The Body Shop Peppermint Candy Cane Bath Bomb – Review

CHRISTMAS IS COMING! Move over Scrooges because it’s officially less than a month until Christmas now. I don’t care how “early” it is to be talking about Christmas related stuff, I’m doing it. 😛

If there is one brand I am loving this Christmas it’s definitely The Body Shop. They’ve introduced three new scents to their Christmas range and I am LOVING THEM! There are three new scents, Berry Bon Bon, Vanilla Marshmallow and my favourite Peppermint Candy Cane.

I really want to pick up more of the range but at this moment in time I’m really skint and I’m not even halfway through my Christmas shopping yet. Meh.

When I went to London at the start of the month I popped into The Body Shop with my friend Sophi and we picked up some bits and pieces. They had some bath bombs in there and as I have fallen head over heels in love with The Body Shop’s bath bombs and bubble bars lately, I decided to buy a couple of each scent.

I recently and finally tried Peppermint Candy Cane’s bath bomb and I just knew I had to review it for your guys. As always on my blog, my reviews are honest there’s no BS here. 😛

So without further ado, let the review begin!

The one thing that bugs me the most about the bath bombs The Body Shop have brought out with the Christmas scents is that they don’t stock them online. I’ve only seen them in store and even then they fly off the shelves so quickly! When we were in the London store we had to ask if they had anymore of the Peppermint Candy Cane scent left as the shelf was empty. Then me and Sophi practically wiped the shelf clean of the other two scents.

I couldn’t wait to get home to give them all a go and the first one I decided to use is my favourite scent out of the three!

All of the bath bombs have colour schemes to match their scents as well as animals that are on the front of advent calendars. Berry Bon Bon is red with a fox, Vanilla Marshmallow is yellow with an owl and Peppermint Candy Cane is green with a deer. A lot of people are confused about whether the Berry Bon Bon bath bomb is a fox, a wolf or a raccoon. I can only assume it’s a fox as that’s the animal on the most expensive advent calendar box.

Each bath bomb costs £2.50 and you get 50g of product. The normal range of bath bombs cost £1.50 and you only get 10g. Such a bargain really when you think about it!

The character designs are all so cute, which makes these perfect for children and teenagers.

When it comes to bath bombs I usually break them in half so I get more for my money, aka Lush bath bombs. These are perfect though for just using in one go, which I really like.

In the packaging and as a whole the scent of this bath bomb isn’t in your face and strong, but it isn’t light enough that you cannot smell it.

The only way I can describe Peppermint Candy Cane is a fresh and minty scent with a warm sort of comforting smell too. Not like a fresh peppermint scent, but comforting and soft. That’s the main thing I love about this scent, it really does remind me of Christmas and I don’t feel like many places actually have peppermint scented things at this time of year. SO a massive thank you to The Body Shop for FINALLY doing it. 😛

Sadly when the bath bomb had finished fizzing and I got into the bath, I smelt NOTHING. Not a single thing and I was so disappointed. I sniffed the water, my skin, even when I finished bathing and went in and out of the bathroom I couldn’t smell anything. I don’t know what happened considering in the plastic wrap it smelt rather strong of the Peppermint Candy Cane scent. It’s to be honest, a bit shit.

I don’t even feel like this nourished my skin either, which was even more disappointing! It left a lovely pale green colour in the water, which was pretty but that’s pretty much all it was which for £2.50 is such a shame to me.

I bought two of these bath bombs and although I did wonder whether to give the second bath bomb a go to see if it was just a case of a had a dud bath bomb, I shouldn’t have to. What if I had just bought one? I’d be disappointed regardless, you know?

Sadly the only thing I really liked about this bath bomb was the way it looked and smelt BEFORE I decided to use it, which sucks.

Now if this had cost more than £2.50 I think I would complain more, but considering it didn’t break the bank I’m not surprised really. I’m just disappointed.

I feel like you would need to use this with either/or the bath foam, shower gel, body scrub, body lotion or even the body butter to feel the full effect of the peppermint scent. This in itself is annoying because as we all now, The Body Shop isn’t cheap.

I’m a bit miffed about the fact you can’t pick this up online considering the staff member in the London store told me it’s online. It’s really not.

Overall whilst this was a lovely idea I was left feeling meh about it and I just hope the other Peppermint Candy Cane bath bomb, as well as the other scents I own have a better pay off! If they do I’ll definitely update at the end of this post.

