Lush Snow Fairy Shower Gel

It’s that time of year.... the shops are awash with red gold and green glittery decorations, the Christmas hits long since past are being dusted off and Lush has begun to stock Snow Fairy again. Hooray!

Yes, that’s how I finally know Christmas is coming again... Around about October, I begin to check out Lush stores for the arrival of bottles of pink shimmery goo. Two weeks ago, I finally found my treasured Christmas treat in Lush Covent Garden.

I’m not really sure why they only stock Snow Fairy around Christmas time aside from the name. It doesn’t particularly smell Christmassy – in fact it reminds me more of summer with it’s ultimately candy floss scented notes. I don’t tend to associate Barbie pink with Christmas either... Perhaps it’s the glitter. In any case, the exclusivity of it certainly works on me. Not only do I frantically wait for it’s arrival, but I then stock pile the stuff, in the hopes it’ll last me until next Christmas.

I never really used to buy anything in Lush aside from bath bombs. But in recent years, I’ve dabbled in the haircare, face masks and most of all the shower gels. Snow Fairy is by far my favourite scent. Despite being labelled a shower gel, I use it regularly as bubble bath, and it’s just awesome to be laying back in candy floss scented bubbles. As I’m laying there, I often lament that the glitter just isn’t made enough of. It should be bigger and more obvious! You barely notice it in the bottle, let alone when you’re using it in shower or bath.

Lush also label Snow Fairy as being “for body and hair”. I’ve tried it on my hair and for me it’s a BIG no no. Sure it smells nice for the first few hours, but inevitably around 8 hours later, my hair is looking greasy and reminiscent of Medusa but with rat-tails instead of snakes.

So ultimately, use it liberally in bath or shower, avoid your hair and be enthralled by candy floss bubbles and a shower gel that doesn’t dry out your skin and leave you scratching your legs like a flea-ridden dog.

Rating out of 10: 8

The Good:
The scent will take you back to your fun fair days
Doesn’t dry out your skin
Pink and glittery

The Bad:
Poor performance on oily type hair

The Ugly: £9.95 for 500g, £5.95 for 250g and £3.25 for 100g. Hrm... expensive, especially if you stockpile it like I do.

Where to buy: This product can only be purchased at Lush stores or online at www.lush.co.uk

bareMinerals SPF Foundation

As I mentioned how I was using bareMinerals Foundation over the top of Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector in my last review, I thought I’d make this the basis of my next! 

Reasonably new to UK shores, the bareMinerals range of make up is making fast work of becoming a favourite with those that try it. Started by Leslie Blodgett over in the USA, the bareMinerals range of products were launched in 1995 (it was a good year for beauty, with Liz Earle launching at the same time!). The products pioneered the mineral make-up world, using 100% pure minerals without the nasties. Using minerals renowned for skin healing such as zinc in their powders, meant that unlike some other make-up, skin was getting a helping hand along with great coverage.

I hated foundation. I’d tried cream after cream to try and hide my usually fairly blemished complexion. These tended to make spots and scars even worse as they kind of ‘clustered’ in the repairing dry skin. They also tended to make my skin worse as most of them had gunky consistencies which just sat on my skin. But then my aunt introduced me to the bareMinerals Original SPF 15 foundation and I was hooked. She dragged me along to a bareMinerals event at a local department store (there was a freebie to be had so actually there wasn’t much dragging involved) where I had a ‘make-under’, as the bareMinerals ladies like to call them. When I looked in the mirror afterwards I was transformed. I can’t explain how taken aback I was that there in the mirror was me, but with flawless skin – where had the spots gone? What was this witchery?

I still don’t know how they make this stuff, but it’s amazing. I’d never really even thought to try a powder foundation (powders? Aren’t they for old ladies?!) yet this product managed to do what no other had – every time I use it, it’s like some fairy is sitting on my shoulder air-brushing my face every couple of minutes. The best thing was the range of shades available (finally a true porcelain skin shade rather than looking ever so slightly yellow/orange!). I use the very lightest of them, ‘Fair’, but there are 20 different shades to choose from, and heck if one of those doesn’t suit you, (or you’re slightly more tanned than usual after getting back from holiday) they’re powder – just mix a couple of shades together to create your own!

