Late to the Party

Laidbare  Pack Your Bags Lighten & Tighten Eye Cream £7.99 for 30ml. What is it? An eye cream containing Buckwheat to help reduce puffiness and dark circles, Shea Butter to hydrate and Eyebright to help reduce the appearance of redness and to brighten the skin. Ingredients Aqua Caprylic/capric Triglyceride Cetearyl Alcohol Glycerin Glyceryl Stearate SE Cetearyl Glucoside Butyrospermum Parkii Butter Prunus Amygdalus Dulicis Oil Benzyl Alcohol Panthenol Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil Xanthan Gum Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil Dehydroacetic Acid Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Polygonum Fagopyrum Seed Extract Sodium Benzoate Rosmarinus Officinalis Leaf Extract Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract Euphrasia Officinalis Extract Pantolactone Potassium Sorbate  *Warning - Contains Almond Oil Scent and Texture Unscented. White cream texture. Application Laidbare recommend use in both morning and night routines. They also recommend application by pressing into the...

Despite trying hard not to fall for the lure of the January sales, I couldn't resist making a couple of purchases! Walden Perfume Sample Kit After receiving a 10ml rollerball of 'Live the Life' Perfume Oil by Walden in December's Love Lula Box, I really wanted to try more from this natural perfume brand. A 25% off voucher (also from the Love Lula box) afforded me the perfect opportunity to try some more. They all sounded so good, so I opted for the Mini Rollerball Sample kit, comprising of seven small 2ml vials of different scents. I loved every single offering - but I think my favourites are 'A Different Drummer' and 'The Solid Earth'. Read a full review here. Ffern - Winter '20 A surprise delivery this January as I only just managed to get my name down for the Ffern production ledger and thought that I would be too late for the Winter Solstice release. But this is the best type of surprise you can have, as Ffern's Wint...

After receiving a rollerball perfume oil bottle of 'Live the Life' by Walden in my last Love Lula Beauty Box - I was intrigued enough to want to explore this brand and its scents further. I've been using natural scents almost exclusively for the past couple of years now and it's definitely an area I want to embrace further and learn all I can about. Bryanna at The EcoLogical Blog wrote a fantastic detailed post about all the different scents in the Walden collection. In fact, she made them all sound so delicious that I couldn't decide which one to try next, so I opted for the Walden Rollerball Sample Kit (armed with the very generous 25% discount code from the Love Lula Beauty Box). Walden Natural Perfumes - Rollerball Sample Set 7 x 2ml £20.00 These mini rollerball perfumes are just a teensy 2ml each and I was slightly taken aback when I saw them and just how small they were (you'd think at aged 49 I might have some idea of how to visual...

I thought I might just have gotten away with it this season! The seasonal transition from Autumn to Winter is usually pretty dramatic - an instantaneous and very apparent switch in my skin where in a blink of an eye, I can be oily one day and dry, tight, sensitive and dehydrated the very next day. But as of yet, it's been an incredibly mild winter - who knows if the real severe weather is to follow in the next couple of months? My skin was behaving quite nicely up until I succumbed to a bad cold and my body felt all ill and stressed, my skin followed suit very rapidly. After a bit of a blip and utilising all the most potent products in my skincare arsenal, I've managed to bring my skin back under control. Here are my favourite winter products:  Products marked * are PR Samples. Morning Lime & Lilac - Light Facial Oil* This is perhaps the most versatile facial oil in my collection, suited for all-year-round-use and works in both my morning and...

A beauty subscription box that I have stuck with for the longest and most consistent time now and one that never fails to delight and inspire with every single edit (now bi-monthly) - the Skin Organics Clean Beauty Box always lights up my day. The January 2020 box has the theme of 'Nourish' and pretty much sums up exactly how I want to welcome in this new decade - not only do I want to nourish my skin as I head towards the age of Fifty but I want my mind, body and soul to be nourished too. This is (as usual) a gorgeous selection of products to see me into 2020. The Skin Organics Clean Beauty Box is a Bi-monthly subscription service offering a selection of five full/deluxe sample sized natural beauty, skincare and makeup products.  100% natural, organic, non-toxic, eco-friendly, cruelty free, ethically sourced and often from up and coming British Indie Natural Beauty brands, the products chosen are free from Parabens, Petrochemicals, PEGs (petroleum-based comp...

Urgh! I've felt so lethargic in the past few weeks and I'm no fan of the New Year as it is. I need a good project to sink my teeth into and try and myself to gee up a bit at the start of a new decade. 20/20 Vision Project Results This was a mega 18 month long project that I took part in with a degree of success. What did I learn? That it takes  forever  to finish up makeup items! Of the twenty skincare products I chose, I managed to finish all of them. But of the twenty makeup products I chose, I only managed to finish 12 of them. I de-cluttered another four (Elf Highlighter, Nars Cream Highlighter Stick, Inglot Cream Blusher and MUA Loose Powder). Four remained from this project that I'll be rolling over into the next project (see below). Twenty Skincare Products - all finished! Twenty Makeup Products: 12 finished/4 de-cluttered/4 rolled over to new project Twenty in Twenty Panning Project My aim for 2020 is to use up twenty of the oldest prod...