June Favourites ’22

I can’t believe we are already on day three of July! June really did fly by due to how much fun me and Dane were clearly having with our week off, Manchester, seeing friends and other stuff. But, at the same time it sort of dragged towards the end of June. I remember mid June having a phone call with my dad and saying, “It’s July next week!” and it was due to me thinking about payday… Oh dear! July wasn’t due for another two weeks at that point.

Speaking of payday, I was SKINT after Manchester in June and I’m already “skint” this month too. I made some big purchases I probably shouldn’t have, as well as recouping all the monies I’ve put on bills and such as well. Due to that, after my payday treats this month, I’m going to be really good with money from now on, especially as me and Dane are hoping to make a big purchase for our home in the near future…

That aside I’m not sure how I’m feeling about July yet. At the time of writing this post I’m miserable as fuck in general. A lot of crap news has come up in the news, as well as personal so right now I’m just going with it. I don’t really have a lot planned for July, aside from meeting up with friends I’ve not seen for years due to Covid, as well as lots of D&D game nights! I’m hopeful my mood will lift as the month goes on however, I don’t want a sad one. :’)

Anyhoo, enough of my woes, on with the favourites!

Beauty – The Body Shop Banana Body Yogurt.

Back in 2018 The Body Shop brought out their banana range and I fell in love with it! They brought out a shower gel, body butter and body yogurt and I bought all three of them of course. I managed to get through a lot of them, but I still have some of the products left brand new, including the body butter and body yogurt. As regular readers will know, I started to use body lotion as my skin was honestly screaming out for it and I feel so much better for it since. It’s come to the time where I need to start using the body yogurt as my stash is growing quite low. I’m sad to because I know I won’t be able to pick it up again anytime soon, but at the same time, it means I can get some new goodies in. Hey, maybe I’ll find another banana body lotion soon? The Body Shop body yogurts are amazing, especially during the warmer months as they’re thin, cooling and still very moisturising. Plus, a little bit of this stuff goes a long way! As strawberry is my favourite scent from The Body Shop, I’m planning to pick up the strawberry one in the near future!

Movie – Everything Everywhere All at Once.

First things first, this film is amazing and it isn’t what I was expecting at all. The trailer didn’t really do the film justice for me, but at the same time that wasn’t a bad thing either. I knew this was a film Dane wanted to watch and I was happy to give it a go, because why not. The film is about Evelyn, owner of a laundromat with her husband. Her father lives with them and their daughter appears to have moved out. Evelyn has a lot going on, along with accepting her daughters sexuality and girlfriend, her father needing her care, as well as her business being in trouble money wise. Everything Everywhere All at Once is broken up into chapters, like a play, and whilst the film is a little bat shit crazy, it’s done really, really well! I highly recommend checking this out, no matter what genre of movies you prefer, it’s amazing and I get the hype of it being titled film of the year.

Image taken from Giphy

TV Show – The Boys Season Three.

As regular readers of my blog will know, I love The Boys. It’s a hilarious show with a unique concept, with the show being created off of a comic book series. We’re not on series three of The Boys and it’s getting darker and more intense with each episode. I don’t want to say too much as I may end up spoiling it for some but lets just say there some hilarious adult humour, some fucked up deaths and stuff I didn’t expect Butcher to do. It’s also now been given the green light for a fourth season, which in turn makes me really happy! The original comic book series is by Garth Ennis who also wrote the comic book series Preacher, another TV Show both me and Dane loved. Both are on Amazon Prime Video, so make sure to go and check them out if you haven’t already!

Music – PVRIS – Use Me.

This is an album I’ve found myself listening to a lot towards the end of June and I honestly can’t stop. I’ve been listening to it when working from home, driving to work, and even in the office when I need to get my earphones in and head down to concentrate. I love all of the songs PVRIS work on and release and whilst Use Me isn’t my favourite album (All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell is my favourite) but it’s a close second to be honest with you. I keep meaning to book tickets to see PVRIS in January 2023, but I feel like each payday, the right time isn’t appearing. 😦

Game – Sniper Elite 5.

