La collection de Noël The Body Shop

Bonjour,

alors aujourd'hui, j'vous fait un article "fresh out of the (mail)box" puisque je vous montre ce que j'ai reçu ce matin, ma sélection dans la collection de Noël The Body Shop.

Comme dirait l'autre, avant, j'étais une grande fan du Body Shop, mais ça, c'était avant. Avant qu'ils soient rachetés par L'Oréal, marque j'évite à tout prix pour des raisons éthiques et parce qu'elle est bien trop cher pour ce que c'est. Mais j'avoue, la collection de Noël a raison de moi, et une fois par an, je fais le plein de gels douche et beurres corporels qui sentent trop bon!!

Cette année, la gamme reprend les parfums gingembre et airelles déjà  présents l'an dernier, et retrouve un parfum avec de la vanille (de mémoire, depuis au moins deux ans, le troisième parfum était une déclinaison de mandarine).

On commence avec Gingembre Étincelant. C'est exactement la même senteur que l'an dernier, un parfum épicé et "pétillant", mais qui peut être un peu fort, surtout en beurre corporel. L'an dernier, j'avais pris le gros pot et vers la fin, j'en étais lassée. Donc cette année, j'ai pris le petit (et j'voulais la boîte en métal!!).  

 

Passons à Vanille Gourmande, et là, j'ai un peu envie de dire "gaaaaaah", méga madeleine de Proust.

Donc, vous vous dites "mais elle a pété un câble la Lélie, c'est vanille, pas madeleine." Certes, certes, je confirme, c'est bien un parfum à base de vanille, mais il sent très exactement le pain d'épices (ooh, pain d'épices, c'est un joli mot mystère à mettre dans un comm pour gagner une participation au concours qui arrive très très vite!!) de ma maman. Je n'ai pas connaissance que ma maman ait jamais mis de la vanille dans son pain d'épices, mais l'odeur est là. A la fois gourmande sans être trop sucrée, avec une petite pointe d'épice pour relever, c'est du bonheur en bouteille. Quand j'ai ouvert le flacon, il a fallu que je me retienne de ne pas retourner sur le site pour commander trois kilos de beurre corporel (les soldes Lélie, attends les soooooldes!!).  Si vous aimez la vanille mais craignez quand elle est trop sucrée, foncez, c'est vraiment une senteur délicieuse et festive qui vous aidera à passer l'hiver!

Et si vous voulez apporter du fun dans votre salle de bains, vous pouvez aussi craquer sur les éponges de douche en forme de nain d'épice ou de bonhomme de neige (qui, grâce au ruban rouge, ressemble donc à une poule!!)

Et vous, vous avez déjà craqué sur des cosmétiques spécial Noël?

My Manicure, Part 1 - Hand Creams

Hi Folks! Yes, I know, it's Sunday, but there'll be no Minnie today, she's way too busy writing her MD paper in the very few hours when she's not working or sleeping (a lot more working than sleeping actually). So to make up for her absence, I'm gonna start telling you about my manicure products. I do use a lot of different things, and I've tested several things that I don't use any more, so I broke down this presentation into four parts: hand creams, deep moisturizing treatments, cuticle creams & oil and nail treatments. Let's go for the creams.

As you might have deduced from my frequent mentions of eczema, I have very dry hands. The eczema comes and goes and is mostly located on the pinkies, but the dryness is general. To give you an example, I cannot wash my hands without applying cream after, even though I use a deep moisturizer every night and cream every morning. So what doesn't work for me might work for you, I'm not saying some products are bad, they're just not enough to treat my poor sick skin.

 

During many years, I used the Body Shop Almond Oil Rescue Treatment that is sold in BS stores, 14 euros for 100ml. This was and remains my favourite handcream and I'm actually quite surprised that it's never mentionned on nail blogs because it's really fantastic. The consistency is more that of a butter than that of a cream, but it penetrates quite quickly, doesn't leave your hands greasy and gives you a long-lasting hydratation. If, like me, you like the scent of almond, you'll find yourself opening the pot just to smell it, it's absolutely lovely. There used to be a cuticle & nail cream in the same line but they replaced it by an oil pen which I'm not crazy about.

If I've been using this cream for years and still consider it the best ever, you might ask why did I go and tried others? Well, I moved to a town without a Body Shop, and at that time, there was no online shop for BS in France :(.  And to be honest, there is a downside to that cream, it's a little bit pricey... So I had to try and find another cream for my little hands. Since I was starting to test LUSH products, I added Helping Hands to my first order.

Packed with linseed oil, almond oil, shea butter and cocoa butter, this cream is supposed to treat dry, sore or rough hands, and costs 6,75£ for 100g. Well, this one is clearly aimed at better hands than mine, because even if I used it several times a day (as you see, my pot is almost empty - I in fact kept it aside for this article - I used it up between February and May.), my hands were uncomfortable, my eczema came back more often and my cuticles were a desert, even if I used other treatments for them as well. On top of it all, I don't like the smell!!

I decided to give LUSH another try with their Retro cream Smitten. I knew there wouldn't be any problem with the smell since it's almond, and this is my favourite smell for hand products. It's only available online and costs 7£ for 100g. It's the one I'm using at the moment, I want to finish it before starting a new pot of Body Shop Rescue. The smell is lovely, it's quite a thin cream, the hydratation is correct, but there's one big bother: it leaves your fingers oily for a while. I put some on before starting this article and my keyboard is full of grease stains. It is also a cream to be reserved for "daily hydratation". If you ever have that feeling of sore skin that makes you say "ooh, I need cream now", it won't be enough to soothe it. But all in all, it's more nourishing than Helping Hands so I guess it would be a good winter cream for normal skins.

I had also read some good reviews of OPI Avoplex High Intensity Hand & Nail Cream, so when I placed an order for some polishes in the US, I added that to the order. I had a tube of 50ml for 5$. There's no particular smell for that one, but once again, clearly not for me. Too liquid, not enough hydratation, I used it once and I know I won't use it anymore.

The last product I have for you today is the Yves Rocher Chocolate & Orange Christmas Edition Handcream, that Minnie bought me last December as a stocking filler.This is my handbag cream because while it's clearly not moisturizing enough on a daily basis, it makes a good extra from time to time, and the scent is beyond gorgeous.

So now you know all about the creams I put on my hands, and I have to say that so far, in spite of its price, the Body Shop Rescue Treatment remains my favourite. I might try the Handy Gurugu from Lush one day because from what I've read, it has the intensity I'm looking for in a cream, but I'll give it a sniff in a store first, I'm not very keen on rose and it's the main ingredient!!

Next time I'll be telling you about High Intensity Moisturizers, aka the ones you have to put at night. I don't know yet when I'll publish it, it'll be a surprise!!