Bedside Beauty

I've unintentionally accumulated a small gathering of products beside my bed, and thought I'd talk a little about them today.

Just before bed, I'll sometimes want to moisturise areas such as my elbows, knees, and feet. My body butter of choice at the moment is Soap & Glory's Sugar Crush Body Buttercream (review here), but I'm also a fan of The Body Shop's Raspberry and Vineyard Peach varieties. They all smell incredible, aren't too greasy, and provide my skin with a lot of moisture, leaving it soft and subtle.

I've also been moisturising my hands before bed because they've been needing more TLC since starting work. I'm absolutely loving the Figs & Rouge Hand Cream in Cherry Blossom (review here). It isn't greasy in the slightest, but still leaves your hands feeling hydrated. It also smells amazing!

For facial moisturisers, I have the Organic Surge Blissful Daily Moisturiser (thoughts here) and the Balance Me Moisture Rich Face Cream. I used, loved, and finished my pot of Organic Surge Super Intensive Daily Moisturiser, so am now making my way through the Blissful Daily version. It's obviously not as moisturising, but still sinks in well and leaves my skin feeling soft. The Balance Me one is a generous sample I received in a magazine the other month, and I'm still making my mind up about it. It isn't greasy, and leaves my skin adequately moisturised, but it's heavily fragranced. If you don't like strong rose scents, you'll struggle to use this.

For lips, I have the Blistex Intensive Moisturiser and Nivea Soft Rose Lip Balm. The Blistex Intensive Moisturiser is amazing, and leaves my lips feeling softer than any other product. More often than not, though, I find myself gravitating towards the Nivea Soft Rose Lip Balm because my lips don't need the Blistex one every night. The Nivea one is just like your standard tube of lip balm, but it's one I use a lot.

For blemishes, I use the Nelsons Pure & Clear Blemish Gel. It seems to do the job better than others I've tried, and that includes Lush's Grease Lightning.

Then I just have some products that I haven't been using that often, but are there just in case. I'm still deciding whether The Body Shop's Vitamin E Moisture Serum gives my skin any extra moisture. I'm honestly not sure. Then there's the Superdrug Vitamin E Skin Oil, which I'll use if my skin is feeling particularly dry (which is not that often).

Have you tried any of these? What products do you use in the evenings/just before bed?

Empties #6 - Organic Surge Super Intensive Daily Moisturiser

First I finish a body butter this year, and now a moisturiser! Maybe I'll even get round to finishing a lip balm! (has anyone actually done this?). I wanted to dedicate an entire post to this empty because it's an achievement for me. I've never been big on moisturising. I'd use a new moisturiser for a couple weeks and get bored. Then I'd buy another and the same thing would happen. Organic Surge then had a sale (you can see my initial thoughts on my purchases here) and I couldn't resist the Super Intensive Daily Moisturiser for just £2.25 (down from £8.99, which is still affordable). It has taken me a year to finish, but I have been using other products, too, and I only started to regularly moisturise this year (with the motivation to look 10-15 years younger than I actually am when I'm older). This moisturiser is targeted towards dry skin, but my combination oily skin has been loving it as an over night treatment. This is because it's not greasy like other heavy duty moisturisers. It's still too heavy for me to using during the day, but works well at night. It sinks in straight away and leaves my skin feeling soft and hydrated. It's also 98.99% natural, animal friendly, and suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

Are you a fan of Organic Surge?

New Favourites

In order to write 'monthly favourites', you need to be trying new products (unless you wish to feature the same products every month!). My favourites usually stay favourites, and I don't buy that many new products, so had a hard time keeping them up! So I started writing 'new favourites' and realised earlier that I hadn't written one in a while. The products above are products that haven't been featured much on Affordable Treats, but I've been using them a lot recently, so thought I'd talk a bit more about them.

A couple months ago, I wanted a face powder with a little coverage, so purchased The Body Shop's All-in-One Face Base in 02. It's £14 full price, but I paid around £8 with a code. The Body Shop always has a great offer on, so you'll never have to pay full price for something! It gives me a little coverage and a soft, matte finish. For areas which need more coverage/mattifying than others, I pat the product on with my finger. I use this technique around my eyes the most because they tend to get quite oily and red. You can apparently apply it wet for even more coverage, too.

Sticking with The Body Shop, I've been loving the Mango Body Mist. I've loved this for months, and am running very low! £7.50 full price, but I've never paid that for my mists (I also have the coconut and berry varieties, which are also great). My sister also loves this and has about 4 bottles stored away!

Another fragrance I've been loving is Marc Jacobs Daisy Eau So Fresh Sunshine Edition. I was gifted this from the people at Fragrance Direct, wrote a post about it, and have been wearing it ever since. I've been wearing it even more than usual recently, though, which is odd for me because I'm more of a body mist kind of girl. I've been pairing this with the Mango Body Mist, actually. The light floral and fruity scents go well together. It's a nice, happy medium of the both.

I bought the Organic Surge Blissful Daily and Super Intensive Moisturisers during their sale for just over £2 each, and I'm so glad I did! They're both very moisturising, but light at the same time, and sink into the skin quickly. Even the intense one is suitable for the day, and I have combination skin! It has a light scent of rose, and the daily variety smells of lemon. They're £8.49-£8.99 full price, which is very reasonable, and I'd be happy to pay that.

I use ELF's Small Angled Brush to fill in my eyebrows, but find it too thick to apply eyeliner with eyeshadow. Enter MUA's £1.50 Eyebrow Brush. It's very thin and dense, making it perfect for eyeliner. 

Do you use any of these products? What products have you been loving recently?

Organic Surge Sale Purchases

I must admit, I hadn't heard much about Organic Surge before their current sale. However, I then started reading tweets about people stocking up on their favourite products at amazing prices, so decided to check them out! The fact that they're natural and organic persuaded me to place an order. I bought the Blissful Daily Moisturiser for £2.12 down from £8.49, and the Super-Intensive Daily Moisturiser for £2.25 down from £8.99, both of which are still available to buy. I also used the code NEWDEL for free delivery! I actually wish I picked up the Daily Care Face Wash, too. First impressions of these two moisturisers are good. The packaging is nice, they smell great (Because of the lemon essential oil in the daily version, and the organic rose geranium essential oil in the intensive one. My mum has just smelt them and isn't keen, though), they sink into the skin quickly, and leave it feeling soft. I've only used them a couple of times so far, though, so these thoughts could change.


Have you bought anything in the Organic Surge sale? Or are you planning to? I was going to buy the brown sugar scrub for £8 down from £32, but can easily make one myself! I may try to, actually. If it goes well, I'll blog about the recipe!