A Late Happy New Year And A Little Blogging And Life Update*

Hi Guys x I know it's a little bit late but since this is my first post of 2021, I guess I can still say an albeit snowy,  Happy New Year x Like most people I couldn't wait to see the back of 2020 but with another lockdown in place here in the 2021 hasn't started out the way that most people wanted, but without putting a jinx on it, surely it can only get better from here on in!?

2020 was a fail on so many counts but on a personal level I don't think I've had such an unproductive year. After a viral infection at the start of the year that didn't seem to want to go away, I struggled with my physical health for most of the year, which is bad enough, but the combination of illness, and lockdowns meant that my mental health reached rock bottom. My personal relationships suffered, I felt my self worth diminishing, and my enthusiasm for life pretty much disappeared. I spent a lot of 2020 trying to put on a happy face and pretending that I was coping, after all being at home for the majority of the time wasn't that strange to me, but in truth like so many people I was struggling.

It's no surprise therefore that yet again my blog suffered, my 2020 content when I did manage to post anything was pretty samey. I'm fighting the urge to apologise for that but at least I tried to keep posting and keep a sense of normality, which was a huge plus point, when you consider that deleting the whole thing crossed my mind more than once.

As I've said before my blog has always been my safe place, but at times last year, it made me feel anxious as though I could and should have done more, I became hypercritical of everything that I did manage to write, and I felt as though the whole thing was just a massive disaster, and a complete waste of time.

Looking back with clearer eyes, I don't think anything that I wrote or product was that bad, it was just symptomatic of the negative mindset that seemed to overtake so many of us in 2020.

Despite hitting over 1,500,000 all time page views last year, I still think 2021 is going to be a make or break year for me when it comes to the blog, even before Covid, I've struggled to maintain my niche and fell out of love with blogging, so hopefully this will be the year when I get my mojo back.

So what are my plans for LouLouLand in 2021, will first up I'm going to catch up, I have loads of  backdated Glossybox unboxings, and Glossybox advent calendar reviews for you, that I'm still planning on writing, as well as lots of new beauty reviews, hopefully some more fashion and lifestyle posts, as well as the return of some old favourites like empties posts and maybe the odd foodie Friday post.

I can't promise that I won't disappear again, after all my physical and mental health, and the health and wellbeing of those I love comes first but no matter what 2021 throws at us, I'm still going to be here x So thank you for sticking with me, I hope you're all doing as well as can be expected (don't forget about the helpline numbers in my previous post if you need someone to talk to), and I hope that 2021 is a better year for all of us xx 

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Twas The Night Before Christmas...

I promised a lot before Christmas, reviews, gift idea and more, but unsurprisingly in 2020, it just didn't happen. Life got in the way again, and the bad news train just kept on rolling on. 

So here we are, it's Christmas Eve and whilst it will be pretty much business as usual for me, thanks to Covid it's going to be a strange one for a lot of people, who are unable to spend time with their friends and family over the holiday period, but whatever your plans now are, I hope that you all have the merriest Christmas possible x. 

If things do get a little bit too much for you though, or if your alone and you need someone talk too, either get yourself on twitter, and find someone to talk to via Sarah Millican's #joinin event or call one of the numbers below x There is always someone there to listen x 

So from my house to yours, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and hopefully I will see you after Christmas x 

Trimming My Stash - December 2019 Edition - Empties, Mini Reviews And A 2019 Round Up*

Before I continue with my long overdue unboxing posts I thought I'd a little break from all of the newness and take you back to 2019 again, with my December empties.

Elemis Skin Nourishing Hand Wash - 200ml
#6 Micellar Cleansing Water - 200ml
Anatomicals Boob Tube Grab Your Melons Shower Gel - 50ml
Cussons Carex Fun Edition Mr Tickle Antibacterial Hand Wash - Sherbet Lemon - 250ml
Total - 4 Items

Despite all of my promises to end 2019 on a high, December ended up being a bit of a damp squib, and I only managed to finish 4, not very interesting items.

1. Elemis Skin Nourishing Hand Wash - 200ml

Despite Mummy Lou's continuing, and very environmentally conscious love affair with the humble bar of soap, as a pet owning household we go through quite a lot of hand wash. Although we normally finish a bottle or so a month I don't normally include it in my trimming my stash totals because to be honest it always it seems to be more of a household item rather than something that I finished but breaking the habits of a lifetime December's empties total actually contains 2 hand washes. 

