Lanolips Christmas Kisses Gift

Beautifully soft, kissable lips are a must for the Christmas season, you never know when mistletoe might pop up and leave you needing to pucker up.

Lanolips have put together a super sweet Christmas gift designed to get you prepped and ready for all eventualities. Christmas kisses* contains the two best selling Lanolips lip products meaning you have all you need to keep your lips in tip top condition this winter.

First up is the classic 101 Ointment which contains 100% pure grade lanolin. It is completely colourless and literally just melts on contact with the skin (as you can see beginning to happen in my photo) leaving skin instantly moisturised as well as protecting from the elements. Because it is 100% natural, the 101 ointment is suitable for even the most sensitive of skin. I find this to be a great multi-purpose product and rather than using on my lips I use the ointment on my very dry elbows and on patches of stubborn eczema on my legs and ankles. Simply a wonder product.

The other product in the set is the Lanolips Lip Treatment with Colour and SPF 15 in the shade Rose. This super hydrating lip treatment makes a fabulous alternative to lip gloss when, like me, you need that extra moisture hit. The shade is universally flattering so anyone can pop it on without worry that the shade might not suit them. I also found (when taking this photo, I hadn't used the product before!) that you need very little product per use as lanolin holds up to 200% its weight in moisture so even the tiniest amount will give a tint and deep condition at the same time without feeling sticky and nasty.

The Christmas Kisses gift, containing two full sized products costs just £12.99 and would make a great gift for nearly all beauty lovers. I definitely find that its been useful to me as someone who wears a lot of lipstick which in the winter really drys out lips! You can grab one fairly easily from most stores like Boots and Superdrug.

Annie xx

Makeup on the Go

I'm a bit of a control freak. I always have to do lots of planning and I tend to do a lot of thinking ahead so of course I have a little makeup kit in my handbag at all times, ready for lipstick re-application and powder emergencies :)
So what do I carry?

I got this Weird Fish tin in a goody bag from the designer fashion show during Bath Fashion Week and thought it was a pretty weird gift and couldn't for the life of me think of a use for it until I happened to clear all the lipsticks out of the bottom of my handbag and shove them in there for safe keeping temporarily. Temporarily kind of became permanently and other bits and pieces have been added to make a little emergency kit :)

Of course I have my holy grail tin of Lanolips Golden Ointment* (reviewed here) in there, ready to soften my skin if its ever feeling a bit sore and dry and a back up lip balm for if I can't find my faithful Lush Honey Trap one for whatever reason.
I also keep a small pot of Bare Minerals mineral finishing powder in there along with a mini kabuki to rid my face of any shine that may creep up during the day.
My lovely MAC Fast Fleet blusher has also made its home in my makeup tin because I've found its a great blusher for adding a little extra definition and colour to cheeks for an evening look so I use the Benefit brush that I've popped in there to do a spot of contouring after work so I can head straight out.
Finally, I always seem to have two or three lipsticks in the tin, usually one red and one bright pink because those are my two go to colours. In the photo above the lipsticks are MAC Girl About Town and Lush Power. Girl About Town lives perminantly in my handbag because I am so so in love with it, it's definitely my go to lipstick!

Occasionally if I'm feeling a bit bored I'll swap things around a bit and add an eyeshadow or if I know I'll be out over night I grab a mascara to go in the tin too, I also have wet wipes in my handbag constantly to battle panda eyes in the morning, but in general, this is my handbag makeup collection :)

Do you carry a makeup tin/bag around in your handbag? What do you keep in yours?
Annie xx

Golden Ointment from Lanolips Reviewed

Dry skin can be really damaging to self esteem. For years I've had incredibly dry, sore elbows that just wouldn't go away no matter what I tried using on them. Because of this, when I was given the chance to try out the new festival sized mini's of both the 101 Ointment* (review to come) and Golden Ointment* I was particularly interested to test them out on my poor old elbows.

The Golden Ointment* comes in a very cute vintage inspired tin that is no bigger than a tub of lip balm and contains 12.5g of product, perfect for dropping into your handbag or stowing in your travel kit for festivals or summer holidays. I am not personally a fan of using lanolin on my lips for personal belief reasons but this ointment is the first thing that I have used on my elbows that has actually worked in softening and hydrating the sore skin and making the pain go away. I have also used it, to amazing effect, on my legs and feet when I get eczema flair up and found it to help so much with speeding up the healing process and lessening the urge to scratch it and make the area worse.

Lanolin is an amazing ingredient, extracted from the wool sheered from sheep, it is the yellow waxy substance that provides a protective barrier in the wool and stops sheep who stand in the cold and rain for hours getting cold and soaked through. In cosmetic use it is amazing for locking moisture into skin and hair, providing a protective layer on the skin for people who work in harsher conditions and is also classed as a vegetarian ingredient so extra yay!

The Lanolips Golden Ointment* harnesses the brilliance of lanolin as an ingredient and enhances it with the addition of very moisturising yet anti-bacterial Manuka honey, castor oil and apricot oil so that the product is the very best it can be for giving you an indulgent and deeply nourishing effect.
My one problem with this product is the use of glycerin in the ingredients. Glycerin is derived from animal sources and is not vegetarian, by using glycerine instead which is made using non-animal derivatives the product could have been kept vegetarian and been made suitable for so many more people.

Over all I have been incredibly impressed with this product, and the mini pot makes it perfect for carrying around and applying whenever needed on the run. I now never leave the house without this little tin and will definitely be re-purchasing for years to come. The amount of relief I've been given from using on my elbows and eczema has been huge and after years of being self-conscious about my elbows I finally feel more confident in showing them. I cannot recommend it enough.

You can pick up the travel tin of Lanolips Golden Ointment for £7.99 from most larger pharmacies, Boots and Superdrug stores. Well worth the money in my opinion.

Annie xx