The product in question is He Shi's Gradual Self Tanner, which is from a brand that has been circulating the blogosphere for some time now. I was rather intrigued about this brand and was happy to try out the self-tanner. Ordinarily, I am not one for tanning, naturally or otherwise. I can't spend hours basking in the sun without thinking of those staying safe in the sun adverts and honestly do not want to damage my skin for the sake of a bit of colour. Don't get me wrong, I love laying on a beach as much as the next person, but believe in doing it safely. That's why I'm not opposed to fake tanners, if it's done tastefully, in other words you haven't made yourself orange. Personally I don't have the time or patience for fake tan, but I was curious to try a gradual tanner as they work slightly differently to your standard fake tan.The sciencey bit: basically, the active ingredient that makes any self tanner work is dihydroxyacetone or DHA for short. It's essentially a type of sugar and when applied to your skin, reacts with the top layer to brown it in a similar way that food browns when it's left exposed to air. Since it is just the top layer of skin that the DHA reacts with, it lasts for just a couple of days until that layer of skin has been washed away. Gradual tanners have a much lower concentration of this ingredient than regular fake-tan which makes the effect more subtle and allows you to build up the tan gradually.
I tried the product over a few days to see how well the colour built up and was really pleased with the result. Day one, the tanner did not immediately seem to make much of a change to my skin tone. I would say it took a few hours before I noticed any change.
Day two, after being on my skin for a few hours now, I could definitely see a difference. The result was a very evenly distributed amount of colour over my skin, the only giveaway was my back area which I had not managed to apply very successfully! I would recommend getting someone to help you so you don't end up with a streaky back like I did. Applying the product anywhere else wasn't a problem, I found it rubbed quite easily into the skin, pretty much as simple as applying a moisturiser. Excuse the bra flash, apologies. 
The picture below is day 3 which is when I think I had reached as brown as this would make me, or at least as brown as I was willing to go. I like a sun kissed glow, rather than an obvious tan. As far as self tanners go, and I don't have a lot to compare it to as I don't ordinarily buy this type of product, but I believe this to be good quality, reasonably priced for the size as you would get a few applications from the bottle (£14.50 for 200ml). It has quite a thick consistency but a little amount does stretch quite far. Comparing this to another gradual tanner I used (Johnsons I believe) where the consistency was very runny and I needed to use quite a lot to achieve any sort of results this is miles better.
If you're a little scared or completely uninterested with using fake tan but wouldn't mind giving your skin a bit of a boost now that summer's over then I would recommend this for that. I'm a bit indifferent to skin tone myself, so would not be too fussed about buying any more, but I did enjoy trying this out and can see that this would appeal to tan lovers.
The product was sent to me to try but as usual this does not affect my opinion in any way.
Times like this I tend to find myself searching for inspirational quotes. I really liked this plaque thing that I found at Camden market. I think this may become my new motto.
Quick little OOTD post. I'm wearing my favourite pair of black Topshop jeans, these are the high waisted Kristen jeans, sorry if you've seen these in a tonne of my other posts, but I love them!
We ordered a large plate of mezze too which was full of delicious little bites.
On Sunday, I dodged the showers and managed to hire a rowing boat out on the lake without getting rained on. We went to Danson park, because sometimes it's lovely driving out, in the opposite direction to the city. Much quieter and peaceful.
GOSH nail polishes never used to have me reaching toward them, I always thought they looked a bit nasty, I don't know, like they'd been manhandled by hundreds of people and sat there for years, and I found this in every Superdrug that stocked them. Lately though, they've booked up their ideas and have released some attractive shades and seem to be taking better care of stock replenishment. The latest addition to the GOSH collection is these little darlings that like a slogan t-shirt read "OH MY GOSH". They remind me of Collection 2000's hot shots nail polishes which were basically smaller, cheaper versions of their original collection in a wider mix of colours. This is good because a) you probably won't use all of it up anyway, and b) you are paying less for it. The colours in the range are all very different and eye-catching, this one: 023 Light Rose particularly caught my eye. 
