We all have our favourites, the daily essentials we simply cannot live without, but never really get enough credit. So I thought I’d share my Top 5 with you…

1. E45 moisturising lotion

This is a fairly new discovery. Recently my arms have been unbearably dry and nothing was working. Exfoliating only made them painful and red, and as a fake tan addict, the patches were getting out of control! It’s not exactly the most attractive packaging on offer, but I needed something industrial and E45 has not disappointed! After a couple of days of use, my skin felt ten times softer and the pain was gone. The surprisingly light formulation insures there’s no greasy residue that a lot of other brands have and it’s perfume free which personally I prefer. Despite only having it a couple of weeks, I’m already about half way through this bottle but an inexpensive price tag of £4.70 means I’ll never be without it again!!

2. The Wet Brush

I thought I had found detangling heaven in the Tangle Teezer until I found this!  Years of having to battle through unbreakable knots, ripping out clumps with a comb made hair washing a rather unpleasant experience, so finding the Tangle Teezer was a real breakthrough moment. I was utterly content with it when I discovered the Wet Brush which had the one thing that the TT was missing…A HANDLE!  I know this doesn’t sound like much, but trust me it just makes everything that little bit easier. So if you hadn’t thought to try it, take my advice and I’m pretty sure you’ll find your Tangle Teezer is thrown to the back of the cupboard, just like mine 🙂

3. Lip Balm

I have way more than I’d care to share, but my holy grail will forever be Burts Bees lip balm. It’s the perfect all rounder, used before makeup or throughout the day and best of all it lasts so you don’t feel the need to constantly reapply. There’s nothing I hate more than those little tins of Vaseline that people slather all over their lips in the hopes of achieving the perfect pout. Their sole purpose is to make you buy more, essentially they are the cause and effect of your dry lips, AVOID THEM! If your lips are seriously cracked and painful, you might want to investigate something a bit more heavy duty like Blistex, but for regular lip balm users, I’d always recommend a softer product. Carmex is great, I’m just not a fan of the tubes (formulation) or pots (hygiene issues).

4. Flannels

As a fan of skincare Queen Caroline Hirons, I try to cleanse my face morning and night, the days of falling asleep in makeup are long gone and I now rely on Emma Hardie cleansing balm to remove the sins of the day. With this came a flannel come muslin cloth that has become a firm favourite. Previously, I was using a bog standard muslin cloth but found it could be quite harsh on my skin, this alternative allows for the choice to use each side based on the sensitivity of different areas of the face. Though, an ordinary, run of the mill flannel is just as good!

5. Cotton buds/pads

Beyond boring, but totally essential. Cotton buds can be the best friend to a girl who hasn’t quite perfected the art of winged liner, as well as cleaning her ears. Personally, I use cotton pads for a range of things, mainly for taking off makeup, a couple of pads covered in Bioderma can remove a full coverage face in seconds. I use another pad to wipe my toner (the infamous Pixi Glow tonic), all over my face after cleansing. Any cotton pads from drugstores or supermarkets tend to do the job although occasionally I’ve found that very cheap ones can break apart. (They’re also handy for cleaning dogs eyes)

Sophie xoxo