Stocking up on Beauty Essentials

Do you find that you always seem to run out of your beauty basics at the time same? I certainly do. This week was one such day. I need to buy a lot of basics and had even resorted to using my boyfriends smelly 'man' deodorant. Nice, eh? With that, I found myself in Primark and seeing as Manchester is home to the worlds largest Primark (yes, really!), I always find myself wandering around the beauty section upstairs on the hunt for a few bargains.

With the sun making an odd appearance every now and then, more flesh is on show. Not much mind you, but I have found myself slipping out of boots and into colourful sandals. Personally, I'm not a lover of feet, especially my own so in order to show them off to the world, they need to be looking their best. For a steal, I picked up one of those foot exfoliator thingy's for £1. I have a bit of a fear of using them. I know that sounds completely weird, but they freak me out a little, especially those ads on TV where it shows people people filing their hard skin and collecting it afterwards. Shudder! - However mine need sprucing up so I need to get over my freaky fear.

To compliment my new gorgeous soft feet, I also picked up some exfoliating gloves, again for the bargain price of £1, they are my new shower staple. I can get dry skin on certain parts of my body (ankles and elbows!) so I'm making more of an effort to tackle it through beauty treatments, items and of course diet. Funnily enough the thought of using the gloves don't scare me as much as the other item!

As a little treat I picked up two face masks. I've had a bit of a bad breakout over the last few days and while it has mostly cleared now I think it may be down to a new primer I was trying. If my skin can't breathe it results in lots of teeny-tiny spots which take an age to clear. These masks were £1 each and I'm hoping they smell as good as they look. Lemon Sherbet and Raspberry Ripple, I may have to stop myself from eating them!

While browsing I was delighted to find some cuticle sticks. Again, Primark didn't disappoint. £1 for a pack of 20. I actually had been needing these for a while and forgotten all about it so was delighted when I came across them. 

On the way home, I swung buy Boots to get my favourite shampoo. I just love the Aussie range, I mean its like a party in the shower and it smells so good too! Their shampoo always leave my hair feeling silky soft and as I have such fine hair it can get tangled, dry and damaged quite easily. It's in dire need of a hair cut at the moment, but that will have to wait for another month or two for that. My go to shampoo is the Miracle Shine and as outlined on the bottle, its for 'dull, tired hair begging to shine.' It doesn't disappoint folks!

I also picked up the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water. I've seen a few beauty bloggers rave about this product and as it claims to remove make up, I thought it was worth a try. As someone who wears make up pretty much every day, I'm always on the look out for products which remove make up quickly but without damage to my sensitive skin. 

To help with my 'tackle all the spots' problem, I checked out the section of teetree products. Teetree is often used in the treatment of blemishes and I like that this witch hazel spot wand had a 'day and night' option. I will admit that since using it, I noticed a difference in 24 hours. I'm not sure if this was just the natural progression of the spots dying away, but the morning after first use, there was a noticeable difference. 

What are your go to beauty basic items? I'm always hungry to learn about other peoples beauty regimes and favourite products are. Do share!

Beauty Must Haves - Lovely Lippy!

So, while also having an addiction to paper and all things notebook and stationary related, I'm also a bit of a beauty product / makeup nut.

I'm happiest when I'm strolling through Boots or Superdrug with a little basket, safe in the knowledge that there's money in my account to splurge on a few lovely products. I have some firm favourites that I return to on a regular basis, but recently I have been going the extra mile and trying out some new products, in particular lipstick!

I have a very typical, Irish pale complexion and struggle often, to source the perfect, don't look like an orange, ommpa-loopa foundation never mind a complimentary lipstick. However, instead of shying away from trying out colours, I just went out there, browsed the ga-zillions of lippy's on offer and said to myself "That's a nice colour, I'll give that a whirl!". Outside of my working uniform, I'm an avid supporter of colour in all its shapes and forms. I have loud, bright jeans (red are my fav, in case you're wondering), florescent accessories and I'm quite happy to stand out from the crowd, so it might seem a tad strange, even to myself ,that I shy-ed away from bright lippy for so long. Fear no more people, the lipstick addiction has kicked in and today I'll share my personal must haves for that perfect pout!

1 - First up is the 'Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick' in the colour Wild Orchid (Number 457). This was first 'out there' lippy I tried and I knew I was addicted to it when the other half put it through the washing machine and I frantically marched back into town to purchase it once more. I've been complimented on a number of occasions when I wear this product and it compliments eye shadow which is grey in tone. It has a Matt finish and is my go to lippy to brighten up my face. I wear it 3 - 4 times a week and is a staple in my make up bag! While I consider it to be a Matt product, it does have a lovely sparkly shine.

2 - Next up, are two MAC freebies. Yup, freebies (are you jealous?) - When I visited a dear friend in NYC in April, she presented me with some MAC lovelies. At the time she was working for them and was happy to share the perks of her job with me. The first one, with its gorgeous navy stripped packaging stands out from the get go. I wear it sparingly (probably because I consider MAC products to be expensive, (but worth it)), but I love the pop of Matt colour it provides. Its called Satin - Sail La Vie and I use it on date nights! Team up with some black eye liner and lashings of mascara and you're good to go.

3 - The second freebie is a MAC Marcel Wanders lipstick. I'm not sure if this product is available in Ireland / UK and to be honest when I got it first, I thought it wouldn't suit me, but I'm now officially in love with it. It's a perfect subtle lipstick to wear and looks great if you're also wearing strong eye makeup.

4 - My next one is a recent purchase from Rimmel. I was sold on the shiny, purple packaging first and foremost and I decided to venture away from red, rose and pink and more towards oranges and corals. Entitled Coral Queen, I wore this to work last week and got a "Whoooo, look at you, very glam" from some co-workers. It must have done it's job. Again, I normally team it with low key eye make up and let the lips do the talking.(metaphorically speaking of course!)

5 - Lastly, a new-ish product purchased in Superdrug. The label is 'B' and the colour Rose Quartz. Its a safe colour, perfect for those 'I only want to wear a little bit of make up' days. I'm not completely sold on this lipstick but in saying that I haven't cast it to the depths of my beauty cupboard just yet.

For those of you who are not of the lipstick loving type, but looking to venture into those waters, start small. Try a subtle shade and hey, if you don't like it, you can just wipe it off! It is only lipstick after all! I, however have started to feel a little naked if I'm not wearing it. The addiction continues.....