Bargain French Pharmaceuticals: Escentual Sale & Bioderm Arrives in the UK

For the whole of this month (March 2013), Escentual have a fantastic sale on French pharmaceuticals.

30% sale, that is a massive 1/3 off!

There are many brands in the sale, including some of my favourites, Vichy and La Roche-Posay.

The ever-popular La Roche-Posay Effeclar range is included in the sale!

Grab yourself a bargain now, head to www.escentual.com

You can read reviews on some of my favourite Vichy and La Roche-Posay products here on my blog. Both fantastic brands!

EXCITING NEWS: BIODERM UK STOCK!!

Escentual are now stocking Bioderm. They have a wide range of products, though please note - Bioderm is excluded from the sale.

Thank you to Escentual for the lovely package they sent me :)

I'm currently treating my dry skin with the La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5 and it is definitely helping my poor old lady hand!

The offer is on throughout March, so there are a couple of weeks left to take advantage of this great offer.

www.escentual.com

xXx

Disclaimer: I was sent the La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5 for review and was very, very surprised and grateful to have received all the Bioderm samples :) All opinions are 100% honest, as ever. Thank you to Escentual for introducing me to Bioderm.

A Day in London: Street Art, Sightseeing and Shopping

On Saturday, my sister and I went for a day out in the big city, London. I originally planned to go alone but my sister decided to join me :)

We had a great day, apart from public transport being a nightmare. Honestly, if I'd known my sister was going to join me before booking my train ticket, I would have drove instead. I dislike public transport!

The reason why?

In order to get the cheapest tickets, we had to get the 7:30am train to Birmingham, then wait 30 minutes for the train to London Euston. Then came many tubes throughout the day... But the worst part? The journey home! We left our last stop, Oxford Circus station at around 6:30pm(ish), got 2 tubes back to Euston, where we then had to wait another 30 minutes or more, as we could not use the train that was already there (different train provider). We grabbed some food and drink for the journey, then boarded the train. We then heard a tannoy announcement that we needed to go to the front carriages as there were engineering works between Milton Keynes and Northampton (1 station between these!). Once we arrived in MK, basically the entire train of people left the train and headed outside to the 3 coaches waiting. Then came a really long (30 minutes or so!) journey to Northampton. We then got another train to Birmingham, where we had missed the train, so we then had to wait another 30 minutes or more for the 11:35pm last train home...which was full of drunk people, loud people and the irritating guy in front, playing his awful music aloud on his phone (argh!). We pre-booked our taxi on a payphone in Birmingham New Street, as both our phones had died. 1am, we arrived home.

First train - 20 stops... Second train 11 stops... It was a very long journey home.

18 hour day of mainly using public transport, stress!

Public transport rant over. We had a great day, exploring all the cool parts of London; Spitalfields, Shoreditch, Brick Lane (which we stumbled upon by chance!), Camden, Covent Garden and a stop by Topshop on Oxford Street. Sadly no time for any other shops. No Selfridges = sad Zoe.

It was fantastic checking out all the amazing street art in Shoreditch and Brick Lane, as well as the ever-cool Spitalfields Market, which was a vintage one on this day.

There were some truly outstanding pieces of street art!

Here's some of my best snaps of the day :)

 The moon looked amazing when we got home. I decided to test my new camera on night/moon photo taking and it came out great! So happy with my new camera, I can be a total geek and take photos of the moon when it's looking awesome :)

I love London!

I hope to return very soon, but drive...

I have never been to the theatre in London but have always wanted to go to We Will Rock You and Wicked, so hopefully I can tick these off my list this year!

Has anyone seen either show?

xXx

La Roche-Posay Nutritic Intense Riche

I was recently sent La Roche-Posay Nutritic Intense Riche moisturiser to try out, thanks to Steph at La Roche-Posay.
Nutritic Intense Riche is an in-depth nutri-reconstituting cream, which provides comfort, suppleness and soothing. It relieves painful sensations of very dry skin.

Designed for very dry and sensitive skin

Paraben free

Contains innovation MP-Lipids: a new generation of lipids with proven efficacy on the synthesis of moisturising factors, lipids and proteins essential to skin's comfort and protection.

Nutritic Intense Riche comes in a glass jar, which though quite heavy, does make this look all the more high-end and I do like this.

The scent is lovely and fresh. I would liken it to Savlon.

I’ve been using this on my face, as well as on dry skin when my skin is troublesome. Recently, I’ve had big problems with my right hand being dry (yes, just the right hand, weird, I know!). This usually happens in winter but this year it seems to be continuing… So, one night, I decided to try Nutritic Intense Riche on my hand. Just a small dab soothed and helped my dry skin almost immediately, which is great! The only problem that I have is due to the weight and glass jar, I am unable to carry this around on a daily basis, to soothe my dry skin when it is sore.

