Lush: Product Review no.1 - Cosmetic Warrior

Last year I came off my contraceptive for a little bit, thinking my acne had gone away and it was safe to be extra-hormone-free. Unfortunately I ended up having to go back on a different contraceptive, for my mood rather than my acne. I don't know if it was that or stress, since the spots came up along the jawline which is the "hormone" area, but either way, I had some horribly red and painful spots around Christmas last year. The Liz Earle products I reviewed last entry didn't do anything to help, so I asked a fellow acne-prone friend if she had any good cures.

She swears by natural masks and cleansers you can make from ingredients found in the kitchen/larder.

I was mortified!

I can't put food on my face! It's food - the objective is to get it into your mouth without getting it all over your face! Plus, I have an OCD-suffering brother and whenever he eats when I'm around he asks me if he has food on his face or on himself and then I wonder if I have food on myself and I don't want food on myself because it's messy and doesn't belong there!!

So I pouted away for a few days when I suddenly remembered my colleague used to work at Lush - it's food designed to be put on the face!! And so like a happy little schoolgirl I plodded along to Lush with a friend - he also adores Lush products so was glad to take me along~

We went to their Covent Garden branch, which is still my personal favourite to go to, although I have to admit that as far as I can remember, I have only been to two in London. The shop assistant who helped me was lovely, but sadly she doesn't work there any more.

She recommended Cosmetic Warrior, one of their fresh face masks. I forgot to take my own pic of it so I'm borrowing the one from the website in good faith:

The main ingredient for this one is - as I'm sure you can guess - garlic, though it also contains white grapes and raw egg. As such, it has to be stored in the fridge and has a relatively short shelf-life. I think the expiry date on mine was three weeks from the day of purchase, and I did actually manage to use it all up in that time. Handily, somewhere on the packaging for all their products, there's an expiry date.

Now, if you want something that smells like roses or a spring meadow, this isn't for you. But neither does it smell like garlic or rotten eggs or anything like that. To me it just smelt faintly like clay, or just something very natural, but I like that - it means they definitely haven't added something chemical just to make it smell nice.

It goes on dry skin, should be left for 5-10 minutes and then washed off. I used it once a day since I had a lot of spots, but even after the first usage the spots had decreased in size, colour and pain - miraculous! And, once the spots were gone, there was no scarring. So many products/spots have left scars when they disappear, even if they don't pop. I was so happy to not add more scars to my face!

So, in short (since I appear to be quite rambly today):

• all natural
• fresh
• smells like...nature
• keep an eye on the expiry date and keep it in the fridge.

My score: 9/10. I took off one point for the shelf life, even though it's not that big a deal. And yes, I definitely recommend and a friend has taken me up on that advice (I need to check in with her to see how it went).

I'm ecstatic that I can get this in Japan - colleague who used to work at Lush also lived in Japan and warned me that not all the UK products are available there.

Liz Earle Facecare

I keep meaning - and mentioning - that I'm going to write various posts and then never get round to it.

I mentioned a while ago, back when I first moved into my current place with my sister, that I was going to try out Liz Earle's face-wash and toner. I went through two bottles of toner and one and a bit bottles of face-wash before switching (I'm about to go back to the left over face-wash though as I need to use it up before I go, or at least, use it up so it wasn't a complete waste of money).

The method for the face-wash feels nice, but really it could be applied to any face-wash or face soap. Fill the sink with warm water and soak a muslin cloth in it. Rub the face-wash all over the face and neck. Squeeze excess water out of the cloth and buff the soap off the face. Rinse the face and pat dry. The soap itself feels nice and silky, but I didn't feel like it was doing anything for my spots when I had them. Sure, my face felt exfoliated, but that was just cause of the cloth, not the soap itself. In fact, when I used it in the shower and didn't use the cloth, it didn't feel nearly as nice afterwards. It does smell nice though, and is very good at removing make up.

The toner is lovely, refreshing and cool with a beautiful floral fragrance. But again, I didn't feel like it was doing much. In fact that's all I can really say about it. Cause of the nature of the dispenser, you end up with a lot of it on the cotton and consequently it runs out quickly. I hate this, cause I'm used to toners that last ages. Granted, these toners are expensive, but because they last for so long, I don't feel like I'm being ripped off.

Summary: 

• Products smell nice
• Not overly expensive either
• The soap lasts a really long time.
• Toner runs out quickly
• Not effective against acne

I give both products 5/10, and I would recommend them to a friend, but warn them I didn't feel like it did a lot if anything for my acne.

At the moment I have one spot above the bridge of my glasses near my right eyebrow and it is driving me mental...

New skincare products

While I was at John Lewis I decided to buy a couple of new skincare products since I'm almost out of facewash and toner.

My friend introduced me to Liz Earle, a skincare brand that I think is relatively new, and looks really interesting. For example, the whole brand only has one type of shampoo which is supposed to work on all types of hair! Right now I'm still happy with Aussie so I don't think I'll be changing shampoo just yet, but I liked the look of their hot polish cleanser and toner.

At the moment their products are online (uk.lizearle.com) or at John Lewis. And, compared with a lot of designer store skincare, it's a lot cheaper than I was expecting!

Cleanse and Polish kit (100ml pump bottle of cleanser, 1 muslin cloth, cute little pouch), £14.25
Skin Tonic (200ml), £12.50

Both products can be used morning and night. Can't wait to try them!