I was given a jade roller for Christmas last year and used it off and on in the months after without much success. However lately I have been more consistent and now I am obsessed!

What Is A Jade Roller?

By now, a lot of people will have heard of them thanks to Instagram and beauty blogs who picked up on the trend last year. But for those of you who are uninitiated, it’s essentially like a small paint roller made from jade – however, thanks to the recent rise in popularity you can now buy them in almost every stone.

Originating in ancient China, jade rollers have been used for centuries claiming to boost your skin’s appearance and health, while jade itself is said to ward of negative energy…

…And let’s be honest, in 2020 we need every method for wading of negativity that we can get.

How To Use A Jade Roller?

There seems to be a huge debate on this, however, I’ve seen the most results from this method:

• Firstly, it should be said that I only saw noticeable results once I started doing it daily. I do it every morning, and often at night time too.

• If you’re only going to roll once a day I’d recommend doing it in the morning as I honestly don’t think the results would last long enough for them to be visible in the morning if you did it the night before.

• Apply your skin care products as normal then with gentle pressure work the jade roller from the centre of the face outwards and upwards.

• Only roll in one direction (outwards!) When I first started, I would roll the roller backwards and forwards over the same space thinking this would iron out any lines. However, I’ve since learnt that you will not see any results from doing this. Instead I now try to use long sweeping rolls in one direction and go over each section about five times.

• This goes without saying really, but the larger roller can be used almost anywhere on your face whilst the smaller roller is better used around the eyes and mouth. To be honest I still struggle around the eyes sometimes as it does feel slightly weird!

Jade rollers are generally cool to the touch, but many hardcore fans advocate for keeping your roller in a fridge for added benefits. This said, I don’t have a dedicated skin care fridge so I tried it in our main fridge… only for it to end up smelling like garlic. So don’t say you haven’t been warned!

Why Bother Jade Rolling?

Well I guess there is two main reasons, firstly the pressure helps to push fluids towards your lymph nodes which then get to work processing toxins. Meanwhile the coolness of the jade also restricts blood flow in the area.

This in turn helps your skin to seem brighter, whilst reducing any puffiness. Thanks to allergies I often suffer from puffy eyes in the morning – especially during hay fever season – and rolling definitely helps to ease it.

On a more niche note, my allergies also mean I sometimes get areas of redness and the coolness also seems to help calm these. I’ve heard that many people with Rosacea also say it helps with their redness too.

So yeah, in a long winded way that is why I have become a jade roller aficionado! If you have a jade roller I would love to know if you’ve seen any benefits – or on the other hand, why you won’t be using one!

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I called this post ‘super simple’ because it is, there’s no fancy-schmancy colour contouring here. Sorry babes. Articles and blogs about ‘spring beauty’ always scare me slightly; it seems that we can never escape certain trends.

I love pastel-coloured hair on other people, so much so I could dedicate an entire Pinterest board to it. I’ve never ventured there though, I simply don’t think I’d be dedicated enough to my roots to rock it for more than a few weeks – plus I doubt it would be too office friendly. Also blue eyeliner makes me look less like a model on are far-flung beach and more like a 90’s amateur girl band. Weird, huh?

So instead of all that, here are three subtle but wearable make-up upgrades for Spring.

• I could, and errr do, spend many a happy months pretending to be an extra in a wintery Burberry ad – matte skin, and though I am still searching for the one, a dark matte lip. Summer is all about the glowy dewy skin, so as we head into the warmer months -though it did snow here last weekend FYI – I like to get in the mood by amping up the highlighter.

Technically, this one is part of a Tropic Brow Kit that my boss got me a few months                back, but I’m using under the arch of my brows, cheekbones and cupids bow. This              is the only one so far that seems to highlight without being all shimmery and                          obviously just sitting on top of the skin, rather than looking like it’s all your inner                  sparkliness naturally coming out. That said, I have heard amazing things about                        Topshop’s Glow Pot – so a review of that may be coming soon.

