Today's post is a little different, I recently won a prize over on the lovely Fluff and Fipperies (if you haven't checked out this amazing blog yet, do as soon as you are finished reading this post) from beautyboutique.ie. The giveaway was to advertise that for every purchase of Ren Moroccan Rose Otto Body Wash, you got a free Essie Chocolate Kisses. So I won one of each! The offer is still on, as is an offer of 3 free samples with each Ren purchase.
So I don't normally blog about things related to skin care because I have stupidly sensitive skin and it takes a bit of a push for me, to try new things because of the fear of a reaction. One of my favourite treats is a nice shower gel, well you use it everyday so I usually have 3 or 4 on the go. I'm the same with shampoo and conditioner as well and even toothpaste, I get bored of using the same things all the time and need to rotate. There's usually one or two original source ones in there ( I'm liking the shea butter and honey one at the minute), a J&J baby one and one that's a bit of treat. My usual treat one is L'Occitane Verbana, which I love, or the Elemis frangipani one but I mix it up a bit, particularly now I'm bathless and can't enjoy my Aromatherapy Associates bath oils :(
Anyway, on to the Ren product., I don't loads about Ren but they don't contain parabens, sulphates, mineral oil and assorted other nasties, so that's always a plus. I have no pictures of it before it was used, as my mother held it hostage! I get my post sent to my parents house because there's usually someone there during the day and Rose is her favourite 'flavour' of body products, so there was no way it was coming home with me, once she knew what was in the package -which, incidentally arrived very quickly. I bartered with her by giving her a L'Occitane shower gel, that someone bought me as a present and I can't use because the smell is so overpowering it gives me a migraine.
I really like that it has a pump, it means you're not using more than you want, you really don't want all your €20 shower gel spilling and going down the drain. Although, I don't know if the pump will mean the last bit is harder to get out, we'll have to wait and see. The smell of this is really delicate and in no way overpowering, it reminds me of turkish delight. I think that's because it's Rose Otto and not Rose Absolute, which I should really ask the da mammy since she is qualified in all things like this.
I tend to use 1-2 pumps on a shower puff or exfoliating gloves in the shower and we're good to go. It's not drying and slightly moisturising. I don't usually use body lotion after using this beause it smells so nice and get away with it. It doesn't bother my dry sensitive skin, so I'd rebuy this and I'm looking forward to trying some more Ren products.
Have you tried this or any other Ren products? Any suggestions of what I should try next? Do you splash out on shower gel as a treat or just use whatever is on special offer, or a little of both like me?
Just an extremely quick post today, to add to this post, on ways to follow the blog. I recently joined hellocotton, so if you prefer this way to follow blogs, you can follow this blog there either by follow this link or press the little gadget over there on the right. (If you are reading this on hellocotton, hello!)
If you haven't heard about hellocotton, it's a website that collects all your blog subscriptions together and is slightly more interactive, than say bloglovin. You don't need to have a blog to have a profile, but you can only follow blogs which have a profile on hello cotton.
Have you tried hellocotton? What do you think?
Those of you who follow me on twitter will know that I was away in Spain for work last week, so I thought I'd do a quick post on the makeup and beauty stuff I brought with me. I thought I packed light but when it was all sitting on the table I realised how much I brought! (I've not included any nail varnish and removed duplicates.)
Skin care, hair care etc,
My favourite moisturiser is this Liz Earle one, so that was a must, but I also brought the benefit samples I received here, to try out also. Burt's Bees are one of my favourite brands and the people I like best know that so often buy me the mini kits for presents. The Milk and Honey body lotion smells yummy and moisturises well but is also very soothing after being in the sun. The Soap Bark & Chamoile Cleansing cream is lovely and one of my favourite cleansers, the fact it smells like sherbet helps too! ( I also brought some No7 Makeup remover wipes with me too, just for heavy duty makeup). The Hamilton Everyday Face Sunscreen, is my favourite, as I'm often allergic to suncream, it also is brown(but it doesn't even out your skin tone like a tinted moisturiser) in colour (like a tinted moisturiser) which means your face doesn't get shiney after you apply it . The Umberto Giannini Curl Scrunching Jelly, just doesn't suit my hair at the moment unfortunately, I've tried and like it before but I'm having bad hair at the moment! Instead of polish remover I brought these wipes they are not very nice, but easier to transport. Finally, I rarely go anywhere without a bottle of tea tree for spots and cuts (and usually a bottle of lavender for sunburn, bites etc, but I couldn't find it when I was leaving!)
