Empties #20

Hello!  I am back with 5 new mini reviews to share with you from my empties bucket:

Lush Figs and Leaves Soap

I was absolutely gutted to find out that my favourite bubble bar, Dorothy, has been discontinued when Lush had a product revamp recently!  However I knew that their soap Figs and Leaves was supposed to be of the same fragrance so all is not lost!

Dressing Table Tour

I've used my dressing table in the background of a few of my photos now so I thought I'd give a little tour of how I like to keep it and what I use it for.

When I moved into my flat almost a year ago, I got so excited about the fact I could choose all my own furniture, particularly a dressing table!  Previously in my parents' house I had always done my make up in the bathroom which had great light, but I wanted somewhere I could sit and relax instead of standing and leaning over the sink!

The table itself is the Ikea one which everyone has ha, here is a link to it on the website.

WishyWashy Peppermint Patties Soap

This is another of items I was kindly sent by Alex from WishyWashy - you can see this post here.  As I have said in previous reviews this brand never uses sodium lauryl sulphate or parabens in their products and of course they are cruelty free.

You get a generous 100g of the Peppermint Patties soap for £2.50 and it's lasting ages.  The soap lathers just as well as any SLS containing one and it also has little exfoliating pieces in it which are nice and gentle for a mild scrub.

I love minty smelling soaps like the North Pole one from Lush which I got at Christmastime, this is a cheap, all year round alternative!

WishyWashy have given their website a makeover and have loads of new items available too so I recommend having a wee look and help support a small business!

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WishyWashy Soaps | Strawberry Sparkling Santa

This is the second product I've used from the lovely bundle I received from Alex at WishyWashy Soaps, see them all here!  Again like all her other items, this soap is cruelty-free, paraben-free and SLS-free!  As the name suggests it is a strawberry scented festive soap, with a coating of glitter on the top.  I absolutely love the smell of this, it smells like strawberry jelly, like the really concentrated stuff you dissolve in water first...  I don't actually eat jelly because it has gelatine in it and to be honest I never really liked the taste, however I do love the smell!  This guy costs £2.

The layer of glitter on the top also acts as an exfoliant for the first couple of times you use it which is an added bonus.  It's only one on side so you can just use it on specific areas then use the other side as a normal soap.

There is also a Lavender and Chamomile Twinkling Angel soap in the Seasonal collection.  I've only just started using this one but it's got the same formula as Santa and it's got a nice relaxing scent.  I do prefer the Santa one, only because I prefer fruity smells in general anyway.

These are my ones that I was sent, they're just the cute wee sample sizes!  I would definitely buy the Strawberry Santa one for myself or as a present, they're such lovely stocking fillers for anyone who likes bath and body goodies.

[link]

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Christmas Giveaway! [CLOSED]

The last giveaway I did was when I hit 100 followers on GFC and as I've not done one since I though it would be nice to do a Christmas one!!  Unfortunately this one is just going to be UK only as I think it will be heavy to post and also as it's close to Christmas the post gets rather manic!  Items included:

- Lindt Santas Sleigh

- Candy Cane

- Models Own Jack Frost nail varnish

- Linea Christmas Berry candle

- Lush North Pole soap

- Lush Northern Lights soap

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!!

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WishyWashy Soaps | Minty Skulls Peppermint Sugar Scrub

This is first item I've used from my lovely little collection of WishyWashy products (see them all here)!  As the title says it is a peppermint 'flavoured' sugar scrub - it is super cute and smells amazing!  All WishyWashy items are vegan, cruelty free, paraben free and SLS free!

These lovely scrubs are only £1.95 and I would say you could probably get up to three uses depending on how you use them.  I tend to use sugar scrubs on cellulite areas so upper thighs and bum, then as I'd ran out of my foot scrub I used it on them too.  I got two uses out of mine but I think I would have been able to get three if I'd split it accordingly before getting in the shower!

The scrub is quite squishy (I'm wanting to say chewy?? Maybe not eat it to find out though...) so you just need to run it under the warm water to get it into a nice paste which you then just rub into your skin.

I have found this a lot more user friendly than my normal Lush Sugar Scrub which I've basically given up on - it's so solid and takes a lot of work to break it down into something which won't take the top layer of your skin off...

