July Favourites ’17

Woohoo it’s getting closer to my holiday now which is really exciting! July went by super quick to be honest and it took me ages to remember what happened throughout the month, let alone what products I was loving. 😛

Finally I came up with some beauty products I loved, but it wasn’t easy! This also includes my non beauty favourites too!

• NSPA Fruits Blueberry Shower and Bath Gel.

This has been a shower gel I’ve really enjoyed using throughout the month, which I’m sure you can tell from the fact that it’s pretty much empty now! I reviewed this shower gel as well as two others here a month or two ago. Blueberry scented things are a definite must have for me, as it’s my favourite fruit! Also you can’t go wrong if the colour blue or purple comes with it too. This shower and bath gel has a light but fragrant scent to it and it’s really refreshing too, which makes it a perfect shower and bath gel to use throughout the summer. I mostly used this as a shower gel, but occasionally I did also use it in the bath which created some lovely soft bubbles. I have the strawberry one to use up next!

• L’Oreal Paris Pure Clay Blemish Rescue Face Mask.

This is a face mask I have really been loving using since I bought it and in a short period of time I have noticed such a huge difference to my skin! It’s made me really happy! I broke out so badly towards the end of July and I was gutted, but after using this mask again it really did help calm my skin down and pretty much make my spots go away in a matter of days. I cannot recommend this face mask enough to people with spot prone skin and oily skin. You can read my review for it here!

• Maybelline Color Drama Intense Lip Paint in Vamped Up.

You know when you rediscover a lip product you used to love? Yeah I did this  in July with this gorgeous purple lip paint! It’s one of my favourite purple lipsticks I own and it’s also one of the best types of lipstick to apply to! Granted due to the dark purple shade you need to use a lip liner with it. I wore it out for a day of shopping with Dane and popped some blue highlighter on the top to give it a pop of colour! I love the combination so damn much! I’ll definitely be packing this lipstick with me for my holiday as I really want to recreate the look whilst I’m in Fuerteventura!

• The Body Shop Peppermint Intensive Cooling Foot Rescue. 

Now as weird as it’ll sound I haven’t just been using this on my feet, but I’ve been mostly using this on my hands. I’ve heard of people saying they use it on their hands when they’re in need of some series TLC and I never got why. Now I do! I gave it a go randomly when my hands were really sore and dry and since then after using this daily before work my hands have really thanked me for it. They’re lovely and soft and to be fair after using my hands smell minty and gorgeous! Can’t go wrong with that. I’ve also been using this on both mine and Dane’s feet to keep them lovely and soft. I want to try and keep my feet looking good before the holiday! 😛

• Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb EDP.

This is by far one of my favourite perfumes I own (it’s in my top 10) and it’s one I go back to once in a while. It’s one of those scents that just smells really good and is one that will get heads turning if someone walks past you with it on. I like to think that happens when I wear it in all fairness. 😛 It’s more of a winter scent for myself but I don’t know, I just fancied wearing it one day last month and it stuck for over a week. I try not to use it too much though considering it’s one of my favourites. I want to use my least favourite scents up first! 😛

So now my beauty favourites are done, time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month!

Image taken from weheartit.com

Favourite TV Show – Preacher and One Punch Man.

Holy shit I have so much to say about Preacher! It’s a show I wasn’t sure I would like last year when me and Dane started watching it, but it’s fast turned into a show I adore. To be honest what got me to watch it was when Dane told me that Joseph Gilgun was in it as an Irish vampire. Was instantly hooked. 😛 For those of you who don’t know who Gilgun is, he’s in the gif above as his character in Preacher, Cassidy. He’s always Woody in This Is England and Ruddy in Misfits, as well as many more TV shows and films. I’ll pop a synopsis here because it’ll explain it better than I could. 😛

Fulfilling a promise to his deceased father, one-time outlaw Jesse Custer returns home to West Texas to take over his dad’s church. Jesse’s mission, however, becomes twisted when his body is overcome by a cryptic force that unleashes within him a highly unconventional power. Together with hell-raising ex-girlfriend Tulip and Irish vagabond Cassidy, the preacher-in-training embarks on a journey to find God in a world inhabited by holy, hellish, and everything-in-between characters. The darkly comedic “Preacher” is based on Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s popular 1990s comic book franchise of the same name. Executive producers include Sam Catlin (“Breaking Bad”), and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (“Superbad,” “Neighbors”).

