Out with the old, in with the new!

From the title, you might have guessed I've been buying more things I probably shouldn't be. But in my defence I did spend way less that I'd intended to. You might have remembered a while back I was complaining about my skin and how I was on the lookout for a new cleanser, toner and moisturiser for the winter to fight the miserable freezing rain and the bitter winds. In fact here's that post here - Daily Skin.

I did quite a lot of research and I was all set on buying from Lookfantastic.com but it ended up on being near on £60 for the products I was looking at and considering I have a child and it's nearly Christmas, I had to refrain. But, I found these little gems when I was out shopping the other week.

First up the cleanser. This can be found at Boots for £4.99 Now I've been getting on pretty well with my Bright eyes eye cream from Good Things (review can be found here: Good morning bright eyes) and thought that I'd give them a chance on cleansers as well. The words 'fresh start' caught my eye as that's exactly what we all want in the morning, a fresh face for a fresh day, am I right? I love the fact that all Good Things products are free from any bad toxins and crappy stuff that might be sneaking their way into other products (not saying they are but can never be too sure when you have sensitive skin!). It's got 'super fruit extracts' which apparently boost your skin and get rid of all that nasty dirt and make up residue you might have not had time to take off the night before. It's a pretty creamy texture and you just rub onto a dry face in light circles for a minute then gently wash it all away. Although it's quite a thick formula, it's not actually one of those cleansers that stick to your face and are a nightmare of scrubbing to get off. Another plus is that it smells pretty amazing, as I've found is a constant with Good Things products. After washing off it does what it promises - your skin feels boosted, clean and ready for the day! Definitely would recommend.

Now the toner. This was also from Boots and only £3.99 for a 200ml bottle! This has actually got to be one of my favourite toners that I've used. It's the usual drill, pour some onto a cotton pad and rub all over your face and let it dry. It gives your skin a real tingly feeling after you've finished and it gets rid of any excess dirt your cleanser just hasn't reached, which means it can be good for a quick fix if you don't have much time to be thoroughly washing your face in the morning. It says it's triple active meaning it gets rid of any impurities, is for sensitive skin (yay!) and leaves it 'velvety smooth'. I must agree with all of these points. It just makes my skin feel oh so clean (even after the cleanser!) and it doesn't make your face feel dry or tight after use like I've found with quite a lot of toners. Again it smells pretty great, can't really explain what it smells of, but it's good. Another one I'd recommend and at only £3.99 it's a steal.

Another pink bottle! This one was from Boots at £5.99, so the most expensive of the bunch but still really cheap. This is from Garnier's new moisture match selection and this is the one for dry skin. It rounds out my purchase at a perfect 10 for all three products! It's a really thick formula so you only need about two pea sized amounts for your whole face which is really good as the bottle is only 50ml. I'm always a bit worried about moisturisers as the creamier ones I usually go for usually leave your face feeling really really greasy but this one does the opposite! It absorbs into your skin really quickly, leaving it feeling silky smooth, it's even sorted out the oily bit I have on my chin so I'm pretty darn happy. The only downside to it is it did sting a tiny bit around my eyes but I do have a cold at the moment, so that might have just been because my eyes are already a little irritated. Besides that I think it's a really good buy and they also do four others;

Protect and glow illuminating light lotion

Which is perfect for 'lacklustre' skin and gives it a healthy glow.

Shine be gone mattifying cream

For those of you who have combination skin which can get a bit shiny throughout the day.

Start afresh light softening cream

For normal to dry skin to give it a smooth hydrated feel but not as intense as the one I bought

Wake me up revitalising hydrating gel

Perfect for dull skin that needs a little pick me up, might actually try this one myself.

All together the products only cost me £14.97 which is perfect as they're things I really needed but couldn't really afford to splash out on and also they've turned out to be perfect for me!

Have you found your new winter skincare products? Or are you going to stick to your tried and tested favourites? Let me know below! xo.

Daily Skin

I've been having a bit of a block on what to post about recently and completely forgot I had planned to do a daily skincare regime post after the My everyday post a couple weeks back. So here it is!

From left to right: 

Lush Ocean salt face scrub £7.25 100g

Lush Fresh pharmacy cleanser £4.75 100g

Lush Breath of fresh air toner £3.95 100g

Steam cream moisturiser £13.00 85g

Bright eyes treatment cream £5.99 15ml

Skin system facial wipes 

Trial sized Charity pot body cream  £1 10g

Wow when you write it all down it does seem like quite a lot.. I have reviewed a couple of these products before so will just touch on them briefly and include links for anyone who missed the previous posts. 

