Feeling My Elle Woods Graduation Fantasy | Masters Graduation - July 2022 - Leeds Beckett University | Outfit Of The Day

 Hey everyone! 

Welcome to a brand new blog post. I recently graduated from both my Undergraduate and Postgraduate Degrees including a MA in Media and Culture at Leeds Beckett University and I thought that today I would show you all what I wore. 

The photo in this post is before I grabbed my cap and gown as I had some time free before I needed to go grab them. If you want to see those photos then keep an eye on my social media channels. If you’re not sure where to go then just search thejamiesowden on all social media platforms. 

Before I go on about the outfit and show a photo where I look absolutely stunning if I say so myself. Id like to thank Abbey for not only coming to the graduation event, but for also, taking the photo that is featured in this post and helping me out in several ways during the day! 

The Shirt is from Next. It was gifted to me from a friend so sadly I don’t know the name of the shirt but I absolutely love the design of this shirt! 

The tie and bar clip are from Primark. I bought them last year so again I can’t remember the price of them but they are amazing for just adding a little bit of pizazz to an outfit. 

Now onto the suit! 

The suit is from Slater Menswear. I have always been fascinated by the items that Slater’s stock and forever wanted to purchase something from them so I did. I decided to purchase the Charlton Gray Regular Fit Black Two Piece Suit. Slater’s also offer a free alterations service which I participated in to ensure that  my suit fitted me, The customer service at their Leeds store was impeccable! I received my altered suit in ten days and as you can see from the photo it looks amazing on me. 

The shoes are from BoohooMAN. I bought them in 2019 but I haven’t worn them in a while so I thought I’d bring them out for a special occasion. I love these loafer style shoes as they are smart but comfortable. I love the splash of glitter that is on them as it shows off a bit of my personality just like the shirt does. I forgot how much I loved these shoes and now that I’ve worn them out, I might wear them out more frequently in the next few months. 

What do you think of this out? Let me know down below. What are you wearing for special moments this year? Let me know down below. 

Thanks for reading! 

Jamie x

Preserving My Youthful Self In Some Uber Lush Products | Lush New Self-Preserving Products 2022 - Ultrabland, Mask Of Magnaminty & Enzymion

 Hey everyone! 

Welcome to a brand new blog post. I recent6l was gifted some of the new Self Preserving products from the lovely PR team at Lush and I thought that today I would talk to you all about it.

‘What is Self-Preserved?

Our skin is home to helpful microflora that defend against invading bacterial pathogens. At Lush we use minimal preservatives in our products when we have to, and over the decades have been working hard to remove preservatives from products wherever we can.

Made from butters, oils and essential oils without preservatives, the new self-preserving producrs have a slightly richer formula and are just as effective with all the goodness. They are best used fresh, within 6 months.’ - Lush UK.

Ultrabland Self-Preserving Cleanser

Almond Oil, Beeswax, Honey, Water (Aqua), Rose Water, Fresh Iris Extracted in Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Glycerine, Glyceryl Stearate, Tincture of Benzoin, *Benzyl Alcohol, *Benzyl Benzoate, *Benzyl Cinnamate 

This Cleanser is more of a balm texture that turns into a sort of hybrid of a cream and an oil to me. I have been using it recently as the first part of a double cleanser and a night time style cleanser. As I have quite dry skin, this cleanser works amazingly for me. It cleanses my skin but doesn’t strip it like a lot of other cleansers seem to do and leave my skin feeling soft and supple which honestly is always the goal. 

I did see Shea Coulee use this in a video and ever since I have been humming and ahhing about purchasing it and using it so I was more than ecstatic to be gifted it. Now that I know that my skin loves it I will definitely be using it more and more. If you have more normal skin then this would be a great cleanser to use during the colder months 

The scent and self-preserving factor mainly comes from the Honey and Rose Water. These two combine to create a slightly fresh and sweet scent which is great especially at night when you don’t want to use products with too much of a stimulating or awakening scent. 

Mask Of Magnaminty Self-Preserving Face & Body Mask

Honey, Kaolin, Bentone gel, Talc, Glycerine, Ground Organic Aduki Beans, Evening Primrose Seeds, Peppermint Oil, Tagetes Oil, Vanilla Absolute, *Limonene, Perfume, Chlorophyllin

Okay, I may be a little bit bias with this product as I have been using Mask Of Magnaminty for a fair few years now. 

The texture of the mask is everything. It combines all of the textures that you would want in a face mask into one. This mask starts out by vbeing slightly creamy due to the Honey and Glycerine then sets up into a form matte mask due to the talc and kaolin the longer you leave it on and then also has the scrubby texture due to the ground Aduki and Primrose Seeds. 

