Keeping Your Lips Soft This Winter

Winter brings cold temperatures, strong winds and other harsh weather that is not great for our skin.
Chapped lips are a problem most of us experience during this time, due to the skin on our lips being much thinner and more sensitive than the rest of the skin on our face, and they can be rather sore, annoying and let's face it, not attractive at all.
Here are some tips on how to avoid those dry lips!

Lip Balms
Every lip balm out there will promise you soft lips, but not all of them will give you that.
Here are some things to watch out for! When buying a lip balm have a look at the ingredients, you need to AVOID menthol, camphor and phenol - all of these will give your lips that cooling sensation and they will feel soothed, but in the end all it'll do is dry your lips out even more. Artificial fragrance is bad too, they just suck the moisture right out of the lips, same with salicylic acid. Instead of these LOOK OUT FOR hemp oil and jojoba oil, these too oils will will treat your lips and absorb moisture, so will coconut oil. Beeswax and cocoa butter are two ingredients that will give your lips the moisture your after, without causing any unwanted longterm dryness. Lanoline is another great ingredient!
PRODUCTS TO AVOID - Carmex has a great reputation, I used to use it all the time and loved it for a while but after a few months I noticed it was doing nothing for me and was drying my lips out. I looked at the ingredients and bam….I see menthol and camphor, as mentioned before, these ingredients give your lips that amazing cooling sensation but actually it does them no good. Vaseline is one of the other big sellers that is no good, it contains petroleum which acts as another layer over the skin…you think this is good but it isn't. It slows cellar renewable, meaning your lips can't repair themselves as well, it also traps toxins under the skin, and your lips will become dependant on it, so as soon as you stop using the product your lips will become unbearably dry.
AMAZING PRODUCTS - My favourite lip balm, and definitely a great bargain buy is Burt's Bees - I use the mango one because it smells lovely. Burt's Bees contains coconut oil and beeswax to help absorb moisture, lots of vitamins and other ingredients that are great for keeping your lips soft. Kiehl's lip balm is another good option! Clarin's moisture replenishing lip balm is great but pricey, although not as pricey as ByTerry Baume de Rose (£35) but another excellent product, going by the ingredients.

Exfoliate
Exfoliating your lips a few times a week, either with an old toothbrush (make it slightly damp and massage onto the lips) or with a lip scrub (like from Lush) helps to buff away old, dead skin cells.

Makeup
Instead of using normal lipsticks opt for extra moisturising products like Revlon lip butters - they'll give you a nice colour, but won't dry out your lips. Or use a gloss which will help to protect your lips against the cold weather.

Don't lick
Licking your dry or chapped lips will just make them worse! Salvia contains enzymes that will break the skin, also salvia evaporates which will just cause the skin to become more dehydrated.

My two last tips are to take vitamin supplements, and quit smoking. Yep, smoking dries out the lips massively and can cause the skin to break. Yucky!

Hope you found these tips

helpful!

What's your favourite lip balm?

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Under £15 Christmas Gift Guide!

Buying Christmas presents is something I love doing, I enjoy thinking of thoughtful gifts that I know people will like. But it doesn't come without expense, and it's sometimes tricky to think of presents for everyone. So I have put together this gift guide for girls and all the items are under £15.

For any candle lovers like myself the Cranberry Ice candle from Yankee Candle would be a great choice, lovely fruity scent and nice and festive - £12.75.
Winter months are the time for lots of hot drinks, so a pretty mug would go down well - the one pictured is from Cath Kidson and it's the Provence Rose Crush mug - £6.50.
Nearly all girls love bath stuff, and Soap & Glory has to be one of the best brands for that. The item pictured is a set of shower gel, body cream, body butter and hand cream, and trust me, this stuff smells amazing - £10.
This charm bracelet from Urban Outfitters is so pretty, I've actually fallen in love with it myself - £6.
No-one likes cold feet in the winter, and slipper boots are a brilliant invention, so cosy and snug. The pair pictured are from New Look and they have little owls on them! - £12.99.
The next gift idea is for book lovers. I love a good chick-lit book and my favourite author for those is Sophie Kinsella…I've read quite a few of her books and my personal favourite is Remember Me? Synopsis all available in the link given. - £3.85.
This Barry M Natural Glow Eyeshadow and Face Blusher palette has 6 gorgeous eyeshadows in it, as well as a pretty blusher - £6.49.
Winter is the season to wrap up warm, and tartan is very 'in' at the moment, so a tartan scarf is a lovely gift. I have one myself and love it! Not sure where the one pictured came from (oops) but the one linked is also lovely. - £14.
Last but not least is the Snow Fairy Box from Lush, lovely bath goodies packaged in a pretty box - £12.50.

