Sanctuary Ultimate Facial Cleansing Oil

Cleansing oils are big news at the moment in the world of beauty but I'm a little slow on the uptake.

I've had Sanctuary's facial cleansing oil for a while now but I had been using up a couple of other cleansers and washes that I had open so this got pushed to the back of my cupboard. As these are now finished I have started using this little beauty.

I use two pumps of this which is a generous amount and it removes all my foundation and facial make up. I use an eye make up remover to remove my mascara as I have to be careful what I use on my eyes.

Once I have dispensed the oil into my hands I rub them together and then apply to my face. I massage it on to try to help remove my make up and then wipe it off with a damp cloth.

Generally I need to wipe twice to ensure all product and make up is removed but after my skin is left feeling clean and soft.

This is priced £13.00 at for a 150ml bottle and even though I like the product I'm not sure if I'd buy again as I simply love my Emma Hardie Moringa Balm which I can use as an eye make up remover too. Oh it is available from Boots!

How I cured my scalp eczema

As some of you may know I suffer from eczema, I mainly get it around my mouth and on my scalp. It mainly flares up when the weather turns cold and in the summer I hardly have a problem with it. My scalp is more difficult to control as you can't use moisturiser and it flakes like crazy, black tops are a no, no.

A few months ago my scalp was really getting me down, and as my face had cleared up it got me thinking about how I control it on my face. I mainly use exfoliator and a little scrubby thing but you can't use it on your scalp. Or maybe you can....... 

I had just found this little beauty from Naked in Savers and thought it would be perfect for my little experiment.

Naked's Scrub Up salt scrub is made using sea minerals and has quite a coarse texture, perfect for a scrub! I knew that if I was going to use this on my scalp, hair and head I would need to use it sparingly and make sure I shampooed throughly after to rinse it all out.

Off I popped to the shower and scooped a medium sized dollop out of the tub and started to rub it where my eczema was on my scalp. I gave it a good scrub with out being too vigarous, rinsed and then shampooed and conditioned like normal. 

Once I'd dried and straightened my hair I was actually quite amazed at the effect it had had. My scalp looked so much better, ok so my eczema hadn't magically disappeared but it was looking remarkably improved. Also my hair looked so much shinier and healthier.

So next time my hair needed washing I did the same. After drying this time I can say that my eczema had gone! Yes my scalp was clear! I used the scrub everytime I washed my hair for the next week and then stopped for a while and my eczema came back so I started the routine again and it cleared up.

I haven't used the scrub on my scalp for about 2/3 months now and my scalp is still clear! No flare ups, nothing. I am amazed at how well this worked for me and I no longer dread wearing a black top or having my hair down because of the little white flakes coming off my scalp, and the cherry on the cake is that my face is also still clear of eczema!

I'm not saying this will work for everyone but if you do suffer from a slight flaky scalp then give it a go because you might end up with results like mine.

But anyway it seems that exfoliating hair products are coming onto the market. Here are some that I found by chance:

Sanctuary detox hair exfoliator - £2.00 (Boots)

Denman shower and massage brush - £3.69 (Boots and Superdrug)

Michael di Cesare scalp exfoliating trio - £22.50 (QVC)

Review - Sanctuary Matte Perfecting Hydra Lotion

Sanctuary is a brand that I think just about everyone knows due to their amazing bodycare ranges but I have to admit I'm not that well acquainted to their skincare range.

They cater for people with different skin types including oily/combination which I have. A while ago I picked up their Matte Perfecting Hydra Lotion face cream to give it a try.

This cream claims to be a "balancing lotion to quench skin for a clear, shine-fre complexion".

You get a generous 50ml bottle which has a pump top which is not only hygienic but means you get the perfect measure amount. Personally I use just less than 1 whole pump.

The lotion itself is slightly scented and is of a light consistency. Once applied it sinks in quickly and does leave my skin matte and feeling moisturised all day.

This is available from Boots for £13.29 which is slightly more than what I like to pay for a face cream but Boots do quite regularly have the £2 off vouchers so they make it slightly more affordable!

Have you tried anything else from the Sanctuary skincare range? What would you recommend?

Haul - Next, Boots, ASOS & more!

