Review: This Works Sleep Balm

These past couple of months have been really weird for me. I am usually considered queen Snorlax of the sleeping world. Fire alarms, my friend Beth and hotel break ins have nothing on me! I love being in my bed and even more I love sleeping. Having a routine, even a vague one is extremely important to me but since graduating I've been doing shift work and even though I've never had much of a problem in the past with this I've never had to do it for an extended period of time. 

I can only guess this has been the reason for my recent strange sleeping habits. Not falling to sleep easy, waking up in the middle of the night and sleeping in too long is a foreign concept to me, so, after spotting the This Works Sleep Balm in their January sale a dent quickly appeared in my pocket. 

Recently I've been turning to much more natural skincare and remedies, especially after watching Meg's  amazing video on skincare. Brands such as Lush and This Works are the main ones I've been turning to and after hearing a lot of positive feedback over the Deep Sleep range I'd really wanted to try something from it. I decided upon the Sleep Balm as it came in a cute limited edition christmas bauble and seemed the easiest and quickest product to use. 

The balm is a thick consistency and has a strong scent of lavender. It is mixed with monoi and coconut oils which are also supposed to act as natural relaxants but lavender is the stand out flavour. I'm not going to lie, it really isn't my favourite scent, but if it works then I'll happily put up with it. Which, although I was initially slightly dubious, it really does!

Before bedtime I run my two first fingers around in the pot and then apply to my temples and both my inner wrists. This action on it's own is enough to relax you but the lavender adds to this often sending me in to a deep sleep within 15 minutes. I can't vouch for this being a replacement for prescribed sleeping tablets, but it really is great if you struggle to relax at night or find yourself frequently waking up. 

At £12 (I got it for £6 in the sale) it seems quite expensive for what only seems like a small balm but I'm not so sure you can put a price on a good nights sleep. I certainly know that if I don't have a healthy nights wink I'm in danger of turning into grumpy dwarf. 

This has definitely inspired me to try out a lot more of This Work's products. I'm currently on the hunt for a new toner and with my new found love for all-natural products I'm looking towards the Clean Skin Refining Toner. Has anyone tried this product or have any other recommendations for me?

Unfortunately This Work's sale has now ended but they still offer free delivery so I may be tempted to invest in the toner along with the Deep Sleep Pillow Spray. It really is a battle of my wallet vs. my bed. FIGHT!

Pointless things I want...

Does anyone else have hard time differentiating what they want from they actually need sometimes? I always seem to manage to go that one step further and find things that I really really REALLY don't need and then convince myself that my life is incomplete until I have them. In some ways I am scared to get rich because who knows what rubbish I might decide to buy. Luckily for me my bank account currently lassos me away from my own silliness but that doesn't stop my dreaming...

1. MATCHING HANGERS. It has always been one of my dreams to have a wardrobe full of matching hangers. DREAM BIG GALS. I'm really sure why but I just think it will make everything in my wardrobe look that much more appealing. I seem to have some sort of OCD for collecting sets and apparently sets of hangers are right up there.

2. HARRY STYLES. Oh don't be silly! Not the real Harry... but I've decided that a life size cut out will suffice (for now). Last year in my student house me and my friends decorated our front room window with a cut out Arnold Swatzeneger and Marilyn Monroe, which my Dad picked up from work (don't ask) - My sister got Zac Efron...not fair. I can't begin to explain how much fun can be had with 6ft of cardboard; scaring drunk people at night and putting on dancing performances for our neighbours. Unfortunately they had to be put to rest when we moved out as no one had the space for The Terminator. When I eventually have my own place I am reinstalling "cardboard nation" starting with Hazza. ♥

3. A NALA TOY. You may have spotted in this post that I have a little soft spot for The Lion King. You may also notice Simba is sitting on my pillow looking very lonely without his girlfriend. It just seems cruel not to buy Nala as well doesn't it?!

4. A STAR LAMP. I'd say I've come close to purchasing this most out of my list and it's still hanging around on my eBay watch list now. I am a bit of a space nerd. I always loved studying it at school and I would read space factfiles and study my atlas constantly. I just think the world is pretty amazing and I'd rather look up at stars than a white ceiling any day.

5. A UKELE. Let's start by clearing things up. I can not and most probably never will be able to play the Ukele. Heck, I can only master about 2 chords on my guitar but for some reason I came across these printed ones and thought it would be a nice addition to my room. It took a while but I've decided the kiwi one is my favourite

Review: Soap and Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub

If there's anything that gets my motor running it's a good body scrub. For me the satisfaction of entering the shower a reptile and emerging a velvet skinned goddess is one of life's simplest pleasures. (Also recommended for physically scrubbing away the shame of the previous night). I've tried a fair few high street branded scrubs these past couple of years but so far nothing has touched on the Body Shop Body Scrub for me. Reasons being that other brands are yet to compete with the fruity scent produced by Body Shop and I just want to live out the rest of my days smelling like one massive mango.

This was the main reason I was so intrigued to try a product from the Sugar Crush range from Soap and Glory as it's known as the best smelling scent in a lot of Beauty Guru's showers. One twist of the lid and my nostrils had an orgasm. Seriously. This is the type of product you'll open and close repeatedly "just because it's so good"...that is, only if you like fruity/sweet smelling products. If you tend to gravitate towards sophisticated musk and floral scents then the Sugar Crush Body Scrub may become your worst enemy with it's mixture of lime, brown sugar, almond and macadamia. It's really the Marmite of the scrubbing world. Personally I love Marmite and I also love the awakening feeling the lime produces. If you know me well, you'll remember that if I want to eat to eat a beauty product it's pretty much a thumbs up straightaway and never has a label warning you 'THIS PRODUCT IS NOT EDIBLE" been more appropriate.

