Emma Hardie Amazing Face Natural Lift and Sculpt Moringa Cleansing Balm

Today, (for my 50th post!) I thought I'd do a review of one of my new favourite products, the infamous Emma Hardie Cleansing Balm. I'll start by saying, this is the best cleanser I have ever tried and I've been through a lot, probably at least twenty ranging from Simple, Origins, This Works, Good Things, Antipodes, Liz Earle, REN and so on! Although there have been some I thought were nice enough, this is only the second cleanser I've ever really loved and seen a difference with other than the Clarins Melting Gel Cleanser which has since been knocked off the top spot!

Emma Hardie Cleansing Balm, £34 for 100ml

As the title states, this cleanser is a thick balm. The way I use it is putting a 50p sized amount onto the palm of my hand then mixing it with some water so it becomes a cream. I then massage this all over make-up free skin with my hands (I prefer to use Bioderma to remove my makeup) before going over it with a wet muslim cloth. 

I've been using this cleanser for over a month now and I've never been so impressed by a skincare product. Not only does this leave my skin brighter which I always look for in skincare, but it's also dramatically shrunk my pores, reduced my oilyness AND my dry spots. I used to have to powder every half an hour, then the Clarins Lotus Oil got this down to about every 2 hours and now, I literally powder once a day. It's amazing the difference it has made in such a short space of time and how much better my makeup now sits on my face.

I don't rave about skincare a lot compared to how much I've tried so this truly is a testiment to this product. It takes a lot to impress me and if I don't see brightness, a reduction in my oilyness or my pores shrink I will not repurchase something but I 100% would not live without this in my collection now. It's worth every penny not just for it's effects but the smell is also completely heavenly!

Have you tried this cleanser? What's your favourite?

Models Own Fruit Pastel Collection

Hi everyone! I'm currently working my way through a long list of recent purchases I have to review but I know this particular collection was one a lot of you requested to see in action. As you may have seen from my wishlist that I've been eagerly awaiting the release of the Models Own Fruit Pastel collection for a while now, which features five scented colours that I thought would be perfect for spring/summer.

Models Own Fruit Pastel Collection, £5

So first off, the shade range. I have to say, to me these are the perfect five shades to put in a 'pastel' collection, pretty much covering all the colours I would love to wear in these upcoming months. To me, there wasn't one that I thought looked too scary or ugly which wasn't great for my bank balance when it came to buying them! The shade names match the scent of each one; Blueberry Muffin, Apple Pie, Grape Juice, Strawberry Tart and Banana Split. 

I have to firstly confess that the scented element really isn't what I was interested in, I don't often go to smell my nails anyway..? But actually, it is a cute edition to them. However, if this is something that drew you to these polishes it's worth noting that after two days wear, the only ones I can still smell are Blueberry Muffin and Strawberry Tart.

Onto the formula which is where this becomes a little disappointing. These take a lot longer to dry than I'm used to and to get an opaque, non-streaky finish it took three coats. On top of this, they do have a tendancy to bubble even with a good top coat, which was really such a shame. I actually ended up applying them twice as the first time, I had bubbles on every nail which I cannot stand! Wierdly though, the second time round only the yellow and the pink bubbled badly, despite all having the same amount of time between each coat, whilst the other three remained pretty bubbleless.

Overall, I will probably continue to use a couple of the ones that don't bubble but I will probably be passing on a couple too. Banana Split is a really great pastel yellow which is so hard to find so I may persevere but with some of the other shades, I have plenty of similar only with a better formula. If I were to recommend any of these as a better shade/formula, I'd have to say go for Blueberry Muffin, Grape Juice or Apple Pie (though the blue and green were the only scents I really liked!)

Swatches L-R Blueberry Muffin, Strawberry Tart, Banana Split, Grape Juice and Apple Pie

Hope this review helped and please let me know your experiences with them as I'd love to know if it's just me doing something wrong! Also let me know if there's any posts you'd like me to do and I'll add them to my list! :)