This is a game me and Dane randomly started playing together after he started to play it on his own. It’s on Xbox Games Pass, so was “free” for us both to pick up and play together. Sniper Elite 5 is set during World War II and your goal is to try and defeat the Nazi’s taking over parts of Europe. It was such a fun game to play with Dane and the more levels we got through, the better we got! We’ve completed the game now, but we’re planning on buying the DLC very soon so we can play some more of the game together. It didn’t take us long to complete the game, I’d like to say a week but that being said, it was a lot of fun! I’ve been asking Dane if he can find something similar for us to play next.

Just a few of my favourite things…

Image from greetings.nerds

For my other favourites this month, I wanted to talk about some small businesses I feel deserve to get some new shoppers, or at least some new followers on their social media pages. I read the above post on Instagram by greetings.nerds earlier this week and wanted to take a moment to share some people who I feel deserve to be mentioned. With the changes to the world from Covid and now the current conflict happening in Eastern Europe, the changes are affecting some people drastically, where others just slightly. Small businesses all over are being affected sales wise, and with social media platforms making it harder than ever to reach new customers, they could do with as much support and help as possible. Which is what I have strived to do since 2019 on my blog, and Instagram page. Even if you can’t afford to make a purchase from any of the mentioned small businesses today, please drop them a follow on their social media accounts. They’re all down to Earth, amazing and friendly people. They’re also my friends and I wouldn’t be friends with them if they weren’t any of the points mentioned. 🙂

Happy Place Cosmetics

Store, Instagram, TikTok.

Cruelty free and SLS free handmade cosmetics, based in Scotland. I’ve been a massive fan of Happy Place Cosmetics since before 2020, but it was only during Covid and lockdowns that I finally bit the bullet and placed my first order! Since then I won’t got anywhere else for my body scrubs AND I’ve become such good friends with the owner too. HPC don’t constantly have stock in, but instead release themed beauty and wax melts boxes for us to buy, with themes including 90’s, horror, pop culture and more! Alongside that HPC will of course release certain stock every now and then. I like the way they release their goods, because it means I can really treat myself to goods! I recently had some new wax melts arrived, with some smelling of Lush Tramp shower gel, an old favourite of mine and the owners! I burnt one yesterday and it smells AMAZING and to boot the scent lasted ages in our office, even after my tea light had gone out. She also included some Calpol scented wax tarts too, which I’m so excited to burn.

Claire Likes To Doodle

Website, Shop, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.

Claire is one of my oldest friends and for years I encouraged her to turn her art from a hobbie to a job, which she did a couple of years ago! I’m so proud of where she has come, her work is unique and beautiful and every time she posts something new on Instagram, it really does make me smile. Recently alongside selling art, she’s started to play with clay to create pieces of her original character Bernard. In the near future I am hoping to commission her for a piece myself… 😛 Please make sure to go and check her out and maybe even give her some support over on Ko-fi and maybe buy some goodies from her too!

Quirkory

Shop, Pin Club, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Quirkory are by far my favourite enamel pin creators. Their work always makes me happy to see and really does brighten my day. I discovered them in 2019 and since then I’ve been supporting their work, as well as befriending them over the years. Currently I’m loving what Quirkory are doing with their Patreon/pin club and Discord communities, their new designs and ideas for the future are kawaii AF and I cannot wait to see more in the future! Plus don’t forget I have a discount code for Quirkory where you can save 10% on purchases with code TMBQUIRKORY.

Worlds Apart, Birmingham

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Worlds Apart is the oldest comic book shop in England and for that fact alone I’m proud to call them my local and favourite comic book shop! I can’t speak for Worlds Apart or other comic book shops but with places like Amazon selling comics and manga online, as well as bigger businesses such as Waterstones too, smaller comic book shops can struggle at times to get custom, especially during Covid! One thing that Worlds Apart did during Covid was open up orders through their Discord, as well as through Instagram, which I used often during lockdowns to get hold of merchandise and manga. I’m a part of the Worlds Apart Discord, which is full of amazing people! I highly recommend if you’re from Birmingham to support Worlds Apart if you can, even if it’s just promoting them online.

So, there we have it guys, my favourites from June! June did really fly by and I’m just wary the rest of the year is going to follow suit, which I don’t want. I mean, I’d love for cooler months to come by so I can start layering my clothes and feeling cosy!

