Showing posts with label bodycare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bodycare. Show all posts

Friday, October 4, 2013

Soap & Glory Collection




Soap & Glory are really the only bodycare brand that I get excited about. Their products just seem so luxurious with their delicious scents and kitschy packaging that I find it hard not to pick something up every time I step into Boots. They don't have a huge amount of products in their bodycare range though, so I only have five in my collection right now.

My most used S&G product, and one that I don't ever want to be without is the Sugar Crush Body Wash (£6.50). This range smells incredible. Literally one of my favourite smells of all time. Made with a blend of lime oil and kiwi juice water, amongst other skin softening ingredients, this body wash has an amazing citrus fragrance that works really well in the mornings for a boost of energy. It's fresh and very sweet (so those who don't like sweet fragrances might want to give this a sneaky smell in store before buying) and literally just smells good enough to eat. It doesn't lather up too much but feels very creamy and moisturising on the skin. I'm onto about my third 500ml bottle of this bodywash as I use so much of it so that I can really enjoy the smell ha! I just wish that the scent lingered a little longer after getting out of the bath/shower.
I also own the Clean, Girls Body Wash (£6.50), which although has the same creamy formula as the Sugar Crush one, has a much more musky, perfume-like scent. I personally don't like the smell of this one half as much, it's scented with the S&G Mist You Madly fragrance and I just find it a little too heavy for my tastes as I prefer fresh, fruity scents. If I was to compare this scent to another, I'd say it smells a lot like traditional bubble bath! It contains vanilla fruit and orchid extracts, but I can't smell the vanilla in there (as that's also one of my favourite scents), it must be overpowered by the Mist You Madly smell.




The Sugar Crush Body Buttercream (£10.50) is a fairly lightweight creamy moisturiser with the same delicious scent as the corresponding body wash. This is made with shea and coconut balm, as well as the same lime oil and kiwi juice water that scents the rest of the range. It's light enough that it sinks in to the skin quickly but also rich enough that it feels like a real treat for the skin and leaves your body soft and hydrated. It comes in a huge 300ml tub which compared to the Body Shop Body Butters which retail at £13.00 for 200ml is a much better deal!
If you prefer fruitier, less sweet smell you could try the Butter Yourself Body Cream (£10.50) which I received free as part of a promotion when I bought two S&G products a while ago. This is a richer moisturiser with a thicker consistency and a fruity scent and, like the Sugar Crush Body Buttercream, it's completley non-greasy. It's made with shea butter, exfoliating AHAs, orange waterjuice, peppermint oil and fruitliquid fig. This smells a bit like grapefruit and is a really lovely alternative to the Sugar Crush range. This comes in the same 300ml size so will last you a good while.
Finally, since I love the smell SO much, I had to own all the products in the Sugar Crush range and picked up the Sugar Crush Body Scrub (£8.00). This has a slightly different scent to the other products in the range as it also contains smashed brown sugar, intensifying the sweet fragrance as well as buffing away any dry skin. This stuff leaves my skin so soft with not a dry patch in sight. I don't find it to leave a greasy residue on the skin and it is a really effective exfoliator. The only problem I have with this scrub is that it comes in a tub, which looks lovely but when you're in the bath and keep dipping your wet hands into it, can make things a bit messy with a little pool of water forming on top of the scrub. I wouldn't let this put you off though, as I just tip out the excess water at the end and there's no harm done. This is definitely my favourite body scrub.

What is your favourite S&G product? What else do I NEED to try?

Holly xo

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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

September Beauty Buys



Hi everyone, sorry I've been a little absent from blogging for the last two weeks, I started my final year of university and have just been settling into my new weekly routine of balancing university with my job. 
I have a lot to catch up on so there's a list of posts as long as my arm that I want to get written for you all :) I'm going to start by showing you all the beauty bits I picked up in September (minus a little E.L.F haul and a Student Night haul that I'll be posting separately). 