I tried to keep make up to a minimum and knowing that it was going to be hot and foundation was probably going to melt off, I decided to bring 2 MAC samples I'd got at the counter when I was looking for new foundation, in case I did want to wear any (they are the two little pots) and my battered (it generally lives in my handbag!) Bourjois powder. Eyeshadow wise, since it was a work trip, I kept it very safe. The Rimmel quad doesn't have great colour payoff and was a panicked airport buy! The 17 trio, is good for a smokey eye. That's an ELF eyeshadow brush in the picture too, I have a few of these from both the £1.50 range (like this one) and the Studio range (£3.50) and I like the cheaper ones better. Mascara is probably my favourite bit of makeup, although since I started wearing my glasses all the time earlier this year, I find I don't wear it so much.. This one is Maybelline One by One Volum' Express (I've no idea why they felt the need to remove the E in Volume?!?), it has a spikey brush and I think it gives good length and definition to my lashes. Also pictured are Benefit Cha Cha tint and a small High Beam, that I got with Glamour last month, I've used both of these every day. I'll talk about the lipsticks and glosses, further down, so that just leaves the Benefit Tweezerman Tweezers, which I love, and MAC Fix +, which I also love but it comes into it's own in a hot country, particularly when you keep it in the fridge.
I thought I'd do the lipsticks and glosses seperately, from L-R, Benefit Who are you wearing?, Elf Mineral Pagent Princess, Elf Mineral Runway Pink, Elf Mineral Pouty Petal, Elf Mineral Party Pink, Benefit Do Tell, Benefit Flirt Alert, Mac Russian Red. Swatches below in the same order. (Pictures are clicky for larger images as always!)
Phew - I didn't expect this post to be quite so long! Is there anything I should have brought and didn't? Whenever I'm going away I pack things that I wouldn't mind losing because they were cheap or easy to replace, one because I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached and secondly because I've arrived sans luggage one too many times! What are your must haves for holidays?
Edited to Add: I got the inspiration for this post from Karen at http://www.lovelygirliebits.com, and wrote it about 2 weeks ago, but didn't get to post it due to blogger/lack of internet issues, but I've seen loads of people do it in the mean time.
On Saturday, I took myself off to Dublin for a Benefit event organised with the lovely Kirstie and Aisling of Beaut.ie and Maggie and Annie (the daughters of one the benefit founders) to coincide with the launch of Cha Cha tint. I had missed previous get togethers so I thought this would be a great time to meet the other beaut.ies! It was so nice to finally put faces to blog names and twitter names! Having first met up with the girls ( from Claire, Cornflakegirl, Aifs - who has the most amazing benefit collection ever, Art Donatella, Action Mags, Sile C, Bride and Joy, Lovely Girlie Things, All Made Up and I think that's it) we actually missed the demos but all had our make done by the very lovely benefit make up artists. Having made our purchases we got a fab goody bag, I bought Cha Cha tint (it would have been rude not to!) Being a bad blogger even though I had my camera with me I took not one photo! - but you can pop over to Beaut.ie for some. I know I don't normally do make but let's have a little goo at Cha Cha tint.
Cha Cha tint is coral coloured cheek and lip tint a la benetint. I love it on the lips and am still getting used to applying it to my cheeks! (If only I could have been watching myself as the girl was doing my make up!) Here it is in the bottle
Swatches of cha cha tint - on the left as it is, yes, scarily bright! and on the right it's blended out, not so scary now is it!
and here's the contents of the goodie bag
A lipgloss, a benefit tweezerman, which I'm dying to try and will not lose as I do all my other tweezers, and some samples of the new skin care range.
The lipgloss is 'Who are you wearing?' and I was actually told by a benefit counter that it was discontinued a couple of years ago. So I'm delighted both to see it obviously wasn't and to get a new one!
How cute is the skin care packaging?! On the left Triple Performing Facial Emulsion(?!) and on the right It's Potent eye cream. I'll let you know how I get on with them, after I've used them for a while.
Sorry this turned in to quite a long post but I had a fab day and it was so lovely to meet some lovely beaut.ies!
I tend to use 1-2 pumps on a shower puff or exfoliating gloves in the shower and we're good to go. It's not drying and slightly moisturising. I don't usually use body lotion after using this beause it smells so nice and get away with it. It doesn't bother my dry sensitive skin, so I'd rebuy this and I'm looking forward to trying some more Ren products. 
