Lush Rudolph Jelly Mask – Review

It’s almost been nearly a year since I last wrote a Lush review on my blog and I’m not in the slightest bit surprised (FYI it was this post). After Lush declared they would no longer hold their Boxing Day sales online I was a bit (very) pissed off. Not just for myself, but for people out there who can’t make it to the stores to grab themselves some bargains. It sucked and it was more than just that that annoyed me. Their scents are all the same lately (Le sigh – citrus) and the way their company has been lately it just put me off supporting them anymore.

On top of all that I just haven’t really been bathing as much as I used to. I think in my old job when I finished work at 1.30pm I’d come home and had a hot bath to relax myself after a shit morning at work. Now I get home around 5.30pm and cook dinner, chilling out and then sleep. 😛 Baths just aren’t fitted into my chilling out time lately due to a mixture of that time being taken up with playing games or blog writing.

However, since going to London in November that’s kind of changed. I went into the Oxford Street Lush and picked up some of the Christmas range for 2018. I LOVE some of the bits I picked up, but as of yet I haven’t actually used them… Oh dear.

I forgot to check out and pick one item up though that I was interested in, which I was gutted about. I don’t really go into Lush anymore as Dane doesn’t particularly like it and none of my friends are really arsed by it either. When me and Dane went Christmas shopping at the start of December he wanted to pop into Lush to look for some present ideas for people and I decided to pick up that one item I wanted to try!

I didn’t get chance to have a smell of it as the store was HEAVING! It wasn’t good really. The Birmingham store has now moved to a much bigger store (which is apparently bigger than Oxford Street!) so when we went shopping it was their tiny store. I just feel like the staff should have had a queuing system for the store as it was crazy packed. There were also members of staff standing around talking and to be honest, getting in the way of customers trying to look at items. I ended up barging past them all after saying excuse me so many times. We wanted to grab our items and get out of there.

RIGHT enough ranting!

The item I picked up, as you’ll see from the title is the Rudolph Jelly Face Mask, which I was inspired by Steffie over at My Lush and Stuff to pick up this jelly face mask as she made it sound so amazing! I may have gone off of Lush, but I’m all for a face mask that will do my skin wonders, whilst smelling amazing! 😛

Rudolph is a limited edition jelly face mask for Christmas and I already want it to stay around forever, I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. 😛

Although I’ve only owned it for a couple of weeks I’ve found that this face mask really has helped me after use and I KNEW I just had to write a review for it on my blog, especially with Christmas right around the corner.

As you can see from the image above it’s described as, “Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you cleanse my face with cocoa powder, orange oil and kaolin tonight?”

Oh the cringe, gold stars to whoever wrote it.

The jelly face masks come in smaller tubs than the fresh face masks do. They come in 65g tubs and costs £7.95, which to me isn’t cheap to be perfectly honest with you. This being said they’re not like the fresh face masks where you need to use them sooner rather than later and also need to keep them in the fridge. The jelly face masks don’t need to be kept in the fridge and have a long shelf life. The one I picked up has a 4 month shelf life on it, which is amazing!

The product itself reminds me of a chocolate mousse in both sight and scent! It smells so chocolately that I’m surprised I haven’t read of someone trying to eat it yet! It smells more rich chocolate scent, but due to the fact it contains orange oil you can get a hint of that. Either way it smells amazing! Of course the colour of this product is brown.

The look of the mask is clearly a jelly and when you push down on it it springs back. It reminds me of blancmange. In the middle is a cute little red shimmer piece of jelly, which is suppose to be Rudolph’s nose! I know you’re meant to pop it onto your nose to look like Rudolph yourself, but honestly I do not have a clue what else to do with it! 😛

This mask is said to be good for people with oily skin and also dry skin, so this sounds like it’d be perfect for combination skin to be honest. I haven’t been able to really find anywhere so I can go only go by the ingredients what this jelly face mask will do to your skin!

Kaolin clay is great for absorbing excess oils on the skin and also cleans out the pores and cocoa powder helps to soothe and moisturise the skin. This to me states how it is perfect for combination skin, which is my skin type. This would make a great gift for a teenager as obviously it smells amazing and will help them with their troubled teenage skin.

This is my first time trying a jelly face mask and it was definitely a bizarre and odd experience the first time I tried it. I wasn’t quite sure HOW to use it, well I did as I’d seen YouTube videos in the past, but I mean in the sense of how much I needed to use. I popped into a Lush store recently and noticed for their samples and DIY jelly face masks they’d cut the mask up into chunks inside the tub, which I think is a great idea! I wish I’d thought to do that before I’d started using it.

The one thing I really hate about the packaging for this face mask is the stickers around the packaging. You can read any of the writing! Why would you put black text against dark brown? Surely you would change to white writing so we can read the instructions and such properly? Alas this isn’t the case and whenever I want to read the side of the pot I have to get the torch on my phone.

How the jelly face masks work is you grab some of the mask out of the tub and with dry hands rub the jelly between your hands to create a paste. Apply to your face and leave for 5 to 10 minutes and rinse off with warm water or a cloth.

I don’t know if the first few times I used this I just didn’t use enough or what, but it’s such an odd product to work with, but not in a negative way. I grabbed (what I thought) was a big enough chunk to cover my whole face, rubbed it between my hands to make a paste and applied it to my face. The more I applied it onto my face and massaged it into the skin the more it seemed to move around and build up into jelly chunks, instead of smoothing my face evenly. It’s rather odd and I don’t know if I like it.

