Akin sandalwood & neroli pure facial cleansing gel review

For this month I was allowed to choose my own products that I wanted to test drive. The Akin cleansing gel was something I was considering to purchase last year. If you have been following me you would know I was breaking out with acne for 2-3 weeks this month. At the time I was using Liz Earle and the coco butter content was clogging the pores around the chin and forehead area. So I was looking for things to help clear up my acne. This review is based on the 3 weeks of use, as it did not clear my acne up; it actually irritated my pores more.

All akin’s products are parabean and sulphate free, the pure facial cleansing gel promises fresh vibrant skin, has a non-drying formula removes all traces of excess sebum and make up. It is suitable for normal, combination and oily skin. This product contains B5 & witch hazel, it is pure pH balanced.

Active ingredients

Witch hazel – used to treat wounds, itchy and dry skin

Neroli – is considered to have a smoothing effect for the nervous system and increase circulation

Packaging

Out of all the Akin’s products I purchased and have been sent this one came boxed. It has the usual cream/beige colour with a brown orange colour for the text and an illustration of a plant on the front which is repeated on the back. The side of the box contains ingredients and directions of use.  The actual product itself comes in a squeeze tube and is 225ml in size. The product cost £13.99.

Directions of use –

Use morning and night, apply a small amount to the face and décolletage, massage and rinse off. Ideal to use in the shower. Follow with your favourite A’kin moisturizer. I have notice the directions is slightly different on the box, it says follow with A’kin refreshing and smoothing toner and either A’kin anti oxidant day crème or in the evening A’kin repairing anti-oxidant night crème.

Verdict – I have used it from the end of September for about 2 weeks, and for another week after my acne started to clear up. When I first used this it did not foam on my face very well. I had to contact the A’kin Company just to double check if I was using it right. I was advised to add some water to face to help produce some foam, by the second week it foamed on my face really easy without the need of adding water.

The consistency of the gel is a rather nice smooth texture; it has a slight tint of orange colour otherwise its clear in appearance. The smell is subtle like quite musky.  After rinsing my face, it made my face feel sticky a toner is a must to get rid of the residue of the gel. My skin felt tight after I used it and at the time I used my usual boots glycerine and rosewater toner and the A’kin day and night crème. At first the spots and pores shrank and I thought the cleansing gel worked, but as the week went my face felt dry and tight so I reach out to use the A’kin rosehip & shea butter intensive moisturiser which was a big mistake as the shea butter clogged my pores.

By now my skin looked really terrible and the spots spread to more areas, and I was suffering from a spell of acne so I stopped using this product then I started the acne skin regime as posted on my blog.

As my acne started clear up I wanted to give this product a second chance, most of my acne cleared up so I managed to use this for another week.

It foamed on my skin really well, but still left my skin feeling tight after use. I introduced boots botanic pore perfecting toner after rinsing and the A’kin day and night crème and it has helped softening my face. However I have noticed more bumps and lumps on my forehead, and even saw spots with green pus inside. So I’m pretty certain there’s something in this that irritates my pores. The only good thing is that it has helped cleaned the blackheads on the nose, so I will be continuing to use it for my nose only. Other than that this product is a miss for me, I do think this will suit someone with combination/oily skin because of the gel formula and the way it leaves the skin feel tighter.

You can buy Akin sandalwood & neroli pure facial cleansing gel from mypure.

NOTD - Barry M 305 Pink Flamingo

NOTD - Barry M 305 Pink Flamingo

Spornette international little wonder brush review

I was one of the lucky 25 people who won a little wonder brush from Spornette international. I’m a huge fan of the Porcupine G-36 brush, which is made of natural boar and nylon bristles, the brush helps bring out the natural shine in my hair and makes it softer.

Today I will be showing you my love for the little wonder brush, I’m demonstrating how it easily back comb and smooth my hair.

 

(This is my hair it looks quite flat had it cut 2 days ago)

The little wonder is made up of tourmaline bristles for conditioning and pure boar for styling. Usually I would spray some Samy fat hair spray to adding particles for my hair to be backcombed. With the little wonder I didn’t need it, and i could create the beehive with no problem. The brush also doubled up as a smoothing brush which is a bonus. In my opinion this makes a brilliant brush for teasing with very little effort. As you can see in my photo’s my hair looked more volumised and I didn’t even use hair spray.

