Elemis Sp@Home Frangipani Monoi Salt Glow

I'm here!! I'm still alive!! 

I've been off on my travels once again for the last week and a half (more family commitments back in the Shire) and completely failed at scheduling posts for the week as I had intended. Shameful! I'm not posting nearly as often as I would like recently. I just seem to have been all over the place with various things and NOW, to rub salt into the wound, my DSLR has had to be taken into Nikon hospital. Poor baby. 

Anyhoo, I'm back now with today's slice of blog tart which is dedicated to a product by one of my favourite skincare brands, Elemis...

I was super lucky to actually WIN this product in an Elemis Twitter Giveaway recently (stalking really does pay off sometimes). I've always adored Elemis for facial skincare but had never really dabbled in their body products before. I've been using the same Soap & Glory Scrub for a couple of years now but I completely fell for this when it arrived in the post. I'd heard a little about it on the social media grapevine but that was as far as it went. As soon as I received it could not wait to get in there and get scrubbing! 

This scrub screams luxury to me. The packaging is a big thumbs up, as are the ingredients. Gotta love Elemis for always using gorgeous, natural ingredients with no junk thrown in. I totally trust their products on that front. The scent is out of this world as well. Floral, but also slightly sweet. As I always say with Elemis products though, if you are NOT a fan of heavily or floral scented products I really would give this a miss, but for me this scrub smells a little bit like heaven. 

It's a very pretty scrub to look at in the tub. It doesn't really show by this picture but the Frangipani flowers are a pretty, raspberry pink colour. Not that that matters in terms of performance but it is certainly pleasing on the eye. The scrub itself is quite dense, but the exfoliants are not big and harsh and melt into the skin easily. The scrub I was using before was much rougher and didn't seem to sink in (or rinse off) as easily. Of course, if you require a more thorough, rougher product then perhaps this might not cut it for you but for me this is pretty much on the money. It doesn't leave a big greasy ring around the tub either which appeals to my lazy side.

The Monoi oil leaves a lovely, silky residue on the skin. I'm not one for overly moisturising after my bath as my skin never really feels like it needs that much, so this gives me the bit of moisture that I need as well as getting rid of all the old skin cells that don't belong there anymore. The result is smooth, healthy and glowy skin.

For this product you pay £36.50 for 480g which isn't cheap when you compare it to the likes of Soap & Glory but if you've got a bit of cash to treat yourself you really won't be disappointed as it really is in whole different league. It's a lovely big tub too. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants an effective, yet gentle, exfoliation as well as a bit of a pamper.

For more info and stockists check out this product on 

elemis.com

What is your ultimate exfoliator?? Do you rate Elemis products??

Elemis Pro-Radiance Illuminating Flash Balm: Review

An exciting new product discovery for you today ladies! Regular readers may recall that I've been on a bit of a quest for radiant, glowy skin for Spring/Summer and when I found out that Elemis (a brand I really really rate) were launching a new Illuminating Flash Balm in May, I got a little overexcited! So excited that they offered to let me try it ahead of time and review it for you all! So, without further ado, I'll get on with it!

Elemis Pro-Radiance Illuminating Flash Balm*

I love Elemis products. Not least because they use AMAZING ingredients and are free from foul nasties like Parabens, Silicones, Mineral oils and all that other shizz.... This product boasts some gorgeous skin-loving ingredients such as purple orchid and acai. 

I've never tried a Flash Balm before. I've had the Clarins one on my list for what seems like forever, but when I heard of this release I put it to the back of my mind. I love the idea of brighter, smoother, tighter skin. The product is kind of like a cross between a moisturiser and primer and can be used as either. I've been using it on top of my regular morning moisturiser (at the moment I'm using DHC Pore Milk for anyone curious) as a base for my foundation. 

The product itself is quite thick and balmy (well it is a BALM, Lisa... Duhh). It smoothes easily over the skin and, as with most Elemis products I've used, you don't need a lot to do a whole face/neck. It has a strong citrus/floral scent, which won't be to everyone's taste and if you prefer not to use scented products on your face I'd give this a miss, but I don't mind it. I prefer it to the medicated scent of the Freshskin Mattifying Moisturiser I have. It has a very slight warm tint to it and a lovely sheen, without having any huge, glittery particles in it that will explode in bright light or with flash. It just boosts your natural glow. 

