Spoil Yourself Sunday

Sunday.  The only day of the week that I have completely to myself; no work commitments, no nothing if I wanted to.  Today has been a bit of a busy one for me actually.  I got up earlier than normal, had my breakfast before going out to clean both mine and Liam's car, stocked up on logs for our log burner and stacked them in our shed, washed and dried three loads of washing and even did a bit of tidying up.  So as I sit here leisurely tapping away whilst Liam plays on his Xbox guilt free, I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to my 'me time.'  I've been making time for this for quite a few Sunday's now, and at the moment it features these...

It's not often that I have the time during the week to sit and relax in the bath, so come Sunday I am all about bath time.  After cleansing my face and taking any make up off if I've even been bothered to put it on, I like to sit in the bath with my hair piled on top of my head with a face mask on.  The face mask I've been using recently is the Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask from The Body Shop, but in all honesty I'm not entirely sure if I love it - it can sometimes be quite uncomfortable on the skin, dries it out lots so I can't leave it on too long and  I always have to follow with a hydrating toner and an oil afterwards.  I definitely think there is a face mask out there which will be perfect for my Sunday routine...let me know in the comments what your favourite is!

I love to use my absolute favourite LUSH product which is The Comforter Bubble Bar.  I get lots of bubbles from just crumbling a quarter of the bar under the hot tap, and it turns my bath water purpley pink!  It also smells like Vimto; very berry scented and I just find the scent really relaxing!

After having my bath and going through my skincare routine, I like to sit downstairs in my comfortable pyjamas and paint my nails.  I have been using the OPI Nail Envy for Sensitive and Peeling Nails as my base coat recently, which I much prefer to the Nails Inc Kensington Caviar Base Coat.  I've been neglecting my nails for a few months now, and they need to get some strength and length back in them so Nail Envy has been ideal.  When this runs out though, I think I'll be opting for the Original version.

For colour, what better way to spoil myself  than cracking out my Christian Louboutin Rouge Nail Lacquer.  Liam surprised me with this for Christmas, and I absolutely love it.  The colour is just the perfect red, and it's so glossy!  Plus the packaging is just beautiful...  It's definitely the most luxury beauty product I own, so fits perfectly into my 'Spoil Yourself Sunday' routine!

What's do you do on a Sunday to spoil yourself?

The Sick Day Skin Care Routine

This week hasn't been a great one as I've been plagued with the dreaded flu that has been making the rounds.  I've spent two days in bed watching the world go by from my window whilst watching a ridiculous amount of Friends.  Ten hours yesterday to be exact.  That's actually a little sickening writing that out.  But y'know.  Ill times and all that.

You might be thinking that fitting in a skincare regime when you feel so crap is a bit OTT, but I found that looking after my skin really helped in making me feel better in myself.  Don't get me wrong, I have spent the last three days completely make up free, and wearing very minimal make up on the days I made it into work, but my skin is feeling pretty peachy.

After cleansing, I started my day of lazing by applying my favourite eye cream which is the Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream.  I've raved about it here before, but it checks all of my boxes; smoothing, hydrating and brightening - brightening being the key here when we're severely lacking in energy.  I've been using The Body Shop's Soothing Aloe Day Cream for quite a while now, so kept it in my routine.  It's thicker than your usual day cream, but once applied feels really light and super hydrating.  I topped off my skin with Bioderma's Atoderm Cream but only applied it to the really dry patches on my skin which was mainly around my nose.  It really helped take care of the skin which had gotten sore from too much nose blowing!  I topped off my morning skin care with a swift application of LUSH's Lip Service Lip Balm to my super dry lips, ensuring that I did this straight after washing my hands seeing as it's a finger dip lip balm, and I don't fancy swiping my flu germs back into the pot.

The evening routine was also a pretty quick one.  I started the evening how I do every evening by using the Yes To Blueberries Eye Cream.  I like using this one in the evening as it's a bit richer than the Balance Me one and really helps to hydrate the areas around the eyes.  I follow that with the Vitamin E Moisture Cream from The Body Shop.  I haven't had this miniature too long, but I've already repurchased the full size!  It's really hydrating, but so light I could use it morning or evening and it smells really nice!

Following the Vitamin E Moisture Cream, I've been alternating between these two; the Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask and the ESPA Optimal Skin Pro Serum.  The Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask smells incredible and will probably always be a staple in my skincare stash.  I absolutely love using it, and my dehydrated skin is always thankful by the morning.  The ESPA Pro Serum is one that I don't see getting spoken about too much, but is a product that is a real skin treat.  I'm going to link you straight to the ESPA website to read up on the benefits of the serum as there are so many skin loving oils in there that my post would be ridiculously long if I tried to list them all, but it brightens the skin, enhances radiance, moisturises, soothes and protects just to name a few.  It really is an amazing product and one that I'll definitely be repurchasing despite its £48 price tag...  Finally, I slapped on some more of the Bioderma cream where needed - I'd definitely recommend picking one of these up, it's been amazing at sorting out my extreme dry skin areas.

So there we have it.  I'm feeling so much better today and have even ventured out of the house!  I'm back to work tomorrow, and hopefully having carried out these routines I won't look too grey and lack lustre...hopefully much better than I did on Thursday anyway!

Do you have a sick day skin routine?