Tag: product review

Exfoliating With Procoal Face Scrub

Health and Beauty / 5 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I’ve been exfoliating with Procoal activated charcoal face scrub over the last few weeks. I received a full sample to review. Procoal have created an ethical-made range of skin care products. Procoal is against animal testing and most ingredients used are naturally derived such as charcoal and essential oils.

Exfoliating With Procoal

Exfoliating 

Exfoliating removes dead skin cells from the top later of your skin. We naturally shed dead skin cells every 30 days so new skin cells can take their place. Whilst the majority of dead skin cells will fall off naturally, some don’t shed perfectly from the skin. This can leave dry, flaky patches on your skin which can clog your pores too. Exfoliating helps prevent this and should be an important part of your skincare routine.

Procoal Activated Charcoal Face Scrub

The Procoal activated charcoal face scrub is expertly developed in the UK. This exfoliating face scrub uses specially selected active constituents to remove impurities, oxidised sebum and contaminants. This gives a purified, cleansed and invigorated complexion. This face scrub uses Allantoin which encourages natural skin exfoliation. Calendula oil, recognised for restoring the skin’s natural water balance is also used. The activated Charcoal helps to clear deep-seated pores, removing pollutants to purify your complexion.

My Thoughts

Anyone that knows me will know my skin is awful! I’ve tried loads of different face scrubs, washes, creams and masks over the years to try and tame my face. Unfortunately, due to having eczema, a lot of products really irritate my skin. I am pleasantly surprised that the Procoal face scrub doesn’t irritate my skin at all!

Applying Procoal Face Scrub

As you apply the face scrub, you can see the charcoal breaking down as you can see above. (Apologies for the quality, it was late at night!) After rinsing it off you can genuinely feel a difference. Unlike other scrubs I’ve used, my face felt really clean and soft, no tightness afterwards which I usually have.

Results

After a few weeks of trying out Procoal 1 to 3 times per week, my skin is slowly looking much healthier! Procoal’s site does state it can take 6-8 weeks to see a real difference though. By now I have usually given up due to poor results but I can see me finishing this tube. It is on the pricier side for me but the results are undeniable so I probably would buy this again. I’m quite lazy with my skincare routine, however, I’ve managed to remember every few days to use the face scrub. I have been doing this as part of my self-care routine. Overall I am pleased with the Procoal exfoliating face scrub and definitely recommend giving it a go.

Do you use exfoliating face scrubs?

Lucy Locket’s Wooden Fairytale Tea Set Inspiring Imaginations

Product Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We received an absolutely gorgeous Wooden Fairytale Tea Set to review from Lucy Locket. The tea set includes 12 pieces, 2 are gorgeous glittery cakes! I opened the outer packaging & the pink tissue paper wrapped around the box peaked Izzy’s interested immediately. Izzy was so excited when I told her she could open it.

Lucy Locket Wooden Fairytale Ta Set

Izzy unwrapped the wooden tea set, each piece carefully wrapped in paper to keep it safe. Each piece is carefully hand painted with beautiful fairies, magical creatures & flowers with a touch of glitter. I absolutely love the designs, especially the tray and Teapot!

The Wooden Fairytale Tea Set includes:Wooden Fairytale Tea set

  • 1 x Tea tray
  • 2 x Cups
  • 2 x Saucers
  • 1x Teapot
  • 1 x Teapot lid
  • 1x Milk jug
  • 2 x Tea spoons
  • 2 x Glittery cakes

 

 

Wooden Fairytale Teapot

After unwrapping all the pieces, Izzy got to work setting up the tea set, placing cups on saucers etc. Even Izzy pointed out the beautiful fairy designs and ‘sparkle’ as she busied herself. A cup of tea was poured for me & a cup of coffee for her daddy whilst keeping the cake closely guarded next to her haha!

Tea set

Izzy loves playing with the tea set and spends a good half an hour repeatedly pouring teas & coffees whilst explaining what she is doing. Eva & Izzy both enjoy having tea parties together so Izzy couldn’t wait for Eva to come home & play too.

When Eva got home both girls decided they needed to dress up as princesses & have a tea party. They both took turns pouring tea & milk & then stirring their cups of tea, happily talking as they went. Eva told anyone and everyone all about the Fairytale Tea Set the next day!

I am really impressed with the quality of the tea set, the wood is thick & strong and so beautifully decorated that any little one would love this Fairytale Tea Set.

At just £24 with free post & packaging (on orders over £20) this gorgeous Wooden Fairytale Tea Set would make the perfect gift! Lucy Locket offer a range of stunning dress up costumes and wooden toys. Perfect for encouraging kids to use their imaginations through pretend play.

