Sparkle and Scandal

There's a few new products I've been using recently that are becoming beauty favourites of mine.

First up, this Body Shop Tea Tree Pore Minimiser is great as a primer for make up.

I was a bit doubtful when buying this, but as The Body Shop had loads of 50% off offers on their site I thought I'd give it a go as my skin has been pretty challenging to say the least recently. It's always been a combination of oily and dry, but is becoming increasingly sensitive as well. This actually does a good job of smoothing and mattifying my skin, and sinks in nicely so my foundation goes on easily afterwards. Plus I love the tea tree in it; the smell is really refreshing.

These hand creams are also from The Body Shop, but were presents from my fiancé. My hands get really dry from both the weather and work so hand cream is a necessity for me. These are non greasy and the special edition Christmas scents of Ginger and Vanilla are gorgeous, I just wish they did them all year!

Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners have been my favourite make up product since college, when I first bought the set of 5 travel size eyeliners. They're expensive but in my opinion worth the money; the colours are exactly what I prefer for my eyes, the pencils are soft and they seriously last all day without smudging or wearing off.
The ones from my sets are almost running out, so I thought I'd start replacing my favourite shades with the full size versions. I picked these up off eBay, for about half the retail price. Rockstar is a gorgeous deep purple that I adore, while Mainline, a dark-ish blue, is a new one for me that was being sold by the same seller that caught my attention.

Ok, now on to mascara. The one on the left, L'Oreal's false lash mascara, is brilliant - my lashes look long and dark without clumps. There's not as much volume as other mascaras, but I like that about it; it gives a more natural, everyday look.

The L'Oreal mascara is almost on the way out, so I thought I'd try a new one. I used to use Rimmel mascaras and always thought they were pretty decent. I'm not getting on with this Scandal Eyes one that well however. Rimmel state that it's the biggest brush ever or something like that - that just makes it really fiddly to apply without getting it everywhere. It doesn't give as much as volume as I expected either, though it doesn't clump, which is the main thing I always look for. It's not the worst mascara ever, but I think going for the more basic Rimmel mascaras seems to be the best bet with this brand, based on my previous experience with them.

So there's just a quick overview of some of my faves (and not so faves) at the minute. Have you used any of these products, or have any similar ones you're enjoying?

Scrubbin' Up

I popped into Superdrug yesterday to quickly grab some face products. Seeing that I had a bit of extra time to kill before starting work I ended up having a nosy around and came across these exfoliating body washes from their 'I love...' range. As I was running out of my mini Soap and Glory scrub (a fab product I got as a pressie) I thought I'd give these a try, especially as they were cheap and cheerful at 2 for £2.99 (£2.05 each).

I picked up the raspberry & blackberry and the coconut & cream ones. They also have them in strawberries & milkshake and mango & papaya varieties.

As with all bath products, the scent plays a big part in how nice I find it. The smell is quite subtle and not too overpowering or sweet, which I liked.

I could see through the packaging that it had little exfoliating beads in, rather than the rougher salt-type scrubs, so I assumed it would probably be quite a gentle product, which it turned out to be when I used it. If you're after a product that you could get away with using everyday as an all over shower gel for keeping your skin smooth this would be perfect - it's not too harsh at all so I couldn't imagine it would irritate skin easily.

Personally I prefer products that have a coarser texture - if I'm going to exfoliate I want to actually feel like I have afterwards, otherwise what's the point? I'll still be on the lookout for something else, but this isn't a bad product for the price, so will do to tide me over in the meantime. I'll just have to use it more often!

Have you come across any decent, reasonably priced body scrubs lately, or have a particular one you regularly use?

Seaweed, Spaghetti & Sharks

Just a summary of some of the little things in my life this week...

I bought one of the fresh face masks from Lush last weekend, BB Seaweed, which is apparently good for most skin types. Great for me as my skin is the whole mix of oily, dry and occasionally sensitive.

As it only lasts 'til the end of the month and you get quite a lot in the tub I've already used it three times, which is more probably more than I should to be honest as it has little exfoliating bits in, but I don't want it to go to waste (not for how much it cost!). I haven't used face masks in a while so it's made a nice change to try this one out.

The ingredients are all natural and include honey, aloe vera and rose. It also includes little strips of seaweed, so even if it's doing nothing to my skin, at least I can be safe in the knowledge that I look attractive while it's on! I recommend these as a treat to get occasionally, as they cost £5.75 per tub and you have to use it up within about 3 weeks or so. This has been leaving my skin smooth and soft after use though, so if your skin needs a bit of extra attention to get it back on track I'd recommend getting one of these and using it for the month. Do be aware that this one is exfoliating though as I said - overdoing tends to lead to breakouts with me sometimes.


Last night I made spaghetti carbonara, though as we didn't have any bacon in (shocking I know) I used chicken instead, and added an onion. So not exactly the traditional recipe but yum nonetheless. I don't have any photos, I was too hungry for that I'm afraid! But the recipe I followed is the Good Food one from their pasta and noodle book (it's possibly on their website as well). I love these books, the recipes are straight forward and perfect for everyday cooking. I pretty much taught myself to cook with these when I moved to uni!

I've heard people can struggle to make carbonara at home, but I've always used this recipe and never had problems. Adding a splash of the pasta water to the sauce seems to be the tip to getting it right.


I'm also still in my post-gig obsessive phase and haven't stopped listening to Rammstein since seeing them last week, so I'll sign off with a live video of one of my favourite songs by them, 'Haifisch' (German for Shark).

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!