mybeautywaxstash, Author at Mybeautywaxstash

Beauty Laundrette’s Soft Soak Bath Milk Powder

Is there a job out there where you can get paid to sit in a bath with lovely, smelling bath products? If there is, put me down for 40hrs and sign me up! That literally would be my dream job because I adore a good bath. I’ve probably used the majority of bath product types on the market twice over over the years. But there is one I hadn’t used but somehow it was in my possession for months! I bought Beauty Laundrette’s Soft Soak Moisturising Bath Milk Powder last year from Superdrug for £1.99.

Beauty Laundrette’s Moisturising Bath Milk Powder

Why did I buy this?

At the time I bought quite a few products from this range online from Superdrug. It was a range I had never tried before and I wanted to see what it was like. But this particular one grabbed my attention (and credit card) because of what it was. A bath milk powder! Doesn’t that already sound amazing, relaxing and total luxury? THAT’S why I bought it!

What is this?

This bath milk powder is suitable for all skin types, and is designed to create a milky bath soak which is floral in scent, provide relaxation and contains soothing and caring ingredients to the skin such as oat kernel flour.

Packaging

There are 6 sachets of bath milk powder providing 6 baths. Each come in a long, thin sachet. Baby blue in colour with a slightly psychedelic looking ‘Soft Soak’ lettering on it. Instructions are on the back. These sachets are housed in a cardboard box with the colouring, design and overall look identical to the sachets. I love the packaging of these bath milk powders. I would say there’s something fun and quite youthful about how this looks. It would be appealing to most people in my opinion, not just the younger age range.

The Bath Milk Powder

Before I opened one of the sachets I just assumed this would be a white powder, but it’s more oaty in colour, a soft kind of beige. Thinking about it, it does reflect one of it’s ingredients, which is the oat kernel flour. It is a powder. Not totally smooth as if sieved and light and airy, but more like a fine crumble, with some bits of it finer than others with the occasional lump and bump present.

This didn’t have a noticeable fragrance to it. It reminded me of sniffing a bath bomb when you get that chalkiness in the nostrils. There is a little sweetness in there but it isn’t particularly clear what the smell was when I initially opened it.

How to use

Under warm running water, pour one sachet into bath.

In the bath

I used one sachet under warm running water, and was surprised that there was some bubbles being created. In my mind I didn’t expect this to foam but it was a nice surprise. There wasn’t a colour change to the water, it just looked a little less clear and a touch murky. What I was hoping for was a fragrance to hit me in the face while this bath ran, but it didn’t. Again, like when I opened the packet, there wasn’t a strong enough scent for me to describe. There was something incredibly light there but non descriptive.

While sat in the bath I genuinely couldn’t say this product helped with relaxation. I was reading and quite chilled anyway, but this bath milk I didn’t feel added anything to how I felt. My skin was comfortable, but I didn’t think to myself ‘wow, I’m really enjoying this bath!’ I also found the bubbles that initially were created disappeared soon after, leaving the bath water as bath water.

In and out of the bath my skin felt normal. I was hoping for something moisturising but I didn’t feel my skin gained anything from using this. But it also didn’t suffer in anyway either.

Recommended?

It’s important to mention first I think this product has been discontinued or at least isn’t sold on the Superdrug website anymore. I can only assume it’s not in store either, but can’t be sure unless I physically look. So when I talk about recommendation, bare this in mind.

So let’s start off with the good points. Packaging is great! Ideal to give as a gift and I love the fact there are 6 baths you can get of this box, with each in it’s own sachet. Much easier not to overuse if in a jar or bottle. And this being in powder form is different and interesting. The price I paid was cheap, so I wasn’t spending a small fortune on it.

Now to the not so good points. I expected this to be relaxing and luxurious and it wasn’t anything special. Fragrance was barely there, bubbles didn’t last long and overall it didn’t add to my bath time experience.

I totally appreciate the fact this was less than £2.00. But I’ve had bath gels and soaks costing less than this and they did a better job. So how could this be better? More fragrant, creamier bath (if it’s called a bath milk powder I’m thinking Cleopatra!), more moisturising. Bubbles could leave or stay that didn’t bother me. But the bath itself would need to scream a fabulous soak which, unfortunately, this didn’t. The idea of this is brilliant, but if I could I wouldn’t repeat purchase this myself. My 10 year old would probably like this, even some of my friends. But for me this isn’t memorable. I will continue using the other 5 sachets and that would be my experience closed on this bath product chapter.

Q+A Peppermint Daily Cleanser

Cleansing the skin is an important stage. You’re prepping the skin for the next steps in your skincare routine, and making sure your face is a blank canvas for your serums, oils, moisturisers etc. But there are so many on the market it’s hard to chose which one will be right for you, well it is for me! A lot of the time we just have to buy them, try them and see which is the right fit for our skin. I made a purchase late last year from a brand called Q+A. I bought various skincare products, including their Peppermint Daily Cleanser. £7.50 for 125ml, but I got this during a 20% off sale so paid £6.00.

