Now, more than ever, it is so important to look after your mind and your body. A lot of us are on lockdown or isolation due to COVID19 so self-care is key to ensure this disruption to your life will limit the disruption to your mind.
For me, self-care is having a nice prolonged bath with a face mask and a hair mask, but this isn’t the same for everyone.
Try reading a book or cosying up with a video game. Whatever helps you relax and take your mind off things, even momentarily!
This week’s issue is another lovely Lush bath bomb, Peachy.
Peachy Lush Bath Bomb
So this might actually be one of my favourite ever bath bombs by Lush. Peachy has an amazing smell and produces a gorgeous colour in the bath.
It produced a lot more bubbles than a normal bath bomb as well which I found surprising but I thoroughly enjoyed my bath regardless
As you can see from the pictures above, the bath bomb melts away beautifully with it’s gorgeous peach, coral and green colours and the bubbles were a nice little bonus.
I highly recommend Peachy. It’s a seasonal Lush product but it’s definitely worth buying!
January always feels like a slow month. After the Christmas rush, it’s important to take a beat and relax.
I’ve been back at work for a full week now and getting back into routine is exhausting! So finally it’s the end of the week and before the week starts all over again, I treated myself to a nice long bath and face mask.
Luxury Lush Pud
The first of my Christmas bath bombs to be used, I have 2 Luxury Lush Puds so to make my way through them, why not start with the duplicate. It’s colours enticed me too to be honest.
The bath bomb had a lovely scent and fizzed away nicely and made some lovely colours in the bath. I have to admit, I did add some bubbles by running the Candy Cane bubble bar under the tap for a few minutes.
A plain bath is not sufficient anymore, I always have to have a bath bomb or bubble bar to keep me entertained as I only ever bathe instead of shower to relax.
Apologies for the terrifying selfie!
Sand & Sky Australian Pink Clay Mask
I wrote about this clay mask a few weeks ago which you can read about here.
I am noticing improvements to my pores and skin after each use but whether that’s due to the mask specifically or the other skin products I’m using is hard to tell.
It’s a nice, but very expensive treat to have. There are many dupes out there that can be bought now so I think after this pot is finished, I’ll definitely be trying a cheaper dupe to see how that fares.
Pixi FortifEYE Patches
I do love these Pixi FortifEYE patches. They’re so easy to use and there’s so many of them in the pot that they’ll last me a while.
My only minor issue with them is that the shape of them doesn’t quite fit with my face shape. It’s a minor annoyance that I can live with and the soothing benefits outweigh it.
My friends and family know me very well, and I was well and truly spoilt this Christmas. In particular, I received some amazing Lush goodies to get me through the next few months before I’ll need to stock up (or get gifted more for my birthday in March… *hint hint*).
So let’s get to it… This is what I got spoilt with at Christmas…
2 gift sets: Happy Christmas and Christmas Candy Box, plus extra bubble bars
I know not everyone is a fan of Lush, but I love their bath bombs and bubble bars. The smells are amazing and the quality is great. More importantly, everything is either vegetarian or vegan (of course, I would prefer if they were vegan, but they’re making those strides and that’s what is most important!).
Happy Christmas
The Happy Christmas box contained 4 very Christmassy bath bombs in a very beautiful gift box.
The descriptions are as follows:
Santa’s Grotto: Santa’s Grotto swirls into turquoise and mauve shades, releasing a zephyr of everlasting flower absolute and stirring ylang ylang as it goes.
Luxury Lush Pud: This is one Christmas pud you just won’t be able to resist! Perfectly pink with colourful spots, reach for this when you’re in need of a playful soak.
Snowman Dreaming: Cedarwood and lavender fill your bathroom with a dreamy fragrance, perfect to help little tots, and big ones, to the land of nod!
Shoot For The Stars: Honey-scented sparkles of Brazilian orange and bergamot waltz in a swirling, cobalt sky.
Snowman Dreaming
Santa’s Grotto
Luxury Lush Pud
The whole box
Lush have been trying to remove as much of their plastic packaging as possible, and so many of their products now have ‘naked’ versions, which means they don’t have the unnecessary packaging.
All the bath bombs in the Happy Christmas box come naked and they all smell amazing and I can’t wait to try them. I’m sure all of them will produce some beautiful colours and swirls in the bath tub.
The blue bath bomb which I haven’t pictured separately is the Shoot For The Stars bath bomb. I’ve written about this bath bomb before in a previous blog post which you can read here.
Christmas Candy Box
Another beautiful gift box filled with the sweet stuff! The box contains the following:
Luxury Lush Pud: as above.
Candy Cane reusable bubble bar: Hold under running water to take a trip down candy cane lane with Sicilian lemon and bergamot oils.
Snow Fairy shower gel: A fantastical fuchsia festival of fragrance will help your mood skyrocket to Neverland.
