I do love a good weekend pamper. This weekend the boy has come to visit, so I’ve had to make sure that F1, a constant stream of food and a wi-fi connection is available at all times which hasn’t left an awful lot of time for my usual beautifying shenanigans. But over the past few weeks I’ve refined a little routine that clears up my complexion, tidies my brows, cleans up my nails, nourishes my locks and buffs my body, which I will no doubt be indulging in when he leaves. Who doesn’t love a good pamper?

Now first you gotta set the mood. Cheesy but true. I’m a bit of an old candle lady, but the one I’ve been reaching for recently is NEOM’s latest addition to their candle line – Invigorate*, with notes of grapefruit, bergamot and lime. Extremely zingy and refreshing – right up my street. Another miscellaneous addition to my routine is my Tweezermans. Like I said in this post, I’m trying to steer clear of them recently and let my brows grow back a little, but sometimes they sprout up in the most bizarrest of places and do need a little pluck here and there.

One of the first steps in my ultimate pamper routine is sorting out the mop on the top of my head. I take a decent sized blob of the Phillip Kingsley Elasticizer* in my hands and run it through the mid-lengths to the ends of my hair, then pop it up in a bun and leave it in for as long as I can (sometimes overnight), before rinsing my hair and shampooing and conditioning as usual. This little routine makes my hair so soft, ridiculously so and really smooth. It may be a chore having to sit around with a greasy-looking bun on your head all day, but whenever I’m being a hermit I love to throw it on. Another product I’ve been using on my hair (and nails and face and body for that matter) is the Josie Maran Argan Oil. A multi-purpose oil that turns everything it touches into a softer, firmer more nourished version of it’s former self – I think I could happily bathe in this stuff. A touch of that through the ends of my hair before I blow dry adds a super lustrous shine.

One my hair is all done, I like to have a bath. Although there isn’t any particular bath products I’m loving at the moment, I just tend to throw it whatever my Mum has got on offer from Sainsburys, one product I do like to use while I’m in there is the Soap & Glory Flake Away Body Scrub. My legs have been peeling slightly after my holiday and little scrub of this has sorted that problem right out. Plus it smells great and leaves a nice sheen to the skin too. Then once I’m out and have towelled off my skin I go for one of either two body lotions – the Perricone MD No Sun Tanner* (which I spoke about here), if I fancy adding a touch of colour to my skin (nine times out of ten I do), but if not I like to slather on the Biotherm Beurre Corporel* for some souped-up nourishment.

My favourite part of my routine has to be skincare. Quelle surprise! What I use varies  depending on how my skin is feeling that day, but for the past few weekends I’ve used Caroline’s tip of applying a deep cleansing mask to draw out impurities and generally give your skin a good clean-up, followed by a hydrating mask to pump moisture back into the skin. My cleansing mask of choice is Aesop’s Parsley Seed Cleansing Mask which cools and clears up complexion and to hydrate I apply a healthy layer of the Origins Drink-Up Intensive Mask which I like to leave on overnight (full review here). In the morning my skin thanks me for it.

Finally nails. By this time I’m usually half falling asleep (as I’m sure you are reading this dissertation length blog post!), so I like to make it a quick affair. I take off my previous manicure using the Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover; so easy and quick and it makes your nails smell of berries. Then I apply a layer of the Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover round the bed of my nails, give it a second or two and then push my cuticles back with a cuticle stick. After a quick rinse I get to work on my manicure (and pedicure if I can be bothered!) which always starts with a base coat of OPI’s Nail Envy and finished with a gloop of Seche Vite Top Coat. My mani colour of choice at the minute is Essie’s Topless & Barefoot – expect to see a post on that pop up later in the week.

So there you have my ultimate and rather extensive ultimate pamper routine. Of course if you don’t have a full two hours spare (yes it really can take that long), then you could always just do one or two elements to shorten it down slightly. But when the boy leaves I will definitely be booking myself in for a session…

*PR Samples