Skincare Routine

Hey everyone, for today's blog post I thought I'd share with you my skincare routine that I use every evening to try and get healthy, spot-free skin. The products that I use are mostly quite cheap and easily obtainable- so my routine is quite easy to replicate for your own use. Hope you enjoy!

The 5 Products

1. Bioderma

Firstly, I use Bioderma to remove all of my make-up. I pour some of the 'miracle-water', as I've named it, onto a cotton pad and use that firstly on my forehead, chin, nose and cheeks and then use another couple of cotton pads to remove the make-up from around my eyes. It doesn't irritate my skin at all and I've not had one spot on my face since I've started using this product. I've written an entire blog post about Bioderma, so head over here if you want to learn more about it.

2. Boots Facial Scrub

The next product that I use is my Cucumber Facial Scrub from Boots. I first discovered this when I was getting into looking after my skin around two years ago. I was just looking for something that would do the job that I wouldn't have to invest too much money into. Turns out Boots did there own section of skincare products so I picked up a couple of things from there. To use this, I just squeeze a bit of the product into the palm of my hand and with my other hand, I scoop the product up and rub it on my face so that my skin has the white cream covering it. Depending on how roughly you rub it onto your skin, the treatment can feel quite tingly or you can feel nothing at all. I use it quite roughly so that I can feel the product working on my skin. I then rinse this off with lukewarm water and dab my face with a towel. After using the scrub, my skin feels extremely soft and refreshed. This product can be used daily on the skin, so no worries there. 

3. Boots Facial Wash

The third product that I use on my skin is the Boots Facial Wash. Again, I purchased this product with the scrub when I was first getting into skincare and I thought that if it does the job, I don't think there's any point in wasting money on something more expensive that'll do the job the same. I'm sure I'll buy something a bit more substantial in the future, but for now- this'll do just fine for me. The facial cleanser is squeezed into the palm of my hand and I pour water onto the product so that it's easier to apply to the skin. I then pick up the product with my other hand and rub it onto my skin. This just makes sure that all the makeup has thoroughly been removed from every pore of your skin. I then rinse that off with cold water and dab my face with a towel. 

4. Boots Moisturising Cream

The penultimate product that I use is the Boots Moisturising. This product doesn't have a fragrance and doesn't contain any nasty chemicals that can cause harm to your skin. I dab this all over my face and rub it in so that the product goes clear. It seeps into the skin quite quickly, so I don't have to sit there for ages until I can lay down, just in case it rubs onto the pillow. I'm thinking of trying out a few different facial moisturisers soon, so watch this space.

5. Clinique All About Eyes

Finally, I put a dab of Clinique's All About Eyes, which is just an eye cream that removes bags and puffy eyes the next morning. This is fab, because I often suffer with quite large rings around my eyes because I sometimes don't get enough sleep- so this does the job nicely. I rub that in around the eyes and leave that to seep into my skin.

So, that's my skincare routine. I hope you found that interesting, let me know about your skincare routines and perhaps any products that you would recommend. 

Thanks for reading!

Top 5 Barry M Nail Varnishes

Hello everyone, hope you're having a lovely day. Today's post is going to be focused around my favourite Barry M nail varnishes as of right now. Now, I'm a nail varnish fanatic and I constantly have my nails painted- most of the time I change the colour every weekend and stick with that colour for a whole week. I think that Barry M do decent nail varnishes for the cheap price of £2.99 each (and most of the time, Superdrug have a 3 for 2 offer on the Barry M range, so even more affordable) and they have quite a wide variety of colours available. Also, they don't tend to chip as much as other nail varnishes I've tried, so that's an added bonus. They're also quick drying and only need two coats to have an even coat of nail varnish. So, let's get started.

These are the colours that I chose for my top five. Now, I only actually own 9 Barry M nail varnishes, but I pick out the prettiest colours to buy (and I'm sure I'll be purchasing a lot more in the very near future- do I hear Superdrug spree?) so I can always have flawless, jealousy-enhancing nails.

Number 5

Lemon Ice-cream is a bright yellow nail varnish that I mostly wear when I'm sporting a decent tan and I think that it's definitely a summer colour for the nails. In the bottle, it appears slightly less bright that what you actually get when you apply it to your nails- but I think it looks very dainty when you apply a matte coat on top of it. Overall, a big thumbs up for that colour. 

