What's On My Shelf?

This post is part of our two-part series, ‘What’s on our Shelves?’ There are three of us girls who share one bathroom, but luckily there is quite a lot of storage space in there so we can each have a shelf for our bath/skin products. Mine is the bottom because... well, I’m the shortest. Today is my turn to share what I keep on my shelf. I’m really excited to share this as I have recently been trying out some new skincare products which I would love to rave about here. All these products are also from the drugstore or highstreet and therefore, affordable.

I have not included every single item that is on my shelf, because frankly you don’t really need to see my more intimate, generic products, if you know what I mean. I’d also like to highlight that I don’t keep all of my products on this shelf. I have other items which may be permanently  in my shower or on my dressing table, for example hair care products, my exfoliating face wash, my  moisturiser and deodorant etc...

Products (from left to right in the above picture)

Soap and Glory Clean On Me Creamy Clarifying Shower Gel (£6)
Imperial Leather Soap (£1.79 for 4 bars)
Superdrug Cottonwool Pads  (£1.69)
Sainsbury’s Nail Polish Remover (around £1.50)
Super Facialist Una Brennan Tea Flower Deep Clean Pore Purifying Clay Mask (£8.99)
Super Facialist Rose Hydrate Calming Creamy Cleanser (£7.99)
Simple Kind to Eyes Eye Make Up Remover (£3.25)
L’Oreal Velvety-Soft Toner (£3.99)
L’Oreal 3 in 1 Purifying Micellar Solution (£4.99)
Soap and Glory The Ultimelt Hot Cloth Cleanser (£10)
The Body Shop Vanilla Bliss Body Butter (Limited Edition £13)
The Body Shop Cocoa Butter Body Butter (£13)
Soap and Glory The Righteous Butter Body Butter (£10.50)

Before I discuss my slightly more glamorous products I’ll quickly mention the more boring, but nevertheless essential items on my shelf. Often I don’t like to use shower gels as frequently the require some sort of loofah to really foam up, and to be honest I can’t be dealing with the faff of all that. Therefore I generally use a good ol’ bar of soap – I’m currently using the standard Imperial Leather Bars. They smell OK but they do the job well. I couldn’t live without my cottonwool pads. I’m not overly fussed about which brand I get because I use about 4 or 5 a day so I’m more concerned about the price than anything. I also just have a bulk standard nail polish remover. I don’t paint my nails all the time so I’m not too worried about buying a particularly fancy remover, but if I did, I probably would be.

Now. I’ll try and be as logical as possible with the rest of the items, grouping them by brand or function. For those interested, I have (very) sensitive, combination skin, which is more on the dry side.

I have two L’Oreal products – their micellar solution and toner. The micellar solution is a dupe for Bioderma and is a great make up remover, for use before cleansing. I use this both morning and night. It is a gentle, odourless water-like solution which claims to dissolve make up, unclog pores and tones and smooth the skin. My other product by them is their Velvety-Soft Toner. This product worried me initially as it is quite heavily scented and I thought it may irritate my skin. However, it is nice and cooling on the skin and has not caused me any irritation of adverse reaction. Next to those I also have my Simple Eye Make Up remover. Although the micellar solution is fine for eyes, if I am wearing a lot of eye make-up I prefer to start with this product as again it is good for sensitive skin and is specifically for this use. Simple is great brand for those just starting out with skincare as it is relatively cheap but very effective. It is also great for sensitive skin as this is the brand’s area of expertise.

My newest skincare discovery is the Super Facialist range by Una Brennan. She also specialises in skincare for those with particularly sensitive skin, but obviously anyone can use these products. I have only recently started to use her stuff so can only comment on these two specific products. The Rose Cleanser smells absolutely beautiful – who knew I liked rose as a scent! Again, I was a bit sceptical about the scent but it’s very calming and soothing on the skin. I massage the cleanser into my face and neck, twice a day and remove it with a warm, damp cloth. It really cleans the pores and has help to minimise sensitive redness on my face after it is exposed to water. I also picked up the Tea Flower Clay Mask, which again has a strong, but fresh, clean scent. I have been using this twice a week and I really feel like it properly guts out my pores. It only needs to be on for a few minutes though, otherwise you feel like you’ve had a bit of a face lift. So shout out to Una, you know your stuff!

Soap and Glory is another of my favourite brands. Before Una came along and swept me off my feet, I was really loving The Ultimelt Hot Cloth Cleanser which I was using at night. I still like it and would definitely re-purchase it but right now my love affair is with the the Rose cleanser. Soap and Glory completely bring it when it comes to body and shower products in my opinion. On my shelf I have the Clean on Me shower gel and The Righteous Butter, which both have the same scent, which I believe is actually S & G’s signature scent. I love this scent in the spring and summer, it is fresh and light, although quite strong, almost perfume like. The shower gel does require a loofah in my opinion. The butter is a great consistency and sinks in well to my dry skin.

I do have a slight obsession with Body Butters, ok. The Body Shop is quite the rival to Soap and Glory. There Body Butters are gorgeous and often on offer so don’t pay the full £13 too hastily. I can usually get them for about £8 or under. I have the Cocoa Butter and Vanilla Bliss scents. These two have slightly different consistencies, so check this on the packaging and in store. I prefer the Cocoa Butter one which is for Very Dry skin I believe as it is slightly softer, but they are both nice. The Vanilla Bliss one was actually limited edition, so sorry about that. Look out for it around Christmas time though – it’s gorgeous!

Sorry this is quite a lengthy post, but I hope it was useful. Any more skincare suggestions very welcome.

-Alex