I gave up moving it around my face after a while and just settled with it on my skin. I love to use face masks in the bath 9 times out of 10 as it’s so much easier to rinse them off than it is in the sink. The shower is great too, but having a soak in the bath with a face mask on is definitely relaxing.

I usually leave this on for 10 minutes after it dries back to a jelly type form, which I find really odd. When dry if you rub at it with dry hands it starts to rub away and go back to a jelly type form, which I find really odd but somewhat satisfying.

I thought it would be hard to wash off due to the jelly but it’s actually pretty straight forward and after going over with a flannel, the mask is off and my skin feels baby soft to the touch!

I apply some moisturiser after I get out of the bath just to make sure my face is as soft as it can be!

Would I pick this up again? I would but at the same time I don’t know. It has improved my combination skin, but not for all that long. I feel like using this twice as a week is a good idea, but at the same time for how much you pay, twice as a week is such a waste of money! I’m going to use it once a week or once a fortnight and use it every now and then.

I do rather like this jelly face mask and would like to try the other ones in the future, but at the same time the others don’t really appeal to me all that much. This one is amazing and I wish Lush would make it permanent as it reminds me of the Cupcake face mask and I CANT STAND IT! The one time I used it it caused me to break out really badly. 😦

Don’t forget this is a Christmas limited edition product so it’ll only be available until (probably) Christmas Eve and then it will be gone!

SO! What do you think of Rudolph jelly face mask? Would you give it a go or give it a miss? Have you already tried it? What do you think? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely weekend!

Etch and Pin – Coventry Inspired Pin Badges*

As regular readers will know, I am a massive pin badge collector and it’s something that only really took off towards the middle of the year! Either way I love pin badges, especially sharing new and unique designs I’ve discovered.

I recently became a part of the Coventry Bloggers community, which I adore and love so much! Dane is from Coventry so whilst I’m not originally from there and don’t live there, I do visit there quite often for various reasons. I love visited there for friends and Dane’s family, as well as to be a part of the blogging community.

I heard about Etch & Pin through the Coventry bloggers and was offered to review October’s pin badge. I couldn’t turn it down after seeing the previous designs and knew I’d love to talk about it. The pin didn’t take long to arrive at all, a few days at least! I’m just so excited to talk about this pin, as well as the owner and brand themselves.

Image taken from Coventry Telegraph

Back in July this year Aaron Ashmore the guy behind Etch & Pin decided it was time to release a pin badge that all people from Coventry could relate to!

I remember not long after me and Dane had made it official we were out shopping in Morrisons for some bits and pieces, when he turned to me and said, “Hey Nat? Shall we get some batches to have for dinner?”

My response? “A batch of what?”

It was pretty funny at the time and I’ll never forget it. It pissed me off at first as to me in Birmingham we say bread roll, cob or bun. Batch appears to be a Coventry thing. Since us living together I now say batch as I’m just used to it.

So when I saw that there was a batch pin badge, I got pretty excited!

The ‘Its a Batch’ pin badge came out in July and sold 75% of stock within the first few days! Aaron said to the Coventry Telegraph back in July, “It’s always a bit nervy starting something new like this but we had a really positive reaction. We had to go and order some more.”

Every badge that is sold a £1 will be donated to a different Coventry charity each month. A proportion of the proceed from the ‘It’s a Batch’ badge sales were donated to the Coventry Myton Hospice.

Three months on and Etch & Pin is booming and doing really well! Each pin badge that is released had celebrated one of the city’s landmarks. Aaron said to the Coventry Telegraph, “Collectable pin badges have had a resurgence in the past couple of years and we are hoping that the people of Coventry will wear our pins as a badge of honour showing how proud they are of our city. Our badges are made by Coventry people, for Coventry people.”

I think this is so lovely and amazing how it isn’t just pin badges about Coventry, but it’s completely to do with Coventry. I don’t feel like this happens much anymore and it’s just great, especially as Coventry won the UK City of Culture 2021 nearly a year ago.

As I mentioned before, a new badge will be released each month, however they are limited edition and are only available the month they’re released.

Image taken from Etch & Pin Etsy

July was It’s a Batch, which is now sold out (unsurprisingly!) but you can pick up the It’s a Batch fridge magnet*, which was attached to the pin badge I was sent.

Image taken from the Coventry Telegraph

August was Coventry Ring Road, which is still available to buy.

Our badge celebrates the Coventry Ring Road and looks to show that being ‘sent to Coventry’ is something to be proud of.  We are also proud that £1 of every badge sold will be donated to a different local charity each month. The donation in August will be made to Free Radio’s Cash for Kids.

September was Three Spires, which is also still available to buy.

The September #covpinclub badge is our take on the three spires that dominate the Coventry skyline. As with every Cov Pin Club badge, £1 from every badge sold is donated to a Coventry charity! The charity we are partnering with in September is YMCA Coventry and Warwickshire who support local young people with accommodation, advice, guidance and training.

Finally we have this months pin badge for October which is Lady Godiva*, of course this is available to buy now. This is the pin badge I’ve been sent to talk about today.

