Author: ramblingmads

I am a thirtysomething from London, with a cat, a husband, bookshelves which keep threatening to crush me under their load and chronic health conditions. Basically your average over stressed millennial. Welcome.
adventures, books, challenges

NaNoWriMo

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National (or international) Novel Writing Month is here. Every November dozens of brave (crazy) people try to write a novel (50,000 words) in a month.

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It has been disparaged by some published writers, like Joanne Harris (of Chocolat fame) who tweeted rather negatively about it.

I know it seems like a lot to do in a month, and it is, but if you break it down and do your best, even if you don’t finish the novel you might just have a really good start.

Every year I plan to do it, but usually fail by mid-November, but this year I’m going to give it a fair crack. I’ve got an idea that’s been rattling around my brain for a while, and the support of some friends, a lot of whom are also giving it a go, why not. Of course I may have a change of heart further in to the month.

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If the blog goes a bit quiet, you’ll know why! 

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happy mail, lifestyle boxes, reviews

Happy Mail; Pretty in Pink

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October’s Happy Mail box from IHeartHomes is pink themed as October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and as part of that, every box contains an item from the campaign, and a donation is made on behalf of subscribers from the cost of the box.

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The items as always, are delightful. They include a magnetic photo frame from Sass & Belle, oversized owl paperclips, a piggy keyring flashlight and a yummy smelling wax melt.

To sign up or purchase a one-off box visit ihearthomes and don’t forget to browse their gorgeous Christmas range.

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food, lifestyle boxes, recipes, reviews

Flavourly Gourmet Box

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Snack/foodie boxes are a big thing at the moment and Flavourly is looking to corner the gourmet market.

Their fully packed box features a range of items from brands big and small. There are snacks, sauces, cooking ingredients.

This month’s box is jammed full of flavours. From Taste5’s Umami Paste to Mallow and Marsh’s marshmallow bar. Vegetable crisps from Scrubbys and Pili Pili Sauce from Ma Robert’s.

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Can’t wait to get in the kitchen! Boxes start from £17, but you can get your first box for £7 including P&P here.

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beauty, beauty boxes, love me beauty, make up, reviews

Love Me Beauty October

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I’m getting a little fed up with LMB, for the past few months as they’ve revamped their site, the same products have loitered in the boutique with the occasional swap over. Making it rather pointless.

This month I’ve picked four items for my monthly 60 credits, one of which I’ve had pretty much every month.

There’s also the addition of the brand new LMB magazine The Journal.

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This month there were a lot of products from Cailyn, an eye make up brand. I don’t really do anything to my brows (curse of being blonde, do too much and they disappear) so I picked a couple of their gel eye shadow pencils in Champagne and Mauve.

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They are also featuring a selection of Lanolips balms. While I wasn’t very keen on the high lanolin content as it can unsettle my skin, the thought of a strong protective balm in this horrid weather overcame that – plus it’s banana flavour!

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Finally a familiar item – Monuspa Rosewood Reviving Mist.

I hope next month they refresh the entire stock in the boutique.

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food, lifestyle boxes, reviews

Degustabox

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There are so many snack boxes and treat boxes around at the moment. This is a bit of both.

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There are 15 products in here, from store cupboard staples to tasty treats. All from recognisable named brands, and the first box is only £4.99!

So let’s see what the box holds in store.

I cook a fair amount of Italian dishes so the Cirio tomatoes and passata will come in very useful, as will the Geeta’s curry paste and chutney for a Saturday curry night.

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There’s snacks galore from brands like 9bar and Nudie Snacks, sweet and savoury represented. Noodles for lunch and if you get thirsty there’s a refreshing drink too.

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This should keep us going for a bit. Try one here.

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beauty, beauty boxes, haircare, latest in beauty, make up, reviews, skincare

Latest in Beauty: British Beauty Blogger The Dream Box IV

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This latest collaboration between LiB and The British Beauty Blogger is rumoured to be their last so it’s not unreasonable to expect something great. For £16.95 (with free P&P for a limited time) you get 12 products, some you might be more familiar with than others, half of which are full size.