Cbeebies Magazine – Learning & Colouring Fun Together 

christmas / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Cbeebies magazineIzzy loves Cbeebies and was ecstatic to receive a copy of the magazine for us to take a look at together. We received the big colouring pack edition which was an added bonus for Izzy as she absolutely loves colouring!

She was really excited about having her own special crayons, pens & felt tips and couldn’t wait to get them off and open the magazine. Of course she was more than happy to pose and show off her magazine first.

Izzy concentrating

 

 

Izzy flicked through the pages and was so happy to see almost every page had something to colour in! She went back to the first page to colour Bing a present.

Bing is her FAVOURITE character on Cbeebies and she loves flop too so she tried so hard to stay in the lines.. Not too bad for a 2 year old! We were both really pleased with her efforts and there was plenty of praise for her.

 

 

Concentrating

 

Of course we then had to colour in the big Bing picture too. Izzy decided Mummy had to join in aswell.. Although as always she had to be a little bit awkward so this time she was wayyyy over the lines but we had fun. Check us out concentrating really hard on our colouring!

 

Bing

Gingerbread Man

 

Next we moved on to some of the activities like this Topsy and Tim one. Although she can’t quite write yet Iread Izzy the questions. She was really pleased to get them right and add the relevant stickers too.

The activities throughout the magazine were really fun and even at Izzy’s age the activities are doable with a little extra help. This magazine is brilliant for improving fine motor skills with colouring and sticking amongst other things.

 

There’s a brilliant Peter Rabbit workbook in the middle which Izzy decided to colour in but would have been great for a slightly older child. I do enjoy buying magazines Izzy will actually enjoy with lots of activities too so I’ll definitely buy it in future for her. Izzy absolutely loved The Furchester Hotel activity though. Finding Isabel and decorating the Christmas tree with stickers. It’s always lovely to see a toddler having fun and concentrating at the same time!

The Furchester Hotel

The Cbeebies magazine gave me and Izzy something to sit down and do together during a very hectic month. I have to say it’s been a great distraction for both of us. Magazines are usually a rare treat as generally they don’t have much in them. The girls are usually bored in minutes in all honesty. However Izzy has spent a few days colouring in some more and getting Eva to read the stories to her. I’ll be buying the next issue for to keep us busy on days Eva is at school.

You can buy a Cbeebies Magazine too in your local newsagents & supermarkets.

*I received this item in return for my honest review.

Mobicip Safeguarding Children Online

Apps / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Mobicip is an amazing way of safeguarding children on-line and filtering the content they see with parental controls for Phones, Tablets & Computers. Let’s face it most kid’s these days either have access to a Computer/Laptop/Tablet or Smart phone and my girls are no different.

I was offered a chance to try Mobicip premium for a year in exchange for an honest review and so far I absolutely love it! Premium protects 5 devices and so far I’ve used it on two. Eva has had a tablet since she was 3 as a Christmas present and she still has the same one 3 year’s later which Izzy also uses. They fight occasionally so Izzy has asked Santa to bring her a Tablet this year (a white one with a red book (case) if you were wondering!).

Trying it out..

I signed up and downloaded the Mobicip Monitoring App for parents. Then I downloaded the Mobicip Safety Browser on to the girls tablets. The Monitoring app allows you to view the devices and name them to make it easier to see which device is which. Filters can be set as Mature, Moderate, Strict or Monitor. You can monitor which apps are downloaded and the prices & ratings of each app. Without touching the devices you can view the browsing history too. Kids can also request to view certain sites too which you can accept or not.

With both of them having separate tablets it would be difficult to constantly keep an eye on what they are doing. Knowing how safe and age appropriate the content they are accessing is extremely important to me and many other parents. You can’t watch them constantly so Mobicip helps filter what they access. You can edit filters to block specific content too.

Another feature I really quite like is being able to block internet access at certain times. Say Eva is supposed to be getting dressed but tries sneakily watching a youtube video first, I can make sure she can’t! There is the option to white list and blacklist specific sites, block IP addresses and more!

 

You can download Mobicip on:

The App Store

Google Play Store

Chrome Web Store

Microsoft Windows

There’s a basic plan or you can upgrade to premium. You can also change your plan at any time!

Mobicip Is great for families, businesses and schools too. The Enterprise package protects over 20 devices depending on the need!

What do you think? Would you use an app like this to help monitor your children internet access?

Baking Fun Using My Cupcake Toppers

christmas / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

The girls had some baking fun yesterday making cakes after I was given a £15 off code to try out some of the Toppers from MyCupcakeToppers in exchange for a review of them.

