Liz Earle Skincare

 

I know every other beauty blog out there has raved on and on about the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser and now it's my turn. I use both the Hot Cloth Clenaser and the Skin Tonic on my skin morning and night and Liz Earle's products are a major part of my skincare routine.

I have tried a few cleansers, not loads but a few, and when I found this one I stopped looking for the perfect cleanser and I've not strayed too much since. Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish is what I reach for everyday for a good cleanse and it does the job perfectly. I use a pea size amount, as this stuff is on the pricey side and if you use too much each time you'll find it will soon run out, but I find that this is enough to cleanse my whole face and a small part of my neck. I massage it in all over my dry face, working it more into my nose and chin areas as this is where I have the biggest pores. I then run one of the muslin cloths under a warm to hot tap and wipe it off my face using my index and middle finger inside the cloth. This provides a slight exfoliation as well as a cleanse and leaves my skin feeling so clean and soft. I then finish with a splash of cold water.

After the Cleanse and Polish I then sweep some of the Instant Boost Skin Tonic over my face using a cotton pad. Which is Liz Earle's version of a Toner but no where near as harsh on your face as any regular toner with alcohol in. It just refreshens the skin rather then making it sting and tingle like a regular toners did to my skin. I especially like to use this is the mornings without fail as it helps wake me up as I feel it wakes my skin up for me (if that makes any sense!).

I love both these products and will continue to repurchase until I find something better, although I very much doubt that will happen, and they are definitely a staple in my skincare rountine.

Have you tried Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish or Instant Boost Skin Tonic? What are your thoughts, do you love them as much as the rest of us?

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Manicure Monday: Holiday Nails

I'd just like to start off by apologising for my absence for a month, August was just kind of a write off in terms of blogging as I had been working a 7 day week, yep that's right no days off, and the evenings I did have free when I beat the M25 traffic I had so much household stuff to catch up on and other essentials like trying to muster up the energy to have dinner. This was all because I managed to get some work experience at a solicitors practice whilst still working my weekend shop job. My work experience was originally given to me to last 2 weeks, but 4 weeks later I was still there, which can only be a good thing, but sadly it is now over and at the end of it I had my proper summer holiday booked which I only came back off yesterday. So from now on I'm going to do my best to make blogging a part of my life. 

On to the actual post, Manicure Monday, as I have just come back from the sunny south of France I thought I would do my Manicure Monday on the one nail varnish I wore the most on holiday which was ... Essie Bikini So Teeny, surprise surprise! This has been such a popular colour this summer it was almost impossible to track down, I even started to panic I might not be able to get hold of it before my holiday, but after visiting about six Boots and Superdrugs there it was finally!

It is just a perfect colour for a sunny holiday, it's a powder blue with a hint of shimmer which just goes with sunny days like a match made in heaven. It also went with a lot of my summer outfits and my blue and turquoise bikinis so all in all this was really the only colour I needed on holiday, although I did also take Essie Fiji. The shimmer is not noticeable from a distance but up close it does give the colour a added special something, and powder blue but is not wishy washing like the Nails Inc Instyle Bluebell which is the only other similar colour I have, Bikini So Teeny blue packs more of a punch and a better impact on the nails. I have also noticed it dries a slightly different colour to what it goes on wet, it has a noticable hint of purple in the blue when first applied but this goes once it has dried. The formula is excellent as most Essie's are and the new diffusion line brush means a speedy application, and I've used two coats in the pictures here which lasted about 4 days on holiday before chipping with using a top and base coat, and that was with being on the beach and swimming in the sea a lot.

To sum this colour up would be holiday nails in a bottle! Have you tried Bikini So Teeny? What do you think of this colour?

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Manicure Monday: Nail Care

For todays Manicure Monday I'm going to feature a nail care product I swear by, and as I have work experience all week my nails are bare apart from this product. This wonder product is OPI Nail Envy, I have the matte version, but the original is just as amazing!

Since I am a bit of a nail polish addict and tend to continuously paint my nails with them barely seeing daylight, they became discoloured and weak, and were very prone to splitting. And then I found OPI Nail Envy and it didn't take long to notice the results, I would say about 2 week after I started using this I notice my nails improving in strength and they overall looked healthier. For a month I used this product as directed, 2 coats first of all then an additional coat every other day for a week, then remove it and repeat, and my nails were long for the first time and felt stronger, didn't bend as much as they did and I got less splits. I have to mention for this month I didn't paint my nails at all, which may also contributed to this result, but I do think using Nail Envy played the biggest part in the improvement.

I now use this all the time, and as you can see my bottle is running low and I will definately be buying a replacement. I think I will stick to the matte finish as I have got on really well with this and I'm not overly keen on very shiny natural nails, which is what the original version finish has. OPI Nail Envy also comes in more specialist treatments, for example there is one for sensitive and peeling nails, I haven't tried any of these, but if they are anything like the matte one I have then this might be the answer to save your nails. Or even if they need a bit of TLC after nail painting, I would definitely recommend using Nail Envy to restore you nails, it also works very well as a base coat, I also put two coats of this before I paint my nails, but I then also use a base coat (post coming soon) as Nail Envy is more of a treatment for me and at £18.55 it would be a very expensive base coat, but as a use as a treatment it's worth every penny.

Have you tried OPI Nail Envy? Has it worked on your nails? What other nail care treatments do you use?

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*Update*

Image from here

Hi Guys,

Sorry I have been absent for most of this week, but just after my Manicure Monday post I found out that I managed to get some work experience at a solicitors starting on Wednesday 1st August, yes I only had 2 days to prepare!

I didn't have time to prepare any blog posts to schedule this week, and I'm sorry for my absence, and it's not like I have the weekends to blog either as I still have my part-time shop job to go to :-( I'm currently working a 7 day week for 2 and half weeks, and I'm already tired! My work experience goes on for another 2 weeks, and my weekends are filled with work but I will try and blog as much as I can! But now you know why it's a bit sparse on here!

Plus the biggest problem I'm having is taking the photos as I seem to be out in  daylight hours! Maybe I need to get a daylight blub!

Sorry Again

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