Nirvana Spa Haul #2

SPA DAY
Last year I wrote a blog post about my day at Nirvana spa, showing you what I'd bought whilst there. When Christmas came around this year my dad once again bought my mum, sister and I day passes to Nirvana spa and so after spending eleven and half hours in a constant state of chill at the spa, it's time for me to do another post about it.

We arrived at the spa just before 10am as my sister and I had a floatation session at 10. The floating is amazing! The pool is filled with water and salt from the Dead Sea which means your body floats in it, and the minerals from the water is great for your skin. The room itself is gorgeous, with a ceiling that has lights on it that look like stars and paintings of the different star signs around it. We floated for half an hour and I felt amazing afterwards.

Reading in the tepidarium.

The rest of the day was spent in various hot tubs, saunas, steam rooms and pools, and just generally feeling great. One of my favourite rooms there is the tepidarium, which has heated tiled chairs for you to relax in, and the only noise is a water fountain in the middle gurgling away. Other than that it's silent. We also had lunch, dinner and a cheeky slice of cake with a coffee during our time there, which all tasted amazing.

It's a health spa so cake is healthy right?

MY HAUL
The products they sell at Nirvana spa are beautiful, and I haven't used a single one that I don't like. So obviously I had to buy some things during my day there (also they had some new products that I couldn't not buy). Here's what I picked up there:

FACE MASKS

I'm a big fan of face masks and when I saw that they now had their own brand ones I had to buy them. I bought the deep cleansing mud mask, the radiance boosting mask and the professional peeling mask (which is three of the four masks they now have... you could say i'm slightly addicted to nspa products). The mud mask cleanses, the radiance mask moisturises and the peeling mask exfoliates. I can't wait to cover my face in this stuff!

SKIN GLOW MUD MASK

Another mask next, this one is the mud mask that contains clay and charcoal which helps to clear pores and draw out impurities. I always pine over the Glam Glow mud mask, but at £45 I really can't afford it. BUT then nspa came to the rescue; this product that looks exactly the same and only costs £7. I have quite a lot of blackheads on my nose (gross, I know) that I just can't get rid of, but I'm hoping this will help out with that. And even if it doesn't, it's still a mud mask so it's hardly going to go to waste.

OIL FREE MOISTURE GEL

I always have a bottle of this in my makeup collection because it's amazing. I have oily skin and this helps to moisturise my skin, but without adding any extra oil, which in my book equals perfection. It's not greasy at all, smells like a spa and just does the job. I can't get enough of it. 

NIGHT REPAIR CREAM
This is my holy grail product, and I gush about it all the time over on my youtube channel. It instantly improves the condition of my skin with just one application. It's so thick and creamy and oh my god, it's just amazing. I don't think I could live without it. Go buy yourself a tub right now.

OKAY TIME TO STOP FANGIRLING ABOUT NSPA PRODUCTS
I had the best day at Nirvana and I can't wait to hopefully go back again soon! But in the mean time I will be constantly recreating my spa day at home using these wonderful products.

Thank you for reading! Remember to follow me, and follow my bloglovin' page too for even more blogging fun.

Hope you're having a rad day.

Love Chloe x


YO, HAVE SOME LINKS

NSPA: http://nirvanaspa.co.uk
MY YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/thegiddyelf
FOLLOW ME ON BLOGLOVIN: https://www.bloglovin.com/people/chloerogers5-7586623

Testing, Testing // New In Products

TESTING, TESTING, 1, 2, 3

I've bought a few new things recently and I thought I'd give you the low-down on those products. So here we go...

BIODERMA SENSIBIO H20

The Bioderma micelle water is something I have wanted to try for so long as I hear about it on youtube all the time. However I found it really hard to buy in the UK for a reasonable price, which is why I didn't hesitate when I saw that a local health store had some in stock! I got two bottles for £10.20 which makes one bottle come to £5.10 which is a price I was very happy to pay.

I've been really enjoying using Bioderma and it's a quick but effective way of removing makeup, which is great for nights when I can't be bothered to do a long makeup removing routine. It's very gentle and can even be used on your eyes. However, as much as I like this product it's very similar to my usual Nspa Micellar Water and I can barely find a difference between the two products, except that I can get my Nspa one easier and it's cruelty free whereas Bioderma is not. So whilst I do really like Bioderma I think I'll be switching back to my Nspa Micellar water once I've used it all up. 