This is the last big haul post I'm going to do for a while due to tarting my new job and having no pennys as I have shed loads of stuff to pay for when I get a decent wage. So I went shopping on wednesday to get the last few bits for my job so here is what I got:

Lakeland

Cupcake caddys - £3.99 (was £7.99)

 Next

Peter Pan collar top - £10

I thought this would be way more than £10 so snapped it up at this bargain price!

Boots

Sanctuary Brightening Eye Gel - £10.20 (£5.20 with my £5 skincare voucher) 

Sanctuary Purifying Face Wash - £8.99 (£3.99 with my £5 skincare voucher)

Models Own eyeshadow applicators - £3.00

Une mineral foundation - £9.99

Bourjois Smoky Eyes eyeshadow in Rose Vintage - £7.99

L'Oreal Color Riche lipstick in shade 235 - £8.19

Cosmetics are currently on 3 for 2 so the Bourjois eyeshadow was free!

Swatches:

Top: L'Oreal lipstick

Bottom: Une foundation

Bourjois eyeshadow without flash

Bourjois eyeshadow with flash

From Lanzarote

So technically this was a present but thought I'd show you anyway. My grandad bought this back for me but it's not exactly what I wanted but it still smells gorgeous! It's soap which has sand in it so it's exfoliating.

I love the detailing on the back with the embossed tree and brand name

ASOS

Jersey Wrap Top - £25

This was from their Curve range which starts at a size 20. I'm currently a 16-18 so thought this might be too big but it fits perfectly. I'm keeping this for my birthday night out which isn't for a month and a half but hey ho!

Waterstones

Paradise by Katie Price - £3.29

So there we have it my last big haul for a while. Hope you enjoyed seeing what I bought! Have you bought anything recently or have you a product you'd recommend? Let me know in the comments below!

Save vs Splurge - Shower Oils

I've done all previous save vs splurge posts on cosmetics put I thought I'd have a change and do one on shower oils.

Before I used a shower oil I didn't understand why anyone would want to use an oil in the shower. Surely it would be greasy and just generally be a horrible product. But nope I was wrong. It's got to be one of the best products I've ever used. There aren't many on the market but they are becoming more popular and they do vary in price quite abit. So with this is mind here are the three products I'm comparing:

Left to Right:

Most expensive: L'Occitane Almond Shower Oil (250ml) - £16.00

Mid priced: No7 Luxurious Foaming Shower Oil (250ml) - £9.00

Cheapest: Sanctuary Mande Lular Sensuous Shower Oil (250ml) - £6.89

The first one I used was the L'Occitane Almond Shower Oil. I had a huge 500ml bottle and it took me absolutely ages to use! But this wasn't a bad thing. This comes with a screw dispenser top (it has a hole in the middle where it comes out of when you unscrew the lid) so you don't end up with a tonne of product coming out and wastage which is really good. Even though it is an oil it isn't greasy and when you apply to wet skin it foams up slightly into a rich lather. It left my skin lovely and soft and you can even pour under running water to create a lovely bubbly bubble bath! And it doesn't leave your bath greasy, oily or slippy so all in all it's great for a bath.

Next I used the Sanctuarys Mande Lular Sensuous Shower Oil. The Sanctuary do two shower oils but I chose this fragrance as it doesn't contain parabens, the other one does. The fragrance is lovely, better than the L'Occitane almond but at just under £10 cheaper how does the quality fair up? I have to admit I was really impressed. Everything the L'Occitane oil did, this did. The only thing different was the dispenser, it has one of those which is split into two and you push down one half for the other half to pop up with gives out the product. God I'm rubbish at describing these aren't I?!

Finally, the No7 Luxurious Foaming Shower Oil. This is a grape based product (L'Occitane also did a grape shower oil but it's now discontinued). I did like the fragrance, it was quite subtle but you could smell the fruitiness. This has the same type of dispenser as the Sanctuary product, don't worry I won't try to describe it again, but considering the price I wasn't impressed. It didn't lather up very well, or create a lovely bubbly bath. In fact this bottle didn't last long at all.

So my final thoughts...

1st place - Sanctuary Mande Lular Sensuous Shower Oil (cheapest)

2nd place - L'Occitane Almond Shower Oil (most expensive)

3rd place - No7 Luxurious Foaming Shower Oil (mid price)

Have I persuaded you to try a shower oil? Or have you used one already? Let me know what you think!

