Garnier's Fresh Refining Toner "Shine Be Gone" Review

I've been using this toner for around three months now and it's one of my favourites beauty products.

I'm generally skeptical about toner - I prefer to just cleanse and moisturise. Toner is used after cleansing to tighten pores, further clean your skin and add extra beneficial ingredients to your skin. I never believe anything that says it'll tighten your pores - that's not how skin works. Pore size is genetic, all you can do is keep them clean as when they're clogged they'll look bigger than they actually are. However, you can't actually reduce their natural size.

Anyway, this toner by Garnier is for combination to oily skin (still okay for sensitive skin) and claims to be enriched with green tea and moringa extracts to cleanse and purify your skin. It does contain alcohol, so if your skin is super sensitive I would avoid this.

However, I've been needing something stronger to help clean out my skin, especially around my nose where the pores get clogged up easily. It doesn't sting but leaves a gentle tingle and feels very light and refreshing. I add a little onto a cotton pad and swipe it over my t-zone - when I look at the pad afterwards, it's picked up the oil and you can see the discolouration on the cotton. When I don't use it, my skin breaks out more easily so I've been using this at least once a day, everyday.

Anyone else tried this toner? Got any other recommendations for me? Let me know in the comments!

Lush Bath Bomb 'Honey Bee' Review

I went up to London recently and of course I had to pop into the Oxford street store - it is the world's largest Lush store after all. I've never had a bath bomb before but I'd been walking around London all day and wanted to a nice way to unwind when I got home.

I found the 'Honey Bee' bath bomb and took a sniff - this is the bath bomb version of the 'Honey I Washed My Hair' shampoo, which is my favourite scent from Lush.

Throwing it into the bath at home, it doesn't have an overpowering scent but still smells so gorgeous. It's got a wonderful sweet caramel smell without getting sickly. The bath bomb contains honey, aloe vera and a special type of clay called rhassoul mud. The mud is supposed to be cleansing but it felt quite grainy as it's hard for it to break up properly and it left little flakes at the bottom of my bath when I drained it. Also, the water turns into this very unattractive yellow colour.

Still, I really enjoyed this bath bomb and I'd love to get another one!

Price: £3.50
Cruelty free? Yes

Webcomic Recommendations!

I've been creating my own webcomics for over a month now. It's called 'My Mind and Me' and it follows those two characters - the mind is the darker shaded character who pops up at inopportune moments and me is the blue character.

It's a little comic that illustrates what goes on in my head, little scenarios in my life, and I occasionally discuss mental health issues with this comic. It's been super fun and I'm really enjoying creating these comics.

I made a video recently about my favourite webcomics, so if you want some recommendations, you're in the right place!

Recommendation Roundup

• Sarah Andersen: very funny, relatable comics.
• Wirrow: beautiful, dreamy, wonderful artwork.
• Tune: immensely funny and fantastic comic.
• The Abominable Charles Christopher: heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure.
• Griefer Belt: queer criminals in a dark underworld.
• They Can Talk: there's animals. They can talk.
• Liz Climo: more adorable animal comics.
• Sheldon the Tiny Dinosaur Who Thinks He's a Turtle: no further explanation is needed. 

Hope you enjoy these recommendations, and let me know if you have any suggestions!

Lush 'Soak and Float' Shampoo Bar Review

This is the second shampoo bar I've used, the first one being the 'Honey I Washed My Hair'. If you're not familiar with shampoo bars, check out my review as I explain it there or click here for explanation on Lush's page.

I got the 'Soak and Float' because my scalp goes through periods of feeling itchy and I occasionally have get dandruff, so I wanted something that would help soothe and clear my scalp. I didn't want to get another bottle of Head and Shoulders as that stuff makes me lose a lot of hair - a surprisingly common thing for a lot of people, although there's no scientific evidence linking the product and hair loss.

Anyway, this is much gentler. It contains rose oil and cade oil that helps sooth the skin and so far, it works fairly well. It hasn't completely solved the issue but it's toned it town.

I was a little freaked out about how it contains dried rose and marigold petals in it - I was worried they'd stick in my hair but these washed right out, even out of my mane of hair without a problem. It has a strong rose scent which I find quite pleasant and soothing.

Overall, a really nice product and I would recommend it to anyone with scalp or dandruff issues!


Cost: £5.95
Cruelty free? Oh yes. Lush is known for producing cruelty free, environmentally friendly, vegetarian friendly and occasionally vegan products.

Writing Update #18

Everything's settled down a little bit, so I'll try and get back into the swing of blogging! I've started making these writing updates in a video format - I'll still make a blog post but the written format will be more of a summary whilst the video will go into more detail about everything.

Writing Update

• One of poems has been published! I'm in BedBoat magazine, a gorgeous new indie lifestyle publications. It's a gorgeous magazine run by lovely people, I'm so happy I get to be part of it!
• I've also got a short story in Exetera magazine - it's about virtual reality. It follows a court case where a woman has destroyed several avatars and is on trial for mass digital murder - cheery stuff, I know! I'm on page 30.
• I reviewed American Idiot the Musical recently - fantastic show! If you love Green Day, go go go. 

Music

• I met the lovely Sadie Horler who has a new EP out! She's a singer-song writer who does folk music, super talented - check out her music here. 

Real Life and Other Nonsense

• I've moved out of uni, and have graduated which is weird and scary stuff.

That's enough about me, how are you all?