My favourite: Exfoliator - Caudalie Deep Cleansing Exfoliator

The Caudalie Deep Cleansing Exfoliator has to be my absolute favourite exfoliator that I have come across so far. In the past I have used St Ives Apricot scrub and Clean and Clear's exfoliating daily wash both of which I liked oh and Soap and Glory's 'Greatest scrub of all' which was okay.

This one was introduced to me by my friend Andrea and I had wanted to try it, it turned out I had a sample of this from when I did a swap with my friend who live's in Paris so I was super excited to try it.
Once I did I fell in love it.

Why? you may ask.
Well let's have a more in depth look into the product:
-Contains micro-particles to deep cleanse and unclog pores
-Grape pulp to soften and moisturise
-Menthol extract to leave you feeling refreshed.
-Free from Parabens, Sulphates and other nasties.

The texture was pretty unique compared to the other exfoliators I have used in the past, a whipped and more fine gritty texture which didn't feel too harsh but definitely felt like it did a fantastic job at deep cleaning my skin and gettinf rid of dead skin cells.
My skin felt smooth, refreshed and very clean after using this exfoliator which tick's all the boxes for me. The scent is light but nice I'm thinking grapefruit and something sweet. I overall just loved how it felt on my skin - the feeling of something working as your using it!

A few downsides however:
-The price 60ml for £18.00 is rather pricey. I bought it for slightly less as there was an offer on sites like feelunique who have 10% off this product at the moment.
- Although it's free of some nasties Polyethylene is second on the ingredients list which I didn't pay attention to till now. Polyethylene is plastic, it's what 'exfoliates' and gives that gritty/beady texture in a lot of skin care products and is also found in many other cosmetic products like mascara and powders. It's hard to avoid but there is of course talk on side effects of this ingredients which you can read about here, Skin Deep site and various other sites.

Overall I love this product and it is a favourite regardless of the downsides but I do wish it was more natural than it seems, maybe a more natural exfoliating ingredient like sugar rather than Polyethylene. Personally I'll still use it but be careful of avoiding it if I have broken or irritated skin and use it less frequently than I would have.

What's your favourite exfoliator?
Look out for my post on natural exfoliators!
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A Perfume I'm enjoying: Liz Earle Botanical Essence No15

Yep girlies I'm still here, I've been lost somewhere between work, family issues and the gym and just haven't felt like blogging for a while but oh how I've missed it.

So I love my perfumes, I have around four at the moment all of which I like using in rotation, I'll be blogging about all of them eventually. One of them is Liz Earle's Eau De Parfum Botanical Essence No15 which I kindly got sent to me sometime last year.

Some Facts:
-It's described as ..' a fresh spicy oriental scent. This clean, sexy and addictive eau de parfum is synonymous with feeling seductive and elegant.'

- 90% of the ingredients comes from sustainably sourced natural ingredients which is always great to hear.
- 50ml for £47.00
- Some of the 15 notes are Bergamot, Virginian Cederwood and Patchouli.

What do I think of it? (and my mum!)
I literally just sprayed some before I wrote this blog, my mum came upstairs and in the hallway mentioned how gorgeous something smells. She actually stole it off me as she loved the smell, I guess we kinda share it now.
It's definitely a strong scent (which you can smell for quiet sometime after spraying) it has a fresh undertone along with the spicy oriental notes.
It's different to anything I own, I normally go for either fresh and sometimes citrus scents or something sweet, fruity and floral but having said that I do enjoy this perfume I feel like it's my more 'mature' smell.
The packaging is really nice too, something very different to other perfumes, the front has pictures of all the different notes and on the inside it also tells you a lot about the perfume and the names of the notes that are in it.
Overall I like it and would suggest getting a sample or trying it out at the store, I think it would make a great mothers day present too!

What's your favourite perfume?

Cybercandy - American goodness.

As many of you may know I'm a huge lover of America and of course there's certain things we just cannot get here in little old England. This is why a Cybercandy order happened, for those of you who don't know, cybercandy sell food products from all over the world including thing's like Lucky Charms, Reece's and Hershey's.
I wanted to get my friend a little Christmas treat and myself too so I ordered a couple of Tru Blood drinks as we are both huge fans of the TV series True Blood so I thought it'd be a cool quirky little present. Plus 'friends don't let friends drink friends'!
The bottles are made out of glass and are great replications of what you'd see in the series. I've not drunk mine yet but I'm pretty sure they will taste great (and nothing like blood haha...more blood orange!).

I also got some pop tarts as my favourite flavour Hot Fudge Sundae isn't sold here. I'm pretty sure it was this flavour I tried once upon a time when I took part in Camp America and fell in love with! We'll soon find out. I ordered a pack of 2 but got an extra one...not sure if this was an accident or generosity but I thank you Cybercandy!
The service overall was pretty good, I even received text messages about delivery and when I'd be expecting my parcel with options to change the delivery day which was nice.
Everything was packaged very well, bubble wrapped and poptarts bedded in their own little box. I loved the big box everything was in too with a super cool Mr Cybercandy Robot.
I'd recommend this company for sure if you are after some yummy goodness that you can't get in your country, they have gift boxes too which would make unique Christmas presents.

