Tutorial Tried and Tested - Crochet Face Scrubbies

My skin care regime means that I get through a lot of cotton wool each week and I've been meaning to have a go at crocheting an alternative for ages! My crochet skills are still very much at beginner level but I thought I'd have a go at making some when I found a tutorial over at 'dabbles and babbles'.

I found the pattern (which is completely free) really easy to follow and although I lost my way a few times (I'm still not very skilled at circles and keeping track of where I am...I'm putting it down as a concentration issue!) they all came out pretty much round - which is an actual miracle!

Each one took me about 30 minutes to make - so they've been a perfect mini distraction each evening.

Perhaps most importantly of all - they totally work! I've been using them with my cleanser each night and my skin feels fresher than ever - perfect! I've got a jar to keep them in and a little zip-up bag to put them in to be washed, and so far the system is working perfectly.

So...better for the environment, better for my face and a relaxing little tutorial to try - perfect!

Here are my finished scrubbies, made from a selection of 100% cotton wool I had in my stash...

 

Bye for now! xx

BEDN - Beauty

Link to original image

I started writing a post about make-up for this BEDN prompt and then realised that as much as I love make-up and all things pretty, that isn't really what beauty is about.

So instead I thought I'd share this quote from the most amazing Roald Dahl.

And I like to think it's true!

Bye for now xx

BEDN - Self-Care Sunday - My go-to Lush products

My self-care Sunday post is dedicated to the Lush products I use regularly. I became a Lush skin care convert about 6 years ago. My skin was going through a particularly difficult patch - really dry and just generally uncomfortable. A trip into Lush changed all of that and I haven't looked back.

For reference, in case you're thinking of trying these products, I have combination skin but it generally leans more to the oily side of town.

So here are my everyday essentials for my face - they keep my skin moisturised, non flaky and pretty much clear of blemishes - hurrah!

1. Ultrabland - this is my everyday cleanser. Containing beeswax and honey, it has a really subtle smell and removes all my make-up. I literally apply to dry skin and then remove using moist cotton wool and it removes even my toughest make-up.

2. Eau Roma - this is my favourite toner (and I've tried a lot). Containing rose water it smells heavenly and helps to calm my skin - especially useful as the weather gets colder and the wind gets harsher. I use this after cleansing each day by just spritzing on a piece of cotton wool. It seems like the perfect partner for using after Ultrabland as it helps remove the last little traces.

3. Imperialis -  this moisturiser has a really lovely subtle floral smell - particularly of lavender and has completely sorted out all of my dry skin problems - but it's also perfect for my oily areas - how does it do that? Magic I tell you!

So that's the three products from Lush I use every day without fail. I have more favourites and I'm sure they'll appear here at a later date!

Have a lovely Sunday and don't forget to give yourself some care time!

Bye for now xx

#BEDM - Fashion, Beauty and Grooming

I'm going to conveniently ignore one part of today's prompt for Blog Every Day in may...fashion. That's not because I don't love fashion, because I do, but more because I know absolutely nothing about it. I think I'm still trying to find my own sense of personal style...I'm aware that I really need to do this before I reach pensionable age!

Instead I thought I'd focus on the beauty and grooming side of life. Treating myself to beauty products has turned into a fairly essential part of my 'keeping sane' routine.

I don't smoke, or do drugs and hardly drink....so make-up is an ok vice....right? I thought I would share my  May beauty/ grooming purchases with you...

Benefit 'The POREfessional' - this face primer helps to smooth the appearance of pores. I've used it for the first time today and haven't been hugely impressed - it kind of seems to have made my face oilier than normal, but I'll persevere in case I'm just having an oily day (nice!)

Soap and Glory Rich and Foamous Body Wash - honey, almonds and oats make this an absolutely gorgeous body was - it smells like heaven and leaves my skin feeling smooth and lovely - highly recommended!

Lush Full of Grace Serum Bar - This is a firm favourite of mine and a genuine life saver when my skin is feeling tired or dry. It contains an interesting mix of ingredients, including portabello mushrooms, and I often use it as a nightcream when I need a boost!

Lastly, I bought the Benefit Hello Flawless Foundation and Powder - and I'm loving both of them so far - long lasting and help give my complexion a bit of a boost - bonus!

So that's it for May...so far. Now I think it's time to celebrate today's prompt by visiting some beauty blogs and putting together a bit of a wish list!

