Jungle Bells at The Body Shop

It would come as no surprise to many people that I am pretty much obsessed with all things The Body Shop. Founded by Dame Anita Roddick 40 years ago The Body Shop has always remained true to its values; enrich not exploit.

In case you were wondering these are The Body Shop’s commitments:

Against Animal Testing

Building Bio-Bridges

Community Trade

Steps to a sustainable business 

 By using only natural ingredients The Body Shop ensures that their products are organic, ethical and totally divine. It goes without saying then that my make up and toiletries cupboard is fit to bursting with products from The Body Shop. 

The Himalayan Clay and British Rose face masks

Trying out the Rose Mask. It contains rosehip oil and is very soothing and refreshing

the Himalayan Clay mask modelled. It contains tea tree oil and leaves your skin feeling all tingly -I was advised against using this product however as I have sensitive skin

The Body Shop store on Brigatte in Leeds has been closed for refurbishment for a few months now which has left me wandering the streets wondering where we could get my hands a new body butter (the answer by the way would be the Leeds Rail Station or The White Rose Centre) the wait is almost over however and there are some very exciting things to come. 

The new concept store in Leeds which will be revealed on 5th November will make going to The Body Shop an all round experience and will include an exclusive V.I.P. room where you can go for in depth skin consultation with skin care experts. I love how the new shop opens on Bonfire night: proving that it will be explosive with a bang so to speak a bit like fireworks. 

Even more exciting is that Leeds will be one of only 35 stores which will offer personalised body butters. How cool is that!

The new Christmas range builds on old Body Shop favourites including vanilla and cranberry yet will give it a spicy twist with Spiced Apple, Frosted Berry and personal favourite Vanilla Chai. 

There’s a rumble in the jungle and The Body Shop are stirring up a fabulously exciting Christmas campaign in their 40th anniversary year!

Love love love the Advent Calendars. Is it December the 1st yet?

Current Favourites

So February and March sucked....just kidding I mean I did go on mini tour around Germany following Coasts - no biggie

Musik und Frieden - Berlin

Molotow - Hamburg

Anyway I still neglected to upload a favourites blog for those months so here's a summary of my current favourites.

1. Dan Croll 

I was super excited to hear that Dan Croll would be appearing at Live At Leeds as I haven't seen his beautiful face since 2014. Dan has been keeping quiet over the past year and I can't wait to hear what he has been up to. 

Yesterday, he dropped this acoustic video of one of my favourite singles of his; From Nowhere. 

I have recently been playing his current album, Sweet Disarray, in anticipation of LAL next week.

2. The Little Paris Bookshop- Nina George 

This week I entered Waterstones in search of a particular book and left with four completely different titles. One of these was 'The Little Paris Bookshop' and it's so cute! Originally in German, this book is an international best seller, having sold over 500k copies worldwide. 

In essence, its about a man called Jean who owns a bookshop on a barge. Jean has the rare ability of being to prescribe the right book to cure his customers of all emotional turmoils, yet the only person he seems unable to heal is himself. 

This is a tale of love lost, friendship, adventure and even includes a variety of recipes at the back - winner!

3. By All Greens- Origins 

Is it a face mask? Is it a cleanser? By Jove it's both!!

Why indeed this is the first face mask and cleanser in one of its kind and contains all-natural ingredients including green tea, spirulina and spinach. 

It has a very refreshing smell and is gentle on your skin - great because mine is so sensitive and all that. 

When it comes out, it's a lovely place green colour. 

Apply to your face and leave on 10-15 minutes. 

As the mask dries it becomes translucent. 

Wash of with warm water and it becomes foamy and stuff. 

4. Cucumber water

Talking of skincare, I recently (and by recently I mean as of like yesterday) started drinking cucumber water, which, amongst other benefits, is soothing to the skin and calms irritation. Another really great advantage of drinking cucumber water it that it contains silica, which keeps to keep muscle tissue strong and supple. Read about more benefits here 

What to do with an aloe vera plant.

There's loads of health benefits about aloe vera like it being an anti-inflammatory, detoxifying and helping the immune system, aids hair growth, lowers cholesterol and blood sugar yada yada yada.

