Ebay Buys!

Over the last few months I have developed an unhealthy addiction to ebay!

There are some great bargains to be had and I'm taking full advantage!

I thought that I'd share with you some things I've recently bought and what I'm looking at purchasing soon!

First up is this beauty blender dupe.

For £1.29 and free delivery it was a great bargain!

It did take a while to arrive as it was posted from Hong Kong but it's an excellent sponge and great if you don't want to spend £16 on a sponge!

Yesterday I ordered this dipped hem skirt in coral.

It costs £6.49 and £2.99 delivery.

It has yet to arrive (but as I said I only bought it yesterday eager beaver!) but it looks great and super cheap too!

I has this MAC duo fibre stippling brush bought for me for 99p with £3.99 p&p.

Obviously It isn't genuine MAC but it a decent brush for a fiver.

(It is no longer listed but I'm sure there's loads if you do a search on ebay!)

I'm contemplating purchasing this Jemma Kidd Make-up school concealer.

Its being sold for £3.95 and £2.00 p&p.

I've tried a few other bits of Jemma Kidd make up and haven't been overly impressed with it. I'm trying to refrain from buying any more make up but this could find it's way through my post box soon!

Another thing I've got my eye on is this lovely floral dipped hem dress. 

I haven't bought it yet as I don't think it will suit my body shape as it is. I'm going to the gym and starting to eat healthier so hopefully I'll buy it soon!

£8.99. p&p £2.99

What have you guys been buying or got your eye on from ebay right now?

x

Do you 'TO DO'?

Raise your hand if you consider yourself to be an organised person.

My hand is firmly up in the air (most of the time).

And to what do I owe about 80% of my organisation success to?

LISTS!

I am a fan of the good old fashioned To Do list!

I find 'To Do' lists the most useful type of list and every time I use one I have a very productive day!

So what is my secret to a good to do list and sticking to it?

1. Time Frame. 

Is this your 'To Do' list for the day or for the week?

2. Order

I tend to write my list in the order I want to do things. Not only does it make it easier to keep track of what I've still got to do but it acts as a structure to the day.

By creating a structure to your day you don't waste the odd few minutes here and there thinking 'What shall I do next'.

You can also order the tasks you want to do least right at the top so you can get them over and done with!

3. Balance

Don't just put chores on your list. Put things on there that you enjoy doing. For example today I planned to blog and paint my nails to break up the less favourable tasks.

4. Reward

The last thing on your To Do list should be a little treat to yourself or something you've really been looking forward to doing. If you order your lists then it means you only get the reward if you have completed all of your tasks! It's such great motivation as you're plodding through your day!

5. Make your list important!

Don't just write your list on a scrap of paper and discard it for most of the day. Get hold of a note book dedicated to being organised or even a dry wipe board to keep track of your progress. Keep your list in a place you go to throughout the day (mine stays on my dressing table in my bedroom) so you can cross off each item.

If there is anything on your list at the end of the day which you have not done ask yourself:

How urgently does it have to be done?

Is it necessary?

Why didn't I get around to it?

If you didn't cross everything off of your list because you simply didn't have enough time, then just add it on to your next list.

If it's something you despise doing the ask yourself 'is there a way around it or a better alternative?'

So even if you aren't the most organised person in the world you can fake it with a To Do list!

Let me know how you get on with your list making!

x

A bit of Bloggers block!

Hey ladies!

How are you?

Can you believe that the UK is finally set to get a bit of good weather this week?

No neither can I.

Well last time we had the sun come and visit for a few days I had a lot of blog inspiration and wrote tones!

However this time I  seem to have gone in the complete opposite direction!

I've got a few ideas of what to write, but sometimes it's just getting round to writing them that's the hard bit!

So what are your favourite types of blog posts to read in general and favourite types of blog posts which I write?

Also If you're a blogger, what do you like to write about the most?

I shall leave you guys with this piece of loveliness because it makes me smile to think about the friends that this applies to and bid you a happy Sunday x

x

Hair Care Overhaul!

Going back a few months, I was really happy with my Hair care routine but after I started to do some real research on hair care and how I could improve the condition of my hair. 

I started to learn alot about sulphate free shampoos and the negative effects sulphate has on your hair.

Now you might be asking What is sulphate and why is it so bad for your hair?

Click here to read my recent post on sulphate shampoos.

