Zoe's Musings

Hey everyone! This post is inspired by Vivianna Does Makeup's youtube video. I thought I'd follow her lead and do a morning & evening skincare routine post for you all. I tend not to use a ton of products on my face as I try to keep it as minimal as possible to try and prevent breakouts (I have sensitive and very acne prone skin).

So here are the *few* products that have made it into my regular routine. Obviously I'm always switching up my products, but these are the ones that have enabled me to mostly clear up my skin.

MORNING

In the morning I'll use the Boots Tea Tree & Witch Hazel Charcoal Facial Wash, which has loads of ingredients that are great for acne prone skin. I really like it, and think it's definitely helped to clear up my skin. I've used many other products from their range, including their daily moisturiser, night treatment gel, and peel off mask.

I have recently incorporated a toner into my skincare routine, as I read up on the skin benefits and figured it was something I needed to start using! As well as prepping the face for makeup, it helps to refresh my face after I sleep, and it cleanses dead skin and shrinks my pores. I got a mini set, so I'm  using the Simple Kind to Skin Soothing Facial Toner . It's a really handy little travel size too!

I then use my moisturiser, which is the Nivea Oil Free Moisturising Day Cream for oily & combination skin.  I really like this moisturiser, it's not greasy, sinks in well and makes my skin feel so fresh.

If I'm wearing makeup that day, then I'll go in with my Bourjois Happy Light Matte Serum primer *not pictured*, which I adore. It's really smoothing, you don't need a lot, and it acts as a perfect base for your makeup. I've used up about half of it and will definitely be repurchasing, it's the best mattifying primer I've ever used.

EVENING

If I've worn makeup that day, I'll take it off with the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water and a cotton pad. It's pretty good at taking the majority of my makeup off, although it does sometimes leave some behind, but I sort that out with either another cotton pad or by washing my face. I use the same face wash as I use in the morning. I don't always wash my face in the evening if I feel that my makeup remover and poree cleansing pads have done the trick.

I then use the Superdrug Deep Action Pore Cleansing Pads. They're really good at making my skin feel extra clean, they don't dry my skin out, and it really makes me feel ready for bed.

I'll then moisturise my face using the Simple Kind to Skin Vital Vitamin Night Cream. I'm not sure how much I like this as I've just started using it, but my first impressions are that it has an odd smell, kind of like play-doh. The texture is also odd, as it's really bouncy and light. It makes my face feel really moisturised, but almost to the point that it feels greasy. I'm not too sure about it, but I'm going to stick with it for a bit longer before I review it properly.

EXTRAS

If I'm in the shower I like to use a manual exfoliating cleanser just to properly clear away the dead skin and gunk. I use the St Ives Naturally Clear Blemish Fighting Apricot Scrub, which I really like & which smells really good. It's great as it's not too harsh but is really good at exfoliating and making my skin feel really clean and soft.

Occasionally I use a peel off mask, this one is from Boots Tea Tree and Witch Hazel collection. It's not great, but does a decent job of taking off the dead skin & dirt.

That's it from me for today, hope you like this post. Also, I'm looking for a good drugstore eye cream, do you have any suggestions?

Thanks for reading, happy Valentines day, and I'll see you on Tuesday!
Zoe xxx

I went to Superdrug recently, which was the first time i'd been in there in months (I'm definitely more of a Boots girl, possibly because the Boots in my area is a lot bigger than the Superdrug.

I picked up a couple of products from the brand NYC, some products of which I've previously used. It's a really affordable brand, and as I know a lot of you out there are students like me, and don't want to spend loads on makeup. I'm planning on doing some blog posts on the best affordable makeup, so look They had a deal on that everything in the NYC brand was under £2.50.



I've been itching to try out primers for ages, as I've never used one before. I have really oily skin so I struggle with a shiny face and am constantly worried about my makeup slipping, even though I set it with a powder. This also has nourishing properties in it which will hopefully be good for my skin., I'll do a little review on it once I've used this a few times.

I also bought a little eyeshadow palette. There were a few different ones, and I chose the one that had the nicest colours. I only realised a bit later that it was for blue eyes, which is good, as my eyes are blue. Observant, right? :P



It comes with a little brush *can't see that i'll be using that, but hey ho*, a creamy highlighter, and a primer. It has 4 eyeshadows, one for a highlight, one for all over the lid, and the darker two for the crease.


I also went to the Rimmel counter, and they had a deal on buy one get one half price, so I picked up a foundation and a powder.

I'd never heard of the Rimmel Clear Complexion powder before, but it's meant to help with acne and problem skin so figured I'd give it a try. I'm currently using the Rimmel Stay Matte powder but I've almost run out so I need a new one, and I only ended up paying £2 for it, so it was a bargain! I bought the shade translucent.


I also purchased the Rimmel Lasting Finish Foundation, in the shade Light Porcelain. It's possibly the closest colour match I've ever managed to find for my skin tone, which is good. I'll write a review on this and link it once I've tested it out a few more times.

Hey guys, sorry it's been so long, I've had a lot going on :/

Boots has a deal on at the moment on Natural Collection makeup *well, to clarify, they always seem to have a deal on it, but this is the first time I've actually stopped to look*.

So I said I'd do a review on them, and here it is! I've been testing these products for a couple of weeks now, and figured I'd share my views with you!

First I tried the pencil eyeliner in the shade black. I was actually pretty impressed with its staying power, it didn't budge too much throughout the day after wearing it on my upper lash line and my water line. I have pretty oily eyelids and it was pretty hot that day but it still was *mostly* in place until I came to take my makeup off, and I didn't end up with massive panda eyes which is always a plus :P

It's a really soft eyeliner pencil, and is very easy to apply. Overall, I'm pretty impressed. It retails for £1.99