Bye for now

Kat xx

BEDM - World Fair Trade Day

My original plan for the 'Blog Every Day in May' prompt for today was to talk about some of my most favourite fair trade products (like Divine Chocolate ...yum!).

However, one company kept appearing in my list of loves...and that is Lush, who have fair trade and all things ethical very much at their heart.

Before I start I should confess that Lush are my most favourite company of all time...their products are gorgeous, they have the most lovely staff ever, they originate from the same home town as me and they aren't shy about talking up about the things they believe in.

Pretty much all of my daily-use beauty products come from Lush - their products have sorted out many a skin problem for me and I'll always be grateful for that!

I was hoping to do a bit of a Lush haul post for today but I'm not going shopping until tomorrow (bad timing)!

So instead I thought I would share a couple of my most favourite products which contain fair trade ingredients, but with a caveat to expect more posts about Lush in the future!

Imperialis Facial Moisturiser - This is my go-to daily moisturiser. It has a subtle smell of lavender and completely balances my combination skin.

Fair Trade Foot Lotion - This product smells like peppermint heaven and is a very welcome treat for tired feet - it got me through some tough times training for a marathon walk a while back!

And lastly - American Cream - the fair trade vanilla in this heair conditioner gives it a gorgeous smell and I use as a little hair treat every now and then - it leaves my hair so very soft!




So that's my top 3 for today - lots more of Lush to come. I'm growing more and more interested in ethical make-up as well as other beauty products so hope to be able to write more posts on the topic soon.

Bye for now!

Kat xx

Tutorial Tried and Tested - The Nail Edition

Does nail art count as a crafty project? I kind of think it does. I certainly get the same rush of happiness when they're painted a pretty colour as I do when I finish a little craft project.

One of the first things I pinned on Pinterest was a nail art tutorial, and I've been pinning them ever since. This tutorial by Chloe's Nails is one of the first tutorials I came across for using tape to create patterns and I decided it was finally time to give it a go. I especially loved this project because it didn't require any complex tools - all it needs is nail polish and scotch tape.

Now this is the first tutorial I've tried that I really struggled with. However, I should explain that this is due only to my clumsiness with nail painting, and nothing to do with the tutorial which is actually very clear!

Here is my attempt (the tutorial uses 3 colours but I decided 2 should be my limit..nail art virgin and all that):

Through doing this I learnt 2 things. The first is that I hate how scrappy my nails look in photos (there is no danger of me ever becoming a nail blogger, trust me).

The second is that I'm painfully slow at doing this kind of thing. It took me longer to paint these nails than it did to crochet my doily brooch last week! Placing the tape and peeling it off again was a nerve racking process, although I think I'll get better with practice.

Now that said, I'm writing this a couple of days after painting my nails, and I'm loving how my nails look with this pattern. So was it worth the time it took? Totally.

The colours I used were:

Lemon Meringue NP030 by Models Own and...

 

Pink Quartz 5141 by Barielle.

My nails now remind me of an ice-cream sundae...yum! Don't forget to check out the tutorial here if you fancy trying your own scotch tape nail art!

 

 

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Stop, Nail Time!

Ugh, I'm actually making myself cringe with the title of this post, but sor some reason can't resist using it. My brain went something along the lines of ....hmm, a title for a nail varnish post, what links to nails
....well you use a hammer on nails
....hammer time (and now that song will undoubtedly reside in my head for the next 24 hours)

 and you get the rest!

Anyway, lame post titles aside I've started playing around with nail art a lot more recently. Most of my attempts are a little bit failed (I swear it's harder than it looks), but this week a little parcel of potential nail based fun arrived. I bought a selection of 50 fimo cane rods for a very reasonable price from Amazon.co.uk.

If you haven't seen these rods before, they are little tiny sticks of fimo, approx 5cm in length which you can finely slice with a sharpe blade to make teeny tiny little shapes to stick on your nails. I've seen these used before and haven't always been too fond of the effects - I like quite simple nails, so the trend to sticks lots and lots of fimo shapes on one nail, although pretty, is just not me.

The result of my first play with these canes was this:

I'm actually really happy with how they turned out, and it was a lot of fun to do - like a mini craft project on my nails! Read on if you would like to have a go at these nails yourself...

Make-up case makeover

Today I wanted to introduce an old friend. It might not look like much but it's been with me through thick and thin...