This box is smaller that the Happy Christmas box but all smells delicious and sweet. Their Snow Fairy range is one of their Christmas specials and is amazing. I suspect it’s one of their best sellers at this time of year!
The Extras
Tom treated me to an extra 2 solo items! As much as I love a bath bomb, bubble bars are my favourite. I really love bubbles! They make a bath feel much more comforting and cosy.
Bubble Brush Candy
Blue Skies Bubble Bar
Candy bubble brush: Ready to brush up on your art skills? Who said bathing had to be boring? Whether you’re already a seasoned artist or just like to paint by numbers, these new #BathArt reusable bubble brushes from Lush’s artful splodges are sure to make a Big Splash in your bathroom.
Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds bubble bar:A double-sized bubble bar scented for when you need to get away from it all, this bubble bar will help you float off. Patchouli and frankincense give it an exotic, hypnotic fragrance that helps you relax. This melts into your bathwater, turning the water sky-blue, dotted with foam clouds. Patchouli is used as a relaxant by aromatherapists, while frankincense and cinnamon leaf oil add spicy, deep tones to the calming scent.
Tom loves the bubble brush. I treated him to one for his Christmas present too. It’s reusable, and like the candy cane bubble bar, you just run it under the tap while the bath is running to produce lots of bubbles.
The Blue Skies bubble bar reminds me of The Comforter and should be amazing if The Comforter is anything to go by!
I’m sure lots of these will be making an appearance in an issue of Self Care Sundays in the very near future!
Welcome to another issue of Self Care Sundays. I took a beat after a long week of work and treated myself to a relaxing bath and face mask.
Here are the products that I used this week:
Before moving onto the products, thrown into the picture above is my Spectrum Kind Cup which is cute and small; perfect for a cup of tea. It’s made of polypropylene which is also widely recyclable so when it’s worn down, it can be recycled!
Also, the best chocolate around, Nomo Chocolate. Available in Tesco stores, my favourite is fruit and nut but they have other flavours available too. Vegans out there who haven’t tried this chocolate yet really need to! You’d never know any different, it’s so good!
With those bits over, let’s move onto the skincare products…
Lush Face Mask: Cupcake
So, I’ve actually had this Cupcake face mask from Lush sat in my fridge for months. I hadn’t used it until last week but it still smelt amazing.
The mask was interesting. The smell was lovely, but I found the texture strange. It was easy enough to apply and wash off, but I didn’t feel like my skin was any better for it.
I don’t think this is something I’d recommend. Lush do have plenty more face masks so I’m sure I’ll be trying one of those in the future, but Cupcake won’t be one I’ll be buying again.
Lush Bath Bomb: Snow Fairy
As always, a bath bomb is necessary during one of my self-care sundays. I love a colourful bubble bath and the lovely smells.
This week was the Snow Fairy bath bomb which I believe is a Christmas special, and likely to have been hanging around in my secret stash for a while.
Snow Fairy has a gorgeous sweet smell to it, and I love a bright pink bubble bath. There isn’t much else going for it except for the gorgeous smell but that’s more than enough for me!
Maria Nila Head & Hair Heal Masque
Finally, I’m going to tell you about my favourite product this week which I’ll definitely be using regularly going forward.
In the first picture on this post is the Maria Nila Head and Hair Heal Masque. I actually received a full sized tub of this in a vegan Glossybox I ordered months and months ago. I’ve written about Maria Nila products before, you can find the post here.
This hair mask is absolutely incredible. It smelt truly amazing and was easy to put on. The texture was thick and creamy, and ran through my hair beautifully. I left it on for the recommended 10 minutes.
After I finished my bath and dried my hair, I was left with a gorgeous, frizz-free mane! My hair smelt incredible for days afterwards and it was left feeling the softest it’s ever been.
I highly recommend this product. It was nourishing and really did leave my hair and scalp feeling refreshed.
It is important to take a beat for ourselves on a regular basis. Whether it be enjoying a hobby or trip somewhere you enjoy. With our busy lives, it’s nice to take time for ourselves.
As much as I wish I could, I don’t take every Sunday for myself. But when I do, I like to pamper myself a little.
This usually includes doing my nails, or taking a long bubble bath with my secret stash of Lush bubble bars and bath bombs. I like to throw in a hair mask and a face mask when I can to.
Every now and then, I’ll be throwing one of these posts to let you know some of the products I’ve been using and what I can and absolutely cannot recommend you guys go out and use!
Superdrug Face Mask
Superdrug has a great range of face masks for 99p. The first time I bought these masks, I actually bought them for a hen party goody bag. They’re all very well labelled as to whether they’re vegan or not. They also write on the front what skin type they’re best for.
This week, I used a black seaweed peel off mask. I’m not usually a fan of a peel off mask as I feel like they’re more effort than they’re worth, but for 99p, it was worth a shot.
An image of the mask. I’ll save you from the inappropriate selfie!
