I have to admit that I am the laziest person on earth when it comes to putting creams on my body. I am forever trying to get into a routine but I just never seem to stick to it and I end up forgetting half of the time. Not only that, but I don't like feeling all sticky after a nice shower so I was super surprised how much I liked this body butter the first time I tried it.

I got the limited edition Baylis & Harding jojoba, silk and almond oil body butter in my stocking last Christmas and I opened it to smell it straight away. I love Baylis and Harding soaps *they all smell amazing* so I was super excited to see what this body butter smelled like! Another thing I suck at is describing smells so I wouldn't trust myself so much to be very accurate with my description but here it goes; I can definitely smell almond *sitting here with the pot half an inch away from my nose* and gingerbread. Have you tried the ginger bread latte from Costa? That is exactly what this smells like and that might be why I love it so much!

Apart from making me smell super yummy, what I love the most about this body butter is that it isn't sticky at all on the skin, it dries within seconds and it leaves my skin feeling extremely smooth and fresh! For someone who doesn't use many body creams, I have been using this one about three or four times a week!

Unfortunately this is a limited edition which sucks because I love it so much! Also, this body butter is 250ml and it's only around £3. I will definitely be getting different body butters from Baylis & Harding!

Have you tried any B&H products? Any body butters? Do you love them as much as I love this one?

MY NEW FAVORITE BODY SCRUB

As you may know if you read my blog, a week ago I attended a Miss Patisserie event in Cardiff (you can read about it here). As always, when I go to events I like getting some of the things they offer and test them myself so this time I ended up getting a body scrub, a face oil and a perfume. 

I can't tell you much about the face oil just yet as of course it takes more than a week to see any results. As for the perfume, I went for a raspberry and orange and I love it. It's very fresh and perfect for every day. It also comes in a tiny bottle so it's great to have it in your bag.

Now, the winner is definitely the body scrub. I really cannot rave enough about it. I have been telling every body at work and I keep making them touch my skin and they all love it! There was quite a few different smells and I struggled to decide which one I liked the most if I'm being honest because all of them were so dreamy! In the end I went for the 'Coco' one. Their body scrubs are 100% made from natural ingredients and they're produced and designed here in Cardiff. Coco has a tropical smell to it, like coconut mixed with lime and sweets. It really does make you want to eat it. Miss Patisserie describes this product as nourishing and moisturizing sugar body scrubs, perfect for bright and glowing skin. They are packed with antiflammatory jojoba oil and restoring sweet almond oil as well as renewing Vitamin E.  I could not agree any more!

I have used this product three times now and from the very first day I have felt such a different in my skin, it's hard to believe! In winter I always get very dry skin in my hands, forearms and elbows to the point where if I scratch my arm it turns white of how much dry skin there is, well, that hasn't happened since I've been using this body scrub. It removes all the dead skin and hydrates the skin in a way I can't even describe! My skin feels so smooth and it smells so good for over twenty-four hours and the thing that I love the most about this body scrub is that you don't need to moisturize afterwards! 

I wish I could give you all a tiny bit to try it because you'd fall in love with it as much as I have! I will definitely be purchasing different smells (there was a watermelon one that was to die for!). 

You can visit their website at http://www.miss-patisserie.com/ or if you live in Cardiff check out their store at the High Street Arcade!

What is your favorite scrub? What your new favorite skin care product?

MISS - PATISSERIE BLOGGER EVENT

Earlier today I attended a blogger event at Miss-Patisserie. I am so happy that I got invited to this because if I'm being honest, I had never heard of this company before. 

Miss Patisserie offers amazing, beautiful handcrafted bath and skin care products. All of their products are made in Cardiff and everything is hand made, from the products to the packaging. The company started in 2009 primarily selling online or to other stores but a month ago the first store was opened at the High Street Arcade in Cardiff.

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the shop was the relaxing atmosphere, the smell and the very cute bath bomb cupcakes display. The whole place is very simplistic and rustic but chic at the same time. I always say for a skin care store less is more and they've definitely done it right. The clean space allows the products to speak for themselves and everything is so colorful and pretty it makes me happy!

At the event, Charlotte demonstrate some of the products on ourselves. I tried a body scrub, a face oil and a face mask. All the products are made from natural ingredients and they all smell super yummy. 

Unfortunately I don't have a bath at the moment so I didn't pay much attention to the bath bombs (even tho they all smell and look amazing). I concentrated on the skin care products and the perfumes. I ended up getting a body scrub, a face oil and a roll on perfume. Stay tuned as I will be writing another blog post once I've tried the products! 

Over all, I am extremely happy to have discovered Miss Patisserie as I think it's a much better alternative to Lush. The fact that everything is made local and that it is a relatively small company makes me really excited and I think it's great for us bloggers to help small local business. If you're in town make sure you pop in and have a look at everything they have to offer. The staff is great, very helpful and knowledgeable and they take the time to explain how to use the products or what they're best for. If you don't live in Cardiff you can check out their website here. 

