Some Bedtime Treats

I love my bed. It’s my safe place and the best place to snuggle up on rainy weekends with my boyfriend whilst we watch anime and films.

It’s also the place where I like to snuggle up under the covers and have some beauty and self-indulgent treats.

The first thing I like to do is make sure I’m nice and moisturised before bed. I’ve been using various foot moisturisers at the moment, with I slather on my feet as much as possible and put my white cotton socks over the top. I sleep in this and wake up to find my feet lovely and soft! The foot cream I’ve been reaching for the most at the moment is Heel Genius by Soap & Glory (review here). I don’t do this every night, but every other night I’ll do this. I’ll soon be doing this every night as I want nice soft feet ready for spring and summer this year.

Another thing I like to keep soft and smooth are my hands. I suffer from mild eczema in both the winter and summer, HOWEVER I haven’t as of yet had any issues and I thinks it’s because I’ve been making sure to keep my hands moisturised whenever I can. My sister-in-law gave me a huge Sanctuary Spa gift set for Christmas and this came inside of it. I’ve been keeping it by my bed to use throughout the day as well as before I go to sleep. It’s not too thick and really does leave my hands feeling soft. The smell isn’t the best in the world but I don’t care, it does the job.

I like to make sure my lips are moisturised all the time! As soon as they feel dry I make sure to apply plenty of lip balm, as the worst thing for me are a chapped pair of lips. Especially if I want to wear my lipstick and not need to worry about scrubbing away any dead skin first. I know it should be the done thing, but sometimes I don’t have the effort. I love my Carmex lip balms (review here) and these are my go to lip balm at the moment for when I’m at home. I’m currently trying to make my way through plenty of lip balms as I appear to have quite a few… I’m sure I’ll make my way through them though.

You can’t go wrong with burning a candle in the evenings, especially when it’s cold and miserable at the moment. I’m currently burning Yankee Candle’s Red Raspberry wax tart and it’s safe to say I LOVE it! At first it reminded me of The Comforter bubble bar from Lush but now it reminds me of something else, which I can’t quite put my finger on. I love this though and intend to buy a jar of it in the future. I’ve recently gone back to burning wax tarts as instead of forking out for large jars, I may as well pick up some of the scents I want to try before I buy in tart form.

Days in bed are definitely days spent doing next to anything and watching TV shows. One series I’ve been loving at the moment is Dexter and since getting Netflix I’ve been able to continue watching it… Seeing as Amazon Prime took it down. I’m currently just over the halfway mark of season 4 and really addicted to it. I’ve been told not to watch until the end, but I will. I love Dexter’s character too much to just let him go and not find out what happens to him.

Another series, well three series in one that I’ve been enjoying is Cucumber, Banana and Tofu. These are a trilogy of shows put together about gay relationships, as well as a couple of straight ones thrown in there. It’s very modern, funny and great for people of any age. Cucumber focuses more towards older ages, whilst Banana focuses towards a younger audience. Tofu however is only 10-11 minutes long and each week focuses on different topics relating to sex. I love shows like this as they’re so interesting, as well as keeping a funny and lighthearted side to them too. If you haven’t watching any of them yet, do it!

Finally what I really enjoying doing whether my boyfriend is here or not, is to snuggle up to my Totoro plushie and my seal plushie from my second home. My Totoro is huge and it makes it somewhat comforting if I’m feeling a little lonely, sleepy, or just want something to snuggle. My seal plushie is just so squishy and nice, which can make a change from the size of the Totoro one.

Either way, I love having time to chill in bed with all these comforts and treats before I go to sleep and as I’ve written this post out this evening, I’ve done them all. Including snuggling with my Totoro plushie and watching Dexter.

What are your bedtime treats that you do before bed? Let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time, take care all and I wish you all a good sleep tonight.

My Top 5 Hand & Foot Creams

As a lot of regular readers will know, I suffer from eczema on my hands, but luckily enough since before Christmas it’s actually calmed down a lot (watch it flare up now I’ve said that!) and it’s meant I can use a lot more hand creams other than my steroid cream, which I’ve actually been able to stop using!

As well as that I have discovered foot creams again, after only ever using one from Avon. My feet feel so much better since using foot creams and I strongly recommend everyone to buy one, if not just use some normal cream on your feet!

So I shall be talking about my top 5 favourites today!

First of all let’s start with the foot creams.

