I might not look it from my photos but I am nearly 31 years old. Well, I hope I don’t look it anyway. I might be passed my prime to some people but seeing as I remember the 90’s (I was there after all) I thought I would share a couple of different products that we used back in the day. There are some new ones in there too because I can.
Continue reading The Beauty Edit: Something Old, Something New
Recently I have been plagued with smelly people. You know the ones I’m talking about. They stand next to you in a shop, or sit near you on the bus, and the whiff of their bodies brings tears to your eyes. It used to be that if you smelt like that, you were very poor and couldn’t afford to wash on a regular basis. But in modern society it still happens and I have to ask, why have these people stopped washing?
Children are expensive little items to say the least but this becomes more obvious at Christmas time. It’s not just buying your children gifts, you have to start buying their friends as well. My daughter has made friends with a few girls in her class and last night I found myself running out in the wind and rain for some late night shopping for a bunch of pre-teens that I’ve never meet. The end result was a shower gel set each which I’m sure they will probably hate. In a way I don’t mind doing this, to be honest I’m just glad my daughter made friends, but it was the expectations of my daughter that were the problem. I have never meet these girls but my daughter wanted me to spend a small fortune on stuff. Earrings, phone covers, sweets, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Christmas is not the only time. From children start to socialise and make friends, your money will start to bleed from your purse like it’s been attacked, repeatly. Birthdays are a horrible one when every parent seems to compete to get the birthday boy/girl the best gift. And most of the time, what is handed over is crap that said child will never use. It’s a sad truth that your hard earned money will go down the toilet on presents that no-one wants but in these situations you can’t not buy a gift. And it always has to be something “fun”. No child wants clothes from their friends, money as a gift screams “this parent has no time/imagination”, and useful things are not an option. But why not? There is a scene in Mermaids, the classic 80’s movie with Cher, when she hands out toothpaste and toothbrushes instead of sweets at Halloween, what an awesome idea! Why can’t we all give kids useful presents? I’m not saying that I should have gotten my daughters friends a box of tampons each….or maybe I should have? Let’s face it, getting that for Christmas would always stick in their minds.
In the end, I talked my daughter round to seeing things my way, which was “my money, I choose”. Like I said, I don’t mind buying a small gift for each if her friends but I refuse to buy them something expensive at every birthday and holiday. That’s just not happening. For now, she’s happy enough with what I picked out but you would be too if I had threatened you with a box of tampons as a Christmas present too.
I think it’s time I at least tried to look presentable…
When it comes to our appearance, everyone likes to look good but is it necessary to spend a fortune on beauty products to get the look we want? Seeing as I was trying to up-date my look I thought I would give some of the products from the Pound Shop a go. I was surprised by the selection of goodies that were available for just a pound each, but are they any good? I decided to start with the Creightons “Squeeky Clean” range of products to break me into a new beauty routine. The pink packaging was nice and girly with a vintage picture on most of the products but it reminded me too much of Soap and Glory products, which was probably the point.
Just some of the range
Not wanting to miss anything, I choose to get one of everything that the shop had in stock. Shower gel, body lotion, face scrub, face moisturiser, and face mask. Not too bad, five items for a fiver. There are other items in the range but this was all that the shop had in stock at the time. But the question is, will they work? Can these cheap items hold their own against the more expensive brands? I once got a sample of a Gucci foundation which retails at £50 a bottle and I swear, I looked like my face had been photoshopped. It was that good. So, with this in mind I don’t have a great deal of faith in these products. That might seem unfair but I was prepared to give them a fair chance in the hope that I would find some amazing new thing that only cost me a pound.
First up was the face mask. The instructions said to apply to your face and leave for ten minutes before washing it off. Easy enough then. But after 2 minutes of applying this white gloop to my face, it started to burn. Not “oh, my pores are getting a good clear out” tingle, more like a “OH GOD! IT BURNS! IT BURNS!” sort of feeling. Now keep in mind the fact that I don’t have sensitive skin but I couldn’t even last 5 minutes with it on me before I was dunking my face in the sink to remove it. It felt so bad I was worried that I was burnt down to my bare skull. Luck was on my side as my face wasn’t left too red but a couple of shades darker and I could have been confused for someone who just received an acid face peel.
Isn’t that just so sexy? Actually don’t answer that….
I jumped my bum into the shower to make sure my face was completely clear of the face mask/acid plaster and decided to try out the shower gel. This stuff wasn’t too bad. It had a nice lather and I felt clean afterwards, but the scent wasn’t very strong and didn’t last. The same could be said for the body moisturiser. The scent was barely noticeable but it did leave my skin feeling soft. Both these bottles were good sized so you get plenty of product for your pound.
I left it a few days before I dared try the face cream and scrub. I did not want to risk burning my face off completely after the face mask. The scrub was very rough and the grains felt too big for a face scrub, so I used it on my knees instead where it worked a treat. The face moisturiser was just as good as the body moisturiser. My skin was left soft and it dried in quickly, meaning I was able to move on to my make-up without having to wait about all day for tackiness to fade. The lack of smell meant my hubby-to-be was happy to use it on his own face after shaving.
All in all, these products were very hit and miss. I hated the face mask and the face scrub but the shower gel, body moisturiser and face cream get top marks. They aren’t fancy and there are no skin tightening or youth reclaiming magic in them but they do the job as basic products and wouldn’t look out of place in any girls bathroom.
Latte Lindsay 