The scent of this product is quite an unusual one. Yes it is minty but it isn’t that sort of fresh mint that is in a lot of beauty products. This mint smell has a sort of backbone to it. It sort of smells like fresh mint that has been left to dry in the sun. This is probably due to the mixture of Peppermint Oil and Vanilla Absolute. 

I love how that this version is a little bit richer and more moisturising  than the non-preserving one as my skin loves anything that is buttery and nourishing. As I have lactose intolerance, I can end up having dry yet acne prone skin and this mask definitely does the trick due the mix of humectants and exfoliates. If you also get acne due to stress or hormones and want a mask that you can whack on and forget about for a while then I would definitely recommend this one. (It’s also green so if you want a mask to enjoy with a friend on a fun night in then I’d definitely recommend this one!) 

Enzymion Self-Preserving Moisturiser

Fresh Lemon Infusion, Organic Jojoba Oil, Glycerine, Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Stearic Acid, Perfume, Propylene Glycol, Organic Avocado Oil, Organic Cold Pressed Evening Primrose Oil, Almond Oil, Water (Aqua), Wheatgerm oil, Triethanolamine, Tangerine Oil, Lime Oil, Fresh Aloe Gel, Freshly Juiced Lemon, Freshly Juiced Papaya, Cetearyl Alcohol, *Citral, *Citronellol, *Limonene, * 

Anyone that knows me will know that I love anything that Is full of butters when it comes to skincare and that I love Lemons. I mean I love Lemons a lot! 

The texture of this moisturiser to me is a bit of a weird one. It’s slightly creamy and quite liquid based in the tub but when you apply it to the skin, it becomes a bit more like a balm. I guess in essence it’s the opposite of Ultrabland to me. This may be due to the mixture of Cocoa Butter, Jojoba Oil, Evening Primrose, Wheatgwrm and Aloe. 

To me the scent was amazing. When I mixed it into my skin, I definitely got a freshly picked citrus vibe from it. I could definitely smell the mixture of Papaya, Lemon and Tangerine and honestly I loved it. I kind of wished that Lush did more products with this scent especially for the Summer. This is definitely a product that is meant for Summer. 

Would I buy any of these again? Definitely. I mean I’ve bought MOM plenty of times and will carry on purchasing it. Once I have finished Ultrabland I may look into the other cleansers at Lush and come back to it in the colder months or when I’m feeling more confident (aka when I want to start getting a little bit into makeup again) and wanting a good cleanser to break down makeup and I can see Enzymion becoming a Summertime staple. All in all 8.6/10 for all three items combined as a routine. 

I love that these items are now self-preserving as not only will they help my skin that little bit more but will wlso keep for longer. 

Have you checked out these  new Self-Preserving products? Let me know down below 

Check out Lush. 

Thanks for reading! 

Jamie x

This post was in return for products that were gifted to me. All views and thoughts are my own. 

Keeping My Skin Cool & Refreshed All Summer Long | The Body Shop Summer 2022 Range First Impressions| Refreshing Passionfruit & Cool Daisy

Hey everyone!

Welcome to a brand new blog post. I saw that the other week that The Body Shop released two new ranges for their Summer 2022 Collection and I thought that today, I would talk to you all about them.

DISCLAIMER: My blog has decided that it only wants to have photos on the left hand side compared to its usual centre position so all photos in this post will be on the left hand side. 

Refreshing Passionfruit:

Shower Gel:

‘Made with 92% ingredients of natural origin, including passionfruit extract and Community Fair Trade organic aloe vera, our vegan shower gel lathers up a treat, instantly transforming from a light gel texture into a rich bubbly foam. It leaves skin feeling cleansed and refreshed, so you can jump in the shower, rinse, jump out, towel dry and dive straight into summer.’ - The Body Shop.

The texture of this shower gel was amazing. Slightly gelatinous and lathered up in the hands in a way that I hadn’t seen before. The way that it lathered up was that the consistency stayed the complete same whilst the scent increased in power. Even though I’m particular with textures I actually didn’t mind that the lather was more of a serum texture as much as I thought I was going to. 

The scent of the Refreshing Passionfruit is to die for. If you have smelt the old Passionfruit range from The Body Shop that was out a fair few years ago then imagine that multiplied by ten with a touch of floral added to it. You can definitely detect the floral notes when smelling the product but it doesn’t take over the fruitiness of the Passionfruit which I’m quite glad about.

The rest of the range smells pretty much the same so I won’t be focusing on the scent for the rest of the range unless I need to. 