As you can see there are only two foot creams but in all honesty, one is enough! Originally I was only going to stick with one foot cream, which was to be the Soap & Glory Heel Genius, but as you may have seen on my Christmas 2013 post I received a L’Occitane foot cream from my Mom, which I have to say I love to bits!

Let’s talk about Heel Genius first.

In December I purchased Soap & Glory’s Yule Monty gift set (which you can read about here), which included loads of goodies, including Heel Genius Foot Cream. I’d never tried this before and was rather excited to try it after I’d read a review for it a while ago, stating how amazing it was. To me this cream has more of a gel like texture to it but either way it’s gorgeous and a little bit of this can go a long way. It says on the back of the tube to apply this to feet every night along with some cotton socks and I can only guess that whilst you sleep it works it’s foot softening magic! However I am hopeless at wearing socks whilst I sleep so I apply this in the daytime before I go out, it does the same job!

Heel Genius is a light blue coloured cream and it smells of a mixture of menthol mint and citrus, which is hard to describe really and is one of those scents you just have to give a sniff of yourself to understand what it actually smells of. I apply a good 2 pence piece of this to each foot and it not only smooths your feet and makes them feel baby soft, it also leaves them feeling cool due to the gel cream texture, which I can imagine will be nice when warm summer days are upon us once again.

I use this before I go to work or after a long soak in the bath. This isn’t cheap at £5.50 a tube but as you don’t need much, it lasts a long time! I know I’ll be re-purchasing this when it runs out as I just love it a lot for all sorts of reasons. It keeps my feet lovely and soft, it won’t break the bank to buy, it leaves my feet feeling cool and it smells great too!

For Christmas my Mom bought me this L’Occitane Amanda Foot Cream and it is something I use a couple of times a week as a real treat for my feet! It smells amazing and works wonders for my feet too. Like Heel Genius I pop this on whenever I’m going out for something special, such as seeing friends, my boyfriend or going out with my family. Plus it states on the back of the tube how due to its powdery finish you can quickly put your shoes on after applying this products, which is great and in the future means I can use this in the summer before I slip on a pair of flats. This foot cream contains almond milk and shea butter which means my feet not only feel and look soft, but they smell yummy too!

As this was a Christmas present for my Mom I’m not sure how much it cost her to purchase and I don’t really want to go and look it up either, as it seems rude of me but as it’s by L’Occitane I can only imagine it was the same price as Soap & Glory’s Heel Genius, which I mentioned about costs £5.50 a tube.

Personally I LOVE this foot cream so much I would gladly throw my pennies away for it, but although you only need a little bit of this cream to go a long way, I intend to make sure not to waste it willy nilly, which is why I often opt for Heel Genius.

Now I’ve finished talking about the foot creams, it’s time to discuss the hand creams!

I love hand cream and I can’t get enough of them to be honest! This is due to my eczema so I’m always on the lookout for anything new that will help keep my hands soft and smooth and I think with these 3 hand creams I’ve found it, alongside loads more hand creams that I am yet to mention on my blog in the near future!

These have all been recent discoveries and I think they’ll see me through 2014 rather nicely!

Like the foot creams, the first hand cream I will be talking about is by Soap & Glory. Like Heel Genius I got this inside the Yule Monty and it was probably one of the products I was most excited to try out after hearing nothing but good about it!

At the moment this is pretty much the most used hand cream of the bunch, but mostly because I use it loads in the mornings and early afternoons before I leave the house to go to work. Hand Food has the gorgeous original Soap & Glory smell everyone loves too and although it isn’t my favourite scent by Soap & Glory, I would be lying if I said I disliked the scent.

You don’t need a lot of this and it goes a long way, which is great as I hate hand creams that you apply a little of and it doesn’t even give you a good coverage on your hands. I have to add too that if you suffer from eczema flare ups like I do, then PLEASE don’t use this on irritated or skin that is cut or split open as this WILL sting! I was rather silly and put some of this on my hands when my knuckles were split and cut open and I was in agony for a good five or so minutes. This being said, it does clearly state on the back not to apply this to irritated or damaged skin… Oh what a fool I am!

Other than that this hand cream is amazing and I can see me in the near future purchasing the little travel size of this so I can keep it in my hand bag! It costs £5.50 for a big tube, the same as Heel Genius, which is a decent price if you ask me!

I recommend this to everyone, it’s a wonderful hand cream and smells gorgeous too. What more could you ask for eh?