Why did I buy this?

I’ve wanted to try this brand for ages and the fact they had a sale on made it so much easier and cost effective to buy almost a full skincare routine. This cleanser I originally bought with my son in mind as I opted for their cleansing balm for myself. But I couldn’t help try this out because of how quick and easy a foaming cleanser is to use. Plus, it looked and sounded so interesting so I ‘borrowed’ it!

What is this supposed to do?

Peppermint Daily Cleanser is designed to clean the skin, refresh and energise it and to be used morning and night. This cleanser is supposed to help with calming the skin, skin firmness and hydration.

Who is this for?

Skin type wise this is suitable for oily, stressed, dry, sensitive, normal and combination skin. So that’s pretty much all skin types.

My skin type

There should be a category called Hot Mess because that’s what it is right now! Not too sure what’s going on with it but it seems to be a bit of everything at the moment except for sensitive and oily.

Packaging

This cleanser is in a typical tube with a flip top lid. It’s mainly mint green in colour and white, with black text. It’s clean in appearance, it’s simple, effective and easy on the eye. The way it looks could appeal to anyone regardless of age or sex. The thing that stands out about the packaging is on the back there is a skincare check list. It tells you what skin type this product is for and what concerns this will treat. This makes the search so much easier when it comes to deciding if this is right for your skin or not.

Texture

This is like a lot of cleansers that foam texture wise. It’s gel like, fluid but with a slight thickness to it and totally clear and has no colour.

Fragrance

Love this! It should be no surprise that this smells of peppermint! So fresh, minty, very invigorating. But it’s not overpowering and gives you the hit of mint you want without it being eye watering.

How to use

Mix in with water and apply to clean skin and rinse off. Use morning and night.

In use

I’ve used this in the morning while in the shower, and in the bath in the evening. Mixing it with warm water it lathered up but it wasn’t too frothy. It had a slight creaminess to it which was a lovely texture. It went onto my skin easily, I enjoyed how it felt and the fragrance was uplifting and nice to smell. Easy to rinse off, didn’t sting my eyes and removed the only bit of make-up I wear, which is an eyebrow pencil. Skin felt clean and quite fresh.

My skin after use

So this is where my initial joy of this product went slightly down. I looked at my skin after using this and noticed my face looked quite dry. It didn’t feel overly dry but definitely looked it. It was if moisture had been zapped out of it and I could see a dry, white look to some areas of my face. Bare in mind my skin colouring is brown, this made it quite obvious. I had hoped that this would only happen for the first few times of using this and then my skin would adjust, but I didn’t see this change with nearly 3 weeks of using morning and night.

On my son

As mentioned, I bought this really for my son. He’s 12 years old, slightly spotty but nothing major, and probably combination skin in regards to his skin type at the moment. He hates washing his face, but using this is quick and effective AND doesn’t strip his skin at all. His face doesn’t look dry after use and this cleanser seems better suited to him than to me. He moans about the fragrance but to be honest he would moan regardless, and I think this was more agreeable to him compared to other scented cleansers I’ve forced him to use.

It’s not all bad, there’s been a discovery!

I couldn’t keep using this cleanser. The weather in the UK is getting colder, my central heating is never turned off so there are so many things trying to suck the moisture out of my skin already. I didn’t need my cleanser to be one of them. So I’ve been using a balm cleanser to make sure my skin wasn’t being stripped at the cleansing stage. But to make sure it’s all removed, I’ve used this Peppermint Daily Cleanser AFTER the balm which has given me an unplanned double cleansing routine that works well. I haven’t suffered the dry, white areas on my face that was visible before while using this combination. And this could be a good duo to remove sunscreen off my face now that I’m going to use some form of sun protection everyday.

Recommended?

I actually think this is a good cleanser. It’s not expensive, it’s a decent size which should last for a few months, fab fragrance and easy and quick to use. It does what it needs to do which is clean the skin. But I suspect a face wash type cleanser or at least this one, just isn’t right for me (on it’s own). So my initial idea of buying this for my son and not for my face was spot on! But I would try this during the Summer months as I have a feeling this would be more suitable for my skin.

I would still recommend this despite this not being ideal for me. It might be a winner for teenagers, people in their twenties who don’t have massive skin issues and are happy to use a face wash type cleanser. People who normally use foaming washes but want something that smells fresh and zingy and I suspect this is could be a great for more combination to oily skin. I can see lots of the guys liking this too because there’s no fuss using this, it has a clean smell to it and the packaging is neutral but modern.

Great thing with this cleanser is it’s available in so many places, including Amazon*, direct from Q+A, Holland & Barratt and many more if you want to try this out. If a face wash type cleanser works for you and you’re on the look out for a new one, why not give this a go?

