Bliss skincare - straight from the spa

Another TK Maxx bargain, this Bliss set comes with a full size Fabulous Foaming face wash, a full size Triple Oxygen moisturiser and five Thats's incredi-peel spa-strength glycolic acid pads. I took this on vacation with me to give it a thorough test since I haven't tried anything from Bliss before and never have I fallen in love with any product as quickly as I did with these. They all have a different scent but each product smells divine and very spa-like indeed.

The sky blue, two-in-one cleanser and scrub is a cleanser you want to use in the mornings to wake up dull and tired skin or as a second cleanse rather than a cleanser to take your makeup off with. It's a gel-like texture which ironically doesn't foam and therefore isn't drying, it just feels really light and refreshing on the skin. It has loads of tiny little grains in it so it's exfoliating without being too harsh and I also found my skin isn't as tight after use as it is when using foaming cleansers. Fabulously Foaming contains glycerin, rose hip extract, passion flower and chamomile which all sound great to me. A little goes a very long way which is great, especially when it comes to more expensive skincare. It's not as expensive as Oskia's Rennaissance cleanser but at £19.50 it's not exactly cheap either. Unfortunately, when looking this up I saw that it contains microplastics which dampens my enthusiasm to be honest. I've never been fussy with my skincare or ingredients in general but the older I get the more I seem to care about sustainability and safe products. Anyone else feeling the same? Feel free to let me know of any more eco-friendly brands in the comments!

The Triple Oxygen Energising Vitamin C face cream is a.) a mouthful and b.) really lovely. The light gel texture has a fresh and zesty scent and again, a little goes a long way. It's one of those gel textures which feel luxurious and not too watery on the skin. It reminds me of the Origins GinZing moisturiser which I love, both feel nourishing despite sinking in really quickly. My skin can get really dry and this does a good job at keeping my skin looking fresh during the day. It contains hyaluronic acid and, as the name would suggest, vitamin c to deeply moisturise and brighten the complexion. The moisturiser is £46 for 50ml which is quite expensive and the ingredients aren't the most eco-friendly but it is a lovely moisturiser. In fact it's one of the best I've ever tried!

Now, as an avid reader of Caroline Hirons' blog I'm quite sceptical when a product says "clinical strength" but boy, the Incredi-Peel glycolic acid pads do pack a punch! The square pads are drenched in a gel-like glycolic acid solution which does tingle a lot. They contain glycolic acid (obvs), vitamin e, licorice root extract, calendula flower extract and glycerin and 30 pads are £41. I do have to say with these you get almost instant results as opposed to the Pixi Glow Tonic or Nip+Fab Glycolic Fix for example as the Bliss ones contain a much higher percentage of glycolic acid (although I just can't find how much it is exactly!). Since they're really expensive and my little gift set came with a pack of five pads only, I'm saving these for special occasions.

I'm super impressed with their skincare and would purchase the whole range if it wasn't for the naughty ingredients and the hefty price tag.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Bliss products and eco-(un)friendly products in general!

My thoughts on blogging - motivation, insecurities and new beginnings

Hi! It's been a while, hasn't it. And if it wasn't awkward enough trying to get back into blogging as desperately as I do, I don't even know where to start. It feels really strange typing this, seeing as I've been put off blogging for such a long time now. I've wanted to get back into it for ages, typed a good five drafts on my phone but never took the plunge and published them. Back in February I saw that one of my blogging friends - Sharna - has made a comeback and I can't begin to tell you how happy I was to see her name pop up on my feed again, so I thought I'd try and make an effort again myself. This time around I'm trying to blog just because I want to!

I first started blogging when I was 21. I'm turning 27 next month so saying that my life has changed a lot since then would be an understatement. I've been working full time for the past three years which means there's been little to no time to blog - if blogging isn't your first priority that is. I certainly don't regret spending my spare time with friends and family but I started to miss blogging quite a lot. There was nothing I loved more than taking pictures, coming up with new ideas and trying new products. Over the years I felt like blogging became a chore. I just couldn't find the time to maintain my blog which really bothered me, or maybe I just didn't want to make time for it. Now I know the purpose of blogging is to have fun, however with the social media world being as complex as it is today, it's hard finding your place at all. There are Insta bloggers, Snapchat vloggers and what have you. I'm not intending to make a living from blogging so I'm probably being overly dramatic (that's how I am, soz!) but it did make me insecure and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who felt like this at some point!

