Delilah Dust Jewellery

When I saw that Delilah Dust was having a sale on the Etsy shop, I had to go and have a look at what was on offer! There was so much to choose from but I had to limit myself (unfortunately) and I ended up buying three things. At only £2 each with free shipping, I could have easily spent a hell of a lot more. It has been a while since I've bought myself any jewellery and I wanted something fun and cute. I generally don't wear much jewellery but only because it is all back at my mum's house in Grimsby instead of here at university in Nottingham.

1. Long neck dinosaur necklace (silver)

2. Bee necklace (silver)

3. Arrow bracelet (gold)

I have to say, the long neck dinosaur necklace is by far my favourite and I can see me wearing it quite a lot. Unfortunately, the chain on the arrow bracelet is quite short and it seems that I have thick wrists so it only just fits. However, this will now be given to my 15 year old cousin for her upcoming birthday instead. It's a shame this didn't fit but at least it won't just sit in my jewellery box not being used. 

Even though these items were only £2 each, they are great quality and something I would definitely purchase if I saw them in a shop. While I probably won't be buying bracelets from Delilah Dust again, I will definitely be getting some more necklaces when I have some spare cash. 

If you want to visit Delilah Dust you can at:
www.delilah-dust.com
www.etsy.com/shop/DelilahDust

Paladone Soldier Egg Cup and Toast Cutter

My boyfriend loves his eggs in the morning and I wanted some fun things to buy him for Christmas. When I saw the Paladone Soldier Egg Cup and Toast Cutter on Amazon, I knew that I had to get it for him. At the minute, this can be found on Amazon for various prices ranging from £6-£8ish. For the price, this does make a nice little stocking filler and not just for a Christmas present. It would also do really well as a present for any occasion.

Paladone describe the product as: ‘This smart guardsman holds your egg under his hat and your spoon ready for action! There's also a clever toast cutter that literally makes soldiers to dip into the egg - yummy!’

The product comes in quite a nice display box. The box is made from cardboard and has the Union Jack flag printed on it. On the front, there is a large part of the box cut out and covered with plastic which makes it possible to see the product inside. On the left hand of the box, there is a picture of a soldier already cut out of bread being dipped into an egg. I really liked the packaging to this product as it was fun and bright, making it stand out.

Inside the box you get one egg cup in the shape of a soldier, along with a black hat for it. The soldier is also holding a small red spoon. Next to this is a red plastic template with the shapes of three soldiers cut out. The egg cup looks really nice and is super cute and this was something my boyfriend really appreciated. However, the egg cup is only big enough for either small or medium eggs and you will have trouble getting a large egg to fit in it well. The black hat also sits on well before you break the egg which helps to keep it warm.

The problem with this product comes with the soldier cutter. The cutter is made out of a really cheap plastic and the bottom side is not very sharp. We like to use quite thick bread for toast and it took some work to make this cut anything out of it. However, after a few attempts, we realised that if you really put some pressure on the cutter and wiggle it around a little bit, it cuts the toast much easier. As the cutting of the toast is not great, this would be a bit of a struggle for children to do on their own, and I’m sure that is who this product is aimed at.

Even with the problems that this product has, we both love it but mainly because it is so nice looking. 

Barry M Nail Paint - 273 Raspberry

Barry M is one of my favourite brands of nail polish and I always love buying more. One of my absolute favourite shades is the 273 Raspberry. Generally, these will set you back £2.99 in most shops like Boots or Superdrug but they are on offer quite often for 2 for £5 which I always like to take up.

273 Raspberry is a bright colour and as with all bright coloured nail polishes, it is advisable to use a base coat because strong colours can stain your nails. However, I have used this one with and without a base coat and luckily, this is a colour which does not stain your nails. Both with and without a base coat, you’ll need two coats of this colour to make it look nice and as it should.

The brush provided made this nail polish extremely easy to apply. Sometimes with cheaper brushes you can end up with brush marks or even some of the bristles falling off. Barry M nail polish provides a smooth application that looks flawless. I really don’t have a steady hand but I managed to not get any colour on the sides of my nails. The actual nail polish is quite thick but not to the point where it is overly gloopy. I think the thickness of the polish is just enough to give a nice finish on your nails.

