Lush Haul and Mini Reviews

I was lucky enough to attend the Chester Lush VIP Event recently, we got to see some of the new products in action, which was amazing! I was mentally noting down all the new products being demoed, ready for me to buy.

If you read my post on the event, you'll know we got to make a Comforter Bubble Bar and a Butterball Bath Bomb, two of my favourite products. I also picked up some new products to try out.

The Comforter Bubble Bar

A true favourite of all Lushie's out there! This is one I made at the event, I think I did quite well for a first attempt. I adore the scent of this product and it's shower cream equivalent. I just brake off a bit and crumble under the hot water tap, it creates amazing glossy bubbles.

Butterball Bath Bomb

A plain product, but one of my favourites, it's scent is very relaxing and warming. Chunks of cocoa butter melt into your bath and leave your skin feeling so moisturised and soft, ideal for dry winter skin.

Don't Look at Me Face Mask

You have to take a selfie while this mask is on, it's bright blue colour is so fun! It's a lovely mask with scrub particles in that buff away dead skin cells. 

The Comforter Shower Cream

I'm so glad they decided to bring this shower cream to the nation's stores and not just an Oxford Street exclusive. I just adore the scent, it's a must try from Lush.

Blue Skies Bubble Bar

This is the bubble bar I reach for when I need to unwind, it has such a relaxing scent. It's not a new product but I needed to stock up.

Damaged Hot Oil Treatment

I love the novelty of this product, you heat the solid oil up with hot water in a cup, leaving it to cool slightly. It's a treatment you apply to dry hair; before you wash your hair. I'm really looking forward to trying it out.

Pink Flamingo Bubble Wand

I got this purely because it's shaped like a flamingo, but it does have an amazing girly scent. I'm a massive fan of these bubble wands, I can't wait for the Christmas ones to come out.

Yuzu and Cocoa Shower Cream

This shower cream smells good enough to eat, one for those who don't love the girly scents that Lush are famous for.

Have you been into Lush recently? Do you have any product recommendations?

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5 Tips to Make a Blog Post SEO Friendly

I initially wrote this as a checklist for myself, I’m a forgetful person and wanted to make sure I had ‘ticked’ the boxes of creating an SEO friendly blog post. Here are somethings to consider before you hit publish on your latest post.

1. Naming photographs with SEO friendly titles

As soon as I have looked through my photographs and decided which ones I want to use, I rename them. Something like MAC_Studio_Fix_Review_NW10 is so much more useful than a generic numbered image straight from your camera.

2. ALT tags

For those who don’t know what an ALT tag is, it’s an alternative for an image on your blog post. For those who use screen readers due to eye sight problems, a word is read to them to tell them what the image is. I try to keep things simple like ‘MAC Studio Fix in NW10 Review’; this will also help your SEO.
How to add ALT tags: Upload your image and insert it into the blog post editor, now right click the image and select ‘properties’. You can now type your keyword description here in the boxes.

3. Labels

I wasn’t sure whether these helped SEO, but a few people have mentioned that this section of the blog post editor is just to section off your content. Tags and labels will just help your audience find similar content. So now I keep them short and sweet, putting posts into categories like beauty, fashion, lifestyle, product reviews, for example.

4. Search Description

When your blog post is shown in search results, it will have a short blurb which previews what the post is about; you can customise your own. You have to physically add this option to blogger, it is not a default.
How to add a Search Description - Go to the settings, then ‘search preferences’ and click edit next to ‘description’. Just select yes and save changes, they should now appear on the right hand side of your blog post.

5. Permalinks

In case you don’t know a permalink, it’s the end of the URL, which refers to the specific post or page. So for example, ‘http://www.cherriesinthesnow.co.uk/2015/09/if-money-was-no-object-beauty-wishlist.html’, the ‘if-money-was-no-object-beauty-wishlist.html’ section is the permalink. These are automatically generated by Blogger, but you can customise them to be more SEO friendly and shorter if you like. You can edit this on the right hand side editor when you are creating your post in Blogger.


I'm not an SEO expert but these are some things I picked up while working in Marketing. Of course, blogs are all about personality, so some of these tips may not fit with the style you go for. Just pick and choose which you’d like to use and hopefully, you should get some results!

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If Money Was No Object Beauty Wishlist

As much as I adore some of my high street/drugstore make-up, there is always a yearning to fill my make-up bag with high end make-up. The super sleek and pretty packing, wide shade ranges and incredible quality just draws me in.

Realistically, I could never afford everything on my high end make-up list at once, so bit by bit I ask for things for birthdays and Christmas. I'm slowly accumulating some designer make-up and I treasure every piece of it.

I thought it would be fun, to show you guys what I would love my make-up bag to be filled with and you can let me know what would be inside of yours if money was no object!

