Makeup wipes are the lazy girls best friend. Its also the OCD girls best friend. It was also once upon a time my best friend. Its always so easy to grab one and wipe off make up after a long day or even on holiday when you dont want to pack your 5-step skin routine. But like we all know, makeup wipes are extremely bad for the environment. If you flush it down the toilet it end up in the ocean and if you throw it in the trash it ends up in landfill. They are made of non-biodegradable plastic fibres and even the ones who are biodegradable have to be recycled and processed with specific procedures. So to avoid risking more pollution, I have 2 great alternatives for you that will remove the need of wipes.


Option 1 - The makeup eraser towel
This product has been around for a few years however I only started using it recently. At first glance it looks like a normal towel and if you like me have ever tried using a regular towel and warm water to remove mascara you know the dreaded result. But just like the name this works like magic, all you need to do is damp it and it removes all your make up without you needing to scrub half your face off. I use it about 7-10 times before I throw it in the wash and then its like brand new again. Seriously I cant recommend this product enough, and its travel friendly as long as you can get hold of water.


Option 2 - Natural oil
My mum taught me to use coconut oil to remove my makeup. It only takes a pea size of oil and you rub it all over your face before rinsing. It works well and helps moisturising your face overnight. If you want to travel with it you can get a small size mason jar (I save the little ketchup and mayo ones some hotels provide) and take a chunk with you. Once I forgot to bring any and I asked the hotel I was staying with for some olive oil which worked fine. This process also requires water but if thats not at hand you can use tissues to remove the excess oil.

There is a lot of buzz around vegan make up at the moment so I decided to cover one of the most well known and easily attainable brands for vegan make up - LUSH cosmetics. 
I picked up two liquid lipsticks in the colours confident and perspective, the eye shadow dust in insight and the liquid eyeliner in composed. LUSH is a well known established brand that prides in their ethical work as well as most of their products being vegan (but make sure you check for the vegan marker on each product). They also have this awesome recycling scheme that if you bring in 5 of their black pots for their recycling they give you something for free. Although their bath-bombs and soaps make rounds on social media daily, I haven't seen as much about their makeup. Is that because its actually terrible and a candid line of products or are they gems forgotten because of the rain of liquid lipsticks from power brands? I will give them a score of 5.

Lets start with the eyeliner in Composed. It almost feels like a travel size with the short wand so it might be a little more difficult for people that aren't at the top of the eyeliner game. However once you get used to it, the product itself glides on smoothly and has a high pigment payoff. There was black available for those looking for a replacement for their regular eyeliner but this cool toned dark blue/silver is a breath of fresh air going into the summer season. 
Score 4/5

Next up are the lipsticks, one which is a nice nude pink with metallic shifts in Perspective and the darker berry tone in Confident. Perspective goes on easily, and the shade is an updated take on a pinky nude tone. Its non drying and feels balmy on the lips throughout the wear. The darker colour confident can be worn in two ways, either as a tint using a tiny amount spread across the lips with a finger, or an opaque layer for the true colour. This however is a little trickier and takes patience as the balmy formula makes it easy for the colour to slip outside the lip line. Also because of the formula I found that it sometimes slipped in and got stuck in any cracks I had on the lips. I recommend scrubbing the lips before using the opaque application. 
Score 3/5

Lastly the loose eyeshadow Insight. This looks like a unicorn blend in the small bottle and comes out as a sheer powder. It almost reminds me more of glitter highlighter rather than eyeshadow. As you can see the swipe is difficult to show in picture so this is a very subtle colour. The rest of the eyeshadow line were all the same glittery colours that came out sheer so this one depends on your preference but if youre bold statement eyes this is not for you. 
Score 3/5

As were trying to fight pollution and climate change, we also have to look after ourselves in these times when pollution is so high in urban areas. For the past 2 weeks I have been testing out this skin kit from REN that targets pollution and dirt. 

​The kit comes with 4 product; With Flash Rinse 1 Minute Facial (15ml), Flash Hydro-Boost Instant Plumping Emulsion (2ml), V-Cense Youth Vitality Day Cream (15ml), V-Cense Revitalising Night Cream (15ml) and Flash Defense Anti-Pollution Mist (9ml). All a perfect size to test and try before plunging into buying full size. This is also handy to bring with if you’re travelling to a city with high pollution rates. As they are all individual products I will review them individually and then give my pros and cons as a whole.

Flash Rinse 1 Minute Facial - This product is  a light peel. I applied it on clean skin rubbing it in and leaving it for a few minutes before washing it off. The product heats on the skin and gives a good polish to the skin. After a day walking around in the city it felt really good doing a cleanse of all the dirt and bacteria. The scent is non invasive and the peel is gentle. 

Flash Hydro-Boost Instant Plumping Emulsion - A small sachet of plumping serum that was only enough to use twice. Couldn’t see a difference in two uses and was not really interested in a plumping serum as that isnt pollution targeted. 

V-Cense Youth Vitality Day Cream - Even though this is more targeted towards maintenance of younger looking skin, I still enjoyed using it. Gave a healthy glow that you get living by the sea oppose to the motorway. It took a little longer to absorb into the skin but worked well under makeup.

V-Cense Night Cream - I think this was my least favourite. Not because there was anything wrong with it but that it didn’t do anything any other standard night cream wouldn’t do. 

Anti-Pollution Mist - This is the most interesting product of the bunch. I sprayed this over my make up and it helped keeping my skin matt for longer through the day (I have oily skin, a result from the high pollution and my skin being freaked out). I also found it to be refreshing to spray whilst being stuck underground on the tube.

Pros of the kit: All skincare regimes work best when you use the same brand for all steps, this allows the full effect of the purpose of a step by step regime. The small size allows you to cherry pick what you like and don’t like. Personally I would recommend the 1 minute facial and the pollution mist. 

Cons of the kit: Full size products are higher end priced with them all combined totalling to 150£. Also I prefer the smaller size of the mist as its pocket sized and easy to take with so I wish they sold them that size separately. 

Another week another review!

This time provided by the lovely people at Byron Bay. Byron Bay is a natural range of skin care products that are both sustainable yet pocket friendly! As the winter months are drying out my skin like no other I was on the hunt for a new skin care regime to help me get rid of my dull skin. Enter Byron Bays exfoliant & mask! The exfoliant is made of jojoba seed oil and lychee shell. Now as always before we get to the review and the pros and cons of this product we will have a short interview with a representative from the brand. Continue reading below....