Half Price YOU Beauty Advent Calendar

An email has just popped into my inbox from Latest in Beauty to tell me that the YOU Beauty Advent Calendar is now half price.

If you enter the code: EX2649 at this address you can purchase it for £29.98 + £2.95 postage. A total bargain at £32.93.

However, as much I want to spread the exciting news about this offer. I have to say it has left a very bad taste in my mouth and I feel a bit upset with Latest in Beauty. 

I asked for the advent calendar as my Birthday present and have been looking forward to opening it on 1st December. Knowing that my boyfriend forked out nearly £60 when he could have bought it today for half that price is gutting. Plus it would have still arrived in time for the start of December and my Birthday so it turns out there was no incentive for making the purchase so early.

I know companies will reduce the price of items once Christmas is over but this is even before the start of advent!

I'm currently looking into whether I can return the advent calendar to take advantage of the half price offer and am about to send Latest in Beauty an upset email.

On a separate note; Latest in Beauty also made out that if you bought it early you got free postage which was also a bit of a con. I've never seen it for sale yet without free postage on offer (or at least a code to get free postage on it). 

Gutted :(

Help wanted - make up removing and facial cleansing...

Recently I've become very interested in how best to remove make up and then cleanse my skin. 

I'm ashamed to admit that for the last 10+ years I've stuck to a basic routine of face wipe, facial wash and then moisturising before bed. However over the last few months I've realised this routine isn't really cutting it - my skin is very dry and I've got fine lines appearing round my eyes. 

So I'm doing some research to find a new routine. Do you have any suggestions of good products to use to remove make up and then cleanse my skin? What do you use? 

I'm not sure I can give up on water completely so I'd still like to use a cleanser which involves water in the process and I need something that will remove heavy eyeshadow easily.

A full post of my findings will be coming soon...

x

Guest post: Pumpkin and chickpea curry

Okay so tonight Mike wants to share with you a curry he made...

Ingredients:

2 locally sourced (Dunham Massey) organic pumpkins!
Loads of garlic, peeled and chopped
Small onion, sliced on the mandolin
Cumin, cinnamon, chilli flakes, mild chilli powder
1 yellow organic fresh chilli, chopped and deseeded
Chopped fresh organic ginger
Half a tin of organic chopped tomatoes
Little bit of red curry paste
Veg stock 300ml
1 banana
Can of chick peas
Organic brown rice

1. Start by chopping and preparing all the ingredients
2. Fry the onions for 5mins until brown
3. Add garlic, ginger and spices (in your own quantities, it can be quite experimental!) for another minute
4. Add chopped tomatoes and fresh chilli, cook for another minute
5. Add pumpkin and red curry paste, cook for 3 further minutes, then add 300ml of veg stock
6. Stir well, simmer for 20mins until pumpkin is tender
7. Throw in the thickly sliced banana and the tin of drained chickpeas, simmer for 5 further minutes and serve with rice (if using brown rice like Mike did, remember to put it on around 30mins before you require it as it takes a LOT of cooking!)

N.B you don't have to use organic ingredients, Mike was just feeling very chuffed with his shop at Unicorn grocers in Chorlton (Manchester). Also Mike is my boyfriend and wanted to get in on the blogging action, hence this cheeky guest post :)

Sunday round up

A quick Sunday round up...

My Latest in Beauty advent calendar taking pride of place on the kitchen table, I can't wait to start opening on 1st December. It's actually my Birthday present (which is on 19th December) and I think getting 24 days of presents is even better than just one on the day. I've deliberately not looked closely at the picture of the goodies inside that I've seen online so I can be surprised :)

I finished using this tub of Body Butter Duo Vanilla from The Body Shop yesterday. I don't think I'd recommend it as a body moisturiser, it has two sides: one for normal skin and one for dry skin. Both were very greasy and smelly and took some rubbing into my body. I have very dry skin so was disappointed that it didn't help me more. It's not put me off trying other Body Shop moisturisers though as I've other good experiences of their products previous to this one.

Yet more free stuff! I heard about American Apparel giving away free polishes through another blog and as I don't work near to an AA I had to send my boyfriend to pick it up for me. He chose well and I've been wearing the navy shade (Passport Blue if you were wondering) since! Thanks Mike :)

Favourite Blog and Turnip Inspiration...