 

Now the sad part is that Spornette brushes is not available in the UK, I brought my G-36 on ebay for around £6-7. The little wonder should be around £4.

http://www.spornette.com

A’kin aromatherapy Jasmine body wash review

A’kin body washes use the finest essential oils known for their aromatherapy benefits, combined with the purest non-drying cleansers which are sulphate & parabean free, to leave your skin thoroughly cleansed and silky soft.

Packaging

Light grass green bottle with a triangular shape at the top, and a click press bottle top. A sticker label is stuck on both the front and back of the bottle with the usual illustration of a plant/ingredient. Description and directions of use in easy to read font 225ml in size and has a POA of 12 months.

Ingredients

aqua (purified Australian water*) *BP 2007 standard
citric acid (botanical source)
cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine (from coconut)
disodium cocoamphodiacetate (from coconut)
glycerin (botanical source)
glyceryl laurate (botanical source)
lauryl glucoside (from coconut, palm & glucose)
sodium citrate (botanical source)
sodium gluconate (from GMO free corn)
sodium hydroxymethylglycinate
sodium lauroyl sarcosinate (from palm)
sodium lauryl sulfoacetate (from palm)
sorbitol (from GMO free maize)
jasminum officinale (jasmine) extract

Directions of use

In the shower apply a small amount to your hands or bath ball and lather all over the body. It is also ideal as a bubble bath, in the spa, washing delicates or at the hand basin. The product is pure and gentle for babies, children, the elderly and those with sensitive or fragile skin.

As with all A’kin cleansers the product always seems to be clear in colour, this is a thick gel like consistency. The smell of jasmine really smells uplifting and not artificial, it fills my bathroom with the aroma, and the smell relaxes me as I unwind from a stressful day. On it’s own the product can produce a rich foam but I like to use this with a body puff to produce extra foam, this cleansed my skin very well and it looked a lot clearer in the 3 weeks I have tested. However it did not deliver the silky smooth skin it promised me I found some dry patches on my arms. The smell of jasmine does not linger on to your skin. It is a very economical shower gel as I use very little product when I shower and I can say I have only use 10% off the bottle since I had it. The bottle of 225ml cost £7.49 and can be purchased from mypure. 

Acne Prone skin products

Around twice a year my skin would become acne prone, it hasn’t help that i’ve been drinking alcohol and clubbing every weekend. All this combined has played havoc to my poor face, forehead and chin is part covered in acne.

I been trying my usual anti-bacterial spot fighting products, but still struggled to keep them at bay. Reading Make-up savvy post back to basics I decided to go back to the soap cleansing method. I must say the soap bar cleansing method works best for me, it cleanses grim thoroughly, back in my uni days I used Clinique 3 step for around 4 years and then it stop working. It gave me flawless smooth skin, now my skin is aging I’m always on the look out for products to maintain that flawless look. Since then I moved on to DHC 4 step system it gave me radiant glowing skin, but I been testing a lot of new skincare lately. Some has broke me out like CRAZY, so no coco butter or shea butter on my face, as it just clogs the pores on face.

So here are my products that i’m using right now, plus these items where all under £5 each.

• Sebamed bar soap
• Australian body care pure tree tea oil
• Brevoxyl cream
• Glycerin and rosewater toner
• Olay sensitive skin moisturizer

I choosen non comedogenic items to use, but right now looking at the ingredients of the Olay, it has silicone in it (Dimethicone), i might change it to my olive oil moisturizer. 

Sebamed soap is formulated for ph 5.5 skin, it has been very effective to reducing the inflammation in my skin, the spots are smaller and it is killing baterica. It claims to be ideal for eczema and acne, for its anti-microbial and astringent actions. However i have noticed dry patches on my eye area and cheek. A 100g bar cost me £1.99

Australian Tree tea oil the best i used tree tea oil i have used, this product is quite hard to find in the UK now, i ordered mine on lookfantastic. I use this at night to kill bacteria around my spots/acne.

