The Wonders of Soap and Glory Glow Lotion!

As an early Christmas present this year I got Soap and Glory Glow Lotion, I am a massive Soap and Glory fan! Their products smell divine, have retro inspired packaging and are reasonably priced (when on offer, of course!). Currently Soap and Glory products are 3 for 2 at Boots and this Glow Lotion is £5.50 for a 150ml bottle. I think that's very reasonable because you know the quality you are getting with the Soap and Glory brand and a little bit of this product goes a long way!

The bottle has a pump, which is useful if you only want a little bit. The description on the back of the packaging states:

'Glow Maintenance: Use Glow Lotion all over as a moisturiser, on your neck and shoulders as a fragrant shimmer, or as a stand-in for stockings when you find yourself short of a little shin shine.'

The lotion has a lovely, slightly floral fragrance, which stays with you during the day. I put this on in the morning and could still smell it by the early afternoon. This is what the product looks like when I pumped it onto my hand (this is one pump, so it shows how much you get and how far it goes!):



As you can see it has a lovely 'glow' but isn't 'glittery', which really appealed to me! There are a lot of occasions you may want a subtle glow, rather than an 'out there' glittery look, for instance Christmas dinner, family events, a meal with friends etc. The lotion has a smooth, slightly runny texture, which isn't a negative because it means the lotion glides over the skin a lot easier and doesn't leave a greasy feeling at all.

Here is what the lotion looked like when I smoothed it over my skin: a subtle, warming glow!

Yet another Soap and Glory product I have fallen in love with! The Glow Lotion would look great over your collarbone or as a highlighter on your cheeks, nose and just under the eyebrows :)

Have you tried this product before?

Do you like the Soap and Glory brand?

Cheap Homemade Christmas Decorations

I love everything about Christmas, the wrapping up warm, present buying and having a festive house. So this year I went about making my own Christmas decorations as they can be so expensive!

The first thing I made was a candle holder out of an old jam jar and some ribbon. I would recommend always keeping old glass jars, even if you don't have a need for them straight away something will always come up, whether it be a container for nuts/crackers at a party, candle holder, sweet holder or a container for make up brushes. I had a shallow jar, so I wrapped some wide christmassy ribbon (which I had bought from a Car Boot sale for 50p) and fixed it with a red paper clip at the back. Really was as easy as that! I then took some ribbon of a gift bag I had received in the past and tied it around the top of the jar, popped a tealight inside and there you go! Extremely cheap candle holder :)

Last year I collected lots of pine cones, they are free and can look great in a very cheap Christmas decoration. I bought some gold spray paint and a Fake Snow spray, both from Poundland for a £1 each. I put some newspaper outside and sprayed some of the pine cones gold and some with the fake snow spray. They looked great straight away but it's best to let them dry fully (preferably overnight), especially then fake snow spray as it comes off easily until it dries. I then put them in a tall glass vase I already had, if I had some fairy lights that work with a battery then I would have weaved those between the pine cones too, as I think that can look lovely. Here's the finished piece:

I love all the vintage inspired bunting that is around at the moment, you can get them relatively cheap from eBay but they are generally quite expensive. So I went about making my own this year, I bought some scissors that have a 'scalloped' edge from a great shop called, The Range, for only £1.50. I also bought a pack of 50x A5 Ivory Card from there for £1.99! I used the scissors to cut the A5 card into triangles (the typically bunting shape). I then used a sponge to dab on red paint to the card and let it dry, obviously you can use any colour or colour combination you like. I then measured the writing (to say Merry Christmas) so that they were all the same size, this is a very important and time consuming part of making them because if all the letters are different sizes it would look very amateur. I painted the letters with white paint, then decided I wanted the letters to be glittery so I used some glitter nail varnish I had to paint over the white. Let it all dry overnight, if you have some books you could compress the bunting with that would be good because they can curl up when they dry. To connect the ribbon to the individual bunting letters I hole punched twice at the top of the bunting, then put some ribbon (from Poundland, a £1 for 6 sets of ribbon) through both holes and left excess either end to tie it up with. Here's it finished:

What do you think?

