Mount Purious - Rosehip Oil

Skincare has always been an essential of mine, Mother always told me to look after it and only use simple products. She has great skin and has only ever used Vaseline or a really basic thick cream, the more fussy it is the more it doesn't work in her eyes!

Being a Vegan has taught be a lot about nature, I'm starting to get more interested in Naturopathy, Herbalism, Natural Medicine and looking at how we can use our natural surroundings to the best for us and the environment.

The new Skincare brand Mount Purious also believes in similar values and I've tried out their Rosehip Oil to see what difference it makes to my skin. There are no fillers, chemicals or anything added to this product, its simply just Rosehip Oil!

Properties of Rosehip Oil include high amounts of essential fatty acids, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, B-Carotene- Vitamin A. According to some studies, benefits of using Rosehip Oil include Anti Ageing, reduction of scarring, helps fix Eczema, anti inflammatory, helps damaged skin, sun damaged skin and improves pigmentation. Miranda Kerr and David Gandy uses Rosehip Oil, so if its good enough for supermodels its good enough for me! I've seen other reviews and people have been getting great results with wrinkles!

Ive been using it for a month now, I've also been using a Natural Avocado Soap instead of using face wipes and the 2 combined have done wonders for my skin! I apply lots of it at night to work its magic, it's not greasy or makes your skin feel oily at all.

My skin is so much softer, clearer and brighter! People have said I look like I have a glow, which has never been said before! Even through lots of sweaty exercise, the Rosehip Oil has managed to calm my skin down and make it feel hydrated and pampered. Also strangely my eyelashes and eyebrows have been growing really fast! Interested to see if anyone else experienced this?

Mount Purious cold press their Rosehip Oil, this is very important as through any heating process the great properties will be reduced. It's 100% Certified, Organic and Vegan, a brilliant product and will forever be in my skin care ritual.

Stace x

My Bargain Daytime Make Up Overhaul - NYX, REVOLUTION, RIMMEL, Real TECHniques, Maxfactor

No I wouldn't class myself as a Beauty Blogger, theres plenty of professionals out there with their  £1000 cameras to take ultra HD pics with...but saying that I am a girly girl and I can't be in lycra and tracksuits all the time! So thought I'd share with you what make up I do use when not running around wearing sports kit and training.

Recently I bought a few bits and bobs to update my makeup. I still have my firm favourites with high end brands such as MAC, CHANEL, Urban Decay, Benefit, Smashbox, Bobbi Brown and YSL but these are products I wear for evenings out or special occasions. I don't want to wear this stuff everyday and I seriously needed some 'day' makeup.

I purchased some NYX Makeup, REVOLUTION Eyeshadow Palettes, RIMMEL MATCH Perfection Foundation, Real TECHniques Makeup Brushes and Maxfactor Flipstick Colour Effect.




NYX:

• Eyeshadow Base in White
• Above & Beyond Full Coverage Concealer
• Dark Circle Concealer
• Matt Finishing Powder
• HD Studio Finishing Powder
• HD Studio Concealer Wand
• Matt Finish Spray

My firm favourites by far were all the concealers, they are fantastic and rival high end brands. With full coverage without the cakey look, they did really conceal little flaws and cover my dark circles. Something I've suffered from for years, and struggled to find a concealer good enough to cover the bags so now these products will remain in my daytime make up bag forever!

The Eyeshadow base was ok, it did crease a little and made it a bit harder to blend various eyeshadow colours together. So this could do with a bit of improving, I was hoping that the white base would make colours pop out with vibrance, but can't say I noticed any difference.

Both the powders were okay, a little cheap smelling (if you know what I mean) they did give me a matt finish but after a few hours left my makeup a little cracked and dry. Maybe thats just my skin?

Would be great to see what other people thought of it.

Another favourite though was the Matt Finishing Spray, this is great for sweaty betties or people who suffer with oily skin. I sprayed mine on after I finished all my makeup and buffed it in slightly. This made my makeup stay put but also made my makeup matt for the rest of the day. Loved it! Really impressed with this new brand so I want to try other products by them for sure.



Rimmel Foundation 

Im a little bit of snob when it comes to foundation, Ive had such bad experiences with cheaper brands. From drying my skin out and cracking, to not lasting even 2 hours, blotchy patches and oily sticky skin has made me only wear high end products as the cheaper ones just haven't been good enough.

But for the first time I have found a foundation bargain which makes my skin look 100% better. With a SPF 18 this gives the skin a little protection and also gave me a dewy look so I looked wide awake and fresh. The coverage is great, and I didn't even have to wear concealer. I bought 100 Ivory...I'm so pale! (I blame that on the sun never shining in Newcastle.) Normally I struggle with pale foundations and I always end up with an embarrassing orange line... very TRASHY! But thankfully this foundation didn't and will remain in my daytime makeup bag.

