Trimming My Stash - April 2016 Edition - Empties And Mini Reviews

Hey Guys x Happy Saturday x I hope you're all having a lovely weekend despite the rather changeable weather. It doesn't seem as though it can make it's mind up at the moment, one minute the sun is shining and the next minute it snowing - oh please can we have some decent weather for once! Probably because of the drunken weather I'm full of cold again, and my voice today resembles someone who has been inhaling helium - squeaky! I had planned to record a couple of videos this weekend but I'm going to have wait until I can talk properly, so instead of the haul post and video I had planned I thought I'd get my April empties post of nice and early.

It's hard to believe that it's the first of May tomorrow, but do you know what I'm not complaining, May is one of my favourite months of the year because it's my birthday month. I have to say that I'm not really looking forward to my birthday this year but it's always a chance to indulge in some new beauty products, so it important to start making a bit of room in my cupboards and in my drawers x

Sukin Micellar Cleansing Water - 250ml
Make Up Gallery Well Polished Cuticle Oil -10ml
Benecos Natural Nail Care Pen - 2ml
AVON Mrs Frosty Spiced Cranberry & Orange Bubble Bath - 250ml
Bumble And Bumble Bb Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Sulfate Free Shampoo - 60ml
Benefit Bathina Touch Me Then Try To Leave...Cream - 140ml
Lush Santa's Belly Shower Jelly - 100g
Rituals Fortune Scrub Sweet Orange And Cedar Invigorating Body Scrub - 70ml
Molton Brown Eucalyptus Body Wash - 30ml
Total - 9 Items

I managed to finish 9 beauty products in April, including a sneaky one today to make April my best month so far. Again no make up but I managed to finish a skin product and lots of long standing body products including a few Christmas things.

1. Sukin Micellar Cleansing Water - 250ml

I finished this one today so it's a very late addition to April's Trimming My Stash list. I love my micellar waters especially when I'm in a rush or if I'm not feeling too well, so this one has been a godsend over the last month or so. This was a product that I chose for one of my regular My Pure reviews x I like it but to be honest my eyes don't, so personally I wouldn't go out and buy this one - it's a shame really as it's a decently priced, nasty and cruelty free product. You can read a full review here x

2. Make Up Gallery Well Polished Cuticle Oil -10ml

This is the first of two cuticle care product on this months list which probably tells you that my hands and nails are in a bit of a state at the moment. This one is from the Make Up Gallery range at Poundland, so believe it or not it was just £1 ;) For the price it's not too bad,it doesn't have any real scent and it contains Vitamin E and Sweet Almond Oil. It's not the most hydrating oil I've ever used but it's a nice cheap product, that you don't feel guilty for using liberally. I've got a few other cuticle products to use up but I've already bought another bottle.

3. Benecos Natural Nail Care Pen - 2ml

Another cuticle product and another product from My Pure. You can read a full review of this pen here. Given the dispenser and the texture of the product I think this is a great product for holidays and for your handbag but for me it just didn't seem to last that long for the price which was a shame

4. AVON Mrs Frosty Spiced Cranberry & Orange Bubble Bath - 250ml

Five products in and we've hit a Christmas product. This was actually a bubble bath that I got the Christmas before last. It was put away to be brought out at Christmas but what happened? Well the wet room happened didn't it, no bath and no more bubble baths. I'm trying to get stuff used up though so I pulled this out and I've been using it as a very bubbly shower gel. It had a slightly citrus, tart scent, and whilst the packaging looked very Christmassy, you could easily use it all year round. If you interested in trying this or picking up some very early Christmas pressies I have seen this in a recent AVON sale brochure x

5. Bumble And Bumble Bb Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Sulfate Free Shampoo - 60ml

I was originally given a bottle of this in a kit from the lovely people at Bumble And Bumble, and I have to say I liked it so much that I went out and bought another bottle. It was a lovely, gentle conditioning shampoo that gave the hair a temporary plumping effect. I have quite a few shampoos to use before I consider buying anything but this is something I would definitely consider repurchasing despite the scary £23 price tag for the full size x

