World Sight Day with L'Occitane

Every Year for World Sight Day L’OCCITANE sells a special soap to help raise funds to support the fight against avoidable blindness in developing countries. This year World Sight Day is on 8th October and this is how you can help/

Almost 285 million people around the world are blind or visually impaired, even though 80% of blindness is avoidable! In 2014 L’OCCITANE raised €162.000 to support projects in Burkina Faso and you can read and learn more about that
right here.

Melting Honey Solidarity Soap is made with nourishing shea butter and softening honey from Provence, this soap gently cleanses the skin while enveloping it in the delicious scent of melting honey. As you can imagine, it smells absolutely delightful and is a pleasure to use. A 50g bar will cost just £3 and for each soap purchased, the money raised will enable a patient from a rural area in Burkina Faso to have access to glasses and eye care.
Also within this Limited Edition range there are other products, all of which have matching packaging an really do capture your attention:

Melting Honey Exfoliating Sugars - This melting balm contains sugar crystals and ground walnut shells which work to gently exfoliate the skin and remove dead cells. It is also enriched with shea butter and honey from Provence and after using, it leaves skin feeling silky smooth and delicately scented with tender notes of melting honey.

Melting Honey Soft Shower Gel - If ever there was a shower gel that smells good enough to eat, it is this one.  As with the Exfoliating Sugars, this shower gel is enriched with softening shea extract and honey from Provence.  It is a golden-coloured shower gel that gently cleanses the skin while leaving it feeling supple and comfortable with the delicious scent of melting honey.

Melting Honey Lip Balm - No Limited Edition set from L'Occitane is complete without a lip balm and this one is my favourite yet. Formulated with 5% of nourishing shea butter and softening honey from Provence, this luscious balm leaves lips beautifully soft and scented.

So for £3 you can help L'Occitane and get yourself an amazing scented soap!

Midnight Gelly from Barry M

Barry M is one of those brands I absolutely love, I find them a bit quirky and within their range, there are some amazing products just waiting to be discovered.  

The Midnight Gelly range is a set of four off-black nail polishes which have really captured my attention and they are perfect shades for AW15.  The description is as follows:

"Devilishly dark past the midnight hour. AW15 saw a range of dark moody hues hit the runway, get the look and rock an off-black shade this season".

Now I wear dark shade nail polishes all year round.  I am not the kind of girl who likes pastel shades on my fingers at all.  You'll often find me sporting an off black shade - usually a deep burgundy or my latest favourite being a dark grey shade, so for there, these are quite exciting.

Within the range the four shades are Black Grape, Black Pistachio, Black Currant and Black Cherry and I like each and every one of them.  

Black Grape isn't black and it doesn't remind me of grapes either, but what you do get this is stunning deep blue shade which looks black out of the sunlight or away from my camera flash.  

Black Pistachio again isn't black but what you get is a deep dark moody green shade which as you might have guessed, looks black away from the sunlight and away from my camera flash.  I am not usually a fan of green, but this shade I absolutely love.

Black Currant is everything a good Ribena should be.  Brooding, not quite black but definitely purple and it is an amazing shade which you can clearly see from the swatch above.

Black Cherry is possibly my favourite of the four shades.  If I was to described black cherry as a shade, then this would be it.  It is dark, moody not quite black and definitely not a red but somewhere in between.

So here we have four great shades for AW15 and even better for those, like me, who prefer darker shades of polish on our nails.

What do you think to this collection?

Damaged Hot Oil Treatment by Lush

Do you remember those little Hot Oil hair treatments that you use to put into a mug of boiling water for one minute, snip the end of and then cover barely 1/3 of your hair? Me too... So when I heard Lush had their own version, the chances of me leaving the store without one was pretty slim!

There are a total of three hot oil treatments to try - Kinky which is for those with curly hair, Damaged for those who need a little bit of TLC for their hair and Tangled to tame those tangles.  I opted for Damaged.

Damaged Hot Oil Treatment is packed full of extra virgin olive, shine-enhancing almond and avocado oils to replenish deeply and re-hydrate thirsty locks. It comes packaged on a stirring spoon, made of wood, which is a handy tool to have for this treatment.

To use, you place the treatment in a suitable container and whilst in Lush, they used an empty black pot during a live demonstration, so I use one of my empty black pots too.  Then you need to boil the kettle and once boiled, slowly add a small amount of water to the solid treatment and then gently stir. You do need to add the water slowly so that the product will thicken.  Then after around 5 minutes of gradual stirring, you should have a nice creamy hair treatment and an empty stick!  

You then apply the treatment to dry hair and leave it on for around 20 minutes before shampooing, to allow the ingredients to get to work, hydrating and replenishing your hair.  Once I applied the treatment, I put my Shower Cap over the top to ensure there is no spillage.  Once those 20 minutes are up, you shampoo and condition your hair as you normally would do.

What I love about this treatment is firstly making it, standing there and doing the stirring in a pot is oddly relaxing but it also smells absolutely delightful and it does leave your hair feeling soft and smooth, incredibly hydrated and an absolute pleasure to style.  For £6.50 this is one product I will be purchasing again.

Have you tried any of the Lush Hot Oil Treatments?

Stay well, warm and in control this winter with smart meters

Autumn has arrived and with winter hot on its heels, I’m already starting to think about how the colder weather and darker evenings will affect our energy bills. To suggest that our flat is rather draughty is the mother of all understatements and I absolutely hate dragging myself out of bed on a winter morning.

Energy bills are not the sexiest of subjects but once the mortgage has been paid it’s actually one of the largest outgoings in our household. Combine draughts and expensive-to-run storage heaters with a husband who can multi-task to watch football on the TV and a film on the iPad, whilst simultaneously bashing away on a laptop, and our bills look something like the national debt.

Having no way of knowing how much electricity we’re using, or how much it is costing us as we go along is a pain. This plays out with the constant chopping and changing of our direct debit to our energy supplier – either being in debt to them, or as is the case at the moment, them owing us (a lot).

I’m always looking out for ways to save on our bills, so I was really pleased to hear that the energy industry is finally modernising, and help is on the way.

Between now and 2020, every home in Great Britain will be offered a smart meter by their energy supplier, at no additional cost. Smart meters automatically measure and communicate the gas and electricity we use, meaning accurate bills and an end to unpredictable estimates. Best of all a smart meter display provides near real time information on energy use in pounds and pence, so we can finally keep track of what we’re using (in my case, what my husband is using!) and reap instant rewards from any energy saving changes we make in our homes.

It’s essential to stay cosy and comfortable during the winter months – and I’m certainly not one to scrimp on lights and heating when I need them on – but there are plenty of small changes we can all make to help keep the costs down… and no, I’m not talking about locking my husband out! Smart meters make this journey a whole lot easier because they let us see the real cost of leaving devices on standby, and help us compare our outgoings when we invest in some thicker curtains to keep the heat in, or run the washing machine at a lower temperature.

Smart Energy GB is the consumer campaign for smart meters. Their independent research report Smart energy outlook has shown that those who have a smart meter are more confident in the accuracy of their bills and the information they have available in order to make decisions about energy.

Sometimes we all need a helping hand to cut back, but using a smart meter is just one way to stay well, warm and in control this winter. Even if – like us – you haven’t had yours installed yet, this Smart Thermometer graphic will help you get started with some tried and tested energy saving tips from smart meter customers and energy experts. I’m definitely going to give them a go this winter.

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored content – however, my husband does work for Smart Energy GB (and raves constantly about smart meters).