It’s an amazing show based off of a comic book and if you’re up for watching a show with some dark humour and some talented British/Irish actors then I recommend you watch it! It’s only available on Amazon Prime however as it’s an exclusive for there, but it’s definitely worth buying alone to watch the show for a month or two.

Image taken from tumblr.com

Dane recently bought the One Punch Man blu-ray so OF COURSE we  had to binge watch it! I was never really into One Punch Man when the “craze” around it started, but I remember Dane putting it on for us to watch online and I loved it! So it was somewhat nostalgic when re watching it. We watched it originally not long after moved into the house so it reminds me of that time. I love the gif above of Saitama dancing. SO KAWAII!!!

Image taken from nerd901.com

Favourite Film – Spider-Man: Homecoming.

I was so excited about seeing this film because in comparison to the two previous Spider-Men I actually had high hopes for this one. I’ll say it, Tom Holland did an amazing job as Peter Parker and it’s just how I would have imagined back in 2003 when I was playing the PlayStation Spider-Man game. I just loved the movie so much, but not enough to get all die hard fan about it. I’m glad we went to watch it a few days after it came out too. We made a proper late night movie date night with it, which I loved. I can’t wait for Venom to come out now, I hope Tom Hardy does the part too. This is going to be an exciting part of Marvel!

Image taken from weheartit.com

Favourite Book – Your Name manga and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid manga.

I said last month how I hadn’t been reading much, and that certainly wasn’t a lie. This month however I haven’t read LOADS but I’ve read more! I finished off the first volume of Your Name and I honestly can’t wait for volume 2 to come out in November!

As well as that I’ve continued on with reading the Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid series and I’m currently reading volume 3. I guess I’m trying to make my manga last as long as I possibly can. I still have K-ON! to read, which I was trying to save for holiday but I doubt I will now. I’ve also started to buy the Persona 3 manga series so I’ll be reading those as soon as I can get my hands on the rest of them!

Favourite Song/Album – Flyleaf New Horizons.

You know when you forget all about a band you love? Well I did that recently with Flyleaf. They’re a band I discovered during my final year of university and have followed them for almost 10 years now. My favourite album is definitely New Horizons due to how the songs all sound. You have a mixture of dancey songs in there as well as serious. I just find I love all the songs and I don’t even want to skip one to hear another. My favourite song from the album has to be… “Bury Your Heart”. Either that or “Stand”. That being said though I love all the songs off of the album.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Favourite Game – Persona 5…

YES PERSONA 5 IS STILL MY FAVOURITE. FUCK YOU! 😛

I’m sorry but yes I am still playing this game as I’m 1. taking my time playing it because I want it to last as long as humanly possible and 2. I fucking love it. I honestly haven’t loved a game for years and I am relishing in it right now. I have bought Persona 4 Golden to play when I’m on holiday and I can see me buying another Persona game on my PS Vita in the future. SPEAKING OF! I bought a PS Vita at the start of the month when I got paid and it’s definitely something I am so glad I bought. It means if I want to play Persona 5 when Dane wants to play on his Xbox One I can just pop it on the Vita. It’s amazing quality too, which makes me happy.

Now I’ve spoken about it I must go and play it… 😛

So those are my favourites from last month. What products were you loving? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time take care all and here’s to another month!

Asda NSPA Fruit Extracts Shower & Bath Gels – Review

This is a review I didn’t think I would do to be honest and not because of any negative reason, I just didn’t think it was something that NEEDED reviewing. I assume everyone knows about these awesome shower and bath gels but according to people I know they actually don’t AND GUESS WHAT? YOU’RE MISSING OUT!

I also wanted to write this review today because Asda currently have an offer on which includes these and I want people to take advantage of that like me and Dane have.

For quite a long time on and off I’ve bought these shower and bath gels and I’ve tried at least a hand full of different ones and I can’t wait to try more!