I use Nutritic Intense Riche as a full facial moisturiser a couple of times a week, at night, which is often enough, as the hydration is long-lasting. The moisturiser is quite thick and whilst it is not oily, every day use is not required. The contents of the jar will go a long way, which is good. I then use it whenever needed, as mentioned above, if I am suffering from patches of dry skin.

If you suffer from dry, sensitive skin, this is definitely for you.

RRP £16.50 (50ml jar), available from Boots and online retailers. 3 for 2 offer included at Boots.

OFFER: Throughout the whole month of March, Escentual have a fantastic offer on French pharmaceuticals, with 1/3 off, that’s a massive 33% discount! La Roche-Posay and my other favourite, Vichy, are both included in this! GO, QUICK! You can pick up Nutritic Intense Riche for just £11.

There are more products in the Nutritic Intense range, which you can find on the La Roche-Posay website.

I’ve tried quite a few La Roche-Posay products now and I must say, I have been impressed with them all.

Have you tried La Roche-Posay?

xXx

Disclaimer: I was sent this product for review, as it is suited to my skin type and dryness. All opinions are 100% honest.

Models Own Mirrorball 'Boogie Nights' Polish

Yesterday I reviewed Models Own Dancing Queen, from last year's Mirrorball collection, today I bring you Boogie Nights.

This is the last of my recent nail polish purchases (until I buy more polish, which no doubt will be very soon…).

If you read yesterday’s post, you will know that the Mirrorball polishes are amazing, sparkly wonders. However, I did have a problem with Dancing Queen being gloopy. Thankfully, I did not have the same problem with Boogie Nights, I was very easy to apply.

Boogie Nights is a gorgeous mix of purpley-pinks, gold and blue glitters in various shapes and sizes.

I used Boogie Nights over my faithful Barry M Black Nail Paint, love the finished look. These photos were taken a couple of weeks back, before I filed my nails in to claws. I used 2 coats, 3 on my thumb nail, to see how it looked with an extra coat. The last photo is just 1 coat.

There are still 2 polishes from the Mirrorball collection that I do not own, Disco Inferno (gold) and Hot Stuff (pink). These don't appeal to me as much as the other three but who knows, I may end up buying these soon, to add to my crazy, ever-growing polish collection!

Models Own polishes cost £5 each and are available from Boots and Models Own.

There are often offers on, so keep a look out for these.

I got mine on buy one, get one half price from Boots a few weeks ago!

Have you tried Models Own Mirrorball polishes?

xXx

Models Own Mirrorball 'Dancing Queen' Polish

Another nail review today. I've been going a bit nail polish crazy recently!

A few weeks ago, I made a last minute lone trip to Manchester. I had considered going, then on the day, my friend from Newcastle phoned to say that he was going to watch the Man United match, so I decided to have a day out and go catch up :)

Whilst he watched the match, I went to browse the shops of Manchester. Manchester is pretty good for shops and I particularly love Affleck's (formerly Affleck's Palace). If you are ever in Manchester, definitely go check it out. The Northern Quarter is a very cool place.

Me being me, 'browsing' always ends up with a naughty treat or 2...

So, whilst in Boots, I decided to pick up a nail polish as a little treat. I did actually go in for shower gel, so I got some Soap & Glory Clean Girls too.

I chose Models Own Mirrorball polish in Boogie Nights but I've always wanted Dancing Queen too, so I stood there, deciding which to get, before putting one down, then realising that there was an offer, buy 1 get one half price, PERFECT! I picked Boogie Nights back up and headed for the tills.

I'm a massive fan of glittery nails and the Mirrorball collection is really something else!

Each polish has a variety of different shades and shapes of glitter in a clear base polish.

I already have Freak Out!, which I bought when they first came out last year.
I will review Boogie Nights soon.

Dancing Queen:

I usually layer this type of polish on top of black, as I love black nails and it seems the most obvious choice of base colour but with Dancing Queen, I decided to switch it up and try it over a nude shade, Nails Inc Kate from the LE Royal Wedding polish collection. I love the end result.

This is Nails Inc Kate alone:

I must say, I found application of Dancing Queen rather tricky! I only used 1 coat, so the coverage was great. However, the polish was very gloopy and also took a long time to try. You can see on the photos that it doesn't quite look perfect, there are bubbles and hair strand marks across the polish. I'm guessing I have polish and glitter somewhere in my hair but I can't see any...

I didn't have this issue with Freak Out and Boogie Nights. Whilst they were not overly smooth to apply, they were nowhere near as troublesome as Dancing Queen. I did wonder whether it was down to the base of Nails Inc Kate polish but I could see how gloopy/sticky Dancing Queen was when opening the bottle.

Despite the application and the little imperfections, that are not visible without close inspection, this is a lovely polish. A colleague commented on them today, saying "GOOD NAILS!" and both my mum and sister complimented them last night. I think Dancing Queen and Nails Inc Kate go great together and look good with a clawed nail.

Models Own polishes are available in Boots and online at www.modelsownit.com

Have you tried Models Own Mirrorball nail polish?

Has anyone else had the gloop issue?

xXx