Monday, 16 July 2012

Simply pure: simply amazing!

Thanks to boots and their decision to discontinue my favourite cleansers, I have been on the look out for a new face cleanser for my poor dehydrated and ageing dry skin. What I am after is  a cleanser which:

  1. cleanses effectively
  2. specially formulated for dehydrated or dry skin
  3. doesn't cost the earth (maximum £6)
  4. visually attractive (nice packaging)
  5. something which has a nice smell or a smell which I won't be bored of half way through the bottle.
I stumbled on the Superdrug ‘Simply Pure Aqua Hydrating Cleansing Gel’ facial cleanser last week end and guess what? I am baffled on how many boxes this ticks already.

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The whole line was designed with sensitive skins in mind and are meant to very kind to your skin. No fragrance or parabens which some find irritate their skin, just kind for you, and as harmless as a feather coming close to your skin, hence the packaging. There are 4 ranges within the line, but more about that later.

When I read the description (see picture below) of the 'aqua hydrating cleansing gel' I felt it was just designed for me. I've already used it for a week now, day and night and I am happy to report that it works: No feeling of dryness, quite hydrating and it does exactly what it says on the tin. So that's 2 boxes ticked right away.



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The price was the aspect which shocked me the most. Usually this would retail at £4.59 but it was at half price. KERCHING. This sounds too good to be true. If I carry on enjoying this product, I won't have any problem repurchasing and it's even cheaper than my beloved discontinued botanics one. Can't go wrong with that!


The packaging is inoffensive, simple, discreet and minimalistic (a bugger to photograph though Winking smile) Will I get bored of the smell? Absolutely no risk of that, the product is fragrance free. So just like that, Superdrug ticked all the criteria boxes. BAM!


Do I love this cleanser? No. I will repurchase this product, without the shadow of doubt. It does everything I ask, it's functional but it doesn't send me to cloud nine. Yes the packaging is inoffensive but omg, how boring. I am drawn to something which reminds me of nature, something green, a leaf, a plant and now all I get is blue. I don't connect with this cleanser. At this point, I hear you scream 'get a grip, who needs to connect with a cleanser, a cleanser is supposed to cleanse your skin, not having a romantic fling with' I know, I know but what can I say, I miss the fresh herby olive oil or honey smell of my boots cleansers, I miss the cream texture (this one is a gel) and I am still grieving their disappearance. This aqua cleanser is like the guy you find at 2.00am when the bar is about to shut, the guy which will do I guess but it's not James Bond.


Have you found the james bond of cleansers?



If I am not mistaken, I *think* that the dehydrated range from simply pure range is still on half price at the moment, but don't delay if you want to try. This would also cater for oily skin, and yes oily skin can also be dehydrated. Even though the whole range is for sensitive skin, they also do a calming range,  combination skin range and oily skin (now the packaging for the oily skin grabs me so much more. I wish I had oilier skin just to be able to buy that)



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If, like me you've been left high and dry by Boots discontinuing your cleanser, one of these might be for you.  Thank you Superdrug Smile
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Friday, 6 July 2012

Shower Treats

If you were going on holiday, you could always, buy a set of travel bottles and fill them up with your current shower gel. Or you could take the fun route, chuck a few of these cute and colourful Weleda limited edition mini body washes at random in your case and be surprised at your holiday destination.



If you are new to the brand (I am), Weleda is a German organic brand committed to all things natural, organic, eco-friendly, sustainable and fair trade, so committed that they won the Best Ethical Range’ award in the latest Natural Health magazine Beauty Awards 2012.Last year Weleda celebrated their 90 years of existence releasing a Mini Body Oil Gift Set. This year, they have released a set containing five of their best-selling pampering body washes (Citrus, Sea Buckthorn, Pomegranate, Wild Rose and Lavender) all using a cleaning base of coconut, sugar and sesame oil.


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To my surprise, you can find Weleda products at Boots but I can't find this mini shower gel gift set online yet. Alternatively, you can get it on Weleda online at £9.95.



Do you know Weleda? Is there a product that you would recommend?


disclosure: I heard about this set by email today and received no compensation to write about it.
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Sunday, 22 April 2012

FashionistA: A look at the brand and a closer inspection at their Supermodel Kohl Eyeliners

If it wasn't through Twitter and the beauty blogging world, I would have never heard of Makeup brand 'Fashionista' spelt 'FashionistA', with a capital A at the end, just to be awkward different. Like Look Beauty which was born last year (around October 2011 I believe?) FashionistA suffers from a crucial lack of representation in the high street shops and they have yet to open a webstore.


If it was up to FashionistA, they would be in every Superdrug nationwide but sadly this isn't possible. I have a few suggestions on what stand they could get rid of but I don't think some cosmetics brands will be happy with that. ;)

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It was by pure chance yesterday that I discovered that there was finally had a stand of FashionistA Makeup in the Superdrug in Preston. I was not ready for what I was going to see:

A huge stand, slick black and red packaging, and all that at very affordable price which is music to my ears. Probably what FashionistA is most renowned for is their customisable palette system. You choose your shadows (49 to choose from!!) or blushes and you simply click them in a blank palette. Each individual shadow or blush cost £4. How cool is that! A picture is worth millions of words and expletives, so this is what I mean:


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You will have to excuse my enthusiasm if this is old news for you. For me, this company just appeared in a Superdrug not too far from my small neck of the woods and it feels it's brand new to me.


They hadn't receive testers for everything yet (I know already that I *will* own a customised palette at some point and pray to god that there are some matte eyeshadows in 49) but I have some swatches for the khol eyeliners if you want to see. The liners are at £4 each, they are lovely and butter soft, and as their name entails, they are named after supermodels. My pictures don't show them justice and Claudia (Schiffer, I presume) is a beautiful sparkly black.


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My favourite supermodel khol eyeliner? The gorgeous Heidi grey. I need to be careful on what I spend my money at the moment and already indulged on a small shopping spree yesterday but I will definitely travel again to that Superdrug and 'Heidi' will grace my lower lashline.

I leave you with a little montage I've made with pictures from the internet of their range of gel eyeliners. There are 13 shades in total, I didn't have room on the montage to feature the blackest black, it's not very easy to appreciate the nuances of grey and brown from these 'stock' pictures but hopefully these will give you an idea.


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Conclusion: I am so happy this brand is stocked by a Superdrug near me. I hope there is one near you too, ‘cause there are plenty of things to play with and lots of happy affordable makeup moments to be had :)



Do you own any FashionistA makeup? What are the must haves from the brand?
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