An Evening in at Lush......with CAKE!!

It's not really safe to let me loose in Lush on a daytime with money to spend and well, witnesses; but to leave me in a closed shop is quite frankly ridicularse and the reason I will be selling my hair to wigmakers for money this month...

Thursday night my local Lush - Heads up Hull Whitefriargate- woop woop! - held an 

" Around the Table, Tailor Made Skincare Workshop" 

So me and the wife mozied on down there and were met by the yummy Michaela who's first words to us were "cuppa tea?" - instantly my most favourite person that day, when she told us to help ourselves to fresh bread and buns- marry me lady??? 

So first things first; Michaela and her lovely assistant- who's name for the life of me I just can't remember and she was soooo lovely aswel so I feel a tit- sat us down and told us about what we were going to be making. For me and Ness, they decided to do the Catastrophe Cosmetic Fresh Face Mask which is perfect for a few different types of skin but especially those who can suffer a breakout here and there- me and Ness are sadly in this catergory. I was giddy to try this one because I had never used it before and I'm on a mission to start getting new pieces from Lush as I always tend to stick to my old reliables when there is a bountiful buffet of Lushness to be had out there...

Catastrophe Cosmetic is packed full of Blueberries which we all know are full of antioxidants and if they're good for your inside, they're pretty much gonna be amazing for your outside. From what I learned the Chamomile Essential Oil in there is going to reduce any of that shitty redness and the Calamine talc will deep clean your pores with its own tiny hoover and chamois leather whilst soothing any inflammation thats lurking about. Also it's combined with some gorgeous Almond Oil thats going to moisturise your skin into supple perfection. My favourite bit of the process- I got to do the mixing!! I bloody love a wooden spoon and stirred the crap out of that thing! After we made our masks they got popped into their little black pots and put into our take away bags. Next onto our personalised skin routine. 

Jealous much? Yeah I look good I know! So the ladies sat and asked us about our routines regarding how/if we cleanse, tone, moisturise and about our skin type. I explained I have pretty normal skin aside from some hormonal breakouts once a month, maybe sometimes a little sensitive, so my lovely lady picked me out Ultrabland. Bland by name- demi bland by nature. Plain and simple enough that it can be used on any skin type without causing any irritation but it lifts any grease, grime and dirt off your face. That day my skin looked like I had been down a coal mine so it really was put to the test and it battled back like some crazy Muhammed Ali prizefighter badass! Amazing stuff! My skin was blissful afterwards.

Toner was next and as I had mentioned my occasional sensitive mush and LOVE of Lavender Oil apparently "Eau Roma Toner Water" was the obvious choice. My favourite thing apart from the yummy smell- 6 ingredients. 6 ingredients are all that goes into this water and with the amount of synthetic products I surrender myself to in the name of blogging, it's nice to make things simple sometimes. 

*Brilliant tip time*

This is a sod to explain in writing but I will try my best. So you take your Toner and you spritz it on your face. Then with your finger tips, do the motion that I'm calling the "Dancing Spider". Remember when you did Incy Wincy Spider when you were little and you do that kind of crawling motion with your finger tips? Well you do that across your face in the Incy Wincy motion and this does a fantastic bit of wizardry that allows the grub that has settled into your pores to come to the top of the skin and the toner to skin in! Good eh! 

Also the toner is brilliant for a mid day refresher apparently. So I will definitely be sticking it in my handbag as a pick me up. My Moisturiser was Imperialis and it's the perfect day or night cream. Its rammed with good herbally stuff- Elderflower, Lavender, Mullein, St John's Wort, Sweet Violet and Sunflower. It smells dreamy! My lovely lady gave me a brilliant little facial massage with it and I was so tired from a day of uni reading that I genuinely could have done a little sleepy...ahhhh......

Well I wasn't going to include this pic as it's isn't great quality but hopefully you can see a little bit that my skin looks refreshed, maybe in the cheek area- crappy ridiculous camera... It felt very clean and quite plumped anyway even if you can't see it, take my Brownie promise on that one.

After we were done we had time to wander round the shop, eat more and pick up any bits that we wanted. I also thought it was a good time get some snaps for you kids of a few bits and pieces that I don't have at the minute to do a full review on but have used before and really recommend.

Retread saved my holiday hair. It was so dry after two weeks of swimming and intense American sunshine and had become worryingly crisp. This little baby brought it back to life in a few days and the Lush staff in Hawaii were practically  dancing with joy because we came from England. We were like royalty- I loved it.

Big is brilliant if you want that kind of beachy hair. Its got salt in it which adds to the volume and has Neroli Oil which I can't get enough of.

Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds is my favourite all time Bubble Bar. Reason A- its massive and we all know it's not the quality of the product, it's the quantity. Luckily this has both. Reason B-This smells like heaven. Patchouli, urgh just, the best. My most favourite smell ever. Frankincense and Cinnamon too. It's sort of hippy heaven. I read that this was created while listening to ambient music- can sooo see that. Total chill out. 

Well after some time wandering round, Jillian who in my mind is the manager, came to see how we were getting along. Can you adopt someone older then you...with their own children...and life...and who has no real reason to be adopted.... hmm? I just love this lady! She couldn't have been more helpful if she tried and was an infectious joy to be around. 

Maybe my most favourite part of the night was that if you spent over £20, you got a free bag of loot worth at least another twenty squid....I managed £40..with ease... I'm going to do a separate little post on all the treats that I got free as this post is turning into a tome, so expect the blog to be a little Lush heavy over the next few weeks. If I know you lot though, you seem to love Lush as much as me so it shouldn't be too painful for y'all.

So how did I find my night round the table at Lush? Cake and Tea? Check. Delicious products? Check. Even more delicious people? Check. I needn't say more really. You know I'm in big love; I know I'm in big love- done deal. 

Lush The Olive Branch

Sometimes we can be a fickle bunch of shits and completely forget all the oldie products that we love in favour of the newest kids on the block. So today's post is about one of my oldie but goodies and its The Olive Branch by Lush.  

What the lovelies at Lush say:

 "Fairtrade olive oil, fresh mandarins, bergamot oil and vine leaves. We’ve crammed the whole Mediterranean diet into this bottle – well, all bar the pasta, because that isn't lovely on your skin like the rest"

There isn't really a time this isn't in my bathroom now. I got this in a box initially and I must have walked past it on the shelf a thousand times and not paid it a blind bit of notice. I'd smelt The Body Shops Olive range before and wasn't keen so when I saw this poking out of the box I thought " Oh bumhole...can palm it off on someone probably" Uurgh I can be such a tit and I'm so glad I actually thought to give this a smell before I passed it onto someone else. The smell is heaven and even though it is packed with Sicilian Olives its not just them that you smell but also citrusy notes of Mandarin and Bergamot.

Also thanks to that olivey oil it's really hydrating and leaves your skin super soft. You have to give it a good shake before applying as it separates into two layers, the creamier products and the oils so jive about your bathroom for a few seconds before you bung it on. You could just shake it, but jiving is just much more bettered...

There is one small downside to the product and thats the price....abit... If you are a normal person and buy normal amounts of this then it's a brilliant little 'treat' item. Only because I'm such an Olive Branch whore I go through quite a bit of it. At £14.95 for 500ml its not the cheapest of shower gels but I don't drink, I don't smoke so this is my selfish, indulgent product.

Do any of you kids use The Olive Branch? If not, do!!! Do so now!!!

Burt's Bees Tips to Toes Review

Well I got this about 2 weeks ago now, but I really wanted to give it a good and thorough testing before I let you know what I thought about it. For years I have wanted a Burt's Bees collection and obviously you can buy online but I much prefer buying in person so you get to have a good sniff, so these are my first ever Burt's Bees products. You have to remember I live in a place where tracksuits are the fashion du jour and until recently, we didn't really get products like this in the shops- crazy I know... Being the glutton that I am, instead of just having a little Burt's nibble, I'm having a feast. These beauties all came in sample sizes so god forbid, I didn't like any of it, I wasn't stuck with a great big bottle of it and an even bigger hole in my pocket. 

First thing I noticed about this little set aside from the cute little packages- the smell. As soon as you are near the box you can smell all these yummy pudding creamy fruity smells. On that alone I was nearly won over.

The first thing I tried is the Almond Milk Hand Cream. Oh my days... This is heaven in a tiny pot. First of all I love the look of it. Second that smell- Jesus Christ its good! Almondy, milky, creamy.....yum! I thought that you wouldn't really get very much out of it, a few goes maybe due to the size, which I would have been happy with but after two weeks use; maybe once or twice a day, Im not even half the way through. Its just so thick and sumptuous. 

Next, the lemon butter cuticle cream. Exactly what it says on the tin, this smells of the best homemade lemon pie you have ever eaten. It comes in a tin a bit smaller then a vaseline tin but I'm not even making a dint on it yet. Cream it isn't really, wax it is and I rub my finger round the surface to warm it up a little then the product thats warmed onto my finger gets rubbed onto my cuticles. I don't particularly suffer with dry cuticles but I do get really dry skin down the sides of my nails sometimes that looks a little flaky and this has zapped them a treat. There's not one on my fingers at the min!

