Hand Care pt 1 - Hand Creams

as someone with a fondness for nail polish, I also try to make sure that I keep my hands well looked-after as there is nothing more distracting from a pretty manicure than dry skin or ripped cuticles. I work at a desk job, so nothing too damaging to the old hands there, and I get my fiancé to do as much of the washing up as I can get away with ;) however I do suffer from a sort of obsessive picking at my cuticles (not pleasant, I know - sorry!) so I have to be extra diligent to try and keep them in good nick.

lately I've been growing my collection of hand creams and potions, so thought I would share with the internet what products I have been using and what I think of them.



Part One - Hand Creams:

E45

I don't use this very often, but I am firmly of the opinion that everyone should have a tube of E45 in their stash. it's unperfumed so smells a bit nothingy and blah, but if you're suffering with dry skin or excema it's the best thing to use. i do sometimes get a little excema flare-up on my right ring finger, and a few dabs of this really soothes it and helps calm it down. it's also great for elbows, knees, heels and any other dry scratchy bits of skin. £2.30ish at boots, there is no excuse not to have some of this.

Vaseline Healthy Hands + Stronger Nails hand cream

this is my most used, go-to hand cream. it's got quite a clean, fresh scent, nothing fancy but certainly not unpleasant. it's not greasy at all and is great to use when i'm in a hurry as I find it sinks into my skin really quickly and a little bit goes a long way. it's also very gentle, my mum who has really bad dermatitis and generally can't use any store bought skin products has used this once or twice without it causing any problems, which is a huge plus. it's around £3.50 at boots for 75ml, so very affordable, and i will definitely buy this again when it runs out.

L'Occitane date bouquet hand cream

this was a magazine freebie a couple of months ago. i really wanted the plain shea butter one and couldn't find it, but as it turns out i am glad i got this one. it smells completely amazing. it's a tiny bit greasier and not quite as quick to use as the vaseline, but feels really rich and - again - smells gorgeous. l'occitaine hand creams are very pricey at £8 for only 30ml, and sadly it looks like you can't buy the date bouquet one as a solo, but i do really love this and am thinking of getting the hand and lip duo when it runs out.

Soap & Glory hand food

the blogosphere seems to absolutely rave about this hand cream, but i don't rate it as highly as any of my others. the smell is gorgeous and i could happily sniff it all day, but contrary to popular opinion i actually find it quite greasy and it seems to take ages to sink into my skin but at the same time doesn't feel rich or creamy at all. it does leave my hands feeling quite soft, but i sometimes feel like i have to rinse them afterwards as i don't like the weird sheen it leaves behind, which really defeats the whole point of applying hand cream! this is £5 for 125ml (my tube is only 50ml though) in boots, but i don't think i'll buy it again.

Neal's Yard Bee Lovely hand cream

this is the latest addition to my hand cream collection as it's a freebie in this month's marie claire mag, so i've only had it about 2 weeks. i am properly enamoured with this one though. it smells delicious as it's packed with orange essential oil, and it is so rich and creamy and lovely. it is quite greasy and does take a while to sink in - i have been applying it before bed rather than during the day, but my hands feel so soft and happy. it just feels so indulgent when i am applying it. it is another super expensive one though, at £10 for 50mls. i'm not sure whether i'd repurchase this or save my pennies for l'occitane ones as both of them are so nice.

~

Phew. I didn't know I could talk so much about handcream. :|  Up next: part 2 - nails & cuticles.

NOTD

Just a quick little NOTD (though these are actually NOTDay before yesterday, I just haven't been near my PC to sort the photies).

I copied this look from another blogger but sadly can't remember which. :(

Two coats of OPI nail envy
One coat of Bourjois So Laque in Rose Lounge
One sparse coat of Model's Own Party Pieces
Second coat of Rose Lounge
Then topped with my usual top coat - Sally Hansen insta-dri.

I love the sort of gel nails look that the sheer nude top coat gives to the glitter. though I also can't wait to use this glitter on it's own or over a brighter polish because it's so pretty, like a party on my fingernails!

Sorry for the naff photo quality  - my flat is not good for lighting in the evening! :(

February Favourites

being new to the blogging thing I'm yet to come up with my own original series, and I'm not afraid to piggyback on the ones everyone else does.

to that end, although it's a little bit late now - here's what I've been using this past month.

Kiehl's Rosa Arctica Lightweight Cream

I sat down at the Kiehl's counter in my local John Lewis at the beginning of February to have a skin consultation. to the surprise of nobody, it turns out I have dry skin. sadly I cannot afford them all so I am so at odds about which of the lovely products to buy, but for the time being I am still working my way through the generous free samples I received. one of which is the Rosa Arctica lightweight cream, which calls itself a 'youth regenerating cream with extract from the rare resurrection flower', which apparently can survive for months without water and then revive at only a drop. so presumably extracts of it can bestow the same magical properties to your skin?!

well, whether that's true or not, I love this cream. I use it after my regular moisturiser, and it only takes 2 or 3 tiny dabs to cover my face (hence still working with my little sample pot). I am lucky enough to have relatively clear skin, but the dryness has definitely improved since using this, my face appears brighter, and even though I normally hate lavender, I am quite fond of the light lavender scent of this.