The fourth Coventry Pin Club pin badge celebrates the Coventry figure that is perhaps best-known around the world, Lady Godiva. £1 from every Lady Godiva badge sold in October is donated to Shine A Light Support Service who support families in Coventry and Warwickshire who are affected by childhood cancer. An exceptionally worthy cause, I’m sure you’ll agree!

Like the batch, I have a fond memory of my first time in Coventry town centre with Dane when we went on one of our first shopping trips together. I’d been in Coventry a couple of times before we’d met, but I never knew about the Godiva clock in Coventry’s Broadgate House. Dane asked me if I’d ever seen her pop out before.

“What naked lady?” I asked.

“Well it’s nearly midday so we’ll stand here and wait for her to come out.” Dane said. We waited for the couple of minutes in the light rain for the naked Lady Godiva to pop out, but that day she never did.

We tried a couple of times to see her, but we never really got to. Dane Googled about it whilst I was writing this post and apparently it broke 7 months ago, so if you’ve tried to see it recently and it hasn’t work, that’s why.

Instead of waiting for it one day whilst in town, we had a look on YouTube instead. It’s interesting enough and I get why Dane wanted me to see it.

So when I was sent the Lady Godiva pin, it did have a very special memory behind it for myself, which I feel is something that Aaron wanted to bring to his designs! I feel if you’re from Coventry or have lived there for a long time you’ll definitely love these pin designs and they’ll have a fond place in your hearts as well a provoke memories for you. They definitely remind me of when me and Dane first became a couple and although I’ll never move to Coventry, the place does have some amazing memories for me.

The pin badge itself is limited edition and I have number 67. I love that each pin has its own number, it makes it feel more limited and special. The pin is a nice size and isn’t anything big and obnoxious (like my pin badges usually are! :P) which I really like. I feel like it means anyone can wear them from children to the elderly.

The pin badge comes with a blue rubber back, which are my favourites! I hate those silver squeeze lock backs, I feel like they don’t hold pins properly.

I have to say for the size, the quality and fine details of the pin badge are AMAZING! You get the detail of the horse and Lady Godiva perfectly.

It’s a really lightweight pin, which I really like too. I’m used to bigger pins, which sometimes weigh a little more. Again, this will make it perfect to pin on anything for anyone of any age.

Every pin badge that Etch & Pin have released to date all remind me of Coventry and spark certain memories, which I love so much! I especially love that profits from these pins are donated to all sorts of Coventry based charities, it’s absolutely amazing and Aaron is doing such an amazing thing.

I feel like this is too nice to wear to be honest with you and due to it being limited edition I think it will stay on my pin flag alongside my other pins.

With Christmas looming I would love to pick some of these up for Dane’s family, including his mom and gran as I find these will make lovely gifts for people from Coventry, especially people who collect pin badges.

I mentioned how I was also sent the It’s a Batch fridge magnet and as soon as I opened the package and saw it tucked by the pin badge, it went straight onto my fridge! I’m not a massive fridge magnet person, but I have a couple from Fuerteventura (my second home) and now I have Coventry on there, which of course is where Dane is originally from.

Overall I love Etch & Pin’s designs. Although they personally don’t remind me of home (due to the fact I’m a dirty Brummy…) they do remind me of Dane and his home, as well as the memories we shared together when we first got together. These pin badges really are something special and they’ve clearly had a lot of love and care put into them by Aaron. The fact they give to the members of Coventry, as well as Coventry charities is wonderful and I wish more people would do stuff like this.

If you like what Etch & Pin do, make sure to check out their Etsy store, as well as their social media, which I’ll link down below!

Etsy Store

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Interview with Coventry Telegraph about It’s a Batch pin badge

Internet with Coventry Telegraph about Ring Road pin badge

What do you think of Etch & Pin? Are you from Coventry, and if so would you pick up these limited edition pins? Have you learnt a little something about Coventry if you aren’t from there? Make sure to let me know all your thoughts about these amazing pins in the comments down below!

Until next time though, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely week so far!

May Wish List ’17

I swear this months wish list should be called “holographic/metallic wish list!” as most of the items on here are just that. That and holiday related items too. As I mentioned in one of my posts recently, me and Dane are going on holiday this year which is super exciting! I didn’t mean to find so much holographic and holiday related stuff to be honest… I kind of just ended up stumbling upon stuff out of boredom last week… Oops! 😛 Oh well, it makes for some reading today for you guys. ^_^

• New Look Turquoise Metallic Lattice Longline Bikini Top – £16.99 (link)
• New Look Turquoise Metallic Tie Side Bikini Bottoms – £12.99 (link)

I discovered this bikini recently through a Google search whilst looking for holographic/metallic bikinis. I don’t really need a new bikini but I wouldn’t mind picking up a new one for my holiday in September. This is gorgeous and is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before to be honest. Not only does the design of this look unique and have a grunge style to it (which I LOVE!) but it’s also a beautiful turquoise metallic colour which is the perfect holiday and beach colour. Although this is gorgeous and probably my perfect bikini for Fuerteventura it’s kind of impractical for sunbathing in due to the lattice design. Due to this I’d probably use this mostly for popping down to the beach and on very hot days to the shops. Of course I would pick up both the top and bottoms. I’ll definitely be buying these on payday next week so I don’t miss out the chance of getting them!

