Pre-Holiday Beauty Essentials

Less than three weeks until our holiday! 

These are my pre holiday beauty essentials to make sure I look and feel my best!

 

 Soap & Glory The Breakfast Scrub £9.45/300ml

 I've been using this twice a week on my legs and upper arms to buff away dry/dead skin. One day I'm going to lose control and just eat it as it smells sooo good! Just an amazing product, it leaves no greasy residue on my skin and it gives a great exfoliation without being harsh on my skin.

 

 Palmers Cocoa Butter Formula £3.77/250ml

Another amazing smelling product! I've been using this every morning after my shower mainly on my legs and they have never been softer! I've got a few marks on the bottoms of my legs from some mosquito bites I scratched a bit too much and this has actually worked on fading them - they are much less noticeable and I'm a lot happier to get my legs out now!

Botanics Detox Brush £5.72

I'm quite lucky that I don't suffer from the dreaded cellulite (yet!) but prevention is better than cure and I've been using this brush every morning for the past two weeks to get my circulation going! I don't know if these have actually been proven to work, but it feels nice to give my legs a five minute brush before my shower every morning!

 VO5 Treat Me Right Hair Mask £4.97/300ml

My hair gets a bit frazzled from using too much heat so I though a hair mask might sort it out. I've only used this twice so far - its lovely and thick, smells very summery and has left my hair feeling nice and soft. I'm going to keep using this two or three time a week and hopefully my hair will be in better condition come holiday time. I've also decided to have a good inch chopped off the ends before we go, eek!

Seaweed Deep Cleansing Facial Wash £7.00/100ml & Seaweed Pore Cleansing Facial Exfoliator £8.00/75ml

My skin was in a terrible state last week, I think the humidity paired with my heavy foundation caused a breakout and left me pretty depressed. I had a 50% discount code from the Body Shop website so I bought these products to sort it out! 

I also bought a Seaweed Clay Mask but in the five days between placing my order and it being dispatched (five days!) it sold out and I never received it. In the few days I've been using these products though my skin has seen a massive improvement so all is well!

Do you have any pre-holiday beauty recommendations?

Current Favourites

I've been neglecting my blog a bit the last couple of weeks! 

First I had a week off from work and the sun decided to come out so I spent a few days in the garden sunbathing, I had a day out shopping and eating Yo! Sushi and Krispy Kreme doughnuts in Birmingham, then I upped my gym regime as we've only got four weeks till our holiday to Turkey so I've been pretty busy!

I ran 13km this morning, burning over 1000(!) calories in the process so now I'm back in my pj's resting myself for tomorrow's interval cycling session. 

I thought I'd do a quick post of my current favourite items in my makeup bag while I'm snuggled down and cosy!

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Medium Plus and Avon Blush in Heavenly Nude

I've heard so many great things about the MAC Skinfinish so while I was in Birmingham I visited the MAC store and picked one up. The SA recommended me Medium Plus which I thought would be a tad dark but it's actually perfect! I only use a tiny bit over my foundation but it makes my skin look lovely; it's quite expensive but I'm glad I splashed out as I love it!

I won this Avon blush in BeautyH2T's giveaway and I've found myself reaching for it every morning. If you have a heavy hand (like me) then this blush is perfect! It gives a lovely subtle rosy glow to my cheeks and the colour lasts all day. If this was still on the Avon website/in the book I would definitely repurchase.

MUA Heaven and Earth Palette

After searching many Superdrug stores and waiting for it to become available online I finally got my hands on this during Superdrug's free delivery promotion. It's a lot smaller than I thought it would be but I love it!

I've mainly been using the left side of the palette for my everyday work makeup and so far all the shadows have been soft, easy to apply and well pigmented. I plan on taking this on holiday in place of my Naked Palette as I'm terrible when it comes to losing/damaging things in transit and £4 is nothing if I need to replace it!

Avon All Over Face Brush and Sigma Flat Top Kabuki Brush

I currently own two of these Avon brushes as they are just perfect! I use one for my powder and one for my blusher. They are the softest brushes I have had the pleasure of using and they just do not shed! They are £6 each on the Avon website but their sleek black appearance makes them look a lot more expensive. It picks up a good amount of powder and the size of the head means a really good all over coverage.

I won the Sigma brush in Miss Lori Loves giveaway and I couldn't have been happier! I had been lusting over this brush for ages and kept almost buying it so when I found that I had won it I was so pleased! It definitely lives up to all the positive hype it gets. I usually use a heavy, full coverage foundation and when applied with my fingers it looks nice, but after applying with this brush - my skin honestly looked airbrushed, the difference was just amazing. The bristles and soft and dense and so far I have experienced no shedding. I will not be going back to regular foundation brushes after using this one!

Do you use any of these products?

What are your current favourites?