A holiday in your shower

If it has coconut in it, I am likely to buy it.  I love the smell, the taste and the feel of coconut.  So whilst in Asda I came across a new range of Radox Shower Gels and the one which caught my eye in its bright white packaging was ‘Coconut Kiss’ a shower cream which contains exotic coconut and milk.  On the shelves where you find shower gels, there is always a plethora of colours all trying to catch your eye and because this was bright white, I was immediately drawn to it and as it was on offer for £1, I bought two.  On the front of the packaging you will find the word Coconut in an orange colour with the word Kiss underneath in white and again, the colouring catches your eye along with the sticker that shouts ‘New’ to you as you move close to inspect it.  This shower gel is a 250ml bottle in the new design which is much easier to grasp onto with wet hands whilst in the shower.

I am quite a fan of Radox Shower gels and there is always a few in the bathroom, I buy the Mister some masculine smelling shower gels and I tend to opt for the more flowery or fruited scented ones.  This one fits in neither category, once you open the black flip top lid you can immediately smell the coconut, it is like having a Bounty chocolate bar and a bit of Malibu in a tube,  not an artificial smell at all, it just smells that wonderful.

What they say - Coconut Kiss

"For girls who like to chill and un-wind why not try Coconut Kiss: Why stop dreaming when you get out of bed in the morning? This blissful shower gel containing coconut and milk has a deliciously Caribbean scent that will allow you to calmly daydream into your very own world of paradise with super soft skin.

Radox Coconut Kiss Shower Cream is inspired by nature. This delicious blend of natural ingredients, like creamy milk and exotic coconut, evokes an uplifting burst of paradise to every shower. With fabulously fruity fragrances your Coconut Kiss shower cream will leave you smelling gorgeous all day“.

Upon squeezing the tube, you release a bright white cream which is fairly thick in texture and again that coconut aroma becomes more fragrant and unlike anything else I have used from Radox in the past, I simply loved it.  The cream itself produces a lot of lather, as soon as it comes into contact with your sponge, flannel, Loofah or whatever it is you use to wash yourself, the warm water fluffs the cream up and you are suddenly covered in coconut smelling lather, lots of it.  As you stand immersed in your coconut lather and wash yourself you could be on your tropical island with your cocktail, the smell is that fresh.

After showering I was delighted that the coconut smell was so strong on my skin and again it isn’t an artificial smell, it is a fresh coconut smell, almost as if you have covered yourself in coconut cream, Malibu and eaten a Bounty, it is delicious and it stays put for hours after using.  My skin, well soft and smooth to the touch as well, absolutely no complaints from me and as soon as the bathroom door is opened and the steam is allowed to escape throughout the house, with it goes that coconut scent into every room.

This is a delightful smelling shower cream, one of the best I have ever used from the range and one that is likely to remain in my bathroom for a long time to come, well worth the £1 I spent on it as an offer and I would happily pay the full price of £2.15 for it.  You can find these products in Boots, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Savers.

Did you know...

·         ‘Super’ power showers are costing the average family £928 a year and an individual person over £18,000 in their lifetime- the same as the average deposit for a terraced house in the UK.

·         Brits could save almost £10,000 in a lifetime, and over one million litres of water (1,514,240 litres) by halving their showers

For the Love of Shea Butter

Shea Butter is quite possibly one of my favourite scents in a cream or lotion (aside form coconut) it reminds me of Caramac bars, a childhood love I shared with my late Grandfather.  I first came across Shea Butter back in my teens when I was looking for something to soothe and cure my dry shins, a skin problem I have had for many years now and it drives me insane.

I was recently sent a lovely tin of Pure Health Shea Butter Skin Food to try and as soon as the package arrived, it was ripped open.  Inside the package was this 100g tin:

Pure Health Shea Butter Skin Food is sold in quite a funky retro tin and is available for £9.19 whereupon which 10% of the profits are donated to development projects in Africa.    The tin itself tells you that this product is 100% pure, meaning it contains no parabens, sulphates or paraffin to irritate the skin. Instead what will you find is something that is rich in Vitamins A, E and F and being so it is not the only kind to your skin but will also be both nourishing and rejuvenating and it has shown to be effective in treating certain skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis add to that it is also said to be effective in reducing the appearance of stretch marks and wrinkles - now where exactly can you get some of this miracle butter?