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There’s something for almost every part of your body, from your hair, to your lips, to those dry little bits!

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BareMinerals Marvellous Moxie Lipstick in Raise the Bar (£17.99) – a dinky mini lipstick to pop in your handbag in a pinky red, that I quite like and I’m not really a lipstick fan.

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Beauty Kitchen Love Me Wonderbalm £2.99) – cocoa butter with a sweet cinnamon scent for your lips, dry patches (elbows!) and all in a handy tin, perfect for the oncoming grotty weather. There’s also a special 40% discount for Beauty Kitchen.

Crabtree & Evelyn Le Source Hand Therapy (£9) full size moisture packed hand cream with a fresh, clean scent. 20% off in store or online with the voucher code given.

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Maybelline Dr Rescue SOS Nail Balm (£3.99) another pocket sized product, this nail and cuticle stick should help keep my nails happy.

Shay & Blue Framboise Noire Fragrance (£5) I’m really fussy about fragrance, but I like this one rather a lot. A warm, berry scented perfume suited rather well to these darkening days.

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Nuxe Prodigieux Eye Cream (£18.50) this is a brand I have been seeing everywhere, and I rather like the face masks I’ve already tried. I don’t use an eye cream so this will be getting a trial. Plus 15% off online.

Erborian CC Cream (£17.00) I’m rather wedded to my Clinique CC cream but I’ve read a few reviews of this Korean brand so I might just give it a whirl. 15% discount online.

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L’Occitane Almond Oil Shower Gel (£3) it’s no secret that this French brand and I have a love affair. I’ve tried this oil before, a little goes a long way and the same goes for the shower gel. Free full-size shower gel when you spend £35 on their website.

L’Oreal Paris Telescopic Carbon Black Mascara (£10.99) – regular readers will know I am not very impressed with how many mascaras turn up in beauty boxes, I only have 2 eyes and 2 sets of lashes!

Soap & Glory The Righteous Butter Mini (£2.50) I love S&G, and the Righteous Butter and I are old friends. It smells amazing and leaves my skin soft for hours.

Ren Evercalm Gentle Cleansing Milk (£2.75) this is supposed to be a soothing way to remove your make up, we’ll see how my super sensitive skin takes to it. I could do with a make up remover that my skin loves. 20% off online.

KMS California MoistRepair Shampoo (£4.50) and Conditioner (£5.00) my boyfriend has already stolen these, he’s run out of both! Free full size repair crème when buying shampoo or conditioner.

Crown Brush Pro Studio Contour Brush (£9.99) so I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to all this contouring business, still just trying my best to look vaguely human but this brush is so soft I might just have to give it a go. 15% off online.

Collection Speedy Blush Sticks in Tickled Pink & Cheeky (£3.99) at first look, this is really, really pink, but when swatched it’s more of a peachy tone. £1 off at boots.co.uk.

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So, a box full of fab products, offers and treats for your skin. Really impressed with this box, that barely closes, it’s so full!

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beauty, beauty boxes, nail polish, nails inc, reviews

Nailbox October

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Another month, another addition to my nail polish obsession.

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This month’s box features three wintery shades of polish from Rommel, Essie and Nails Inc. I can definitely see some funky nail art with these three shades.

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Left: Rimmel 60 Seconds in Caramel Cupcake, Middle: Essie multi dimensional top coat, Right: Nails Inc Gel Effect in Kensington High Street

Also in the box is Nicole by Opi Drying Drops – which is a new product to me. According to the blurb you add a drop or two after applying your colour and top coat to speed up the drying process.

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Lastly, there’s a pair of nail scissors from Elegant Touch. I prefer filing my nails to cutting them, and I can’t use them anyway, being a leftie (I have special ones for emergencies from Anything Left-Handed) but for anyone else these might come in useful.

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Overall a great little treat for nail polish nuts like me. A great way to get more polish for less than if I went and bought them separately (£15 for the box including P&P).

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beauty, beauty boxes, my little box, reviews, skincare

My Little Creative Box

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Another month, another delivery delay from My Little Box. They insist there’s no problems, but Facebook is full of disgruntled customers. If you’re one of them and don’t want any spoilers, look away now.

