London Beauty Haul

Hello lovelies!

As you may know, I spent the September weekend in London with my family and I may have picked up a few beauty treats...

NARS

One counter I knew I just HAD to visit in London was the NARS counter. Their Sheer Glow foundation is raved about in the beauty blogging world and I've been lusting after their dual intensity eyeshadows since their release a few months ago. I was colour matched to Mont Blanc in the foundation and the eyeshadow shades I chose were Callisto and Phoebe. The eyeshadows are freaking GORGEOUS and I can't wait to try them out some more.

The Body Shop

I've heard great things about the Body Shop's new instablur primer and as I'm always on the lookout for products which stop me looking like a melted waxwork by the end of the day, I thought I'd give this a go! I also picked up their honey bronzer in shade 1 (which is the lightest) to give my face a bit of colour.

Benefit

Finally I picked up Benefit's They're Real Mascara. As you've probably noticed, this isn't full size; I was standing in the queue in Boots right next to the tempting little shelves of offers aimed at weak people like myself when I spotted the mini version for £9.99. My old mascara was drying out anyway so I saw this as an opportunity to try a much loved product for almost half the price. 

And there we have it! Everything I bought on my little trip (except from a chocolate frog at the Harry Potter Studio Tour). I plan to review most of these products in the near future but if you're particularly interested in a specific product for a review or swatches then please let me know and I'll try to get on it as quickly as I can. 

Until next time lovelies!

Jen x

The Body Shop Seaweed Skincare

Happy Monday lovelies! Hope you all had a great weekend & are enjoying the bank holiday. Today I'm talking to you about the Body Shop's Seaweed Skincare range. This range was on my wishlist for quite a while before I finally grabbed a few items in their Christmas sale last year. 

Seaweed purifying facial cleanser | £8 | Available here

Seaweed clarifying toner | £8 | Available here

Seaweed day cream | £10 | Available here 

The seaweed skincare range contains nine products in total & I own three of them: the purifying facial cleanser, the clarifying toner & the day cream. This range is designed for combination skin to control excess oil which is ideal for me. I didn't even know what skin type I was until I used The Body Shop's skincare diagnostic tool (link here). This tool is great; you answer a few questions about your skin & it tells you your skin type & what products from The Body Shop are best suited to you. 

As you can see from the pictures, these products are well loved & I'm actually going to have to replace them soon. I use this range for my daily skincare & I absolutely love it! Because the range is called "seaweed" I was honestly convinced that my face was going to smell like a creature from the sea afterwards (yes, I'm stupid) but it actually has a really lovely refreshing scent. One thing I do need to say is when I first used the cleanser & toner I was a bit heavy-handed which made my face sting. This doesn't happen normally (unless I'm in a hurry & just shove it into my face) but is just something to keep in mind as I actually thought I was allergic to it the first time I used it. 

I used the cleanser & toner to remove any excess makeup & they're really lovely & refreshing. I think the day cream is possibly my favourite product from the range. Because my skin is oily/combination I always feel like moisturisers just make my skin really greasy & oily. However, this cream just skins into the skin & mattifys it without drying it out, making it feel really silky & smooth. This is a great moisturiser but if your skin has dry patches then I'm not sure how effective it would be on those areas. 

Overall, I absolutely love these products & they are a definite repurchase for me! They really do keep my skin clear & keep blemishes to a minimum when I'm strict about using them (yes I'm lazy with skincare sometimes, sue me). I'm happy with every product I've tried but I'm also on the lookout for a moisturiser which is a bit more heavy duty if I'm having dry skin days, so any recommendations would be fab. 

Have you tried any skincare products from The Body Shop? What do you think?

Jen x