Spongebob Cleanface

Stupid title aside, this post is in fact about sponges. Konjac sponges, not the kind that speak and live under the sea and wear pants. Kid's tv programs are really odd, now I come to think of it.

Anyway, Konjac sponges have been used in Japan for over 1500 years to cleanse the skin in a natural, gentle manner. You can get different sponges for different skin types, some have clay added to them and some have charcoal or just plain. They are 100% natural vegetable fiber, and you can use them just with water or with a little bit of cleanser. I bought the Charcoal Bamboo Sponge, for oily and combination skin. This is how it arrived, looking very squishy and moist, which wasn't particularly attractive.

Regardless of the pretty rubbish packaging, I was quite excited to open this up and give it a go! According to the instructions the sponge must be soaked prior to use and left to dry hard between uses. It can be used to remove makeup or just to cleanse the face daily. It has a little string for you to hold it or presumably hang it up if you want to.

I think it looks a little like one of those "pet rock" things! It has a nice soft consistency, feels a little rubbery on the surface and squashes easily. I've used this twice now and am so far quite happy with the results. It leaves your skin soft and cleansed and my skin does feel a little less oily. But beware, this will NOT remove waterproof eyemakup well. It will just smudge it around after dissolving it into a sludge-like consistency and give you panda eyes. My advice it to take off your eye makeup first with a specific eye makeup remover, then use this. It would also be good first thing in the morning before you tone, moisturise etc. I'm going to use mine in the bath after the majority of my makeup is off.

These sponges each last around 3-5 months with continuous use, you can get them from FeelUnique here or the Konjac Sponge Company directly. FeelUnique have a sale on right now and free delivery, I got mine for £5.85, they are usually around £6.50. I think this is a really great product once you work out how to use it!

8/10 from me, let me know if you get one/have one and what you think"

Sephora Goodies!

Morning dears, hope you're ready for another France installment. Richard and I spent a couple of days in Limoges by ourselves, and I had googled the Sephora shops so I could drag him there.What I didn't realise, however, was that every 100 metres there is a pharmacy, full of amazing brands like Nuxe, La Roche Posay, Avene and Bioderma. I was literally in heaven, Richard had to ban me from going into pharmacies after a while :( The Sephora stores lived up to the memories I have of them, stocked to the rafters with goodies, and after each purchase they spray you with your favourite perfume then give you a sample of it to take away!

Since reading about Bioderma's Eau Miscellar water cleanser, I really wanted to try some of their products, and they have a really helpful website which shows you all the products they make, click here to have a look. As I tend to be oily and get blemishes the green "Sebium" range was for me. This set was around 12 euros, which is amazing for these two products but it was on a special deal. I got the cleansing gel and the purifying treatment.

You are meant to put this on clean skin at least once a day, and you can wear makeup over it if you like, it's like a very light gel-cream that is meant to combat imperfections. I've only been using it for four days and I can see a difference already. It does tingle/sting a bit when you first put it on but my skin seems used to it now and I haven't had any problems with this. Definitely would recommend this for skin with blemishes. I haven't tried the gel wash yet but have heard good things so watch this space.

I did buy the Bioderma Eau Miscellaire but it is currently still in France waiting for my mum to drive it back for me to review! However I had seen on the Sephora website that they do their own version, which was a little cheaper, so I picked up one of these to try too.

Look at the dispenser! Am I the only one excited by this? You take a cotton pad and put it on the round bit, push down twice and away you go. I later found that Bioderma do a bottle with this design too but it was only available in one out the twenty odd pharmacies I visited. Anyway back to the product, I found this very refreshing and soothing on my skin, it doesn't have a strong scent and it does take off all your makeup. I'm unsure if you are meant to tone after this or not, they do sell toner next to this but this looks too much like a toner already for me! I much prefer this to cream cleansers.

Another item I had researched before going away was this little Precision Sponge, Sephora's version of the Beauty Blender. It was much cheaper than the Beauty Blender, coming in at 10 euros as opposed to £16.00.

It is a little egg-shaped sponge with a rounded base and a pointed top so that you can reach smaller areas e.g. around the nose and eyes. The idea is that you wet the sponge, wring it out and then "bounce" the product across your face. This method of application means that there are no smears, lines, or patchy areas and that application is much easier. You can also use the sponge for cream blushers etc.

I find that this does indeed offer a more even coverage but it takes a little getting used to when using it, especially with cream blushes getting the technique right took a few tries. I really want to try the Cosmopolitan version of this also.

Finally, we have one of Sephora's own lipsticks. I have to say I was a little shocked when I saw the price tags of their own makeup, maybe I've become a cheapskate or maybe they're more expensive than I remembered but this was 10.90 euros, when I remember paying around 8 only two years ago. That's quite a jump! Anyway I had Richard with me and was boring him to tears with the "What do you think of this colour, is it too boring? Yes it's too boring, you're right. What about this one? No, too pale." Poor guy looked like he wanted to jump out of a window when he finally pointed at this one and said "If you have to get something, that one looks alright". So I snaffled it.

How dark is that! Very vampy. I love it though, and on coming home I picked up this months magazines and apparently dark, dramatic berry shades are in. Well there you go. It smells beautiful and applies very easily. It actually can be very wearable if blotted properly, this is heavily applied to show the colour payoff. This is from their Rouge Cream Collection, you can find it on the US website here. They are really the most beautiful colours, this is in the shade Crush.

Well that's it for today, back tomorrow with more goodies. Sorry about the massive post with all the pics but had to be done :) Have a great day guys xx