My Essential Pre-Holiday Beauty Preparation!

I love holidays; I love everything about them (minus the packing and remembering of important things like passports etc, the paying for the holiday, and mostly the coming home); but I definitely love the excitement of looking forward to it, starting the holiday early at the airport - and yes I do mean boozing at wherever they'll put up with us in the departure lounge, boarding the plane, arriving (love it when that heat hits you as you step off the plane), and then of course the holiday itself.

However, before I go on holiday, there are definitely beauty chores that need tending to so that my holiday is as chore free as possible. I mean who wants to be shaving daily, or doing nail polish etc. when there's fun to be had?! Not me, that’s for sure! That's why I'm letting you know about my absolute essentials when it comes to my own holiday beauty preparation.

Hair Appointments:

The first chore to be tackled was my hair, because, other than the roots needing to be done, I wanted my hair colour as fresh and as vibrant as possible for the whole holiday; and with the potential for excessive fading due to the sun and swimming pool action, this was even more important for me. I stuck with the same colour combination I've been having recently, as I felt that a change (not in overall colour, just the tips) could mean that the colour build up that I had achieved so far with the orange-y tips could all be undone, thus there would be even more risk of fading.

I recommend having your hair colour done a few days before you fly if you're going for something slightly new/different, that way you have time to make alterations, should it not be to your liking. Otherwise, get it done as close to your departure time as possible for longevity.

Manicures and Pedicures:

Before gel nail polish existed, I would just go for a bog standard manicure before my holiday, in the hope that my nails would look nice for as long as possible; but then end up having to re-do or top up my nails myself throughout the holiday, since normal polish is extremely prone to fading and chipping very quickly, more so when in a holiday environment.

Nowadays, we have gel polish... thank god, and it has been an absolute godsend because it absolutely 100% lasts for my entire holiday (well unless I'm going on an extended break of more than 3 weeks - I wish!) without chipping, or fading. I had gel polish on both my finger and toe nails, which lasted for the entire holiday, and then some. In fact, the only reason it had to come off was due to regrowth. Although I actually have a post coming up soon about how to extend your gel polish a little longer, if only down to regrowth starting to show. I got my nails done the day before I went on holiday, which worked well for me as they lasted perfectly.

For your reference, I had my nails done at Blink Brow Bar at Selfridges in Manchester; and the colours I believe I had were Artistic Colour Gloss in shades Sexy (the coral-y pink shade on all but 'feature' ring finger), Sultry (the orange shade on my feature finger) and Halo (the sparkly top coat on my thumb and ring fingers)!

Hair Removal:

Well I've already written an article on hair removal recently, so I won't go into it in too much detail as you can read that here! However, when I go on holiday, I absolutely need to feel like I am hair free for the entire time. I mean nobody wants to be in a bikini with hairs that have escaped, or grown back poking out, do they (ew)?!

So, I tend to schedule in a bikini (Hollywood) and thigh wax as standard and then epilate the rest of my body (underarms and lower legs) as I can just about take the epilation pain there but then I keep on top of the fuzz with the epilator, if and when I need to whilst over there - which is rare, but I take it with me anyway! Now that I am doing some at home laser hair removal, I'm hoping that this will be a redundant step for future holidays though.

I also make sure my eyebrows are freshly threaded, as nobody likes a messy brow. ;-)

This isn't an eyelash perm image, it's an old image from a very old Max Factor False Lash Effect post.

Eyelashes:

I think this is another holiday essential if you want your eyelashes to look great whilst by the pool/on the beach during the day, but don't want to be putting makeup on for whatever reason. I personally don't wear makeup at all throughout the day whilst on holiday, unless going to a day time event/club - so having my eyelashes 'done' just makes me feel better about that.

I was actually due to have my eyelashes either permed or extended at Blink Brow Bar on the day that I left the country. However due to a mishap beyond my control, I was unable to make it there that day. I will be having these done on another occasion, so expect a separate review post on this soon.

Others:

Lots of people have fake tan applied before they jet off on their jollies, but I find this to be a total waste of time, since as soon as you hit the pool, the chlorine actually strips the tan straight off. If you're planning on staying poolside, this may not be such an issue, but I definitely like taking dips to cool down, at the very least. I do take a few short sunbed sessions to prepare my skin for the sun before I go, not necessarily the healthiest option, but I do find it helps to prevent overcooking my skin the moment I get there.