It took me a while to find a shampoo that was sulphate free and readily available.

However after a little while trawling the interweb I discovered that L'Oreal make a sulphate free shampoo, and market it as such (so you don't have to go reading through hundreds of ingredients).

As you would expect there are different formuals for different hair types.

As they are on offer in Tesco right now for £9 for any 2 products from the range. I picked up two different shampoos to try out.

L: Smoothing & Intensely Nourish for Frizzy, overworked hair.

R: Reinforcing & Vitality for Fragile Brittle Hair

Now there are conditioners and masques in the range but most conditioners and hair treatments don't contain sulphates so I didn't see a need to change from my current conditioner.

I can't wait to try these Shampoos and get back to you ASAP with a review!

Do you use these shampoo or are there any other sulphate free products you would recommend?

I've also been doing a lot of research on hair oils.

I've read reviews by bloggers on several different brands of hair oil.

However a friend recommended this Asian brand of hair oil to me and says she has used it for years.

I picked this up in Tesco as well for £3.49 which I think is great for the amount of product you get.

It's a 200m size bottle and in the you can see in the picture the amount I have used for one application.

I have this on my hair as I write this post and it smells incredibly sweet and like baby oil. 

The smell is putting me off a bit but if it works for my hair then I can over look it!

Again keep your eyes peeled for a review!

Do you use hair oils?

Are there any you would recommend?

Review: L'Oreal Perfect Clean Exfoliating Scrub

A product I've been using recently is the L'Oreal Perfect Clean Foaming Gentle Scrub Exfoliator.

It retails for £4.99 in Boots.

It's such a great price for a good product!

I'm not a huge fan of exfoliating as it can sometimes irritate my skin.

However this one is gentle and I use it every other day.

I've been using this regularly for about 3 weeks now and I've hardly used any!

You don't need a lot of product to get a good result.

It has a gel like texture with little exoliating beads so is not as harsh as a scrub.

What drew me to this product was the 'scrublet' included in the packaging. 

This little white pad had loads of little point bits )sorry for my awful description) which get right into your pores to give and effective clean.

I really like the idea of the scrublet as it allows you to get everywhere. 

I use this after my cleanser.

After use my skin always feels extremely taught which I'm not a huge fan of but I always see results!

This scrub is for all skin types and had a slight Grapefruit fragrance.

It works great on my dry skin and when I have 'oily days'

Overall it's a great product for a great price!

Do you use this product?

What's your favourite facial scrub?

x

Mac Soft and Gentle Mineralize Skin Finish £5 dupe?

MAC's mineralize skin finish in Soft and Gentle has been on my wish list for ages now! But I'm trying not to spend money on make-up right now as I'm getting pretty overwhelmed with the amount I already own.

However when I found this dupe for £5 I couldn't help myself!

Soft and Gentle retails for £21.50 here in the UK.

I don't own this product myself so I can't show you swatches (but if you Google search you'll find loads of good images!) but I every time I am near Mac I always swatch it and lust after it so I definitely know what it looks like!

However I was in a different Tesco to the usual one I shop in and found a whole range of Make-up (exclusive to Tesco) which I had never seen before.

The VIVO range is very cheap, with eye shadows starting at £1.50 and palettes at £4.

So I was browsing through their face products when I came across this:

It is sold as a  baked bronzer but for me it has too much shimmer in for a bronzer.

However it's perfect for a highlighter and is soooo similar to Soft and Gentle

The name of the VIVO shade is - Healthy Glow Shade 3 

It is the perfect amount of pigmentation for a highlighter and looks great against my pale skin.

The powder is also very soft to touch and is nice and lightweight.

I can't wait to start using this regularly!

Do you use thsi or any other VIVO products?

Do you have another dupe for MAC products?

x

Review: The Body Shop Hemp Moisture High Balm

Hi Ladies, how are you today? Hope you've had a good start to the week!

I wanted to share with you all a little gem I found a few weeks ago!

Now if you;re familiar with the range of Hemp skin care products from the body shop, you'll know how great they are.

My boyfriend is a huge fan of the Hemp Hand cream. He works out doors and his job can be pretty labour intensive and definitely takes it's tole on his hands.

Since he begun using the Hemp hand cream his hands have been softer than mine!

The hand cream has been a best seller of The Body Shop's for a long time and there is a reason.

