First Impressions!

At 11PM this evening, my friend was having a chocolate craving and I was in a fit of boredom (for those who have never experienced this, a fit of boredom is basically just passed out on my bed). So I drove over and we went to the local Tesco's for a wander and spent like an hour just having a browse, haha. I ended up leaving with a couple of cans of Rubicon (the guava juice is the best drink in the world), a Grazia magazine, and this Neutrogena face scrub! The other thing was something I picked up in town this morning.
That said, here are my first impressions of two products:


Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Daily Scrub, £4.49
Boots Botanics Soothing Eye Makeup Remover, £2.99

I was looking for the eye-makeup remover today and my friend pointed out to me the Pink Grapefruit face-wash, which I declined (because I have two facial washes I need to get through, haha). Then this evening we were wandering around Tesco's and I wanted to get a gentle facial scrub, so decided to try this one, as I fancied a bit of a change.
It claims:
- with exfoliating micro-pbeads the formula unclogs pores to clean deeply and help elimiate spots and blackheads.
- the refreshing scrub gently purifies the skin without overdrying, while a wave of pink grapefruit uplifts the senses.
I used this when I got home about an hour ago so this is my pretty much immediate impressions. It says "gentle" - which I am in two minds about, really. I don't know if I have very sensitive skin, but it was exactly gentle. Not hard, but not really gentle. Firm, maybe? I dunno. They do a good job, though! Just don't know if I would use that word, really.
The smell is pretty lovely! I love anything with a grapefruity smell (even though I hate grapefruit...) so I warmed to this straight away. It's not unlike The Body Shop's Grapefruit scent, but it smells a bit more.. hospitaly? If that makes sense? A bit like disinfectant. It's not off-putting, but it's noticeable, I think.
Like I said, I used it about an hour ago and my skin instantly felt smoother and much cleaner, which I like. It says it gives a "fresh clean feel" which is about right, really! I feel like almost a fiver is a bit on the expensive side, but I suppose I only used about a 5p amount of product so it'll last for a while, and the packaging is fairly standard for these kind of products - but they do get a bit messy around the cap sometimes, which is a pain.

Price: 3/5
Packaging: 3/5
Product: 4/5
Overall: 3/5

Would I buy this product again?: Probably. Might have to try some other options, though.

My Simple eye-makeup remover was starting to hurt my eyes a little bit, like sting my skin, so I thought it was about time to change what I've been using. So I went hunting for a nice one that was gentle to my eyes and found this by Botanics. It claims to be soothing, with "Iceland moss that hydrates and soothes" and I used it earlier to take my makeup off, and it definitely was quite soothing. It's a weird forumla, I didn't really notice but it's very oily, in fact, it separates:
You can see the two different layers, here, one is greenish and one is clear. I'm not sure if it's oil exactly, because the oily looking one is on the bottom. So I dunno about that really. That's beside the point, though. It is very nice on the eye area, and removes makeup very well, even getting off the trace of mascara and eyeliner that normally linger. I don't really know anything about the moss it supposedly has, but it doesn't hurt so this is good in my book!
I loveee the shape of the bottle and the style, I think it's really nice and simple, and it's not a bad price, either, for £2.99! Pretty good, in fact. I can see it lasting a while, as I'll just use this to remove stubborn eye-makeup and then use a cleanser on my face.
It didn't leave an oily residue as oily makeup removers sometimes do. Sometimes they seem to make my skin feel really sticky and heavy, and this didn't do this! So good times were had.

Price: 5/5
Packaging: 5/5
Product: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

Would I buy this product again?: So far, most definitely!

Hope you enjoyed this first impressions review, I am now off to bed!

Summer Essentials!

I did think about making a video talking about this, but decided that I would just do a post, because I explain myself more succinctly in writing. I thought this might come in handy for those hot summer days that we've actually been having here in the UK! Unfortunately they seem to fall on days when I'm at work, so this is some of the stuff I stash in my bag, haha.


Suncream
This is an obvious one, really. Suncream. I recommend getting a little bottle to throw in your handbag, because you never know when you'll get caught out in the sun (for example, whilst waiting for an iPhone4.. haha). Gemma just did a great post about anti-aging products and the gimmicks. Really, your number one best bet to help prevent aging on the face is to use suncream. Mix it in with your foundation, get a foundation with high SPF, just try and use it on your face as much as possible!


Facial Wash
This is also a bit of a no-brainer. In the summer, you sweat more, and if you wear makeup when you're all sweaty.. you're just going to end up with messy skin, so I realllly recommend a good cleanser. The Shu Uemura one here is pretty pricey - but it gets off foundation like a treat. I also think something cooling and refreshing such as The Body Shop's Seaweed Deep Cleansing Facial Wash, of which you find a review here. I came home from a sweaty 12-5PM shift this afternoon, and the first thing I did was scrub it all over my face and neck and it felt wonderful.


Exfoliators of all kinds!
No-one likes to have icky, dry, flaking skin during the summer.. and you're all the more likely to get it if you're getting a bit of sun. The Body Shop's Raspberry Scrub is a great all-over product, but I use this on my shoulders and my feet in particular, as it's a really good intense scrub - and all the Body Shop scrubs are good for this. I have waxed lyrical about how much I love Lush's Bubblegum Lip Scrub: if I am exposed to any weather that isn't your bog-standard English rain, my lips go to pieces. Sun or snow, my lips get dry and flaky, and this is a great helping. Finally we have the only face-exfoliator I really use. I don't really need a good one for my face as I don't get too dry, and this one is really gentle. I've had it for a while and can't remember where I bought it from, but I saw it in Vogue magazine, and bought it.


Body Moisturisers
I should've mentioned this above, but summer really is the season of tanning - you're going to want to watch out for those dry spots by exfoliating and moisturising like crazy - especially if you're a fake tanner! This Soap & Glory all-over moisturising "mist" is great. It smells fantastic and I spray liberally all over after I've showered. You don't really need to rub it in, it just sinks in on it's own. The mini-body-butter is great for popping in your handbag and all of those Body Shop butters are great for intensive moisturising. Apply to shoulders, elbows, feet and legs after exfoliating! (:


Hair Conditioners
I have a lot of hair. I have a lot of thick hair. I have a lot of thick, long hair. I also have a habit of washing my hair and then letting the sun dry it - mainly because I end up looking like Mufasa if I attempt it any other way - which makes it frizz something awful. In the summer my ends get all dry and my hair gets weaker. Conditioner's like this are ah-maz-ing. I swear by Miracle Moist - the only thing that doesn't give me intense breakage, and I love the leave-in conditioner: I just spray it all through my hair when I've got out the shower and it helps heaps.


Dry Shampoo
This is literally just a god-send, whatever the weather, but I seem to use it more in the summer, for whatever reason. Great for when it's too hot to do anything but you want to look respectable! I much prefer the Tropical scent - the rest seem a bit hospital-ish for my liking - but the mini Batiste I bought after a day out in London and needed to spruce my hair up before going for drinks and hasn't really left my bag since. Since I bought these they've realeased a brunette one, which I want to try.


Sunnies!
Your eyes are just as important as you skin, so make sure you protect those babies.

And that's all for now! There will be a Summer Essential's post for makeup coming up shortly, so make sure you don't miss that. I hope you like these kind of posts, let me know, I'd love to hear your input!