After living in the UK for nearly 14 years I’ve realised that the British Isles get the short end of the beauty stick. I’m always finding beauty brands online from my native US that I doubt I will ever see this side of the pond. I love food inspired bath and body products and my fellow Americans never fail to come up with the goods!

Bourbon Bubbler Body Scrub – this is made with brown sugar, Kentucky whiskey and smells like pecan gingersnaps. I would be quite happy to walk around with this in a brown paper bag!

Honey Heel Glaze – This contains honey (obviously), cinnamon, sweet cloves and comes with a glazing brush so you can easily apply this to your dry cracked hooves.

Smooth as a Duck’s But Fine Scrub – comes in three ‘flavours’: Sugared Maple, Sweet Cream, Whipped Honey and is beautifully presented in a glass jar with a cute wooden spoon. Overload pleasure overload!

Primark to me is like Marmite – you either love it or hate it. I hate Marmite and I hate even walking through Primark let alone shopping there. My first encounter with Primark was on Leytonstone High Road in East London 13 years ago. As a student it was a great place to get cheap socks, trackie bottoms and not much else. While I’m not against the revamp of Primark, going in there now fills me with dread. There is a massive one in Nottingham and I went there the first few times it opened. I didn’t stay any longer than five minutes as I was jostled around by greedy teens fighting over the fluoro clothes and cheap shoes. The other day I had a moment of madness and decided to cut through Primark to get to the square instead of going all the way round. As I went past the tills I spotted a beauty section out of the corner of my eye. I don’t know how long Primark has done beauty (probably since they opened the new store) but I was quite distracted. The selection of makeup looked pretty good with a lot of the packaging looking likes dupes of Benefit. I gravitated towards the bath and body section to see what was on offer in the cute packaging.

Cocoa Bean Body Butter -This smells a bit like chocolate and Shea butter. It is isn’t very thick so doesn’t really feel like a body butter more like a whipped lotion. It absorbs pretty quickly and makes your skin smell nice but the scent doesn’t linger. This would be good to keep in your desk at work when your hands feel a bit dry or in the kitchen after you’ve washed your hands.

Strawberry and Coconut Lip Balm – I couldn’t decide between the strawberry and coconut so I thought I’d get both. They are both clear when you but them on but they are more like a lip gloss rather than a lip balm. The strawberry one isn’t up to scratch but the coconut is like a proper clear lip gloss that would work well over lip stick. They both smell like their namesakes and only cost £1.

This range does come in other ‘flavours’ and would be good for pre-teens as teens nowadays have full on makeup at 13 (well at least the ones in Primark do). I’m not going to say the ‘C’ word but these would also make good stocking stuffers.

This is available at Boots!

If you have sensitive skin you will always find quite a few products that treat your skin if it is on the drier side. There are lots of serums (which are banned in my house) and other products to help calm and soothe irritated skin. Cleanance is one of the few face washes I’ve found for sensitive oily skin. I personally won’t use cleansers that don’t lather as I feel like I haven’t washed my face properly. The creamy tissue-off type cleansers in my opinion are better for dry, tight skin.

I already use other Avene creams for when my face flairs up, which it has been doing lately. I think my skin knows that Autumn (dare I say it) is around the corner and it’s just itching to freak out on me. I love Cleanance because it works with other Avene sensitive skin products but also works well with the bazillion other skincare products I use.

This fresh smelling face wash is very concentrated with a lovely thick texture that lathers really well and rinses clean. With it being so concentrated you only need about 5p size amount to mix with water to wash your entire face. Because it is also soapless and contains Avene thermal spring water, your skin still feels soft afterwards and not stripped of it’s moisture. You can’t tell from the picture but the cap on the bottle has a sturdy locking mechanism so you can throw this in a gym bag and you don’t have to worry about it leaking. A bottle of this lasts for ages so it’s worth the money. If you are regular at Boots you can usually find Avene products on their 3 for 2 skincare promotions which makes them an even better deal.

If you are a regular reader of my blog you then will know that I don’t normally review makeup. My first love is with all things scrubby and I certainly don’t buy enough makeup to blog about it. On this occasion I’m going to make an exception!

My wonderful long time friend Christine got married last Saturday and I knew it was going to be an emotional occasion. I wanted to make sure that I had ‘panda eye’ insurance and bought a waterproof mascara. I’ve always used Clinique Naturally Glossy Mascara because I like the full brush and the formulation. I’ve not used Maybelline Great Lash since uni but I was in a rush at Superdrug and also skint before payday.

