My Updated (And Upmarket!) Skincare Rountine

I have done a post about my skincare routine before but since then it has changed and without thinking about it I've noticed I've gone for higher end and better quality products this time.

A few months ago I started using the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish. This is fantastic, my skin doesn't feel tight or stripped of any oils when I use this, as it did with my previous cleanser which was just a cheap one from Simple. My skin is properly cleansed, soft, I've noticed it's less oily and congested and the product is such a lovely rich cream it makes washing my face something I enjoy (without wanting to sound too weird...). I don't feel like I need to quickly grab my moisturiser after cleansing either because my skin isn't tight or dried out.

I massage this into my face with my make up still on, it gets rid of absolutely everything. I even use it on my eyes and it doesn't sting whatsoever. Then I ''polish'' the cleanser off with a muslin cloth. The result being soft, cleansed glowing skin.

Cleanse and Polish is the most expensive cleanser I've used but it's also the best quality. I've never really thought about using a slightly more expensive cleanser before because I never saw the point as the product is only on your face for a minute. Oh how wrong I was! This is definitely worth the money and I think I'll struggle to find something better than this.

After cleansing I use a toner from Elemis which I bought while on holiday recently. The hotel spa where I was staying was an Elemis Spa and I had a facial where they used this on me and I really liked it. 

I hadn't been using a toner for a while as I'd stopped using the Clinique toner because it was drying my skin out unfortunately. This toner doesn't have any alcohol in so it doesn't dry or strip your skin. It's a lavender toner for combination skins. Lavender is an antiseptic so it's good for breakouts and things. I find this makes my skin nice and soft, balances it out nicely and gives me a nice base for my moisturiser.

The latest addition to my skincare routine is the Sanctuary Pore Refiner Facial Scrub. I mentioned this in my previous post so some of you might know that I really like this for a good exfoliate when my skin is a bit congested. I have been using this every 2-3 days.

Finally we have my trusted Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel from Clinique. As you can see from this picture I've very nearly finished the bottle which has lasted me about 8 months! I love this product, it moisturises without being heavy or greasy, sinks right into the skin, doesn't make me breakout or make my skin oilier. I bought a second bottle on my way back from holiday in Duty Free so I will be starting that very soon.

If any of you have seen my previous skincare routine post you will probably have noticed that I'm using much better quality products than before. I am still on the hunt for a good eye cream so please let me know if you know of any!

Hannah x

Pamper Yourself....

As most of you will know I have recently started working at a new restaurant as a waitress which I'm enjoying but it's very hard work! I'm on my feet all day and they are usually a bit swollen and very sore by the time I get home. I felt my feet needed a bit of TLC so I bought a Peppermint Foot Mask from the Body Shop along with their Intensive Peppermint Foot Rescue. 

A few times a week when I get home I soak my feet in some warm water, dry them off a bit and apply the foot mask. It has a really refreshing minty smell to it and makes my feet feel a lot fresher. When I wash it off my feet are nicely clean and really smooth. After that I apply the Foot Rescue which is a really intense moisturiser. It moisturises really well without being greasy and heavy. One problem I have with it is the packaging - I wish it was a nicer colour than baby pink! The product itself works well though.

To make the rest of me feel pampered and refreshed I've been using Sanctuary's Deep Cleanse Facial Exfoliating Pore Refiner about 3 times a week. I'm impressed with it - my skin is really smooth and glowing after I use it and it gets rid of congestion really well. It has things like Witch Hazel and Seaweed in which do great things for your skin and make it smell really nice too. It's not overpowering at all and the exfoliating beads are really gentle yet you get really glowing skin afterwards.

There was a 3 for 2 offer on skincare in Boots when I bought the facial scrub so I decided to get another Sanctuary product, this time their Smoothing Silk Scrub for the body. It's got lots of essential oils in and has a lovely relaxing smell to it so is great to use just before you go to bed. It makes my skin really smooth and soft. I'm impressed with these Sanctuary products as I've never used any of their stuff before.

What are your favourite products to pamper yourself with? 

Hannah x

Back From My Travels!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately, as I mentioned in my last post I've just been on holiday to Turkey for a couple of weeks which was a really good break.

I thought I'd show you a couple of MAC lipsticks which I got at Duty Free.

I bought So Chaud on the left and Vegas Volt on the right.

I initially wanted to get Lady Danger lipstick but they were out of stock and the sales assistant recommended this instead. I really love the colour, I don't mind that I never got Lady Danger because this is the perfect orangey red that I've been looking for.

It's matte but unlike some matte lipsticks this isn't drying (I use lip balm to prep my lips before hand though). It stays on all day and is incredibly highly pigmented. 

