Elemis Hydra Balance Day Cream Review

Hey guys, it's been a while...

 It's safe to say A Level exams & blogging is a pretty impossible challenge. They're (finally) all over now & I really want to get back to blogging so here we are!

I visited a spa recently and they sold a range of Elemis products - if you haven't heard of them before they claim to be a company that use nature and science to develop all natural products - and don't test on animals.

My skin has been playing up extremely in the past year, the perks of being an 18 year old and I've had awful spots with an oily t-zone but dry patches everywhere else and I've found it impossible to find a moisturiser that doesn't make me break out more, that is until I discovered this beauty:

The Elemis Hydra Balance Day Cream

This Day Cream is for combination/oily skin and claims to hydrate dry patches and distribute the oil production on your face.

It's safe to say this has been a skin and life saver. I've only been using it for a week yet there's been visible improvements, my skin is moisturised and I've seen minimal new spots and no dry patches.

The moisturiser itself is very lightweight and absorbs into my skin without leaving a greasy residue and is a perfect day cream for me.

 At nearly £40 a pop I was quite wary but with the amount of high street moisturisers I've been through, it had to be worth a try.

With the wonders it's done to my skin combined with the tiny amount I have to use each time, the money spent was totally worth it and I know I'll be repurchasing this again.

Have you ever tried any Elemis products that you'd recommend for combination skin? If so let me know!

Lucy xx

February Favourites

Another month, another favourites list. It seems like yesterday that we were celebrating the new year and now here we are, about to go into March. Is it just me or is this year going even faster than usual?

This month my favourites consist of some brand new products and some old gems that I've rediscovered.
~Also, I'm really sorry these pictures turned out so badly, rubbish camera quality!~

 First up this month is the Molton Brown Skinboost 24 Hour Moisture Mist. I included this in my best and worst skincare and beauty products post last month. I absolutely adore this, it's like a tiny bottle of magic. I use it when my skin feels dry and looks pretty dull, after a few sprays my skin feels hydrated and smooth and looks more 'alive' I guess haha! It's definitely become a staple part of my skincare routine, I just can't believe I had it for so long without realising how amazing it is.

 Next up is a new purchase from this month. It's the Real Techniques Powder Brush (£10.99). I'm probably the only beauty blogger in the universe that has never purchased a Real Techniques brush, so with a tiny bit of money spare from my Brighton shopping trip (post coming soon!) I thought I'd finally give one a go. After getting rid of my horrific Maybelline powder I thought I should buy a decent powder brush to celebrate a better powder. It's safe to say I haven't been disappointed, the brush is super soft yet still blends in the powder really well, and the handle is lightweight so is really easy to use. Overall it is an amazing product and I think I'm definitely going to be buying more from the collection, especially for such a reasonable price.

Another product that happened to appear in my shopping haul from Brighton - The Urban Decay Naked Flush Palette (£22.00). I seem to have developed an obsession with Urban Decay this year, especially their Naked collection. I've never been a girl to be worried about contouring in any shape or form, the furthest I'd go would be a bit of blusher. 

After falling in love with this palette's sleek packaging and the gorgeous shades, I thought it might be worth a go. 

I use this quite often now as the formula for all three products is incredibly smooth and creamy, lasts all day and really does make a difference! I had a slight worry about the shades as I'm extremely pale, but as I've found out you can make the colour as subtle or dramatic as you want (a good feature for a bronzer newbie like me!), I definitely couldn't live without this when it comes to my make up.

And finally, my tv and film favourites of the month! 

So Teen Wolf has been around for a while now, and after constant gif sets and prompts from a friend I decided to start watching it. Safe to say I'm in love. The characters are amazing and the story lines are great (even if they do rip my heart out). I'm two episodes from being caught up and I can say it's one of the best shows I've seen. If you're a fan of the whole ~fantasy~ kinda genre, you should definitely watch it. (Plus Dylan O'brien is just perfection)

Now the big one. CAMP TAKOTAAAAAAAAAAA! When it came out that the trinity were making a film, I think I died slightly. It seemed that February 14th was slowly creeping up and I couldn't contain my excitement. When I finally received the email and watched it, I was in no way disappointed. The perfect mix of fuzzy feels, hilarious one liners and tear-jerking scenes has created one of my favourite movies of all time. I think I've watched it around 30+ times since Valentines Day, oopth?

