A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

If you’re already dreading the office’s annual Secret Santa, something that’s as certain a drudgery as death and taxes, fear no more.  I have a lovely sweet treat that won’t break the bank on the blog today.

I don’t know about you, but for me… bathing takes on an added importance in the winter.  When all is said and done, I’m a morning shower girl but when the temperature plummets, I like nothing more than to end the day by sinking into a hot bath in the name of relaxation.

To aid this little indulgence, Pastisserie de Bain hand-make these beautiful bath tartlettes that fizz with fragrance and release moisturising butters into your bath water.  A blend of cocoa and shea butter swirl together, softening dry skin and leaving your body lightly fragranced with a range of delicious scents.

The packaging is darling, and in spite of my LUSH addiction, I have to admit that if you’re going down the gift-route… these completely trump those little black paper bags in the presentation stakes.  Their award-winning packaging is eyecatching, fun, and frankly… makes the gift look far more expensive than it was.

Patisserie de Bain offer a wide variety of “flavours” – these ones are called “All the Fun of the Fair” and feature scents that include toffee apple and candy floss.  Other scents in the range include: sweet cherry pie, lemon meringue, cloves and cinnamon, rose and violet.

Available online from www.graftonsbeauty.co.uk and in Rose & Co. stockists nationwide, priced at £7.00

* press sample

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When Joe was born, I received a couple of products from Childs Farm – a brand that specialises in toiletries for little ones. I wouldn’t usually blog about children’s products, I mean… I’m not entirely sure how many of you would appreciate a foray into mummy-blogging, I actually started Lipglossiping to get *away* from being a Mummy for five-minutes!  Having said that, and the reason that I’m even talking to you about this range is because, well… I’ve stolen something from the range for myself.

The first thing you’ll notice about Childs Farm products is the delightful packaging, full of playfulness and colour that gives a hint to what awaits you inside.  The labels depict real animals and ponies that actually live on Childs Farm,  the Hampshire home of the brand’s owner, Joanna.

The products have been formulated to be as natural as possible and are free from parabens, SLS, mineral oils, and artificial colours rendering them suitable from newborn-age upwards.  The scents are blended beautifully and elaborate on the brand’s styling with funky fusions: the strawberry mint shampoo is summer in a bottle.  And this is partially why I’ve stolen it for myself.

The other reason is that I’m now 3-months post-partum and that lovely pregnancy mane that took 9 months to thicken is shedding in tear-inducing handfuls.  Everytime I change a nappy, wipe a stinky fist, or unload the washing machine… I’m met with strands of my hair.  They get everywhere!  It’s with this in mind that I’ve been reaching for this gentler shampoo… and also the reason why, when I noticed the brand was currently on offer in Boots, I popped in to restock and grab the detangler spray!

Now, where’s that candy?  I feel like stealing something else from my babies…

Childs Farm products are currently on 3for2 and are available to purchase instore and online at boots.com, priced from £3.99 each.

* press sample

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The only thing that doesn’t completely suck about shaving your legs is taking the opportunity to steal your partner’s/dad’s/brother’s shaving foam out of the bathroom cabinet.  The burst of turbo-charged gel that turns into a rich, creamy lather as you work the product over your skin… like voodoo before your very eyes.  Unfortunately, the novelty of it wears thin pretty quickly, especially when you realise that most men’s shaving products are scented like pine-fresh loo cleaner *quack quack*.

Well, stink no more and dispense of the razors because you can get all the creamy, luxurious lather without any of the fuss AND get a clean body to boot!

Imperial Leather Foamburst is a body wash unlike most.  A canned gel that transforms into a rich lather, developing extra creaminess as you work it over your skin, emulsifying with the water as you go.

Choosing your favourite fragrance is as simple as jumping in the shower.

Depending on whether you like your bathing experience to enliven your senses with a blast of citrus, or relax your emotions with a comforting cocoon of vanilla… you’ll find your perfect match from the total of seven NEW fragrances.  Each of these new fragrances have even been brought to life via the medium of video and seven brilliantly corny Imperial Leather Foamburst Genies!

You can choose between: Spicy Ginger and Orange, Sweet Vanilla and Cherry Blossom, Bracing Bergamot and Sea Minerals, Uplifting Lime and Grapefruit, Rebalancing Green Tea and Jasmine, Bewitching Blackberry and Wild Fig, or Moisturising Honey and Almond Milk.

My personal morning shower preferences always lean toward the citrus, which tempted me in the direction of Spicy Ginger and Orange, promising a great combination of freshness and warmth.

