April Beauty Favourites

My hair and skin have not been very happy with me during April. If you read my life in April post, you'll know that I had my hair & makeup trials for my wedding, plus my hen party, so that's a lot of trying out new products and just generally being a little unkind to my hair and skin. So, the rest of the month, I've just tried to keep things simple and give a little TLC to try and restore some normality to my locks and my complexion.

A few times this month, I've had to use the Boots Expert Build Up Removal Shampoo, as a lot of different products have gone into my hair this month and left it feeling lank and lifeless. At the end of the week, I've been replacing my normal shampoo with this one and it's left my hair feeling so clean and light afterwards. I have quite dry ends, so was worried that using a cleansing shampoo like this would make them worse than normal, but that was not the case and, using alongside my regular conditioner, my hair felt good as new again. This has truly been a lifesaver this month.

To give my skin a break, I've tried to have as many makeup free days as possible over the past couple of weeks. When I have been wearing makeup, I've tended to steer away from the higher coverage foundations so I feel like my skin can breathe a little more. So, my base of choice pretty much all month has been the Bourjois 123 Perfect CC Cream. I've done a full review of this product here, so I won't go on about it too much, but this has been the perfect light coverage base for me and I think I'll be getting a lot more use out of this as summer approaches.

Next up has been another life saving product during April. After trying out so much makeup, some of which didn't agree with my skin, I ended up with a small breakout. I don't tend to get breakouts very often, so I wasn't particularly prepared. After asking for advise on Twitter, I popped into The Body Shop and picked up some of their Tea Tree Oil. It's £7 for the tiniest bottle but, you only need the smallest amount each time, so I think this will last me forever! During my morning & evening routines, I just pour a tiny bit onto a cotton bud and dab onto my spots. It feels a little tingly at first, but that's a good sign that it's actually doing something in my eyes! The swelling from any larger spots went down really quickly and most were completely gone within a few days.

Since I've been on a bit of a spending cut over the past couple of months, I've been sifting through my stash to find products that I once loved but have been a little neglected recently. Enter Maybelline's Colour Tattoo in On & On Bronze. Once upon a time I was obsessed with this product, then I purchased my first Naked palette and this got tossed away in the drawer and pretty much forgotten about - shame on me! Since I've been pretty busy this month, and had to slap on whatever I can to get out of the door on time, this has been the perfect product to just sweep across the lid, blend out a little, and go. The colour is stunning too, right up my street, and lasts hours without creasing.

My final April favourite is a lipstick that I mentioned in my spring lip picks as my go to nude for the season. Since I've been keeping things pretty minimal on my face over recent weeks, nine times out of ten I've been opting for a nude lip and the one I've been grabbing every time is Loreal's Color Riche lipstick in Julianne's Nude. It's more of a pinky-nude shade which I really like, as I do love a pink lip, and it really compliments my skin tone. I bought this lipstick a couple of months ago, along with Cheryl's Nude from the same collection and I thought that would be the one I'd get more use out of, but poor Cheryl's not even getting a look in at the moment. This is quite rapidly turning into one of my all time favourite lipsticks - now there's a bold statement!

Do you have any of these products? What have been your favourite beauty products over the last month?