This is my second tube of The Body Shop’s Hemp Hand Protector and I don’t think it’ll be my last! When I opened up my Love Your Body membership in November I was able to have a small tube of this for free just for signing up, which was nice! The small tube should have been £5, but as I paid that much for the card, it pretty much paid for itself. This huge tube costs £10, but it cost me hardly anything thanks to my LYB card and my birthday coming up, but that’s all explained over on my birthday presents post.

This hand cream is for very dry skin, which of course I suffer with, but since using this I haven’t really had any problems! At one point at work I suffered with terribly dry hands and someone I work with suffered from the same thing too and finally we came to the conclusion that we were both allergic to something at work (a cleaning product). Sadly I thought it was this hand cream and I discontinued using it until more recently, to which I realised this was ACTUALLY helping my hands and it has now become my hand cream for work, which I keep in my work apron to use a couple of times throughout my shift. Since using this, my hands have stayed lovely and soft!

This hand cream is somewhat thick and you don’t need a lot for it to go a long way, I think a 5 pence piece is just about enough, but sometimes it can be a little bit too much and my hands often feel greasy and wet for ages afterwards! I’m not a huge fan of the smell of this, but I have owned worse smelling lotions and hand creams, so I can’t complain!

For £5 for their smallest size, £10 for their largest it is VERY expensive and personally without a discount I wouldn’t purchase this at all, because it’s bloody expensive! Especially as I can pick up Laura Mercier for £13!

But this being said it’s a great hand cream and if you have the money to splash  out on it, I say go for it! The Body Shop do three or four different types of hand creams, all depending on which kind of skin you have. Go check out their website or go in store to see which one would suit your needs.

Finally I saved the best until last! The newest edition to my hand cream collection, L’Occitane Amande Hand Cream. Like the foot cream, I also received this from my Mom for Christmas and I don’t think I mentioned to her enough (just before writing this post!) how much I love this hand cream and I WILL be re-purchasing it in the future!

Like the foot cream it contains almond milk and it smells so delicious! Like Heel Genius it’s more like a gel than a cream which not only means that this sinks into my hands rather quickly but it also means it gives my hands a slight cooling feeling, which will be lovely when the summer is upon us.

I won’t lie, I’ve just put some of this on as I love it so much and I can’t stop smelling my hands!

BUT back to the post! I don’t use this hand cream as much as I do with Hand Food and I’ve realised since receiving it that I’ve used it for special occasions and whenever I’ve been going over to see my boyfriend.

In December I went into the L’Occitane shop in Birmingham with my friend Poppy to help her buy a Christmas present, which is where I bought something for my Mom. Whilst we looked around I discovered another one of their hand creams that I said to myself I would purchase in future, which I can’t for the life of me remember the name of!

Either way and sadly the hand creams by L’Occitane aren’t the cheapest and for their travel size tube it’ll cost you nearly £10! But personally I think L’Occitane is worth the money and something I wouldn’t purchase for myself very often as it is an expensive purchase, but even then I think I would be more likely to pick up a large tube, instead of the travel size, which in turn is also the size my Mom bought for me.

I love this hand cream and I’ll be making sure to make it last me!

So those were all my hand creams and foot creams!

Do you own any of the ones I mentioned? If so do you like them, if not, why not?

What are your top 5 hand and foot creams? Let me know all your answers, questions, etc in the comments down below.

Until next time, take care and make sure to keep those hands and feet soft!

Soap & Glory The Yule Monty Gift Set

From 13th to the 19th of this month Boots had their best deal of the year up on their website, as well as in stores across the country.

Soap & Glory are fast becoming one of my favourite brands as they’re amazing products for great prices and I’ve been eyeing up one of their Christmas gift sets in Boots for quite a while now.

When I heard from a few beauty bloggers as well as an email from Soap & Glory themselves that their Yule Monty Gift Set would be £27 down from £60!!! If you don’t think that’s a bargain, then clearly you don’t know what a bargain is when you see one.

When Friday morning came I went online and ordered my gift set straight away, picking it up the next day from Boots. I didn’t actually know that Boots were doing this in store too, I thought it was just an online offer! So when I was walking around town on the Friday and saw loads of bags lined up in Boots stores, I felt a tad silly.

But who cares! I got my Yule Monty Gift Set! I cannot complain!

This set contains 9 different products, 10 if you count some samples in there.

So, although this offer isn’t around anymore, I thought I would share with you what is inside the gift set!

I warn you this is going to be a very long post!