URBAN DECAY EYE PRIMER POTION

After getting some samples of the Urban Decay primer potions with my Naked 3 palette I was hooked. I have a real struggle with keeping my eye shadow crease-free and when I had used other eye primers the shadow still wouldn't last all day (struggles of having oily eyelids yo). AND THEN I DISCOVERED THIS. The Urban Decay primer potions keep my eye shadow looking amazing literally all day and I love it. Once I'd finished all my samples (the samples were of Original, Sin, Eden and Anti-aging by the way) I headed straight to the Urban Decay counter in House of Fraser and picked up a full size version of the Original primer potion. So in love. 

YES TO CARROTS NIGHT CREAM 

My Nspa Night Repair cream is my holy grail product that I can't live without, however when I ran out I decided to try a different one, because hey, maybe there were better options on the market. And that may well be true, but this Yes To Carrots night cream was not the product that showed me that. My first disappointment came when I excitedly opened up the box to see the words 'fragrance free' written on it, WHY WOULD YOU MAKE IT FRAGRANCE FREE WHEN IT COULD SMELL LIKE LOVELY GARDEN FRESH CARROTS? It just doesn't make sense to me! (Calm Chloe....) But I pushed that aside and went ahead and slathered the cream onto my face. It wasn't as thick and rich as my nspa one, which I didn't mind too much, however a few minutes after applying it my skin started to sting a little bit, which really isn't what you want out of a night cream! The stinging only lasted a few minutes but it really wasn't an enjoyable experience. I've been using this product for a week now and the stinging doesn't happen every time but it's occurred at least 3 times. Plus, it hasn't really had any effect on my skin. When I use my Nspa night cream I notice a difference in the appearance of my skin after just one use, whereas this doesn't seem to doing much at all. Overall, I'm disappointed with this product and I definitely won't be repurchasing it. 

HEMA DAY CREAM

I've never used a day cream before, but I decided it was time to start dabbling in the world of day creams. So when I was out shopping I picked up a HEMA day cream. HEMA is a Dutch shop which sells a huge range of things from homeware to food to beauty items. I've used some of there beauty range before and so I know they're pretty great, which is why I picked up their day cream to try out. The one I chose is particularly good for oily or combination skin as it has ingredients in it that help to stop the skin from producing excessive oils. It's a very gentle day cream, but has a lovely rich, thick texture to it. And HEMA is incredibly affordable, with this day cream coming in at just £3! Plus, bonus points because it's cruelty-free! HEMA literally ticks all the boxes when it comes to beauty products.

SOAP AND GLORY ARCHERY D.I.Y BROW BAR

Because I'm really good at packing when I come home from university I managed to leave my Naked 2 palette in my university bathroom...  which is not good for my eyebrows! For about 2 years now I have been using the shade 'Tease' from that palette to fill in my eyebrows, and so when I didn't have Tease to hand, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to test out some of the eyebrow products from Soap and Glory as I'd heard so much about them. This D.I.Y Brow Bar has four products within it - a Clearfix wax, a light brown powder called 'Love is Blonde', a dark brown powder called ' Hot Chocolate' and an Arch Highlighter (plus two brushes for application). I found it a little hard to match my eyebrows at first as I was mixing the two powders, but once I got into a routine of mixing one dip of Love is Blonde and one dip of Hot Chocolate until my brows were done, I managed to get on top of that problem. I actually prefer using this to using Tease as I find it creates a more precise and defined brow, and I can get my brows to look a bit darker and more dramatic (is dramatic the word?) than I could when using Tease. My only issue with this palette is the highlighter as I find it has that weird texture and finish to it sort of makeup you might use when you're a child and you're playing dress up. But that might just be my own personal taste toward highlighters, so don't let it put you off!

TESTING COMPLETE
And that's it for my new products at the moment. Other than the Yes To Carrots night cream I would recommend all of these products, plus they're all quite affordable (even the primer potion, considering it's from Urban Decay - a high end brand!), so if you like the sound of them definitely go pick it up!