Sanctuary Spa at Debenhams

For as long as I can remember Sanctuary Spa has only been available at Boots, and their own website but now it is also available at Debenhams! And what's even better is that the range has been revamped somewhat with the introduction of new products and three new ranges:

 Comforting Night Butter (200ml) - £10.25

Nourishing Bath Soak (400ml) - £10.25

Invigorating Body Rub (200ml) - £8.25

Sleep range: Soothing Bath Float, Dreamtime Sleep-in-a-Box, Daydream Candle, Serenity Eye Pillow and 4 in 1 Restoring Body Elixir.

Relax range: Unwind Candle, Melting Body Fondant, Softening Thermal Sugar Polish, Nourishing Bath Soak, Cocooning Body Butter and Warming Body Oils.

Revive range: Body Boosting Brush, Replenishing Hydra-Tonic and Energy-Zing Shower Drench. 

And currently as an introductory offer at Debenhams there is 20% off the entire range until 18th May and get free delivery when you use this code: SHBC


Stockists:
Debenhams, Boots and Sanctuary

Haul - York & more

Just a quick post to show my recent purchases and what I got from York when I went on Tuesday.

Savers and Home Bargains

From Savers I bought 2 dental flossers, yes I admit this is boring, but they are really good! I normally buy Wisdom ones but these were only 59p or something so I thought I'd give them a go. The floss is on the end of the handle and it makes it really easy to get to the back teeth or if your teeth are close together and normal flossing is hard. Oh and the floss is on replaceable heads incase you were thinking that it sounds unhygienic!

And from Home Bargains I picked up 3 Montagne Jeuness face masks which were on offer at 3 for £2! I got 2 chocolate and 1 white chocolate. You can win a chocolate one as well as other goodies if you enter my 100 followers giveaway which can be found here!

Beauty Expert

I had £10 in Tesco clubcard vouchers to use and in their clubcard rewards scheme you can now exchange them for vouchers for Beauty Expert. For every £5 you have in Tesco vouchers you get double the value in Beauty Expert vouchers. So for my £10 I got £20!

I was spoilt for choice about what to get and as I'm on a spending ban I didn't want to put much money towards my purchase but I found this little starter kit from Ren for £19. I have been wanting to try this brand for a while so this gave me the perfect opportunity to do so. And it was free!

Boots

In my local store they had Soft and Gentle deodorant on clearance at only 97p so I picked up a can and they currently have all skincare on 3 for 2 so I used my points and got the new Garnier Intensive 7 days body lotion in mango (£2.99), Nivea pure and natural cleanser and Nivea pure and natural toner (both £3.36).

Also on clearance was Eylure body tape, Babyliss straightener brush and Mavala nail polish remover pads.

Boots and Zest

I should have took these photo's separately but never thought, I don't feel very well today so you'll have to forgive me!

From Boots I got Sanctuary moisturiser and toner (both with £5 off as I used my facial skincare vouchers). I wanted the face wash too but the Boots in York was out of stock :-( And I got the 17 photo finish face primer (this was free as my mum got this for me!) Sorry for the bad light on that product too.

And from Zest, which is one of those tiddly little shops crammed with discontinued cosmetics, I got a Sally Hansen Kwik Off nail polish pot (I already have the Apricot one and love it) and a Wet n Wild mineral foundation in fair (again I have one of these but it's in medium).

The Gift Company

I've been looking for decorative things for my bathroom for ages and in the shop window this little pelican caught my eye and I had to have it! It was £7 and my mum bought me the matching boat but I'm getting that for Easter.

Daisy Taylors

Daisy Taylors is a cute little gifty type shop in York and they sell some really pretty stuff. I got a little basket (£3.99) which I knew would come in handy, only problem is that I've forgot what I wanted it for!

And I bought my friend a gorgeous card for her wedding (£4.90) and a cute little cat card (£1.99) for Chris's niece's birthday which is on saturday.


Have you bought any new goodies recently?

Review - Sanctuary thermal detox face mask

I got this included in my Sanctuary offer of the week at Boots before christmas but I've only just recently given it a whirl.

I am a fan of charcoal and thermal face masks as I have combination skin and it helps to balance excess oil and draw out any nasty impurities.