The bag itself is incredibly glamorous and may I add, HUGE! At this moment in time I’m using it to keep my boyfriends Christmas present inside of. I don’t know what I’ll be keeping in there after his present leaves it, I’m sure I will think of something mind!

The bags design is a limited edition print by Jonathan Saunders and at that it is a gorgeous print. As well as the print being glamorous the zips are also really nice and gives the bag a little bit more glam, not that it needed it of course!

Inside the bag there is a cardboard box full of gorgeous Soap & Glory products! You get a body scrub, body wash, facial cleanser, hand cream, foot cream, body lotion, body butter, a mascara, lip plumping gloss and some serum samples. This makes this gift set perfect for either a huge Soap & Glory fan or someone who has wanted to try the range for a while, but hasn’t known which products to buy. And ALL of these products are full size products!

scrub 

Above is the Hand Food Hand Cream and the Heel Genius Foot Cream. These are both some of Soap & Glory’s best-selling products and as someone who hasn’t tried neither before but heard nothing but good things about them, I was excited to try them both.

First I shall talk briefly about Hand Food. I have heard nothing but good things with this, especially people who suffer with eczema like I do! It’s not a thick cream, but it’s not really watery either which gives it the perfect consistency for me. I’ve tried this hand cream a few times now before going out Christmas shopping and throughout the day my hands have stayed soft and beautiful looking!This is a 125ml tube but if you want to just try this hand cream out you can pick it up in a cute little 50ml tube, which I’m tempted to pick up to keep in my handbag. The 125ml tube retails at £5.50, whilst the 50ml tube retails for £2.50.

I can’t really say much about Heel Genius Foot Cream as I haven’t had the chance to use it yet! You’re meant to use this cream with foot socks and sleep with the cream on your feet overnight. Sadly I have misplaced my foot socks and need to repurchase myself a pair before I can try this out. However, trying this product out on the back of my hand meant I could see what consistency this product is. It’s a thick gel like cream and doesn’t so much feel oily but very conditioning and I want to slather this product all over my hands, as well as my feet! It smells gorgeous too, which is never a bad thing. This only comes in one size, 125ml which is the same size you get inside the gift set, this retails for £5.50.

I’ve been using Peaches and Clean 3-in-1 Wash-Off Deep Purifying Cleanser since I got it and I have to say it’s amazing stuff! It does state on the back of the bottle itself that you should use it at night, but I’ve been using it morning and early afternoon whenever I’ve been getting ready to go out. The cleanser itself is rather thick but I personally like that and as it’s a creamy consistency it doesn’t foam up when applied to the skin. I’ve been using my facial sponge with this and it’s such a pleasure to use too as it smells of peaches! This only comes in one size, 200ml and alongside that it doesn’t come cheap either at £8.00 a bottle but at the moment this is seeming worth the price tag and if by the end of this bottle my skin has improved, I’ll be re purchasing it.

Make Yourself Youthful Super Serum is in this gift set, but only in sample form and luckily there are three of them. I’ve only tried one of these so far and I can’t say whether or not I noticed a difference with my skin but the next time I try it I’ll make sure to look out for any noticeable changes. Each little sachet contain a lot of product and you can either use them under a moisturiser or alone, I went for underneath a moisturiser and it felt really nice on the skin. The full size version costs £20.00!

Out of all the products in this gift set, these are by far two of my favourites! I’ve already owned a full size version of Sugar Crush Body Wash but I’ve never owned a tube of The Scrub Of Your Life and quite frankly, I don’t think I’ll be able to live without it again… Unless I find something better or like this!

The Scrub Of Your Life is basically what it says, a body scrub and a damn good one at that! Most body scrubs don’t foam up when they come in contact with water, however this one does and it also leaves my skin feeling beautifully soft and smooth! You don’t need much of this and it goes a long way, however I am thinking of buying some more scrub gloves so that I can give myself a good scrub! I’ve used this on its own without a body wash or shower gel afterwards and I really didn’t need to. I used this one evening in the bath and the next morning when I woke up my skin was as soft and smooth as it had been the evening I used this. This being said I would recommend to use a body lotion or butter afterwards. This comes in two sizes, 200ml which is what you get in the gift set and a small sample size which comes in a 50ml. The full size of this product costs £7.00 whilst the smaller size costs £2.50.

