My Favourite Hand Creams

These 3 little babies are my absolute favourite hand creams, all having different features that I love and cannot resist.

My favourite of the 3 is the L'Occitane Cooling Hand Cream Gel which I actually purchased quite recently.
It has cooling properties and a definite mattifying finish which is perfect if you get sweaty hands just like me.
It smells exactly like a lemonade ice block, so good you almost want to eat it.
When I first opened and used this product I noticed that the formulation was quite watery and I was confused how it could be mattifying but after I applied it, it seemed to soak in quite quickly so don't be fooled by that :)

Next up is the MOR Lychee Flower hand cream. As you can see it's a little battered up as it lives in my handbag. This one has a beautiful mixture of a floral and a sweet scent but it's not overpowering like some hand cream scents can be. The formula is in the medium sort of range, not too watery but not too thick either which in my opinion, is great.

I've mentioned Sukin before in a blog post and as I mentioned in that post it's one of my favourite skincare brands. This hand and nail cream is great as it contains soy protein which works wonders for your nails and cuticles. I also love it because of the scent. It contains mandarin, lavender and rose hip and those three together smell amazing as it's not too overwhelming.

What are your favourite hand creams? Let me know in the comments below.

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My OPI Collection

OPI is by far, my absolute favourite nail polish brand! I'm so excited to share with you the colours I have in my slowly growing collection :)

From left to right:

• Lights of Emerald City
• Goldeneye
• Just Spotted the Lizard
• Austin-tatious Turquoise
• You're Such a Budapest
• Significant Other Colour
• An Affair in Red Square

The first OPI nail polish I ever bought was Just Spotted the Lizard. I got a mani-pedi and it was the colour I chose on a whim and I completely fell in love. It was fate! After having it on a couple of days I decided to buy it, I marched into Myer and I found it instantly without even knowing the colour's name. In the bottle it looks half gold, a quarter green and a quarter blue but when you apply it on the nail, it comes out gold although you can see the greenish-blue tints in different lights. After applying it myself, I realised just how quickly it dries, it's amazing. I highly recommend this to everyone. To this day it is still my favourite in my collection.

Next up I bought Goldeneye and An Affair in Red Square and these colours did not disappoint. Both are great colours and are completely opaque after two coats and applied smoothly and perfectly. These ones also dried just as quick. This is when I completely fell in love with OPI.

Austin-tatious Turquoise was my next purchase. In the bottle the colour is so beautiful but after applying it, I wasn't so impressed. The formula is quite thin and it took me four coats for it to be opaque. FOUR COATS? WUTTTTT! It really didn't live up to OPI's standards. I'm not sure if I just got a dud one or not but I was not happy JAN.

On the same day I bought Significant Other Colour and I thought it was great. It's this pretty pale, metallic pink colour with hints of green-ish pearl. Sounds weird but it's soooo pretty, I love it.

You're Such a Budapest is a gorgeous lavender colour from the European Centrale collection. I didn't have a colour like this in my overall nail polish collection so I thought I'd give it a try. The formula is quite watery but after 2 GOOD coats(3 if you tend to apply thinner coats) you should be ready to go. I love that this colour looks as though it's a solid colour but upon further inspection you can see little bits of silver shimmer that make your nails look shiny even without a top coat.

Last, but not least, is Lights of Emerald City and let's just say that this is definitely competing with Just Spotted the Lizard as far as my favourite OPI nail polish goes. It is actually a clear nail polish but it has large, square pieces of white glitter along with smaller pieces of clear, iridescent glitter. Personally, I think it looks great on it's own or over the top of another colour. Even though I love this nail polish, it can be quite tricky to apply because of the large pieces of glitter and it also takes a little longer than normal to dry.  

Well that brings us to an end and now all I want to do is go buy more. LOL

What's your favourite nail polish? Let me know in the comments below :)

xx

A little beauty haul :)

Stressful study periods call for some good, old fashioned, retail therapy. I probably should be studying right now but I just can't seem to bring myself to do it, therefore I decided to blog instead. WOOHOO!

So if you haven't read my Maybelline Colour Tattoo review then you might not know that I love these little beauties :) I've wanted Painted Purple for ages now and they always seem to be out of stock, thankfully when I went in today they had it. What a lovely surprise. I also picked up Barely branded which is a champagne colour for a highlighter.

Next, I picked up the Apocolips lip lacquer in Phenomenon which is a pretty nude colour with a slight pink undertone. I didn't actually own a nude lip product(how terrible am I?) and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try this one as everyone raves about the Apocolips range.

If you read my last blog post you'll see that I'm trying to take better care of my hair so I decided to try out a new hair treatment. I chose Eclos Ultimate Hydration Weightless Hair Treatment. It contains plant stems cells and that pretty much what pulled me in. It promises to restore moisture balance which is good for me because I have oily roots but dry ends and it says that it also strengthens dry damaged hair. Sounds PERF don't you think?

Next up are two face masks. One from Skin Food; Black Sugar Wash-off Mask. I got a sample size to see if I like it as they're products can be a little on the pricey side and I'll let you know how it goes. The other is the Innisfree's Real Lemonlime Mask. Unlike the Skin Food mask this one is like a sheet that you put on your face rather than a cream. All the instructions are in Korean or something but I thought it looked good :)

One of my favourite beauty gurus, Elle Fowler, mentioned Korres in her videos a couple of times and she made me want to try some of their products. I picked up a travel size pack of the shower gel and the body butter in the guava scent. I'm so excited to try these out, they smell ah-mazing. YUMMY

Leaving the best til last, I finally got a MAC 266 brush. I was introduced to it by my fellow MAC-lover Mollie! She used it along with an eyeshadow and fix+ to create a fine eyeliner. It looked so good and she told me that the secret was the brush, she was obsessed with it. So of course, I WANTED ONE and today I finally got it YAY.