REVOLUTION Eyeshadow Palettes

These are available in Superdrug, and have a whole section of different types of eyeshadow palettes....heaven! I bought the Redemption Romantic Smoked and the Redemption Iconic 2.

With Romantic Smoked having hints of olive, nudes and purples, I loved the colour combinations you can create with this palette. The Redemption Iconic 2 is like a cheaper version of Urban Decay NAKED palettes (which are my ultimate favourites for an evening look) the golds, bronzes, metallics and smokey colours are beautiful and will look extremely complimentary to most skin tones.
I would say they definitely have a fantastic range with good products but isn't exactly on par with the Urban Decay palettes. The colours don't have a strong enough pigment for me, I love eyeshadow colours to pop out, which the NAKED palettes do, and I found I had to really build the product up to where I wanted with these. Obviously these are ALOT cheaper then Urban Decay and I would recommend them to anyone on a budget or who wants to experiment with their eyeshadow colours. Good for day time wear for me and for £4.00 each you can't go wrong!

Real TECHniques Brush Set

Wanted these for ages as my Sister raves about them all the time. The makeup brushes that I use are MAC, Bobbi Brown and BareMinerals...all amazing, so these have alot to live up to.
Theres 4 brushes in this pack, Foundation, Contour, Concealer and Buffing brush which comes with a handy pouch to protect them.

The Concealer brush was great, very accurate and able to manoeuvre the concealer into places my fingers can't get to, great for using if you've made a make up error!

The Foundation brush wasn't great....it ate up my foundation and I had to use triple to what I usually wear so I ended up finishing my foundation off with my fingers.

Contour brush was FAB. Loved this and was able to buff and blend my contouring for a professional HD finish. It takes a lot less effort then a blending sponge and I felt I had more control over the products.

Buffer brush was great for finishing off my look with setting powder, really liked this one too, but not as much as my BareMinerals Buffing brush...nothing will beat that.

Great products and again a little cheaper quality though, so would recommend to everyone who sees spending £25 on a make up brush ridiculous....which lets be honest...it is! So apart from the foundation brush these will defiantly be staying in my day time makeup bag.

Maxfactor Flipstick Colour Effect

With double ended colours these are perfect for taking away on holidays! I bought the Salsa Red 25 and the Folky Pink 10. In the pictures here I've put them onto my hands so you can see the colours (no filters used)



Salsa Red has a lovely Mid Red/Pink at one end and a Coral/Pink at the other.

Folky Pink has a glittery Peach and a deep Pink at the other.

Both really lovely and are fantastic for saving space in your makeup bag. The coral from Salsa Red is my favourite, it's such a pretty colour and really suites my skin tone. Unfortunately they dried my lips out though, so I needed to wear a balm underneath to keep them hydrated. The pigment is quite strong so I didn't have to use loads of it....a bonus! I will definitely will be taking these with me on holiday.

So after some searching I eventually found some firm favourites for daytime makeup looks, let me know if you've found any other brands which are perfect for day wear too!

Stace x

Peau Naturelle - Organic Blemish Facial oil review

I've recently wrote how I prefer putting more natural products on my skin. Since I've turned Vegan purely for health reasons it would be a bit contradictory of me to put chemicals on my skin. I do once in a blue moon (like fake tan because I'm paler then porcelain cup) but I like to stick to more natural products most of the time.

Peau Naturelle is a brand new Skincare company. Passionate about natural and organic products they strive for powerful products which do 'what they say on the tin' without the hefty price like other skincare brands.

The lovely people at Peau Naturelle sent me their Organic Blemish Facial Oil for me to try out and review.

The Blemish Oil is one of their signature products, and a lot of time and research was put into perfecting the final product, all made by hand too. In it contains only 5 ingredients! Have you ever seen only 5 ingredients on a skin products ever?!

The 5 ingredients are:

 Grapeseed Oil, Jojoba Oil, Lavender Oil, Lemon Oil and Tea Tree Oil.  

.......And that is it.

Now I've been told before by many other brands that their products are entirely natural only to find out when I read the packet, the ingredients contains a long list of chemicals and then at the end appears a tiny snippet of natural product. The companies are well within their rights to do this though, and claims of being a natural product can be allowed legally, so long as the product contains 10% of some sort of natural product. That means a whopping 90% can be filled with chemicals.

Bit of a con isn't it!?