Thanks for reading, remember to follow my blog for new posts at least once a week.

Hope you're having a rad day and I'll see you agin soon.

Love Chloe x


HAVE SOME LINKS
> BIODERMA: http://www.feelunique.com/p/BIODERMA-Sensibio-H2O-Make-up-Removing-Micelle-Solution-250ml
> PRIMER POTION: http://www.urbandecay.co.uk/eyes/eye-shadow-primer/eyeshadow-primer-potion
> NIGHT CREAM: http://yesto.co.uk/product/yes-to-carrots-fragrancefree-intense-hydration-night-cream?product_id=1317102
> DAY CREAM: http://www.hemashop.com/gb/shop?fh_location=%2F%2Fgbhema%2Fen_GB%2Fpgb_product_type%3E%7Bshop%7D%2F%24s%3DDAY&fh_secondid=pgb_17800011
> D.I.Y BROW BAR: http://www.soapandglory.com/archery-d-i-y-brow-bartm

May Favourites

FAVOURITES TIME
My May favourites video was just uploaded. I have a tonne of favourites this month in the categories beauty, clothing, film and tv, object, experience, music, and youtuber! I'd really appreciate it if you went and had a watch of it! And if you fancied subscribing while you're over there that would be even more rad, I'm nearly at 200 subscribers - my next milestone :o

Hope you're having a lovely day.

Love Chloe x

LINK: https://youtu.be/dw-TBvOyedo

Reunited With My True Love

TRUE LOVE
This week I was reunited with my one true love... My MAC retro lipstick.

I lost this gorgeous lipstick  a few weeks ago, and after searching my dad's car and sadly not finding it, I resigned myself to the fact that it was gone. I decided I'd buy a new one to replace it as soon as I could because this lipstick colour is just too lovely to not have in my life. BUT THEN, my dad phoned me and told me the good news: the man he works with had found it under the car seat! I was probably a little bit too happy since it is just a lipstick (don't tell it I said that...) but my week had been made! And we were finally reunited later that day. It was a good day for my lips.

RETRO
MAC retro is a very 90s shade, with hints of burgundy and brown running through it. It's a lovely colour for the winter months particularly, but you can totally rock it in the spring and summer too (I know I will be, gotta make up for lost time, yo). This lipstick is from MAC's matte line, but it's not too drying. I find that if you just apply a little bit of lip balm before you put it on it's fine. Being matte means that it's a fairly long-lasting lipstick. The colour doesn't really fade when eating or drinking, and you could probably get away with not reapplying throughout the day - perfect for us lazy lipstick wearers!

THAT'S IT
Just a little post today, but I had to document this happy moment. God, I love MAC Retro <3

Thanks for reading, make sure to follow me for weekly posts :)

Hope you're having a rad day.

Love Chloe x

HAVE SOME LINKS
MAC Retro - http://www.maccosmetics.co.uk/products/spp/shaded.tmpl?CATEGORY_ID=CAT168&PRODUCT_ID=PROD310&SKU_ID=SKU3061
Me on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGiddyElf

A Cruelty Free Makeup Bag - #BlogforBunnies

SO WHAT'S THIS GUNNA BE ABOUT?
Recently I have been trying to have as many cruelty free products in my makeup bag as possible. At this stage my makeup bag isn't entirely cruelty free but I'm getting there. I'm focusing on trying to get my drugstore makeup cruelty free first as this is what I use everyday and purchase most, so that's my main priority right now.

Everything cruelty free in my makeup bag.

So here is everything from my makeup bag that is cruelty free (as far as I know anyway, if I'm wrong about any of these brands being cruelty free please let me know. Also please know that some of the parent companies are not cruelty free for these products, e.g. bare minerals and urban decay). And now it's time to explore some of these products in more detail! These are my favourites out of my cruelty free collection.

NSPA OIL FREE MOISTURE GEL
This is my all time favourite moisturiser, and it's because of that key phrase 'oil free'. I have oily skin and so I obviously don't want to be adding extra oil to it, so this moisturiser is perfect. It's super gentle, hydrating and refreshing (especially on those early mornings!). Nspa is the brand from the UK spa called Nirvana, and so the scent of this is very reminiscent of that in a spa, and so it makes it feel like a lovely treat when you use it, despite being an everyday product.

