A Life Update And Trimming My Stash - August 2017 Edition - Empties And Mini Reviews

After a pretty manic few weeks I've finally managed to grab a few minutes to sit down and blog. I wish I could say that I'd been away sunning myself but the reality is a little bit more boring than that, so I'm not going to bore you with too much of a life update. 

This week on the whole, has been a fun one though, I've combined a huge shopping trip, with lots of friend and family time, culminating in celebrating my mums birthday yesterday and a family meal tomorrow night. I'm not going to lie I'm exhausted and lacking spoons but when you've done or you're going to do, something that you enjoy it makes the drained feeling a little easier to stomach.

I know it's a bit of cliche but this year is really flying by, I can hardly believe that the first week of September is now done and dusted, despite my lingering hopes of an Indian summer, Autumn is definitely on it's way. I've drank my first Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte of the year, the Halloween and Christmas bits are starting to appear in stores and the leaves are beginning to fall from the trees. I'm still trying to cling on to the last remnants of summer but I need to stop kidding myself, August is long gone.

Sanctuary Body Scrub - 50ml
Benefit The Porefessional Instant Wipeout Mask x 1
Elemis Exotic Frangipani Monoi Moisture Melt - 35ml
Elemis Exotic Frangipani Monoi Bath And Shower Cream - 200ml
Creightons Creme de Coconut & Keratin Nourishing Conditioner - 250ml
Creightons Creme de Coconut & Keratin Moisturising Shampoo - 250ml
My Little Beauty Body Scrub - Sandy Shore - 210g

Total - 7 Items

Before we forget August completely though, it's time to take an all be it, late look back, at all of the beauty products that I finished last month. Although I'm nowhere near July's total, 7 items is still more than acceptable. There wasn't a lot of skincare again but I did finish a few pairs of products, that pleased my slim OCD side immensely.

1. Sanctuary Body Scrub - 50ml

This is a product that I've talked about on a few occasions. The Sanctuary range is one of the mainstays of Boots bath and body care brands, and it's a popular one when it comes to Christmas gift sets. I haven't bought a Sanctuary product in it's own right for a number of years now, but I do occasionally receive their products as gifts. This was a mini, travel sized body scrub that I probably got in a gift set. The smell of the Sanctuary products is intoxicating, an exotic mix of essential oil that creates a warm, slightly citrus scent. This is a gel based scrub that is full of fine, pumice based particles. It foams up nicely but it's just not scratchy enough for me. I would use it again if I got it but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy it myself.

2. Benefit The Porefessional Instant Wipeout Mask x 1

Next up a product from one of my favourite brands Benefit, and quite surprisingly it's a skincare product. I haven't tried a lot of skincare products from Benefit but I know for a fact that they have their devotees. In it's simplest terms these are a cross between a pore strip and a sheet mask. You pop the button and it soaks the mask with a pore refining solution. You then pop the mask on either your nose, your forehead or your chin and leave it for 10 minutes, before massaging the rest of the liquid over your face with the rough side of the strip. I know pores don't open and close like doors but this menthol scented, slightly tingly feeling strip definitely left my skin feeling a little bit smoother and tighter. I think these are on the verge of been discontinued by Benefit so if you want to try these get a move on! You get 8 masks in a pack and whilst they aren't a miracle product they do seem to improve the texture of your skin at least in the short term.

3. Elemis Exotic Frangipani Monoi Moisture Melt - 35ml
4. Elemis Exotic Frangipani Monoi Bath And Shower Cream - 200ml

Products 3 and 4 are both from Elemis Exotic Frangipani Monoi Moisture range. I'm a huge, huge fan of this range, if you want a luxurious bath and body range then this is definitely a one to try. With the beautiful exotic fragrance of tropical white flowers, infused with coconut oil, these products are perfect for pamper time, and they are even used in one of Elemis' post wedding treatments. The shower cream is rich, thick and moisturising, and it produces a rich, creamy foam that leaves you skin beautifully scented and feeling like silk.

The Exotic Frangipani Moisture Melt is a beautiful and unusual multi use product, solid at room temperature, pop the bottle into a bath or a bowl of warm water and it melts down to a beautiful, moisturising fragranced oil, that you can use on your body, your nails, your hair or even as a bath oil.

Both of these products are pretty expensive (the shower cream retails at around £26)  but if you want some luxury body treats and you love heady, white flower scents then you need the Elemis Exotic Frangipani Monoi range in your life.

5.Creightons Creme de Coconut & Keratin Nourishing Conditioner - 250ml*

6.Creightons Creme de Coconut & Keratin Moisturising Shampoo - 250ml*

Another coordinating pair of products and these were a budget shampoo and condition that I was recently sent to review. You can read my full review here x but for just £1 a tube I was pretty impressed with both the shampoo and the conditioner which in my experience proved that you don't need to spend a fortune on hair care basics if you don't want to or your if your budget doesn't stretch to it.

7. My Little Beauty Body Scrub - Sandy Shore - 210g

Finally a product from one of most recent My Little Boxes (check out my unboxing videos on You Tube) and it's another body scrub. This is from the My Little Box exclusive My Little Beauty brand, which unfortunately isn't available to repurchase in the UK. This was everything that I love in a body scrub and a little bit more besides. From the name you can probably already guess that this is a salt scrub, nice gritty grains, suspended in a moisturising oil. You could apply it to wet skin or if you wanted a real intense, almost painful scrub then you can use it on dry skin. It was nice and scrubby and it smelt beautiful - a combination of baby powder, and white flowers. I loved this and I'm gutted that I can't get any more x 

So it was a little bit late but they were my August empties, if you have any questions then leave me a comment and let me know x I've got a busy weekend ahead but I will hopefully be back on Sunday with a yummy recipe that I made for my mam's birthday and then next week with a haul, a review or two and a couple of videos xx

*Press Samples

My Little Box UK January 2016 Edition- My Little Wish Box And A Giveaway

I've got a special treat for you guys today, a subscription box, unboxing post. I normally post unboxing videos on my You Tube channel but because my face is still a bit puffy and my skin looks like rubbish, I'm posting it on here instead. Today then I'm showing you what's in the January 2016 UK Edition of My Little Box.