LUSH Sweet Lips and Palmer's Cocoa Butter Lip Balm

my lips are pretty bad for dry / flakiness in winter, exacerbated by the fact I am rubbish at drinking enough water. this, coupled with my being unwell recently, has meant that for the past few weeks my lips have been r e ally bad. I picked up sweet lips in my local LUSH store a couple of months ago - just as they discontinued it, I believe. I find it a bit fiddly to use and have a tendency to get sugar everywhere, but it does such a good job of buffing my lips and smoothing away any flaky bits, plus it tastes delicious. I have a bunch of lip balms, but the one I've been using the most recently is Palmer's Cocoa Butter formula lip balm. the scent and taste of this are lovely, creamy and sweet, and it makes my lips feel super soft. even better, it cost me only about £2, hurray.

17 BB cream in light.

I've never really got along with foundation, so my discovery of BB creams was like someone switched a light on. I've yet to branch into more high-end ones because to be perfectly honest this has lasted me so far since last July. I bought a replacement around November 'cause it seemed to be running out, but nope I am still on the first tube. I dab a small splodge onto each cheek, my chin, and my forehead, and smooth it in either using my fingers or a foundation brush. I find it smoothes my skin out and just leaves me looking like a nicer version of me.

Urban Decay Naked Palette

after much hinting (ie, walking him through Debenhams and making him pick it up), J got me the Naked palette for christmas this year - YAY. I've been trying to get more into wearing regular daily makeup and find this brilliant for simple day-to-day wear (obviously). when I'm feeling really lazy I just sweep naked over my lid and highlight my browbone and inner corner with virgin. if I've managed to roll out of bed a bit earlier (rare) I use hustle or darkhorse in the crease and a light sweep of smog in the centre of the lid for a subtle daytime smokey eye.

Stila stay all day waterproof liquid eyeliner in carbon black

I am so dead impressed with this eyeliner. the finer than fine nib makes my go-to babydoll flick easy peasy, and as I have quite watery eyes I have found the the cheaper liquid eyeliners in my collection do tend to smudge around the outer corners of my eye, but this genuinely does stay all day without budging - brilliant!

SEVENTEEN Doll'd Up Mascara in Brown/Black

my mascara collection is getting a bit out of hand actually, but this is my most recent addition. I can't confirm its claims of up to 24'hr curl, but it's lasted me around 16 hours or so with no smudging or flaking. the slightly curved brush has shorter bristles on one side which means you can tailor how long you want your curl and makes it easy to get into the corner lashes, and it separates and lengthens my lashes really well for such a cheapie bargain. I have about four 17 mascaras in my collection at the mo, and highly rate them all.


aaaand that's what I have been mostly using on my face in February 2013. :)

NOTD - 17 Supreme Shine in Mink

in recent months, since discovering the joys of fragrance direct, I've been painting my nails mostly with OPI polishes. OPI's Bond collection reinvigorated in me a love of nail polish which had waned somewhat in recent years and I've been enjoying the resurgence. since September 2012 my polish collection has grown from around 45 to 70 and counting, a fact which frustrates my fiancé to no end: "surely you have all the colours now! you'll never wear all those!" etc etc. Ha ha ha, how little he knows.

anyway, the point is that I have been so busy playing with my exciting new collection that I've been neglecting the ones I already owned, and the other night I decided to tidy my polish case and see if there were any interesting ones lurking around.

I rediscovered some old favourites, including a few from the 17 Supreme Shine range which I am very fond of. I decided to go with Mink, which is a lovely warm mocha creme colour and would make a gorgeous nude on a skin tone darker than mine. The formula is great, opaque in two coats, and the supreme shine polishes have a lovely wide, curved brush that's actually reminds me a little of the Sally Hansen Complete Salon range brushes and makes application super easy.

These swatches are with two coats over 17 Strengthening Base Coat followed by one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat. Accent nail on third finger is 1 coat of OPI's The Living Daylights, badly smudged due to my own impatience and no fault of the actual polish.

(apologies for the photo quality - nail polish photography isn't exactly my forté)

This polish does live up to its name with a really nice high-shine finish, though obviously as I am wearing it with a top coat you can't really tell from the swatches. It also boasts 'up to 10 day wear'. I've never kept the same nail colour on for 10 days in my life so I can't confirm or deny that, however I have found it so far to be standing up to my somewhat enthusiastic typing, which is the downfall of most nail polishes - but again, the top coat kind of skews the result there.

I have a 4 or 5 of the 17 Supreme Shine nail polishes in my collection, and have always found them easy to apply with a good formula and a bargainous price of £3.99, so if you're in the market for an affordable nail colour would definitely recommend you take a gander at the 17 (now styled as SEVENTEEN, I believe) stand in Boots.

