Aeria Skin Even Tone Brightening Sheet Mask

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​Aeria skin is an entirely new brand on my beauty radar, but boy am I grateful I discovered them, because they're honestly one of the most luxurious face masks I have ever used. These Even Tone Brightening sheet masks were sent to me to review, which was really exciting for me in itself as no other brand have ever been in touch asking for me to review any of their products before! Whilst I'm in no way interested in beauty blogging to blag free stuff, the fact that a brand noticed a small town new blogger like me out of all of the other wonderful bloggers out there and thought that my opinion might matter enough to ask for a review blows my mind. It was a small but motivating step on my blogging journey that has made me feel as though slowly, I'm moving in the right direction and getting my name out there!

I want to start off by talking about one of the biggest selling points about this mask for me, the packaging. There was so many little things that just made it feel so special, like a lot of love and thought had went into making it. It had a beautiful delicate, watercolour style design on the front of the box and on each sachet of mask, and the sachets themselves even managed to make your usual run of the mill tear open sachets look and feel as though they were made from a smooth satin. The overall coral hue of the packaging is stunning, and did I mention you can reuse the packaging as a jewellery box when you're finished with it?! Because yes, basically, you can. The box all five masks are packaged in contains a drawer that you can pull out with a beautiful gold ribbon to use when you're done storing your masks in there. If you wanted to buy more than one type of mask then you could also start to stack them. What's not to love??

In the past I have mostly opted for mud masks, so I was a bit apprehensive about trying a fabric mask, especially after having used a couple in the past that were quite simply uncomfortable, tingly and poorly cut to size. This mask however was a whole different ball game, and I was really pleasantly surprised. Made from 100% natural organic cotton from India, this mask was fairly thick and had a real 'quality' feeling when getting it out of the pack, like no expense had been spared. At the same time, it was thin enough to adhere well to my face due to being saturated in a good amount of serum - which is also free from parabens, synthetic dyes, sulfates, alcohol, gluten and fragrance.

One thing I was particularly impressed with was the way the mask had been manufactured. The slits on the mask were expertly placed so that you can adjust it to best fit the contours of the face, and I had no problem with smoothing it down and into place in no time at all. Usually I find that if you try to pull a fabric mask over the nose it pulls the rest of the mask away from the bridge of the nose and the cheeks, but with slits in the mask along the bridge of the nose and a separate, freestanding section of mask for the nose, I had no trouble with this at all.

The only thing I was relatively indifferent to with this mask was that it was fragrance free, but I think more people would probably prefer this than not. I personally tend to enjoy the scents you get with different masks, but it was a small price to pay for the difference in results compared to other brands of mask, and it's good to know that you're not putting anything unnatural on your face.

An aspect I did like about using a fabric mask is that you don't have to wash anything off of your face after using it, as I find it's a bit of a shame to feel as though you're washing all of that goodness straight down the drain. You simply massage the remaining serum from the fabric into your face and go, sort of like having a built in moisturiser!

I have tried a huge range of different face masks in my time, from self heating ones to mud masks and peel offs. The main reason I tend to use them is for the 'me time', and the idea that you're doing something good for your skin. But honestly, I can't recall a single occasion where I have noticed a difference in my skin afterwards. I expected this to be quite similar to be fair, nothing more than a gimmick even, but I noticed such a difference in my skin afterwards that even my boyfriend pointed out that my skin looked really even! My reaction was pretty much 'no way have you just said that, that's exactly what it says it's supposed to do on the box!'.I genuinely just couldn't believe that he had picked up on the difference in my skin, let alone something so accurate and specific. Clearly I haven't been giving him enough credit! Truly, you need to try it for yourself to believe it. It really did make my skin clearer and tighter feeling and the results kept on coming in the hours and days after using it too.

Aeria Skin Even Tone Brightening sheet masks retail at $25 for five masks here. Their website has recently made international shipping available to the UK, but sometimes also have stock on Amazon.