I couldn’t resist but check out the matching genie to my shower pick… what a bonafide mentalist he is!  (INTENSE).

The new Imperial Leather Foamburst Luxurious Body Wash range is priced from £2.99, with each can promising a value-for-money 40 washes.  You can find the new fragrances on shelves at your local supermarket.

* sponsored post

Radox. What are you playing at?

When I think of you, I think of relaxing in a blue-hued bath of wonder.  Sinking into realms of relaxation that I thought only existed in my pre-child lifetime. You don’t give me spendy guilts when I pop into Boots for a top-up and you don’t make me weep with sorrow when I discover that Mr. L has raided my bathroom cabinet.

So, what’s all this new nonsense about?

Don’t you dare try to revive, energise or uplift me! That’s not what I come to you for.

You might think that you need to compete with all those shower and bath products that set your sensitive bits alight and leave you feeling like you’ve been dragged through a polo mint backwards, but you don’t.

You’re perfect just the way you are.

However, if you do get a moment… how about more bath salts in some new and ever more relaxing scents and shades. Bath salts are set for a BIG come back don’tchano?

Radox. They’ve gone all modern n’ stuff with this new Citrus range.  £2.15 ish a bottle… but if I see you buying one, I’ll disown you.

Ayurvedic therapies have grown in popularity within the spa world this year.  The ancient holistic practices and treatments from Southern Asia are now increasingly available to book alongside the usual wraps and hot stone therapies.

Ayush Spa in Jersey – the UK’s first Ayurvedic Hotel Spa – is dedicated to the principles of Ayurvedic therapies and even offers its own Indian physician and therapists to preserve the traditions of the ancient therapies.

If, however, you don’t know your vatas from your pittas and think I’m talking a load of old kapha, don’t worry.  What has been a fairly niche buzzword within the health and beauty industry looks set to hit the mainstream.  And by “mainstream”, I mean, the “high street”.

First up are British clothing brand Monsoon, who are upping the ante with the launch of a bath and body collection, inspired by the Indian practice.  The collection features hand washes, hand and body lotions, moisturisers, body butters, body scrubs and more.  All containing natural, 100% pure plant actives that capture the spirit and knowledge of the ayurvedic tradition.  Prices start from £4.00 and there are even Christmas gift sets available to boost the well-being of your favourite aunties!

Taking the ancient principles to an even lower price point are Palmolive, with the launch of their Ayurituel shower gel range which promises a harmonious body and mind experience to leave you feeling balanced and energised.  Blimey!

The shower gels are available in three varieties: Energy, Joyous, and Tranquility – each containing exotic extracts of Indian origin including: sandalwood, Indian mulberry and neem and patchouli extracts.

You can’t beat a deliciously-scented shower gel on a cold morning and my pick from the range is Energy* (the orange one) with it’s warming combination of Indian Sandalwood & Ginger.  The Ayurituel range is priced at £2.99 each and available from Sainsburys.

Noticed any other buzzwords creeping in that look set to be a feature for 2013?

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Who says you need to spend oodles of money to smell like a goddess in the shower?

Yves Rocher’s Voile d’Ambre Shower Gel defies its (current) sub-£10 price tag and smells more like one of the department store fragrance flankers.  At £7-odd, I don’t use this daily… but it’s perfect for layering under your favourite oriental, woody perfumes and is a great scent choice for ushering in the colder weather.

I’m not going to review it like it’s a perfume… it’s a shower gel after all, and I can only hold a certain amount of excitement for shower gels regardless of how nice they are, but still… the amber in Voile d’Ambre isn’t overpowering but lasts beautifully on my skin.  I’m keen to explore the other shower gels, and perhaps even the perfumes in the Yves Rocher line – I’m glad I added this one to my recent order, it’s so nice to find a new brand (to me) to get my teeth stuck into!

Yves Rocher Voile d’Ambre Shower Gel is currently priced at £7.80 and is available to buy online in the UK from the Yves Rocher website.

So, with the adult testing done and dusted… Lush’s new FUN bars had yet to inspire a huge amount of whooping, or any of the sort of revelry you’d expect from something billed as, well… so. much. FUN.

It was time to get serious and put these curious blobs to the ultimate test.

Leila is pretty hard to please: “But this is BORINGGGG!” being her most used expression this week.  I could practically see the little green bar sweating in its biodegradeable wrapper, readying itself for the ultimate small-child test.  We broke off about a quarter of the packet and Leila looked at it expectantly.