Today I’ll be reviewing three different scents and mentioning ones I’ve tried in the past. I hope you enjoy this review! I haven’t done one for a couple of weeks now so I wanted to try and get something out there! Lipstick reviews will be back very soon by the way. 😛

When me and Dane visited Asda Friday just gone we saw that Asda had a HUGE offer on their health and beauty products which was 3 for 2. We used this offer on loads of health and beauty stuff from deodorant, some erm feminine products for myself *coughs loudly* and of course these NSPA shower and bath gels.

I don’t actually think this offer is on anymore as it isn’t showing up on the website… Maybe it was just something for the bank holiday. WHICH I can’t believe we had again. Urgh. Too many bank holidays that I don’t get to enjoy due to my job. 😛

Anyways! Me and Dane picked up three of the shower and bath gels on the offer which are lemon, blueberry and strawberry.

The first thing I want to talk about is how gorgeous the colours of these gels are. Due to the 14 different scents there are all sorts of colourful bottles on the shelves when you go to buy these. As you can see from the pictures of the three we picked up, we’re going to have a very colourful bathroom!

The 14 scents you can choose from are shea butter, creamy coconut, strawberry, pineapple, vanilla, green tea, blueberry, sweet almond, raspberry, lemon, mango, passion fruit, red cherry and runny honey.

I remember when they had a lime shower and bath gel which smelt amazing and I loved using it throughout the summer the year I bought it. Sadly it’s been discontinued now and by the looks of things replaced with the lemon one, which is just as good!

These are all shower and bath gels I would happily use throughout the year, but they’re obviously going to be amazing throughout the warmer summer months! They’re also all 500ml bottles so these will last you ages! Between me and Dane using them everyday in our morning showers one bottle will probably last us a month. You don’t need a lot on a sponge or shower scrunchy as a little goes a long way!

I wouldn’t say this is super moisturising for the skin but it always leaves me feeling squeaky clean and smelling amazing after I get out of the shower!

This put under the hot tap for a bath makes loads of lovely scented bubbles! I know it’s not Lush but to be honest it makes a change from using Lush all the time and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper! Before now I’ve put it in the bath and washed my hair, my hair ends up smelling like whichever of the shower and bath gels I’ve used.

The brightest shade out of these is definitely the strawberry one. This has left out shower scrunchy stained pink before now! That isn’t a bad thing though. 😛

I’ll talk about each gel individually, first I’ll talk about the blueberry one.

I love blueberries so much! The actual fruit, the smell, the taste and hell even the colour of them is amazing! The first thing I did when I first bought this gel was give it a sniff to see if it smelt as good as it looked, which it did! It smells so fruity yet with a bit of sweetness to it. It reminds me of I Love… Cosmetics blueberry smoothie range that they had out years ago. I loved it so much and since I was about 20 I haven’t been able to find the blueberry smoothie scents since. This has definitely replaced it though and I wish NSPA had more products with the same scent. It strangely reminds me of the slush drinks you buy in the cinema, even though (as far as I know anyway…) they don’t do a blueberry flavour. Either way this one smells amazing!

Second one I’ll be talking about is lemon.

This is the one out of the three gels that we’ve not tried until now and as you can see we’re using this one at the moment. This smells amazing! I love citrus scents in summer but I love them more in the mornings! I find if I’m up really early for work that it helps  me to wake up due to the sharp and uplifting scent. The yellow colour is gorgeous too and really adds a pop of colour to your shower. This doesn’t smell of like sweet or candy, it genuinely smells like you’ve cut a lemon in half and you’re smelling it. 😛

Finally I’m talking about the strawberry gel, which is both mine and Dane’s favourite.

This is our second bottle now and I think from now on every time we pop to Asda for our food shop we’ll be picking up a bottle of this if it’s on offer. It’s a bright red shower gel and one that really does show a pop of colour when used in the shower, as well as when left on display on the side of the bath or shower. This smells just like strawberry laces but not in a sickly sweet way. More of a relaxing yet yummy scent.

These are definitely some of mine and Dane’s favourite shower gels and at £3.00 for a 500ml bottle I think these are a complete bargain! I mean considering you’ll pay £5.00 for a 250ml bottle in The Body Shop and extortionate prices from Lush between £15.00-£20.00 for a 500ml bottle.

