Introducing Ilumi

When I see and hear the words "Wheat Free this, Gluten Free, Low Carb and Zero Fat" my immediate reaction is eyes rolling looking elsewhere because so far all my experiences with food within this range has been tasteless mush akin to gruel.  Everywhere you look when food shopping now has big says and even their own sections pointing out that this Gluten Free or Wheat free and it has become a bit of a trend, so many of my friends have now swapped to both varieties when choosing food.

A few weeks ago I was invited down to quaint little cafe called Vozars in Brixton. Vozars is London's first Cafe that is fully wheat and gluten free and my reason for being there was to try a gluten free dinner with Ilumi. Most of you, like me probably will have never heard of Ilumi, but they are a cooking brand who make gluten, wheat, dairy and nut free products suitable for home cooking. With home cooking in mind, the Ilumi food is sold is pouches which can be quickly heated in the microwave, and can also be heated on a hob if the contents are transferred to a saucepan first or you can heat the pouches by immersing them in boiling water. So already this is a simple form of cooking that anyone can do and if you are still unsure, all the information you need is on the pouches anyway.

Now I will be honest and say that It wasn't an event I was looking forward too, I didn't think I would enjoy myself and fully expected to leave hungry, after all my taste buds so far had been almost killed off with trying gluten and Wheat free foods and nor was it something I would ever opt for out of choice. 

Ilumi state:

"At ilumi, our absolute guiding principle is to make food that tastes great for everyone to enjoy. Nut-, gluten- and milk- free shouldn't mean free from taste - and with ilumi, it doesn't".

Hmm well okay, I was prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt and go to the event with an open mind.

At the time of the event, Illumi had just launched their Asian flavours range, and to go with each course there was a specially chosen wine which also happened to be gluten free (the mind boggles) or a beer which guess what - also gluten free!.  

The first course we sat down with was Sweet Five Spice and Chilli Pork with some rice and it is described as follows:

The spicy aromatics of this dish come from the Chinese 5 spice, with hints of star aniseed, cinnamon, fennel, cloves and black pepper - these combine with the honey to give a dish that is powerfully fragrant & spicy but subtly sweet.

With this, I was surprised to find that actually I really liked it, it was full of flavour, you could see the pork and it wasn't very cardboard like in flavour.

The second dish was Beef in Black Been sauce and again as with the first course, it was full of flavour, had different textures and the meat most clearly present. 

Described as follows:

" The unique slightly salty, bitterness of the fermented black beans gives a caramelised note and a depth to this Asian dish much as an ale does to a classic beef stew! The beef is cooked in a sauce made from the black beans, along with chili, garlic, soy, vinegar, and a touch of sugar...a great balance of salt, sweet, sour and heat!"

The third dish was Chicken Laska which is described as follows:

The wonderfully aromatic ilumi Laksa uses a wonderful coconut base sauce, to which we add our marinated chicken, and many aromatic ingredients including lime leaves, ginger, tamarind, red chilli and turmeric. This dish is truly warming, perfect balanced with a kick of chilli.

Well it was a lot creamier than the previous two dishes but again full of flavour, a bit of a kick from the chilli and again you could see the meat and so far my favourite dish of the three we had tried so far.  

The final dish was vegetable biriyani, not something I would ever choose out of choice, if I am choosing a meal there will always be a meat in there somewhere but I was surprised at how filling it was and how tasty it was.  Described as follows:

"The biryani dish originates from Persia before making its way to India and establishing itself as an Indian favourite. There are many variations of biryani and our delicious ilumi version adds one more to that long list! This mild aromatic rice dish is full of flavour from spices such as cardamom, cloves, coriander and cumin, and includes lots of fabulous vegetables!"

If that wasn't enough, at the end of all these dishes there was a beautiful platter of cakes presented to those present and placed in the middle of the table and yeah I know what you are all thinking, were they also gluten free, well the answer is yes they were and they had been made by Vozars themselves. Now I love cake, I am not going to lie, show me cake and my pupils dilate with excitement, I love it, but a gluten fee version, hmmm that is either going to be stodgy and tasteless or a mixture if the two right? No totally wrong, infact they were absolutely tasty, full of flavour, quite light and airy and not at all stodgy.

The experience was something I did enjoy and the Illumi team being on hand to answer all the questions my mind had going round was really helpful.  Outside of my own world and existence there are people who simply need food that is wheat and gluten free and the fact someone has come up with something that is so simply to use and tasty is amazing.  As we left, feeling very full and slightly surprised that I enjoyed the food so much and with an amazing goody bag too. 

