DIY | Rose Water

Hi Guys!

So as promised in yesterdays post today I'm going to show you how to make your own Rose Water at home. 

Here's what you will need:

Additionally you will need water and ice.

Method:

Place your rose petals in a large pan.
Make a hole in the middle to place your small heat-proof dish.
Fill the dish with your ceramic baking beads this will stop this dish from moving about.
Fill the pan up with enough water to cover the rose petals and put your large heat-proof dish on top of the little one.

Place your lid on it upside down and slowly bring to a simmer.
Put ice on to the lid to help create more condensation, this condensation is our distilled rose water that will drip down in to the bowl.
Do this for about 15 mintutes. Once cooled transfer your rose water to a container.

And this is piddly little amount is what I achieved. Which is rather disappointing!

The tutorial I watched had loads of water :( no such luck for me! Maybe my bowls weren't the right size?

Maybe you will have better luck?

I don't plan on trying it again sadly I'll just stick to using my KTC Rose water. But let me know if you have any better luck than me if you have tried this before!

Have a great day!

Jen x

The Beauty Benefits of Rose Water

Over the last month or so I have recently introduced rose water into my beauty regime. I knew that it was good for the skin but didn't know why so I thought I would do some research and share with you why its something that is worth adding in to your beauty regime.

Rose water is one of the oldest beauty staples around. Not only does it smell pleasant and add a delicate taste to desserts, it has some great beautifying properties.

Its great to use on all skin types because it won't dry out the skin, so whether you have normal, dry, oily or combination skin, you can use rose water, no problem.

Rose water has gentle anti-bacterial properties and is a great cleanser when it comes to removing dirt and oil from your pores making it great for those who suffer with Acne. It can also help to relieve redness and inflammation in the skin which is great if you suffer with Chronic Redness.

It is a rich source of anti-oxidants which can help to strengthen skin cells and regenerate skin tissue. The sugars found in rose petals add to the rose waters soothing affect and its natural oils trap moisture in the skin helping it feel and look smoother.

It has astringent like properties which is why it is often used after facials and applying rose water after a steaming facial helps to reduce redness, blotchiness and tightens up capillaries. 

Not only does it do all of this but just the aroma of rose water is said to be a powerful mood enhancer. It helps with anxiety and stress and promotes a sense of general well-being helping you feel more relaxed.

There are many beauty products around today that have rose water as part of there ingredients list such as this JURLIQUE ROSE WATER MIST by Marks & Spencer, this rather pricey ROSE WATER GIFT SET by Crabtree & Evelyn and this DAY CREAM by Garnier.

The Rose water I'm currently using is by KTC and is available at ASDA for 50p! And Sainsburys - Check the world food isle. I have found it a great light moisturising toner.

Tomorrow I'm going to show you how to make your own rose water at home! High fives for DIY's!

Have a great day

Jen x

Heatless Hair Adventures | Straw Curls #1

For the longest time I have been obsessed with curly hair! I think its that grass is always greener thing as my hair is naturally straight. Recently I came across a YouTube hair guru called BEAUTYKLOVE who has the most stunning hair, and she does a lot of heat free hair tutorials which I have been watching and obsessing over, thus inspiring me to start a new series called Heatless Hair Adventures where I will try out her techniques on my own hair and share the results!

My first heat free attempt is with straws! There are a few techniques using straws that I want to give a go at this is the first one. This is the first time that I am doing this!

In the picture I had originaly sectioned my hair in two to work horizontally, but I later worked out that it
doesn't work well that way, its best to work in vertical sections from front to back.

I left my straws in for 4 and a half hours and the end result....

...just a little bit poodley.

Long lost relative mayhaps?

After taking out the straws some of my ends were a little knotty but I think that is to do with the way that I wrapped it around the straw. I added some argan oil to the ends to smooth everything out and I'm sure this will drop out a bit so won't be quite so poodlesque! The technique has worked very well and I'm excited to experiment more hopefully finding the right hair to straw wrap ratio and technique. 

If you give this a go let me know!

Have a great day!

Jen x

Review | Mizon All in one Snail Repair Cream & Snail Repair Intensive Ampoule

Hi ya!

You may remember waayyyy back in March my UNBOXING post for my Mizon goodies, well I have finally finished up using both the All in One Snail Repair Cream and the Snail Repair Intensive Ampoule, so here is my review!

Information

Brand | Mizon

Product/s | All In On Snail Repair Cream

                 Snail Repair Intensive Ampoule

Size | 75ml (cream) 30ml (ampoule)

Price | £18.04 for the two

Made in | Korea

Would I re-purchase | yes

(click to enlarge!)

Lets start off with the All In One Cream. The product comes in a heavy glass jar with a plastic screw lid. The scent is quite light and inoffensive. There is no floral or fruity scent just a light chemical/alcohol aroma, which I don't mind as is doesn't linger.

