When it comes to gift giving, there will always be at least one person we want to give something small and inexpensive to. Maybe a work colleague, Secret Santa, neighbour or teacher. Whoever it is, we want to be thoughtful, nice but not over the top. So is there anything available right now that could be bought to tick off the gift buying list that would be suitable for these recipients?
Sanctuary Spa Wellness Pillow Pack
Sanctuary Spa‘s Wellness Pillow Pack contains a sleep mist 75ml, body lotion 75ml and a salt scrub 60g. Lovely packaging, great full body care routine and perfect gift for someone who needs to relax. £2.99 fromHome Bargains. This retails in other places from £11.00.
Sanctuary Spa’s Wellness Pillow Pack
Nivea Feel Radiant Natural Radiance Gift Set
Nivea Feel Radiant Natural Radiance Gift Set contains 2 sheet masks and one jade facial roller. I’m not a massive Nivea fan when it comes to skincare but it’s a popular everyday brand which many people use and enjoy. I love the fact this gift set contains a facial tool and really gives the gift of pampering. £4.49 from Home Bargains.
Nivea’s Feel Radiant Natural Radiance Gift Set
Nivea Men’s Festive Skin Treats
This is one for the men, and contains a lip balm 4.8g, 3in1 shower gel 50ml and a creme for face and body 75ML. It’s a very simple and small set but a practical one. This is something someone could use everyday but this screams the perfect gift for a traveller because of the sizes. £2.75 from Home Bargains.
Nivea Men’s Festive Skin Treats Gift Set
Lacura’s Self Heating Chamomile Eye Mask
Aldi’sown range Lacura includes their Self Heating Chamomile Eye Masks. Boxed, contains 5 and these are designed to help with tiredness, eye strain and generally help with relaxation. £3.99.
Aldi’s Lacura Self Heating Chamomile Eye Mask
So, these were my latest finds instore for gifts costing under £5.00. These can either be small gifts, stocking fillers or placed together with other items to make one larger gift.
As a wax melt lover, I tend to purchase wax melts from wax vendors. These are small businesses who make and sell their own wax melts in various shapes, sizes and scents. But sometimes a girl just wants one piece of wax, not a selection, to grab and melt at home in the space of an hour. And that’s why I purchased a few Autumnal inspired wax melts from the high street recently. One of those wax melts was Wickford & Co’s Gingerbread from Home Bargains. This cost 79p for 88g.
Wickford & Co’s Gingerbread Scented Wax Melts
Why did I buy this?
Gingerbread as a fragrance is popular at this time of the year and flies off the shelf in Home Bargains in wax melt and candle form. But for some reason I’ve never actually tried it! I love this fragrance, I love wax melts and I love the 79p price tag so why have I not? Well, I have now…
Appearance & Packaging
Wickford & Co’s wax melt is segmented into 8 cubes which need to be broken off to use and pop into a wax warmer. It looks like a very chunky chocolate bar even more so with it being a dark caramel colour. Its all one block colour with no glitter, no design, nothing, just plain.
The wax is housed in a plastic casing which keeps it protected and easy to store away. The label itself looks very festive and inviting.
Fragrance
It smells of gingerbread definitely. You get the hit of ginger which is more bakery based rather than zingy fresh ginger, thanks to it’s sweetness and hints of spices and citrus. It’s a beautiful scent which isn’t too sweet and sickly and very comforting.
In melt
I only used one cube of this in my wax warmer and it melted away evenly and released fragrance straight away. I’m so used to my wax melts having a shimmer to them, or creating a beautiful wax pool, which this didn’t.
Strength & Longevity
The strength of this, one cube alone, I would say is on the verge of being strong. Strong not in an overpowering way but in an obvious, it’s there and cuts through other smells kind of way. I’ve had a leak through some new plaster work recently. It’s left a lingering damp, wet plaster smell which is very annoying! With this melting in the hallway I can barely smell it! Longevity is just as good as the strength. A few hours of melting and the strength and scent is exactly the same as when first put on.
Recommended?
I’m not ashamed to say I’m a bit of a wax melt snob and look down at wax melts that are sold cheaply on the high street. But it’s safe to say I’m much more open minded now because this is really good! Nicely packaged, good amount of wax to melt, great fragrance which is a punchy one and is cheap! So if you love your gingerbread fragrance this should definitely be purchased!
Autumn is my favourite season in the year. The best tv shows land ready for me to be glued to my remote control. The weather is the perfect combination, normally, of sun, mildness with a a hint of crispness to it. And it’s totally acceptable to hermit and start living under a cosy blanket which is the second skin of a sofa. BLISS! Another thing I love about this season is the various home fragrances available to use that match with this time of year. So I decided to grab three wax melts from three high street retailers that screamed Autumn. And these are what I bought:
This wax melt cost £1.00 for 35.4g (the smallest out of the three purchased). Packaged in a protective plastic clam casing (which they all are housed in) with the wax segmented into 6 pieces. I love the label on this. It depicts the fragrance well and shouts Autumn to me.
