My Skincare Essentials!

Hey guys! So I hope those of you who are off for Easter are having a good time off and aren't getting too bogged down by revision like I am! Also if you live in England you'll know we've been having fairly sunny weather, maybe summer is somewhere round the corner hey! And for the rest of you I hope your weather is good wherever you may be too! So I thought I'd share with you guys some of my skincare essentials,things that I use on a daily basis and give you my opinion on them so here goes!

So my first skincare essentials are two facial washes by Petal Fresh Botanicals. The first is the Peppermint and Aloe Facial Cleanser, I use this every morning and its soo refreshing and smells really good too. It's also gentle enough as I have sensitive skin and I find it's really balancing, it has a kind of gel to foam formula and has been a firm favourite of mine for months. The second is the Aloe and Apricot Facial Scrub which is my absolute favourite! This scrub is so good and really exfoliates your skin but is still gentle, I tend to use it every other day and I love it, it's not harsh or scratchy like so many other scrubs I've used. It's also a really good dupe for St Ives Apricot scrubs, in fact I prefer this one! At only £1.99 per tube for 200ml they're such good value for the quality, only problem is I've never seen them in chain stores only in independent pharmacies so they're a bit difficult to get hold of!

So my next skincare essentials aren't so much essentials as I don't use them every day, but if they weren't as pricey to buy I probably would! These are the mini versions of: Foamingly Clean Facial Wash, It's potent! Eye Cream and Refined Finish Facial Polish, from the Benefit Skincare set. There are 6 mini's in the set but these 3 are definitely my favourites. Both face washes are gentle and feel a little bit more luxurious than your bog standard cleansers and scrubs. I especially love the eye cream as I find it really brightens my under eyes and makes my skin round my eyes more glowy as I unfortunately suffer from pretty chronic dark under eye circles. The bigger versions of these are a little on the pricey side, hence why I don't have them as my paper money doesn't quite stretch that far with all the other clothes and make-up I buy!

On a cheaper note, I love these oil balancing wipes that I picked up from Primark. You get two packs of 25 for £1 so of course they're a bargain! These wipes are super refreshing and are great for quickly swiping over your face especially on those summer days when you're going bare-faced. They smell quite strongly of teatree yet don't really sting when used near your eyes, like a lot of teatree products do. I find they're really handy just to chuck in my handbag when on the go, leave my face feeling fresh and are really affordable so are a winner all round!

The next couple two are by simple and I originally bought just for Germany to save taking full size bottles of other products with me. But after using them both for 10 days I found that I really like them, especially the moisturiser,which is light enough yet still really good and moisturising  even though I have combination skin. The travel bottle is quite hard to get the product out of though,which is a bit annoying but it's a good travel option. The wash too is more a product I use when I'm away for the night rather than everyday but is a nice foaming wash with a pleasant smell too. They'd be good for people with normal skin I guess or on a budget.

So the next thing I always buy/use are face masks, I try to do at least one mask a week on a evening while I relax and my favourites are the ones by 'montagne jeunesse' as I've always used them but I also love the ones from Superdrug and H&M as I've started to buy them more recently. Pretty much all face masks smell really good and are nice on your skin plus they're amazing for sleepovers with the girls!

And finally my last essential is the T-Zone Rapid Action Zapping gel, basically I apply this when I have a bad blemish and it tends to reduce the redness and make it less noticable, obviously I don't use this everyday but it's definitely essential to keep in my bathroom or my handbag if i'm out all day :-)

So that was my some of my skin essentials I hope you enjoyed reading, tell me what you think or if you use any of these products! Also notice I've finally sorted out my bloglovin' and there is now a button on my page too,woo! That's all for now, but I'm going to be uploading more on here so stay tuned!

Love 

Georgie xx

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February Favourites (Beauty Post)

So it's not quite the end of February yet but since it's the end of halfterm/midterm and then it's back to school this week, then my birthday and then on the 5th I'm off to Germany for 10 days, I thought I'd fit in some posts now! So these are my favourites for the month of February, yes I thought I'd jump on the blogger bandwagon of doing monthly favourites then every couple of months do a giveaway of some things that have previously appeared on my favourites. This months favourites are a selection of products that I have bought over the last few weeks and I love using (hence why they are my favourites aha).

The first of my favourites is the Olay essentials beauty fluid for normal/dry/combo skin (below right) and I am so happy with this! I personally have combination skin with dry skin across the bridge of my nose and some on my cheeks and then the typical teenage oily t-zone. This moisturises my skin so well leaving all my skin soft and smooth without being greasy or drying. I heard about this product from my Great-nan! She swears by it and has lovely skin even though she's in her 90's, so if it's good enough for her, it's good enough for me! But yeh I use this everyday after washing my face and it is a good base for make up too,or like it says on the back you can mix with your foundation to make a really nice tinted moisturiser.

