Oil me up, baby

Don't worry, it's not what you think - you cheeky little monkey. This is not a post about natural female body building and my particitation (or lack there of) in it. Hey, whatever floats your boat right?

No, not really - just kidding with your lovely selves. It is instead a post about the rate at which I have lately been slathering my person with oils of differing varieties (ie. a rate of absolute knots!) I'm not sure what first attracted me towards moisturising with a body oil rather than a traditional cream moisturiser, perhaps it was the fact that the near freezing weather down here in the south east of South Australia (wow, that's a lot of south and just a tad of east) has quite rapidly been turning my skin into a gigantic flakey nightmare, or perhaps it was the realisation that I had run out of every creamy moisturiser that I currently have lined up on my bedside table except for the Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Natural Bronze Body Lotion ($12.95) which I didn't feel was quite appropriate considering the gloomy grey skies outside.

So, long story short I reached for my trusty Trilogy Certified Organic Rosehip Oil ($35.95 for 45mL) which I realise is not strictly an oil designed for moisturising the entire body but I figured it's such a versatile little winner of a product that it would do the trick, and I was indeed (uncharacteristically) right! Yay! Here's what it looks like in my garden if you were wondering:

It did indeed leave my skin lovely and moisturised, or moisture-ful if you will, and as a little bonus the pesky little stretch marks that we all love to hate were noticably less noticable as well! The only problem I can see with using this as a full-time all-over body moisturiser is that after 3 weeks I had nearly finished an entire 45mL bottle (now that's a lot of oil) and at $35.95 a pop it might not be entirely cost-effective for those of us who are on a bit of a tight budget. But you know this rosehip oil will always be a part of my life as it's just such rich, organic, wonderful product.

So, I was of course so enamoured with the moisturising potential of a bit of oil that I went down to my local fish and chip shop and asked if i could bathe in their deep fryer. No not really (oh, so many jokes today), but I did however pop down to Priceline on my weekend visit to Adelaide and pick up a little bottle of Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Moisturizing Body Oil ($10.60). I was actually looking for the Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Skin Therapy Oil ($9.95) which is available in cocoa butter and rosehip and you can see reviewed on beautyhaven here, but since it was no where to be seen I thought I'd give the body oil a go, which you can also see here in my garden:

Although it doesn't feel quite as nice as the Trilogy oil it does absorb into the skin very easily (once you get the hang of not squirting too much out and thus ending up in a big oily mess) and leaves it nice and moisturised without feeling like you're all oily. It also smells like chocolate - kind of like a less pungent but more chocolatey version of the smell of the Cocoa Butter Formula Lotion ($7.40) - if that makes any sense at all. So yes, oil seems to be a big winner when it comes to giving the old skin sheets a massive moisture hit especially given their tendency towards winter flakiness. Hoorah!

Ain't she a beauty

Hello lovely readers,

It seems that I must once again apologise for the extended sojourn I have taken between posts, if only there weren't so many butterflies for me to chase and puddles for me to jump in. But anyway, enough about my life, let's get down to the nitty gritty (quite literally) of some lovely products I have been giving a burl for the past few weeks - namely, the highly scrubberific a bit of rough exfoliating salt scrub and the very soothing flutter eye balm from wonderful Australian skincare company that loves all things natural, Ulittlebeauty.

First of all, the a bit of rough exfoliating salt scrub ($19.95):

which is packed with all sorts of goodies like macadamia nuts (not whole ones of course), coffee, jojoba oil and salt - which in truth is less of a goodie and more of a seasoning, but makes the scrubiness of this scrub wonderfully envigorating none the less. Inside it looks a little something like this:

I have only ever really tried 3 body exfoliating scrubs in my time - one which I have previously written about, the Garnier bodytonic sugar scrub, the second was a catastrophic bit of DIY which had olive oil and brown sugar flying everywhere and turning me into a big oily mess - well even more of one, and the third was of course this one which after consideration of the scrubbiness, naturalness and making your skin look really good and healthy after you've used it-ness factors, is a big winner in my books. I really love the natural feel of this product (if that makes any sense at all) and it does make my skin look really nice and smooth after use. The only thing that was a tad annoying is figuring out where to put the tub in the shower to prevent it from filling with water - oh how I envy those with a handy shower shelf!

The other Ulittlebeauty product that I have been rocking around with for the past few weeks is the lovely under eye puffiness and bagginess-relieveing flutter eye balm ($24.95):

At first I was a tad unsure about this eye cream (which includes ingredients such as organic chamomile flower extract, macadamia seed oil, organic aloe, and Kakadu plum extract) as when I popped it on it didn't feel as though it was working as much as my previous eye cream (QV face's revitalising eye cream), but after sticking with it for a couple of weeks I (many apologies for the cliched term) really noticed the difference. There was a definite reduction in puffiness and the darkness of my much loathed under eye circles, I also really love the feel of this cream and with all those wonderful ingredients in it this product must be good for you.

Till we next meet.

xoxo