skincare

Review: Dead Sea Spa Magik Mild Exfoliant

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As my skin has dry flaky patches I’m always on the lookout for a good exfoliator. I love how well the Dead Sea Spa Magik hair products work on my scalp so thought I’d try the Mild Exfoliant when I saw it in Tesco recently. It seemed like it’s sort of a mix of mud pack face mask and standard exfoliator so I was interested to see how it would work for me.

Like the other products in the range it uses minerals from the Dead Sea and harmonised water, though I’m not sure what that is. It’s also paraben free and uses an allergen free fragrance if your skin is sensitive to normal fragranced products. The tube has 75ml of the product in it and costs £7.99 on Holland and Barrett, and I think it was the same price in Tesco it’s just not online.

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Review: Nail-Aid 3 Minute Pedi Peel

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It’s summer time, or feels like it at the moment anyway, and sandal weather has started here in the UK so it’s time for my feet to get some pampering. I tend to neglect them a bit over the winter, though I use foot creams that’s pretty much it, so this Nail-Aid 3 Minute Pedi Peel has been sat in my drawer waiting to be used and now seemed the perfect time to give it a go.

It’s a thick foot cream with a 12% Glycolic Complex that says without filing your feet you can get softer skin and it helps with cracked, dry skin anywhere really. It also claims that it works after one use, which I was a bit sceptical about. I found it for £4.99 in a local TK Maxx though I’m not sure if they’d still have it as things tend to come and go quite quickly there.

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Review: Etude House 98% Soothing Watermelon Gel

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After the recent hot weather it seems the perfect time to review the 98% Watermelon Soothing Gel from Etude House. I bought it in a recent eBay Korean Beauty haul for £6.65. It’s sold as a cooling and calming gel, something like the aloe vera gel you get to use for cooling and calming your skin especially after sun burn. To add to the cooling effect you can keep it in the fridge, though this does give you a bit of a shock when you first apply it!

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Review: Tony Moly I’m Real Aloe Moisturizing Sheet Mask

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tony-moly-im-real-aloe-sheet-mask-1I’ve tried a few of these Tony Moly I’m Real sheet masks and so far they seem nice enough. I bought the set of sheet masks for around £10 on eBay a while ago and this Aloe Moisturizing Sheet Mask has been sitting waiting to be used. I’m trying to use my face mask stash up by using one a week, I’m not sure how much it has improved my skin but it’s definitely a nice, easy way to have a face mask and these sheet masks are especially refreshing.

This sheet mask is aimed at moisturising and the main natural ingredient for this is Aloe. It seems like it’s one that should also be calming and cooling and would be good for oilier skin too. I know that my skin loves aloe gel when it comes to calming it down after sun burn or a reaction so when I was choosing a face mask in the warmer weather recently it seemed to be the perfect one to try. 

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Review: Korean Beauty Secret Key Gold Racoony Hydro Gel Eye and Spot Patches

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A while ago I bought some Secret Key Gold Racoony Hydro Gel Eye and Spot Patches from eBay as I’ve liked under eye gel patches before but they’re so expensive here in the UK. These are a Korean brand and in general cost around £7 – £10 depending on where you get them from. I got them from the f2plus1 eBay store (the eBay store for Beauty Net Korea) and at the moment they’re listed for £8.55.

These eye patches contain gold and claim to be good for refreshing your skin as well as hydrating it and improving elasticity. A lot of these patches with gold in claim to be anti wrinkle and with the amount you get in each tub they’re actually quite a cheap way of treating this if they actually work. Each pot contains 60 of the eye patches, the semi circular shaped pieces, and 30 of the spot patches. You can use them daily if you want and then they’d last a month, but I don’t think they’re something that would be part of my daily routine so a couple of times a week makes them last three or four months.

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Review: Pür Correcting Illuminate and Glow Primer

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I have to admit that I’ve not always been a fan of primers as an added step in my beauty routine. I’ve tended not to use one, though one of my favourite foundations is a mix of powder foundation and primer mixer, so when I got the Pür Correcting Illuminate and Glow Primer in the Marks and Spencer’s beauty advent calendar last year I didn’t have high expectations for it. I’ve heard of the brand, I think I may have tried something from them before, and it’s all been good so I did want to give this a proper go.