Of course all of this is completely useless if the product still leaves you a scaly Sue rather than a silky Sally! Good news it's the latter. The product is made up of a thick gel-like formula which means a little goes a long way putting this, at £8 (in most UK retailers), a great price for the 300ml tub. The mixture of smashed sugar and macadamia grains wash away dead skin cells with ease without leaving the skin red raw - a problem my sensitive skin has found with a lot of products. If you do prefer a 'harsher' scrub you could use it dry rather than in the shower and I would guess it would have the desired effect. Another bonus is that it doesn't leave a greasy 'film' over the skin meaning your shower wash/milk can soak in like normal afterwards. As much as I want to bathe myself in the scent every day I find that 2-3 times a week is enough in the Winter months and I'll probably limit myself to once a week when the weather heats up (who am I kidding? This is England).

Again like the smell, the design of Soap and Glory's products isn't to everyone's taste but being a bit of a graphics nerd I love the fun, vintage style of the company and it definitely stands out on the shelves amongst the awash of monochrome ("AWASH"...shower stuff...geddit?...). Practicality wise, it's a sturdy plastic tub which eradicates any fears of ending up with glass in the shower for klutzes like me. It's wide enough to fit a nice big hand in the pot meaning even the last drops of zesty goodness can be enjoyed.

There is only one niggle I have with this product - I wish the scent lasted on my skin so I could thrust myself in people's faces proclaiming "SMELL MY NECK! IT'S NOT PERFUME! IT'S MY NATURAL SCENT! IT'S MEEEE". *cough* To conclude and simplify I love this product and will definitely be investing in it again but with 3 for 2 on Soap and Glory bath and body products at Boots at the moment I might be swayed into trying The Breakfast Scrub for a change or any other Soap and Glory products that you guys would recommend? What are your favourites and what ones will you not be purchasing again?

Soap and Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub (RRP. £8) is avaliable at Soap and Glory, Boots and various eBay and Amazon Sellers.

Like cat and mouse...

As much as ye ol welcome posts are needed to introduce a new blog, they're never the most thrilling snippets to read are they? However, I couldn't just thrust my hand in your face without introducing myself could I? "Ain't nobody got time for that!" But now we are properly acquainted it's time to show you my bloody awesome nails... If I do say so my modest self.

 My friends have been asking me how the hell I managed to do these, and as professional as a finger painter I am, you'd need super human steadiness and eyesight to manage this kind of accuracy. This is why nail stickers/decals are an absolute lifesaver. They're so much quicker than painting designs on your finger nails and they look great and last longer too. I've stocked up for the next year - my nails will never be boring again! I got these nineties throwback Tom and Jerry cartoon designs from a seller on eBay. I can't find the original link but these are pretty similar.

I started off painting a layer of Sally Hansen's Double Duty Strengthening Base and Top Coat on my nail after buffing and filing. I've used Sally Hansen's for years after borrowing one of my Mum's bottles and have got through all of the different top coat variations but this is by far my favourite for shine and getting you through the winter months chip free. I've tried other brands but nothing else compares. I then painted a couple of gold layers with a mini Model's Own polish I received free with my naill art pen to give a comic book-esque feel and after that had dried it was time to get to work with the nail decals. I firstly decided which design would fit each nail best and cut them all out separately. After this I dabbed the back of the paper with a wet flannel to ease the design off and carefully lifted it from the paper onto my nail with tweezers. I made sure to press the design firmly down to avoid any creases and covered straight away with another layer of my Sally Hansen.

5 minutes later and you're completely done with a design that should last at least a week and gain you a flurry of nostalgic comments. Trust me when I say you don't realise how old you are until you re-watch the Tom and Jerry theme tune on YouTube and realise how vintage it now looks... Which is what I'm now off to do whilst wearing dungarees and pigtails and listening to The Spice Girls on repeat...

If you try out this design or have any handy tips on nail art or decals please leave comments below. I would love to hear some of your crazy ideas!

I have a Mac! OH YEAH... and a blog...

Hola amigos! I finally got my wish and managed to get my hands on a beautiful Mac Book Pro that I've been lusting after for a good couple of years. A huge thank you to Papa F who donated a generous amount towards it as a graduation present... yes that's right by some miracle I managed to actually complete my degree! Another thank you for my trusty lime green dell for getting me there. Parting is such sweet sorrow (isn).

With a new world (literally...my backgrounds still the space desktop) at my fingertips I downloaded the inDesign and PhotoShop trials and got my creative juices flowing again. One of the things I've missed most about Uni was designing fun, if not completely useless, things. Anyone for a fake CD sleeve as a birthday present?

Of course the first thing on my mind was a re-vamp of ye old blogeth. Being quite an aesthetic person and a perfectionist at heart I've never been completely happy with any of my previous layouts. I wanted something simple, yet imaginative, with it representing my personality at the same time. For this reason I decided to start completely afresh and have ended up with a new blog and a spanking new layout. SPANKING OOHH. I'm planning on injecting a bit of colour in the header at some point but for now I am happy! I'd love to hear any of your feedback on the new design so please comment below with your thoughts/suggestions and I'd just like to take the time to thank you all for sticking with me.

My MacBook itself wouldn't be complete without a little spruce up which is why I got a bit overexcited when my Rafiki sticker arrived from eBay. I've just noticed my toy Simba in the background of this photo too...OOPS. Someone likes The Lion King a bit too much... *cough*

Next on my wishlist is an iMac and the Adobe Creative Suite when I have the funds and space. A (geek) gal can dream eh? But for now it's blogging in bed for me... and who's complaining?