*This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase I receive a small commission with no cost to yourself.

Fragrantasia’s Sweet Snow & Cherries Wax Chunk Pot

When I was growing up, home fragrance came in the form of an open window and a bottle of Zoflora. That was how my dad operated. Bless you Mr Griffiths! These days it’s expanded and a bit more elaborate than that. Brands such as Zoflora and Fabulosa are pretty big, combining cleaning with fragrances. Candles are still very popular. Reed diffusers seem to be available all over the place and wax melts are going from strength to strength. Wax melts probably are still my favourite way to fragrance my home. I will use these multiple times in a week mainly in two rooms. This week I decided to use Fragrantasia’s Sweet Snow & Cherries Wax Chunk Pot from my open box. This cost £2.40 for one pot.

Why did I buy this?

Firstly, I LOVE wax chunk pots! They look great, they cleverly incorporate two different scents that creates one new fragrance which is imaginative. These are one of my favourite wax forms if you haven’t already guessed. This scent I went for because it was new to me at the time of purchase, it sounded quite fruity (which I love) and I just had a feeling I would love it!

How does it look?

Off white coloured wax with irregularly aubergine purple pieces of wax embedded into it. Not only can you see these physically breaking through the surface of the top of this wax chunk pot, but if you look round the sides and bottom of the pot this sits in you can see it’s FULL of these chunks! These two different colours of wax are two different fragrances. It’s not a complicated or an arty looking piece of wax, but there’s something so pleasing to the eye about how this looks.

Fragrance

This maybe simple in name but it explains what this fragrance consists of perfectly! You get a fruity, dark cherry scent. There’s a little tartness to it so not too sweet. Mixed in with this, is a scent inspired by a well known bath bomb shop and one of it’s product fragrances (hint, LUSH’s Snow Fairy). This scent is sweet, almost candy sweet. Think candy floss, even bubble gum and fruit flavoured sweeties. What I like about this is it’s not over the top, it’s not so sugar based it makes you feel queasy or comes across synthetic. Perfectly balanced and lip lickingly good!

Sweet Snow & Cherries Wax Chunk Pot upside!

In Melt

I used a quarter of this and popped it into the wax warmer that lives happily in my kitchen. One thing I didn’t realise with this wax chunk was there is a slight shimmer to it. This was only revealed once the piece of wax warmed through and slowly became liquid, that my eyes were met with a delicate and very pretty sparkle. What was left once totally liquid, was a beautiful deep shimmering shade of purple.

It didn’t take too long to find that not only was my kitchen filled with the scent of Sweet Snow & Cherries but also my living room, which is next door to the kitchen.

Strength & Longevity

Strength wise this is medium to strong. It’s powerful but in the sense of the fragrance is there, it stands out and it travels outside of the room it was melting in. Like many wax pieces I use, I had this on for 2 days (at least 4 hours at a time) and it maintained it’s strength and quality throughout.

Recommended?

I love this scent! It’s a combination of two different fragrances that are delightful on their own but are amazing together and I adore it! Although this was part of a Winter inspired range of wax last year, I could happily melt this any season as it’s beautiful. So of course this is recommended! If you like your fruity and sweety like fragrances this will be a winner in your home. And the size and weight of this wax chunk pot (roughly 45-50g) will provide hours and hours of fragrance to enjoy.

At a glance I saw only 1 of these left in stock! So if this is right up your wax melt fragrance street quickly grab it here now.

Primark’s PS Lemon Bubble Bar

Washing our bodies is a necessity. But for some of us it’s an experience! If you are the type of person who hops into the shower or bath and comes out 30 plus minutes later, you are ENJOYING your bathing ritual! I will hold my hands up and say I am indeed that person who leaves the bathroom an hour or more later with zero shame and very wrinkly skin! So you can imagine some of the products I put into my bath. Bath rocks, bath dusts, bath bombs. One of my favourites is bubble bars. Itching to try something new recently I grabbed from my stash Primark’s PS Lemon Bubble Bar. I bought this end of last year for £2.00.

Why did I buy this?

If I’m honest I tend to be quite picky when it comes to what I put in my bath and where I buy them from. I want a good quality bath product, especially if it’s something like this. Buying them from supermarkets, discount stores etc does make me question how good it will be especially if it’s super cheap in price. But I was in the store, these jumped out at me because of the size and colouring, so no harm in trying?

What’s a Bubble Bar?

This is more my interpretation of what a bubble bar is so it could be different for other people. A bubble bar is something that you put in the bath. Normally they provide foam/bubbles, sometimes colour and fragrance. But compared to other products, they tend to be more moisturising to the skin because of their ingredients. These will normally contain some form of butter such as cocoa or shea, giving a hydrating and luxurious bath time experience.

