Beauty

I thought I would share with you what this curly hair girl packs for a trip. Now a few years ago my grooming products would have been Boots curly cream, sunscreen, after sun, shower gel, shampoo and conditioner. Now my skincare and grooming products now take up a shelf in my bathroom Gav calls them my Potions.

I basically transformed from a bathroom minimalist to having products overload.

This is all preparation for my wedding day and also just because I need to take care of myself in general.

So what am I packing for a long trip?

Protective Skincare

Sunscreen

So this is the most important section well that and my hair care. I have thick curly hair that can drink all the moisture in the air and treble in size. My skin is pale (thanks mum) so I like to have different protection levels of sunscreen. So, I have factor 20, 30 and a 50! For my body I wear what ever is on offer but when it come to my face I wear La Roche Posay Anthelios XL ultra light fluid SPF 50+. Light on your skin and super protective.

The Seychelles can reach high temperatures: that breezy coastal air and sometime cloudy skies can be misleading. Reflections from the water mean the sun can get to you from every angle.

You need to top up all the time.

Never miss the back of your neck and the back of you hands.

Aftersun

I like to use this every night even if I don’t get burnt. It sooths my skin moisturises and this also has mosquito repellent in it so I don’t have to smell horrible when I sleep.

Mozzy spray is key to surviving the tropics. I am not taking perfume because there is no point. I hate putting chemicals into the air however none of the natural remedies work.

I have tried tea tree oil, bracelet you name it.

I was eaten alive.

Now I can handle a few mosquito bites but my body doesn’t like them. I get huge egg size lumps on them. I hate mosquitoes, but scratching drives me mad.

My Skincare Routine, with Manhattan 11.

Skincare

Day

Even though this looks like a lot of products it really isn’t. I have my cleanser and toner are both Elemis, Lovely and light on y skin. I will use them morning and night. I also have The Ordinary’s Rosehip oil which is good for soothing the skin and Matryxal which is great for wrinkles and pore shrinking abilities ( I am a convert). Tata Harper diamond moisturiser that is very light and smells like heaven. I have a small travel size rose exfoliator from Elemis which is my favourite. When my skin is ready for makeup I used la Roche Posey tinted SPF 50 which I love.

Night

For night I have my Elemis night cream which makes my skin sing with pure happiness. Burt’s Bees for my lips. Sunday Riley’s Luna for a night time treatment. Decleor’s Balm oil again for a soothing treatment. Elizabeth Arden anti ageing serum which I am saving to buy the bigger one. This stuff is ridiculously good with a ridiculous price to match.

Hair Care for Curly Hair

May as well get a gripe off my chest. If you have slightly wavy hair you do not have curly hair. I hate it on adverts when they get a model with beautiful perfect curls, call it frizzy and then straighten them. Curly hair is not the same as frizzy hair. Because if there is moisture in the air my hair will absorb it and become frizzy hair.

The different between silky wavy hair and curly hair is when you wake up in the morning you may have slightly fluffier hair. My curls have matted and felted together to create what ever shape my pillow has moulded them in. Unless I sleep on my face my hair needs to be washed or at least conditioned everyday or it looks like crap.

If you think I look like sideshow Bob before I go to bed you should see me in the morning.

My curls are full on curls. I love them but they are a nightmare. My fair is dry, frizzy, curly and prone to itchy flaky scalp. Very sexy.

This summer I have had a lot of good hair days.

I have battled with my curls my whole life and now we are in a good place. I now brush them in the shower (Controversial I know).

I have just discovered Body Shops Ginger Shampoo which smells like heaven and looks after my scalp. I may be able to start wearing dark colours regularly. I am using Muai conditioner which is hydrating for my curls. I just keep it away from my scalp.

Then I use Boots Curl Cream which is the best thing for my curls. And a comb.

Shower and grooming

Shower gel I will use whatever is at my dad’s house I am not fussy. But I have a got an exfoliating glove to help get rid of all the dry skin.

Venus travel razor is beyond cute and super sharp blades.

Hair grips and bobbles. I keep my hair grips in a large tic-tac box. I saw this hack on Pinterest and it is the only hack that has ever really worked for me.

I am also packing my foot cream and pumice stone. Having your feet exposed all day in the heat or soaked in sea water can lead to super dry feet. Lets face it no matter how small you feet are they are never perfect.

Make Up

I don’t wear a lot of make up at all. I generally don’t wear anything heavier than a tinted moisturiser. My makeup bag generally holds about 10 items but what I am taking on holiday is:

Pretty pink Lancome blusher
Blusher brush
Lancome mascara which is lovely and holds a curl
Eyeliner is L’Oreal one which helps me create a cat eye look
Elizabeth Arden eyebrow pencil
Lano lips moisturiser
Lancome pink

I am sorry if that was slightly boring. But when it comes to blogs I am really nosy. I like details and lists and just generally finding out what people pack. I find that they sometimes don’t give me enough information. Having big curly hair means that in the tropics I can sometimes end up looking like Monica From Friends . We all know the hair, yup that’s me.

So if you want information please let me know!

That it from me.

