Sanctuary Spa Body Moisturisers: Body Butter, Body Lotion & Wet Skin Moisture Miracle

When it comes to my skin, I'm always looking for products that will sink in quickly, won't leave a greasy residue or that won't clog my pores. I have fairly oily skin and find face moisturisers are very limiting for me. But when it comes to my body I find I have a lot more choice in terms of what I can use, as my main skin concerns are only on my face, which is my acne, whereas on my body I'll only get the occasional spot here and there. 

For Christmas I received this 3-piece body moisture skincare set by Sanctuary Spa from a close friend. Sanctuary Spa is a brand I've heard of before but never tried any of their products before now and didn't even realise how cheap they were as well! Within the set I received for Christmas I got the Body Lotion, Body Butter and the Wet Skin Moisture Miracle. Now, the one that intrigued me the most was the Wet Skin Moisture Miracle. It's similar to the Nivea in-shower moisturiser in terms of you apply it when your skin is soaking wet, don't rinse and dry yourself with a towel as normal. A concept I haven't really tried before and one I was a little worried about would interfere with my oily skin. But here are my thoughts...

Sanctuary Spa Body Lotion: Now, body lotions aren't really my favourite and I hate the feeling on my skin, I'll just say it now. The fact you have to sit and wait for it to sink into the skin or be able to touch anything - I'm not a fan of that. However, after testing the consistency and comparing it to the others it is definitely not the thinnest consistency and certainly not the thickest consistency of the bunch, but the consistency is just enough to sink in fast enough without leaving a greasy residue or clogging any of your pores, perfect for anyone with oily skin like me or even combination. The scent also lingers afterwards which was pleasantly surprising and left my skin feeling pretty smooth, especially around the elbow areas which tend to get dry pretty quickly.

Key Tips: Fast Drying | Quick Absorption | Non-thick Consistency | No Greasy Residue | Acne Suitable

Sanctuary Spa Body Butter: A thick butter like consistency as the name suggests, making this product slightly on the heavier side compared to the others. I found I had to rub it in that little bit longer, so I suggest using this product when you have a little bit more time on your hands - however, if you find your skin gets irritable quite easily or your pores get clogged by heavy consistency products, then use this product in small amounts and gradually layer it up and you should be okay. When completing sunk into the skin, I found it hydrated any dry patches I have thoroughly well and therefore, mainly focus this product currently on my feet, due to wearing silly shoes and encountering endless amounts of blisters. It also didn't irritate the cracked skin, but just helped boost the healing process a long that little bit faster. In terms of how long it takes to sink into the skin, I would say it needs the most out of all three, but not that much longer than the body lotion. It did leave a tiny bit of a greasy residue afterwards, but this can be combated by simply rubbing the product in more, so would advise using this on any dry patches or someone who suffers with dry skin.

Key Tips: Thick Consistency | Extra Time To Sink In | Slight Greasy Residue | Not Acne Suitable

Sanctuary Spa Wet Skin Moisture Miracle: I remember when Nivea came out with their in-shower moisturiser, a much faster and simpler way to apply your moisturiser when on the go and was always intrigued to try it but never managed to pick it up. So you can imagine how happy I was to see a product similar within this set. The consistency is very thin, probably the thinnest of the set. It applies almost like water, which essentially is what you are doing, applying it on top of soaked skin. When rubbed in, it takes mere seconds and even leaves a rather lovely glow on top. You then towel dry like normal, which to me thought would leave a sticky residue afterwards, but was pleasantly surprised to see it had sunk in amazingly, no sticky residue insight and no greasy residue left over either. The scent doesn't linger as much as the other two products, but it has left my skin feeling incredibly smooth and also made putting my clothes on that more easier, as if there was no moisturiser on my skin to begin with.

Key Tips: Thin Consistency | Quick Absorption | Great For On The Go | Acne Suitable

Overall, I am thoroughly impressed with this set. I found it didn't clog my pores, didn't transfer off the skin onto anything else, left my skin feeling smooth, absorbed quickly into the skin and also found each product mentioned is priced below £10 individually, so won't break the bank. Each product also lasted a rather long time, besides the body lotion (depending on how much you use), especially if you shower every day like me, so it was amazing to see a little bit goes a long way. 