What does this look like?

It’s quite simple in look. It’s a thick disc shape which is quite sizeable, 7 inches. Think of a swiss roll that’s been cut into a slice and this reminds me of that except yellow! Quite a bright yellow colour in fact, but not neon. And what you see through the centre is a lighter shade of yellow running through it giving it a swirl shaped pattern.

Fragrance

It does have a lemon smell to it but it’s not strong. In fact, it could be much more punchier in strength in my opinion! It’s quite a fizzy, effervescent type lemon. More on the sharp side than sweet. Pleasant, but again, once out of it’s plastic wrapper I would have liked this to be stronger.

In the bath

I didn’t use all of this. I snapped it in half and crumbled it under warm running water. I found the texture reminded me of Play Doh but crumbly. It did create a decent amount of bubbles in the bath which was great to see, although they didn’t last too long once I got into it. The fragrance was there slightly but still exceptionally soft. But I did think this would have been a good bubble bar to use fragrance wise when my sense of smell is more sensitive e.g hay fever, feeling run down etc.

When I crumbled the bubble bar into the bath, I did feel my hands were really moisturised. My body in the bath felt this slightly but not as much. The bath itself was nice enough, very pleasant. Getting out, my skin wasn’t stripped of it’s natural moisture. It didn’t look ashy or felt dry. Very normal and very comfortable. I could have got away with not using a body lotion but I never skip this stage!

Recommended?

This isn’t the best bubble bar I’ve used and it’s not the worst. It’s a good size, looks nice and produces bubbles. And it didn’t dry or irritate the skin which is a necessity. So overall, in the words of my children, this was ‘decent’. For this to be better the fragrance needed to more prominent as it was just too subtle for me. As for the moisturisation, I didn’t expect too much because of the price and lack of butters in it’s ingredients list. But, I still think this is ok and many people would agree with me.

But would I recommend this to someone to buy? If you love your baths and don’t want to spend a small fortune give it a go. Would I buy this one again? Not this particular one no. I’ve tried it and because it didn’t blow me away, I wouldn’t repeat purchase this because I’ve used it now. But I would be happy to try a different shape, fragrance or size because it wouldn’t be the same and hopefully give me a different type of bath.

When I bought this instore at Primark, this was labelled £2.00, but on the website at time of writing this post, the price says £1.50. So this maybe reflected in store so even more bubble bar for your buck!

My Fragrantasia Wax Melt Open Box

Let’s talk wax melts. There is no doubt that fragrancing rooms and homes with wax melts is still incredibly popular. It is in my house that’s for sure! I have been super good and not bought any so far in 2022, my last purchase of 2021 came from a wax vendor called Fragrantasia. Rather than it being one or two pieces that arrived, I paid for an open box. And for any wax melt lover that hasn’t used this service before it’s a game changer!

What’s an Open Box?

An open box is quite a common thing with some small wax melt companies. You can order what you want and add to your order whenever you like. When you want the whole lot shipped to you, you pay for postage and your order is delivered. I might fancy 3 wax melts today so I order them. I then get paid in 2 weeks and I buy 4 more then. Oh, there’s a sale on so I’m going to buy 10. And I’ve now decided that’s all I want so I pay my p&p and get all 17 pieces posted to me. And THAT’S what I did with Fragrantasia. I bought bit by bit of what I fancied and then closed it when I was done.

What did I get?

I got quite a few things over a number of months. Some were popped into Christmas presents but some I’ve kept for myself. My open box included Halloween inspired scents, everyday best seller waxes and Christmas ones too. Here are some of the scents included:

Halloween. Snoozy Ghosts. Werewolf. Witches Laundry.

Everyday scents. Fresh Linen. Patchouli Musk. Gold Orchid. Candy Hearts. Cake Batter Fudge.

Christmas scents. Silver Storm. Tinsel Town. Baby It’s Warm Outside. Snow Love. Sweet Snow & Cherries. Fluffy Pink Candy Canes.

I took advantage of having an open box and I bought a range of different scents from different times of the year. Have I started melting these? Unfortunately not! I’ve been kept busy with my wax melt advent calendar from Fragrantasia so my wax warmers have been very busy since December! But I’m very excited to try all of these as they look and smell amazing (from their little packets).

So, if like me you love your wax and buy them from small businesses who specialise in making and/or selling them, find out if they do an open box. I’ve reviewed various wax melts from Fragrantasia and been more than happy with what I’ve tried so I highly recommend them. I’m so pleased to see them back after their Christmas break. Their website is up and running, with some fantastic blends and shapes ready to be melted in your wax warmer of choice.

So after browsing their website, what would YOU want to melt?

What Did I Order From The Body Shop Winter Sale?

