#MyBath with Matalan Direct

If there is one room in our house that I am most ashamed of and is in need of a makeover it is the bathroom. Whilst it is the one room where I got to relax, it is one I hate being in. We need to paint, re-tile and have a new suite, so it is something we are constantly saving for. 

Did you know that Matalan Homeware have a newly launched home improvement site? I didn't until I was challenged by them to share my ultimate bath routine and having spent a good hour or so browsing at what options I could have, I pretty could have my perfect bathroom.  Anyway, I chose Coconut Vanilla as my favourite scent from the Matalanhome fragrances, I was sent a lovely package to help me share that routine. The package included a Coconut Vanilla Reed Diffuser and Candle Jar which perfectly compliment one another and a huge soft bath towel plus a £50 voucher to spend in Boots on bath time beauty goodies for my bath routine that will also compliment the Coconut Vanilla fragrance. 

I spent some time online deciding what I thought would work. Having a bath for me is about total relaxation and something I look forward to doing, usually because I am usually tired, stressed or in need of an escape and this is exactly how I choose what is going to go into my water. So using my voucher I went for the following items:

• Westlab Epsom Salts - I am a huge fan of bath salts and they are so underrated. Epsom Salt is a natural solution aid for a fit and healthy body, which has been around for hundreds of years and it is ideal for muscle relaxation, sports recovery, and helping to reduce fluid retention. Westlab Epsom Salts are made of pure Magnesium Sulphate and are great for helping to remove toxins from the body, encouraging muscles to relax thereby accelerating healing and reducing soreness, as well as increasing magnesium and sulphate levels. Magnesium aids muscle control, energy production and helps regulate the activity of more than 300 enzymes in the body. Sulphate is essential for many biological processes including helping to flush toxins.
• Dead Sea Aromatherapy Bath Salts - Dead Sea Aromatherapy Bath Salts with Frankincense have therapeutic minerals along with aromatherapy oils and rose petals help you to feel your stress just float away. The Frankincense also works to calm both your breathing and your mind whilst soothing tense muscles and rejuvenating your skin
• Soap and Glory The Daily Soothe Bath Float - This product is packed with rejuvenating Phytofleur cactus, calming Passionflower fruit extract and moisturising Herbasol Mallow which work to invigorate, calm and soothe to promote a good night’s sleep.

Once in the bath I always like to ensure I have something to exfoliate with and then wash with for my body and whilst doing that, I always ensure my face has been double cleansed whilst the bath is running and then I apply a facemask just before getting into the bath. So the products I bought for this are:

• Soap and Glory Sugarcrush body scrub - This has turned out to be one of my favourite body scrubs. It uses mashed brown sugar & sweet lime, almond oil & macadamia grains to exfoliate and polish your skin to leave it soft and smooth.
• Soap and Glory Sugar Crush bodywash - This bodywash smells divine and compliments the body scrub really well. It has a really energising scent which gives you a bit of a wake up and it moisturises as well as cleans your skin, which is always helpful after a good scrub.
• Biore Self-heating One Minute Facemask - This purifying face mask warms to open pores and draw out deep down dirt, oil and impurities, then cools leaving skin tingly smooth and refreshed.
• Quick Fix Facials Facemask - This Calming Clay mask is designed for sensitive and red skin. It uses Oatmeal to help relieve skin dryness and discomfort. Aloe Vera - perfect for helping to reduce skin inflammation and provides moisture. Chamomile Extract - helps to soothe and calm sensitive skin and finally Rose Extract to help minimise redness caused by enlarged capillaries.
• Biore Deep Cleansing Nosestrips - At least once a month, I use nose strips, just to ensure I have removed dirt and grime as I possibly can. Travelling around London can leave your skin feeling clogged, dry and forever dirty. These strips are infused with natural charcoal, these innovative pore strips draw out excess oil for the deepest clean

No bath would be perfect without some final accessories.  So for me, this includes a flannel to do a final wipe of the face, a headband which keeps your hair off your face when you are using face masks.  I never wash my hair in the bath, ewww, so I do like to ensure that I don't have numerous products stuck to or in my hair and either wear a shower cap or use a headband like this one. 

Finally, the best accessory for making a bath enjoyable is a bath pillow.  I have tried 4 or 5 quite expensive bath pillows in the past and frankly, this one from boots which cost a mere £6.29 not only users suckers to stick to the bath to keep it place, it doesn't lose air, it is comfortable and it doesn't need to be machine washed.

