Category Archives: beauty look

I’ve done some preliminary research into cooling foot creams and gels before – you may remember last summer, when I praised the benefits of Weleda’s Foot Balm – but I had never really seen the point of them. Until now. Late pregnancy, one and a half weeks to go until my due date, legs that are the same width from knee to toe and feet that look like oblong balloons? Now I very much see the point of them. Being able to make your lower legs miraculously feel as though they’ve been stuck in the fridge for an hour without actually having to stick your legs in the fridge for an hour is something of a boon. Just whack on the cream and put your feet up and you’ve suddenly swapped your tight-skinned, swollen joints of raw pork for normal (ish) limbs.

And not exclusively for pregnant limbs, obviously – anyone who suffers from swelling or discomfort during the hotter months. Anyone who’s on their feet all day for work, or who likes to run half-marathons every morning or who spends most of their time at a desk and wants to get some zing back into their step. These, my friends, are for you..

Decleor Circulagel Refreshing Leg Gel (£25.50 with free delivery here): of all the gels and creams tested, Decleor’s had the most instant cooling effect. Rather like pressing a pack of frozen peas to your skin. The gel absorbed instantly and left no residue, but it’s worth noting that there’s no real moisturising effect with Circulagel – if you had very dry shins, you might want to go steady with this one. It’s for making the legs feel light and refreshed, and it does this perfectly – if it’s hydration you need then this tightening effect might not suit.

Maternelle Reviving Leg and Foot Gel (£4.99 through Ocado here): a great budget option – not so “crikey, that’s cold” as the Decleor, but a nice degree of refreshing coolness and a cream-gel texture that’s light but not drying. It worked at a kind of “half pace” compared to the Decleor Circulagel but then it is a fifth of the price, so I think that it’s very good value for money.

Burt’s Bees Leg & Foot Cream (£13 with free delivery here): a cream rather than a gel, this had about the same effect as the Maternelle Leg and Foot Gel – very minty and fresh, but not quite so intense as Decleor’s Circulagel. This cream came in a set with a tummy butter and a stretch mark oil – the stretch mark oil was excellent. You can find that here.

Mama Mio Lucky Legs (£19.50 with free delivery here): my overall winner due to the fact that it comforts and soothes as much as it cools and revives. Nearly all of the leg gels and creams tested had a tightening effect (I suppose that goes hand in hand with the whole refreshing function) which is brilliant for instant cooling and de-puffing but not quite so great if your leg skin tends to be dry or scaly. Mine does. And I did find that after extensively using about a dozen gels and creams, my shin scaliness was getting slightly worse. The Mama Mio Lucky Legs seemed to be the most hydrating of the bunch whilst still managing to be zingy and energising. Not as hydrating as a proper, dedicated dry skin cream, but enough to be properly comfortable to apply and leave on. I’ve been impressed with all of the Mama Mio products I’ve tried during pregnancy, but this one (and perhaps “Boob Tube”) really stand out from the crowd. You can see the whole line here.

A last-minute addition; the Udderly Gorgeous Leg & Foot Treatment from Cowshed. (£18.50 online here.) Another instantly cooling, light-textured gel, this one contains sea buckthorn oil and a load of essential fatty acids and so goes some way to helping with skin protection, as well as skin refreshing. It’s not quite as hydrating as the Lucky Legs, but I can tell you that the cooling effects last for ages – second only to the industrial-refrigeration-unit level of cooling provided by Decleor’s Circulagel. Nice.

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An innovative, versatile powder makeup enhances, brightens and bronzes your complexion for a custom glow. On its own, it heightens the skin’s natural beauty, while over foundation it provides a sheer, luminous finish. Its formula features advanced technology to protect against skin-dulling environmental stressors, while white rose and cotton flower offer absolute comfort for even the most-sensitive complexions. The powder is available in seven no-fail shades. Each comes with its own sculpted half-moon brush.

