My very own little beauty elixir

I have been going on about it so much, I think you will have got the gist by now that I 'suffer' from very dry skin. I am not in pain or anything, and ‘suffer’ might not be the best word but I have dry skin on my face and I don't like it. I have been trying to look after it more since June and it has got a lot better. I have been using a toner and a serum most days, using face masks weekly but I still need a little helping hand every now and then when I have been a bit forgetful about my new routines.


Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to my little helping hand which I have been absolutely in love with. I’d love to be able to proudly say that I’ve discovered it by myself, but I can’t. I first heard about it while reading Laura Louise makeup, a blog I am very fond of.
It's called 'Moisture Boost Hydro Mist', designed by the folks at Simple Skincare.







Packed with lotus flower, glycerin, vitamin E, and much more, it does exactly what it says on the bottle. One pump sprayed on one half of my face, then one on the other side of the face, and 20 seconds later, my skin has such a lovely glow to it. Not a shiny disco ball glow, not a greasy oil slick finish, just a very natural_omg_have_you_changed_your_moisturiser_I_want_one_of_them_too lovely glow about it.

   
I like to spray it after my makeup is complete. The mist is so fine that it doesn't disrupt my makeup whatsoever. The best bit about it, it has no perfume added and doesn't smell of anything. Try to beat that Caudalie ;)






Perhaps you have crocodile dry skin like me, perhaps you've applying too much powder to set your makeup and your face is looking a little flat, in either case, you need to give this a go. Trialling it will set you off by £5.99. I never bought it full price, I bought it at £4 in August, in Superdrug, when most of the simple skincare products were at £2 off. The little 50ml spray bottle is just the perfect size: perfect for your travels. I love this so much, I'd like to call it my little beauty elixir.







Would I repurchase this? I've already have. I bought two more in August, while the offer was on.


Note: This is not a refreshing mist, to apply on the go, throughout the day. This is something gentle and powerful at the same time. I find that I only need to spray it once in the morning, after I’ve done my makeup. I applied it twice one day, with just maybe 2 hours after my first spray, whilst I was trialling the product at the beginning, and it was definitely too much! Well, perhaps you can apply it more than once a day, but my face definitely didn't need an extra pump 2 hours afterwards!  



What: Simple Kind to Skin Moisture Boost Hydro Mist
How much: RRP is £5.99. Look out for offers in Superdrug and in Boots. Currently (October 2012) on a 3 for 2 mix and match at Boots
Purchased it myself

Sunday evening is now my #bloggingdate with my friend Sirvinya. Check out what she blogged about today. This week, I have been particularly enjoying the look she created with the Mua Cosmetics trio eyeshadow in shade innocence.

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Tropical Pampering and face mask mania

If I had all the money in the world, I would be booking regular  facials at the beautician and be pampered non stop. Sadly, I am  only an administrative assistant and I am more or less living on  my overdraft. Temptations arising from my daily blog reads don't  help but I've never been raking in money, even before I started  blogging. Lately, I've started a face masks routine at home, whereby  Sunday is dedicated to a weekly facial.


This is how I had envisaged it would go before embarking on this  routine:
On a Sunday evening, around 8pm, I would pat myself on the back  for having prepared a week worth full of blog posts. My flat  would be immaculately clean and tidy. You could smell the lemon  of Mr clean on the floor, you could actually have your dinner on  the floor it's that clean. I would then decide to relax, burn a  coconut candle maybe, sip a cup of decaf coffee, nourish my nail cuticles, apply a face mask, then quickly jot some notes down  about face mask for blogging at a later stage. I would go to bed, refreshed and  nourished from the inside.


This is how it usually goes:
It's 22:39 and I realise that I've  done naff all, all week end apart from tweeting myself into  oblivion, complaining there was not enough sun for taking  pictures for the blog, and watching 7 episodes of 24 back to  back. The flat is an absolute tip, so I decide to put on a face  mask at 11pm because what the hell, wasting a further 15 minutes  out of a whole week end is not going to make it worse, is it? I  would go to bed, with a lovely nourished skin while it's chaos  everywhere else.



