Let The Good Times Roll - Lush body and face wash

Something this glorious is, in my opinion, wasted to be smeared across the expanse of my body. No, this is much too lovely and I have branded it 'too nice for anywhere else'

Closing my eyes, hooking my nose over the edge of the pot and the smell of the funfair fills my nostrils. Not the ones from today, the one just like that fair in 'The Notebook' where even the grass looks like it could have the scent of candyfloss singed into it. Think caramelised sugar, butterscotch- sweet and low scented as opposed to Lush's infamous 'Snow Fairy' with it's strong and loud cotton candy blend.

Let The Good Times Roll is all the fun of the fair in a little pot.

It has a texture like rich, stiff butter cream icing but is a dense mustard colour and, do a little poking around and you will find fully formed, individual pieces of popcorn!

I have no idea how I scrub these into my face, I suppose it is all part of the sensory experience.

The paste is at first somewhat dry so needs water to be activated into a smotherable form.

I whip up a little little bit with the tip of my finger, and rub it into a wet palm of the alternate hand before applying to my damp face.

It does not have much of a lather to it, so do not expect frothy bubbles, once applied it is colourless if you distribute a thin layer evenly enough and has a very very slight grainy feel to it. With this in mind, this face wash is a nice treat for 'every other day' if your skin can survive it all like mine but if you're more of a delicate daisy then once a week will be terrific.

Jumping on the favourites bandwagon - July 2013 Favourites

I don't normally write about 'these are my favorites for this particular month' because it would imply I'd have to have liked and used something for the whole 30 days before I can tell you that I like it, I would rather tell you my favorites of the moment so this is a little mix of both. Some things I have liked all month, some things I have liked for years, some things I've liked since last week, but they're all worthy of a mention so here goes:

First of all, and a non-beauty favourite is Lana Del Rey and her album Born to Die. I am just obsessed with her, watching covers of her songs, watching live performances of her, interviews and everything else between. I just can't get enough of her album and it is all that I listen to!

The next, and a kind of 'beauty' favourite that has become a part of my routine is taking a Zinc supplement ever day, and a vitamin B12 supplement too. Zinc is great for immune system boosting properties, and I am prone to getting sick. Vitamin B12 is great for boosting energy!

Next up is my Boots 'Good things' face mask. Not only does it smell absolutely incredible, like a terrific real fruit smoothie, not synthetic fruit scents. But it has a clay texture which means that as it dries on the skin, you can see and feel the impurities being pulled from the skin, it's perfect for a clogged up T-zone

My Ocean Salt face scrub from Lush is my clarifying shampoo for my face. When I'm feeling thoroughly let down by my horrible, dull, blemished and oily skin. One dose of this has it sparkling looking fresh and feeling crisp and clean. It is very gritty, smells of the sea air and feels very 'real' like nature doing good things to your skin. (Not suitable for dry skin!)

Burts Bees hand cream is my old favourite. I still have 2 pots of the stuff in my backup stock. The isntructions suggest using it after every hand wash, but my skin is generaly very oily anyway, so I find it can take more than 30 minutes to skin in to my hands and sometimes elbows, so I prefer to use it before I go to sleep. More than the moisturising element is the sensational scent. It is mind blowing, cramy banana-vanilla amazingness, and one of my favourite scents in the entire world

This is a non beauty favorite but just the other day I caught my first episode Extreme Couponer and I had to pick my jaw up from the floor. Those couponers are amazing and now I always catch an episode when I have a few minutes getting ready or something. I did not know shopping like that existed although I did read somewhere that it is fake, but I hope not!

My mum got me a Hello Kitty pink fluffy Light up Pen which I now keep with my diary, and it has got me back into writing my diary on a regular basis again.

Bobby Brown Shimmer Bronzing brick in shade Bronze is my new bronzer of choice. I usually preach that good bronzers can only be matte but maybe I've been convinced otherwise by this one. It gives my skin a 'glowy' element rather than just contouring which I adore for the summertime.

