Right, I promise today to not talk about babies or toddlers or anything mummy related. Instead, I thought I'd do a quick post on my two favourite things from my wonderful Liberty beauty advent calendar. And a quick note about that too: it was flipping expensive but really it was worth every penny, I LOVED opening it each day and best of all getting to try lots of different products that I would never normally even know about. So totally worth treating yourself if you can spare the dosh. This year, I think I'll try the Lookfantastic one, as I've heard good things about that too, and it seems to have more make-up in it (the Liberty one was quite skincare heavy). But I'm getting ahead of myself...

There were some real gems in the Liberty advent calendar. And only a few duds - as I said on Twitter I'm fairly sure that Night Brow Balm is a solution looking for a problem, and as for the two tubes of mini toothpaste - fancy they may be but still, meh.

But there are two products I've repurchased - here they are and here's why...

Eve Lom Cleanser

I know tons has been written about this already and it's also a bit controversial because it has mineral oil (Vaseline to you and me) in it, but it's literally THE BEST CLEANSER I HAVE EVER USED. It has truly transformed by skin. I was using Clinique's Take The Day Off before and while it did the job it also dried my skin out quite a bit. But the Eve Lom stuff seems to both exfoliate and leave my skin super baby soft, not a hint of tightness or dryness. It also comes with the best muslin cloth I have ever used (if you don't fancy the cleanser, maybe treat yourself to some of these instead - you can buy them in packs of three). Now, it's ridiculously expensive, and I used the entire advent-calendar pot up before buying it as I wanted to be sure sure sure before I splashed out that kind of dough, but no regrets. It means I need less moisturiser after and I've also given up my Alpha H Liquid Gold (which was great but did freak me out a bit with the burning sensation) because it seems to exfoliate so beautifully I don't need it. Hurrah. It's a bit smelly (I quite like the smell myself, clove oil I think!) so it's definitely worth testing before taking the plunge, but I'm a real convert and heartily recommend.

Malin + Goetz Vitamin E Moisturiser

This is a super boring looking bottle and a very underwhelming product to use. It has no discernible smell and the texture is quite thin. But it's amazing! It leaves my skin soft and happy without being shiny at all (no need for loads of powder throughout the day) and it hasn't clogged up my pores or broken me out. Also quite pricey, but another one I really recommend - it's apparently great for sensitive skin too. A bit of an obscure brand (and I wish they could have put a BIT more effort into the packaging because it's THIRTY NINE BLOODY QUID AND I WANT SOMETHING PRETTY FOR THAT) but totally worth checking out if you want something non-perfumed and kind to your skin that does the job.

Both of these are available at Space NK so I am sure you can get samples if you fancy testing them out. I also loved the Aurelia Refine & Polish Miracle Balm, but it's just stupid money, and the Laura Mercier hydrating primer, which really does help your foundation stick around.

I bet you think this blog post is about you. Or, er, me. Which it is. What I mean to say is, I'm so vain. I don't know whether it's the warmer weather or the fact that Daph is sleeping better so I can no longer blame her for my daily Stig of the Dump impression, but anyway, I've decided it's time to get myself together. Appearance wise.

I mentioned teeth whitening in my last blog post - and a few of my friends IRL told me that they'd had the Zoom treatment and it was beyond painful, so that's kind of put me off that a bit. BUT. Today I had my hair done and - drum roll please - CUT for the first time in... well, so long I'm ashamed. Anyway I wanted to go back to the ombre thing I blogged about last year but get it done properly this time. And get my lob cut back in. I asked the hairdresser to match the ombre to my roots. Which were coming through looking properly BROWN. But she insisted I was still a 'dark blonde' and so we went with that colour. And voila...

Hilariously, my roots are now the exact same colour as Daphne's hair, which is quite nice really. We match! I can't believe how much lighter it looks than I imagined it would and although it's very 'ashy' (and obviously a lot darker!) I actually quite like it. Oli nodded his head in approval too, which is a bonus.

Best of all, there's no sign of any YELLOW hair - my absolute pet hate about blonde hair is when it goes yellow or gingery. Yuck.

I've also treated myself to some new skincare - the Alpha H Liquid Gold serum that everyone talks about. I've used glycolic acid masks before and really liked them - I hate any mechanical exfoliates as my skin is so sensitive. I've only used the Liquid Gold once so far and I definitely noticed a difference the next day - my skin was tauter and smoother, but not massively so. I'm going to use it two or three times a week as suggested to see how it works long term.

I also went to M&S earlier this week to get the baby something and ended up spending shedloads on Stila make up. There's a massive M&S right by my flat and I often go there when I'm bored and want to take the baby for a walk. Anyway I'd never really looked at the M&S make up section but had noticed recently they now sell Ren, which is really good as I use their clarifying toner every day. But then I spotted Stila, and I dunno - perhaps it's the brown packaging but everything suddenly looked REALLY enticing and promised amazing things. So I bought a lipstick, some BB cream (why Charlotte? You HATE BB cream) and a eyebrow kit thingy which is sadly quite crap - back to drawing mine on with pencil I think.

I don't know why but just BUYING make up always really cheers me up. Now what I really need to do is shift this extra 10 pounds I'm carrying around from being a pregnant pig. Then my transformation will be complete. Ha ha! I suspect the only way to do this is cardio - namely, running, SOB - so have resolved to get back into it after Easter and all the eggs. Ahem.

On that note, hope you all have a fab Easter. We're off to Bristol to visit my uni friend Sophy who's just had her first baby, and I'm quite excited as we're staying in the Hotel du Vin so it's almost a little mini break. Will let you know how we get on sharing a hotel room with a seven-month-old... bedtime at 7pm, that should be fun!