If you saw one of my earlier posts this month, you will know I’m trying to be a bit more intentional when it comes to my purchases and what I use (My 2022 Goals For Skincare, Bodycare & Wax). I’m not banning myself from buying anything, just putting more thought behind what I buy and why. The only purchases I’ve made that have been non-grocery related have been from the brand The Body Shop. And this strangely enough tied into them having a Winter Sale. Funny that! So what did I buy and why?

Some items from The Body Shop Winter Sale

Why The Body Shop?

Well why not? I used to love particular products from them when I was a teenager, and to be honest totally forgot about the brand until the a couple of years ago. It came to my attention because a good friend of mine became one of their consultants and she made me realise the brand and it’s products have evolved a lot since I first knew them. So I’ve had the opportunity to try and buy various products, experience different fragrances and textures and many I’ve really enjoyed using. So if a sale comes up, products are priced well, I’m buying!

Why did I buy?

I know we’ve just gotten rid of Christmas, but that’s not the only occasion people give gifts. Birthday’s, teacher gifts, there’s so many! And I like to buy things along the way through the year to cover all those eventualities. A lot of the time I will have certain people in mind with a purchase, sometimes I just get things and know they will tick someone off my list. And this is why I made my most recent order with these thoughts in mind.

The Body Shop’s Hand Washes & Hand Creams

What did I buy?

I didn’t go nuts although it’s easy to do!

Body Butters. 50ml each. In the fragrances of Pink Grapefruit, Almond Milk & Honey and Moringa.

Hand Creams. 30ml each. In the fragrances of Joy & Jasmine and Kindness & Pears.

Hand Wash. 275ml each. In the fragrances of Joy & Jasmine and Kindness & Pears. Pear Bath Blend x2. 200ml each.

Camomile Silky Cleansing Oil x2. 200ml each.

Bath Bubbles. 28G each. In the fragrances of Moringa x2 and Pink Grapefruit x2.

Why these products?

The body butters, hand creams and the bath bubbles are really good. Small products that can be grouped with something else to make a really nice gift or mini collection. I’ve used these before, the quality was great and all of the fragrances smelt so good!

Never tried the hand washes before, but grouped together with the hand creams of the same scent meant two items for the hands. Hopefully these would be enjoyed and a pleasure to use. Plus a hand wash, a good quality one, I think is a lovely gift idea anyway for the home and it’s a bit of luxury and very practical too!

The cleansing oil. Ok I forgot I ordered this, these are for me! I’ve tried, bought, been gifted and loved the cleansing butter version of this and have always wanted to try the cleansing oil. So at half price (normally £12.00 down to £6.00) I would be stupid not to get one. So I got two instead!

The Body Shop’s Camomile Silky Cleansing Oil

The bath blend. Forgot I ordered that as well, lord forgive me! I bought one for myself and one to put away for a gift. I’ve tried two other fragrances in the bath blends and loved both of them. It’s something different, it’s something I enjoyed and personally thought in the pear scent this would be fabulous. So why not treat myself and get one for a friend too?

So how much did I spend?

Let’s start off with the bath bubbles. These weren’t on sale but I ordered them because I think for the price and what they deliver to the bath is exceptional! £1.50 each! The body butters, although not full size but travel (at 50g), were £2.00 each. Normally priced at £6.00. Hand creams down to £2.75 from £5.50. Hand washes £3.25 down from £6.50. The cleansing oil as already mentioned is £12.00 full price but down to £6.00. And the pear bath blend £4.00 down from £8.00. Total cost was £44.00 with free p&p. There was a £5.00 off code on the website so that brought it down to £39.00. Plus I went through a cashback site and picked up £2.34 (every penny helps right?).

Am I happy with these buys?

Definitely! Although I snuck in a few items for myself (rude not to), I think I’ve made a good head start with my little stash of gifts ready to give out when the time is right to the right people. I haven’t spent a massive amount of money because the majority of it was half price.

At the time of writing this post the The Body Shop sale was still live online and instore. You can visit them here now but remember, the best purchases are intentional. Happy browsing!x

Sunday Rain Sleep Easy Bath Bomb

New Year, New Me, New Sleep Position. Do I feel rested and ready to take on all that 2022 brings? Nope! Compare me to a football that has been run over by a monster truck, and that will give you an idea of how I feel right now. So anything that can help me relax I’m up for it. One thing that tends to do the trick for me is an evening bath. So what bath time treat was on my radar to help put me in a peaceful mood? Sunday Rain Sleep Easy Bath Bomb from Superdrug. Usual cost is £5.00, but I bought this when it was half price.

Why did I buy this?

Sunday Rain wasn’t a brand I had heard about before. I browsed the Superdrug website and found their bath and body care range very appealing. This bath bomb stuck out because it wasn’t a typical bath bomb (I’ll explain later!). I liked the idea of it being designed to help relax with the addition of lavender plus it was half price!

What makes this bath bomb different?