Hence why we got ourselves an aloe vera plant. It has however been sat in our downstairs bathroom not really doing anything since the day we bought it.

Today was going to be that day that that changed....although in hindsight I may just abandon it to its place in the bathroom after this afternoon's palaver.

So the first thing that you need to do is extract the gel from inside the leaves. Simple....or so they thought.

Take your leaf and top and tail it, you can come back to those pieces but I found that smaller the piece is the more control you will have.

Cut of of the spiny side bits and you will be able to see the gloopy inside.

This is where things get sticky.

Using your knife take off the bottom and top leafy layers until you are left with only a clear jelly. cut off any excess green stuff.

Eh viola that's how you extract aloe gel/sap

Cool so now I've got this stuff in my fridge, what do I do with it now?

Well I'm glad you asked that because I've got some ideas to run by you.

Aloe Vera Water

Coconut water has seen a huge rise in popularity in the last few years and it has been hotly debated whether or not aloe water will take over.

Indeed aloe water has more of a kick to it than coconut water; think slightly more bitter. This is why I combined mine with a smidge of Eat Clean Tea's matcha powder.

What you'll need:

A blender (I used a Vitamix)

1 glass of water

2 tbsp aloe gel

1/2 tsp matcha


give it a little whizz and serve with ice

Aloe Vera Oil

Aloe Vera is widely used in beauty products indeed my favourite range from The Body Shop is the aloe collection. If you have sensitive skin you are bound to find it in the ingredient list of a very great many of the products you use.

So the question is how does the beauty industry get the sap from a plant into moisturisers, cleansers, exfoliators, lotions and potions oh my! The answer...in a oil


For this ridiculously simple oil you will need

2tbsp aloe gel

2tbsp coconut oil

you could also add a few drops of essential oil if you wanted to.

Gently heat the ingredients in a pan for about ten minutes.

You may need to sieve the gel a few times so that you don't end up with lumpy oil.

Sadly I have used up my supply of aloe gel in these two recipes so will have to start again from scratch next time....bummer.




 

How to make a Homemade Coffee Scrub

I was watching Dragon's Den on the BBC this week and one product in particular caught my fernet (and therefore it must be true) eye...any ideas to what it could be? clearly there are no clues in the title.

Yes I am indeed talking about Grounded's coffee scrub. These caffeine rich scrubs are, according to the internet and therefore it must be true,  fast becoming the latest beauty trend and I have therefore decided to try my hand at making one of these scrubs.

As my various forays at making beauty products have shown (Don't believe me just read   or there's this one too  ) you can find a great many beauty products all around your kitchen. For example honey is a fantastic antiseptic and used to be used on wounds, bananas are rich in potassium which hydrates and moisturises the skin as well as being a very good source of vitamins A, B and E and even coffee is a super, smashing, great exfoliator which stimulates blood flow and is used for diminishing cellulite - so if you want to make this scrub and slap it on all over then be my guest. I shall however be using it as a face scrub.


For the super easy to make scrub you will need

1 scoop of ground coffee

1 tbsp coconut oil

1tsp honey

If, like mine, your coconut oil is very hard you may have to warm it slightly before adding the rest of the ingredients and mixing thoroughly making sure that each component is equally dispersed. My scrub smells deliciously like liquorice all sorts and even though all the ingredients used are edible; this is for your skin, not your tummy.

The scrub should be very thick in texture yet you may want to add a few drops of water if it is too thick that it is too difficult to apply.

Using a sponge or just your hands apply the scrub and with circular motions massage your face for about two minutes.  Wash off the scrub using a warm flannel. Follow up with your usual cleanse, tone and moisturise routine and your skin will be left feeling super soft, smooth and as you would expect from a coffee product; rejuvenated and awakened.

September Favourites

Hey there Ho there How do you do?

Its been a while since I last posted on here so in true Youtube style I thought that I'd do a September Favourites kind of post...maybe I've been watching too many videos on Youtube.

1. Scarves

With the arrival of autumn and the weather getting chillier, the leaves falling from the trees and getting crunched, conkers, blackberries and a whole other host of yummy autumnal goodies we delve into our piles of knitwear, boots and most importantly SCARVES.