Compared to the brushes you get now this is short and stumpy which I prefer. I don’t like the knew rubbery thin brushes, maybe it’s me I just find them hard to use. I’m also not a mascara connoisseur so I wouldn’t know or appreciate the difference in the new type of brushes. Well I put my Maybelline on and walked out the door and let me tell you from the moment Christine walked into the room till the moment we all left to take pictures I was crying, blubbing, and dabbing my eyes and this mascara didn’t budge. Even after we left to go to the reception which was in the Scottish Highlands (rain that came at us sideways, gusts of cold wind) I was shocked that my makeup wasn’t half way down my face. Taking it off wasn’t difficult either, I used one of my Good Things skincare wipes and about 80% came off. I had to use a cotton bud the next morning to get the remnants off on my lower lashes. If you have any weddings or other tear inducing events coming up I highly recommend this!

This is available at Superdrug!

Annabella – The lovely Fei from Peonies and lilies recommended I try Love Lettuce a few weeks ago. Lush fresh masks are always so fun to use and the fact that you have to keep them in the fridge just adds to the novelty factor. I expected this to smell like salad but it reminds me of shortbread biscuits?! It’s made with ground almond oil and honey so maybe that’s what gives it a sweetish smell but it isn’t overpowering. This mask also reminds me of what a 1960′s housewife would be wearing in her pink bathrobe and hair rollers.

This mask is nice and creamy, goes on easily, and doesn’t slide off your face. There are also loads of scrubby bits in it as well which of course I love. I made sure I left it on for only the recommended ten minutes by timing myself. I have this bad habit of leaving masks on for longer than the recommended time. When I went to take it off I splashed my face with water for a few minutes but I didn’t really get anywhere, so I took the warm flannel route to get it off. I have to admit the first time I used this it didn’t really wow me as much as I hoped. I thought it was okay but I felt like there was an oily residue leftover which I assume was the almond oil. I have however used it a few more times and it has grown on me but I think if I buy it again it will be in the winter when my skin is drier.

James – Another day another face mask! If my mates knew that I used these things I would never hear the end of it. Annabella happily put this green goo on my face with delight and I sat in front of my computer for ten minutes feeling like a plonker. After using the lava mask a few weeks ago this one just felt ordinary. I was expecting it to smell like seaweed or grass because of the colour but I didn’t notice much of a smell at all. Getting this off made a bit of mess in bathroom, I thought it was just going to peel off but I ended up getting bits of it everywhere. Annabella didn’t fair much better with her water splashing so we used a warm flannel to get the rest of it off. I didn’t think this was anything special and my skin felt a bit dry afterwards but maybe it’s not for my skin type. Apparently there a quite a few other Lush masks and I can’t wait to try them! (By the way I was being sarcastic)

This is available at Lush!

She may be a nanny but it’s 1910 and this Gibson Girl is the height of fashion. Even though she has to look after two Edwardian tearaways and deal with their gruff father Mr. Banks, she always manage to do so with ladylike poise and grace. What beauty secrets are in her magical carpet bag?

Before the plethora of shower gels and washes we enjoy today, there was Pears’ soap. Mary and her fellow nannies would have scrubbed down with this amber coloured bar that is still available today.

For her rosy glow Mary would have used geranium and poppy petals to stain her lips and cheeks, now you can get her flushed look look with poppy pink Benefit Posie Tint.

Compact powder wasn’t readily available and unlike today it was improper to re-apply cosmetics in public. Hence Papier Poudre was born to help ladies discreetly lift excess oil, dirt, and dust from their complexions.

As one of her job requirements was to ‘never smell of barley water’, Penhaligon’s English Fern would have surely taken a place on her dressing table. Created in 1910, this contains notes of clover, patchouli, and moss.

This is one of those underrated products that doesn’t get much attention especially when Body Shop keeps bringing out new stuff all the time. I think I’ve been using this mask for about 15 years now. I say that ‘I think’ because I can’t  remember when it actually came out.

I love twisting the pot open and really breathing in the scent before I use it. The smell reminds me of chalk, baby powder, and fresh laundry hanging on a line. The consistency is lovely and thick. If you hold it upside down with the lid off it won’t come out! As a scrub the grains are nice and chunky with rough edges to give a good consistent exfoliation session but it’s gentle enough to use several times a week. As a mask is really absorbs oil and sebum because Kaolin Clay is the second ingredient. If you have dry skin avoid this mask – it will just dry it out even further. I prefer to use this in the morning to wake my face up. I like to give it a good buff then leave it on while I do my other scrubby bits in the shower and then wash it off after 10 minutes. It rinses fairly clean but I always like to use a toner afterwards to clean up any residue.