Body Yoghurt 

But you shouldn’t have to wait around for that full-body freshness. That’s why our Body Yogurt is made to absorb instantly (even on damp skin!), so you can jump straight out of the shower, moisturise and dive into summer.’ - The Body Shop. 

I love the texture of the Body Yoghurts. They’re lightweight but moisturising and the prefect thing to use in the Summer heat. I mean I want moisture but I don’t want to be waiting forever to let something to sink into my skin. I believe this also has menthol in which ensures that my whole body is cool which I really enjoyed as I have been getting into enjoying menthol in body care recently. Definitely something to get for those people who are impatient. My only problem is that with it being a big pot, I can see myself getting through this and wanting to go onto a different scented product. 

Body Scrub

‘Made with ingredients of natural origin, including passionfruit oil, our vegan body exfoliator has an energizing scent and buffs away dead skin cells to leave your birthday suit feeling softer and smoother. It even leaves skin feeling instantly refreshed and gives all skin types a sunny-looking glow.’ - The Body Shop.

The scrub of this scrub is made up of Kiwi Seeds which gives a slightly gentle but still quite deep scrub to the skin which I really like. Due to the other ingredients it is scrubby but doesn’t strip the skin like some other abrasive scrubs. This means for anyone with dry skin like myself it won’t leave you feeling dry after which lets be honest is what we are trying to achieve at the end of the day. I have tried a fair few scrubs in my time and I really enjoyed this one. 

Body Mist 

Made with 95% ingredients of natural origin, including passionfruit oil and hyaluronic acid, our vegan body mist leaves summer skin feeling instantly hydrated, cooled and refreshed and smelling as tangy and summery as a passionfruit. It even leaves dry skin feeling soothed and quenched with moisture and gives all skin types a little radiance.

Who doesn’t love a body mist for when you need to refresh in the warm heat? I love TBS Body Mists as they not only add a bit of scent to the body when it is needed but also adds a bit of moisture and as someone who is forever referred to as a human lizard due to the dryness of my skin I am forever grateful for something that does more than one thing for me. I have been using this a lot lately and just like the Raspberry Mist from last year I wish that this became permanent at TBS. 

It does have a bit more of the floral notes that I have mentioned previously compared to the rest of the range but I can definitely cope with that. If you hate floral then just be wary. 

Cool Daisy:



Shower Gel

Again, like the Passionfruit, this gel doesn’t lather up per se but does gel up more than anything which to me is the same consistency as when you squirt some out of the bottle. I think with this new formulation, it ensures that the moisturising ingredients in the product do what they need to whilst the scent becomes stronger more than anything when you rub it in between your hands.

The scent of this product is a quite interesting one. I was expecting it to be floral and honestly synthetically sweet but it wasn’t. It was floral which is to be expected due to it being Daisy scented but it had a bit of a fresh peppery underbite to it which cut through the sweetness of the floral notes in this scent beautifully. Definitely one that I would wear on Summer Picnics.

For the rest of this range I’ll be focusing on texture as the range share the same scent and do not smell severely different so I don’t see the point in repeating myself a lot.

  

Body Yoghurt

‘Good for dry, thirsty skin in need of a drink, this body moisturiser gives you 48hr hydration and leaves skin feeling softer and smoother. You can even slather it on damp skin straight after the shower, leaving you smelling as fresh and floral as a meadow of daisies.’ - The Body Shop.

Again, the texture of this product to me is perfect. I love how it’s lightweight and sinks into the skin pretty much straightaway but is moisturising. As someone who is severely impatient I love this for when I need some moisture but don’t want to be waiting ages before getting ready and heading out. This will also help to keep you cool during the day as you can instantly top up where you need to during the day and in a quick second the skin will drink it up.




Body Mist

'When you’re feeling a bit hot and bothered, give your skin a few spritzes of our special edition Cool Daisy Hydrating Body Mist. It’s super refreshing and gives you an instant hit of hydration, leaving you feeling cool and smelling as fresh and floral as a field of daisies.' - The Body Shop.

Who doesn't love a good Body Mist? This one has a slightly fine spray which means that a little goes a long way. The spray has a cooling effect for me which means that you can spray yourself throughout the day to stay cool and hydrated. The Miist also comes in quite compact packaging which means that it is easy to just shove it in your bag and take it with you wherever you need to.

Would I buy these products again? I think I would buy a couple of them but as some of them come in quite big pots such as the Scrub and Yoghurts I know that they would take me a while to get through and once I finished one of them I know that I would want to try something in a different scent due to using the same scent for so long. I give the Refreshing Passionfruit a 8.5/10 and the Cool Daisy a 8/10.

Check out The Body Shop. 

Have you tried any of these products? Let me know down below.

Thanks for reading!
Jamie xThe Body Shop