Finished with Illamasqua Skinbase Foundation and MAC MSFN

I loooooove how this product makes my skin feel. It feels firmer, super smooth and more even in tone as well as disguising the few little lines I have (I'm not wearing concealer in this photo). I have combination skin and did wonder if it would accentuate those problem areas but this has proven not to be the case. My skin also feels warmer and more glowy.  It isn't overly dewy though. It is suitable for all skin types but I think I'd recommend anyone oilier than me to try a sample before purchase just to be on the safe side. I just love how my skin reflects the light after using this product. It just gives it that perfect little lift!

This product will retail for £32 for 50ml and is released in May 2013.

Are you a fan of Flash Balms?? Do you prefer a glowy finish or are you more of a matte kinda gal?? Do you rate Elemis products??

Pearls of Beauty Wisdom from Dr. Murad...

Good evening ladies, I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!!

I was lucky enough to be given the AMAZING opportunity last Friday to attend a seminar by skincare gurus Dr Howard and Jeff Murad (the brains and faces behind the prestigious skincare brand of the same name). This was an event that i was SUPER excited about as, i will openly admit, i'm pretty clueless when it comes to skincare and these two are the best in the biz! So i trotted along to the Academy of Medical Sciences to learn me some stuff!

I loved Dr Murad's attitude! He firmly believes in loving, valuing and nurturing yourself and actually recommended that we all go out the next day and buy ourselves a crown! The point in this being that if you don't hold your head up and feel positive about yourself from the inside then no skincare regime alone will do it for you from the outside. 

Here are Dr Murad's Top 10 Tips for Beautiful Skin:

1) Always cleanse before bed to get rid of all the pollution, free-radicals and other nasties your skin encounters during the day.

2) Toners are very important! They allow all other moisturisers and treatments to be absorbed deeper and faster, as well as refining your pores.

3) Oily skin needs moisture too! Everyone should be using a moisturiser, regardless of their skin type and a good moisturiser only adds WATER to the skin (not oil).

4) Embrace anti-aging products. You're never too young to start. Our skin starts going downhill almost as soon as we turn 18!

5) Eat your water..... Yes, you read that right. Dr. Murad recommends to replace one glass of the water you drink each day with raw fruit and vegetables which release their water and hydrate you from within. This must be an important one as he mentioned it several times in the lecture. 

6) Exfoliate right. Stick to the twice a week rule. Too much or too little exfoliation can wreak havoc with your skin, but is a very common mistake!

7) Relax!! Stress ages you!! Taking care of yourself emotionally is important! Dr Murad orders you to get lots of rest, treat yourself, eat CHOCOLATE(?!?!). Stress is second only to UV for skin damage and premature ageing. 

8) Be imperfect. You'll live longer. Don't be so hard on yourself because it only leads to stress (see above).

9) You are what you eat. Healthy skin comes 80% from how you care for yourself from the INSIDE and eating the right foods and supplements. Even the most expensive facials in the world won't achieve optimum results if you're not taking proper care of yourself from within. 

10) SMILE!!! When you feel your best, you'll look your best. 

As well as a very informative and interesting talk from Dr and Jeff Murad, we were all given a sneaky peak at the new Christmas gift sets Murad are offering this season as well as their top 10 products. There were therapists on hand to give facials as well as the new YouthCam (also available for customers in House of Fraser) which scans your skin to reveal problem areas, dehydration, UV damage and other potential future problems. From this they can make personal product recommendations and identify where you're going wrong. 

As i previously mentioned, we were given the opportunity to browse the new Christmas releases for this year and were lucky enough to be able to choose one to take home. There were 5 different boxes available, each tailored to a specific need/skin type.

Complete Renewal

Hydration Sensation

Radiance Rescue

Perfect Balance

The Hybrids

As I'm a combination skin type of girlie with a few too many open pores for my liking, i plumped for the Perfect Balance set. 

I cannot wait to share my experience of these products with you! I started using the T-Zone gel straight away and so far so good. I don't get a lot of spots generally but i am very excited about the blemish treatment concealer as, when i DO get a zit its always one of those BIG, sore ones that puts up a big fight. 

