June Lust List

I think I have a spending problem.  Every month, usually the last week or two before pay day, I start looking for things that I want to treat myself to when I get paid.  Before you know it, I’ve managed to total up about £80 worth of goodies – and then I wonder why the hell I have no cash the week before payday every month!  I work hard (most of the time) and I don’t often buy myself fancy and flashy treats – so when I do feel like I need a treat, I normally find some way of justifying it.  This month, there are a few goodies that I hope to be able to pick up at some point or another throughout June:

Beanies Coffee – last month they released another brand new flavour.  Cookie Dough.  That’s right – c o o k i e d o u g h !  Right now, they have a special offer on that gives you three jars for a tenner and free delivery.  A jar of cookie dough, coconut delight and chocolate orange have managed to cement a spot in my luxury spending already – as I type I have already placed all three in my online basket.  Sue me.

Body Shop – I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity at the beginning of the year to try out a number of the Body Shop products courtesy of an old friend.  Alongside her generosity, she also gifted me a hand cream set and some gorgeous body washes too.  I’ve finally gotten round to using them, and they are all absolutely divine.  The Body Shop have a fab offer on right now that gives you a free gift and 30% off when you spend just £10!  There are a couple of goodies that I have had my eye on for some time now, so watch this space – if funding allows then there may be a cheeky purchase this month.  Or five.

Littles Coffee – After reviewing the vanilla flavour last week, and admiring all of their other great flavours that they now stock online – I’ve decided that you really cannot ever have too much coffee.  The mix and match box takes my fancy as you can pick the six coffees that you want for just £15 – yay!  I’m thinking that one might just have to be purchased sometime in the near future.  Spicy Cardamom, Coconut Island and Maple Walnut are the ones that I’m totally lusting over right now.

Cruelty Free Make-up – I’ve made the decision to make a conscious effort going forward to ensure that all of my cosmetics are going to be cruelty free from now on.  I became a vegetarian last October, and I’m actually pretty disturbed to find that a lot of the brands I have been using are not vegetarian friendly *cries*.  I’ve been doing a lot of research online, and with the help of a few folks, I think I’ve found a few brands that I’m really keen to try out – B. from Superdrug being a top priority!

What have you got on your eyes on this month?

Until the next one,

Littles Flavored Coffee

We all know that I’m mad about coffee.  It’s my fuel – I need it.  So when it was brought to my attention that Holland and Barret were going to be stocking Littles coffee, I was over the moon!  My parents treated me to a lovely selection of their coffees over Christmas and they were absolutely delightful.  As there is not a Waitross in Aberdeen, I’ve had no way of picking up any new flavours to try out, other than ordering online.  Nobody likes to wait for things to come in the post, so being able to restock every time I’m in town is something to smile about.

I’ve always been a lover of flavoured coffees – Beanies having always been my favourite.  However I’m very pleased to report that Littles are a very strong contender for first place now.

My trip to Holland and Barrett consisted of a jar of the Swiss French Vanilla Infused Coffee – which is absolutely delicious.  When you open the jar you get a very strong scent of vanilla – but what I really like is that you can still smell the coffee too.  Sometimes vanilla can over power the scent of everything – but this is not the case here.  Littles – you got it perfect!  Another thing that really pleases me was that you’re not left with a bitter or over powering taste at the bottom of your mug – which again can happen with some flavoured coffees.  Littles Swiss Vanilla provides you with a lovely mug of fuel, with an amazing aroma and smooth tasting coffee from start to finish! 

Holland and Barrett currently have them priced at just £2.99 a jar – which is a really great price for such a high quality product and a decent quantity too.  You can also pick up the Swiss Chocolate Infused coffee from H&B too – which I would also highly recommend.

My favourites so far have been the Vanilla, Chocolate Orange and Café Amaretto – however I have also had the pleasure of enjoying the Chocolate Caramel and Irish Cream too.  I currently have a jar of the Havana Rum flavour – which I am currently trying to decide if I love it… or if it is just a little bit too outside of my coffee comfort zone.  Give me another mug or two to decide, I’ll let you know later my verdict!
And if you're not yet convinced by these gems, Littles use natural flavours to create their beautiful coffees - making them perfect for those of us who are trying to watch what we are putting into our bodies.  These are great for sorting out a sweet tooth too, if you're trying to be good! 