What would be in your high end make-up bag? Leave me a comment below!

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#WeAreReady for Autumn with Boohoo

 

When Boohoo asked me to pick something from their website, for their #WeAreReady campaign, I decided to choose something that would transform a summer outfit into an Autumn appropriate one.

 

I'd worn this ASOS denim pinafore dress quite a lot over summer, with light t-shirts underneath and bare legs. To transform this item for Autumn, I swapped the t-shirt for this striped knitted jumper from Boohoo, added black tights and boots, and the finishing touch was a black hat.

 

I'd usually stick to black and grey tones in Autumn and Winter, but I love the pop of colour that the red and blue jumper gives! It's a bargain at £12 too.

 

Hat: H&M

Jumper: Boohoo*

Pinafore: ASOS

Boots: Debenhams

*This post contains PR samples

 

 

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Lush VIP Event - New Product Launch

Lush is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year by opening the Oxford Street store but also releasing a ton of new exciting products. So when I heard that some of the new releases would be rolled out to stores across the country I was pretty excited.

Chester Lush is my closest store, they have a lovely group of staff who are always happy to help. They recently invited me and some other Bloggers and Instagrammers to a VIP event.

The team showed us their favourite new products and we even got the chance to make some of our own!

I love watching Lush demo their bath bombs in their huge silver bowls, I enjoyed watching the new ones fizz away. We saw Yoga, Frozen, The Experimenter and Intergalactic explode into colour.

If you've ever been to a Lush Party, you will know that you can make your own bubble bars and bombs with the team. The girls mixed up huge batches of ingredients ready for us to shape and mould our own creations.

The Comforter scent is one of my favourite scents from Lush so I'm really glad we got to make one. We twisted the mix into a cone spiral to create the famous swirl in the pink bubble bar. I'm really happy with how mine turned out and I can't wait to have a bath with it.

We also got the opportunity to mould our own Butterball Bath Bomb, which is one of my favourites; it's so soft and comforting in it's scent. Picking up two half circle moulds, we packed in the talc like ingredients and squished the two halves together to create the spherical shape they normally come in. 

I'm sorry I couldn't get photos of this, we had rubber gloves on and messy hands!

We also had a talk on the new haircare products that have been added to their collection. I was most intrigued about the hot hair treatments, they are a solid cream on a stick, inspired by hot chocolate spoons. You mix this in a mug of hot water and apply the warm treatment as a deep conditioning treatment.

The hair soap bars sounded really interesting too, as they are the equivalent of two or three bottles of normal shampoo. I'll be giving these a go soon.

I don't always have time to take a bath, but I still like to use Lush products in the shower, so I was excited to hear about their new scents. I picked up Yuzu and Cocoa, which has a yummy chocolately scent and the Comforter shower gel to try. In the past the larger bottles have lasted me months, so they are well worth the money.

You may have also noticed that your favourite bubble bars have been redesigned, check out Rose Jam, Sunnyside and Karma when you are next in Lush.

I can't thank the ladies at Chester Lush enough, I had a wonderful evening. Every member of the team was so knowledgeable about the products and were so passionate about what they were showing.

I picked up a few products from the new range so I'll be posting my haul very soon.

What's favourite new product from Lush, leave me a comment below!

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My Cleanser Stash - Mini Reviews

I only have one face so why do I have so many cleansers?! I like to think they do different jobs and suit my skin at different times. My skin can go through all the skin types in one month, from oily to dry, to sensitive to spotty. I'll pick my cleanser according to how my skin is that day/week.

On the whole my skin is oily, but I do have some cleansers for dry skin too, so everyone is covered in these mini reviews!

Elemis Pro Cleansing Balm - Suitable for all skin types

There is something so luxurious about this balm, I think it's a combination of the herbal, spa-like scent and the super soothing texture of the balm. It's great for when your skin is dehydrated as it leaves a slight film on the skin of moisture. You could used this to melt of your make-up but I find some of my other cleansers to be more effective. I will 100% repurchase once this sample pot is finished.

DHC Deep Cleansing Oil - Suitable for all skin types

This is the hero product from DHC, it works wonders on melting your make-up! I just massage a few pumps of the oil onto my face and then rinse off the make-up with a flannel. It's a simple, no frills product that does the job. If you don't want to use a micellar water to remove your make-up, this is the product for you.

Tropic Smoothing Cleanser - Suitable for all skin types

I'm not a fan of these 'at home parties' but I got dragged into one and felt very pressured to buy something. I just tried to pick something cheap and something I would use. This is basically a copy of Liz Earle's Cleanse and Polish. I do enjoy using it but I wouldn't repurchase.

Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser - Suitable for all skin types

A cult beauty product that many bloggers love! It's really soothing yet refreshing on the skin and feels luxurious but easy to use. I'll always go back to this cleanser! Little tip, if you don't want to buy the LE cloths, go to the baby section in Boots and look for muslin cloths. It comes in a big square which you can cut up, saves you a few pennies!

Origins Checks and Balances Frothy Face Wash - Suitable for combination skin

I only have a few items from Origins but I've been super impressed with them all! The aim of this product is to balance out combination skin, perfect for when my skin is being unruly.

Manuka Doctor ApiClear Foaming Facial Wash - Suitable for combination and oily skin

Most foaming products are very drying to the skin, but Manuka Doctor have created a cream which foams just enough, which means it doesn't dry out your skin. I would use this when my skin is spotty yet sensitive. The ApiClear range is aimed at acne prone skin, so worth checking out if you suffer from sensitive yet oily skin.

Avene Cleanance Cleansing Gel - Suitable for oily skin

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone with sensitive skin, it's very drying! I do tend to keep this one for when my skin is at it's worst. This isn't the best product from the Cleanance line, so perhaps try their Triacneal treatment and save your pennies on this one.

La Roche Posay Effaclar Purifying Cleansing Gel - Suitable for oily skin

My old faithful! Unlike the Avene version, this one doesn't dry your skin out too much. It's a simple gel which foams, helping fight acne and oily skin. This bottle will last you ages as well, mines been going strong for months now.


I am working my way through these to try and clear out my stash but my firm favourites which I will always repurchase are the Elemis Cleansing Balm, Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish and La Roche Posay Effaclar Cleansing Gel.

Have you tried any of these cleansers? Leave your favourites in the comments below!

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On Trial: 5 Glycolic Acid Beauty Products

My skin is problematic to say the least, I have had on going acne since I was a teenager, so I have quite a lot of scarring. I'm doing my best to combat these dark spots at home, so I don't have to splash my cash on microdermabrasion; I might eventually have the treatment but for now I'm trialling some at home treatments.

I find myself scouring the internet for acne scarring solutions and one common ingredient in the products suggested is Glycolic Acid. This is often found in brightening, renewing skincare products but can also be used to fade scarring, as well as getting a glow!

I would like to note glycolic acid isn't always suitable for people with sensitive skins, so be careful!

Here are 5 Glycolic Acid products on trial:

Nip and Fab Glycolic Fix Pads

These nifty little pads make my skincare routine so simple. Once I've removed my make-up, I sweep a pad over my face, and that's it! Then I move onto toning and moisturising, so simple to use. I find these sting a little, so I wouldn't recommend them to anyone with sensitive skin and I would always suggest following up with a moisturiser, as they might leave your skin feeling a little tight.

Nip and Fab Glycolic Fix Mask

Another Nip and Fab product that I love! This mask is a little strange in consistency, it's a goopy, clear gel, which you leave on to dry. I do notice my skin looks brighter after I use this! Again, I wouldn't recommend this to people with sensitive skin as it does have a strong grapefruit scent, which might cause irritation.

Superdrug Naturally Radiant Glycolic Overnight Peel

I grabbed this while it was half price, which made it around £2.50! I'm always intrigued by overnight products, this one especially caught my eye as it was a 'peel'. If you've research acne scar fading like I have, you will know you can have peels done, which strip layers of dead skin cells off, revealing fresher, clearer skin underneath; these are often pricey though. I wouldn't say that this is a peel, it neither peels off or makes layers of your skin peel off, it's more of an overnight mask. I do like using this product, and have noticed my skin improves in quality after use, but I think it's branded wrong.

REN Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Face Mask

I'd been eyeing up this mask for ages! I've heard so many rave reviews so when I managed to get a sample, I was keen to try it out! It's a orange goopy gel, much like the texture of the Nib and Fab Mask. I found this mask had the most 'tingle' out of those I was trialling, I didn't mind this but some people may find it uncomfortable. My skin did feel tighter and looked more clear after use. I think this one is my favourite because I can actually feel it working, I'll be purchasing the full size for sure.

REN Clarimatte Clarifying Toner

I wouldn't suggest using this toner every day, just as more of a boosting product when your skin is at it's worst. It's very strong, it's incredibly tightening but also refreshing as well because of it's menthol fragrance. I would recommend using a moisturiser after this product, as it does leave your skin feeling tight but I love the effect it gives; it's the only toner I have immediate results with!

I don't think any of these products are perfect, they all have different pros and cons but they are much cheaper than any facial treatment. I just tend to pick and choose when I use these products to make the most of them and not dry my skin out too much.

I think I will eventually go for microdermabrasion, so if you've had it done, please let me know how you got on in the comments!

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