So there you have it, my perfect pampering session at home in the bath, all that is missing is my book and a chilled glass of wine!

*PR collaboration, all words my own.

You Beauty Discovery Box - September 2015

It's that time of the month for another You Beauty Discovery Box and if you read my blog regularly, you will know that I am a huge fan of this box and think it is one of the best out there. For September the box prevents its revitalising collection, a plethora of products that we all need in our lives right now and admittedly, if I could have had one of each, I would have been delighted. The clever people behind the You Beauty Discovery Box have carefully selected products to help tackle common skincare complaints and correct them with a series of powerful rejuvenating formulas. The resulting edit includes products that demonstrate both instantly visible effects, as well as longer lasting results from regular use.

As always there are some treats included within the box and the treats this month are pretty good. One product I hear talked about quite a lot are Linwoods Chia seeds which people to really rate. Apparently they are a great source of fibre, high in Omega 3 and great for weight management. So I intend to look on Pinterest to see what I can use them for. Secondly there is this Body Shop Oils of Life Intensely Revitilising Facial Oil which is in this beautifully packaged gold bottle with a teeny tiny pipette and it smells amazing. This Oil uses 99% oils of natural origin, this lightweight facial oil effortlessly melts into your complexion for smoother, softer feeling skin. There is also a membership card to the Body Shop Love Your Body Club. The final item is a new make up sponge which is always helpful.

This month making a choice as to what to try was really hard because I wanted everything. In the end I settled for the following:

Sykn Iceland – Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels. I have heard a lot about the brand Sykn Iceland but have never tried anything from the brand. The Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels work intensively to help firm, de-puff and reduce the premature wrinkling that accompanies the high-adrenaline lifestyle. Cooling transdermal gel infuses the eye area with concentrated doses of high-powered ingredients to cool, soothe and de-puff in just 10 minutes. These gels are said to be a celebrity favourite and fashion week essential for keeping eyes calm, cool and collected under stress. RRP £3.20

Earth Kiss - Miracle Clay Facial Hydrate Bamboo Sheet Mask & Million Year Clay Revitalise Bamboo Sheet Mask. For me Earth Kiss is a brand I have never come across and as I love facemasks, especially sheet masks, I thought I would give them a try. The Hydrate Bamboo Sheet Mask uses Argile Clay which gives extraordinary results, cleansing, clarifying and purifying the skin for a softer, more beautiful complexion. Baobab, is greatly known for its hydrating properties. This African plant with six times the Vitamin C of an orange, helps boost skin elasticity and encourages cell regeneration. Dead Sea salt bursts in minerals which are known to treat, detoxify, and cleanse and Mandarin oil, helps maintain moisture balance in the skin.  RRP £1.99

The Revitilise Bamboo Sheet Mask is infused Rhassoul clay original from Morocco, is known for its unmatched ability to absorb impurities from the skin. It cleanses deep, clearing pores and tightening skin without harsh scrubs. Used regularly, Rhassoul clay can improve skin tone, texture, elasticity, and clarity while eliminating dryness and flakiness. The antiseptic quality of the Juniper oil is an excellent skin toner and also has a strengthening effect. RRP £1.99

So this box is worth similar to what I paid for it and this month the price is not something I have thought too much about because the products are ones I have really wanted to try.

What do you think to this box? 

Where do you get your Beauty News from?

When it comes to Beauty News I am always interested in where people get their information from. Being a beauty blogger I absolutely love reading beauty sites, beauty pages, press releases and magazines.   Now being a blogger I realise that the information I am privy too is often before before it has gone to print in a magazine and over time, I do think blogs will become an even bigger and better source of information than anything in print form, because like the media which is now a rolling 24 hour source of information, magazines cannot print their article as quick as we can write them.

That said, I do still like to read and don't just rely upon blogs for information which came as a surprise to some of my friends who just assumed I relied upon blogs and press releases. So I thought I would share with you what I like to read and which platforms I use to find out bits of information. 

A simple Google - One of the terms that has caught my attention this week is Tan-touring, unable to ind anyone who had written a blog post about it, I found a simple explanation as to what it is in Grazia. Essentially it is Tan Contouring on your face and it is said to be the next big thing - move over Strobing!  I also buy magazines depending on their freebie offers which tend to lure me in.

Boots Health and Beauty Magazine - I absolutely love getting this free magazines from Boots, though it isn't quite as exciting as the Christmas Catalogue, it does usually have some great offers and competitions. If your local Boots never seem to have it in stock, then you can read it online right HERE. This months issue has a great arfticle on finding your 'Power Perfume' and mine is either t and Gabanna Light Blue or Marc Jacobs Decadence, neither of which I have tried but I am intrigued enough to hunt them down.