I got a sample sachet of face mask but there was plenty in it. If Id have used it a little more sparingly I'd say I could have got 2 applications out of it easily. The consistency was very very thick and as it is charcoal it was a dark grey colour (sorry my photo of this has disappeared). I left it on for, like it suggests, 5 minutes and then rinsed it off with warm water. It left my skin feeling very soft and not shiny or looking oily. 

I would use this again but I would perhaps get the larger tube as a little goes a long way.

This is available from Boots and is £10.20 for a 100ml tube or £2.03 for a 15ml sachet the same as what I had.

What I did with my Soap & Glory OOTW...

As mentioned in a previous post, here, I used my Soap and Glory OOTW from Boots as a storage bag for my new beauty products which I want to use after I've used my hoard up. I thought I'd do a quick post to show what exactly is in it.

Overview of my bag

Sanctuary goodies from another OOTW

Dead Sea Source products

Soap & Glory products:

Glad Hair Day shampoo x2

Glad Hair Day conditioner

iFoam shower gel

Butter Deluxe body butter

Heel genius foot cream

Scrub your nose in it x2

Hand Food

More Soap & Glory:

Clean Mary (mini)

Catch a Wrinkle (mini)

Flake Away scrub

Breakfast Scrub

Off Your Face wipes x3

Girligo moisturising body mist (mini)

Fab Pore mask x2

Hand Food (1 full size & 1 mini)

Clarity face soap

Clear Here moisturiser

Sexy Mother Pucker lipgloss

Naked shine shampoo

Naked Detox shampoo and conditioner

Naked Sensitive shampoo and conditioner

Naked Coco de Mer body wash

Lee Stafford grow faster mask

Lee Stafford big fat texturised hair spray

Sally Hansen kwick off nail polish remover

Bomb Cosmetics bath bombs

I'm excited to used all of these but as my challenge of my product use up post said I'm going to use up all of my 'old' products before I'm going to start on these. It's a little incentive for myself!

Did you manage to get one of these Soap & Glory bags? What are you using it for?

What I did with my Sanctuary OOTW...

A couple of weeks ago Boots had this Sanctuary set as their offer of the week. It was £19 reduced from £40.

I wasn't really bothered about the goodies you got inside, I wanted the box to use as make up storage because my make up table looked like this.....

A mess. In the morning I have very little time to get ready so sometimes hunting through this mess if a bit of a nightmare. So with the help of the Sanctuary box my make up table now looks like this....

Ahhh much better! So what have I put inside it?

In the bottom drawer I only have my Benefit Confessions of a Concealerholic.

In the middle drawer I have concealers, mineral foundation, primers and powders. As you can see there is still loads of room left for more make up goodies!

And in the little top drawers I have eyeshadows, eyeshadow applicators, eyelash curlers, nail file, pencil sharpener and a foundation sponge.

Oh and on top of the box is my container with my make-up brushes in, my clock, tissues, mug with odd liners in and my kabuki brushes.

I love this box and am so glad I bought it!

Did you manage to get your hands on one of these? What have you used the box for?

Boots Sanctuary OOTW

Boy wasn't it cold this morning?! Even so I managed to drag myself out of bed to head down to Boots to get hold of one of the Sanctuary offer of the week.

This was £19 reduced from £40 and it's filled with loads of goodies.

I mainly wanted this to store my make up in and when I've got my stuff in it I'll post on here!

Has anyone else got one of these?

Magazine freebies

In my lunch break yesterday I nipped into WHSmith to get a magazine and instead of getting what I wanted and paying I browsed. This is lethal! And I spied these:

• Cosmopolitan have a free Sanctuary 5 minute thermal detox face mask (only worth £1.99 but you do also get a free celebrity hair magazine too)
• And Instyle (boy did I rip this from the shelves!) have a free L'Occitane handcream worth £7! There's a choice of 3 scents: Shea butter, Cherry Blossom and the new Fleur Cherie which is an Instyle exclusive as it hasn't yet been launched. I got the Cherry and the Fleur and I plan to get some more tomorrow as I LOVE L'Occitane handcream! Well worth it considering the magazine is only £3.60.

Has anyone got their hands on either of these? Or do you know of any other good freebies with magazines at the moment?