To browse ALL the bounty on offer as well as what's in all the other Christmas Gift Boxes go to murad.co.uk  

(I personally recommend their Dewy Finish Primer. It's the BEST i've tried so far.)

What are your top tips for perfect skin?? Do you have a favourite skincare brand/product?? What works for you??

Sweet Treat from Nip+Fab

Evening girlies!!

I've finally made a dent in the MAHOOSIVE Goody bag i brought home from the LIVEBloggers event i attended the other week. I've just about come to the end of my Dove Spa body cream so i decided to give this yummy Pistachio Sundae body butter by Nip+Fab a test drive. 

This is a butter which aims to tackle dry skin and contains avocado oil, honey and Aquaxyl (for 24hr moisturisation) amongst other ingredients. My skin, on the whole, is pretty normal but i do suffer from rough patches on my arms and legs. Especially so when the weather starts getting colder. 

The first thing that struck me about this product was the scent. It smells like CAKE! I think, for anyone who is not a fan of strong, sweet scents, this product may not be your cup of tea. I'm not the biggest fan of sickly sweet smells myself but, i have to say, this smells YUMMY!! 

The best thing, for me, about this product so far is that it isn't greasy at all. The consistency is very thick and it glides on easily, but it sinks in really quickly and i don't feel sticky like i do after using some body butters (particularly cocoa butter for some reason). You can still feel that you've used it and you'll smell like a bakery but it leaves very little residue on the skin.

Nip+Fab is from the same family behind Rodial skincare and was created to bring the price down on products that offer real results including eye-brightening and skin plumping. I have browsed their full range online and am VERY keen to try their Upper Arm Fix. I cannot believe i'd never heard of them before! Eating humble (pistachio flavoured) pie now! I can see them becoming an addiction.

These body butters retail for £9.95, which is roughly the same as you'd pay for a Body Shop butter (even a little bit cheaper) and are available from nipandfab.com/shop/ 

Lush: Flying Saucers & Therapy Massage

So this is the first review of some of the products I received from the LOVELY people at Lush. 

I posted my mail order haul on Tuesday. I had asked for their advice and recommendations on which products would best help my symptoms (I suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia for those who are new to this blog). They went one better than that and sent me some WONDERFUL samples and i have now started trying them out!! 

So tonight the products i decided to try out tonight were the Flying Saucers bubble bath and the Therapy Massage Bar. 

(The photos i have used are those from Lush's website as the products i recieved were mini sample sizes - Click the links below the images to view/order direct from Lush)

Click to Order from Lush

Flying Saucers was a discontinued product which is now ONLY available via mail order.

Lush says....

This works like a reassuring embrace from a friendly, furry creature. Flying Saucers is for when you're feeling emotional, but you've been acting so scarily that no-one will come near you. It's designed as the antidote to smashing the crockery and we recommend it for PMT. It has one of our favourite fragrances: honey and ylang ylang. Palmarosa is both calming and refreshing, and vetivert, the oil of tranquility, eases stresses, depression and tension. Take a Flying Saucers bath when you're feeling alien.

The first thing that hit me about this product was the STRONG smell of Honey.. I don't think i could pick up on any of the other ingredients, but I have had a cold so i may not be the most reliable sniffer today. I almost found it too sickly in the pot but Becky from Lush had said in her letter that it would help me relax so I was fully determined to give it a chance. 

 I'm glad i did and i can see why she recommended it for me. The smell really mellowed out once it hit the water and I found the honey scent REALLY comforting and I eventually picked up on the herbal undertones. Even though it was a little sample pot it still made a good amount of bubbles. Don't know if you're like me, but when i get a big bottle of bubble bath i tend to slosh it in and make TONS of bubbles. So a little went a long way.

I don't know if it's helped me RELAX as such (not on it's own anyway) but i found it VERYcomforting and it gave me a lovely bubbly bath :)

Click to Order from Lush

So the Therapy Massage Bar..... I'm unfamiliar with the concept of a massage BAR. I've heard of massage OIL but never in a solid form. When i picked it up and had a feel it was kind of a vaseline-y texture. Not quite like a soap bar. Almost like the bath melts.

Here's what Lush say about it...

