The Body Shop Give Joy carrot moisture cream | gifts | lipgloss | makeup | review | skin care | tbsgivejoy | the body shop | twitter | watermelon | when flowers fall | whenflowersfall

A few weeks ago, I received a tweet from The Body Shop asking if I would like to try out a couple of their veggie friendly products. At the time I wasn't eating meat and I felt it was an ideal time to try something new. 

Their random act of kindness was part of #TBSGiveJoy, as something I hadn't heard of before, I did a little investigating and it seems The Body Shop will pick people to offer some goodies too. Another girl I spotted was offered some of their chocolate products to try. 

After giving them my address, a few days later I signed for a package including the following products.

The carrot moisture cream is exactly that. The 50 ml tub is available to buy for £4, but is currently out of stock online. 

This cream is amazing. I thought the scent would be a little odd, being carrot, but it smells really pleasant.

The cream itself is slightly more thick than the moisturiser I usually reach for, but that being said, it actually sinks into the skin a lot quicker.

Since using this, my skin hasn't at all felt dry. I tend to reach for this now, even when I don't really need it. It kind of feels like a treat when applying it. 

I feel this tub is going to last a while, but as soon as it is all gone, I will most certainly be purchasing it. 

The other product I received was the new watermelon lip gloss. Available to buy online for £7.00, here.

Apologises for the blurry photo.

This is a product I most definitely wouldn't have chosen for myself. In all honesty, I'm not a big lipgloss fan.

I tried this out and I'm in love with it. Something that always puts me off lipgloss is the stickiness, but this isn't sticky at all. It smells and tastes amazing, and gives amazing shine. 

The tube gives you a good 12ml of product and is easy to apply. 

The new range of lipglosses come in a huge variety of flavours. There's everything from strawberry and peach, to cocoa and lychee. 

I love this product so much, that I am now dying to try out some of the others in the range. 

Have you heard of #TBSGiveJoy before? 

Mini Reviews #001 #leedsbloggermeetup2012 | angela langford | cloths | glamour oil | good things | hair care | hair oil | indola | mini | miracle mattifier | moitsuriser | reviews | scrub up | skin care | washi | when flowers fall

Hi, my lovelies!

I can imagine by now, you all know about the #leedsbloggermeetup2012. We were given a fantastic goody bag and I have been ever since reviewing products we given. 

Today will be the last of the meet up goody reviews and the beginning of a little series you will see pop up from time to time. 

Now, I'm fully aware that some of you like the more in depth reviews that I write, but if you're like me, sometimes you like to know the quick good and bad points (if any) of a product without having to read through tons of other information. 

The mini review series will focus on three or four products at a time. I will tell you any information I feel you should know, the price and if I saw any benefit from using the product. 

If you like the idea of this post, please let me know in the comments below. If you don't, then I may not continue the series. I just felt it was a pretty good idea. 

Washi! Cloths

The Washi! hot cloth polishing kit is available here for £5.95 and is available in an array of different packaging styles. The one I received was the 'Spa' style.

The kit contains four individually wrapped hot cloths and a skin polishing towel. (We also received some cotton buds and cute little stickers.)

The Washi! hot cloths are a little thicker than muslin, retains heat a lot longer and exfoliates deep within your pores. All you have to do is dampen the cloth with warm to hot water and wring out before use. 

I absolutely adore my Washi! hot cloths. I have used then since the event with my cleanser and I feel my skin is so much clearer and smoother since.

The skin polishing towel is to be used dry. It is suggested you splash your face with water and use a small section of the towel in circular motions to get rid of any dry skin. If you are prone to acne or have broken skin, you should use this towel lightly.

Again, I love this product. I mainly use this when my skin is feeling dry, before I apply my make-up in the morning. The towel smooths skin, makes it feel soft and helps create a glow, creating the perfect base for moisturiser and then foundation.

Indola Innova Glamour Precious Oil

I've been able to find very little information about this product online. 

This is the Indola website, but as you can see, it only shows a little description of the product. 

On the bottle it says, 'Precious oil for smooth, strong and brilliantly shiny hair. Formula, with Marula oil, targets damage and reduces split ends by up to 90%.'

I have been using this product just like it says, by applying a few drops into my hands and working through towel dried hair before styling. It can also be used on dry hair, but I have yet to try that. 

So far I haven't necessarily seen an improvement of my split ends, but it if I'm honest, my hair is like split end central. So much damage. But, my hair has been a lot easier to manage, much more smooth and in over all better condition. 

I will continue to use this product until I run out and I will most definitely be repurchasing.

I have found a link on Amazon here, retailing at £10.95 for 75ml.

Angela Langford Scrub Up Exfoliator

Personally, I've never been one for using an exfoliator on my face. But after smelling this product (it smells incredible), I though, why not! 

Available here, Scrub up sells for £15.80 for 50mls. 

As you can see from the photo above, the exfoliator contains a tons of amazing ingredients. The product itself is smooth but gritty, sounds odd, but it's true. 

I have used this several times, with and without my Washi! cloths and I will most definitely be using it until in runs out. After use, my skin feels soft and clear. I was a little dubious as to how my skin would react to the exfoliant in it, but as of yet I haven't had any adverse effects. 

I find this is a brilliant product to use before applying a facial self tanner. 

Good Things Miracle Mattifier Moisturiser

Another product which smells incredible. 

The Good Things Miracle mattifier moisturiser retails for £7.99 for 100ml. The product contains ingredients like super fruits blackcurrant and goji berry, which help create that amazing scent, and is free from parabens and all of the other nasties that go along with it. 

For more information and a full list of ingredients, you can head over to the Good Things website.

This product is suitable for oily skin. Although I don't have oily skin myself, I gave this a try.

