What Do You Think Of Tea Tree?

I'm tired and lazy so stock images today I'm afraid ;)

A couple of weeks ago I had my lady time and as per usual my skin went a bit crap. Add a new foundation in to the mix and my face was starting to resemble a pizza. Okay maybe I'm exaggerating but nonetheless I headed straight to Superdrug and got myself some concentrated tea tree oil (£2.99 for 10ml)

I would like to add that it took me about 5 minutes to work out why this one cost the same for 5ml. Then I realised it was 100% and that it came with a rather scary warning of although it's a natural product, dilute it to 1% first or your skin will explode (okay not really but still I do not have the time to dilute it for myself)

It smelt really familiar so my guessing is is that Tea Tree is actually in quite a lot of those 'on the spot' (or something equally witty) spot treatments. I think it has worked. I have had no more spots appearing and these current ones are actually showing signs of disappearing.

So I guess I caught the Tea Tree bug and with a face of dry skin (not linked to the Tea Tree Oil, but probably linked to aforementioned foundation and cold weather) I wanted a new face scrub. And then Boots had to have a 2 for £5 deal so I bought a peel off face mask too.

And I have a lovely radiant face (well in a dark room maybe with a bedside lamp on) which is showing signs of clearing up. And of course I love anything peely so the face mask is perfect for me, I love how it actually feels like you're pulling out dirt! Ha no placebo effect or anything. . .

But please let me know your experiences with Tea Tree oil, what are your HG skincare products?

Love Sophie xx

Loves And Hates of September

Sorry I know it's a bit late but I lost my memory card, I was so upset at losing it I even dreamt about it :(

But I've found it so I can get on to doing my loves and hates of September. 

Loves

L'oreal Voluminous

Can you believe I only recently bought this? I have the original grey tube version but it pales in comparison to this. I love black black eyelashes as I'm quite pale and the greyish tone that the other voluminous had did me no favours! This is so much nicer

L'oreal Super Liner

Why is it that every other range in Boots seemed to have a 3 for 2 except L'oreal? Either way I love this eyeliner it is so so easy to use, lasts ages (even in the rain) and I'm just in love with it! Perfect and quite cheap too (£5.99 I think)

 NYC Smooth Skin Loose Face Powder

I did a post on this quite recently and I'm still showing it some love. I think its great in that it's translucent so it doesn't look patchy. And a super huge bargain at around £2.50

 Neutrogena Concentrated Hand Cream

This stuff is AMAZING. It lasts forever as the tiniest blob can cover your whole hand. I use it on dry patches of skin and on my lips. It's perfect to put on your lips before using matte lipsticks as it's not a cream as such, more a gel so it dries quickly and isn't greasy.

Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Virgin

I love love love this colour. It is so heavily pigmented it's unbelievable. If you put it on top of black eyeliner it turns your eyeliner silver and as a testiment to how pigmented it is, it can pretty much blank out Mulch.

Hates

Okay I use the term hate loosely, I don't hate these products, they're just not getting much use lately

 
MAC MSF Natural

I love this powder I really do, but after getting back into my NYC powder this just feels too expensive, and not in a Tom Ford luxurious kind of way, but a why did I spend so much money on THIS kind of way. It's also a bit orangey for my liking.

Bourjois Smoky Eyes Trio Eyeshadow

These eyeshadows look really pigmented but they're not. Use a brush with these and you might as well not be using them at all. And I hate sponge applicators! Really nice idea and I love the packaging but the quality isn't that great. Also when I followed the instructions on how to get the smoky eye it was just so WRONG. No crease work, nothing. The darkest shade is to be used on the lash line. Dear me, that's what eyeliner is for!

Link me up to your monthly favourites!

Hope you had a lovely weekend,

Sophie xxx

Review: Clean & Clear Spot Kit

Afternoon lovely ladies :)

This time last week I picked up this kit and I've been using it for the past week. Clean and Clear must have spent loads promoting this, the website does look pretty impressive.

So what does it claim?

•  100% of people had clearer skin in one day
• After 4 weeks they had clearer skin
• After 8 weeks it had stayed clearer

What does it come with?