The fragrance is spicy, warming and does have a pumpkin element to it. Not too strong or sweet and very balanced. Pumpkin scents aren’t my usual go to but this one is really nice with the spices coming through gently.
This wax melt cost 79p for 88g (the cheapest out of the three purchased) which contains 8 cubes. The labelling, like Pacific Wax Co’s Pumpkin Spice, is cosy, easy on the eye and tells you what this is supposed to smell like from picture alone. When I think of THE Autumn/Winter scent it has to be Gingerbread!
This fragrance is a mix of ginger and some citrus notes to it. Warming but not spicy. This is mainly ginger for me but a bakery ginger not the spicy ginger. Great scent, just how I want a gingerbread piece of wax to smell like!
This wax melt cost £1.50 for 103.5g of wax which is the biggest in size, weight and cost of all three I bought. This is made up of 9 segments. I like the shape of this wax as it’s not square or rectangular, which gives it an interesting look. The labelling is beyond basic. No pictures, just the fragrance name. Strangely enough I’m fine with it because although this smells like an Autumn fragrance, it may be sold all year round so it can’t stand out seasonally.
Fragrance wise this comes across as quite a clean scent as it has powdery notes to it. A little woodiness comes through with the smallest hit of spice but barely there. I really like this one. Very unusual, I like the cleanness of this but could be spicier.
Restore Sandalwood, Cedar & Cardamom Wax Melts
Overall
Three differently sized, priced and fragranced wax melts which all tick the Autumn box! It’s nice to have three wax melts that smell differently but all give off a cosy feel in different ways. I can only assume all three are widely available from these stores and which ever one you chose won’t break the bank, and should provide a good number of hours of fragrance.
How skincare products are presented is important. The initial thought you have on how good or bad it will be can be based on how it’s packaged and how it looks. Sometimes products can look fun and not take themselves too seriously which sometimes puts me off because are they a gimmick or effective in use? Unsure as I was when I first saw Revolution Skincare London’s Watermelon Hydrating Undereye Patches on their website months ago, I still bought them when they were sat on a shelf inHome Bargainspriced at £1.99.
I love eye products. Anything to make this area of my face look more alive I’m going to purchase it. Revolutionare a brand I’m familiar with. Although I wouldn’t buy these at full price this was a steal for 60 undereye patches (30 pairs in total). Even if these were more of a gimmick it was affordable and would at least be used by my daughter if not by me, so I couldn’t lose.
What are these designed to do?
Revolution Skincare London’s Watermelon Hydrating Undereye Patches are designed to…hydrate the undereye area! On the website that’s the only thing it’s listed to do.
Packaging
Revolution Skincare London’s Watermelon Hydrating Under Eye Patches come in a screw topped plastic pot. Taking the lid off, there is a secondary covering which keeps the patches nice and safe and attached on the top are a small pair of tweezers to help take them out. The packaging is practical and quite eye catching thanks to the lid having a watermelon look to it.
How do these undereye patches look?
These are typical undereye patch shaped. Jelly like in look and feel and red in colour with black dots on them looking like the flesh of a seeded watermelon. It’s fun, it’s interesting to look at but doesn’t scream serious skincare to me and geared more towards a younger market.
Fragrance
I expected these to have a fruity fragrance to them but there was no such scent. In fact, there was no clear fragrance to these at all.
How did they perform?
In the pot these under eye patches were swimming in some form of pinky/red solution/serum. Not too sure whether I liked that or not (the colour of it) but at least they were hydrated. I found them a little fiddly to get out of the pot even with the tweezers. Placing these on the skin they needed a little adjusting but stayed where they were the majority of the time. They were reasonably comfortable to wear but I wished they were more cooling.
Hold these patches in the wrong way and they can tear. This happened a few times but they were still useable. Taking them off my skin, the serum they were soaked in did leave my undereyes moisturised but could have been a lot more to be honest. They didn’t feel massively more hydrated or better in look than before using these.
My daughter
My 12 year loves these! She would use them everyday if she could. It’s a form of pampering for her which is easy, looks good and probably makes her feel grown up too. So no complaints from her.
Recommended?
I can see the appeal of this product. In my opinion it’s for a younger market because of it’s packaging and how the actual patches look. Not to mention these aren’t the most hard working undereye patches I’ve ever used. So for those who want a bit of fun and pampering these will do that, but would suggest to buy these while on sale and not at full price (currently £15.00 on Revolution’s website). Personally I wouldn’t buy these again for myself. They needed to be more hydrating, more cooling on my undereye area and thicker or constructed better. I’ve used better undereye patches and found these were just ok and nothing special, but still a great price at £1.99 though.
