Spring/Summer Green Beauty Swap with Jen

When I started my blog and journey to discover more about green beauty in December I was immediately drawn to several bloggers and especially their blog posts about a Green Beauty Swap they had just taken part in.  I was so envious of these lovely bloggers as they were receiving some amazing products, but I was also very grateful as it help introduce me a whole heap of new products and brands.

The Green Beauty Swap was organised by Ria from NatuRia Beauty and when she announced she would be organising another swap for Spring/Summer, I immediately jumped at the chance to get involved.  This time it was open to international bloggers as well, but since I’m still a wee newbie I decided to stay within the UK and I got paired with the truly lovely Jen from Jen’s Green Skincare.  I’ve been a fan of Jen’s blog for a while, so it was really nice to get to know her better during the swap.  After agreeing our budget (a budget Jen obviously did not keep too, not that I am complaining one bit lol), as well as exchanging details about our likes and dislikes and skin conditions etc we were ready to begin shopping.

I have to say I didn’t realise how much fun it would be to shop for someone else. I really tried to think about what Jen might like and re-read a lot of her blog posts to understand her likes and more. I really wanted to send her products and a brand she hadn’t heard of before or tried, so I picked a few things from a company I have just recently came across – Moogoo Skincare.  I even bought myself the products as well, I just couldn’t resist, so  look out for a review on them coming soon.  I also knew that she had tried Salt of the Earth natural deodorant, so was really keen to send her the new Pure Aura fragranced natural spray deodorant. I hope she likes these and everything else I sent.

But now onto my amazing box from Jen, which I have to say totally took my breath away. I couldn’t believe the amazing products and the amount of items she sent, so to say she is very kind and extremely generous is an understatement.

Opening my box and ripping open the beautifully wrapped products was like my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one.  I was so excited all morning, waiting for the post cart in my work to come round and when I got my box and thrashed through it, I was not disappointed one bit.

The first thing that I unwrapped and instantly loved was a parcel curiously labelled – My Favourite! Inside was a jar of biona Organic Virgin Coconut Oil (200g). The serendipity of it is that I was just speaking about trying Coconut oil last night, so I am super excited to give this a go. I think I will use it as a skin moisturiser and I’m sure it will become a firm favourite of mine too.

The next item I unwrapped was Bodhi & Birch Desert Rose Rejuvenating Face Oil  (5ml), which I cannot wait to try.  I have heard amazing things about Bodhi, and I know it’s a favourite brand of a few of my lovely blogger friends, so I am excited to try my first ever Bodhi product – I am sure it wont be my last.

Next up was a Collagen Face Pack from Naisture. I love a face mask, so cant wait to have a pamper night and use this. The mask promises to improve your skin’s elasticity and firmness and provide an intense, immediate and continuous moisturising feeling and smooth, sensitive skin – yes please I will take some of that!

I am a such a fan of lip balms, especially tinted lip balms, so I was really happy that Jen  also included Hurraw Black Cherry Tinted Lip Balm and Balm Balm’s Rose Geranium Lip Balm. The ironic thing is I also got her Balm Balm Lip Balm and when wrapping it up actually thought I should have bought one for myself – so thanks for predicting that one Jen 🙂

I’m growing my hair just now. I want long enough hair to put up for my wedding, so I am wearing it down and full a lot just now.  Therefore Jen’s next wee treat will come in very handy – Yarok’s Feed Your Roots Volume Enhancer Mousse.  This will be my first green hair product, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it works for me.

Another two brands I have heard a lot about and not tried yet are Dr.Bronner and Neals Yard Remedies, so glad that Jen included Pure Castile Magic Soap from Dr.Bronner and  Geranium & Orange Foaming Bath, both of which smell divine.

As well as all of this, Jen treated me to lots of samples and wee goodies including One Love Organics Olo Skin Care Routine, John Masters Organics Shampoo, Conditioner and Body Milk, Fresh Therapies Natural Nail Polish Remover, Rahua Conditioner, Aurelia Miracle Cleanser, Le Soin Repulpant Masque, Neo Organic Bath Oil, Pai Cleanser, Reu Morocan Rose Bath Oil, Everything Balm and the Raw Chocolate Co Organic Raw Chocolate Goji Berries (which look very very yummy) – phew now that’s a lot of amazing products to get through!

