English Tea Shop: Detox Me

Happy Sunday morning!

I don't know about you but we love tea, all types and flavours and we love trying new ones even more.

I've always been a big fan of TK Maxx and Home Sense but recently I've found myself going there more often and particularly to the food and book section. You can never go wrong with buying books and tea right? It's like they are made for each other!

I've seen the English Tea Shop brand quite a lot and so decided to give some of their blended teas a try. Today's post is about their Organic Detox Me tea, but rest assured I also have 2 other flavours to tell you all about - I just can't help myself and keep going back!

The Detox Me tea contains Peppermint, Spearmint, Elderflowers, Fenugreek and Rosemary, and the box contains 16 pyramid style tea bags.

I've been loving trying loose leaf teas recently but sometimes it's great to be able to ust grab the tea bag and let it infuse without messing around with measuring it out.

This tea you simply need to add to boiling water water and infuse for 2/3 minutes, and then maybe add some sugar if you think it is necessary. I didn't need to add any sugar at all and I really liked the refreshing taste.



Sometimes the detox type teas can smell and taste a bit vile, or contain a large amount of licorice and green tea, or even give you some undignified side effects (we've all tried those teas by now I'm sure!).

I didn't find I had any of those with this tea and found it quite refreshing due to the mint. You can see the colour of the tea in the image below, served in one of my favourite Alice in Wonderland mugs from Whittards. I have the full set of these mugs thanks to some lush relatives, definitely have the tea pot on my list for Christmas though as it is also gorgeous (it's not too early for the C word right?!)

I have quite a few teas in my collection now as you can see by my shrine in the image above- maybe you think I'm obsessive but I just love trying out different types!

This particular tea cost me around £2.50 from Home Sense, but is available from Amazon for £5.82 at the time of posting. They aren't cheap but really worth it for the quality of the taste and the blends. They have quite a few I would love to try and the Peppermint Loose Leaf tea is a firm favourite of mine anyway - it lives on my wishlist for future repurchasing!

Have you tried anything from the English Tea Shop? Do you have any flavour recommendations?

Are you a loose leaf or a bag fan?? I think each have their time and place!

L xxx

Nip and Fab Body Wash - Energy Boost and Detox Blend

Shower gel can be a bit of a boring topic can't it?

Everyone uses it, most people would just use whatever is on offer during their weekly shop and I'm no different. I have been making my way through my stash and have finally used up the Soap and Glory bottle that seem to last for up to 6 months at a time.

However I couldn't resist picking these up from Nip and Fab, on offer at the moment in Superdrug in a buy one get one free offer. If I'm honest £7.50 is a lot for a shower gel but in a deal like this at £3.75 it didn't seem too bad.

I picked up both the Energy Boost and Detox Blend and have been testing them out.

The Energy Boost Body Wash contains uplifting Lemon, Grapefruit and Sweet Mandarin fragrances. It's a lovely awakening scent which is something to be welcomed in the morning, however it's not as authentic as the Original Source shower gels. I'm a big 'sniffer' of products (if that doesn't sound weird and disgusting) and scents are a big hit or miss for me. This was strangely neither, it had a lot of promise but didn't amount to anything which was a little disappointing.

The packaging is perfect though, colour coded for each scent and just like the rest of the Nip and Fab skincare range which I really like. I also like that all of the info is on the front of the bottles and just on the one sticker. Its funky and draws your eyes to different areas.

The Detox Blend Body Wash contains Tea Tree, Green Tea and Jasmine to purify and detoxify as well as cleanse.
This scent was the same for me, it had lots of promise and whilst I'm grateful that both weren't overpowering (I get headaches from strong smells) they were just a bit too bland and could have had more of a punch, particularly with the lemon.

That said they both lathered up easily courtesy of SLS being the second ingredient in the products. I just feel a bit disappointed with these and can't say I would pay the £3 for them again let alone the full price of £7.50.
I'm a self confessed lover of Nip and Fab but feel like these products have misfired and are a bit 'meh' when compared to other products such as their Viper Venom and Dragon's blood ranges (both of which are fabulous!).

With Original Source recently on offer in Tesco for half price at £1.10 for 250ml or in fact Superdrug who had them for 98p (!) smelling a good ten times better and more authentic than these I know which one I would choose....