The first one that I'm going to talk about was actually part of a gift set that I received a few Christmas' ago, from luxury British spa brand Elemis. Now, whilst writing this post I've searched high and low for it online but unfortunately I can't find it anywhere so I've came to the conclusion that it was either a QVC UK exclusive or it was a limited edition.

To call this just a hand wash is actually a bit of a disservice - from their famous Skin Nourishing range, this hand wash is actually much more of a hand treatment. Containing camellia, cotton seed extract, and milk proteins, just a small amount of this thick, opaque gel, produced a gentle, light weight, but really nourishing and moisturising foam, you actually felt as though you were giving your hands a treatment rather than just washing them. The treatment aspect was also compounded by the soft and creamy,  almost powdery, gentle floral scent that runs through the entire Elemis Skin Nourishing range.

Perfect for dry hands or just hands that needed some love I'm really sad to see the back of this but thankfully I still have quite a few products from the Skin Nourishing range to use up including the corresponding hand cream. If you haven't tried this range, then I would thoroughly recommend it, it's ideal for skin that easily irritated, and skin that needs a bit of moisture. You can buy Elemis products from a variety of retailers online including QVC UK, Debenhams, John Lewis, Look Fantastic and Feel Unique.

2. #6 Micellar Cleansing Water - 200ml

Next up a skincare item, and something from Poundland's #6 skincare range. When it comes to beauty I'm not a snob, I love brands and luxury as much as the next person, but I'm not frightened to try dupes, and bargain basement items - if I love it, great! if I don't I haven't wasted my money.

The #6 range was designed to deliver a range for all skin types, that delivers healthy looking skin on a budget, but containing high end ingredients such as ceramides, Vitamins A and E, and algae extracts.

For just £1 an item, the first item that I tried from the range was their micellar water, which is hypoallergenic, dermatologically tested, opthamologically approved, alcohol and fragrance free, and suitable for vegans. Containing Pro Vitamin B5, aloe vera, chamomile, and Vitamin E it is designed to remove make up, cleanse, smooth and purify the skin.

The packaging is pretty basic, a clear plastic bottle with flip top cap, and to be honest the contents doesn't look very exciting either, it just looks like a typical micellar water, aka a clear water like liquid, with no real scent. Performance wise it was pretty gentle on the skin, it removed even long wear make up without too much effort. Like a lot of micellar waters I did find it tingled slightly when it was left on the eyes. I didn't find drying on the skin and I didn't see any redness but it did leave a slightly tacky finish on the skin which took a few minutes to subside.

For just a £1 this wasn't bad and whilst I wouldn't buy it and use it regularly I wouldn't hesitate to pick it up in an emergency or to use it again. It's certainly not the worst micellar water than I've ever used and as I often say I've definitely spent more than this and liked a product less, so I firmly believe that you don't always get what you pay for. You can find the #6 range in Poundland stores.

3. Anatomicals Boob Tube Grab Your Melons Shower Gel - 50ml

The next December empty is something that I think that I received in a subscription box. It's a quirkily named, melon scented shower gel from Anatomicals, that was produces in association with breast cancer charity Coppafeel.

I'm not a huge fan of melon scents but to me this is just a very fruity scent, with a hint of a floral, that I loved. I can't find this mini tube anywhere online but you can buy the full 250ml size from ASOS for around £3.49, and 80p of that goes to Coppafeel. Thanks to the November 2019 edition of Pink Parcel (the least said about the debacle that is Pink Parcel at the moment the better though!) I have another full sized bottle in my stash but this is definitely something that I would consider repurchasing.

4. Cussons Carex Fun Edition Mr Tickle Antibacterial Hand Wash - Sherbet Lemon - 250ml

Finally another hand wash and something else that I actually bought in Poundland. This was just a cheap impulse buy that I picked up because I'm a bit of a fan of Mr. Men & Little Miss. It was nowhere near as luxurious as it's Elemis counterpart, but it was gentle, it was antibacterial (essential if you have cats), and it had a lovely, fruity, sugary, lemon scent.

I'm currently using a festive AVON hand wash but I've already picked up the Mr. Bump Tutti Frutti version to try. The price for these hand washes does vary quite a lot, you can get them for as little as 95p, to £1 in Poundland, Boots, and Tesco, to as much as £1.89 in Superdrug, so shop around if you can.