Right here -  Pure Health’s Shea Butter Skin Food (£9.19 for a 100g). 

What they say

“From the seeds of the shea tree comes the gift of shea butter. A wonderful natural balm and skin moisturiser appreciated by many with dry, irritated skin. Unlike the white, odourless, refined shea butter that goes into so many cosmetic products today, our shea butter is pure, unrefined shea butter sourced from women's cooperatives in West Africa. In addition, refined Shea Butter has usually been extracted from the shea kernels using hexane or other petroleum solvents, traces of which are often present in the finished product, which also lacks many of the soothing, nutritive properties of unrefined, virgin shea butter.

Like all premium unrefined shea butter, it has a characteristic nutty scent, which disappears after a few minutes when rubbed on the skin. Unrefined shea butter is a very versatile active ingredient for skin and hair care products and has excellent anti-aging, soothing and moisturising properties.”

Shea Butter has been around for many years and it does appear in quite a lot of products, particularly those which are moisturising, hydrating and it even appears in make-up products such as lip balms and lipsticks.  I really like Shea Butter as an ingredient for those reasons and it has a lot of uses:

• Helps heal scars, burns, and stretch marks.
• Prevents ashy skin, chapping, and skin rashes.
• An ideal hairdressing that protects the scalp from sores and rashes and prevents dandruff.
• Helps prevent weak hair from breaking, fading, or thinning out.
• Fortifies cuticles and nails.
• Helps bruises to heal.
• Helps drain toxins from sore muscles: perfect for sports participants.
• Helps prevent skin irritation for babies: used for generations to help babies sleep better.
• Use after shaving to prevent irritation and restore skin's natural lustre.
• Ideal for dry skin, dermatitis, eczema, sunburn and athletes foot.
• Rejuvenates skin pores and adds elasticity to skin.
• Firms up ageing skin and helps clear wrinkles.
• Massage Shea butter into areas affected by arthritis, joint pains, or other muscular aches.
• Naturally, contains vitamins A and E.

Upon opening the tin, using a simple twisting action, the first thing I noticed was the creamy look of the Shea Butter, as you wipe your hand across the Shea Butter, which is packed tightly into the tin, it is almost a solid, until the heat from your body touches it and it simply glides onto your finger, then onto you skin and it is so smooth to the touch.  As it glides onto your skin, it disappears almost immediately and leaves behind no hint that it was there in the first place, there is no greasiness to the skin, so snail-like trail it was once there, instead all you are left with is soft, smooth skin which is purely delightful.  

As for the scent, well it came as a surprise to me that there was no sweet smell, instead there is this soft aroma that had a slightly nutty scent to it, nothing too overpowering, in fact it is so delicate you would almost not notice it, if you weren’t looking for it and it is quite nice.

This Shea Butter is Fair Trade and suitable for Vegans.  It also doesn't contain:

• Parabens or other preservatives
• Parafin or other petrochemicals
• Solvents or Perfumes

After using it for a few weeks, concentrating on one area of my body, my shins, there is already a notable difference to the dry skin on my shins, it hasn’t disappeared entirely but I no longer resemble a reptile about to shed its skin. Instead, my shins are soft and smooth to the touch and I am now not as embarrassed by my legs and I will continue to use this product until it runs out because I can see how beneficial it has been and will be. 

In the last week, I have been using it on my nail cuticles, which is looking quite haggard in the hope it will soften and soothe them and too.

label.m Therapy Age-Defying haircare range

My hair can be the bane of my life.  I suffer from greasy roots and dry ends which mean I feel as though I have to wash my hair every other day and my life has been saved by my own discovery of Dry Shampoo.  I also have thin hair but a lot of it and when I am stressed it leads to a flaky scalp and as yet I have not found a product that can cure all of this, I doubt I ever will, but I have found products that can deal with one part of it.  I spend quite a lot on hair products and usually at my Salon’s request, stick with their offerings.  Until now!