This bath bomb would be great for people with sensitive skin, children and teenagers. If you’re used to strong scented bath products like Lush and maybe even Bomb Cosmetics, then this is a no go for you.

Have you tried the Christmas bath bombs from The Body Shop? If you have, how did you get on? If not, will you give them a go? Let me know in the comments down below.

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

May Favourites ’17

Well hello June! Both mine and Dane’s month of big things, including our 4 year anniversary and also our first year anniversary of buying our house.

May has been nothing but shit to be perfectly honest. The start of the month saw me really poorly and without going into detail work has been crap. This has sadly resulted in my mental health getting worse and me relapsing. I’ll have to go into more detail about this in another post though.

BUT June! I’m seeing it as a month for improvement! Getting myself a better job, saving up better for our holiday and getting myself better.

May was the month that I was able to start wearing my lipsticks again WHICH IS AMAZING NEWS! I’ve never been so happy as to wear my red MAC lipstick. 😛

Of course I have some other favourites so lets get to it!

• Boots Extracts Marshmallow and Peppermint Body Scrub.

This is a body scrub I picked up in the sales in the marshmallow and peppermint gift set. I really wanted to get one of these so I was really pleased that I found one on New Years Eve on a trip to town with Dane! I’ve already used the shower gel and I use the hand cream at work, which is amazing. The body butter it equally as good. The body scrub isn’t the best in the world but it certainly does the job! I just wish it was rougher really as whilst I have sensitive skin I still like to feel that something it working and doing the job. Obviously this was limited edition for Christmas so it can’t be bought now (well, unless it’s on eBay) so yeah… 😛

Image taken from Superdrug

• Palmolive Gourmet Mint Shake Body Butter Shower Cream.

I LOVE these shower creams so damn much, I can’t even put into words! Every time me and Dane see these on offer whilst out doing our food shop we pick a couple up. Whilst the chocolate one is my favourite this is a new one me and Dane picked up to try and og my… It was gorgeous! 😀 Sadly I don’t have the bottle anymore as we used it all up. We’re currently using the vanilla one, which is equally amazing! These are really thick shower creams and a little really does go a long way! This always leaves my skin feel soft and smooth and smelling amazing. The chocolate one is definitely the best but it doesn’t hurt to try the others! If you haven’t tried these yet PLEASE get some and give it a go. I doubt you’ll regret it. 😛

• Victoria’s Secret Victoria EDP.

Late last year I travelled down to Chichester for work and after I’d finished any shifts I’d done there I was able to go and do whatever I wanted for the rest of the day. Not going to lie, most of the time I ventured to the shops as I was so bored in the hotel room otherwise! I went into the town centre on my last day and ended up going in TK Maxx to do a bit of retail therapy. Among some Korean beauty items I picked up this perfume. Whenever I venture into Victoria’s Secret I  have a smell of the perfumes in there to see what they’re like. They’re nothing special to be honest but they look great because of what they are. You know? This is a 50ml bottle and cost me about £25.99 from memory. It’s a great perfume but not as good as I remember… I use it for work really as a body spray more than anything. It’s like and not that heavy so it’s good if you work around food.

• Chanel Rouge Coco Stylo Lipstick in shade Roman.

I’ve owned this for about a year now and I’ve probably only used it a  handful of times. It’s a very creamy and glossy lipstick and due to that I find it’s a bit too sticky and heavy to use during work. This is however the first lipstick I wore since my lips being bad and I actually didn’t realise how easy and nice this lipstick is to wear. To get rid of that glossy feeling I blotted it a little and it lasted AGES! It’s also a really nice lipstick to wear during warm and muggy weather. It’s one I’ll be wearing more this year for sure. I miss wearing lipsticks instead of wearing liquid lipsticks all the time. This one is pretty moisturising too.

• The Body Shop Peppermint Reviving Pumice Foot Scrub.

I’ve loved this foot scrub for years and although I’ve had this new tub since January this year, I’ve hardly used it to be honest… I don’t know why… BUT I’ve recently started using it once a week to make sure my feet are lovely and soft! To date I haven’t found a foot scrub as good as this one. It doesn’t work miracles (for £7.50 you can’t expect that!) but it does help my feet be soft and smooth for a while! You can’t really go wrong and I recommend The Body Shop foot range to everyone. It’s definitely the best thing about The Body Shop.