I applied the Peau Naturelle Blemish Oil at Night, I like my skin to have a lot of product on in the evenings to soak it up through the night and work its magic. It moisturises, repairs, protects and fights blemishes. The Tea Tree, Lemon and Lavender are naturally anti bacterial, whilst the Grapeseed and Jojoba are moisturising providing hydration into the skin.

The Oil itself smells really lovely, you only needing a small amount so the bottle lasts for ages.

My skin surprisingly didn't feel greasy at all, the oil absorbed really quickly into the skin. I woke up in the mornings feeling moisturised and hydrated. While the pillows weren't ruined (like they have been in the past by other oil products). My skin has become a lot clearer and I get less spots!

Some peoples perception about putting oil onto the skin is that it will create more spots and make your skin worse, which isn't the case with this product at all. My skin can be naturally oily anyway, that pesky T-Zone can be a nightmare on an evening out! The Oil didn't make it worse, thankfully! And because I applied it at night before bed, it felt pampered and protected, my skin was not oily when I woke up or during the day. A fantastic product so thanks Peau Naturelle!









http://peaunaturelle.com

NIP+FAB Product Review and Gym Bag Essentials

I've seen so much hype about Nip + Fab recently, mostly due to Kylie Jenner becoming the face of the brand and everything the Jenners/Kardashians touch turns to Gold! I first stumbled across Nip + Fab when I bought the Yoga Blend Shower Gel 500ml and Body Cream 500ml ages ago and fell completely in love with it! The smell really is amazing and it relaxes me...which is quite a statement considering it's just a shower gel and body cream. In it contains Lavender, Coconut Oil and Rose and they last for ages, it doesn't smell false or chemically at all, its smells very natural and its just so so relaxing! They should definitely bring this scent out in a candle. I've tested so many products in the past and the natural products definitely appeal to me more, Im not keen on putting chemicals on my skin.

I was so impressed with it I've decided to try a few of their other products. 

First up was the other showers gels in their range, I was so impressed with the quality of the Yoga Blend that I wanted to see if I got the same from the others. I bought a large 500ml of the Energy Boost containing Lemon, Sweet Mandarin and Grapefruit. And a trio set of Yoga Blend, Detox Blend (Frankincense Oil, Tea Tree, Green Tea and Jasmine) and Destress Blend ( Frankincense, Orange Blossom and Sandalwood). 

The fragrances of the shower gels were lovely but I found them a little synthetic so not as much of a natural scent as I was hoping for and it didn't have as much of an effect on me as the Yoga Blend. Still lovely smelling but the Yoga range is still my firm favourite out of these! 

The hand cream set in the same fragrances were really nice, thick cream which settled into the skin quickly, they all smelled lovely and had a more natural smelling scent then the shower gels but again (maybe I'm biased) but I still love the Yoga Blend so much because I do find it relaxes me.

Next up is the Body Slim Fix from the Fitness Range, obviously I'm so keen to try products that has anything to do with fitness at all. And although I disagree with any companies claiming of you can drop a dress size from a bottle (which we all know doesn't work) I wanted to see if it had any effect on me at all. The Body Slim Fix aims to moisturise, tone and firm the skin, improves body contoures for a firmer and slimmer appearance. I put this on after a shower and after a few days (surprisingly) I did start to notice a difference, my skin definitely felt smoother and more tight and toned. So if you girls are looking for an added piece to your gym bag and need an extra boost of confidence this is it.

The NIP + FAB Dark Spot Fix is something I wanted to try for a while as I've seen good reviews on it...even though I'm no where near the age of needing this sort of thing, I don't have dark spots or wrinkles and my skin is 1000 times better since switching my diet to Vegan. I do believe what you put into your body is far more important then the creams you put on it. Saying that since I was 18 Ive always looked after my skin, and now I try and put more natural things on it. But I decided to give it a go... prevention rather then solution right!

The serum contains Illumiscin to reduce the age spots and prevent more appearing, Vitamin C to improve skin tone and Olive Leaf for brightening, softening and increased elasticity.

I applied it at night after cleansing and toning, then after I would apply a moisturiser on top. My skin did have a glow to it, a added boost and I looked more awake. I was really impressed with this, Ive tried other anti ageing type products...such as the Holland & Barrett Olive Oil Eye Cream and that didn't have much of an effect on me. I do like that NIP + FAB use natural extracts in their products. 

Overall I would say the NIP + FAB are a great beauty range and their products are really high quality without the rediculous price tag. I have various gym bags.....you other gym bunnies will understand.... and these shower gels, hand creams and fitness body slim fix will be in all of them!