I was recently sent a lovely gift package from the lovely people at Label.m and in that package was a shampoo and conditioner from their Age Defying Range.  Both items are packaged inside lovely purple/plum coloured bottles and both feature a pump action dispenser, to dispense the shampoo and the conditioner.  The bottles themselves are quite classy looking in design and wouldn’t look out of place in a top boutique hotel or hair salon, they are readily available online with the shampoo for a 200ml bottle is £13.95 and the conditioner is either £16.95 for a 150ml bottle.

What they say about the Shampoo

The label.m Therapy Age-Defying Shampoo has an ultra cleansing formula that is perfect to restore and replenish dull and weak hair and leave it feeling beautifully soft and full of life.

The Label.m Therapy Age-Defying Shampoo comes from the gorgeous range formulated with 8 ultra caring and technologically advanced ingredients to reverse the visible signs of ageing so you can enjoy hair that is left looking and feeling strong, radiant and beautifully youthful.  This sulphate-free shampoo will restore, replenish and rejuvenate. Designed to quickly transform weak, dull, aged hair into strong, radiant and youthful looking hair.

The first thing I noticed when I came to use this shampoo was how easy it was so dispense, even with wet hands, two pumps of the dispenser and I had more than enough shampoo to cover my head of hair, The shampoo itself has an almost peal-esque colour to it which shimmers in the light, but what caught my attention the most was the sweet aroma that came alive.  As soon as the shampoo is massaged into your hair and scalp, it lathers immediately where again the sweet smell that I instantly loved came alive.  As you wash away the lather, ensuring you have nothing left behind, my hair was already feeling soft and smooth and I was yet to try the conditioner.

What they say about the Conditioner

The Label.m Therapy Age-Defying Conditioner is a gorgeous sulphate free conditioner that has been formulated to restore, replenish and transform weak, dull and aged hair leaving it strong, radiant and youthful.

The Label.m Therapy Age-Defying Conditioner comes from the gorgeous range formulated with 8 ultra caring and technologically advanced ingredients to reverse the visible signs of ageing so you can enjoy hair that is left looking and feeling strong, radiant and beautifully youthful.

When it came to the conditioner, again, same classy design for the bottle and same dispensing action for the product.  With this conditioner are simple instructions -

“Apply to freshly shampooed hair, combing through from roots to ends. For extra conditioning benefits, leave in hair for 2-3 minutes before rinsing out”  

I don’t use conditioner every time I shampoo my hair because I have found it makes my hair greasier much quicker, but whenever I do use a conditioner I do leave it on for a few minutes to give it time to work and I always brush it through using my Tangle Teezer.  Then once I had washed the conditioner our of my hair, again the super soft feel was more evident than it was before, only this time the lovely sweet aroma more noticeable.

Looking closer at both products Sugar Cane extract which is quite possibly where the sweet smell comes from and as you can see from the photographs, there are a huge amount of ingredients which will ensure both of these products are good for your hair and naturally they are sulphate free too.

For me, my problem has always been one of three things.  My hair is either greasier after using a product, my hair becomes too dry after using a product or my hair feels lank and lifeless.  Having used these products for the last 5 weeks, my hair is none of those things, infact I am washing my hair every 3 days instead of every other day, my hair is soft and smooth with a natural shine and it is an absolute pleasure to style with my GHD’s, they glide through my hair.  Quite a few people have commented on how lovely my hair smells, one lady sat next to me on a bus assumed it was my perfume, only to my told it was actually my shampoo and conditioner that left the sweet smell that she was referring too, thankfully she stopped short of actually smelling my hair in public, but the aroma does last for a good 24 hours before it begins to fade.

The downside to these products? My husband likes them and I fear they will run out quicker than I hoped.

I have become a huge fan of Label.m products; I adore this shampoo and conditioner. Infact I love everything about it - the ease of use with the dispenser, the bottle design, the fragrance of both, how my hair feels after using and how my hair looks, it has a bit of life back into it.  If you have never tried these products, I would urge you to do so!

EMERGENCY...

