Scene Anime

Evening all!! I’ve seen lately that the Boots Original Beauty Formula range is doing the rounds on the beauty blogs, so I thought I’d review a few of the bits I have.  I have practically everything in the range, the cleanser, rose toner, cold cream cleanser and the vanishing day cream.  I have only yet tried the cleanser and toner however, so I’ll review the cleanser today!

I first saw this range on one of my favourite beauty blogs – The Gloss Goss, and fell for the lovely natural ingredients and cute vintage packaging.  So I picked some up when Boots had the 3 for 2 skincare offer.  I have been using this for a few weeks to take my eye make-up off and it does a lovely job.  It has a milky creamy consistency, which, when applied to a cotton pad and placed on the eye, removes a lot of my everyday eye make-up.  I do wear a lot of eye make-up daily, and I normally need to use up a few cotton pads for each eye to remove every trace of make-up. 
The smell is gorgeous, a sweet rose smell which I adore.  It has 19 ingredients, mostly preservatives and natural ingredients such as Olive fruit oil, Cocoa seed butter, and a few flower oils.  Saying this, it doesn’t leave my skin oily or tacky at all, instead my skin feels rather fresh and moisturized.
One thing I really dislike about this, is the fact that I can never get any product out of the bottle, so I have to shake it and then loaddsssss of it comes out on to my cotton pad!  It is seriously messy (or I’m just extremely clumsy!), and I end up with it everywhere.  It would be so much easier if it had a pump, or if the bottle was able to be squeezed, although I know this would affect the aesthetic-ness of the vintage bottle.  Because of this, I do get some product in my eye, it doesn’t sting but it goes cloudy, obviously, which disappears once you rinse it off.
Would I buy this again – Probably, yes!  I can’t help but feel like an elegant Victorian lady in her boudoir when I use this, or see it on my dresser.  It does a good job of removing make-up and it smells really nice.
The whole Boots Original range is very affordable, this was about £3.99!  I will update soon with what I think of the other products in the range!
Has any one used this before? What did you think? Do you like the vintage packaging?
XXX

I am all for organic and natural skincare and I love that there are more and more natural skincare brands popping up in our high streets.  When I was asked if I would like to try any products from the Purity Organic range I was very excited and chose out the facial deep pore exfoliator and the conditioning cleansing lotion – both products which I get through loads of and am always looking for new ones to try out.

 

Exfoliator £5.99

This is a gorgeous, really gentle exfoliator which is perfect for everyday use.  The exfoliating granules are actually ground coconut shell, and the creamy, liquid formula is ‘a blend of coconut oil, sweet almond oil and aloe vera’ – so natural and great for sensitive skin.  This exfoliator isn’t harsh in this slightest and so it scrubs away dead, dry skin gently and feels like its doing a good job of cleansing as well as reviving the skin.  As my skin is bonkers at the moment I am still using my St.Ives scrub once a week for an intense scrub, but I still use this whenever in the shower for a deep pore cleanse.

Cleanser £4.99

So it did take me about ten minutes to work out how to actually open this cleanser to use (you have to press the top which makes another section on the top pop up – very smart) so I’ve included a picture on how it looks once it’s open.  This cleanser is in fact lovely!  Its definitely on a par with my ‘Simple gentle cleanser’ which I also love.  This cleanser has hardly no smell except maybe a hint of rose water and  the formula includes avocado oil, amino acids, flower water, aloe and more natural ingredients to cleanse the skin.  I have been using this nightly to take all my heavy eye makeup off – I put a blob of it onto a baby wipe and then use it to cleanse the skin and remove m/u and it does a good job of taking all the grime off.  Also this doesn’t sting the eyes at all which is a plus. 

What I think:  You would normally expect natural, organic skincare to be quite pricey but I am overly impressed with the price of these two products, they are very affordable which makes them even better in my opinion (prices based on the Purity website, found here).  All of the products in the Purity Organic range are free from parabens, GM or petroleum-derived ingredients which is also a massive bonus.  Every product in the range is also certified by EcoCert and the majority of ingredients are from natural origin or organic farming!  You can buy Purity Organic skin care online or in Superdrug stores.

Have you tried Purity Organic Skincare before?  What’s your favourite natural/organic skincare range?

xx

I confessed in my last skin care post that I’m always tempted by skincare products, even though I know that I should just stick to what I know works for me – but I can’t help it! 

I’ve been wanting to try Liz Earle's Hot Cloth Cleanser for a long time now and I managed to get my hands on some last month, complete with two muslin clothes.  I’d heard so many good things about their number one product and I couldn’t wait to try it out for myself.  First things first – when you order from Liz Earle’s site, the package comes beautifully wrapped, it felt like Christmas when I opened it – they definitely know how to impress and treat their customers and they give fantastic customer service which I’m always looking for when I shop.

How you use it – The cleanser is very simple to use, but effective.  You rub the cleanser into dry skin in circular motions, then use the muslin cloth, wet, in circular motions to remove the cleanser and to gently exfoliate.  The muslin cloth is gentle enough for every day use and makes it quite fun to cleanse, instead of just using a flannel or your hands to remove the product.