I’m really looking forward to treating myself to their Island Coconut, Maple Walnut and Spicy Cardamom flavours soon – they are a top priority on my must buy list for next month!  Who knows, I’ll maybe even treat myself to a mix and match box too!
If you fancy trying out any of the Littles range, you can find them here at: https://www.wearelittles.com/product-category/infused-instant-coffees/
With such a wide variety of flavours to choose from - I'm sure that there will be one for everyone!

Have you tried out any of the Littles range?  Let me know what your favourite is below!

Until the next one,

Grounded Coffee Body Scrub

This week I received a lovely little packet of the new Grounded Coffee Body Scrub in the post after I signed up for a product tester sample a few weeks back.  I was delighted to find that they had sent me a sample of the Chocolate Orange scrub, as chocolate orange is my all-time favourite flavour/scent.  Chocolate orange chocolate, chocolate orange candles, chocolate orange Beanies, you name it, I’ve probably had it.  I have read a lot of good things about the Coconut Grounded Scrub, as that one was specifically designed to cater for eczema prone skin, however seeing as my flare up has calmed down after a trip to the docs and a nutritionist (more to follow later) – I was still keen to give myself a good scrubbing with this bad boy!

The Chocolate Orange Scrub smells absolutely delicious before you even open up the pack, surprisingly stronger notes of chocolate orange rather than coffee itself.  Upon opening, the scrub was extra fine coffee graduals, which I was absolutely delighted to find as I knew that it wouldn’t be too harsh on my skin. This scrub is packed with lots of anti-oxidants too which helps the skin to restore itself, which is perfect for my skin right now as it is recovering from a breakout. 

On reading the packet prior to use, I noticed that it was advised to use a generous amount, scrub in circular motions for several minutes and then leave on for approx. ten minutes for best results.  I’m not crazy about the whole jumping in the shower, applying a product and then jumping back out of the shower to chill thing.  It’s cold out there.  I dry up like a prune.  I don’t enjoy it.  I think I managed about five minutes before I gave up, long enough to take a semi decent photograph anyways.  The results were still great none the less.  I used around half of this sample pack on the first use, as I found that a little went a long way with the scrub.  Although very loose and messy, I didn’t think that there was a lot of wastage as I applied it, which of course is great news!  The scrub kind of sticks to your skin when it’s wet, making it easier to apply evenly too.  After rubbing in the scrub, I washed my hands of the excess coffee and jumped out the shower for the five minutes.  My hands felt amazingly smooth straight away, which I guess would make sense because scrubbing away at my hands isn’t something that I do very often, if ever really. 

Five minutes later, I got back in the shower and washed away the excess scrub from myself, which actually wasn’t as messy as I thought it was going to be.  It pretty much washed away with next to no effort, leaving behind fresh and super smooth buffed skin!  The scent of the chocolate orange didn’t stick around much longer after this point, but as the scent was so prominent at the time of use, I guess we can let them off!

Grounded Coffee Scrubs now retail in Boots stores for £15 a bag, which from what I’ve seen is definitely a bargain for your money!  The sample pack that I received was enough for two decent uses, and the standard bags contain a LOT more.  I think I’ll be treating myself to the Coconut scrub sometime in the near future!

Have you tried out any of the Grounded range yet? 

Until the next one,

Lush Cup O’ Coffee Facemask

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I am a self-confessed coffee addict.  I love everything about it – the look, the smell, the taste.  Everything.  So it shouldn’t really come as a surprise when I say that after discovering that Lush had a self-preserved coffee based facemask on sale – I put it to the top of my Lush hit list.  It took a couple of trips into town to get my purchase, as it would appear that this particular mask is a popular one in Aberdeen.  I can totally see why now, as this is my absolute new favourite Lush mask! 

