My Top 10 Soap and Glory Products.

I am a Soap and Glory fanatic. I couldn't manage to narrow it down to a top 10, so a top 13 will have to do! I must remind you, that these are in no particular order, apart from my number 1 which I love love LOVE!!

13. Clean On Me body wash - It's gorgeously moisturising and the scent lingers on your skin for ages after showering!

12. Night Cream In Shining Armour - This is a lovely rich night cream, and my savior during the cold winter months.

11. No Clogs Allowed Deep Cleansing Face Mask - This gorgeous mask heats up on contact with water, slather it all over your dry face then pat your skin with wet hands and feel your face tingle as it cleans deep into your pores!

10. Sexy Mother Pucker - I use this in Clear. It tingles and plumps the lips, it also has a lovely chocolate scent!

9. Some Like It Hot - You know those winter nights when you've been out in the cold and you need a nice warm shower to heat you back up again? This works a treat! A lovely self heating creamy body scrub.

8. Flake Away - Another body scrub, and the best I have ever used. Also leaves a lovely film on the skin which is extremely moisturising.

7. The Righteous Butter Light - The original Righteous Butter is a little too rich for me, so imagine my delight when they came out with this little baby!

6. Clean Mary - A lovely gentle cleansing milk, great for removing makeup before washing your face, and it smells gorgeous too!

5. Mist You Madly - I'm more of a perfume lover than a fan of body sprays, but I got given this as a Christmas present this year and I love it! Totally refreshing and smells delightfully fresh.

4. Hair Supply - A deep conditioning treatment for the hair. It literally feels like the Righteous Butter for your head! A total luxury.

3. The Fab Pore Hot Cloth Cleanser - A lovely creamy facial cleanser, with a gorgeous scent, full of essential oils and other goodies. It also comes with a muslin cloth, great for facial cleansing!

2. Hand Food - The best hand cream ever. Works instantly, no greasy residue and it smells amazing!

1. Scrub Your Nose In It. - This is probably my all time favourite facial product ever IN THE WORLD. It can be used as either a facial scrub or a mask (excellent either way), is incredibly refreshing, and is my go-to product during times of facial desperation. I bulk buy these and will never look at any other facial scrubs ever again. Thanks Soap and Glory!

My Ins and Outs :)

I noticed a load of beauty bloggers writing about their "ins and outs", so I thought I'd join in and share what I'm loving and not loving this week.

Ins:

The beautiful weather! Has Summer finally arrived? I think so!

Short hair. I recently got myself a bit of a crop, think Sarah Harding or Frankie Sandford. I'm not keen on myself with long hair and I also think it can look really dated. During summer I think its nice to have short, stylish and fresh looking hair. It can also really reinvent your image!

The Baby Boom! My stepbrother and his wife are expecting their first baby today! It's most definitely going to be late as she hasn't actually gone into labour and I also just found out that my cousin's girlfriend is three months pregnant with their first baby! Bring on the babies in the family!

Beauty blogging. I love reading them and I love writing them. What a great way to share tips and ideas.

Vaseline Aloe Vera. This was what saved my life during winter. Dry skin, chapped lips, cuticles, eyebrows, a hair dye barrier... It has THOUSANDS of uses.

Barry M. I love this brand. Its affordable and really good quality. I have loads of the nail paints and I'm just waiting to get my hands on the new ice cream collection, and I also really love the lip paints. There was an offer of 3 for 2 on in my Boots recently and so I bought myself lip paints in 53 (a gorgeous coral colour), 100 (a pale pink) and the famous 129 (a lilac colour) and I love them all, particularly 129. The consistency of these lip paints is gorgeous, its soft and creamy and 129 has a bit of gloss to it too.

Leather. Jackets and bags in particular. I'd never buy a fake leather jacket. If you want something to look real, then you have to buy real. I know people will be like oh you're wearing a cow, but this is my opinion and I LOVE leather. Its an investment, will last for years and it ages beautifully.

Outs:

Long hair. See above.

Tights. Its summer! Love your legs everyone!

Jeggings with SHORT tops. The first rule I would apply when buying leggings or jeggings is that they MUST be worn with a top that covers the bum. Bums generally look awful in these items as knicker lines are clearly visible and its just not a pretty site for whoever is standing behind you!

Fake tan. I hate it. I wore it for a recent night out and I looked ridiculous. Although probably only because I'm extremely bad at applying it. Yeah its fine to stick a bit on your legs at the beginning of summer before they get tanned, but I personally felt like a clown and I HATE the orange look. My face also reacted really badly to it and my skin felt like it was falling off. And yes, it was specifically designed for the face!