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This month’s box has been created in partnership with Pinterest, the online scrapbook. To be honest I don’t really know what’s so creative about the contents of this box.

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Inside is a selection of beauty products and lifestyle items, along with the fold-out My Little World magazine and illustrated card.

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The beauty products come in their usual dinky drawstring cloth bag (really good for keeping your beauty products tidy when travelling)

This month’s selection are;

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Left: Un Songe d’Or beauty oil from Aimy, full size, worth £29.
Centre: Talika’s Photo-Hydra Day, full size, worth £43.50
Right: Crème de Minuit, My Little Beauty, full size, worth £15

I’m not really a fan of beauty oils, but a friend of mine loves them, so I shall be passing this one on. I’ve tried the Talika cream in another box and it does what it says, hydrates the skin, something my skin needs as the cold weather sets in. The Crème de Minuit is a night cream, which I might try out, although I’m pretty happy with my current nightly skincare routine.

The lifestyle items this month are a little lacking, and I can’t quite see how they fit with the theme of the box.

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Wire-wrap beads, MLB, £16 – little plastic beads which wrap round things like headphone wires, which would be fine if I was a teenager still, but I don’t really think they quite work for the twenty and thirty something women who subscribe to the box.

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Canvas tote bag, MLB, £15 – this might not be the most ‘creative’ item but as the new 5p charge has come in for plastic bags, it will be useful. It folds up quite small, so you can pop in your handbag when you head to the shops.

Overall, not the greatest box and not really worth the wait for it. It’s nice to have full size products but a bit of variety would have been nice, and I think if you’re going to have a theme then you really need to make sure the items fit the theme.

Are you a MLB subscriber? What did you think of this month’s box?

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beauty, beauty boxes, make up, upcoming

Advent Calendars for beauty junkies

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As a kid all I ever wanted was a chocolate Advent calendar, but my mum, super healthy, no junk food, always said no. That’s not to say we didn’t have nice ones, there was the year my godmother sent beautiful chimney calendars, with little presents in the drawers every day. I still have my beautiful Maria Angel illustrated story calendar – which I use every year.

Last year my Mr brought home a wooden countdown calendar, which is very sweet and will be on display this year too.

But, beauty firms have started releasing advent calendars full of treats that any beauty junkie would be pleased to find every morning.

The ones I most have my eye on are L’Occitane’s (£39 with free delivery) and You Beauty Discovery (£59 with free delivery). I also quite want Lush’s 12 Days of Christmas (not an Advent calendar as such, but definitely on my Christmas list).

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You Beauty Discovery Advent Calendar

There are a lot of others, including a Jo Malone one(£250), but some are incredibly expensive. I suppose, depending on budget, you could ask for one as a Christmas gift, that you open on the run up.

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L'Occitane's Advent Calendar

Now I know Christmas isn’t about stuff, or presents, and that for people who follow Christian beliefs, sacred and holy. I was raised going to church, I still love the ceremony and go to Midnight Mass every year, but I think that after a year of working hard, doing our bit for the people we love, it’s OK to have a few treats. Especially in the middle of winter when it’s cold and miserable.

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Lush's 12 Days of Christmas

Which Advent calendars have you spotted? Will you be buying a beauty packed one?

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beauty, beauty boxes, haircare

Repurchase!

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I very rarely repurchase anything from a beauty box unless it’s something I already use. However one item from September’s Glossybox caught my eye.

Maria Nila Luminous Colour Masque

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This hair mask is amazing, it smells fairly pleasant, and leaves my hair extra shiny and glossy.

There was an offer of 20% off purchases from the brand at Sally Beauty Supplies, which I took advantage of.

I also added a second item to my basket – Golden Blonde Colour Refresh. My hair often goes a bit dull during the winter months and I thought I’d give this a try, natural blondes need a boost too! It came with a little box of gloves to help me avoid dyeing my hands.

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I really like this brand – vegan, cruelty free, paraben and sulphate free, with ingredients like argan oil and pomegranate extract.

I will be back for more!

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