Modestly Stylish: Keeping It Casual ☺

Modestly Stylish: Keeping It Casual by themaryfairy

ASOS skater dress with lace top - £11 / ASOS Metal Keeper Across Body Bag - £15 / H&M Chinos - £14.99 / Navy dip hem crew neck trimarl top from Dorothy Perkins - £8 / Old Navy Womens Ballet Wedges - £19.51 / A|Wear Ecru Pashmina - £8 / Posietint by Benefit Cosmetics - £24.50 / OPI nail polish in Samoan Sand - £15.95

As the days get shorter and the evenings colder, and with uni starting next week, my friends and I decided to get out of the house while we could and went to Starbucks to have a nice little catch up.

I was in a lazy mood that day, so I decided to go with my fail safe colours - blue and beige. As always. I'm so edgy, I know. :P

I had purchased the dress from the ASOS sale a couple of weeks ago and I love it! The fabric is pure cotton jersey, and when worn with a long sleeved top underneath, it keeps me warm, toasty, and quite modest indeed (^__^)

When I realised I had gotten ready early, I decided to play with some makeup. I put Posietint on my lips and some winged eyeliner. I quite liked the look on me..

..until I realised that my room was a bit darker than usual (it was quite overcast outside) and I had put too much Posietint on! I ended up looking like a wannabe Adele, and not in a good way either :o/

My friends assured me I looked fine though, but I still thought I looked ridiculous - I was more shy than usual that day. Maybe it's because I'm not used to wearing a lot of makeup..

Or maybe I'm just being paranoid. Gosh Mary, calm down *slaps self*

Anyhoo. What's your fail safe colour or item(s) of clothing? I get the feeling I'll be wearing this dress a lot this year haha >.<

Simple Kind to Eyes Soothing Eye Balm Review

Eye creams. Something almost everyone in the beauty blogging world owns.

I never did see the point of them, so I never bothered to get one. But when Tesco were doing an offer for three Simple skincare items for £5 and I couldn't pick a third item that I wanted, I picked up their Kind to Eyes Soothing Eye Balm.

'Our Kind To Eyes Soothing Eye Balm is a perfect blend of ingredients to help reduce puffiness and relax tired eyes. Perfect for even sensitive skin.'

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According to Simple, it contains Pro Vitamin B5, Vitamin E, jojoba oil, shea butter, and bisabolol, which are all good for the skin and all do similar jobs - soothing, moisturising, and protecting.

When I read this, I thought wow - this sounds so moisturising! I couldn't wait to try it.

And when I did, I was sort of disappointed. I mean don't get me wrong, it was as moisturising and as soothing as it claimed to be - but I couldn't tell the difference between this and their Hydrating Light moisturiser which I use as my daily moisturiser.

They look the same, and even feel the same - not much difference at all! I actually had to check the ingredients to make sure they were different (they are different, if anyone is wondering..)! The eye cream is just a tad thinner in consistency though.

The instructions say to apply a thin layer onto the delicate eye area morning and night, and to pat it gently till it absorbs and not to massage it in. I found that patting it in took forever and left my eyelid sticky no matter how long I waited. A little annoying when you just want to put your eye liner on or get to bed already!

Because I didn't see much difference in puffiness or anything like that after using it for a couple of weeks, in the end I decided to only use it if I was taking off my eye makeup with makeup wipes, because my eyes get sore when I used them to remove my makeup and well, it was soothing and I had to use it since I bought it! 

At £3.99 for 15ml I think it's a bit dear for something that does the same thing as a normal moisturiser. I suppose it would make a difference if you had quite dry eyes/eyelids, but for me, it didn't. It's on offer in Superdrug for £3 but the Tesco 3 for £5 offer is still on if you want to check it out ☺

Disclaimer: All products were bought with my own money unless stated otherwise. All opinions are my own.

Purity Organic Skincare Facial Wash Review

Hello there my lovelies! Hope you've all had a fabulous start to the week :o) Today I have a facial wash review for you - but you probably already know that by the title.. *adjusts her Captain Obvious cape a little* heh. >.<

I've reviewed a Purity skincare product on my blog before, and I have loved it since the moment it touched my skin (if you would like to read my review on that little gem, go ahead and clickety clack over here). Along with that, I was sent a facial wash to review too - and having tried it out for a couple of weeks now, I thought it was high time I put up a review on it and share my thoughts on the products.

Purity Organic Skincare is a British brand that is EcoCert certified, whose ingredients are 8% of natural origin and an average of 82% of their ingredients are processed from organic farming. Their skincare range is priced between £4.99 and £8.99, which is very affordable in my opinion. And to top it all off the brand is cruelty free! So hard to find skincare brands on the high street sometimes that are cruelty free that don't cost an arm and a leg!

'Purity Organic Skincare is efficacious, using hard-working, sustainably-grown ingredients, few in number and cleverly combined to encourage skin to work as it should. Where possible the same core ingredients run throughout the range to give your skin the simplicity of regime it needs and to ensure affordability.'

