Lush 'Sandstone' soap review

I know, I know, it's been over a month since my last post, but if you didn't already know, I moved to Paris!

So the last month has been a whirlwind of emotions, confusion and stress. More on that later. 

Anyway I have the biggest crush on Lush, like mammoth sized. The last month has been hard on us both because it's been hard to find my room in my budget for my beloved Lush in Paris. 

But seeing as I am back in London for a week, I thought I'd review the mountain of stuff I brought this week! 

The product I'm trying right now is the 'Sandstone' soap:

Firstly, the smell is amazing! My brother thought it smelt like candy, but I thought it smelt fresh zingy and lemony.

It lathered up reasonably well and the smell lasted for a good few hours! It wasn't too overpowering or tacky, but just perfect, like most of the Lush smells. 

This soap is perfect for exfoliation with its grains of sand, but beware, as it can sometimes get a little scratchy especially when the bar is whittling down. 

I would highly recommend this for anyone looking for a good exfoliate/generally zingy smelling soap, however I personally cannot use it more than three times a week as I can find it a little too scratchy sometimes.

3.5/5 from me. 

Over and out. 

Lush Mask Of Magnaminty Review

Holla, 

In the spirit of Christmas I thought to myself, why not have a special holiday edition of facemask reviewing. 

For the last three months I have been a little more than absent as I have moved to Paris, more on that in the upcoming weeks!

But for today we will focus on Lush's Mask Of Magnaminty. 

After a little spot outbreak from my stressful life of going to tres mignon cafes, I decided to try the mask from Lush which said it would "clean, calm and clear the skin".

Firstly the smell hit me from about three feet away. Very minty, fresh but with a slight hint of antiseptic.

So it felt very cool and tingly after application which really felt like it was working, I took the mask off after it was stiff but I noticed that the addition of water to the stiff mask turned it into a kind of face scrub.

Being a lover of exfoliation this was a dream. 

My face still felt very cool after taking off the mask and the smell was amazing. My face smelt minty with a slight undertone of honey for the rest of the morning. And might I note that the antiseptic smell was gone. 

Now the knuckle cracker, did it actually help my spots? Yes and no. I did see that my spots went decreased but they also looked darker and although my skin felt clean and refreshed it also felt a tad dry. That is the biggest irritation, when spots tend to darken up which leads to skin blemishes. 

So hopefully there will be no skin blemishes but I give this product a 3.5 out of 5. A little more moisture to make the product less harsh but maintaining the smell would be perfection.

My thoughts on: Lush*

Also known at the time Lush won me over.

Let's be clear, Lush and I did not hit it off on our first encounter. I think the word hate would strongly sum up my reaction to the Maastricht branch of Lush. The smells were too overpowering, and there were too many of them, which gave me a headache from the moment I stepped inside the store. 

Now the minute I saw the €20 sign on a tub of facemask I thought "hell no". Unless this was a facemask that was made up of tiny pieces of gold, pearls and angel's tears I would not pay that much for a tiny tub of gloop.

Ok and THEN, a miracle occurred my friends. My friend and I, upon impulse and hearing good things from other people, went to the Lush store on South Molton Street in London. 

It was not nearly as overpowering as my last Lush experience, and the minute we walked in a friendly guy pretty much became our best friend for the next half hour. He explained that all the ingredients in Lush products were either natural or safe synthetics which were preserved naturally. Which DELIGHTED me, because I spend hours looking for shampoo without SLS or parabens. 

And they're super against animal testing or buying from suppliers that do test on animals. I kind of don't trust the Body Shop ever since their L'oreal takeover, and the fact that they STILL use parabens and SLS in their products. 

But yes, those were all enticements but the real deal sealers were Lush's unique products. I mean I saw things in that shop that I could not find in any main cosmetics line!

For example, their bubble bar:

Which when crumbled into a running bath creates bubbles

Or their lip scrub:

You apply it on your lips, rub them together and lick the edible scrub off the reveal softer lips! 

This is the future of cosmetics for me. A lot greener, more conscious of harmful chemicals and ending unnecessary animal testing for a bunch of cosmetics. All whilst creating kick-ass quirky new products that smell great without artificial harmful chemicals.

It's official Lush, you're now my favorite cosmetics brand, I won't be buying any shampoos on my student budget just yet but I'm totally switching my body wash for a bar of Lush soap. I think it's evident at this point that my next Face Mask Friday will be based on some products from Lush!

*For those of you that do not know, Lush is a global cosmetics chain. Link to their site here: https://www.lush.co.uk/

The Body Shop's Vitamin E Sink in Moisture Mask Review

Salut tout le monde!

It's the return of FACE MASK FRIDAY Y'ALL!! FMF was brutally put to a stop when I sadly could not remember to buy face masks in time, and because I was on a semester abroad in Maastricht. Mais c'est la vie!

