Lets Fly Away

Right two days to take off the hair is done, the waxing is imminent and I think I’ve finally cracked the product shopping. As usual I seem to have used this as an excuse to spend all my money on products… well they are necessities. But this time I did try and be practical and restrain myself a little. Which I managed… until a mopey morning found me spending £50 at Benefit (via the Boots website so it totally felt like ‘magic-not-there-internet-money’). I always leave the packing of my washbag til almost last so that everything has minimum time to leak and you don’t have to get anything out to use (I’m terrified of forgetting stuff it drives me mad). I’m not going to go through most of the essentials – toothbrush, toothpaste, nail files, hair ties, deodorant, Nivea soft, the usual face routine stuff. I’m taking my Clinique 15 Minute Turn Around Facial just to keep my skin in condition if necessary and I always try and take some foot cream. If you are lounging by the pool all day it’s the perfect time to give your feet some smoothing time off.

So what have I purchased? I think After Sun is really important – get stuck with the wrong one and you can be in severe discomfort. Boots were doing 2 for 1 so as I like to get two different factor sun creams so I thought I’d go for two different After Suns. In my mind if you mess about trying to fancy-up your After Sun when you really need it it’s just not as good as the pure basic one. So I thought I’d experiment. I’ve got Nivea Sun Tan Prolonging After Sun Lotion it contains Vitamin E which is known to be soothing but also contains a hint of self tan – will the self tan work or will it just detract from the soothing quality of the cream? Just in case it’s the latter I also thought I’d try Ambre Solaire’s Moisturising After Sun Spray which I think will do exactly what it says on the bottle. So as the other halve of my 2 for 1 I got two Ambre Solaire Clear Protect sun cream in SPF 10 and 20. I get so worried about getting a sunburnt face that I also snapped up a 2 for 1 Soltan Face Factor 15 which is £7.49 which is a little pricey for the handbag size bottle – but it is incredibly useful, you don’t want to be caught out and about in the sun with nothing to protect your face.

What couldn’t I resist from Benefit? I have the worst dark circles under my eyes – I carry It Stick in my make-up bag but in the mornings I swear by Boi-oing. I have been running out for ages but there’s no way I wanted to go on holiday with my full war paint to hand (maybe that’s just me…). It’s £15.50 but if you use it sensibly it last for ages and I mean ages. I also got suckered into buying more eye cream. I don’t know how many I’ve tried and they never work hugely well but I do trust Benefit and the packaging for Eyecon was just too enticing for a mopey Miss B to resist. Its £21.50 for quite a small pot which I have to say made me wince but Benefit believe that it “won’t break the bank” so it better work. It does feel great – if I could find my camera then I would do a before and after series of photos but you are just going to have to take my word for it… when it comes. My final purchase was a little extravagant maybe. Well by extravagant I mean I just can’t think of a way to pass it off as a necessity! But I just couldn’t stop myself – Gilded is a ‘tequila gold’ highlighting pencil its £12.50 and can be used on the eyes, check and brow bones and even over lipstick to add a bit of gold glamour. I can’t wait to try it (I’ve been saving it).

As an added extra Little Miss F returned from Paris with smelly cheeses and salami but also a fantastic Eyelighter by Cargo Cosmetics. One end has shimmery white powder to lighten the inner eye and the other end is matte to go at the outer corner to lift the eye. It will be perfect for nights on the town in Ibiza. I tried some of the inner eye sparkle this morning and it is great. The final extravagance was more Coco by Chanel – I cannot go anywhere without scent I find it comforting away from home. My travel shampoo of choice is Pantene Full & Thick Shampoo and Conditioner. The small bottles are perfect for a week away. I’m also trying out L’Oreal Expert Silver shampoo especially designed to keep white blonde from fading and going yellow. It’s purple so a bit scary to use first time but I’ve heard really good things about it and it came highly recommended by my hairdresser. It seems impossible to track down on the internet but I managed to get mine from Toni & Guy Essensuals in Hammersmith. I always make sure that I take some kind of mint (in this case Smints), wet wipes and Neurofen. I know it sounds like I’m going on a far more adventurous holiday than a week in Ibiza but to be honest I usually try and have those in my bag all the time. I’ve also packed a small pot of marmite… I crave it in the mornings when I have no way of having it.

So apart from the dreaded hair removal, finding my passport and camera and trying to get to the airport on time I think I’m about ready to go. At the moment I have more books packed than clothes and I can’t decide which shoes to take… I can see that no matter how prepared I am on the product side I’m not sure that I’m going to be able to manage the clothes packing until Friday afternoon. This would have been fine had we been flying out when Mr J told me we were. 9.00 on a Saturday morning… apparently I was supposed to know that in real speak that means 10.00 on Friday evening. I wish that I could keep you posted on the Ibiza fun but I will just have to update you on my return. xx