6. Benefit Bathina Touch Me Then Try To Leave...Cream - 140ml

This one product probably shows why I need to do something like Trimming My Stash. Benefit Bathina Touch Me Then Try To Leave...Cream has been discontinued for many, many years now, yet I still had a open pot and rather scarily a sealed, unused one (now opened ;). The thing is this one wasn't a full tub in fact there was only about 2 tablespoons left so needless to say when I rediscovered it I used it up pretty quick. This is so typical of me I use a product for a little while, then I move onto something else so I end up having loads of half finished products that I just seem to forget about - slaps wrists - I really need to start using things up when I open them! Anyways this was a lovely, rich body cream, that was delicately perfumed with Benefit's Maybe Baby floral fragrance. Long gone as I say but this Benefit Maybe Baby, Baby Be Mine set contains various products with the Maybe Baby scent including a body cream, which I suspect will be similar to this one x

7. Lush Santa's Belly Shower Jelly - 100g

Another Christmas product and one that I'm pretty sad to have finished. I loved the smell of this, apples, red wine and spices, yummy. The showers jelly are a bit of a pain to use at first but once you get the hang of them, they're really good fun to use. Resembling jelly, I find the best way to use them is to squish a lump, into a shower puff or shower scrunchie, hold it tight and then rub it over your body to produce a lovely creamy, sweet smelling foam. If you gave me a choice between shower smoothies, and the shower jellies, the jellies would win hands down and I have my fingers firmly crossed that Santa's Belly returns this Christmas.

8. Rituals Fortune Scrub Sweet Orange And Cedar Invigorating Body Scrub - 70ml

As you know I love my body scrubs and this one from Rituals appeared in one of many beauty boxes quite a while ago now. Thanks to some beauty boxes and some blog events I've been lucky enough to accumulate quite a few Rituals products now and whilst this isn't my favourite fragrance this was a pretty decent scrub and I'll be happy to use up the full sized one that I have in my scrub drawer. Add water to this gel based salt scrub, and it transforms into a lovely, pleasantly gritty exfoliating scrub, with a unisex, woody citrus scent.

9. Molton Brown Eucalyptus Body Wash - 30ml

Again thanks to blog events and goodie bags, I seem to have acquired a lot of mini bottles from British brand Molton Brown. Many years ago I was a regular Molton Brown customer but with changes in ownership and their temporary disappearance from QVC, I moved on to other brands. This product though has been and will be one of my most regular Molton Brown purchases. This is a travel size but even at £18 for the full 300ml size it's well worth it. It's not like showering with Olbas Oil or Vicks Vapour Rub instead it has a pleasant yet not overpowering  eucalyptus based herbal scent. It's a must have if you're feeling hot and bothered or a real essential if like me at the moment you're full of cold and feeling all yucky and congested.

So they were my April empties x Lots of bath and shower products but I did manage to get rid of a lot of long established and never ending products. Plans for May? well pretty much more of the same - I'm aiming for some more skincare products, and a few travel sizes, and maybe some hair things. Again I'm probably going to be holding off on the make up thing because Project 10 Pan is gonna happen probably from June onwards so I'll keep you posted  x If you've produced a recent empties post or video then link me up below x If you have any questions then leave me a comment and I'll get back to you x

Foodie Friday On A Saturday - What I Ate In April 2014

Hi Guys x I'm late again but better late than never I guess. As I mentioned in my monthly weight loss round up post April was a pretty difficult month when it came to food. I ate a lot of comfort foods and a lot of what I fancied. I made a few recipes that you've seen before including this..

Yes, my winter classic, Broccoli and Stilton Soup (find my recipe here x). My mum got some reduced Stilton and a massive head of broccoli and this was the most obvious outcome. It also gave me an opportunity to try out my mums new toy.

The Bamix - a stupidly expensive but oh so worth it, hand blender and more.  I think I'm going to give it a post all of it's in the future so keep checking back for that, suffice to say though it's unbelievably amazing!

I also made my Nutty Bean Burger recipe but I had a little fiddle with the recipe and made it with chick peas instead of mixed beans. The end result was really tasty but I had real problems when it came to cooking them, the burgers just kept falling apart. I came to the conclusion that I'd probably made them too big, never mind I served them with Slimming World Chips and salad.

Usually I would just make burgers with the left over mixture but this time I decided to have a little play. Using the chick peas made me think of falafels, okay the seasonings etc. would be different but the mix worked in exactly the same way. I rolled the mixture into rough, gold fall sized, balls, then I sprayed them and an oven try with Fry Light, and popped them into a hot oven for about 15 minutes until they were crispy on the outside. It was a revelation and I definitely think that I'll cook them this way again. I served them with a sort of Greek / Middle Easter type salad, with lettuce, grated carrot, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, black olive and feta cheese, and I served it on a gluten free wrap with homemade yogurt and mint sauce. It was sooo yummy and so filling, and the sauce was gorgeous and only a fraction of the calories of mayonnaise.

