New skincare products!

Hi everyone!

Something a little different on the blog today - some new handmade skincare items. I am not a big skincare buff, but I do love to take care of my hands and have a million and one hand creams, cuticle balms etc. I also love lip balms, so I have one of those to show you today as well! 

My newest love is the handcare range from Lovely Cosmetics. Lovely Cosmetics is a natural skincare company based in the UK (Sheffield). I ordered and received my items within 5 working days and they came wrapped in a recycled pink box with eco-friendly recycled packaging inside (and sweets!)

All their products are handmade and are packaged beautifully in little glass pots / jars etc as you can see in the photos below. So cute! (I am a sucker for packaging!). LC make a wide range of products for face, hair, lips, hands and feet, so be sure to check them out online. You can also find them in quite a few local stockists in Sheffield but also Makers Emporium (Rotherham), Fabrication (Leeds) and Libby's (Chesterfield).  All their products are cruelty free and ingredients are locally sourced, such as Honey from the Sheffield Honey Company and lavender oil from Yorkshire.

Anyway, onto the review!

I bought the Hand Butter, Hand Scrub and Cuticle Salve bundle and the Vanilla Honey lip balm which came to a respectable £21. They aren't the cheapest products, but neither are they expensive considering the quality of ingredients. I also received a free mint chocolate sugar scrub either by mistake or for free (if it was free then thank you very much!) and would also like to mention the generous portions which I will come to a bit later.

So the first thing I tried was the cuticle salve. These come in cute 15ml glass pots (HUGE!) and cost £6 alone. If you buy as part of the bundle you save £5 so definitely worth getting the extras. 

It has a dark greenish colour in the pot, and to look at has a dryish consistency with a light, lemony scent. I was concerned it might be grainy and hard to apply but it melts quickly when you rub it and soaks into the skin well without leaving any colour. It is made fully from unrefined avocado oil, shea butter, British beeswax and lemon essential oils. I have carried this with me every day and applied once and on the odd occasion twice a day for the past week or so and my cuticles are in the best condition theyve been in for ages. My hands really suffer in winter so I am over the moon with how good this is.

       

My second favourite product is the lip balm which is priced at a reasonable £5. If this was edible, I'd have eaten it with a spoon - it smells divine. (It actually does tastes really nice as well!) In the tub it doesn't smell the same (odd - maybe its just me?) but when you apply it to your lips it smells like vanilla ice cream. The good quality creamy kind, not the cheap stuff. It is softer than any other lip balms I have used, a milky white colour and has a grainy texture when you take it from the pot. Again, I was concerned about the graininess, but it breaks down really smoothly when you apply to your lips.  With the weather, I have been applying two to three times a day as I have felt is necessary and I have hardly made a dint in the tub. Again, its supposedly 15ml but the tub is huge and will last me for ages. Ingredients wise, this one is made up from vanilla infused sweet almond oil, shea butter, honey, beeswax and vitamin e oil.

Next up is the hand scrub which comes in a 55ml tub and is priced at £7.50.

 It is made from demerara sugar, sweet almond and coconut oil, honey, ground almonds and beeswax. I have used hand scrubs on occasion, but I am more of a moisturize and go sort of person, so I don't have a huge experience of using these often. I have used this twice so far - just once a week but I can say that my hands do feel lovely and soft afterwards.

One little confusion I had was that the instructions say to rub into wet hands and then rinse away, followed by a moisturiser. I was surprised to see the ingredients include sweet almond oil and coconut oil, so it was a little difficult to rinse away afterwards (I wasnt sure how much to use, so I would say I used around a heaped teaspoon (by heaped, I mean a very big heap), so maybe I used a bit much. But I rinsed as best I could and patted my hands dry both times and they do feel lovely. I didn't follow the instruction to moisturise as well because my hands were already left well moisturised afterwards.

The last thing I have to share is the hand butter.



 This is also a 55ml tub and also priced at £7.50 if you buy separately. It has a clear lavender smell, but rather than a butter consistency I would describe it as more mousse-like.



 It is light and bubbly to touch and when applied it melts to a more oily consistency. You only need a tiny amount as it does leave your hands oily, so I would recommend this as a night time hand cream rather than for general use during the day.

Overall I am really pleased with these. I am all for supporting local and small businesses, especially UK ones so its nice to have a new company to shop with. I also really like the ecofriendly outlook they have so I know my money has really gone to a good place.  

Company Information:

Lovely Cosmetics

Website

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Please let me know if you have any questions / comments - I love hearing from you! Have you heard of Lovely Cosmetics? Tried anything of theirs? 

Rachael xxx

My favourite hand and nail care products

Hey all!

