Category: reviews

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

Latest in Beauty – Get the Gloss

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I’ve been having issues with the LiB website so this took a while to order. Paypal have driving me crackers for the last two months as well. I definitely need a beauty based treat.

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The box is very neatly packed with eight products, including several full size items.

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Salon Science AquaCacteen Hydrasoothe Cooling Spray – Salon Science is a brand I only started hearing about this year. This is a cooling spray, not for your face but for your hair. Full size bottle and it smells quite nice too.

Nails Inc Gel Effect in Regents Place – full size, creamy blue shade (there were two – the other is Downtown – a hot pink, always a surprise as to which you get).

Bourjois Aqua Blush – I’m not a huge fan of liquid blush and out of the three available shades I wound up with a bright pink that really won’t work for me.

Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse OR – plant oils and vitamin E in this sparkly face, skin and hair oil, from French brand Nuxe.

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Philip Kingsley Swim Cap – sun protection and chlorine defender for hair. Mine always goes green in swimming pools – the curse of natural blondes – so this is a handy item.

Aurelia Refine & Polish Miracle Balm – instant exfoliator or enzyme mask. Smells good too!

Elemental Herbology Cell Plumping – applied daily this claims to make your skin plumper and more radiant.

Anne Semonia Eye Express Radiance Ice Cube – store in the freezer, pop on your eyes and it reduces redness, puffiness and the dreaded dark circles.

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beauty boxes, nail polish, reviews

Nailbox – the polish addict’s box

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I regularly check in with the reviews on other blogs and this caught my nail polish addict’s eye.

Oh what a fabulous box for someone who loves nail polish.

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Moyou London nail stamper and scraper set. With this you can apply funky nail art with the stamper and templates. Something I will definitely be having a play with.

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Nail Apothecary Cuticle Eliminator – I am quite lucky in that my cuticles are very small and don’t give me any grief. But I will keep this close to hand in case they do start misbehaving.

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Three nail polishes. Opi, Barry M, China Glaze. Pink, purple, white. They are worth the cost of the box alone!

Really like this box, looking forward to seeing what next month brings.

ramblingmads

lifestyle boxes, reviews, skincare

Period Box – for a happy period

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*spoiler – this contains discussion of vaginas and periods*

Following on from the Pink Parcel last week comes Period Box – another attempt to make that time of the month less miserable.

Decorated with uteruses, which is not as charming as they hoped, and subtitled ‘for a happy period’ this box isn’t particularly discreet. Though the brown box it arrived in was.

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Inside is a selection of white paper bags, adorned with stickers.

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I think the stickers are supposed to be amusing. At the moment, the way I’m feeling, nothing amuses me less than period puns.

Inside two of the bags are a selection of sanitary products, by my count, not quite enough, good thing I stocked up.

The third bag contains goodies designed to see you through a week of cramps, spots, bad moods and blood.

Seed and Bean dark chocolate with chilli and lime. I was watching Josh Widdicombe the other day and he said that no one really likes dark chocolate. For me that’s absolutely true – I’m a milk chocolate girl, so despite dark chocolate being better for you, the last thing I want right now is something bitter.

Happy Tea – no idea what’s in these tea bags – is it black, white or green tea? Who knows? The packaging certainly isn’t telling.

Art print by Olga Angelloz, a postcard sized art print. I quite like this, it’s suitably quirky for me.

Au Lait Bath & Shower Gel and Body Milk – travel sized, cruelty free, smells a bit like milkshake.

Sass intimate Purifying Cleanser & Perfect Skin Concentrate – now this is where I get both scientific and graphic. Your vagina is magic – it self cleans. That pH balance must not be disturbed. Very few things are meant to ever enter there. Cosmetic products like this are not. I don’t care what the packaging says, you wash your outside labia but do not use soap, body wash or anything inside. Ever. You can do terrible damage and that bout of thrush that had you wiggling about will be nothing. Who wants to go to the doctor and say ‘I think I angered my vagina and now it’s infected?’ No-one.

I am horrified that these products exist – they play on women’s fears about odour, excretions, and having the perfect designer vagina. Guess what? Nobody has the perfect one. There’s no such thing.

Your uterus and vagina are capable of extraordinary things. We should be proud of that. Douching your vagina is a big no – no. Leave it alone.

Rant over.

