Balance me cleanse and smooth face balm.

During the cooler months I have really loved using cleansing balms, I love how nourishing they feel and even though my skin is oily, I enjoy using them to deep cleanse my face and give it a massage. This one by balance me comes from 100% natural origin and is suited to dry and sensitive skin, but as I said it works for my skin too.

The things that makes this cleansing balm slightly different to any others is the fact it's got oatmeal in it, so it give your skin a very soft polishing effect, clearing away dead skin cell and dirt. It also contains roman chamomile to help sooth the skin and mandarin to brighten your complexion, and would be perfect for more mature skin (a good mothers day gift perhaps?) as it's so nourishing. The way to use this is to warm a small amount of the balm in your hands till it softens, and then massage it all over my face, my eyelids and lashes (it removes eye makeup really well!) and then dampen the muslin cloth it comes with with warm water, and polish it off. It leaves my skin feeling really clean and smooth, but nourished at the same time.

I use this about once a week, usually on a pamper night as my skin is oily, but if you have dry skin using this daily would really help combat it. It has a very natural scent and a slightly more oily texture than most cleansing blames ( it's not that classic hard texture that most balms have, and the oatmeal in it helps to really smooth out your skin) and feels like a real treat on the skin, as well as doing a fantastic job of taking all your makeup off, and I mean all of it.

At £20 per 125ml it's not the cheapest cleansing balm on the market but it's affordable by any means. It comes in a tube rather than a tub and a little goes a long way so it will last you a while.

The balance me cleanse and smooth face balm is available here

-Thesparkleicious-

*PR sample

Maybelline The Rocket Volume Express Waterproof Mascara

So today we are talking mascara, which I do believe is a first on my blog? I have very short, hardly noticeable eyelashes so I don't tend to ever have much to rave about when it comes to mascaras, because nothing makes my eyelashes look amazing.

I have generally always liked Maybelline mascaras, and this is their latest addition, Maybelline claim this mascara will give you clump free volume and up to 8 times more volume. Now ill be honest, with lashes like mine I tend to look for formulas that claim to add length to my lashes rather that volume, but what convinced me to try this was the brush, It's a plastic brush which is pretty big, and has lots of tiny little bristles all over it, so it's easy to catch every lash. I also wanted to try the waterproof version as I find some mascaras can transfer on my skin, so I felt this was going to be longer lasting.

This is what it looks like on my lashes with 2 coats:

As you can see, it does help give my lashes some much needed length and definition, but not much volume. Because of the size of the brush it's very easy to get it on your lids, but not as bad as some mascaras. I think the most noticeable thing about this mascara is how shockingly alike it is to another very famous mascara, Covergirl lash blast (or Maxfactor false lash effect in the UK) but with a slightly bigger brush, and the fact it's waterproof means it holds a curl better. It's got the same packaging as most of the Maybelline mascaras in this range which is always very chunky and colorful.At this point i'm sure your thinking "Being waterfroof and all, what's it like to remove?" and i'm hear to say, surprisingly easy. I use the Yves Rocher refreshing gel cleanser to remove it, but it doesn't take  100% of it off if I have more than one coat on, so it would be better with a more oil-based makeup remover.

Priced at a very reasonable £7.99 most of the time ( I have seen it in Tesco for £5.99) it's a pretty decent drugstore mascara, but my search will continue to find the one that wows me.

Available   here

-Thesparkleicious-

Lanolips Lemonaid Lip Aid

Hands up if this winter you have been suffering from dry lips? I thought so. The cold weather and the heating causes the skin on our lips, which is much thinner than other areas on our face to become dry and can make whatever lip products we wear over the top look awful.

Enter Lanolips leomaid lip aid. This lip treatment contains over 70% medical grade lanolin and also contains organic lemon oil, which is a natural exfoliant due to the citric acid in it. Lanolips claim that this will leave your lips feeling fresh,soft and moist.

The thing I find the most amazing about this products is the scent. As the name may suggest, it is indeed very lemony, but not in a "cleaning product" kind of way, it's more like a sugary lemon  sweet, which I love. It does leave my lips feeling very smooth and soft, and the texture is like a less greasy version of vaseline. It has a slight golden shimmer in it which is very subtle, but does give your lips a nice full look. The packaging is really lovely too, with the gold text and gold lip, it's looks very girly yet polished.

At £8.99 per 12.g it's very reasonably priced  and a little goes along way, meaning my lips are smooth and soft and ready to rock even the brightest of lip colors!

Have you tried any other lanolips products? what are your top picks?

Lanolips Lemonaid Lip Aid is available here.

-Thesparkleicious-

*PR Sample

Organic surge million dollar brown sugar body polish

Nothing makes my skin feel as sexy as a good body scrub, and this is a GOOD body scrub. The organic surge million dollar range is the latest addition to the organic surge luxury collection, which is 100% natural and supports the organic surge million dollar pledge which will donate $1 from every product sold, in order to raise $1 dollars which will go to the Kenya children's home baby care unit and orphanage to help better the lives of children in  Africa.  

The brown sugar body polish contains harnesses organic brown sugar crystals to polish away dry, flaky skin and a blend of super oils to help moisturize the skin. It contains oils such as sweet orange oil and grapeseed to help eliminate toxins and improve the tone of the skin, but also give a lovely herbal, sweet orange scent. (on a side note, the boy said it smells like tomato's.......i'm totally confused by why he thinks that, but just felt it was worth a mention in case anyone else felt that way)

In terms of texture it's my favorite kind of scrub, it's got a heavy, oily rich texture and the granules are large, it gives a very through polish to the skin but leaves such an oily residue, you won't need to moisturize after using it. This may be a problem for some, but I love it, it's like an all-in-one treatment. The fact it comes in a glass jar gives it a luxe feel, and it does look rather pretty in my bathroom.