Another thing that has really put me off blogging is that the blogging world has changed so much. The words 'big blogger' now mean more than ever before. Little blogs have turned into full blown websites with shop categories, professional photographers and, sometimes, sponsored posts only. Of course this isn't neccessarily a bad thing, I'm over the moon to see the girls I've been talking to on Twitter for years do well and they do earn all the success. It just kind of makes me feel like writing a blog is going nowhere these days. Readers (if there are any) don't engage as much as they used to and it feels like being thrown back to the beginnings where I had a mere five readers, my nan, mum and sisters to be exact. No comments, no reaction. Being scared of not finding the right words, or being boring or just not anywhere near as good as other bloggers and therefore not interesting enough. All these nasty thoughts crossed my mind whenever I tried to sit down and write a blog post, until it started to dawn on me that this wasn't going to work out.

So what I'm going to try to do is posting whenever I find the time. I'm not pressuring myself into having to write 3 or 5 posts per week anymore or taking the most amazing pictures with a marble background (don't get me wrong, still loving the whole marble trend). I don't need that kind of negativity in my life. I'm simply trying to blog when I feel like it and blog about things I like rather than things I feel I need to talk about because everyone else might be talking about them. Simple as that.

I'd love to hear your opinion, do you agree or am I being dramatic? How do you feel about the bloggersphere these days? Why do you keep on blogging or why did you give it up?

Let me know in the comments (if you can't see the Disqus widget please click the post title) or tweet me :)

Real Techniques Bold Metals Brush Set

Can I just say, where has the bloody time gone? It's a mere 9 sleeps until Christmas morning and I'm honestly starting to freak out. Today I realised it's the 16th already so I rushed into town to buy the remaining pressies for my family and friends and got - nothing. Every single thing on my list seemed to have been sold out, which does have me quite worried! Every year I'm trying to convince myself that I'm starting earlier next year but that's just never happening. In terms of blogging it feels like I only posted the other week. Well it's actually three weeks ago. I had a ton of blog posts planned for the festive season which I'm now trying to post in the upcoming two weeks. I still can't get my head around how quickly time goes by the older you get. Who's with me? Anyway, enough of my old lady rambles, that's not what you came for is it?

Like most beauty bloggers I love a good bargain, so TK Maxx is basically my second home. It's also the place I snapped up this Real Techniques Bold Metals brush set. Honestly, nothing beats TK Maxx when it comes to beauty bargains! When these were released last year I liked the look of them but found them quite pricey compared to the basic range which I've been loving and using for years now, so why would I spend double the price on these?! But since everyone kept raving about them I thought I'd give them a go when I spotted this set for £20 (RRP £60).

The set contains three brushes, the gold 103 angled powder brush (a set exclusive), the rose gold 300 tapered blush brush and the silver 200 oval shadow brush, each with a long and pointy handle which does look quite chic but isn't convenient at all. I'm not sure if it's just me being clumsy but I seem to drop these more often than my other brushes. They are not as heavy as I'd like them to be, that's because they're plastic and the brush heads are way heavier than the handles.

Now that I got my complaints out of the way, let's see why these are great brushes nonetheless. First of all, they're SO, SO soft. Probably the softest brushes I've ever had! The bristles are synthetic and have a colour-coordinated gradient design. All of their brushes are of course cruelty free which is definitely another bonus. The angled powder brush is huge which personally I like but if you found their original powder brush too big, you won't like this either. It picks up just enough product so that you don't have to tap off any excess.

The cheek brush is quite pointed and I find it a tad too small to use as a blush brush but if you just want a pop of colour on your cheeks this would be perfect. I've tried using this as a highlighter brush but I've got a Zoeva one which does a much better job (review coming soon!), so I still need to find a use for this one.

