Lush Autumn and Halloween Products

I’ve been a big fan of Lush for more years than I can remember, and although I love all their products, my absolute favourites are their autumn and winter range. Recently, I organised a South East Bloggers Circle event with Lush Basingstoke, and the lovely ladies in the store talked us through their new products.

There are so many awesome items this season, so I’ve decided to split them into two separate blog posts. In this post I will introduce you to some of the general autumn and Halloween range, then I’ll pop another post up soon, which will contain their Christmas collection. 

I must admit I’m not big on Halloween. It’s not something I’ve ever celebrated growing up and I’ve always been a bit confused about where I should stand as a Christian. However, I have started to enjoy carving cute pictures on pumpkins, finding fun little decorations and candles, and just celebrating autumn in general. Lush have some adorable products this year to help ease us into the autumn months and I found it very difficult to not buy one of everything!

The first item that caught my eye as we entered the store was this cute little ghost. Boo is a bath melt, containing calming mimosa, grounding sandalwood, vivid Sicilian mandarin oil and earthy, warming ginger. You simply pop him under warm running water and the Fair Trade, organic cocoa butter will melt away, leaving your skin softer. I absolutely adore bath melts, as they leave my skin feeling so nourished and silky smooth. He retails at £3.50.

Next to Boo was the Green Bubbleroon, which isn’t actually an autumn product but I thought the colour was rather ghoulish! This is a moisturising, citrus-scented bubble bar with bergamot to brighten your mood, fresh avocado to reinvigorate and shea butter to make your skin feel like velvet. Bubbleroons aren’t quite as bubbly as other bars, but do contain extra-softening ingredients to hydrate your skin. They retail at £3.95.

Next up, and probably one of my favourite autumn products, is the Sparkly Pumpkin Bubble Bar. It contains juniperberry oil, which is balancing for your hair and skin, lime oil to uplift and protect you, and grapefruit oil, which is uplifting and refreshing. As well as these gorgeous scents, you’ve also got lots of gold glitter, to really make your bath a special experience. The Sparkly Pumpkin retails at £3.95.

The Lord of Misrule bath bomb is a cult Lush autumn product, but one I’ve never actually got round to trying before. It features a spicy herbal blend of patchouli and black pepper oil, which is both warming and clarifying. The bath bomb is inspired by the ruler of the pagan Feast of Fools, with a deep green exterior that slowly froths away to reveal a rich, wine-coloured centre. You will also get a popping surprise as it bubbles away! Lord of Misrule retails at £3.95.

A great product to complement this bath bomb is the Lord of Misrule Shower Cream. Like the bath bomb, you get a herbal blend of patchouli, peppercorn and black pepper with an intriguing vanilla sweetness. Organic wheatgerm oil provides a rich and creamy feel on the body, to make sure you are party ready over the festive season. This comes in a range of sizes from £4.95 for 100g to £27.95 for a massive 1kg!

Another product that isn’t technically an autumn product (but that looks very festive!) is Sunnyside Bubble Bar. You can bathe in a bath of liquid gold with this mood-enhancing bar of indulgence. With a blend of sweet wild orange, lemon and tangerine oils to perk you up and tone your skin, you will feel bright a cheerful after taking a dip with Sunnyside. It retails for £4.95.

There were a few more products that I didn’t manage to get a photo of, but I was desperate to show you them, so I’ve used the photos from the Lush website in the collage above. Fireside Soap is a really beautiful addition, with an orange and yellow flame flickering through the centre of the soap. It carries a spice of clove bud with the sweetness of vanilla. Monsters Ball bath bomb is the cutest little monster I’ve seen! It reminds me of a character from Monsters Inc. and contains a mash-up of uplifting lime and neroli oils to get you feeling ready to do the monster-mash all night long. You can’t have Halloween without Pumpkin and this sweet and comforting bath bomb contains vanilla absolute and spicy cinnamon, evoking the rich, biscuit fragrance of home baking. If you’re looking for something a little different, then look no further than Goth Fairy the shimmer bar. She contains a mixture of iridescent lustres – gold, green, purple and silver, which adorn your skin in shimmer from the first stroke. Illipe and cupuaçu butters will gently melt, softening your skin and leaving a gorgeous fruity scent of almond, grapefruit and bergamot. Another of my favourite products (which I haven’t even seen in person, so it must be good!) is the Autumn Leaf bath bomb, with beautiful autumn colours that dapple your bath red and yellow. With a scent of fresh grass evoking memories of crisp leaves, you will really feel like you are being transported into an autumn country walk. If it's gifts you're after, the Pumpkin Gift contains a few Lush products including Sparkly Pumpkin and Boo. But if you’d prefer to put together your own gift, why not ‘wrap’ them in one of these spooky knot wraps? The wrap can be used afterwards as a scarf or accessory too!