Number 4

A slightly less in-your-face colour would be Blue Moon- a pastel blue colour that's very true to shade from the bottle. I think that it's a really pretty blue, slightly darker than powder blue. Again, this nail varnish looks lovely with a matte coat applied on top of it, but also looks just as lovely with a glossy coat. I really recommend this colour and I think that it's absolutely perfect for the summer but is versatile enough to wear on your nails in the winter. It definitely suits most skin tones too and doesn't make you look pale, either which is a bonus for me because sometimes I find myself looking as white as a sheet with some colours- especially black and red.

Number 3

Number three is another pastel shade, but this time it's Mint Green which is a very suitable name, if I do say so myself. Sometimes it can clash with your outfit, but who cares? It's such a pretty colour and again, it's so suitable in the summer and can even be worn in the winter. For £2.99, you can't really go wrong, can you? I think it's definitely a coat that you'd wear on it's own though- I don't think it needs to have other colours mashed in with it (for example, half blue and half green). Again, definitely more pretty with a matte coat on top of it.

Number 2

I love this colour on my nails mainly because it looks like it's expensive. I know it sounds silly, but you know when you wear a fancy shirt from primark that looks expensive but you only really paid a tenner for it? That's what it feels like when you have this colour on your nails. This colour is called Cobalt Blue (see? even sounds posh!) and it actually looks exactly the same as the bottle which is awesome because you're getting exactly what's on the tin, or bottle if you like. This looks a bit odd with a matte top coat, but I suppose it's acceptable. I much prefer it looking glossy and posh. Also, I've worn this on my toe nails a few times- I had my toe nails painted with it when I wore sandals in Normandy and I thought my feet looked lovely. 

Number 1

The big number one nail varnish from Barry M that I own is definitely Peach Melba. This is definitely a summer colour and is limited to just hot weather, but I swear it is one of the prettiest colours going. It's a peachy/orange-y/pink-y colour that just looks lovely. It looks exactly the same on the nails as it does in the bottle and it looks equally as appealing with a shiny glossy coat as it does with a matte finish. Oh, I just love it- and even better that it only cost me the best part of £3. Fab.

Here are what all of the before mentioned nail varnishes look like when applied onto the nails. Sorry for the messy application- I'm super tired! No excuse, I'm sure.

Hope you all enjoyed today's post. I'll be doing an outfit of the day soon, which will be posted here , so look out for those if you're interested! Don't forget to follow this blog if you want to read more about beauty products, reviews, fashion and other bits and bobs.

Little snippet into my life- I've been fighting mosquito bites recently due to stagnant water and hot weather. Five bites, can you believe it? If you'd like to see a post about what I used to fend off mosquito bites (Sounds ridiculous, but where I am right now, there are millions of mosquito's and I've only got 5 bites- what I use is miracle stuff.), just leave a comment down below.

Have a great day!

July Favourites

July has been an absolutely fantastic month for me, getting to go on a glorious holiday, starting this project, buying some lovely bits and bobs and even getting treated to some gifts from my parents. I thought that for today's blog post I'd share with you my favourite beauty products that I've been using this month (and absolutely adoring).

 

These are the six products that have kept me an extremely happy bunny this month, if I do say so myself. These six products include Clinique high impact mascara, H&M Matte top coat, MUA foundation/skin primer, MAC Fleur Power, Chanel Chance and Collection 2000 Cream Puff matte finish lipcream. Also, Bioderma Make-up remover, which I wrote a blog post on which you can find here. Let's begin, shall we?

 

 

Clinique's high impact mascara has been the only product to grace my eyelashes throughout this year. I received a box of three of these mascara's two years ago as a Christmas present and to be honest, when I first got it I didn't think that much of it. I don't know why, but I sort of ignored it for quite some time because I just didn't think it did anything for my eyelashes. I realized that I wasn't seeing the benefits of this mascara when I used it layered on top of an old 17 mascara, so I tried it on it's own and boy did it make a difference. It lengthened my lashes extraordinarily, especially after I'd used eyelash curlers. It was amazing! I soon used up one of the mascara's so now I'm on my second one and I just know I'm going to be purchasing another when the time comes (hopefully in a long time). Looking on the Clinique website, apparently it's meant to improve the thickness of your lashes, which I haven't noticed particularly. It only appears to lengthen mine, not increase the volume of them, which is why I sometimes put another mascara on top that's targeted at lengthening mascara. Oh well. This mascara is £16 from Clinique's website and is sold at pretty much every Clinique consession stand, so next time your in debenhams (or the like) and you fancy a new lengthening mascara, perhaps give this a go?