NO 7 STAY PERFECT FOUNDATION
(Before I start I want to just say that i'm pretty sure this is cruelty free as No7 is part of Boots, who is cruelty free, but it's not 100% certain that No7 is. Hopefully it is though otherwise I'm going to have to find a new favourite foundation!) This concealer is another one of my oily skin savers. It's oil free and designed to last all day - they say 24 hours but firstly who is wearing makeup for 24 hours? And secondly it doesn't last 24 hours but it does last a hella long time. It creates a natural finish and is fairly high coverage so it's great for covering up any dark circles or blemishes if you want to. Also this lasts for so long. I've had bottles of this for months and months before, so it's definitely worth the money.

KIKO FULL COVERAGE CONCEALER
I love this concealer. One second you have a spot, put this on it and it's gone. It covers blemishes so well and you can't even slightly see them under the concealer. IN. LOVE. I honestly can't think of anything else to say about this product, except that it's perfect and you need it in your life.

REAL TECHNIQUES EXPERT FACE BRUSH
I wanted to include a brush in this list so that it wasn't just about actual makeup products, so let's talk about the real techniques expert face brush. This brush provides such a natural and flawless finish for your foundation and I don't know where I'd be without it. And can we just take a minute to appreciate the softness of it?! Ugh. It's so lovely.

2TRUE EFFORTLESS EYELINER
I have been using this eyeliner for years now. It's really long-lasting, and I never have issues with it budging throughout the day. The brush is silicone which makes it really easy to apply, even for those not so practiced in the liquid eyeliner field. Now this brand is exclusive to superdrug so you might not be able to get your hands on it everywhere, but if you can I urge you try it! Plus it costs about £2, and there is nearly always an offer on it, so it doesn't hurt your purse too much either.

LET'S WRAP THIS UP
And that's it. I have spent many years collecting my staple products and exploring different brands to find what I like, so it was hard to pick out just a few items from my makeup bag to tell you about in detail! If you have any recommendations for cruelty free brands let please let me know in the comments, i'm always on the lookout for rad, animal friendly brands to try out.

Thanks for reading. I hope the rest of your day is wonderful!

Love Chloe x

OH, YOU WANT SOME LINKS? HERE YA GO.
Moisturiser: http://www.nspa.co.uk/products/oil-free-moisture-gel-step-4/
Foundation: http://www.boots.com/en/No7-Stay-Perfect-Foundation_1376459/
Concealer: http://www.kikocosmetics.co.uk/make-up/face/concealers/Full-Coverage-Concealer/p-KM00102003
Brush: https://realtechniques.com/shop-collection/expert-face-brush
Eyeliner: http://www.superdrug.com/2True/2True-Effortless-Eyeliner-Shade-1/p/312479#.VQb5uUtZ5FI

My MAC Eyeshadows

MAC eyeshadows are amazing. Like seriously amazing. And every time I'm in a MAC store, I spend ages studying their eyeshadow stand, reading the colour names and swatching them on my hand. At the moment I only own four of their eyeshadows, but if I wasn't a student who needed to use my money for food, I would definitely own more! 

They're incredibly pigmented, and the colour will stay on for hours without creasing (when I use primer anyway... Darn my oily eyelids, haha!).

But you've probably heard all this before, so let's begin the short tour of my MAC eyeshadow collection. The theme of my shadows (yes, they have a theme, bit fancy, eh?) is The Great Gatsby. This is because my sister bought me two of these shadows for my eighteenth birthday, which was Gatsby themed, and so when I purchased the other two I made sure they could be linked to Gatsby too. 

AMBER LIGHTS

Amber Lights is a gorgeous bronze coloured shadow, and was actually my first MAC eyeshadow. It has a little bit of glimmer in it which means it's perfect for adding some sparkle to your look. As I have brown eyes I can't confirm this, but I've heard that Amber Lights makes blue eyes appear a more intense blue, so all you blue-eyed kids need to try this shadow out! The Gatsby theme comes in here because of the black and gold style that was fashionable in the 1920's. 