• Your Lie in April Part 2 Limited Edition Blu-ray – £44.99 (link)

I LOVE Your Lie in April and especially around the start of the year when I first started watching the anime series, as well as reading the manga. Since then I’ve finished the manga and been awaiting part 2 of the blu-ray to come out and be added to my collection. I haven’t actually finished watching the anime yet as I wanted to binge watch it all on the blu-rays with Dane, so of course I am really excited to be able to finally do this!

• New Look Silver Holographic Mini Backpack – £17.99 (link)

I don’t NEEEEED a new backpack but it never hurts to add a new addition to your collection… Does it? I’ve owned backpacks similar to this from New Look before and they’re definitely some of the best ones I’ve owned to be honest. They’re comfortable, look great and are a bargain for how much wear you get from them. I really am on a holographic kick at the moment, like a holographic magpie so I couldn’t help but eye up this backpack. I’d love to try and pick it up in the sale (if it goes into sale obviously) before I go on holiday, but we’ll see what happens. I’d want to try and cutesy this bag up by popping a couple of badges on it and some cute Japanese gatchapon keyrings.

• Truffle Collection Truffle Flatform Holographic Sliders – £14.00 (link)

Again I was looking for some holiday ideas and the first thing I thought to search for was (yet again!) holographic themed items. I found this flatform sandals and I’m unsure what I think of them to be honest. I don’t love them enough to buy them as soon as possible for the holiday, but I don’t know if I hate them enough to not warrant myself buying them at all. I would love another pair of shoes to take with me to wear around the house, to the beach and in the evenings as something light but I have my flip flops to do that. I’m definitely more of a Vans slip on trainer and flip flop girl when it comes to going to Fuerteventura. If these went to a dirt cheap price I’d definitely pick them up as they’d be great to wear casual in the day and dressed up in the evening a little. I think what puts me off the most is that they’re white. Black would have been SOOOO much better!

• Forever 21 Holographic Windbreaker Jacket – £24.00 (link)

When I saw this jacket it just reminded me of the 90’s and of the style of jackets my mom and brother used to wear… But not holographic obviously. 😛 For the final time on this blog post I’ll be talking about something holographic… I do apologise about how much stuff there is on here that’s either that or metallic. Again due to the holiday I was having a look around to see what else I could find on Forever 21’s website to buy in the future and this jacket looks cool! I’d want to pick it up to wear over the summer, as well as for the holiday. As cool as the turquoise colour is I don’t know if the jacket itself would look good or even feel comfortable. I’d want to go in store and have a look at this first before buying it, or at least read a handful of reviews.

• Good Smile Company K-ON! Yui Hirasawa Nendoroid – Prices vary depending where you buy.

Finally we come to the last item on this list and it’s one that me and Dane both want to try and find next month! We were really naughty this month Nendoroid wise and bought quite a lot in one go. We’re part of a Nendoroid group on Facebook and someone on there was selling all of her K-ON! collection so erm… We bought all of the ones we needed. We picked up four out of five she was selling which means the only girl we need now is Yuki! She’s the main character of K-ON! and is Dane’s favourite character. We’ll try and keep our eyes peeled for someone else on that group to sell a Yui Nendoroid or we’ll end up buying a new or second hand one from Japan. These Nendoroid figures came out years ago, not long after they started being made so they’re not as easy to get a hold of now, but this being said they’re cheaper.

So that’s my wish list for this month! I really need to stop spending money now and put it in savings to have towards the holiday. I don’t really want anymore manga at the moment so I’ll definitely be saving money not buying those. I’ll also be saving money not buying much else too because besides the stuff on this list I don’t want anything. 😛

What items do you have on your wish lists? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time take care all and I hope you’re having a great week.

Lush Bubbly Shower Gel – Review

I want to start off this review by saying that I haven’t loved a Christmas product by Lush since I discovered Snow Fairy about 7 years ago! As well as the Yog Nog scent a couple of years ago when it first emerged. I was gutted when Lush decided not to bring back the Yog Nog soap and bath bomb but I am so glad they replaced the scent with something just as yummy, Bubbly shower gel.

Lush describe this as:

A bucks fizz breakfast boost packed full of sweet orange oil and fresh grape juice to help your morning go off with a bang, or should that be pop?

To be honest I can’t make the connection with it being like bucks fizz… I can understand why it would be great for in the morning as it is so refreshing and one I use when I do really early shifts for work in the morning to wake me up! It contains both orange and lime oils so it’s a lovely citrus smelling shower gel. It reminds me of something you would pick up and use in the summer months or during a summer holiday, but this is perfect to use to perk you up on dull mornings and days in general really!

I picked this shower gel up last month when I attended the Coventry bbloggers event and I wish I had been really naughty now and picked up a bigger bottle! I nearly bought a 1kg bottle in London from Oxford Street but I was good! I picked up the little 100g bottle for £4.95 but online (and in most stores I’m sure) you can pick up the medium 250g bottle for £9.95 or the large 500g bottle for £16.50. I’m not sure how much the 1kg bottle costs.

The first thing I heard about Bubbly is how it reminds people of the Celebrate scent with its gorgeous oranges and lemon smell. It’s a lovely orange colour too. I personally think it shares its scent with Golden Wonder bath bomb which is one of my favourites! It’s has quite a thick consistency to it which I rather like as it means a little bit goes a long way and the bubbles and lather it creates are wonderful.

