Ziaja Haul

The other week I went to a really wonderful event hosted by the lovely Emma from Mastering Your Makeup. I'm a massive Ziaja fan as some of you will know from past posts and monthly favourites, so I was delighted to get to hear more about the brand and try out brand new things from the range. I was kindly given some things to try out in a jam packed goodie bag, but I also picked up a bag full of things that I thought sounded interesting or that I had run out of. Its a serious downer when you run out of your favourite things!

I came away with a lot of the olive leaf range by accident, but everything just looked and smelled really good. In my goodie bag I got a lovely olive leaf regenerating face mask (that I've seen lots of bloggers really love, so I'm excited to try it out!) and a olive leaf micellar water. If you saw my Boots haul you'll know that all my skin care make up removing products ran out at the same time, so I was delighted to get this in my bag. I've had my big 400ml Garnier water for less then a month and I'm almost finished it (!) so this will be next on the list to try.  

I also got my most sought after product from Ziaja in my goodie bag. Their shower scrubs are so cheap and amazing quality, so they are always sold out when I try to get them. I felt extra lucky to see them floating in our bags! Lastly from the goodie bags was a mens shower gel (that smells really good) that I've passed on to himself. And not pictured is a goats milk face cream that my mammy got more then attached to when I was showing her the things, so its living with her now! 

I had to pick up two face products that I buy time and time again. The manka tree purifying toner (that I've talked about in my skin care routine) is one of the best toners that I've tried out in a long time. It also smells clean and it could be a placebo, but I think it cleans my face better because it smells of tea tree!

I also got my all time favourite face scrub, the rose butter micro peeling face scrub. This has to be my 4th easily, I can't do without it. I ran out of this a few months ago and didn't manage to get into the shop to pick it up for about 3 weeks. In this time I tried out some scrubs that I got in Boots but none were as good. This makes my skin so soft and gets rid of the dry pieces of skin that tends to appear around spots. I use this about 3 times a week and always notice how much better my make up goes on afterwards.

After talking to one of the girls from Ziaja she recommended that I try out the olive shampoo and conditioner from them, so I got them. I'm not really sure why the conditioner is so much smaller then the shampoo, so I must tweet them and ask! I was done with buying half the shop until I smelled the olive body balm and knew I had to try it out. It sinks into the skin so quickly and makes me feel lovely and soft without being sticky or weighted down for the day. I can see this becoming a regular buy for me.

Then as I hadn't seen that there was a mask in the goodie bag, I decided to pick up another that was only 70 cent! As I remembered how well they were reviewed by bloggers before. All in all I think I did really well with my little haul and will be steadily making my way through them all in the next few weeks! Make sure to follow Ziaja and Emma on twitter as I've heard that they will be doing lots more events like the one I was at. You might be able to sign up for one soon!

Ziaja's Bioderma Dupe

The sister fluttered off to France a few months ago and came home laden with things from the famous City-Pharma. Holy jesus it was like Christmas when she text me and sent Whatsapp photos of the shelves, discussing what we had seen talked about on blogs and what we would love to try out. One of the things she picked up for herself was the Bioderma moisturising cleansing milk with 250ml, but ended up giving it to me after she decided it wasn't for her. Thankfully I fell straight in love with it.

Come forward a few months later and I'm almost at the end of my now can't-live-without Bioderma. But after I try and find it online, I realise its about €20 to buy without shipping. It wasn't that price in France! So I do what only a dedicated crazy beauty addict can do, I go buying all and every cleaning milk I can get my hands on. One of the many many bottles had to do the job, or so I was hoping. Clearly there is a skincare god as I happened to be in a chemist picking up some repurchases of Ziaja when I chanced my arm and bought this aloe cleansing milk that was under €5 - bargain. 

This is a 200ml bottle of aloe scented cream, with a toner and a moisturiser in the same scent. It is meant to 'sooth, balance skin moisture and control oily secretions' while also being really gentle to my skin that can act up a lot. Its so gentle in fact, that I can use it to remove my eye make up - oh yeah I'm that lazy. It does just what the Bioderma does and feels the same, but with more then half the price tag. This was the only cleansing milk that I could find stocked in the chemist, but from the site here you can see that there are many more scents and creams for different skin issues available.  

One slight difference I've noticed between the two is that the Ziaja sinks into my skin quicker and better then the Bioderma. Not to say that my beloved Bioderma isn't great, but it tends to sit on my skin and I feel like after I use it. I always need to use a toner to get rid of the excess cream and oil like feel, whereas I could use the Ziaja cleansing milk as a stand alone product. So, with all that in mind will I be picking up the Bioderma soon? No, are you mad? Theres an amazing cleansing milk for less then €5 from a brand that I am finding I'm using more and more. When I found how good this was, I actually got on the phone to friends to rave - and give out about the price of that feckin lovely but very dear Bioderma.

So, you don't need a credit card or a plane ticket to get amazing skincare. Just head to your local chemist and see if they stock Ziaja. Read my review on Ziaja cocoa body scrub here.