The wetter it gets, the squishier it gets… the squishier it gets, the more bubbles it releases… the more bubbles it releases, the greener the water gets… and so on…

Leila even washed her hair with it, but only after I’d reassured her that it wasn’t going to make her hair go green.  Much. (it didn’t really make her hair go green, the picture below is of me telling her that her hair is green – bad Mum!)

All in all, she had more fun with it than us adults but she’s a total Lushie anyway (favourites being: The Godmother soap, Mmmelting Marshmallow Moment, Karma Bath Melt, and The Comforter).  I was surprised to see that there was still almost half of what we’d broken off remaining, despite Leila having given it a total pummeling – I’d describe these as longer-lasting bubble bars although the scents aren’t quite as full-on (possibly a good thing?!)

Not that this appeared to bother my little bathing belle.  Or, demonic-looking diva as the photo below TOTALLY proves.  Talking of divas…she has already lined up the remaining bars in the order that she’s planning on using them over the coming weeks.

LUSH Fun?  Well… she thought so!

LUSH FUN is available to buy instore and online at lush.co.uk, priced at £5.00 per bar (you should be able to get around 4/5 baths per bar) and 10p from each sale of FUN goes to help children affected by the Fukushima disaster.

* press sample

When a company bodly declares their latest product as FUN.  Well, it had better be hadn’t it?

LUSH’s latest invention announces itself with the promise that this multi-tasking bar of playdough-esque sudsy stuff will bring a new dimension to bath-times, hand-washing times, and even washing-your-bike times.  You see, FUN is marketed as multi-tasking to the max – it’s basically the perfect present for bath-dodging sculptors everywhere.

I don’t have a bath-dodging sculptor in the house – it’s all I can do to keep both Mr. L and Leila out of the bathroom.  Infact, we have a self-administered timer system for baths and showers lest we prunify ourselves to death with the sheer amount of skin/water contact.

FUN comes in a range of FIVE colours, each offering a different scent to enhance the bathtime experience (descriptions below taken from the website):

Pink: Jam packed with the fruity, candy smells of childhood.
Red: Mandarin and orange essential oils will make you think of sunny orange groves and freshly squeezed juice. Brings a bit of summer sun to your bath and play time.
Blue: Relax and feel ready for sleep when you wash with this mix of lavender, Moroccan chamomile and chamomile blue essential oils. The perfect bedtime bath.
Green: A citrus burst of tangy lime and lemon essential oils will wake you up, keep you feeling fresh and focused and help you play for hours.
Yellow: Creamy vanilla tones evoke thoughts of seaside ice creams, granny’s baking and home comforts.

I set Mr. L the task of deciding whether Lush’s latest invention really was as fun as it ought to be…. let’s see how he did shall we?

“It keeps crumbling”, he grumbled as he tried to mould it into the Eiffel Tower.

“Baby steps.” I advised, “Try for something a little less ambitious…”

… to be honest, I think he could have tried a bit bloody harder.

We agreed that on the FUN scale, it scored a not overly impressive 6 but it did smell pretty delicious.  Ultimately, it was more fun than brushing your teeth but not as fun as eating a Boost bar (we had to eat a Boost bar just to check – we’re nothing if not scientific about these things).

We haven’t tried FUN wet yet… but we have a very willing (and slightly curious) test applicant at our disposal – but more on that tomorrow.

LUSH FUN is avaialable online and instore now, priced at £5.00 per bar – 10p from each sale of FUN goes to help children affected by the Fukushima disaster.

* press sample

I’m bubbling over with love (geddit?) for the product development team at NEOM who have managed to inject actual bubbles into an sls-free bath foam formula.  Which, by rights, shouldn’t have much in the way of foam to write home about.

Did I mention that it smells heavenly too?

NEOM Organics new Tranquility Bath Foam delivers a sudsy hit of relaxation with plenty of (albeit not massively long-lasting) bubble-age.  By the time I was reaching for a towel, there was not a bubble left in sight, which Mr. L said was “rubbish”.  I happen to disagree because there’s nothing I hate more (except for spiders) than having to karate chop/swipe bubbles off my legs as I’m about to step out of the bath.  Also, the final head dunk for Leila… her hair is washed, I don’t want it bubbled up again!

But I digress…

If your skin is sensitive to the usual bubble bath offerings on the market, you’d be wise to take a look at the bubbling sls-free alternative that is Tranquility Bath Foam by NEOM Organics.  Available online, priced at £20.00 for 200mls.  You can just about get away with half a capful per bath, which will probably bring the price down to around 60-70p a bath.

