Holiday Fun in Ayrshire & Natural Souvenirs

This summer we have had to sacrifice going abroad on holiday to save for our big day next year, but we haven’t missed out on any fun with the beautiful weather we have had recently (amazing for Scotland).

Over the past few weeks the other half and myself have enjoyed the best our home region has to offer, including a lovely trip to the island of Cumbrae and a wonderful relaxing spa day at Lochside House Hotel and along the way I picked up a few wee natural souvenirs.

Our Island Getaway for a day
The one thing I love about living in Ayrshire is our trips across to the three islands; Arran, Cumbrae and Bute but by far my favourite is going to Cumbrae and visiting the town of Millport.

image from http://www.calmac.co.uk

There is something magical about Millport and every time I go there I feel like I’ve been transported aboard. The lovely sandy beach, seaside town and the palm trees which line the street add to the feel. Plus the fact that it has never rained anytime we have been and there is an amazing beer garden where we love to just sit, bask in the Scottish sun and look out across the sea, making it very easy to feel like you’re on holiday, even if you are just there for the day.

It really is a little gem of an island. We love to walk into the town from the ferry, which is only a 15 min journey from Largs in Ayrshire. However, the thing I love the most is the little shops in Millport town, where you can buy lots of amazing trinkets and gifts. The one thing I couldn’t resist buying this time was a cute little natural soy wax candle (£4.00), called Tinkerbelle (my love of Disney influenced this buy). It has a lovely soft, summer smell and when lit fills the room with a sweet scent. I’ve recently started exploring natural candles, so this was a timely buy.

Tinkerbelle natural soy wax candle

A relaxing sanctuary
The same week we went to Millport, we also went to our favourite place EVER! Lochside House Hotel in New Cumnock. If you are looking for a place that feels like home, somewhere to relax, where the staff are always friendly and helpful, where the rooms are stunning, the foods and cocktails are delicious and the spa and treatments are divine, then this is the place for you too.

Stunning Lochside House Hotel – image from http://www.ayrshireweddingdirectory.com

We first came across Lochside House Hotel when we were looking for somewhere to go to for my 30th. Our spa break and my birthday celebrations were followed by a proposal, which my other half blames the amazing setting for his importune proposal with a jelly Haribo ring. Not that I am complaining one bit 🙂 Lochside has had a place in our hearts ever since and its little wonder that we have chosen it as the venue for our big day next year.  Since my 30th we have went many times for lunch, dinner, to stay and especially to enjoy the spa and its facilities.

This time we went of a revive and relax package (they always do great deals), which included 1 hour in the thermal suite (steam room, sauna, Jacuzzi), 2 x 25 min treatments and a fruit smoothie in the relaxation room for only £44pp. I decided to have a relaxing shoulder, neck and back massage and a file and polish, it felt great to be pampered.

One of the things I really like about the spa at Lochside is that they use ESPA products for all their treatments. I LOVE this luxury brand and always treat myself to a little something when I go. In the past I have bought the bath oil, body oil and shower gel, but this time I tempted by ESPA’s new lip balm. I love a lip balm, I have way too many but for some reason I can’t stop myself buying them.

ESPA Lip balm

This Mandarin Lip Balm (worth £10) from ESPA is called Love Your Lips and is a little bit of luxury to soften, smooth and protect lips. It feels amazing on and you feel the benefits straight away.

The lip balm is enriched with a 100% natural formulation, with ingredients including Mandarin Essential oil for a sweet citrus flavour and aroma, Wild Mango Butter to condition, soften and smooth, Pomegranate to increase hydration and Rosemary to protect against environmental damage which can lead to premature ageing.

ESPA lip balm with its handy little mirror

I love that it includes a little mirror as well, making it easy to apply on the go.

Have you bought any little natural treats while on holiday?

Annmarie xx

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

 

{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 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