My evening routine updated. ..not a shower night

Hi guys!
So I don't think it has been too long since my last evening routine but it has changed slightly. 

I start by removing my makeup using the clinique take the day off balm (which I have done a review of and have mentioned in a favourites post). This is amazing, and I love using it! I get some of the balm onto my fingers and massage onto my dry face. It feels a bit weird at first but I actually end up liking the feeling! Once I have massaged the balm all over my face including my eyes, I rinse it off using a flannel and warm water.

I then use the soap in the clinique 3 step system and use the clinique purifying cleansing brush as described in my morning routine post. I tend to only use it for 30 seconds on a night time.

I use the clarifying lotion from the 3 step system, which I apply to a clean cotton pad and gently rub over my face. I will be honest and say that if you have sun burn and use this, it can sting slightly which I don't like.

I then apply the clinique serum, which actually soothes the skin if the clarifying lotion has made it sore. I quite like using this, as it is quite a nice texture.

I then apply the clinique eye cream, and the moisturiser from the 3 step system. Once this has had time to sink in, I apply another moisturiser, at the minute I am using the clinique moisture surge. I know this sounds like a lot of moisturiser and I'm sure some people will tell me that it is stupid or bad for my skin but currently I am finding that the dramatically different moisturiser just isn't keeping my skin as hydrated as I would like and I don't like having dry skin. By using the moisture surge, I find that my skin is sufficiently hydrated and is left feeling soft and smooth when I wake up.

I apply the body shop lip butter just before I go to bed as I like to keep my lips hydrated too and this is very moisturising and helps to stop my lips from cracking after a long day working with the air conditioning at work. 

This is working for me at the minute and I love the way my skin is feeling right now.
I realise that nearly everything I use now is from clinique but that wasn't planned!
Do you guys use any of these products?

X

My morning routine updated...again

Hi guys!
So it has only been a couple of months since my last morning routine but a little has changed since then and I like to keep you all updated :-)

I am still doing the clinique 3 step system, so I start by wetting my face with warm water and massaging the soap for oily combination skin all over my face. I then use the clinique purifying cleansing brush  for 30 seconds to a minute (7-15 seconds on each cheek, 5-10 seconds on chin, 5-10 seconds on nose and 5-10 seconds on forehead). I then rinse my face using warm water and a flannel (I have 3 pink ones from primark and 2 from liz earle).

Once a week i use the clinique exfoliator, but once a month I only exfoliate once a week using the 7 day scrub from clinique. I was exfoliating twice a week before I got the clinique face brush, but it is more successful at keeping my face smooth and getting rid of dry skin than the brush I was using previously and I feel like if I exfoliate more than once a week it becomes too  much for my skin and it starts to become sore.

I then get a clean cotton pad and apply the second step of the three step system which is the clarifying lotion, and I gently rub it onto my face from the middle of my face outwards.

I wait a few seconds and then apply the clinique serum (one pump), I will be doing a review on this when I have used it for long enough.  After about 5 minutes I apply the clinique eye cream to my under eyes (I have been very good with keeping up with this lately!) And then I apply the dramatically different moisturiser which is step 3 in the system. 

After a little while I then start to apply my makeup.
Not much has changed since my previous post but I hope you enjoyed this post! I have been following this routine for a few weeks now and I feel like it is working better than me, especially as my face was sun burnt a little while I was on holiday.

X

October favourites

Hi guys!
So these products are from both before I went on holiday and while on holiday :-)

Makeup

Body shop lip butter in coconut
This is so creamy and smells gorgeous! It keeps my lips moisturised and I started using it before I went away as the weather started to get colder and my lips became dryer. But, while I was on holiday I put it in the fridge in the hotel room and it was so much more amazing as it cooled as well as moisturised my lips. For £4 this is a pretty good product to have!

Collection lasting perfection concealer in ivory
I feel like I discovered this a lot later than everyone else (by a few years) but I love it! It is so cheap and covers my under eye circles better than any other concealer I have ever used! It can also act as a highlighter too which I love.