To give the lipstick a bit of depth and to make it suit me a bit more I use a red lip liner around my lips and blend it into the lipstick. The sales assistant at MAC did this with Cherry lip pencil and it looked great. I've been using Rimmel's red lip liner which is just as good.

Vegas Volt is a really bright orangey pinky coral. It's an amplified lip creme formula so it's really intense but you could always pear it with a bit of lip balm for a more wearable bright lip which is what I do. I think it's a really nice colour for summer.

Thank you for reading, there will be more frequent posts now that I'm back home xxx

Cream Eyeshadow Addiction

For ages now I've wanted to get some nice cream eye shadows as I think they look gorgeous and are far nicer than how powder shadows look.

I saw Lisa Eldridge mention the Rimmel 8 Hour Shadow Mousses in one of her videos and so I decided to check them out next time I was in the shops because the colour she had looked gorgeous.

I went in and spent ages swatching them. They have about six colours and I only came in expecting to get one shadow but came out with four because they were so lovely. They are fantastic wearable colours and apply so nicely. At £4.99 each they are definitely cheaper than other cream shadows out there but the colours and formulas are just as good.

Rimmel Colour Mousse in Get Fresh. This is a lovely salmon pink shimmery colour.

Rimmel Colour Mousse in Galaxy. All these shadows are shimmery without being horrible and glittery. This is a lovely vivid purple and can't wait to wear this!

Rimmel Colour Mousse in Glitz. A gorgeous gold!

(left swatch) Rimmel Colour Mousse in Sassy. This is the colour Lisa Eldridge talked about, it's a lovely taupe.

A nice little high street find - for once I didn't have to go to MAC for some good eye shadows!

Just a little note to let you ladies know that I'm going on holiday for two weeks, so I will be back blogging from the beginning of May xxxx

Product Rave: Liz Earle Cleanse And Polish

I have been using the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish cleanser for around a month now and thought I'd share my thoughts about it with you as I think everyone should have this!

First up, I love this product, and won't be using anything else to cleanse my face from now on. I have always used cheap gel cleansers as I didn't see the point in spending a lot of money on something that's only going to be on your face for a few seconds. Oh how wrong I was!

From using this product I've found that 

• my skin isn't dry or tight when I wash my face
• my complexion is so clear and glowing
• areas of my face such as breakouts aren't red or inflamed looking
• one thing I wasn't expecting to get from it is my face is less oily. 
• my skin is better regarding breakouts and blackheads.
• my make up is going on better and lasting a lot longer because the texture of my skin is so much better now
• my face isn't irritated at all

I bought the 200ml tube but you can get it in a 100ml pump bottle which I think I will get next time. I ordered this online and when my cleanser arrived the lovely people at Liz Earle had given me a free muslin cloth and a mini bottle of Cleanse and Polish. 

Using the muslin cloth to take the cleanser off leaves my skin really soft and glowing. I also use this with my Botanics Face Brush every morning which works a treat.

Believe the hype about this, it's definitely worth the money and will work for every skin type.

Hannah xx

MAC Pinch Me and Fleur Power

 Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of interesting posts! I have just started my new job and so I've been really tired and working late nights. Today I have a day off though and thought I'd tell you about my latest MAC purchases.

I ordered a couple of blushers as I've been wanting to get some nice blushers for ages. I love the range of colours MAC have and their products never really fail me or wear off through the day.

I decided to get a blush that was more on the pink side and then a peachy coral colour. It took me a while to narrow it down but here's what I got - 

MAC Fleur Power (left) and Pinch Me

Fleur Power is a pinky coral satin formula and a really lovely blush. It's my favourite of the two beacuse it's really highly pigmented and I love how this makes me look glowing and healthy.You can really build this up or apply only a wash of colour. This looks good with a whole load of make up looks.

MAC Fleur Power

Pinch Me is also gorgeous. It's a sheertone formula so you get a completely different application from this. I love the colour, it's a dirty peachy coral without being too dark for my fair skin. This gives a sunkissed healthy look and really warms up my face. I can tell this is going to be a summer staple.

I plan on doing a few more face of the days using these products so you can see how they look on.

Also a welcome to my new followers :)

xxx

Turquoise NOTD

As I mentioned in my previous Nail of the Day I'm trying out more adventurous nail colours. I was looking in M&S the other day which is something I very rarely do and I stumbled across their make up section and saw they had quite a few bright nail polishes.

I bought this colour called Jade as I think it's lovely bright summery shade and I'm loving turquoise at the moment.

Please excuse my wrinkly dry hands! Should have put some hand cream on...

