A round up of my beauty favourites, winners and discoveries of 2018 : This is always really hard to do, but this year I’ve made the rule that each category has 10 products or less, so a more refined edit of what I was and am loving at the moment. These are also products that were either launched/new in 2018 OR things that I had simply used for the first time.
Let’s kick off with lifestyle and fragrance : Heyland & Whittle Sandalwood & Oud candle. I *have* tried one of their candles before but not this scent….and it’s 100% the firm favourite. It’s smoky, warm, woody and has been a sure-burner for the last few months in my new home. I also have the reed diffusers in the same scent for the bedroom and it’s pretty shexy (with Sean Connery accent).
A recent edition to the fragrance shelf : Shay & Blue White Peaches Eau de Parfum = Deliciously uplifting and invigorating and I am really excited to try more of their scents after dipping my toe into this fruity friend. Shay & Blue are a boutique brand, based in east London where all the scents are hand harvested, hand-weighed and hand-distilled. I also am really into the unisex, blue smoky glass bottles.
One of my *things* for this year is to use more classic soaps as opposed to liquid-pump gels in bottles : both for hands and body. I am yet to find my dream body soap however for hands….the best of late has to be MOR White Gardenia soap. Cute packaging (I re-use the tins they come in) and the smells are divine.
Favoured bath treats come in the form of Susanne Kaufmann St John’s Wort Calming Bath Salts. I like a lot from her bath & body range as everything I have tried has been really effective : the St John’s Wort salts aren’t the nicest smelling salts, I will put that out there, BUT they do the trick in soothing the skin, calming any irritation and making your skin feel silky smooth. It was great when I had irritated / itchy belly and also I have been using it loads post-birth just to simply calm me TF down in the evenings, glass of wine in hand. Another anti-itch (the glam) and soothing treatment for super sensitive skin is the SVR Topialyse baume lavant (body wash huns). It’s a creamy cleanser that contains no soap, sulphates, fragrance or parabens that is the perfect shower or bath accompaniment for sore, tired, inflamed and stressed skin. Not fancy, not pretty, but it does the job and is simply a no-nonsense, clean wash.
Hand creams, for me, are like lip balms ; MUST have one in every room in the house and every handbag on the go. I have done the rounds and had always been recommended the Aurelia Aromatic Repair & Brighten Hand Cream, so when my beloved Jurlique Rose hand cream had the life squeezed out of it a few months ago, I decided to give it a try. It’s as good as expected and definitely my now-favourite hand cream. Smells wonderful with Ylang Ylang, Lavender and Vetiver and really has that rich, cushiony feel once applied.
I have been on the hunt for SO long for a decent, affordable leave-in spray for my hair and the Shea Moisture Leave-In Conditioner is one of the best I have discovered for a good few years. It smells amazing and gives my hair a really good second condition without making it heavy or greasy. Perfect if, like me, you have coloured, dry and/or damaged hair.
Last up is the Tropic Skincare Whipped Body Velvet Buttermelt. It’s a very thick, rich, oily balm and once applied onto the skin it warms with the heat of your skin and melts into a sumptuous oil. Deeply nourishing, smells great and leaves a wonderful glowy sheen on the skin. I honestly think this is one of the best body oil/creams I have ever tried and I use it as a weekly deep treatment / body mask and it’s a product I can see myself buying again and again.
Have you tried any of my top picks? What was your favourite bath/ body product discovery of 2018?
