The Body Shop HAUL: POTW

Hello!

"What a bargain."

With Christmas time comes good sales and with good sales comes LOTS of shopping! It's that time of year where you usually spend your time wandering around the stores in hope for finding something for your loved ones, however, I was a bit cheeky and spent time at my computer frantically searching the body shop website to treat myself! Well, with the prices I got the items for, you'll understand why! 

"I've up-ped my shower cream game for the winter"

First off, it's this scary looking thing. The bristles look like the ones that come at the end of a gardening broom, but trust me, they're not that hard! Dry brushing is amazing for your skin, see post here, and I had done a bit of running around from Boots to Superdrug to The Body Shop and settled on this one. All places had the same type of brush, but this one was my fav.

" high hopes for this one, and don't want it to disappoint."

RRP is £8, but I got it for £4.80. What a bargain. 

The next thing is the Brazil Nut Shower Cream. As you know from this post, I've up-ped my shower cream game for the winter, and this was the next on my 'to try' list. We turned that 'to try' into 'to buy' and here we are! The product smells amazing and I think the latter will be better than the Nivea. I have high hopes for this one, and don't want it to disappoint.

"shall use it more and see how well it serves its purpose."

Thirdly, I bought this. How adorable is the packaging? The heart is just so cute! Actually, this is a gift for a friend, she loves the original white musk scent so this slight variation will hopefully be a winner too! These would be great as stocking fillers.

"bristles look like the ones that come at the end of a gardening broom, but trust me, they're not that hard!"

Finally, I picked up a muslin cloth. RRP £2.50 and I picked it up for £1.50. Having used it yesterday, it is lovely to exfoliate the skin. I didn't expect it to be the material to be as it is. I had thought it'd be much more smooth. However, I shall use it more and see how well it serves its purpose.

"I was a bit cheeky and spent time at my computer frantically searching the body shop website"

Overall, I'm super happy with the purchase - the delivery was great from The Body Shop, and at 40% off, you can't go wrong!

What are your favourite things from The Body Shop?

Healthy Chocolate - Is it really tasty?

Hello!

Hearing the words 'healthy' and 'chocolate' together sounds a little weird... And slightly untrue! However, it might be a bit more normal to hear after you've read this post!

Healthy Chocolate. Oxymoron - yet couldn't be truer with Conscious Chocolate! Conscious chocolate is chocolate (duh!) made with raw products. It is sweetened with Agave Nectar which is obviously better than the over-processed and bleached white sugar found in regular chocolates! 

The oh-so-raw chocolate has a different texture to your regular dairy milk. It has a truffle-like texture which is very soft. If you try to break the chocolate into pieces, it doesn't snap, it kind of slowly breaks apart - sort of like caramel  (Does that even make sense?!).

Conscious chocolate have a wide range of flavours to choose from, ranging from 'Goji and Coconut' to a nutty chocolate bar to a cherry flavour and loads of flavours in between! 

I got to try the 'Essential Orange' and 'Mint Hint'. You're bound to find something that catches your attention! 

I love the 'Essential Orange' flavour. The chocolate is more on the dark chocolate, bitter taste - which I wasn't too fond of at first but it definitely grew on me! As I had more of the orange, I started liking it more and more. It's true what they say about your taste buds adapting! 

However, I wasn't a huge fan if mint to begin with so naturally, I preferred the Orange flavoured chocolate! 

I like how they didn't try to fool us with the nutritional information. Sometimes products show the nutritional information about 1/5th if the packet and we assume it's the whole thing - however, Consious Chocolate give us info of the whole thing! Also, all the products are natural, minimal process and still taste great. Good going, conscious!

The products are packaged in 3 wrappers. 

1) it is wrapped in a bit of paper

2) it's put inside a foil baggie (as shown in the picture) 

3) it is then inside the main packaging with the name if the flavour

Just to mention, I love the packaging and how all the flavours have different outer package! The paper packaging (1) is good as it keeps the chocolate together and not melting on your hand as you get it out, the foil baggie keeps the chocolate fresh and the other packaging to name the flavours! 

Overall the chocolates from 'Conscious Chocolate' taste so yummy and it's nice to know they're not processed and are raw. Oh, and I have to mentioned the scents of them - they are so good! Like you open the first packaging and the scent lingers! It's a lovely strong scent of the essential flavours -yum! 