(Beautiful Maastricht church)

Maintaining the on-and-off, not-really glorious tradition of smothering face masks and then telling you about them on Fridays was unfortunately a long lost pastime. UNTIL TODAY.

This week I turned to The Body Shop's Vitamin E sink in moisture mask to make me feel fabulousssss (well more so than already).

If you have read my previous review on The Body Shop's Honey and Oat Mask, you will know that I was quite impressed the Body Shop's face masks. Hence I went out to my local TBS store and got myself a sample of the Vitamin E sink in moisture mask.

TBS had always gotten good reviews from me because their products are so lush and smell like my idea of heaven. Fact. My daily choice of spray in fact is from TBS, and they've recently started giving students free Body Shop (discount) cards which has made my life.

Back to business, the serious shit, the hit product: the moisture mask!

In substance, the Vitamin E mask was a pale pink soft cream-like product. It had a light subtle yet sweet fragrance that reminded me of baby cream (in a good way). I was feeling very positive about this product because I have sensitive skin and this looked ideal for me.

So I scooped up a bit of this fluffy mask and started spreading it in a thin layer around my face. There was a big difference between this mask and the Honey and Oat one, or in fact any mask I had yet reviewed. The Vitamin E mask was very smooth and I could hardly feel it as I waited for the recommended 10 minutes. I kept it on for a little longer (20 minutes) because I had been told that some women left this mask on over night.

Unlike other face masks my face did not feel irritated or tingly, just very cool.

I'm a real abider of the rules (despite the amount of times I have failed my driving test), so I took off the mask using a tissue as recommended on the instructions. My skin looked shinier but it also felt a little sticky and there was a slight irritation on one of my cheekbones.

I had a distinct feeling of uncleanliness so I washed off the mask, any my skin did look a bit cleaner and felt slightly softer for the next couple of days.

Overall, the Vitamin E Sink in Moisture Mask didn't really excite me because it felt more like an overnight cream than it did a face mask. It smelt nice but not as nice as the Honey and Oat scrub mask. I would recommend this to those who want to tackle the lines on their face or signs of aging because of the Vitamin E.

Due to it not giving out as good of a result as I thought it would, and because a price of £13.00 per 100ml is just simply too high for me, I would have to give this product a mediocre 3/5.

It sure does the job, but it does the job of a moisturizing cream, not an ideal face mask.

Apivita express beauty with orange review

Oh look it's the return of Face Mask Fridays! I know, exciting times.

So this week I popped into the huge Marble Arch M&S near work and saw face masks on offer for £2.40 so obviously I couldn't resist myself. It was a double wammy, face masks on sale hit me hard. 

As I've probably said before my skin is normal, it never gets very oily nor dry unless it's winter or I've used a bad face wash. That's why I find it so hard to pick face masks because there are so many for oily skin. Because I'm such a little dare devil I went with orange, it's been a while and I've never seen a face mask with orange oil before.

As per usual, here's a picture:

I was expecting good things from this packet mostly because it looked fancy and it was from the one and only Marks and Spencers. It also said that it was paraben free at the back and I've found that products without parabens/SLSs have a better affect on my skin and hair than other products.

It all started out well as I applied the face mask because it smelt really fresh and refreshing. In an odd way it reminded me of the refreshers sweets in a good way. The minute the mixture hit my skin I could feel the tingling. Personally I love it when I can feel something because it shows that the face mask is actually doing something to my face.

I quote, the orange essential oil is supposed to 'tone and moisturise leaving skin with a natural glow and radiance'. After about ten minutes I started washing off the mask. This was an aspect I absolutely hated because the face mask was so hard to wash off due to its oiliness.

Eventually when I took off the mask I could see that the effect was not what I hoped it would be. The mask made bumps on skin more prominent and my skin felt a lot skin drier after washing it off. I expected this face mask to make my skin softer and clearer but it did not achieve that.

Therefore this FMF will be given a 1.5/5.

Good thing it smelt so nice and I'm easily won over like that.

Just give me something that smells good and tastes nice and I'm yours. Seriously. If you ever want to woo me, all you have to do as you see me busting a move on the dance floor of a club is come up to me and say these exact words:

"Want to grab a pizza and maybe a slice of cake?"

I swear I will look at you like you are Ryan Gosling and worship you for your wise words. 

There we go, a FMF that was on time and tips on how to get me to fall into your arms.

Until the next time sports fans. 

Honey & Oat 3 In 1 Scrub Mask by The Body Shop review

Bonsoir the part of the internet that's into face masks,

As promised in my past review, I am going to be reviewing TBS's hit product, 3-in-1 Honey and Oat scrub mask. Now let me tell you I was very very excited about trying this product out, mostly because I gave it a sniff last week and it smelt heavenly. I was interested to see if the product would really be worth its retail value of £10.00 for 100ml. Most Body Shop products I have encountered have actually been worth what I paid for them, like the body mists, which smell wunderfullll and don't run out for a good six months. 

