Pamper: Pre Cosmo Blog Awards Prep

As this post goes live and you lovely guys get to be able to read this, I'll be all the way down in London, suited and booted in my posh frock and nerves at an all time high ready to attend the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2013. Woo! I've already gushed about my gratitude a million times before, but this post wouldn't be right without an extra added thank you to everybody who reads, follows, comments and shares the content on Cosmetic Crave. Without your support I wouldn't have landed myself a nomination for Best New Beauty Blog and I wouldn't even be attending this event! So, a huge thank you to all of you, especially those of you who spared a nomination and a vote for me :) 

The Cosmo Awards is basically like the Oscars for bloggers - it's a big deal. Photos will be taken and the pressure is on to look your best. Well, at least that's how I'm feeling anyway! So I thought that I'd run you all through my pre-awards pamper preparation and how I soaked, polished and treated myself to feel my best:

Hair: I used Redken's All Soft shampoo and conditioner for the first time and they lived up to their name of making my hair suuuuper soft, really smooth and silky. They're lovely and I might be buying the full sized bottles of them before long. Continuing with this mini range, I followed with the All Soft Heavy Cream for a deep conditioning treatment. After towel drying I followed with hair care favourite of the moment:  It's a 10 Miracle Leave In Treatment to detangle and tame frizz before adding in a pump of Amargan Hair Therapy Oil* through the ends.



Body: I exfoliated every inch of myself using The Body Shop Coconut Body Scrub - This is a creamy scrub, as opposed to an oily scrub, so it makes a perfect prep for the skin prior to fake tanning. I followed up with the matching Coconut Shower Cream - woah, heaven! Going all out with the coconut theme I rubbed a small amount of Coconut Body Butter on my elbows, knees, ankles etc, (not all over - tan doesn't sit right on moisturised skin for me!), and then whipped out Vita Liberata 2-3 pHenomenal Mousse Tan* for it's first use. As I'm writing this post I've still got the guide colour on and need to wash it off, but I'm very impressed by it so far! The application was so, so easy.



Skin: Possible overdoing it on the skin front, but I exfoliated with Origins Modern Friction exfoliator and then followed up with a detoxing clay mask: REN Invisible Pores mask. I still wasn't satisfied with how congested my skin was looking so used another detoxing mask: Glam Glow Super-Mud Mask (I wrote up a review of this also and it is scheduled to go up tomorrow - it includes some pretty pictures of me wearing the mask, so don't miss it!). Seems silly, but after sucking so much out of my skin with the mud masks, I felt like I had to add something back in, so I used the Vitage Radiance Mask* which is a creamy and moisturising vitamin C mask that breathes life back into dull skin (full review to come in a week or so!).

My poor skin is probably so overworked by now, but there's just one final step for it and that's to use up the last of my Alpha H Liquid Gold solution and then I just dotted a little bit of La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo over the few small spots that are peeking up.

Nails: Finally, I moisturised my feet with Nip+Fab Stiletto Fix (this will also be coming on my trip away with me to soothe my feet after a night of wearing heels, and then a full day of walking around London). I painted my toes with: Models Own Pukka Purple, using a plain white nail varnish as a base to really make the bright neon colour 'pop'. After much deliberation (and an Instagram vote), I painted my fingernails with OPI Pink Shopping, Pink QVC! with Models Own Jack Frost layered over the top on one accent finger. Quick top coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat and then the finishing touch of moisturising hands with L'Occitane Hand Cream. Done!

And breathe. Bed time.

I can't believe that this is my 250th published post!

Thank you again for reading, and for your continued support!

It means the world! ♥

Related post: Chill Out and Pamper

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* Items marked with an asterix were gifted for review purposes. I still use and love them as if they were bought with my own pennies.
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♥