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

Favourite TV Show – Daria.

Daria has been around for years and whilst I have always known about it, I’d never actually watched it until recently. At the start of May I was really poorly with a stomach bug and for nearly a week was bedridden due to it. So whilst I had to stay in bed I decided to binge watch all of season one and half of season two. I never realised how good it was to be honest as well as  how much I can relate to both Daria and Jane! I love them both so much, I want two besties just like them. 😛 Even though me and my best friend Gabriella are probably like them anyway! xD I really need to continue watching it really and when I have my week off in a few weeks time I think I’ll binge watch it from the start with Dane, as I discovered he likes the show too. 😀

Favourite Film – Popstar: Never Stop Stopping.

This film isn’t new, in fact it’s been out for a year now and it’s one me and Dane have watched a couple of times now. It’s hilarious to be honest! If you love The Lonely Island then you will love this film as it’s the same guys behind the band. It’s basically a piss take at Justin Bieber, as well as other pop bands and artists out there. The songs (as usual by The Lonely Island) are catchy and funny as fuck! There’s also loads of celebrity appearances including Justin Timberlake as a Japanese sushi chef, who is absolutely hilarious! If you haven’t watched this film yet then I recommend it.

Favourite Book – Bridget Jones’s About The Boy.

This is a book I bought back in 2015 after I returned from my holiday in Fuerteventura with my dad. I had read The Edge of Reason and fell in love with Bridget all over again. SO of course I had to pick up the third book! I haven’t read loads (I hardly get time to read books… Manga I appear to. :P) but oh my God it is lovely to read about Bridget again! I was inspired to pick it up after watching the third movie Bridget Jones’s Baby. Sorry ladies (and gents) of the world who love that film but I thought it was so tacky and just awful. It was so obvious all the way through who the dad would be and it just lacked anything that Bridget would do in my mind. Well most of the time anyway. She would complain constantly about how she’s going to be a crap mom, how she can’t smoke, how she can’t drink, how she’s gaining weight. I don’t recall any of that happening. I’ve also ordered the fourth book too, which is Helen Fielding’s take on it, which already sounds much better than the film!

Favourite Song – RuPaul “Jealous Of My Boogie” and “Glamazon”.

 I’m not going to lie, I’ve never been a massive fan of the songs from RuPaul… I especially don’t like how he uses the show to advertise his new single… Sorry but yeah. This being said there has always been two songs that stand out to me, which are Jealous Of My Boogie (which I’ve added above) and Glamazon. I just love how catchy and upbeat both songs are. I find myself playing them in the bathroom whilst cleaning! I love the one I’ve linked about the most. I need to download some music very soon and these two will definitely be downloaded straight away.

Favourite Game – Persona 5.

No word of a lie, I haven’t enjoyed a game this much since I discovered Pokemon and Animal Crossing, which are two of my favourite game series. OH and South Park of course! 😛 I haven’t been playing this nonstop due to being an adult, but if I could I totally would! I play it a couple of nights a week after work and I can’t wait until I play it next. I mean after I’ve typed up this blog post (and probably another) I might go downstairs and play it (although it’s 7.30pm now… I may be too late to go down and play. Sad face.) but we shall see!

I don’t know how to explain what the game is about and to be honest I want to review the game itself so I don’t want to go into too much detail! It’s like Pokemon to be honest but darker. 😛

Yeahhhh so those were my favourites for May! I can’t believe we are officially halfway through the year now. 2017 is going way too quickly and whilst I’m glad (kinda…) I’m also feeling like my life is flashing before my eyes and I’m not doing anything with it, which sucks. It’ll get better though…

What were your favourites from May? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time take care all!

October Empties

I haven’t used much up during October and I’m not quite sure why but either way it means in the next couple of empties posts I might have loads of products to mention, so let’s get on with the post.

• Juicy Fruits Banana Body Wash.

This was an old Christmas present given to my Mom by a cousin. She had forgotten all about it and as the set it came in was brand new, my Mom asked me if I wanted it. I love the smell of banana so took it with both hands! This stuff is amazing! It smells just like bananas and for something that probably cost very little to make, it’s a very good body wash! The scent lasts ages on the skin, as well as leaving it feeling soft and smooth after using. My bathroom smelt like banana for ages after I’d taken a shower too, which I wasn’t complaining about! I wish I could find this to buy however, or at least an alternative as it smells heavenly. Anyone know of any banana shower gels or body washes I could buy?