Soap & glory super colour fabu lipstick in the missing pink
I feel like I have mentioned this before but I love it so much! It is a gorgeous colour and it smells of vanilla which I love. It is a nude pink colour, which basically looks like my lips but better. It lasts a good amount of time although I do have to reapply it a few times throughout the day.
Maybelline colour tattoos
I have three colours of these- on and on bronze, eternal gold and pink gold. I loved these while on holiday as they held up in the heat and didn't budge all night!

No7 lipstick in
I used the no7 lipstick match service to match a lipstick to my skin tone and this is the one I chose.  At first I was a bit sceptical as it is not a colour I would usually go for but I ended up using it nearly every night on holiday as it looked really nice while I was pale and still looked fab when I started to tan. It wasn't sticky at all which some lipsticks are and the colour seemed to last a while.

Hair and skin care

Garnier shampoo the sleek restorer with coconut oil and cocoa butter.
I may have mentioned this before but I love it so much! It smells gorgeous and it cleans my hair really well, I used it while on holiday and it managed to wash out the chlorine and salt from the pool and sea without any effort at all. This might sound like a really simple thing for a shampoo but I have had shampoos in the past that haven't done that! It also leaves my hair feeling soft, smooth and looking healthy.

Fcuk body spray
I looove the smell of this so much! It has vanilla and Oriental tones which I am addicted to and as soon as I got it I couldn't stop spraying myself with it!

Clinique moisture surge
This was a travel size sample but I took it on holiday with me and I used it when my face started to get dry because of the sun. The usual moisturiser I use just wasn't keeping my facial skin hydrating enough but this was perfect and I kept it in the fridge so it was cooling when I applied it.

Clinique purifying cleansing brush
I have raved about this so much! I love it so much, and my skin has felt and looked amazing since I started using it. The one thing I was scared about was when I started to burn my face I thought it would hurt to use it but it didn't! I was pleasantly surprised that it managed to get rid of all of the dead skin on my face and make it smoother without hurting my sun burn.

Random things

Microwavable me to you bear
This I love at certain times of the month as it is cute, cuddly and helps to take the pain away. When I am in pain and not feeling myself I love cuddles and if the hubby is at work I love to cuddle this!

Dettol
I know this is a bit of a weird product to be in my favourites but I had a bit of an infection type thing in my belly button (oversharing?) And the antibiotics the doctor gave me didn't help and my mam suggested Dettol that I used to use when I was a child. Literally within 2 days everything was perfectly healthy and I think it is just a good thing to have in the home. It can be used for cuts, piercings, cleaning stuff, it is basically multi purpose!

Fcuk washbag
I love how cute this is, and it is practical too! I took it on holiday with me, and it held so much! And I now use it at home in the bathroom too to keep the bathroom tidy.

Yankee candle in salted caramel
My mam actually bought me this and I love it so much! The hubby hates it, and kept telling me not to burn it but I got a bit addicted to it. It was a sweet smell but also had some undertones to it which made it gorgeous.

Films and TV shows

Frozen
I know I sound like a child but I absolutely love this film! It was so cute and i fell in love with the snowman! (Not literally obviously)!

Mount Pleasant
I was super happy when I realised that the new series of this was starting! It is set somewhere near Manchester I think, but is so funny! It's about a man and a woman  and their life and neighbours and it is both drama sometimes and humour at other times but it is how I grew up in a neighbourhood a bit like that!

People

Zoella (zoe suggs)
I haven't been watching her long but she is such a sweet person! She has amazing YouTube videos and I love her daily vlogs too. She has recently released her own line of bathstuff etc in super drug and has over 6 million YouTube followers! From what I can see she hasn't changed with fame and that is what I love about her!!

What are your monthly favourites?

