*AD – Contains gifted items

Self-care. I always hated that phrase. It sounds a bit indulgent, a bit hippy-dippy and just one of those phrases that everyone thinks is cool to use.

Then, I got pregnant (again!). And my god, I neglected myself. Big time.

There were days where all I had the energy to do was brush my teeth and scrape my hair into something resembling a ponytail. I actually, shamefully, think I went several days without brushing it, because brushing it took more energy than I had. It was dry and crispy and in terrible condition because when I got into the shower, I had just enough energy to shampoo it. Conditioning it was a step too far. My skin suffered massively – breakouts of zits worse than I ever had as a teenager. My skin from head to toe was dry and scaly – and well, I just looked terrible.

When I eventually stopped feeling quite so bad, I knew I needed to look after myself a bit better, and that’s when I realised that a bit of self-care is really important.

The first thing I did was chop about four inches of hair off. I did myself (the unicorn cut is so easy, by the way!) because I couldn’t face sitting in a hairdressers, and then gave it a bit of love in the form of Philip Kingsley elasticizer and mositurizing shampoo. At £32 and £19 respectively, they aren’t cheap, but my gosh, they are worth it. I popped the elasticizer on first and donned the rather fetching shower cap, and left it to do it’s thing for 20 minutes, before jumping in the shower to rinse it off and follow up with the shampoo. My crispy hair felt so lush afterwards and for the first time in three months had a shine and a bit of life to it!

Now, I don’t know if it is another one of those weird pregnancy symptoms or it’s because it has been so cold lately (let’s ignore that freakish February heatwave!) but my lips have been really dry and sore. I am a bit funny with most lip balms because they taste a bit chemically, but these ones from Crazy Rumors (£3.99 each) are lush. They’re all vegan and natural and shizzle and left my lips feeling lovely and soft and most importantly – they taste great. I, as you can imagine, loved the coffee bean one.

When I think of pregnancy skin care, I always think of Palmers and their cocoa butter formula range. There’s a reason why it is so popular and that’s because it leaves your skin feeling lush. I used the stretch mark lotion in all three pregnancies with the boys, and while it didn’t stop me getting them, it kept my skin feeling lovely, even at that point where it feels like your skin is splitting. I’ve been using it religiously so far in the hope it will ward off at least some of the inevitable stretch marks. I particularly love the spray oil, as it makes moisturising really quick and easy.

I’ve been alternating the Palmers cocoa butter stuff with this P’ure Papayacare cream (£17.99 each). They do the same job, I think. Palmers is the work horse, every day stuff, but from P’ure smells and feels just that bit more luxurious – perfect for my new Saturday evening pamper sessions.

I’ve come to realise that a bit of self care isn’t hippy dippy crap – it doesn’t have to be something that takes hours, or costs loads. It just involves taking a bit more care of myself, and as a soon to be mum of four, I’ll take every small moment that I can now!

*I was sent these products for inclusion this post. All thoughts and words are my own and I was not paid to write this.