 

 

The next product is pretty straight forward, really. Pop some of this on top of your nail varnish and you're nails will look and feel extremely matte. H&M Matte Top Coat only cost me £2.99 and as I was looking for a matte top coat, I thought that it would do the job nicely- and it definitely did. I had been tempted to order the Elf matte top coat, but I would have had to pay for postage and wait for it to arrive and everything and this was in my hand in the shop and so affordable, I wasted no time in handing my money over. Once putting this on my nails, it only took a minute for it to dry and make my nails look fabulous. Sadly, it's almost run out after only a month, so next time I go to H&M, I reckon I'll stock up on a few. 

 

 

I'm not a lip cream/gloss girl by any means, give me lipstick any day and I'm sorted- but honestly, this stuff it amazing. I've been tempted to order some NYX Matte lip cream ever since I saw Beautycrush say how fantastic they are and I'd made up my mind when I got back from holiday to order some as soon as possible- but then I went to Tesco. And they sell Collection 2000 makeup. And they sell CreamPuff Matte lip creams for £2.99. CollectionCosmetics (formally known as Collection 2000, even though everyone still calls them that) have four colours available, Angel delight (a brown-ish shade- not my bag, really), Powder Puff (a very nude pink), Fairy Cake (a peachy/coral colour) and Cotton candy (the swatched shade above). I had set my mind on buying the Fairy Cake colour, but I was gutted to find out that they only had the tester available (gross), so I went for the plum-coloured Cotton Candy (nothing like the colour of cotton candy). Anyway, when I got home I put this on straight away to check to see if it actually looked nice and felt matte on my lips. It's safe to say it did and I absolutely adore this product. It does go quite thick if you put it on all of your lips and then pout them together, so I would recommend just putting it on either the top or bottom lip and smushing them together- but it does the job so well and stays on your lips for such a long time- it's a similar shade to MAC's Pink Plaid. I think I'll still be buying a couple of NYX matte lip creams just because they have a lot more shades, but I'm definitely going to be picking up Fairy Cake, Powder Puff and a few more of this shade in the near future.

 

 

Apologies for the swatch on this one, folkes, it isn't really all that clear. This is my first ever MAC blush and I absolutely love it. It comes up so peachy on my cheeks and I just think that it was so worth the money. This product cost £17.50 and is a press powder blush from MAC. You only need a small amount on your brush and you can just blend it along your cheek bone so nicely. I definitely recommend this product if you've got a light skin tone like I have, I'm not sure on what it would look like on a darker skin tone so perhaps test it before purchasing. The swatch isn't doing this blush any justice as all. This blush is available both in a pot or in a pan (for palettes). Like I said, this is my first MAC blush and to be honest it was the only one that really stood out to me on the day because I've been in love with coral colours recently. This is probably my second favourite item out of all my favourites this month (the best is yet to come, mon amie!) 

 

 

MUA Primer, how I depend on thee to not have a blotchy face. Although it doesn't look the slightest bit appealing in the picture above, I need this on my face before I put my foundation because otherwise, my foundation would either go really blotchy and expose my (what seems to be) multi-tonal skin or my foundation would look fine on all of my face apart from my nose where it just seems to fall off. This primer for me is an absolute lifesaver. I knew with my skin that I'd need one and it just so happens that one of the cheapest brands ever sold one, so I happily picked that up from superdrug for £4 and I'm so glad I did. If you suffer with blotchy skin even after blending your foundation in all over your face, buy this stuff. It's amazing. I couldn't wear make-up without it, I've become too dependent. 

 

 

Oh my gosh it's so good. This is the numero uno of all of my favourites this month. Chanel Chance is my favourite perfume in the entire world ever, it has to be said. I think that it's the nicest, freshest, sweet but not too sweet scent that I've ever smelt. I wear this everywhere, to school, to town, even to the gym that's how much I love this smell. I've been lusting after this perfume for a year and as I haven't got an income that I can save up, I have to wait for my birthday or for a moment of parental generosity for something worth over £30. Thankfully, my parents decided to treat me to a 50ml bottle of this on the ferry on the way back from Normandy. I got the Eau de Toilette, mainly because it was £10 cheaper and I can't really tell the difference between the two. I got it in green (an impulse really, I thought it looked funky). I just know that I'm going to be buying another bottle as soon as this one is empty, but I'll have to save up as it cost £41. Excuse me whilst I spritz myself with it again.

And that's it for my July Favourites! I hope that you enjoyed reading this blog post as much as I enjoyed using these items. Don't forget that if you found this post interesting to follow this blog so that you can read the daily posts I write.

Thanks for reading!

Kukee Jewellery

Just before I went on the holiday I mentioned in my Bioderma review , I realized I was running a bit low on pretty jewellery that I could just sling on and be done with. This is mind, I was watching the very lovely voussontbeauetbelle's video where she mentioned some stores that she recently purchased some pretty jewellery from, so I thought that I'd look into some of the websites she'd mentioned. 