As it’s an illuminating primer it does have an aspect of shimmer to it, though I’m not sure exactly which of the Illuminate and glow primers it is, they have ones aimed at specific skin colour issues, I think it’s the summer one. It isn’t available in Marks and Spencer’s any more but I did find the full sized 30ml ones in Look Fantastic for £24 and Beauty Bay has the full sized tube for £22.50. There are also a lot of the mini sized 10 ml tubes, like the one I have, floating around on eBay if you want to find one to give it a go.they do also seem to come up as cheaper per ml so it may be worth having a look round on there.

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Review: TonyMoly Pokémon Bulbasaur Pore Foam Cleanser

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I probably shouldn’t try new skin care products, my skin tends to react to things and when I get a proper routine I should probably stick to it, but I’m always tempted by new cleansers when I see them. In a recent Korean Beauty haul I found one of the Pokémon and TonyMoly collaboration foaming cleansers. There’s a range of four different types for different skin concerns and each has a different Pokémon on the front.

This is the Isanghessi (Bulbasaur) version (£4.94) which contains egg white and Portulaca oleracea extract. I used google to see what this actually is and apparently it’s a plant that’s used in traditional Chinese medicine for a lot of things but it’s supposed to sooth skin and help with irritation so it’s a calming ingredient. I’ve been using it for over a month now so I think I’ve seen what it does so time for a proper review of this as it’s definitely one of the cutest cleansers I’ve ever owned.

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Review: The Face Shop Jeju Volcanic Lava Aloe Nose Strips

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A while ago I bought a few beauty things from TK Maxx and found these Jeju Volcanic Lava Aloe Nose Strips from The Face Shop for £4.99 for this pack of seven. I’m not sure on the original price of these but I do find that nose strips help my skin a lot if I use them every month or so and I know that my skin seems to get on with aloe products so I thought I’d give them a go. I went into my local TK Maxx yesterday and saw them in the store so they are still around at this price if you can find them.

These nose strips are the standard style where you wet your nose and apply the strip across before leaving it to harden and peeling it off. There’s something satisfying about peeling these things off and seeing what they’ve removed. It’s a bit gross but I find it interesting anyway. These from The Face Shop have volcanic ash, aloe extract and soy bean extract which isn’t a combination I’ve tried before for these, they’re normally charcoal based.

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Review: CNF The Iceland Mask Peach Sheet Mask

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In a recent Korean beauty haul I bought a set of sheet masks that have Iceland Glacial Water listed as a main ingredient. The main thing that drew me to them is the different sheet mask flavours, that feels more like the right word than scent, as these include Mangosteen (you can find my review of that here) and today’s mask Peach. These just sounded so refreshing and I was intrigued to see how well they’d work compared to other Korean and British sheet masks I’ve tried.

I think the company that makes these is CNF, that’s the company name in the contact info on the back, and it’s not one I’d heard of before finding these. The Iceland Mask Peach sheet mask is supposed to be the moisturising one of the set and the set of five cost £5.91 with a silicone puff to help pat the sheet mask on from the f2plus1 eBay store, it’s cheaper now so it may change. Given how impressed I was with the first I tried I was really looking forward to this one so took it away with me when I stayed in Wales.

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Review: Ameliorate Transforming Body Lotion

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This may sound like an odd thing to get excited about, but when I first saw this in the list of products in the Marks and Spencer’s Beauty Advent Calendar I was really looking forward to trying it. I think that the Ameliorate brand in general is pretty new, it’s still in the new products section on the M&S website, so this Transforming Body Lotion is a relatively new product. It claims to help rough, very dry skin and was specifically formulated original for skin with keratosis pilaris (skin that looks like permanent goose bumps, which I have, though I’d recommend google for the science behind it) though I didn’t realise that until looking it up now. I was intrigued to see how this would work for me and, although I haven’t used it for the four weeks it recommends because I had the mini size, I can definitely see the difference when I stopped using it and wanted to get this post up as soon as possible really.

Their own website has a range of products, I think they all have the formula in that helps rough and dry skin. Marks and Spencer has the full range, including the exfoliator, body wash, hand cream and non scented version. I think I’m going to be getting the set they have to try the others before going for a full sized one. The Transforming Body Lotion itself is also available from Boots. They all cost the same, £22.50 for the 200ml tube, so it’s just personal choice as to who you choose to buy it from if you want to give it a go.

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