At the last count my scarf collection came to a total of about 30 but now it may be something more like 50. Well you have to have one of every colour, pattern, print and what about silk scarves and cotton scarves never mind the ones of the woolly variety!

This time of year I can get my huge assortment out the wardrobe and experiment with new looks, accessorising and different ways of wearing a scarf.

2. The Green

As you may or may not know; on Sundays I like to have a pampering session and this week I found myself taking a trip to Lush to buy some bath bombs (my stocks were significantly low) and this is where I met The Green. The soft and crumbly bath bomb that looks a bit like a macaroon gone wrong  is a dual-layered bar of bergamot, lime and juniper berry that has been smoothly blended with coconut oil and shea butter for a silky soft bath time experience. The bath bomb/bar thingamajig is designed to smell like a freshly mown lawn but to me all I could pick out were the tones of bergamot. Bergamot is often used as an antidepressant as it helps blood flow around the body and stimulates hormone secretion. Bergamot also has some wonderful relaxation properties so if you want to follow this by rubbing yourself with bergamot body lotion and drinking bergamot and mint tea (you can buy it here) who am I to judge. 

I hold in my mortal hand essence of purest Green!

3. Dark Night Waterl...oops

I have been searching for a new lipstick for a while now and I was very specific about the shade that I was after; berry. Not too purple or too red but berry. I went into Boots and literally covered my hand with stripes of different lipsticks until I was sure that I found the exact one that I wanted.

This Rimmel lipstick- number 380 is part of the moisture renew collection so as you can imagine it is really creamy and moisturising. Unlike some of my past lipsticks I'm not worried about my lips getting too dry and I love the colour. 

4. Tutus

Yes I may be nearly 25 but I can wear a tutu if i want to and I in fact will. This cute Dolly tutu in navy is not an obvious tutu colour but I love how its already gelling so well into my wardrobe. As this is technically a 13 year old child's size I was very surprised to find that it fit but as the waist is super elasticated - why wouldn't it? 

5. Daniel Pearson 

My gigging calendar doesn't start in earnest until October....which is next week...but I started it early with a intimate little gig at the Oporto bar in Leeds courtesy on Daniel Pearson. 

5. Hotel Chocolat Carrot Cake selectors

If anyone wants to buy me these in bulk please do. These bad boys are Hotel Chocolat's flavour of the month and I would definitely have to agree. The humble carrot cake rose to popularity during wartime rationing, sugar was in very short supply but appetite for cake was not and it was therefore paramount that an alternative was found. This came in the form of bugs bunny's favourite snack: the carrot. Carrots have a high sugar content thus ideal for baking and the rest they say is history. 

Hotel Chocolat have embraced this wartime hero and by blending carrot puree and walnuts have created a chocolate that tastes every inch like you are actually eating a carrot cake - minus the crumbs.

So there we have it. My faves from this month. Is it worth re-visiting this kind of post next month or this purely self indulgence?

The make up shake up that may have led to a break up

My make up style is...pretty non existent actually. I tend to make like zero effort with the way I look so much so that on the occasions that I do put on a little lipstick those around me will instantly ask where I am going/ who I am seeing. Can't a girl wear a little make up from time to time without everyone kicking up a fuss?

Make up tutorials on you tube amaze me and we are not even talking like full on Heather Traska  transformations

Just the regular 'everyday' make-up looks. Such as this recent upload by Zoella or the Graces Faces videos from I love Makeup  

Cue my decision to try out a new make up style and believe me when I say that I think I may need a lot of make up remover on stand by. 

Phase One: First before I even start playing around I want to cleanse, tone and moisturise. I am using the Body Shop Nutriganics range...mostly because it is one of the few things my sensitive skin can tolerate and also I bought it for one of my mother's friends who came to visit but she didn't take the travel kit with her so I use it now despite the fact that it is supposed to be for women aged 30-40.

Phase Two: Time to call in the Porefessionals. Using Benefit's Porefessional, That Gal and The Body Shop's Instablur I am minimising my pores and evening out my skin tone. I really can't see the difference though. Probably should put my glasses on. 

Phase Three: Foundation and powder although actually my foundation is a powder so that was that. 