I just want to say a huge, massive, enormous, gigantic thank you to Jen for all these amazing treats and I have loved getting to know you better through this swap.  I hope you love your box as much as I have loved mine.

This experience has been so much fun and I cannot wait to read about everyone else’s swaps.  I would highly recommend this to everyone, I have loved getting involved and I will definitely join in again for the next swap. Thank you so much to Ria for organising all of this and another BIG thank you to my swap partner Jen – cant wait to read your blog post.

UPDATE: You can check out what Jen got from me in her Green Beauty Swap post here and find out if she liked her box as much as I liked mine!

Annmarie x

My First Ever Beauty Box – Souk Souk May Box

I took AGES to decide which green beauty box to try and after looking at all the past boxes I finally decided to go with Soux Soux Little Green Box.  After reviewing the past products featured, deciding the price was really good value and finally purchasing my first box I eagerly awaited its arrival.  Unfortunately living in a flat means that I get greeted with a little annoying red slip from Royal Mail more times that I care to mention, which means I am a regular at the collection office rescuing my undelivered parcels.

How does this matter you ask, well it meant that I saw several blog posts from my other lovely fellow green beauty bloggers about the May box, before I actually got it. Obviously I could have ignored their posts, but I was too eager to see what was inside, so I had to peek.  What greeted me was a box which didn’t seem to inspire many and on reading the list of products I felt the same. So instead to running happily to the post office to get my FIRST box, I decided to wait till the weekend, as I didn’t feel like I needed to rush.

Don’t get me wrong there are still some great items in the box, but I feel the Mistral products really lets it down. They  remind me of a giftset your granny would get a Christmas! And even though they smell great, the 2 products have a kind of old feel to them.  What really concerned me as well was the disappointment in ingredients that other more experienced green bloggers highlighted. This really disappointed me and worried me as well, especially since I am depending on this box to expand my knowledge of green beauty – not a great start!

I think the two saving graces of this box is the Essential Care Replenishing Cream and the SpaRitual nail varnish (although I do wish I got the bright green shade which another lovely blogger got!). This was my first time trying a natural nail varnish and I have heard horror stories of how bad they are to use, but this one seems to have a great coverage.

All in all it was a good box, but not a great box and for my first box I was really hoping to be blown away – here’s hoping next months is back to its best!  I have faith that it will, especially after seeing previous boxes and reading about how much my fellow green bloggers love SouxSoux.

What’s in the May Box:

Mintral Verbena Petit French Soap 50g (RRP £3.50)

Minstral Verbena Extra Rich Body Lotion 60ml (RRP £4.75)

SpaRitual Nail Lacquer 15ml (£9.75)

SpaRitual Handprint Hand Serum 7.4ml (£2.00)

Essential Care Organic Avocado Replenishing Cream 15ml (£7.50)

Have you received this box too? What did you think of it this month?

{A Redhead’s Review} Lily Lolo Eyebrow Duo

My little makeup bag of natural alternatives is really starting to fill up now, so much so that last Sunday when I went out for lunch with friends in Glasgow, my makeup (all except my mascara and eyeliner) was completely natural products, which I was really proud of.

Next month I plan to try a few mascaras and eye liners, but this month my best buy had to be Lily Lolo’s NEW Eyebrow Duo. I have always used an eyebrow pencil and actually only started using a wax and powder combination at the start of this year, so when Lily Lolo announced that they were launching this new product, I was really keen to try it. I always find that no matter how good I do my eye makeup, if I don’t define my eyebrows, my face just isn’t complete.

Promising beautifully defined brows, Lily Lolo’s Eyebrow Duo (£7.99) combines a natural formula grooming wax with a tinted setting powder, available in 3 shades. I choose the medium shade as I like my eyebrows to really stand out, but you can also choose light or dark. I love the effect the wax has, holding my brows perfectly in place, whilst the pressed powered define them and fill in all the wee gaps for a flawless look. I highly recommend the Eyebrow Duo – its long lasting and a great price and really does give you beautiful brows!

I teamed the duo with the recommended Angled Brow Spoolie Brush (£6.49), which is perfect for applying the wax and powder. The angled tip makes it ideal to shape your brows and apply the duo perfectly.

This has been a great little addition to my natural make up collection and is now officially a firm favourite in my daily makeup routine. I love the results, what do you think?