Stace x

Neal Yards- Lavender & Aloe Vera Deodorant Review

Recently at a Vegan Festival there was a Neals Yard stall, haven't never tried anything from Neals Yard before I decided to try a couple of their products as I had heard from others what wonderful stuff they do. All Vegan friendly and more natural ingredients really appeal to me. I was a little scared trying this product, a more natural deodorant had me thinking it would be less effective and I would end up being a little stinky at the end of the day. The lavender and Aloe Vera deodorant is a natural product ....gentle but effective, its smells absolutely wonderful, its free of preservatives and aluminium salts that block the pores and not to mention the bottle looks really pretty. The deodorant is naturally cleansing, contains organic essential oils from lavender, tea tree, ylang ylang, aloe vera and alpine moss extract which prevents bacteria growth. 

I spend a lot of my day on my feet and with going to the gym or doing various exercise most days a deodorant is key for my everyday living! This kept me fresh all day and I never once had a whiff of stinky smells! Its one of my favourite products at the moment and I think this will definitely be apart of my kit in the long term. It has beat any other deodorants I've tried, which have all been chemical types, so this natural product really is a beauty wonder.

http://www.nealsyardremedies.com/bath-and-body/body/deodorant

Stace x

Yankee Candle Coconut Range

Coconut has got to be my all time favourite smell&flavour! From using Coconut in cooking with oil, cream, milk and water and making delicious recipes with it....to using it in my skincare with creams, hair products and body sprays....plus also using it as a fragrance in the home. I love it! It has a holiday vibe, and puts me in the chilled out mood. Which is why I'm so excited about Yankee Candles new Coconut Range!! These will fill the house full of happy holiday vibes while also looking really stylish too.

The range is available at www.VERY.co.uk for £23.00 each

No.1 Coconut & Sea Air
No.2 Coconut & Beach Flower
No.3 Coconut & Mandarin
No.4 Coconut & Lime
No.5 Coconut & Vanilla Bean
No.6 Coconut & Pineapple

Mount Purious- Body Hemp oil

A couple of weeks ago I went to the NE Vegan Festival at the Stadium of Light. Full of food and beauty stalls this is my idea of heaven. As I start my journey into Veganism I need to surround myself with as much information and awareness as possible. My reasons for becoming a Vegan are mainly health based after reading various books, journals, and watching documentaries I decided to make the switch. I don't feel deprived at all and Ive really never felt better. The ability to create dishes and try foods I've never heard of is one of my favourite hobbies, so I'm thoroughly enjoying becoming a Vegan.

One of the many stalls at the Vegan Fest were Mount Purious, a North East Organic Skincare company. All of their oils are 100% Pure and Certified, no GMO's, pesticides, insecticides are used and they are certified to COSMOS (Organic standard by the UK Soil Association). All vegan, cruelty free, unfiltered, unadulterated and truly raw.

This is just what I've been looking for, I put so much effort and thought into the food I eat, shouldn't I be doing this for what I put on my skin too? Chemicals are literally everywhere, I recommend every I know to read the book Clean by Dr. Alejandro Junger, it tell us about the toxins that surrounds us every single second of the day from the toothpaste we use, to the plastic cup we drink out of, the cleaning products we use and the western medicine prescribed to us.

Mount Purious range includes Argan Oil, Evening Primrose Oil, Hemp Oil, Jojoba Oil, Rosehip Oil and loads more that I want to try! And since it's a North East company and I love helping local companies I will definitely be trying the different products.

I went for the Hemp Oil, as I was told by the guy running the stall ( Im pretty sure he was the owner) that Hemp Oil is great for dry skin, eczema and psoriasis. Since I've had eczema as a kid Ive always struggled to get rid of it so this all natural wonder product was perfect for me.

The Hemp Oil contains high levels of essential fatty acids, omega 3's and omega 6's and amino acids which our bodies need but struggle to product naturally, so we have to source it from elsewhere e.g food. The product is Hemp Oil and that is it. No added chemicals, or other oils or any other ingredients, just purely hemp oil bottled up.

The Oil is lovely, it doesn't smell like a Jo Malone shop.... but I didn't want it to, the oil smells earthy and of Hemp (shockingly)! I use Hemp a lot in the food I eat so I knew what sort of smell to expect.  I would of been really disappointed with the natural hemp oil if it was covered with fake smelling chemicals. It does leave the body greasy to begin with but after about 5-10mins it sinks in and makes the skin feel wonderful and smooth.  I did ask people if they could smell it on me and they said no, so don't panic and think you'll be smelling like a grass field. After using it for 2 weeks my Eczema has compltely cleared up! No western medicine used at all, and all provided by nature. This is music to my ears and just what Ive been looking for....thank you to the guy who recommended it to me!!

Stace x