Weight loss - I always try to diet and tone up before a holiday. The fact that people will be seeing me in not much more than 'glorified underwear' through the day is a large factor in this. Obviously this is a personal thing, you may not need to lose any (lucky thing) but if you do, timing with this will depend on how much you need or want to lose.

Exfoliation is a key treatment to do both before and throughout your holiday if you're planning on tanning. The more you exfoliate, the better your tan will be, and the longer it will last. Dead, dry skin is not a good look at any time though. I tend to use a nice body scrub AND a scrubby mitt or sponge to slough away any dead cells.

So there you have it, my holiday preparation essentials. I would normally have posted this earlier in the year, however I obviously still had a lot going on then with my personal life (and then technical issues), so it's a case of better late than never and this will hopefully help those of you jetting off for some winter sun. You lucky things.

What holiday preparation do you do?

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Laura Mercier, Flawless Skin Face Polish!

My skin needs exfoliating very regularly, and I'm always on the look out for the next best exfoliator as my skin tends to get bored of using the same thing, all the time. So, when I got the chance to try out Laura Mercier's Flawless Skin Face Polish, I jumped at the chance.

I've now has the chance to give it a whirl, and let me tell you, I am very impressed indceed. They're not lying when they say it polishes your skin to leave it 'smooth and even toned' as my skin was glowing after I used it - I couldn't stop touching it, it was that smooth.

Using the polish is very simple, just massage into dampened skin (gently) and then rinse off with warm water - totally straight forward, and nothing out of the ordinary there.

The consistency of the polish is quite gritty, but not overly so - it's not harsh to use on your skin at all, but you can still feel it working as you move it over your skin. I quite like that if I am honest, it's nice to change it up between smooth (enzyme based) and gritty exfoliators, so your skin gets the benefit of using both.

Just look at the following photographs, showing my before, during and after from using it just on the back of my hand. I really think that you can quite clearly see the difference in my skin and how smooth it is (less 'patterned' so to speak), and even now, one day later my left hand looks smoother than my right (which I didn't use it on). This is fabulous stuff and I will definitely be purchasing it again when this one runs out.

This usually retails around £24.50 online which isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination but I would happily pay that...however, it's coming up soon on Buyapowa very soon, possibly next week sometime, so you can expect it to be much cheaper when it does appear! You can register via the link to be emailed when the sale goes live, a very useful tool that I use regularly.

If you haven't heard of Buyapowa, then where have you been? To explain it very quickly, it's a group buying website, where the price lowers as more people buy the product. For instance, if a product has a retail price of £36.50, but Buyapowa may have a best price of £25 say if 40 people bought it, but it declines in price until then. So, if 20 people buy it, they may get it for £32, and if 30 people buy it then the price may drop to £27 - if that makes sense?

Basically, when you agree to purchase something, you'll get it at the best price that it reaches. A lot of the time it sells out (they have limited stock qualtities) and everybody gets the product for the 'best/lowest price' - sounds good, doesn't it? Well it is, I am quite literally addicted to it - I'm pretty sure that my bank balance cries every time I log on. :-)

Will you be keeping an eye out for this one?


Buyapowa kindly sent this for me to try out, my views are unchanged by this.

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant - The Perfect Daily Exfoliator!

I’ve always had a soft spot for Dermalogica products as when I’ve been for facials they have usually been Dermalogica facials and I’ve always been impressed with how my skin felt afterwards. So when I was sent their Daily Microfoliant to try, I was really looking forward to seeing how it performed.

When I first saw the product I assumed it would be some kind of gel or paste like a ‘normal’ exfoliator consistency, but when I lifted it I thought it was incredibly light, definitely too light to be a gel/paste etc.

Upon opening I found it was actually a powder, one that you mixed (about half a teaspoon’s worth) with the tiniest amount of water (either a couple of drops, or just onto very wet hands) to form a lovely creamy paste that you then apply to your face in circular motions for around 1 minute or so, avoiding the eye area. The rice-based powder is said to activate when it comes into contact with water to release Papain, Salicylic Acid and Rice enzymes that all have exfoliating properties and will leave skin smoother and brighter.