Speaking of wraps, I've tried a few different gluten free wraps over the last month or so and I've actually been pretty impressed. My Asda often does the B Free ones which are fabulous calorie wise but they don't don't always seem to be in stock so I tried something that I hadn't tried for a while - the Warburtons Newburn Bakehouse White Wraps. I really like these, you can't tell that their wheat and gluten free at all. Okay I lie you can tell, they £3.10 for 3 wraps which is way more than the normal ones. Why is gluten and wheat free food so expensive? Anyways I've played with them before using them instead of lasagna sheets and of course as wraps but this time I decided to use them to make wrap pizzas :)

All I did was spread the wraps with some tomato puree, before covering them in some sauteed vegetables, and some cheese, and them I popped them in the oven for about 10 minutes - Voila a perfect thin and crispy pizza in minutes :)

Something that I've fallen in love with over the last few months has been Diet Coke Quorn. This is seriously one of the yummiest things I've had in a long time. So I made it again only this time I added a bit of chilli to give it a bit of a kick, and to hopefully help kill off the chest infection that I had :) I'm not sure it worked but we both enjoyed it, I served the first lot with pasta, and the second lot with rice and cauliflower.

The majority of my foodie highlights from April though came from a long weekend and a few days either side of it. I'm talking about Easter of course! I was going to try and be a bit restrained and whilst I didn't go crazy and eat everything at once I did over indulge a bit.

Hot Cross Buns, something that I hated as a child but something as an adult that I can't get enough of. My mum normally makes gluten free ones for me but this year we bought them instead these were from the Tesco Free From range and they were gorgeous warmed in the microwave, with just a tiny scraping of real butter mmmmm.

It wouldn't be Easter without an egg and these were the paste eggs that me and my mum made. Isn't the colour amazing ! All you do is add loads and loads of onion skins to the water when your boiling them, and they go the most amazing reddy, brown colour.

Obviously when the eggs were boiled we ate them, this is just boiled egg mashed up with low fat salad cream, tomato, spring onion and lots of salt and pepper all on top of a gluten free white roll.

Alongside our egg sandwiches it's traditional on Easter Sunday in LouLouLand to eat cake, and this year my mum made a gluten free chocolate cake, covered with buttercream, mini eggs and chocolate buttons, which was supposed to resemble a nest haha.

Yeah, I'm no sure if that's what I'm seeing but by gum it tasted god. Originally it was supposed to have buttercream in the middle but being gluten free it refused to cooperate and crumbled so if in doubt cover the lot in icing and chocolate yum.

It wouldn't be Easter without a chocolate egg or three and I think you'll agree that mine and Mummy Lou's haul was quite impressive.

We didn't eat everything a once but it's safe to say that I was well and truly chocolated out!

Well nearly chocolated out :) I did manage to make a batch of Creme Egg Brownies with - some left over chocolate and creme eggs. This is probably the easiest recipe ever and it's something that I'll share with you soon x

A lot of families have a full on Easter Sunday but we decided to have ours on the Easter Monday instead. My mum roasted a nice chicken for her and the cats and I had a Quorn Roast, served with roasted veg that my mum cooked with fry light - sometimes the simple things are the nicest.

Afterwards we had a homemade gluten free apple pie and cream - naughty but nice!

So they were my April foodie highlights, a mixture of experimentation, sugar rushes and comfort food. I have lots of new foodie posts in the pipeline including my Bamix review, some recipes and a couple of reviews of local places to eat and drink, so I hope you'll stick around x Happy Eating x

Au Revoir To April

(gorgeous pic from we heart it)

Well that's it another month down, I don't know about you but when I was younger time seemed to pass so slowly but now days and weeks just seem to fly be. Well April's gone now I have to say it's been another up and down month - my foot is almost back to normal bar a few aches and pains, but I haven't felt so good in other areas never mind things were starting to look up as the month ended so hopefully the only way is up. We'll start off with my monthly challenge which was to sort through my make up and toiletry stash, well I've certainly been doing that - I've given a few things away to friends and relatives, I am sorting out some more bits for Give and Make Up, and of course I've been updating my blog sale page on a regular basis - the latest update should be up about 2pm this afternoon with lots of MAC limited editions, Illamasqua and more - so don't forget to check it out x I am also up to 8 items on Project 10 Pan with another 3 believe it or not nearing the end of the lives too - very exciting I'm already planning on the things that I want to buy - Bad LouLou ;) In May I am going to to keep at this sorting and trimming up - it's so hard to get rid of things but I really am trying to be brutal - I am also going to resume my mass ebay listings so check out my sidebar in the next few weeks for some goodies including Hello Kitty, some shoesies, some jewellery and accessories and lots of clothes.