"Dude...don't you ever wash your face?"



That line is from Friends - 10 Brownie points to anyone who knows the name of the episode!

Today we're talking face washes:
I became a bit of a face wash nut around the age of fifteen when my spots got real unpleasant. I think I went into a bit of a panic frenzy and I was most worried that people would think I didn't wash my face thorough enough and therefore when I bought face washes I would buy the ones that smelt the most chemically, as in my mind they would be strongest, and I even bought mens facial washes because I was under the impression that they would be better at blitzing my skin- basically I liked it when I felt as though it was too harsh for my skin, I liked the burning because in my head it meant it was working!?!
Also, I'd never buy one at a time I'd buy two or three or four at a time so that I could try them all and see which worked best- I now realise that this method is highly flawed and certainly not one that I recommend!
Anywho, thankfully I'm much kinder to my skin but I still havent got out of the habit of having multiple face washes on the go, here's my current set:

I really am truly not buying anymore until I'm down to one, and then I'm only buying one more as a back up!

I try to use no more than one or two face washes consistantly as I know it can take up to 6 weeks or more for the face wash to have positive affects on your skin and if I keep switching then I won't be able to keep track of how successful a specific face wash is

Currently I'm using the Loreal face wash in the morning- I like the little scrubber as it feels like it's getting deep into the pores.

Then at night I use the clearasil facial wash because it's specifically designed for night time use and is a little more moisturising and has a kind of 'milk' consistency.

The general rule for face washes is if its a gel it's good for cleansing oily skin, if it's a white-ish then it's better for moisturising while cleansing- even oily skin needs a moisturising cleanse once in a while.

These ones have not got a whole lot of mentioning:

...and there's a reason for that!
The MAC facial wash cost a grand total of £7 and it's a little bottle (but I use it when I'm travelling, but pretty much only then)
I would not re-buy for the following reason:
Does it cleanse my face? Yes
Does it cleanse my face two times better than a facewash that cost £3.50? Nuh-uh

If your a MAC junkie and like to try everything then I don't want to put you off buying it, I'm just saying that it's nothing special that Clearasil, Clean & Clear, L'oreal or Burts Bees can't give you already for much better value.

The last little things are my twice weekly facial scrubs- I'll use them before I go to sleep and they just polish everything up ever so nicely.
Lush's Sea Salt however is worth the investment, a big ol' tub this size works out cheaper than buying the little ones and it really does just make your face feel FRESH, fresher than any other facial scrub I used before.

little WARNING: This facial scrub is abbrasive so if you have sensitive/dry/flaky skin have a little test first to check it's not too drying on your skin!

So there you go, despite what I believed the world thought of me at the tender age of fifteen- I am a little cray cray with my face wash cleansing.

What's your favourite facial cleanser?

Recipe for a bath

Some people might be thinking, a recipe for a bath? What do you need other than to just add water...?

Well! I'm here to show you how we bathe over here, because if you're going to dedicate some time to a bath you may aswell do it properly.
All you need is:

Hair band and hair ties to keep your hair out of the water (unless you want to wash it in the bath of course)

A face mask- I'm using Cupcake by Lush- it smells of chocolate and mud, but mostly mud!

A bath bomb/bubble bath- today I used 'So white Bath Ballistic' by Lush - it's fizzleness is not that great but it's soo moisturising, it's like bathing in milk!

A candle- one of my favourite scents -Chocolate Orange from http://www.bombcosmetics.co.uk/

A bottle of water - I always get so darn thisty in the bath!

Usually I bring a book too but I had a little headache this morning and just wanted to close my eyes in the bath.

So this is how my bath window ledge looked today:

Don't you feel like you learned a little something about bathing? haha!

Are you a bath person, or are you more of a showerer?

Side note: I filmed a little tip/trick today about travelling with makeup which will be up next week too!