Euphoria-inducing bar with uplifting neroli. Therapy is a wunder-bar, which we make to help your hard life get softer. First, it moisturises with cocoa and shea butters to make your hard skin get softer. Then, it softens your tensions with lavender and neroli oils - neroli is the one which gives you a feeling of euphoria, especially when you have someone massaging it into your shoulders. Give Therapy a try and you'll feel better in no time. 100% certified organic.

The scent isn't a sweet, pretty scent... it's very herbal and smells like it's fresh out of a spa and VERY good for you. I used it while i was in my lovely honey bath and honestly didn't expect it to go on how it did. It went on just like a massage oil or when you use baby oil after a bath on wet skin. The only thing i have tried that is like it is the solid Palmer's Cocoa Butter you get in a pot. It was VERY rich and i was worried it wouldn't all absorb and i would end up greasy. 

 But i had a lovely time massaging it in. The chunk they had cut me off wasn't very big but it really went a long way. I still have at least half of the piece they sent left to use another time. I think the massaging, in itself, helps relax achey limbs like mine and i feel like it has boosted my circulation. 

When i got out of the bath and dried myself off my skin did NOT feel greasy, but VERY moisturised. If i didn't need to put a layer of tan on tonight i would not bother with another moisturiser. My skin feels and looks lovely and smooth as well. This does a great double-act as a bath product and mousturiser in one and would definitely save you money on a seperate body moisturising product. I can imagine the full-size product would last a LONG time as well so seems VERY economical. I can't imagine the smell being to everyone's taste but there are that many different Massage Bars on Lush's menu that i'm sure there's one out there for everyone.

I still have some other products to try out. They also sent me shower gels designed to wake me up and give me energy, a Sore Labours Massage Bar sample and another bubble bath. This almost feels like a science project with all the potions i'm experimenting with! Can't wait to let you know how i get on on my next bath!

Do you have any Lush products you can't live without, or that you think might work for me?? Let me know...

Vie at Home - Summer Time Skin

Thought I'd pop this one in there while it's fresh in my mind because i've been meaning to tell you all about this one since i started using it last week. But it's been one of those dazed and confused weeks when i'm constantly thinking "Now, what was that thing i was about to do...." and it's been forgotten about until now.

So, at work we have a LOVELY lady called Margaret from Vie at Home who comes every once in a while and visits us with box after box of GORGEOUS things... I really like these evenings as i get to sit and talk about make-up ALL NIGHT and nobody will tell me to shut up. Last time she came was a little while ago (just before xmas) but I only just started using this product as i had another bottle of tan to use up before i started on this one and i haven't always got the energy to put on a tan every day at the moment so a bottle tends to last. 

The product in the limelight today is 

Vie at Home Summer Time Skin.

Vie at home says....

Low level tanning agents build a natural colour and Shea Butter and Panthenol (pro Vitamin B5) will keep your skin soft and smooth. Apply daily over face and body to build a natural tan. 

Other products in the range include Walking on Sunshine Body Lotion, Sun Goddess Body Crackle and Spray on Sunshine


This retails at £12.50 for 250ml and is worth EVERY DAMN PENNY!! This product looks and SMELLS like a body lotion you would buy in a fragrance gift set (unlike the biggest selling brand of gradual self tan which smells like utter MUCK) and is for use on the face AND body so no need to buy a separate facial tanner. The colour is also GORGEOUS and looked lovely even after just 2 days of applying it before bedtime.

Another reason to sing it's praises is because I can't describe how SOFT my skin feels after I've put this on. I suffer from the curse of red, blotchy upper arms (I'm sure it has a name but i don't know it and i KNOW you know what I'm talking about) and, I kid you not, after one application they were smooth as a baby's bum! So i woke up silky smooth and smelling like a GODDESS, which really gave me a boost to start my day. And we all feel a bit perkier when we have a lovely golden glow.

The product does not contain any shimmer (which i like about it because i only really like a shimmer when i go out - which ain't very often these days) and the consistency is not as thick as some tans i have used. This means it spreads really well but doesn't take ages to sink in. It's not a greasy product either. Was fine on my face as well. I sometimes worry that body products are too heavy and gloopy on my face.

So if anyone invites you to a Vie at Home party or you ever have one yourself, this would be my first recommendation. I have other favourites of theirs as well but i felt this one deserved a post all to itself. I will do a separate post for all my other Vie favourites, because they don't deserve to go unmentioned either.

Go forth and GLOW my pretties ;)