{A Redhead’s Review} Make Your Own Lip Balm Kit

A few weeks ago I reviewed the amazing products from the lovely Polly at Miss Polly Skincare.  In the post I mentioned a new project which Polly had recently launched – her Make Your Own Lip balm Kit and I was excited to try it.

For Valentines my other half let me choose my own treat and I eagerly picked the kit to try and I’m pleased to say it doesn’t let Polly down and it made me just as ‘glad’ as the rest of her products have.

I’ve never been massively successful before with make your own things, I was always wishing for the ‘here’s one I made earlier moment’ when I attempted anything homemade.  I love reading DIY posts by green bloggers Annie over at Hello Purple Clouds and Rachel over at All Natural Aspirations and always wish I had half of these lovely ladies talent! So I was really keen to try Miss Polly’s lip balm making kit which promised to be simple and easy.  As a fan of Miss Polly’s lip balm I didn’t honestly believe the product I could make would be a patch on the original so I was pleasantly surprised with how good they turned out!

The kit comes in a nice well presented box and contains the jars, ingredients, labels and instructions you need to make 5 smooth and creamy lip balms. You can choose from 6 flavours: Tutti Fruity, Chocolate, Peppermint, Mandarin, Pink Grapefruit or unflavored.

The ingredients including organic shea butter, white beeswax, avocado oil, sweet almond oil, flavouring are the same natural ingredients that Polly herself uses in her Miss Polly skincare products.

The instructions are so easy to follow, even the super simple instructions and the ambitious traditional instructions which Polly says she follows herself can be followed by the likes of me.  The easy microwaveable instructions allow you to make lip balm in only 15 mins, both preparation time, cooking and cooling!  Whilst the other instructions a hob based cooking method, which although a bit more complicated I personally think made the better batch. takes a bit longer and more patience.

I tried both methods with 2 different sets of ingredients – one peppermint and one mandarin.  The peppermint I made in the microwave and was amazed by how fast and very easy it was and how quickly the balm cooled and was ready to use.  The hob method took a little bit longer but as I said I think this was a better method as the balm was extra creamy.

I said I was pleasantly surprised about how good all the lip balms turn out which is actually an understatement I was so pleased and  felt quite proud of myself 🙂 it feels great to use something I have actually made and made well.

This really is an amazing gift to give someone or even yourself, its fun and your lips will thank you for the creamy balm which smooths them nicely without any nasty parabens & petroleum.

Go ahead give it a try you won’t be disappointed!

RRP £16.95 or £15.00 until 28th Feb

Let me know what you thought of my first ever make your own or tell me if you have found any great kits like this?

Thanks for reading,

Annmarie xxx

{A Redhead’s Wedding Rambles} Picture Perfect Wedding?

Forgive me if I stray from my normal topic of beauty & health to talk about an extremely important date that’s happening next year – the day I become Mrs A Payne! (Yip I know before you even say it I will become ‘a pain’ – its 100% guaranteed that this is going to be the start of my dad’s speech…).  So over the next year & 9months there will be a splattering of posts on my blog dedicated to my journey to wedded bliss.  I will try to keep my Bridezilla moments to a minimal and hopefully there wont be too many cry’s for help and tears of frustration instead of joy, but if any wife’s out there who have navigated the minefield that is organising a wedding or any future brides who are on the same journey want to give me so advice I am all ears!!!!

So far since we got engaged things have just fell into our laps and our wedding has been coming together naturally such as the venue and finding my dream dress 1 year earlier than I was even supposed to start looking…!  But last week my other half Paul and myself did the stressful thing and started writing our list of what we still need to organise.  Paul has his little list of what he has to organise – the band, piper, my car and the kilts so you should have seen his wee face when he saw the rest of the list! His cry of what the ‘bleep’ are favours was followed by ‘ehhhhh we better get saving hard!’.