It was decided way back (or at least I thought it was) that the British Nail Bloggers would do a colab post on our favourite hand and nail care products. Turns out, its for favourite base and top coats, so look out for that in the near future. Here is my post on hand and nail care products now that I've actually written it haha!

I don't think I have an absolute favourite, I do tend to swap quite a lot! But one thing does stay the same and thats my love of OPI Nail Envy.

When I first started nail blogging, I'd given up REAL nail biting for around 2 years. I had never painted my nails before this time and I regularly broke my nails and ended up occasionally chewing them back in stress - simply because my nails were weak, soft and bendy and I didn't look after them at all. Therefore it was much easier to bite them back, pull at them and generally try and ignore the fact they were attached to the end of my fingers! After following a number of blogs I discovered OPI Nail Envy and since then I have never looked back - and neither have my nails! I always wear one coat as a base, or two if I know my polish will be a stainer. My nails are much stronger, healthier and over the course of the year I have been blogging I have managed to lengthen my nail beds as well. Win win!

I won't lie, my cuticle routine could be better. I was once told I should cut my cuticles - this was definitely a mistake and I now have ridiculously fast growing ones. I do push them back, but not as regularly as I should - but I do try and keep them well nourished.  I have a few favourite cuticle products for this:

OPI Avoplex Oil - I have a bottle of this that I picked up from TK Maxx for £4.99 - bargain! It usually retails around £9-10. It's not really handy for carrying about, so I use this when I remove my polish and after I've done a new mani.

My own cuticle balm - these are surprisingly easy to make - this recipe (left) I made for carrying around, its great now the weather is taking its toll on my hands and I can apply when I like!

Sunny's Miracle Balms - where I got ideas for my own balm. Mine is nowhere near as refined, but it'll do until her samplers are back in stock.

The Nail Junkie Cutie Balm - a totally different texture of cuticle care - this has boat loads of Avocado oil and is wonderfully rich and oily. I apply this before bed usually as it takes its time to sink in and can leave your fingers quite greasy, but you can't deny the good it does for your hands!

Hand creams galore! I love hand creams - I don't think I've ever finished a bottle - but here are the ones currently in my handbag (yes, my handbag is bigger than Mary Poppin's!)

Boots Royal Jelly Pure Honey Hand and Nail Cream - I got this in a Royal Jelly set for Xmas. I've always associated Royal Jelly with old people.. but this is really lovely. Soft, silky, nicely scented but not overpowering, soaks in quickly and leaves your hands soft but not sticky or oily. It's a good price as well if you want to buy it on its own - only £2.09. 

Burts Bees Hand Salve - picked this up just before Xmas - it came in a pack with a beeswax lip balm. It's supposed to be peppermint scented, but it reminds me of disinfectant - not sure why. Its not overly strong though, and it has a nice texture. Its oily, but not overly so - its easy to apply and soaks in super fast. The weather has been viciously cold and icy the past few days and I've been turning to this more and more while I've been out. You can buy it on its own here or in many bigger cosmetics retailers.

Body Shop hand creams - I picked up 3 different ones in their sale - Cranberry Joy, Ginger Sparkle and Vanilla Bliss. All three are really nice - 30ml fits perfectly in my handbag and also in my going out bags, and they have a really thick texture and uplifting scents. Even though the texture is thick, its lovely to apply and sinks in dead easily - leaving your hands feeling soft and fresh. I am never sure whether I like vanilla scented things - sometimes its nice, sometimes its sickly sweet.. but its not a very strong scent in this hand cream anyway. If you like Body Shop products, these were only £2 each online and definitely worth the price!

Another Body Shop product I love is their Absinthe purifying hand cream. This comes in a metallic tube and you can buy in the much bigger 100ml tubes. I got mine as a miniature set with a matching nail file and I love it. It's meant to protect your hands and it does just that - my hands see bowl after bowl of washing up without gloves and this cream keeps them soft and moisturised. I've used this cream on and off for a long time - I used it when I used to work in the food industry and it transformed my hands from sore and chapped to beautifully soft. When I ran out, I didn't buy another as at the time I didn't look after my hands - I really wish I had! Glad I take the time to do so now! This retails at £5 for 30ml and £10 for 100ml. You can buy it in store or online.

And the one I am hovering for - hoping it will go on sale - I LOVE this hand cream - the texture is just unreal and it smells gorgeous. It has oatmeal in it. I discovered my work colleague has a massive bottle of it, so I've been sneaking a bit here and there when shes not about haha! Aveeno Emolient Hand Cream. It's pretty pricey for £5.45, so I'm still hovering for an offer in the future - currently living off the samples I got free in a magazine!