Cup O’ Coffee is the mask that you need in your life if you like to exfoliate like me! I feel a need to give my face a good scrubbing when I wash it (you can read about a really good exfoliating cleanser by clicking here), and so anytime that I do use a facemask – I tend to give my face a scrub with an alternative product after… just for good measure.  The ground up coffee beans used in this mask are just perfect for this, as the particles are so, so fine that you can safely scrub away at your skin without having to worry about actually causing it any harm.

Cup O’ Coffee comes in one of Lush’s little black pots, and when you open it up you get the sweet aroma of freshly brewed coffee.  The mixture is light brown in colour, and is really runny and wet when in the tub.  When you scoop the mask out to apply to your face, it’s a really sticky constituency – but yet is super easy to smooth across your face.  What I really like about applying it is that you can give your skin as scrub as you apply it.  I like to use a semi generous amount over my face and leave it on anywhere between 10-25 minutes at a time.  This mask doesn’t dry or harden as you wear it, which is great because it makes it so much easier to wash off.  When I’ve given my skin its coffee fix, I use some warm water to rinse it off, scrubbing as I go to give my skin a really good exfoliation.  After use, my skin looks as though it’s just been given a new lease of life!   Sometimes I swear its glowing.  It also makes my skin  feel really smooth and clean – especially around my nose where I tend to get the blackhead breakouts. 

This mask is priced at just £6.75 for 150g (just like Mask of Magminty, which you can read about further down!), which is a total bargain for the quality of the product you are getting.  I picked up my tub of Cup O’ Coffee back in January and have only now just finished it back in  March – so for three months’ worth of facemask, I’m definitely not going to complain!  I’m looking forward to my next pay day treats, so I can stock up on another tub of this god send, as well as some other cheeky treats!

Have you tried out any of the Lush self-preserved face masks yet?

Until the next one,

Lauren x

Dolce Gusto Coffee Machine

This Christmas past, I was very undecided as to what I wanted from my parents – and so I asked them to surprise me!  Needless to say, I was absolutely delighted when I opened up my Dolce Gusto Coffee Machine on Christmas morning. 

The machine itself is perfect in size, it’s slightly larger than a kettle, yet small enough that you can leave it sitting on the counter all of the time.  It’s really simple and totally safe – which makes me happy as I can be very clumsy sometimes.  With this machine, I’m not at all worried about scolding myself… which is always a bonus!

To use, you fill up the water tank on the back of the machine to the maximum point – which I have found gives me a decent sized drink with every make.  Next, you press the on button on the side and wait for it to turn green, which only takes about 15 seconds to do so.  Finally, you pick your pods – one drink normally takes two pods (one for the coffee/tea and one for the milk) depending on what it is that you are making.  Pop in your pod, wait for the cup to fill up about half way, swap it over for the milk pod and hey presto - you did it!  You really couldn’t get a simpler coffee machine if you tried.

Mocha anyone?

My parents spoilt me this year with a variety of different coffee pods to try out straight away, which consisted of caramel mocha, regular mocha and vanilla macchiato.  However when I went to register my machine to activate the guarantee, this qualified me for an extra £10 credit to my account.  With the free credit burning a hole in my pocket and an extra £10 cash to spare, I went ahead and ordered a variety of drinks including: 1 x caramel macchiato, 1 x mocha, 1 x vanilla macchiato, 1 x caramel mocha and 1 x chai tea latte.  Each and every single one of these drinks have been absolutely delicious. I love how professional each drink looks and tastes – even watching it brewing from the two pods is mesmerizing. 

Each box contains 8 drinks, which is pretty good value at £4 when you take into consideration the amount that you can spend on just one drink at Starbucks and Costa (… I’m still guilty of this though!)  You can pick up the pods at most major supermarkets at the moment, however if you’re looking for a large selection to choose from – I recommend ordering direct from the Dolce Gusto website, as they have all their drinks listed and delivery is free!

I’m really looking forward to trying out the other varieties of drinks available for my Dolce Gusto machine, especially the cold brewed ones, as I am yet to experiment with these.

Have you tried any of the Dolce Gusto range?

Until the next one,

Lauren x