Holiday Prep: Skin and Hair

If you follow me on Twitter, you will know I've been very excited about going on holiday with my boyfriend. The time is finally here! We fly at 7am tomorrow morning, so today has been a day full of pre-holiday prep... I've packed, checked I have my hand luggage essentials, printed my documents and of course I've prepared my whole body ready for a week in the sun. 

As women we like everything to be perfect: our hair, our nails and our skin. With this in mind, I've compiled a few of my favourite products and pre-holiday beauty routines for this post, so we can all look great on the beach. 

I like to use a body scrub on my legs and arms for around a week before I go on holiday, not only will this ensure silky smooth skin, but it makes shaving a lot better. By using a body scrub you are removing dead and dry skin cells, this means when you shave your legs the shave is closer. Anything that gives me a longer lasting smoother shave I will try! I always find shaving my legs such a chore, I'm 5 ft 11 so you can imagine how long my legs are! 
I love this Soap and Glory scrub, it really is the 'Scrub of Your Life' without feeling too harsh and scratchy.

After all that scrubbing and shaving, you will need to moisturise! My all time favourite is the Body Shop butter: it smells amazing and works wonders. There are so many flavours (yes, that is the right description!) to choose from its hard to pick a favourite. I tend to use the nutty ones such as almond, brazil nut or coconut. They still smell great without being over-powering to any perfume you might want to wear. However, I also love the blueberry one too. Some of the flavours are in the Body Shop sale right now, for only £5 ! Perfect time to invest and stock up.

 











The last thing you want when getting bikini-ready is shaving rash or in-grown hairs. Germolene antiseptic cream is the perfect cure. Stops any irritation and gets rid of any redness, what more do you need? My Nannan used to use this on me when I was younger, I was so clumsy I would fall and cut myself all the time. She called it magic cream.

When it comes to looking after the skin on my face, I love Temple Spa. My boyfriend's mum let me use her foaming Temple Spa cleanser just once and I was converted! I have combination skin; it can be dry but also it can get oily. The 'Good to Go' cleanser solves all this! As for moisturiser, I use Simple Hydrating Light Moisturiser. It doesn't clog my pores but keeps my skin looking glowy. 

The sun and pool water tends to dry hair out, so before I go away I always use a hair mask. Lately I've been using an Argan Oil mask I bought in Home Bargains. Yes, really. I'm not even sure what brand it is! But you can find it on amazon here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Argan-Oil-Hydrating-Hair-220ml/dp/B00DT41ZB2. It leaves my hair so shiny, soft and bouncy. It's also really lightweight so doesn't leave any unwanted residue. The perfect hair pick-me-up. 

Before using the hair mask, I use a clarifying shampoo. The humidity abroad wreaks havoc with my naturally wavy hair, making it incredibly frizzy! To tame this frizz I use a lot of product. So to make sure my hair is completely clean before I go away I use TRESemme Deep Cleansing Shampoo. It cleanses away product build up which may weigh hair down, so I also use it when I get home too. 

I've also had my eyelashes tinted this week before I go. I have pretty decent eyelashes, but they are very blonde at the ends. The lash tint covers this and gives a subtle hint of mascara. I don't wear much make-up day to day anyway, but when I'm on holiday I usually wear even less. I've never been a big fan of waterproof mascara so a lash tint seemed like the obvious second choice and so far I am impressed. Unfortunately I couldn't really catch a good picture of my eyes  to show the results but I would recommend it. 

As I go away tomorrow, I won't be posting until next Sunday, 6th July. However, when I get home there will be lots of exciting posts to look forward to including a holiday look-book and a couple of book reviews. Orange is the New Black seems to be everyone's guilty pleasure at the minute, but did you know it based on a real-life memoir? Well, I've bought the book to take on holiday with me.. Should be an excellent read! 

Do you have any pre-holiday beauty rituals? What is your favourite moisturiser? Leave a comment and let me know! 

Beauty Haul

I've finally finished my first year at university and this is why I haven't been able to blog for a while: so many essays and revision! Now it's over expect to be bombarded with posts over Summer! 

I thought I would do a beauty haul/review type post because I bought these products a few weeks ago and I've finally go the time to tell you all about them :) I suppose it's worked out okay because I have actually tried all these products now. 

I went to York Designer Outlet a few weeks ago with my boyfriend and although there aren't many clothes shops for girls, there is a Body Shop outlet and a make-up store, which is where I spent all my money! 

I got the banana shampoo + conditioner, Rainforest hair mask and coconut lip butter all from the Body Shop factory store for a bargain price, if you buy 4 items you get an extra 40% off! 

I love the shampoo and conditioner! It's seriously amazing. My hair can be quite dry at the ends and sometimes gets a bit frizzy as it's naturally curly but this shampoo works wonders. My hair felt soft, shiny and healthy after about a week of washing. And it smells great too!
The hair mask I use once every other week as my hair can sometimes get a bit weighed down with too much product. It's really nice, feels quite light as hair masks go but it does the trick when your hair needs a little pick-me-up. My hair always looks shiny after using this and stays shiny too. 
I really like this lip butter compared with other lip moisturising products. It hydrates the lips instead of drying them out and I only really need to apply it maybe once or twice a day for it to work.

In the make-up, they stock lots of higher-end brands such as Bobbi Brown, Bumble and Bumble, Clinique and Smashbox, but they are substantially cheaper here. The two lipsticks at the back of this picture are from Avon but I did get them around the same time so thought they needed to be included in this post. The Avon lipsticks both had money off of them so it was perfect timing. The lilac coloured one is  called Violet Friday and is from the Colour Trend range. It's such a great colour for Summer and goes on really smoothly. The lighter pink (Pout) is great for everyday wear as it goes with most outfits and it doesn't dry out your lips. 

The MAC lipsticks are both from the outlet and they were only £10 each! That's why I bought two. The dark purple, Smoked Purple, is a good colour but as it's matte I find it doesn't apply very well. I usually mix it with a little Vaseline to get it to cover easier, but other than that I am really happy with the colour. I wanted to try something a little different and this is great. As for the red, Lady Bug, I have been on the hunt for the perfect red lipstick for ages and I think I have found it! I usually look a little pale and strange wearing red lipstick but this colour matches with my skin tone and hair colour really well. I love it!

All in all, a successful trip and I have definitely found some products I will be buying over and over! What is your favourite lipstick shade? Do you have a shampoo you love? Leave me a comment!