When I first shared with you my purchase of the 'self heating smoothie mask' with apricot, peach and mango, I remember one of  my readers warning me that 'Be really careful with the heating  facemask from there. I felt like Samantha in the episode of SATC  when she has the facial peel'. I took little notice of it. I am  a big fan of sauna masks. Psychologically, when it heats up, it  cleans better, and the cleaning gets deeper.  The same way as  you soak a crusty porridge bowl in hot water to dissolve the  dried left overs, cleansing your skin with heat is better, well,  in my head anyway.





The claims of this smoothie mask are quite big: For 99p, it  claims to whisk you to the tropics, turn up the heat, deep  cleanse your skin and intensely moisturise it.






I decided to put  my mask in the bath while I had a head full of dripping  conditioner. On opening the sachet, I was greeted by a lovely  smell of mango peach and the most delicate texture. I thought  the mask really deserved its smoothie name. I couldn't wait to  apply it on my face. Heating sensation was not as hot as I  expected but it was hot enough to make me feel it's doing  something. Immediately after removing the mask, I felt it had  cleansed my skin really well (I felt squeaky clean) but my skin  felt a bit tight and dry. Not what I would expect from a  moisturising mask!


I didn't moisturise my skin right away and was still in the  bath, rinsing my hair and going about mah business, in the bath.  I couldn't wait to get out of the bath and moisturise my face.  Following morning and it was a whole different story: My skin  looked brighter, felt so smooth and the feeling of dryness and  tightness had totally gone. My skin felt so clean, it almost  felt a little bit like I had a salon micro dermabrasion the night  before. This feeling of smoothness lasted about 1 week and a  half which is more than a regular exfoliation or home micro  dermabrasion done at home would give me.



I feel this mask is very potent, maybe too potent for me and I  don't even have a sensitive skin. I feel I shouldn't repurchase  it but I have been thinking about it all the time ever since.  The only thing which has stopped me from re buying it is the  fact that, surprise surprise, my local store didn't have any. I  wouldn't recommend this mask for anyone with a sensitive skin. I  wouldn't even recommend for me, to be honest but this deep down  cleanse felt so good, and the smoothness lasted so long that I  want it  again in my life and soon!



What about that immediate tight and dry feeling you had after  removing the mask, will you ask?
I think I can remedy to that.  My ultimate favourite body scrub does exactly the same: If I  don't go and moisturise right after, it leaves my skin tight and a little bit itchy. So I reckon if I tone and moisturise right  after, I should be ok.



Now for the annoying part. Superdrug redesigned all their face  masks, I am a bit lost and I don't like the new look of the  masks. I think the smoothie mask has survived the redesign. I  mean the packs look ok, but I preferred the old design. I can't  help but thinking someone went to complain to Superdrug and  thought that the model on the packaging was always Caucasian and  that it was not representative of the multi ethnicity of  Britain. So maybe it's better after all. Well, at least, it’s not god awful packaging like montagne jeunesse. Sorry but I just can’t go past the packaging of montagne jeunesse masks, why do they all have stuff in their eyes, painful!







Any masks from this new collection which you fancy trying?



I reviewed the 'superfruit smoothie one' here if you fancy reading about it
There are so many I want to try. Superdrug needs to make a 3 for 2 offer me thinks.




What: Superdrug Self Heating Smoothie Mask
Where: Superdrug
How much: £0.99
Disclaimer: I bought these myself

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Lucky encounter with a ped egg

I was super excited when I won a ped egg on a blog giveaway. I have a fair amount of dry skin mainly on the balls of the feet area which I have been dealing with a callus shaver (it looks like a potato peeler).  So, I could not wait to try this little number and compare the two.





When It arrived in the post, it looked even more like a metallic cheese grater for feet that I expected and I was a bit scared frankly. So scared, that my first attempt was very pathetic. I could not see any difference at all, and I was not putting enough pressure and it was not doing anything.


I put a bit more pressure, in the hope of collecting some parmesan coppers (to photograph for you, aren’t you lucky!) like in the advert, but all I was collecting was a pathetic little foam and it was going everywhere, but not in the lid, where I was supposed to go.

 


I kept at it, (after all, who cares if it goes everywhere, i can dust it off afterwards, right?) and put a bit more pressure. I found the result to be pretty uneven: in parts, I felt it removed too much skin, in some others, it was like it needed more.


I am convinced I will get better results if i practise more and once i get the hang of it, it will be all right, but the overall feeling is that I can't get past this metallic grater feeling and it makes me uncomfortable. Oh I am such a wuss…

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