Like most girls, I do have my must have and must wear products that accompany me everywhere, the kind of items I never leave the house without such as Iphone, Purse, Kindle and of course make-up.  Some mornings I am in a rush and simply don't have time to sort my face out and put on make-up, if that happens, I have a make-up bag which holds these items and I grab it, shove it in my bag and I am away.

As you can see, my beautiful boy, Dude, is very kindly modelling my Gorjuss make-up bag, a present from a friend a few years ago.  I love this little bag because I can fit so much into it and it is cute.

So inside the bag you will find:

1. BeneFit - Hello Flawless foundation - I have 2 of these.  One I keep in this bag and one I keep at home.  I love the colour, how easy it is to use and I like the packaging.  £24.50

2. BeneFit Hoola - my must have bronzer.  I love this stuff and again have 2 of them as above. £23.50

3. Lip Balm - I am a lip balm addict, a post is coming on my lip balm addiction, but I am never without lip balm. Palmers Cocoa Butter Dark Chocolate Cherry is one of my current favourites, it smells good enough to eat and at £1.99 it is a bargain.

4. MUA under-eye Concealer - a recent purchase as my Touche Eclat has run out and whilst it isn't as good, it 'makes do' and it was only £2 so I can't complain.

5. Thick & Fast Soap and Glory Mascara - to be honest it is a good mascara, I like the brush and it doesn't clump and I am a huge Soap and Glory fan too.  £10

6. Rimmel Day 2 Night Glameyes Mascara - just incase I need it and I like the thin brush for the corner of my eyes. £7.99

7. M&S Autograph Blush - I love this perfume, it is perfect for work, fits in my bag and smells really lovely - the description reads "This refreshing fragrance has a fresh floral note with bergamot and cassis giving sparkle to a pretty violet accord. Water fruits and soft raspberry mingle with dewy rose in the heart which reaches into a background of warm amber, creamy vanilla and silky musks. A captivating fragrance to refresh and uplift." £8.50

8. A Nail File - I am never without a nail file. Boots £2.05

So that is my emergency bag of make-up that I grab in a morning and shove in my handbag and I thought it would be fun to see how much it is worth :drum roll: £80.53 and if you include the cost of the bag which is aorund £10, that takes the total to £90.53.  That total has shocked me a bit because for those few items, it is a lot of money to use as my grab bag! I dread to think what my 'Actual Make-up bag' that I use when getting ready and am not in a rush is worth!

Does anyone else have an emergency bag like this?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

What's in the box?

This month's Glossybox has finally arrived on my desk and having seen a few posts already on what other people have had, I was in two minds as to whether or not I would like my box when it arrived.  Anyway, here it is:

So, as you can see it is all nicely packaged and the one thing I do like about Glossybox is that the box is always nicely presented and it is sturdy.

Anyway, once I had managed to locate my five items, this is what is in it:

Jelly Pong Pong Lip Blush - The Description - A moisturizing lip stain that tints your lips with just the right amount of juicy colour and hydrates like a balm. Apply liberally, purse and let the silky lightweight texture melt onto your lips.  Full Size: £12 for 2.5g

Nails Inc Brunton Street - I am a fan of Nails Inc, I am yet to find a colour I don't like and this one I really love.  The Description - Bruton Street, nestled in the middle of London's Mayfair and home to the likes of Stella McCartney, Matthew Williamson, upmarket restaurant Hakkasan, antiques dealers and contemporary art galleries.  In short: sophisticated with more than a touch of glamour. Just like the nail polish nails inc has named after the street: a dusky pink nude shade that is perfect for a cosmopolitan, everyday look!  Full Size sample £11 for 10ml

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream - I have been wanting to try this forever, now I have it I am slightly disappointed that because the sample size is only 7ml, I won't really get the chance to see how well this works or whether it doesn't.  The Description - Discover the UK Beauty Editors’ favourite product for the past 7 years*. 