[£1.95 from WishyWashy]

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Louise Loves #8

I have had quite a busy week.  I had my tattoo covering project to hand in for Monday but couldn't actually do the work for it until the Friday before (my concealers didn't arrive!), was babysitting 3 kids on Saturday, then on Monday I had a singing rehearsal - my friends and I are singing at the last Christmas concert in my old high school before it gets pulled down!  Anyway, I passed my tattoo project - yay! - and I am going to do a basic tattoo covering guide on here too which should be up tomorrow.  I mentioned last week that we are now onto Fashion Makeup at college, so we started with a smokey eye, and I'm pleased to say my model did not end up looking like she'd been punched!

I'm afraid this week's favourites are fairly boring but never mind, enjoy!

River Cottage Veg Everyday! Cookbook

I bought this book from The Works a couple of months ago as someone (maybe my auntie?) had said it was really good.  So far we have made quite a few things from it.  Last night we made a spinach spoufflé (soufflé with pasta in it!) which was really tasty and you can also replace the spinach with courgette for a different flavour.  The night before that we had tomato and mozzarella risotto.  I noticed that beside some titles there is a V and it took me a minute to realise that that must mean vegan, so it will be interesting to try out some vegan dishes (my dad will be disgusted!).
[£12.50 from Amazon]

Lush Northern Lights Soap

I did a short post on this along with my Lush soap storage a while ago, but I think I will do a review of it quite soon by itself.  This is probably my favourite soap full stop, I just love the smell and the colour of it, it's so bright!  Oh and apologies for the stock photo, I tend to avoid them but my one is not looking attractive right now haha!
[£3.25/100g from Lush]

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WishyWashy Soaps | Vegan, SLS & Paraben Free

Just a quick wee post to share a company with you.  WishyWashy are a handmade soap company who are cruelty free and all the items they sell are vegan and also don't contain SLS or parabens which is fantastic!

Alex, who runs WishyWashy, and I had been following each other on twitter for a while and then not long ago she kindly offered to send me some bits to try and and review on here.  I told her my skin type and let her choose the items.  Shortly after I received a very generous parcel full of goodies!  She not only sells soaps, but bath bombs, scrubs, facial washes and hair products.  They are very reasonably priced, the soaps starting at about £2.

I haven't tried anything yet as the majority of them are soaps which I will use when I'm finished my current one.  However, I wanted to show you the items anyway, have a look at the website and maybe even make a purchase if you like the sound of anything!  Then in due course I will put up reviews of all the bits.

All of these are soaps apart from the open green one on the top left which is a complexion care soap, and the white skull on the bottom left which is a sugar scrub.  Although I've not tried them yet I have had a good sniff and some of my favourites so far are the Love Spell (based on a Victoria's Secret fragrance - the mustard coloured one above the sugar scrub) and the Strawberry Sparkling Santa (the small red Santa... self-explanatory!).

I am looking forward to trying these!

Website: www.wishywashy.org.uk

Follow them on Twitter

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Wild Soap and Body Butter Review

I had never heard of Wild until they were introduced to me through We Write Beauty and I was immediately interested in trying them out:

Our aim is to provide British women an exotic choice of ethical, natural and organic beauty products without preaching to them or compromising on glamourous appeal. The packaging is as vibrant, rich and colour as the African continent itself and reflect perfectly the ongoing fascination with prints in today's fashion environment.

What makes them stand out from other body care brands is that they use unique oils and plant extracts from Africa, which are all Fair Trade and help to build a sustainable future for the locals.

They have 5 different scent combinations which come in both soap and body butter form, all of which contain various oils or extracts such as baobab, cape chestnut and marula.

An important point to make is that all of Wild's products are SLS and paraben free which is fantastic, and suitable for vegans!

The ones I have tried and will review are the Warm Sensual Body Butter and the Zingy Soap.

Warm Sensual Body Butter with Shea and Baobab 

First thing to say is that I love their packaging!  The bright colours and African influence is so eye catching and gorgeous!

Secondly, I am really not the best person to review something like this... I am a lover of make up but skin and body care I am not so good with sadly!  However, I will give you the best review I can :)

The main problem is that the only time I moisturise my body is after epilating/shaving/waxing which I actually don't do very often (I'm really selling myself here aren't I?!).  I have blonde body hair so unless I am getting my legs out for a special occasion (night out, birthday, holidays, etc.) I tend not to bother hair removing that area.  Nevertheless, I recently used a sugaring technique by MOOM (review will be coming soon!) which left my legs a bit red and dotty after having the hair ripped out of them so I applied my Wild body butter.  I expected it to sting a bit - probably cos I'm so used to using those cheapy moisturisers you get out of bath sets or with perfumes - but it was very soothing and didn't sting at all.  It sank in nicely and didn't leave my legs feeling sticky or greasy which is always good.