I teamed this up with my Golden Wonder in the bath recently and it was amazing! I used Bubbly as both a bubble bath and as a shower gel and I felt so refreshed and clean afterwards.

It leaves your skin feeling lovely and soft and lightly scented with its orange and lemon smell. I love using it when I’m going out for the day as people always comment that they can smell it lingering. LOVE IT! Due to this I especially love to use it before bed. It’s great getting under the duvet and getting a gentle waft of Bubbly.

I would say if Snow Fairy is too sweet for you and Rose Jam is too floral, then you will LOVE Bubbly! I don’t think I’ve met anyone yet who has said they’re not a fan of this new Christmas edition… If Lush don’t bring it back next year I will be gobsmacked as it is amazing! It’s a shame there isn’t any gold shimmer/glitter in it really as it would be perfect.

I definitely have the largest bottles of this on my wish list (alongside Snow Fairy of course!) and I plan to pick up loads in the sale as I will use this alllllll over the summer.

I don’t really have much more to say about Bubbly apart from that is is a perfect staple, especially if you need a pick me up on the cold mornings that are looming.

What do you think of Bubbly shower gel? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time take care all and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Build-A-Bear Eevee

At the start of September I made a very big purchase and a somewhat childish one at that. but you know what? I think everyone has been buying this plushie since its release and I’m sure you can tell from the title that it’s Pokemon related.

As soon as Pokeshopper announced that Build-A-Bear would be releasing an Eevee plushie everyone went crazy! It wasn’t meant to come out for ages but due to everyone’s excitement for Eevee Build-A-Bear were good enough to release it sooner, at the start of September.

I was going to order mine as soon as it was released but I took the risk of it still being for sale later that day and sadly it had sold out. I was gutted as were other people like myself. I wanted the limited edition version online (link here), that came with certain pieces you could only get with ordering online.

These were also out in some stores across the UK, but I know at the time of writing this post one of my local stores isn’t stocking Eevee yet… I don’t know why. I’m sure it’ll be in stock soon!

So when these finally came back online I made sure to order one! I had to wait a couple of days for it to arrive and it was delivered the day both me and Dane were at work, so I had to wait until my day off the next day to go and pick it up.

It was totally worth the wait! I felt like a little kid at Christmas when I went to pick this up with Dane and happily carried around the box it was inside.

When we finally got home after running some errands I was finally able to open my Eevee and it really is amazing.

Ordering online isn’t the same as going into a store and making it yourself and a part of me was saddened about that, but at the same time I was relieved. I get very anxious in Build-A-Bear as I feel like I shouldn’t be in there. I know that people my age and older buy and make Build-A-Bear’s all the time… But I guess I just feel out of place and don’t get the experience there that I used to get when I was younger.

This isn’t so much of a review by the way, more me just showing you the little cutie I got and the exclusive goodies you get with it. I will warn you though this post is going to be picture heavy!

You get five things with the exclusive set online, your Eevee plushie, a Pokeball sleeper, an Eevee Pokemon Trading Card exclusive to Build-A-Bear, a sound box with 5 Eevee sounds on it (I think this is only available online…) and the Eeveelutions cape which is only available online in this set.

The set itself wasn’t cheap at £48.50 to be honest but to me it was worth it and has been my September treat.

This has been a really nice edition to the house and is something I find myself snuggling with on the sofa when me and Dane are watching a movie, or when I’m doing blog work and playing games. I know I sound like a huge kid saying that but I’m weird I like to have something to snuggle into. I put this down to the way I hunch over on myself. I guess having the Eevee to snuggle against stops me from hunching as much as I should.

As well as that Dane had to do a night shift recently and I was on my own for the first time in the house, which frightened me a lot. It was nice to have the Eevee to snuggle against whilst I attempted to sleep. Also after watching an alien themed horror movie lately I ended up having night terrors and even though Dane was there it didn’t help. The Eevee did somewhat however. I should write a post about how I get night terrors from alien horror movies… Maybe someday. 😛

ANYWAY! The outfits for Eevee are very cute and have obviously been thought of quite a bit… Personally I would have thought Build-A-Bear would have played with the idea of all the Eeveelutions becoming onesies that you can dress the Eevee up in. I would have wanted to buy them all to be honest. 😛 The cape doesn’t really make up for it in that sense, but the cape is gorgeous and soft! I won’t be using it for the Eevee much as it seems to nice. My Eevee currently has the sleeper on, which is lovely and soft and looks really nice. I don’t like the hood up on it myself as I think it hides how cute its face is.

The voice box Eevee comes with is amazing, but I am rather disappointed that it has the English voices for Eevee as I kind of wanted the Japanese ones. The Japanese name for Eevee is Eievui by the way! I’ve put a video above of how I kind of expected it to sound. Either way I am really happy with it.

The plushie itself is beautiful and everything that I wanted from it. It’s a soft material with feels relaxing to touch and nice to snuggle up to. With ordering online I didn’t get a choice about how soft or hard I wanted it to be stuffed but they did an amazing job as it feels perfect to me. Of course in store you can have it however you want. The fluff around Eevee’s next is soft and fluffy too. A lot of people are complaining that the tail should have matched the neck. I don’t really mind the way it’s been designed to be honest. I think Build-A-Bear did an amazing job! Due to how soft and relaxing it feels to touch and stroke it I think this will be a great toy for children with anxiety or forms of autism, due to the sensory feel of it. I know it helped with my anxiety whilst I was on my own in the house and during my night terrors.