It’s not just a solid bath bomb, it contains sea salts AND lavender buds. Both are elements that could hep with the art of unwinding. Oh, and it comes in two halves! So you don’t have to use the whole thing so potentially two baths worth of product in one!

Packaging

It’s nice to see a bath bomb presented in a box rather than just plastic wrapped. The box this comes in looks quite simple in style, coloured in a soft lilac shade and overall reflects what this bath bomb is hoping to create bath time wise. It’s quite neutral in look, not too dated although a little traditional in style so should appeal to most people.

The bath bomb itself was shrink wrapped in clear plastic, so you could see what you get once it was taken out of it’s box.

How does it look?

Not that much different to a usual bath bomb. Circular in shape, chalky but smooth texture and a pale lilac colouring. Size wise this seems a little bigger than other bath bombs I’ve used before.

It does come in two halves although was plastic wrapped keeping them together. Once you pull them a part you can see both sides have a small hollow section in them. Sat in the middle is a very rustic looking mix of sea salts and lavender buds nestled in it. Very pretty!

Fragrance

Not what I expected! I thought this would be quite strong and lavender based in the stereotypical way. I’m glad it’s not. Lavender can be old and pungent and not a very modern or pleasant smell in my opinion. This wasn’t the case for this. It’s more floral, slightly sweetened, with powdery notes. There is a hint of lavender and a herbal touch to this, it’s not in your face.

In the bath

I threw in the first half of this and it fizzed straight away, while releasing a soft lilac colour to the water. The lavender buds and salts spread out, and what was left was them sticking to the side of the bath while the salts vanished. The bath bomb itself probably took less than a minute to totally disappear. Rather than save the second half of the bath bomb I threw the second one straight in. It seemed silly to save it for another time, and decided to just enjoy and use it. No bubbles and no foam.

The fragrance, thank God, was there. Strength wise it was perfect! I could smell it as I put the bath bomb in the water and long after I was sat in the bath. It really was a lovely scent and helped make my bath experience a good one.

My skin wasn’t dried out after using this. I enjoyed my time in the bath. Only thing I wasn’t too keen on was cleaning the bath afterwards because of the lavender but I dealt with that begrudgingly.

Recommended?

I liked this! Mind and body was felt at ease while using this so I enjoyed it. It wasn’t the most exciting bath bomb I’ve ever used but it did what I wanted it do do, it helped me to have a rested evening ready for bed! So if you love your bath bombs, you use bath salts and enjoy the idea of essential oils, this is for you. And don’t be put off with the lavender element as mentioned it doesn’t smell heavily of lavender but has the benefit of it containing lavender oil and the buds so double whammy.

Who this isn’t for are those people who want a magical bath art show. This doesn’t create one. You don’t like bits in your bath and you don’t want to clean anything up? This isn’t for you. And you want bubbles, foams and bucket loads of fizz, say no to this. But personally I would buy this again and I actually want to try out other products from this range too.

At the time of writing, this bath bomb is on a 3 for 2 deal at Superdrug. So if you fancy seeing if this could be your bath time tranquilizer, grab one here.

My 2022 Goals For Skincare, Body Care & Wax

Are we here yet? Yes we are! Hello January 2022! 2021 definitely was a year full of highs and lows for most people, but it’s fair to say it came and went quickly. Who knows what 2022 will bring. I can only hope it’s mostly good stuff. Personally, I could write about how I want to lose weight, go to the gym and eat more vegetables, but this isn’t THAT type of blog. So instead, I thought it would be good to think about some of the things I want to change or focus on, when it comes to skincare, bath, body products and even my beloved wax stash!

Sun Protection!

The sun doesn’t come out to play and cause damage to the skin just in the months between May – September. You can suffer from sun damage even when it’s cloudy and the sun isn’t beating down on your face. So I want to find and use a sunscreen designed for the face that protects me from the damage the sun can do to the skin, but also provide skincare benefits. AND leave no white caste on the skin. It needs to be affordable too. No point in finding a product which I love, it costs £20 a pop and then when it runs out I can’t afford to repurchase it.

I have a massive bottle of a spf50 sun cream at home which I use in the Summer but I want to use something for my face all year round. Why is this important? I want to look after my skin more. I’m not getting younger and I want my skin to be in the best possible shape it can be and this is step number 1. If you do anything to help your skin stay healthy and look good, protect it from the sun with the right sun protection. This is on my to buy list for 2022.

Buy Skincare Because It Targets A Problem Not Because It’s Pretty Or Appealing.

Oh this is a big one! I love skincare. I also love products with different textures, I l love nice packaging. So I will be honest. A lot of the time I buy something because I want it not because I need it. I’ve been lucky that my skin hasn’t had too many concerns so I can get away with trying different things and not needing particular things to help with xyz. But that’s not the case anymore, and I have issues I want resolving. So I need to focus on those and not have my head turned by a good deal, a brand or a new product if it doesn’t potentially offer a solution to a problem I suffer with.