It took a few attempts to perfect getting the best consistency but I have it sussed now and it works perfectly every time; in fact I’d go as far as to say that this product is probably the best exfoliating product that I’ve ever used. It’s not harsh on my skin at all, it actually feels silky and gentle to use and not at all scratchy; but it does smooth my skin so incredibly well... more so than I thought possible because of it being so lovely to use.

In my past use of exfoliators, I’ve found that smooth exfoliating gels/creams (with no ‘bits’) didn’t seem to exfoliate enough, which was pretty much the same for those with tiny ‘beads’ as they were too sparse to do any real exfoliation on my skin. I’ve had more success with really gritty exfoliation methods such as Darphin Age Defying Dermabrasion, which I still love (a lot) as my skin is always left beautifully smooth with that, but there’s no denying that it is rougher to use on the skin and my skin does actually go red for about 10 minutes after use.

The RRP for 75g of product is £38 but you’ll probably pay around £28 online at places like Look Fantastic etc. I personally don’t think that the product is excessively priced, although it’s not cheap by any stretch of the imagination (unless you’re a millionaire) but I think it’s a fair price considering it works so well and lives up to its claims, and I don’t think you can put a price on that.

Darphin Age Defying Dermabrasion!

Advantages: Exfoliates brilliantly whilst still gentle on skin, smooths skin, basically it does what it says it will.

Disadvantages: Price.

Darphin is a French company that was established in 1958 by Pierre Darphin. He is said to have revolutionized professional beauty care with unique, luxurious aromatic-plant based formulas and his personal belief was that pleasure is a critical catalyst to enhancing personal beauty.

These days Darphin say that they integrate breakthrough cosmetic and dermatological technology with extracts and essences of aromatic plants by using exacting combinations of these finest aromatic essences. They also still maintain the belief that pleasure plays a bit part in beauty; that feeling beautiful and looking beautiful are inextricably bound which is why they design every product to be delightful to use both in the feel of the product but also the scent – which is where the extract and essences come into force. Aromatherapy seems to play a big part in this company’s ethos.

 

I decided to try this product because on paper it ticked a few of the requirement boxes: exfoliating – check, anti ageing – check, still gentle on the skin – check! As you may have noticed with some of my reviews I am on a bit of an anti-ageing mission, trying to find good products to help my skin fight off those nasty horrible lines and wrinkles as I get older so that I can try to prevent rather than cure them further down the line; so this really appealed to me as my skin can be quite dry and needs a lot of exfoliating usually. A lot of exfoliation products can be quite harsh on the skin so I was very interested to see how this fared, whether it would still be quite harsh but exfoliate well, whether it would be gentle on the skin but not exfoliate well or whether it would just do as it claims it would.

From the box: 

‘Institute-inspired, anti-aging dermabrasion rejuvenates as it polishes skin to perfection. Natural exfoliants (Silica, Pearl, and Lava) make this delectable, creamy complexion-slougher gentle enough for sensitive skin; powerful enough to help reduce the look of pores, age spots, discolorations and to visibly smooth lines and wrinkles. Scoop a small amount on fingertips and massage in circular motions over damp skin (or dry skin for greater exfoliation). Avoid eye area. Rinse off with luke warm water. For optimal results: follow with application of the Youthful Radiance Camellia Mask. Dermatologist tested.’

Inside the box there is the jar of product itself, a little spatula to ensure the product stays as sterile as possible, a consumer card that you can send to Darphin to receive beauty advice (if you want it) and a leaflet stating other Darphin products (peels and masks) and short snippets of information about each of them.

  
The texture of the product feels very gritty (like a very fine grit though) when you rub it between your fingers (and on your face) but not so gritty that it hurts to use it. It’s also quite creamy though, which I think is partly what stops it being too rough for your skin.

I tend to apply it to my dry skin with slightly damp hands so that the product gives maximum exfoliation but is also able to be spread across my face easily; thus using a little less product but also so that the products goes on easier. I spend about 5 minutes massaging it into each bit of my face in an upwards circular motion, getting into all areas including around the nose especially to make sure that all parts of my face get the benefit of using this product.

 

Rinsing this product off is easy but you need to make sure all remaining product is removed and no gritty residue is left on there.  