The Honey and Grapeseed Oil Hand Cream is exactly what I imagined a Burt's product to smell like. It a medium consistency cream and is great to have in your handbag instead of the Beeswax Hand Cream as it sinks in really quick so its great for on the go. 

This hasn't left my side this week and is a great little lip balm.  Maybe the least strong smelling of the products but still delicious. On the stick it looks red tinted but on the lips it gives a beautiful clear shine. I usually never leave the house without a pot of vaseline on me but now its going to be this. You know I moaned to you all last week about how I had dry lips and It made my Rouge Volupte look a tad cakey- this sorted that problem out in a few days and now it glides on beautifully. 

 I think that if my Grandad ever used a hand salve- which he never would, ever! It would be this... It smells gorgeously herbal. I think there's some Lavender and some Sage in there, think along those lines. I have probably used this the least but its probably the one that I have just picked up and smelled the most. Again its wax like and I use it the same as the cuticle cream but for really dry areas. I don't have stupidly dry hands and I know it's not its intended use but I've been sticking it on my cracked heels and dry bits of my feet and its already starting to make a difference and I have the worlds grimmest feet ever.

Lastly is the Coconut Foot Cream. Again, smells heavenly... The texture is an odd one, it reminds me of sap from a tree? Twatty comparison I know but it's the closest thing I can think of to compare it to. Maybe honey like- but thick honey... This isn't a product for on the go and I now have an evening ritual of doing my feet before bed and popping some socks on to sleep in as this is really thick that it would get everywhere without them. My foot tattoo, due to the nature of how quickly you shed skin from your feet- bork- sometimes looks a little dull but the minute I wack on a layer of this it really pops! 

So I think you can tell really that I'm in love. I know I'm behind the times on this brand but I'm just in heaven that I have found it. This set was £12 I think- AND was on 3 for 2 at Boots. I thought that it may give me a couple of goes at each product, just to kind of pick out ones that I like and that I think have potential etc but I am still luxuriating in its company 2 weeks later without even a hint of any of them being close to the end- especially those little waxy tins. If I needed it I wouldn't even hesitate to buy any of these products again. They are totally boss and I know they are mass produced and everything but they just feel like a lot of love has gone into getting them just perfect and I am sending that love back ten fold Mr Burt!

me being a nob....

Its weird how when you start blogging you are literally prattling away to yourself in the blind hope that some like minded fools also agree with or enjoy whatever it is your harping on about....but its nice when you finally do start seeing your numbers going up and that people are interested in what you have to say. I know it's not any real validation as it's probably just a random computer generated thing- I'd like to think one of those old tombola style rotatey boxes with a big turney handle BUT my little mush did appear on the home page of HelloCotton today. Like I said, I know it's nada but to me it was a little bit of validation that my blog is actually out there getting seen by people...

UPDATE!!

Well how weird is this, I'd just logged on to have my lunch- cheese and pickle wrap and a chocolate soya yoghurt if you were a wondering and it was delicious..anywhoo.... I checked into my hellocotton account and I found this little note: 

Team Hellocotton Ha ha, it's not a computer generated thing dear :) The team actually hand picks every day a selection of the content they find most qualified to make it on the homepage! Feel free to correct it in your post, I think it makes a pretty big difference don't you ;) And congratulations to you and your blog! xx

Well how bloody lovely is that!? Sometimes I think that that these companies can be a little faceless and you only maybe get contact from them if they are changing a policy or something, but look at that! What a bloomin great service. Just wanted to let you kids know that if you are thinking of moving away from GFC and into another home then Hellocotton is a beautiful little nest of a place to be! 

scrabble mug love

I know its sad but I don't care... I love my new mug...that is all...

laser removal musings

Bit of a random blog post today but I still think that its Beabarella related. I want to have a bit of a witter about tattoos. I'm completely obsessed with them and would be covered in them like an old sailor lady if the Beau would let me. These are my feets tattoos (just like the sounds of feets....) The left one took three and a bit hours and after it was done I could only wear flip flops for a week because it swelled up so badly; to say it was painful is an understatement but I'm a hard ass mother flipper and manned it up- just about...

 I am getting a few additions though! At the minute I'm going through laser removal on an ill advised tattoo on my arm. Sorry about the shitty picture quality but at the time I never though I would really be showing them to anyone. 