What did you guys love throughout June, and what are you looking forward to in July? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you have a lovely weekend and great start to July.

The Body Shop Banana Body Yogurt – Review

If there’s something I always love writing, it’s an honest review. Whether it be about a good or a bad product, they’re what we look for as people when we buy things and we trust other normies opinions when it comes to that.

I love writing them because I love being honest about a product in every shape and form. Today’s review however will be a good one, a VERY good one.

If there is anyone who is terrible at using body moisturisers, it’s me. I actually HATE using them and always have done for as long as I can remember. I get warm very easily throughout the year so whenever I’ve used anything on my skin I end up getting even warmer and feeling clammy and gross.

Years ago I did give The Body Shop body sorbet (review of the strawberry body sorbet here) a go and loved it, but meh after a while I didn’t actually feel like it was doing much for my skin. It did do great things throughout the summer though. It’d be a perfect product to use on holiday as an after sun.

The Body Shop released their body yogurts not long ago and since their release I’ve heard nothing but good things about them from bloggers and social media users. I wanted to give the strawberry one a go, but only of late have I been more frugal with my money.

The banana range really caught my eye (you can see which goodies I wanted to get here) and as soon as I got the change to go into a store, I made sure to sniff ALL THE BANANA! that sounds so rude… 😛

I knew I wanted the shower cream but I wasn’t sure if I would be sold on the body butter and body yogurt. I cannot stand the body butters from The Body Shop. They’re too thick for my skin and are the worst for causing me to feel sticky and gross. This being said, I did in fact pick up a little tub of the banana body butter, which I use on my hands. It’s amazing and really has helped my eczema lately.

I also ended up picking up the body yogurt and since buying it, I have been hooked!

You can only get the body yogurts in one size, that being 220ml and costs £8.50. Including the banana there are currently 6 scents to choose from. Almond Milk, Banana, Strawberry, British Rose, Moringa and Mango. Apart from banana, I’d love to try the strawberry one in future.

It states on the tub that it is 100% vegan, as it is made with almond milk! Nice one TBS! 😉

Directions are fairly straight forward really.

48H moisturising, instantly absorbing & non-sticky gel-cream. Can be applied on damp skin after your shower. All skin types.

First of all I know what you’re waiting to find out. “What does it smell like?” Now, a sarcastic person would reply, “Bananas, of course!” But deep down, I’ve got you and I know what you mean. In what way does it smell of bananas, it could either smell of sickly sweet foam bananas, the yellow medicine you used to get as a kid or just a regular banana.

The answer is that it smells of fake banana, as in McDonalds banana milkshake, or even Nesquik banana milkshake mix. It doesn’t smell sickly sweet at all and it doesn’t smell like true banana, it’s a nice meet in the middle scent.

The texture of the product is amazing though! As the product states it’s a gel cream, which is what makes it so light weight and cooling to apply. You don’t need a lot either to make the product go a long way! I don’t use this on damp skin though, just because I was always told that moisturiser doesn’t work on damp skin, so meh I just can’t.

Due to how light this is on the skin, it only takes me about five minutes to apply in the mornings and really doesn’t feel like a chore at all! With the warmer weather it also hasn’t left me feeling sticky or clammy throughout the day. However with how warm the weather has been lately it can feel a bit warm in the morning when applying, but that is just due to the heat.

I only use this every other day due to the 48 hour moisturising but I do feel like I could easily use it everyday, especially when winter is here and my skin needs it more than ever!

The scent lasts all day on my skin and I get nothing but compliments from people on the yummy banana scent. I just wish The Body Shop had brought out a body spray and perfume too, as I would LOVE to smell of a banana all day long. 😛

Overall, I do really love this body yogurt and I especially love that it’s banana scented. It really has improved my skin in such a short amount of time and if you’re like me and can’t be arsed with the hassle of applying body lotions before work, then you need to give this a go!

If you like a thicker moisturiser then the body butter is definitely one to go for as you’ll still get the same scent with that too!

I would like them to bring out some more scents in these, such as coconut, which is another favourite scent of mine from The Body Shop. I’d also love to see old limited edition scents make a come back, especially raspberry which is another of my favourite scents.