In conclusion – I’m not entirely bowled over by this box. I think it’s quite hard to design a product like this as every woman is different and has different tastes and preferences, especially at this time of the month. I would prefer more pampering products and a chocolate bar I actually want to eat.

Good thing my boyfriend has learnt that throwing chocolate at me and retreating a safe distance away is the best policy. (I joke, he’s actually very sweet to me).

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ramblingmads

beauty boxes, glossybox, make up, reviews, skincare

GLOSSYBOX Vive Le France

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Glossybox has a special edition for July. Join Mademoiselle Glossy on a Parisien adventure.

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The box is elaborately illustrated and features famous Paris landmarks. Inside is a selection of French beauty samples in a little printed bag.

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Noxidoxi enhancing serum base – hydrates and protects skin when layered under moisturiser.

Lollipops lip balm delicieuse – protects the lips from UV damage with vitamin E and antioxidants.

Teoxane Cosmeceuticals perfect skin refiner – a night cream to plump and hydrate skin.

Yves Rocher comme une evidence eau de parfum – perfume with hints of violets, rose, lily of the valley and patchouli. I would tell you whether I liked this or not but the tiny lid won’t come off!

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To be honest – this box was incredibly overhyped and really quite poor in terms of contents – 4 small sample products and a plastic pouch to store them in. Glossybox really needs to try a bit harder. French beauty products are often amazing but this really doesn’t showcase that.

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beauty boxes, lifestyle boxes, my little box, reviews

My Little Road Trip Box

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This month MLB is on the road and comes loaded with travel themed goodies.

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It’s also really cute, illustrator Kanako has really got into the theme with a gorgeous box and illustrated sheets.

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As well as the fold out magazine/poster (please go back to a glossy) there’s a travel organizer with pockets for your money, passport and tickets.

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There’s a illustrated note card and envelope with a handy pen to scribble down your greetings from the road.

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And onto the beauty goodies.

Travel size Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water, Essie nail polish in time for me time (a pale pink) and My Little Beauty Summer Sorbet body lotion.

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This month’s box is lovely, though veering more to the lifestyle than beauty box. I know some people will be disappointed with the contents but I quite like it. And it arrived on time! Hurrah!

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What do you think?

ramblingmads

lifestyle boxes, reviews

Pink Parcel – it’s a monthly thing

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That ‘time of the month’ can be a nightmare of cramps, moods and demands for chocolate (that may just be me!)

There are now a few lifestyle boxes aimed at making things a little more bearable.

Pink Parcel is one of them.

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It’s quite a large box, but slim enough for most letterboxes.

Inside is everything you need. On the site you select how long and heavy your period is and when it’s next due. They work out what you need (choose between tampons, towels or a mixture of both) and they provide you with your brand too.

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The pads I selected (I don’t get on with tampons) came parcelled out as ‘for now’, ‘for later’ and ‘for bedtime’. The ‘for now’ are in a little cloth bag to tuck into your handbag or stash in the bathroom.

As well as the essentials, Pink Parcel also send you a bundle of goodies to help get you through the worst moments.

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This month’s extras are; Organic Surge Intensive Smoothing Serum, Green People scent free sun lotion, L’Oreal Volume Million Lashes mascara, Pina Colada Cocktail Shaker lip balm in coconut, Novus citrus chamomile tea pyramid, Cocoba hot chocolate dipping spoon, Bandzee hair bands.

Like a mini beauty box within a box really.

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To be honest I don’t know if I’d have this every month – pads are fairly reasonable and usually on an offer in the supermarket or Boots, so I stock up then.

The extras are nice, sweet idea but not nearly enough chocolate for me! It has arrived just ahead of being needed, which is good and is quite discreet in terms of packaging – it doesn’t scream “Aunt Flo’s coming, batten down the hatches!” which is good, especially if you don’t live alone.

At the moment your first box is only £5.95 so if you think this might be for you, head over to the website and order yours.

ramblingmads

lifestyle boxes, mindfulness, reviews, skincare, yoga

Yogi Surprise Box – July

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This little box of fun was sitting on my doorstep earlier.

It contains a variety of items to help you improve your yoga.

Zhena’s Gypsy Tea Green Coconut Chai

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Containing cardomom, ginger, clove and coconut, this tea is Gluten-Free, fair trade and hails from India. I had a quick sniff and it smells delish. 