So, is it a little more normal to hear 'healthy chocolate' after reading this? Or are those two words together will never sound normal! Try out 'Conscious Chocolate' (link here) and then tell me these two words are made for each other: Healthy Chocolate! 

What are your favourite healthy desserts?

*Conscious Chocolate did send the two products to me for review purposes, but all of the information is honest and not biased

Dry Skin from Cold Weather?!

Hello!

Now winter is full blown and yes, we're reaching temperatures below 0 degrees Celcius in England right now, it means to say you may be finding your skin getting drier? Even worse: Flaking!

You may think that its the cold weather that is actually drying out your skin - but this is a MYTH.
In reality it's the central heating in your home that is drawing out moisture from your skin. Notice how flowers kept near a radiator are likely to quench up and dry out? It's the same for your skin.

STOP your skin drying out by adding a humidifier to your home, or just your bedroom. Yet, these can be expensive and somewhat unrealistic to get. So, these are some easy ways you can add moisture to your home:

Dry some clothing on your radiator: this means the moisture from the wet clothing/material will evaporate and add moisture to the room

Houseplants: like I mentioned earlier, plants can get dry if near the radiator. Make sure to water the plant well so it a)Lives and b)Adds moisture to your room

 Or, you can simply use a dish of water: place a shallow dish of water near a radiator so again the water can evaporate and prevent the central heating leaving your skin cracked!

Oh, and if you currently have dry skin - apply some vaseline before you go to bed, and rub it in.

So, keep your room nice and warm, yet moist this winter and save your skin!

What's your skin saviour for dry skin? 

image source

Get Super Soft, Lovely Hands

Hello!

Surprisingly you may not know exactly how important keeping your hands moisturised actually is. Read on and find out...
Today is National Wash your Hands day. I'm not lying, it really is! It's in this time of the year as with the colder weather, the case of the flu seems to have hit everyone at once. To help stop the vicious cycle of catching and spreading germs... well, wash your hands!

Constantly washing your hands means you're constantly removing moisture from them, leaving them dry and flaky. Whether you're a hand model or not, keeping your hands soft and lovely is key for youthful skin, and should be more of a priority than it seems to be.

Did you know your hands and neck are the first places that show signs of wrinkles? Keeping these area moisturised means you'll look youthful and radiant.
I keep telling my mum this and now she keeps a bottle of heavy moisturiser on the kitchen counter near the door so as she leaves her hands are moisturised. That's not to say I haven't seen my dad use it a couple of times too!

Itchiness, skin irritation and flakiness can also occur due to dry skin, known as xerosis.

Try these hand creams on-the-go:

Image from here

available in Boots, Amazon and many others.

image from here

available from Boots, Amazon

and for a night time treatment - my go to product:

image from here

available from Boots, Amazon and others.

Keep these mini-products in many different places such as:

• desk
• purse
• bedside table
• kitchen counter
• coffee table

This way you remember to do this more often.... which is what I need to start doing more! 

So let's do it, you and I - we'll get softer hands together!

Don't forget to check out this post to see whether your makeup needs to be thrown out! 

Good Things Skincare - Review

Hello!

Now I haven't really written/spoken to you about skin care... like, ever. Which is quite weird because I want to be a dermatologist in the future - so like a skin care specialist...hmm...

Anyway, there's a lot you may or may not know about me... well, did you know: I used to have hormonal cystic acne. Yep, was as disgusting as it sounds, trust me. I've had a lot of ups and downs with my skin and it was definitely a huge confidence-deflater for me and when my skin cleared up - let me tell you, it was a slow, long process and didn't happen overnight - everyone and their mothers would ask me my "secret"... and that would make me feel a little angry as when I was in the process on clearing up my acne, these same people were the ones who gave me dirty looks and making me feel insecure - well, who's laughing now?

Okay, it's not me laughing because guess what? I have quite a few spots again.
 Now let me tell you from experience: your skin doesn't depend on simply just what you put ON your face. It depends on a whole load of things such as mental health - who gets pimples when they're stressed? This girl... - what goes into your body and even the pollution levels in the place you live. When I went to a quite countryside/village for a holiday in February this year, my skin was amazing, because the pollution level was low and I felt my skin got a nice 'detox'!