• I feel a bit of a traitor writing this next one. I’ve just invested in a full on Barbie pink nail polish curtesy of Barry M. I own a lot of bright polishes – until I had a sort out through my beauty draw, I didn’t know I had a thing for hot pink and citrus oranges, but Lord knows I had a lot of them. At least I can say I’ve learnt something new today. When you may be pulling out the roll neck jumpers at any moment though, I feel a subtler pastel shade is the way to go. You still feel a bit summery when you catch them in the mirror but they don’t go against the 1,000,000 million denier tights that are waiting in the wings.

• Lipstick.Lipstick. To say I’ve had a long romance with the stuff, I don’t own that many shades. To me, Spring is symbolised in bright, bold, orangey lipstick. In the full heat of summer it can sometime feel like a bit much. Plus ice cream + bright lipstick = a lipstick all over chin scenario if your anything less than Kate Middleton graceful. Yet in Spring it can make your look a bit fresher and warmer. For some people, bright lipsticks can feel a bit scary, a bit overpowering but trust me on this one. You don’t need confidence to pull off a bright lip; a bright lip gives you the confidence. If I know I’ve got a big meeting, or day in general I will without a doubt be wearing a bright coral lip. Truth be told, I probably wear it too much, but us pale gals need a splash of colour sometimes, k.

So there you have it, three super simple spring make up upgrades; with no dodgy blue eyeliner in sight.

When it comes to beauty, I’m in two minds. Part of me believes that the pricier the product the better quality the ingredients and research behind it… because that makes sense doesn’t it?

The other part of me wants to believe that the pricier ones just have more money spent on marketing campaigns. This is what my bank account wants to believe too. So, with the house-fund (me and the boyf are currently saving for a mortgage deposit) and other projects in mind, I decided to turn a blind eye to all the glossy adverts with scientific sounding phrases and go budget.

Just popping into town for a budget buy turned into a budget beauty haul… If it costs less, that means you can buy more, doesn’t it?

The foundation and lipsticks were from Poundland. When Poundland announced that it was bringing out its own brand make-up line, it created a huge buzz and gained positive reviews overall. Part of me thought that it would probably turn out to be a bit overhyped, but at a quid a piece, it’s not a big deal if it is naff.

The foundation didn’t inspire confidence when I squeezed it out of the bottle. Rather than a normal liquid foundation, this one had a stodgier, almost mouse-like thickness; however it went on and blended like a dream. The coverage is OK, it’s not brilliant, but it’s better than some of the some foundations I’ve paid twenty-odd pounds for.

It also lasted really well. I applied it about 9 hours before the photo of me was taken and didn’t feel the need to re-apply once. As you can see, it didn’t cover my massive bags paticularly well, so if your a bit sleep deprived like I was on Sunday you may want to hunt out an under-eye concealer.

The lipsticks are possibly my new favourite things. I’ve let everyone know just how utterly amazing they are, even blokes who aren’t really interested; but I just cannot stop raving about them. I was worried about how these would apply, I hadn’t used lipbalm for a day or two so thought they might dry out my lips and look all cracked and horrible.

I just applied the lipstick directly, it was Sunday and I couldn’t be bothered messing about with a brush. I swear I could feel my lips being instantly moisturised. The range has some great shades, but just a heads up they do transfer quite easily. I’ve so far found lipstick on my hand, on my chin (classy) and on numerous mugs, so yeah, just be careful about that. Weirdly, the colour lasts quite well, it does fade slightly, but it does so evenly – none of that accidental lipliner look going on. The darker one did last better than the Barbie pink; however the Barbie pink is more of a soft, shimmery shade when its on. The next time I do dramatic eye make-up I’ll be using this on the lips.

The eyeliner is a gel one for about £4.99 from Collection. I was a bit worried about gel, but found this easier to apply than others I’ve had in pen-form. The colour is intense and again, it can last a long, drunken night (as Valentine’s day proved.) I should have taken a photo of this when it was all nice and new, but I just couldn’t wait to get into it. Besides, showing it like this kinda shows the thickness of the gel… right?

