It’s been a busy week at the Skin Scrubs household. I’m a trustee for a local women’s charity and involved with other charities with the business James and I have started. Work has also been crazy too – it seems like everyone is now back from their Christmas hols and my inbox exploded with emails this week. What does all this mean? Yep – no time to blog!
Today I just wanted to share with you some lovely things that were made for me at Christmas by some fabulous friends of mine. 
I received this lovely handmade bracelet from Ms. Red aka Red’s Beauty Blog just before Christmas and I loved it so much I had her make one for my friend Lauren too! I think the T-bar clasp and angel are such nice little details.
Cherry, my work colleague made this for me. She’s a super crafty creative kinda gal and knows how much I love the colour green! I’ve got this hanging on my chest of drawers and it looks really sweet.
This amazing thing is a handmade knitted scarf-let made by the lovely friend who also made my wedding dress. I love the little ‘poison’ apples as I like to call them. You can see some of her other handy work on her website Pinky & Boo.
Well 2012 is officially 13 days old and I though I’d better get my resolutions in quick before I forget about them. I don’t know about you but I always like to look back at what I’ve said previously as a benchmark to see what I’ve achieved (or haven’t as the case may be).
Last year I said I would do the following things:
1. Sort my eyebrows – I’ve done this with the help of Debbie and her suggestion to use Clinique Superfine Liner for Brows. I’ve also stopped plucking my eyebrows on a daily basis so they look a lot better. My left eyebrow is pretty much perfect and my right is slowly catching up.
2. Purge my makeup bag and start over – Well I did ditch a few things but I’ve added more to my collection. I still don’t wear makeup on a regular basis like I wanted to but it’s hard to change habits easily. I have a acquired about 40 nail polishes over the last year and more green eyeliners so that can only be a good thing right?
3. Lose 3 stone before my wedding(s) – Unfortunately this did not happen. James and I were doing really well and the closer it got to the weddings the more stressed out we became and our low-carb eating plan went out the window.
So with that in mind here are my resolutions for this year:
1. Losing weight – I’ve set myself a goal of 4 stone this year. We are low-carbing it again as I need to overcome this addiction I have to pasta. I can eat plates of it and I don’t stop even if I’m full. Not good!
2. Get our business off the ground – I’ve not talked about it here and I’m keeping quiet for the moment but James have been working hard so at some point we can work from home.
3. Curb the beauty spending – No, I’m not going cold turkey. I just won’t be hauling anything this year. After my spending ban is over I will be sticking to a budget.
So what resolutions/changes do you want to make this year?
Fresh is one of those brands I’ve been lusting after for like forever, so I knew I was going to get my hands on something from them when I was at Sephora in the US. By the time I got to Sephora my cash was running low so I was just going to get the Sugar Lip Polish as I’m always looking for a different lip scrubbing experience. My cousin Lela was shopping with me and she pointed out that the Fresh Sugar Lust Set was better value as it was only a few dollars more at $28 and that you get three products rather than one lip scrub for $22.50. I’m glad I listened to her as you’ll see below:
Brown Sugar Body Cream – This is a very nice thick body cream and absorbs quickly so you can get dressed straight away. It definitely keeps my skin moisturised throughout the day and you can tell it’s high quality. However there are two issues I have with it; the scent and the price.
The fragrance is ‘an addictive iconic scent’ apparently but all I smell is Lemon Cif bathroom cleaner. I guess one would expect a sweet sugary vanilla scent because of the name but it is nowhere near. It has stopped me from using it on my upper body as I don’t want to really smell it all day, so it’s been used mostly on my legs. The price for a full size tube is $35 which is too expensive in my book for a daily moisturiser.
Sugar Lip Polish – So the original reason I headed to Sephora was also a disappointment. Now I know this doesn’t say ‘lip scrub’ rather ‘lip polish’ which would indicate to me that it will be less harsh than other lip exfoliators I’ve tried. But this actually does nothing to my lips as far as I can tell. They don’t feel buffed, exfoliated, or polished just oily. The only thing I actually like about this is the scent which reminds me of Coca Cola. This has brown sugar crystals, Shea butter, and grapeseed oil but all I could feel was the butter and oil. As I said above the price for a full size pot is $22.50.
Sugar Lip Treatment SPF 15 – This is definitely the best product of the bunch. I’ve been using it as an intensive lip treatment at night and it’s really helped to keep my lips from cracking with all the dry winter air. I like it because it isn’t waxy/heavy but stays on the lips so I don’t have to re-apply it every five minutes. This also has a lemon type of scent but not like the body cream above. I probably would re-buy this but as I have so many lip balms/salves I won’t need to any time soon. This retails for $22.50 and also comes in tinted versions for those who like a bit of colour with their lip treatments.
So I guess 1 out of 3 isn’t bad? I think Fresh stuff is beautifully packaged but very expensive for what it is. I wanted to buy the Umbrian Clay Treatment Bar too but it was $38 and as beauty crazy as I am, I can’t justify that much for what is essentially a bar of soap! Maybe I’ll put it on my birthday wish list for later on in the year. I also purchased Sugar Face Polish and I will be reviewing that in a few weeks.
You can buy Fresh products in the UK but they only have one store in the Marylebone area of London. There isn’t a UK version of the Fresh website however the Marylebone store will do mail order.