Anyway, so when I go to buy new skincare products I try to find what will work best for me (duh!), but I have combination/oily skin, so I keep that in mind when shopping!
So, I went to Boots one day and saw this line:

Good Things sounds amazing for spot prone oily/combination skin, plus the packaging is gorgeous and totally drew me in!

First of all, this smells GORGEOUS! It's like fruity and 'girly' and a great scent to fall into bed with! It lingers even after you've rinsed it off and I can't say I hate it.
Besides the smell, the actual product is a gel like consistency, which is meant to be perfect for oily skin. Also, it is clear in colour.

The product doesn't really create a lather, foam or suds - I personally prefer this as it feels silky on the skin and you really feel like you're living in luxury and truly pampering yourself when putting this on. The skin feels soft when the product is rinsed off and doesn't feel like the skin is stripped of natural oils.

However, the product has downfalls...
It broke me out.
At first I was in love with this product but after a couple of weeks of uses I noticed my spots coming back. The first few times a pimple popped up I blamed it for other reasons, such as stress or a bad diet, but then found that they may be factors as well as this product.
Good Things Facial Cleanser went straight in the bin.

Overall, I do recommend you give this a go if you have oily skin and would like to try a gel cleanser - if you don't like strong/lingering scents STAY AWAY. If you're like me and LOVE the scent, try it!
I actually have very sensitive skin too, so very few products work for me - if you find your skin is slightly less sensitive, then I suggest trying it.

Unfortunately this was a stay away product for me and I will not be repurchasing.

Hope you liked the review, what's your go-to cleanser when the spots come out?
Leave a comment!

Get Glowy For Summer - Highlighters

Hello!
Summer comes around and so does the tanned skin and glow - whether it be artificial or real is a different story!
Around summer time the 'oily look' is something that is avoided with matte powder but a dewy, fresh glow is there instead. I recently found that so many cosmetic companies are introducing new highlighters, especially liquid - guys, they are in FULL BLAST right now!
Here are some of the ones that I have recently found:

1. MAC Lustre Drops

This is described as a 'bronzer that applies like liquid sun' - so yes, it is summer in a bottle! This is available in 2 shades: 'Sun Rush' which is a yellow toned highlight and 'Pink Rebel' which is suited for those with pink undertones. This reminds me very much of the 'Sun Beam' and 'High Beam' from Benefit Cosmetics which has been selling for a long time. The MAC Lustre Drops are limited edition and sell for £18 for 18ml, in comparison to the Benefit which sells for £19.50 for 15ml, so the price for the Lustre Drops are lower!

Lustre Drops are water-based though, and would not be waterproof for the days in the pool (then again, who REALLY wears a full face of makeup at the pool?!). 

2. Benefit Watts Up

ANOTHER product from Benefit! Benefit actually have a range of highlighters: Sun Beam, High Beam, Watt's Up, Girl Meets Pearl, Moon Beam, Erase Paste (Concealer and highlighter)... AND they have a mini-kit called 'finding mr. bright' which features High Beam, Posie Tint, Erase Paste and Girl Meets Pearl! So Benefit are really milking this whole highlight product, and to be quite honest, it is selling well! Good for them! These products are great and Watt's Up in particular is a champagne shade which can be placed on top of cheek bones, on the brow bone and anywhere where you think you want a nice glow and shimmer - a highlight to be quite precise! This product provides a luminous sheen to accentuate areas where the sun naturally hits anyway, giving a more chiselled and glow-y look at £24.50.

3. ELF Under Eye Concealer & Highlighter

Lastly, I went ahead and found a cheaper alternative to the liquid highlighters, this one is by ELF and is meant to be used under the eye, however can obviously be used elsewhere. This sells for a mere £3.75 and includes a concealer! 

Liquid highlighters (and all the ones mentioned above) can be applied on top of, or without, makeup! So, if you do want to have a no-makeup makeup look, this could be the only product you need to give yourself a longed-for glow! Who says you don't wake up looking like that? (Nobody needs to know - it'll be our secret!)

xoxo,

BerryBloomXO

Picture 1 from HERE

Picture 2 from HERE

Picture 3 from HERE