I hate to write negative reviews but feel like its necessary sometimes to save another from spending hard earned cash on something that ultimately is a little disappointing - sorry Nip and Fab! It's probably because i have such high expectations from how amazing the skincare range is that this was a bit of a surprise.


Have you tried the body range from Nip and Fab? Are you a fan of authentic scents from real essential oils?

L xxx

Ener-chi

Hello there!

We've got a joint review for you today, courtesy of a lovely spa in Cardiff called Ener-chi. They have two branches in Cardiff, one in Radyr and one in Penarth.

They aim to combine the mind, body and spirit of individuals through the medium of beautifying, healing and relaxing rituals.

They have a wide range of treatments including facials, massage and personal grooming with products from brands such as Dr Haushka, Caudalie, Antipodes and Glamglow.

They sent us a beauty pack for our own little relaxing pamper sessions at home, and before we went out last weekend we put a girly film on and put our feet up..... 

The cute beauty pack contained a Glamglow Youthmud Tinglexfoliate treatment, Caudalie Detox Oil, Dr Haushka Rose Day Cream and a Pukka Cool Mint Green tea for a start to finish pamper set.

We've both heard a LOT about Glamglow and their mud treatments; their results have been raved about and we couldn't wait to get the packet open and onto our faces!

It definitely does what it says on the packet; it tingles! When we first put it on we did a little dance around the room as it tingled and then it settled down and began to dry, here's a quick selfie:

The most interesting part was as it dried, you could see all of our pores! It was really weird but hopefully this means our pores were getting an extra deep clean.

We also boiled the kettle and made ourselves a cup of mint green tea to fully relax, mint teas are one of our favourites and a daily occurrence.

After it had dried we washed it off with warm water and a muslin cloth, it came off quite easily and our skin felt really clean and smooth afterwards.

Next we applied the Caudalie Polyphenol Overnight Detox Oil. As we were going for a night out we didn't apply as much as was stated but the few drops we did apply absorbed really quickly into the skin and didn't leave any trace.




I've used it since and applied the full 6 drops as an overnight treatment and my skin drank it up!

It's really quite nice and I'd definitely look into purchasing it in future, I've heard a lot about Caudalie but this was the first product I've tried.





The tiny vial was so cute but actually held a lot of product as I thought it would only hold enough for one application. But I've used it at least twice since and still have another left.

A few hours later we then applied a Rose day Cream from Dr Haushka, another first for me. Dr Haushka is a brand that I've heard so much about but have never tried anything from. Their packaging and display are beautiful, and the product itself was luxurious.





Allegedly the centrepiece of the Dr Hauschka range the day cream nourishes and protects a wide range of skin types including from redness and irritation which is something that we all experience at some point.

All of these products were lovely to try out and it was lovely of Enerchi to send us samples of their range. After having a full body massage there a few weeks ago I will be sure to visit again, their staff were really friendly and my massage was out of this world!Not only was it a head to toe massage it included a facial too and I was honestly the most relaxed I've ever been (if extremely oily afterwards too!)

You can find Ener-chi's website here, check out their range of treatments and the brands they stock!

What's your favourite treatment? Have you tried anything from Caudalie, Glamglow or Dr Hauschka?

L xxx

Hey all

As L said we decided to treat ourselevs

ourselves to a full on pamper before we went out. Glam glow is something i was so excited to try after hearing so much about it. The fact it fully opened the pores impressed me and my skin was so smooth after wards! It was quite red though but it did go down within the hour.

As our skin was so soft we followed up with the oil. Being oily skinned i was dubious to put this on before a night out so had planned to leave it on for a few hours then cleanse my skin before I got ready. I was so surprised though as my skin just soaked up the oil and was left feeling soft and smooth and not at all greasy. This is now firmly on my wish list.

I love trying new products like this and it wad good to be able to try a little routine. As L said they have two salons in the local area and stock a lot more products including some amazing scented candles and some great gifts. You can also buy online at ener-chi.co.uk.

Happy Friday!

Love M

xxx

SlenderToxTea Detox Tea

Hello!

A few weeks ago I was sent a 14 day teatox by the lovely people at SlenderToxTea. I've always wanted to try one of them but just couldn't decide which as I was overwhelmed with the amount of choice!

Luckily for me SlenderToxTea saw my confused tweet and offered to send me a trial, which of course I could not refuse!

The 14 day trial included 14 Daytox morning tea bags, and 7 Sleeptox  night tea bags in separate packets to make it easier to distinguish between.