I don’t know if it’s the older I’ve gotten or even since buying the house but as much as I love both The Body Shop and Lush shower gels they are a bloody rip off for what they claim to do to your skin and what they actually don’t do. I don’t mind paying £3.00 for these shower gels mind as I find whilst they don’t do anything mind blowing, I’m saving quite a lot of money in the long run really.

These are currently on offer for £2.00 each at Asda so if you like the sound of them make sure to pick one or two up!

Have you ever tried the NSPA shower and bath gels? If not do you think you would? Hey maybe you have, if so what do you think of them? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

I hope you’re all well folks and had a lovely bank  holiday weekend, sorry I’ve been a bit crap with blogging lately. I’m on late shifts at work right now and by the time I get in from work I eat my dinner and go to sleep. 😦 That and my mental health is pretty bad right now… But that’s for another post.

Until next time though take care all!

Smoothie Sunday – Blueberry & Raspberry

This is definitely a new weekly addition to my blog and it’s something I hope to keep up for quite a while.

I decided last week that I really need to eat healthier as I feel like I’ve gained so much weight lately and I want to change it before it gets too out of hand. So the first thing I wanted to change was what I eat in the morning for breakfast and lunch in the afternoon.

One thing I thought would be great to start having is smoothies, something I have always wanted to have but never had the time for it. However, my household recently got a Ninja blender and it is the fastest and best blender I have ever used. When I move out I’ll definitely be picking one up for my own home.

My only problem with smoothies is that I might not be able to make a hell of a lot due to allergies to certain (well most) fruits, which sucks. But I shall try my hardest to come up with some awesome recipes!

In the future I might even give some soup recipes a go.

So I thought I would give the smoothie making a go and my first recipe, which is blueberry and raspberry.

This smoothie is super easy to make and roughly contains about 200-300 calories, which is great. Perfect to make in the evening to have for breakfast or lunch on the go.

Ingredients:

1 cup full of raspberries and blueberries (so half of each, or more of whichever you prefer).

2-3 tablespoons of low fat Greek yogurt. I used honey but you can use plain if you wish. You can also use low fat natural yoghurt too.

Half a cup of milk. I used semi-skimmed but you can use whatever you want.

A drizzle of honey for sweetness. This is totally up to you though.

And that’s it! I personally use frozen fruit as I find it lasts a lot longer than fresh fruit and it means I don’t need to add any ice cubes as it’s already cold. I don’t care if frozen fruit is bad for you etc, this is ideal for me and saves me a hell of a lot of money. Of course you can use fresh fruit for this recipe.

Will you be giving this recipe a go? Please let me know if you do in the comments! If you can think of any yummy smoothies you like, let me know the recipe and I may be able to give them a go!

Until next time, take care all!

Things I’m Excited For – The Body Shop

Recently The Body Shop have announced a lot of exciting things for spring and summer this year, including hair chalk, some lip glosses, and eye shadows, as well as a special edition collection, which I oh so wish was permanent!

Like a lot of bloggers have been doing, I’m also going to jump on the bandwagon and talk about some of these, but I’ll be sharing the ones I’m interested in. I don’t really bother with lip gloss anymore and as regular readers will know, I don’t wear a full face of make up, just my lip products.

So let’s get started! I’ll save the best for last! 😛

Hair Chalk.

For a year or two now, everyone has gone mad for multicoloured hair and people have gone to all sorts to gain it whether it be with permanent, semi permanent or sprays and chalks to get this look. Women have been putting it on their ends of their hair to give them a different look, as well as a pop of colour and I even bought some red hair spray about a year ago to try and pull the look off myself, but I never got round to trying it and the can of spray is still in my cupboard…

However now that The Body Shop have bought out some hair chalks, I KNOW I’ll be giving these a go, as they look and sound amazing. I’ve seen some promotional images of how these transfer onto both blonde and brunette hair colours and they look great!

There are two shades to choose from, pink and blue.

Image taken from thebodyshop.com

The pink hair chalk is called Tickle Me Pink and is described as, “Transform your look with a pop of pink hair chalk for instantly on-trend style.”

