You Beauty Discovery Box - March

Last month I had introduced by way of subscription to the You Beauty Discovery Box which you can see here with its contents.  This month my second box has arrived and I have said I am equally impressed.

This months box is themed "Best of British" and when I got my email to let me know my options for selection was now ready, I really struggled to decide what to choose, but in the end managed it.

What I love is how the box fits through my letterbox, it is packed really delicately and the box really study:

Within the magazine which comes with the box we are told that the March shortlist (of products) is dedicated to home-grown beauty and skincare brands flying the flag for Great Britain on the worldwide stage.  I think this is a brilliant concept and the choices between the products was quite difficult as I have said, options included Aromatherapy Associates Inner Strength Bath and Shower Oil, Crabtree and Evelyn Rosewater Ultra moisturising hand therapy, Camomile Cleansing butter and muslin cloth from The Body Shop, Beautylab Glyco Face Wash, Orico Marine Radiance Serum, Paul Mitchell Dry Wash, John Freida Frizz Ease, Rimmel Matte BB Cream and Dr Lipp Nipple Balm.

Here are my choices:

As always with this subscription you get some extra treats and mine came in the form of some re-usable eyelashes from The Vintage Cosmetic Company called Gracie which cost £6.  The second treat is some Organic Tea from Dragonfly Tea, a British family company who are dedicated to bringing delicious artisan teas from around the world, so I am really looking forward to trying and I have been sent Moonlight Jasmine Organic Green Tea and Swirling Mist Organic White Tea. 

Then comes my actual selections.  As soon as I saw one of them there was no doubt it was going to go in my box - Dr Lipp Nipple Balm which I have blogged about HERE and it is just amazing and I use it every night before going to bed, this tube is 15ml which has an RRP of £11.  

The second product I chose was the BeautyLab GlycoWash which is suitable for the following skin types:

• Dull and Congested Skin
• Enlarged Pores
• Ageing Skin
• Uneven Pigmentation
• Sun Damaged Skin
• Acne Prone Skin

It is described as follows:

"A skin refining oil free 5% glycolic foaming gel with triggered release technology that works longer and deeper to remove impurities, unclogging pores refining and cleansing whilst helping to prevent future break-outs. Contains pomegranates enzymes, glycolic and salicylic acid infused microspheres, soothing willow bark and lavender"

A 200ml bottle of this product has an RRP of £32, my bottle is 100ml and therefore has a value of around £18.

So for a £6.95 subscription, my box has a value of around £36 which is amazing!

What do you think to do this? Do you subscribe to these boxes?

Next month the attention will be turned to all things Organic & Natural with no nasties, no nonsense, so I am really looking forward to seeing already.

Dirty Burger - The best burger ever?

It's not often I get excited about visiting a fast food shop, I live opposite a McDonalds, KFC, Wimpy and have so many other eateries such as Italian and Greek Restaurants that I could, if I could afford to, eat out every night of the week. But thankfully I don't live too close to Dirty Burger because I would become the size of a house. 

Introducing Dirty Burger...

I first came across Dirty Burger when my Hubby became obsessed with people tweeting pictures about it saying how good it was and for weeks we kept saying we would go and see what all the fuss was about and try it ourselves. Well since that fateful day, now all I want is another Dirty Burger.

Source

Situated in Kentish Town in London, you need to know the exact location before you leave home to find it or you might wonder up and down Highgate Road for hours looking for it. Infact when you do come across it, chances are you will walk right past it into the LA Fitness Gym which is just next door because Dirty Burger is not like Wimpy or McDonald's, it doesn't stand out on the high-street with a big golden 'M', infact when you do realise exactly where it is, you might look twice because it is a little wood shack at the back of another restaurant called Chicken Shed (similar to Nando's). Once inside you can see the look of confusion on the faces of those (like myself) visiting for the first time when it comes to wondering how it works. There is one big table in the middle of the shack with seats and then around the outside there are benches with stools scattered about, it isn't designed to be a place where you sit and chat for hours over the days events, you go in, get your burger, eat it or take it away - no fuss, no hassle.

Sometimes lack of choice is a good thing

Ordering, well again there are a few options to choose from. This place is open from 7am and until 11am there is a breakfast menu known as the 'Dirty Breakfast' which consists of Sausage and Egg or Bacon and Egg bun with bottomless tea and coffee for £3.50. Then from 11am you can have a Dirty Burger which is a cheeseburger and then there is an option of Crinkle Cut Fries and/or Onion Fries. You go to the till, place your order, take your receipt with a number on it and simply wait for them to call your number. Having retrieved your food, the fun starts.

The food is exceptionally immense, in all my time living in London; I have never loved a burger so much. The patties (as they are called) are so juicy and flavoursome they melt in your mouth when you bite into the burger, they use several cuts of beef including rib eye and bavette beef. As your burger cooks on the grill, you see the chef flipping it, adding cheese, pouring over some stock, covering it with a dome shaped lid, adding cheese, pouring more stock over it, adding the bun and repeating the process until the beef is cooked right through. Then added to the burger are gherkins which are so fresh they crunch as you bite into them, tomato, lettuce and an array of condiments including mayonnaise, all adding to the texture and taste of this amazing burger. The Crinkle cut fries are crunchy and tasty but for me even better than fries are the Onion Fries, deep fried in a cider tempura batter comes red onion in all its glory, they are a taste sensation but share them with someone because they are so filling. Your food is wrapped in a Dirty Burger wrapper once you unwrap it the smell that its you is amazing, the fresh burger smell, not like those nasty street vendor things that hide behind the scent of fried onions, no this burger smells fresh and as you take your first bite and some of it dribbles down your chin, you will be hooked. I am yet to read a review or see a tweet from someone not liking the food from this place. 