Now when I was shopping a few weeks ago, I nipped into The Body Shop to pick up some stuff and saw this pot of Hemp Balm on sale for just £1.

I snapped it up right away!

It has the same smell as all of the other products in the Hemp range

and the consistency of a balm.

You can use this product on any dry skin!

I use this on my elbows, knees and feet.

It is so effective in moisturising and softening up really tough skin.

I use this product every night as I don;t like the smell to linger on me in the day time.

Do you have any dry skin saviours? Do you use any of the hemp products?

x

Sulphate Shampoo and why it's bad for your hair!

So recently I've been doing a lot of research into hair care and what is good for your hair and what doesn't help as much as we are taught to think it does by big marketing companies.
The one thing that kept popping up?
Sulphate
What is sulphate? Why is it so widely used? Why is it bad for my hair?

I'm going to answer these questions for you right now!

What is sulphate?
Sulphate is salt.
The most common sulphate in shampoo is Sodium Laureth Sulfate.
This is a detergent which is used for it's emulsifying (foaming) properties.
Other forms of sulphate are used to make products such as batteries and plaster.
Already you're getting the feeling that it's bad for you?


Why is it used in so many products?
Quite frankly, it's cheap!
It's the cheapest foaming agent on the market today and we all know that
cheap raw materials = more profit for the big wigs!
It's not only found in shampoo but body wash, soap and washing up liquid.

Do we need sulphate in our shampoo?
No. It is not essential for our shampoo to lather up to get a good clean. That is the only job of sulphate and it's unnecessary.
It is something we have been conned into believing by advertisers.
But on the bottle it says 'lather, rinse, repeat'.
Yes it does but we all know that washing your hair once is fine (twice is about the maximum amount of times you should shampoo your hair each time you wash it).
But they still say 'repeat' - we all know that's a scam to get you to use your shampoo up quicker and buy more!

Why is it bad for my hair?
Sulphate dries out your hair.
If you're a sufferer of dry frizzy hair then maybe a sulphate shampoo is one of the biggest contributor to your problems?
Sulphates are also irritants.
They have been know to irritate your scalp if you are prone to dandruff of eczema.

So what are the alternatives?
Sulphate free shampoos are available but you just have to look about a bit for some of them!
Here is a list of sulphate free shampoo's I've found:

• Pureology – All Shampoos sulfate free
• John Masters Organics
• Jonathon Product – Green Rootine Shampoo
• Kiss My Face – Miss Treated Shampoo
• AG Hair Cosmetics – Color Savour Sulfate free Shampoo
• DS Laboratories – Revita Hair Growth Shampoo
• Samy Salon Systems – Fat Hair Sulfate free
• L'Oreal – Everstrong Reconstructing Shampoo
• RedKen – Nature's Rescue Detox Shampoo

Sulphate free:

Not sulphate free:

I hope this post has been of some help to you! What are your thoughts on sulphate in shampoo and do you use any sulphate free products?

x

Review: Oilatum Natural Repair Face Cream

I was really excited when I heard about this product and had high expectations.

As a kid I had always used the oilatum bath solution because I have suffered with eczema and dry skin.

This retail for £7.65 at Boots 

The Boots website says:

'Oilatum Natural Face Cream penetrates deeply to rehydrate facial skin relieving tightness and irritation and leaving it feeling smooth.'

My skin gets dehydrated quickly so I always use products that are very moisturising.

I would compare the texture of the cream to E45 cream.

I would also place these two products in the same category as Sudocrem and they are more gentle on the skin than other moisturisers. 

When I firstly used this product I thought it was fantastic and It really worked wonders on days when my skin was exceptionally dry and sore.

However after continued use (for a few weeks) It began to make my skin feel oily and greasy.

This happened most around my T-zone.

In general I don;t suffer with an oily T-zone.

The cream is fragrance free and I didn't have any adverse reactions to it.

However I have discontinued using this product regularly as it made my skin go from extremely dry to extremely oily.

I will be reaching for Oilatum Natural repair face cream on days where I have dry patches of skin or particularly sore spots on my face.

If you have oily skin I would not recommend this.

June Favourites

There isn't a whole lot of favourites this month, It's short and sweet!

First up is a non beauty related favourite!

Yankee Candle in Sweet Pea.

It smells amazing and I've burnt it so much but it's hardly gone down at all!