Aura Cacia Peppermint & Sweet Orange Yoga Mist – multi use essential oil spray. Can be used on your mat, in the room and on your body. It’s quite a heady mix, but as it’s paraben and petroleum free, organic and cruelty free, I might just spritz this everywhere.

Acure Cell Stimulating Facial Mask – I have a lot of face masks floating around, some, like this, are clay based and those aren’t my favourite. But if you’re a clay mask fan this chemical free (I can pronounce all the ingredients) one might be right up your street.

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Gaiam dual grip headband (and yoga gloves) – cotton headband designed to keep your hair (and sweat) out of your face while you get your downward dog on. I also got another pair of the yoga gloves that were in June’s box – must have forgotten I already had some!

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Finally was a jewellery item – a tiger’s eye bracelet with Buddha charm. The Buddha has been co-opted into the modern yoga world in a way that feels a little like appropriation – although meditation is a Buddhist practice, the Buddha’s religious significance is often forgotten in the rush to put his face and image on things from cushions to garden ornaments.
If I wear this bracelet I will have to do so mindfully – I’m not a Buddhist and must be aware of the fact that some might not like my apparent use of their religious leader’s image for decoration.

That aside tiger’s eye blends Earth and Sun together and is supposed to give you clarity.

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*I apologise for the somewhat blurry photos – my camera seems to be having some issues*

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beauty boxes, lifestyle boxes, my little box, reviews

My Little French Riviera Box

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So, you may remember a post about the missing My Little Box.

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It finally appeared today, over a month late. July’s box is due to arrive next week.

Anyway, now that it’s here – was it worth the wait?

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And the answer is… Not really.

These boxes are a bit hit and miss – and this one feels like a miss.

In terms of beauty products it contains

Kerastase Anti-frizz leave in hair milk.

Exclusive blue nail polish picked by designer Sarah Lavoine who curated this box and My Little Beauty body scrub.

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The lifestyle items are where this really falls down this month.

There are a pair of plastic sunglasses that will never suit me, I know there were several different pairs – perhaps they could have asked us to select them.

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There are also two plastic printed plant pot holders/covers that you can apparently use to store your make up.
These are really cheap looking and one of them has a hole in the bottom where the stitching is badly done. If this was what delayed the box to start with, I’d rather they hadn’t bothered.

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Frankly I’m underwhelmed, and since no real apology for all the hold ups and faffing about has been forthcoming, I’m not sure whether to continue with MLB.

Thoughts?

ramblingmads

healthy, lifestyle boxes, reviews, snackly, vegan kind

Snack boxes

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Doesn’t everyone snack from time to time? But what about snacks delivered to your door.

Graze has been delivering delicious treats for the last few years and their range is always expanding – from protein top ups, to granola, savoury, sweet, flapjacks and everything in between. I’ve sampled a few and I like a mix of sweet and savoury treats.

Snackly is a gluten free selection box

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Featuring a range of companies who cater to a gluten and wheat free diet.

The Vegan Kind again features a range of treats from different brands – from dairy free chocolate to maple water (odd but not repellant).

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They also include a lifestyle or beauty item – this month’s was a soy wax candle that smells like fresh sheets. Every three months they send out a beauty box filled with cruelty free beauty treats too.

Do you know about any other snack boxes? Have you tried any of the ones above?

ramblingmads

beauty, make up, reviews, skincare

Libbie Club – July offers #treatyo’self

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I love new products, and as part of my summer of trying new items, receiving these goodies is a bonus.

Becca Beach Tint for cheek and lips – this says water resistant but without a swimming pool to test the theory in I can’t speak to that.

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The formulation is quite runny, even after giving it a good shake – but the colour is quite nice – a warm pink, which I would be more likely to use as a cheek tint/blusher than on my lips.

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Bioeffect Volcanic Exfoliator – made in Iceland (the country not the shop of many freezers!) this contains microcrystalline lava to leave your face free of dead skin cells and grime. Perfect to apply your summer look on to clean, fresh skin.

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Skin & Tonic London Steam Clean cleansing balm – made with organic ingredients, sustainably made and cruelty free. You smooth a little into your skin, soak the accompanying in warm water, drape over your face to melt it away, cleansing deeply. It also smells amazing.

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If you would like to treat yourself to any of these fab products (special offers all round) click here and buy them through Libbie Club. Go on treat yo’self.

*items provided by Libbie Club for promotional purposes – all opinions my own*

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Parks & Rec forever!

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