Now here is what the product looks like on the shelves if any of you have severe difficulties in locating it and/or are merely interested in the packaging:

Very good. Now let us move on to the glory that is held inside this pot. The texture of this face mask was unusual. It was a smooth creamy mixture with some gritty bits in. You know, to make it seem natural and exfoliating. Did you know you could put sand in a body wash/face mask and you'd have the exact same exfoliating result, if not better? 

So the first thing I noticed was the gorgeous smell of the mixture (which I've mentioned like five times already). It was an amazingly sweet yet natural fragrance. The whole product seemed to scream natural at the top of its lungs. In fact I must have awarded it 2 out of 5 in my head just for the smell regardless if it gave me rashes or not. I just thought to myself, even if I do get dry skin and spots everywhere, boy there would be no better smelling way of doing it.

As I put it on I felt a cool sensation and hoped that the mask was really going to be worth it. Surprisingly, it was. I took it off after 10-15 minutes and not only did my face smell lovely, my skin actually looked cleaner and shinier, in the good way, like I had a healthy glow or something. Dead impressed, well done The Body Shop! Unfortunately all good things must come to an end so the effect of the mask did not last long but none the less, it was lovely to go around for a day with my skin looking as it did (i.e. slightly improved).

Overall, 4/5. Smelt amazing. Loved the natural feel of the product and the fact that it actually brought good results. However, the price was too high for me. Maybe it does bring mega results after long term use but honestly, £10 is a good roast, drink and dessert at 'Spoons. And I'm the kind of girl who chooses to get fat over good skin. Aw yeah. 

P.s. Any French readers, can you tell me how to say 'aw yeah' in French? If there is such a saying for that in French. If not, don't worry, I'll improvise and put a French accent on while saying 'aw yeah'. Yes, I know, I am terrible. 

A plus tard.

Garnier Pure Sauna Self-Heating Mask Review

Hello there,

Yes, it is in fact a Sunday, but let's go ahead with the Face Mask Friday thing. Because it's catchier than Face Mask Sunday right? And I'm all about the alliteration. I should make that a theme too, "All About Alliterations" and start posting up cool alliterations. Except no one will read it. Moving on, my apologies for making this two days late. I was preparing for an interview and dragged to Oxford Street with my mother only to spend three hours in Marks and Spencer wondering what my life had come to.

The mocking, sorry reviewing, of today's product is based around Ganier's Self-Heating mask. All jokes aside, I will refrain from mocking, and try to 'tell it as it is' - after all how many other ways are there of telling 'it'? Go on, give us a ball park figure politicians (like they'd be reading this blog, I mean look at their pores).

I picked up the face mask at Boots, mostly because it was £0.85 for two 6ml sachets which was the cheapest face mask I had brought yet. Considering this was produced from quite a known brand it seemed like excellent value for money. For all you animal lovers, unlike The Body Shop or Superdrug Tea Tree products it had no guarantee against animal testing. It also looked highly professional and because I could never in the next three years afford to go to the spa I very much liked the sauna aspect. Now to make my room steamy and get someone with a Russian accent doing my face mask. At least that's how I imagine spas work.

Before I spread this face mask onto my face the smell hit me. It smelt like a Garnier face wash I had tried out a couple of years ago. It isn't a bad smell, more of a raw but fresh cosmetics smell. However I am concerned that what if all the Garnier products have the same signature smell? Let me just give you a piece of advice if you're starting a cosmetics company: if you want your products to have the same notable smell, do not make it smell like Garnier's face mask. I want the products that I apply to my body smelling nice, hence why I spend a fortune at The Body Shop. Nevertheless I applied to concoction to my face, and surprisingly enough as I massaged it around my face I could actually feel it heating up my skin. I then removed it after five minutes (despite the packaging saying three minutes). It hadn't hardened or anything but was still in it's liquid form.

My skin felt drier after the ordeal and two days later and my skin no longer felt fresh like it did on the day of the face mask despite a promise for skin to feel purified "for up to 7 days". Luckily it also didn't feel as dry either. I guess you can't get it all huh?

It'll be a 1.5/5.

Marks deducted for the smell, how the effect wore off, the dryness, and how there wasn't as much of an effect as I thought there would be. It didn't make my face as clearer as some of the other products I've tried but good affordability and definitely for those with oily skin.

Anyway that is all the juice I can give you on face masks this week. Next week I'll try out the Honey and Oat Scrub Mask from The Body Shop. I've been wanting to try this out for a long time but the £10 price tag attached to it scared the poor student inside me. I happened be in a luck and met a lovely lovely lady from a store in London who gave me free samples of two face masks so I could figure out whether I liked them or not.

