Beauty Rave: Delipscious Lip Balm

It's no secret that I have a somewhat burgeoning collection of lip balms, lip glosses, lipsticks (but no lip liners actually. Can't be bothered with them). My latest acquisition is a Body Shop Delipscious Lip Balm ($19.95) in Berry. It's great for everyday wear - you know, when you sure as hell can't be stuffed with lippy, and shiny gloss is a bit OTT - as it's nice and moisturising (thanks, community trade cocoa butter) with just a tint of colour. Enough to say you bothered, but not so much that your mouth enters the room before you do. In other words, it's one of my fave lip balms to date, but then most Body Shop beauty products get my tick of approval. The only downside is that it's only available in 4 colours at the moment - 2 brown-based, a pale pink and of course berry. However, Delipscious also comes in 9 sheer lip colours, including a lush-looking raspberry that I think I'll try and sneak in to test next time I'm out shopping. Sneak, because the chances of a Body Shop sales assistant letting you get away with just one product are very slim.

5 stars!

Beauty Review: Scrub Away Those Monday Blues

Disclaimer: I don't get paid to review beauty products on this blog, or get freebies to entice favourable reviews. My hard-earned cash is forked over the old-fashioned way and everything written below is 100% honest!

Hey that title almost rhymes. We could add a bit of acoustic strumming and some tuneful Dylan-esque lyrics (Bob Dylan, not 90210 Dylan. That could be a different story altogether) and knock the Idol-poppers off the charts. But I digress (as usual. Oh, there I go again. Sorry). Sometimes, Mondays suck. It's a whole 5 days, approximately 45 working hours and 4 sleeps til the weekend. But instead of slugging your way wearily through the week, try approaching it freshly scrubbed and squeaky clean - *adopts sci-fi voice* exfoliate-exfoliate-exfoliate those dead skin cells and let your skin make you happy!

I love a good scrub. A Beautician got me onto them years ago, and now I'm a daily buffer. Experts will disagree on how often to scrub, but really, it's up to you (as all things are, if you think about it). My skin falls in the yuk-category of combination/oily. Thus, I find daily exfoliation a really good way to keep it smooth and soft, and spotty bits at bay. There's heaps out there to choose from, and for the past few years I have been rightly obsessed with L'oreal's Pure Zone Exfoliating Gel Cleanser (about $12 from supermarkets, pharmacies and Priceline). It's fantastic if you're 15 to early 20's, but I have recently upgraded to the next stage of skincare (I'm still in my early 20's! I am! I am!) and swapped L'oreal for SK-II cleansing oil (it's the dog's bollocks of cleansers man, not one particle of makeup can cling helplessly to my skin when this baby has it's way with them. Exterminate, indeed!) but still like a daily scrub to get rid of the dead cells and make me feel nice. I found this and give it 5 massive gold stars for awesomeness:

The Body Shop Seaweed Pore-Cleansing Facial Exfoliator $19.95. It's got wild-harvested seaweed from Ireland and jojoba microbeads, and it works! Cleanse your skin first and massage a teeny tiny amount of scrub all over your face and neck. Seaweed is magnificent on the skin and this formula feels nice and grainy like an exfoliant should but lathers up nicely to give you a good gentle clean. Use it in the shower for a thorough rinse-off, and voila! Soft and smooth skin that tingles nicely in a non-erotic way!

I should add another disclaimer to this post: I did work at the Body Shop a few years ago, so am favourably inclined towards their products - especially their skincare (love vitamin e! and the vitamin C serum is divine for those of you 20+...) - but it's honestly the natural, community traded ingredients that I'd rather put on my skin instead of truckloads of chemicals that keeps me going back.

Tip: If you use a body exfoliating scrub (this is not for facial scrubs), use it on dry skin before you step into the shower, lather it up a bit and rinse off for completely and utterly divine softness!