LUSH HAUL

When I was younger I used to love Lush soaps, all their sweet smelling wares really pulled me in. I enjoyed that you could request a certain size of soap, suitable for every budget. Now I'm older, I detest sweet smells. I have a hatred of sweet perfumes and will actively change seats in coffee shops and on trains if women sit down near me wearing them, they make me feel nauseous and give me headaches. Alongside this I also dislike sugar in my tea and I dislike sweets, this ended my childhood love of Lush. 

Having problem skin for a while I had been using Eve Lom cleanser to help, I wrote about this in another blog post if you care to read back, this helped my skin but not my bank balance. (being £55 for 100ml) Someone recommended I try Ultrabland cleanser from Lush as this is also an oil based cleanser, perfect for drawing our impurities and not drying out the skin. This cleanser must be used with a muslin cloth to wash away the reside as water will not just shift it. It makes my skin feel soft, not parched and healthier. This also contains rose which helps calm down red inflammation around spots and sooths the area. I have been using this for a week or so now, I'll keep you updated on my skins progress. This product is £10.95 for 100ml, so a massive saving in my purse.

After buying the above cleanser at such a cheap price I asked the ultra helpful shop assistant about a moisturiser to help my parched skin when I used intense moisturisers to help my acne scars. She recommended two, I went with Celestial facial moisturiser. This moisturiser is great for sensitive skin, again, it is a calming moisturiser which I feel I needed. It's quite rich and leaves a slight greasy sheen, meaning it's better for night time as make-up doesn't sit too well on top of it, I found this out the hard way. The reason it is so rich as it contains almond oil and cocoa butter which creates such touchable soft skin, this are age old ingredients to soften the skin. This moisturiser may be too rich for most skin types so proceed with caution. This product is £11.95 for 45ml.

After these items I questioned the shop assistant about body moisturisers that don't smell like sugary sweet children wrapped in sugar lumps and marshmallows, thinking that Lush didn't do anything like this. I was wrong. She lead me to Karma Kreme a hand and body lotion, again with almond oil and cocoa butter to soften and make the skin supple. This moisturiser is laced with Patchouli and orange which smell beautifully fresh and like spring in a tub, not like the other smells I dislike. After using this for the first time I smelt lovely and a work colleague commented that my skin on my arms felt lovely and soft, so I can guarantee that this works. This product is £13.25 for 225g.

Alongside these items I also picked up Lemony Flutter, cuticle butter, which I previously blogged about in my 'Essentials' post and a new soap, Snow Globe which is beautifully lemony and helps with detoxifying the skin.

So, Lush has a new convert, me! I also loved their customer service, I didn't feel like they were on commission & I wasn't pushed into buying any of the products. I felt the staff were happy to help & genuinely happy to work at Lush, a rare thing in todays retail industry.

FOUNDATION REVIEW

                  

Foundation is a tricky basic to get right, I am forever looking at peoples faces and questioning the beauty professional that sold them the foundation in the first place.

I used to work at Space.nk & like to think of myself as a professional beauty junkie, I'm also a bit of a snob when it comes to skincare and make-up & truly believe you get what you pay for.

I thought I would talk you through my basics when it comes to foundation.

First step, a great layer of skincare under your foundation. I religiously use my Clarasonic (but that deserves a whole other blog post later) which creates a smooth and clean base for my skin. I shall write a blog post with my daily skincare routine soon as it's quite extensive and varies depending on how my skin feels that day. Oh & never forget to use primer!!! Anyway, back to my favourite foundations.

As a basic, day to day foundation I am currently using Yves Saint Laurent Le Teint Touche Eclat. (my colour is BD 20, bought from Harvey Nichols for £32) This foundation goes on smooth and clean and offers light to medium coverage, I do have to powder my face after application and once or twice during the day to reduce the shine. I love the smell of this foundation and being nearly 28 (gasp!) I feel I need to wear a foundation that is kinder to my skin. Brands such as YSL, Chanel, Lancome, Hourglass and others use high levels of skincare in their foundations, of course this is reflected in their prices, but like I said earlier, you get what you pay for. I had a sample of YSL's new Forever foundation before settling on the Touche Eclat one but I didn't like it on my skin.

Prior to my using the YSL Touche Eclat I used By Terry Cover Expert in Number 3, Cream Beige & LOVED it! This foundation is a dream with a painful price tag. It's £44, again from Space.nk. By Terry is a lovely range from Terry De Gunzburg, Terry is a great make-up artist who invented YSL's Touch Eclat. Terry worked very closely with Yves personally and moved on to create her own company when he passed away, taking her expertise with her. I still have some of this foundation left & I am trying to save it for a rainy day. I would buy this foundation again, however the price tag puts me off.

My foundation of choice for an evening is Illamasqua's Skin Base in SB 6.5. This foundation is brilliant, I have previously used Nars Sheer Glow in Deauville which I liked greatly until I discovered the Illamasqua one. The coverage is brilliant, blemishes are covered, it glides on without rolling and lasts all evening. I struggle with foundation colour matches as my skin is yellow tinged, this colour matches my skin perfectly and, as it doesn't contain any SPF, it looks great in pictures (no ghostly white pallor) I wouldn't use this during the day as the coverage is too heavy and it's not too great for my skin in terms of blemishes.

Have you any opinions on the products I use or any alternatives you'd recommend?