BIG JEWELRY. I feel that this is a bit dated now. I am all for the small delicate pieces, and I particularly love the gold name necklaces, like Carries from Sex and the City. There are some really quirky, fun pieces out there on the high street in shops like Topshop and Miss Selfridge, and also on a new website I found called dollybowbow.co.uk. This girl is a you-tuber and she also designs and makes all her own jewlery, its gorgeous so check her out!

Last but not least, my dissertation. It is the devil that is causing me to stay in my house rather than sit outside and enjoy this glorious sunshine. Hand in date in 4 days... BRING IT ON!

Thanks for reading, feel free to post your own ins and outs, I love reading them!

Ashley x

QUINODERM ACNE CREAM!!!

Hey everyone, Another little update on my skincare and some information on an acne treatment I have used for a very long time, Quinoderm.


Basically, I had teenage acne, just like most teenagers, and my friend, who was generally very spotty, came into school one day sporting a very clear complexion!

"Phillip!", I said to him. "What have you been using on your face?"

He told me of this miraculous ointment that he had found in the pharmacy and that after only a few days of using it, his face had dramatically become a lot more clear. Quinoderm is the name of this product, and its magic ingredient is benzoyl peroxide. The cream comes with either 5% or 10% benzoyl peroxide content and it is recommended that if you haven't used it before, start off with a weaker solution, so go for the 5%. I however, started with the 10% and I didn't regret it.

I used it morning and night, and it is fine to use under makeup. The cream is of a thick white consistency, but as you rub it onto your skin it quickly disappears and it doesn't leave any sort of residue.
One issue, however, is that the peroxide in this product causes it to bleach things such as clothes, bedsheets and towels etc, so be careful and remember to wash your hands after using it!

The only real problem with this product in terms of my skin is that it is extremely drying, and the skin around my mouth and chin was literally flaking off. What would I rather have, spots or flakes? Hmm, tough question. But I decided on flakes, so I continued using Quinoderm and my spots remained none existent.
After a few months, the flakes began to really disgust and embarrass me and so I managed to put a stop to my use of Quinoderm. It was around this time that I went on the pill, which, luckily for me, allowed my spotless skin to remain.

It was not until about a month ago that I reintroduced the Quinoderm into my skincare routine after reading about somebody who uses it in conjunction with their moisturiser. This was my mistake. I DID NOT USE MOISTURISER! I, being my naive 17 year old self, thought I should use Quinoderm and ONLY Quinoderm if I wanted my skin to be flawless. I thought moisturiser would counteract the drying effect that the cream had on my spots, therefore not allowing it to work, so I went without.

Now, I use my Clinique 3 Step system and apply my Quinoderm straight after my moisturiser. And it works! My skin does not have spots or flakes, and I finally think I have my good skin back on track after the unfortunate couple of months I have endured after coming off the pill :D

Do you have any ideas or thoughts about acne treatments?
Let me know!

Thanks for reading,

Ashley x

Skincare review - Dermalogica

Well I'm back, five minutes later with another exciting review! This time I will be reviewing Dermalogica skincare products: PreCleanse, Special Cleansing Gel, Skin-Prep Scrub, Multi-Active Toner, and Active Moist Moisturiser.


The first thing that I will say is that this is the actual list of products you should expect to use in one "routine", and one is expected to complete this routine, twice a day, morning and night.

The first product to be used is the appropriately titled PreCleanse. This is a cleansing oil consisting of some naturally sourced ingredients (which I can not name as I do not have an ingredient list at hand!).
Some people are frightened at the thought of putting oil directly onto their faces, assuming it will cause their skin to become greasy. But oil is actually an extremely effective makeup remover and cleanser. So yes, you pour a small amount (5p size) onto DRY hands and massage into a DRY face. Do this for around 30 seconds then wet your hands and the oil will transform into a milky consistency. Massage a bit more then rinse off with warm water.


The second product is the Special Cleansing Gel. Use this immediately after the PreCleanse and Dermalogica direct you to cleanse your face TWICE. So massage the gel into a foamy lather on your face, rinse and repeat. I found this to be pleasurable to use, particularly as it is soap free and the ingredient that makes the product lather is natural, from a plant or something, meaning, it does not sting if it gets in your eyes. It is not a drying cleanser, and the smell is refreshing and natural.


You may then move on to the third product, the Skin-Prep scrub. This is a brown scrub and is of a creamy (rather than gel) consistency. A little goes a long way and this scrub is not harsh on the face, it can be used daily, but dermalogica recommend around two to three times per week. It is extremely exfoliating and it really does get rid of dead skin cells to reveal a smooth surface. Use this by massaging into clean skin for about 30 seconds and then rinse with warm water.


The toner is next, and it comes in a spray bottle, which at first I found a little strange, because it meant spraying this product directly into my face. Fortunately, I managed to do this successfully and felt that the product was evenly distributed on my face, although if not, you can easily rub it in with your fingers. Again, it has a very natural refreshing smell and would be particularly good during summer for refreshing your face on a warm day.