First of all the cleansers;

The ocean salt is an exfoliating facial scrub which smells amazing. It's by far my favourite Lush product and makes my skin feel amazing. This is strictly a once a week product as the lovely lady at Lush told me, you are only supposed to exfoliate once a week at most otherwise you will dry out your skin and nobody wants that now they? It's obviously all natural products, made with sea salt, grapefruit infusion and (the weird one) organic lime extracted in vodka among lots of other things. I've been using this product for over a year now and think it's going to carry me well into the winter! The one on the right is the Fresh pharmacy daily cleanser. You just wet your face, rub all over and then rinse off! Easy as pie :) It's great for a quick cleanse when you don't have a lot of time and I use it everyday without fail. And the amazing thing is I bought a 150g portion back on my birthday which is in the middle of June, and it's barely gone down at all. Well worth the money.

I haven't featured the toner or bright eyes cream as I've previously reviewed them in My everyday and Good morning bright eyes. The steam cream I have also previously reviewed, but felt like having another little rave about it. This pot was bought in April time and as you can see I've still got quite a bit left! It's a new all-in-one natural moisturiser that's really light and promises to keep your skin hydrated all day. It can also be used all over the body and for your hands as well so it's a pretty good all rounder. This charity pot was an impulse buy to support one of Lush's charities. I have previously bought the big pot of it which is £8.75 for 95g or £12.95 for 240g. I love this product but when I bought it before I kept forgetting I actually had it and of course, it went off. I tend to use this little trial pot for these annoying dry patches of skin I get on my arms and it seems to be working pretty well. I also haven't featured the wipes as these are just some cheap ones I picked up in Wilkinson's for sensitive skin. They're good for just wiping over your face after using cleanser to make sure there's no make up residue left.

That's my everyday but I am running out of all of these and have been looking into new more high end products for winter. Those harsh icy winds dry out my skin something chronic! After googling around I've picked out a cleanser, toner and moisturiser that I might have to try soon. 

Clarins gentle foaming cleanser for dry skin £18 125ml

No.7 soothed gentle toner £8 200ml

L'Oreal Paris skin perfection day moisturiser £9.99

I've never tried any facial products from any of these brands before and going by the customer reviews they sound like what I'm looking for. Check back for a post on these soon! I'm going to stick with my ocean salt for an exfoliator as the rest of that pot will last me at least another month yet. 

What products do you think are best for Winter this year? 

Good morning bright eyes!

When I was younger, we used to live in the lovely little town of Caerphilly in South Wales, but as we moved a little late in the school year the only school places we could get were in Newport which is about a 45 minute drive each way. This meant many years of getting up pretty darn early to drive to get to school on time. This and the fact I have a nearly three year old who refuses to sleep past half 7 or 8 in the morning (I really should learn to go to sleep earlier!) unfortunately seems to have left me with permanent dark circles under my eyes. I've never really tried any sort of eye cream before, thinking god I'm only 20 I'm too young to start on all the creams! But it's got to the point where concealer's not really covering it and my eyes do feel quite puffy in the mornings so I gave in and went trawling the shop for a nice cream. I guess now I'm past my teenage years I should accept the fact I can't stay up til 2 in the morning and still wake up at 7 fresh as a daisy! 

I didn't really want to buy an expensive one as I didn't know how well it would actually work. I found the Good Things Bright Eyes eye cream in Tesco for £5.99. (it can also be bought at Boots for the same price).

The bottle is pretty small, only 15ml, but you barely need any on so it will probably last quite a while. It's got a lovely smell as it's made from raspberry and Lychee extracts, which are supposedly super fruits. Going to have to try eating a few more of these, it's gotta be good for you! The best thing about this product for me, is that it's free from any harmful chemicals which is great for my sensitive skin. I've only used it a couple of times, I am notoriously lazy when it comes to taking my make up off before bed, something I really need to rectify as I used to have a pretty good nighttime skin care regime. But the times I have used it, it has made my skin feel very awake and refreshed which has got to be a good sign, and it has removed the puffy feeling in the morning.

I've also seen that they do a Instant dark circle concealer cream as well, which I might try out as my concealer is on it's very last legs, been scraping the sides of the bottle for about a week now. Hope everyone had a great weekend, I'm just off to take Tayla to the farm before she starts nursery tomorrow! They grow up too fast :( Will post a couple pictures on tomorrow's post for anyone who wants to have a look, have a great Monday :) 

Oh and just a quick thank you to all my regular readers, (you know you are) for getting me to over 1000 views :D