So that was December Trimming My Stash, and that was 2019, but just how did I do in 2019 overall? Well let's see...

January - 4 Items

February - 5 Items

March - 8 Items

April - 8 Items

May - 4 Items

June - 3 Items

July - 5 Items

August - 8 Items

September - 11 Items

October - 5 Items

November - 2 Items

December - 4 Items

Total - 67 Items 

Well, in total in 2019, I managed to finish a grand total of 67 beauty products. It sounds like a lot but like Decembers total it turned into a bit of a damp squib. 2019 was actually my worst year since I started counting down my empties, and I was 5 products down on last years total of 72. I'm a little bit disappointed but despite that I think that 2019 was the first year where I've actually been able to see my stash diminishing. I definitely didn't buy as much beauty stuff in 2019, I had several good sort outs, I gave some things away, I binned a few bits, and I finished a few ancient products that had been hanging around in my bathroom since the year dot.

It goes without saying that I'm going to continue to trim my stash in 2020. The same goals will apply, to finish as many beauty products possible, to buy less, and to try and only buy what I need. I made a good indent into my bath and body products in 2019, and whilst I'm hoping that I can keep that up in 2020, I'm also going to try and make more of a dent in both my skincare and my make up stash than I did last year, and of course I'm going to share my journey with you every step of the way, starting with my January empties in a week or so x Let me know if your doing something similar and if you have any questions on any of the products that I finished in December or on anything else then leave me a comment below x 

*This Post Contains Both Affiliate And Non Affiliate Links

A Double Header - Happy New Year And Unboxing Papergang - Box No.46 - December 2019 Edition - Groovy Kawaii*

I guess I should start this post by saying Happy New Year eek - I had only intended to take a few days off over Christmas but unfortunately bar a quick collaborative post, life got in the way again. I spent some quality time with my family, and I got sick! I'm still not feeling quite right, but at I'm definitely feeling a little bit more human than what I was this time last week.

As you know I'm not big on making new years resolutions, instead I have more flexible aims and goals, and one my major ones for 2020 is to be a little bit kinder to myself and to not beat myself for things that I can't control.

Last year in particular I seemed to start almost every blog post with some form of apology, I started so many posts on a downer and that's something that I definitely don't want to continue in 2020. The plain and simple fact is posting regularly is sometimes hard for me at the moment, I'm having more bad days than good days, and I don't think putting loads of pressure on myself helps anyone. I'd rather churn out one decent, well researched, well written blog posts, than 3 or 4 half arsed ones, so I'm going to stop apologising about the lateness of certain posts and instead I'm going to focus on both keeping up, and even improving the standards of the content that I am posting.

That said, January is pretty much going to be a catch up month, and hopefully I'm going to try and get up everything that I wanted to post in December, with a few extra posts thrown in for good measure, so there are some super late unboxings, including the Glossybox Advent Calendar and some long overdue review posts.

So welcome to 2020 on LouLouLand, and I'm going to start off the year with a couple of unboxing, and first up I'm unboxing the December edition of the Ohh Deer, Papergang, stationery subscription box.

December's box saw the introduction of a new style of packaging, the separate, cut out sleeve, and brown cardboard box design, has now been replaced, with a singular patterned box with a tear open strip. This new style of box is apparently safer, more secure, and it will cut Papergang's cardboard usage in half. I personally loved the old style box design but this option certainly seems better for the environment, and Charlie seems to approve, even though he is a little bit too big for the box!

The box itself was pale pink in colour, and it featured all sorts of cute and fun Kawaii style designs including fruit, items of clothing, stationary, plants and much more.

Tear the box open the bulk of the contents were wrapped in a sheet of bright pink tissue paper, but there were a few escapees that didn't quite fit.

As per usual the box contained a little information booklet talking about the box contents and telling us a little bit about the box designer.

The designer in this case is one of Ohh Deer / Papergang's in house designers, Amy Lesko. This will be Amy's last box, so the booklet talks about her decision to go freelance, and about her career, her inspirations and her influences.

Wiro Notebook

Okay, Papergang officially described this as a notebook, but let's be honest, it really isn't, it's another planner / organiser.