I hope this post gave you ideas

on what to get people for

Christmas!

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Winter Skincare Saviour - Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate

Winter is my favourite season - I love Christmas, the colder weather, the jumpers, scarves, boots and coats, but it does play havoc with my skin! The wind and freezing temperatures outside aren't great, and having the heating on at home doesn't do it any favours either. Normal moisturisers never quite give my skin the moisture it needs during winter, but I've found a product that works miracles.

Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate is an oil you apply post-toner and pre-moisturiser. I use about 3 or 4 drops and massage it in all over my face. I leave it to sink in a little for a few minutes and then apply my night moisturiser over the top. The oil is made up of 99.8% naturally derived ingredients (bonus) and is paraben-free. Ingredients include squalane, evening primrose oil, omega-6 fatty acids, essential oils - including lavender, which will help replenish the skin, recover radiance, and leave the skin feeling smooth and your complexion looking brighter.
After just one use of this I noticed a difference in my skin, not only did it not feel dry but my completion had definitely improved, and any imperfections I had looked a lot better. I've been using this every night for a month now and not once have I felt my skin was dehydrated, which is amazing! Normally during this time of year my skin constantly feels tight and dry. I've also noticed it's helped a lot to clear up my skin - although I still have imperfections my skin isn't as bad as it was before and the oil is helping to clear up any spot scarring, as often when I got spots they take months and months to disappear.

This oil is a miracle worker, I'd highly recommend this to anyone. People with dry skin will love it and it'll make your skin feel and look so much better, and I know people who've used it who have oily skin and even they adored it! The only downside to this product is it's expensive at £36 for 30ml, however you only need a few drops per night so will last ages and it really does work amazingly.
You can purchase it here.

What's your winter skincare must have?

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The Best Nude Lipstick

A nude or very natural lipstick is a staple in any makeup bag! I find it a struggle to find the perfect nude lipstick for me. Either they make my complexion look washed out, give me the look of 'foundation lips', are too pale or too dark, or cling to any dry skin, however I have finally found a nude lippy that does none of these things.

Kate Moss for Rimmel lipstick in 03 has become one of my most worn lipstick's since I got it a few months ago. I'm a massive fan of the formulation of this lipstick range, I have about 6 of the collection and I'm always after more! The 03 shade didn't disappoint.
It's a gorgeous pinky, slightly brown, nude lipstick. I'm fairly pale but it looks fine against my skin tone, doesn't make me look washed out and gives my lips a tiny wash of colour (it doesn't blank them out, huuurrrah).
The formulation is phenomenal, super pigmented and wonderfully creamy. It applies like a dream and stays put for about 4 hours, maybe more.

This lipstick has been a very welcome edition to my collection and I'm glad I bought it! I'm happy I found my perfect nude, to pair with smokey eyes or just for a minimal makeup look.
This retails for the bargainous price of £5.49! You can buy it here!

What's your favourite nude lipstick?

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A 'Lush' Bath

There's nothing nicer in winter than running a lovely warm bath, throwing in some nice bath bombs, having a wintery scented body wash, lighting some candles, turning the lights out and just relaxing!
This is exactly what I did the other night and it was one of the nicest baths ever, I thought I'd share with you 2 products that made it so.

These products are the Ponche shower gel* and The Melting Snowman Bath Melt*.
Let's start with this amazing shower gel, firstly I love the colour of it! It's such a bright orange!
It's described on the bottle like this 'This packs a Ponche, with orange juice and cinnamon infusion. Inspired by traditional Mexican punch, this shower gel is bright, fruity and uplighting' and I couldn't agree more. I'm not the biggest fan of cinnamon scents but actually I don't think the gel smells very much like cinnamon. It has a sweet and fruity scent, like oranges, slightly plummy, very fresh! But it has a spicy kick, which I think is what makes it quite festive!
This scent really lingers on your skin afterwards as well, which I adore!

Secondly the snowman bath melt. Can we just appreciate how cute this is for a second?

You put this into the water of a running bath and let it dissolve. It tuned the water quite cloudy but the smell, ooooh it was amazing! This one smelt of cinnamon, but I liked it! It was a sweet and spicy scent, with aromas of almond, cocoa butter, orange, and cinnamon. The best thing about this bath melt was how soft it made my skin feel, it made the bath water feel really smooth and luxurious and left my skin feeling the same.

Combing those two products was amazing. I was left feeling so relaxed, smelling lovely with soft skin, and it really got me feeling christmassy as they both have such warm, wintery scents.

* PR samples