Brevoxyl cream is for mild to moderate acne, this is what i got on prescription from my doctor, if you have really bad acne i suggest going to http://www.acne.org/ for tips. I used the regimen last year when acne was really bad!

Glycerin and rosewater toner is something i use if my skin feels dehydrated and absorbs the moisturiser better. 

Shiseido Hydro-Powder Eye shadow H2 review

The Shiseido Hydro-Powder eye shadow is a dewy eye cream that transform to powder on skin. This is an intense shimmery colour that can be use on its own or as a base.  The formula is crease resistant and long wearing lasting 12 hours on me.  There was no colour fading during the 12 hours I tested the product.

Shadow on its own

This product shade H2 (white lights) is very unique the texture is creamy and wet, I used my finger to apply the eye shadow onto the lids and it glides easily and neatly. It reminded me of the Maybelline eye crayons from a few years ago. As you can see the eye shadow alone has tons of glitter particles that glim at all angles, and If you look closely at the colour you can see the tiny translucent glitter beams different colours.

I noticed once the eye shadow dried i tried rubbing the area on my hand and it did not budge. Only make up remover will take this off.

I like to use the eye shadow as a base, it amplifies the silver shadow that I blended on top, and leaves an amazing frost ice look. (See photo)

The packaging is elegant in a 6 glass jar, with the usual black/brown shiseido colour. 

You can purchase this product from http://www.bowlinghealthandbeauty.com/product_detail.asp?product_id=1292

Disclaimer: Product was sent for review consideration

Shiseido the Skincare instant eye and lip makeup remover review

I have used this product in the past when I was a teenager, and I really liked it but never got to repurchase the product.

This is a 125ml bottle, with a screw top cap, it really reminds of the sauces at the funfair for ketchup, mustard etc. The bottle is see thru and the liquid is visible so you can see how much is left. It cost £21 and you can purchase from http://www.bowlinghealthandbeauty.com/product_detail.asp?product_id=429

This is a dual-phrase formula where you have to shake the bottle for both parts to be activated. You then saturate the cotton pad and wipe away make up. What I love about this product is that once you finished wiping the makeup it does not leave any traces residue or grease. The product has a light water texture and is very gentle to the skin. This product is brilliant for touch ups when you make a mistake, I use a q-tip to erase fallout and accidents on the lower bottom eye. It does take a while to remove make up especially waterproof mascara, but you don’t need to rinse the product and it does not irritate the eyes.  Here are some pics of me using the product; I have my usual everyday make up black eyeliner and water proof mascara.

This product is also good for the lips here is me using my MAC lady bug lipstick, red lipsticks tend to stain lips, to be honest I don’t usually use any removers for lipsticks. The shiseido remover, removed every single trace of lipstick very easily, it has a fresh citrus like smell that is common and distinctive in the shiseido skincare range that is not overpowering.

This product is a winner with me I keep this in my freelance make up kit and take it with me to do clean ups on clients if i make accidental mistakes.The only con is the price can be a bit too much for the 125ml size. 

Disclaimer: Product was sent for review consideration

Boots Botanics Soothing Eye Make up review

So I managed to pick this up from Boots yesterday, abusing my friends discount and the 3 for 2 offers I managed to get 3 of them for around £4.

I was quite surprised how small the bottle was, it looked much larger in peoples blogs and videos. The bottle size is 150ml RRP£2.99, and has a dual phrase similar to Lancôme bi-facil. Sadly I sold all my bi-facil’s samples to compare with.

Active ingredients – Iceland moss used for centuries for its soothing benefits. The high sugar content of the moss helps hydrate skin.

Packaging – simple bottle with a silver screw top, it reminds me of those scientific test tubes for some reason. It has a nice simple artwork sticker using the colours dark grey and green, in a see through cylinder bottle. You can see half the ingredients are made up of see through liquid and a green apple colour.

POA – 6 months

Verdict – it is such a gentle eye remover I have used, wipes away eye make up with ease even waterproof mascara, and it did not cloud my eyes like my DHC cleansing oil. It thoroughly removed everything within seconds. It did however left a slight layer of residue but this quickly dries up within minutes.