The contouring kit is from Sleek and is about £6.49. It does look a bit dog-eared here, but just take that as a good sign… I use this every-day without fail. It can cling to dry skin, but the tones (I’m using the light version) are enough to make a difference but not overpower. The highlighter alone makes it worth buying the palette.

The mascara is the most expensive thing here, at a whopping £7.99 – I know, last of the big spenders on this blog. I’m wearing the flared version, but to be honest, it’s not any more flared than the rest of the Maybelline Falsies range. What I love about this range is that it doesn’t clump, even when you get down to the dregs because you forgot to buy another when it first started to run out. If anything it gets better as it goes on.

Confession time now, I totally forgot to buy anything for the brows; I’m currently using a product from Mii (you can read about it here) but I wouldn’t really class that as budget, so sorry about that. From desperate experience though, I can tell you a Rimmel brown eyeliner works fairly well, as long as you’re careful.

Unlike me, he’s not convinced

Remember Black Friday? ( I bet all the retail workers will!) I succumbed to the sales and bought something; that I’m actually pretty still chuffed with – a rare thing for impulse buy. I’d wanted a beauty advent calendar since the magical day I’d learned of their existence, however with Christmas around the corner I could never justify treating myself to one.

On Black Friday however, Cosmopolitan tweeted that this Tesco Beauty Advent Calendar was half price… How is a girl to resist?

I bought it that night and opted for click and collect, so I didn’t have to pay postage. The grand total came to £25, total bargain. I got it on the 2^nd December which meant I got to open two doors at once (Yay!)

The first day revealed Eyelure fake eyelashes; I haven’t worn them yet but with them being Eyelur I think it’s pretty safe to assume they are going to be great. On the second day of Christmas, I open the door to find a Tanya Burr nail polish. It looked like a sparkly dark Cadbury purple in the bottle, however on application it is a very dark purple – almost black, and the glitter particles (is that what they are called? You know, the individual glitter bits) are so small it looks more like a high shine finish rather than full on glitter.

I’ve also received soap (lemony and a bit like traditional school soap, from the good ol’ days) and a light up lip-gloss – an item highly coveted by my nine year old niece. I was pleasantly surprised that Tesco hadn’t gone down the route I presumed with this one. I thought most lip-glosses or lipsticks in here would be a soft ‘suits all’ pink, but this is bright and punchy – just how I like them.

As you can see, it also has a bit of a glittery shine to it.

I’ve also received four perfumes; 3 liquid and 1 solid.

Although I’m more of a one-signature-scent kinda gal, the perfumes are fast become my favourite things. THEY ARE SO CUTE! Like caps lock inducing cute. Unlike most perfume testers, that admittedly look a bit rubbish, these perfumes are all tiny replicas of the full size bottle.

Paul Smith Extreme

N’aww look how tiny it is!

The variety of perfumes are all quite ‘safe’ but all nice. There has been Paul Smith Extreme, Elizabeth Ardent Red Door, Candy Kitten and Meow by Katy Perry.

Katy Perry’s Meow is the solid perfume and as you can see from the photo does look a bit childlike but it still smells lovely – sort of a sweet girly smell with tones of vanilla. If you have any young girls around the house – this may be the one to let them ‘borrow’ (ie borrow, use and loose)

The packaging of the advent calendar itself is also worth noting. Firstly, the calendar is huge. On the night I came home with it, I took a photo of it next to the dog (a rather scruffy miniature schnauzer) for scale and as you can see he’s terrified by it.

Unlike me, he’s not convinced

It came in pretty gift bag that matched the theme of the calendar itself, both a stylish mix of white and silver. The subtle tree print blends into the white sky in a way that makes it look a lot more expensive than its original price of £50. Tesco have also (thankfully) stayed away from any obvious/strong branding so it would be perfect for treating somebody else.

The calendar has proved such a hit, it has become a sort of daily event. Every evening everyone who happens to be in the living room gathers round to find out what will be behind the next door.

If you’re after a beauty advent calendar next year, I can thoroughly recommend this one.