Created in 1930 by Elizabeth Arden to soothe and protect skin Eight Hour* Cream Skin Protectant was an instant and overwhelming success. Discover the skincare classic used by women worldwide - to moisturize and protect any way you choose.  Refresh jet-lagged skin. Shape brows. Revitalize shine. Soothe dry hands. Smooth cuticles and nails. No wonder Eight Hour* Cream Skin protectant is loved by makeup artists around the world. 
*Source: mymarketmonitor.com, Skincare category, number of PR mentions from 1/1/2006 - 31/12/2011.  Full Size sample £25.00 for 50ml

L'Occitane En Provence (Immortelle Precious Cream) - Not a product that has ever graced a wishlist but I do love the bright bold blueness of the pot.  The Description - Enriched with unique essential oils, Immortelle Precious Cream is a rich smooth cream that visibly corrects deep wrinkles and improves firmness, allowing skin to stay beautiful and younger for longer. Full Size sample £43 for 50ml

TRESemme Salon Finish Extra Hold Hairspray - I have to say, I was not excited about this product at all.  I don't use hairspray and well.  Product Description - TRESemme Salon Finish Extra Hold Hairspray offers lasting extra firm hold and all day control – whatever your style. With a fast drying professional performance formula, this hero hairspray provides all day flexible control with long lasting extra firm hold that is humidity resistant, with the ability to brush out with ease. Full size £4.69 for 500ml

And Finally... a special gift included which is clearly just for me:

Crabtree & Evelyn Gardeners Hand Scrub

The Hubby and I have an allotment, something I might do a future post on, if anyone is interested, but we do have one.  The lack of garden really drove both of us insane because we like to grow things.  I love those little grow kits that I can put all over my house to grow fruit and vegetables and naturally my allotment is full of fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices and flowers.

My Allotment - Shed, Pumpklin, Potatoes and Beetroot

I am sure you can imagine that being on the  allotment, digging, weeding, digging some more, pulling up the weeds, and sowing seeds involves using all differing kinds of tools and accessories and they all take their toll on your hands as well as leaving you with aching muscles you didn't know you had. Whilst wearing gloves my hands do get a bit sweaty so more often than not I remove them and this leads to my hands become dry, chapped and sometimes end up becoming all blistered around the pressure pads on the palms of my hands making them look horrid and feeling sore to the touch. . 

Every so often I need a decent hand scrub and it is something I have found really hard to do.  I need something that I could get my hands on pretty quick and something that would act as an exfoliant but also a moisturiser. In the past I have used many products which fit this category and typically they had all run out, so faced with a dilemma I asked a friend of mine what she would use and bless her she sent me a tube of Crabtree & Evelyn Gardeners Hand Scrub with Pumice and it comes in a 195g Tube. 

What they say

After a long day shuffling soil, treat your hands to our popular Gardeners Hand Scrub, formulated with soothing comfrey herbs. Two sizes of ultra-fine pumice work together to gently lift soil from hands and nails. Fragranced with fresh green clover, lavender, sage rosemary and thyme, our Gardeners Hand Scrub with Pumice is the perfect end to a day in the garden.

• Gentle on skin
• Ultra-fine pumice
• Cleans hands and nails

The tube is quite picturesque in that it is a clear plastic tube with a flip top lid which is nicely rounded to allow it to stand upright on a flat surface. Through the tube itself you can see a slightly murky green coloured liquid which clearly has bits in it because you can see them quite clearly; these bits of course are the pumice which I have already mentioned too, with the name of the product. Finally the label on the front of the tube features the brand and name of the product and then for a picture there is a rather gangly looking gardener tending to his (it looks like a him) plants. 

To use the instructions are quite clear, once you have washed your hands and removed as much dirt, mud and anything else you might have on your hands and then patted them dry, remember if you have been gardening and your hands are sore, you don't want to be vigorously rubbing them dry, it will hurt! So once your hands are dry you might well notice that you haven't been able to remove every last bit of mud and dirt, which I find really annoying and you might well notice you have a callous or two on the palm of your hand where you have been weeding and digging, all you need to do is ensure your sink or bowl has some warm (not hot) water ready and then once your hands are wet apply a blob of this scrub to the palm of one hand and then gently massage it into your hands as much as you can. As you massage it into your hands you should be able to feel some slight rubbing from the pumice stone as it removed dead skin and ingrained soil from your hands. 

