Lush Catastrophe Cosmetic' Fresh Face Mask' (and make your own face masks!)

Hello everyone!!

I have gone a little bit 'Lush' crazy recently. I have always been crazy about their bubble bars but had never really tried anything else until I went a bit mental in the Boxing Day sale last year and now I'm obsessed and just want to buy and try everything!!

So today for the first time ever I tried a Lush fresh face mask. I received it about a couple of weeks ago and popped it straight in the fridge as per the instructions and thought today, when I saw my horrible complexion in the mirror, that today was the day to crack it open!

The 'Catastrophe Cosmetic' face mask is meant to be a calming and moisturizing fresh face mask containing blueberries, calamine, chamomile, rose and almond oils and Irish moss gel (so lots of lovely, natural, fresh products). The pot costs £6.50 for 75g which seems a bit pricey and when I received what appeared to be a very small pot through in the post I thought that I won't get much out of this! But after using it today I realised I will actually get a lot of use from this.

When I opened the tub today, there seemed to be a layer of water on the top and I wasn't sure whether I was meant to just mix that in or not, so I just poured half of it out and mixed the other half in with my fingers before applying onto my face (excluding eye area!)

Firstly, it smells lovely, it's quite difficult to describe the exact smell , but to me it reminded me of earthiness , natural scent with a hint of sweetness from the blueberries which I really liked. It applied fairly easily and evenly and I left it on for ten minutes.

I love the feeling of a face mask when it starts to dry and your skin feels like your having a face lift and like it's being tightened but once it has dried don't make the mistake I made of trying to smile for the camera because as soon as I changed my facial expression a lot of the facemask cracked and loads of little bits just fell off and onto the floor (hence my non-expression in the picture!!).

To take the facemask off, I ran a small sink-full of warm water and applied to my face with my hands rubbing my face in circular motions to try and get any last benefit I could out of it by 'rubbing it in' whilst rubbing it off. After I had taken the majority of the mask off I then used fresh warm water and dipped my Liz Earle muslin cloth and wiped any remaining mask off of my face before splashing my face with cold water to close my pores.

My skin felt really nice after, it felt tighter and really soft so I was very happy with it. I'm not sure what it will do for my spots (Since I started a new medication last year I developed acne on my chin and of both sides of my forehead) as it was my first time using it but I'm hoping if I use it on a more regular basis that they will disappear (one can pray!!!). I also have developed sensitive skin in the last few years and this did not irritate it whatsoever.

I would definitely recommend this product as even though it appears a tad pricey you will get a fair amount of face masks from this pot, I reckon about 5 , maybe more, and you are paying for natural fresh ingredients and surely it's worth paying that little bit extra to treat your skin! Obviously as I've only used it once, I can't tell you if it worked on my spots/acne but it really did make my skin look/feel great and 'glowy' afterwards so it must be doing some good! Maybe I will start using it once a week and edit this post to let you guys know how it works on spots!! (But if anyone has any great tips for getting rid of acne/scars please do let me know in the comments below!!!)


If you really can't afford to treat yourself with a lovely Lush mask then here are some great ideas for 'homemade face masks, which are simple , cheap and effective to do yourself.

1. Honey and Lemon

You will need one tablespoon of honey, half a squeezed lemon and 1 tabelspoon of brown sugar. Mix together, massage into your face for 30 seconds to a minute and leave on for 5-10 minutes eh voila!

2. Banana and Oats!

You will need one banana, 2 tablespoons of oats (porridge oats should work!), 1 tablespoon of yogurt and 1 tablespoon of honey. Mash the banana then mix all of the other ingredients in. Again, massage into face and leave for 10 minutes,


Hope you enjoyed this post! Is anyone else as much as a Lush addict as me? Let me know!

Adios!!

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UK Glossybox April 2015

Hello everyone, I just realised I have not posted a blog in 2 years!! How terrible am I!

I think it's because of lack of time and I've been dealing with a few health problems but I've decided to make more of an effort again and have also started up a Youtube channel

Today I am going to talk about what I received in this months 'Glossybox'


If you don't know what Glossybox is, Glossybox is a monthly beauty subscription service with a bespoke box of 5-6 luxury-sized cosmetic and wellness samples hand-picked by our beauty experts and mailed directly to your door. It costs £10 a month plus p&p which I think is an additional £2.95, but it does work out cheaper if you subscribe to a 3,6 or 12 month plan.

If you just want to see what I received with no opinions then check out my 'YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7x0_OKUB38

So this months theme was 'Hollywood Iconic Edition' which I think got everyone very excited, including me.