My favourite Halloween gift is this adorable Little Monster. How cute is he?! It contains two ghoulish goodies, which will get you ready to monster mash the night away! With some Lord of Misrule Shower Cream and a Monsters Ball bath bomb, you will definitely feel ready and raring to go when Halloween hits us. This gift will cost you £10.95, so perfect for treating a friend or picking up for yourself!

The final product I found in their Halloween range is the Magic Wand Soap. It actually comes as a huge magic wand in the store, and the staff will then cut off a piece in a size that suits you. The orange heart of the soap contains tangerine and orange oil to uplift and tone your skin. And the absorbent charcoal and extra virgin coconut oil mingle, ensuring that one light lather will magic your skin squeaky clean. Plus all traces of palm oil have magically disappeared, which is great news! For 100g you will pay £3.50.

I’m really impressed with this year’s Halloween collection, and am so excited to share their Christmas products with you soon! I have also filmed a vlog of the event, so keep an eye on my YouTube channel for when that goes up. I hope this has helped to give you a quick introduction to the range. I’d love to hear which products you’ve picked up from Lush recently.

Are you a fan of the Lush autumn and Christmas range? Which is your favourite Halloween product?

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My Favourite Sale Launch

We all love a good sale, right? Well, a new brand, My Favourite Sale promise to help us never miss a sale again! I was lucky enough to be invited to their launch at Home House, in the very posh Portman Square, last month. Although I’ve been to a few blogger meet-ups, this was my first ‘proper’ blogger event and I felt a mixture of nerves and excitement as I set off for London on Saturday 16^th July.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and the start of the really hot spell we experienced a few weeks ago. I wasn’t quite sure of the dress code, but wanted to be comfortable, so decided on a pair of black leggings and a floral top from New Look. Our train journey up to London Waterloo went without a hitch, but after that things went downhill. Being in a wheelchair, you have to make sure you plan ahead, so we already knew we couldn’t take a tube because the two closest stations to Portman Square didn’t have disabled access.

So, we planned a bus route instead. However, after waiting for our bus for nearly 45 minutes, we found out that a number of roads (including Oxford and Regents Streets) had been closed due to a protest, and so any buses that went the way we needed to go had been cancelled. Great! After having a bit of a meltdown (I was hot, uncomfortable and getting more and more worried I wouldn’t make it there on time) we decided we had two options: admit defeat and go home or fork out for a taxi. Now, I’m not one to give in, and as I’d already used so much energy getting up to London I decided that we’d get a taxi. Thankfully the taxi driver was incredibly lovely and managed to find a back route, getting us there 15 minutes early! By this point I was a hot, sweaty mess, so was very relieved when Fran welcomed us in, showed us to the bathroom and then offered us a cold drink from the bar.

Inside Home House was absolutely beautiful – just what you expect from a London townhouse. We were shown in to the bar area, which comprised a structure that wouldn’t be out of place in a museum. I can safely say I’ve never seen a bar like it! The bartender offered us a range of soft drinks and cocktails, but I was so thirsty all I really fancied was a cold Diet Coke. As more bloggers started to arrive we mingled in the bar area, getting to know each other from our name badges. It’s funny – I follow so many bloggers online, but very often you only know people by their blog name, so it was nice to put some faces to names and actually chat in person. There was the option of a selection of teas and coffees, but everyone seemed to opt for cold drinks due to the heat.

