Mothering Sunday Gift Guide 2011

This Sunday it will be Mother's Day, so I’ve put together a few ideas for gifts that Mums should love!

Indulge by name… must be a good sign! Why not treat your Mum this year to some gorgeous bath goodies such as this Aromatherapy Associates Indulgence Candle , It truly smells divine, jasmine and geranium! This candle will cost you £23.50 and is available from aromatherapy associates online.


Team this candle with an Aromatherapy Associates Little Luxuries set (3 x 3ml for £12) and have a very happy Mummy this Sunday! The Little Luxuries set is great because it gives you three miniature sized bottles of the popular bath and shower oils - Light Relax, De-Stress Mind and Revive Morning.

D’Anu – beauty without compromise. As you can probably tell from the previous mothers day gift ideas I’ve listed I think that you cannot fail at impressing with a gift if it is something indulgent and luxurious. “Wibbly Wobbly Wonder”  Smooth Green Coffee & Yerba Mate Body Scrub is most definitely luxurious, this scrub can firm and tone the body whilst exfoliating and polishing the skin, thus improving circulation and boosting the skin’s collogen production. Rich in essential fatty acids and vitamins skin is left silky smooth and visibly toned thanks to the superior anti-cellulite benefits of Green Coffee and Yerba Mate. Priced at £38.

Jane Scrivner Rose Gold Skin Atta, At £49.00 per 50ml serum bottle (and reduced to just £40 for Mothers day!), it’s a must-have beauty treat your Mum just can’t afford to be without. Best of all, 10% from the sale of this product will be donated to the Breast Cancer Campaign! Available from www.janescrivner.com

Happy Mothers Day Mums!

Monu Eye Cooling Gel - review

I ♥ Monu! If you’ve read my Monu Cleansing Balm review you probably know how impressed I was with this brand! Monu is a British Brand who provide nurturing, pampering and soothing skincare from the finest of natural ingredients.

The latest Monu product I’ve tried is the Monu Eye Cooling Gel. The gel refreshes and revives tired eyes, a god send if you’ve not got your eight hours the night before! I don’t have much problem with dark circle around my eyes, only if I’m very tired or dehydrated/hungover, ten minutes after applying the gel my eyes felt let sore and puffy and I looked much healthier and bright eyed.

Monu Eye Cooling Gel contains:
-Arnica which helps to normalise the skin’s inflammatory response and stimulates the peripheral blood supply when applied externally
-Siberian Ginseng which contains properties that help the body cope with stress by boosting cell recovery.
-Magnesium Gluconate which works at the fine nerve endings to inhibit calcium which ‘contracts’ the fine facial muscles resulting in expression lines.
-Vitamin C which aids in correction of sun damage.
-Sodium Hyaluronate provides long lasting hydration.

I’d also recommend using this product if you suffer from dry skin around your eyes but think a moisturiser would be too strong or too much of an irritant on your skin. Monu Eye Cooling Gel will give your skin enough moisturise to allow you to apply your make-up evenly as well as cooling down irritable skin.

Priced at £15.25 and available from www.monushop.co.uk

Belle De Jour

Have you been watching any of the new Secret Diary of a Call Girl? Billie Piper looks incredible! Clothes, hair and make-up to die for!

Billie really does carry off every look with ease, from a nude lip and curls to big tousled hair and bright lips! I've no idea how long Billie spends in hair and make-up to become Belle De Jour... but I'm pretty sure I don't have the same amount of time and/or skills so need to find some fab products to make getting that amazing shiny hair and flawless make-up a little bit easier!


My favourite hairbrush for getting lots of volume is my Fekkai Large Round Brush (£46). The round brush provides you with maximum styling control while blow-drying, I also find that the brush is a really nice weight to work with (very important for me as I’ve got a lot of thick hair so blow drying can take quite some time!) Each Fekkai brush is handmade in France to Frederic's specifications, it's uniquely designed handle of European olive wood offers a comfortable, non-slip grip that controls hair static for smooth, straight hair.

Although I love adding volume to the roots of my hair, I can’t really get away with having curly or wavy hair as mine is too thick, so instead I like sleek ends. To obtain silky shiny hair I like to use the Straight Away Shampoo by Tara Smith, which has quite possibly the best slogan ever “Tested on film stars not on animals” I don’t know what film stars they might be, but it’s definitely a catchy slogan! The shampoo contains Ginkgo Biloba which has long been taken internally for anti stress, so it must be doing my scalp some calming too, combined with marine algae extract which moisturises and conditions dry and damaged hair to make it much more manageable. 

Now for the killer lips, a glamorous fabulous red. Private Red Lip Stick by Du Wop features an innovative formula which adapts to your lips and transforms into a variety of red hues (it really does, this was quite hard to test, I had to put lipstick on just half my lips, then do the other half ten minutes later for comparison!). It contains naturally derived pigment for long-lasting colour, and vitamin E for a silky smooth finish. You can buy this magical lipstick from QVC beauty. 