Every My Little Box is themed and this months box is entitled My Little Wish Box. All of the boxes are beautifully illustrated and this one is no exception, I always try and use my empty boxes and these ones are probably my favourites to reuse. They're nice to keep on show, and they're perfect for tidying away bits of stationery, crafty bits, and of course all those bits of make up, and nail polish, that you never seem to have any room for.

The first thing I normally do when I open the box is have a look through the bits of paper, My Little Box usually includes a couple of information cards on the products in the box, a quote card, and a mini magazine. I was never a fan of the fold out poster so I'm really pleased to see the return of the magazine but for me the paper stand out in this box is the quote card. It's one of my favourite quotes (although I have seen slightly different wording on occasions) and it's from Walt Disney  "All our dreams can come true, if you have the courage to pursue them" Definitely something to bear in mind when you're having a bad day.

My Little Box is very much a beauty and lifestyle box, so in each box you normally get a few lifestyle products, be it a piece of jewellery, stationery or even clothing. The stand out lifestyle product in this months box was this lovely, hard backed 2016 diary.

I'm not sure how well it's coming across here but it's in a beautiful duck blue, mint colour and it features the words "Dear Year, I Like You (Love Me) in metallic, rose gold, embossing on the front. It's a really nice quality diary and it features a week to two pages, so it's perfect for organising your schedule and keeping track of appointments

I really love it but why oh why wasn't this in say the December box. I already have two 2016 diaries, one handbag sized one that I got for Christmas, and a pretty, sparkly desk one that I bought myself so I can't justify keeping this one no matter how nice I think it is. I've asked around and all my friends and family already have their diaries and planners so I've decided to give this one away to one of you guys. So if you haven't got yourself a 2016 diary yet just fill in the Rafflecopter form below and I'll pick one lucky winner in a weeks time x This giveaway is open worldwide but the diary is in English but if you want it get entering x

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Next up another lifestyle item, the Petits Riens Bracelet Card, which is a jewellery item, come gift, come inspirational quotes, all rolled into one.

You get 4 tear off cards, each of which comes with a sentiment printed ribbon, and another card which has a curved metal charm, friendship bracelet on a mint / duck egg blue cord, with a Chinese / love knot style fastening.

I like the idea of this and the idea of giving your friends the sentiment that most suits them but what exactly do you do with the ribbons? I've seen some pictures with people wearing them as bracelets but for me they are nowhere near long enough to wrap around my wrist. I think I'll end up using mine for card making or scrapbooking, but since I love friendship bracelets, and things that you can stack I'll definitely be keeping the bracelet.

Now the bit you've all been waiting for the beauty items - first up a shout out to the little bags that you get, that usually contain the beauty products. Unlike the Birchbox bags these ones are a nice, size, they're made of a good fabric, the designs are cute, and you can reuse them. They are brilliant for popping things in, in your handbag, and they're great for packing things like cotton buds when you go on holiday.

The first item inside the bag is from My Little Box own brand, My Little Beauty, and it's the My Little Beauty Make A Wish Vanilla Scented Lip Balm in a 1.5g size. As useful as lip balms are I can't help but think they're a bit of a filler in beauty boxes and particularly when they're own branded ones like this. They do appear in an awful lot of boxes but it's something that I will probably use. I always have quite a few lip balms on the go at once so I hardly ever seem to use them up but they're always useful.

Next up something a little bit more interesting, a 50ml bottle REN Rosa Centifolia 3 In 1 Cleansing Water.

I'm slightly obsessed with cleansing waters, and I love all in ones and micellar waters for speed and convenience, so I can't wait to give this a proper go. It recommend for all skin types including the most sensitive and it's crammed full of rose otto, to calm and soothe the skin, a must have at this time of year. I'll probably do a Sample Saturday post on this when I've had a chance to try it.

The final product in the box is a make up item, and it's something that I've been wanting to try for a little while now. Too Faced Melted Liquified Long Wear Lipsticks, have the pigmentation and staying power, of a lipstick but with the convenience and ease of application of a gloss.

Packaged in a squeezy tube, it comes with a velour tipped, applicator tip, give it a squeeze and out comes oodles and oodles of thick, luscious liquid lipstick. I've tried a few different liquid lipsticks but this one seems to be in a different class, it tastes lovely, it feels nice on the lips, it's moisturising, and the pigmentation and wear time is worth writing about.

The colour I received is Melted Fuchsia, which is a pretty hot pink. You can apply it with a light hand for a gentler finish, but I can see myself saving this one for the summer months when I've got a bit more colour. This is only a 5ml size compared to the 12ml full size, but this is a great size for trying a pricier product and I can definitely see myself maybe picking up 1 or 2 more shades after trying this one x

Overall I don't think that this was a bad box, I've seen a couple of different variations and I definitely prefer the one that I got. I love the lipstick formulation and I'm really looking forward to trying the cleansing water, My lifestyle highlight is definitely the diary, I just with it had been sent a month or two sooner.

I was feeling a bit mehhh about My Little Box towards the end of last year, but I've really liked the last two boxes so I'm sticking with them for another month. You can find out more about My Little Box here x Do you subscribe to My Little Box? Did you get the same as me? Let me know x