Enjoy your holidays and let me know what you pack. When it comes to shopping for products I tend to shop around to find the best price. I am not loyal to one particular shop. So this is what a girl with big curly hair pack for a trip: Skincare and grooming products hope you liked it.

Dana

For Elemis

For Lancome

For La Roche Posay

In preparation for our wedding I realised how unhappy I was in myself. The things I disliked were all changeable. My weight (mainly the belly wobble) and my skin. I don’t know a lot about skincare just that you cleanse, tone and moisturise. My skin has never been great so I started looking at my routine.

I didn’t have one.

I don’t wear a lot of makeup. Tinted moisturiser, eyeliner, mascara and a bit of blusher. That’s it. And most of the time, I don’t wear that.

I am sporadic at best with my skincare routines, a soap and water kind of girl. I thought a toner was a makeup remover, Whoops!

I started listening to a few influences online….which was a mistake. I forgot their point of view was that they are trying to sell me products. I wish I hadn’t rushed into my skincare before doing my research, this was a huge mistake and truly needed to understand the products I was putting on my skin.

I needed to learn about what I was applying to my skin.

My mum has always bought me Elemis which is so lovely and luxurious.

Just a few of my Elemis products ( I love them all)

I did use the moisturiser I will be honest and say I didn’t realise exactly what the other bits where for, although I would occasionally use them. My very expensive cleansers would sit on the side gathering dust.

Skin care shame.

When I started focusing on my skin, I started gathering my products and realised I had a ton of them: Elemis, Decleor, Lancome. I went through them and figured out what I like and what I didn’t. I moved them around the bathroom and separated them into holiday supplies, use now and started my own routine.

The simple 3 step programme.

Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise.

Although my skin looked healthier it didn’t improve as much as I had hoped. After talking to my mum, she said that I needed an exfoliator in my routine as well. I went out and bought a Neutrogena one which had tough, scratchy grains in it that seemed to strip my face but not leave it looking good.

This has been moved to my shower as a body scrub.

I kept making mistakes. I needed more advice and needed to know how to use the products.

So I returned to YouTube.

All these influencers where always talking about misters to hydrate their skin during the day. I was like, hell yes I need a £18 mister in my life!

Gavin changed lotion to potions can you spot it?

I am easily influenced as you can see

They had an offer on in boots for Elizabeth Arden and you get some cute products if you buy another item and my barely their eyebrows needed a new brow pencil. Hey presto I ended up spending over £30 and getting lots of odd samples. So I followed the instructions for Prevage, liked the cleanser (holiday size and lovely) booster ( not sure what that did), eye serum that felt scratchy on my eyes (pretty sure that is not good) and the face serum.

This is not just any face serum this was heaven in a tube.

I loved it, people commented on my skin looking good (no one ever does this)

I googled the price and have started buying lottery tickets so I can afford it. But at £170 it is way out of my price range although if I am being honest I think it is totally worth it. 5ml gave me two weeks’ worth of serum. My skin was happy and glowy.

So maybe as a treat for my birthday who knows!

This is when I went a little crazy… as in shopping like someone who has a lot of money when I don’t. I needed a night moisturiser and the only brand I trusted was Elemis. I called my mum for advice again and she said to go on QVC and see if they had a deal. They didn’t but I could get a large pot 100ml for £100 and pay off in interest free instalments. Now this sounds crazy. I know I am but I love this night cream.

The only way I can describe it is that my skin sings when I put it on, like in a halleluiah type of way.

I bought it, it arrived and then the next week, QVC did an offer on it, of course they did! And I could have waited but I was so impatient that I bought it.

It is lovely- and I love it. So tough.

So I watched a lot of you tube influencers and I started buying products that they recommended without doing any research on them. My shelves are now filled with beauty products of potions as my Fiance likes to call them. I have to rotate them to get the use out of them. Some of them aren’t suitable and cost a lot of money. I was making financial mistakes.

Money that I could have saved for my wedding.

I wish my mum lived closer so we could have gone shopping together instead of me listening to every Youtuber out their but in the end, I found two who I really like and now trust their advice as they talk about a lot of products not just their favourites.

https://www.gothamista.com/

Renee is like a Skincare goddess she really knows the science behind products and her skin is flawless! She doesn’t really sell products just discusses what each of them does. She also isn’t biased by price and often talks about cheaper brands that do the same job. I love her. Trust her.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcjxyzWCYXGstZeUfHfM6Hg

Then there is Stephanie Nicole who refers to herself as Dragon Lady because of her nails, she has a husky voice, fillers and Botox. It is her self-deprecating nature, honesty and frankness that I like. She is happy to say she doesn’t like a product and again she talks about the actual science that goes into the ingredients. She knows her stuff and I find her totally refreshing.

I never cared about skin care before ever.

Now I do

Now I have a routine. I love it. With my night time routine I like to take my time with it and I look forward to it, even when I am drunk or just exhausted, I make time to cleanse my skin.

It is improving, I can see the difference, fewer break outs. Less dry patches.

It is getting there.

I will have gorgeous skin by the time I get married, I just don’t have to hit my wedding budget to get there.

So make sure you do your research and don’t make the mistakes that i did. Skin care is so important, I am still learning.