How to Recycle your Touche Eclat

You made it.  After sprinting for the last five minutes you've managed to just wedge your foot in the train door in time.  With one swift push, you're in!  Phew!  You wipe your brow and search around to check that everybody didn't just see you launch your glamorous self into their cabin.  You straighten yourself up, flash an embarrassed smile and slink into the nearest seat.  The only thing you didn't have time to do this morning was apply your lipstick.  Rifling through your bag, out comes your chosen colour.  Now where is that lip brush?  A sensible woman would put all these kinds of beautifying ingredients into a make-up bag.  You remind yourself that you are not sensible.  You shirk off your own criticism and continue to rummage.  First hands, then arms disappear.  Soon your entire head is in your Marc Jacobs and your beginning to emulate a scene from Mary Poppins.  Pens, mints, antibacterial hand gel and other random but very useful belongings are strewn out of the bag.  You huff, you puff, you fall back into your seat, exhausted.  You could just apply the lipstick like a normal person but what would be the point of purchasing a lip brush in the first place?  Plus you can administer far better control of that hot pink colour with the brush, so as not to scare your colleagues.  No.  You will not be beaten.  You dive back in.

Is this anybody else?  I bought a lip brush, and it is so teeny tiny, I'm looking for it far more than I am ever using it!  Then I had, what I consider a pretty cool idea.  An idea that not only saves you this arduous start to your day but is also credit busting, which seems to be a regular phrase on To Elle and Back.  I tend to keep a lot of empty products, mostly to use as travel sizes for when I'm on holiday, you can see how I do that in The Smart Girl's Guide to Travelling Light.  I had, however, accumulated three finished YSL Touche  Eclat's, for a reason far beyond my knowledge but that's beside the point.  On yet another occasion when my trusty lip brush was playing hide and seek, I realised that when cleaned properly the brush from the Touche Eclat could essentially do the same thing.  So I did just that.  I used my antibacterial brush cleaner on the Touche Eclat brush and have been using it as my lip brush ever since.  It's bigger than my original and even when buried in the deep depths of your, read my, Mary Poppin's bag you're guaranteed to see the shiny gold packaging peering out beneath your random but very useful belongings!

Have you got any DIY treatments, products etc that work just as well as those you purchase?

The Smart Girl's Guide to Travelling Light...

The Metro did an awesome double page spread a few weeks back on travel sets by many a different beauty brand.  The majority were pretty reasonable too.  The fact that most were affordable but didn't compromise on style and cool factor was also a huge plus in my eyes.  All being around the £15 mark it was tempting not to blow £60 on about four different sets for my holidays BUT no matter how fun they were, none catered specifically to all my needs.  In true Carrie Bradshaw form "Suddenly I realised..." a simple solution was staring me in the face.  DIY and no I don't mean you should head on out to B&Q, this is me we're talking about.  I'm the first to go out and buy numerous products on a whim but I also love being able to save some money and discover an alternative route to the same outcome.  Some of you may be familiar with my DIY Facial, if not scoot on over here.  I applied that same mentality to transporting my beauty products and here's how you can to.

Glance across your dressing table.  Every product is in a different type of packaging.  Light, heavy, plastic, glass, big, small, square, round...Now focus on the smaller products.  That eye cream, those little bottles of shower gel you stole *cough* were given to you at the hotel, from your last weekend away.  A lot of the packaging we use can be re-used in some manner.  Some of my lotion and potion bottles I keep and use for decoration in my room, or vases but that's a whole other post entirely.  Basically I discovered that whilst I was chucking away  these pots, I could be saving them for the very time I don't feel like transporting that heavy glass Neals Yard bottle across the World.  

Here's what it should look like...

• Use your eye cream pots for your daily moisturiser.  You'll be surprised how it carries just the right amount for a week or two away.
• Any mini sample pots, from places like Kiehls, to carry your eye cream, conditioner or even foundation!
• Was there ever a better time to sign up to a sample service like Glossybox.  I re-used the Abahna shower gel bottle.
• If visiting a hotel there honestly is no shame in leaving again with their mini Molton Brown products they've supplied to you and again, once used, RE-USE!

The best news, is they're all 100mls or under so not only are they light on your hand luggage, they're also adhering to air travel rules.

If this is all a little too sensible for you though, then you can still decanter in style with this Mister Mascara set from ASOS for £7.15.  It even comes with stickers, which was the wow factor for me.  Smitten.

*Mister Mascara images taken from www.asos.com

Something For The Weekend...

This year I have treated myself to two spa breaks.  Next year I plan to do the same.  I am a true believer in regular facials, however, until I've made my millions, I shall simply only stretch for a professional facial when attending Champneys.

If you follow me on twitter you will be very familiar with my "DIY facial" tweets.  If you do not follow me on twitter, then why the hell not, get yourself on over to here and make it happen!

I have an incredibly hectic schedule at the moment, so as soon as I wrapped teaching yesterday, I decided to just completely chill out.  So, for all those of you planning to do the same, here's my Something for the Weekend post featuring the DIY facial.

You Will Need:

Cleanser

Facial Scrub

Face Mask

Rosemary

Cotton Pads

Flannel

My personal choice of products are Neals Yard's Orange Flower Water as my cleanser (not quite a cleanser I realise but I swear by it), Dark Angels facial scrub from Lush and Catastrophe Cosmetic face mask, also from Lush.

Firstly I place the cleanser into my fridge to cool.  The face mask, if using one from Lush, should always be kept in the fridge to keep the ingredients fresh, in order for them to perform their best. 

1.  Once the cleanser has cooled, using cotton pads, remove all makeup and any residue from the day.

2.  When confident that the face is completely clean, take a coin size of the Dark Angel scrub and mix with water to form a paste.  Now use the scrub across all of your face, concentrating on your t-zone.  I like to rub vigorously but you will know what is best for your own skin.

3.  Run the flannel under warm tap water to saturate and then squeeze to keep it damp.  Be careful to make sure you remove all the scrub. (Dark Angel contains rhassoul mud and charcoal, is completely black and can get very messy but is well worth it!)

4.  Because this is so messy, I like to cleanse my face again, to make sure every last part of the scrub is removed.

5.  Boil a kettle.  Once this is done take it to your bathroom sink, along with your rosemary.  Fill the sink with the boiled water and empty a large amount of the rosemary into it.  Using a towel, place over your head and sink to steam your face.  Do so for 5-10 minutes. (Also great to ward off any colds now we've reached this icy weather)

6.  Pat dry your face with a clean towel and apply your face mask.  This should have a cooling effect after the harshness of the scrub and the heat.  Leave your face mask on, as long as prescribed.

7.  With the opposite side of the flannel remove the face mask.  Then apply your moisturiser as normal. (This is very important as a facial, although leaves your skin feeling smooth, can actually dry it out also.)

This whole process is so beneficial to me, as after several weeks, my forehead begins to become bumpy from, I assume, a mixture of pollution, oily t-zone and moisturiser.  After my DIY facial, my skin always feels healthier, smoother and generally blemish free, as if by magic!

I plan to do my facial today, whilst partaking in my new obsession, watching Kelly Cutrone's reality show Kell on Earth (she's my hero), on the website Bunny With Fangs.  It's addictive, check it out.

Have a fabulous rest of the weekend guys!