My recent hand cream obsession

Hello, I'm Abz, and I'm obsessed with hand cream.

Now that may be a bit over dramatic but I've gone from zero to 100 when it comes to hand cream. I used it in the evenings after doing my skincare but that was about it. If it was there to use in a restaurant toilet, I wouldn't use it, free mini hand creams in hotel rooms, wouldn't take them, I just wasn't interested. What changed was when I started to use them at work. In the Look Fantastic Advent Calendar I had last year (That's one of the best things I've ever bought, I go on about it all the time!) I got a deluxe mini of the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream. Already having a hand cream on the go at home but desperate to use something from a brand I've wanted to try out for so long, I took it to work. I got into the habit of using it every time I left the room and now here I'm am, three hand creams down in five months and in need of a fourth.

Over the last few months I've had chance to test out a few of the skin saviours and the ones I've loved have been:

Being by Sanctuary Spa - Chilli Mango and Tonka Bean: It has a really strong smell of mango (sometimes it is a bit too much) and for summer I feel like this will be the one. You just need a small amount otherwise it can get a bit greasy but an all round good egg.

Soap and Glory Hand Food - Sugar Crush: This scent is one of my favourites, like sherbet. it's really thick so it might be a bit much when the weather gets hotter, but for right now, it's cracking.

The Body Shop - Coconut: I love the Body Shop hand creams, all scents are amazing and they're the perfect size. I think the coconut one is my favourite though, it's the one I keep going back to.

I have one hand cream that's on my wishlist - the L'Occitane Almond Delicious Hand Cream. I've heard good things about it and I'd quite like to give it a go. (look at me getting excited about hand cream!)

What are you obsessed with at the minute?

I've been spending again | Body and skincare haul

Another day, another haul.

I need to have a serious word with myself because I can't afford to keep spending my wage within minutes of it landing it my bank account. But I can't help it! There's so much I want to test out and that means digging my hand in my pocket and hoping I'm getting the best deals for more Boots Advantage Points. This haul is very much half things I needed and half things I've been wanting to try for a few weeks, so no real impulse buys here (for once).

I needed to get some new shampoo and conditioner and I wanted to try one of the new Garnier scents. I'm not 100% sure what my hair type is but I felt that it could probably do with some nourishment so the Garnier Ultimate Blends Coconut Milk and Macadamia was the one for me. Garnier was on 3 for 2 when I snapped these up (and they're still on 3 for 2 so go troops go!) so I bought the shampoo, conditioner and the hair mask. I'm trying to make a conscious effort to take better care of my hair and hopefully the hair mask will give my hair some TLC. Also it smells amazing! Another product I needed to stock up on was micellar water. I've been using the Simple Micellar Water for a few months but when I saw the 700ml bottle of Garnier Micellar Water was on offer for £5 I had to get it. It's huge! And it came with a free makeup bag! Win, win, win! I'm a big fan of this micellar water and it's definitely top of my list along with the Simple one so I'm glad to have such a big bottle.

Now onto things I really didn't need but that I've been eyeing up for a little while. First up is the new (at least I think they're new) Being Sanctuary Spa Body Butter and Bubble Bath in the Salted Caramel and Macadamia scent (I must be having a real macadamia moment). I'm a huge fan of sweet, cake-y scents and this is as sweet and as cake-y as they come. I've not had a chance to try the bubble bath yet but I'm seriously impressed with the body butter - it's thick, hydrating and doesn't leave me feel super sticky. They were £10 each, which for me is a little on the pricy side but the packaging makes it feel good quality and I'm impressed so far with the product inside. Last but not least in this haul are two new masks by Soap and Glory. I really excited when I saw Soap and Glory were releasing sheets masks because I've become a bit obsessed with them in recent months. Every time i go into Boots and Superdrug I seem to walk out with one - I really should learn to buy in bulk! I went for the Puffy Eye Attack Eye Mask, because I've always wanted to try out an eye mask, and The Fab Pore Pore Refining Mask, because all of the sheet masks I've tried have been for dry skin but this one is for oily - exciting!

What's your favourite bath product - bath bomb, bubble bar, bath salt? I'd love to know!