Two of the websites that she'd ordered from took my fancy, Dixi and Kukee (mainly because the jewellery was beautiful and I'm a cheapskate). Whilst Dixi sold some very lovely things for decent prices, the majority of things that I took interest in were sold out and having only a couple of things in my bag didn't really justify a purchase. BUT, when I looked at Kukee, I realized that everything was too cheap and beautiful to pass on and added about 10 things into my basket. Although the prices were so low I was in awe, I had to take a couple of things out of my basket because I only had £15 at the time. 

Now, you probably want to know a little bit more about Kukee. Kukee is an online shop that sells handmade jewellery for very low prices to people that love a bargain and post your items over to you in a matter of two-three days. They sell jewellery ranging from £1 to £5, everything being bang on trend and available in gold/silver.

Onto my purchases! I ordered 9 pieces of jewellery from the website and was given another item because I'd spent over £10. 

These are the pieces I got. I know, they're beautiful. Squee. 

I fell in love with these when I saw them on the website. These Cross stud earrings come in the colours black, silver and (a very light) gold. As you can see, I ordered the silver ones and I was uber pleased with what I received. They are stud earrings, so they don't dangle from your ears threatening to get caught in absolutely everything, they are quite large but it supports the image that Kukee show you (so I was pleased) and they're quite sturdy too, so you don't have that worry of if they'll fall apart. I bet you're wondering how much these lovelies were, right? £2.50! I know, I couldn't believe it either. 

The above-knuckle ring seems to be a huge thing recently so when I saw that Kukee sold them, I jumped at the opportunity to buy some. These rings (I purchased two gold and two silver) fit absolutely perfectly and they're so easy to just throw on to spice your outfit up. The rings themselves are silver plated and twisted to give a lovely look and feel. I worried that they would turn my finger green if I got the ring wet, but have no fear! Having worn them pretty much constantly for the past three weeks, my fingers have stayed there usual fleshy colour and haven't had a speck of green produced by these rings. £1.50 each by the way- definitely the cheapest above-knuckle rings that I've ever come across. Fabulous.

Remember I mentioned I got a free piece of jewellery for spending over a tenner? This was it. It looked so pretty upon it's arrival and I was so pleased with it. It fits perfectly on my index finger and is actually adjustable, so you can pop it on any one that you fancy (except the thumb, I think it'd become too mishaped if you stretched it that much) by just pulling on it a bit. Sadly, after a few days of wearing the ring, I noticed that the colour on the band of the ring started to turn into a dull grey and in some places even began turning a little brown, also my finger had a prominent green line encircling it. I was gutted, to say the least- it was so pretty and I just wanted it to look nice again. If I'd had common sense, I would've put some clear nail varnish over it beforehand so that the silver wouldn't become so horrid and my finger wouldn't have turned green. Alas. Since, I've scraped at it and coated it in clear nail varnish, so the brown has gone and it no longer leaves a green line on my finger- but it doesn't look as good as when it first arrived. Oh well- not bad considering it was free, though. If you do purchase one of these dangly charm rings, make sure that you coat it in clear nail varnish! Then it'll remain beautiful for so much longer. Normally, these rings are £2 which is still an absolutely amazing price for something so pretty and on trend, you know?

(Sadly, this is no longer on the Kukee website. It might come back, though!) 

This sideways hamsa hand necklace looked so pretty on the website that I just had to add it to my basket. I've seen so many beauty guru's get really into the whole hamsa hand thing, so I thought that I'd pick one up. This necklace was only £2 and it's worth that and so much more. Throughout my holiday, I wore this pretty much every other day and it just brightened up a casual tee, you know? I'm so glad that I picked this necklace up and I'm sure that I'll be getting a few more in the future. (Oh, and no green neck either!)

I've just become aware of how long this post has been- I'll keep it short and sweet from now on, promise! 

This sideways cross necklace has been seen on almost everyone ever now, so I just needed it. It wasn't a want, it was a need situation. This necklace was only £2.50. Can you believe that? Yes, you can. No green marks have been left on my neck, the chain is the perfect length and oh, it's just so beautiful. 

Neither of the necklaces above could be shortened though, which was a great shame because some of my tops that I owned needed a shorter chain, or they'd sort of sit awkwardly. But still, amazing value for something so damn pretty.

Final mention of things, my delivery came two days after I ordered it which was fabulous otherwise I'd have had to wait until I'd gotten back from holidays to open them. They came in a bright pink tissue paper and then inside little individual see-through packages, like so.