Before getting my Eevee in the post I was going all over YouTube to see what peoples experiences had been with making theirs, as well as any reviews they may have done. I found one where the girl was offered a scent inside of her Eevee. If I had of known about this I may have gotten something inside of mine. Probably lavender to relax me. It was a shame to find out I wasn’t offered this when ordering online. I think they should be encouraging it really like they do in store, the same goes with the beating heartbeat too as I may have gotten that also.

Something I am a bit bleh about with my Eevee is that there is a taught piece of string on one of its hind legs that feels horrible when you touch it. I don’t have a clue what to do with it. I’m hoping to take my Eevee to a Build-A-Bear store with me today to see if I can get it fixed. I could probably do it myself but for what I paid I shouldn’t have to. Also I don’t want to worry that I damage my Eevee, as it wasn’t exactly cheap.

Other than that I am extremely happy with my Eevee. I haven’t got a name for it yet, so we’ll probably just stick with calling it Eevee to be honest. I know a lot of people have named theirs. I am crap with names, I really am!

If you are a huge Pokemon nerd like I am then this is right up your street and if you haven’t bought one already, THEN WHY NOT?! I have heard and been told that these cost £21 in store, with the Pokeball sleeper costing £10. I don’t know for sure if the voice box is available in store but if it is it’ll cost you £6.50.

These will also make a great addition for children if they love Pokemon, especially Eevee. It’s a cute Pokemon at the end of the day!

One thing I hope that Build-A-Bear do is play with the Pokemon theme for a while. I’d love to see the original three starters for sale and also Mew! I would snap Mew up in a heartbeat to be honest. A part of me wants to buy Pikachu now so I have both of the Pokemon plushies, but I’m not all that fussed. I actually love my Eevee so much and I’m so pleased that I bought it!

What do you think about the Eevee Build-A-Bear? Do you like it? Have you already ordered one online or been into a store to build it? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time take care all and I hope you all have an awesome weekend.

Lush Halloween 2016

As most Lushies will know the Halloween and Christmas collection for 2016 leaked recently on Instagram and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited for all the goodies heading our way!

There are quite a few products that I am sad to see not return, but all the same I am excited for some new goodies that we will be getting. The most disappointing is that Lush aren’t bringing back Yog Nog bath bomb! Well as far as I can see anyway… It was such an amazing bath bomb and I know they’re bringing an alternative instead but it just won’t be the same.

This is part one of this post, part two being about Christmas. I’m only going to talk about what I’m excited for.

The bath bombs looks so exciting this year, as for a while I have found the Halloween collection to be really boring so I am really pleased they’ve mixed it up a bit this year.

Monsters’ Ball bath bomb is said to lime scented, amazing! It’s a shame Lush don’t have anything like this around for spring and summer. This will be nice to use in the morning on my days off work. Miaowzer bath bomb is right up my street with its creamy candy scent. It’ll either be Snow Fairy or Creamy Candy/Rock Star scented. Either way I am so damn excited. I don’t even want to get started

Not going to lie… The soaps from Lush never excite me anyway and these really don’t.

I am so disappointed about Boo luxury bath melt as it looks so damn cute! Hey I might like the smell of it when I give it a sniff in store, but from looking at it I doubt that’ll be the case. I’m never a fan of the massage bars but the Goth Fairy shimmer bar sounds amazing! I would probably use this on evenings with Dane as a massage bar on our backs. I bet it’ll smell just like The Comforter.

I might finally pick up a Lord Of Misrule shower cream this year!

So what are my thoughts on the Halloween collection so far? It looks exciting and promising and definitely a damn sight better than last years collection. I’m most excited about the Monsters’ Ball and Miaowzer bath bombs as they just sound so delicious!

What are you excited for in the Halloween collection so far? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time all, take care and see you Sunday for my thoughts on the Christmas collection!

Maybelline Baby Lips Pop Art in Grapefruit Zing – Review

Another review and another Baby Lips one at that! I haven’t done one of these for a very long time. I remember when Baby Lips first launched in the UK three years ago and I was mega obsessed with them, and especially with getting my hands on at least one shade! Three years on and I now own five different shades and have reviewed two of them, Mint Fresh, and Pink Punch.

Now it’s time to review my recently bought shade, and I have to say it is by far my favourite from the bunch!

Grapefruit Zing is from Maybelline’s new limited edition Baby Lips, which is called Pop Art, very funky for summer which is very much upon us right now (she says as she wipes sweat from her brow)!

I picked it up on a whim when I popped into Boots recently for a few bits and pieces. I didn’t need it, but I hadn’t bought myself a new Baby Lips for a while and thought why the hell not! I’m so glad I did because I use this so much since buying it.

I’m not going to lie when I say to any Baby Lips virgins, don’t expect amazing moisturisation from one of these bad boys as they really don’t help your lips stay soft. This is from what I’ve found anyway. This being said, it does help them stay hydrated, especially on hot days, like today! They’re more for a younger audience, and how fun it can be to wear a tinted lip balm. I get that, I was young once and loved stuff like this. I forever had a tube of Nivea cherry lip balm in my pocket! I would have rocked these as a teenager, which is probably why I still gravitate towards them now. That and they’re great for work if you just want a bit of colour. Speaking of which…

The pigmentation that you get from Grapefruit Zing is by far the best I have ever had from a Baby Lips! I wear this to work quite a lot and get so many compliments from staff, it’s crazy and I was kind of surprised. It’s a beautiful hot pink shade with a glossy look to it. A little bit of this goes a long way, and the more you apply, the darker the pink will become. Of course this applies to if you don’t apply a lot, you can get a more sheer pink shade. As all the Baby Lips shades have, this has a scent to coincide with the name of the shade. This smells of zesty grapefruit, which is really nice for the summer.