The 'I Need A Good Pamper' Haul

Whenever my parents tell me they're going to ditch me on an evening my immediate response is that I'm going to have a bath. So when they told me that I would be spending a Sunday night all on my lonesome, I decided to stock up on some 'pamper products'. I already had my bubbles of choice (The Body Shop Vanilla Chai Foaming Bath from Christmas - still available online) so it was just a case of picking up a new candle and something to give my face a good detox.

Let's go with masks first. I've been eyeing up the L'Oreal Pure Clay Masks for a while so I decided to bite the bullet and go for the Purity Mask. I didn't want to buy all three at once because I thought that would be a bit hard on my bank account and this one seemed to do the things I look for in a mask, clean my skin and mattify. I really like the texture of this, a bit like a gel, and it dried down totally in 15 minutes and left my skin feeling tight and cleaned but also moisturised. If anyone has all three masks let me know if it's worth getting the other two because I really like this one so far. I also got myself a Garnier SkinActive Moisture Bomb Tissue Mask. I love how easy these are to use and how hydrated my skin feels after applying one. I put this one once I'd finished with my L'Oreal mask and the cooling effect this had on my face just made me sink into the bath and relax even more. I'd definitely recommend checking these out. I don't have dry skin but it is quite dehydrated and this works wonders.

I picked up some of the Tea Tree and Witch Hazel Facial Pore Strips from Boots. I love these! It's really grim but they're so satisfying and I feel like my skin gets a good clean when I use one of these. Anyone who likes watching 'those' videos on the internet then get yourself a pack of these (I feel like a disgusting human). Also from that range I bought a new blemish stick. Now let me start off by saying this is the weirdest spot treatment I've ever seen. It comes in a tube as fat as my thumb and is bright blue...yeah, weird. I've not been using it for long enough to see if it's doing the job but it hasn't broken me out yet so so far so good.

Last but not least I picked up a Zoella Lazy Days candle. I've been thinking about trying one of these for a while and I found the scent quite interesting, quite clean but also kind of sweet. I can happily report that I'm quite impressed. What I love about this candle is within just a few hours of first burning it, the wax had burnt all the way across. I've had candles of the same size that take eight plus hours to burn all the way across and it really gets on my wick (haha what a pun). I think I might be picking up some more of these!

What's your go-to pamper product?

Things I'm loving from Boots

A couple of weeks ago I did a rather large Boots haul and there were a lot of hits and also a couple of misses. But today we are focusing on the positives and I'll be taking you through what I really loved from the haul (which if you haven't read the post then you can read it here) and what things you should really pick up and try. Some things are new in, some are old that people have loved for a long time that I'm just very late to the party to. Enjoy!

Let's start with brushes and from the Real Techniques Core Collection there are two that I've absolutely fallen in love with. I don't know how I lived my life before the Buffing Brush. It is the perfect foundation brush, dense so that it can foundation can be buffed but with hairs that are long enough to give a nice finish to the foundation. It feels really soft and I don't think I'll be able to use another brush fro my foundation ever again. The second brush that I love from the collection is the Contour Brush. I've never owned a contour brush before because I thought that I didn't need one but I was totally wrong. It makes the perfect cheekbone shape (because if you're like me you need to make cheekbones as opposed to find them and enhance them) and, like the buffing brush, is super soft. This brush works really well with the next product I'm going to mention which is the Maybelline Master Sculpt Contour Kit. I'm still working with the best way to use this product but I'm really liking it so far. The contour shade isn't too warm and isn't too cool, although a light hand is needed as it can easily build up into a very harsh line. The highlight shade is very nice for everyday, and I do use it on a daily basis, but if you want something super shimmery and highlighting then this will be a little too subtle for you. Something that I picked up off the cuff was the Soap and Glory Love At First Blush Stick in Pink, Pop and Pearl. I'd seen something about these sticks on a couple of blogs so I thought why not pick one up as I didn't have anything like this in my collection. I'm so glad that i picked it up because I've fallen in love with this product and use it everyday. It's been described as a cream version of Nars Orgasm Blush and is just a beautiful shimmery pink on the cheeks. It lasts very well on the skin and I really want to try of the highlight of this as well because I can tell it's going to be good. Something that I have rediscovered is the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer. I used to use this all the time but starting using other things but I'm so glad I went back to this one. You've heard it all before so I won't go on about it but if you've never tried it then get yourself down to Boots now, you won't regret it. I used to use the Rimmel Kohl Kajal in Jet Black religiously but I'm sorry to say I've moved on now. My holy grail eyeliner is now the Soap and Glory Smoulder Kohl Eyeliner. It stays in my waterline for a really long time without smudging, goes on smoothly and is jet black. It's insanely good!