Please know that although being sent this product for review purposes, all views and opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

Grounded Mango Edible Lip Scrub

I want to start off by describing the scent of this lip scrub. I think it's quite difficult to describe a scent, especially when this scrub isn't as one dimensional as simply smelling like mangoes. I can't put my finger on exactly what the smell reminds me of, but it definitely smells a bit like a Solero ice lolly, which I think is a wonderful surprise. It's very sweet, but considering it is made from mostly Castor sugar that is to be expected! If anyone wants to share with me what they think this product smells like in the comments then please do, as it smells like something from my childhood that I can't quite put my finger on and I would love to see if you had any ideas!

This scrub is edible (in the sense that you can lick it off of your lips, not spoon it into your tea), and has a very pleasant taste when licked off of the lips. It tastes how it smells, if that's something you can imagine! Very sugary and with a tropical like taste that doesn't seem artificial. If you don't like the thought of licking it off however you can remove the remaining granules with some tissue or wash it away, but I personally don't find that I would use enough at a time to justify going and washing it off - especially when it's been made to be edible and tastes like a fresh mango!

To use, I used about a finger tips worth of this product and buffed it in circular motions on to my lips for a minute or two to remove any dry or flaky skin. I don't really have much of an issue with dry lips, so it was hard to tell how effective this was as my lips were fairly soft before and after. I did however use this to remove the stubborn residue/staining from darker lipsticks and lip stains that are typically hard to remove completely, and this worked an absolute treat! It even got rid of that awful 'lining' of lipstick that some lipsticks can leave on the inside of the lips after a few hours (does anyone else know what I mean!?), which is usually really difficult to remove. I can imagine it would be equally effective at removing stubborn skin, seeing as it did such a good job of removing lipstick staining etc. My lips definitely felt more moisturised afterwards too.

Afterwards, I applied some of the Grounded Chocolate Orange Lip Balm (which deserves a post on its own to be honest... it smells JUST like a real Terry's chocolate orange) to moisturise after all that scrubbing. Although described on the Grounded website as having a rougher texture than other lips scrubs, I actually found that it had quite a fine texture which is easy to scoop up and work with. I loved how crumbly it was in the pot too, I found it really aesthetically pleasing for some reason! In terms of texture, I have only ever used one lip scrub before, the bubblegum flavoured one from Lush, and that was much coarser and quite rough - not to mention more expensive. I think that considering how much more delicate the skin on the lips is compared to the rest of the face, it is much better that this scrub is finer and therefore a bit more gentle. It also contains vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and extra virgin coconut oil, which is known to be quite the little miracle worker in the beauty world. Plus it's free from parabens and other nasties!

Overall I was really impressed with this product. A little goes a long way and I can see this pot lasting me a long time. It smells, tastes and feels lovely to scrub with and combined with a lip balm gives you the perfect base for lipstick - especially ones that usually show up any little imperfections!

You can buy the Grounded Mango Edible Lip Scrub here for only £4.95

Mac Nutcracker Sweet Lipstick - Saucy Little Darling

I haven't always been, but for the past few years I've been a real sucker for MAC. I usually end up buying at least one product from almost every collection they release, even if I'm not really that fussed on it (That's called a problem, Leaha...). Because of this, I have tried and tested a wide range of their products, from foundations to blushers to mascaras, but the one thing I keep coming back to is their lipsticks. 

I used to only shop high street makeup well into my late teens, and a MAC lipstick was the first 'high end' product I ever bought myself (Russian Red, if you were wondering!). Since then, I've never really looked back. MAC lipsticks just look so iconic, and I love the quirky little names they always seem to have! I have to admit, sometimes I will even buy them based on that alone... Ahem, but aside from my weakness for product marketing, I find that these lipsticks rarely seem to fail me in terms of colour payoff and staying power, and that's what really brings me back time and time again. So, when the Nutcracker Sweet collection came out for Christmas this year, I just had to get myself a few little treats! Christmas and lipstick are among my favourite things, after all, so all the better to combine them!