The smell of this scrub is much nicer than I expected it to be. I have a thing about green products in that I always expect them to smell really horrible and vile but I was pleasantly surprised with this scrub because it has three main scents which are all mixed together and they are Fresh green clover, lavender, sage rosemary and thyme which combined results in quite a strong smell of lavender for me which I am quite a fan of and you can ever so slightly pick up on the sage. This product also contains Pumice which a lot of people use as a pumice stone to exfoliate dead skin from their feet, in this case the stone itself is broken up into tiny pieces and when blended with a cream it does the exact same job. Next comes Rosemary leaf which is a deodoriser for the skin but it also acts as an anti-oxidant and. Finally there is Aloe Vera Juice which has many benefits to the skin but in this case it is used mainly to heal, reduces redness and itching and it also forms a protective barrier around achy and sore joints and muscles. But most importantly soothe and nourish the skin because it contains both Vitamin E and C. 

So adding all of those ingredients together you got a product which works to remove ingrained dirt from your skin, remove dead skin and act as an antiseptic to fight infections from any open wounds you may have and then it soothes, nourishes and softens the skins and attempts to leave your hands in as good a condition after all your hard work as they were before you started. So how does it fare? I have to say that I am really impressed with the product; I like the smell of it, the feel and texture of it and the fact that it isn't too harsh on my skin. Whenever I have been down my allotment I do tend to have sore points on the palms of my hands below my fingers and the thought of putting pressure on them did fill me with dread, but this scrub is really kind to the skin and it definitely does soothe. There is an entire range devoted to Gardeners which all looks really lovely, though I haven't tried it.

Would I buy it? I am not too sure, it wouldn't be something I would rush out to buy, but I do like it. When it comes to the price a tube containing 195g will cost you £13 from the Crabtree & Evelyn shop and it does have a long shelf life as long as you keep it out the sunlight and somewhere cool to ensure all of the ingredients stay fresh and when you do use it, again it will last depending on how often you use it like all products within this area, if you use it daily it wont last as long as it would if you used it weekly but as there is no guidance as to how often you should and shouldn't use it you can simply use your own judgment. 

I simply like the fact it relates to gardeners, it is designed to treat areas of the body which gardening affects the most and it smells nice and is kind to the skin.

Primark Haul!!

I won't lie - I love Primark and can happily spend hours wandering around looking at everything and indeed I do tend to buy a fair bit from there.

My latest purchases come from the 'Home' section, usually I tend to stick to clothes, but my local Primark expanded and the Home section grew a little bit bigger and now it stocks towels, bedding, cushions and other items you might want or need.

I am obsessed with candles, I have them in every room of the house and my recent purchases are these:

These candles cost a mere £2 each and they come in a variety of scents.  I chose Coconut and mango because when I opened the lid on one to smell it, I loved it straight away.  As you can see, the candle, which is white in colour, is encased in a lovely tin which is almost a lilac colour under the light.

The best thing about them, other than the scent which is simply divine, is the fact that they burn for 25 hours, the same as a small Yankee Candle Jar.  An absolute bargain!  I keep both of my candles in the bathroom, these are the second ones I have bought and even if you don't use them, they still omit the lovely scent.

Naturally, that isn't all I bought! Let me introduce you to a further product from this range:

You'll have to excuse the poor photographs, but this is a Reed Diffuser in exactly the same scent as the candles shown above and again it is totally divine.  It costs £3 and is packaged inside a cardboard box with the reeds themselves wrapped up to protect them.  Once the box is opened and you have followed all of the instructions, really easily, you simply place it somewhere within your home and the first thing you will notice after an hour or two is that the scent has come alive. 

I am really surprised at how long lasting they are too, past experiences with products like these is not a good one, infact I have been quite disappointed in every Reed Diffuser I have tried and that being the case, I haven't tempted fate by trying a Yankee Candle version!  I bought this Reed diffuser in the last week of January and here it sits on my shelf today with this much left:

So as you can see there is just over half the bottle left after 5 and a half weeks and this diffuser is constantly in use, it never moves off the shelf and the scent is just as strong now as it was when I first bought it.  Naturally to keep the scent strong, you should regularly flip the Reeds, which I do on a weekly basis.

Have you ever tried these products from Primark?  Do you have a favourite scent?  Would you even purchase them?