Five things I'm loving this week: Lockdown edition part 2

Anyone in the mood for a bargain or two? It’s been a while, but it’s time for some reasonably priced treats that have brightened up my week and generally made lockdown life a little easier.

Simple Protect n Glow Detox & Brighten Clay Mask | RRP £4.99 for 50ml, half price at Boots (£2.50) this week, or try Superdrug.

So, this is a great little oil-absorbing clay mask with a frankly ridiculous name. The four main ingredients are water, kaolin clay, glycerin and bentonite clay (perfection, these are the right clays for oil absorption in a formula that will actually work). The other ingredients are only there in tiny amounts and aren’t going to be on your skin long enough to do anything to protect, give glow or brighten – so ignore the silly name and marketing description.

It cleans your pores! It reduces shine in your T-zone! That’s about it… but that’s exactly what I bought it to do!

I’d been looking for a nice easy-to-use clay mask without colours, perfume, irritating essential oils and other nasties for a while, and this does the job nicely. You’ll easily get several treatments out of one tube, and it’s just right for overactive summer skin or as a quick spot treatment on areas of ‘maskne’. Remember to pop on some hydrating serum or moisturiser afterwards, and don’t leave the clays on your skin for longer than the recommended 5 to 7 minutes because they’re genuinely effective and you don’t want to overdo it.

e.l.f. SuperHydrate Moisturiser With Squalane | RRP £8.00 for 48g, currently £6.40 at Boots, also at e.l.f. UK (but more expensive).

This is an interesting jelly-style fragrance-free moisturiser that seems to have been inspired by many fashionable Korean skincare brands. It features glycerin, niacinamide, squalane, centella asiatica (the soothing ‘cica’ of cica creams and gels), snow mushroom extract and some Vitamin E, and is light and hydrating – perfect for the summer months. When I say it’s hydrating I mean it adds more water than it adds oils, just to avoid any confusion there.

It’s in a pot, rather than a tube or pump dispenser, so I’d suggest keeping the lid on tightly and using it up within a month or so. Good to slap on over serums or after using a clay mask, and a bargain if you can get it while it’s on offer.

Bondi Sands Coconut Lip Balm SPF 50+ | RRP £4.99. Buy at Boots or Lookfantastic.

The intense UV light during the recent heatwave had me reaching for this cheap and cheerful sunscreen lip balm. This balm is easy to apply, gives protection and a nice shine, and has a light coconutty flavour that lets you pretend you’re on a tropical holiday when you’re really stuck in the back garden or local park or whatever. It’s reasonably priced, easy to stick in a pocket or handbag, and it does the trick when the weather is scorchio.

Free Damm alcohol-free lager | £4.00 for 6 x 330ml at Morrisons and Ocado.

Some days it’s just too darned hot for alcohol, and I’ve been having a more refreshing alcohol-free beer instead to avoid getting dehydrated. I’m still on the hunt for a decent low- or no-alcohol ale or bitter, so for now this lager style offering from the Estrella brewery in Spain will do just fine, and I’ve been having it with green olives and tapas as a thirst quencher.

Q-Connect Things To Do Today Book | £2.51 at Amazon, also available on eBay.

I’m starting to get that back to school feeling, and looking around for more ways to get organised from September onwards. New stationery always helps, doesn’t it?

This is a big chunky page-a-day to-do list where you can make your lists, plan your daily schedule, work out your priorities and still have extra space to make plenty of notes. The added bonus of this being a spiral bound notebook is that you won’t lose any important notes, jotted down business contacts or creative ideas, which is a problem with most page-a-day pads. Also, entirely unconnected, there’s loads of room for doodling or writing shopping lists, etc etc.