Skincare secrets with Farfetch Beauty

Gone are the days when I could sleep with the remnants of the day's makeup on and not suffer the consequences. As a teacher with busy school days, and even busier weekends, I find my morning and evening skincare routine to be a bit of light relief.

I'm just about to reach the end of one of the busiest terms - we waved off year 11 four days ago,  only now seeing them when they come in for their GCSE exams. The last month has consisted of early mornings and late nights, when marking 180 mock exams has had to be a priority and deadlines for grades and reports have been looming, taking up the work day and the evenings.
Due to this I've been trying to schedule in time to keep myself sane; in the mornings it's with my makeup and in the evenings it's been with my skincare regime.

My mornings usually consist of a quick rendezvous with my Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish, a hearty swipe of my Pixi Glow Tonic which is chased by Lush's Enzymion moisturiser. Somewhere in there I make a cup of tea (usually managing to drink half before forgetting about it...) and maybe have a little dance around to my morning playlist.

After a day of teaching, talking, laughing (or maybe crying, depending on the day...) and marking I'll be ready to wash off the day. If it's been busy I'll hop in the shower and grab my Clarisonic face brush with my Bioderma cleansing gel. Together, these remove makeup and thoroughly cleanse the skin leaving my face feeling smooth.

Once I'm out, there's an opportunity for hair oil or leave-in conditioner which at the moment is either Aussie's 3 Minute Miracle or Phillip Kingsley's Damage Defence spray. I brush these through with my Wet Brush and then move back on to my skincare products.

Then, I go back over my whole face with my Pixi Glow Tonic and Enzymion. To avoid puffiness and keep the delicate under eye skin hydrated I rely on my Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment and pat that gently underneath my eye and a little round the sides to the edge of my brow bone.

After that there's just enough time for a swipe of my Nivea lip butter and that's when I'm done!

It does seem like a lot of products just for one person, but they all work together to keep my skin in good condition. I find having some confidence in the way my skin looks helps my body confidence remain at a relatively good level, even if I'm completely wiped out after a day at work!

Do you have any skin secrets to share that might help me remain sane in these last few weeks? If you need inspiration too have a browse of the Farfetch Beauty section.

Comment or tweet me!

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This post was published as a promotional piece with Farfetch.com 

Holy Grail // Hair : KMS California Moist Repair

I'd never really played around with KMS California until I received a Christmas gift a few years ago. I did the usual "oh I'll give it a try" with the shampoo and conditioner on the few days following but the product that struck me the most was the revival creme.

The idea is to apply this leave in conditioner to towel dried hair and comb it through in order to keep flyaway strands at bay and put some moisture into tired or damaged hair. 

It's lightweight and relatively fragrance free once it's in the hair but there's a slight hint of vanilla if you smell the creme. I like this a lot because there's absolutely no residue left on my hair even straight after applying the creme.

My favourite aspect is that it lasts absolutely AGES. I'm only on my second 125ml tube and I've been using this regularly for well over 6 months. I never feel like it's weighing down my hair or a fad, bandwagon product. I plan to use this for as long as I possibly can on my bleached hair to keep it hydrated and healthy(isn!). If you fancy giving it a try you can click through and pick one of these up here, here or here from £11 to £16 for 125ml.

What are your holy grail products? Should I try anything else from the KMS California range?

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ghd Cherry Blossom Styler

These pink ghd hair straighteners were an emergency purchase for me. After accidentally standing on my classic, gold ghds and watching them die a tragic, tragic death I knew I wouldn't be able to last very long without another pair. That's why I am now graced with the presence of the limited edition Cherry Blossom styler.

Presented in a pretty black and pink box adorned with cherry blossom illustrations with a pull-out drawer, these straighteners are packed in a heat-proof travel bag which is something I've needed for years. The bag means that if you're travelling or packing up your stylers shortly after using them there's less of a risk of damage to the straighteners or any items packed along side them.

With a 2.7m swivel cord these straighteners allow for curling without getting tangled up in the power lead, a problem I had with my classic stylers before their little accident.

The ceramic plates have a little shimmer to them and the embellishments on the handles are pink to match them, including the light that brightens as the straighteners heat up. These straighteners automatically go into "sleep mode" half an hour after being used as well, which as well as lowering the risk of burning yourself on them also reduces the "OH SHIT DID I LEAVE MY GHDS ON" panic that one might experience approximately 5 minutes into your next journey out of the house when you're already late and you've joined the dual carriage way and there's nowhere to turn around. Yeah, that panic.