• Spot Control Cleanser
• Spot Control Moisturiser
• Fast Clearing Treatment Gel 

  Now these products I'm pretty sure have already been released but this is the first time they've been sold together with different packaging. I really like this packaging, I think the silver/purple thing works and I love the way it's presented in the box. I've never had a spot that looks like the one in their example though!

Why did I buy it?

Okay, I don't have 'problem skin'. I get spots on my chin and a few on my face around the time of the month, so basically I bought this to help clear them up. Also it was on offer at £8.99 in Superdrug (usually £12.99 I think) and I think it's been on 'offer' for quite a while now. . ! Also, if you watch the videos on the website it's pretty impressive stuff

What did I think of it?

Okay. This stuff has good points and bad points. I'll start with the bad

•  It hasn't really made much change to my skin. Hahahaa
• In fact for the first few days my skin was so soft. Then by Saturday it was reaallly dry, I had to dig out the Soap and Glory scrub
• The cleanser, despite being a gel, is quite creamy = no exfoliation. At all. Hence the dryness by day 6
• Most of the spots I started with are still there, however. .

The good

•  When I pluck my eyebrows I seem to get spots around that area. They've all gone :)
• It smells lovely
• It has nice packaging
• It's really cooling so it feels like it's working
• The moisturiser is really thick. I like this.

Would I Recommend It?
If, like me, you get the occasional spot, I don't think this would be much help. I would recommend buying the treatment gel, different packaging, but you can find it here. It's sold as 100ml which is HUGE compared to the one in the kit, and I do think the moisturiser is good. The ladies that are featured on this kit's website start off with quite bad skin but it does seem to clear up really well.

 If you are the kind of person that doesn't feel confident in their skin and using make up to cover it up seems to just makes it worse, I think this is the kit for you. 

I hope this review helped someone :)

Love Sophie xx

Spare No7 Vouchers + Hot Cloth Cleanser

Hello lovely ladies!

First of all, look what I found by the Boots Self Checkout. . 

If anyone wants one, I'm giving two away to the first people that email their name and address to sophiephiephie@live.co.uk

But what did I buy with mine? Well my local Boots didn't have ANYTHING everyone raves about so I bought this,

No7 Radiance Boosting Hot Cloth Cleanser - £8.75 or £3.75 with voucher

 It smells lovely, a bit like babies I think. It has a really nice consistency, it feels like you're washing your face with a moisturiser. If you use it with the muslin cloth following the instructions it really is one of the most refreshing experiences you can have in your bathroom! It leaves you glowing and so clean. My one problem was the fact it doesn't really remove eye make up, (well mine anyway), so I've got to scrub that off first :(

However, if you look in my picture, there's no sign of a muslin cloth. Yep, that's because my dad threw it away. You should've seen me, I hit the roof when he blamed it on ME as it looked like a 'used tissue' that I had left out so he threw it away. Grrrr.

So would I buy it again? For £3.75, yes, £8.75? No chance! It's a big enough bottle so I reckon it'll last until March when the next lot of vouchers come out. However I think the cloth that comes with it really completes it, the feeling of it when it's hot on your face is lovely. Yet as I am sans cloth, all I've got is a cleanser. Great.

What have you got with your vouchers? And do people ever throw your stuff away?!!

Love Sophie xx

The Samples Series: Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Facial Wash

So next up is the Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Facial Wash. Why do they always have such LONG names?! This one fell out of Glamour I think and I've since lost the packaging. I was a bit on the post about this one, especially considering Vanessa Ann-Hudgens does the advert and it just makes me cringe. 

I accidentally threw out the packaging and I can't find it on any websites to tell you how much it is, probably a few pounds I reckon.

It's not amazing, but it's not terrible. It doesn't really seem like it would clear your skin but maybe that's because of the strong grapefruit smell. After all Vanessa doesn't quite believe it herself as the smell is just so great. . .

It's quite drying so you'd need a good moisturiser afterwards, I used this day and night for 2 days (a nice big sample!) yet I didn't really see a difference. I think it does make quite a good cleanser though, it did get rid of any last bits of make up.

Would I buy it? Probably not. I think I would get sick of the fragrance, it is really strong and I'm not really a grapefruit fan! However it does make your skin feel really fresh and clean so I might look into more from them

Are you a Neutrogena fan?

Sophie xx