This nail polish lasted a whole week with minimal chipping. However, when I say chipping, it was only on the top edges of my nails that started to come away but not much at all. After nearly 2 weeks of having this nail polish on, the completed look was near enough still intact with only a few small bits missing as I just explained. I didn’t use a top coat with this nail polish but I don’t think that would have made the colour last any better.

While Barry M nail polishes last really well time wise, they are also really easy to remove. As I said, no base coat was used but the majority of the colour came off with only one swipe of a cotton wool pad and some nail polish remover. I hate having to spend ages taking off a colour so this is another reason why I love this one so much. Also, unlike some other polishes, this one doesn’t smear the colour all over your fingers when you remove it.

Barry M 273 Raspberry is a colour I would buy over and over again when this bottle eventually runs out! 

Nails Inc. Warwick Way

I get really bored with having the same nail colour for too long so I tend to change it about once a week. Having been bought some amazing colours from Nails Inc. for Christmas, I decided to work my way through them before using anything else. Nails Inc. polishes are pretty expensive considering they’re £11 each for a single bottle so they’re not something I would buy myself very often. However, Nailsinc.com often have them on offer at 3 for £22 which is basically 3 for 2. This review is for Nails Inc. Warwick Way. The official Nails Inc. picture does not really do the colour of this polish justice though as you will soon.

All Nails Inc. nail polish bottles are exactly the same which is something I love about them. Although I have loads of different nail polishes, I can always pick out different brands due to their packaging. The bottle is quite small and made from glass while the lid is metallic silver. The bottle has on it the Nails Inc. logo along with London underneath which makes the bottle look quite plain. However, this makes it possible to really see the colour of the polish inside without it being covered up by silly lettering. The back of the bottle has on it the company address along with showing that there is 10ml of liquid inside. If you turn the bottle upside down, you can see the name of the nail polish on the underneath.

As I said earlier, the official picture makes this nail polish look as though it is a bright blue. It isn’t. Warwick Way is actually more of a teal/ green colour and not even anywhere else to blue. As I painted on the first coat, I could see just how thin the polish was, meaning it would definitely take 2 coats or more to fully cover my nails. The brush used with this nail polish is just like any other and generally takes 2-3 strokes to cover one nail which isn’t too bad. The first coat dried quite quickly meaning I could do the second one in only a few minutes. The second coat really made my nails look great and I decided I didn’t need a third coat after all.

What I love about this nail polish is that although it isn’t supposed to be a quick drying product, it does that anyway. Within 10 minutes my nails were perfectly dry and I could go about doing other things. Also, this is a really good nail polish in regards to chipping. My nail polish only began to chip at the very top after 4 days which for me, being on the laptop and working with a keyboard, was fantastic. Nails Inc. polishes are also easy to remove although some of the brighter colours may stain your hands a little if you don’t take it off carefully.

Although I do think this is an expensive nail polish, I love the colour and can’t wait to get back around to using it again! 

Wilko Sweet Shower Smoothie Vanilla & Honey

After Christmas, I treat myself to some more of the Wilko bath and shower range after liking everything I had bought so far. One product I bought was the Wilko Sweet Shower Smoothie Vanilla & Honey.

This shower smoothie comes in a squeezy tube made from a thin plastic. Some of the tube is clear while most of it is covered with a brown printed on label. The label has on it the Wilko logo, name of the product, ‘sweet’ in large lettering down the right hand side as well as a picture of honey and vanilla. At the bottom of the tube, there is a large black flip top cap which is where the product inside comes out of. Unfortunately, like other products in this range, I find the cap at the bottom quite hard to open, especially with wet hands in the shower. After opening for the first time, I tend to now leave these caps slightly open and don’t click them closed anymore. I wish the caps were a bit softer in their opening because it does hurt my fingers sometimes.

Although the packaging does warn this this is a ‘sweet’ product, I don’t think I was quite ready for just how sweet the scent is. When I first poured some of the smoothie onto my shower puff, the scent of the vanilla mixed with honey hit me immediately. The scent only got even sweeter as I mixed the smoothie with hot water. While I normally love anything with vanilla in it, this smoothie was just far too sweet for me and I actually can’t stand the smell of it. Even though this is a smoothie, a mixture of shower gel and a shower scrub, it still lathers up well on the shower puff. The smoothie does feel really good on my skin and because of the small scrubby bits, my skin feels smoother and buffed after using this.