The application was a bit streaky as the polish seemed to dry as I was trying to apply it. To avoid this you have to make sure you have a lot of product on the brush. You definitely need two coats with this as the first coat was quite sheer.

I'm pretty impressed with this polish as I'm writing this on the 3rd day of wear and it hasn't chipped apart from a teeny bit on one nail which you can see in the picture. Most polishes usually chip within a day on me. I didn't apply a top coat either as I wanted to test it out.

What are your favourite spring nail colours?

Subtle Everyday Smokey FOTD

 I wore this look to town with friends at the weekend. The camera doesn't seem to pick up all the of the make up as this is a bit darker and more noticeable in real life.

I didn't want it to be over the top though as it's only a day look but I still wanted a bit of definition to my eyes.

I applied painterly paint pot to my eyelids as I wanted everything to last through the day. Then I lined my upper lash line with quite a thick rough line of brown eyeliner and smudged that out with a cotton bud.

Over the line of eyeliner I applied a chocolate brown eyeshadow from Rimmel in another thick line and then blended with a MAC 217 to soften.

I applied the eyeshadow to my lower lash line quite low under the eye and blended with a cotton bud.

Then lined my upper waterline with my eyeliner to make sure no skin was showing through and to make my lashes look thicker.

I applied mascara top and bottom but only one coat and made sure there were no clumps.

I decided to keep the rest of my face really simple only applying bronzer to contour slightly and wearing Rimmel's Nude Delight lipstick on my lips.

Maybe I will apply a bit more make up next time so it shows up on camera properly!

xxx

Superdrug Vitamin E Eye Cream Review

I bought the Superdrug Vitamin E Eye Cream hoping it would be a good cream that moisturises my eye area making it easier to apply my under eye concealer.

It claims to reduce puffiness, dark circles and the appearance of fine lines. You get 15 ml of product, I can see this lasting you ages as you only need to use a tiny bit. It also has SPF 15 in it which I love as I have been on the hunt for an eye cream with SPF in.

I have no complaints about the packaging, however I do have a few problems with the product itself.

• It has glittery particles which are probably there to make your under eyes look ''illuminated'' and lovely but you just end up with bits of glitter on your face.

• The cream is a nice creamy consistency when you get it out of the tube but it takes ages to rub into the skin and it goes all bitty with areas of white where it hasn't sunk into the skin

• I get a chalky like film under my eye once it's on. I want a soft and smooth moisturised under eye area not a dry and chalky one!

After ages trying to rub in.

I really don't like this product but when I apply my under eye concealer I seem to get a heavier coverage with it. However my eye area looks quite cakey and fine lines are emphasised.

Won't be using this again I'm afraid!

Shoes, Glorious Shoes!

Now that the weather is warming up and it's slowly but surely getting closer to summer, I've been sorting out my wardrobe and getting it ready for the new season. 

I'm chucking out a lot of things and selling some of the nice stuff on E Bay. A lot of it is shoes and this means that I have some space for new shoes!

I decided I needed sandals and some form of wedge sandal. It's so difficult to find good quality shoes nowadays and the shoes in a lot of highstreet shops are cheap and nasty, but expensive! So I headed to TK Maxx in hope of a designer bargian and found two perfect pairs, both Firetrap - 

Gladiator Sandals £27.99 (RRP £45)

Wedges £24.99 (RRP £60)

These will go with pretty much everything in my wardrobe and I'm really happy that I got a bargain! 

I'm in love with the wedges and can't wait until it's warm enough to wear them....

xxx

Totally Teal NOTD

I recently bought No7's Totally Teal nail varnish with my £5 off voucher at Boots. I have been wanting to get this colour for a while now and I find No7 polishes to be really good. 

I never wear blues or greens and always tend to wear safe colours like reds and purples but I like this colour and thought I'd try it out.

The camera makes it look quite blue but in real life it's more of a greener shade.

What's your favourite colour to wear?

FOTD: A Very Natural Make Up Look

This is just a really natural make up which I wear most days during the week if I'm not doing anything special.

FACE - I used my Lily Lolo mineral foundation and concealer as usual, applied their mineral blush in Clementine. Then under my eyes I applied my Clinique Airbrush Concealer. To finish off the skin I used Estee Lauder Lucidity Loose Powder which I love.

EYES - I used Painterly Paintpot from MAC on my lid, lined my upper lash line with Brown Down Eyeshadow from MAC on an angled brush. Then I applied what was left on the brush to my lower lashes and blended for some natural definition. I lined my upper waterline with Collection 2000 Lasting Finish brown eyeliner and applied Volume Million Lashes from L'oreal. 

I also curled my lashes before my mascara which I think makes a real difference to your eyes and highly recommend!