Phase Four: and I've forgotten something. Having got to this stage I realise that I have forgotten to do anything about my eyebrows. Others may (and do) disagree with me but I like my eyebrows big and bushy so avoid going to have them threaded or waxed yet I seem to end up with a monobrow if they aren't maintained. 

Phase Five:  highlighting/ contouring. Nope I have no idea what I am doing. Those you tube videos that I have been watching said something along the lines of creating shadows and sculpting cheekbones but I'm pretty sure that this is not a pottery class. Although talking of pottery classes there is apparently going to be a new series on BBC2 about pottery a la bake off style. I mean seriously first we had ballroom, then we had baking, then sewing now pottery. Stop trying to steal my life. We'll have regency dancing next or something...either that or knitting.

Anyway back to creating this work of art.....ahem. 

So after putting a little bit of highlighter onto my brow line and brushing bronzer on my cheekbones I also added a little bit of blusher. Although a little bit ended up being a bit too much and OMG I look like a drag queen.

OK now comes the fun bit (sarcasm intended) Phase I don't even know anymore: Eyes and I really should stay away from eyeliner. I think I have just about managed to work out how to do a smoky eye - put patches of two (or more) shades of eye shadow of different parts of the eye lid with a lighter shade on top and use a brush to smudge it all together.....or something like that. 

If, like me crying is a regular if not daily occurrence you have given up on owning any mascara - even waterproof can't stand these tear ducts so with a flourish of eyeliner- sweeping down not up (i learnt that today) my eyes are complete. Just kidding I'm going to ruin it all now by putting my glasses on.

My trademark/go to lipstick colour is usually always red yet the question is should I stick with this option or go for pink instead? 

So there you have it - all dressed up and nowhere to go. Well I'm sure the bunnies will appreciate the effort I put into my face.  

P.S. In case you were wondering my t-shirt says HOGWARTS ALUMNI

Sunday facials

Spending a lazy Sunday pampering yourself is good for body and mind but if, like myself, you don't think about having a pamper session until the day you never have a face mask going spare when you need it.

Fear not as I have a recipe for that. Unlike many of the recipes on this blog however I recommend that this one isn't eaten.

I have heard of avocados being a good ingredient for making face masks as is yoghurt with porridge oats and honey yet for this 'recipe' you will need a banana; just the one.

The benefits to your skin from bananas vary greatly:

Pottasium is the nutrient that is mostly closely associated with bananas and it is believed that it is good for moisturising and hydrating skin cells - perfect as I have dry skin.

Vitamin A , B and C are also found in banana and their benefits include: evening out rough skin and get rid of blemishes and dark spots. Anti ageing properties, moisturising and lightening skin and finally fighting free radical impairment, boosting resistance to sun-rays and minimising the appearance of wrinkles.

Phew with all those benefits to my skin I think I might need to make banana masks more often. For more banana face mask recipe have a look here. 

Unfortunately for me the bananas in our fruit bowl were starting to go black so a few days previously I had unpeeled them and put them in the freezer. This meant that my face mask was a tad on the cold side.

Additionally to the one mashed banana I also added 1/2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda (this works as a deep cleanser as it breaks down grime and dirt and removes excess oil which otherwise can clog up skin pores)

1/2 tsp of ground turmeric (antibacterial properties aka kills bacteria) and 1 tsp of honey ( Exterminates bacteria, contains lightening properties and elimates dark spots)

 

Take your putrid yellow, rather smelly face mask into the bathroom to apply as this will avoid things getting too messy.

Make sure that your hair is tied back and kept out of your face with a headband.  Additionally remove all jewellery and glasses. 

I washed my face before applying the mask and left it (the mask) on for fifteen minutes whilst lying back and trying to relax despite the smell.

My calming playlist included songs from Natalie Holmes, Orla Gartland and Lauren Aquilina. Click here 
for my playlist.

Wash your face mask off in warm soapy water. I used The Body Shop Nutriganics Foaming Face Cleanser to help me in this task and pat dry with a fluffy towel. 

The Nutriganics range was also the source of my face cleanser which after putting some of the liquid onto a cotton pad I massaged into my skin. This was followed by the Aloe Vera Calming Toner which was applied in a similar way.