The next natural step was to haul my butt to a wedding fayre which I did on Sunday with my wee mamma in tow.  It was great to get some more ideas & inspiration, as well as some free makeup, a hand massage & sweeties!  The good stuff aside the big shock of the day was how expensive photography is.  What shocked me the most was that what I had budgeted for photography and the video seemed to be what it costs (basic package as well) for the photography only!  I’m telling you our mum’s had it so right back in the day when it was a family friend that took the pictures and a pal of your dad’s that took the shaky video, that every so often goes blurry or cuts off people’s heads.  Okay okay I admit it that’s not what I want, I at least want that one perfect picture of me and Paul and a nice video that we can look back and watch with the future kids and enjoy. But one thing I don’t want is for the photography and video to cost almost the same as the actual wedding!  So the lesson I learned on Sunday was that I will need to shop about for the best deal, try to keep it simple like we want our wedding to be and try not to stress too much.

I really want our wedding day to be special but I don’t want to start our married life together in debt so any wedding cost saving ideas you lovely ladies (or gorgeous gentlemen) have I would looooooove to hear them.  So far I have a friend making my cake and tablet favours at a fraction of the cost of a usual cake and I am considering silk flowers instead of real flowers for my wedding bouquet.  Any other great ideas????

Look out for my other posts coming soon about knowing the right venue for you & how I found my dream dress by going to only one shop!

❤ Annmarie xx

Going Green Tag

I received the Going Green Tag from two very lovely bloggers today, Annie from Hello Purple Clouds and Liz from Liz the green spirit, both of who have been a great inspiration to me in exploring the world of green living. Thanks ladies it was very nice to feel popular and also for recognising my goal to start making greener, better & healthier choices!  This great tag was created by Rachel, who is another blogger I am learning so much from, at  All Natural Aspirations, well done Rachel, this is a great idea and another amazing way to get to know more green bloggers.

The tag rules are as follows:

1. Link back to the tag creator and the person who tagged you

2. Answer the questions

3. Tag a few other greenbloggers

So let’s get on with The Tag questions ….

What started it all off for you?

I’m only a newbie blogger and even newer to the going green world but I am learning so much from the green blogging community. Discovering great natural beauty products and opening my eyes up to all the crazy chemicals which are polluting my everyday life!  Also started working for A.Vogel UK, the herbal remedy company last year, which has really expanded my knowledge of natural remedies and the power of nature to heal and protect us. Alfred Vogel is my new hero, an inspiration and a legacy I am learning from every day.

What was the first thing to go? (ingredient or product)?

Vaseline!  Got a wake up call a couple of weeks ago and a lesson on why Vaseline wasn’t helping my dry lips from my green blogger friends, I have not touched it since and several full tins have made their way straight into my bin.

What are you/did you struggle to let go of?

I think it will be dry shampoo! Cue the stuck in of  breath as I say the dreaded dry shampoo word!!!! I know it’s so bad and I really need to try to find a natural/green alternative to controlling my oily hair.

What has been your best find or change? (i.e. a green product or a tip that you’re really glad you’ve found/learnt)

Lily Lolo French Flirt Lippie – my first ever natural make up product and now a firm favourite, makes me feel sexy, confident and proud – no other lippie has ever done that before!  Also discovering Miss Polly natural skincare range and my best friend this winter Echinacea tincture, which has so far keep me fighting fight and cold free.

What has been the worst thing about going green?  What has been the hardest to transition or find an adequate green replacement for?

I can’t think of any at the moment as I am a wee newbie so it’s all about new discoveries just now and excited to find out what I am going to learn next.

Anything else to add?  Any tips or tricks to pass on?

Take things slow, explore and discover as much as possible, learn from people who know best. Get involved in the green blogging community on Twitter & Bloglovin, if these truly lovely ladies inspire you half as much as they have inspired me you will be very happy.