Have you made any Christmas decorations this year?

GIVEAWAY: Win Dirty Works Goodies!

Dirty Works is a great brand sold in Sainsburys, their packaging is retro, vintage style, which is really appealing! There are a wide range of products from tweezers and body scrubs to moisturisers and Face Wash. I am giving away 3 Full Size Dirty Works Products -

• Dirty Works Coconut Caress Body Scrub 200ml
• Dirty Works Coconut Caress Body Wash 200ml
• Dirty Works Body Moisture Spray 250ml

Enter via the Rafflecopter below, sorry UK only!

Please follow my blog on the right sidebar of this page :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Christmassy Visit to Center Parcs

When some friends asked if I wanted to go to Center Parcs for a pre-Christmas getaway my first thought was...isn't it really expensive?! But I was pleasantly surprised when we started to look into going. Center Parcs for me was a place I remembered going as a child, with a huge swimming pool and lots of trees! So I was excited at the prospect of going back, especially at my favourite time of year - Christmas!

http://www.centerparcs.co.uk/villages/sherwood/index.jsp

We went to the Sherwood Forest Center Parcs from Monday 10th December 2012 until Friday 14th December and for an Executive Woodland Lodge (which are REALLY nice and sleep 4) it was only £399! That does sound a lot but as we were each paying for ourselves it was only £100 each for a 4 night, 5 day holiday! I think that's very reasonable nowadays, as hotels can easily be £100 a night, and you get access to a variety of facilities at Center Parcs. We also paid an extra £25 each to hire bikes for the week, which I'd highly recommend because our lodge was in the 'Pine' area of the Parc and it was a good 20 minute walk to the main centre. Here's our cosy lodge:

There were a lot of little touches that made the lodges feel really homely, for example there was a wreath on all of the lodges doors. Also when we arrived there was a nice message on the blackboard in the kitchen (which was changed every day!):

I loved the lodges, the Executive Woodland Lodge had 2 bedrooms, so slept 4 and each bedroom had an en-suite. There was housekeeping every day and a spacious living area, with a dining table, seating area and my favourite, the open fire! I love open fires I just think they are so cosy! So we bought some logs from the on-site shop, it was a lovely addition to a winter getaway.

I am not a particularly sporty person but decided to embrace the large variety of sports they have on offer, including: short tennis, badminton, table tennis, football, high wire ropes, bowling, roller skating, crazy golf, golf driving range, quad biking and clay pigeon shooting! I really enjoyed badminton, except my arm was really hurting the next day!

I had read on Trip Advisor that the sports were very expensive but overall I didn't think they were that bad. It was £2.50 each to play 45 minutes of short tennis or badminton and it actually wasn't that busy so, as long as no one wanted to come onto the court after you, you could stay on longer. The expensive aspect is the food and drink, I'd highly recommend taking your own food and drink. The lodges have brilliant fully equipped kitchens, so there is no need to pay the extortionate prices at the on-site restaurants. A drink at the Sport's Bar was typically £2.50, which is quite expensive in my opinion, so we tended to take our own drinks with us.

A free event every Wednesday and Friday is the Fireworks, they start at 6pm and because they are on twice a week we thought they wouldn't be that long, as they are so expensive but they actually lasted a good 10 minutes! They recommended going to the beach area to watch, as they were set off over a beautiful lake but we were over on the other side of the park and still got a great view!

I was so impressed with Centre Parcs, there were lots of activities to take part in, a good range of restaurants if you do want to eat out (Strada, Cafe Rouge, Starbucks, an Indian Restaurant, Pancake House and an American Restaurant), it was very quiet in and around our lodge and best of all it was very reasonably priced :)

Have you been to Center Parcs?



Mulled Wine and a Mince Pie - Perfect!



Renshaw Icing on my first attempt at a Two-Tier Cake!

