First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads

I'm a demon for not looking after my skin as well as I should do. But as I'm getting older and noticing lines creeping in where they used not be, I'm getting worried. So since Christmas, I've been trying to put a pep in my step when it comes to my skincare routine. I've been trying different brands, and adding different products to my routine, some have worked, and some not so much. One product however that has worked for me and I've noticed a difference in my skin after is the First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads. I'd heard a few bits and pieces about First Aid Beauty on various social media channels, but hadn't tried anything from the brand. I came across a set on www.cloud10beauty.com that had a few products in it, and the Radiance Pads were one of them, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to give them a try.

The Pads, are free from alcohol, and are made up of ingredients including glycolic acid and lactic acid to exfoliate, Cucumber and Indian Gooseberry to tone, and lemon peel and liquorice root to brighten the skin. Another thing to note is that they're free from alcohol, and are suitable for sensitive skinned folk. First Aid Beauty also claim these pads will help reduce visible pores, and diminish  fine lines.
These pads are double sided, one side has a slightly bumpy texture, and the other side is just flat.
So how did I get on?

I have to say I really really like these. I use them at night after using my Emma Hardie Cleansing Balm, although not every night, (they are safe enough to be used every day, I just choose not to). When I wipe the pad across my face and neck, I can feel a slight tingling sensation on my skin afterwards, so it really feels like the product is really tightening up my skin.  Around my  nose would tend to get fairly red with dry patches of skin, but when I use these pads, the dry patches disappear, so they really do exfoliate the skin.
After I've used them I go ahead and use my normal eye cream and night serum and moisturiser, or sometimes a moisturising face mask if I need it. When I wake up the morning after using these, my skin just looks brighter and fresher and it looks like I've gotten a great night's sleep, even if in reality I've been up late watching my favourite snapchatters!
As for the claim to reduce the size of larger pores, I don't really notice any difference. And I have fairly big pores on my nose, (they're the bain of my life). I don't notice the diminishing of my fine lines either.
But regardless of that, I still really like them! I'm terribly lazy, and so physically exfoliating my skin with a face scrub is a rarity. So these are a god send for me, because I've no excuse as it only takes seconds!
They are available on Cloud10Beauty  Here in packs of 28 which are 16.95, or a pack of 60, which are 30.95. The pack that I got was the 28 as it was included in a gift set, so I think when I repurchase I'll get the bigger one, just so I know I have them!
I'm really impressed with these, and at the moment, I'm sitting browsing the Cloud 10 site looking at some other First Aid Beauty products! Oops!
Thanks for reading,
Alisha xxx

Derma V10 Cleansing Milk

I ran out of my favourite Lancome Cleansing Milk before I went away last week, and for the sake of packing, I didn't want to be bringing a huge bottle of micellar water and a hot cloth cleanser with me, so I decided for the week that was in it I'd make do with one cleanser instead. I opted for something cheap and cheerful and picked up this Derma V10 Deep Cleansing Milk in Tesco for 1.99 as I'd heard of the brand and figured it would be grand. It contains Sweet Almond Oil, and is free of parabens and other nastys. All this sounded so good to me I didn't think twice about it and packed it in my toiletry bag without even trying it before I went away. Which I really really should have!

This stuff just did not work for me at all! I used it twice a day, morning and nighttime. Nighttime it was OK because it just took off my makeup really, but in the morning when I was giving my skin a freshening up it just left this greasy residue across my face, and even trying to wipe of the excess with cottonpads didn't work, because the cotton pads just stuck to it, leaving my face covered in bits of fluff! This residue that was left behind also made it fairly hard for me to carry on with my skincare routine and my eye cream and moisturiser didn't work as well as they should have, in my opinion. For the week I was there and using this, my boyfriend also commented on how patchy and streaky my make up was, and I figured it had to be bad for him to comment on it, because he never comments on my make up, ever. The only thing I had changed up in my routine was my cleanser, so the only thing I can put the change in how my make up looked was down to that. Maybe its unfair of me to do so, but I honestly can't think of any other reasons, considering as soon as I came home and went back to using a micellar water until I picked up another cleanser, I have had no problems with streaky make up. Overall its not the end of the world, it was only cheap, but I just couldn't be bothered to bring it home because I knew I wasn't going to use it again so I left it at the hotel (hence the lack of pictures), so its either gone straight in the bin or maybe the cleaning lady has found a new holy grail cleanser! :P
All in all it just wasn't for me, and I have since purchased a new Garnier cleansing milk to try, but if you have any other suggestions, please let me know!
Thanks for reading,
Alisha xxx