'Amber Lights'

SUMPTUOUS OLIVE

I love the name of this shadow, it always just makes me picture really glamorous, curvy olives for some reason and it just makes me laugh. It's also a lovely eyeshadow. It's a sort of forest green colour, so it isn't too in your face, but really compliments green outfits (obviously). I chose a green eyeshadow for this palette to represent the green light that is in The Great Gatsby. 

'Sumptuous Olive'

NYLON

Nylon is the perfect inner corner colour. It's pure white with a little glitter speckled in it. I tend to use this on the inner third of my eye to highlight, but as it's such a stark white, I extend the highlight further into my lid and blend it out with the rest of my eyeshadow. I also like to wear Nylon as an all of over the lid colour, especially in the winter as it creates a lovely frosty look. I have to admit I mostly bought nylon because I'd heard so many people talking about how good it was, but hey, white can fit in with Gatsby aswell... I don't have a definite reason why, but let's just go with it.

'Nylon'

BLACK TIED

Black Tied is a gorgeous black shadow, and it's full of glitter too. And because of the glitter, this is perfect for wearing on a special occasion. I tend to wear this blended with nylon, as the two colours obviously contrast well against each other. This shade ties in with The Great Gatsby theme as gold and black was a fashionable design in that era, as previously said. 

'Black Tied'

And that's it. Those are my four shadows and I love them all! I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you have any MAC eyeshadows, or recommendations for MAC products, let me know in the comments; I'm always keen to know what I should treat myself to next! 

Love Chloe x

Spa Haul

For Christmas my dad treated my mum, sister and I to a day at Nirvana Spa! Nirvana is a UK spa which focuses on 'health through water' so after spending twelve hours (!!!) in the hot pools, saunas, steam rooms and floatation pool amongst other beautifully relaxing spa rooms, I left feeling very healthy and very relaxed! Whilst I was there I couldn't miss out on the chance to treat myself to a few of the Nirvana 'nspa' products they have to offer. Here's what I brought…

Micellar One-Step Cleanser - £5

The 'Nspa' products have four different steps that they recommend you follow for the ultimate beauty experience! So for step one, the cleanse step, I picked up this Micellar One-Step Cleanser. I thought it looked a little like the Bioderma cleanser and as I can't get that due to living in Britain, I decided to give this nirvana one a whirl. It removes make-up and any impurities, and as it is a 3 in 1 cleanser it cleanses, tones and protects your skin all at once; which is pretty perfect for me as when it gets to my bedtime I'm usually far too tired to do a long skincare routine! This cleanser is super refreshing and it really gently removes all my makeup fairly quickly - perfect!

Hot Cloth Polish - £7

Next up is the exfoliating step, and for this I brought the Hot Cloth Polish. This is a very creamy face wash which you wash off with the provided muslin cloth. In order to get the most out of this you need to get the cloth really hot, so I run it in hot water and then rinse the face wash off. This polish gently exfoliates your skin and clears it of any makeup and impurities. Just after using this once I noticed the difference in my skin, it was like a million times softer and it looked instantly clearer and healthier. I love this!

Spa Treatment Masks - £6

For step three, the treat step, I got these Spa Treatment Masks. This has three cloth face masks and two eye masks in it and oh my gosh, they smell amazing! They contain papaya extracts and apparently papaya smells delicious - who knew?! Not me, haha. These masks are a treat for your skin and help to improve the overall condition of your face, so are perfect for having a relaxing pamper night. I love having a little face mask session every now and then, so as soon as I saw these in Nirvana's shop I knew they'd be coming home with me. 

Night Repair Cream - £6

The final step is the moisturise step, and for this one I didn’t even have to think about what I was going to buy; the Night Repair Cream is literally my holy grail beauty product. I could not live without it. The night cream protects, repairs and moisturises your skin, and I never go to sleep with smothering my face with it first. I've really been able to see the difference in my skin since I started using this, it’s been so much clearer and if I have any problem areas, such as redness or spots, they’ve often reduced or completely gone when I wake in the morning. And as if this night cream wasn’t amazing enough, it smells great too! I love it, end of. 

And that’s everything I brought on this trip. But i’m sure I’ll be adding to my nspa collection on my next trip to the spa! 

I hope you enjoyed this post, have an amazing day! 

Byeeee :)