A cheap bargain eye makeup remover that does what it says on the packaging buy it!

http://www.boots.com/en/Botanics-Soothing-Eye-Make-Up-Remover-150ml_34087

3 for 2 and £5 no7 ruby Millie voucher

My mini shopping haul of the day, body shop puffs, and boots botanics eye remover. I heard good things about these items.
Also i will write up a post how to deal with acne prone skin, unfortunately for me twice a year my skin becomes acne prone, and i just found out my skin does not like coco butter or shea butter on face and clogs my pores!

Sleek Sunset palette swatches

I am a avid fan of Sleek’s palettes, super high quality products, and a array of vibrant colours on offer. How can you not resist buying these? Prices has increased to £5.99, but still it’s a bargain!

I had sunset for a while, i thought i swatch the colours for everyone to see!

The bright orange just looks beautiful, all the colours have a metallic finished except for the black.

Check out my old post for the Original palette swatches

Sleek - Original 12 eye shadows palette/swatches and review

I cannot stress how these sleek eye shadows are sooooo good, inexpensive and value for money. A set of 12 shadows will set you back for £4.99, less then 50p a shadow. You can purchase the original palette from superdrugs http://www.superdrug.com/page/home.

Sleek make up is a UK brand they aim to create affordable makeup for all skin tones. You can find more info about them on their website http://www.sleekmakeup.com/.  The eyeshadows come in a nice black palette with the wording ‘sleek’ across the front and a decent size mirror to do your make up.

These shadows are mineral based and provide vibrant vivid colour, it is highly pigmented on its own, but I love to use an eye shadow primer to bring out the intensity. All 12 eye shadows are shimmery and I find the shadows easy to blend with one and another.

Below are swatches of the 12 colours in the palette and with my two favourite primers, Urban decay potion primer (UDPP) and too faced shadow insurance.

Urban decay potion primer and too faced shadow insurance can be purchased from www.boots.com

GHD Midnight collection

GHD Midnight collection GORGEOUS! 

Urban Decay Book of Shadows vol.2 Swatches

I brought the Urban decay Book of shadows vol.2 last year, I finally took some time to swatch the colours. The book of shadows comes with 16 colours, 2 24/7 eye liners, the infamous potion primer and a booklet for visuals and ideas for make up application.

Lucky I didn’t buy the Alice in wonderland LE book of shadows some of the shadows are the same but renamed according to the story.

I think these shadows are superb a velvet texture with shimmer in the colours. Finely milled and brilliant colour pay off.  

 and here’s me playing with browns

Lovea Bio Argan Oil Cell Renewal Body Scrub Review

This month I was sent Lovea Bio Argan Oil Cell Renewal Body Scrub to test out. It’s been over 3 weeks of testing. More about Lovea brand on their website http://www.loveabio.fr

This product is 99.2% natural and contains sugar, argan oil, and orange peel.  This scrub is suitable for all skin types.

Full ingredients list

Caprylic / Capric Triglyceride, EXTRACT * Saccharum officinarum (Saccharum officinarum (SUGAR CANE) EXTRACT), SILICA Octyldodecanol, argan SPINOSA OIL *, caprylyl / capryl glucoside, Helianthus annuus * SEED OIL (Helianthus annuus (SUNFLOWER) SEED OIL), Capsicum annuum * FRUIT EXTRACT, argan SPINOSA SHELL POWDER * CITRUS aurantium dulcis (CITRUS aurantium dulcis (ORANGE) PEEL POWDER), TOCOPHEROL, Tocopheryl Acetate, PARFUM (FRAGRANCE), AQUA (WATER), Glyceryl caprylate, POLYEPSILON-LYSINE, Dehydroacetic ACID, BENZYL ALCOHOL, Limonene, Linalool.

This product is packaged in a see through tube, and with Lovea branding on the front and back. The text is written in French, so I had to go online to Lovea website and mypure for directions of use.  The product is 150 ml in size and cost £7.49.

Lovea Bio Body Scrub with Argan Oil is formulated with orange peel, sugar and argan oil to gently exfoliate and promote cell renewal.

Directions of use

Apply 1-2 times a week on damp skin, with small circular movements with emphasis on areas roughest. Rinse thoroughly.