I would say that the texture is more of a gel-cream than a cream. Its very light and silky and absorbs in to the skin very easily leaving a soft matte texture.

I would apply this after washing my face, warming the product slightly and smoothing in to my skin and then dabbing any excess into my skin with my finger tips. My skin was left feeling moisturised but not that oily, sticky feeling you sometimes get with other moisturisers.

(click to enlarge!)

The ampoule comes in a little glass vile with a pippet to disperse the product. One of the down falls of this is simply that the pippet doesn't reach the bottom of the vile so when you come to end of your ampoule its hard to get all of the product out.

Like the All In One Cream, the Ampoule has a very light scent, almost scentless. Its much more mild smelling than the cream. Its texture is light, silky and a little oily feeling. It blends really well into the skin and absorbs very quickly leaving a dewy glow.

When using this I would apply after my cream, taking 3/4 to a full pippet of product, again warming in between my fingers and smoothing over my skin then using light dabbing/patting motions until all of the product is absorbed. Although it has a slight oily texture it doesn't leave the skin feeling oily at all.

Over the course of time that I used these two I did notice a slight improvement in my overall skin apearence. I have had a lot less 'large' pimples than I used to, although is still get the little whiteheads. As for wrinkle dispatching I can't really say I noticed anything. Although I have no wrinkles to speak of I do have 3 deep frown lines on my fore head thanks to my constant raised eyebrows and I didn't notice any great difference with them! 

My skin has been feeling more plump and a little firmer but nothing overly drastic and my pore size remains the same.

I have enjoyed using these as part of my skin care routine. The effect they both had on my skin was very cooling and soothing. I'm sure if I had suffered my yearly nose burn while using this it would have done wonders, but alas I have not had nasal sun burn yet. (get in! every year with out fail at some point in the summer I will burn my nose, quite badly and look like Rudolf!)

I would defiantly re-purchase these again in the future, I've just started using a Yes To.. moisturiser (the tomato one) so I'll be doing a post on that sometime soon! 

Oh and no, it wasn't weird or gross using products with snail filtrate as one of the main ingredients, in fact I forgot about it!

Have a great day!

Jen x

Review | La Roche-Posay Effaclar A.I

Hi Guys!

First up sorry for being a little MIA over the last few weeks life has been a bit busy and I was on holiday last week, but now I'm back! So lets get on with the review!

Information

Brand | La Roche-Posay

Product | Effaclar A.I targeted Breakout Corrector

Size | 15ml

Price | £9.99

Made in | France

Purchased at | Boots

Would I re-purchase | yes!

I'm completely new to this brand and it was only after seeing an advert on youtube for La Roche-Posay that I had even heard of it. Just out of interest while in Boots I thought I'd see if they had the brand, and they did! The advert I saw was actually for the Effaclar DUO[+] which I had wanted to try instead but I couldn't remember the name at the time, all I kept thinking was its Effaclar, so in short I bought the wrong one BUT I don't regret that at all!

Like it says on the box it is a targeted breakout correcter. Use it on areas that are breaking out or where you have one big pimple. Its paraben free and non-comedogenic (won't clog your pores). 

Effaclar A.I. is an intensive local skincare treatment that purges imperfections in-depth to accelerate their resorption and prevent residual skin marking:

Niacinamide stops the development of the breakout.

The piroctone olamine/glycacil combination purifies the seat of bacterial activity to resorb skin imperfections.

Micro-exfoliating LHA and repairing La Roche-Posay thermal spring water, activate the skin regeneration process.

The cream itself is very light and hardly scented. A little bit goes a long way. One of the best things about this is that there is no benzyl peroxide, which is something that is used in a lot of spot treatments to dry out the spot, which in turn dries out your skin. And I've had some pretty bad experiences with that, not to mention due to the peroxide, it bleaches things! But this does not. I can use it on a large area with absolutely no worries about getting a dry patch and I'm not worried about bleaching my mums towels!   

As for its effectiveness, I'd say after 4 applications so 2 days, your spot is massively reduced. After the first day there is a noticeable difference. Since I've been using this my larger spots are much less frequent, though I still get the little white-headed beasts.

In my opinion if you are suffering with a large under the skin spot with no head, its best just to apply this and leave it be. But with white-heads I have honestly found it better to pop it, then apply the cream. When I have left it alone and simply applied the cream, it seems to grow and get bigger and itchier (anyone else find that with whiteheads?).

All in all I am happy with this, it does help reduce my spots/pimple and I think it does work really well. I still get a little scar from the spot but it does seem to fade away much quicker than they used too.

I would defiantly recommend this to a friend and would buy it again! I know £9.99 seems a lot but I've been using this for nearly 3 months now, every day and I have about 3/4 left in my tube.

Hope this has helped!

Have a great day!

Jen x