Or… even better, you could take advantage of an exclusive 25% discount code for Lipglossiping.com readers….

www.neomorganics.com
Code: lipgloss (enter at checkout)
Discount: 25%
Terms: Can only be used on full price items.  One code per order.
Expires: midnight Monday 1st October

Bubbles… do you need them to enjoy your bath?

Remember how I told you that I’m supposed to be on a no-buy?  As in… no-buying anymore beauty crap until I’ve redeemed my spendy ways and bought enough substandard, veneered beech/birch/what’s the difference flat-pack from IKEA to furnish our new flat?  Well, I’m getting devious in my old age.

We went to IKEA last night and I totally came back with beauty stuff in the guise of it being for the new bathroom.  1-0 to me!

Ok, so it’s not the most exciting beauty purchase since the time I got all excited about finding a jumbo sharpener to fit my NARS Glitter Pencils but c’mon, a girl’s gotta get her beauty fix somewhere?  The blog-worthy thing about these IKEA NÄCKTEN flannels (guest towels/whatever) is that a). they’re 20p each and b). they’re BIG – about twice the size of normal flannels – which means that they soak up twice as much water as normal flannels and really give your pores a good steam.

They’re perfect for encouraging us grubby lot to change our flannels more regularly.  At 20p eahc, you can afford to keep a stash that you can just throw at the laundry basket (bonus points if you get it in) when you’re done.  Judging by the washing instructions, these should even survive my refusal to acknowledge anything that can’t be tumble dried – the lazy girls iron.

So next time you’re trudging around IKEA all sad-faced ‘cos they’d run out of Daim Cake and only had that trio of ugly mini-cakes that NO ONE EVER EATS, EVER – don’t be glum, go and buy some flannels or something.

And a hot-dog on the way out.

What are your favourite ‘cheap’ bathroom essentials?

I’m not a body lotion type person but I have about four bottles open, each at various stages of emptiness… I slather them on and wander aimlessly across the landing and back, waiting for the icky feeling to subside.  I have to use them because underneath my skin, I have scales.  After showering, the water seemingly dissolves the upper epidermis leaving me feeling more horny toad than supple and soft.

The worst bits are typically in those hard to reach areas, namely that horizontal line that connects both shoulder blades.  As the water evaporates, my skin tightens and I feel a familiar tingle that has me running for the body cremes.  When I say “me”, I actually mean Mr. L… I’ve already said that I can’t reach.  It’s a daily ritual… and one that I’m very grateful that I have a husband to help me with.  I’m so high maintenance.

Enter LUSH’s latest innovation, Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner*.

Taking the hair conditioner theory and applying it to the skin, it’s basically a tub of sweet-smelling, oil-infused skin conditioner that you smear over your body after washing, then rinse off prior to stepping out of the shower.  Towel dry your skin gently and you’ll feel as if you’ve just smothered yourself in a rich body creme.  And unlike last year’s innovation, Toothy Tabs… I’m a massive fan.

A). It smells completely delicious, like a mixture of cocoa butter and roses… truly edible.

B).  It really works.

It feels odd on the skin whilst you’re still in the shower, like you’ve just waterproofed your skin with a slather of grease to be honest.  Deliciously-scented but lardy nonetheless.   As I patted my skin dry with the towel, it felt simply amazing and still does, sitting here 5 hours later. *strokes arms*

A little goes a very long way and the trick is to increase its ‘spreadability’, work with a small amount and don’t be afraid to really eke it out over the skin’s surface.  It’s generously rich in oils and although some parts may feel like you have more product on than others, have faith that you’ve done a good job in spreading the conditioner.  It’s not the cheapest outlay but it will easily last twice as long as my regular body moisturisers PLUS, I don’t have to stand around shivering as I wait for it to sink in!

LUSH Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner is priced at £15.50 for 225g and I highly recommend it for post-shower lizard people.

* press sample

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with their bath rituals and tales of Easter debauchery!  The Gods at Random.org have wiggled their pointing fingers and chosen TEN lucky winners, each of which will receive a LUSH Carrot re-usable bubble bar.

Claire
SarahC
Vicki
Sydney Kav
Julianne
Gilian
Victoria
Dejeniera
Gemma
Liza

If you’re one of the lucky winners listed above, I’ll be in touch to request your postal details.  Thanks everyone for entering, hope you had a lovely long weekend… next BH is a month away, keep on trucking!

If you’re still crazy for carrots, this is a really cute audio interview with the LUSH product inventors talking about the origins of The Carrot Bubble Bar!