• Mandara Spa Gentle Hand Wash in Amber Heaven.

I really love the smell of Amber Heaven by Mandara Spa and I own the bubble bath version of this stuff too so when I found out they made a hand wash, I made sure to get some for the bathroom. However, as lovely as this smells I’m sort of glad to see it finished… Why, you must be wondering? Because it hasn’t helped my eczema out at all and if anything I’m wondering if it’s made it worse due to the strong perfume smell. This does smell gorgeous and for ages the scent of it would linger on my hands for ages, which I really liked. If it wasn’t for my eczema I would re purchase, but I think I need something tailored to soothing my hands, not just perfuming them. I recommend this if you like musky smells, as whilst I hate them usually, this is gorgeous and reminds me of autumn and winter.

• Imperial Leather Foamburst Luxurious Body Wash in Moisturising Honey & Almond Milk.

This was mentioned in my September favourites and I’m rather sad to see it all finished and although I haven’t bought another one for myself yet, I’m waiting until I find some on offer to buy as I want to grab a couple of different scents to try. This was lovely and creamy and I often used it in the shower when I was in a hurry so usually after work if I was sticky from making drinks. This also made a great shave foam too and was mostly used for this purpose. The honey and almond milk in this smelt heavenly and these sorts of scents have always reminded me of my childhood. They were said to be moisturising and they definitely were. After each use of this my skin felt soft and smooth as well as feeling and smelling lovely and clean! This lasted me about a month, which seems like a decent time to me. I spoke more about this in my favourites post last month so if you would like to know more, go and check out that post. I’m definitely going to buy more of these in future, if not very soon.

• Montagne Jeunesse Iced Crystal Face Mask.

I bought this mask to try as it sounded like it would really work with my skin as it’s a scrub and mask in one, which seemed like a nice idea! It contains spearmint and dead sea salt so I know it would leave my skin feeling lovely and clean as well as soft. I used this in the bath, as I knew it would be hard to rinse off and apply what with all the scrubbing I would need to do when applying, as well as washing off. This mask worked like a charm and I already know I want to buy some more. It’s a clear light blue gel texture with plenty of pieces of sea salt and felt really cooling on my fingers. I splashed my face with some warm water and applied the mask onto my skin in a rubbing motion, it felt tingly and cool on my skin, which I really liked. The salt in this mask isn’t harsh but enough that you can feel it working when you’re rubbing it on your skin. After I felt I’d done enough scrubbing I relaxed for 15 minutes and finally gave it one more gentle rub around my face before rinsing off. My skin felt really soft afterwards and I made sure to splash my face with some cold water before getting out of the bath. My skin has felt lovely since and the spots I had on my skin the day and days before using this vanished a day after use, so I’m really glad that it worked for my skin. I’m going to definitely be using this in future, it’s a lovely face mask and a real treat!

• Original Source Shower Gel in Tea Tree & Mint.

This (as you can probably see) is a little travel size shower gel and was bought for when I first started to go to my boyfriends. I felt bad using his shower gel so I thought to myself, “Hey! If I take my own then I won’t be using his up!” but alas this ended up with me using his anyway! This shower gel smells gorgeous, mostly of mint and leaves a lovely scent on your skin after use. It also foams up lovely in a shower scrunchy, which I really liked! This shower gel is really nice, but may I add only during the hot months as due to the mint it leaves a tingling cold sensation after use. I’d been using this for the majority during the warmer months so I hadn’t noticed this before, but more recently upon using it, I’ve been left in my shower shuddering from the cold feeling this leaves you with. I won’t be re purchasing this shower gel again until summer approaches us! This little travel bottle wasn’t cheap and in Boots cost more than it would for the full size bottle in Bodycare, which pissed me off a little bit. I won’t be buying travel bottles again, I’ll just take a full size one instead!

So those were all my empties for this month!

What products did you use up during October? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time, take care all.

My summer outfits

When the sun comes out in the UK, the clothes come off for us Brits and we get our pasty white bits out on show for everyone to see. I can occasionally be one of these people, depends how hot it is and what I’m doing. But because of all this lovely weather I’ve bought a few new crop tops and my cute skirts and shorts out of my wardrobe to start wearing out and I thought I’d show my few outfit ideas with you guys.

