April 2017 Beauty Favourites

1. Essano Argan Oil Recovery Hair Mask

We all know how fantastic Argan Oil is on hair, so it's no surprise that this mask delivers such soft, healthy-looking results. Looking at the ingredients, I was sososo happy to discover that this is primarily a plant-based formula and as a result of all the goodness of natural oils, so much moisture has been put back into my dry, damaged hair. This also helps to protect against further damage, too. A slathering a week after shampooing has truly fixed my split ends, treated my dry, frizzy strands and just generally left my hair looking and feeling soft, smooth, healthy and shiny.

2. Milk Face + Body Scrub

 First off, Milk is actually an Australian brand (founded by Olympic swimmer, Michael Klim and his wife), which is a bonus for me. This is a multi-tasking bad boy that works to exfoliate with the use of walnut shell, cleanse and moisturise your skin all in one go. It has a creamy consistency so it's for sure one of the more moisturising cleansers that I’ve used and there is a high enough walnut shell content to effectively exfoliate, whilst still managing to not be rough or harsh on the more sensitive skin of the face. It contains a skin-loving mix of ingredients including seaweed, spirulina and aloe vera which leave my skin feeling smooth, clean, moisturised and healthy. This can be used all over, but I've only used it on my face as I prefer a slightly harsher scrub for my body to really slough away those dead skin cells.

3. Jurlique Rose Moisture Plus Cleanser*

Finding a cleanser that works on my temperamental skin is hard, but this truly does tick a lot of boxes for me. I was originally attracted to this because although it's marketed as a foaming cleanser, it's actually quite creamy, which is what I need for my dry skin. Typically, foaming cleansers are a no-no for dry skin-types but this surprisingly didn't have any drying or negative effects on my skin whatsoever. In fact, I actually feel as though the slight foam helps to clean my skin of dirt and oils, without stripping my skin. Perhaps because I'm used to using gentle cream cleansers, but boy does my skin feel clean these days. It has a gorgeous light rose scent, too, which I absolutely love.

4. LUSH Scrubee

If this is not the cutest thing you've ever seen then I don't know what is! This is basically a multiple use body butter bar, with exfoliating stripes to nourish and smooth your skin. Honey and cocoa butter act to moisturise, while ground coconut shells and almonds gently exfoliate the skin, leaving my whole body feeling soft, smooth and hydrated. It smells absolutely amazing, too - a sweet honey-citrus scent that I cannot get enough of. This is unfortunately part of the limited-edition Mother's Day collection here in Australia so go ahead and get your hands on it before it's too late!

5. NYX Pore Filler Primer

I've only recently really made primers a part of my every day routine, and I'd been using Benefit's POREfessional for quite some time, but I recently found this to be a pretty good dupe at a fraction of the cost. It's also readily available at Priceline for all of my Australian readers. I have quite large pores on the front of my cheeks, next to my nose, so I look for a primer that will help hide those bad boys and this truly does. "Pressing" this in to my large pores and allowing to dry slightly before applying another light layer all over my face really fills up my pores. It has quite a... chunky texture (it's kind of off-putting at first) when first squeezed from the tube, but it's easily smoothed out over the skin, drying to a matte finish, giving a smooth, velvety finish and as a result, my liquid foundation just glides on. I don't have overly oily skin - just a touch on my forehead by midday that's easily blotted away, but this really keeps that at bay. Rarely do I even need to think about blotting when I've used this under my foundation. If you have sensitivities to silicone-based products, however, I'd give this a miss.

What products have you been loving lately?