girls.night.in

This post was already on my to-do list, so when Ladbrokes Bingo got in touch to tell me about their recent survey, I thought why not combine the two. I'm a sucker for a statistic, and it was interesting to read that 35% of women these days, prefer a night in.

I just hit 25, and although I'm not over the hill just yet (although I did get a 'I didn't realise you were that old' the other day - she was 19, we'll let her off), I'm becoming more and more inclined to have a night in. Granted, that may be because I have beauty products filling every corner of my room, waiting to be tried out, but it was nice to see that nearly 13% of woman agree 25 is the age when things start to calm down. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a night out once in a while, but a girls night in is high on the priority list these days.

If you're going solo, and are in need of a bit of a pamper, I've pulled together a few of my favourite products. It's pure chance they're all highstreet brands which is a happy coincidence - your purse can thank me later. So what do I deem to be the top picks?

First up, you've got to start with a bath. If you're like me, I can't wash my hair in the tub - it may not be that long, but its thick so before I jump in, I'll give my hair a shampoo in the shower and pop in a hair mask. I just picked up this one from Aussie - Take The Heat as I love all their other masks. For the bath itself, get a bath bomb in there and you can't go wrong. Whilst soaking in the tub, I like to prop my iPad up on the toilet seat (risky business) and watch some YouTube or Netflix, whilst indulging in a clay based mask to get all the impurities out - my favourite is The Body Shop's Warming Mineral Mask which I'm sure you've heard me mention before - it feels really luxurious. Whilst the mask gets to work, I can't get enough of this scrub at the moment, which is the much hyped Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub. I use it all over my body and my skin's never felt so soft - fact.

Once you're out the tub, and your hair's rinsed out, I'm loving the Smoothing Lusterizer from Tigi S Factor. It smells amazing (strawberry milkshakes) and has a teeny bit of shimmer in it to give your hair shine. Make sure you apply this to your hair before you do anything else to avoid getting it greasy! 

You should be feeling suitably smooth after using your scrub, but I love the Palmer's Skin Therapy Oil* for a bit of overnight nourishment. Not one to be used in the morning, but this is great at bed time. And the final touches - I use the super rich The Body Shop's Almond Hand and Nail Cream on my hands and feet. Pop some socks on and you'll wake up with the softest toes ever. Trust me.

What are you girls night in essentials?

MUA.undress.me.too.eye.palette

MUA Undress Me Too Eye Palette - available online and at Superdrug, £4

First up, huge DOH for totally forgetting to blog about this. I just spent 10 minutes trawling back through recent posts just to check I didn't, but I acutally picked this palette up back in early April whilst on holiday in Wales. It featured in my Holiday Haul video and I even took the photos, but I forgot to post.

That aside, this is one of MUA's recent additions to their eyeshadow palette colletion, as part of the Undress Me range. Hailed as a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette, this first up, is a real bargain. 12 shadows for £4 compared to UD's £36ish. 

Secondly, I think the colour range is great for on the go. I've completely got into palettes since blogging - they're so useful and versatile and this one is no different. With palettes, you generally know the shades are designed to compliment one another so even if you're a complete novice, you can't go wrong. Being a heavily neutral palette, it boasts 12 beige, brown and copper tones, alongside a strong black. Any kind of day or night time look can be created from this palette.

Quality wise, I can't fault MUA eyeshadows, particularly for the price. UD shadows are notoriously soft, and although this is great for blending and building colour, they have really bad drop down. These shades have good pigmentation, blend well but don't require you to watch for drop down - thumbs up in my books, and perfectly adequate for everyday use.

The packaging is light and compact, and as it's such a bargain, it's great to throw in as a last minute addition when you're travelling. If it gets knocked and bumped, it isn't the end of the world. I prefer the black packaging the other palettes have as I think it's sleeker but I'm really not fussed for the price!