 

After looking through MyCupcakeToppers site I picked out some lovely Minnie Mouse & Disney Prince Real Icing toppers (12 for £6) that I knew the girls would love.

 

For our Minnie Mouse & Disney Princess cakes the girls made a mix for 12 chocolate chip cakes each. They quickly got their mixes made up, poured into the cases and into the oven.. so they could lick the bowls of course!

We loved the cakes and all helped ourselves to a few since we made 24 in total. The real icing cupcake toppers were amazingly yummy, even the Mr who isn’t keen on cake toppers really enjoyed it and munched through quite a few cakes!

The real icing toppers are absolutely brilliant and the printing is amazingly clear, they make the girls messy (but tasty) cakes look lovely.

I will definitely be ordering again in future for special occasions. I love how many design choices were available on the site. If you can’t find a design you like you can upload your own images or fill out a form with details of what you would like and the in-house design team can see what they can do for you too!

Want to make some too? Check out our recipe below.

You will need:

110g(ish) Caster Sugar

110g(ish) Butter

2 eggs

110g(ish) Self-raising flour

1tsp(ish) Vanilla extract/flavouring 

2ish handfuls of milk chocolate chips (plus a few to ‘test’)

1 tub of chocolate frosting 

A pot of sprinkles you completely forget to add

Method:

1. Preheat oven 180°c. Cream butter and sugar and add vanilla extract. Beat in 2 eggs.

2. Fold in the flour & throw in the chocolate chips.

3. Fill 12 cases halfway and bake for 10ish minutes until brown.

4. Let cakes cool (and sit on your hands to stop yourself eating them warm) before adding the frosting.

5. Pop the Real Icing sheets in the oven (once it’s cooled/cooling so it’s just warm) until the icing is easily removed from the sheets.

6. Add toppers to your cakes and ENJOY!

What do you think of our recipe will you be trying it out or do you have one of your own we could try? 

How lovely are the cupcake toppers? What design would you go for? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tooletries: Mighty Toothbrush Holder & Mirror Review

Product Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I’m reviewing The Mighty Toothbrush Holder and The Mighty Mirror from the Tooletries range after recently reviewed these Handy Hobby Holster’s. These are available to buy here along with plenty of other useful items! They are THE perfect solution for my small bathroom!

 

Tooletries use Aussie Grip Technology so they stick to any smooth, dry surface such as bathroom tiles & mirrors. The silicone makes them so easy to clean. They really are handy for any bathroom.

Mighty Toothbrush Holder

The Mighty Toothbrush Holder

Having a place for everything and a little dish for jewellery or contacts is so handy. I love how easy it is to clean and thanks to the drainage holes my girls can no longer fill the holder up with water! It’s so easy to reposition and it frees up so much space. I was mighty impressed with the Mighty Toothbrush Holder. I honestly thought it would fall with everything in it but it’s held up perfectly.

 

The Mighty Mirror

The Mighty Mirror is shatterproof, anti-fog.. I love that I can move it lower for the girls when needed and higher for us. The mirror is ideal for shaving where it can be moved around and stuck almost anywhere easily.

 

For people like us with a small bathroom, students etc they are a perfect space-saving christmas gift idea. There are 5 different colours to choose from, you could mix and match or go for the same colours to create a unique style. I am definitely going to order a set  for my brother, as soon as I figure out which colour

Tooletries

 

Which colour would you go for? What do you think of Tooletries? Can you think of someone who’s bathroom could do with one of these?

*I recieved these items for free in exchange for my honest review on them.

Handy Hobby Holster’s 

Crafts / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I received a Grey Hobby Pack by Holster brands which you can buy HERE recently to try out and review and I have to admit I absolutely love them! They have been so handy when I’m crafting and so easy to use too. I love how they can be moved about to where you want too.

Handy Hobby HolstersI received the Lil’ Holster & Hobby Holster in exchange for my honest review and I am really impressed!

They come in a range of colours and I received these grey ones which is actually my second favourite colour and I am little obsessed with using them on my kitchen worktop whilst I do things like drawing.

The Lil’ Holster

lil' holster

They are basically handy little silicone pockets you can hang off of ANY smooth surface as long as it is clean and dry. The Lil’ Holster has draining holes in the bottom so it can be used by the sink I love using the Lil’ Holster for holding my Posca Pen’s I’ve recently won to stop tiny hand’s getting hold of them (again) whilst I’m drawing. You could literally use it for anything though.. I also found it quite handy to pop my glasses in at night as I often knock my glasses to the floor & struggle to find them haha!

