Beauty Product of the Month: March - Purity organic skin care

The change of season usually means a change of skin care for me. Even for people who have found their perfect products usually still need to change it with the weather, because drier, warmer conditions have an effect on your skin. One skin care range I was quite eager to try out was the Purity organic skin care which is available from Superdrug. This is a British brand which looks very unobtrusive on the shelves and one which I hadn't heard much about before. I literally stumbled upon it, read the back of the bottle and was sold. If you want to find out about individual products I would recommend viewing their very useful website at:

http://www.purityorganicskincare.co.uk/ otherwise, let me give you a quick overview of what this brand is about.

Purity use ingredients with 98% derived from natural origin, approximately 82% of which are processed from organic farming. Compared to the percentages of other brands that class themselves as organic, that's pretty high. With such a high organic content, you'd expect to pay a high price, and that's where this brand is different, because no product is over £8.99, and that's for an anti-aging product. Just think how much people are prepared to pay for anything claiming to have anti-aging effects.

I bought myself the Conditioning Cleansing Lotion (150ml) and Facial Moisturiser (50ml), costing £4.99 and £5.99 respectively. A fair price I think. Purity keeps the cost of its products to a minimum by using just a small number of natural ingredients that are highly effective, rather than a great number of different natural ingredients. The Conditioning Cleansing Lotion for example contains Aloe vera, Avocado Oil, Oats and Rose water for its main natural ingredients, all of which have a specific purpose in making this an effective conditioning cleanser. 150ml of product may not seem a lot, but I find I only need a small amount to cleanse my entire face. The consistency is quite runny, but that doesn't mean you need to apply a thick amount like the bottle states. Just slightly more than a pea sized amount nicely covers my face and with cotton wool, easily wipes my make-up away with it. The moisturiser is very thick, I'd compare it with the consistency of body butters, but without the grease, a bonus since no-one wants a shiny face. Like the cleanser, this is unperfumed, it's not entirely fragrance free, there's just the natural smell of the ingredients used in it.The packaging is nothing to get excited about, it features plain, clear bottles showing the white product within, and just very simple, small text describing the product under the title. It may seem quite boring to look at, and admittedly, not what drew me in when scouting the aisles, but I think this brand is a breath of fresh air amongst so many that offer miracles they can't deliver. It doesn't promise to transform you skin, but is a low budget, high quality product that can help maintain good skin.

Make-up Product of the Month: February - MAC Da Bling Eyeshadow

This eyeshadow is already available on the permanent line but has also featured on the Spring Colour Forecast collection. On the one hand, I feel a bit like these repromotes from MAC are a tad lazy, I would like to see some new colours, but on the other, this repromoting gives people a chance to discover a product they might not have known about otherwise. Also the fancier packaging the collections usually come in are a lure, although for this collection the packaging is as standard.

I mentioned that I was somewhat tricked in to buying this eyeshadow, because the MA in the store was wearing pink eyeshadow herself. It really wasn’t a colour I thought I would buy and pull off myself. Originally I wanted Expensive Pink but after seeing how dark that was in real life, knew it would only make me look washed out and ill looking. Although I thought Da Bling was much brighter than I was used to, it’s a lot more flattering than I expected. A combination I find works really nice is Da Bling on the eyelid, Twinks in the crease, and Hush on the brow bone. I really like how this makes green eyes (hate to use this word) “pop” (cringe, but it really does!) It’s not a colour I thought would compliment green so well but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. The colour payoff is quite good, it’s a veluxe pearl finish, which I find means it goes on quite lightly but can be built up for a more intense wash of colour depending on your personal taste. This is always the first colour I notice when I open my palette, it’s a refreshing flash of colour amongst my neutrals. Well worth a glance over if you haven't seen this colour.

Beauty Product of the Month: February - Lush Sea Vegetable

I’m running late on my products of the month, I usually do this at the end of the month, but I still haven’t mentioned February’s favourites, so here I go. I don’t think this is one of the most obvious products to buy from Lush, there are a lot of soaps that probably look more appealing, I know I’m usually more drawn to the girly, pink products but sometimes I like to mix it up a bit and go for something a bit different. To me this is almost a masculine scent, but I still find it very appealing so not sure what that says about me. It says on the Lush website it’s great for sharing amongst the whole household, and is perfectly balanced for boys and girls, which I’d agree with, because my boyfriend loves it too. I love it because it smells so FRESH! A mix of lime, lavender, and seaweed which is actually a lot nicer than it sounds. I keep this on my sink in the bathroom for hand-washing along with liquid soap, but I think it would be a nicer soap to use in the bath or shower because it contains sea salt for good exfoliation. There is one part of the soap which I think has bits of seaweed in, it’s kind of coarse feeling so while this is great for giving your skin a good scrub, I don’t really think it’s entirely necessary just for hand-washing. The only other con with this is the shape of it, but the good thing about Lush is they will cut the soap for you, any shape or size you want, so you don’t have to settle for the pre-cut slices. I did because I’d already spent far too much time in there, and I bought home a cube of soap which is not very practical. Aside from this, I really love the soap, Lush soaps are a great buy, and if you like your solid soaps, they are ethically the best to go for since they use a palm free soap base.