If It Doesn’t Work, Bin It!

I know this seems so wasteful, but I have too many opened products floating around that I didn’t like or they didn’t work for me. So why are they still here? Unless it’s something that hasn’t been opened and used, or possibly the packaging means I haven’t touched the product, then I could pass it on to a friend. But for hygiene and space reasons BIN! I don’t want to open a museum or a chemist.

Stop Hoarding Get Using!

This goes for everything for me including skincare, body care, bath and shower products and worst of all wax melts! I couldn’t tell you how many body butters or lotions I have in drawers. And wax melts….oh my goodness lets not start there! The problem is you have, say, a box of wax melts. You buy a few more. Forget about the original ones. Get gifted some, buy some more and then you are overrun with them. Same with anything and everything. So use, use, and use some more.

Open More Open Boxes.

Just in case you didn’t know, there are quite a few small businesses who do something called an open box. Lots of wax vendors do this, and all it means is you can add to your order whenever and how often you like. Each time you add to the order you pay for whatever you’ve added. And when you are ready to have the whole lot shipped out, you close the open box by paying the postage and then it gets delivered. This is such a great way to ekk out purchases. It’s budget friendly, affordable and you can time your open box according to special occasions e.g birthday, special offers or sales.

So I know these don’t sound like the most exciting goals, but these should improve how much money is in my wallet, how much space I have in my home and the best possible products will be on my skin so better results. Not ground breaking, but practical, worthwhile AND achievable! Happy Goal Setting!

Christmas 2021 Bath Blaster & Soap Advent Calendar From Bomb Cosmetics

I think it’s safe to say we are all well and truly done with Christmas. For most it’s been a quiet one and hopefully a good one too. The aftermath of the weekend is still visible in my house. And when I can muster some strength I will perform some cleaning and storage magic to make it seem Christmas never existed. But not right now, too tired. While the memories are still fresh I thought I would finish off my thoughts on the second advent calendar I purchased for this Christmas. The first was from Fragrantasia, and the second one from Bomb Cosmetics.

Bomb Cosmetics Bath Blaster & Soap Advent Calendar.

I’ve never had a bath product based advent calendar before and considering how much I love my baths, I’m wondering why! So when I saw this pop up on Amazon I thought why not? Priced just over £10.00, it was very affordable and worth the risk of purchasing.

The Look.

Simple yet eye catching. I think its down to the bright almost purple pink colour of this which makes this pop. White detailing on each door finishes the look off. This would appeal to a younger market definitely.

What Did I Get?

24 doors with either mini soaps or bath blasters (bath bombs) behind them. Each piece different in regards to fragrance and/or look. The majority of scents these items had were what I would call normal and everyday with a few being more Christmas based. Things that were included were Jelly & Custard Bath Blaster, Electric Dreams Soap, Free Spirit Soap, Cotton Fresh Soap and Pineapple Expressed Bath Blaster.

The Soaps. All rectangular in shape, with some being slightly different sized than others. All semi translucent (except one), so you could see some form of shape/pattern in the middle of it. Different colours such as blue, pink, pale green, darker green etc, so these made them look fun and interesting.

Fragrance. All of the soaps had one thing in common when it came to how they smelt, they all smelt clean and fresh. Slight differences I could smell, such as one being citrusy with lime. One was a touch sweet and floral, one was fruity etc. All fragrances were pleasant, none were offensive and not powerful. But they did have enough strength for the fragrance to ‘be there’. I did feel the fragrances could have been more different and varied. After awhile they started to smell the same and didn’t stand out too much. Some warming or more festive fragrances would have been greatly received but there weren’t any.

In The Shower. In reality having 12 soaps in a calendar is hard to get through and quite wasteful if trying to use one a day. So many of these, if I’m honest, are still living in the calendar. What I have used still had the fragrance detectable in the shower. Lathering up could have been much better. I expected more lather and for it to be creamier but it wasn’t. Did it clean my skin? Yes. But I felt it left an almost film like layer on my skin which made me use a shower gel to rinse myself off.

Bath Blasters. All shaped the same which was a small and simple heart. All coloured differently e.g lilac, white, blue etc. But they were void of any other detail. No glitter, no shapes, nothing embossed.

Fragrance. There were a few that stood out to me such as the Fresh Berry Blaster. But if I’m honest I wish they were more fragrant. Considering how small and plain these were I needed them to wow me at least scent wise but overall they didn’t. They didn’t to be stronger and have a bigger identity to them.

In The Bath. These fizzed a little and barely coloured the bath water. There was hardly any fragrance. No bubbles either, which in fairness I didn’t expect anyway. The problem with these were they were so small they didn’t make an impact. I even threw in 3 or 4 at a time and although created a bigger fizz still left me underwhelmed. Did I enjoy using these in the bath? Not really. It added nothing to my bath experience unfortunately.

