Late to the Party

  I managed to be reasonably restrained this year with new purchases, focusing instead on what I already had in my stash and using items up before buying new ones. But 2018 still managed to be a year for new discoveries - in particular, I found myself veering into the 'Natural & Clean Beauty' lane.  I've been really enjoying, and seeing the benefit of clean, simple, natural and organic ingredients; reduced wasteful packaging; buying from British indie skincare brands and an altogether more sensory self-care experience.    Here are my favourites from 2018:   SKINCARE   First Cleanse   A.Florence Skincare - Balm to Milk Cleanser RRP £13.00 35ml This was very tricky to pick one favourite as I love all of my cleansing balms (I'd always choose a balm over an oil or a cream cleanser). But the A.Florence balm to milk cleanser was my favourite discovery of the year. With a beautiful sherbet scent, this balm cleanser...

Every six months on Instagram, there is a monthly challenge where you photograph your entire skincare stash (a day for each category). And I have been partaking, because it's a great way to account for what you actually have to use up and helps to put the brakes on unnecessary spending and (hopefully) impulse buys!   Since doing the first challenge of the year back in January, I've definitely been a lot more conscious about what I'm buying and have only replaced items rather than bought extras. Obviously, I've been no angel and there have been a couple of impulse buys (plus all the items from Beauty Boxes and review items). But generally, I've been quite pleased with my progress in using up my stash first before buying more.   One major thing it has taught me is that I'm now having to pay for all those impulse buys that I made in the past couple of years as my skincare routine often includes items that I'm not particularly fond of and just need to u...

I actually started this project at the beginning of May, where I pulled out six skincare items that I don't use regularly and aim to use them up within the month. I'm allowing myself to de-clutter them if they're really not working for me as I don't believe that you always have to see it out till the bitter end, even if I would prefer to finish rather than throw.   So here's what I chose to use up in May:   * Skin Food - Watermelon Mask I bought this because I just love the fresh smell of watermelon. But what I didn't bank on was just how quickly that gorgeous scent could turn sickly sweet when sitting on your skin for ten minutes! This is a wash-off mask with a thick, gel-like consistency. It's meant for soothing your skin, but to be honest, it didn't really do too much so I had put this mask aside with a preference for others.   * Holika Holika - Honey Acerola Sleeping Pack This is one of the first sleeping packs I bought so without...

  There's something slightly embarrassing about the word budget - if you let it, it can make you feel like you're not good enough to buy the best and that you have to settle for the dupes and poorer quality goods. But budget doesn't always equate to poor quality and certainly not poor value. I love the higher end brands but can often feel deflated when I buy higher and realise that brand name aside - there's often not a massive difference in the quality of the product or even in the quality of the packaging. I will almost always suffer some kind of buyer's remorse when I've spent a lot, but never if I buy budget/High Street.   These recent items I've acquired also feel like more of a win as some of them were free or greatly reduced! And that's never a bad thing.   First up this Ultra Contour Palette from Makeup Revolution. I actually won this for a review prize - so it was a freebie.     This is a great little palette. Unlike some...

I've only been on Instagram since earlier this year and it's definitely overtaken Facebook and Twitter as my social media of choice. Mainly, when I happened upon the Instagram Asian Beauty Community. A tight-knit global community of like-minded fans and obsessives of Skincare (mostly Asian). There are so many well-informed people in this community all posting new skincare finds and favourites, daily skincare routines, reviews of products, monthly challenges, giveaways and hauls. It's certainly opened my eyes to so many new skincare and make-up brands and products but the good side/down side is that my wish-list has grown exponentially! One of my most favourite of these instagrammers is a fabulous woman called Shereen who has just started up her own personal shopping/ bespoke beauty box business direct from Seoul, Korea - called Beauty in Hanguk . I kept seeing her post videos as she went shopping in Seoul and shared her finds and swatched and tested products for us all to...