Drinky poo

There is also a drinks menu and a choice of water, tea, coffee, coca cola and so on but they also serve the best milkshakes ever with a choice of Vanilla, Strawberry or Chocolate. They are thick, rich, creamy and fruity and worth every penny of the £4 they cost, my favourite being Strawberry. If you have the burger, fries and onion fries it will cost you £10.50 but worth absolutely every single penny you pay for them. 

I simply Love It

I love Dirty Burger. The menu is simple, there is no choice and I like that, I know exactly what I am going to get and even now, having been back on more than one occasion, the food tastes just as good as it did the first time, though I am yet to try the breakfast menu. The food is freshly cooked whilst you wait, so you know that when you bite into it, it won't be cold in the middle or have that 'sitting on the hot plate' taste about it. Whenever I have been to Dirty Burger, it has been full of people eating, just eaten or waiting to eat and there are people from all walks of life in and out of there from the old to the young, to the office workers to the builders, it seems to attract everyone and you only have to Google the place, read the reviews and looks at the photos of the food to find out why.

If you live in London and haven't tried it, try it, you won't regret it. Dirty Burger does have its own website and everything you need to know can be found there and it also has a Twitter feed and a Facebook page.

Klorane Nettle Shampoo

When I saw a tweet asking for bloggers if they wanted to try a new shampoo, specifically for those of us who have greasy roots, I quickly signed up.  Klorane Nettle Shampoo* 
is designed for those of us who have oily hair, and it claims to allow you to skip a day of washing due to its scalp detoxing effects. 

The description given is:

"Detox your scalp with the Klorane Nettle Shampoo, a deeply cleansing formula for those prone to oiliness.

This gentle, effective treatment shampoo gives you more time between washes, working to regularise the amount of oil your scalp produces while slowing its spread throughout the hair. The star ingredient of the shampoo is scopoletine, an extract from nettle, which restores balance to the scalp.

Hypoallergenic and extremely mild, the Nettle Shampoo enhances volume and detangles for soft and bouncy hair that lasts. After sustained use, oil secretion is regularised, enabling you to wash your hair less frequently."

Well definitely worth giving it a try which I have been doing since the middle of January because I wanted to give it a decent amount of time to test rather than using it once, claiming it is brilliant, which I don't think would be very fair.

So the shampoo itself is bright green which isn't a surprise considering it contains nettle which was chosen for its content of scopoletine, which helps regulate sebum production and restore balance to the scalp. It is also hypoallergenic and extremely mild not to mention paraben free.

When using the shampoo, I found it to be quick thick in texture, meaning you don't need to use very much.  Once it comes into contact with water it immediately lathers and there is a slight scent too it, not too plant like as I was expecting, more a fresh scent which I really like.  Easy to wash out from my hair, if I am not going anywhere I tend to let my hair dry naturally, otherwise I dry with a hairdryer.  Once my hair had dried it was really soft and whilst I have natural curls, they were no challenge for my GHDs and I could style my hair without any problems.

So how did it fair?  Well I have to admit I did and still do get that one extra day between washing if I use this shampoo, so instead of washing my hair every other day, I can leave it to be washed every two days and the greasiness is just showing rather than looking as though I have poured oil all over my head.

I think this is a fantastic product and definitely one which will remain in my bathroom for some time to come.  It is currently on offer on Escentual for £4.50 and well worth giving it a try.

Have you tried this shampoo?

A Camera for the Iphone

When the beautiful Louise mentioned she had bought a Macro Lense for her iPhone I was intrigued, you can read her post HERE, but so impressed that I was straight on Amazon to order my own version.  After looking around I settled on the XCSource 180 Degree set which cost me just £6.79 - an absolute bargain!

I have mentioned a few times on my blog that the one thing that gets to me is my useless photos, mainly all taken with my iPhone because I always have it within my grasp and it is simple and easy to use.  So one of my aims was to improve my photography and this is just the start.

It features a detachable and portable clip which you attach to your phone and then place one of the three lenses in, a pouch to store all of your lenses and two lense covers.  The three lenses are as follows:

• Fish Eye Lense  - has a magnification of up to 180 degrees
• Wide Angle Lense
• Macro Lense

The photograph below shows two photographs, the first is taken using the Macro and Wide Angle lense together and the one below is taken just using my iPhone with no lense and the difference to me is quite amazing.

Once the clip is attached to the phone, all you need to do is twist the lenses into place and then you can twist them too and fro to get the right angle and ensure there is no blurring and then snap away.  The clip, which you can see below, is similar to a bulldog clip and once it is on your phone, it stays in place and doesn't move about, unless you move it.

As you can see from the photos above, the lenses fit really nicely into the clip and are easy to add and remove, which again is a bonus.

I have been using these lenses for a good month or so now, getting used to them, trying out new things and I think I have almost mastered the art, some of the photos that have appeared on my blog over the past few weeks have contained images taken using the camera, not sure whether any of you noticed or not - now there is a quiz to be had!

If you are looking for something like this, then it is compatible with the iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5S, 5C and the Samsung Galaxy S2, S3 and S4 to name a few of them.  Everything else they are compatible with is listed on Amazon.

Now obviously this is a quick fix solution and not as good as having a proper camera, but for a novice like me it has been a brilliant addition to my iPhone and something which gives me just that little bit more confidence when taking photos.

Have you got anything like this?