I like the packaging, it's easy, resealable and easy to tell which is which, making it that much better for people like me who are somewhat of an ogre in the morning. Reading and trying to work things out isn't what I need!

So what do you do? The Daytox tea bags are to drank in the morning, as soon as you can to getting up. You make it using warm water and leave it to brew for a few minutes only. start off with a shorter time and build it up if you prefer. Don't do what I did and make it with boiling water, it's very potent that way! Always make sure you read instructions yes??!

I was surprised when first trying the morning Daytox, it smelt quite strong but actually didn't taste of much at all which I definitely preferred. I find green tea to be too strong for me, taste wise, and tend to drink it in tea bags with peppermint to help the taste so I was apprehensive this would be just like green tea and I'd hate it.

So I was pleasantly surprised and found it easy to add this in as an extra tea in the mornings, also adding an extra step of hydration to my day so it was a win win situation.

As you can see from the ingredients in the picture above the tea does contain green tea but also a number of other ingredients that I don't know the function of.

The Sleeptox is slightly different and only requires you to drink a cup of this every OTHER night. Definitely read the instructions on this one as although it's brewed the same you only need one on alternate nights........don't try and drink it every night like me!

You can see the list of ingredients in the sleeptox in the photos above, some are similar but there's a few more additional ingredients in the night one.

I also found this tea to taste similar and although it smells strong it's really not a strong taste at all.

So what did i think?

It does suggest that you use the tea bags and complete the tea tox starting on a weekend to allow you to get used to the effects. I'm glad i started this on a weekend just so that i could get used to brewing the tea, when I needed to have them etc. I didn't find the effects to be too off-putting though everyone might react to this in different ways.

I did get some of the 'cleansing' feeling and of course my trips to the little girls room did increase (no blushing here!) but this was in no way uncontrollable and after all the horror stories of some people not being able to leave the house.........I would have to dispute that!

I completed the full 14 days in work without anything different aside from more frequent trips to the toilet so if you work in situation where you are unable to get to the bathroom easily (such as a teacher or nurse) then I probably wouldn't recommend it. As i said, it's nowhere near uncontrollable but you will need toilets available to you!


I did personally find that the Sleeptox teas were more potent than the Daytox teas, though this is probably having had a 'double dose' more than it being more potent in itself. As i mentioned earlier on I did make the mistake of not reading the packet and for the first three days had both a morning and night tea which was WRONG AND DEFINITELY DON'T DO IT.

How did i feel after completing it?


Well I weighed myself pre and post Teatox and lost 3 pounds. This was definitely a step in the right direction having put on a few lately with stress and was a good booster to continue with further healthy eating and exercise. I didn't change my diet in this time either so definitely this was just from the tea.

I also had increased metabolism and energy as i didn't feel tired at all, probably as my system didn't need to spend its' energy getting rid of the toxins in my body.

As it goes with looks, I 100% believe it has made me look smaller because the bloat in my stomach reduced considerably and made me feel so much better about myself and more comfortable wearing my clothes. I also took photos pre and post teatox and there's definitely a difference in my stomach especially when viewed from the side as its a lot flatter. However I don't feel ok with publishing these on the blog for everyone to see, but I promise you there's a noticeable difference 

I'm not convinced this is a permanent solution and for this reason think it's perfect for a special event like a wedding, holiday or graduation etc but not for permanent weightloss as I think when you stop the weight will slowly come back on without a permanent lifestyle change.

The 14 day Teatox package with both Day and Sleeptox comes in at £19.99 with free P&P. I think for an event in your life that you want to look your best at, £20 is worth the money as it really does work in helping you reduce the bloat and lose a few extra pounds. Before a holiday it would be ideal to give you a boost before getting your bikini out but long term i think it would be too expensive to feasibly drink it all the time.


That being said, if you've got the cash to splash I'd be one of those buying it every other month to help keep the bloat at bay and cleanse out my toxins to help my body metabolise the things it actually needs.

Have you tried Slender Tox Tea? Have you tried another brand of detox tea?
Would you buy the tea for an event or for long term?

Slender Tox have a number of products on their site and provide a variety of tea packages. I'm most interested in the Slimming Patches that they have recently brought out, a patch that can help with weightloss of 2-4 pounds a week without side effects?? Sounds like a miracle!