From top to bottom: Grapefruit Zing (Pop Art), Pink Punch (regular), Cherry Me (regular), and Berry Bomb (Electro).

I’ve done some swatches to compare my other Baby Lips shades (which are all permanent editions) so you can get an idea of how pigmented the shade is in comparison to previous ones. The only one I haven’t swatched is Mint Fresh, reasons being that I have misplaced it. Sorry, but it’s only a clear lip balm anyway.

Of course I have to show off me wearing the lip product! Do enjoy my sweaty, tired face after a shift at work. 😉

So overall I LOVE this Baby Lips shade, and I plan to buy the other two shades from the Pop Art collection, those being Blueberry Boom, and Bubblegum Pop. However, I cannot find either of them lately in stores! I guess they’re both just doing that well as everywhere seems to be sold out.

If you like the look of these, you can pick them up from Boots which is currently doing buy 1 get a 2nd half price, and Superdrug which is currently doing 3 for 2. They cost £2.99 each, which is a complete steal, and as there are three shades, you can grab them all on both the offers!

Will you be picking up any of the Pop Art Baby Lips? Which shade(s) you liking the look/sound of? Hey! Maybe you’ve already picked one, two, or all three up! What do you think of them? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Until next time all, have a lovely day and I hope you’re all well.

Leighton Denny I Am Goddess High Performance Nail Colour Collection – Review

Although these are from Leighton Denny’s autumn/winter 2015 collection I recently picked them up from the M&S sale, as they were super cheap! I managed to pick up three, even though I only really wanted one or two. I will already state that online none of these shades are left to buy, but you may be in luck in store, like I was with two of these shades. You can still pick these up as well on the official Leighton Denny website (link here) but they’re still at the full retail price of £11.00.

So, on with the review!

Thanks to my mom, I discovered Leighton Denny a couple of years ago, but I haven’t as of yet owned any of his polishes until now, and boy was it worth the wait!

These are some of the nicest nail polishes I own, due to the quality of the nail polish, it’s lasting time, and of course the price! But I’ll go into detail about all those in this review.

L-R : Aphrodite’s Love, Queen Hera, Athena Love

I picked up three of six shades from the collection:

Aphrodite’s Love – An olive cream with a metallic duo-chrome finish.

Queen Hera – A metallic gold with chrome finish.

Athena Divine – A deep, midnight blue with metallic shimmer.

For £11.00 you’re paying for 12ml bottle, with a high performance nail colour. I found with all of these I only needed two coats max to get a really good pay off. All the shades are really pigmented, which I was pleased about.

Lasting time on these was amazing too! Aphrodite’s Love is currently on my toes, and has been the past week. It’s not chipped at all, not even during my pole fitness classes! Which is great to be honest. When I wore Queen Hera all weekend it lasted throughout, and didn’t chip once. Again, I was really pleased about it. I haven’t had the chance to wear Athena Divine yet, but I’m going to wear it next weekend and see how the lasting time is, but if it’s anything like the other two shads, it’ll last ages.

So here are some swatches of the polishes themselves!

Aphrodite’s Love:

One coat

Two coats

Queen Hera:

One coat

Two coats

Athena Divine:

One coat

Two coats

I have shown all the polishes with both one, and two coats, just so you can see the pigmentation!

My personal favourite has to be Athena Divine. Like the name, it is a divine colour and I’ve never seen anything like it. I can’t wait to rock this when I next have my holiday from work (FYI in a months time!) as well as when it’s mine and Dane’s anniversary in June, which will soon be here!

It’s a shame these are limited edition nail polishes, as they are truly stunning!

Will you be trying to pick these up in the M&S sale? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a great weekend!

Lush Tag!

Image taken from weheartit.com

I recently discovered this tag over at Lauren’s blog, Lozzlepop, and as many of my readers will know, I LOVE LUSH! So I couldn’t help but join in with the tag. I really loved doing this one too. ^_^

Image taken from weheartit.coom

What was your first…

1. Lush Bath Bomb?

Oh God I can’t actually remember! I think it was Waving Not Drowing. It was a tiny bath bomb like Butterball. Butterball was probably one of the first I tried as well.

2. Lush Bubble Bar?

Creamy Candy! I still love this bubble bar to this day. It’s so creamy smelling, and shares its scent with Rock Star soap. I haven’t yet tried the new formula.

3. Lush Massage Bar?

I’ve never tried any of the massage bars, I’m not a huge fan of how greasy they leave me feeling. Ick!

4. Lush Shower Gel/Cream?

Tramp! I loved it so damn much and then Lush went and discontinued it. 😦

5. Lush Shower Jelly?

Whoosh. I still love this shower jelly and I used to use this during my phase of university when my insomnia first started. Thank God I don’t have that anymore. 😛

6. Lush Fresh Face Mask?

Cupcake, I hated it. Broke me out terribly.

