The DIY Clarisonic: Origins Facial Brush

Realistically, not everyone can afford a Clarisonic.  Even the Mia at the lower end of the scale retails at £120; for a face cleaner, more than a weekly food allowance is a little extortionate.  Maybe when I've got a well paying job these beauty luxuries can be treats, but for the time being I have to find affordable alternatives.

After a search on eBay (for 'facial brush') I came across lots of plastic-handled 'manual' versions for a couple of pounds, including this Origins one.  I could only find them as part of gift sets in the UK (here), and only really here for America, but I thought I'd give it a whirl.  I believe the Boots Botanics facial brush was very popular (Fee posted on it here), but it appears they've changed the brush, and it looks a lot like this Origins one for about £4 more.  I would link you to it, but unfortunately Boots.com seems to be down, and has been for days - and I can't put this post off any longer whilst waiting for it to reappear!

Firstly, I like the fact the whole thing is plastic; no worrying about damaging any wood or natural bristles, and it tends to dry pretty quickly.  It's easy to keep clean too, and I like not having muslin cloths thrown in the washer every 2 days.  I just run this under hot water, swish the bristles around and leave it to dry out.  The bristles are soft, yet firm, meaning they don't bend and flatten when I'm cleansing, but don't hurt my face either.  However, I'm not sure if the bristles are a little too long, as I tend to spray face wash all over the place if I really get into it!  But since I'm either in the shower or over the sink, this doesn't bother me too much.

I only use it for a few minutes as I don't want to slog away my whole face, but straight away I noticed the difference.  My skin is less red, less spotty and less oily; overall, it looks really radiant and healthy.  The skin around my T-zone seems to be tightening up, the pores are less obvious and that seems to be linked to less oil production too.  I've heard that skin brushing also allows products to be absorbed more easily - which also seems to be the case with me too.  Even after the first day I was surprised at how good my skin was looking, so I'm looking forward to doing an update a few months down the line! 

Finding the right face wash seems the hardest part about the brush cleansing.  Some are not foamy enough, some are too foamy, some are too drying, some are too creamy.. For the moment I'm just using up the masses of face washes/cleansers I already have, then I'll look into buying a good, mid-foamy, brush friendly one! (Maybe Cetaphil or Soap & Glory?)

Overall, using the brush has been incredible for me.  I have medication to help with spots, but using this brush has done more for my skin than medication has done for quite a while!  (This is also the reason I'm not giving you a face photo; my skin is not lovely to look at!)  I was previously using Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish system, and still love it so much I will go back to using it half the time in the long-term.  But for now, I'm very happy using my manual facial brush!  Personally, I don't really think it really matters what brand of brush you use.  As long as you're brushing your face (although it sounds ridiculous..), your skin will look radiant.  Although when I finally have a little extra cash I might treat myself to an electric brush - just for the convenience, of course!

xx

Dove Express Treatments

Intensive Repair Express Treatment (link)

Nourishing Oil Care Express Treatment (link)

I love Dove haircare, always have and always will do!  I thought I'd try out their new intensive conditioners.  Whilst they act like deep conditioning hair masks, they only need to be applied for 1 minute to produce results.  The main difference between these two is the 'Nourishing Oil Care' unsurprisingly, contains oils.  The product doesn't state specifically which oils, and with chemical names for oils on the ingredients list it's not clear there either! (After some googling I found there's coconut oil in there..)  When you squeeze the product out, there's the 'gold stripe' of 'nutri-oils' which work to leave hair feeling gorgeous, manageable and silky.  I use a shower comb to distribute the conditioner throughout my hair, which means every strand feels and smells amazing.

The Intensive Repair version did leave my hair a little bit softer than if I'd used the normal conditioner, but personally I didn't see a massive difference.  There's no fancy stripes, the treatment is just white and looks quite a lot like the normal conditioner.  And the normal conditioner is cheaper, so I'd probably buy that one instead!

These Express Treatments can be used with every wash, although with only 180ml of product, if you wash everyday, it's not going to go far. So, as you can see, I'm a little torn on these Express Treatments.  The Nourishing Oil Care in particular is a very good product and I will be repurchasing when I've run out!

xx

Lucas' Papaw Ointment

Now, I'm not going to lie.  This tube is really old, like, really old.  I purchased it years ago whilst I was still at school, so at least 3 years.  It's one of those things I used to carry in my bag all the time, and then  resigned it to my make-up box to sit with everything else that was my once 'must have' product.  I used it on everything that needed to be fixed; imagine the consistency of Vaseline with the healing powers of Sudocrem and you're probably about half way there.

I read in some magazine that this was the cheap Australian equivalent to 8 hour cream; therefore, any sane beauty addict would decide 'yes, I definitely need this'.  I think I purchased it from their official Paw Paw shop (here).  The product info on there is also very interesting; Papaw Ointment has been produced from papaya/paw paw by the Lucas family for around 80 years.  It was originally created to cure a disease because of the natural antiseptic qualities from the papaw tree; over the years it's been taken up by many beauty and make-up lovers as a staple product.

Up until recently I'd forgotten about Papaw Ointment, which I'm sure is something experienced by most beauty bloggers; with a cycle of new products being tried, tested and loved all the time, the old lovers are cast aside.  It was only when I was reading the asos magazine that I had a moment of realisation.  They were praising Papaw Ointment and promising to stock it soon... and left me thinking that 1, this product is definitely not new and 2, I'm sure I own this!  

So Papaw came back into my life with its cute name (I say it 'Paw Paw' because I'm northern, and prefer it that way!), faint smell that reminds me of nature and healing powers that rival Madame Pomfrey.  (Harry Potter reference, in case you aren't still a super fan.)

After medication has ruined my skin again, it's Papaw to the rescue.  My eyes are plastered with the stuff, and thankfully, because it's not a cream, it doesn't sting so intensely that I cry (this has happened with my moisturiser for the past two days).  It really can be used to fix anything - I think most people use it as a lip balm - and at only £4.20 for a tube that lasts ages, it's a bargain!

xx