I love baking - cakes, brownies, cupcakes - anything sweet and even better if it includes lots of chocolate! So when I visited possibly my favourite event of the year a couple of weekends ago - BBC Good Food Show at the NEC, Birmingham on from Wednesday 28th December to Sunday 2nd December! It's such a brilliant event for food lovers, or anyone who likes to try new food products and get great bargins! I actually went twice this year, I bought tickets to go on the Sunday and see Lorraine Pascale in the Supertheatre and the I was lucky enough to win 2 tickets from English Provender, so I went on the Wednesday too!

There are some excellent bargins to have and I bought a lot of things ready for Christmas. One of my favourite stands was the Renshaw Icing stand, they were offering some great deals and if you spent over £10 you also got a lovely vintage inspired cake tin! So I bought a Christmas Character modelling set for £1.50, 5 sets of Renshaw Ready to Roll Blue Icing for £1 each! They are usually £1.70, so almost half price! Some white ready to roll icing for £2 and in my opinion possibly the best invention for baking and constructing two tier cakes....edible ribbon! It was only £2.50 and nearly went around 2 cakes.

After my haul of icing I decided to try and make my first ever two-tier cake for a family Christmas gathering I was having. Firstly, I used the Renshaw Christmas Character Modelling set to make some Christmas Trees, Santa, Penguin and Snowman out of icing. The packet contained all the icing you needed to make the characters, you could also make a carol singer but I decided not to. The instructions on the back of the packet were easy to follow and the characters took very little time to create, here they are:

I then made a Vanilla Sponge, which I poured a small amount of vanilla syrup (water, sugar and vanilla simmered until the sugar is dissolved) over the top to stop it drying out. I then made a simple vanilla buttercream and covered the cake with it and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes to set.

This was also the first time I had used ready to roll icing, I covered the surfaces with icing sugar, rolled out the icing and then placed it over the cake, flattening with my hands. It was actually a lot easier to use than I expected, I thought the icing might break or tear but other than the odd small spot it stayed together. I then sliced off the excess icing from the bottom of the cake, this is when the cake started to look very 'homemade' and a bit of a mess to be honest! BUT luckily I had this Renshaw Edible Ribbon, so I damped the bottom of the icing with cold boiled water and wound the edible icing around the cake. It really was that simple! I would highly recommend it, it was easy to use, hid the awful looking bottom of the cake and best of all you can eat it! I put some edible glitter on the ribbon too to make it stand out more. To construct the two tier aspect of the cake I put 5 straws into the bottom cake (where I wanted the smaller cake to go), then snipped off the top of the straws. These work as much cheaper dowels, which support the cake and stop it collapsing with the weight of the top cake. I popped the christmas icing characters on top and that was the cake done!

Here's the final piece -

What do you think?

Have you tried make a two-tier cake before?

Please feel free to comment below :)

Fullsize L'Oreal Products for FREE!

I don't know about you but my make up bag is such a mix match of brands, quality and cost but there is one brand which is becoming more prominent, L'Oreal. I never used to spend any money on my make up bag, I very much had the attitude that I use it everyday so I can't afford to spend lots of money on expensive brands. However about 3 month's ago I found out about L'Oreal Insider, you may of heard of it and if you haven't it's an absolute MUST! All you have to do is sign up on the L'Oreal Insider website, link below:

http://www.loreal-paris.co.uk/_en/_gb/lorealinsider/index.aspx

Once you have signed up you have access to a world of make up advice, competitions and best of all THREE coupons a month! Under the 'My Rewards' tab you have 3, very reasonable, coupons a month for different L'OReal products. You can click on 'Update Voucher Preferences' and this will effect the coupons you get, so have a play around with the different combinations to see the coupons you can get! The coupons can include: £2.50 off L'Oreal Paris Skincare, £2.00 off L'Oreal Paris Cosemetics, £1 off L'Oreal Paris Colour Riche Nail Stickers.

