Cherry Picking

Cherry Picking

It seems that the Autumn collections are coming at us from every crevis at the moment, giving us berries, berries and more berries. For those of you who prefer to spend your pennies saving up for the seasonal parties, ('which are like totally two months away' someone said to me the other day) then this collection from Boots own brand 17 is for you.

I love how 17 have managed to get rid of their cheapy-teenage image which haunted them for many years. I wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole for fear of my teenage cousin having the same makeup as me, but now I have loads of bits and bobs floating around in my makeup bag. Well, makeup suitcase. This latest collection features six nail varnishes and four eyeshadows, all of which are super on-trend and well worth the couple of quid they cost.

Let's start with the polish... I've done a few berry coloured posts recently, but I really like these polishes. The colours include a gemstone red (Ruby Gem), a deep irredescent purple-brown (Gemstone) and brighter purple-blue (Purple Jewel.) Can you spot a trend here? All the colours apply easily and give a good colour result after two coats. They do take a while to dry though so be careful and don't do it in a rush or you'll end up with smudged, manky fingers. These are a good guilt-free buy at only £2.99 each. I've been wearing Ruby Gem and it's lasted three days with only minimal chipping, easily fixed with a quic touch-up if you're lazy like me.

Now, the eyeshadows. I love, love, love these shades. Taking influence from the gem names of the varnishes, these fab little pots shimmer and shine their hearts out. Midnight Pearl, Rose Quartz, Gold Emerald and Violet Rock are all fabulous colours (although because my samples don't have names on I can't tell you which is which!) that I'll definitely be using. Three of the shades are metallic shimmers, ranging from a bronze to silver and grey, and really have a great pay-off. Normally with cheaper brands the result is poor, but these colours really transfer onto the skin well and would look even better with a primer. The fourth colour is a dusky mauve which could be used around the lash line to create a sexy Autumn smokey eye - they blend well and sit well even under and around your eye.

These are all super cheap (polish is £2.99 & eyeshadow £3.49) and are even on a 3 for 2 at the moment so there's no excuse not to grab the lot. It's basically your Autumn wardrobe in one reasonably-priced-package.

 

Skincare Sublime

Skincare Sublime

Skincare has become a top priority for me recently. As I get older I seem to really notice those long days, longer nights and never-ending weeks - so does my skin. I'm always up for trying something new and always moisturise religiously before I go to bed, but I have to say I don't really ever see a noticeable difference or improvement, despite my best efforts. I was sent a selection of RoC to try, and as a brand that I associate with older skin (i.e my mum) didn't think it would do much for me... how wrong I was.

RoC's latest innovation is RoC Sublime Energy: "It combines science with the pampering experience of luxurious skin care to bring new life to the look of your skin in a new 2-step process. It contains E-PULSE^™ for instantly softer, smoother and more even-looking skin, with even greater results in 1 to 4 weeks. It also contains broad spectrum UVA/UVB to help protect skin from premature aging."This two-step process contains a serum and moisturiser which when used together react to form an electrical reaction (sounds scary but it's not) to help your skin regenerate. 

I'm not a big believer in all of these fancy lotions and potions that cost an arm and a leg, but don't do anything more than your 99p tub of Boots own brand moisturiser. However, in this instance I've been proved wrong as I noticed an immediate difference in my skin. You apply the grey serum first which feels very silky and smooth on the skin, whilst having a thicker formula than normal serums. The moisturiser is a light formula that doesn't look any different from any other, but when it's applied you instantly get a slightly warm sensation on your skin. Now I don't know if this happens to everyone, but I definitely noticed it straight away!

I'm rubbish at using moisturisers in the morning as it takes forever to dry and I don't leave myself enough time to faff around before work. Because of this I always use day moisturiser at night and rarely use proper night cream because it's too rich for me. (Just setting the scene!) So when I got up in the middle of the night to go to the loo I already noticed how smooth my skin felt... it seemed a little too good to be true. The next day I had a proper prod and there was definitely an improvement. I've been using this for nearly two weeks now and I love how it makes my skin feel: refreshed, plumper, more radiant and definitely smooth.

I have been using this in conjunction with Liz Earle's Cleanse & Polish but I can honestly say I account this responsible for 50% of the improvement. The creams even come in their own little holder so they stay together and look lovely on your shelf (you know how important that is.) At £29.99 for the day cream and £39.99 for the night cream they're not cheap, but I would expect they'd have an even better result on older skin. There's a fabulous 'before and after' shot on the back that I brushed aside with a 'yeah, right' before using this.... now I'm thinking the woman was just as pleased with the results as me.

Cleanse & Polish

Cleanse & Polish

Cleansing is the most important part of your skin routine. If you dont have a polished base to start with it makes the rest of your routine even more troublesome than trying to apply makeup to a face that was drinking cocktails and dancing on the bar a few hours before. I've invested in a lot of cleansers, some with little success and others with much better results. I'd heard great things about Liz Earle's skin care products, and after trying their new hair range and adoring it I was left with no choice but to give it a whirl.

I've been using Liz Earle's famous Cleanse & Polish system for a week now and had high hopes from the very start. After I reviewed her shampoo and conditioner a while back I was inundated with comments about how much people loved Cleanse & Polish. Now I understand why. The system is really simple and just consists of the cleanser and a muslin cloth. When I opened the little pale green case that it comes in I expected to find a selection of treasures and a complex process, but all that greeted me was a bottle of cream cleanser and two clothes with an instruction booklet. "Erm, how does this work magic?" I thought - but it does, it really does. 

All you need to do is massage the cream cleanser onto dry skin (even if you've still got your makeup on) focusing on your t-zone and around the eye area to massage away any tough goup. While you're doing this just run a sink full of hot water and leave the cloth to soak for a few minutes and then massage away the cleanser with the cloth. You do need to focus on one of your five areas at a time (forehead, chin, nose and two cheeks) rinsing the cloth as you go. The massaging movements and the texture of the cloth removes makeup, grime and dirt instantly leaving you with fresh, cleansed and smooth skin.

The lady herself.

You're supposed to use this morning and night, but I'm a 'face wash in the shower' kind of girl so I've replaced my usual 'before bed' routine with this. Just to put into context, I usually use a face wipe to remove the top layer of makeup and two cotton pads each of cleanser, toner and eye makeup remover. All of this can be completely replaced with this one easy ritual courtesy of Liz Earle. I really didn't believe it would remove all my layers so easily, so I tested it with a cotton pad of cleanser... there was practically nothing there. The only thing it doesn't completely remove is my 10 layers of mascara, but if you only put a little on it will even get rid of that.

After a week I've really noticed that my skin is clearer, fresher and more radiant, meaning my makeup sits better and stays put longer. My skin isn't as oily and generally looks a lot better. It also saves me about ten minutes and a hell of a lot of cotton wool before bed time. As you only need one squirt the bottle qill last forever. You even get a spare cloth so you can clean one and still be using the cleanser. This is certainly a winner in my book and a great investment for anyone who has always wished that their skin was a little bit clearer.