Anyway, in terms of how well this styler works I haven't been left disappointed yet, but there is something about them that is different to how the older/classic stylers. I think it's the way the plates glide down the hair but I really can't figure out the specifics of the difference. It's not life-ruining though, I can always successfully curl or straighten my hair with these straighteners and I do believe they're worth the money. At £129.99 they are £30.00 more expensive than the basic ghd stylers but 1) they are pink which is different to the classic gold and 2) £10 from your purchase is donated to the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

Overall I would recommend these straighteners, even though they're more expensive than the classic stylers. They can be bought directly from the ghd website here (click!) but I bought mine from ASOS here (click!). Both websites are offering free delivery with these products, the only difference is that if you have an NUS card or are a member of Unidays (if not click here to register! It's so worth it!) you can save 10% or more depending on the offer at the time on ASOS, winner!

Another Enrapture Encode Totem Styler Review

A few months ago I wrote this post (click!) on the Enrapture Encode Totem Styler. The photos in that post show the wand's abilities when used on the setting 1-1-2, but yesterday I wanted a little more than that for my evening out in Cambridge, so I changed the settings to 2-2-2. It was a consistent heat all the way down as opposed to in the last post where it was hottest at the bottom of the want. The photos below demonstrate the results.

From L-R : First curled pieces; less than 1inch thick held round the barrel for 15-20 seconds each time. They're quite "ragdoll"-esque here which isn't my cup of tea. One side fully curled and the other lightly straightened before curling (my hair is naturally very wavy so it needs taming before curling). Finally both sides curled - far less tight after being brushed lightly through with my hands.

I didn't take any photos throughout the night as I was at a concert but this was the result after being lightly brushed once I was home. I didn't use any hair spray or hair product at all when styling my hair. I left it like that all evening, through 2 hours of driving, walking outside and sitting in a performance hall. It was only brushed when I was home.

The curls dropped gradually while I was out but not to the point where it looked shabby. After being brushed through the curls were very soft and still held some of the shape that the heat had given when I first used it. To be honest, if I had brushed my hair through before leaving I'd have been happy with the result if it looked like this all evening as well so overall the Enrapture Encode Totem Styler has once again given my hair a sleek, smooth curl that can remain as a tight curl or be brushed through to leave a softer curl.

Details of the Totem Styler can be found on the Enrapture website here (click!) or a swift Google search will set you up with online retailers such as Johnlewis.com (click!) which has the cheapest price I've seen at £39.98, Boots.co.uk (click!) at £39.99, or Very.co.uk (click!).

Let me know if you pick one up or what your favourite heat setting is in the comments, on twitter (click!) or in an email here (click!)

Holiday : How I... keep my hair in good condition.

After having my hair lightened at the end of July I've been a little worried about keeping it in good condition for the duration of my holiday in Turkey. 

(I've been fannying around with the formatting of this for an hour on my iPad and it still won't work properly, sorry!)

Having only been here for a matter of days I noticed that the ends of my hair were looking and feeling rather crisp, something I definitely don't enjoy! I can only put this down to a mix of having my hair tied up for most of the day, UV rays, air conditioning and mostly the mortal enemy of many who have been near peroxide - chlorine! 

So, after having a trawl through my various wash bags I composed my own

"Holiday Haircare Guide!"

You will need : 

1. A good shampoo and conditioner to remove any impurities, to smooth and soften the hair and protect from breakages, especially if swimming in the sea or a pool.

I use Organix Cherry Blossom Ginseng shampoo and conditioner - between £5- £10 per 385ml.

Since I knew I would be in the sun a lot I also added a generous amount of my favourite hair mask to the bottle in the hope it would soothe any damage. 

2. A UV protecting product or two to give your hair the same protection you give your body.

I purchased two travel sized Charles Worthington products the day before I left £1.99 per 50ml.

The Aftersun Intensive Shot is to be applied for around 5 minutes to damp hair and then rinsed out. I tried to comb this through my hair as gently as possible with a wide toothed comb. I have such knotty hair it's unreal but I found that combing my hair through in the shower meant much less tugging and pulling once it was towelled dry. With the Leave-In Protection Spray I must say that I don't strictly follow the instructions. I spritz this over my hair as its drying/when its dry/before bed etc and then give it a brush through.

3. Any variation on the Moroccan / Argan oil products. 

I use Kératase Elixir Ultime - £24 for 125ml.

At home I'd use this just before I blow dry my hair. I have quite fine hair but there's an absolute ton of it so I get through about 5 or 6 pumps of this. Whilst on holiday however I haven't been styling my hair with any kind of heat (or any kind of anything for that matter; pineapple bun and French plaits all day!) so I run this rough my hair, especially the ends and let my hair dry. 

The result?

After combining these three steps every day after washing my hair I've noticed a huge difference from when I felt the horrible crispiness. After brushing I can see far fewer flyaway hairs and the ends feel much smoother even after being tied up or slept on.

I must say I feel I can attribute the majority of the improvement on the Keratase oil but the conditioning treatments have definitely helped moisturise and nourish any hairs that were dehydrated by the sun and the chlorine. 

Do you have an staple holiday hair products? Let me know, I need some new products to experiment with when I go away at the end of the month! 

Love,