It's basically a very very pale pink verging on white. I was sort of hoping it would be a little creamier in colour, I'm searching for that perfect "wedding" shade. I'm not getting married any time soon but ever since I heard about Catherine Middleton supposedly wearing Bourjois' Rose Lounge, I wanted to find a similar alternative. This is a gorgeous shade in it's own right but I don't think this is it. Although very pretty and dainty looking compared to some shades I normally wear, it's still quite obvious and I think "wedding nails" are all about looking as natural as possible. I'm sure I have a long time to keep up the search though...
Close to where I live there is a large store which is made up of a few different high street shops such as Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Warehouse etc...kind of like a mini-department store. Recently they had a very generous sale on where many items were half price. I rather hastily removed all of the packaging and price tags but I know that nothing I bought from them cost over £3. The alphabet earrings in the above photo were from Miss Selfridge, around £2 and I thought they were a bit novel and cute and very me. I like wearing a mismatching colour combo.
This ring I had spotted a long time ago in Miss Selfridge and always thought it was very pretty but held off buying it because there was always something else that would catch my eye more than this. It's very pretty and sparkly but I can only wear it for going out as it's a bit too much for day time I feel. This was £3 down from £10. 
I recently lost my silver leaf earrings from Accessorize, well more to the point I lost one of them which still means I can't wear them unless I want to start a trend of wearing completely mismatched earrings, which I don't. These weren't an exact replacement but I like them just as much. They look kind of old and rustic which I like. They were £2 instead of £4 from Topshop.
Sunday was spent getting well out of the city and soaking up some country air. We drove an hour to a place called Bewl Water, quite close to Tunbridge Wells, it feels a million miles away from a city, and it the perfect little getaway spot. We've enjoyed cycling here a couple of times, but this weekend was too hot for that so we parked up near the lake and had a little walk, some lunch and an ice-cream and basked in the sunshine. I didn't realise, but there was lots of lavendar or heather near the lake and hundreds of honey bees. It kind of ruined the moment when I had to run through it as I'm terrified of bees and wasps.
I've had a bit of an obsession with camper vans for about a decade now, which is long enough to justify buying one. This one caught my eye whilst we were out walking. I don't know what it is about them, they conjure up images of road trips to far away places.
This is a 3 in 1 product so if you are someone who doesn't like shortcuts and will habitually do the 3 part process of Cleansing, toning, moisturising, you may not like this. I cleanse, tone, and I moisturise, but cannot honestly say I do this every day, morning and night without fail. Sometimes I just like to spray a load of my toner (Lush's Tea Tree Water) onto a cotton ball and swipe all over my face, job done. It's not really though, and it doesn't get every trace of my eye make-up off because it is just too gentle.
Packaging wise it's identical, and there was nothing that drew my eyes to it being any different to the Skin-Glow foundation, in fact, I thought that's what I had picked up until I used my brain and actually read it. I know matte foundations don't float everyone's boats and aren't anything to get excited about, but for me, a self-confessed oily girl, I need matte in my life. Now my skin is not as bad as I think it is, it is only really my t-zone that gets it's shine on, and even then, mostly in summer and it's probably not that noticeable to other people. I've never really looked at anyone myself and thought "you have a shiny face" so it's unlikely people are thinking that about me! But, as a result of my teenage years when it was more of an issue, I have been left thinking of myself as a dewy faced person and don't reach for products that promise me a dewy look. Maybe in 10 years this will be a different story.
A new found love in MAC was Arena eyeshadow, a gorgeous shade for all you neutral lovers out there.
And a total impulse buy, I knew nothing of this lipstick, nor the current collections, I'm completely out of the loop on current MAC collections these days, but this is from the Fashion Flower collection. I will post a full review of these items next week, but for now I can say, Growing Trend, an amazingly gorgeous nude, was love at first swatch.
This weekend was spent wandering around the Shoreditch area of London. Shoreditch is in east London and is one of my favourite areas although I haven't been that many times. The night life is great, and there is a real mix of people and buzz about the area.
