Decadent Saturday bathtime, courtesy of my new Beauteco box (Pukka Ayurveda and Neal & Wolf reviews)

First up - July's Beauteco box came a few days ago. I had been looking forwards to it as this is the one of the 3 boxes that I am subscribed to that you can choose from a menu of 3 from in their boutique. I knew what I was getting and was saving this one for the perfect occasion which presented itself to me today.

First up - here it is! 

Lovely sturdy packaging which (with the help of scissors and a little bit of patience I managed to get into in ohh, about 3 seconds flat.

Ahh, this one isn't a "box in a box" - it is just in the box. I quite like this idea as it cuts down on the overall packaging. Not complaining about the others, but this one doesn't leave you with the quandary of having to throw away pretty boxes at some point! 

Here is what I was greeted with, and I actually thought something had split in the box as it smelled so good, but no, everything was intact. So, onto the products.:-

Here is the first of the products that I pulled out of the box - a 3 part sample of the French company Acorelle's day cream, night cream and serum. Here is the day cream, which remains intact currently. I am looking forwards to using it very much soon but decided to try some other products in the box first.

Acorelle's night cream..

And their serum. As Beauteco seem to be having problems with their website currently, these products can be found here. I really am looking forwards to road testing these products as they seem absolutely gorgeous. These, however, weren't the products that I was going to be using today.

The last couple of days have been quite tiring given that I have lost count of the amount of seizures that I have had, so here comes the decadent bathtime! I ran my bath, grabbed a hot chocolate (yes, I know it is August but if I don't have a hot choccy in the bath it just doesn't feel right and got the Kindle fired up with Philip K. Dick's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (the short story that Total Recall is based on) on the speech function so I could lie back and relax. The first thing I did was give my face a good old cleanse, and for this, I used the Pukka Ayurveda cleanser (their website is here). It is rather thin, as you pop it onto your face and massage it in gently before rinsing. I have to be honest, I am not entirely sure how I feel about this as I am used to Pond's Cold Cream and using cotton wool to remove it so I can actually see what is coming off but went for it never the less. 

I was very glad I did as when I had used some French rose water to tone before using the moisturiser, there wasn't a trace on the cotton wool pad. The moisturiser was a lovely consistency and as per the instructions, a berry sized blob did my whole face and neck.

It went on really well and didn't leave my skin feeling greasy in the least (I have normal to dry skin). The one thing that I didn't like at all was the smell. I genuinely can't put my finger on it but it just smelled awful. Fortunately the smell wore off after about half an hour, and the moisturiser is still doing its thing 6 hours later but the smell? I am afraid it really has put me off completely. 

Never mind, I was then in the bath listening to my book, lying back with a rather nice Yankee candle by then, with a couple of drops of extra virgin olive oil in the bath. I know it is very old fashioned to do so, but it is one of the few things that really works for my skin on my arms and legs as they both get incredibly dry due to the combination drug therapy I am on. Ahh, this is about my gorgeous things from my Beauteco box, so first up, after shampoo, was the Neal and Wolf intensive hair treatment (their website is here). I had used baby shampoo as I wanted to see how well this fared. 

Wow, this treatment is very thick in consistency. It smells of almonds, but not quite as strong as marzipan. I needed quite a lot as I have long hair (about 3/4 of the way down my back) but it was so lovely to apply, and I left it for the required 3 to 5 minutes. Well, 5 minutes as I got carried away listening! 

It rinsed so easily, but I wasn't entirely sure as my hair still felt quite dry to me. My hair is frizzy and is always dry. I remember when I was at boarding school we all used to use the "mayonnaise in your hair" thing that really did use, but stank the place out! 

So, hair all towel dried, I applied their volumising lotion. I know it sounds mad to do so given that I have frizzy hair but it is thin due to having had radiotherapy 4 years ago. I used to have a full head of thick curls. Now I have half a head full of frizz! This smelled absolutely divine again - similar notes to the previous product, but with a little vanilla smell to it as well. It might sound sickly, but it is really subtle. A little of the lotion went a very long way, so I would think the best way to ensure thorough application would be to use it as you would a hair oil - i.e. by putting it on your hands, rubbing them together and then spreading it round your hair that way.

After sorting out my body moisturiser with my trusty Bottle o'butter it was time to blow dry my hair. I don't dry it straight very often - most of the time I just let it dry naturally but I do like it straight once in a while so let loose with the dryer.

