Bia Beauty Lemon Myrtle Hand Cream

If theres something I love, its a product that not only works, but one that you can physically see the results of in just a few days. Its not often you find a product like that, trust me I have a house full of potions and lotions to prove it! When this lovely little heavy 60ml pot of *Bia Beauty cream landed on my door step, I was hesitant to use it. Lemon Myrtle was not my idea of a nice sent, but I was so wrong. Its a lemony and pleasantly sweet fragrance with an all natural ingredients list of 'rich shea butter, soothing calendula and protective beeswax'. I can't begin to tell you how thick and rich this little pot of cream is! Honestly, I was so surprised when I poked a finger in to test it the first time. Of course its all down to the beeswax and the shea butter, but oh my you really have to try it in person to understand how satisfying it is. This hand cream is for all skin types.

Now I have to tell you a dirty little secret. After a few days of going from less then silky hands (hard skin on the sides of my fingers, damaged from bleach, too much time in chlorine filled swimming pools and general abuse) to a noticeably changed softer and more loved little paws it gave me an idea. I used it on my feet. Yup, I used hand cream on my feet! (But like, no need to gossip about it, thanks.) If theres one part of my body that I hate the most and ignore totally its my feet. I have a fear of them and occasionally make myself ill from remembering I own a pair means that foot products are never high on my must have list. And because of that I have sandpaper feet. I mean holy god, I'd jump out of bed in fright if I rubbed up against my feet in bed at night (ughhh, mental image.) So I tried a few different moisturisers in the hopes that they would resemble feet once again with no luck. That was until I decided to slap a bit of Bia Beauty hand cream on them. Seriously, I'm on my 4th day of using it and its worked a treat. Now both sets of the end of my limbs are silky. I tell ya, I'm a fancy girl, me!

Since receiving this over two weeks ago, I've been using it daily and barely made a dent in the pot. I think this is well worth getting, if not for the lack of dent making you will make (what?! Ah you know what I mean) then for the fact that you will have silky bits in a few days, whatever bits of you you choose to cream up! For those of you that are subscribed to Chic Treat Club you will already have gotten your mitts on this pot of wonder in last months box. But for those of you who have yet to try it out you can find it over here. 

Another reason to love Bia Beauty is that its supporting an Irish business all the way from Co. Cork. Tracey started this as a project while in college and sold the products she made locally at farmers markets. The response was so positive that she created more and more products and so Bia Beauty was born. Now theres your little bit of inspiration for the day as well as soft hands. 

*I did not pay for this item, it was a PR gift.  Please see my disclaimer here. 

Recycling And Reusing Christmas Cards

Hello everyone! Today is the 6th of January, which means for a lot of people in Ireland its finally the day to take down all your decorations and the tree until next year. There are so many people (myself included) who are superstitious and wont take anything down until today for fear of bad luck. Over Christmas there is so much waste. Food, wrapping paper, boxes, batteries. You name it, its fecked into the bin. Who spends more time then their willing to admit fishing things out of the wrong bin to put in the right one? Right, just me then it seems!

 I love cards of all kinds and tend to keep them. But the cards that are from your neighbour or your far away, only-ever-saw-her-once-when-I-was-little aunt might not be as special to you. So cut them up. The pictures are all beautiful.

Heres a really simple idea I found on YouTube for making a 'card wreath' that means saving money, recycling and well, showing off to anyone who asks where you bought it!

Another fancy idea is to make ornaments for your tree or maybe to hang from the ceiling.

• You can make a big one using 20 circles or a smaller one using 10. Just make sure the one you pick is all the same size.
• Use the top of a glass or the bottom of a body spray bottle depending on what size you like. 
• After you cut them out cut out another circle the same size but from cardboard (a cereal box would be handy!) and draw equilateral triangle. Cut this out and draw it onto the insides of your 10 or 20 cards. Then fold along the lines.
• Now, you can use glue for the next bit, but I always like to use a stapler because there is no fear of pieces coming apart. Join one flap each from two circles, points should be touching the edge of the circle. Doing the same thing, join the flaps of three more to these two. And thats the top done. 
• Glue or staple the left over circles together in an up and down way, alternating the tringlae points. 
• Lastly, after all that is glued or stapled together make a small hole in the top and hang thread from it.

Young or old I hope you have fun doing these!