Saturday 29 June 2013

Lush Covent Garden Blogger Event


Hi Everyone!

So this week I went to a make your own face mask workshop being held at Lush Covent Garden for our group of 10 beauty bloggers set up by our organiser Becs. This post is going to be very picture heavy as there was so many cool things to take photos of so beware! 

When we arrived we were greeted by the lovely Sarah Jane who works in PR for Lush and we helped ourselves to treats and drinks as we all made ourselves comfy in a private room at the back.



We all took part in the Lush #crueltyfreekisses campaign which is a world record attempt of the most lip prints collected to raise awareness of using cruelty free cosmetics. The prints are then tracked through Twitter and Instagram. So we all put on a Lush liquid lipstick and puckered up, mine was a gorgeous red/coral shade.




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We then set to work on making our Catastrophe Cosmetic face mask, a refreshing mix of anti-oxidant blueberries, redness reducing rose absolute and soothing calamine. Also with Irish moss mucilage made from Irish moss seaweed and glycerine to carry all the benefits of the blueberry juice into the skin to reduce moisture loss.



 We began adding each of the ingredients one by one and stirring into the mixture to form the end product.

I had a brilliant time at the workshop and have to thank Becs and Sarah Jane for organising it for us. It was really interesting to see a product I have personally bought before taken apart ingredient by ingredient and understanding exactly what makes the mask so effective.

 Lush is a  brand that continues to impress me with fantastic, fun and innovating products combined with a great ethical outlook on ingredients and a retail team that quite frankly blow me away every time with such great customer service making the shops really somewhere I enjoy going. It's little things like being greeted warmly as you enter the shop, when I ask about products the team are knowledgeable about what it is they are selling and can answer the questions I fire at them and this event was another example of the passion that comes across from the brand at all opportunities. 

I thought I would finish with a few pictures at the end I took while I was having a sneaky browse before the event, naughty!
















I hope you enjoyed this post and do check out Lush's website on https://www.lush.co.uk/ , it's literally like a sweet shop for beauty enthusiasts!

Love Sally X

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Wednesday 26 June 2013

Seven Deadly Sins of Beauty Tag

Hey Everyone!


I have been tagged by the lovely Beka @ Beka's Stuffy Stuff to do the Seven Deadly Sins of Beauty Tag! This is what you have to do...


1. Follow and link you to the person who tagged you
2. Answer the questions on greed, wrath, gluttony, sloth, pride, lust and envy.
3. Tag as many people as you wish! But be sure to let them know!
4. Let the person who tagged you know that you did the tag by linking up in the comments.


Greed - What is your most expensive beauty item?

I would say my Dior mascara and foundation, they are crazy prices but I do swear by the quality and I haven't found anything that even comes close.


DIOR Backstage DiorShow Blackout - Spectacular Volume Intense Black-Kôhl Mascara 10ml


Gluttony - What brand makes up most of your make up collection?

MAC, I have a huge collection of eyeshadows and lipsticks. I dread to think of the money I've spent to amass such a stockpile!

              


Pride - Which product gives you the most confidence?

Mascara, it opens up your eyes and gives you feminine fluttery lashes. LOVE.


Lust - Which item is at the top of your beauty wish list?

I really want to try out the Avon glimmersticks but never got round to actually ordering them from the website. They look really good quality and come in a load of colours.



Envy - Which make up product/look is great on others but not on yourself?

The whole 50's retro look with the winged eyeliner and bright red lipstick, not flattering on me at all :(



Beauty bloggers I am tagging..... 

Everyone reading this post!


Thanks for reading. Love Sally X
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Friday 21 June 2013

Chaaboo Review

Hi Everyone and happy Friday!

Today I am going to be doing a review of the green tea handmade soap from www.chaaboo.co.uk. After speaking to the lovely Siri I was sent a sample of the green tea soap which is the top seller to have a try and share my experience on.


Chaaboo is a small company based in Herefordshire, and I am very much someone who likes to support up and coming British companies that source local ingredients.

They hand make tea soaps using a cold process method and all natural ingredients (see below diagram) without palm oils. Here is a link to a great article from Greenpeace on why companies using palm oils are harming the environment: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/palm-oil. They also do not test on animals. 




The soap arrived wrapped in black tissue paper with the full list of ingredients on the back and a little leaflet explaining the benefits of each ingredient such as shea butter being a good moisturiser that stimulates cell growth.