At £32 per 400gr it's pretty pricey, but it's a luxe product and does feel like a real indulgent treat. And don't forget, it's for charity! what could be better than a guilt-free pamper night?

Available here 

-Thesparkleicious-

*PR  sample 

Balance me radiance face oil

I'm not sure sure if I have mentioned this before but i'm a huge fan of facial oils, for both dry skin and oily skin, and it's the best cure for dehydrated skin, which I tend to get during the winter, despite the fact I've got oily skin.

This Balance me radiance face oil is an 100% natural facial oil that's made of a combo of softening and conditioning oils such as camellia and yarrow to create a facial oil that will help restore the radiance to your skin and is suitable for all skin types. As I mentioned my skin is oily and this works a treat for me, and I use it as a treat, meaning I use it once or twice a week to give my face a massage at night. It doesn't break me out used this way, but I do think if you have oily skin you should only use it a few times a week. I know the beauty world is in two mind about whether or not  the hole "oil balances oil" theory is true, but this works for me as it's very emollient, yet light and has a plumping effect on the skin.

If you have dry skin this would be perfect for you, alone or worn underneath your night cream and another thing I must note is I adore the packaging of this oil, i'm a total sucker for anything with a pipette applicator (is that weird? I just find them so cute!) and the glass bottle gives it a luxe feel. At £30 per 30ml it's not cheap, but considering that fact it's all natural and a little goes a long way, it's pretty good value for money, and a lovely product.

The balance me radiance facial oil is available here.

-Thesparkleicious-

*PR Sample

Still on a new year health kick!

Well hello there, long time no blog I know! what can I say, i'm possibly the worlds worst blogger. I think a big part of it is the fact i'm not happy with how my blog looks, but am now sure how to get it the way I want so I don't tend to think of post ideas.

But I wanted to get back on track and share with you how I've been getting on health-wise. As many of you may know I have been on a health kick for the past few months as I needed to lose some weight, and it's been going very well, i'm pretty much back to my normal weight (YAY!) and have filmed a video all about  story of my weight loss that will be up later on this week. The main thing I have been enjoying is the food I have been eating. I still make sure I eat really well 6 days of the week and then one day, normally on a weekend, I eat whatever I like, of course depending on what i'm doing. On my last treat day for example I met up with a friend for coffee and had  hot chocolate (with cream!) and a caramel shortbread slice.....supper yummy, and very fattening. Then for lunch I had some kettle crisps  as it was about 4 (the best, but very high in fat) and for dinner I had homemade risotto (My bf makes the best!) and some ice cream for desert. Now to me it's how I would love to eat everyday, but of course I can't if I want to stay slim and healthy, but it's also important that i'm happy and ill be honest, yummy food makes me happy. But I know that healthy food is so important too, that's why I love having this kind of way of eating. During the week I still use my fitness pal and workout 5 days a week, because I want to stay slim and have to keep my eye on the ball, because I gain weight so easily.

My daily diet is something like this:

breakfast-   All bran with milk
Lunch- A sandwich with salad or a bagel, some low-fat crisps (yes, not super healthy I know, but low-cal and yummy!

Snack- Fruit or 2 rice cakes, or some chopped veg. And after dinner I have a frozen low-cal chocolate mousse or a kit-kat (only 107 calories!)

Dinner- This changes, I try and not eat too many carbs but I have things like brown pasta with homemade tomato sauce, roasted veg, salad, sweet potato.

And then on a naughty day.....LOL

Honestly, I am happy with how i'm eating atm and feel like it's very easy to keep up so I don't end up having treat days everyday and ending up being over-weight again. 

What are you guys up to? still on a new year health kick? 

-Thesparkleicious-

YouTube Weight!

Hands up if you are a little worried about your weight. Hands up if someones else's weight bothers you? now that's an interesting question....

I recently came across a post that was all about a certain beauty guru's weight gain. Someone had actually taken the time to write about the fact that she had gained weight and then all the comments were suggesting why and what she should do. Let me just make it clear that this was all about a person who did not say anything about her weight in her videos and that all these people were in fact talking about someone who they had never even met. I wanted to share this topic on here because it made me feel really angry, and somewhat confused too. Why do people care?

I understand that as soon as you put yourself on the internet, your basically opening yourself up to a hole new level of criticism, just as you would if you were a celeb. But the problem is, why do people care if a youtuber gains weight? One camp will say that they are just looking out for her, wanting her to be happy (not that she ever said she wasn't...) and the other people, well they just want to point out the negative in my opinion. All these comments were about a woman who in my eyes, is perfectly normal. Other comments were suggesting that she was simply, too lazy to lose weight. What i'm asking is since when did it become a crime to gain weight and maybe, just maybe not act upon it?

I'm sure some of you are thinking "hang on a minute there miss, your trying to lose weight?" but that's exactly my point i'm doing it because I want to, no one else.Who is anyone to feel like complete stranger, no matter how much you feel you know them because you watch their videos, should feel bad about gaining weight? I'm sure that no one needs to be told they have gained weight, people are not stupid, they can tell! and if they chose to stay like that, does it ever occur to people that maybe they are happy the way the are?

Share your thoughts with me!

-Thesparkleicious-