Before I go, I'd like to thank Charlotte and Jorge for inviting me to the event, again, I am very happy to have discovered Miss Patisserie! 

If you'd like to know how I get on with the products I purchased make sure to visit my blog again soon for the review.

H&M BEAUTY HAUL

So I don't know if you've heard but a couple of days ago it was the opening of the biggest H&M in the UK and it's in Cardiff, where I live. Isn't that awesome!? Anyway, I could not help myself and I had to go have a browse as soon as I finished work. It was so busy I couldn't really look around much, let alone trying any clothes on! As it was so busy I decided to go straight into the 'home' and the 'beauty' section ignoring all the pretty clothes on my way.
The home section is amazing, I literally wanted to buy everything in there but again, it was so packed in there I couldn't have a proper look so I just grabbed a pretty candle holder (£2.99).

Now, the beauty section, oh my God. I know every body had been raving about their beauty products but I had never seen them before in any H&M store so I was so happy to see there is a full beauty department in this new store. I obviously had to check it out, regardless of all the people in my way. I can honestly say I spend over 40 minutes browsing and swatching everything!

I love the packaging of their products and the way it was all presented made me want to buy every single piece of make up. Obviously I couldn't afford that so I had to narrow it to the following items.

   

   

   

   

I got two eye shadows (Down to Earth and Wild Sable). As you might know by now if you read my blog, I love berry colours and browns so I couldn't leave without getting these two shades. There is so many different shades in this collection that it was hard deciding which ones to take home (I have a feeling I will end up getting a lot more of these). They are highly pigmented and they're only £4.99.

Next I moved onto the lip section and for a lipstick addict that was a bit of a torture because I can honestly say I loved all the colours! The packaging of the lipsticks is amazing and gold but in the end I decided to go for this lip stain in the shade Chic Choc. It's similar to MAC Mauve, just a little bit darker, which I love. I got a lip liner too (Cherry Tart), again berry colour. This lip liner is extremely pigmented and it wasn't easy to take it off my arm when I did the swatches so I'm hoping it will last long on my lips!

Talking about lips, just like most people my lips get really badly chapped in winter and they look horrible so when I saw this lip scrub I had to get it. It smells amazing too! I will let you know if it works when I've been using it for a while!

I also got a eye shadow blending brush and a lash curler because I love the rosy golden colour so much!

So here's everything I got at the H&M opening. Everything was 25% off yesterday so I did end up saving quite a lot of money!

Have you tried any of H&M beauty products? What do you think of the package? I think it's all beautiful and looks very expensive considering the price!

HOW I CLEAN MY BRUSHES QUICK AND EASY.

First of all, let me apologize for a few things...

• My nails. Yes, they are disgusting. I have been picking them all day but worry no more, I'm getting them done later on today.
• The lighting. The light in my bathroom is rubbish so I had to take photos with flash and they don't look very stylish unfortunately.
• The water I've wasted while taking this pictures. I always turn the tap off when I don't need the water while cleaning my brushes, but it really is difficult to combine cleaning your brushes, the camera and the water all at the same time.

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let me tell you a thing or two about cleaning make up brushes. I gotta say, this is something I hate with passion. I am the laziest person when it comes to clean them up, I know I should do it at least once or twice a month but I must admit I should be lucky if I do them once every couple of months! I do 'wash' them with a brush disinfectant every time I use them, but it's a very quick process and to be honest I doubt it cleans them much.

With that been said, when I know it's been way too long and I can't put it off for any longer, here's what I do.

Take any soft shampoo ( I just use baby shampoo from the £ shop ) and put a tiny bit into a bowl or a plate. As you can see, I use the lid of my hair conditioner.

Dab the brush slightly in the shampoo and put your hand under the warm-ish water. Then rub the brush on the palm of your hand. Run it through the fingers as well and repeat the process a couple of times until it turns completely white.

Once it's white it means there isn't any foundation left in the brush so I move onto the BrushEgg. Some people skip the hand process and do it straight onto their make up cleaner glove, I just like to do it that way first as you can feel the hairs of the brush go softer as it gets cleaner and cleaner. Also, if you don't have one of this, you don't have to use it. They get clean enough using only the hand anyway.

Repeat the same process with the BrushEgg.

Remember to always keep your brushes upside down as you don't want the water to go inside and dissolve the glue that is keeping all the hairs together.

Once you think your brush is all clean, squish it with your fingers and you'll see if there's any foundation/colour left. If there's still coming out of the brush it obviously means that it's still not clean 100% and that you need to do it all again! If nothing but water comes out of the brush, you're good to go. 

Leave them dry for a good few hours always making sure they're not completely flat or it can misshape them.