If I were a rich girl.....

Hi, I'm Alisha, and I'm a cheapskate.... (If you've ever watched Extreme Cheapskates, don't worry, I'm not THAT bad). Don't get me wrong, I like to spend money, I like to spend it quite a lot actually, but I don't tend to spend a lot of money on more expensive things. I like cheap and cheerful, and I can't really justify spending high amounts of money for things that can be picked up for a lot less in less expensive places, and I'm afraid this goes for make up too. I just don't spend money on higher end more expensive make up products, when there's such amazing things to be found in the 'drugstore' these days. However, everybody is different, and I'm not judging anybody who does prefer  to splash their cash on high end make up, each to their own. This is just how I roll! Now that being said, I do own some high end make up, but I can count it on one hand!
The whole purpose of this post is to show you all what I would buy, if I by some stroke of luck win the lotto, or if I perhaps marry a rich man!!

Yves Saint Laurent is one of the most luxurious high end brands around. With its elegant packaging its not hard to see why. I mean just look at it! How pretty is this lipstick! However, no matter how pretty is, I just wouldn't pay 32.50 for it at this moment in time. I know it sounds tight, but I find it  hard to pay anything over 10 euro for a lipstick, especially when I've found such great ones for 3 and 4 euro! If I had the means though I would have all colours in the ROUGE VOLUPTE SHINE lipstick, even just to have them sitting pretty on my dressing table!

I love nail polish, at present there is a drawer next to my bed that won't close properly because there is copious bottles of polish sticking out of it, calling out to me to be used! However, there is no high end nail colours in there, so a Tom Ford polish wouldn't be out of place in there! However, at 32.50 for a single polish, I think it'll be sitting pretty in my Brown Thomas online basket for a while longer. :(

Just recently I've really gotten into my skincare, and have really loved trying different bits and pieces to see what suits my skin. I suppose I've finally realised that prevention is better than cure, and now is the time to start looking after my skin. Creme De La Mer is the cream of the crop when it comes to skincare (pardon the pun there), but at 1600 euro for a 500ml tub?? I'll stick with my No 7 moisturiser for now thank you very much! However if I was a lady who had lots to spend, well I'd be very happy to purchase this!

Jo Malone are probably most well known for their huge range of fragrances and candles. I hear very little of the bath and body range, but this Lime Basil and Mandarin Body Creme sounds so luxurious, and its no wonder at 62.50! If money was no object, I'd probably have the body wash and the matching perfume too! Feck it, I'd probably get the candle too just for the heck of it! :)

And lastly, this post wouldn't be complete without a designer handbag, and the one I'd run out straight away and buy for myself if I won the EuroMillions would be this Michael Kors Medium Sutton Tote in this gorgeous bright blue saffiano leather. It would just be the perfect bag to brighten up any plain outfit, and it would fit everything you'd need to carry around with you on a daily basis. However at 328 Dollars, I think I'll wait until someone picks up on a hint or two and maybe buys it for me?? Or else I'll keep an eye out when I go to America for some good sales! :)

What would you guys buy if you had an endless stream of money?