The Body Shop Body Butter - Moringa

I love Body Shop's body butters and I love the smell of this one! To me it smells like pollen and flowers and I just can;t get enough!

Superdrug Optimum Day Cream

I've been using this for a while now and at first I didn't like it and it took a while for my skin to get used to it but now it's a staple in my skin care routine. Some days I do deviate from it, but never for too long!

Ayuuri Body Wash

I got this in April's Glossy box and have only just finished my last body wash (check out my empties post to see that). I love the fragrance of this and it's lovely and creamy!

Rihanna Re'belle Perfume

This is not the type of fragrance I typically wear but I love it. It lasts all day, which is brilliant!

Rimmel Match Perfection Gel Foundation

I use this foundation everyday, abvoe my Bare Minerals foundation and Mac Face and Body. It gives me the right amount of over all coverage and instantly gives my complexion a boost. It lasts about 6-7 hours with primer which is good for a 'drugstore' foundation. It is also so light weight on the skin!

Yves Rocher Sexy Pulp Mascara

Another Glossy Box Product! I recieved this in my last Glossy Box and I'm over the moon with it. I'm gutted that it wasn't a full size product and cen see myself running out pretty quickly so I'm trying to use it sparingly. The shape of the wand means it grabs on to all of your lashes and coats them evenly.

What products have you been loving through June?

x

June Empties

First off I want to apologise for my lack of quality blogging recently!

Life has been mega hectic the past 2 weeks or so.

During these two weeks I've had to move into the smaller bedroom in my house!

(You may notice a different background in my pictures!)

This rom is decorated a lot nicer than my old room so I'm considering doing a room tour? Is this something you're interested in, and if so what would you prefer, pictures or a video?

Let's jump into my June empties!

I bought a new basket for my empties as all these empty products were slowly taking over!

L'Oreal Dermo Expertise Eye Make-up Remover 

Click here to read my mini review!

Tesco Cucumber Cleansing Wipes

I love these wipes and I think I've gone through 3 packs since the middle of may! They are gentle on sensitive skin and work well to initially clean your mke-up off your face before you cleanse.

L'Oreal Nutri-Gloss Light Shampoo & conditioner

My hair dresser recommended these to me back in January as my hair gets greasy quickly. To be honest I do not rate these at all. If anything my hair became greasy looking a lot quicker than normal. Also the conditioner weighed down my hair quite alot for a product that's branded as 'light'.

Charles Worthington Moisture seal Conditioner

I love this conditioner. It helps to keep my hair light (and does not make it look greasy at all!) I've been a fan of Charles Worthington hair care for a while now but only picked this conditioner up recently. If I wasn't on a spending ban I'd snap this up again right now!

Charles Worthington Mineral Hair Rescue

This has been a staple product of mine for well over a year now and I love it! I really feel like it does so much good for my hair and it feels just like a treatment from the salon!

Collection 2000 Hotlights lip gloss - 4 Sparkle

As you can see this product isn't empty - but it's seen better days so I thought it was time to say bye-bye and would include it! I like this lip gloss but I don't think it's anything special. I do love the packaging. There's a mirror on the side and lights in the lid! Great for re-applying in a club!

Collection 2000 Skyscraper Mascara - Black

I was pleasantly surprised by this mascara. It was pretty cheap and was amazing! I gave my eyelashes ones of volume as well as length and it has excellent staying power. As soon as my buying ban is over I will 100% be re purchasing this!

Tesco Soft & Smooth body lotion - Aloe Vera, Cocoa Butter % Vitamin E

Now I don;t go through 3 of these a month but they were kind of 80% used so I decided to finish them this month. I use these as a hand cream and have done for  years. The aren't greasy or sticky like other had lotions I've used and cost around £1 each. Sometimes the smell drives my insane because they are highly scented but I just keep going back to them. (I don't recommend these as body lotions as they aren't up to much!) 

Bliss Vanilla and Bergamot Body Wash

This came as part of a set with a body scrub and a body butter (both of which I love!) But I'm not a fan of the body wash. It has a stronger smell than the other products and I just don't like smelling it!

Sure Women Cool Blue Deodorant 

Pretty standard product, It works!

Again sorry for the lack of quality posting, I'm spending a big chunk of today writing product reviews, more posts and my June favourites!

Thanks for reading and being patient whilst I'm a crappy Blogger!

x