Most of the blogs I read are beauty based. However amongst these beauty blogs are a few others on subjects ranging from: bees, fashion, pubs, architecture and food.

My favourite blog on food at the moment has to be Desert Candy. Desert Candy covers all kinds of Middle Eastern cookery. It has been running since 2006 so currently I've lots of posts that I'm still working through, which is lovely to do when I get a spare minute, kind of like a online cookery book.

I discovered Desert Candy when I was looking how to make Arabic/Turkish coffee (which I'm intending to do another post on at some point) and I've been reading it ever since.

The most recent post on Desert Candy is on pickled turnips, which weirdly coincided with me going to a farmers market yesterday and buying turnips and beetroot. I regularly have lunch at a takeaway called 'Falafel' in Rusholme (Manchester's curry mile) and I'd always wondered what the bright pink pickle thing was on the mezze - turns out its turnip pickled with beetroot!

As I had both items after visiting the farmers market, and I had the recipe at my finger tips thanks to Desert Candy, I decided to make my own pickled turnip to have with hummus and pitta which is staple for me. I won't bother putting the recipe here as you can read it on Desert Candy but here are some pictures of my pickled turnip...I let you know how it tastes!

Mini REN reviews

 

Ages and ages ago I did this post about receiving the REN six of the best box. Well last week I finally started using three of the items and thought I'd share my thoughts in case anyone was thinking of buying a full size of any of them...

 

Mayblossom Balanacing Cleansing Gel

 

I've been using this as a facial wash, its for combination skin so not ideal for my dry skin, however it smells wonderful and leaves my face feeling clean but not dry so its fine for me to use for a few days. Its only 25ml so I reckon it'll be finished by the middle of next week. Unfortunately when it arrived it had leaked - hence the tape holding the top together!

 

Active 7 Radiant Eye Gel

 

I've never used a specific eye cream before but as I've started to notice fine lines around my eyes I was more than happy to give this a try. It is sensitive enough not to irritate my eyes but it has no smell and so far I've not noticed my eyes feeling any better or worse than they did before.

 

Omega 3 Night Repair Serum

 

Despite the fact this product has a slightly 'fishy' smell about it (I seem to remember another blogger mentioning this to me and they sent theirs back) I actually like it! And as I've had the box since July I didn't think REN would accept me returning it. It goes a long way, one tiny pump covers my face and neck and it definitely moisturises it. I only use it at night and my face feel softer in the morning which makes me feel happy. Not sure I'd buy it again for a while as I've got a few other serums to use but its definitely my favourite of the three products! 



Ojon offer - TODAY!

So you've probably seen this on various other blogs (I know I have!) but if you go to your nearest Ojon stockist and take an empty shampoo or conditioner bottle, fill out your name and email address, you will receive a full size Ojon shampoo and conditioner FREE!

I walked into Manchester this morning (getting very hot and bothered in the process as it has gone  super mild and I was still dressed for the thick of winter!) as the big Boots stocks Ojon. The store opened at 8am, I got there at around 8.30am and there was already a mini queue! I think there are 8000 free bottles nationwide so I don't think they will last long but its definitely worth a go if you have a stockist nearby.

The bottles both have their barcode crossed out with marker pen which I assume is to prevent resale but I'll be keeping hold of mine to use after I finish my Liz Earle shampoo and conditioner :)

Speaking of Liz Earle I also noticed that the new concession has opened in the Manchester Boots which looks lovely. If you can use your advantage card points to pay that's even more exciting as I've got around £35 in points at the moment and was wondering what to do with them! I couldn't stop to look as I had to get to work (hence the 'on desk' shot above!)  but I'll probably head back in later this week to have a good browse.

Have you taken advantage of the Ojon offer? Is it a brand you recommend?

Straight Outta McColl's!

This month's Glamour magazine has just hit my local McColl's. I'm not usually a women's magazine reader apart from when I get passed them second hand or there are freebies to be had! 

This seemed a pretty good offer to me though: sparkly Nails Inc. nail polish and a magazine for just £2! My local McColl's had four copies with each different shade so I had my pick of colours, I went for the Glamour Glitter which I'm intending to use over black polish the next time I paint my nails.

Have you picked up Glamour and any of the other shades? x