Would I Buy This in 2022?

No. I didn’t enjoy this enough to grab for next year. The soaps should have produced a nicer lather and my skin should have felt fresh. It did neither. The bath blasters should have been more fragrant and add something special to my bath, which it didn’t. To make this calendar better, I would include better quality soaps. The bath blasters I would not keep as simple and have them be a mini version of their usual bath blasters. These would normally contain shea and cocoa butter which are more moisturising. Or for more decadence, swap the blaster for their melts with a higher percentage of cocoa and shea butter. These don’t really fizz but they would envelope the skin in a light oily goodness which is bliss!

This might be an ok advent for someone younger. But for me who lives in the bath, it doesn’t quite hit the mark. Christmas 2022 the search is on for a different bath and body advent.

Christmas 2021 Wax Melt Advent Calendar From Fragrantasia

Christmas comes and goes in a blink of an eye. And then we all deal with the aftermath, right? Too much food and possibly too much drink. Parents walking on bits of Lego and the paper recycling bin overflows within 10 seconds. So as I throw out the last empty gift boxes and bags, it gives me a chance to reflect on the advent calendars I bought this year for myself. One by Fragrantasia which contained wax melts, and Bomb Cosmetics calendar which contained bath blasters and soaps. Were they any good? Something to repurchase next year? Let’s focus today on Fragrantasia’s Wax Melt Advent Calendar to find out the answer..

Fragrantasia’s Wax Melt Advent Calendar

This is the second year I’ve bought a wax melt advent calendar from this vendor. I enjoyed the first one and I didn’t hesitate to purchase this for 2021. As a wax melt lover I would be crazy not to purchase this type of advent as it’s my idea of home fragrance heaven!

The Look. Firstly, this is different to last years which is great. You don’t want a repetition of what you’ve had before. In keeping with the current craze for gonks (which this had on the front of it), it was cute in design, rectangular in shape and overall presented very well.

What did I get? 25 doors which held 25 wax melts behind them, with number 25 having an exceptionally big door which made me think how big IS this wax melt? Each wax melt was fragranced differently. At the time Fragrantasia had two advents available. One containing their best seller’s fragrance wise and the other falling into the more traditional side of Christmas or winter scents, with a few everyday loved fragrances thrown in to add to variety. I opted for the traditional version.

The Melts. I was super impressed with these. Size wise a touch bigger than last years so a substantial amount of wax. Perfect size to pop into a wax warmer, no more was needed. Day 25 wax melt though was different. It was as big as the palm of my hand which made it an even special wax melt to see and would provide hours and hours of fragrance. This made Christmas Day’s opening even more exciting! Each melt looked different whether that was in regards to colour, impressions on them or the addition of glitter and/or shapes. I loved this! It shows time and care put into the making of these which could easily have all been white and plain. Surely that would’ve been the easiest and quickest thing to do? But not as interesting on the eye for the opener.

Fragrance. I would love to list my favourites but genuinely I can’t remember all of them because there were loads! There was a mix of bakery based scents, floral, fruity, fresh and clean. What I noticed was there was no scent that was too much strength wise or too heady.

It’s hard to please everyone but I imagine most people would have liked the scents this contained because they were varied. Scents included were Let Them Eat Cake (LOVED this one!), Baby Powder, Snow Fae, Caramel Snowflake (oh loved this one too!), Avobath, First Snow and Purple Rain to name just a few. Out of all 25 scents there was only one I didn’t like, but it’s a scent I’ve never liked anyway to be honest. But the rest I enjoyed melting.

Longevity wise these lasted so long. I couldn’t melt them daily as they would last for hours. The fragrances filled the rooms they were in well and smelt fabulous. Each one had the perfect strength to them dependant on the type of fragrance family they belonged too. All were noticeable. Some became stronger as they melted, some were more BAM straight away! Performance wise all great in my opinion.

Would I buy this in 2022?

If Amy (the owner) makes these next year I’m putting my name on the list for sure! I enjoyed this so much. The quality was there in regards to look, fragrance and strength. This cost £25.00 but genuinely I think it was worth it. Only niggle I can think of was about the design of the calendar. It was very fiddly getting the wax out of each section. But that’s about the actual calendar structure itself not the wax, so hopefully something easier will be used next year.

Any wax melt fan needs one of these in their lives when it comes to the festive period. What I found was there are some scents I’ve never tried before and this was the perfect time to sample them, and now they are on my list to buy in a bigger form! If you want to try out wax from Fragrantasia, they are taking a well earned break now but will be back in January ready to service the fragrance needs of you wax lovers. Website is off at the moment, but you could always join their friendly Facebook group here where they share their daily melts.