Have yourself a LUSH little Christmas

I was feeling a little bit out of my depth, surrounded by the young & trendy members of the Cardiff beauty blogging scene, at the official Lush bloggers Christmas event a mere fortnight ago now (ooops!), but soon realised that beauty, food and parenting bloggers are pretty much all the same. We take photos of EVERYthing.  And complement each other’s taste in nail polish, handbags & coffee shops.  Bloggers are bloggers, not matter what they blog about.

I braved the rain and headed to Cardiff to take a peek at Lush's new Christmas range, and get a bit of inspiration for presents for my nearest & dearest.  We started out by trying our hands at making our very own batch of Catastrophe Cosmetic fresh face mask.  This needs to be kept in the fridge, but lasts about a month.  The main ingredients of kaolin, calamine & blueberries all go to soothe hormonal skin & absorb oils, meaning you can avoid the perfectly timed breakout on the day of your Christmas party. There's a tub sitting in my fridge right now, mixed (in part) by yours truly, and I'm working my way through it at a fair pace.  It's worked wonders on the spots that make a worryingly regular appearance on my T-Zone.

Let The Good Times Roll Cleanser has been a seasonal staple for a couple of years, with tears each year when it leaves the stores for another 10 months.  But this time it's here to stay!  Made with polenta, maize flour & cinnamon, to me it smells like Crunchie bars! A bit of squishing, and I had the smoothest & sweetest smelling hand in town.

Nails - Sinful Colours See You Soon & Barry M Boots Limited Edition 2013

Lush have got some lovely seasonal specials this year, Santa's Lip Scrub which tastes of cola and has tiny edible red hearts in it - everything in the scrub is edible, and it didn't take long before I had to lick it all off because it was so yummy.  There's a special Gold FUN wash, their amazing mouldable, squashable, playable, bubbly soap wash.  The Gold one smells of Honey I Washed The Kids (one of my very favourite Lush scents), and is full of tiny gold sparkles.  I can see this appearing in many a Christmas stocking.

And talking of stockings, who else hates wrapping?  Lush have got it all wrapped up (a ha ha ha, I'm so funny!), with gift boxes that are not just pretty, but also have surprises inside, like this bursting parcel full of confetti.  Others are like giant crackers, complete with crack!

I had to have a little play with the Emotional Brilliance Colour wheel before I left.  For those who haven't met it before, a wheel of 30 colours is spun while you close your eyes.  When the wheel stops spinning, you choose the three colours that attract you the most, and they tell you something about your mood or personality.  I chose drive, ambition and motivation - quite apt as I'd spotted Dream Job Of The Moment earlier that day & was full of my own importance!  The colours can be used as eye make up, lip colour, hair mascara, however you want.  The words are all positive, affirmative good words, to reflect how wonderful we are, or want to be!  That said, it got me thinking, and I kind of want to develop a Monday Morning version of the emotional brilliance wheel.  Trouble is, it'd probably end up something not too dissimilar to Fifty Shades Of Grey.  And the words, well it'd have to be things like ennui, exhausted, tedium, frustration, depressed.  I'd still wear them, mind!

There was also a very silly moment when I got back to my car, where I realised I'd tried out one of my three colour choices, and another which one of the staff was wearing & I'd complemented, and I found myself with a passionate & motivated hand.  Which sounds all kinds of wrong, and so immediately had to become a facebook status in the way that these things often do.

Disclosure: I was invited to attend this exclusive event, and provided with a goodie bag of samples free of charge. I was not told what to write, and all opinions are my own.  Links are provided for convenience, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme & will not receive reward for their use.

#FairtradeFortnight - Visionary Soap Company Review

Fairtrade Fortnight is coming.  25th February to 10 March 2013, to be precise.

Fairtrade Fortnight is about spreading the word, getting involved, and promoting Fairtrade.  Fairtrade products guarantee a fair price for their producers in the developing world, ensuring they are paid enough for the good they produce, so they can make a living.

Fairtrade products available in the UK include coffee, chocolate, sugar, tea, fruit, clothing, and even soap!  That last one surprised me, but thinking about it, why not?  Products like cocoa butter, shea butter, olive oil and herbs & spices, can be traded fairly to their producers, and they can carry the Fairtrade mark just as easily as the products that spring to mind more readily.  So for me, joining forces with the Visionary Soap Company is a really good way to get involved with Fairtrade Fortnight, because I'm learning about new Fairtrade products, challenging my beliefs about what a Fairtrade product would be, and spreading that information to you, my beloved readers!

The kind people at Visionary Soap Company offered me the chance to review a couple of products for Fairtrade Fortnight, and I was delighted to receive a parcel containing Lemongrass soap, and Lemon lip balm.  I absolutely love citrus scents, so these were perfect for me.

This is the point where I realised I should have taken a photo of the lip balm before I broke it out of its box & started using it. Sadly I'm not great at patience or self restraint, and within moments of it landing on my doormat, I was smacking my lips together, with a slick of balm.  The lemon lip balm is lush.  No, that's the only possible word for it. LUSH.  It's come in so handy during the cold snap of late, going in & out from heated houses & offices to the great British outdoors normally plays havoc on my lips, and I end up with cracked lips that invariably lead to a very fetching collection of cold sores.  Not so this year.  The balm is soft to apply, more so than brands I've used in the past, but feels really light and not at all greasy.  And my lips, well they're soft enough for Squeaky to lay a smacking kiss on, and that's what matters to me!  The smell is lemony without being overpowering, and slightly sweet.  Kissably delicious.

I managed to be slightly more sensible when it came to the soap, so you get a better photo.  Let's go for the obvious first.  Yes, it's an odd colour.  But I kind of like that.  It looks authentic, rustic (and a little bit expensive!).  And there's a certain high street soap company that makes all sorts of crazy colours of soap.  It doesn't have to be bleachy white!  Moving on from the colour, again the smell is divine, sharp lemon, not as sweet at the lip balm.  The scent comes out stronger when you use the soap, the hot water seems to bring it out more.  I sort of expected there to be less lather from this soap than a bar of ordinary white soap, I don't know why. But I was wrong, it lathers up perfectly, and leaves my hands feeling soft and clean. There's shea butter and olive oil in there, which is probably why they feel so soft.  I'm keeping it in the kitchen, as it's great for getting cooking smells off my hands.  As my new year's resolution is More Home Cooking, this is definitely a big help.

The lip balm is available in 4 flavours, including Lemon, for £3.45.
The soap is available in 8 fragrances, plus unscented, for £3.69.
You can order these, plus other Visionary soap products direct on their website.  Wouldn't you like to spend Fairtrade fortnight smelling & feeling great, as well as making a difference to the lives of the farmers who make our treats possible?

Disclosure: I was provided with the above products free of charge for the purposes of this review. I was not told what to write and all opinions are my own.  Links are provided for your convenience only, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme & will not receive payment for their use.