They are so easy to use just lift the flap (they come folded) make sure the surface your using is clean and dry and press it down and your good to go! If your having trouble getting yours to stick simply wash it with soapy water and let it dry completely to remove the dust and dirt preventing it from sticking. They are dishwasher safe too! (Upto 120°c) Once they are stuck down it’s fine to get them wet, they still stay in place!

Hobby Holster

The larger Hobby Holster is amazing for crafting. Although I don’t have one (yet) they are ideal for holding hot glue guns as they are heat resistant up to 200°c! It also has a built in ruler which has been pretty handy with some of my crocheting recently as I can measure my stitches. We also used it to measure my brother’s coat rack as we had measured wrong to begin with and couldn’t find a ruler but needed to cut it down a bit!

Hobby HolsterTrying out the Lil’ holster and the Hobby Holster has been brilliant!

If you have a small desk & need somewhere for pens, stapler’s etc in. It’s handy for holding crochet hooks/knitting needles in too, these Hobby Holster’s really are handy little things!

How would you use your Holster?

#MamiasDaysOut

Days Out and Events / 8 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

When I saw the opportunity for the #MamiasDaysOut on the @britmums website I signed up and crossed my fingers. I was pleasantly surprised when this amazing hamper showed up a few days later.  I am a great fan of Aldi Mamia products having tried a lot of different products with both my girls. Aldi Mamia has proven to be the best for us time and time again. Good quality and value and 100% organic, what’s not to love?

Our Hamper contained:

  • Mamia Juniors Apple Mini Rice Cakes 7months+
  • Mamia Juniors Raspberry Mini Rice Cakes 7months+
  • Mamia Organic Apple & Blackcurrent Juice 4months+
  • Mamia 4 pack of Apple & pear fruit pots 4months+
  • Mamia Organic Banana’s & Apples Squeezy Pouch 4months+
  • Mamia Organic Apple & Strawberry Squeezy Pouch 4months+
  • Mamia Organic Mango, Apple & Banana Squeezy Pouch 4months+
  • Mamia Organic Apples, Carrots & Parsnips Squeezy Pouch 4months+
  • Mamia Organic Apple, Sweet Potatoe, Butternut Squash & Blueberry 4months+
  • £5 Aldi Voucher to spend on Mamia Nappies & wipes.

We have used Aldi a lot more since Izzy was born, it’s only a 10 minute walk from ours. I love the quality of their nappies and they are such brilliant value! I love that I can get 2 packs of size 6 Mamia nappies and a 4pack of wipes for less than £10. I was spending double that with Eva just on nappies alone!

I decided to spend the £5 voucher on the Mamia easy-pants as Izzy is showing an interest in using the potty and toilet recently. At only £1.85 for a pack of 16 you really cant go wrong! Izzy absolutely loves them and finds them much easier to pull up and down than other brands we have tried.

I also bought my usual 4 pack of Mamia sensitive fragrance free baby wipes as the girls & I have quite sensitive skin and suffer Eczema. These wipes are so soft and gentle on your skin and for 59p per pack or 2.39 for 4 packs you just cant beat them.

Trying something new

We decided to give the Mamia Fabric Softener a try as we hadn’t noticed it before & for a 40 wash bottle at 99p it beats the current deals we’ve been picking up elsewhere!

We gave it a go and I am pretty impressed as it’s left our towels lovely and soft & all the girls clothes are coming out softer too and we haven’t had a problem with skin irritation which limits what we can use quite a bit! I think it’s safe to say we will be sticking with the fabric softener too!

When I recieved our hamper Izzy spotted the rice cakes which are one of the few products from their Mamia food range that she hasn’t tried yet. She sneakily grabbed the pack of Apple Mini Rice Cakes and got munching. She did share them with Eva too who said they were delicious.

Izzy has loved the Mamia Apple and Pear pot’s since she was around 4/5 months old. I haven’t bought them in a while, yet Izzy couldn’t wait to get stuck in again and demanded a pot when she saw them in the cupboard a few days later.

How pleased does she look to have gotten her own way!?

Although I haven’t managed to snap any pictures as I haven’t gone with them, Izzy has been demolishing the Mamia Puree pouches whilst whizzing about town on her trike with daddy! She still loves all the different flavours but Apple & Banana is still her favourite and lasts about 5 seconds flat!