Whether you are a fan of Gluten free food or whether you have simply not tried it because like me you judged a book by its cover before trying it, I really would recommend Ilumi products to try and if you are feeling a tad more adventurous and are in and around Brixton pop into to Vozars for a brew and some cake, like me you will be surprised!

www.Vozars.co.uk

Unit 26 Brixton Village

London

SW9 8PR

The Hubby was also at this event and his review can be found over at www.beautykinguk.co.uk

Stylfile with Tom Pellereau

When I was asked if I would like to attend a blogger event and sit down with The Apprentice winner Tom Pellereau, I jumped at the chance. One because I am a HUGE fan of the show and two because I was chuffed when Tom won, as he was my favourite candidate in that particular series of the show and my favourite candidate of all time.

Tom is the inventor behind the brilliant Stylfile brand. The S-File was the original product made and it came about when Tom has watched his sister file her nails.  

The S-file has been designed to follow the natural curve of your nail edge to centre, for me the product is simple yet genius. For hours I have spent my life trying to round off the corners of my nails and always ended up making a complete mess of it and now I can manage to do this task in a matter of minutes instead of hours.  I am quietly miffed that I hadn't come up with this idea myself!  

The event itself which took place in a lovely quaint little tea-shop called Drink, Shop and Do in Kings Cross and there was 5 of us in attendance for our little meet with Tom over tea and cake.  The event was put together to introduce us to some of the new products from the Stylfile range which are soon to be introduced to the market and to give our first impressions on some prototypes that Tom is currently working on and it was quite something to see a product in its initial stages, some parts held together quite literally with blue-tac.  

Now to say Tom is passionate about his products wouldn't be a lie, it was so refreshing to meet someone who had clearly put a lot of thought, time and effort into everything he does and in fairness he was bombarded with questions, comments and one or two criticisms, all of which I hope he did take on board and find useful.  

Within the Stylfile range you might recognise The S-Buffer which looks similar to the S-File in shape but its function is to make the 4 stages of buffing your nail easier.   Then there is the emergency file which is cocooned inside a protective spring which protects the file and prevents it accidentally scratching items that it comes into contact with.

Nailfiles aside, the Stylfile range also includes nail clippers - Nipper Clipper for babies and children and then the two I also think are genius inventions are the S-clippers which come in a mini version and a normal sized version and the slogan "Trim without the Ping" tells you everything you need to know in one clever slogan.  

Have you noticed that every time you trim your nails with clippers they ping everywhere? Well not with the S-Clipper which has been so cleverly designed with curved blades to stop that pinging, instead ensuring that clipped nail quietly drops or remains within the body of the clippers.  

They are really lightweight and easy to hold not to mention easy to use and unlike conventional nail clippers, they actually cut or clip in a straight line.

Then comes the S-Ped range, see Tom has thought of everything! The S-Ped is curved to follow the natural contours of your feet.  The stainless steel micro file gently remove unwanted skin leaving your feet soft and smooth.  

Now I hate feet and I cannot bare to look at the ped-egg it fills my stomach with dread and makes me feel quite nauseous, so the S-Ped has really tested me when using it and I've managed it without heaving because to me it looks exactly like a nail file, so in my mind, I am not grating my feet.  It doesn't hurt to use it and it does do an exceptional job at removing the dead skin cells.  

There is also the S-File X Exfoliator which is one of my favourite tools, you can use it as a stand alone product or clip it onto the S-Ped, which for me makes it much easier to grip, and then you can finish exfoliating your feet with the abrasive side, then flip it over to the less abrasive side to finish off your foot pampering with a bit of a polish and a final look to see if anything was missed.

Now those products in themselves are amazing but just when you thought Tom has covered everything, you thought wrong!  

All I can say is watch this space because there are some fantastic new products about to hit the shelves from July onwards and I have had the pleasure of using them before anyone else and I have to say, I am really impressed, so watch this space for a review coming soon.

If all of that isn't enough, here is a brief clip of Tom himself introducing the Stylfile Range

Have you tried any products from the Stylfile range? 

Do you think there is a product Tom could invent that he hasn't yet? 

Michael Van Clarke Event

Last week I was very lucky to be invited to attended an event at the Michael Van Clarke hair salon in London, not only that but Michael himself was present and it was so amazing to meet such a brilliant man who was able to explain so many things to us in such a straightforward manner, I probably know more about haircare now than I ever did!

As we (Kimberley from Kimberleysbeautyblog) arrived, I was already impressed at how fabulous the salon looked, everything exceptionally clean and sparkling and the greeting we got from the lovely receptionist was a great start to the event. As we had arrived a little bit early, it was nice to be able to wonder wonder around the salon picking things up, smelling them, taking photos and generally being made to feel really welcome with a glass of bubbles to start things off.

As the event was quite exclusive there was just around 10 of us in attendance, so when you have the chance to question Michael as much as we wanted and his knowledge is phenomenal. The evening began with a presentation from Michael about his first venture into hair care, how products were created and a little bit of educating along the way about ingredients found within certain products - namely silicone and what it doesn't do for your hair, truly scary and after the event I went home and checked every bottle of product I have for my hair looking for the names of ingredients that had been mentioned.

