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

Beauty box review – Love Me Beauty

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Another beauty box in my quest for the perfect one.

I filled in a beauty questionnaire intended to make the ideal selection, but there was a definite mis-fire amongst this little lot.

A fullsize Nails Inc. polish in bruton lane, which is a pastel shade (and if you read my post about nail polish, you’ll know they’re not my favourite).
Mirabella lip gloss in Muse, which is baby pink in the bottle, so will be used sparingly.
Cailyn eyebrow gel in Cocoa. Now I told them I’m blonde, which is my natural colour so a dark brown gel would make my very pale brows look silly.
Organic Surge Perfecting Face Polish (sample size) this says it’s suitable for sensitive skin, which I have, and contains rosemary and lemon essential oils, which means it smells amazing.
Monuspa Conditioning Bodywash (sample size) for all skin types – this contains honey and essential oils, and again smells delicious.

The goodies come in a little cloth bag inside a frankly enormous box. Their USP is that if you refer a friend with a unique code on their site you get credits towards products in your next box and so will your friend.

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beauty, charity, give and make up, refuge

Give and Make Up

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Every week in the UK 2 women are murdered by their current or ex-partner. A woman will experience 35 incidents of domestic abuse before she calls the police.

Fleeing violence and abuse is a really difficult thing to do, even more so when children are involved. Refuge is a UK based charity that helps women to find a safe place for their children and themselves.

Every Christmas I donate to their present drive, you follow a link on their website to a John Lewis (department store) gift list and select which gifts you want to buy. I usually buy two presents for women and two presents for children.

Most women fleeing abusive relationships leave with little or nothing. Often just the clothes on their backs.

Which brings me to Give and Make Up. Set up by blogger Caroline Hirons in partnership with Refuge, this is a scheme that encourages us to donate unused make up and cosmetics (all those lotions and potions) to women who had to leave everything behind and have nothing.

http://www.carolinehirons.com/p/give-and-makeup.html?m=1

This is currently only in the UK but it is worth seeing if a similar scheme exists where you are. I have loads of sample size and full size creams I’ve never used and several unused make up palettes cluttering up the place that I will be sending along to Refuge.

Put a smile back on the faces of women who desperately need something to smile about.

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adventures, crafty stuff, friends, reviews

Make It Craft Fair 27 Feb – 1 March

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This Saturday just gone Cal and I went to a craft fair with my friend Ruth, her husband and their little girls.
Held in a huge tent at Farnborough airport, the fair featured dozens of suppliers, workshops, talks, try-it-yourself stations, with dozens of different crafts represented, from knitting to woodwork, metal sculpting to lace making.

I splurged on crafty bits, from buttons, to gorgeous purple yarn and other little bits. I also bought a new cutting tool and a build it yourself 3D advent calendar for Cal and I to work on together (he makes minature planes and things).

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It was really interesting to see all the different crafts people do, and to see some wonderful examples. I bought a felting kit to make some Easter bunnies (new skill or giant mess?).

It was also lovely to catch up with my friend, we went to school together and now she runs her own knitting business emhttp://etsy.com/tippingknits or http://facebook.com/tippingknits

Her girls are very cute, aged 5 and 3. We bought them a cookie each – it was the size of her youngest daughter’s face, and they seemed to enjoy themselves a lot more than that. I also took on a new opportunity (more on that to come).

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beauty, beauty boxes, birchbox, make up, reviews, skincare

Beauty box review – Birchbox

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I rarely get called wonderful so it was rather nice coming home to find a parcel in my letterbox doing just that.

Inside was February’s Birchbox. I had opted for the slimmer letterbox size, and as you can see above, it was packed with beauty goodies (and a sample packet of oats + chia porridge, not pictured).

There were discount codes and vouchers for beauty products.

The products themselves were a mixture of sample and full sizes.

I had filled in a beauty profile on the site, which should mean that the items in my box are tailored to me.

I received: a sample of Benefit High Beam, which is a product I already use so this was a little bonus bottle.
T London Darjeeling Bath & Shower wash, perfect size for my washbag and holiday travels.
Fullsize Eyeko London Fat Eye Stick in gilt – I like an eye crayon, easy to use and no mess.
Electric Hairdressing Hydrate Shampoo, again perfect size for my washbag. Finally Caudalie Paris Radiance Serum – I don’t use serums much so this will be fun to try out.

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clean eating, food, healthy, lifestyle, recipes

Eating for health

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Recently I have been trying to improve my nutrition and eat better. In the last couple of years I’ve fallen into bad habits and need to sort my food choices out.

I enjoy cooking (and baking) but have been lazy when I know better and eaten junk food, takeaways and other rubbish.

The Greek salad above is one of the simplest ways to eat better. Feta cheese, tomatoes (I like different coloured cherry toms), red onion, cucumber, olives (if you like them), drizzled with olive oil and a scatter of ground black pepper. Done. Takes a few minutes, tastes great and all that veg is great for you.

And for dessert? How about this:

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Fat free yoghurt, fresh raspberries and sprinkled desiccated coconut. Tastes delicious, good for you too.

Now, neither of these things require much effort or actual cooking, so they’re perfect for a lazy person.

More recipes soon. (Problem is I never photograph my food, too busy eating it!)

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beauty, make up, nail polish

Nail polish – my beauty addiction

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So, pretty much every time I go to somewhere like Boots or Superdrug, regardless of what I actually need to buy, I come home with at least two more nail polishes. There is a large box of them in my wardrobe/dressing room/beautifying corner. Most are Barry M or Nails Inc, with a few random ones (usually freebies from magazines or gift sets, sometimes beauty boxes) thrown in for good measure.  I had a clear out recently off all tge manky, dried out ones.