Overall, I was ultra-happy with my purchases and I'm definitely going to be ordering off them in the very near future. Don't forget to check out their website and have a nose about and maybe pick up a few bits and bobs. They ship nationally, too, so don't let that hold you back. Kukee also has twitter (@ilovekukee)! 

Phew, that was a long one. I might make a video on a future Kukee haul, if you're interested.

I hope that for those who watched enjoyed the opening ceremony to the London 2012 Olympics. I, for one, was bursting with pride.

Enjoy the rest of the Olympics!

Oh, and don't forget to check back here if you fancy reading some more reviews, hauls and general other babble that goes down.

Review | Bioderma Hype

A couple of weeks ago, I went on holiday to Normany (a region in Northern France that was host to the D Day landings during World War 2) with my parents to celebrate the end of my GCSE's. A very historical place if I do say so myself. We visited the American cemetery, drove across the Pegasus Bridge and much more cultural things that if you lived in Normandy you'd say "Well, we've always lived so close but we never actually went to all these places that seem to be on our doorstep". 
           Anyway- as we were staying at a campsite, we had to go to the local supermarket every three or four days to stock up on food, which I was chuffed about, because it meant that we could buy lots of lovely food goodies that were definitely not allowed on my not-so-strict diet. Attached to the supermarket, there was a pharmacy that sold all of those french brands that you'd struggle to get in the UK besides L'Occitane. One of those brands was the highly praised Bioderma. When I saw the 'Sensibio H20' (water-based make-up remover to you and me) I decided that it would be rude for me to not purchase the product that every beauty vlogger has been raving about for the past few months. 

So here it is, my 500ml bottle of the stuff. As you can see, considering I've had it for three or so weeks, I haven't used that much of it. I use make-up pretty much every day, so as you can see from the remaining liquid in the bottle- I don't need that much product to get my make-up off my face. This bottle cost me €17.30, which would be the equivalent to about £14 or so. 
Now, let's get down to the knitty gritty. I'm sure you're all aware of how to use liquid make-up remover (pouring it onto a cotton pad and gracefully swiping it all over your face until all the makeup comes off) and it does the job pretty well if I do say so myself. I've had problems in the past with makeup removers leaving me with a huge break-out of spots all over my face, but it's safe to say after using this product daily that it's not given me one spot on my face and has helped remove some of the other (rather spotty) damage caused by another product. Bioderma contains zero alcohol (I can't stress how important this is. Some alcohol in beauty products can cause havoc to oily skin and can leave you susceptible to skin damage.) and doesn't cause any irritation to my face whatsoever, which I'm very pleased about. It basically feels like you've put your cotton pad in some miracle water and all your makeup is coming off with one swipe. Granted, it does mean I have to use three or four cotton pads every time I'm removing all the make-up from my face (the cotton pad companies thrive off my business with them), but that could just be because my face is rather large or I wear too much makeup, one or the other. 

The product on the left, Clinique's 'take the day off'' make-up remover is absolutely amazing at removing foundation, eye makeup, waterproof mascara and all the jazz, but after using it continually for three-four days, I broke out hideously all over my face. Bioderma hasn't graced my face with one blemish after using it, although it might take a couple more cotton pads than the Clinique product.
I think the best place to pick up a 500ml bottle of Bioderma (apart from in France) would be on eBay. Here's a highly recommended seller of the stuff. Also, slightly cheaper than what I payed, so definitely where I'll be purchasing my next bottle from.
All in all, I'm officially a lover of Bioderma's make-up remover and I highly recommend it to anyone with skin. Yes, with skin.

Let me know what your opinions are on Bioderma or perhaps what you use as an alternative.
Enjoy the Olympics!

What's The Daily Beaut?

Hello everyone! I thought I'd start this blog with a humble introduction to who I am and what this is all about. For quite some time now, I've wanted to get into all of this blogging, vlogging business and being on my summer holidays with not much to do- I thought I'd give it a whirl.
I've been inspired to start up something like this for a long time after seeing many beauty guru's, such as beautycrush, uglyfaceofbeauty, sototallyvlog and quite a lot more.
Now then, The Daily Beaut is a project that I've been thinking of for a while- it's going to be a daily blog post written by myself on all things to do varying from fashion, make-up, skincare, haircare to just some updates on my life in general.
As well as daily blog posts here, I'm going to begin making my own youtube videos on my channel, so do feel free to subscribe if you find it all interesting. Check back here for a beauty post every day and keep checking up on my youtube account if you're interested to see if I've put a video up.
Thanks for reading!