Tag: reviews

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

June’s Birchbox – Step Outside with French Sole

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This month’s gimmick was select your box design. I went with the pick ‘n’ mix pattern.

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To be completely honest I am not impressed with this month’s selection.

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Temporary tattoos! I last wore these age 6 or 7. I am far too old and more likely to get a real one than wear these.

Another mascara – I think I get one of these every other month. I can’t even use them. There were other make up items hinted at, but no, another mascara.

Oil is an ingredient in much of the rest of the box.
Nude ProGenius treatment oil – applied after cleansing to boost skin’s hydration.
Beauty Protector Protect & Oil – hair oil that claims to protect against UV and heat damage.

English Laundry No. 7 For Her – perfume sample – adapted from a men’s fragrance, this is quite musky and a little too heavy for me.

Cowshed Body Lotion in Knackered Cow – contains essential oils of lavender and eucalyptus.

ModelCo Powerlash Black Mascara – another mascara, hot on the heels of the last one.

STYLondon Temporary Metallic Tattoos – nope, not even going there.

Bonus lifestyle item – a shoe bag designed by French Sole in matching design to the box. What a disappointing item – don’t see it getting much use.

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Not shown - temporary tattoos - they seem to have run away!

Birchbox seems to vacillate between good and pretty poor. This wasn’t my favourite by a long shot. I think they’re not entirely sure who their customers are – which is weird considering you do a questionnaire on the site.

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adventures, life, reviews, theatre

Fat Sam’s Grand Slam…

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One of my greatest loves in life is the theatre, I wanted to be an actress but have crippling stage fright so I have to settle for a seat in the audience.

Last night we went to the Lyric theatre in Hammersmith to see their fabulous production of Alan Parker’s Bugsy Malone.

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Previously thought to be un-stageable, the Lyric’s talented director Sean Hughes and his cast of future megastars proved that completely wrong.

As in the film that introduced Jodie Foster to the world, all the roles are played by child actors, and let me tell you, I highly expect these insanely talented kids to go far.

From their breathtaking dance routines, to the (mostly) flawless American accents, to the beautiful singing voices (the girl playing Blousey Brown stood out in particular) and the brilliant comic asides from Fat Sam himself, this was one hell of a show and they deserved every second of the standing ovation.

I wasn’t applauding because ‘Aww look at how cute they are’, I was applauding incredible talent, which comes in all shapes and sizes(and ages).

Yes, most of them attend drama classes or stage school (as I did for a bit) but so do dozens of other young performers, and sadly some of them will never stand on a professional stage.

So hats off to the cast of Bugsy, and if you’re in or near London, go, it’s a great theatre, a fantastic show, and the tickets are £15. What more could you want?

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beauty, beauty boxes, glossybox, make up, reviews, skincare

Glossybox – Summer’s Calling

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May’s Glossybox finally arrived and it’s themed with some of this summer’s biggest trends and products.

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MeMeMe Enchanted Eyes Dual Ended Eye Wand – blue eyeliner is a big trend for this summer and this full size features two shades. Both have a slight glittery shimmer to them and being a crayon are soft and easy to apply.

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Etre Belle Aloe Vera Ultra Moisturizing Gel – 40ml full size product. Aloe Vera is so skin friendly and soothes all manner of irritations from sun burn to nettle stings. This fits perfectly into a beach bag or picnic box so you can refresh and calm your skin on the go.

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Zerreau Towel Off Shampoo Foam – new generation of dry shampoo. Wash your hair without water. Apply to scalp, massage in, towel dry and voila! Great idea for camping, festivals or staying somewhere with iffy showers!

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Sass Intimate Perfect Skin Concentrate – this post-shave concentrate has been formulated to soothe the skin and reduce the chances of ingrown hairs, getting your legs summer ready, even if like me, they don’t get much sun (way too pale!)

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Philosophy Renewed Hope in a Jar Refreshing & Refining Moisturiser – philosophy is a brand I’ve always liked, except for its prices. The full size of this moisturiser is £35.50 which is just too much to justify. However a great sample to play with. This claims to reduce the appearance of lines, discoloration and uneven texture. I will certainly be testing its claims.

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

Latest in Beauty – Heart Beauty Essentials

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Latest in Beauty’s latest collaboration is with radio station Heart FM.

The box contains a mix of 13 full and sample size products. £18.95 + P&P.