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The thing is, I don’t paint my fingernails, it chips too quickly and my nails are pretty brittle to start with. So all these lovely colours only get used on my toenails and only get seen in the summer flip flop months.

I have to have painted toenails at all times and redo them every fortnight, changing colour each time. I don’t like feet and one of my toes is bent from being broken and reset badly when I was 19. Even wrapped up in thick socks and my knitted Ugg boots (which I love for their warmth and don’t care that they’re rather ugly) my toes need that pop of colour, they look sad and naked without it. And I know it’s there!

I don’t really like pastel colours, I prefer bright jewel tones, they contrast quite nicely against my really pale skin. I’m the same with clothes, I will pick the emerald, sapphire or royal purple every time.

Which means I get really fed up when new colours come out and they’re weedy pastels. Like Barry M’s new speedy dry colours, all pastels – boring.

I’ve also got quite into matte finish polishes too, sometimes it’s more interesting than a gloss finish.

Just whatever you do, make sure it’s completely dry before you put socks on, take it from me, fluffy toes are not a good look!

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exercise, healthy, lifestyle, yoga

Yoga – good for the soul

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So recently I’ve been getting back into yoga and boy am I stiff! Feel about 900 years old. Yoda would probably do a better job than me!

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My joints creak like they need oil, my knees especially hate me and the other day I felt physically sick getting up and into the warrior pose.

I’ve started following some yogis on instagram in hopes of inspiration from people who stretch and headstand regularly. I’ve got a mat, and a dvd to guide me through. I just need to find the get up and go to do it every day.

I don’t like exercise, so thank goodness getting healthier is only 20% exercise and 80% nutrition. I’ve got the healthy eating down (lost half a stone in a month) but need to do more with my body. Walking I do regularly, cycling and swimming I used to love.

Motivation is what I lack. What do you do to get motivated?

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ethics, lifestyle, lush, questions

Lush and the problem of ethical beauty

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On a facebook group recently a member asked whether anyone could recommend a beauty brand like Lush but not Lush as she was a member of Countryside Alliance and Lush support hunt saboteurs.

Now, fox hunting is illegal in the UK, even though our current (vile) PM is a member of a hunt, and fox hunting has been repeatedly proven to be not only inhumane but costly and pointless as a means of keeping numbers of foxes low.

It is in fact much cheaper and more practical to shoot foxes or poison them if they are causing a nuisance, eating your chickens or spooking your sheep.

The cost of raising hounds, horses, the outfits and damage done to farmland far outways the benefits of chasing one animal to the point of exhaustion and then ordering dogs to tear it apart.

I’m not saying that hunt saboteurs are a good thing either – in fact they are known to cause harm to animals as well. Spooking a horse, causing it to fall, maybe break a leg and have to be shot does not mean you took a stand for animal rights.

Foxes are a nuisance, and not just in the countryside. More and more of them are living in urban areas, raiding bins, attacking pets (and apparently babies, despite being very wary of humans) and having all night mating sessions involving screaming in people’s gardens.

I use Lush because I admire their ethical policy (not testing on animals – meaning until last year they didn’t add SPFs because they were predominantly tested on animals and they needed to find one that wasn’t) and the lack of chemicals in their products means that my sensitive skin doesn’t react to them.

Testing cosmetics on animals was banned in the EU last year (but check where your products are manufactured, as outside the EU no such restrictions are guaranteed by law). So theoretically all products are cruelty free. Lush led the charge and is very happy with this change in legislation.

Fox hunting is a touchy subject even in my extended family, my Yorkshire rellies own farmland and came to London a few years ago for a CA march. I held my tongue, I don’t agree with their ethics (or lack thereof) although they are family and I care about them.

Where do you stand on the question of beauty and cruelty? Do you check the provenance and ethics of your products or is it something you choose not to worry about when buying your cosmetics?

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Images from Lush Ltd’s facebook page

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blogging, lifestyle, tumblr

What’s in a name

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So I saw this on Tumblr earlier (apologies for the tiny image – cannot seem to make it bigger), the comment at the bottom is mine.

I am Madeleine. I share my name with a cake that had Proust in rhapsodies, a district in Paris (I sat in Place de la Madeleine eating madeleines once, it was hilarious), author Madeleine L’Engle, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (she’s @madeleine on Twitter).

If mispronounced (frequently happens) I get called ‘Madeline’ and become a redhead who lives in two straight lines under the watchful eye of a nun.

My mum named me after Mary Magdalen in the Bible – she was Jesus’ friend (some say wife) and as far as my parents were concerned I was their miracle baby. Madeleine is the French version of Magdalen.

I hated my name growing up, it was nine letters no one could spell or pronounce correctly. Even teachers.

I’ve grown into it. But I’ll never be a Maddy, Maddie or Maddi. Mads I can tolerate but not Maddy.

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books, challenges, reviews

#5books7days – round up

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So over on Instagram and Twitter this week I’ve been taking part in a readathon #5books7days which has been really enjoyable.
My five books were:
A real variety of books. Fantasy, autobiography, classic crime, and finally a book written by a friend of mine.

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I haven’t read with purpose since uni, when I read for class or essay writing. Nowadays I read whatever takes my fancy, and sometimes I pick the wrong book. Life’s too short to read books that don’t hold my attention.

This was a really fun reading challenge, and I managed to make a tiny dent in the mountain of unread books, unfortunately it seems to grow while I sleep.

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