Aqua Mirabilis Body Butter

The first proper beauty review of the year and its a Lush one. I think I need to go to a 'LushAnon' meeting, its becoming clear to even me how much I love going to Lush, buying new shiny products and then use them. Le sigh, what can a girl do when its true love huh?

I got this for my birthday back in September and didn't want to open it before I used up my Soap&Glory scrub em' and leave em' scrub and other bits of scrubs I had lying around. I'm dreadful for opening new things before using up what I have, just too much temptation! This lovely square of joy was bought on the Lush website along with lots of other goodies I all but squealed over, so thats why its wrapped in plastic instead of its normal naked self.

I'll just admit it now, theres nothing about this exfoliating body butter that I don't like. The smell that lingers on your skin weakens me at the knees - which isn't a bad thing considering you can have a good scrub of your knees and legs while your down there. Its an easy shape and size to use, it has loads of little sand-like scrubby bits to really get the blood going and the dead skin running. Not to mention it moisturizes beautifully without leaving a heavy layer of product on your skin so you feel like a walking oil stick. (walking oil stick? Now theres a weird image for you all to ponder over for the day..) You can have a look at the full ingredients list above or over on the Lush site. But with things like almond and cocoa butter, who needs much more convincing?

Since taking this photo I've only got one use left of it and I've been using it nearly daily in the shower for a week now. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it goes fast, what I'm saying is I'm that addicted to it that I can't not use it all over my bumps and lumps (my humps, my humps, my lovely lady lumps. Sorry Fergie for butchering that..) This is £6.25 online. You'd be mad not to get one.

Oh a side note, I was recently asked if I was in some way connected with or paid to promote the Lush brand. The answer is no, no I am not! But I can see why some people would think that! All gifted or PR samples are marked with a * and is linked to my disclaimer.

The Body Shop Travel Exclusive Review

Major fail here, this post is going up really late because one; the natural light today has been too dark and horrible so photo taking got a back seat and then two; once I tried uploading the wind picked up and played havoc with the internet connection. Clearly I'm just not meant to blog today.

 But anyway I'm ignoring all that and battling on to tell you about this fancy Body Shop travel exclusive that Stephen got for me after he went off to England to see ManU play. This was £20 in the duty free and I can't seem to find a link to it online or the price in euros, but I'm sure you can find something similar in their shops. 

The bath and body box contains mini travel size:

shea lip butter 10ml

shea sugar body scrub 50ml
shea body butter 50ml
moringa shower gel 60ml
rainforest shine shampoo 60ml
rainforest shine conditioner 60ml
and a free bath lily

I've had a good go of all these and can say I'm glad theres set like these to test and try out lots of things without forking out for one full sized product. Lets start off with the hair. The rainforest shine shampoo and conditioner for normal to dry hair has no silicones, sulphates, colourants or parabens. Not too shabby considering I have coloured hair that I have been treating quite poorly recently. After using it for a few washes I've noticed my hair is soft, shiny and smells lovely but the one downfall is that I need to use quite a lot to get a lather in the shampoo. I'd be tempted to get full size bottles of this stuff none the less.

Next is the moringa shower gel. I don't have much to say on this, just that it has a nice sweet/floral scent and gives a good lather but it has no long lasting smell on your skin like some shower gels I've used. Not something I'm going to get again.

 Out of the three jars, I am in love with the shea lip butter. Once I use this all up I'll be going off to get another and maybe try out their other lip products. Its so moisturizing and smells really lovely, just like the body butter. Its thick, creamy and the scent clings to your skin just making you want to smell yourself continuously - which I wouldn't recommend to do in public or company in general. 

Lastly the sugar body scrub, hmm. This has a nice consistency and is easy to apply but the little sugar isn't scrubby enough to properly exfoliate or even make a difference to how clean your skin is. If you wanted just a quick soft scrub or had skin that was easily irritated then this would be great for you. But for me I want something that has big scrubby bits that really gets my skin clean. 

Overall a good 4/6 of the products from the box that I would go and buy after I've finished these ones. The smell of these and how soft they leave me feeling are so winning!

Have you tired anything from The Body Shop? What did you think of them?

As always, hope everyone is doing well and keep being fab!

Highland Aromatics: Coorie-in Basket Set

 Well hello! My week has not been going to plan as far as my posts and Valentines day posts go, so I thought I would post this review to give you all something nice to read! I hope that later today or tomorrow things will be back on track. Until then, fingers crossed it all goes to plan!

The basket, body butter, soap and bath bomb.

I was oh so excited to receive this because it was a name I had never heard before and I love trying out new things. The packaging alone was so cute and rustic looking. I am a sucker for packaging, especially if you can reuse it. The contents of the basket smelt lovely with a small, sweet smelling bath bomb, small soap and mini body butter. They looked amazing wrapped separately in little pieces of tissue paper. It had beautiful font on the bottle, along with the delicate matching tags. 

I researched the Highland Aromatics only to find that their website is a bit all over the place. A lot of links and tabs lead to nothing at all, with only half their products on the site. I found quite a lot of things produced by them on amazon.co.uk but because it wasn't the main site it didn't give a proper list of ingredients or information. Also, if you are thinking of buying something of theirs from amazon be aware that the picture is bigger then the product, as many people in the comments were angry about it. What I do know is that they are a family run business for 35 years who are best known for their soaps. Much of the Scottish highland inspires these products and they are environmentally friendly. 

The little bath bomb sunk to the bottom of the bath and disintegrated  into a white pile. To my horror it expelled little bits of lavender and what looked like twigs. before I got in I had to mix the water up to distribute the left over bath bomb which didn't colour the water or give out a smell. I sat in a bath full of plain water while twigs and pieces of foliage floated by. I got out early only to spend five minutes picking bits of the floating matter off me. I was not impressed at all and the bath was very hard to clean afterwards with the bits clogging the drain and sticking to the bath sides.

My bath water. There were bits EVERYWHERE!

I tried the body butter hoping that it would make me forget about the bath incident but it only softened the blow slightly - no pun intended! It wasn't what I was hoping for at all, being thick and hard to make sink into my skin. I had to stand like the statue of Jesus in Rio for ages and flap my arms about to try help dry off. I did notice once it dried in that the smell was really rich with earthy type undertones. It wasn't over powering and the smell stays on for hours after, something more high end products don't always do. 

Beautifully packaged and presented bath bomb.

Lastly there was the little soap. It smells like the body butter and is so moisturising. It left my hands soft and lovely. If I was to go buying it all over again it would be nearly worth it for the soap!

Overall I was very disappointed as I had high hopes for it. However, after looking at their other products I might try again and pick up something else. Maybe their shower gels and other soaps are the things to rave about. 

Have you ever tried Highland Aromatics?