Image taken from thebodyshop.com

The pink hair chalk is called Falling For Blue and is described as, “Transform your look with bold blue hair chalk for instantly on-trend style.”

I really like the look of these hair chalks and not only do they look nice in their simple packaging, they transfer well onto the hair and to apply and remove, is a piece of cake!

The colours are both pretty bold and to transfer to hair you just pick the piece of hair you want to make colourful and rub the chalk onto the hair. Once you’re satisfied with your new temporary colour you spritz with some hair spray to keep seal it into place.

When you’ve had enough of your hair chalk all you need to do is wash it out with shampoo. Simple!

As of yet a price hasn’t been announced for  how much the hair chalks will be, but as soon as I know, I’ll be updating this post!

I’m going to get my hands on Falling For Blue, when my spending ban  is over, as I really want to give colour a go for the summer. I’ll be applying it to pieces of my braid to give it a funky look! When/if I give this a go, I’ll be making sure to post about it!

Special Edition Blueberry.

This is what I’m excited about, the Special Edition Blueberry collection that The Body Shop is bringing out for spring and summer. Damn, why can’t it be permanent?! I know so many who love Blueberry and when The Body Shop brought their Blueberry body butter out, it did very well! Same about their Blueberry shower gel, but that was only an online item, which was a shame.

However they now have a WHOLE collection of goodies out, including lip butter, shower gel, a cute bath sponge, body scrub-gelee, body lotion, and body butter.

I already have my eye on pretty much everything but I know that in reality I’m only going to be picking up four things (if I like them after trying them in store of course!) out of the six listed above… Unless I’m good and pick up less, but I doubt this will happen. I love blueberry a lot, it’s one of the few fruits I can actually eat and blueberry muffins are something that I’ve grown to love over the past couple of years.

image taken from thebodyshop.com

This has been up on The Body Shop’s website for quite a few months now for £4.00 for the 250ml bottle, which is the standard price of their 250ml shower gels. I have enough shower gel to probably last me until the end of 2014, but I CAN’T resist this and I know it would be loved and used just as much as my other shower gels would be. This would be lovely and refreshing to use during the summer whether it be in the morning or on the night. I love The Body Shop’s shower gels as they always leave me feeling clean, moisturised and smelling beautiful.

Image taken from thebodyshop.com

How cute is this little bath sponge?! I probably don’t need a new one, but how damn cute is this??? I don’t think I can resist it and I could probably do with a new one soon anyway! I can only imagine this will be between £2.00-£3.00 but as of yet the website hasn’t stated a price. Look at his little face! Damn I need this in my bathroom. I love the colour blue too!

Image taken from thebodyshop.com

This is something somewhat new sounding by The Body Shop and I can’t wait to check out a tester version of it in store! This is the body scrub-gelee and the name is just so cool! It just sounds like a gel style scrub, which sounds rather exciting to me. It contains honey, as well as blueberry to help keep the skin soft, as well as give you that gorgeous blueberry scent. This will help lift away dead skin cells and leave the skin feeling soft and smooth. I only have two body scrubs and by the time I pick this up, the one will be finished with! I’d use this on my legs before shaving as it would help with shaving as well as leaving my legs lovely and smooth and smelling gorgeous. I don’t know how much this will cost but I can’t wait to pick this up!

Image taken from thebodyshop.com

I love a good body lotion and for a while I have wanted to try one of The Body Shop’s body lotions, as I’ve previously tried their Coconut spray lotion and it was amazing! I want to try the Strawberry one, but for now I would so try the Blueberry one which sounds delicious! I can’t stand the body butters from The Body Shop, they’re greasy and take years to go into my skin that I just want to rip my skin off! However the body lotions are lovely and light, still moisturisng the same as the body butters would. Like a majority of the Blueberry products that are coming out, I don’t know how much this will be, but I can’t wait to pick it up.

So that’s all the things I’m excited for from The Body Shop!

I can see me being poor when I come off of my spending ban… But it’ll be well worth it!

Have you had your eye on any of the new products from The Body Shop? Let me know in the comments.

Take care all and I hope you’re having a good February so far!