The mask was easy to apply and I used it all over my face. I used the entire pack which I don’t actually recommend. You can probably use half of one and achieve the same effect. Because I used the whole pack, it took a while for the mask to dry but once it did, it was easy to peel off.
My skin felt lovely afterwards. The oil had been stripped of my face and I felt super clean.
Lush Bath Bomb
For good measure, I threw in a bath bomb from my secret stash of Lush bath bombs! In fact, it’s so secret that I forgot about it and I’m pretty sure they don’t sell it anymore!
The bath bomb is called Shoot For The Stars and left a lovely blue colour in the bath. The stars were creamy and moisturising and it smelt lovely. It’s a shame that it’s not available anymore because I definitely recommend this bath bomb.
Keep an eye out for my future Self Care Sundays posts with various products that I’ll be using to pamper myself! If there’s anything you’d like me to try and write about then let me know in the comments.
Now that May is over and we’re into June, I’m going to post about my purchases from the well known Lush Cosmetics.
Tom’s sister, Hannah, bought me a gift voucher for Lush for my birthday which I had yet to spend. For those of you that know me, I absolutely love shopping… online. I detest shopping IRL, out in swarms of crowds… It’s really just not for me.
As we were already out for the Swansea Vegan Mini Market, I took the trip to the Swansea Lush store to pick up some treats. I have various gripes with the Lush in-store model. Although staff are trying to be helpful, I also feel like it’s a hard sell. I usually know what I’m looking after some research, but it seems like they assume that all customers are just casual browsers. Once you push past this, it’s usually a pleasant experience.
Hard selling aside, I’d seen on the Lush Cardiff Instagram page a post about their Jade Roller naked cleansing balm. It was smaller than I thought it was going to be but at £4.95, it was a decent price. It smelt lovely and I’m excited to try it.
I also picked up a Peng bath bomb out of a whole new range of bath bombs and bubble bars. It smells incredible and the colours really pop. I haven’t yet used it but I bet it’ll be lovely.
Finally, I picked up my usual Ocean Salt which is my favourite exfoliating scrub. For those looking out for this, make sure you check the labels as they do a version that’s not vegan. The self-preserving one is the vegan one. I have been a habitual user of Ocean Salt for years and I will continue to be. It always leaves my skin clean and fresh and isn’t aggravating to my skin.
In addition to this, I must have gone on a good day, as I received a fresh face mask for free in Cupcake. As it’s fresh, it had to be kept in the fridge, but it smelt so chocolatey and I very nearly ate it!
As much as I love Lush, they’re only vegetarian but do sell many vegan products which are incredibly well labelled. The products are lovely but you have to make sure you buy for your skin type. I find that some products are too heavy for my skin and don’t go with my oily skin type so do your research before buying!
I received a lovely Iuvo Skincare gift box for my birthday from my partner’s mum and dad which I was pleasantly surprised by! I highly recommend a visit to their website for a full range of their products.
The smell from the box was gorgeous and it contained 5 full sized items: an activated charcoal soap, a rose geranium soap, a lemongrass deodorant bar, a sweet orange bath bomb, a rose geranium body butter cream and a vanilla lip balm. The box was beautifully presented, and had a little flyer informing me that the product has been recommended by Vogue magazine.
I’ve used almost everything in box at least once, and I can honestly say that I’ve loved everything that I’ve used so far.
My favourite product in the box was the Activated Charcoal Soap which I have been using as a facial cleansing bar every day. I lather it in my hands before rubbing it over my face and wiping it down with my Face Halo. It pulls off all of my make up and combined with my Face Halo, I’m left fresh faced every night.
The Rose Geranium Soap smells absolutely amazing and I used this over my body in the shower. The soap wasn’t too tightening on the skin like most soaps are, but I did need to moisturise afterwards but that’s to be expected. There were also little dried rose pieces in the soap which was a nice little bit.
The Rose Geranium Body Butter Cream is thick and creamy. I’ve been using it as a facial moisturiser and although it is quite thick and heavy, it is also highly absorbent and feels amazing on my skin. My natural skin is combination/oily, and admittedly I haven’t seen any sort of improvement on this (although I wasn’t expecting any), it also hasn’t made it worse which I find very common with rich creams.
My second favourite item in the box was the Vanilla Lip Balm! Again, another item that smells amazing. The pot it comes in is quite small, and for those with long nails, I do not recommend using your fingers to apply! (Get some sort of small applicant object if you can!). It feels lovely on the lips and as with the butter cream, very absorbent.
I can’t wait to use the bath bomb and the lemongrass deodorant bar, and if you’re lucky I’ll add to the post when I’ve finally used them to let you know my thoughts.
All the links for the products that I’ve written about are hyperlinked so click for each one. But honestly, if you’re looking for some new skincare, I do recommend Iuvo. It smells incredible and feels so rich but absorbent on the skin.
VGN Annabel 