Firstly, I picked up a few things from Crown Brushes. Back when I was doing some modelling early last year, I spoke to a Makeup Artist who told me about a website called Crown Brushes where she purchased all her tools, she compared the quality to MAC brushes but at around 1/3 of the price (or less). So since then I knew I needed to add some to my collection, though the Real Techniques phenomenon did distract me for a while. I've been longing for the perfect small fluffy blush brush to apply powder blushes and found one on Crown Brushes that I thought looked just right, so I placed my first order with them, adding a small shadow brush and a fine liner brush to the basket. The brushes I bought are sleek with matte black handles and silver ferrules. The C403- Small Chisel Blush brush, though not the fluffy, soft blush brush I was hoping for, is excellent quality. It's a little flatter and more structured but I do think it will work well with powder blush or for contouring. This brush is fairly expensive at £17.89. The C209- Chisel Pointed Fluff is an excellent little shadow brush, it packs on colour well and as it's quite small, it can get into the harder-to-reach areas of the eye and at only £3.09 it's an absolute steal! The C250-1 Taklon Liner (£1.69) is your typical straight eyeliner brush. I didn't actually buy it for eyeliner as I prefer to use an angled brush for that, I bought it with the intention of using it to apply shadow under the eye or adding shadow on top of eyeliner to smoke it out. I'll report back when I've used these brushes more. For now though, Crown Brushes are offering you 10% off all orders throughout October - just click the following link and enter the code FINBER2013 at the checkout - http://www.crownbrush.co.uk/?acc=1afa34a7f984eeabdbb0a7d494132ee5 .


From The Body Shop, I picked up the new Camomile Waterproof Eye and Lip Makeup Remover and a mini Strawberry Body Butter, whilst they were having a  40% off event. As you'd exepct, the body butter smells incredible, so incredible in fact that I still can't bring myself to dip my finger in and use it because I like to smell it and I like how it looks when it's untouched. That's weird isn't it? I'm still testing out the makeup remover ready to review fully for you, but hint - at first I didn't like it, now I like it quite a bit! The week when I bought this, the Body Shop were also offering a free hand cream to all shoppers (no purchase necessary!) so after sniffing them all I decided on the Almond Hand & Nail Cream which normally retails at £5.00 so quite a saving! 

I was very excited when I saw on Twitter that M&S were offering 20% off their beauty section for one day only last month so I snapped up the Ren Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask for £24.00 instead of £30.00! It felt good to finally tick that one off the wishlist and welcome it into my skincare collection. Though it's not recommended for sensitive skin (like mine), I did a patch test first then used it fully last night and besides a little redness on my cheeks and around my nose, which are the most sensitive part of my face, I haven't noticed any nasty reactions. Full review on this beauty blogger favourite coming soon!

I've already mentioned the Nuxe Reve de Miel Lip Balm which is the most nourishing lip balm I've ever tried and I've been using it religiously every night to prevent my lips from getting chapped now that the cold weather is setting in. I also repurchased the Morocconoil Treatment 25ml, this time from Charissa's blog sale at less than half the price! I love this stuff and the 100ml bottle is definitely on my Christmas list. It leaves my hair soft and more manageable, and cuts drying time in half.


Of course I had to pick up some products from the highstreet, so this month I added the Maybelline 24 Hr Colour Tattoo in Metallic Pomegranate, a shimmery cream shadow in an Autumn-appropriate plum shade, Rimmel Kate Moss Matte Lipstick in 107 which is the first ever purple toned lipstick I've owned but is surprisingly wearable if you like the deep, vampy look which I've found out this month that I do, Bourjois 1 Seconde Nail Polish in Blue No Blues, definitely one of my favourite highstreet nail polish formulas as it's fast-drying, opaque in one coat and the wide brush coats the nails in one stroke, and the L'Oreal EverRiche Nourishing and Taming Shampoo and Conditioner, which smells dreamy and leaves my hair so soft and smooth.


So I've added a fair amount of products to my stash in September, but of course I'm never satisfied and have only replaced their spots on my wishlist with other products! Anyone else do this?

What did you pick up during September? 

Holly xo

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