2012 Favourites - Part 5: Skincare and Haircare

Okay, I know this is possibly the least exciting post of the 2012 Favourites series, but I wanted to do it anyway because now that I'm getting older, I'm finding it increasingly important to have a good skincare routine. Mine isn't really complicated, especially because I'm always so late going to bed, I never have the energy to do a lenghty routine. I do have a good cleanser and make up remover, and also a good serum, night cream and eye cream, with the occasional scrub and mask thrown in, so that's fine. In the mornings I just use a face cream having washed my face in the shower with clean water. I don't have time for more, it's as simple as that.

I did a video about my skincare routine back in April and although some products I'm not using anymore (have run out or have decided to change), it gives you a good idea about which products I enjoyed using in 2012. Check it out here. 

I'll start with cleansing. I usually use Boots Botanics Soothing Eye Make Up Remover (old style, this has now been rreformulated) followed by Simple Kind To Skin Facial Cleansing Wipes. The two together work very well for removing make up and dirt from my skin. I haven't found a cleanser I am that chuffed about, I just can't really get excited about a cleanser, but every one I've used so far does a good enough job. I'm currently using a L'Occitane cleanser with the longest, most complicated name that I refuse to copy. I also really like Lancome Bi-Facil and will probably use it instead of the Boots one because I've heard that the new, reformulated version isn't very good.

See which other products I loved in 2012 after the jump!

Primark Nail Polish Remover Wipes

While on the subject of nail polish, I thought I'd share my experience I had with these Primark nail polish remover wipes. I bought these on a recent trip to Primark, once again got sucked into trying something because of the very low price. These wipes cost just £1 for 50 pads (2 x 25). 

Unfortunately I'd say they're not even worth £1. The wipes are very small (smaller than a cotton wool pad), extremely thin (we're talking tissue paper thin) and not very effective at all. They are very hard to hold due to their thinness and even when I managed to get a grip on them they didn't do a good job at removing nail polish. They were very well soaked in nail polish remover, but obviously not a very good one. They felt a bit sticky and oily and I wasn't overly keen on the scent either. Quite frankly a cotton wool pad soaked with my beloved Sally Hansen nail polish remover is much more effective and 100 times easier to use. I will not buy this again, in fact it's already made its way to my rubbish bin. Fail!

See more pictures after the jump!

Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover Review

I had to pick up Bourjois's Magic Nail Polish remover after all the raves I saw on other blogs. When something says magic in the name, you just feel like you have to try it and see just how magic it really is. Well I do anyway. So I tried it out, both with regular and glitter nail polish.

But firstly, let me explain what it is. You get a plastic tub with a black sponge inside soaked in nail polish remover with a hole in the top that you put your finger in, then twist and remove to find all the nail polish has disappeared. Sounds magical, doesn't it?

Well, it doesn't quite do what it promises. With regular nail polish it works rather quickly, but I still need to put my fingers in for a second or even third time to get all the nail polish off. So make that more like 5-6 seconds. Which is about how long it takes me to wipe a nail with cotton wool soaked in nail polish remover. With glitter nail polish it takes a lot longer than 1 second, but I was expecting that. It probably takes about 30 seconds per finger and I need to keep putting my finger in and twisting and pulling out and again and again. What I like though is that unlike with cotton wool, it doesn't stick into the glitter as it dissolves. You do end up with a few flecks of black sponge, but that's all.

The product is heavily scented, the scent reminds me of raspberries, so it's not unpleasant, but rather heavy. I do not like the sticky, greasy residue on my hands afterwards though, I have to wash them a few times with soap afterwards to get rid of the sticky feeling it leaves behind. At least it's not drying, although I haven't used it long enough to see if it makes my weak, peeling nails better or worse in the long run.

All in all, I'm not blown over by this product and it's certainly not magic, but I can see it being very useful if you're travelling and don't want to bother with a bottle of nail polish remover and cotton wool pads. Plus it does work quickly, and it does make glitter nail polish removal much easier. However, due to the sticky residue I will be only be using it for glitter nail polish removal in the future. I'm perfectly happy with my Sally Hansen nail polish remover and a cotton wool pad for regular nail polish.

You get 75 ml which I believe is all soaked into the pad (as the pad goes all the way down) for £4.99 which makes it a lot more expensive than my regular Sally Hansen nail polish remover. It is available from Boots, Superdrug and whereever they sell Bourjois products.