L xxx

Ojon Hair Product Bundle

Happy weekend!!!

I will freely admit that I have scheduled this post (it's currently Thursday night) as I've wanted to write about this bundle for a little while. However this combined with the fact that we also planned to go out last night (Friday) and I just knew I wouldn't be in any state to write a post before we head off to my parents caravan for some beach and BBQ fun!

So fingers crossed we aren't too hungover....as we've bought so much pimms to drink later on!

After hearing a lot about Ojon products the past year or so I couldn't resist when I saw a bundle of products put together in cellophane for a discounted price. I mean who could refuse!

The kit contains:
Full Detox Shampoo 250ml £21
Dry Recovery Revitalising Mist 175ml £20.50
Rare Blend Oil 45ml £30

All of these are full size and the bundle retails separately at £71.50.

I managed to pick this up......for £23.

Yes you read that right, £23!!!! How amazing!

I'd wanted to get my hands on this very pretty and gorgeous smelling oil for a while but couldn't justify the £30 price tag.

But are they worth the cash??

I have been using the Full Detox Shampoo for a few weeks now and have noticed a difference in my hair after using it. After a few washes it definitely feels cleaner than it did previously and so I feel that it has reduced some of the build up that was present on my hair.

As well as being detoxifying and helping you to get rid of oil and impurities it contains the Ojon oil, Macadamia oil and Sunflower Seed oil for nourishment.

I do really like this shampoo and am happy to have tried it as part of the deal. However I don't believe that it is worth the £21 price tag, as I don't think any shampoo can be THAT much better than another retailing for a few pound. I do really like this but i'll be keeping it for special occasions and for when my hair is in need of a product detox.

Next up is the Revitalising Mist which I was really interested in!

This claims to revitalise, rehydrate, detangle and tame flyaways all without being sticky or stiff.

I like the idea of this, and even better that its two products you have to shake up and the spray feels really light going onto your hair and it doesn't feel coated.

It did feel a little sticky on the top but that could be from me being so heavy handed with it.......

My hair does feel more nourished and definitely more hydrated from using the mist, probably as this also contains the Ojon oil the collection is named after.
Essentially its a leave in conditioner but I am always looking for additional moisture for my hair and this one is rather lovely!

Now onto the biggie in the bundle, the rare blend oil.

This 45ml bottle will set you back £30 which is quite a lot!

So does it actually work?

They say:

From tropical Tahiti to the Kalahari Desert in Africa, from the remote rainforests of Central America and beyond, Ojon™ gathered potent natural oils legendary for their "great healing powers" and infused them into 3 hair- phases: Amber, Crystal and Red.

One precious drop of this multi-tasking wonder helps protect, nourish and transforms dull, dry or damaged hair to vibrant health. Hair instantly looks glossier, shinier; suddenly feels softer, silkier, more luxurious.

I love that they've listed the oils on the side of the box, knowing that its a blend and the company aren't afraid to let people know exactly what's in it is great. And I love the desert/rainforest type packaging they have going on, definitely makes it feel a lot more special and interesting.

They have a long list of promises on the box; taming frizz, preventing heat damage, nourishing and encouraging shine all of which you would expect from a super oil.

I do really like the three layer presentation, particularly the colours, and even more when it's shaken up into a milky coral colour.

I should mention at this point that the oil smells reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally nice!!! A bit fruity, a bit tropical but definitely not overpowering. As you will be putting this on your head I'd hate for this to be overpowering as it would be hanging around all day. I think they've got the balance just right.

However I beg to differ about the 'one drop' theory. I know I have long hair but I believe anyone would need more than 1 single drop and I personally end up pouring out a few drops onto my hand to ensure my hair is covered and have never found this to be too much and be sticky.

I thought the oil was lovely, smells gorgeous, looks gorgeous and does help to prevent frizz, boost moisture and possibly add shine. I can't comment on how well it prevents heat damage as I rarely heat treat my hair anymore, probably twice a month i'll style it so my hair is in good condition from that anyway but every little helps!

It was a pleasure to try all of these products for the discounted price in the bundle and I can't say a really bad word about any of them. However I would begrudge paying this amount when there are other products out there just as good for less cash.
My hair seems to respond quite well to cheaper products so I'm lucky in that respect, I certainly can't say the same for my skin!

What do you think of Ojon and their products? Would you fork out the full whack for these beauties?

L xxx