After mingling for a while, Fran and Shane (who founded My Favourite Sale) showed us through to the lounge, where we were treated to an incredibly yummy afternoon tea. As we munched away on finger sandwiches, scones and cakes, they gave us a short PowerPoint presentation about what My Favourite Sale is. Their aim is to build a community of shoppers dedicated to finding and sharing the best sales from high street stores across the UK. If you’ve bought something on sale recently and want to show it off, they want to see it and hear all about your experience. Or, if you’re on the hunt for something new, take inspiration from what others are snapping up and how much they’re paying. They also plan to have a sales calendar, so you can keep up-to-date on where the sales are happening, and a blog, where bloggers can share their sale purchases with everyone else.

Once the presentation had finished, more food started to appear and we were given some time to chat and get to know all the other bloggers who’d been invited. I got chatting to a group of lovely ladies who write a blog called Milk News. It was really nice being able to chat to people who understand the world of blogging, and didn’t bat an eyelid at me snapping away with my camera! My Favourite Sale also had a photo booth square, so I went to have my photo taken with Shane.

The room we were in was just amazing. High ceilings, luxurious sofas and fantastic art work adorning the walls. It really did feel like being in another world to what I’m used to on a daily basis.

After an hour or so of chatting away, I was feeling particularly tired, so my Mum and I decided to make tracks. We weren’t sure whether there would be buses running yet, so didn’t want to leave it too late in case it took us hours to get home again. Before we left, Fran and Shane gave us each a lovely little goody bag that contained a MFS cake and some information. These material bags come in so useful now that everywhere charges for plastic bags, so I was very appreciative to have another reusable bag! Thankfully, the roads had been re-opened, so our journey home was a lot less stressful. Apart from the travelling, it was a lovely day overall and I’m really glad I made the effort to go along. Big thank you to Fran and Shane for making us feel so welcome and for treating us to a fantastic spread of food and drink. I’m really excited to see where My Favourite Sale goes in the future and will definitely be keeping you all updated on any exciting sale picks I find!

Keep your eyes peeled over on my YouTube channel, as there will also be a vlog going up at some point.

Have you heard of My Favourite Sale before today? What are your favourite sale picks at the moment?

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Sunday Snippets - 8th May 2016

This week has definitely had its ups and downs, and in all honestly has been quite a struggle, especially towards the end of the week. But we finally seem to be seeing spring now, so it’s been lovely to feel a bit of warm sunshine on my face and see nature really blooming around us. The only problem with it being warm and sunny is that my bedroom is in a loft conversion, which basically turns into a sauna when the temperature rises. As my computer is in my bedroom too, I’ve been finding it very hard to blog and film, as I just don’t cope well with heat. This is when having a separate office that isn’t in the loft would be amazing! Next week is looking very busy with hospital appointments, which I’m not much looking forward to, but hopefully they will bring some answers with them.

Last Sunday I thankfully felt a bit better after sleeping most of Saturday. I spent my morning blogging and watching The Simpsons (what else would I be doing on a Sunday?!) I had quite a chilled out afternoon watching YouTube videos and writing letters to some of my penpals. We had a family dinner with my Grandma round, which was nice, but I felt quite poorly afterwards. I’ve mentioned before, but I’ve promised myself I will put aside time for self-care at least once a week, self-care Sunday sounded good! Plus it gets you feeling really refreshed for the week ahead. I didn’t feel well enough to have a bath, so I just dug around and found some beauty samples and mixed up my pamper routine a bit.

With Monday being a Bank Holiday, I was looking forward to some time to just relax and take it easy. We had expected the weather to be terrible, but when I woke up it was pretty good, so my Mum took me down to our local May Fayre for a look around. I struggled to know what to wear, as the weather was so changeable, so I ended up in my big Superdry coat with my sunglasses on! My sister, Rosiie, came down a bit later with Freddie and we all got our first ice cream of the year (and even Freddie had a little lick!) I got tired out fairly quickly, so we came home and I had a rest. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching YouTube and trying to get on top of my blog emails.