This particular shade is called 'Saucy Little Darling', and is the only lipstick I bought from this collection - surprisingly! It comes with the most beautiful shiny pink and almost matte purple bullet with a candy cane striped box in the same shades - which is a nice change from the usual black MAC lipstick bullets. This particular shade has an amplified cremesheen finish, which typically I find a little harder to work with than cremesheens due to the thicker consistency and brighter colour payoff. I do however find that cremesheens typically last for a good while dependant on the shade (the darker the lipstick the longer they tend to linger on the lips), and this one certainly did not disappoint. It lasted a good 6 hours on the lips, and after the initial sheen and hydration of the lipstick had worn off it seemed to leave a thinner, lighter pink colour on the lips - which I pictured below when the lipstick was worn for around 4 and a half hours. I did find that this settled in to the lines of the lips more than most MAC lipsticks I have tried, but this was easily fixed by simply patting the lipstick in to the lips, which created a really soft natural look which I actually prefferred to the initial coverage. The bullet itself still comes in the classic subtle vanilla scent as do all MAC lipsticks, which I think is really lovely.

In terms of application and colour, the lipstick glided on really smoothly with no tugging at all and had an opaque finish. It was fairly hydrating and smooth, and I thought that it almost felt like a balm, but with a bit of a thicker consistency. The shade is described on the MAC website as a 'deep coral red', but I would definitely describe it more as a coral pink than a red. I think the fact that this lipstick has quite warm undertones can give it a slightly red appearance at times, especially in the bullet, but as soon as it is applied to the lips it loses this and instead maintains a bright pink, bold hue with a tinge of coral. The colour was like a toned down, darker version of the pink shade on the lid of the lipstick. I have pictured the lipstick on my lips below straight after application, for comparison with the photo above after around 4 and a half hours.

If you wanted to purchase this lipstick, you can buy it here for £17 :)

Grounded Coconut & Lime Face Scrub

Before I go into any detail about this product, I just wanted to welcome you to my first ever blog post - and thank the hell out of you for reading this! Blogging has been something I have wanted to do for what seems like a very long time, and finally taking the plunge and writing this post feels like a huge step for me. So, without further ado, let's (very eagerly) talk about the coconut and lime face scrub from the brand Grounded Body Scrub.

Now, I'm a huge fan of anything even remotely 'beachy' smelling. I think my love of all things mermaid related is partly to thank for that! So even though it's well in to November, picking up this coconut and lime face scrub was a no brainer for me. Upon opening the pouch, the scent hits you like a big tropical tonne of bricks. In a good way! The most powerful part of the fragrance is definitely the lime, with the coconut notes taking somewhat of a back seat. The coffee is pretty strong too, which is always a good thing... Personally, I feel like it smells like chocolate limes (those little boiled sweets you can get!) combined with freshly brewed coffee. A strange combination that surprisingly works! The idea is for the caffeine to soak in to the skin and give you a bit more of a revived, rejuvenated look, like your skin has just had a nice cup of coffee.

There is something oddly satisfying about just getting in there and scooping a scrub out of a packet. Maybe it's just the fact that it's a little unorthodox! I will warn you now though, this stuff is messy, so you should definitely pop it on and wash it off close to a sink or shower. For the texture, I found it was a lot finer than most coffee scrubs, which in theory is great because that means it's going to be a lot less harsh on the delicate facial skin. Don't get me wrong though, this stuff is still pretty gritty as far as scrubs go and it really scrubs. I feel as though it wouldn't be the most ideal product for ladies with more sensitive skins, as it did feel a little warm and slightly irritating at first, and my skin is typically anything but sensitive. I mostly put this down to the fact that I had just come out of the shower and my pores were open - plus I have a ruddy terrible cold! I left the scrub on after rubbing it in for around fifteen minutes, which is recommended if you want more of a 'face mask' type result. After this time it had dried on and soaked in to my skin ready to be rinsed and gently scrubbed off.

Overall, I was pretty darn impressed with this scrub. I loved that you could smell the coffee and lime the whole time it was on, and I feel like it left me with a definite bit more of a 'glow' afterwards. Plus, I think this product is really satisfying to look at once it's on your face and looks really awesome with all the little coffee grains! It also really seemed to help with the more flaky patches of skin that I have (remember that cold I mentioned? Yeah), but that's not usually a major issue for me. I plan to continue using this scrub on a regular basis, especially as I have an oilier skin type, which I feel benefits much more from a grainier/coarser scrub. I'm really excited to try some other products from this brand after trying this scrub - their body scrubs in particular have had some huge results online for tackling eczema and cellulite among other things, and their hair masks look so mega nice (mango crush, anyone?). Keep your eyes peeled!

If you like the look of this scrub you can buy it here :)