This is one of the few products that I can use all year round as it suits my seasonal changing skin. It also works well on my neck, elbows, and other rough dry bits. I really love using this on my tired, puffy summertime feet. The scrubbing grains really feel good on the tops of my feet and the blue corn powder makes the soles of my feet feel clean and deodorised.

This is available at The Body Shop!

One of my favourite Sex and the City episodes is in the fifth season when Carrie meets Jack Berger. She tells Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha that Berger gave her that feeling of Zsa Zsa Zu – butterflies in her stomach which is how she knew she liked him. I love it when beauty products give me the same sensation.

This review could go one of two ways. I could say this is a gentle scrub, ideal for those who have sensitive skin that don’t want to use anything really rough; or I could also say it’s rubbish and don’t waste your money because clearly all they have done is chuck a bunch of stuff in a tube and called it a scrub. Before I completely diss this, I will say I love the smell which is quite fresh and not dissimilar to aloe vera or a fern type scent. It has a nice creamy formulation and it rinses really clean so no gooeyness or greasyness. However the grains are too small and there isn’t enough of them to make a real difference so I don’t understand what the point of this scrub is. I also don’t understand why if something costs less than £5, they can’t get more grains in the tube. Surely the grit they use isn’t that expensive. I always want to try different scrubs from different price points but this makes it difficult to get excited about doing so because I know I will always end up being disappointed. *Yawn* come on guys how difficult is it to get this right? Just put more crushed Apricot seeds in and it could redeem itself, otherwise it’s just a nice smelling cream with bits in it.

One last thing I would like to point out is that its mentions on the back of the label ‘tired skin that looks dull or oily needs a thorough workout’. This product is supposed to be for the body but that sounds like it’s a reference to the skin on your face. I’ve never had oily body skin so I think this is a bit strange. Anyway after using this several times for several weeks I have to say ‘Is that all there is?’

This is available at Boots!

I’m quite excited to learn that Sara Happ who makes the lovely lip scrub and lip slip, has now branched out into body scrub. This looks like a good, chunky sugary scrub and is currently sold at Beauty Habit in the US and retails for $46.00 for 10oz or roughly 283 grams. It contains kukui nut, sweet almond and macadamia nut oils but doesn’t leave greasy residue behind which sounds like heaven to me. I’ve emailed the Sara Happ office to find out when it will be available in the UK which I’m hoping is soon!

I found this video interview with Sara Happ on My life on (and off) the guest list.

James – I actually love Korres shower gel so when Annabella said she had something from Korres for us to try I naturally assumed it would be another one. I never thought I would find a toothpaste looking tube of scalp scrub waiting for me in the shower. This contains green silt and corallina oligoelements which are supposed to balance oily, dry or dandruff prone scalps. I do suffer from dandruff and oily scalp so I can understand why she bought it. Then again knowing Annabella she probably thought as it said ‘scrub’ there would be some kind of rocks or dirt it in!

I like the fact that this is in pump as it makes it easy to use. I really like the smell too but I would be hard pressed to describe it. In case you were wondering it doesn’t smell like a swamp even though the ingredients would suggest otherwise. I used this for a couple of weeks and I have seen an improvement in my hair. The strange thing is I don’t know what the improvement is. I think my hair feels softer, my scalp doesn’t itch but this could be down to the fact I’ve also been using Molton Brown Anti-dandruff Jackberry Hairwash which by the way is fantastic. I think this would be quite soothing and calming to someone who had a really irritated scalp and I would use it again, most likely in the winter months when my scalp is more flaky/dry. I just thought I would add that even though I found this easy to use, I have really short hair. If any of you ladies (or gents) out there have really long hair this might get a bit messy.

Annabella – Well of course I thought this was going to have rough scrubbing grains but I realise now that would be stupid because it would scratch your scalp. I really love the smell of this, I suppose there is something algaeish to it but like James says it doesn’t smell like a frog pond. I have the oiliest hair in the world so I wanted to see if this would make an improvement. I struggled at first trying to get this into my scalp because my hair is longer. It feels all seaweedy and squidgy in my hair, and I used about four pumps of it and left it on for 10 minutes whilst I did my other scrubby bits. It rinses really clean and my hair felt really sleek afterwards but you still need to shampoo. I did notice that I didn’t need as much shampoo for a few days after I used it. I have coloured hair so I was a bit worried that this would turn my hair green and thankfully it didn’t. If you have dyed red or hennaed hair I don’t know if this would be a problem, you might want to ask your hairstylist before using it. I don’t think I used it long enough to see much of an improvement in my oiliness but it does give my hair more body and shine. This is a convenient, easy to use hair treatment that only needs to be used once a week. And because you don’t need much, it should last a long time.

This is available at Mankind!