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Product's I'm loving: Nuxe Reve de Miel Ultra Nourishing Lip Balm

This lip balm has to be one of my favourites, Nuxe in my opinion is a great French skincare brand. It come's in a glass jar with 15g of product at the cost of £9.50 available at M&S.
It's smell is like terry's chocolate orange without the chocolate (mmm).
The texture is thick and smooth so a little go's a long way and has a clear non-greasy matte kind of finish which to me make's it a unique lip balm and great for under lipstick. It feels like it really is nourishing and sinking into your lips rather than just coating them with a film of moisture.
It contains Shea butter, honey, grapefruit essence and plant oil, very natural and free of mineral oil and parabens.
Overall I think it does the job well in nourishing your lips and leaving them feeling moisturised and I'd recommend it to those after a good and effective lip balm.
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Chemicals in beauty products..Parabens, Sulfates, Silicones

So I just thought I'd briefly talk about some of the most common chemicals found in beauty products nowadays and why there supposed to be bad for you. I think being aware of them is important and I do recommend for you guys to research into it some more and make an informed decision on products you use. Just type in the word and there's literally tons of information.
With all these ingredients/chemicals as one would expect there is research and information 'for' and 'against' the use of these ingredients in beauty products. I am simply sharing information I have learned and come across over time.
This is going to be long but hopefully informative for you guys!

Sulphates- Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS/SLES)
Sulphates are used as cleansing and foaming agents therefore can be found in shampoo, toothpaste, shower gel and other washing products.
Why are they bad?
Sulphates/Sulfates are surface active agents (surficants) which dissolve dirt and allow it to stay liquid so it can be washed away but also boost foam and lather. They are effective in cleaning but the issue with it is that it can over strip the hair. This isn't great for coloured or chemically treated hair as it will strip away what's been put into the hair.
In general as it's so harsh it can strip the hairs natural oils and leave you with dry and limp hair. For some people it can also irritate the scalp.

Silicones
 In a beauty product, mainly hair products anything ending in 'cone' tends to be a silicone. Silicones are one of those controversial ingredients. You can find them mainly in conditioners, serums/oils and sometimes shampoos too. Many products that claim to give you 'smoothe' and 'frizz free' hair will more than likely have silicones in them. Yes they do a great job at making your hair feel nice and smooth but silicones work by basically coating and sealing off your hair giving you a 'quick fix' but in the long run they don't really fix your hair at all.

Silicones are not water soluble either so they can build up on your hair if you use silicone based products continuously. If you think about every time you use a product with silicone in your adding a layer on to your hair. This stops other products from penetrating your hair (such as pure oils/treatments) and in the long run cause your hair to become dry and brittle.

However if you use a clarifying shampoo (they remove build-up and impurities) once or twice a week or maybe even less (depends on how much product containing silicone you use on your hair and how frequently) this will strip the silicones off.
But again clarifying shampoos contain sulphates which are harsh and strip your hair therefore using it sparingly is better and deep conditioning your hair after would be good.

Parabens
These are a class of man made chemicals used in products as preservatives so they last longer and to fight bacteria and fungus from growing. They are cheap to manufacture and can be found in a lot of products. In the ingredients anything ending in paraben such as 'Butylparaben' is what you need to look for.
Why are they bad?
There has been studies about parabens some saying it's not harmful as it's used in small quantities but other studies have found they can irritate the skin and eyes, a link with parabens and cancer also has been identified. As Parabens cannot be broken down the worry is that it can build up which will then become harmful.
How you may wonder? Well Parabens can mimic a hormone called estrogen which is known to play a role in breast cancer. Parbens have also been found in breast tumors by researchers .

Mineral Oil
Again a common ingredients in beauty products (eg Vaseline, baby oil, make up) it's apparently more expensive to dispose mineral oil than purchase it. It comes from crude oil/petroleum and coats the skin like cling film making it a good barrier. It can slow down the loss of moisture making it an effective ingredient.
Why it's rumoured to be bad?
Well just thinking about it, if it coats the skin and works like a barrier than it means nothing can get in or out and it can be debated whether that is a good or bad thing. But it is said that it inhibits the natural immune barrier stopping the skin from 'breathing' blocking pores and  preventing absorption of natural moisture/nutrition. This can also then play a role in acne and blemishes and the renewal of cells promoting premature ageing and the removal of toxins. You can read some more about it here.

However it is said that mineral oil used in beauty products is highly refined and purified making it safe to use and a thin layer slows down the loss of moisture from the skin. There is a ton of debate about this ingredients you can read some things here and here in defence.

I'm personally not too alarmed about this ingredients as when I was researching about mineral oils in beauty products it was hard to find any solid research/studies which found mineral oil is proven to be bad.

Alternatives
In general it's hard to avoid many of these ingredients as it's used in a lot of mainstream, cheap and generic products. However there is alternatives, they may cost a little more but they exist! Personally in general I have started using more natural products as I just think why not? It's surely going to do less harm than any normal products right?

There is a ton of sulfate free/ low sulfate products on the market. For instance at the moment I am using Liz Earle's shampoo which contains no sulphates, it may not foam as much but it still works just as well! More 'natural' brands will use natural ingredients that do the same thing (in terms of cleaning) but in a less harsh way using alternative ingredients.
Again you can find products without silicones too and pure oils rather than 'Morrocanoil' and 'Macadamia oil' which tend to be full of silicones.

TRESemme 'Naturals' shampoo is low in sulfates and the conditioner is silicone free, Australian Native Botanicals, Tara Smith are just a few haircare brands which are free of the naughty chemicals. Also Apivita, Liz Earle, Nuxe and Korres are some more natural skincare/beauty brands that are free of ingredients that are not supposed to be good for us.

Some of my more 'natural' skin and hare care products
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