Another great shadow palette from MUA - it must be my 6th or 7th now!

a.skincare.catch.up

A while back, I went on a little skincare overhaul - you may remember a couple of posts (here & here) which went into detail on what my skin is like, what I was trying to achieve and what products I was using. 2 months down the line, I thought I'd update you.

So, how's my skin looking? If you'd asked me that 3 weeks ago, I'd have said pretty awful. I'm really bad for picking at my spots, and due to some hormonal influences, I had quite a few break outs going on. The redness on the side of my right cheek was getting worse than ever and all in all I wasn't happy. I'd changed up a few products, taken away nasties and still I wasn't having any joy.

But, in the last fortnight, my skin has done a complete 180 and I'm really pleased. I'm pretty sure there is one product I have to thank for this (plus keeping my fingers to myself when it comes to picking) which I'll go into more later.

Cleansing

You'll notice from the photo, I'm using two cleansers currently. I've still not found my holy grail, and as my REN one ran out, I reverted back to good old Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish for a quick wash in the morning post shower. For the evening however, I was keen to give a cleansing balm a go. I can't afford any of the super luxury ones, however much I'd like to, and after trialing this lovely one from Elemis, I picked up the Botanics Hot Cloth Cleansing Balm. To avoid a full review (of which I'll do soon I'm sure) - I like this, I don't love it, but I do find it quite nourishing. It's got nothing on the Elemis one, and I'm sure its a far cry from the infamous Emma Hardie tub, but so far, it's not had any adverse effects on my face! 

As usual, I'm still using Bioderma but only to remove my eyemake up or bold lips. A firm fave!

Toning

Back in March, this was a step I was trying to introduce into my routine. I hadn't researched it properly, and was quite frankly, being lazy. When I was in London a while back, I was strolling passed Pixi in Carnaby Street and suddenly remembered Caroline raving about their Glow Tonic. I didn't know a huge amount it, but I went in a got it anyway (and I'm glad I did, it sounds like its notoriously hard to get hold of). Its £16 for 250ml which I think is pretty good, and is hailed to a be a dupe of P50. Glow Tonic is alcohol and oil free (yipee), packed with witch hazel, aloe vera and Ginseng and has that fancy ingredient everyones on about - Glycolic which is a chemical exfoliant. 

Since day one of using this, I've loved every application. Not only is it instantly refreshing, my skin felt better and looked better the next morning. The Botanics Cleansing Balm leaves a bit of a residue on the skin and a swipe of Glow Tonic is the perfect thing to remove it.

After 3 solid weeks of using it twice a day, my break outs have cleared up and my redness/scarring is down to a minimum. 

Moisturising

This is a tricky one, as I bought Hydraluron back in March during my revamp. So what do I think of it? I apply it every day, before moisturiser and I have to say, I find it pretty - meh. I'm sure it's having an effect I can't see, and its all good, and I have heard its the kind of product you don't 'get' until you don't use it but I'm not overwhelmed. I'll keep going though and see what happens when I get to the end of the tube!

My trusty Elemis moisturiser ran out, so I picked up the N-Spa one from Asda of all places, as I'd heard Ruth say she liked the range (and I can throw it in my parents shopping trolley). This is the Brightening Day Cream with SPF15. So far, so good. It's light and fresh and seems to do the job. We'll see how it fairs when the warmer wearther comes.

Before bed

I have to say, in the last two weeks or so, I haven't really had a bed time routine. Of course, I cleanse and tone, but I haven't been using anything directly before bed and my skin kinda likes it! I have my Balance Me Radiance Oil there if I feel like I need it, as well as my Tea Tree Oil and Effaclar Duo but to be honest, my skin has been so good, I don't want to risk it and wake up with a boil on my chin.

So that's that - at the moment, I'm pretty happy with how things are going. I've learnt that the two additions I made back in March (Hydraluron and my Balance Me Oil) aren't really necessities to my routine, but I do love love love the Pixi Glow Tonic. Interesting!