Sadly the banana range is limited edition so their stuff won’t be sticking around for long. If you want to try this, I recommend you try it really soon. There are always some discount codes flying around. I intend to stock up when a sale hits! 😛

Have you ever tried The Body Shop body yogurts? If so which one(s) have you tried?

Do you want to give the banana range a try? Have you already? Make sure to tell me all in the comments!

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

July Favourites ’18

Why hello August! I know, month after month I moan about how fast the year is going but as much as I hate how fast it is whizzing by BUT I’m not going to do that this month… I’m actually excited for September.

Both me and Dane had some lovely news in July, which I’m not going to mention here and NO before you guess we aren’t expecting or having a baby. 😛 Honestly, you will not see a post in 3 months of me holding a scan… Not unless it’s of a puppy fetus. 😛

URGH I really did ramble. I didn’t mean to. 😛

This months favourites were pretty easy to write up, but at the same time they did feel like a bit of a challenge. I hope you enjoy them either way, I always love writing my monthly favourites, so I hope you always enjoy reading them.

• The Body Shop Body Yogurt in Banana.

I recently posted a wish list Wednesday about The Body Shop and the majority of that wish list had the new limited edition banana range on it. Literally 3 days later I was in a store buying all of the goodies I had posted on that wish list. Since I picked up the body yogurt I have been using it daily and oh my, it has changed up my daily routine! My skin has been looking and feeling dry lately and I HATE moisturising. Not only do I find it a chore, but thick creams can leave me feeling clammy and warm so I avoid it like the plague. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the yogurts and it was Estelle’s The Body Shop haul post (which you can read here) where she spoke about the strawberry one that got me into giving it a go. Thanks Estelle! 😛 This has just been a game changer for my skin. It really is lightweight and only takes 5 minutes max to apply all over and thankfully doesn’t take long to dry so you can be dressed quickly. I plan to have a review of this up on my blog ASAP, possibly this time next week so keep your eyes peeled for that!

• Fairy Glo Gel Polishes.

Since I picked these up a couple of months ago I’ve been meaning to review them as they are AMAZING gel polishes for sod all money. Since getting my Le Mini Macaron gel nail kit I’ve been kind of obsessed with gel nail polish and have certainly gotten into it more. I picked up a massive 14 piece gel polish set, with 12 glitter/holographic shades as well as a base and top coat. All for £15.99 on Amazon with Prime too! I’ve worn the polishes a handful of times now and I do adore them. I feel so pretty when I have the shades on and I especially love the silver holographic shade, as well as the lilac and blue shades. My mom also recently gave me her UV lamp as it was taking me 2 hours to do my nails with the little one nail LED lamp that you get in the Le Mini Macaron kit. I’d love to start doing peoples nails, but that just isn’t going to happen. 😛

• Korres Wild Rose Lip Butter.

I really miss wearing lipstick(s) and yet I don’t know why I stopped wearing them. I think it’s due to the fact that I now have on and off eczema in the corners of my lips, which sucks to be honest with you. Using a stick lip balm is now a thing of the past for me and I have to constantly now use lip balm in tins, e.g. Vaseline. I recently picked up a couple of tinted lip balms from The Body Shop but I decided to dig out this old favourite and start using it at work. No, it isn’t lipstick but it’s a gorgeous tinted lip butter which leaves my lips feeling moisturised and with a gorgeous dark pink colour. I would love to try more of the Korres lip butters, but this one has lasted me so long, I don’t know if I need to. 😛

• The Body Shop Body Butter in Banana.

Yes, another one of the banana products from The Body Shop and this one I have fallen head over heels in love with, for many reasons. There is one product I dislike from The Body Shop and that’s their body butters. They’re really thick, and don’t last very long for how much you spend on them! I’ve tried at least 3 different ones over the years and each one has left me feeling sticky and hot both in the colder and hotter months. However, the banana one smelt amazing so I KNEW I had to pick it up. But I decided to pick up the little tub so that I could test what I thought of the body butter as a hand butter instead. Well, so far I am LOVING IT! It makes such an amazing and deeply nourishing hand butter and I do love it. Whenever I use it at work I get nothing but compliments on the scent, which in turn makes me happy. I’ll definitely invest in the bigger tub soon and just keep the little tub to decant the product into. I’ll also definitely give other scents a try in future, including strawberry.