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Nails Inc. Gel Effect Hyde Park Place

Kneipp Devil’s Claw Herbal Bath

Green People Sun Lotion SPF15 with Tan Accelerator

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bareMinerals Complexion Rescue

philosophy 3 in 1 cleanser

Wild About Beauty Eye Shadow in 08 Polly

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Vichy Idealia Life Serum

Skyn Iceland Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels

Dove Youthful Vitality Shampoo & Conditioner

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Balance Me Radiance Face Mask

Le Couvent des Minimes Cloisters Hand Cream

Amie Hydrating Daily Moisturiser

Face Cloth

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And if you enter the coupon code HAIRSPRAY you get this free.

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The only link to Heart (which my dad listens to!) is the heart shaped face cloth (which expands in water -haven’t seen one of these since I was a kid).

Overall it’s a nice selection of things, and definitely worth the money as some of these items on their own are quite pricey (Nails Inc I’m looking at you!)

Next up from LiB is the Glamour Beauty Edit box for Summer. Will you be buying it? Or the Heart box?

Are you a member of the Libbie Club? (I’ve applied).

Let me know in the comments.

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food, healthy, lifestyle boxes, reviews, snackly

Snackly box – gluten free goodies

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Snackly is a monthly gluten free snack box, £7.95 a month.

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I’ve had Graze boxes on and off for the last few years, but my friend Rehana was telling me that selecting a gluten & wheat free box from them left you mostly with raisins.

Snackly works a little differently from Graze. They curate a range of Free-From snacks from different producers across the UK. Whereas Graze manufacturer all their own treats.

I actually think this is really useful, it lets people know where they can order more suitable treats from.

This month’s box contains a mixture of mostly sweet things, previous boxes have contained more savoury snacks.

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– Honeybun’s Minis Snowy Hills cake – ginger & polenta shortbread with lemon sponge topping.

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– Ceeba Coconut Brittle – no syrup, no butter, gluten free, dairy free.

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– Peace of Cake London Gingerbread bites

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– Darling Spuds Handcooked Potato Chips – Crushed Natural Sea Salt

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– Fudge Kitchen White Chocolate & Raspberry Gourmet Butter Fudge

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– Plamil Organics Orange Chocolate with Cranberries – 60% cocoa

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Do you get any snack boxes? What do you think a good snack box should contain? Let me know in the comments.

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buddhibox, lifestyle boxes, reviews, skincare, yoga

BuddhiBox – May + socks!

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I ordered this through Etsy as international subscriptions are not currently available. It cost £20 but contents comes to approx £60.

I wanted April’s Goddess Yoga box but sadly so many of the items were out of stock so I got May’s instead.

– Sweat house Brands yoga towel and saucha spray – keeps your yoga mat fresh.

– Frisky Fish essential oil blend with lemon & lavender. Smells amazing.

– Below the Oak solid perfume in Vixen. I do like solid perfume and this one is subtle and warm.

– Lasting Smiles Peppermint Creme lip balm. I can’t get the lid off! But an organic, cruelty free lip balm is a win in my book.

– Poppy & Elle set of 3 headbands.

– Amazing Grass shake mix – super healthy blend of fruit, veg, greens and plant proteins.

– Go Macro cashew caramel snack bar – gluten free, vegan, macrobiotic. Not 90% dates ( which is brilliant as I’m sick of all the dates in health bars).

– Yokibics four AM meditation downloads.

– Recipe card – date and almond chocolates

– yoga pose card – bird of paradise

– inspirational quote card

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I also got the toe socks from the April box as an apology for not being able to send me the box I asked for, which is very sweet and unexpected.

I do think this box is very good value for money, and you don’t have to be a yoga bunny to appreciate it. I just hope they start offering international subscriptions soon and then I won’t miss out. 

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beauty boxes, latest in beauty, reviews, skincare

Latest in Beauty – Little Bath Box

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This was a random purchase (especially as I don’t have a bath tub) but would make a great present.

It contains several products that I will definitely make some use of.

– 3 sachets of Dr Organic Dead Sea Mineral Mud Mask.

– Roques Oneil Therapie Himalayan Detox Salts.

– Kneippe Herbal Bath Balancing in Lavender.

– Orange and Clove 100% Plant Wax candle.

– Sanctuary Spa White Lily & Damask Rose Body Lotion.