Here are some close-ups of what I bought(in order) :)

 

Have a lovely, happy, healthy day.

xx

Ins and Outs

Today was a very unproductive day unfortunately. I lied in bed all day and watched Game of Thrones thanks to a new friend introducing the series to me the other night. I'm absolutely hooked! What's In? What's Out? Keep reading to find out.
IN:
Game of Thrones. Why have I not watched this show before? Clearly something wrong with me. I'm currently up to Season 1 Episode 8 and I could not be more in love.
The Heat. WOW is all I can say. I almost wet my pants I was laughing that hard. To make my cinema experience even funnier there was a guy a couple of rows behind me who had the most hysterical laugh I've ever heard.
Taking better care of my hair. My hair has gotten very long and to keep it in tip top shape it's taking a lot of my maintenance. My wide tooth shower comb and my heat protector are my new best friends(Sorry Sam and Belle).
Eating more greens. I've been trying to eat  healthier and just over a week ago I was introduced to gomayogoshi from my favourite japanese restaurant and I just can't get enough. It's basically boiled english spinach tossed in sesame sauce served cold. What a great, tasty way to get some greens inside me.
Chia seeds. I discovered these little gems in my favourite nudie juice, breakfast buzz.
Breaking bad habits. I cleaned my room today and I've made an oath to keep it this way. I've also decided to stop drinking coke.
OUT:
Drinking coke. I'm not usually a coca cola addict but lately it's been sneaking it's way into my diet. I can tell that it has been doing naughty things to me. I've been quite bloated and when i stopped drinking it, it seemed to go away in a day, it was crazy!
Being lazy. I'm so over finishing the day feeling as though I haven't accomplished something. I've been getting up in the mornings and going for a nice long walk to get me energised and motivated.
Eating junk food. Right now I'm trying to get rid of spots that won't go away on my forehead. I've also been feeling a little down lately and I know it's because of the food I've been eating. It's been three days and the only naughty thing i ate was a couple of cookies. I already feel so much more energised, happy and the spots are finally starting to leave me alone.

What's in and out in your life? Tell me in the comments below or link me your blog :) xx

Sukin 'Skincare that doesn't cost the Earth'

Every week I like to go to my local Chemist Warehouse and have a little browse and see what products it has to offer. I had come across Sukin before but never decided to look further into it as I generally go for products that promise to reduce blemishes and spots etc. The whole range was 30% off and I did go kinda crazy but I thought it's all or nothing. Here's what I picked up.

The first thing to catch my eye was the Hydrating Mist Toner, it says that it 'combines chamomile and rosewater to soothe and tone the skin'. I've been having a lot of redness on my face lately and the soothing description drew me in. When I tested it in the shop the smell was amazing, not too overwhelming like some products can be and even though it contains rosewater it doesn't give off that old person, potpourri smell, EW. I've now been using it for two weeks and i can see a dramatic difference in my complexion and it has also reduced the little bits of acne on my forehead. AH-MAZEBALLS!

After smelling the toner I thought why not look at the cleansers and facial scrubs as I was almost out of the ones that I was using.

The Revitalising Facial Scrub was a winner! It 'combines bamboo and ground walnut shells to gently exfoliate, with aloe vera, rose hip and chamomile to soothe skin' There's that 'soothe' word again! GOSH! When I first used it, it was a change because I'm used to scrubs that almost feel like sandpaper but this one is totally different, it's a much more subtle exfoliant but i do feel as though it gets the job done and it smells gorgeous too!

My face has been super sensitive lately and having constant spaz outs so I decided to purchase the Sensitive Cleansing Gel as I didn't want to do anything to cause my skin to have any more tantrums. 'Green tea and chamomile with a blend of cucumber and avocado oil to gently clease and purify the skin'. Switching from my Neutrogena 'Deep Clean' cleanser, I have noticed quite a difference. A lot of the redness has seemed to go down and I haven't been having as many breakouts. Cucumber has a definite cooling effect and the avocado oil gives you that little extra moisturiser boost.

Again I went for the Sensitive Facial Moisturiser. It has an almost nutty scent which is again really nicely subtle. I love the fact that it's not greasy as I have a very oily T-zone but at the same time it's very moisturising and soaks straight into the skin. Even though these products are quite inexpensive, they feel quite luxurious, especially this moisturiser. Well done Sukin!

Continuing on with being quite overboard in purchasing all these products, I also got the Hand and Nail Cream. It 'combines hydrolysed soy protein to strengthen nails and cuticles with aloe vera and vitamin E to soothe and soften hands'. Smelling this product, I couldn't quite put my finger on the scent, after reading the ingredients, I discovered that it's lavender and mandarin. To me, that sounds like the weirdest combination ever but it smells sooooooo nice. My hands are now soft, like a baby's bum WOOHOO! 

Last, but not least is the Nourishing Lip Treatment.

I have found myself practically eating this as it tastes so god damn good. It has a lip gloss-type formulation, very different from your usual balms designed to moisturise lips. 'Enriched with calendula and jojoba oils to help soothe, combined with cocoa and shea butters to instantly hydrate lips'. I usually apply this just before i go to sleep and night so it can sink in and moisturise my lips for the morning. Personally, I hate that lip gloss consistency and that's why i choose not to use it during the day. When i wake up I've found that my lips are moisturised and any sign of dryness are lightyears away. (Gosh I'm lame!)

I know I mentioned this in my last post but I'm going to say it again, I'm really not an environmentally conscious consumer but I do love the fact that when I use these products I know that no animals have been harmed in the process and that no nasty chemicals have been used, it gives me a peace of mind and makes me more motivated to check what goes into making a certain product. With that said I'm not going to strictly use natural products but I'm going to try to, where possible.

xx