Colour B4

hi there.

i've been pondering starting one of these for a while, and figured that as i am off work poorly, today is as good a time as any.

especially given that i recently used Scott Cornwall's colour b4, and am of the opinion that a review is always useful.

i've been dying my hair since i was seventeen, usually red. for the past 2-ish years, i have used Live Colour XXL in Real Red. yowza. i  recolour when my roots start to annoy me but i have never once in my life just touched up the roots - i always redye the whole shebang, and i also use colour-protecting shampoo/conditioner. as i'm continually putting red over red it has been getting darker and less vibrant and i decided i fancied a change.

i read a bunch of reviews of scott cornwall's colour b4, and hesitantly bought two packs of the extra strength version. which have sat in my bathroom for about three months while i dithered. i use ghds on a semi regular basis and have been known on several occasions to use them on not-quite-dry hair, because evidently i can't get enough of the sizzling sound of my hair frying. and my only concession to the colour removal 'plan' was to stop using my colour protect shampoo. so basically i have ticked all the boxes for everything you should do if you want colour b4 to NOT work. go me.

however the other night i decided to man up and go for it. here's what happened!

application:

was relatively painless. now from all the reviews i have read, my biggest concern was what it would smell like, as my bathroom has no ventilation and i have a bad chest at the best of times. while there was definitely a sulphuric quality to it, during application it was nowhere close to as bad as i had been worried about. HOWEVER, the smell lingered and seemed to get worse and worse and genuinely quite suffocating, until last night my fiancé realised i had accidentally left the shirt i wore while applying in the bathroom. once we chucked that in the wash the smell dissipated quite quickly. phew.

similar to a hair dye, you pour bottle a into applicator b, and then apply to your hair. as i must have had a LOT of colour buildup i focused initially on the ends of my hair. i have quite long, thick hair, and i find it easiest to squeeze the product into the palm of my hand and apply with my fingertips, using a wide-toothed comb to comb it through. i worked my way up slowly to the roots, and then focused on the ends again for good measure. i then piled my hair on top of my head, rubbed in the last few drops from the bottle, and wrapped my head in clingfilm. sadly i didn't get any pictures at this stage, but it was genuinely sexy.

processing & removal:

i blasted my hair for a few minutes with my hairdryer on low-blow, high-heat, then wrapped a towel on my head and sat down to do a bit of sewing.

the instructions recommend leaving it to process for 20 mins - 1 hr, but i am rebellious and actually left it on for an hour and a half, after which point i jumped in the shower for 10mins of rinsing under warm water. once you have rinsed for 10 mins, you have to apply bottle c - buffer, which is like a conditioner. you lather it up, leave for one minute, then indulge in another 5-10 mins of rinsing. phew.

as i was rinsing i did notice that my hair was noticeably different, and the strands that came out had a blondeish cast to them - exciting!

as i am tying to grow my hair and thus look after it as much as possible, i didn't hop out of the shower straight away, first i dolloped on some tresemme split remedy conditioning masque and left it in for 4 minutes to try and give my hair some tlc.

results:

the packet advises you not to judge until your hair is fully dry, but even before i towel dried i was judging the results pretty positively. given that my hair was repeatedly coloured with what is supposedly the most difficult colour to remove i was really impressed with the results:

before (apologies for the dark images, i only seem to do my hair in the evenings!):

these were both taken in recent weeks. due to the lack of lighting and the fact i was using my phone camera, i have lightened them a touch in photoshop. however you can see that my hair is really red!

and now these were taken on wednesday morning after using colour b4 on Monday evening (my hair hasn't since been washed as i've been poorly, yuk):

good, right? it's a little bit pinkish on the ends still, no doubt due to the colour buildup, but i am very impressed!

summary:

i am really impressed with how this turned out. given that i ticked all the boxes for it to not work, it was very effective. i would say you have to remember that you hair will have been altered by whatever dye you have used in the past. obviously the peroxide in my previous hair colour has gingered up my natural medium brown something rotten, but i was prepared for that so i'm pleased with the results.

i think it's also worth mentioning that i woke up the morning after using it with the worst cough/headache i've had in a billion years and the lingering scent of the chemicals in the bathroom made me feel far worse. i haven't read anything anywhere about anyone else being similarly affected, so it may well be coincidental timing but i think if nothing else the psychological association would make me quite wary about using it again. :(

i believe there's now a much kinder, gentler version on the market (scott cornwall decolour remover) which i think i will try next time i need to, as my sister has used it with good results.

my original plan was to simply remove the buildup and re-dye my usual red to get increased vibrancy, but now i've changed my mind several times so the jury's out on what i'm gonna do. i thought i had settled on recolouring using l'oreal feria mango intense copper, but now i can see what ginger looks like on me i am not 100% positive i like it against my skintone. so now i am thinking i might use the scott cornwall cool ash colour restore to remove the brassiness and see if i can get a cool dark blonde going on. i'll keep you updated!

thanks for sticking around so long, and i hope you found this post useful. :)