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beauty boxes, birchbox, make up, reviews, skincare

May Birchbox – Free Your Mind

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This month’s theme is Free Your Mind and so Birchbox have sent out a colour-it-yourself box.

Personally I think they’re just jumping on the adult colouring book fad, which I do as part of treating my anxiety but isn’t for everyone. This box feels both try-hard and lazy at the same time.

On to the contents.

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As well as your booklet on the items this month’s cloth bag features;

– Mirenesse Mattfinity Lip Rouge in a deep pink. Weirdly it seems to have dried up despite never having been opened so I’m not really impressed.

– Lumiere d’hiver reconstructing face masque in a sachet. It says it’s 100% vegan but worryingly for me the second ingredient is a form of alcohol, which I try to avoid in skin products as it has drying properties that inflame eczema and sensitive skin.

– Parlor Moisturizing Sea Salt Spray – this has been discussed on a lot of blogs and there seems to be a concern about whether this will wreck your hair or give you the tousled surfer babe waves it promises. Sea water is not your hair’s best friend and neither is salt so I totally get the questions. I have to quite naturally wavy hair so it’s hard to tell if it had any effect. My furry assistants thought the noise it made was interesting but less so than their dinner. So the jury’s still out.

-RMK Point Make Up Remover. This is a Japanese brand and helpfully no one translated the information on the bottle and my kanji reading skills are non-existent. It’s an oil remover, which have become increasingly popular but I’m still not sure about. The last one I tried made no difference to my skin and still needed a cream cleanser to actually take my make up off! However after the hand incident (see next product) I used this to remove the make up with just a tissue so maybe oils need another go round!

– Caudalie Vinoperfect Tinted Moisturiser SPF20 in 01 Light. I am very pale and this is way too dark for me. As you can see in the below photo of my hand. I squeezed a blob out that could coat my entire hand but be way too obvious, not something I want for a product designed to be subtle.

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This month’s ‘choose your own’ product was from a line up of WAH nails items. I chose a nail art pen as I have so many polishes and don’t wear stick on nails. I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet but it is a very deep blue so I’m not 100% sure which nail polishes it would work well with.

– Finally the lifestyle item. A pack of 6 mini colouring pencils to decorate your box with. Needless to say I think that’s pretty pants. None of the decorated boxes on their Instagram were done using just the six colours and some were done with pens and paints. Pencils cost pennies. It would have been nice to have something that spoke a little more to the theme.

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Do you subscribe to Birchbox? What did you think of this month’s products?

  

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beauty, beauty boxes, make up, reviews, skincare

You Beauty Limited Edition CEW Awards

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This is a limited edition box in conjunction with the CEW Beauty Awards.

At £19.95, it’s not a bad price considering how packed it is.

Philip Kingsley Elasticizer sample size

Benefit They’re Real! Push-up Liner sample

Vita Liberta Luxury Tan sample and applicator mitt

Aurelia Miracle Cleanser sachet

Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara sample

Encore Noire Sport pour homme sample (men’s smellies in a women’s box?!?!)

Bee Good Honey & Propolis 2-in-1 Cream Cleanser sample bottle with face cloth and 20% off voucher.

Elemis pro-collagen marine cream full size (30 ml)

Dr Organic Bioactive Skincare Organic Snail Cream full size (50ml) – not suitable for vegans, contains snail secretions but no snails are harmed.

20% voucher for M&S selected beauty and fragrance

Booklet about the products.

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Plenty of things to try, including two full size products. Definitely worth the cost, as long as you make use of them!

Get yours here and remember it’s limited edition so they won’t last.

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beauty, beauty boxes, make up, reviews, skincare

You Beauty Discovery Box

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You Beauty is an off-shoot from the Mail on Sunday’s You magazine.

The box is £6.95, significantly cheaper than most beauty boxes. You only get four sample size products however.

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Yours Truly Organics Fix Me! Repairing Serum sachet, Tisserand Aromatherapy Bath Oil, Deborah Mitchell Heaven Chamomile Desensitizing Hydrogel & Linwood’s Milled Flaxseed, cocoa & berries sachet.

There’s also a card offering you an opportunity to win a luxury spa day and a booklet about all the products you could have had in your box.

Their USP is that you can select two of the items, however things go very fast and I didn’t have a huge selection to choose from.

I think this is an OK starter beauty box and not all of the brands were familiar to me. If you’re interested, check out May’s options here.

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