So this is my cruddy tattoo before I got any work on it- not the clearest picture but you get this jist...It's on my right forearm, about the same size as a wineglass maybe and the worst tattoo ever. It's ridiculously badly executed- I still love what it means though. It's meant to say "True Love Never Dies"  and then has mine and the Beau's birthdays on it. I got it when we had been together maybe 5 months - yes I am one of those ridiculous people but were still together and now married 6 years later so there must be something in it. So after I got this tattoo I got the left foot one and just looking at the two there was no comparing- it made a bad tattoo even worse. Hence the laser removal.

So after one removal session it looked like this: 

and after my second one today it looked like this:

It's crazy how precisely it swells up!! I probably need 1 or 2 more sessions to get it to the stage where I can have it covered. Well, if I thought that a tattoo stung a little then it's nada compared to the laser but with each horrible little zap I'm one step closer to being able to cover this shitty piece with something beautiful. Its an odd process. The first session doesn't really remove any colour as your first go breaks down the collagen molecules that have wrapped themselves around the ink. It's your second, third, fourth etc that really get down to the nitty gritty of breaking the colour up so your body rejects it. It's costing me £30 per session so by the end I will have paid about three times more to get rid of it then I did to acquire it! Some people have said that they thought it would put me off the whole tattoo thing but it hasn't it's just made me think a lot more about what I REALLY want. I wish that was something I had done in the first place and if I ever give any advice to anyone about a tattoo it would be to really think about your design. Never rush into something like this. If you have a design you love, hide it, don't look at it for a month and then see that you still absolutely love it. If you are still obsessed with it being the one, then it probably is. Also get to know your tattoo artist. See their portfolio, check out their style. I'm a bit jammy as the person I am going to use has done a few on a friend and on the Beau yesterday and it looks great, bit of a difference between his and mine isn't it! 

In another 5-6 weeks I can have my next session, hopefully my last one and then I'm in the market for a beautiful Russian Doll on my arm. Im so giddy about getting her done and I think I'm going to be that little bit prouder of her when I think back on the punishment I've had to have for getting a bad one in the first place- I think it's some kind of penance to pay....

Have any of you lovelies had a tattoo that you regret or are you lucky enough to have yummy tattoos that you are proud of? Also have any of you had laser surgery and what do you think of it? Am I just being a wimp or does it hurt like hell? 

No7 Vital Brights Lipstick in Blooming Pink

Hello lovelies. Well finally, as promised a non nail polish post!! So I went into Boots to spend my birthday pennies and this display was the first thing that attracted my little peepers. The best thing was that I had a £5 off No7 voucher too! No7 vouchers are like the herpes of the cosmetics world, once you get one, you always have one knocking about somewhere....  So there were a few different blushers but at the minute I'm swamped in blushers so I thought I would go for a lippy instead and the one that caught my eye was this little beauty in Blooming Pink. Vital Brights is Boots new spring/summer range and in all honesty on looks I could have bought it all. I love the packaging, It's the main the reason I bought this really- I'm a sucker for a pretty box.

As well as looking pretty outside, I like the actual lipstick packaging itself. Its very simple, almost clinical looking but it really makes the colour sing out. Tres Chic! 

As for the innards, which is probably the bit your most interested in.... This is the flap from the Boots website: "Their lightweight texture gives a sheer, glossy finish while the moisture-rich formula delivers sumptuous, long-lasting colour."

I agree with a bit of it. The texture is lovely, part creamy, part glossy. It slides on wonderfully with no dragging. The first layer is very sheer but it can be built up to a brighter shade with a few more coats depending on how sheer or bright you want it so I wouldn't exactly call it sumptuous but it is a lovely colour. My lips are a little dry at the minute but it didn't make them look worse and has actually moisturised them a little. The thing that I really don't agree with was that it's long lasting. I would say it stayed on my lips roughly an hour but I imagine if your eating or drinking it would slip right off due to its glossiness. 

Taken without the flash

(god you can tell I have been in the sun for about 2 minutes, freckles all over the shop!) 

and with the flash...

This was with about 3 slicks of the lipstick as I like my colour with a bit of a pop. I really like the shade but there was one slight problem that due to the colour of the lippy, it made my teeth look ever so slightly yellow in some lights- not the best so make sure your packing some whitening strips if you smoke or drink a crap load of caffine. Don't let this put you off though because it was ever so slight but I just wanted to put it out there. The price was brilliant at £5 (normally £10 but I had my No7 voucher) and I would buy this again if I had a voucher knocking about, if I spent £10 on it I might be thinking that for another 3 quid, I could be getting a MAC which generally lasts a little longer on the lips. It is a lovely colour and has a yummy sheen to it. I don't think Boots are being completely honest with their bumf about it but don't let that it put you off because they are half right and an half the price this is an equation I can work with.