Avon Naturals Strawberry and Guava Body Lotion 200ml
Butter London Powder Room Nail Lacquer Remover 2fl oz
Boots 17 Mirror Shine Lipstick - Nudist Peach
Good Things Stay Clear Anti Blemish Cleanser 150ml
L'Occitane Ultra Rich Shower Cream 250ml
Lacura 3 in 1 Facial Cleansing Wipes For Sensitive Skin x 30 Wipes
The Body Shop Cocoa Butter Body Butter 200ml
Lush Tea Tree Water 250g
Tara Smith Big Baby Gentle Shampoo 100ml
The Body Shop Nutmeg and Vanilla Bath and Shower Gel 250ml
The Body Shop Cocoa Butter Creamy Body Wash 250ml
Total - 11 Items

Anyway on to Trimming My Stash I finished 11 items which wasn't bad I just managed one make up item which was a bit of a disappointment but as I say I have about 3 make up items on their last legs so all is good. My Monthly Spending Diet on the other hand was a abject fail in April
 

Butter London No More Waity, Katie - £15.00
Nails Inc The Royal Collection - ASOS - £20.00
Top and Maxi Dress TK Maxx - £29.99
Skirt, Top and P&P - Asda - £16.95
TK Maxx Skirt and Handbag Jar - £19.98
WHSmith Rose Multi Drawers -£9.99
Boots 17 Xtras Crackle Top Coat - £3.99
Sideways Cross Necklace - ebay - £7.00
Total So Far - £122.90

Eek that was so bad nearly £80 over my limit primarily down to a couple of cute clothing purchases and some Royal Wedding nail polish purchases - I don't really have any excuses this month apart from the freedom of managing to get out and about properly for the first time in a while, but as I've said before I'm not going to beat myself up for failure. I could say that I'm going to try harder in May but that will probably be a bit of a lie after all May is my birthday month and that means I can spend - after all I need to celebrate my old age in a positive way lol I will still keep track of it in the sidebar and I'll try not to go too crazy ;)
So that was my April I hope you had a good one - the weather was certainly good in the UK in April lets hope it continues in May there is nothing like a bit of sun on your birthday xx

March Madness

(pic taken from we heart it )

Well it's goodbye to the third month of the year already - where the heck is this year going. March saw the return of lighter nights which is a good thing in my book losing an hour of sleep maybe wasn't so good. March saw a big improvement in my foot which lead to my first proper shopping trip since before Christmas - understandably this didn't help my spending diet - whoops!



Boots - Cleanser, Eye Make Up Remover, Leg Wax - £14.51
ASOS - Ring and Nail Polish - £18.00
2 x Tops - H&M - £20.98
2 x BeautyUK Nail Polishes - Superdrug - £3.98
Daisy Earrings - ebay - £3.99
Biotherm Aquatrio Starter Kit - £8.55
MAC Biker Blue Nail Lacquer - £8.10
2 x Issues Glamour - £4.00
3 x Issues Glamour - £6.00
Total So Far - £87.57 - £47.57 Over

Lets put it this way I've certainly made up for my frugal January and February - I went a massive £47.57 over my £40 limit - I had some fun in the real world which I'm not going to apologise for but what was scary this month was that I bought 5 issues of the same magazine - yup that's right 5 issues of Glamour for the Clinique freebies - that doesn't really make them freebies does it ? hmm. Never mind I am going to try a bit harder in April I promise - yet again the new MAC collections aren't wowing me and I've stocked up on skincare so hopefully it should be a bit easier x
Trimming my stash well I have to say I'm pretty pleased with my March total - I finished 16 items