Etude House 0.2 Therapy Air 10 Pack Face Mask Set: Green Tea

Recently, sheet masks are fast becoming one of my favourite ways to have downtime. They are one of the most popular beauty products on the Asian market, as well as easy to apply, easy to remove and above all doesn't require any tugging of the skin. Plus for the price for some single sheet masks, they can work out to be a cheap treat for your skin with added benefits! 

One of my favourite brands of sheet mask is Etude House. I just find their sheet masks are packed with product and they aid my skin so well when its lacking in lustre and needs a pick me up. The current sheets mask I use are the Etude House 0.2 Therapy Air 10-Piece Variety Mask. 

These sheet marks are available in single sachets, however, for £13.95 I couldn't resist going for their 10-piece set, offering a variety of sheet masks which help with brightening, moisturising and more. Plus, to help aid you in choosing the right mask for your skin, I'll be going through each mask one-by-one and sharing my thoughts on their results. So, to start with I'll be reviewing the Green Tea sheet mask as I have been buying and using this particular sheet mask a lot, and found it has helped in aiding my skin so well ever since having a bad reaction to the My Scheming Blackhead Removal Mask. You can read about my experience here. 

To begin with, the 0.2 Therapy Air Masks are hypo-allergenic sheets that won't irritate the skin. They deliver 7-free essence to the skin directly through the 0.2mm air sheet. They have also passed the sensitive panel test, have water purified through their 6-step filtration system, have a 1 to 2 EWG green grade which is an American non-profit environmental organisation all about evaluating chemicals and ingredients used in cosmetics. They are also free from the 7 skin irritating ingredients of Imidazolidinyl, Urea, Polyacryamide, Trethanolamine, Mineral Oil, Silicon Oil, Pigment and Fragrance. As well as with the 0.2mm sheet mask, this allows for your skin to breathe more comfortable through the remarkable air-penetration and lastly, they use natural essence oils to make you and your skin happy.

These face masks also come part of a 3 Essence labelled category. These 3 Essence categories are; The Moist Water Type Essence, The Ampoule Type Essence and lastly, The Emulsion Type Essence. These all deliver a different outcome with the moist water type face masks being absorbed lightly and freshly into the skin to refresh the skin. The Ampoule Type Essence absorbs into the skin mildly but brings powerful moisturisation and lastly, The Emulsion Type Essence absorbs into the skin smoothly with added nutrition. I like the idea behind the masks being categorised as not only does it allow for you to decide which masks suit your skin type/skin problem better but it also allows for you to try a variety of these masks to see how one differs to the other.

As I mentioned previously, I've been trialling and testing the green tea sheet mask for a few months now, especially after getting a bad reaction after using The Scheming Blackhead Removal Mask a few month back. Also, because so many have raved about the benefits of green tea both externally and internally, I thought it was a good time to see whether it worked on more severe issues than what I originally have.

After using the blackhead removal mask, I ended up getting bad dry patches on the sides of my nose just above my lips as well as a section on my chin. I found no amount of exfoliating or moisturising was helping, so I had to delve deeper into my stash to try and find something that could help heal my skin back to its original state. Having had a good reaction from sheet masks when my skin needed a little pick me up, I thought about putting this particular mask to the test to see whether it could help with the aiding of my skin, by bringing moisture back into those specific dry areas. This particular sheet mask sits in the Moist Water Type Essence category, offering light and fresh absorption to the skin. When applied to the skin it feels cooling (I recommend letting them sit in the fridge 24 hours before you use it as it feels so much nicer on the skin!), the mask sat comfortably on my face without much fuss. Also, due to the mask having quite a thin texture, it allowed for my skin to feel as though it wasn't getting claustrophobic with product so essentially had room to breathe whilst at the same let the product do its work. After I had sat with the sheet mask on my face for the recommended time and then removed it, I noticed where I had my dry patches they felt a lot less dry and as though they had, had a major moisture boost. However, this sheet mask alone did not aid at helping the dry patches disappear completely, but after using this mask a couple of times a week alongside my normal skincare routine, I did notice that the dry patches started calming down a lot quicker. As for the rest of my face which didn't need a lot of aiding in moisturising and soothing, I did notice that it helped pick my skin up by making it a lot smoother, which allowed for my makeup to sit more nicely on my skin, as well as allowed for my other skincare products to sink into the skin a lot better. 