So now its my turn to do the tagging so I TAG the following lovely people:

Jenny from Red Fox Diaries

Evelyn from We were Raise by Wolves 

Ria from NatruRia Beauty

{A Redhead’s Review} Miss Polly made my skin ‘glad’

A few years ago I was lucky enough to win a giveaway on Twitter and my prize was, I am very glad to say, a Miss Polly product.  It was the first time I had heard of Miss Polly and her natural skincare range, even though she is a fellow Ayrshire lady! The product I won – her Repairing Foot Treatment, was not only my first ever natural product but the first of several Miss Polly products I would try.

So I may be showing my age here but when I heard of Miss Polly I automatically reminisced about watching one of my favourite films as a kid – Pollyanna, and her glad game!  However now whenever I hear Miss Polly mentioned it isn’t Hayley Mills whimsical charm that has me ‘glad’ but rather its Miss Polly’s amazing natural products!

Miss Polly Natural Skincare is dedicated to making wonderful skincare using the finest natural ingredients possible. Everything is handmade by Polly herself in small batches so you can be sure your skincare is fresh and long-lasting.  And every Miss Polly product is free from parabens, sulphates and artificial fragrances, as well as kind and gentle to sensitive skin – which is perfect for me.

In January Miss Polly had a sale so I decided to snap up her best-selling product and try it for the first time.  And I can say my dry skin is very glad I did!

A lovely blend of essential oils and natural plant oils, Miss Polly promises her Radiant Skin Rosehip Facial Skin (£16.95) will soften, nourish, repair and protect skin and I can gladly say it did just that for me.  If you have been reading my blog you will know that I have been battling a war on dry skin lately.  Since I turned 30 my skin condition seems to have changed dramatically and I have been trying to perfect my cleansing & moisturising routine.  This little moisturising  gem has proved its worth and fitted itself nicely into my new routine.  I now use this every night after I have fully cleansed and I am starting to really see the benefit of it, my face feels softer, more nourished and perhaps not radiant yet but there is a hint of a glow appearing.

A wonderful treatment for normal, dry and sensitive skin types the little 30ml bottle of joy contains some lovely oily goodness including rosehip oil, jojoba oil, meadowfoam oil, apricot oil, vitamin E, lavender, geranium and rosewood essential oils.

This isn’t the first Miss Polly product I have used.  The first I tried, as I mentioned above was her Peppermint Repairing Foot Treatment (£12.00)

I often get dry cracked heels and when I used this for the first time I was amazed at how quickly it helped, even my other half started stealing it.

We both used it nightly and as promised it helped our feet get back into tip-top condition pretty quickly.  The 45g pot lasts for ages as you only need a small amount and ingredients include organic shea butter, cocoa butter, safflower oil and vitamin E.  The peppermint essential oil cools the skin instantly, while the organic shea butter and cocoa butter aids skin repair.

The next product after this that I tried was Miss Polly’s Lip Balm (£4.95) .  I went for peppermint, however you can also choose from Mandarin or Pink Grapefruit.

This paraben & petroleum free lip blam is great for dry and cracked lips.  I recently had problems with dry lips and some of my fellow green beauty bloggers reminded me of why I should be ditching my vaseline and I remembered how much I love Miss Polly’s lip balm.

Talking about lip balms, Miss Polly has just launched an exciting introduction to her skin care range – Make you own lip balm kit,  so instead of a new pot I think I may treat myself to this little kit.

You can choose from the following flavours: Tutti Fruity, Chocolate, Peppermint, or unflavored. The kit makes  5 x 10ml lip balms and includes 5 jars, full instructions and 5 personalise labels.  There is a SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER at the moment on the Miss Polly website.  You can buy the kit for ONLY £15 UNTIL FEB 28TH (£16.95  thereafter).

In my opinion Miss Polly skincare products are amazing, packaging charming, Polly herself is lovely and her customer service is so friendly, so if you haven’t discovered this great natural skincare collection already then check out her full range, you will be GLAD you did, I know I am!

Please note this is not a sponsored post, the items I mention have all been bought and used by me (except the make your own lip balm kit), photography is from Miss Polly website, because my camera wouldn’t take nice enough pictures.

Thanks for reading,

Annmarie x