My next favourite is Rimmel 9-in-1 BB cream in the shade Light (above left). I bought this after a friend recommended it to me. I was a bit sceptical when buying this after I was really disappointed by the Rimmel Stay Matte Foundation (ew). But I was surprised by this foundation as it offers a fresh-faced natural looking finish with decent coverage which can be built up. I bought this for the days where I don't need a thick face of foundation but need some lighter coverage and I've found it to be perfect for that. As for the 9-in-1 properties as the packaging say: Primes,Moisturises, Minimises Pores, Conceals, Covers, Smoothes, Mattifies, Brightens and helps protect. Now I wouldn't say it does all of these but it definitely is a really moisturising bb cream which gives a natural non-shiny finish and evens out skin tone as well as giving a good amount of coverage. My only criticism is that it only comes in two shades, Light and Medium, which doesn't really cater for many as the light shade is still quite dark making this probably too dark for more fair skinned people, but apart from that I love it.


My next favourite is the Collection 16 hour Lasting Perfection Concealer in the shade number 2 Light (pictured below). Now every beauty blogger,youtuber, and their dog have raved and written about this concealer so I thought I'd join the club and buy it too! After trying many concealers in attempts to cover the constant grey under my eyes I have found something that works! Yes I am going to join in and rave about this product too! This concealer gives great long lasting coverage and covers not only my horrendous dark circles and brightens but also covers any blemishes really well too. I have blended it with both my ring finger and with a concealer brush and it looks just as good with both. There is also a good selection of colours and this shade needs barely any blending on my skin. Also with it being around £4-£5 (it was half price at around £2.50 when I bought it)  it's affordable and better quality than a lot of other more expensive concealers too. I loooove it.

My next favourite is another Collection product, this time the Extreme 24 hour felt tip liner (above). I've only got into wearing eye liner in the last couple months as before I was convinced it made me look too gothic with my dark hair and all, but then my friend introduced me to the cat-eye and I was captured by the trend. I've treid a few different liquid eye liners but I've found them hard to use and my eye liner has ended up looking a bit pants really. My friend bought me this and the pen style is so easy to use and is practically fool proof. It's also easy to create thin and thick lines with, so is ideal. If I can use it then so can anyone! Saying that I don't think it's 24 hour exactly, more 7-8 hours without touch ups but longer with touch ups. But this is a favourite of mine as it is easy to control and gives a nice matte. But it is affordable and definitely a good budget buy giving good quality and easy application.


So my next favourite is a hair product which I saw advertised quite a bit and that is the L'Oréal Paris Studio Line #TXT Wave Creating Spray (pictured below). On the back it has instructions for spraying on damp hair and twisting then blow drying to create waves on straight hair. My hair is already wavy/curly and I just have to spritz this through while dry or damp, scrunch it a bit then leave it to dry and I've found it really defines my curls without being sticky or leaving my hair crunchy like lots of other products I've used. This is perfect for my hair to make my curls less frizzy and more defined which is a massive thing for me after trying endless hair products to achieve that. It also works well on straight hair (my friend was my guinea pig) and it creates more of a tousled beachy wave look but either way I love it! It kind of smells like johnson's baby wipes though. It's normally £3.89 at boots or superdrug but I got mine at the local pharmacy for £2.99. 

So the last products in my favourites this month are probably my favourite things, I'm literally obsessed with them and they are two eos lipbalms in flavours: Raspberry and Pomegranate (below left) and Strawberry Sorbet (below right). I've wanted to try one of these for ages but they seem to be a pain in the arse to get in the UK (let me know if you know anywhere that does them please!). So when my bestfriend Dulcie went on the half term school trip to New York I asked her to buy me two and she did! I literally love these so much, they smell amazing, are super moisturising and the packaging is so cute! I really like the shape of them which at first I thought I'd find annoying but I actually love,they look really pretty on my desk and are just really handy and nicer than a lot of other lip balms I've tried and trust me I'm the lipbalm queen! I literally have loads of lipbalms and these are up there with the best of them. I'm definitely going to buy some more of these now I know that they're amazing even if I have to pay ridiculous shipping fees haha! 

So that concludes my February favourites! I hope you liked them and let me know if you've tried any of the products and what you think of them or any suggestions of products I should try (sorry if I rambled a bit!). Also I apologise for the dodgy quality photos but my Iphone camera is a bit cracked! I hope you all have a good week and I plan to post a few more times before I leave for Germany so watch this space :-) Anyway thanks if you took the time to read!
Love
Georgie xx

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Winter's Coming: Christmas Present Shopping

Hello! So today's post as promised is a Christmas shopping/ present guide thingy, although it won't be much help for ideas or as a guide to many people unless you've left your Christmas shopping even later than mine! So really it's just a chance for you to have a nosey at what I've bought for people! I've bought these in my local shopping town and in Cardiff when I went there but it's all pretty much available in most stores of the same chain. Any presents I have bought online aren't featured in this sorry!