Rating: 9/10

Have you tried the Etude House 0.2 sheet masks? Which from the range was your favourite?

Foundation Review: Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation SPF 15

My go to foundation choice over the past year has been the Nars Sheer Glow foundation in Siberia. I found it works amazingly for my oily skin and even though it has a light to medium coverage I found it worked amazingly at covering any pigmentation or blemishes that I had. So you're probably wondering why I'm out trying new foundations when clearly I already found the perfect one? Well, as much as I love trying out hundreds of different skincare products, I found this love has slowly started moving over to makeup, but more so foundation.

As a fellow acne sufferer, I found it can be quite hard trying to find a foundation which is thick enough to cover any redness and pigmentation whilst at the same time last all day and look natural. Therefore, to help out others in a similar situation as me, I've made it my job to trial and test and report back for my acne sufferers out there about what foundations I feel work for my skin and which could potentially work for you and make it worth your money.

Now, I'm going to start by saying I've never tried anything from Bobbi Brown before. *shock horror* It was always one of those brands I heard numerous people mention, but kind of looked at it as one of those brands which could essentially work great for another but not technically me. The likes of Lily Pebbles and Anna from The Anna Edit go crazy for Bobbi Brown makeup and after noticing the very sleek, as well as more for your money bottle, as well as the amazing selection of shades (if you're struggling to find your right shade for a new brand and don't have a counter near you, I'd highly recommend going to this website) I took the plunge and deposited away £28 (I had a discount) of money to the Bobbi Brown website.

My favourite part about the Bobbi Brown foundation is that it comes with a pump. Unlike my current Nars one, you have to pay for the pump seperate which can total you to about £35-£36 depending on where you purchase it. What I also like about this foundation is the colour range. For someone who is as pale as me, it isn't always guaranteed that the lightest shade of foundation available is going to match with your skintone, so it was nice to see they had a shade which went past porcelain if that wasn't light enough. Thankfully, the shade porcelain matched me well enough and compared to the consistency of the Nars foundation, this one blended beautifully into my skin and looked a lot more natural due to the consistency being quite runny and thin, which allowed for you to go with the bare minimum or build it to your desired opaqueness.

Have you tried any Bobbi Brown foundations? What are your thoughts?

Does It Really Work? My Scheming Blackhead Removal Mask

If you're an avid skincare junkie then you'll be well aware of the famous blackhead charcoal mask that made its rounds a couple of months ago as the best treatment to remove your blackheads other than the Biore blackhead strips. As soon as it hit YouTube I knew I had to give it a go after seeing the results, however, I decided to wait a while for the hype to die down as with most products I try out there that are hyped up I do find they don't always work for my skin. Sadly, this product did just the same.

I ordered my kit from YesStyle for around £15 in total, which also included postage. Inside it came with the sebum softener as step 1, the charcoal mask as step 2 and lastly the pore refining essence as step 3. These all work in conjunction with each other so it is better that you follow the steps through and just don't go straight for the charcoal mask as you may find it won't work as good. For a full how to, watch this video here. 

When it came to trialling and testing the blackhead removal mask I did find the whole process in itself to be quite time consuming and fiddly. For a kit which is meant to be good at removing blackheads I wasn't surprised to find that it would require more than one step, but having gone through the process twice I did find the Biore blackhead strips to work a lot better for the time and money spent.

After removing the blackhead pore strip which took around 40 minutes in total to dry completely (side note: the box says it should take around 30 minutes, but I waited until it was completely dry for better results) I noticed that barely any of my blackheads had been removed compared to when I use the Biore Pore Strips which work really well on my skin. However, what I did notice was that after I finished the 3-step course with the pore refining essence that my skin was left feeling really soft and smooth. This didn't last for long as after a couple of days I noticed that my skin started becoming dry in the areas that I applied the charcoal mask and it is only now that my skin has started to improve to its original state after using a lot of hydrating products. This was really disappointing after seeing so many people use this mask with the same skin type as me and them having amazing results. However, with having acne-prone skin this could have caused a slight irritation with my skin causing my skin to become dry, so if you're on the look out to try this product I would recommend being extra cautious when using it as you may find your skin becoming extra dry.

Have you tried the blackhead charcoal mask? What are your thoughts on it?