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It’s been some time since I shared a good old fashioned beauty favourites post and I had planned to do a mid year beauty favourites, but unfortunately time just seemed to take over and we’re now into September. With summer slowly coming to an end (she says with a heat wave happening as we speak), I thought I’d share with you an end of summer beauty favourites where I round up the products I have loved over the summer months this year!
Take a read through a round up of my end of summer beauty favourites!
If you read my blog post where I discussed how I was banning myself buying beauty products, then you’ll know that I was planning to shop my beauty stash in order to use up my ever growing beauty stash all whilst banning myself from buying duplicate beauty products. Now that was all good and well, but I then kind of fell off my blogging wagon and didn’t really ever give you guys an update, so I’ve decided to essentially share with you some of the products I have re-discovered, have finished and have loved using this summer through shopping my stash. As for the beauty ban, it has and hasn’t worked but I have definitely cut down on buying duplicate products and I’ve stopped opening products prior to using up other ones. Any who, enough of me rambling and let’s get into my end of summer beauty favourites!
Tanning Favourites
If you’re an avid reader of my blog then you will know how much I love Bali Body and their self tanning products, so it only seems right to of course share a couple of my favourite products from them that I have loved over the summer. One thing I have been trying to ensure I am using on a daily basis is an SPF and the Bali Body BB Cream* (£25.95) has been a go to over the summer, not only because it is an amazing lightweight base but because it contains SPF15. I have been using the tan shade, sometimes on its own and sometimes mixed with a lighter shade foundation depending on if I have fake tanned or not and I just love how lightweight this product is, all whilst giving a nice level of coverage that gives your skin a natural and dewy complexion. I have just been obsessed with the glowy dewy look through the summer months and this BB cream has been a firm favourite for creating this type of makeup look.
Another product from Bali Body that I have thoroughly loved using more recently is the Bali Body Gradual Tan* (£21.95). Typically I am not a gradual tan kind of gal, I don’t know why but I just usually prefer the results of a mousse tan but this gradual tan is unreal *chefs kiss*. I have been using this over the last couple of weeks in place of my mousse tan as the weather hasn’t been as warm, but I have still wanted to have a nice natural looking tan. I’ve been applying this every other evening after showering in place of my usual body moisturiser and I prefer to apply this with a mitt just to ensure I get an even and non streaky finish. I then leave this to soak in and develop overnight, and as I further apply more applications through the week the more the pay off colour builds.
Makeup Favourites
When it comes to makeup my day to day products don’t really change, but through shopping my stash and banning myself buying any duplicate products there were a few products that I wanted to use up. Some products I didn’t use up because I remembered why I stopped using them first time round as I just didn’t get on with them. On the flip side, I have used up a couple of products and also discovered some new makeup products through the summer.
One type of product I seemed to use a good few products up of was brow products and I have fully fallen back in love with brow pencils! A firm favourite over the last few months has been the IT Cosmetics Brow Power* (£21) as the shade of this was perfect for my now lighter brows, whereas before it wasn’t dark enough. It’s a fab little pencil with a small nib meaning you can draw really small strokes in order to fill in your brows and the spooley on the other end to brush is really handy so you can brush through your brows. Another product that I have used and repurchased a numerous of times through this year is the Maybelline Eraser Eye Concealer (£8.99) as it has been my go to concealer for covering up my blemishes. If you also suffer with hormonal acne and are still to find a concealer that actually covers your blemishes and spots, then you need to try this one. For me it covers almost any blemish or spot and it doesn’t dry into them like some other concealers can and it’s lasts pretty well throughout the day, which is just a win win for me. I’ve used many different shades of this concealer and to be honest I don’t have a favourite shade, I have just loved all of the shades I have tried.
The last makeup product that I am going to talk about is another favourite Lancome mascara because I am a lover of all of their mascara’s and this summer they released the new Lancome Lash Idole Mascara* (£23.50) which I of course love also! I firstly love the packaging of this mascara as we all know I love a touch of pink and the packaging is just super luxurious. As for the product itself, the wand is a plastic wand rather than a bristle wand which I personally prefer because I find it coats my lashes better than a bristle wand and this mascara just coats my lashes like no other mascara I have tried. I know thats a big statement but trust me when I say this! The wand is also curved rather than straight in order to reach as many lashes as possible and I find it allows me to get lashes right in the inner corner of my eye without practically poking my eyeball out. I love how much it lengthens and volumises my lashes, and the product really stays put through the day to the point where I struggle to remove every bit at night time (lol). So if you’re on the look out for a new mascara, I would really recommend trying this mascara out.
Skincare Favourites
Finally onto my favourite thing and that is of course skincare! I speak a lot about skincare because although I do stick to the same sort of products, I do use different products here and there depending on my skins needs at the time but I thought I’d use this end of summer beauty favourites post to update on a couple of products I have used up but a couple that are new to me and that I LOVE!
Starting off with the two products I have used up as part of shopping my stash (but have back ups of and have now opened) and have been featured on my blog previously. First up is the Lacura Hot Cloth Cleanser (£3.99) which it essentially a very good dupe for the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish and I went a bit mad buying this before Aldi actually made this a main stocked item and apposed to one of their special buys, and in doing that I built up quite the stash. I have already reviewed this in My Most Used Aldi Lacura Beauty Products post so you can read all about this there, but I have actually used up two of these now and I now onto my third and final bottle before I move onto some new cleanser that I have wanted to try for a while. The second product is the Superfacialist Vitamin C Eye Cream* (£14) again which I have reviewed many a time because this is hands down my favourite eye cream for brightening and awakening my eye area. I have literally just used up this tube and I have used this every day for a very long time, so a little definitely goes a long way with this product and you definitely get your moneys worth with this product.
Moving onto two products I have introduced into my skincare routine over this summer and honestly couldn’t be without. The first product is actually a birthday present that my Mum got me for my birthday this year, which I asked for because I unfortunately misplaced the charger for my previous face cleansing brush and I had really noticed a massive difference in my skin from not having it within my daily skincare routine. So my Mum very kindly got me the Magnitone Barefaced 2 Vibra Sonic Cleansing Brush (£99) and I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am to have this in my life. It is slightly different to my other face cleansing brush because instead of rotating it pulses, which took a few uses to get used to but now having used this for over a month I absolutely love it and my skin honestly hasn’t felt cleaner.
The last and final product is something I discovered through a few Youtubers that I follow who, like me suffer with acne and I was a little skeptical as I wasn’t sure if it would work for me, but I just went for it because my acne did get a little bit out of control. The product in question is the Skin + Me personalised prescription subscription which is essentially a formula tailored fully to your skins needs. To begin you basically fill out a survey with your skin type, problems, needs etc and upload images of your skin for them to review in order for them to create a formula tailored to your skin that is posted out to you each month.
This product is designed to be applied to your skin daily, of which I did do when I first began using this but I did find it to be quite drying (as it is meant to be) and I now use it every other day after having used this for around three months or so. I always apply this as part of my evening skincare routine after cleansing and I then apply this to my problem areas, of which are my jaw line and neck. Since introducing this into my skincare routine I have noticed such an amazing difference in my skin and it works so well to soothe and reduce how aggressive my acne can be. Now unfortunately for me I do suffer with hormonal acne, so I will always have acne but this product is hands down the only product to have worked and really worked since being on roaccutane when I was 18/19. If like me you suffer with acne and no product out there has helped, I urge you to give this a try.
For anyone who would like to try out Skin + Me, you can get your first and third month free (you just have to pay £3.50 P+P) then please use my code CHARLOTM9KNX.
What are your end of summer beauty favourites?