Sugar Crush Body Wash is by far one of my favourite products by Soap & Glory and only at the start of this month in my November Empties post did I comment about how I would be re purchasing this! I’ve also mentioned this in my February Favourites. I’ve spoken highly of this over on this two posts but I will say a bit about it here. It smells just like key lime pie and lathers up beautifully! When I first bought this it was this time last year and I couldn’t see it as being a winter scent, but this works all year-long and I’m glad to have another full size version! My boyfriend loves this too and I was rather tempted to give him this as one of his Christmas presents but I was somewhat greedy and had it for myself… Sorry Dane! They also have a body scrub and buttercream in the same scent, which I would like to get in the future. This only comes in one size, which is a whopping 500ml bottle, which is what you get in this gift set. It’ll cost you £6.50 in Boots, but it’s worth every penny!

I’ve only ever tried one body lotion by Soap & Glory and I love it, although I haven’t used it for ages! The New Year will mean time for change as I am going to make sure to spend at least 10 minutes moisturising my skin as I haven’t done it properly since before I got together with my boyfriend. With two new moisturisers I have plenty of choice as to what types of products I use on my skin!

The Righteous Butter Body Butter is a thick body lotion that I know I’ll be using after relaxing baths before bed. I can’t stand thick lotions or greasy body butters but this isn’t really neither of them. It’s a lovely feeling cream and is something I would use once or twice a week as a moisturising treat after a relaxing bath. I haven’t tried this yet, but I think I will be soon! In the gift set you get a 300ml tub, but you can also but a HUGE 1L tub or a tiny 50ml sample tub. 50ml retails for £2.50, 300ml for £10.50 and 1L for £25.00!

I love a moisturiser that contains a pump on it and this one is no exception! This is slightly thick but I know it would be lovely to use on a cold morning as it would warm me up quite a bit. This is Butter Yourself Ultra Nourishing Fruity Liquid Moisture Lotion and it smells amazing! It reminds me of the Mist You Madly Body Spray which I wear to work quite a lot at the moment since forgetting my cheap work perfume in my boyfriends car, silly me! I’ll be using this around Christmas and New Year as I’m sure the scent of this lotion will make me smell gorgeous throughout the holidays! This comes in one size which is a huge 500ml pump bottle, this is the one you get in this set and retails for £10.00.

Apologies for how dark this picture is, but due to these earlier nights in the UK my camera is struggling a little bit! These are the last two products I will be talking about from this gift set, wow what a long post this has turned out to be!

Thick & Fast? Super Volume Mascara Superjet Black is one of the two make up related products that came in this gift set and I knew when I was ordering this gift set that I would be giving this away to someone for Christmas! At first I thought about my Mom but then after much thought I realised that my friend Poppy would love this as a Christmas present, so on my last time seeing her before Christmas I gave her this, which cheered her up. I did have a look at the wand of this mascara and it is HUGE! I’m hoping Poppy will review it over on her blog in the New Year. I would have kept this myself if I wore mascara but alas I do not and thus it has gone to a good home! This costs £10.00 to buy new.

Finally we have what is one of my favourite items from this gift set and one I tried out as soon as I got it home! Sexy Mother Pucker XL Lip Plumping Gloss in which I can assume is Very Berry. It’s a gorgeous orangey pink shade, which I would describe at coral and bloody hell does it plump! I popped this onto my lips and within seconds my lips felt tingly and like they were buzzing. It was so odd and I’ve never felt anything like it before in my life, so much so I gave my boyfriend some to pop onto his lips to see if it had the same effect on his lips. Luckily it did as I was rather worried that I had a bad allergic reaction to it! I’ll be writing up a review for this in the New Year, I just love it so much! It retails for £10.00 and is worth EVERY PENNY!

At the time of writing this I have tried 6 of the products mentioned above, but hope to have everything tried and tested by the New Year!

Wow have I finally finished this post? I think I have! Thanks for sticking through it if you have, you’re a star! Sadly the £27 offer for this gift set has come to an end, but for £60 it’s still a complete bargain, especially as it would normally cost £73.00 for all those items and I haven’t even included the limited edition bag in there, which I assume would be another £15.00-£20.00!

I nearly didn’t order this bag but after much encouragement from my boyfriend, I went for it and I’m so damn glad!

Did you get your hands on The Yule Monty Gift Set for £27?

Would you buy this at full price? Let me know your answers in the comments down below!

Well what a lovely long post for Monday afternoon, eh?

I hope you’re all well and have your Christmas shopping done now, there’s only a few more days left until Christmas now, I’ll be having a post up on here Christmas Eve and Day, because I’m lovely like that!

Until next time, take care all!