BROWS & LIPS - On my brows I used MAC Brow Set in Beguile. And on my lips I put a bit of tinted lipbalm on.

Haul!

Here's a few things I've bought recently - 

Free Clinique Gift with Glamour Magazine

It's Glamour's 10th Anniversary and to celebrate they have teamed up with Clinique and are offering a choice of 10 free Clinique products with every magazine. I chose the red lipstick but I'm thinking about going back and getting the eye cream too as I've heard good things about it.... 

The lipstick itself is called Rosette and has SPF 15. It's a nice colour with gold specks running through it that would flatter everyone.

Lancaster Infinite Bronze Sunlight Make Up

I got this set of Lancaster make up in TK Maxx. The RRP value of all three products was £60 and I got them for £8 which was a very nice bargain! 

First is the Lip Variations duo. There's a red cream lip colour and a pink gloss and you also get a pretty good lip brush. I LOVE the red colour, it's really highly pigmented and the formula is nice and creamy. You can wear it as a stain which is what I've been doing or really go for it and have bright fire engine red lips!

The pink gloss is also quite highly pigmented, it's basically a slightly more pigmented tinted lip balm. The colour is a nice bright pink that's wearable and peps up the face.

Lancaster Star Dust Sparkling Powder Trio

This is a trio of powder highlighters which you can use on the body too. It comes with a white colour, pale yellow gold colour and a light bronze so any skintone can use this. It's quite glittery which is slightly disappointing because I would like a highlighter to be less glittery so it looks more natural. The colours are still nice though and there's no reason why you couldn't use the powders on the eyes.

Lancaster Face Luminizer

This is a tinted moisturiser that makes you look glowing and healthy. The colour is a good colour match for me and the cream sinks into the skin nicely and quickly. The colour very similar to a Nars foundation shade called Gobi.

I am always apprehensive about putting creams on my face which aren't noncomedonic or hypoallegenic because my face breaks out easily. I will definitely keep this and use it on others though as I think it's great.

Top to Bottom - Tinted Moisturiser, Pink Gloss, Red Lip Cream, Clinique Rosette

Superdrug Vitamin E Eye Cream

 I bought this as I wanted an eye cream but didn't want to spend a lot on one. This was about £3 in Superdrug and I've used it a couple of times so far. It feels a bit chalky and is a bit difficult to rub in...but I will review this after a while of using!

The Pink Cow Vanilla Biscuit Shower Gel

I think I have found my ''HG'' shower gel...

I spotted this AMAZING shower gel in Boots. It's paraben free which is great for us and the enviroment, you get 500ml (usual shower gels are 250ml) and it smells good enough to eat!!

What attracted me first was the ammount of product you get and that it was on offer for £2. It's normally just over £3 I think. They have other ''flavours'' but I decided to get the Vanilla because I adore vanilla. It smells exactly like it's name and reminds me of when you're making the base for a cheesecake and are crushing up digestives and butter!

Umberto Giannini Grunge Glamour Tousled Salt Spray

I love salt spray for adding texture and volume to my hair as it's naturally quite straight and sleek. I like to wear my hair messy most of the time and had been meaning to get some more spray.

I've only ever used the Vo5 one and so I decided to get this as the packaging is lovely and to see if it's better than the Vo5. It has a really nice sweet vanilla smell to it. I will review this and let you know how I get on!

So that's my haul ladies.. I would like to say a big warm welcome to the new followers that have subscribed to my blog this week! xxxx

... Because you never know what's round the corner

Hello guys and dolls! Today I've got some advice for anyone who's job hunting or struggling to get anywhere... be that in work or life in general! (Beware - I babble a lot in this post!) 

Weheartit.com

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but for almost a year now I've been trying to get a job. It's very difficult for everyone at the moment given our economic climate, even the most qualified of people are struggling to find work.

So I'm sure a lot of you will be in the same boat as me and know how depressing and tough it is when you're applying for a load of jobs and no one even bothers to get back to you with a response.

About a week ago the whole situation suddenly got to me and my confidence completely disappeared. I was really down about everything and had pretty much given up hope of ever getting a job.

Because I wasn't getting any repsonse from any of the arrogant people at the companies I'd applied for, I decided to start chasing people up so I sent e-mails to them asking if they could tell me when I would get a response from them.

This was a very good idea and I recommend that EVERYONE does it. Even go into the shop or wherever you've applied at and tell them that you want to know why no one's got back to you. This will show them that you're serious about the job, as well as (hopefully) getting you a very well deserved response!

Not everyone who I contacted has replied to my e- mails, which I find incredibly rude and completely puts me off ever wanting to work for them, however I got a reply from one company and they wrote back offering me my first ever job interview!!

