Jumping on the favourites bandwagon - July 2013 Favourites

I don't normally write about 'these are my favorites for this particular month' because it would imply I'd have to have liked and used something for the whole 30 days before I can tell you that I like it, I would rather tell you my favorites of the moment so this is a little mix of both. Some things I have liked all month, some things I have liked for years, some things I've liked since last week, but they're all worthy of a mention so here goes:

First of all, and a non-beauty favourite is Lana Del Rey and her album Born to Die. I am just obsessed with her, watching covers of her songs, watching live performances of her, interviews and everything else between. I just can't get enough of her album and it is all that I listen to!

The next, and a kind of 'beauty' favourite that has become a part of my routine is taking a Zinc supplement ever day, and a vitamin B12 supplement too. Zinc is great for immune system boosting properties, and I am prone to getting sick. Vitamin B12 is great for boosting energy!

Next up is my Boots 'Good things' face mask. Not only does it smell absolutely incredible, like a terrific real fruit smoothie, not synthetic fruit scents. But it has a clay texture which means that as it dries on the skin, you can see and feel the impurities being pulled from the skin, it's perfect for a clogged up T-zone

My Ocean Salt face scrub from Lush is my clarifying shampoo for my face. When I'm feeling thoroughly let down by my horrible, dull, blemished and oily skin. One dose of this has it sparkling looking fresh and feeling crisp and clean. It is very gritty, smells of the sea air and feels very 'real' like nature doing good things to your skin. (Not suitable for dry skin!)

Burts Bees hand cream is my old favourite. I still have 2 pots of the stuff in my backup stock. The isntructions suggest using it after every hand wash, but my skin is generaly very oily anyway, so I find it can take more than 30 minutes to skin in to my hands and sometimes elbows, so I prefer to use it before I go to sleep. More than the moisturising element is the sensational scent. It is mind blowing, cramy banana-vanilla amazingness, and one of my favourite scents in the entire world

This is a non beauty favorite but just the other day I caught my first episode Extreme Couponer and I had to pick my jaw up from the floor. Those couponers are amazing and now I always catch an episode when I have a few minutes getting ready or something. I did not know shopping like that existed although I did read somewhere that it is fake, but I hope not!

My mum got me a Hello Kitty pink fluffy Light up Pen which I now keep with my diary, and it has got me back into writing my diary on a regular basis again.

Bobby Brown Shimmer Bronzing brick in shade Bronze is my new bronzer of choice. I usually preach that good bronzers can only be matte but maybe I've been convinced otherwise by this one. It gives my skin a 'glowy' element rather than just contouring which I adore for the summertime.

Why I feel like an Eco-Queen

When I spotted the most wonderful hand cream in the world that I have ever known for a weeny bit cheaper on feelunique.com I ordered up.
If you were wondering what my favourite is, it is this:

Gosh darnit, the sweet banana smell and the only hand cream that doesnt leave my hands feeling sticky and like I need to wash them again, I love this hand cream but for me it is indulgent ranging between £8.50-£9.99 in price
Now that would be a good price if it was a big jar, but if you've never seen a jar of it before you won't be able to see from the picture but it is weeny!

If you've ever bought one of those 'Tiddly pots' from Hotel Chocolat, that's roughly the size I'm talking about.

Anywho, this box arrives at my front door and I have no idea what it is knowing full well they wouldnt use a box that big for a pot that little -You'll have to imagine because I already broke up the box-
But lo and behold, they DID

Sometimes things like that happen, and we'll say as a passing comment "Gosh, all that packaging for that" (especially in Easter eggs, they are the worst for too much packaging)

But this one time, I was brave and wrote an email to feelunique.com that went something like this:

Hi there,

I recieved my package today and in good time however, I was perplexed by the sheer volumes of packaging for my one tiny jar of hand cream. It was in a box that could have fitted seventeen more of it inside; my primary concern is with the environment but also that it cannot be a very cost effective way to package goods. I believe it should be made a priority to use smaller boxes for smaller orders.
Kind Regards


I got a response reallly soon after that looked a lot like this:

Click on the picture so that the words are big enough to read!

Okay, so it wins the award for the most generic email response ever- But I'm still glad that I emailed!Would I have been so fussy and annoying if it was a smaller company? No
Do I think we should all be doing this? Yes
Why? Because it took me all of two minutes, and it's not all jibberish what companies say, they really do want to keep the customer happy.
Is the environment their main concern? Probably not; but they are concerned about if we continue to shop with them and will do everything possible to ensure that we do.
Will my one email make a difference? No
Would it make a difference if we all wrote one every time we felt a company had gone overboard with the packaging? YES!

You know what to do!