Alva Naturkosmetik Daily Care Milk / Honey Shower Gel 150ml
Laura Geller Invisible Oil Blotting Powder - 10.50g
Laura Geller Spackle Make Up Primer 28g
Clear Beauty Deep Cleansing 3 in 1 Facial Wipes - 25 Wipes
Leighton Denny Essential Remover Acetone Free Polish Remover 50ml
Boots Botanics Soothing Eye Make Up Remover 150ml
Sally Hansen Kwik Off Apricot Nail Colour Remover 150.8ml
b.liv by cellnique Squeaky Clean Beads Cleansing Gel 130ml
Lovea Bio Le Monoi Moisturizing Shampoo 200ml
The Body Shop Cocoa Butter Creamy Body Wash 250ml
Ecover Lavender and Aloe Vera Shower Gel 250ml
Jessica Phenomen Oil 7.4ml
L'Oreal Matte Morphose Souffle Foundation in 110 Ivory Rose - 20g
Lush Catastrophe Cosmetic Face Mask 75g
b liv by cellnique Quench Me Moisturizing Gel 45ml
ELF Brush Shampoo 120ml
Total - 16 Items

Perhaps what I am most pleased about though is that I finished 3 make up items so I have just another 3 to go and I have finished project 10 pan :)
In March my mini challenge was to have a look through my make up and see what I'd been missing out on- well I can certainly say I have found some absolute gems - I will be doing a blog post and an accompanying you tube video sometime in April for you x My April challenge to be honest is more of the same - I have sorted some more things out for blog sale so I will hopefully pop those up next week, and currently sorting out a pile for give and make up, so in April I am basically going to sort my make up out again and see which bits I can live without - I also want to change my lip product storage so hopefully that will be something I can achieve in April. I have felt a little bit bleurgh for a lot of March so I'm hoping April will be better - fingers crossed for a good month for all of us x

Adios To April

Well would you believe 4 months of the year gone already eek doesn't time fly. Anyway what sort of month was April well it's been pretty up and down I haven't felt great for a lot of this month - ME symptoms, more home stresses, eek but never mind. I've gone over my spending diet for this month but on the whole it's been a much better month than the last two - my downfall this month has been you lot lol - most of my spending this month has gone on blog sales eek - never mind I've got some lovely things and I've helped you lot out a bit :)

YSL Lipstick,MAC Paints -Cosmetics Candys Blog Sale - £15.50
MAC Rubenesque Paint Pot - Marcia's Blog Sale - £8.00
MUA Haul - £8.00
Lush Space Girl Ballistic - £1.85
Lush Tea Tree Water - £6.35
Accessorize Statue of Liberty Necklace - £.6.00
Collection 2000 Big Fake Mascara - £4.99
Physicians Formula Baked Eyeshadow Trio - Baked Oatmeal - Holly's Blog Sale - £3.00
OPI Cozu Melted In The Sun - Helen's Blog Sale - £7.00
Rimmel 60 Second Nail Polish - 640 Twinkle - £3.49
Total -£64.18

Never mind I won't be counting my spends for May because it's my birthday month :) hurray cue hopefully a bit of birthday money and the urge to treat myself I mean I'll be 32 does that not deserve a treat lol

Anyways this month I have probably had one of my best months so far with trimming my stash - 22 items all loving photographed for you (I think I've got them all bar the hair removal cream - my mum threw it out before I took a pic but I don't think I've missed anything else)



Benefit Bathina Enchanting Beauty Bubbles 240g
Clinique Smooth Delivery Body Treatment 30ml
Lacura Face Care Balancing Day Cream 50ml
Liz Earle Instant Boost Skin Tonic 200ml
The Body Shop Cocoa Butter Hand and Body Lotion 250ml
Lush Marilyn Hair Moisturiser 225g
Clynol Repair Revive Repair Shampoo 300ml
Veet Normal Skin In Shower Hair Removal Cream150ml
Philosophy The Gingerbread Man Foaming Bubble Bath and Shower Gel 473.1ml
Boots Botanics Soothing Eye Make Up Remover 150ml
Collection 2000 Collagen Curl Mascara - 17 Ultra Black
Avon Blueberry Bubble Bath 1000ml
The Body Shop Seaweed Clarifying Toner 200ml
Bath & Body Works Winter Candy Apple Body Lotion 295ml
Models Prefer Neutralizing Yellow Powder - Loose
Evian Brumisateur 50ml
Lacura 3 in 1 Facial Cleansing Wipes -25 Wipes
Lush Cupcake 75g
Beautilicious Candy Apple Body Scrub 100ml
No7 Total Renewal Micro-Dermabrasion Body Exfoliator 40ml
Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick - 720 Drive Me Nuts
id Bare Minerals Foundation - Medium 2g
Total - 22 Items



I was initially going to keep all my packaging till the end and do one big pic but there was way too much of it lol - I don't think I am going to finish anywhere near this many next month tho lol How did your April go? Do you have any goals for May?