The eyeshadow brush is quite stiff. I originally thought it would make a good blending brush but as it's so big I prefer using it to buff in my concealer. It also works great as an all over shading brush.

Overall I'm quite happy with this set especially for twenty quid. The brushes would be £22, £19 and £15 if bought individually, or you could snap up a similar collection from Boots for £40, so this definitely was quite a bargain. However, I wouldn't pay the full price for these as I like my other RT brushes just as much, if not better, and they're much cheaper too.

Have you tried anything from the RT Bold Metals collection? What's your favourite from the range?

Good Things - skincare that smells good enough to eat (but don't!)

If you dislike heavily scented skincare products, read no further. If that's not the case and you're into your nice smelling lotions and potions, read on! 

In case you haven't heard of Good Things, it was founded by beauty journalist Alice Hart-Davis and launched in Boots in 2010. It's also available at Asda by now. The whole range is kept super simple and aims to tackle three different skin concerns. There's the Superfoods range for young/problematic skin, which contains açai berries, blueberries and raspberries to clear skin from excess oils and fight impurities. The Manuka Honey range helps fighting the first signs of aging, whilst the Argan Oil range contains a bunch of anti-oxidants and moisturising components for mature skin. 

The good thing (no pun intended) is that their products are mostly natural, they don't contain mineral oils or parabens and they also don't test on animals. If you're into organic skincare and organic skincare only, they're not for you, but a brand where everything is under a tenner you surely wouldn't expect it to be. Good, now that I got the facts out of the way, let's talk about the products! I've got the micellar water and the detox mask from the Superfoods range, as well as the facial oil from the Argan Oil range. If you're wondering why I picked up a product for mature skin, I'll come to that in a minute.

The Acai Berry Multi-Tasking Micellar Water smells very intense, it has a sweet fruity scent which lingers on your skin for quite some time after use. I for one love it, but I know a lot of people hate heavily scented products, so that's something to keep in mind. It comes in a 250ml bottle and retails at £4.49. I usually only use micellar waters to get rid of waterproof eye makeup before double cleansing with a flannel (there you go Caroline Hirons), and the Good Things one does a good job at this. It does have kind of a "dry" feel to it if you know what I mean, some micellar waters can feel slippery whereas this feels more like the Garnier one. I also like using this as a little pick-me-up in the mornings as I love the scent so much, and I'll be repurchasing this once I run out.

The Five Minute Facial face mask is another great little product. It's a clay mask which dries down (so much so that you can not talk, thank god it just takes five minutes), and you can really see the gunk being drawn out of your skin (gross)! It can be removed either with a damp flannel or rinsed off with warm water. I always use a flannel to get that extra bit of exfoliation. This contains green clay and kaolin to fight impurities, avocado oil to moisturise and goji berry extract to brighten the skin. It's an amazing mask to use before a night out, or when your skin feels a bit dull as you can instantly see the results. I found this left my skin much clearer and brighter after only one use. This doesn't smell as artificial as the micellar water and a 100ml tube retails for £5.99 which is quite a bargain. It should last me ages but I'd repurchase this too should I ever run out.

The Perfecting Facial Oil is actually aimed at mature skin, which obviously I don't have. I was on the lookout for an inexpensive facial oil and came across this one, so I thought I'd give it a try since it's only £6.99 for a 30ml bottle. This has quite a subtle scent to it. I've tried proper anti-aging products before and I'm pleased to confirm, they are too rich for my 20-something skin most of the time. This facial oil is different. You only need a tiny amount, I usually use 3-4 drops, and it makes my skin feel incredibly soft. Although it doesn't sink in straight away, it's not greasy at all. Thanks to sweet almond and olive oils as well as fatty acids, it nourishes and moisturises your skin leaving it super smooth. I'd definitely recommend checking it out if you're in the market for a facial oil that doesn't break the bank! Overall I'm really impressed with all three products and already have my eye on the cleansing oil and serum now.

Have you tried anything from Good Things?