Don't get me wrong, it's a gorgeous one, it's spiral bound, hard backed, and it comes in a fabulous pink colourway, with the words "Go with the flow" and loads of cute kawaii style illustrations on the front, but open it up and it's clearly a planner.

Printed on FSC paper, it features a double page design with sections for Goals, To Do, Timetable, Notes, Up Next and Doodles.

The quality is amazing, and the illustrations are super cute but at the end of the day, it's another planner / organiser / to do list. Since I subscribed to Papergang last Spring, I can remember a couple boxes that haven't contained any form or organiser or planner. Yes I will probably use it but I really didn't need it, I would definitely have preferred a proper diary or even a plain notebook instead. There are lots of organisers and planners on Ohh Deer but I can't see anything similar for a price comparison.

Sticker Set - 4 x Sheets Stickers

I've said it before but I do love stickers and I was pleased to see another set of stickers in December's box. This is a pack of four identical sheets. There are lots of stickers on each sheet and again they feature the same kawaii style of illustrations featuring everything from sunglasses, and rainbows, to cherries, plants, and stars, as well as words and phrases. They coordinate perfectly with the planner so you could definitely use them together, or you could stick them pretty much anywhere else you fancy. 

Stickers always make me happy so these were a welcome addition to the box. This particular set is exclusive to this particular box but Ohh Deer sell similar size packs for around £4.95.

Sticky Notes

I definitely think there is something about adhesive, and me - I love stickers and I love sticky notes. I already own loads of them but they are just useful. This pad is particularly cute, containing 85, lilac and purple sheets it's shaped like a flower / sun and features a smiley, kawaii style face. It's useful and super cute, so what's not to love. There is nothing similar on Ohh Deer but different sticky note pads retail at around £2.95.

Universal Calendar Card 

Next up the ever present universal calendar card, and this was a particularly nice one. In various shades of pink, it has a slightly blurry print style, and it features several cute illustrations, as well as white spaces for the month and date, and a it also features a space to write one of your goals for 2020.

4 x Gel Pens

The eagle eyed readers amongst may have already spotted the next final two items in the box because they weren't wrapped up. First a set of 4 fine liner, gel pens. Each subscriber received an orange pen with the words "harness today" printed on it, a black pen with a rainbow design, a purple pen with the words "doing things" printed on the barrel, and a red pen which features a strawberry print.

As you can see from the pictures below, the pens are really nice writers, the ink dried quickly without any smudging or smearing. Whilst there are quite a few different pens on Ohh Deer, they don't have anything similar in their inventory.

Candy Kittens Tropical Mango Gourmet Sweets - 24g

The final item in the box is also something that never made it in to the tissue paper, and it's an unusual one for Papergang, because it something that you can eat. Created by Made In Chelsea alumni Jamie Laing, Candy Kittens is a gourmet sweet brand, that produces a range of yummy jellies and sweets that are predominantly vegan and gluten free, and that contain real fruit juice.

I've tried quite a few flavours from Candy Kittens, and these mango jellies and without a doubt my favourite. They are really fruity, and you can really taste the zingy mango. They really tasty and I will definitely by tracking down another bag. This particular sized bag is only available in a mixed multi pack, but a 108g treat bag retails anywhere between £1.50 - £2 from various retailers including Ocado, Morrisons, and of course directly from Candy Kittens.

So what did I think about this box? Well positives first - I love the design and the illustrations, and a lot of the positive quotes statements, and reinforcements. The box quality as per usual is superb, every item is well printed, and well made and the products inside are well worth the price of the box however again there is the issue of repetition. Since I subscribed to Papergang way back in May I've received numerous planners, organisers and to do lists. The format hasn't always been the same but the purpose nearly always has.

As much as I love the designs and the whole concept and design, I wouldn't go out and buy as many to do lists, and planners as I've received in the last 8 months, plain notebooks and pads, yes but certainly not something with only 1 or 2 uses so I've  therefore made the decision that January's Papergang box will be my last. It's not to say that I won't buy the occasional box again in the future, but at the moment with the repetitive nature of the boxes I just can't justify continuing my subscription :( I'd love to know your thoughts on this box and the whole idea of repetition in subscription boxes? Is it really inevitable or is it just lazy and ill thought out? Let me know and if you fancy trying Papergang for yourself then use my link to find out more x 

*This Post Contains Both Affiliate And Non Affiliate Links