Boots Haul!

So I had a massive, well massive for me anyway, splurge in Boots yesterday. I have double points all month because it's my birthday and I just had to take advantage of it! I'd just like to give a little shoutout to my bank account, I'm sorry but it just had to be done.

I was in need of concealer replacements so I picked up another of my Maybelline Eraser Eye Concealer in Light. You never realise how much the sponge absorbs product until you compare it with a new one. I've not bought a tube of the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in Fair in about 12 months and I have no idea why. I love this concealer and it's such a bargain. My massive impulse buy of the trip was the L'Oreal Infallible Matte Max Lip Colour in 002 Virgin. This is such a weird concept. It's a pointed sponge applicator on a spring that dips into a powder at the end. It's very pigmented and from the little trial run I've done it's not that drying which you'd think it would be. I'll keep you posted on my thoughts on this one. Another lip product I picked up was the Maybelline Baby Lips Lips and Cheek in Innocent Peach (Maybelline is on 3 for 2, quick run to Boots now!). The shape of the product resembles the EOS lip balms but the product feels pretty much the same as the original Baby Lips. Feels nice on the lips and when I try it on the cheeks I'll let you know. Last of my Maybelline purchases is the Maybelline Master Sculpt Contour Kit in Light/ Medium. This has been out for a while now and although I've been eyeing it up I never thought that I needed contour until yesterday. It seems very warm toned but I'm yet to try it on my face so I'm hoping that it works out quite well. The highlight is very subtle and I think it will work well for everyday. Soap and Glory now and I've heard good things about the Soap and Glory Smoulder Kohl Waterproof Eyeliner, especially for lasting power. I having a black line in my waterline so I'm really excited to use this. When testing it on the back of my hand it's really pigmented but also super soft so it won't scratch my eye out! I feel head over heals in love with the Soap and Glory Love At First Blush Stick in Pink, Pop and Pearl when I first swatched it. It's a cream blush stick with a heck of a lot of shimmer and I bet it will look amazing on my cheeks. Finally, and I'm super late to the party with this one, I got the Real Techniques Core Collection. I'm most excited to use the buffing brush and the contour brush but for just over £20 for four brushes I think that it is actually quite a bargain!

Keep posted in the next few weeks because there may be some kind of first impressions coming your way soon!

L-R: 002 Virgin, Contour, Highlight, Superblack, Pink Pop and Pearl, Innocent Peach

Origins Face Masks

Don't you just love it when you discover a bargain because I do! The other week when I was doing my usual blog stalking session I saw that someone had bought three Origins Face Masks, a brand which I had previously not tried, for £20 instead of £50. So I was straight onto the Boots website and before I knew it they were in my basket. I couldn't wait to use them so each night for the next three nights I gave them a road test and all of them are insanely good.

Starting with the Charcoal mask this is the one that I'd heard most about. This is what I'd call a 'traditional mask' as it does the whole hardening so that you can barely move your face and you can really feel it working. It claims to draw out the badness and open the pores and it definitely does. After using this my face is left soft and in the days afterwards considerably clearer. Next up is the Overnight Mask. I was a bit weary before using this as I have oily skin and the thought of leaving something on my skin for a long time made me think it could become a little greasy. However, this is anything but. It smells fruity (big bonus) and has quite a thick consistency. When I wake up in the morning my skin feels fresh and soft and is great after a night of drinking, a real life saver. Last but not least, is the Out of Trouble 10 Minute Mask. I think that this one is my favourite as it's super thick, smells like menthol and clears my skin up like no other. It's a quick fix for when my face is going through a bit of a bad spell. I lather this onto my face and neck, leave it for, you guessed it, 10 minutes and feel the magic happen. After washing it off my skin feels soft and tight, in a good way.

I'm so glad that I bought these, they work so well! Hopefully they do my skin some good and I don't get too addicted because I don't think I could afford to buy them again at normal price.