What I found really interesting about the presentation was the explanation as to how the structure of your hair is, essentially 97% protein and 3% water and with that how our use of certain products work and affect out hair, namely those containing silicone - serums, sprays, shampoo, conditioners and even treatments which essentially do very little to protect or repair our hair, just improve its appearance for a short time.

Then we were introduced to the Michael Van Clarke '3 More Inches' range which includes shampoo, conditioner, treatments, hairspray, mousse, supplements, hair tools and more. Described as follows:

"3''' more inches cares and protects your hair like no other product. Born from a scientific understanding of hair and decades of couture hairdressing, the 3''' more inches range has redefined hair care in the marketplace"

As we were talked through each product which took years to work on and perfect.  It was interesting to hear that the range was created from the perspective of what professional stylists look for when working on their clients hair and what the clients themselves look for in a product.  Unsurprisingly, none of the products contain those chemical nasties which have been mentioned earlier within this review and their purpose is to ensure that your hair does not get dried out as well as prevent the structure of each strand of hair getting more damaged. This means, after long term use your hair should be the same thickness all the way down and be far healthier.

Having heard all about the products we were then lucky enough to have a one to one hair consultation with Michael which for me was a great experience. I was bursting with questions that I wanted to ask him, namely why it is that hairdressers insist on your hair being washed before they cut it when one of his own methods of hair cutting is called the Diamond Dry Cut™ which means that by cutting the hair clean and dry allows Michael to work with the hair’s natural movement and texture, interpreted with face shapes and features, to create brilliant styles with an unrivalled level of precision and balance.  So it was nice to hear that was the reason for doing this.  He then looked at my hair a little more closely...look....

A truly amazing opportunity to have and Michael look at my hair, he was brilliant at answering questions about the condition of my hair, my scalp and even advised me on what haircut I actually should have as opposed to the ones I am given and went into great detail about the 'one bob, two bob' system with layering the hair and how my hair had been cut, he even managed to guess what I had asked for and then showed me what I actually got, which was quite eerie yet fascinating at the same time.

I had a fantastic time at the event and was very lucky to be a given a fantastic goody bag which will appear in a post on its own along with my thoughts on the products I was given. In the meantime if you want to know more about the range, read more about 3 inches or even the diamond cut, then click on their website here.

 Have you tried anything from the 3 More Inches range? 

Have you ever been to the salon?

Things I love having done!

Do you ever sit back, daydream, think wishfully that you could just pop into your local spa/hairdressing salon or even spend the day with your closest and mostest for some pampering?  I know I do.  I have gone from hating strangers touching me, fear of the hairdressers to absolutely loving being pampered, though please stay away from my feet, that is one phobia I cannot deal with.

This is a post about some of the things I absolutely love being done to me and why, honestly it isn't as rude as it sounds.  As a beauty blogger, you won't be surprised to find out what they are and why.

I have quite a busy and stressful job, at times all I want to do is sit back or indeed lay back and escape from that world and just do something for me, sadly I don't get too many opportunities to do those very often, but if I did, well this is what I would want.

Someone washing my hair for me

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One thing that I absolutely love having done whenever I go to the salon for a haircut/trim is having someone else wash my hair.  Not a chore in itself and it is something I actually don't mind doing, but it is just so relaxing when someone else does it for you and combined with a head massage, hair brushing and temple rubbing, I am almost snoring in minutes.

Having a facial

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I haven't had many in my life, well two actually but I do love having a facial.  Both times I have been lucky enough to have one, it has been totally amazing, relaxing and de-stressing not to mention that feeling of total cleanness afterwards is something I can never repeat at home.

Having a manicure

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This is something I have recently started to really really enjoy.  I had a bad experience of a manicure when I was at University and the manicurist at the time, instead of filing my nails, used scissors to cut them, slipped with the scissors and anyway... needless to say I have had a fear since. 

 Now having been to a few blogger events and met some absolutely lovely manicurists, this is something i had begun to enjoy and something I look forward to having done.

Hand and arm massage

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This is another treatment that I find really relaxing, though it has been a while since I have had it done.  It is incredibly relaxing to have something massage both your hands and your arms using many lotions and potions.  The last one I had was at a beauty event with Debenhams last year and the lovely ladies of Elemis were on hand to do this exact treatment and it was pure heaven.

Back and Shoulder massage

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This is possibly one of the best treatments ever, though again, a bad experience when I was at Uni for a spa day with my housemates terrified me.  The masseuse was so rough with massaging my shoulders that I screamed in pain for her to stop because it was utter agony and for weeks it hurt like anything to move.

Then a few years ago, I took the plunge having had chronic back-ache for weeks to go and have a massage and honestly it was the most amazing thing ever, so relaxing and de-stressing and something that almost had me in a deep sleep.  I find that with having a stressful job my shoulders are usually always quite tense and having them massaged literally cures everything for me.

So there you have, the top 5 things I love having done.  

Do you have a favourite treatment you like to have? is there anything you absolutely swear by?