The colour of the scrub is brown, and you can see the small particles of sugar and orange peel once squeezed out. I must warn you about my accident, being in a tube and the particles of sugar and orange peel, the tube became clogged up with the product and you will find it very hard to squeeze the scrub out of its tube. I had it upright and the scrub landed on my hair and it took me around 3 washes to get rid of the oil and sugar. Lovea needs to change the packaging as this has happened quite often, I would like to see this product in a tub so I can control the amount I use.  I have almost used the product up within the last month of testing.

The product smells really sweet I just loved the oriental aroma it is great in the shower as the smells surround you. I absolutely love the scent of orange peel. You can see the tiny particles of sugar, and the slight oil consistency visible on your skin. I actually thought I was smelling honey all this time until I checked the ingredients online.

The product was very easy to work with on damp skin in the shower.  As for exfoliation I think the product was too gentle and couldn’t feel the effects of the micro particles of sugar and orange peel on my skin. Once rinsed off your skin is left feeling coated with the argan oil which I liked, yet it wasn’t enough for me so I had to use a body butter or cream afterwards. It did leave my legs with a nice sheen.

Overall I loved the smell of the scrub, but did not find exfoliate my skin very well. The tube packaging needs to be changed as I had no control of the amount distributed and once clogged was very hard to get anything out. You can tell how much I struggled by the state of the packaging shown in my photo’s.

Lovea Bio Argan Oil Cell Renewal Body Scrub can found online at http://www.mypure.co.uk sold for £7.49 for 150ml.

Yaby Cosmetics review

Background information

yaby was developed by Toronto makeup artist, liz Yu, when she was searching for a solution to condensing her ever growing kit. after going through a number of DIY kit solutions, that eventually have to be replaced due to the limitations of easily sourced DIY materials, liz decided to create a more permanent and easily customized solution for all artists looking for an answer to their kits organization.

as a solution for make artists in all sectors of the industry, yaby carries palettes that provide convenience and highly customizable. each palette features built in stainless steel mixing palette, magnetic base, shock absorbing foam inserts with easy to clean surface, as well as the highly in demand freestyle palette. 

Eyeshadows

matte (M) : completely matte
satin (S) : from almost matte to light sheen
frost (F) : higher sheen finish without being super reflective
high shine (HS) : shimmery finish great for accents and highlights
Pearl paint (PP) : a creamy eyeshadow that is actually a powder

So i finally brought some Yaby cosmetics to play with, i brought a free style palette £10.99, it is a empty magnetic palette that you can put any shape size pans inside. I also  brought 8 pearl paint eyeshadows costing £2.50 each.

Packaging

Simple white and silver Yaby font, i’m in love with the font their used on the packaging, and the silver pantone they choose for the text. It looks very elegant with minimal effect. The freeform palette is very sturdy and the magnet is very strong.

Eyeshadows

These shadows are TINY, even smaller then 5p, see pic above for comparison. I am very pleased with the colour pay off, highly pigmented and very smooth to apply to the eyes. Shows up on photos very well. The eyeshadows i picked are from the pearl paint range and cost £2.50 each, the other shadows are £1.99.

The only problem which is quite common is that some of the pans are not filled to the top, it is a Manufacturers fault and not the company where i purchased from.
I brought mine from http://themakeupartistboutique.com it is run by 3 people, they are lovely! you can also get 10% off your first order. Enter FIRSTORDER in the checkout.

SUQQU Gankin Massage technique

SUQQU has created a quick, but an innovative new massage technique.
The GANKIN MASSAGE method explores the relationship between stiff facial muscles
and sagging skin . Stiffness indicates that the lymph flow is not working efficiently
and therefore prevents waste from being drained smoothly causing the skin to swell or sag.
With the simple but effective techniques of the GANKIN, you can massage away facial stiffness and tension in as little as three minutes, promoting blood circulation
and lymph flow, whilst enhancing overall skin metabolism.
What’s more, this refreshing massage gives you a firmer facial contour, sharper chin line,
and more definition in the lower half of the face.
Experience these amazing benefits at home with a daily morning and evening massage.

I have been using this technique and have seen major improvements to saggy my skin around the cheeks and chin.

Download the massage technique here