8. Lush Bar of Soap?

Godmother. I am so sad that it’s discontinued now. It shared its scent with Snow Fairy, so it gave me my fix during the year when the sparkly pink beauty wasn’t around.

Image taken from weheartit.com

What is your favourite…

1. Lush store?

Mmm I don’t know to be honest. It used to be the Merry Hill store but it’s just way too small. I like the Coventry store to be honest, and Cheltenham too. I find the staff in there are really lovely and honest.

2. Lush Bath Bomb?

Limited Edition – So White.

Permanent – Intergalactic.

3. Lush Bubble Bar?

Limited Edition – Unicorn Horn.

Permanent – The Comforter.

4. Lush Massage Bar?

Don’t have one as never used before.

5. Lush Shower Gel?

Limited Edition – Snow Fairy

Permanent – The Comforter.

6. Lush Shower Jelly?

Sweetie Pie, but it’s gone. 😥

7. Lush Fresh Face Mask?

Cup O’ Coffee.

8. What Lush products would you like to see come back/haven’t had a chance to try yet?

There are so damn many I want to see coming back! Happy Blooming Bath Melt, Tramp Shower Gel, Sweetie Pie Shower Jelly, Sonic Death Monkey Shower Gel, and Snow Fairy Bath Melt.

Things I want to try – Twilight shower gel, Happy Blooming shower jelly, Lava Lamp bath bomb, Don’t Rain On My Parade shower gel, Key Lime Pie lip balm, and Prince Of Darkness face mask.

So those are my answers from the Lush tag! I tag everyone who reads this post to give it a go and link me in the comments so I can read your answers.

Until next time, take care all!

Boy I’m Getting Old! Turning 26 and Presents I Received

On Wednesday it was my birthday, and I turned 26. I don’t feel old, but I feel like life is going by a little bit too quickly… But we’ll leave that for another post as I have a lot to say on that matter.

I had a really chilled out day for my birthday. I went to work in the morning, came home, and chilled out in bed with my boyfriend. I opened my cards and presents, and spent the rest of the day eating pizza, and playing on my PlayStation 4. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but just being with my boyfriend made me happy. We plan to go out for a meal when he gets back from holiday in a week, which will be lovely.

I went out with my family the day after my birthday for both mine and my mom’s birthday (hers is the day after mine! Weird, huh?) so that was lovely too.

I didn’t receive much for my birthday, but the thought was there, and some of the gifts I received were money or vouchers which I am still to spend and use. So when I do that, I can do a little haul then and there, but for now I shall show off what my boyfriend bought me for my birthday.

The first thing that my boyfriend gave me was a notebook, this cute Spirited Away related notebook, which is covered in Soot Balls from the movie. He remembered me showing him a post over on Buzzfeed that showed great present ideas for Studio Ghibli fans, and of course this notebook was on there. He got it from a seller on Red Bubble. I hate getting nice notebooks as I never wish to use them, but I’ll be using this one for blog related stuff. I can’t wait to be honest! I’m using up my other notebooks first, and then I shall start to use this one.

As I mentioned in my Boxing Day sales haul (you can read that here) that I knew my boyfriend had bought me a Yankee Candle for my birthday, and he bought me Snowflake Cookie, a Yankee Candle scent I have been after since it came out a couple of years ago. It reminds me of Christmas Cookie but a little stronger, and sweeter. I can’t wait to start burning it now!

I knew I was going to get Lush for my birthday as my boyfriend bought me a gift set whilst we were out and about shopping before Christmas. I had put the huge 1kg bottle of Snow Fairy Shower Gel on my Christmas wish list and alas my boyfriend bought me that for my birthday, as well as the Festive Friends Gift Set. I can’t wait to try out some of the goodies that came inside of the gift set, as well as the massive Snow Fairy.

I don’t know if this is classed as a present or not… But seeing as he bought it me not long before my birthday I imagine it kind of is. I was lusting after the Darth Vader PlayStation 4 controller, but it was sold out EVERYWHERE and if it wasn’t sold out, it was damn expensive. My boyfriend offered to buy me another one, that was just as cool and a little cheaper. One being the 20th Anniversary Edition which is to celebrate PlayStation being around for well… 20 years! It brings back a lot of nostalgia using this controller and I love it a lot! It also means me and my boyfriend can play together, we’ve been playing Little Big Planet 3, and Fat Princess together.

The final present my boyfriend gave me for my birthday was an adorable Eevee plushie from the Pokemon Center in Japan. He bought me a little Mew one, so the fact he got me Eevee too makes me so damn happy. He’s meant to be asleep, and these little plushies remind me of Beanie Babies… Remember them? I BET YOU DO! They’re just like those, and it really does take me back and bring all those nostalgic feelings back too. He was lovely to place on my chest whilst I played PS4 games, and I ended up cuddling both the Eevee and the Mew when I had a nap. Cute, much? Hell yeah!

So that’s the goodies I received for my birthday from my boyfriend. His parents bought me the amazing Lush Sweet Christmas gift set which was full of yummy goodies! My mom gave me some money, and my brother gave me some gift voucher for Debenhams… Think that will keep me supplied with lipstick for quite some time. 😛

My birthday was really nice this year, but it came and went in the blink of an eye!

What do you think of the gifts I received? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’ve had a great weekend!