The cream is said to soak into the skin quickly, whilst absorbing any excess oils on the skin to create a perfectly moisturised, but matte and none greasy looking face. 

I very much like this product and I find it does everything it said it would on the tin. I tend to use it before applying any matte finish foundation. 

My skin is still smooth and I haven't had any issues with it breaking me out. 

The smell reminds me of something from my childhood, I just wish I could put my finger on it. 

This little sample tube will stay firmly in its spot on my desk until it's all gone. 

My Tan Testing Thursday - Xen-Tan bronze | fake tan | holiday skin | natural | review | self tanner | skin | skin care | tan | tanned | when flowersfall | whenflowersfall | xen tan | xentan

This is the first of two self tanner reviews, the other will be posted tomorrow! :)

On Thursday I went swimming with my girls and I figured it would be the perfect night to try out a couple of new self tanners. 

We had been given a couple of samples from Xen-tan last Saturday at #leedsbloggermeetup2012.

Tomorrows review will be of a self tanner from Make Believe, again of which we received last Saturday.

During my little swimming sesh I snuck into the sauna to give my skin a bit of a treat. When I got home, I jumped in the bath and exfoliated like crazy. My skin felt amazing. 

I then proceeded to smother myself in various lotions and potions to try and achieve a cracking glow for this bank holiday weekend. 

Xen-Tan

I applied the Xen-Tan dark lotion to my arms and décolletage, this is the product I had most faith in. 

Before I did so, I made sure to moisturise my elbows, this is the one area most prone to psoriasis and I wanted to make sure that the product didn't cling to any dry skin that I may have missed. 

The self tanner is very dark in colour. It looks really scary. When applied to the skin the colour isn't as crazy, it gives you a slight colour guide and this really helps with applying the product as smoothly as possible. This way you can avoid any kind of streaking.
The thing that you notice straight away is the very strong scent of marzipan. Personally I love it, but it might not be for all. It does definitely beat the smell of biscuits though.

The self tanner dries very quickly, which I loved, and you are able to put clothes on without them sticking to you. It is advised to steer clear of any light colour clothing though. 

As you can see from the photos above the product starting to develop nicely within the next hour, but I decided to sleep in it and wash it off in the morning. 

In the morning my arms looked amazing. In the above photo it looks rather orange, but I can promise you it was not. The photo was taken before my shower, so afterwards the colour was slightly less in your face. I really did look like I had been lying in the sun for the past week. Another bonus was that my elbows were not dark at all! 

Xen-Tan is a little pricey, this lotion in particular is currently on sale on the Xen-Tan website for £21.74, but I honestly feel it's one of the best tans I have ever tried. It gives the most natural colour, I had no streaks of patches and it is wearing so well. 

I'm trying really hard to make the sample I have last as long as I can, but I would most definitely re-purchase this product. 

You can find out more about Xen-Tan here.

Check back tomorrow for the review on Make Believe tan, which I tried out on my legs, (my harder to tan area.)

My Daily Essentails daily | essentials | face | garnier | hair | loreal | products | review | skin care | VO5

Hi lovelies!

     I thought I'd just do a quick post to share with you my daily essentials. I swear by these products, and would recommend them to anyone. 

Loreal Paris Elvive Damage Care Repairing Shampoo

I love this shampoo! I've been using it for about 4 months now, I actually managed to buy two big bottles buy mistake (I was meant to buy a conditioner too). Thanks to dying my hair for years, my hair looked pretty damaged, but after using this I can see a massive difference. I'm still dying my hair, but the broken, bushy look has totally gone.

Herbal Essences Uplifting Volume Lightweight Conditioner

Ok, so I have only been using this for a week. Liam and I were shopping the other day and he was in a hurry to leave, so I grabbed the first conditioner that said 'volume' on it and hoped for the best. I actually thanked him for making me rush this morning, because I probably wouldn't have got this conditioner other wise, but it is incredible!!! I usually use herbal essences, but I find the conditioner is quite heavy and I sometimes have a hard time getting it all out of my hair, meaning when I blow dry it, my hair still feels rather greasy-ish. This one on the other hand, because it is 'lightweight' it washes out really easily and still leaves your hair really soft. The other benefit to this conditioner is that it really does give your hair added volume. My hair is really thick and heavy and usually sits really flat, but not when I'm using this! It feels bouncy and full and I absolutely love it, I can't really say anymore than that. 

Garnier Skin Naturals Anti-blackhead Deep Pore Wash

I bought this today because my skin has been progressively becoming worse recently. I've been really lucky with my skin and have never really suffered, even throughout my teenage years and I'm guessing the change in my skin is down to my change in diet recently. I've noticed more blackheads around my nose, but after using this only once, they seem a lot clearer and smaller. I will do a proper review after I have used it for a couple of weeks. 

Garnier Soft essentials Vitamin-enriched cleansing wipes

I'm going to hold my hands up and admit that I am awful at taking my make-up off at night, and when I do, I usually only use cheap baby wipes. With the change in my skin though, I have decided to keep to a proper routine to try and look after it more. I haven't used these for long, but they are said to be for dry skin, so I am hoping they will do some good. 

VO5 Heat Protect Styling Spray

I have always used a heat protection spray for my hair, but this is one of the best I have come across. I find it's lightweight and doesn't leave any residue in your hair. I tend to use it on damp hair as I am blow drying and also when using my straighteners. 

Jean Paul Gaultier Classique X Perfume

I just had to include this in my essentials post. I love, love, love this perfume. If you have read my recent posts, you will already know that I got my first sample of this at Sephora, and I feel in love with it. Liam got me this for Christmas last year and I'm still not sick of it. As you can see by the amount left in the bottle, I try not to use it every day because I want to make it last as long as I can, it does have a bit of a price tag on it. 

So what guys do you swear by? I'm always open to trying new products, so let me know and leave a comment!

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