubbling - apologies for my cuticles

This took 3 coats to give me the finish I liked.  Like all my other Chanel polishes, the application is pretty sucky, with the polish being too thick and gloopy, prone to bubbling, spreading onto the cuticles and taking ages to dry.  I finishes painting my nails 2 hours before I went to bed.  I thought they were dry... but I woke up in the morning with duvet prints on my nails - great.  I put on another top coat to disguise this, but I'm not happy with the finish - particularly on my little finger.  I also managed to get red fibres from my throw stuck onto the final top coat, so apologies for this.

Some sparkle...

Enlarge for a hint of sparkle - and terrible cuticles

The shade looks really bright in some lights, and more lemony in others.  It's certainly unusual, but I have seen a lot of yellow polishes around (indeed I own one by Avon that I've not tried yet), so you should be able to find a closeish dupe to this if you don't want to fork out nearly £17 for this.  The trademark hidden shimmer, which I always think veers towards red sparkle, is of course present in this polish. I can see it quite clearly in artificial light and very bright sunlight, but not in normal daytime conditions - you would probably be able to see it on the beach.  I've tried to take a photo showing it in the bottle and you might just be able to see it on my nails.

So all in all, another unusual colour from Chanel that will have us all wearing yellow on our fingers this summer.  I'm not sure if it's special enough for the pricetag, but I do quite like it - even my Mum said I had "trendy nails".  She of the 45 year old makeup that is...

Thanks for reading! xx

Problem Areas – Part 1: My Knees

This is the first in a series of posts designed to focus on areas of my body that are less that beauty-licious.  We all have areas of our body that we’re not happy with; sometimes we can do something about them and sometimes not. I’m going to be looking at sorting out my problem areas and blogging about my experiences and what does and doesn’t work.

I’ll start off with my knees.  Now, I do like my knees and I think my legs are my best feature.  Despite this, the photos here are hideously unflattering, they don’t do them justice.  My knees are one of my problem areas, suffering from discolouration and leathery skin on two spots, both underneath my knees.  I also have a scar on my right knee from when I fell off my bike as a little girl, but there's nothing I can do about that!

My problem knees are a recent phenomenon, stemming from an incident a couple of years ago when I, ahem, FELL OVER IN A PUB BEER GARDEN.  Now, are you thinking that I’m a lush who can’t hold her drink?  Well, I swear, I’m not!  I had only had 2 pints of shandy (honest) and it was the end of the night and we were waiting in the darkened garden for a taxi to pick us up.  It was raining, and I was wearing the flimsiest pair of ballet slippers imaginable.  So, when the taxi arrived, and I started to walk towards it, me slipping on an uneven tarmac ramp was almost inevitable!  Both my legs buckled under me, ripping holes in both my jeans (hello Bros fans) and one of my ballet shoes.  I was quite badly grazed on my foot, hands and both my knees and one of my hands, as well as my hand.  Whilst all my cuts and grazes healed up, as well as my bruised pride, both my knees have been scarred with discoloured, leathery skin.

I’ve been religiously scrubbing and semi-religiously moisturising my knees for the past two years, but this hasn’t improved the scarring.  I don’t want to have blotchy, patching knees at my sister’s wedding in August, so I’m resorting to trying out Bio-oil.  I’ve not used it before, but it is apparently a wonder-product, so I’m excited to try it out.  I’m going to be massaging it onto my knees twice a day between now and August, as well as continuing with body scrubs daily.  The bottle says it needs 3 months to work, so that should be enough time to sort out my knees by the end of August.  I will update later in the year how this is working.  If you have any suggestion that might also help, please let me know!

Thanks for reading! xx

Nars Carthage Pure Matte Lipstick - Summer 2011 Collection in Carthage

I think it was a mistake to buy Nars Deep Throat blush a couple of weeks ago.  It was my first Nars purchase, and now I’m well and truly hooked on the brand.  I saw online some swatches of the Pure Matte Lipstick in Carthage from the Nars Summer 2011 Collection and immediately decided that it had to be mine.  I needed an excuse to go to Space NK anyway to pick up my Birthday N-Dulge treat, but Nars is always a good excuse. I nearly came away with a host of eyeshadows as well, but I managed to resist

Natural Light

Artificial Light

Carthage is an almost scarily bright pink, blue toned, matte lipstick, and it’s way out of my comfort zone.  I have nothing like it in my collection.  I wore it with simple eyes and a black top, so I didn’t look like a clown or drag queen.  On my skin, it swatches very true to the tube, and is pretty bright and scary.  It’s definitely not a lippy for wearing to work (unless you work in the fashion industry) or to a wedding.  However, as a statement lipstick, I do really like it.  I tend to go for heavy eyes and muted lips, so it makes a bit of a change for me.

I applied it first by outlining with a lip brush, something that I almost never do, and went over it directly from the tube.  I like the smallness of the lipstick as it’s easier to apply with precision, but it still looks slightly wonky on my (admittedly slightly wonky) lips. 

Natural Light

Artificial Light

I had expected the lipstick, which promises to last for ages, to be drying on my lips, particularly given its matte formula.  I did find it slightly drying, but nothing that couldn’t be cured with a swipe of lipbalm prior to application.  It did last a good long time on me.  It survived several drinks, a 3 course meal and several more drinks, with most of the lipstick still on when I came to remove it at the end of the day.  I’m impressed with this staying power, as I have never had a lipstick last even through a cup of coffee.  I feel the purchase of some more wearable colours coming on...

For £18.50, it’s a pricey purchase, and I think I should’ve bought a colour that I would get more wear from.  However, I’m impressed with the quality and staying power and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it if you’re after a bright colour with an on-trend matte finish.

NOTD - Deborah Lippmann Marquee Moon

I couldn't resist popping Marquee Moon by Deborah Lippmann into my online basket when I was putting in a little online order at House of Fraser a couple of weeks ago.  I already have Across the Universe and I love it - it's such a special nail polish.  I was hoping that Marquee Moon, with it muted silver colour and large silver foil particles, would be equally as special.  It's also named after one of my favourite songs.

Whereas Across the Universe was a gel formula, with a sheer base colour, Marquee Moon is more of a creamy formula and is a lot less sheer.  The result was a lot less muted than Across the Universe, without the depth and build-up of different layers of polish.  In fact, I felt that after 3 layers, I was pretty much done.  Application was OK, but I found that the distribution of the foil particles was sparse and I didn't get the effect I was looking for.  I think the foils were slightly too big to apply easily, annd it was hard to get them off the brush onto the nail.  I also managed to smudge a nail and apologies for the dreadful state of my cuticles!

However, although it didn't give the effect I was after, I do quite like it, as well as the randomness of the foil distribution.  Whether it is worth the £14 price tag, I doubt, as it is not as special as I had hoped.  However, it is a very pretty and pretty unique polish and I don't regret buying it.

Have you tried any of Deborah Lippmann's polishes?