Thanks for reading,
Alisha xxx

L'Oreal Skin Perfection 3 in 1 Puryfying Micellar Solution V 15 Second Miracle Cleansing Oil

Micellar solutions seem to be the bee's knees and the cat's pyjamas in skincare these days thanks to the stir Bioderma has caused in the beauty world. I've never tried Bioderma so I can't say anything about that, but when I saw L'Oreal had brought out their own version, well it didn't take me too long to hot foot it to Boots to see what the fuss was about! In case you don't know what a Micellar solution is, its a solution which acts as a magnet to draw impurities and oils etc out of the face, instead of spreading them around the face which is what some face wipes can do. Of course when I went in there was a 3 for 2 on skincare so I ended up with 2 bottles of the Purifying Micellar Solution, and a bottle of the 15 Second Miracle Cleansing Oil.
 Neither of these are products that I would use on their own to cleanse my face, (unless its 3am and I may have had one or two cocktails,) but rather as an extra step in my skincare routine to make sure my make up has been removed altogether.
I have had a lot of compliments on my skin lately, and I myself have seen a noticeable difference. Its clearer, I'm getting a lot less blemishes, and it seems to be a lot brighter. I myself am putting it down to the double cleanse routine that I have really gotten into.
I figured it would be a good idea to do a post comparing the two of these, mainly because they are two different products, from the same company that claim to do the same job!

Skin Perfection 3 in 1 Purifying Micellar Solution: 
L'Oreal claim that this is a 'A high-performance hypo-allergenic cleanser for face eyes and lips, suitable for sensitive skin. Dissolves make-up, unclogs pores and removes impurities and tones and soothes the skin.' It is also said to be suitable for Sensitive Skin. I have skin which is more dry to combination so I can't really give any opinion on those claims. However I have found this a godsend in my skincare routine. I use it to take off the bulk of my make up, and the amount of stuff that comes off on my cotton pads is really and truly disgusting! (Sorry for the visual).So without a doubt it removes make up!  I then go in with whatever cleanser I'm using at that time (Its Lancome at the minute). It doesn't effect the eyes in the slightest bit so it does act as an eye make up remover at the same time. I've gone through two bottles of this altogether so far and it is just such a handy product, I often use it in the morning as a quick freshen up to wake myself up. The only small little complaint I can make about it though is that I did find it to dry my skin out a tiny little bit, so for this I wouldn't say it tones and soothes skin. I'm out of this for the moment but it is a product I would definitely repurchase. Its currently on offer for 4.46 in   
Boots, (6.00 normal price) so go quickly!!


Skin Perfection 15 Second Miracle Cleansing Oil:
Straight away this is different to the Micellar Solution for one obvious reason, this one is an oil rather than a water. It claims to 'instantly dissolve all traces of make up and impurities, (even water proof), re balances and purifies for healthier looking skin'. This was my first time trying a facial oil, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It was easy enough to use though, I took 2/3 drops of the oil and applied it all over my face and eyes (this is the part where I was waiting to be blinded), and then rinsed it off with warm water. The first thing I'll say about this is that its very messy to use. As soon as I had rubbed it on my eyes there was eyeshadow and mascara all over my hands! That didn't really make a huge difference as realistically you're taking off your make up anyway. I did the same with this as I did with the Micellar Solution, and used it more of a pre cleanse rather than a proper full on cleanse. 
Again it lived up to its claims of dissolving make up instantaneously, as there wasn't a bit left on my face when I rinsed this off. Pricewise this is slightly more expensive at 10.79, but again its on offer at 7.19, so its a good time to try it if you've been curious about products like this! 


So which one would I choose? 
To be honest I can't really decide. Both of these are excellent products, which both do a great job at what they say. However the Micellar Solution to me is a quick fix, its one of those products you might use if you're in a rush, whereas the Cleansing Oil is something you'd need to have more time for seen as you have to rub it on and then wash it off. Its more of a treat too I think, something  you may use if you're having a night in and really want to pamper yourself. (Oils seem fancy to me ok?)
The price point for them is good too, there isn't a huge difference in the two to make you choose one rather than the other. If you are like me and can't help yourself and want to try both, you'll get both for under 20.00, and you'll even have change left over for ice cream! (Or fruit).
Either way you can't go wrong...

What products are must haves for you in your skin care routine?

Thanks for reading,
Alisha
xxx