To complete the 'cleanse, tone and moisturise' regime I also turned to The Body Shop Aloe Vera collection yet as I have previously mentioned I have quite dry skin so this stage had more than one potion including: eye serum, protective serum and an intensive protective mask. The later of which should be liberally applied to the face and neck and the excess is wiped off after fifteen minutes

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The Hamam

For me most of the day was spent reading whilst the parentals went up a mountain as well as, it later transpired, finding me a 'nice Turkish husband.

When you are in Turkey one of the things I suggest would be on your itinerary is going to the the Turkish baths or hamam. We have spent a good portion of our stay here working out the best one to go to and finally decided to go to the spa at our own resort the Patara Prince.

 The sauna was the first port of call where we were to lie until deemed suitably sweaty. This was actually supposed to open up all of our pores but I was nevertheless reminded of meat roasting in an oven when the guy kept coming in to check if we were 'cooked enough'.

Thankfully just as I was feeling like I was going to get heat stroke I was led from the sauna into the Turkish bath area and instructed to lie on a heated marble slab. Meanwhile the hamam guy turned on all the taps around the room..was he trying to flood the room? And started to pour water over my body. Next I was scrubbed from head to toe with what felt like a Brillo pad. - this part of the procedure is called 'peeling' as it exfoliates the body and gets rid of and dead skin.

After being doused in more water I noticed that the guy was waving a sack in the air and, when he squeezed it lots of bubbles came out. This 'foam massage' was an entirely new and unique experience that did not fail to remind me of having a bubble bath in which there are too many bubbles. I would definitely recommend this treatment and was left feeling squeaky clean by the end.

Once free of foam I was hosed down before being swaddled like a new born child in towels and escorted to a deck chair to relax.

I moved on from this room to have a full body massage and face mask before my  time in the hamam was complete.

Dinner: pizza fungi but it had capers on which was a bit disappointing 

  

The not so relaxing pamper evening

You know the feeling when you have watched a YouTube video and suddenly feel inspired to do something. No? Well today I watched a video by the wonderful  Zoella on how to have the perfect pamper evening and thought to myself that I was going to do that.

I have always enjoyed indulging in all things beautifying  and love a good pamper party.  Something that those of you who have seen my toiletries cupboard will probably know so to turn  down a good pampering down would be just barbaric. 

I started the evening off by drawing a bath and throwing in a bath bomb that somebody gave to me about five years ago and I never got round to using however I couldn't just stop there no sir for next comes the bath caviar and the confetti.....and bubble bath.

I don't know if it just me but I often get bored lying in the bath with nothing but my thoughts  to occupy me, I guess that's why I have never been one who can have a nice long hot soak but today I decided that this was all going to change. People often find that reading in the bath is a nice relaxing pastime but every time I try to do that the book gets wet and it's all very stressful. Nevertheless I  grabbed the first book off the side and got into my bubbly tub yet the book in question was the second book of Storm of Swords in the A Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones book three, part two)  and let's just say that relaxing it was not. By the third fight I was just like 'why can't they all just love each other' but no sooner had I thought this then that is what they did and oh dear god I need to get out of here.

By now the majority of the bubbles in the bath had disintegrated and I felt that it was safe to switch on the jacuzzi. Alas I was wrong and the bubbles kept on growing. I was literally swimming in bubbles well not so much swimming I don't have a swimming pool sized bath like they do in the prefect's bathroom at Hogwarts.

Having now suitably scrubbed myself clean I turned my attention to my face. Yet a problem arose when I realised that I didn't have a face mask handy and even worse there weren't even any avocados in the house so I that I could make my own. But fear not my friends for I have a plan up my sleeves and it appears that you can make a face mask out of any number of kitchen ingredients.

For a egg yolk, honey and olive oil  face mask you will need:

1 egg yolk
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil

Mix it all up and what have you got Bibbity Babbity Boo. Well it's not quite as exciting as anything the fairy godmother could cook up but 15 fifteen minutes after putting on the mask and washing it off in hot soapy water and hey presto - soft, shiny, fresh faced skin!