This is actually my most beloved make-up case. As a make-up obsessed teenager I desperately wanted a professional aluminium make-up case for my birthday. Although my mum and dad couldn't get me one at the time (they were pretty pricey!) they used their combined genius to put together this bad boy for me - a tool chest, with a big mirror glued into the lid, and some homemade compartment dividers.

It travelled with me to University, my first home and through total of 7 house moves. The reason for me sharing is that I have a confession to make, for in recent years I've totally neglected my old friend, and this is what its insides became...

Aka total and utter chaos (and don't get me started on how old some of that make up is, there are students at the College where I work who are younger than some of those items). I decided it was time for a ruthless purge of all old make up, and a thorough clean of the case, which I re-lined with some pretty papers...

And then re-organised my remaining make-up stash, including some new purchases from E.L.F (more on those to come in another post). This was the end result...

From left to right I now have separate sections for my face products, eye products, lip products and then random beauty 'gadgets'. I'm hoping this will make getting ready in the morning a bit easier (and less of a make-up based lucky dip), and also stop me forgetting about the different make-up I own.

I've really enjoyed this little project (I can call turning out my own mess a project, right?), it's certainly encouraged me to try some new make-up, and it feels really good to have thrown away some of the older items. I'm trying to stick with a 1-year rule from now on to make sure everything is a bit fresher.

I hope it inspires turning out of make-up stashes, and I can highly recommend the organisational abilities of a metal tool case (just carry it flat, if you pick it up by the handle chaos ensues as nothing is held in place, which I discovered to my peril).

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She Said Beauty - April Box

Well I've officially jumped on the beauty box band-wagon. After a bit of research 'She Said Beauty' seemed like the one for me. I confess the colour of the box was one of the deciding factors (so shallow)!

So pretty! If I keep up my subscription I can imagine myself using these to stash craft supplies away. So here's what was inside the box:

• Filthy Gorgeous Nail Polish in 'Valentine'
• Comfort Zone Body Expert Kit - including 6 sample sachets including a body exfoliator, shower gel and different body creams
• Mischa Barton Luscious Lips in 'Pink Pop' (wait...Mischa does make-up now?!)
• Bellapierre Shimmer Powder in 'Champagne'
• Bharti Vyas The Ultimate Therapy Face and Neck Polisher
• Erno Laszlo The Hollywood Collection - 5 samples of the new range
• A Lindt Easter Egg of yuminess

I'm not going to write a review about all of the products (because what I don't know about beauty products would fill a library), but I'm totally impressed with this box. The skin products I'm not so bothered by - mostly because I adore Lush skincare so much I don't feel a massive need to try anything else, but it's always nice to feel pampered and the Erno Laszlo products are well out of my price range so I wouldn't get to try them otherwise (between £85 - £175 - ouch!).

The shimmer powder is stunning, and my favourite item of all was the Filthy Gorgeous Nail Polish...

I can never have too many reds! I'm going to keep my subscription up for now. There's something quite lovely about receiving a little box filled with nothing but little treats. Maybe if I get more confident with beauty projects I'll start the odd review.

You can find out more about the beauty boxes here. 

Random Review Wednesday - Big Up for the Big Blue

My taste in things is random to say the least - I love so many different things and I thought that a good way to share them would be to do a random review once a week. It could range from books, to films, to nail varnish or the latest cupcake of yumminess.

If I had to write a list of the ten companies/ shops I love the most in the world then Lush would have to be on it. The reasons for my adoration are many...their products are gorgeous, they are one of the most ethical companies I've come accross, they do good work for charity, they originate from the town I grew up in and...did I mention that their products are gorgeous...seriously?

It seemed like one of their products would be perfect for my first random review, so I present to you...

Photo from lush.co.uk

Big Blue

I love this Ballistic..pop it into the bath while the water is running and it tranforms your bath into a blue lagoon...seaweed and all. The water turns the most gorgeous of blue, it smells like heaven (containing lavendar and lemon oil) and has actual little pieces of seaweed contained within - which soften in the water and makes my skin feel sooo soft. It's one of the most relaxing products I've tried from Lush and I totally recommend it. My only caution would be the seaweed because a) it can leave a bit of mess to clean up and b) some people find it icky.


 If you're too icked out by seaweed then check out Lush anyway - they have about a gazillion gorgeous products and are a company well worth you time.