L’Occitane Ultra Soft Balm for International Women’s Day 2016

Every year to mark International Women's Day, L'Occitane launches an exclusive solidarity product to support women in developing countries. This year, International Women's Day falls on March 8th. This year, L'Occitane has chosen to focus on women in Burkina Faso, a relationship which has been developing for the last 30 years. Fast forward to today and a partnership which started with just 12 local women has now developed into an enterprise of over 17,000 women which is truly astonishing, and it is those women produce the Shea Butter, an ingredient which features in so many of L'Occitane's award winning collections and an ingredient that my skin absolutely loves.

L'Occitane has its own global programme Women for Burkina which has three main objectives: to assist in literacy, to provide access to micro-loans and to promote entrepreneurial actions. Only ONE our of five women in Burkino Faso today knows how to read and write. Since 2010, 900 women have gained access to literacy programmes sponsored by the L'Occitane Foundation and more than 6,000 women have gained access to the micro-loans. These micro-loans help women to develop an activity that generates money for their households.

How can you help?  As I mentioned, each year, L'Occitane launches an exclusive solidarity product to support women in developing countries and this year it is the Ultra-soft Balm, 100%* of the profits will go to fund these special projects.  This Shea Butter Balm is a rose scented multi-purpose moisturiser and it can be used on your lips, your body especially cuticles, elbows and knees and it can also be used on your hair.  It smells just absolutely divine and comes presented inside this beautifully decorated motif tin which is said to have been designed symbolise the wax-print fabrics worn by Burkinabe women and is a symbol of festivity and tradition which is deep-rooted in African Cultural Heritage.

The tin is a perfect size for chucking in your handbag and it costs just £4 right here.  I am sure that on Women's Day there will be snippets of information about famous women who have all done their bit, but what I love about this project, is the idea of being able to champion women who have quite possibly changed more lives than we will ever appreciate by working hard to do so.

Will you be buying a tin?

*Sales price in store minus taxes, transport and production costs.

Patisserie de Bain Handcream Collection

Looking after my hands is as important to me as looking after any other part of my body. Your hands play such an important and vital role in life, that sometimes they need a little bit of love and attention. Whether you are using them to gesticulate, write, type, washing up, clean or even make food, your hands are hard at work for hours and hours everyday.

Patisserie de Bain offers a cute little hand cream collection of mouth-watering sounding creams which sound as though you want to eat them.  Each hand cream contains Shea Butter and Glycerine to help moisturise and soothe those poor hard working hands. I am one of those people who loves hand cream and goes through tubes of it every year. On my desk at work there is no less than 4 tubes at any one time, each promising to do something different. I am also quite partial to a hand scrub and I shared a new one from Lush just a few days ago here on my blog.

Those three scents are:

• Sweet as Cherry Pie is just stunning. It smell reminds me of fresh ripe cherries that have just been cooked in a pie as it happens and in the background is a slight sprinkling of vanilla to add to the sweetness.
• Cranberries and Cream is quite a sweet scent, much sweeter than I had anticipated and the fruity scent you associate with Cranberries is most definitely present with the cream part being much more dominant than in Sweet as Cherry Pie
• Sugar Rose is perhaps my favourite of the three, it combines rosehip, grapes and sugar cane which is just heavenly and for me the right sweetness to not be too vanilla based or too perfumed.

Priced at just £9.99 for this little set, it is a lovely treat for your hands or indeed someone elses.  Each tube is 50ml and can be purchased separately for just £3.99.

Makeup Revolution V Real Techniques - Brush Cleaning Tools

Brush cleaning day, usually Sunday, is one of those chores that I huff and puff about having to do. It is one that only I have created and therefore only right I clean the brushes. Having read some horror stories in the media about infections from dirty brushes, I have embraced this chore much more regularly than I used to, but I still dislike doing it intensely and as soon as someone invents a self-cleaning brush, the happier I will be. In the meantime, anything that I can use to make this chore a bit more exciting will capture my attention and currently there are two items that have done just that. The Real Techniques Brush Cleansing Palette and the Makeup Revolution Pro Cleanse Brush Tool. 