I intend to wear these over the weekend (when this post will be live!) but you watch, the weather will be crappy and raining… Just you see!

Play suit by Red Herring from Debenhams. I can’t remember the price, I bought this back in 2010/2011.

I’ve had this play suit a while and it’s something I always bring out in the summer and for nights out as it’s really summery and cute with its red background and white and navy floral print. It’s not super thin but thin enough to wear during the summer time with a pair of tights and a cute denim jacket/shirt. It came with an awesome red belt which really makes your waist look smaller than it is, awesome for someone with bigger love handles than most girls my size. The straps on this dress have cute little heart-shaped buttons too, which just make this even cuter than need be. This play suit just reminds me of a dress I had when I was a little girl and thus makes me smile and think of old memories. Great worn with a cute pair of flats too, only dainty shoes allowed.

Coca-Cola crop top from Primark £6.00.

American Flag hot pant denim shorts from Topshop can’t remember the price as I bought them in 2011/2012.

Okay I realise how hipster and 90’s this outfit looks but you know what? I don’t care! I’ve loved this look before the term hipster was even created for anyone who wore things like this so shh! I bought this crop top from Primark on Wednesday as I’ve wanted a Coca-Cola t-shirt for quite a while now and as we’ve had such great weather recently I didn’t think it would hurt to pick this up for £6.00. This will look great during the daytime whether I’m out shopping, in the countryside, at the park, etc. As long as there is sunshine, this look will look awesome! With some creepers for both day and evening and especially tights for evening this outfit will be great, especially for holidays!

Long sleeved mint crop top from Primark £4.00.

Pug crop top from Primark £5.00

Cream and black spot skater skirt from Primark £9.00.

Wow lot’s of pieces from Primark! Probably because I’m pretty skint right now and I’m only after some summer essentials, I usually pay heavy prices for autumn and winter items due to liking these seasons more than spring and summer.

With the first outfit (mint crop top and skirt) I bought them together as I think cream and mint look really nice together, especially in spring. I was wanting to find a nice mint jumper to wear with this skirt but with no luck, the crop top did a pretty good job. This is the sort of thing you could wear on a dinner date with some patterned tights and a cute pair of flats or low heels and a light denim jacket to keep you warm. Definitely something I would wear on holiday on the beach, no tights or jacket required of course! I’m definitely going to wear this skirt at some point over the weekend.

For the second outfit it’s a little more grunge than cute and with that I would need to wear my creepers and some tights with it, probably plain and I’d wear this from day-to-night. This pug crop top is so cute isn’t it? I saw it on Zoella’s Primark haul video on her YouTube channel and thought it was super cute and would be nice to team up with denim shorts and jeans for summer, as well as winter on nights out. So for a fiver I thought, why not! I can team this up with so much, this skirt being one of them! I would wear my spiked pleather biker jacket and my creepers with this, maybe a denim shirt if the jacket was a bit too warm or heavy. I might wear this look on Sunday night for a gig I’m going to.

AND I know most girls feel too shy or embarrassed about wearing crop tops due to their tummy and trust me, I’m one of those girls. I do have a solution for those of you who do feel this way though. Make sure to get a skirt, shorts or jeans that are high-waisted because you can cover the part of your tummy you don’t feel too confident with and you’ll have your gorgeous waist to show off and your tummy will look as flat as you wish it to. The thing is with your tummy, it’s not meant to be flat, it’s meant to have a bit of a bump to it, where do you think all your organs go, eh?

I hope this post was a good read, I know I had a lot of fun picking out outfits to team together to show you guys, it’s also helped me decide on what I’m going to take with me to wear on Friday and Saturday whilst I’m at my partners and Sunday and Monday whilst he’s at mine.

I’ll be hopefully posting some what I wore posts about what I decided to wear today and Monday, so keep eyes peeled for those!

I just hope the weather stays nice, otherwise I’ll have my plan B outfits on standby!

What summer clothes have you been wearing this summer?

I hope my outfits inspired any girls out there who don’t have much crop top courage to have gained some, I’m not exactly skinny and I like to think I can pull them off (just!) so I’m pretty damn sure you girls can too!

Until next time, take care all and enjoy the weather while it’s here!