Our #Mamiasdaysout

I decided to brave baby rhyme time at Grays Library so Izzy could get out & do something fun and spend time with little ones around her own age. She decided afterwards to head upstairs to the Thurrock Museum

She absolutely loved it all but after all the excitement she was very hungry & made me stop halfway home for a snack.
Luckily I had taken the Mamia raspberry rice cakes and organic juice with us so Izzy sat on a bench & had a quick munch & a juice when she eventually let go of the bottle!

She wasn’t too impressed with the wind & really didn’t want to let go of the bottle!

We absolutely love the Aldi Mamia range and would definitely recommend it to anyone with a little one. Whether it’s the nappies, wipes, food or juices it is well worth a try. They have so many healthy food options & are so handy on the go!
Mamia makes parenting that little bit easier and cheaper too!

This post is an entry for BritMums #MamiaDaysOut Linky Challenge, sponsored by Aldi Mamia. 

 

Hellman’s American Smokey Barbecue Sauce

Food / 8 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

This week we recieved a bottle of Hellman’s American Smokey Barbecue sauce to try from Bzzagent!

We love Barbecue sauces so couldn’t wait to give it a go, the girl’s decided they had to try it first with their dinner & gave it a thumbs up instantly with both girls demolishing all of their dinner and Izzy attempting to lick all the sauce off her plate haha!

We love Barbecue sauces so couldn't wait to give it a go

I gave it a quick taste when the girls had dinner and was surprised there wasn’t a really strong tangy after taste. I find a lot of barbecue sauces I have to have small amounts of due to being quite tangy so it made a lovely change having such a lovely smooth flavour. We ended up making new york style chips (bacon, cheese & bbq sauce) for our own dinner and it was lovely.

I can definitely see us buying more of this sauce in the future!

The death of the LGG4

Product Reviews / 8 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I’m absolutely gutted over the death of the LGG4, my beloved phone I won!The death of the LGG4

A little while ago I mentioned I had tested the LGG4 for TheInsider’s & was lucky enough to keep the phone which honestly i was delighted with as it was a great phone, amazing camera & so easy to use.

However, on Tuesday morning I got up, used the phone as normal & left it on the side whilst I nipped to the toilet. When I came back the LG loading screen had appeared & I figured it had restarted itself. I took the battery out for a few minutes and popped it in again in the hope it had just got a bit warm or something.

Unfortunately the phone just would not go past the loading screen & just wouldn’t load the android operating system at all. After stressing myself out trying to do soft & hard reset’s and not even being able to get into the bootloader myself, I handed it over to Rich, our go to guy for any tech problem.

After quite a few attempt’s he finally managed to attempt the reset’s but each time the phone would begin restarting again without loading the android system & he believes the system has been corrupted as it kept trying to load & update then restart.

After 3 day’s of trying to even get the phone to load & not being able to retrieve any of my data I finally gave up and admitted defeat. I am gutted though If I am honest as there is no way I can afford to replace it at all it was a £500 phone!!! I was so lucky to win it but I am so damn unlucky to have lost everything that I have lost from it. I gave my old phone to my brother as he had no money & needed a new one badly to stay in contact so unfortunately I had no back up phone.

Luckily Rich had an older phone I can borrow until I can sort out a new phone some how but it mean’s I’m not going to be online as much as web pages take months to load on the phone I have borrowed.

I am gutted as I’m now so behind with blogging & I’ve just spent the last 3 days going out of my mind panicking because I can’t be contacted by anyone or contact anyone else if something goes wrong especially as the Mr managed to lose my bank card & it took us a few day’s to sort paying the internet bill so I couldn’t even talk to anyone online either.

I’m sure anyone with anxiety can understand just how awful I have felt the last few days especially with Eva in school & trying to help my brother a few miles down the road, being out & knowing you can’t be contacted if there’s an emergency with your kids is absolutely terrifying! Then to add to it all when I’m home I feel trapped unable to call out or talk to anyone high up on the 11th floor & not knowing many people around us makes it worse.

I have contacted TheInsiders & LG this morning in the hope something can done but I have very little hope.

I have to say the phone whilst working was an absolutely amazing phone but the fact this has happened with no damage, no dodgy download’s etc I definitely won’t be attempting to get an LGG4 again as I have lost so many photo’s, note’s, documents etc as I hardly thought the phone would die after just 8 months. Considering my last 2 phone’s were a HTC one X and a HTC wildfire which both lasted 2 1/2 year’s before selling on with plenty of life left I think when I can afford it I will be going back to a HTC phone of some sort.

If anyone has any phone recommendations please let me know, I will be attempting to scrape together £100 for a second hand phone in the next few months and want something that I can use for blogging & social media with a decent camera. Feel free to share any product reviews in the comments!