The Real Techniques Brush Cleansing Palette, which you can find in Superdrug for £12.99, look a bit like a soap dish, maybe that was the intention, who knows but it is beautifully bright pink so you can’t miss it and it makes the task of cleaning brushes so quick and easy it is much less of a chore. Using it is really simple, you just need to wet your brush, add some brush shampoo, whichever one you use and then rub the brush along and around the little knobbly bits a few times and you are done. Inside the dish there are some different sized knobbly bits (I am sure they have a proper name) and they are for different sized brushes, so no brush is left unclean. 

Makeup Revolution, not one to be without something funky have their Pro Cleanse Brush Tool, which again you can buy online or via Superdrug for just £4.99 and this little gadget works similarly to the Real Techniques dish. Bright purple in colour this time, it is designed to fit over your fingers this time and instead of having knobbly bits, it has groves and they work in the same way and are different sizes are different brushes. Again you need to wet your brush, apply your brush shampoo and swipe the brush backwards and forwards along the grooves, as you do so, you can see all the makeup ‘stuff’ that has been lingering on there run off into the sink and within seconds your brush is clean and ready to be left to dry.

So there you have two tools to help you clean your brushes and they both have plus points and both have minus points.  The dish for Real Techniques is pink so that is always going to be a hit, but... tend to find myself cleaning the dish as much as the brushes, given the amount of dirt and grime and stuff that comes off the brushes, I don't want it lurking in the dish when I grab my next brush, so I wipe the dish clean with an anti-bac wipe after cleaning each brush and start again. The Makeup Revolution Tool fits over your fingers and doesn't get the chance to grab onto any gubbings off the brushes, it has long since run off into the sink.  The knobbly bits for Real Techniques are brilliant and do help with the cleaning of brushes and it does speed up the job, the same for Makeup Revolution, but with Makeup Revolution, i'd have liked a few more smaller grooves for my smaller brushes please.

All in all, both tools help make the job of cleaning brushes quicker, easier, less of a chore and worthy of owning and whilst I am a fan of both, Makeup Revolution is a third of the price and is worthy of purchasing for a hassle free, faff free brush cleaning tool.

You Beauty Box - February 2016

So last month I mentioned that You Beauty Discovery Box was undergoing a makeover and I was a little apprehensive to see the outcome as it is a subscription box that I absolutely love getting.  Well, I shouldn't have worried because it is still brilliant. It still costs just £6.95 per month and is amazing value for money.

This month we have three extra treats and they are quite possibly the best treats I have ever had from this box. Starting with a 40ml tube of the cult classic Elasticizer from Philip Kingsley in Geranium and Neroli.  A sachet of Real Techniques Deep Cleansing Brush Gel, of which I am a huge fan and a 10ml tube of Vita Liberata Self Tanning Moisture Mask.  Plus because the box has been relaunched, also included within the box is an exclusive travel-sized Mascara from Eyeko, which as a mascara fiend, I am excited to try.

The product choices for this month gave a choice of items for Bath & Body, Make-up, Haircare or skincare and I chose from Bath & Body and Skincare as my choices.

Anyone who reads my blog will know that I like to champion bath salts, so I was delighted to see some Mauli Himalayan Healing Salts. Do you ever have those days where you are left feeling fatigued, irritable, off balance and as though nothing you try and do goes right? Well the vital synergy of Mauli's multi-layered healing Himalayan pink salts, infused with 13 exquisite therapeutic oils and laced with soothing powdered rose quartz combine to help powerful nutrients and depleted minerals better absorb into the skin to release toxins, soothe aching bones and offer a sense of greater wellbeing.

The second product is Dr. Organic Dead Sea Mineral Bio-Plasma Mud Mask. I am a huge fan of Dr. Organic and this is a product I have never tried. It is described as being an oil regulating, detoxifying and anti-aging bio-plasma face treatment. On the surface it is an organic pore cleansing facemask, deep down it is a bioactive deeply replenishing face-lift. Organic Dead Sea Mineral salt and Dead Sea Mud have a long history of skin purifying and health promoting properties. In combination with our proprietary blend of bioactive, natural and organic extracts, including clinically tested bio-plasma (arginine ferulate) this cell detoxifying and anti-aging face mask penetrates deep into the pores of the epidermis, effectively removing excess oil and impurities whilst stimulating new cell regeneration.

This box has a retail value of over £25 which is three times what I paid for it and I think it is just amazing value for money and I still love the fact I can choose which products I want to try, epecially when more often than not, the product is a full sized version rather than a travel or sample size.

What do you think to this months box? 

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