I'll mix it up a little next week and try to post about something that is not about face masks, as well as continuing with Face Mask Fridays (yes, really, it will be on a Friday this time, Sunday shall be used as God intended it to, for rest, video games and eating fatty food without regrets).

À bientôt.  

Body Shop's Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask Review

Salut,

Well look at that, Face Mask Fridays is so a thing. I mean if you've done something twice it's a thing isn't it? At least that's how it works in my world. Which is probably why I consider myself an expert at yoga from having been to ten lessons or so in the space of a year.

Moving on from my lack of yoga skills, I was browsing in my local branch of The Body Shop this week (they're having a sale so it's only understandable why I was won over). Then I saw the sachet version of Body Shop's Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask on the counter. The original pot packaging looks something like this:

The pot is £12 for 100ml and my sachet was £1.50 for 6ml. I know, The Body Shop wins again for its brilliant affordability factor. Okay yes go on all you Body Shop fanatics, throw a rant at me about how this is because The Body Shop goes out of its way to avoid animal testing but may I just point out that my Tea Tree face peel from Superdrugs (refer to last weeks post) was more than a third cheaper and for more product too, as well as the fact that it stated at the back that it did not test this product on animals. 

The question is, was this face mask worth it? I applied the clay like mixture onto my face, so well done Body Shop for really sticking to the title there. The face mask smelt lovely, really fresh and clean which made it bearable to sit around improving my yoga until I realized my face was so stiff I could only mumble. It was time to see the results. I washed off the stiff bits of mask and in that aspect Superdrug's Tea Tree mask was more fun because I could easily peel it off. Well life is not fair, so I continued in my struggle to remove the concoction from my face.

Now the result was pretty non-existent. In all fairness this face pack is for oily skin which I do not have but it seemed like a bit of a fluff product to me. Body Shop describes it to "draw out impurities" be "clarifying" and "refreshing". Refreshing it was. I really enjoyed how fresh my face felt but it still left my blackheads as they were and my skin looked a little clearer. But that could have just been a bit of the clay mixture left over. 

I'll give it a 2/5. Lovely smell, felt fresh after but made no difference to me really, could have achieved the same by washing my face in cool water and I would have saved myself a good bit of money too. 

That's all on Face Mask Fridays.

À bientôt.  

Tea Tree Peppermint Peel Off Face Mask Review

Hello my lovely lovely blog viewers,

So today I thought, hey, it's Friday, let's get crazy. The sun is shining, it's nice and warm. It's time to bring out the face mask I brought upon impulse yesterday in Superdrug.

So let me say, this is the first time in my nineteen years of existent that I have used a face mask. I know, I hear all you well-groomed gals yelling "how could that be?!". As it turns out I'm not so well-groomed. I tend to get by on the odd splash of water on my face.

So anyway, I thought it'd be a lovely pampering thing to do for a jobless university student. I even thought about making it a thing you know? Like Face Mask Fridays! We'll see how far my budget stretches (yes I am that broke, all money is welcome).

Tea Tree Peppermint Peel Off Mask costs £0.89 at Superdrug which I thought was quite good, and it's enough for two masks (if you've got a small enough face like myself). The minute I put the jell like goop on my fingers the smell of peppermint hit me. Quite nice if you like that kind of thing. I'm more of a grapefruit girl myself.

The first thing I noticed after I spread a thin layer of it on my face was the cool burn of it. Before you go on about the paradox I just created for you let me try to explain. It numbed my face but I could also feel a kind of sting to it. I just went along with it, what do I know about face masks after all? I'm guessing this was the peppermint playing its part. The description did say "Peppermint oil is renowned for its therapeutic effect on skin disorders and for its cooling sensation". The slightly uncomfortable sensation continued for the next five minutes or so until the mask had stiffened on my face.

Now to see the results. I peeled the mask off my face and for a moment my skin looked a little brighter but then I went to wash the remainder of the mask off my face with water and my skin just kind of went back to before.

See, my skin's quite normal. The occasional spot and a bit of dry skin but nothing face cream can't solve. The tiny spot on my chin was still there after the mask, and maybe, if it wasn't the light of my bathroom messing with me, it had gone down a little and lo behold the blackheads on my nose were fading too. My skin hadn't brightened, it wasn't softer and my complexion was pretty much still the same. 

All in all, nice treat, face felt refreshed and my skin was a bit cleaner. Good for a girls night in, but soap does the exact same function if you're broke like me. 3/5 at a push.

I guess sometimes face masks are all about the psychological effects they bring. Maybe my spot hasn't really gone down and blackheads are still there. Who knows, but I think I'll try another face mask next week (a brand called Amie or Superdrug's finest depending on money - side note Superdrug did not pay me to do this aha). 

Face Mask Fridays  is rapidly becoming a thing.

À la prochaine fois!