If you’ve not got the time to spend so long getting ready every day, why not try the ultimate cheat Silica-OK. It’s a pill that is meant to improve your skin, hair and nails. I’ve started taking it over the past fortnight but according to the packet I’ll really start to notice the difference after four-eight weeks – yay, can’t wait to have strong nails!

Silica-OK contains a balanced combination of organic silica which provides silica and nine other nutrients in a single tablet which help maintain the structure of nails.  Silica is found in connective tissues, cartilage and skin, where it strengthens collagen and elastin fibres and contributes to tissue elasticity. Zinc and vitamin B6 boosts keratin, which is an important component of hair, skin and nails. B-complex vitamins encourage healthy cell function while Vitamins C, E, beta-carotene and the trace minerals selenium and zinc are antioxidants, which protect against premature skin ageing.

Don't let hay fever ruin your make-up

I don’t mind taking pills when I’m unwell, but I don’t like taking medication all the time. So when I found out there was an alternative to regular hay fever medication I was intrigued to say the least!

There is nothing worse than making your make-up look beautiful and then sneezing and having mascara all over your face!! Nightmare.  So I needed to find an alternative, I’ve recently started to take Quercetin instead of my regular antihistamines. What I love about Quercetin is that it is naturally derived from plant pigments found in apples, onions and black tea. 

The over the counter antihistamines which I usually take block histamines (responsible for runny nose/ sore throat and itchy eye symptoms), which in turn creates the dangerous sedative effect. Quercetin from Nature’s Best doesn’t block the histamines, but instead reduces their release into the body altogether – meaning no drowsy feeling! Quercetin is the natural way to treat hayfever and relieve its associated symptoms.

You’d have to eat 1kg of apples to get the same amount of Quercetin as there is in Nature’s Best Quercetin capsules. I love apples, but there is a limit! 

A little bit of lovely

I just started a PR work placement so I've been a little busy the last week, but here are some of my recent favourites:

Laura Geller Baked to Go Balance & Brighten has to have the cutest packaging ever! It’s quite hard to explain what it’s like, but to put it crudely, when you untwist the lid there is a bouncy mechanism that rubs the product onto the applicator – genius! I also wasn’t at all worried about the hygiene of this as the product seals fully and I always use it over my foundation anyway! It’s actually marketed as a foundation/colour corrective powder in it’s own right – but I use mine as a bronzer because I’m very pale and i often find it tricky to find a shade that gives my skin warmth without looking false. Oh, and there is a little mirror on the lid too, a must have for any handbag! I’ve not seen this stocked anywhere in the highstreet, but you can buy it online at QVC for under £20!

A guilty pleasure of mine definitely has to be watching trashy TV. I was watching Snog, Marry, Avoid a few days ago (please forgive me!) and, being an eyebrow lover, I have to say Jenny Frost does have amazing brows! Her secret? Well… apart from eyebrow maintenance… she swears by the "The HD eye&brow palette saying that it is “one of my must have items for my beauty bag, I can use the colours for my eyes and brows to create a day or night-time look". If it’s good enough for the Frost, it’s good enough for me! I picked one up and have to admit – the palette offers a great variety of colours and the brushes included are really great, you can get a soft look or a really precise line to your eye and brows. Be warned however, the (rather large) mirror is VERY good – avoid at all costs if hungover, you can literally see every pore!

Oh, did I say I’m an eyebrow lover… I got some new tweezers! Aren’t they just adorable? I dropped my last tweezerman and damaged the tip :(, I know they can be sent off to be fixed, and I probably will do that because it’s always good to have spares, but I just couldn’t go for too long without a pair! Tweezerman IS the Godfather of all tweezers! These graffiti slanted tweezers grab every tiny hair just like regular tweezerman, only difference being the cute writing/graffiti, they certainly brighten up my make-up bag :). If you've never tried them before, I'd definitely say invest - a good pair of tweezers will serve you well, and if cared for, last you for years to come.

La La Lashes

I la la looooove false lashes! If you've read some of my blog before you've probably noticed this. I wouldn't call it an obsession, but it's getting close to one!

My most recent lash lust is the La La Lashes range (the latest innovation from the pioneers of the eyelash industry, Lash Perfect). The range of La La Lashes is quite extensive, from natural looking lashes to show-stopping lashes, there is one to suit everyone!  I tried 'Dazzle' a fairly natural looking set of lashes with a twist, they've got a dusting of gold across them, enough to look pretty without looking too try-hard.The lash adhesive dries with a transparent finish – so even if you’re a little haphazard with your glue application fear not it’ll soon disappear! 

(Image sourced here)