Firstly the box is soooo pretty! I have no idea what I am going to use it for or put in it but I will find something! My box has Marilyn Monroe on the front , and the bottom half of the box is a very pretty baby blue colour. So the box in itself got me super excited and I was expecting GREAT things! But I'm not sure if great is what I got........



To be honest I was a bit 'meh' when I saw the products


'Lord & Berry' Lipstick Pencil in 'Kiss':
 So this is probably the best product in my box and I think it fits the theme well. It is a Hollywood matte red colour and lipstick pencils have a good staying power. To be honest it's not for me because my lips are super dry, a pencil just dries them out more and emphasises every chapped bit on my lip and also I have super tiny lips, and reds just make them look even smaller (I'm a pink girl!) but I think this will make a nice gift for someone and if I didn't have such horrible lips I would definitely wear this. Glossybox says this is worth £10 but I have found it online at ASOS for £8.

Astral Original Face and Body Moisturiser
..............not much so say about this I am SOOOO disappointed with this. Firstly it's a sample size of 50ml, and although I think it does the job well and is an ok everyday cream (although I'm not keen on the smell) I wouldn't exactly call this a luxury beauty sample. Glossybox says a pot of 200ml costs £3.89 but you can actually get it in Poundland for £1 (obviously!) and someone has posted saying they have found the full size product in Home Bargains for 38p!!! So for me that is a bit of a rip off and a bit insulting putting this in the box if we wanted cheap products we would be going to Poundland not be paying £12.95 a month to Glossybox!

POP Beauty Kajal Eyeliner Pen: 
So this is a sooty black kohl pencil with a smudger on the other end (I love smudgers!). Firstly I don't think you can have enough black eyeliners, they will always get some use but really I am an Urban Decay girl. As I am a dance teacher I need an eyeliner that won't budge with sweat and Urban Decay eyeliners seem to be the only ones that work for me so I don't end up looking like a panda at the end of classes! But overall an ok product that will get used. It does look quite cheap though, but Glossybox reckons it's worth £6.50, I can't find it online apart from on American websites but I have found similar on Amazon for about £3.

Color Club Barely There Nail Polish

Hmmmmm another cheap nail polish, in a horrible colour!!! (Sorry to anyone who likes the colour) but this just does not suit my skin tone whatsoever! I think it will just make me look like I have corpse hands. I know nudes are all in but I think you have to have the right skin tone to pull it off and unfortunately that is not me. Glossybox says it is worth £4.10, but again like the eye liner above you can only get it from America. I feel like Glossybox is trying to fob us off with American products that we won't have heard the name of but they are just like an American Bargain Basement lines!



And last but not least , possibly the WORST product................


IDC body lotion in 'WARM LAVENDER'
Yer because I am about 80 years old? Again another really cheap brand in a horrible scent that I don't even know if I would give it to either of my Nans! So this is a full size product supposedly worth £3.59 for the 100ml we were sent. It is like something out of the really cheap, tacky unwanted Christmas presents that you can get, again I can't even find it online so I don't know what Glossybox or thinking of where they are getting these products from! I have found one similar product, an IDC body lotion in vanilla, on a European website but for 780ml it only costs about £3 so I doubt our 100ml is worth £3.59, more like 50p if that!



I know some people got a lot better products in their boxes (eg a luxury face cream and bath pearls) so some people were very happy with their box this month, but we all pay the same price so I'm not sure why some people ended up with luxury brands and others, like myself, ended up with the Poundland version :-/ Overall I reckon my box was probably worth about £10 in total if that really....

What's going on Glossybox?? I hate to moan and I feel bad having a Glossybox rant but I have been subscribing to Glossybox for about 9 months and this is by far the worse box, and actually made me hugely tempted to unsubscribe but I have enough Glossydots for a free box so I will give them one more chance!

Anyways I will post another unboxing next month so I will let you know if it improves....I have had a lot of great Glossyboxes to be fair but recently they've been putting in a lot of full size products (which sounds good!) but they have been really cheap brands so it's a full size product worth about £2 that I would never ever have purchased normally or use. I know they have had a lot of complaints about this month's Glossybox and usually when that happens the next month is great! So to make the most of that, if you would like to subscribe to Glossybox  click the link below and it will take you through to the subscription page.............

http://www.glossybox.co.uk/referal?CI=MTc0OTA1

Anyways sorry about the moany first blog post back! I promise I will have some more positive fabulous things to tell you about soon :-D

Comment below to let me know what you thought of your Glossybox this month and what products you received and am I wrong about any of the products I got?? Are any of the ones I weren't so keen on, actually amazing????

Adios!