To be honest, it's quite a simple process and I really don't know why I hate it so much. I guess I am just super lazy and I just wish I could have new brushes every time I do my make up.

How do you clean your brushes? Do you have any more tips?

MICELLAR CLEANSING WATER, IS IT WORTH THE HYPE?

It's no lie that Garnier Micellar water has been talked about a lot so it's no surprise I ended up buying to see what the whole hype was about. Literally 99% of the reviews I had read about this product were great so I was super excited and really looking forward to try this super amazing product that everybody raved about.

Well, whilst I agree that it's refreshing and doesn't irritate my eyes, this product was a big fat disappointment for me. I honestly do not get the good reviews this product is receiving!

I used it every day for two weeks and here's my thoughts.

When it comes to taking make up off, I feel like it really didn't do a great job. I use a very thin foundation as well so I can't even imagine what is like if you use a thick foundation like ColorStay every day. I noticed that I had to use a lot of product and it was very hard to control how much came out of the bottle. I had too use at least 5-6 cotton pads and a lot of patience to remove my make up and to be honest, by the time I'm taking my make up off is probably late at night and all I want is go to bed so I found it quite annoying that it took me over five minutes to completely clean my face as I didn't feel like my face was cleared of make up and I had to then go back to my normal routine which obviously added another good few minutes.

This product also didn't work on my waterproof mascara, I honestly looked like a little panda and it was so hard to get rid of the black eyes that I eventually gave up and used my regular cleansing milk (N7 Cleansing Lotion).

Despite being refreshing, I've noticed that in the last two weeks my skin has been feeling a lot dryer as well and I think it could be due to using this cleanser as I've just got back to my normal routine and it already feels slightly better.

So for me this product didn't work at all and I won't be buying it again. Is it really worth the hype? No. Like I said before, I really don't get why people like this product so much, sure it's cheap but it doesn't really do the job. I much prefer spending a little bit more money and get it done in a minute than having to sit there for ages rubbing my make up off.

What do you think? Do you love this cleansing water or do you agree with me that this isn't worth all the hype?

THE THREE RULES FOR BETTER SKIN

I must admit that up until a couple of years ago I didn't really pay attention to my skin at all. Taking my make up off at nights was the last thing on my mind before going to bed and I didn't even use moisturizer! Pretty bad, I know.

Now days it's not like I'm obsessed with my skin but I have learnt to take care of it with a very simple routine. I don't particularly like to spend a lot of money on skin products as I confess I am very lazy and I probably wouldn't end up using them enough, I mean, using only a couple of products is hard enough for me! Apart from the ones I'm going to mention, there is plenty more things that will make your skin better like eating well, drinking plenty of water, exfoliating once a week, face masks, etc.

For those who don't know me well here's a little bit of history about my skin; As a teenager I had very oily and greasy skin, a lot of spots and massive pores. My skin is more on the dry side now, however I still have a few marks and discoloration from those teenage years.

Here's the top three rules that have helped me to clear my skin in the last couple of years.

• Take your make up off every night. This is probably the most important one. I use a regular make up wipe and then cleansing milk with a cotton pad. After that I use my electric cleanser brush with a anti-spot soap and I make sure I rinse it properly. I got my electric cleanser from eBay for a tenner and it works perfectly fine so you don't have to spend hundreds on one like most guru's do.
• Anti-spot soaps are normally very drying, and that's why having a moisturizer that works for you is very important. I moisturize every night, every morning, and every time I put make up on. I also put Vaseline on my lips every night and morning. You don't have to use a very expensive moisturizer but you have to try a few and find the one that works best for you as every single one is different in each skin.
• Not touching your face constantly is super important. This is something you might not notice but we're constantly touching our faces. It's natural and very hard to stop. Unless you're a clean freak and wash your hands every two minutes, our hands are full of bacteria most of the time and that transfers to your skin every time you touch your face so next time you find yourself touching your face, remember that! Having your hair off your face will help not getting a greasy forehead too. As a teenager I used to have a fringe and my forehead was always covered in spots and very greasy which wasn't pretty! For some reason I was embarrassed or showing my face completely but now, hair tied back days are my favorites. 

So as you can see, you don't need to splash out £70 on an eye cream, another £50 on moisturizer, £30 on a lip scrub and plenty of other things to clear your face, as long as you follow these simple and cheap rules your skin will improve a lot. 

Now, I'm not saying that using expensive products don't help, of course they do, but if like me, you prefer spending your money on other things *coughs* *make up* these simple rules work miracles too.

Do you have a simple routine too? Let me know guys as I love reading about skin routines! <3

THE BEST ANTI-SPOT TREATMENT

I guess I can consider myself quite lucky that I don't get a lot of spots very often, just the occasional one after my period. However, as a teenager I had very bad skin and I can't even remember how many different soaps, creams, tablets, etc I took to get it rid off them.