 
After using this product for the first time my skin was a little bit red for about 10 minutes after but it felt so smooth, and so healthy. I used my Eve Lom day cream to moisturise after and then applied my makeup as usual. I noticed that my makeup went on a lot easier, probably because there was no longer any dead skin loitering around ready to ruin any foundation and powder I applied.

 

After using this product continuously (twice per week) for about 4 weeks I noticed my skin felt in much better condition overall, it seemed plumper and more refreshed too. The difference in using this compared to a normal exfoliating face washes was huge, as normal ones to me always seemed to leave my skin feeling like it could still take a bit more exfoliation but not anymore use of the face wash as they always felt quite harsh and made my skin quite sore.

I found some of the claims on the website and have decided to respond to each one individually in order to show how the product lives up to each of them.

 

Refines skin texture: I think the texture of my skin has improved dramatically since using the product. I don’t think it has felt so smooth since before I was in my teens.

Visibly reduces the appearance of wrinkles: I didn’t really have any wrinkles to start with, I do have a few fine lines threatening to appear though and whilst it hasn’t made them disappear, I do feel that my skin condition has improved enough overall to make them a little less noticeable. 

Diminishes the appearance of dark spots: I didn’t have any dark spots (that I could see anyway), but my skin can be quite blotchy at times and this seems to have diminished somewhat since using this product.

Promotes a luminous complexion: My skin is much more luminous these days; it no longer looks dull because of dead skin cells that are still there that regular exfoliating face washes have left behind. 

The product does cost a lot more than I would usually pay for this kind of product at £48, but I really think that sometimes you do need to spend a little bit more to get the kind of effect that you are aiming for; especially when it comes to skincare as you only get one chance to keep your skin naturally in good condition. It is currently being sold on jasonshankey.co.uk for £43.20 for a small saving.

Lush Bubblegum Lip Scrub - Are You A Scrubber? ;-)

Advantages: Does what it says it does, tastes nice, looks cute, animal friendly

Disadvantages: Eating sugar not healthy, maybe a little pricey for what it essentially is.

My lips always seem to be quite dry; I think this is in part due to having psoriasis and thus something that can't be prevented. That doesn't mean to say that I can't try and make my lips as smooth and soft as I possibly can. This is why I went in search of this product from Lush, but they didn't stock anything like this. I spoke to the Mark Constantine at Lush and he said to have a look on the B site. You see, this lip scrub was originally sold by the now defunct sister company of Lush, 'B never too busy to be beautiful' along with a couple of other 'flavours'. This is when I first tried the product and I picked this flavour as I couldn't resist the girly pink look of it.

When it arrived I was not disappointed, I opened the jar and a waft of sweet bubblegum scent came to my nose. I couldn't wait, I dipped in my finger and started rubbing it on my lips, and the only problem was that I was more or less eating it before I was getting any exfoliation from it as it tasted so gooood! To describe the taste is easy yet difficult as it doesn't have the usual taste of bubblegum, but more like the taste of bubblegum mixed with the taste of the smell of Snow Fairy (a Lush shower gel that gets released at Christmas), if that makes sense?

The application was kind of messy and you should expect granules of sugar to drop below you so it may be worth doing it over a dressing table with maybe a tissue underneath you to catch the escapees! Aside from the messiness, it was easy to apply and massaging it into my lips (providing you don't eat it all) was making them tingle but made my finger a little bit tender as it had also exfoliated that too. All I had to do after the exfoliation was lick my lips and then they were ready for either a lip balm, or a touch of lipstick or gloss. It really was that simple.

This product promises to leave your lips smooth, plump and soft and for me, it really did. The one thing I will say is that it is quite pricey for the small pot you get (£4.50 for 25g), even though it lasts for ages. The reason I say that it's pricey is because to me, I see the ingredients and see that it's basically made up of sugar, oil, flavour and colour. It's quite a simple concoction really, and as such it's possibly something you could make yourself in flavours such as mint or vanilla with mint flavouring or vanilla extract, sugar and oil (even something like olive oil) as there is no real need for the colour really in my opinion!

This product is not tested on animals, much like all of the other products that Lush makes.

In the words of Victoria Wood (in an old Post Office/Stamps advert) 'it makes your lips really really luscious'!