Night Night! Our daily skincare routine…

If you haven’t already read our post on our morning skincare routine, then you can do so here. As we’ve said we thought we’d share our current favourites, and like a lot of people we have a different products that we use before bed. On reflection, we’re quite surprised at how many products we’ve got on the go at the moment, but it doesn’t take as long as you might think to get through all of this – honest! 

Here’s what we’re using before our head hits the pillow:

• Taaj Himalaya Micellar Water – We’ve already reviewed this makeup remover here. We use it on a damp cotton wool to remove the first layer of our makeup, as a “precleanse”.

• Temple Spa – In The Beginning Deep Cleansing Melt We love this luxurious cleanser so much, especially during the cold winter months we’re having at the moment. Read our full review here. 

• Temple Spa Toning Essence & Skinetica We use these two morning and night, see our earlier Morning All post. 

• Dermalogica – Overnight Clearing Gel If we’ve got a nasty blemish coming up or one that has already made an appearance, applying a blob of this gel before bed means that it is very often gone by morning, or at least very substantially reduced. We couldn’t live without this! 

• RapidLash & Brow Boost We’re currently undertaking a challenge to get our sparse brows and short lashes to grow! You can read our intro here. At the moment we’re applying both of these every night as directed and then let them dry before we finish up with our favourite facial oil. 

• Beatitude – Skin Salvation Facial Oil We’ll be doing a full review of this soon. We’ve been using it for a few weeks and we really love how it gives a really concentrated moisture boost and means we wake up with plumper and glowing skin.

Once we’ve applied all of these, we can get off to sleep guilt free. If we’re really tired or a tad worse for wear, we always try to at least use the Taaj makeup remover but we feel guilty if we do that too often! We also see a big difference in our skin if we do, so we think the extra 10 minutes a night is worth it! What’s your bedtime skincare routine like? Do you think this is too extensive or is your routine even more intensive?

Grow Hair Grow!

We’re a bit brow and lash obsessed here at thebeautyobsession as you may have noticed! One thing we wish we could change is that we’re rather follicley challenged when it comes to our eyebrows and lashes. Not due to over plucking or excessive waxing, we’re just unlucky enough to have quite sparse and pale brows, and lashes that can barely be seen without a couple of coats of mascara. We often stare in envy at those who can flutter long lashes or show off those busy brows that are so on trend at the moment! 

So it was with more than a little glee that we opened up two parcels recently. The first contained RapidLash, which we’ve heard has flown off the shelves at Boots! Rather than containing active ingredients like Latrisse (glaucoma medication in case you were wondering) as some other lash serums do, RapidLash focuses on intensive conditioning of the lashes with their combination of polypeptides, vital proteins, vitamins and moisturising agents. They claim you can see up to 50% longer looking lashes with up to 75% more volume in 8 to 12 weeks.

Our second package contained Brow Boost from Billion Dollar Brows. We’ve recently had our brows perfected by the lovely people at BD Brows, which you can read here. We’re very interested to try Brow Boost, as it’s the product that launched the whole BD Brows range. It has been around for over five years now, and like RapidLash it doesn’t contain any scary ingredients! Containing proteins and vitamins, Brow Boost is supposed to condition and create thicker brows in as little as 30 days. 

Excited by the promises of these two little beauties, we’re starting an eight week challenge. We’ll be applying RapidLash & Brow Boost every night for the next eight weeks as instructed, and we’ll bring you the before and after photos, as well as some progress pics along the way. We can safely say, if they do work, they’ll rocket up to the top of our beauty must have list! 

You can buy RapidLash from Boots for £41. Brow Boost is available from BillionDollarBrowsUK & BeautyBay, priced at £22.

Christmas Gift Guide – Part Three!

*Preen*

The third and final part of our gift guide is all about the right tools for the job to help you preen to perfection!

If you’ve left it until the last minute to get a present  for a friend who always looks perfectly coiffed  then don’t panic! T-H-X (Total Hair Experts) retail exclusively at Tesco, so you can pick up this  Make it Big Hot Air Styler with your bag of sprouts! This hot air styler has a powerful 800-watt drying action and two heat/speed settings, meaning it is great to use on wet or damp hair. You can use this rather than a dryer and barrel brush, so it will save you time as well as giving your hair some body! £16.50 from Tesco.

Where would we be without Batiste Dry Shampoo? This mini kit containing three of their best sellers, is ideal for friends who are always on the go, whether its the ones who are constantly on their way to the next party, or those who are running around after their kiddies! The cute miniature bottles are perfect for popping in a handbag. £4.99 from Boots.

Have you heard the old wives tale about brushing your hair 100 times before bed for shiny locks? Well we have, and always gave up with an aching arm. However, now many years later we’ve found an alternative! The Denman Boar Bristle Brush is brilliant for smoothing your hair without damaging it, and we’ve noticed a massive difference in the appearance of split ends and increased shine since we started using ours.  We also like that our Gran has a Denman brush which shes had for as long as we can remember. You’ve got to hand it to a brand that can offer that kind of lasting quality. From £12.47 at Denman.

Brows frame your face and complete your look, so for friends who don’t  like even a brow hair out of place, you can’t go wrong with the 3 Steps to Beautiful Brow set from Billion Dollar Brows. BD Brows tell you how to Condition, Colour and control your brows with their three popular products. Brow Boost to help stimulate growth, their universal Brow Pencil to get your perfect shade and the Brow Gel to hold the look in place all day. £47.50 from KerieHoy.com or your local BD Brow Artist.

If you’ve got a friend who takes makeup application seriously, but you don’t quite have the budget to kit her out in expensive brushes, take a look at ecoTOOLS. Their brushes are really affordable, but also great quality. We love the natural looking bamboo handles too! Their 6-piece brush set is £15.99 from Boots.

Know someone who is always moaning about how short and sparse their eyelashes are? Or who thinks they’ve got the barest brows? Get them some RapidLash or RapidBrow this Christmas and by Valentine’s day they should be fluttering their luscious lashes in thanks! £41.00 from Boots.