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This I can confirm - a lot of the same ingredients run in all of the products, and there really aren't a lot in the first place. Most of the ingredients are simple but effective ingredients, too, which work together to clean your skin without irritating it, or being too harsh. Their skincare is designed for sensitive skin, and the ingredients involved are perfect for its use. And to be honest sometimes a few simple ingredients are all that sensitive skin needs. After all, the more simple things are, the better it is for our skin - usually!

The Purity Facial Wash* contains sweet almond oil and beeswax, and you can sort of feel it a little on application. So as you can imagine, I was pleasantly surprised when it actually foamed up a little on my face! Usually cleansers that are organic or are designed for sensitive skin don't do that, so it was a nice surprise when it lathered up a bit - not a lot but enough for me to notice the difference.

As for the cleansing part, it didn't blow me out of the water, but it did it's job well, I'd say. My t zone didn't feel as cleansed as I wanted it to be, but at least it didn't make my whole face feel tight or make my skin feel dry or flaky afterwards - something I absolutely hate the feeling of! 

The cap opened up just like the Conditioning Cleansing Lotion Makeup Remover* - as illustrated below :o) You squeeze the bottle after pushing the oval part down to make the crescent shaped part go up. I think a pump would have been a better choice - at least that way we'd be able to control how much product we want to take out! I always find I take out too much when I use this.

One thing I have to mention about this though is the smell. It smells a bit odd. I can't explain it. It doesn't linger on the skin after you wash it though, so that's fine.

The cleanser itself is amber in colour and it's texture is in between a gel and a lotion. Sort of like a jelly like consistency I'd say - I'm assuming it's because it contains aloe vera. 

 I feel it would be better suited to dry and sensitive skin because it contains moisturising ingredients such as sweet almond oil, coconut oil, soothing & protecting ingredients such as aloe vera, and rose, oats, beeswax & avocado which soothe and condition the skin.

Hmm. The amber colour isn't showing up much on my finger is it? I apologise. The British weather doesn't like to be normal and consistent - the moody git! Am I the only one who's been having lighting problems lately because the clouds can't make up their mind if they want to be here or there? >.>

*sighs* Anyhoo. If you have dry, sensitive skin (or combination skin even!) and need a nice, good quality, organic, vegetarian cleanser, I say check this out. If anyone asked me to sum it up in a few words, I'd say that this was a very gentle but quite effective cleanser overall. 

If anyone is interested, you can purchase the 150ml bottle for £4.99 on their website or buy 2 For £7.93 mix & match across the range over at Holland & Barretts!

*PR samples, sent to me for consideration. All views are my own, I promise. :o)

Blog Sale ft Sleek, Revlon, No7, ELF, The Body Shop, Witch, Urban Decay, OPI nail polishes, Barry M Nail Paint, and more!

Hey girls! I was going through my makeup and realised I have a lot of good but unloved stuff lying about, so I thought I'd make some space and give them a new home while I'm at it - all before uni starts so everything gets to you on time :o)

This is my first blog sale, so please be patient with me! :-)

I've put up a separate page for it so it's easily accessible - click here to go to it! (^__^)

Hope you all find something you like - if not, have a lovely day! :D

♥ ♥ ♥

Sample Sundays: Botanicals Orange Blossom Body Balm

Raise your hand if you have a poop load of samples in a drawer/box somewhere that you never use. *raises her hand guiltily*

I've decided to put them ALL to use and review them all before going out and buying anything new. That is what samples are for after all, right? Trying something out before buying it? 

I thought I'd start with something that's relatively easy to use up. I got sent this a while ago with a couple of other things from Botanicals, but they weren't for my skin type so I've not really tried them yet.

The Botanicals Orange Blossom Body Balm* is made from organic, natural ingredients, full of active botanicals and vitamins, used to deeply nourish and revitalise the skin. 

It contains glycerine and shea butter, both good to have in a moisturiser, for they have long been used for this purpose. When I apply this to any rough patches, it melts into my skin and leaves it feeling soft and nourished through out the day. Doesn't feel sticky and doesn't leave any residue at all.

' Enhanced with the exotic fragrance of pure organic neroli, patchouli, sweet orange and ylang ylang - pure decadence!'

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Once you've rubbed it in (which you don't need to do much of, frankly) the beautiful smell lingers for a while, but not in an in-your-face kind of way. It's quite a soothing smell in my opinion. I can't explain why it soothes me but it just does haha!

I like it's texture. It reminds me of coconut oil in a way, because it is solid in the tub but when it comes into contact with your skin it becomes slightly runny. This results in it absorbing into the skin really easily, which means less time faffing about trying to rub it in and more time getting on with getting ready!

This costs £16.95 for 50g, which may seem like a lot but you really do get what you paid for, IMHO. What with it being 100% natural and 87% of its ingredients being organic, it's bound to cost a bit more than your usual skincare stuff. But if you have commitment issues (:P) then you can always try their 'Try Me Sets' which include 4 skincare items for £9.50.

Have you tried anything from this brand? And please, someone tell me I'm not the only one who has a bunch of samples left unloved in a drawer somewhere, haha! I can't be the only one, right? xD

*PR Sample sent to me for consideration. All views are my own, I promise. :o)