5 Favourites: Face Exfoliators.

Buying exfoliators is one of my favourite past times, I have quite a few (a collection which I am trying to downsize) but these are the ones I reach for often.
You should only really exfoliate once or twice a week. Exfoliators are designed to buff away the dead skin cells, leaving you with lovely, bright, fresh skin but if you're doing it too regularly there's no more dead skin cells to take away so you're just aggravating the skin. Eek! Also, if you are going to use quite an abrasive scrub then I'd suggest using a moisturiser with an SPF afterwards (or the next day, depending on when you use your exfoliator). 

We'll begin with the Liz Earle Gentle Face Exfoliator. This is actually my smaller size version which was kindly sent to me a while back, I do have the full size version which lives in my shower. This is a natural version of an exfoliator, which contains jojoba beads as the exfoliating beads. When you use this, you'll notice that the beads are very round, like little balls as opposed to some of the other exfoliators which are more like sand. If you imagine sand rubbing at your skin its going to be a lot more abrasive than a circular ball, so obviously the Liz Earle is perfect for just a gentle way to remove the dead skin. 

Of course, it lives up to the Liz Earle hype which surrounds the blogging world. The consistency is similar to the cleanse and polish in a way, quite rich and has the same lovely natural smell.
I'd recommend this if you're a fan of the LE products and if you have dry/sensitive skin as it is absolutely lovely and leaves my skin feeling smooth. This is quite a gentle product, so you may not get the really smooth and bright effects that you do with a more abrasive product but it does an excellent job. 

The Sanctuarys Exfoliating Pore Refining is almost the opposite of the LE exfoliator, it is much more abrasive so leaves skin feeling very "new" and cleansed. This is probably best for those with oily skin and clogged pores, as its small exfoliating particles allow the pores to be fully cleansed.
One of my favourite products, it really does give you fresh and bright skin.

Kiehls Rare Earth Deep Pore Daily Cleanser isn't actually meant to be in this group, but its a nice "daily" product meaning that it's more of a cleanser with fine exfoliating beads thrown in. It contains clay so is perfect for oily skins, and just gently cleanses the skin of impurities. This can be used every day, due to the fact that it's not actually an exfoliator and won't really aggravate the skin after continued use. 

The Sanctuary Warming Micro-Brasion Polish; I have had this for so long! Another one of my favourites due to the self-heating properties. I sometimes demonstrate this on customers at work because its such a lovely feeling. The heat relaxes the pores which means a deeper clean. It contains clay again, which I think is why it's quite thick. I always find it quite a task to spread this out over my face as well as trying to buff it in, but that's what generates the lovely warm sensation.
You're meant to leave this on for a few minutes to let the warmth get into the pores but I can very rarely be bothered. I'll definitely be repurchasing this as I don't own anything similar. 

Finally, The Clinique 7 Day Scrub Cream. Another very abrasive scrub, this is more like microdermabrasion if you ask me! A very fine, gritty texture which reveals very soft and clean feeling skin. I have noticed that some prefer quite harsh scrubs and this is definitely one that will really buff the dead skin away. 

Any other scrubs that you recommend? 

MILANI ONE COAT GLITTER - PURPLE GLEAM

Ahhh, the crowning jewel of the swatches I have shown you. I fell deeply in love with this color. This color is nothing short of AMAZING! I need the rest of the glitter from this collection - I just decided! While it wasn't quite a one coater - once coat did apply way better than most glitters. What makes this color so awesome is the black that is in this. Even after looking at these close up pictures I'm still not certain if this is in a black base or has very small micro black glitter in it. Either way - get this!

This dries to a cool matte look - of course I want my glittah to shine, but I took a picture of this without top coat so you could see the cool matte effect of this one. It is at the very bottom of this post.

One other VERY awesome thing about this polish was that it removed really well too. The glitter is so small that it didn't want to stick to my nails and removed much better.

MILANI JEWEL FX - GEMS

Ya'll KNOW I liked this one - glittah is my thing! Gems is VERY similar to Lippmann's Happy Birthday. They are almost dupes, but not quite. The glitter colors are a little different and the shape of some of the glitter is different. However, with out a close up photo and side by side comparison, you can't really tell the difference. Shown is 2 coats - and you can see how well this covered.

MILANI NEON - FRESH TEAL

First off, as I'm sure you can tell from the pictures, the bottles are painted. That is why my nails color looks different. I personally don't like painted bottles, I like to see exactly the color that is inside the bottle for that reason alone, the colors aren't exact.

That being said, I do like the color Fresh Teal. This applied very nice with only 2 coats. Like most neons, it dried to a matte finish. The pictures shown are with top coat.

MILANI HIGH SPEED FAST DRY - INSTANTANEOUS BLUE

This is an electric Smurf blue polish. This was a little on the thin side and required 4 coats, you could do three but I liked it better with four. It has some cool shimmer to it that I thought made it look like a waterfall on my nails.

MILANI - HIGH SPEED FAST DRY - JIFFY ORANGE

I have really had a thing for orange nail polish this summer - and this might be my favorite I've worn so far. This has a great brightness to it, but it isn't neon orange. This was super creamy to apply. I love this color with my skin tone.

MILANI 3D HOLOGRAPHIC - 3D

Good morning! Today I have several Milani nail polishes that I want to share with you.

The first one is a holo polish from their 3D Holographic line called 3D. This is a gold holo polish that is beautiful! This applied really nice in only two coats. It has that really chunky look to it, but is completely smooth. I really like that effect.

Zoya - Ivanka

Ivanka

If anyone knows how to do glass fleck, it's Zoya! They're not as brilliant with their nail polish naming though, as the name 'Ivanka' doesn't peak my interest at all... boring! However, Ivanka sure is pretty and that's what matters in the end.
This green glass flecked polish belongs to their Sparkle Collection that came out last summer. Ivanka is a grassy, almost forest green with flecks that show both green and gold. Green can be a difficult color to wear, but since Ivanka is cool toned it's a suitable color for lots of different skin tones. In the bottle you can definitely see some blue flecks as well, but sadly the blue flash doesn't translate well onto your nails at all.

Formula

Ivanka applied beautifully: the three coats went on smooth and even. With glass fleck you can have the fun that glitter brings, without having the difficult removal process after. I did notice Ivanka didn't dry that quickly, in conjunction with my Revlon quick drying top coat...

You can order Zoya nail polishes at Art of Beauty for 8 USD per 15ml.

Yay for Yayer.

  

A post of my Yayer dress which I bought for going out in London (I think) a few months back but didn't end up wearing it in the end. Now I can't think what I'll wear it to. It's in my blogshop to be sold, but I quite like it here.

I really don't know what to do with myself today, I'm trying to find internships in London but keep getting distracted by other things like tweaking my blog layout! I wish I had an attention span of more than a few minutes.
Yesterday I had the most blog hits I've ever had before, which was good! I love seeing my little blog grow, I remember in January I only had 30 followers. I've expressed my disliking of the #bbloggers tag on Twitter mainly because it seems to always turn into a debate on what you should and shouldn't do in blogging. I think if you yourself would read your blog and you're happy with it, that's what will make you gain readers. I know people say that it doesn't matter how many readers/followers you have, but really, I wouldn't want to be talking to myself forever. If you're happy with where your blog is, the content is original and you love doing it, there shouldn't be rules to follow! I saw some things last night which were just plain crazy; "always take perfect pictures and write thorough reviews" just have fun and do what you think is good!
That's my two cents anyway!

Here are a couple of blogs I think deserve a little mention: Jennie, Dayner, Bee, Lauren.