I had an early start on Tuesday, as I had to go down to the doctors for a blood pressure check. They’re concerned that some medication I’m on is putting me at risk of having a stroke, so I’ve got to talk to the neurologist next week and see what their thoughts are. I came home and had a bit of a rest. Then I had to go back to the doctors to see my GP. She’s going to ring my psychiatrist and express her concerns about me being discharged, so I’m keeping everything crossed they will think again. I’ve also got to have an ultrasound on my foot to see if there’s a problem with a nerve and be seen again by the orthopaedics about my hips. In the afternoon my Dad took me over to Uni for a couple of meetings. They were having a little end of year celebration, but unfortunately I couldn’t stay. My new camera arrived so we picked it up on the way home – I’m really excited to use it! The evening was pretty awful unfortunately – I’m really struggling with my mental health.

On Wednesday morning I had a lot of trouble getting up because my head was pounding and I couldn’t move or speak. It was really scary, and although I get it a lot where I can’t move or sleep, I don’t think I’ve had it alongside such a bad headache. Thankfully, after a couple of hours I was able to move again, so could take some pain medication and I started to feel a bit better. I actually managed to get two YouTube videos filmed, so felt quite proud of myself as when I woke up I thought I’d have to write the day off. Whether pushing myself was a good idea or not, only time will tell! As I’d been stuck inside all day, my Dad took me down to the church in the afternoon to look at the beautiful churchyard. It’s completely full of bluebells and blossom trees, the sun was shining down and it felt so tranquil, which was just what I needed.

Thursday was another beautiful sunny day, so my Dad and I decided to go out and take some outfit photos for my blog. I really wanted to take some amongst the bluebells, so we went to The Vyne (a National Trust Place) as we’d heard they were good there. We got there at lunchtime, so stopped at the café first and had a bite to eat. My Dad then pushed me round one of the woodland walks (which was mostly wheelchair friendly, apart from a couple of places where I had to get out an walk with my stick over big tree roots!) There were loads of beautiful bluebells and we took photos along the way. We then walked along the lake and through the walled garden, but unfortunately there weren’t really any flowers out yet. On the way home we stopped off to vote, then I crashed out on the sofa for the rest of the afternoon.

Friday was quite a difficult day – I had an early start, as my Dad had to take me over to Aldershot for a couple of hospital appointments. My first one was with the Dietician, who is concerned about the severity of my digestive symptoms and thinks I should be moving towards a more liquid diet. I’ve got to speak to the professor at the end of May and see what he says, and then we’ll go from there. I then had an appointment with my mental health care co-ordinator, and was told I’ve been completely discharged from the mental health service. I just came out and broke down. They haven’t listened to anything I’ve said to them about how things are at the moment. My GP has spoken to them in depth about her concerns and told them she doesn’t believe I should be discharged. But I have been, and was told to just call The Samaritans if I spiral any more. I’m terrified to be honest and feel completely abandoned. I spent most of the afternoon breaking down in tears, but managed to jot down what has happened in a letter, which I took down to give to my GP. I’m really hoping something can be done because as well as my GP saying I need mental health support, my gastro consultant, professor and even my care co-ordinator have said I need more help. The only light in an otherwise very dark day was seeing that my bleeding heart has started flowering.

Yesterday was pretty busy, which was quite a good distraction to be honest. My Mum and I went over to Festival Place in Basingstoke, as I’d been invited to blog about a big fashion event that’s been going on this weekend. I’ll be doing a separate blog post about it, so won’t go into too much detail. But basically there was a health and beauty lounge with different brands, which was good fun, and also catwalk shows with the latest high-street trends. As well as covering the event, my Mum and I did a bit of shopping too, although I was actually pretty restrained and didn’t buy much for myself. It was a long but nice day, so when I eventually got home I crashed out for the evening and watched some rubbish TV.

If you haven’t read my blog before, I just wanted to let you know that I have a second blog, which mainly focuses on my health in more depth than I talk about it here. It’s largely for friends and family to follow and keep up with what’s going on, but if it’s something you would be interested in reading as well, you are more than welcome to follow me over there. I’ve actually changed the name from Unicorns and Floral Crowns to ‘Zebra Crossing’ and you can find it by clicking here. I’m trying to keep it updated fairly regularly, so hopefully there will be something there for you to read!

I’m also trying to post on Snapchat a bit more, so if you fancy following me, my username is Jennycole44.

What have you been up to this week? I always enjoy hearing about your news and adventures!

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