I was incredibly nervous but the interview was really layed back and I didn't have to do much talking at all. I was offered the job which I couldn't believe and still think I'm in shock!

So I FINALLY have a job and things are looking up. The whole point of this post and what I'm trying to say is NEVER GIVE UP HOPE. A week ago I was so depressed and had totally lost all confidence, now a few days later my life has completely changed and everything is GOOD!

Never give up hope or loose faith. Keep trying beacuse you never know what's round the corner and your time for good things to happen WILL come.

Lots of love... Hannah xxx

FOTD Life's a Beach

Last night I played around with a bit of make up and here's what I ended up with...

I hardly ever go out wearing bright colours on my eyes but I'm starting to get into wearing blues and purples.

Eyes -

• MAC Paintpot in Painterly
• MAC Amber Lights Eyeshadow in socket
• NYX blue eyeshadow
• MAC Vanilla Eyeshadow on browbone and inner eye 
• MAC Brow Set in Beguile
• L'oreal Volume Million Lashes Mascara in Brown
• Collection 2000 brown eyeliner on waterline

Face - 

• Clinique Airbrush Concealer
• Lily Lolo Mineral foundation and concealer in Blondie
• Estee Lauder Lucidity Loose Powder
• Lily Lolo mineral bronzer in South Beach
• Revlon blusher in Tawny Peach
• MAC Hush Cream Colour Base on cheekbones

Lips - 

• MAC Honeylove lipstick
• Revlon Peach Petal gloss

Brightening Up Dull Winter Skin

Lately my skin has been quite dry, which is rare for me as mine is always quite oily. My skin is still it's oily self but I've been getting annoying dry patches, and my complexion has been looking rather dull because of it.

I've decided to take action and sort it out! I'm using Boots Expert Sensitive Restoring Night Cream before bed. It's a really good moisturiser for any skin type and sorts out any dry areas quickly. It's also designed for sensitive skins so it won't irritate or break you out. You'll want to exfoliate regularly too, I exfoliate in the morning.

While I've been sorting out my face I decided what the heck I might as well look after my body too! So on my legs, feet, elbows.. anywhere that's dry really, I've been using Superdrug's Aqueous Cream. 

I think both of these products are great because they are far better than other 'high end' moisturisers I've tried, are for sensitive skin and best of all they are very inexpensive!

A couple of good tips if you're experiencing dry skin like me is to keep hydrated! It's just so important and keeps everything working, looking and feeling great. Another thing is diet, obviously important to eat lots of lovely fruit and vegetables!

Hope that has been useful ladies :)

NYX Make Up Box

I was in TK Maxx yesterday rumaging through their make up and beauty section as they sometimes get in some really nice high end or foreign brands.

A brand which I have been wanting to try is NYX. I've seen quite a few blog posts about them on here and in YouTube tutorials.

TK Maxx were selling these NYX make up boxes which have 12 eyeshadows, 5 lip colours, 6 highlighters and blushers in as well a quite a nice mirror. I was really excited to see that they had NYX, and what better way to try them out than get a box with lots of different products in! It was a really good deal too beacuse I payed £9.99 for it when the RRP was £25.

So when you open it up, you have a side of bright eyeshadows, then on the other side you get grey/silver colours and a brown.

The bright eyeshadows are quite highly pigmented and bright, but the quality is nowhere near as good as other shadows I have. The silver/grey side I find to be slightly less pigmented, and again the quality isn't that great. I like the choice of colours, the bright blue and grey shadows are nice and aren't too shimmery. All the other silver/grey shadows are quite shimmery. 

 

If you were to use these shadows I think you would have to work quite hard to build up the colour. Applying it with a sponge applicator makes it easy to build up the colour though if you pat it onto the eyelid. I also think if you used these shadows wet you'd get a nice highly pigmented colour from them and even use them as liners.

Then you have your blushers and highlighters. I don't see a highlighter colour here apart from a really sparkly brown colour, which could only really be used to highlight on dark skins. 

All of these products have sparkle in them though some more than others. They have a nice orangey coral blusher which looks nice and then a really bright pink, but I especially like the three contour/bronzer shades they have which are almost matte.

Then finally you have the lip colours. You get a nude, and sparkly browny nude, an peachy pink, an orange and then a fushia/purple. I really like the selection of colours and the formula is nice and creamy. I like how there is only one lip colour with sparkle in and the rest are creamy because I hate wearing sparkle on my lips!

You also get some cheap eyeshadow applicators as well as a blusher brush and lip brushes. I find these are always useless and impossible to use, however the lip brushes might make good gel liner brushes!

What do you think of NYX products?