See another picture after the jump!

Finished! The December Edition

Another month over, another post about products I've finished. There are a few included that I have reviewed a few times on here, so I will just link them to some earlier reviews instead of repeating myself.

First up - a confession. I'm probably the only person in the blogesphere that doesn't know what the big fuss is about Clarisonic. I got a Clarisonic Mia a couple of months ago and I've been using it religiously, but in all fairness, I just can't see what it does to my skin. My skin isn't clearer, my pores are still clogged up, nothing has really changed to be honest. I don't hate it, but I do wonder what on earth I spent all the money on. Okay, there, I said it. Let the stone thowing commence. Right, onto the products. I got this cleanser with my Clarisonic and I didn't like it. Luckily it was only a small sample, so I used it up, but it smelled funny and it did nothing to my skin. Won't repurchase (I don't even know if you can).

 See what other products I finished after the jump!

2011's Favourite Products: Part 4 - Skincare

This is the last part of my favourites post for this year, and this one contains skincare. As I'm getting older and wearing more make up than a few years ago, I'm trying to take care of my skin better. I used to go to bed without taking off my mascara and used not to own any make up remover just a few years ago (I know, shock horror!), and I also didn't use any face creams at all. Of course that was a while ago and now my bathroom cabinet is full of skincare products. So let's see which ones I really liked this year. By the way I have reviewed most of these products before, so I will link them to the more detailed reviews.

First off, make up remover. My go to make up remover used to be Estee Lauder's Gentle Eye Make Up Remover, but I have discovered an even better one which is Clinique Take The Day Off Make Up Remover and I can happily say this is my new favourite. The Estee Lauder one doesn't remove waterproof mascara and neither does this, but it removes regular make up much more quickly. I use Lancome Bi-Facil for waterproof mascara that I only wear very occasionally, so for my everyday needs this is perfect.

Keep reading to find out which other skincare products I loved this year!

Finished! The November Edition

I managed to finish a lot of products this month, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Of course most of them are skincare products as usual, but I did finish two pieces of make up, so it's alright.

First up is the most expensive face cream I've ever owned, it's Guerlain Orchidee Imperiale Exceptional Complete Care Cream. This is a 50 ml size and it currently retails for £255. No, I've not gone mad, or maybe I have! I didn't pay nowhere near as much as this was actually a tester that I bought on eBay and the lid actually looks pretty worn, although don't know why because the cream inside was untouched. I've had this for quite a while, especially as I tended not to use it in the summer as it doesn't have any SPF. Also you really only need a tiny bit, so it does last forever. It's really lovely, but I don't know if it's 25 times better than my Nivea face cream that I've also finished. So I won't be repurchasing this for now, although I do actually have about 15 samples of it as well for travelling, so I'm okay for now anyway.  

See what other products I've finished after the jump!

Finished! The August Edition

Another month has gone by and I've managed to finish a few more products. Mostly skincare, but there are a couple of mascaras in there too. Let's start with the one thing I don't have a photo for, that's because I took it with me on holiday and managed to leave it behind. It was nearly finished, and since I don't have it any more, I'll consider it finished. What I'm talking about it a sample of Clinique's 7 Day Scrub Cream. It's an okay scrub, but not too special. Certainly not £17 per 100 ml special, so I will not be repurchasing it.

Onto the next Clinique product, I also had a sample of Take The Day Off make up remover. I did like this one very much, it's very effective at removing make up, and I will definitely buy a full sized one once my current Estee Lauder make up remover runs out. The full size (125 ml) costs £14.50, it's not cheap, but it is certainly a very good make up remover.

Read about all the other products I've finished this month and see more pictures!

Simple Kind To Eyes Eye Make Up Corrector Pen

Having worn make up for the last 20 years or so, I am now pretty good at applying it. However, I still make mistakes, especially when applying mascara, so on a recent shopping trip I picked up Simple Kind To Eyes Eye Make Up Corrector Pen. Up until then I either used a cotton wool bud to tidy up my mistake, or my Avon make up remover pencil (not sure if those are still available at all). But at £4.99 I thought I didn't have much to lose should the Simple pen not work out. Fortunately it did. I like it that it has such a fine tip, it's very easy to get under my lower lashes (which is where the mistakes often are), and also that it really is gentle to my skin with no alcohol or perfume.