• Clean & Clear Blackhead Clearing Cleanser.

This is another product I’ve mentioned recently on my blog (you can read that post here) and since I picked it up at the start of July I have loved using it on my skin! I was after a new toner and for years my mom has been using this one and always praised it up. My skin has been in atrocious condition for the longest time now, which was down to certain products I was using, including the old cleanser I was using. This one has helped clear my skin so much and for under £3.00 I am so CHUFFED to have finally discovered it.

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

Image taken from tenor.com

Favourite TV Show – Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.

This is such a random one TV show to start watching, but recently BBC put it onto iPlayer so I’ve just been binge watching it pretty much. I used to LOVE Two Pints growing up and as a student, I just felt like I could relate to it, even with the humour and such. It also just reminds me of when I was younger too with the themes and the fact it’s set back when I was younger. I’m currently on season 5 and close to finishing it. If like me you loved Two Pints growing up, then honestly give yourself a blast to the past and watch the whole box set on iPlayer whilst it’s on there.

Image taken from Giphy.com

Image taken from giphy.com

Favourite Film – Inglorious Basterds.

This was such a random film for me to watch but I saw it on Netflix in July and just thought I’d pop it on to watch one morning whilst I got ready for work. One morning turned into a week pretty much! I do love this film so much and it’s definitely one of my favourites by Quentin Tarantino for many reasons. I remember going to see it with my dad when it came out and he loved it so much. When looking for gifs for this post I giggled at so many awesome ones! 😛

Image taken from giphy.com

Favourite Book – A Polar Bear In Love Vol 3.

Yay finally Vol.3 came out in July and I was so excited to read it after how they left off in Vol.2! I honestly love A Polar Bear In Love, as it is such an adorable manga and one that I will enjoy reading until it finishes. I FINALLY found a gif to use on my blog for posts like this one! They also have short anime clips out of parts from the manga, which is equally adorable, if not cuter. 😛 If you love cute manga, I cannot recommend this enough!

Favourite Song/Album – Daft Punk Random Access Memories.

Recently at work we were talking about music and one of the questions that went around the office was, “What band would you like to see before you die?” and my answer was Daft Punk. I have LOVED this band for as long as I can remember and they are a massive part of my life. They’re the reason for my love of a lot of music and are for sure a band I would love to see perform. This is the last album they released (I pray they’ll bring out another soon!) back in 2013 and it came out not long before I met Dane. This album reminds me of that year and how rough it was. I listened to it when things were hard because it always made me feel better. I even wrote a MASSIVE review on it back in the day, which I’ll link here. I’ve been listening to this album quite a lot since then and ARGH I just forgot how much I love it and how I need more Daft Punk albums on my iPod for my car. I’ve added a couple of my favourite songs from the album above.

Image taken from giphy.com

Favourite Game – Pokemon Go

Yes, I am still playing Pokemon Go and I am LOVING every minute of it. Me and Dane are still playing it loads and even going out late at night to play it. Since me and Dane bought our Pokemon Go Pluses we play it every day. I know it’s seen as a lazy way to play the game, but if you’re going for a walk, or a day out shopping you don’t have to get your phone out to get all the Poke Stops you walk past, which is so handy. The only issue I have is that the game drains my battery, but that’s what I have my battery pack for. 😛 Recently on our way home from visiting Dane’s parents we made a u turn to a local shopping area so that we could catch a Dragonite! It was for sure worth it and we both have a Pokemon we’ve wanted for AGES. I just love the game so much and I wish I’d never stopped playing it years ago. I remember the game coming out in July 2016 and that’s when me and Dane were doing up our house so it does take me back to that time too. 🙂

So those were my favourites from July! I feel like they weren’t anything special but to be honest with you I feel like July went by in a ball of madness! It’s been a pretty decent month to be honest in every single way. As I said at the start of the post me and Dane both had some great news, we’ve had some amazing sunny weather and some much needed rain. It’s overall been a pretty decent month and I’m excited for what August brings!

What were your favourites from July? 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 so far.