If you haven't already you should definitely go buy it! (it's only $9.99, which is like what £6? Major bargain.)

I hope everyone had a great February, what are some products that you've been loving?

Until next time!

Lucy 

xx

The best (and worst) skin care and beauty products that I own

Everyone has their staple beauty products that they couldn't live without. Unfortunately we all have our beauty products that were more of a miss, so I thought I'd give you a few of my favourite products and also a few that I won't be repurchasing.

The Good

Urban Decay Naked 1 & 3: I know, I go on about these a lot, but they have become staple palettes in my make up look. I adore everything about them, the simple yet gorgeous packaging, the soft brushes and of course the mix of creamy, pigmented matte and shimmer shades. I just adore the fact that most of the shades can go together to create endless looks!

Benefit World Famous Neutrals - Easiest Nudes Ever: I used this in my first ever blog post and I adore it. When I'm in a rush or can't be bothered to figure out what colours I'm going to use from my other palettes, I pick this up. The cream potted shadows are so smooth and don't crease and the powdered shadows are gorgeous colours and also don't crease. I love that this palette is so simple,  if you're feeling extra lazy, there's a step by step guide inside to a great eye look. 

Rimmel Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara: For around half a year now I've wanted to try out Benefits They're Real! Mascara because of how extremely long peoples lashes seemed to be after using it, but I have lost that extreme desire now I've found this mascara. For half the price, my lashes look almost unnaturally thick and long. This was actually an impulse buy because the packaging was so bright, I'm so pleased that I picked it up because I know I'm going to be re-purchasing this again and again.

Quinoderm 10 Cream: This is actually a pharmacy over the counter product. I don't suffer with acne, but when I get a skin breakout I've found it really hard to find a product that gets rid of my spots. This cream does the trick, it reduces the spot with in a day, normally they're gone in 2-3 days. The only thing I'd say about this is it is quite harsh on the skin, If I don't moisturise a lot my skin gets very dry in the areas I've placed the cream. (but I guess it is quite strong as it's used for acne, so what should I expect!) I couldn't live without this cream for bad breakout days. OH! And it's ridiculously cheap! £2.65 for 25g (which lasts me months)

Molton Brown Skinboost 24 Hour Moisture Mist: Unfortunately, you can't get this any more which sucks, but I've still got some of mine left from a previous Christmas set. I use this when I get unusually dry skin, one or two sprays on my face make my skin feel hydrated and healthy, I'm going to be gutted when I use the last of it because it's really helped to keep my skin moisture locked!

And the bad..

Maybelline Fit Me Powder: This is probably my least favourite product in my entire make up collection. I have dry-combination very fair skin and this powder seems to leave me with a shinier face than I had to begin with, if I have a very dry spot it tends to cling to it more and become more clumpy. It also tends to have a pretty poor coverage unless I build it up a lot, and then it doesn't last throughout the day. I cannot wait to purchase a new powder and say goodbye to this product. 

77 Eyeshadow Palette from War Paint: I have to say I didn't expect a lot from this palette. I received it as a Christmas gift and I knew it was a very inexpensive palette. The colours are very chalky and have quite a bad pigmentation to them, so to get the colour you have to apply a very heavy amount of shadow. The colours don't last for an entire day, but for a few hours you can build up an okay eye look, if you remember to remove all the fall out. However, it was very cheap and was one of the first palettes I owned, so for a younger me it did the job. 

Tea Tree Facial Toner: First thing - this product being in 'the bad' is no fault of the actual product. I was told by a Body Shop representative that the tea tree range would be great for my dry-combination skin. As I often got break outs and red patches I agreed and ended up buying most of the range (big mistake). After using this toner a lot I realised it actually dried my skin out terribly (which after research was understandable as this is meant for oily skin.) . The only good thing about this product is the fact it did leave my face very clean and reduced the spots I had. (much unlike the tea tree concealer that made me break out a treat)

Freederm Fast Track Spot Gel: This product did, well nothing. I purchased it for it's miracle '3 hour redness reducing' qualities, but after using it the product had no effect on my skin. The only noticeable difference was a dryness and actually slightly more spots than before. At £5 a pop I wouldn't recommend this for anyone, this was a case of a bad impulse buy!

I hope you liked reading this, comment below with your best and worst beauty and skin products!

Until next time

Lucy 

xx