Dare from Superdrug - Again, another little freebie from Superdrug that usually has me writing a wishlist as long as my arm and if your local store doesn't have it, well there is an app for it whether you have an iPhone or Android or you can read it here. I have already added the Freedom Pro Blush Palette in Bronze and Baked, £6 to my wishlist because it looks just amazing.

Twitter - You might not realise it, but on Twitter there is a whole wealth of information and knowledge right there within your feed.  We all have our favourite people whom we follow to get our news and mine include Dave Lackie, who not only has the most amazing giveaways but he is also the Editor of BEAUTY the Guide Magazine which I absolutely love reading. Then we have Phil who is a fellow blogger and Beauty PR and he writes some amazing articles about products that I simply want and yearn to have. Nikki Taylor is also a wealth of knowledge and information alongside both Hayley and Jane, whom I read religiously.

My favourite websites - Escentual, FeelUnique and LookFantastic are three I go to the most and do a lot of clicking from Twitter on.  I love taking part in #AskEscentual even if I don't have a question to ask because there is a lot to be learnt and they also have a fabulous blog which I read religiously too. I love the Lookfantastic Beauty box and think it offers something different to other boxes that I subscribe too and having recently discovered the Outlet, my wishlist has grown a little bigger.  Feelunique has a section called Beauty All Access which I tend to go to first whenever I visit the site.  It has a great section called 'What's Hot, What's New' and there are more often than not some hidden gems to lust after.

Now that you know what I spend my spare time doing or where I get my information from, I would love to know where you gets yours from.

*This  post is a PR Collaboration, all words are my own.

Mandara Spa - Time to Spa

I dream of spending a weekend at a spa being pampered but in the absence of that actually happening, there are some amazing products to be found that can help you have your own little pampering session at home.

Mandara Spa offers some amazing products, some of which you will find in Sainsburys and they are so reasonably priced that you need to get out there right now and snap them all up to give them a try because they not only smell absolutely divine, they are just that - divine.

Mandara Spa Bali Santi Bath & Shower Cream is one of my favourite products from the range. Costing just £7.99 for 300ml it contains an evocative blend of coconut oil, yoghurt and lotus flower milk which not only smells exactly as the description states but within the bath it creates copious amounts of bubbles and it leaves your skin feeling so soft, smooth and moisturised. It is one of those products you put aside for an extra pampering treat.

Mandara Spa Bali Santi Coconut Glow Smoothing Body Polish is a stunning addition to the Bath & Shower Cream. Coconut is another big fragrance here and it uses nourishing coconut oil, exfoliating and smoothing coconut shell, spice and floral fragrance all of which come together and become a creamy scrub which can be as abrasive on the skin as you need it to be, just by adding a little more pressure in places as you massage it onto the skin. This tub 350ml tub costs just £8.00.

The third product within this Bali Santi range that I have absolutely adored using is the Firming Body Lotion which again uses an evocative blend of coconut and sweet almond oils to nourish and moisturise with Alaria Esculenta extract to help encourage skin firmness.  Once out of the bath or shower, massage the lotion, which isn't too thick a texture, into the skin and it almost immediately absorbs on contact with warm skin.  The coolness of the lotion is incredibly refreshing and it smells absolutely divine.  A 150ml tube costs just £5.

The final two products which have made up my home spa pamper package are for my hands and feet.  Whenever I have had a long soak, I do always apply cream to both my hands and feet to ensure they remain moisturised.

The Citrus and Coconut Foot Butter uses Shea butter, nourishing coconut oil, skin softening jojoba oil, hydrating glycerine, fragrant rosemary, lavender and sweet orange which come together to create a really wonderful scent with the sweet orange and Lavender for me being the dominant scent. As a foot butter the cream is really luxurious and thick, so you only need a small amount to massage into the skin. A 75ml tube costs just £4.50.

The Shea and Coconut hand butter uses Moisturising Shea and cocoa butters, smoothing sweet almond oil, nourishing coconut oil and hydrating glycerine to create a luxurious hand cream which is a perfect after bath and shower treat. A scent combination that I absolutely adore, the sweet almond oil is really noticeable and as soon as it comes into contact with your skin, it takes a little massaging before the cream sinks into the skin leaving it soft, smooth and really hydrated. A 75ml tube costs just £4.50.