EUR 57.93

I have devised a little giveaway to celebrate the launch of my newest Colab Dry Shampoo product which is, incidentally, my favourite so far. It was rather a labour of love getting the fragrance just right – it’s definitely one for the warmer months, all gorgeously mediterranean and sexy, very much inspired by some of the classic summer scents such as Tom Ford’s Neroli Portofino. This limited edition frahrance is available in both of the Colab dry shampoo formulas – the Sheer & Invisible (clean feeling, refreshes the roots, no horrible chalky residue or white powder!) and Extreme Volume (little bit of residue, but LOADS of root lift and volumising grittiness, a bit like a spray-in version of one of those root boosting powders, but better!)

I have fifty cans of the newly scented dry shampoo to give away to UK readers and Youtube viewers* – all you need to do is guess the “city” that this scent represents and leave your answer in the comments below. As you will know if you’ve used Colab, each scent relates to a city – London, New York, Paris, Tokyo and Rio – the latest is no different. Apart from the fact that it’s slightly a trick question, because the place in question is actually a principality, or small country. That was your first major clue. I’ve also dropped a bit of a clue in the first paragraph, and if you watch the video below, you might see a few visual references to a certain (very grace-ful and glamorous) former resident of the place in question.

Do have a look at the video anyway, as it’s not often I get to film behind-the-scenes; usually there’s nobody willing to keep holding my camera! I’ll be announcing the winners next Monday but you only have until this Friday at noon to enter. So do it while you have the page open or you’ll probably forget. Only pointing that out from experience… Fifty winners will be picked at random from those who have the correct answer. Good luck!

*sorry, UK only due to shipping restrictions. Please be patient, rest of the world, we’re getting to you!

The post Colab Giveaway: Guess the “City”, Win the Spray! appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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It is the year of the slug. Well it is for me, at any rate. I have never been quite so sedentary; whole days – weeks – sat virtually motionless in front of the computer. If an alien landed and peered in through my office window, it would probably think I was dead, but for the tiny, repetitive movements that my fingers make as they dance over the keyboard. The almost imperceptible flicker of my eyelids as I take my twice-hourly blink. In fact, if the alien had to choose a life-form to take back to its planet, and it had the choice between me and a slug from my garden, I’ve no doubt that it would be the slug that would get beamed up to the flying saucer and I would get left behind, still staring at my illuminated screen, slack-jawed and drooling a little from the corners of my mouth.

Now that I have painted such a wonderful picture of my sloth-like self, let me tell you this: I have joined a gym. Yes. Me! For the first time in many years. I used to be something of a gym enthusiast, attending between four and six classes every single week. Spinning, body conditioning, something called “body pump”. That was in the peak days of model-dom, when my only real job (apart from walking to about ten castings a day, constant international non-luxurious travel and standing in the rain on beaches wearing nightgowns) was to keep myself looking trim. God, was I trim. I could tighten my stomach and thigh and bottom muscles all at the same time and not even feel as though I might wee myself. Moving on..

It occurred to me, as I sat there during the gym signing-up process (so many questions, took about eight hours!) that it’s really rather hard to climb back onto the exercise train if you haven’t been on it for a while. You get into a rut of inertia. You get quite comfy spending time on the sofa watching whole series of things on Netflix at once, sometimes until one in the morning. Or two in the morning. Or even three. (Not me.) And once that happens, it’s quite common for your good eating habits to fly out of the window too. I’ve had a few little naughty fridge routines, lately – mostly involving dark chocolate truffles and lemon curd flavoured yoghurt. Not at the same time, but still. Enough bad habits that I’ve been loathe to struggle into my usual jeans and have taken to buying looser “pants” with relaxed fit waistbands. Ha!

Anyway, I put together a video with a few motivational tips. They might help if you’ve become disheartened with your exercise routine or if you’ve not been able to exercise because of illness or work commitments or perhaps you’ve had a baby and want to feel fitter… I’m planning lots more exercise and health posts – I’ve been busy trying new gym classes, so I might do a series on those. Some of them have been quite funny – if anyone had actually seen me trying to do Pilates to a dance soundtrack… Dear Lord. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

Click here, please, if you can’t see the video below, otherwise simply engage the muscles in one of your fingers to scroll down the page and click the play button.

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