So the first thing I bought was a 'Champney's Sports Therapy Gym Ready Kit For Men' set (£14) as one of my item's in the boots 3 for 2 offer. So I wanted to get something kind of toiletries related for this person and it has to be something from a recognisable brand with him! I've used some of the women's Champney's toiletries myself and have always found them to be really good and nicely scented. This set includes a hair&body wash, an antiperspirant, a gym towel (not much bigger than a flannel if I'm honest) and a folding water bottle,I thought this would be perfect for this person considering he's been saying for ages that he is going to go to the gym! The packaging too is really nice and simplistic, but if you get this be careful the lid comes off really easily!





The next thing I got was 'Soap and Glory Bright and Bubbly' (£10) set, yes good old soap and glory, pretty much a favourite with everybody and anybody.This particular set includes the classic items: Clean on Me shower gel, The Righteous Butter body butter, The Scrub Of Your Life body buffer, Hand food hand cream and a Shower Puff. I love the hand cream personally and have tried many of the soap and glory products (I recommend mist me madly) so definitely had no doubts in picking up this set. this was also part of the 3 for 2 in boots as well. The packaging is classic soap and glory pink but the box itself is red. The box is really cute and has like candy cane style stripes and is something you could use again afterwards.






The next item I got as my 'free' gift in the boots 3 for 2 was a Ted Baker Box (should of been £10). I honestly bought this completely from looking at the packaging with no idea at all what was inside, I know that sounds really stupid but no matter how many aisles of 3 for 2 I went down I kept coming back to this box. The packaging completely caught my eye and I thought it was so cute and pretty and I guess the fact I bought it not knowing what was inside just because I liked the box really shows the power good packaging can have on a potential buyer haha or just idiots like me who like pretty colours! I have looked since I've got home and this box contains: Body Wash, Body Souffle,Bath Foam and Body spray, all in mini form with cute bottles! And it comes with pretty tissue paper too!

The next thing I bought was the most expensive single item and it was the Benefit Make-up 'Let's Make Lovely' set which includes mini versions of classic Benefit best-selling products: They're Real mascara, Porefessional -pore primer thingy, It's Potent eye cream and hoola bronzing powder. I got this as it includes a good range of products that I have personally tried so I know that they are good quality and are versatile. I chose this set in particular (with the help of the benefit counter lady) as I thought that these were the products that my gift-receiver would like best and would actually get used. I was still on a budget and thought getting this set of minis would be nicer than just one product from Benefit. I paid £19.50 for this set a couple weeks ago but it is now reduced down to £15.60 -.- 


The next thing I bought was in Superdrug, I bought 
this make-up collection kit as it it's one of those sets that has what you need to create a certain look. This one is 'Studio London Pretty Natural' and has some really pretty colours in it,you can't seem them that well in the pictures but they are really lovely and still quite subtle. It has a blush and highlighter kit which has a really pretty girl pink colour in it and a set of 3 eye shadows all in different but still neutral colours. The friend I bought this for is a bit of a make-up lover so hopefully this will go down pretty well. I have also used Studio sets before so know that they
 are of decent quality rather than some of the bog-
standard cheap crappy sets I have previous encountered.
 Also this was reduced down from £13 pounds down 
to £5 so is a bit of a steal too!

Okay so these are the last few things I purchased and all of them are from H&M, first a beauty blender style make-up sponge- my friend has been going on about wanting this for ages! So I bought it for her to shut her up ;-) it was only £1.99 so inexpensive compared to others, I have no idea on the quality though! The next thing I bought was a cute make-up pouch in a polka dot print pattern, this is such a good size and would be perfect to pop in your handbag or schoolbag with your make-up essentials in! It's plastic too so means you can wipe it clean if something spills in it and has a normal zip on it for safe keeping, again this was £1.99 so a really affordable gift that you could fill with goodies! Last thing I bought was this really cute silver glitter Iphone 4 case, I absolutely love this and would have got
 one for myself too if I had an Iphone! But yeah it's really 
pretty and glam and was only £3.99, much cheaper than
 many Iphone cases you get at some stores!


So that is my present guide, sorry it's a bit late but I have been extremely busy packing and sorting as I finally move house on Friday! I know, only 5 days before Christmas eek! Anyway as normal any comments, suggestions or feedback are welcome. Hope you are all feeling festive and jolly!
Love
Georgie xx

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