On trial: La Roche-Posay Eye Make-up Remover

Recently I've been using and loving Vichy's Pureté Thermale Make-up Remover and astonishingly I used up every single drop. For me that's quite unusual as I tend to flit between products but as the Vichy make-up remover was now sitting empty, it was time to find a new one. Vichy's make-up remover retails at around £11 in Boots, but with it being the tail end of the month my purse was groaning slightly so instead of splashing out £11 I instead splashed out £9.50 on La Roche-Posay's alternative option.

Surprisingly I've never tried La Roche-Posay but I've always heard good things about it and the clinical looking blue colour of some of the products always stands out to me on the shelves in Boots so I thought it was about time I went for it.

On a daily basis I only ever really use eyeshadow and mascara (adventurous, I know!) so because of this I was only really looking for a make-up remover that was dedicated to this area in particular. A lot of eye make-up removers can sting or irritate the eyes but the La Roche-Posay was like a dream. I put only a few small drops onto a cotton wool pad and brushed it quite firmly over my eyes, it took the make-up off in a couple of swoops and it didn't sting my eyes at all. There was the odd occasion I may have used too much of the product and thought 'uh oh' it would sting as it got into my eye but nothing. I'm super impressed!

£9.50 for 125ml isn't too bad, especially as you only really need a small amount of product for each eye. It's worth splashing out on if you want to stay kind to your eyes and have your make-up thoroughly removed each time without any harsh rubbing. I'd definitely recommend giving this a whirl if you're in the market for trying a new eye make-up remover.

Have you tried the La Roche-Posay Eye Make-up Remover? Let me know what you thought in the comments.

Manicure Monday: L'Oreal Paris Color Riche L'Huile Polishes

After a brief break I'm back with some polishes that I've been meaning to feature on the blog for quite a while - the new L'Oreal L'Huile polishes in their new quilted effect bottles. The range includes 22 shades in total but of course I wouldn't be able to purchase them all, however much I want to, so instead I opted for three shades, Cobalt Indecent, Moka Chic and Gris Decadent. I think I must have been in a bad/gloomy mood while shopping as the shades I picked up are all quite dark but still extremely wearable. I have spied the different pink shades available too, which are extremely pretty and perfect for spring.

Cobalt Indecent is a gorgeous almost navy blue, Moka Chic is pretty much what you'd expect, a chocolatey/mocha beige and Gris Decadent is a moody grey!

I bought these three shades on 3 for 2 in Boots. They're £4.99 each, which is a pretty standard price for some of the higher end Boots/Superdrug polishes and I don't mind paying a little bit more when a polish turns out to be as fab as this. Starting from the outside the pretty quilted effect bottle is a new look for L'Oreal and a welcome change. It really gives the polish a bit more of a luxury feel.

I know we shouldn't judge a book by its cover or a nail polish by its bottle in this case but it's so pretty! But onto the important stuff...the polish itself is packed full of precious oils, which L'Oreal have apparently been researching for 10 years and they blend beautifully with intense colour pigmentation, meaning the polishes apply like a dream, dry in no time at all and have a super shiny finish and now I'm not sure if this is just me, but I've found there to be quite a pleasant, almost fizzy scent to the polish once it's dried too.

The brushes on these polishes are lovely too, as they're so wide they apply the polish quite liberally over the nail. You can cover the entire nail in one swoop! I found two coats does the trick and you can go for a top coat if you fancy it but they dry pretty shiny as they are. I found they lasted a good 3 - 4 days before slight chipping began to occur. You could limit this with the top coat I expect but 3 - 4 days wear isn't too bad, it's pretty standard and better than a lot of other polishes.

Personally I'm a big fan of the new look, L'Oreal oil nail polishes and my favourite shade of the three I picked has got to be Cobalt Indecent. I'm definitely going to be picking up a few more shades for my collection, perhaps you'll see them on the blog in the future!

Five good things this week

I thought I'd start a bit of a new series here on the blog, a bit of re-invention of my Sunday Summary posts, but instead of talking about everything that went on in the week I thought I'd instead talk about five things in particular that really made my week. The first three months of this year have been absolute poo to put it politely so I thought focusing on some of the positives might be a nice change.

Week off
I've had the past week off work, my first week off since Christmas and it's been rather lovely. Vince also managed to book off two consecutive days so on Tuesday we popped out for breakfast and Wednesday we headed out for lunch and some shopping, but more on that later. Every time I say I have a week off work people ask me where I'm off to or what I'm doing but to be honest I never have anything planned. It's just nice to be at home and I managed to get some blog photos taken during the daylight!

Yoga
On Monday I went to my very first yoga class! I've been doing yoga at home on Youtube on and off but it caused pain in my shoulders and neck so I'm not sure I was really doing it properly and it was about time I found a 'proper' class to go to. I took my mum along with me and it was pretty relaxing for a Monday night workout...it's really my kind of workout when you get to spend about 20 minutes 'asleep' on the floor. Score! I'm really looking forward to the next class.

Exercise bike
All that sleeping and relaxing in Yoga means I do need to do something a bit more vigorous so I have finally ordered myself an exercise bike to save me all the embarrasment of having to run out of my spin class to throw up. Yes it happened, twice. I thought I'd get my own bike so I can go at my own pace instead of pushing myself too hard to meet what the spin class teacher is shouting at me to do. I need to be sure I do push myself a little bit, building up resistance on the bike etc but I'm starting off very simply for the first week.

Lunch and shopping!
On Wednesday Vince and I decided to pop to Bristol for a spot of shopping and some lunch at one of our fave all-you-can-eat restaurants. Although my purse was quite literally groaning, I picked myself up a new pair of jeans, a jumper and a new sports bra top for all that working out I am yet to do. Vince treated me to lunch and we absolutely stuffed ourselves silly as per usual. It's a Pan Asian restaurant so has all of our faves but Vince went all out with chinese followed by roast dinner and then curry! I stuck to mostly chinese food and it was delish!

It was really nice to go a shopping centre on a week day as everyone else was at work so it was nice and quiet! Primark was a dream!

Masterchef!
Masterchef may be a slight exaggeration but this week has been full of baking and 'proper' cooking. I've been trying to make some 'different' dishes for our dinner recently, using recipes online and a couple of cook books. I started out with Red Pesto Chicken Pasta followed by a Chicken and Mushroom Pie on Friday. I whipped up some Rocky Road Mini Egg bites, which you can see here and I have Spanish Sausage Goulash planned as well before needing to research some more recipes. I'm not sure what prompted me to do some proper cooking for a change, I guess it's because Vince has been working so late most evenings and apart from this week off, I will usually be at home around 6.30pm so thought I better put my time to good use. I'm not usually a good cook so this will give me lots of practice!

What have been five good things that have happened to you this week? Let me know in the comments.