X

My response to the independent article about zoella

Hi guys!
I have recently read the article written about zoella (zoe suggs) by the independent and I was outraged by it!
Firstly, the reporter criticises the way Zoella looks before going onto say that girls shouldn't worry about what they look like- well obviously if they are going to have their looks slated by the likes of that reporter then they are going to worry! That reporter sounds like a jealous bully immediately!
Secondly, I love Zoella and I know by watching her daily vlogs that she has makeup free days and embraces them and so in no way does she show or tell girls that they have to wear makeup to be pretty. I watch her videos because I like to know which new products are good, and which aren't worth the money, I like to know how to create certain makeup looks. It's not about wearing makeup to look pretty, and I have never felt that by watching zoella that she is saying I have to wear makeup! Why can't girls want to wear makeup just because it's fun to do?
I bet that reporter wears makeup herself! Does that mean she is giving the impression that girls have to wear makeup just because she is? No. But by her logic she is!
Makeup is fun, and yeah it might make people feel better when wearing it but that doesn't mean that people don't feel good without it.
Surely zoella is showing that makeup is fun and fashion is fun, and honestly the message I takeaway from her success is that you should do what you enjoy doing and sometimes you can get your dream job! She enjoys makeup and has become successful based on that, and why shouldn't she?
Enjoy life and enjoy what you're doing!that is genuinely the message I get and it makes me happy that she has been as successful as she has.
She also helps people who has anxiety like her, and let's them know they aren't alone like some of them might have previously thought they were. Surely that is a very good thing as it could help girls become happier within themselves!
I would be happy for any daughter of mine to look up to her as a role model.

That's my thoughts and I am sorry if they aren't very coherent but I am a bit angry while writing this that the reporter would try to demean zoella for no reason.

X

Products I regret taking on holiday

Hi guys!
So these are the products I took on holiday with me and either didn't use or hated. As you all know, it is very important to only take what you need on holiday as there is a weight limit to the suitcases! So I thought I would do this post so that other people don't waste the precious kgs on items that won't be used.

Clinique sun protection face cream
I hated this! It was greasy and sticky and didn't protect my face from the sun at all which was a massive lot down!next time I will just do what I normally do and use the same lotion I apply to my body on my face!

Most makeup
I didn't use foundation at all as it didn't sit right on my face when it got burned or when I had sun cream on. It looked awful!
I also didn't apply makeup at all after the first week other than mascara and sometimes eye shadow as the colour of my tan had changed so much. I didn't need three different colours of lipsticks, I really only used my lip butter. I didn't use my brow pencil, as without wearing foundation i didn't need to do anything with my brows! Blusher and bronzer as again my natural colour was on show, and all the brushes that go with these items were also not needed!
Next time I am only going to take the bare minimum, for example mascara and lip butter and that's it.

Nivea in shower after sun
This was okay, but I prefer the normal after sun that you don't rinse off. This didn't moisturise for very long on me and didn't work at all on hubby. The garnier after sun us better and weighs a little less.

Nivea suntan lotion
I am sure that this suntan lotion is probably fine for other people but I have always used garnier and the hubby got nivea for this holiday and I didn't think it gave the same amount of protection as garnier even though it was the same factor. I felt like I got burnt more while using this lotion. It was also very thick and I didn't like the feel of it. The garnier that I usually use comes in smaller bottles too which means that it takes up less room in the case which is always good.

Makeup setting spray
I didn't use this as I used it once and it just made my skin look greasy which was the opposite of what I wanted! It might have been the humidity but it didn't work for me at all while on holiday.

So they are the things that I won't be taking on holiday abroad again as they might not sound much but they did actually weigh quite a lot and we could have taken more things like extra bikinis lol.

X

Things I used every day on holiday

Hi guys!
Before I went on holiday I did a video about what I was taking on holiday with regards to skincare and makeup. I didn't use everything so I thought I would do a post about what I used and then another post about what I regret taking with me.

Body butter
My hubby needed this more than me but as he forgot to bring the new suntan lotion and after sun we had bought we only had the ones I brought from the last holiday we were on. The after sun was one where you applied it in the shower and washed it off and I didn't think it worked as well so to combat the dry skin on my hubby's burnt shoulders I applied body butter for him. Not only does it smell lovely it kept his skin hydrated and so although it did nothing for his burns it did cool him down when first applied and stopped him from peeling.

Lip butter
My lips got very dry due to the heat and I was constantly in and out of the pool and they started to get quite painful. Applying lip butter every night and morning helped but I found that putting the lip butter in the freezer before using it helped loads more as it cooled my lips down so much and felt like heaven!

Clinique purifying cleansing brush
When my face got sunburnt, using a flannel was too painful for me but I didn't want to just use my hands as that wouldn't get rid of the dry skin and sweat etc so I kept using this brush.  At first I was very wary of using it as I thought it might be too painful but it didn't hurt at all! I was pleasantly surprised!