The only difficulty with this product is mastering how to use it. The temptation is usually to use too much, but you seriously only need a tiny amount to cover your face. The next trick is the brush. I did invest in an actual bareMinerals kabuki brush, so I’m not sure how it would compare with using another type of brush. Using the lid of the bareMinerals pot of foundation, tip a small amount of the powder in, then ‘swirl’ the brush around the lid to pick up all the particles. Tap off any excess then ‘buff’ on to your face in circular motions. If you’re not quite covered, keep buffing! Adding more powder usually turns out pretty bad. For any particularly bad spots, I use a smaller precision brush swirled in a tiny bit of powder to touch up these areas.

The ‘look’ lasts most of the day, particularly if you use a primer before hand. This is a good thing as the only downside to the powder is the packaging – the first pot I bought was a nightmare. If you carried it around in your bag, the powder would shake through the filter and collect in the lid so when you opened it it went everywhere! Recently however they’ve introduced ‘lockable’ pots which are genius and stop the spillages.

This is a truly wonderful product, which won’t fail to give you results time after time.

Rating out of 10: 9

The Good:
Beautiful ‘air-brushed’ look skin
Wide range of shades to suit everyone

The Bad:
Tricky to get the hang of applying
Expensive
Can be messy

The Ugly: £23 for an 8g pot. This will last you at least 3 months of every day use however. If you’re new to bareMinerals, they also do a great starter kit for £48 which is excellent value for money as all the contents bought separate, particularly the brushes, are far more expensive Downside if you’re fair skinned like me, this kit isn’t available with the ‘Fair’ foundation. Also keep an eye on QVC for great value funky kits.

Where to buy?:  Until recently, there were very limited concessions selling bareMinerals, in House of Fraser for example.  However the company opened a store in Covent Garden this year and most recently one in Brighton so boutiques are spreading!  I've also heard you can find their concessions in Boots and Debenhams now too.  But if your options are limited, you're best off shopping online either direct from bareMinerals UK or QVC.

Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector

Garnier is one of the first brands to jump on the B.B. (Blemish Balm) bandwagon with it’s new Miracle Skin Perfector B.B. Cream. Asia has been crazy on blemish balm creams in the last year and the craze is now taking off here in the West. Reputed to be based on the creams prescribed after laser skin surgery, blemish balms are branded as a ‘miracle in one tube’!

The Cream has numerous benefits, using natural mineral pigments and containing vitamin C, it’s a moisturiser, reduces redness, perfects skin and contains an SPF15.

I first read about the Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector in Glamour magazine and rushed straight out to Boots to buy it. At an affordable £9.99 for a 50ml tube, it’ll suit most pockets. The best thing is, you need very little to get full face coverage too so the tube should last a good while. I instantly noticed a ‘perfecting’ of my skin as all those red blotches and the odd spot became more blended into the rest of my face. I would not say however that this is really a B.B. cream. The coverage just isn't good enough to be used on it's own.

The SPF is always a nice bonus - I purchased just before a holiday to the south of France, which, in September, was still bright strong sunlight every day. The Skin Perfector kept my face sun burn free even though I only applied it once in the morning.

The downside for me personally is that even using a small amount (smaller than pea-size!) it just sort of ‘sits’ on my skin and didn’t seem to sink in. As someone with fairly oily skin, the last thing I need is to feel more ‘gunk’ on my face. It’s also only available in two shades; Light and Medium so opted for the the ‘Light’ shade. However this turned out to still be a bit too dark for my ‘English Rose’ complexion, so you’ll need to do a bit of blending down into the neck and décolletage unless you want to look like you’re wearing an oompa loompa mask. It would be great to see a wider variety of ‘shades’ and kinda surprising they haven't completed the set with a 'dark' shade.

I’ve since experimented with it alot, using smaller amounts (to try to avoid the ‘gunky’ feeling), on its own and under make up. I’ve enjoyed using it under Bare Minerals make-up particularly instead of primer. It holds the powder well all day and as I’m using foundation powder on top of it, it tones down the colour of the B.B. Cream.

Beware as well, if you don't like a lot of scent in your beauty products, this has a quite strong (but pleasant) smell.