Have you tired Lily Lolo’s new Eyebrow Duo yet? Let me know what you think. Plus I would love to hear any natural mascara or eyeliner recommendations you have, to help my project for next month and add these to my make up collection.

So Long, Farewell Miss Polly…Hello Make with Mum!

I have to admit, I LOVE getting post.  Even if it’s just a letter, I love to rip it open and see what’s inside. So you can just imagine how I am when I receive parcels! I am like a kid at Christmas. But last week I receive a parcel that I was both excited and sad to receive. Excited because I knew it contained some amazing products which I couldn’t wait to use, but sad because it would be the last parcel of these products I would ever receive! The reason – the lovely Polly from Miss Polly Natural Skincare has decided to stop making her amazing and natural skincare range.

I saw on Facebook a few weeks ago a message from Polly which announced that she was closing down Miss Polly after 4 years in business. This instantly made me sad as not only was Miss Polly my first very natural product, but they also started me on my journey to going green with my beauty and skincare choices and her range quickly became my favourite natural brand.

She announced that her skincare products would go on sale so I quickly snapped up a few last items.  The only mistake I made was purchasing a product I haven’t bought before – her Lavender & Rosewood Intensive Hand Care.  The mistake being that the hand cream is so good, that its going to be hard to replace it when it finally finishes! In the package was also a lovely note from Polly to thank me for my order and support – now that is good customer service.

Lovely note from Miss Polly herself

But wait there is some good news! I saw on Facebook the other day that her lip balms are kind of staying!  She launched a Make your Own Lip Balm Kit early this year which I reviewed and loved, so I was very very happy to hear that I would still be able to buy this.  I just need to work my way through my Miss Polly Lip Balm haul now.

Make with Mum

The other good new is she has started a new venture  – Make with Mum which focuses on quality craft kits to be enjoyed by children and adults alike for fun family time.

I would just like to wish Polly all the luck in the world for her new venture and let her know her products will be missed but I’m excited to see what else she has to offer.

Annmarie xx

 

Home is where the heart is…

This week has been rather emotional as I helped my parents pack up 25 years and say goodbye to my childhood home. Sure I haven’t lived there now in over a decade, but it didn’t make locking the door on that happy home any easier. After days of packing, lifting and moving you would have thought we would have been glad to see the back of it, but as my mum and myself locked up for the last time, the both of us walked away with tears in our eyes.

We moved into the house when I was just 7 years old and boy was it a great house to grow up in. Its garden backed onto fields, which as a child I explored every inch and had lots adventures with my brother and friends and climbed many a tree (from which I have many a scar). I never hesitate at saying I had a great childhood. True we had problems like many families (broken home, money worries, loss of family members etc.) but when I think back to my time in that house I can only think of the good times. From a young girl the house saw me grow into a woman, from my first Barbie doll to my first love and then onto being my haven after my first big heartbreak. It also saw my journey from primary and secondary school, onto college and university and finally it welcomed me home after a long week at work.

The move hasn’t been all sad. As they say move onto bigger and better things, well in my parent’s case it’s actually smaller and better – a 2 bed new build with a back door which is easy for my elderly dog to get in and out more. I was worried about how our wee dog Cassie would manage the move but she seems to have settled well and loves her garden, it’s going to be pretty hard to get her to come in this summer! I did get my mum and dad some Jan de Vries Animal Emergency Essence – a Bach flower remedy for pets for Cassie and they added it to her water for a week before the move and will continue to use it for a few weeks until things had fully settled down. Whether this has help or she is just happy not to have to climb stairs several times a day I’m not sure – am just happy she is happy.

The one thing I did love though was the crazy stuff my parents found, especially when clearing out the loft. Not only was there a mammoth amount of Bunty & Mandy annuals (who else used to get one every year?) but there was so many teddies and the best find of all was a big box full of my old Nancy Drew books. I used to really want to be a police woman and was convinced I would be a great detective like Nancy (pity about my lack of height). I may even give a few of them a read before I pack them away again in my own loft (I don’t have the heart to give them away, took me too long to collect them).

So as they say, home is where the heart is (which I truly believe), and although we have closed the door on my childhood home, wherever my parents live I know I am always welcomed and loved there and I can always call it home, so here’s to many years ahead of creating more great memories in their new home.

Anyone else had to say goodbye to a childhood home? Or have you done a big clear out and found something you forgot all about? I would love to hear about it.

Annmarie xx