Clinique moisture surge moisturiser
I still used the three step system that I always use but on a night before bed I also applied the moisture surge moisturiser as my face felt very dry which is unusual for my usually oily skin. This helped to keep my skin hydrated and smooth without feeling heavy.

Benefit porefessional
I did bring quite a bit of makeup with me to wear on a night time but because of the humidity and my peeling face I couldn't use much without it looking terrifying but I found that just using the porefessional without foundation seemed to even out my skin (I was white around the eyes and burnt most other places) and made me look less like a weird panda.

Benefit they're real mascara
I only used this at night not during the day like I had planned but it was very much loved! It stayed on all night and didn't smudge in the heat which was fab! It also made my eyes look amazing and really opened them up. 

Maybelline colour tattoo
I brought all of my colour tattoo eye shadows with me (I have 3) and I used them all! I was so glad I brought these rather than proper eye shadows as they didn't budge all in the heat and humidity and had very good colour payoff.

Biodegradable suntan lotion
This is very important for going to the parks like xel ha and xplor as it means that the natural environment isn't getting ruined, and the animals aren't being poisoned. I never even thought about it until I got to Mexico but it was quite cheap to buy there.

Insect repellent
Again, has to be biodegradable so as not to damage the natural environment. This is very important when going to the jungle areas as mosquitoes love it there and if you don't wear it you will get bitten.

Hair conditioner
I went swimming every day either in the pool or in parks with dolphins and manatees,  so my hair took a bit of a beating. The shampoo and conditioner I used was the same as I use at home but I relied so much on my conditioner to keep my hair soft and healthy looking.

Plastic travel bottles
These were so useful as one bottle of shampoo and one of conditioner was enough for me and the hubby for the whole holiday, and they were a perfect size for travelling. It also meant I could use the same shampoo and conditioner as at home but without having to bring the huge bottle, and if you don't want to bring the bottles back home you can give them to the hotel to use for something else.

Perfume travel bottle
My mam bought me this for my birthday and it is a little pink tube that you put your own perfume in, I put pink honey by Marc Jacobs in mine and it actually holds quite a bit. I think it holds enough for 50 sprays which was enough for this holiday and meant I didn't have to take the actual bottle which could have broken.

Bobbles
I tie my hair back during the day every day when I'm on holiday, especially when I'm going swimming as I find when it is really hot it annoys me when my hair is hanging down my neck and back and making me feel even more hot. I find that it cools me down a lot. 

Ghd straighteners
These I didn't use every day as some nights it was too hot to wear my down but these were a godsend on the days that I did have my hair down as in the humidity in Mexico my hair doesn't play very nicely but using these kept it straight and unfrizzy all night.

These are the things that i genuinely couldn't live without on holiday (except for the usual shorts and bikinis). What do you guys use when on holiday?

X

Clinique face sun cream

Hi guys!
If you follow me on Twitter you will know that I have been in cancun Mexico for two weeks :-)
Just before I went away I thought I would buy proper sun protection for my face as I hate using the sun cream I use on my body on my face as it is really greasy. I thought a one targeted for the face would be better so I bought a clinique one as everyone knows how much I love clinique!
The packaging is simple, it is a yellow tube with white writing on it. And the product is a thick cream, which seems stickier than I was expecting. It doesn't seem to have much of a smell which is good.
When I first applied this I was disappointed with the consistency of it as it was a bit sticky and a bit hard to rub in, and it left my face looking and feeling incredibly greasy. After using it for a week I noticed I was getting spots when I haven't had any in a while so I was quite upset by this, especially as during the day I wasn't wearing any makeup and having spots was making me very self conscious.
I did attempt to apply makeup over it once but it looked terrible as the makeup just didn't sit well on top of it and looked very streaky and patchy which was awful! Even just powder didn't work well so I ended up not wearing any!
It also didn't protect my face very well, I got burnt on the first day of the holiday! I was applying it every morning before I went out and after a couple of hours and after being in the pool so it wasn't as if I got burnt because I wasn't applying it enough!
I did have high hopes for this and I was very disappointed,  especially as I paid more for this than I did for the suntan lotion for mine and the hubby's body!

Would not recommend this to anyone going to a hot country at all.

Have any of you guys tried a sun cream for your face?

X