The New Thing: REN Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask

When it comes to reviews and hype products, I am a marketers dream. Mother says "they see you coming" but when the REN Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask was over every blog and claiming to give me a radiance boost, I knew I had to try it. Thick in texture, orange and marmalade consistency, this smothered over my face on Sunday mornings has become a staple in my routine and I love the results it gives. Lets no skip the fact that this smells amazing. I apply two pumps to the back of my hand, apply with a mask brush and leave on for 15 minutes then rinse with a hot hot water and a muslin cloth... And viola! The radiant skin I've always wanted. This stuff actually works!

The Review: Elemis Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm

When I scrapped the last of my Emma Hardie Cleansing Balm from the pot, I needed to replace the balm shaped hole in my life. After scouring the internet and Emma Hardie being sold out - Caroline Hirons, you are to blame! I decided to opt for it's competetor, the Elemis Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm. Very similar to the Emma Hardie, it's thick in texture, slightly thicker than EH and butter coloured. I take a pea sized amount, rub together between my hands and massage over my face. The first element of this balm you notice is the smell, with rose, elderberry and starflower, this is beautiful to inhale during the massage and instantly relaxes me after a long days work. Teamed up with the free flannel Elemis have included, all make up is removed and my skin feels thorougly cleansed and nourished. A pot of this will set you back £39.50 and if it's as good as Emma Hardie? I'm still on the fence about that...

The Notes: Advice For My Teenage Self

Hello you lovely ladies. I know I've been a bit MIA in blogging, this is due to a very stressful time at work, personal life and also down to the fact my memory card has broken and I've not replaced it. I'm moving house next week and everything is up in the air so once I'm settled back down into my new house and got a new memory card, regular blogging will commence.

I've seen these posts floating around and I always think they're interesting to read. There are times where I sit back with my best friends and talk about high school and sixth form and looking back now and learning a lot, there are a few things I'd tell myself to prepare me for the future.

"The thing is each one of us is the sum total of every moment that we’ve ever experienced with all the people we’ve ever known. And it’s these moments that become our history. Like our own personal greatest hits of memories that we play and replay in our minds over and over again."

Beauty
I've always been fairly knowledgeable when it comes to make-up and watching Youtube videos from a young age, I had a vague understanding but looking back, I wish I'd left my eyebrows alone! I plucked and plucked till they were barely visable, apparently that seemed to be a popular thing back then? It was definitely not, looking like you've got no eyebrows is certainly not a good look. I'm now 20 years old and only just grown my eyebrows back to a suitable thickness and shape. Another trend was cat flick eyeliner, of course eyeliner is an alien concept to me and not something I find that suits me, but during a slightly "emo" phase, I lined my eyes with black kohl. Safe to say I've learnt my lesson and eyeliner is banished!

School
I didn't really enjoy school if I'm honest, I lost all motivation to be there and when the end of sixth form came, I was just so glad to be out of there that I didn't care what A Levels I got or how well I did, I wanted to leave as soon as I could. Looking back, I know I could of worked a lot harder. I treated sixth form as a social club really, spending time with friends, skipping lessons, not doing coursework and avoiding school work as much as I could. I passed my A Levels but didn't do well enough to get into University, I didn't want to go to University but I felt a lot of pressure during A Levels to do well and go to University because that was the "done thing". I've had 3 years of my life going from A Levels studying English and Media and then onto college to study Beauty Therapy and still not knowing what I want to do as a career. Overall I wish I'd worked a bit harder but at the moment, I'm enjoying taking life as it comes so this advice would be bittersweet.

Friends
I have a handful of best friends, people I can confide in and those who I can trust and would put my life in their hands. They are the best friends I could ask for but during high school I had my fair share of bitches, liars and backstabbers. Looking back now, I was involved with the "popular" kids at school, think Mean Girls and some of the girls were absolute bitches. I found I struggled to get on with a lot of them, I would fall out and we'd argue and then everyone would just talk about each other behind their backs. I'm the type of person who is far too gobby for my own good and if I don't like something or agree with it, I'm pretty vocal, this caused a lot of grief during GCSE years and I would find myself being the one to speak out and tell someone I had a problem instead of bitching behind their back. Looking back, I would of preferred myself to keep my mouth shut and just get on with school. I have the most amazing best friends now and they're the people who've supported me, been honest to my face and been real, true friends.

Body Image
I started to lose weight at a young age, getting to a sensible weight and size I loved. I felt so much more confident but the split of my parents massively affected this to the point where I put the weight back on. Since then I've moved houses and not really been settled, so my weight has yo-yo'ed for as long as I can remember. I wish I'd carried on with my progress and weight loss so that now, I'd be happier with my body image and more confident.

There we have it, please feel free to leave your advice for your teenage self below or leave the links to your posts, I love reading these. But now, at 20 years old, I've very much become someone who takes life day-by-day and enjoys things as they come.

The Edit: Shopping The Stash Take 2

Things are hard on the old bank account. One too many extravagant purchases have left me unable to feed my beauty habit and rummaging through my collection to rediscover some treasures...

First up is Topshop's Macaroon lipstick. I'm a big lover of these, the colours, consistency and value for money make Topshop a favourite place to pick up some new lip shades. Macaroon is one I picked up and wore once, it sat in my stash and never saw the light of day again until the weekend where I rocked this baby, monochrome outfit and bright lip... Yes yes yes! A subtle hint of pink in this coral shade flatters the skin tone and would look beaut in summer on the sun kissed babes. This shall be one for the travel make-up bag.

Now onto the base, in my tinted moisturiser haze, I tossed foundation aside. But in my recent bad skin days and opting for something fuller coverage on a night out, I rediscovered my love for Mac Studio Sculpt. This gel formulation blended in with my holy grail brush (RT Buffing Brush... Like I needed to say) gives a flawless base and stays put all day. Usually day to day means I will wear a tinted moisturiser but for bad skin days and "days where I feel shit", I will opt for this base and instantly feel better about my skin.

There we have it, a combo I've been reaching for during vodka fuelled nights out and days where I want some extra va va voom in my routine. I may be shopping my stash but this also means my wishlist is growing longer. Oh well, pay day's on Thursday right?! ;)