As this is a Wilko product, it can only be found in stores or online. At the minute, these are on offer 2 for £1.50 or £1 each, which is why I stocked up on them. Even though the price is really good, I just can’t get over how sweet the smell of this shower smoothie is so I won’t be buying it again.  

Stackers Jewellery Box

It has been years since I’ve owned a proper jewellery box. Back at my Mum’s, most of my jewellery sits in the top section of a Beauty Box she won for me years ago. However, it’s massive and hard to carry around so I wanted something smaller and easier to use, and also something here in Nottingham. After browsing on Amazon for a while, and having seen these in John Lewis, I opted for a Stackers jewellery box.

Stackers make jewellery boxes in a slightly different way than others. Stackers sell their jewellery boxes in separates, meaning that you can either buy a whole set in one or buy piece by piece or only buying the trays that you need. The jewellery trays are available in a wide range of colours and styles so you can also mix and match if you want to.

I opted for the top lip section, as that obviously made more sense than buying a tray without a lid, in cream with a purple lining. This is a medium sized Stacker jewellery box measuring 25 x 18 x 3.5cm. This size is fantastic. Although it is not huge, it is also no way near small either. The box is made from synthetic cream leather, which feels soft to touch and looks nice from the outside. To open the box, there is a metal clasp which has the Stackers logo on it, which is fixed to the box with purple cotton.

This particular Stackers box has a purple cotton lining, which matches the material on the clasp. I love the colour of this purple and how it looks with the cream on the outside. The colours go really well together and I like this one much more than some of the other designs available. When you open the box, the lid stays up courtesy of one purple piece of material on the left hand side. Inside the box is the Stackers logo again, stitched onto the top part. This lid box has 7 different sections inside, making it possible to hold different kinds of jewellery. The other Stackers boxes generally have the same sized compartments in them e.g. one box for rings, one for necklaces etc. This one has two compartments large enough for necklaces, 5 which I think are best suited to bracelets and one for rings. This is perfect for me at the minute as I don’t have much of my jewellery in Nottingham.

I really love my new jewellery box and it is perfect for what I need it for. I can’t wait to start buying more layers to this though which I plan to do throughout the year. 

The Body Shop Green Apple Bath and Shower Gel

Although I normally only buy body butters from the Body Shop, during their recent sale I decided to try some other products seeing as the prices were so good. One product I bought was the Body Shop Green Apple Bath and Shower Gel. As this is a Body Shop product, it is only available in store or through the online shop.

The product in question comes in a 250ml plastic bottle which would normally set you back around £4. However, as this was in the sale, I got a bargain and only paid £1 for it. I would never have paid the full price for this due to the size of the bottle and I know that I could get a better deal on shower gels in a different shop. The bottle is mainly see through, making it possible to see the bright green colour of the product inside. The bottle has a dark green label on it, with white writing which explains what the product is. The bottle also has a black flip top lid which is how you squeeze the product out.

If I had been in a shop looking at this product, I doubt that I would have bought it. Firstly, as I said before, I wouldn’t have paid the full price. Secondly, the packaging is extremely boring and it wouldn’t stand out on a shelf at all. I think especially considering the price that you would normally pay for this, the packaging could have been even a little bit nicer.

This is a dual product, where you can use in both the shower and the bath although I have only ever used it in the shower. I’m sure it would have just the same effect in the bath though. As soon as you pop open the flip top lip, the sweet smell of apples comes through quickly. I use this product with one of those fluff ball things and when I begin to pour some liquid out onto it, I notice that the liquid is pretty runny. Because of this, quite a lot comes out at once which is unnecessary. The bright green liquid foams up easily on the fluff ball, which again means that you don’t need to use a lot.

The smell of this shower gel is lovely once wet and foamed up. The smell of apples quickly fills my bathroom and it stays there for quite some time. The shower gel also feels great on my skin, leaving it feel very refreshed and cleansed. While this shower gel doesn’t really moisturise or do anything other than clean your skin, it is still a lovely shower product. However, it isn’t nice enough to pay £4 for a normal sized bottle.