The result? Thrilled. Absolutely thrilled. I was absolutely unconvinced that my hair was going to do anything other than stick out all over the place as it normally does but nope - I have shiny, poker straight hair. It doesn't feel heavy or greasy on my hair either (I fell out of love with Frizz Ease over how greasy my hair felt even if I used the smallest amount). I went outside to see my husband and even he noticed how nice it looked. This off the man who took 5 days to notice I had bangs cut in my hair 3 weeks before our wedding.

All in all - I now have gorgeous glossy hair, with added volume as promised without it feeling greasy. I also have a really clean and soft face but was genuinely put off by the smell of the moisturiser which is a shame. 

So there we have it - my honest review of a couple of things from my July Beauteco box. As today is about as far away from a makeup day as you can get I haven't even thought about the eyeliner, nor am I going to be able to as my daughter has swiped it before she went to work this morning. She has, however, promised me that she will let me know how it stands up to a day of her working in the kitchen in the diner she works at.

Would really love to hear anyone else's views on any of the products that I have tried today.

Hope you all have a great weekend

xoxox

A beauty find by D all on my own... Red Fox's Bottle o'Butter.

Both my gorgeous daughter F and myself have keratosis pilaris . With me, it has mellowed with age but F's is really bad at the moment (she is 17). To cap it all, we are mixed race which doesn't help either when looking for a good moisurizer.


I have been using E45 for years and I still have it but I am sure it is age that has made it soften. F has had all sorts of things off the GP for hers - none of which have worked.

As I don't want this just to be a "Ooh, what is in my Birchbox and Glossybox" type blog, both myself and my daughter will be looking at and looking for alternative stuff for us to use for varying things that affect both of us.


F has great skin but with tons of freckles. Although we are mixed race, there is more white in our skin tone, both of us having freckles. She has excessively curly dark blonde hair and I used to have the same but in red until I had radiotherapy 4 years ago. Now I have very thin dark red hair. Unfortunately for me, the long wanted poker straight hair still eludes me, it is a mass of frizz. My great, great grandmother's DNA shows itself in our body shapes and in a couple of medical ways.

Anyway - onto my personal beauty find! Nothing, and I mean absolutely NOTHING keeps my skin hydrated all day. I am on combination drug therapy and it wreaks havoc with my skin. I had been looking everywhere and trying all sorts to get that "24 hour" moisturizer.


I had been reading a beauty blog (should have bookmarked it instead of scribbling down the name of the produce) and wish I could link it up for you as it really is a great blog (and this is my first one). The lady writing the blog had keratosis pilaris and swore by Red Fox's Bottle 'o butter. I shuffled off to Amazon to buy some and it arrived last week.


First up, it came really quickly. In a plain old cardboard box. The packaging of the product had me in stitches. I paid £3.49 for 473ml (16 fl oz) and I think it shows that the money goes into the product, not the packaging. It is a bright yellow "bottle" with red and dark brown writing on it. I will take a picture when my husband gets up and post it up but if I start taking pics of moisturizer bottles and popping them on a blog he will think I am more insane than he already does. 

(Here is said picture - done after the weekly shop, the washing. You get the picture (no pun intended))



Onto the actual contents. First up, if you are a vegan then this isn't the product for you as it contains lanolin. Other than that, it is just the usual suspect with a couple of extras.

It smells absolutely gorgeous, very much like the Body Shop's "cocoa butter body butter" which is on sale at the moment on their website at £6.00 (down from £13 which is why I stopped using it years ago). I need to do my beauty on a budget and being a Mum of 4 (we have 3 boys along with my gorgeous F).

One thing that really surprised me is that if you are looking at something to throw on your skin and just 2 minutes later be ready to get dressed and go - this isn't going to work for you. If you want that 24 hour moisturisation you are damn well going to have to work with it with this stuff! It has to be really worked into the body and after a bit of trial and error, straight out of the shower is the best time for me. Normally my skin will suck up anything vaguely moisturising really quickly but not with this.

I genuinely felt a bit deflated after spending a good 10 minutes on moisturising myself but after about 6 hours it felt just the same as it did after I had done it. There is no "tackiness" to it at all either. 12 hours later, just the same. By the time I went for my shower the next day I am sure my skin was just as hydrated as it was after I had put my first lot on the day before. Needless to say - I have bought more, much much more!

I get quite ashy skin and this totally got rid of it. I am completely surprised and thrilled. If anyone else has used it, I would love to hear about what you think. I will update this post with pictures when the other half wakes up too.