I'm not entirely sure that it's that much better than my trusty cotton wool buds (dipped into make up remover if necessary), but I guess it would come in very handy when travelling or needing to tidy up smudged make up on the go. There is one thing I'm not too keen on though and it's this:

This is what the tip looks like after using it to remove some mascara. It is recommended that you clean the tip with make up remover wipes, but I do feel that having to do that suddenly makes it less of a portable option. Besides, might as well use a wipe to clean off the smudged mascara then, no?

But it is convenient and all in all works well, so I will forgive it for that small issue. Do you own this or have you tried it? Let me know in the comments!

Finished! The June edition

I'm afraid I only have 3 products to show you this month, although there are another 5 or so products that literally only have 4-5 uses left in them, so expect a bigger turnout next month.

First up is Lancome Genifique, an absolutely fantastic skincare product. I have reviewed this here already, so won't repeat myself, but I still love it and have now purchased a 30 ml size version (this was a gift with purchase). I find that I use approx. 1 ml a week (I only use this at night), so although it's pricey, 30 ml should last a long time.

See what other products I have finished this month!

Finished! The March edition

I had quite a successful month as I managed to finish 7 products. First up is Avon Shimmer Swirls Face Illuminator. I actually finished 2 of these as I had one upstairs and one downstairs with not much left in either. This has long been discontinued, but I wouldn't repurchase anyway because it's not that good. There was a time when I thought it was great and bought tons of it, but back then I didn't even wear foundation just used this, however, this isn't even a good base, let alone good illuminator. Doesn't blend very well and ends up quite patchy, plus it's quite drying on my skin. I have since managed to flog my remaining stock on eBay, I was surprised how many people still wanted them and they soldat quite a good price. Originally I think they cost £10, I sold mine for £5-6 which isn't too bad. 

This is what they looked like when full(ish):

Find out what else I managed to finish after the jump!

Finished! The January edition

You might recall that I started this series last month when I managed to finish several beauty products (which doesn't happen very often, I'm telling you!) and to my surprise I'm back with another post of yet more finished products. I don't want to include basics like shampoo, conditioner and shower gel in this as I always go through those, will just stick to skincare, make up and fragrances.

First up are my beauty basics:

Mac Brow Set in Show Off is the only thing I use on my brows as I don't like brow pencils (too harsh) or powders (too obvious). This is a brown shade that just gives a bit more definition to my brows and holds them in place. I came across this product when Blonde, Brunette, Redhead collection came out in 2009 and I have loved it ever since! I actually think this was my original one, so it lasted me over a year, although I did move it to my downstairs cloakroom a while ago as it was running low (that's where I keep my emergency make up items for day when I have no time to apply my make up in my bedroom), so I guess I hadn't been using it so regularly lately ( have a new one in my bedroom). It never dried up though, just ran out. I love this stuff and have already repurchased it and will continue to do so. £11.50 from maccosmetics.co.uk.

Continue reading to see what other products I've finished last month!

Don't buy this! Boots Cotton Wool Double Faced Round Pads

I go through cotton wool pads very quickly since I wear make up every day, and am very good about removing it. So on a recent trip to Boots I bought this pack of cotton wool pads (mainly to make up the £50 total necessary for the bonus points Boots were offering at the time), in fact I got 4 of them! Unfortunately it turned out to be a mistake, because these pads are pretty rubbish.

According to the packaging they're supposed to be made of high quality non-fleecing cotton, they do not fluff or lint, and therefore are suitable for contact lens wearers. This is not the case, in fact they do fluff quite a bit, they fall apart very easily, and they are not half as good as my ordinary Superdrug cotton wool pads. I am a contact lens wearer, although I've not had problems with fluff getting in my eyes yet, but it's mainly because I've been extra careful with these.

When I tried to remove nail polish with them, they were even worse, just stuck to the nail polish and practically fell apart when I tried to wipe the polish off. I also use cotton wool pads wet for wiping off face masks (like Mac Volcanic Ash Thermal Mask and Avon Rejuvenate Mineral Mask) and the Superdrug cotton wool pads work really well even wet, whereas these ones just fall apart.

Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do with 4 packs of these, I can't return them now as it's been too long since I bought them. Any ideas?

Finally see some more pictures after the jump!