Rating out of 10: 8

The Good:
Instantly ‘perfects’ skin, evening out red blotches and blemishes – really good to just slap on and run out to the shops rather than putting on full make-up.
Affordable
Good skin protection from the pre-mature ageing effects of the sun

The Bad:
May be unsuitable for those of the ‘oily skin’ disposition
Currently available in only two shades

The Ugly: £9.99 is the RRP, but you can get it online for £7.99 (Superdrug) or £8.99 from many webstores. Garnier is also currently offering free samples of the ‘Light’ shade, just fill in your details here

Where to buy? Most high street beauty stores like Boots, Superdrug etc

Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish

I um'd and ah'd about what my first blog review should be about. Cleanse & Polish was the first thing to jump to mind. But 'no!' I said to myself, 'the product has had more than enough rave reviews in it's 15 years in existence'

But maybe that's the point. This outstanding cleanser wins consumer voted award time after time and there's a reason for that. This creamy, wonderful smelling product using fine quality botanical ingredients is probably the most perfect cleanser available today. The reasons for this are instantly obvious in a way the benefits of the average cleanser are not.

So what is this product and why is it so special?

Liz Earle was founded in 1995 by Liz Earle and long term friend Kim Buckland to provide women with natural products which really work. Having sensitive skin herself, Liz particularly was against harsh chemicals commonly found in cleansing products (such as benzyl ). The company is started and remains based on the Isle of Wight. As they promote themselves, a true British beauty brand.

Cleanse & Polish is their flagship (and only!) cleanser. The product suits any skin type, relying on the customers choice of moisturiser to deal with particular skin issues. It's a wonderful luxuriant cream smelling of fabulous rosemary, eucalyptus and cocoa butter which never fails to lift my spirits first thing in the morning and last thing at night.  Smoothed all over your face, the formula is so gentle you can use it on your eyes and amazingly, it will remove make-up - even waterproof mascara!  This is the 'Cleanse' stage.

The real magic to this product that sets it apart from the rest is the added 'Polish' stage.  Once you're ready to remove the cleanser, soak a pure muslin cloth in warm water, wring out, then begin to buff off the cream.  The muslin acts as an oh-so-gentle exfoliator, removing dead skin cells, the cream and your make-up all in one shot!

The test of a cleanser to me is the aftermath... How does my skin feel, and how long does that feeling last?  Cleanse & Polish leaves your skin tingling, refreshed and most importantly - feeling like skin should!  There's no greasiness, no tight feeling, no stinging and no odd unnatural clean feeling that chemical cleansers leave you with.  As one whose skin seems to have a personal vendetta against me, Cleanse & Polish is like the nuclear bomb in my arsenal.  My skin is far less greasy, glowing and the difference when I've switched to other cleansers is immediately noticeable no matter the price range in question.

Rating out of 10:  9.5

The Good:
Plant based cleanser with naturally active ingredients such as camomile, eucalyptus and cocoa butter - no nasties!
Long-lasting clean feeling
Results from first use
Suitable for all skin types and ages - there's also now a male branded version for the guy in your life!


The Bad: 
C&P comes in either 100 or 200ml in either a pump or tube.  I personally always opt for the pump over the tube as due to the compression, when the pump is empty, you know you've got every last bit.  The tube you will need to cut open if you want to get the most for your money!  Using the pump once every time you cleanse also means you get just the right amount of cleanser each time, saving you more money.

The Ugly?  A 100ml tube or pump of Cleanse & Polish will set you back £12.25, which may seem expensive for some pockets.  However, a little goes a long way with just one pump needed to cover your face.  Mine usually last around a month and half.

Liz Earle also offer Cleanse & Polish as a starter kit including 100ml of C&P and 2 muslin cloths.  I personally always opt for this option.  Priced at £13.75, you're paying just £1.50 for the muslin cloths.  2 cloths bought separately are priced at £3.75.  If you have oily spot-prone skin like mine, you'll need those cloths as it's recommended you only use a cloth once before washing to avoid re-infection.

Where to buy:  Liz Earle online, Liz Earle flagship store in Sloane Square, selected John Lewis store.  And don't miss out when Liz is running a Today's Special Value on QVC - these are a fantastic opportunity to try the Liz Earle range of products at often less than half price.