Finally, moisturiser. When using this, I waited for my toner to dry, although it is fine to moisturise a damp face as a way of retaining extra moisture. Take a 5p sized amount and rub it evenly into your face and neck. The smell is similar to the rest of the Dermalogica products mentioned, although mine did have a slight "off" smell. I'm not sure if all Active Moist smells like this, but I have a slight feeling that I may have been sent an old tube. Anyway, I still felt satisfied with this product in terms of its light consistency and not causing my face to be greasy. It did what it was supposed to, although I definitely prefer my Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel.


So, after three weeks of religiously using these products, how did I feel? Well, after about 10 days, my skin was perfect. Then, it went down hill. I do not know if this was due to hormones, or cosmetics, but I managed to develop large spots on my cheeks, forehead and chin, and significantly so around my jaw line and I was certainly not happy. My mam told me that you do not know whether a product is agreeing with your skin until you have used it for 30 days, because this is how long it takes to actually affect the skin due to some cycle or something... Anyway, I gave it 20 days and that is all I could deal with. I actually had to purchase some benzoyl peroxide cream to get rid of the spots I had "grown".

Because of this, I'm not sure if I will give Dermalogica another try. Having teenage acne at the age of 22 is embarrassing, slightly depressing and it really made my confidence drop.

Remember, Ideas are always welcome!

Thanks for reading,

Ashley x

A quick hello... And my first blog!

Well this is my first blog and I have to admit, I'm a little stuck with what to say... I'll start with a *Hello!* And welcome to my musings!

I might as well start at the beginning. I'm mainly interested in products for the skin and hair, but for those times when I find that perfect lipstick or mascara, I'll be sure to share.

My skin... Has been quite problematic over the last few months, after coming off my contraceptive pill due to it causing the most horrific migraines. Before coming off, my skin was near perfect. I was literally using Clean and Clear daily facial scrub twice a day and moisturising with the Clean and Clear moisturiser. Totally cheap and totally worth it. Until my doctor demanded that I come off the pill, that is. So I did. And my 22 year old flawless face turned into a spotty 14 year old's nightmare. I was gutted. And here comes my first review...

The Clinique 3 Step System - Level 3.


My mam bought me this kit when I was 14 years old, as a way of introducing me to a cleanse, tone, moisturise routine. (My mam was a beauty therapist back in the day) And I have to say, I loved it and dedicated myself to taking three minutes out of my day, morning and night, to complete my new ritual. Because I was only 14, I could not, however, afford to repurchase this luxury, so I resorted to the aforementioned Clean and Clear (and a lot cheaper!) option, which also worked.

Aged 18, I went on the pill, Marvelon, if you're wondering, and my skin was the best its ever been. 3 years later I come off it and I'm back to square one. First thing I do is make a dash for Debenhams and invest £60 into my new skincare.

Yes, its pricey, but its my face and I'm always willing to make a generous investment if it will keep it looking at its best. I also got loads of freebies so that helped justify my buy.

The lady on the Clinique counter asked me a few questions (stuff like, what is your eye colour? What is your hair colour? Do you tan or burn or burn then tan? etc) in order to determine my skin level (1 = dry, 2 = combination dry, 3 = combination oily, 4 = very oily) and it turns out I'm a level 3.
In my lovely big box of tricks I received a 200ml bottle of the liquid facial soap in the oily skin formula with a pump top, a MASSIVE (487ml ?)(exclusive to Christmas) sized bottle of clarifying lotion with the pump top, and a 125ml bottle of dramatically different moisturising gel, also with the pump top. I also got given each of these products in 50ml travel sizes AND another free gift of my choice. I chose the anti - blemish skincare kit, which consisted of a bar soap, 50ml anti-blemish clarifying lotion and a 50ml anti-blemish moisturiser. (I was not keen on these anti-blemish products, I found they gave me MORE blemishes!)
So anyway, off I went to try my new skincare and for the first couple of weeks, my face was literally as smooth as a baby's bum. I didn't feel the need to use a manual exfoliator as the clarifying lotion is actually an exfoliator as well, and I found that this particular product is what made my skin feel totally gorgeous and even my boyfriend was a bit envious of my silky smooth forehead! However, using this in winter was a pretty bad idea. My face dried out like a prune and I couldn't even open my mouth without the sides cracking, it was extremely painful and so I stopped using the products. Although I have kept them for summer use when the weather is not so cold and extremely drying on my poor skin!

This was the beginning of my skincare obsession and I am now on a mission to find that perfect product...

If any of you have any thoughts or ideas on the Clinique 3 Step System, please let me know as I always appreciate new opinions and advice!

Thanks for reading,

Ashley x