August Favourites

Oh god.. it's September... That means three things for me, firstly that summer is over (*cries into keyboard*), because hot weather never lasts any longer than it absolutely has to in England... But also that school starts again... and these are all thoughts which frankly do not make me a very happy person... But you know what else it means, oh yes, Monthly Favourites time!

So my monthly favourites are going to be made up of not all beauty related products just things that I've been loving throughout the past month.



1. Garnier BB Cream for Combination to Oily Skin- I mentioned in this post that I had rediscovered my love for this BB cream after a short spell away, and I am loving it. The finish is so natural and it feels lovely on your skin, not caky or heavy but you can still build the coverage which is great. My only complaint would be, for goodness sake garnier sort out the tube! Due to the consistency of the BB cream being so thin it just runs straight out the tube and fills up the lid runs down the sides, generally makes a mess, so unless you can somehow balance this thing upright, gravity spills a shed load of the product out into the lid... 

2. Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer- Now before you go "We've heard it all before!!" I know, I know, every beauty blogger there cat, dog and mothers husband has raved about this concealer but I do need to mention it as our relationship has hit the rocks somewhat in the past but I think we're back on track now. 
At first I loved this and used it everyday whilst away on holiday, the coverage is great, it blends in easily, its not too caky, it was great. But when we got back I began to realise that I was getting more blemishes etc.. in the areas where I was using the concealer than in the first place, so it had to stop... and sure enough once I had stopped using the concealer my skin began to clear up and feel so much better. 
But I hadn't totally given up on this concealer just yet, oh no, I've started using it under my eyes to cover my zombie like dark circles and guess what? It works a treat! I am loving this, you do have to be careful for creasing but if you don't slap a whole load in one go, then it works like a dream! So yes, overall I have been loving this product in August!



3. Collection Angelic Eye Palette- Well this is something I received as a gift many months ago but always just cast it of as full of unusable bright colours and only ever touched the two browns but as my make-up knowledge and interest has grown I've really loved using these colours to create some more interesting looks! At the moment I am really loving blending the grey, pink, purple and blue into a dulled and shimmery look.

4. Blogging again! -It has been so lovely to begin blogging again, I've enjoyed it more than I thought I would and I've enjoyed the freedom of writing such a loosely themed blog (my last blog was a baking blog) but also just how lovely all the other bloggers are. I think last time I was too busy stressing over, baking, photographing and posting (baking bloggers work damn hard so appreciate their work!) to realise what a friendly community bloggers are! So, I'm loving being back on the blogging train!

What are your August favourites?

-alex x

Garnier Fresh Essentials

Apologies for the crappy photos. I rely on natural light, and.. there wasn't any.

Over time I've built up quite a number of the products in the Garnier Fresh Essential Enriched with Grape Extract range so I've decided to share my thoughts on the products.

Firstly, what I've got: The eye make-up remover, the cleanser, the toner, and their scrub. 

Lets start with the eye make-up remover as that was the first product from the range I used. I love this eye make-up remover, its lovely and gentle but does what it's meant to. I don't know about you but I find that quite a number of eye make-up removers often sting or burn my eyes, which, as you can imagine, is not pleasant! But, in all the time I've used the Garnier one I've never felt any stinging. This does mean that it can take longer to remove mascara than a stronger alternative, but I'd happily spend a little more time than have sore eyes! So, over all its a thumbs up for this one.

Moving on to the cleanser, this has to be my favourite product out of the range (that I own) because firstly it smells divine, so fresh, but also it just feels amazing on your skin. I use this after the Witch Foaming Face Wash as I don't think that lotion cleansers truly cleanse deep down and remove every trace of make-up on there own (I have spot prone skin so don't want to leave anything to chance). It applies like silk and is so cooling and refreshing, leaving my skin feeling soft, clean and totally make-up free! As someone with combination skin this is great because a lot of cleansers leave my dry areas feeling tight and totally stripped of all natural oils, but others leave the oilier patches of my skin feeling, well, still greasy. So this is a great middle ground product, I use a moisturiser afterwards and this works really well!

Now for the toner, it's a nice toner (note the word nice) but I wouldn't say its anything amazing. I don't find that it really does anything for my skin if I'm totally honest. It feels refreshing on the skin but as far as making my skin "refreshed, brightened, and toned" nope. Although, I must say that this is something I find with toner's in general... they don't really do anything for me. As far as feeling nice I prefer the Simple Kind to Skin Soothing Facial Toner, but I'm totally open to suggestions if anybody knows any great toners.

Now finally the scrub. I really liked this product as the beads (or scrub particles, or whatever you want to call them) weren't to big or too harsh but they still gently exfoliate leaving my skin feeling soft and fresh, just as promised. This is one of my favourite scrubs and I don't think I really use it enough if I'm honest because it's quite dry in  consistency but when I do use it I'm always pleasantly surprised by how my skin feels afterwards.

So overall I'd say a big thumbs up for the eye make-up remover and the cleanser, a slightly less exited thumbs up for the scrub and in the middle for the toner. But as a range I would say they are lovely products and really refreshing.

Have you tried the Garnier Fresh Essentials Range?

-alex x