The cleanser itself is lovely.  I adore the smell and its made me fall in love with Eucalyptus essential oil all over again.  The product smells like a Greek steam room, it really opens my airways when I rub this in and I feel like its doing wonders for my skin.  The formula is lovely and creamy and the pump gives you the perfect amount of product for your whole face (you may need to use more if your taking eye makeup off).

How it affected my skin – Straight after I use this product, my skin feels so soft – this must be down to the combination of the muslin cloth and the moisturizing ingredients in the cleanser.  You all know that I have extremely acne prone skin and any change in my skincare regime gives me spots.  I gained a few pimples (three tiny ones to be precise) after four days of using this, but I wasn’t too bothered.  I let them settle down for a few days and then started using the product again and my skin has been fine ever since!  On some days I just use this to take my eye makeup off as I’m worried about getting spots but its been alright so far!  This takes eye makeup off okay – bearing in mind I wear a lot of mascara and dark eyeliner and shadow, its takes about 2 1/2 pumps to take the makeup off both eyes, and I use the cloth very gently to remove it from around the eye area after.

What I think – This is a lovely luxury product and I’m surprised it hasn’t irritated my skin more.  The smell is amazing, the packaging is lovely and mature and it leaves my skin feeling soft and cleansed.  I also love that you get a little zip-up regime bag to keep the muslin clothes and cleanser in for when you’re travelling (with the starter kit).  The cleanser itself is £11.50, which is more expensive than any other cleanser I’ve tried, but I’d repurchase this as a luxurious treat for myself.

Does anyone else use this cleanser? Do you use a muslin cloth with your facial products?

I’ve also started using a Sebamed cleansing bar which I will do a post on soon!

Following my last post on my Skin history – Journey to clear skin (found here), I’m going to let you all know what I’ve been using religiously for the past two years to keep my skin in good condition.

FIRSTLY – I am VERY funny about what I use on my skin now, I don’t like trying new products, although I’m always tempted.  I’ve also become very aware of the ingredients in skin care products and always check the ingredients up against this website - http://www.zerozits.com/Articles/acnedetect.htm – (Amazing website, tells you which ingredients are comedogenic, which block pores etc).  A few products I have used since my acne ordeal have bought me up in spots but I just stop using them as soon as I get a spot and they go. 

SECONDLY – I am aware that I may get a lot of telling off for what I use on my skin now, just because its not ‘right' and ‘good’ for the skin, but after having been through angry acne, I am not going to start using another ‘three step regime’ just because I’m ‘supposed to’ or because its right.  What I use now works really well for me so I am not changing unless I have to.

So my regime is as follows -

• I always take my make-up off before bed, no matter what the circumstances.  And I do this with Johnson’s babywipes.  Controversial eh!?  Cleansers bring me up in spots, full stop, and they’re more of a hassle to use than baby wipes.  It does the trick of removing makeup and it doesn’t give me spots so I’m sticking to it.
• If I’m wearing lots of eye makeup, then I will use a cleanser on my eyes – not on my whole face.  I will rub the product on my eyes gently, and remove the makeup and cleanser with a baby wipe.  At the moment I have been using either Simple’s gentle cleanser, or The Body Shop’s Natrulift Cleanser (neither pictured) on my eyes.  Both are good for removing eye makeup, especially with the help of the baby wipe afterwards.
• I use a moisturizer when my skin feels dry and always after I exfoliate.  The only moisturizers I would ever use now is The Body Shop’s Vitamin E night cream or Vit E facial oil.  These two moisturizers don’t give me spots, and I don’t want to risk it by trying others.  I use the Vit E night cream in the morning as well, if I need to (also controversial!) because its a lot thicker than the day cream and my skin does get very dry.
• I exfoliate once a week with St Ives Apricot Invigorating Exfoliator.  Its amazing at removing dead, flaky skin and it doesn’t irritate me at all.  I adore this exfoliator, it really is incredible.
• If I do get a spot, I will apply Freederm to it before I go to bed.  By the morning the spot has reduced in colour and size OR I find that it will bring the spot out more quickly, meaning its gone quicker!

That’s it!  I’m not using any expensive creams or liquids to keep my skin in good shape.  I’ve realised that using simple products (that don’t claim miracles or life changing results) are so much better for my skin.  This is also great because it means all my products are affordable and easy to find in shops.

I have been a bit naughty recently though, and I’ve been very tempted to purchase new skin care products (its always hard reading blogs and skin care reviews and trying to resist all the great new products on the market) and recently I’ve started using a Liz Earle Cleanser (for review purposes) and a Sebamed cleansing bar.  I’ll be writing reviews on each in the next few weeks and I’ll let you know how my skin has been getting on with those!! 

I will also write up in depth reviews of each of the products in this post – I’m thinking Freederm and St Ives reviews would be handy for you guys?  Let me know if you’d like this!

Do you use any of the same products as me in your skin regime? Do you think its bad that I use babywipes to remove my makeup?

xxxx