moroccan oil :: my mother actually turned me onto this trendy hair treatment after her hairdresser used it on her. for me, it was love at first try. i would never have thought to put oil in my hair on my own [don't you wash hair to get the oil and dirt out?], but this makes my dead follicles feel amazing. the only down side is that i find it difficult to stop touching my own hair, which gets to look a little creepy after a while. [tends to be good for getting people to leave you alone on the bus, though.]there are a lot of argan oil [which is what moroccan oil actually is] treatments on the market and it's become very popular to bash the original in favour of its imitators. nonetheless, i can be surprisingly brand loyal when i try and i'm so happy with how soft and smooth this makes my hair feel that i get a bit nervous thinking of how sad i'd be if i got a bottle of another brand and found it inferior. i'd have to work through that whole bottle before i could go back to having a happy head again. scary stuff.
shu uemura cleansing oil :: aside from my hair, about the least likely place for me to apply oil would have been my face, up until an enterprising sales associate got me to try a small-size version of one of their famous cleansing oils. i'm sold.
i absolutely love the rosemary-y scent and the fact that it works as both an effective makeup remover and cleanser, allowing me to be lazy by accomplishing everything in one step. i'm very into stuff that lets me be lazy. it removes makeup, even mascara, pretty easily and rinses away with water. it doesn't irritate my skin [which is prone to redness and patchiness if i have to rub it too hard] and, contrary to what i might have thought, it doesn't leave my skin feeling oily at all, just soft. so i can pat my cheeks when i get bored running my hands through my hair.the bottles are not cheap [there are two standard sizes and different formulas depending on skin type], but my travel size bottle lasted me almost two months using it every single day, so you're not going to have to make the investment that often. amortised over its life span, it's actually not a bad deal at all. and remember, it's filling two roles.
body shop body butter :: pick your flavour. personally, i'm a big fan of the nut-related ones- brazil nut, coconut, almond [although i think that might have been discontinued]- but if you're not a nut nut, there are still plenty to choose from. i'm glad to see that they've finally introduced "economy size" versions for those of us who use it every day, which i do because it is literally the only thing i've found that i can apply to my freshly shaved legs that doesn't make me feel like i've doused myself with hot sauce.
made to order vegan cosmetics "revamp" :: i should have a section of this blog entitled "cool sh*t my friends do", because one of the reasons i have things to do and write about is that i generally surround myself with people who are more interesting and talented than i am. a good example is "made to order vegan cosmetics", the new brainchild of a fellow skincare natural product lover who decided that, since a lot of her favourite products were always getting discontinued, that she'd strike out and make her own."revamp" is a moisturiser and after-sun treatment which is a great idea in the summer, when every night basically demands after sun treatment. there's aloe and witch hazel, which help soothe and smooth skin, but what makes this a really perfect summer moisturiser for me is that it's not heavy. the consistency is like butter and, like butter, it becomes quite viscous on application. however, it absorbs within a couple of minutes and my skin feels perfect- not like i'm slathered in heavy cream. it's become the only night cream i use over the last month.
there are a whole range of products available, exclusively [for the moment] through their facebook page [linked above] and new ones are being added regularly.
so what do you always need to have around the house? what products would you secretly harvest your neighbours' organs to buy?