After you have the coupons you want for the month you can select them and print them off, simple as that! But if you really want to save money you can then search around for where L'Oreal is on offer. In the past I have got L'Oreal Paris Age Perfect Cleansing Milk RRP £4.50 for free with shop reductions and the coupon I printed from the L'Oreal Insider website! Here's a selection of L'Oreal products I have either got completely free (Cleansing Milk and Make Up Remover) or at a very reduced price (Nail Varnishes £4.99 down to £2.99 and the eye liner was free was part of a 3 for 2 offer).

I know there isn't long left of December 2012 but if you get the coupons printed off there are still great details to be had! The most common coupons you'll get this month are £2.50 off L'Oreal Paris Skincare, £2.00 off L'Oreal Paris Cosemetics, £1 off L'Oreal Paris Colour Riche Nail Stickers. Generally you are more likely to get a L'Oreal Skincare product for free, as they are cheaper than the cosemetics. So here are some of the in-store L'Oreal Skincare deals I have found that are currently running (14/12/12):

Boots -

All of the below are FREE with the £2.50 skincare coupon:

• L'Oreal Dermo Expertise Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover - 125ml RRP £2.99

• L'Oreal Paris Dermo-Expertise Triple Active Re-Nourish Cleansing Wipes 25s RRP £3.52

All of the below are 83p with the £2.50 skincare coupon:

• L'Oreal Paris Dermo-Expertise Age Perfect Cleansing Wipes 25s RRP £4.99
• L'Oreal Absolute Eye and Lip Make Up Remover 125ml RRP £4.99
• L'Oreal Paris Perfect Clean Refreshing Foaming Gel Wash RRP £4.99

There are lots of other great offers to be had for slightly more, as Boots have a third off L'Oreal Skincare products. I wasn't able to find out when the offer finishes, sorry, so get down there quick!

Sainsburys -

All of the below are FREE with the £2.50 skincare coupon:

• L'Oreal Dermo Expertise Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover - 125ml RRP £2.99
• L'Oreal Visible Radiance Cleanser 200ml RRP £3.45
• L'Oreal Ideal Balance Cleansing Wipes 25s RRP £2.97
• L'Oreal Re-Nourish Cleansing Wipes 25s RRP £3.00

All of the below are 16p with the £2.50 skincare coupon:

• L'Oreal Age Perfect Cleansing Wipes 25s RRP £4.00

All of the below are 27p with the £2.50 skincare coupon:

• L'Oreal Visible Radiance Toner 200ml RRP £3.42

All of the below are 28p with the £2.50 skincare coupon:

• L'Oreal Triple Active Toner, Dry and Sensitive 200ml RRP £4.18
• L'Oreal Triple Active Cleanser, Dry and Sensitive 200ml RRP £4.18

All of the below are 49p with the £2.50 skincare coupon:

• L'Oreal Age Perfect Cleanser 200ml RRP £4.50
• L'Oreal Age Perfect Toner 200ml RRP £4.50

Tesco -

The product below is currently on Buy 1 Get 1 Free and using the £2.50 off skincare coupon it is 47p for 2!

• L'Oreal Dermo Expertise Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover - 125ml RRP £2.99

 

Asda -

 

All of the below are FREE with the £2.50 skincare coupon: (and with the following products they are only £2, so you should also get 50p off your shopping total because the coupon is worth £2.50).

• L'Oreal Age Perfect Cleansing Wipes 25s RRP £4.00
• L'Oreal Age Perfect Cleanser 200ml RRP £4.50
• L'Oreal Age Perfect Toner 200ml RRP £4.50
• L'Oreal Re-Nourish Cleansing Wipes 25s RRP £3.00
• L'Oreal Triple Active Ideal Balance Cleansing Wipes 25s £3.00
• L'Oreal Dermo Expertise Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover - 125ml RRP £2.99

So, as you can see, Asda has the biggest variety in one store of L'Oreal items you can get FREE with the skincare coupons. You may only be able to get one skincare freebie a month but it is well worth while because before you know it you have quite a collection and best of all for FREE!

 

Will you sign up to L'Oreal Insider and get a L'Oreal freebie?

 

Feel free to leave me a comment below :)