The soap itself is speckled in appearance, imprinted with the Chaaboo logo and the texture is really smooth lathering up well in use. The scent is delicious and lasted well on my hands which felt thoroughly cleansed and moisturised after using the product. The product is also gentle enough to use as a facial soap and left my skin feeling lovely. The soap retails for £3.50 for a 85g bar which I think is a bargain when you think of the time and effort that has gone in to making it by hand and the quality of the ingredients. 






I would definitely recommend you check out this soap for yourself and there are more varieties to try on the website: http://www.chaaboo.co.uk


Thanks for reading! Love Sally X




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Saturday 15 June 2013

Gift Set Haul

Hi Everyone!

Lately I've been splurging on lot's of bargains at the bootsales and thought I would do a little haul of the giftsets I have picked up recently. They are all brand new and no more than a few pounds each or considerably cheaper than the RRP. Enjoy!

1.Boots Eastern Spa Set- £2 Contains exfoliating gloves, a rose candle, body wash, body cream, hand cream and bath essence.



2. Boots Natural Collection Strawberry Set- £1 Contains shower gel, body spray and body cream 




3. Victoria's Secret Set- £7 Contains fragrance mist and body lotion




4. Chocolate Indulgence Set- £1 Contains flannel, bath crystals, bath bombs, candle, bath gel, bath confetti, bath creme and body cream




5. Victoria's Secret Love Spell set- £8 Contains body lotion, fragrance mist and body wash




6. Paul Mitchell shampoo and conditioner set- £1




7. Accessorize set- £2.50 Contains eyeshadow palette, lashes and lipgloss






And finally 8. Beauticology set- £1 Contains gingerbread body wash, caramel fudge soap and choc chip shower gel.






I hope you like my bargains and thanks for reading! Sally X
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Thursday 13 June 2013

Victory Soaps Review








Hi Everyone!


Today I am going to be doing a review of 4 soaps that I received from Susan over at www.victorysoaps.co.uk. Victory Soaps began in 2001 due to the lack of supplies of their favourite soap in Sainsbury's and they now sell handmade natural soaps made from olive oil via their website and also local fairs and events. It makes me wonder if I should start making bacon and cheese sandwiches for the same reason as Tesco have failed me to a similar extent!


I was sent the 4 top selling products which are the verbena, rose geranium, pink lavender and honey rose to have a try and they arrived in the post before I knew it wrapped in lovely tissue paper and with a leaflet explaining the process, ingredients and product lines. This is also viewable on their website so check it out for further info.


Here is a shot of my package:




And now the soaps, they all have the distinctive logo and look gorgeous.







And here is the pink lavender soap all nice and lathered up in action.




The soaps and very creamy and lather up well upon contact with the water and smell amazing! I can say that my hands certainly feel really soft and moisturised afterwards and the scent lasts well on my skin. Not bad for only £4!

I am really impressed by the quality of the products and love the fact they are handmade from natural ingredients with no nasty stuff and I'm very much a believer in buying British where I can. I can't wait to try some of the other varieties and would definitely recommend you check out the range on www.victorysoaps.co.uk.

Thanks for reading, love Sally X








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Tuesday 4 June 2013

Blog Goals before The Human Mannequin turns 1



Hi All, 

So I've been seeing a lot of blog birthdays on my feed lately (including Big Fat Betty and Does My Blog Make Me Look Fat who are running giveaways to celebrate so go check them out) and it got me thinking about my blog and blog related things I want to achieve before it's first birthday on 31st December.

The list I have so far includes:


  1. Start a Youtube channel alongside my blog
  2. Get the hang of Instagram and post pictures regularly
  3. Go back to doing regular OOTD's 
  4. Get more involved in the plus size community, attend some networking events etc
  5. Take part in a blog every day for a month challenge
  6. Set up the online vintage plus size boutique I have such big dreams for
  7. Do features on different "fad diets" each month recording the results achieved and any side effects
  8. Do a giveaway when I reach say 50 followers on Bloglovin or 1k on Twitter
Some of these are already being planned/worked on and others are going to need research and will take a bit longer but I am confident 31st December 2013 I will have achieved all of my targets and I think it will be really good for my blog to have a bit more of a direction.

So far my posts have been a bit of a mish mash with beauty, fashion, travel etc but I really want to focus on the plus size aspect as I feel that is what makes the blog more unique as there are really not that many plus size bloggers in the UK but hundreds of beauty/fashion ones who do what they do far better than I ever could. It's going to be a learning curve and I completely accept that it takes time to really find yourself with your blog and work out what you enjoy writing about the most and I am going to enjoy it every step of the way.

I would appreciate any tips on improving the blog and suggestions of things you would like to see from me so please comment below if you can help :)

Thanks for reading, love Sally x

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