I also applied it generously on my feet and put on moisturising socks (any cotton socks will do!) before going to bed and it made my feet feel so smooth the next day.

It has a really unusual scent too, not a bad one, but kind of spicy!  On reading the back of the pot I saw that it contains Cardamom, which totally explains the spiciness!  I also noticed that a small bit of the body butter goes a long way.

This particular body butter costs £16.75 which is quite expensive in my books, however you do get 170ml which is a lot of product!  It is the most expensive in the range, the other 'flavours' come in at £15.50.

Personally I would not buy this myself just because I never actually buy body moisturisers anyway, I just use ones I get given!  But if you are looking out for a new one and you do buy them yourself and fancy a splurge then I recommend trying one of these out!

Zingy Soap with Kalahari Watermelon

Again, love the packaging - very eco-friendly too, the sleeve is made of card. 

This bar of soap is huge!  I cut mine into thirds to use it as I find it much easier to handle, and less messy in the shower.  It also means you don't need to use the whole bar in one go (not one shower obviously...) so you can switch between it and other ones making it last for ages.

The bar of soap costs £6.25 for 200g which I think is really great value especially when you compare it to Lush soaps (which more often than not contain SLS).

Unfortunately the scent of this one I didn't love, it is very citrusy with grapefruit, lime, mandarin and basil but I found that it wasn't all that strong and the natural scent of the soap was coming through.  If you have followed me for a while you will know that I'm not a huge fan of citrus scents anyway!  I found that as the soap piece got smaller it smelled stronger, and it smelled really quite good actually so maybe the mixture just needed a better stir...  hmm!

It lathered really nicely especially without SLS which is the foaming agent in most soaps and other things which need to lather.  It actually contains coconut which helps to create the foam.

As I said before, I've only taken a third of the bar in the shower with me and it lasted ages which is great, it's the worst when you get a lovely new soap and it dissolves after a couple of showers!  It's hard to gauge but I'd say it would last at least a week... So the whole bar would last roughly about a month, if not more??  Depends how often you wash ;) I keep mine in a soap tray which I take out of the shower when I'm not using it, I find this helps make soaps last longer.

Personally I think that it could do with being more moisturising, it's definitely not a drying product whatsoever, but I feel like I have used soaps which have left my skin feeling super soft and this one doesn't which disappoints me a bit!

Unlike the body butter I would definitely buy another of the soaps, I think the price is very reasonable and I'd like to try out more of them!

I'm looking forward to buying some of the other soaps to try and I will definitely do mini-reviews of them on here when I do.

~

If you order both a body butter and soap it comes in a bag which is made of African fabric!  I think that is such a nice idea and it would be a fantastic gift for someone.

You can find these products at www.mywild.co.uk so feel free to check them out and see if any of the items take your fancy!

These items were sent to me free of charge to try out, this has not affected my review in any way and I have been 100% honest in my opinion as I would with any other product.

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Favourite Soap & Lush Soap Collection

I got this soap as a sample along with some bits my friends got me as a birthday present last year and didn't really think much of it until I used it... OH MY GOD!  The smell is just amazing!  Say hello to Northern Lights:

I am definitely not one for citrusy scents, or even tastes for that matter, but it is also mixed with a pine element which softens out the citrus lime notes so that it isn't one of those 'zingy' aromas.  Not only does it smell amazing, it is also the most eye-catching colour of luminous/neon yellow!  I think the big slabs do have other colours incorporated as you can see from the photo below, sadly mine have only been yellow.

[Photo from Lush no copyright infringement intended]

Unfortunately it is only available at Christmas I think, although my birthday is October... maybe for Hallowe'en and Christmas!?  I went back to get some more once I used my (substantially sized) sample and I asked for 200g but he must have misheard me and only gave me 100g - sob! So I am having to ration it!

Another point to add is that it actually lasts quite a long time.  I recently used the Honey, I Washed The Kids soap and it just kind of disappeared within quite a short space of time!  Also the smell lasts on your skin afterwards, mmm!  It almost makes me want to shower in the morning rather than at night - yes I am one of those people...

Here is my Lush jar (which I stole from my dad - the jar, not the soap...)!  In it at the moment I have another piece of Honey, I Washed The Kids at the front there; then Northern Lights is the yellow one peeking out; at the top is Candy Cane cut into two bits; the greenish one on the right is Snow Globe; and lastly, at the bottom is my Sugar Scrub!

What's your favourite Lush soap?

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