Summer Fruits and Berries Rasul at Bryn Meadows

Morning all!

A spa day is always a welcome treat but after the last few weeks I was so excited to have been invited to Bryn Meadows Spa to try out their Summer Fruits and Berries Rasul offer.

This included the Rasul Mud Room Ceremony with a geranium and grapefruit scrub and a choice of mud, use of the poolside and leisure facilities for 3 hours with the usual robe, towel and slippers, followed by the Summer Berries afternoon tea with unlimited tea or coffee and a glass of Pimms.

To say I was excited was an understatement, I was looking forward to forgetting the world outside of the spa for a few hours and embracing the relaxation.

Neal's Yard Remedies Organic Pamper Party

Good afternoon!

Our last post for the 'event weekend' is from Neal's Yard Remedies. We were very excited to be invited to the pamper party happening in Bristol this week, and after a bit of a delay getting completely lost (oops!) we eventually arrived at the apartment where the party had already started.

The lovely Sue was giving a demonstration facial which was really interesting as we could pick up on tips and tricks and see the products in action.

One of the new products on the scene with NYR is the Frankincense Intense Concentrate, which is basically a concentrated version of the Frankincense Intense cream and is a best seller for its effects already. The concentrate is a serum type product which promises to deliver even more of a punch than it's original product. The concentrate will retail at £65 for 30ml compared to the original cream which is £55 for 50ml.

It was lovely to be hands on with the products as they were being used and we had the most moisturised and best smelling hands in the whole of the UK after we'd finished testing everything!

They had the whole range there including cleansers, toners, mists, serums and creams galore. We also tried out some of their other products including roller balls with essential oils and body butters.

We were very lucky to leave with a goodie bag with a full size pot of the Wild Rose Beauty Balm. As you can see from the gift bag and packaging of the balm itself, it's currently celebrating its 10th Anniversary and so has a special design by Alice Shields. I absolutely love that they've done this and the packaging is gorgeous, although it's still NYR with its blue glass pot it has a gorgeous flowery label covered in bright colours.

After playing with all the products i have been making an extensive wishlist for future purchases. Having recently been to an interview where it turns out I'd be involved in animal testing I have been looking at things a little differently. We love products that are 'free from' and NYR definitely have that covered by the endless list of awards and accolades that you can find on their website here, it is seriously impressive.

They also as a rule never test on animals, so not only are they free from all the chemical nasties they also don't partake in unnecessary actions to develop their products which is great. I can definitely see my skincare shifting towards NYR a lot faster than expected!

It surprised me how many products NYR have in their books; not only the skincare and other products of the same kind, but also a make up range, superfood and tea range, and remedies and therapies section too.

We had a lovely evening and would like to thank Sue and Jessica for a fun and informative evening!

We even grabbed a few cans of Pimms to drink on the train back to Cardiff to finish off our night!

What's your favourite products form Neal's Yard Remedies? Have you tried the Wild Rose Beauty Balm?
Have you made the shift to cruelty free products?

L & M xxx

Life Update

Hi all! 

I've been absolutely shocking at writing posts the last few months, sometimes I managed to schedule a load of them and others I've just had to let the days roll by as there's just been no chance for me to get onto my laptop. It's very frustrating when I have so many things to write about and share with you!

I thought I'd ease in gently and get started with a life update post. Things have been so busy but I've got plenty of photos!

As I've previously mentioned I have finally quit my job after a fair few months of being extremely unhappy. The photo above shows one of the mountains surrounding Abergavenny and it's a very pretty place especially as it seems to have it's own weather system!
It was nice for it to be sunny during my last few days there. I've been attending lots of interviews so revising for them and the travelling has left me pretty exhausted. Here are 2 of my outfits, I do love a shift dress and my favourite black blouse always comes in handy!

I've mentioned that my mum has been ill recently and had had an operation. I'm so pleased that she's done so well and has barely taken any painkillers so I'm really proud of her. She came home early from hospital and is now resting in bed so fingers crossed she'll make a quick recovery at home too.

In light of her being in hospital I've been making food for the family which is no easy task as my mum is AMAZING at cooking and it's not really my area of expertise. Having said that, we've been stuffing down some lush meals lately including an amazing burger from a new local company called Got Beef, fully recommend them! I've also made Sticky Chicken with broccoli and sweet potato chips (recipe here) and my first ever taste of bacon and pancakes YUM.

My awesome colleagues got me some amazing presents, I'm still in shock they got me these as they are PERFECT! I do love my spirits as I'm allergic to wine so they got me skull full of vodka from Crystal Head which is so cool don't you think?? I don't think I can bring myself to open it yet!

They also got me some really posh handmade chocolate from Amelia Rope in Wholefoods, I'm going to do a separate post on these are they were so lush and I'd love to support brands like this more.

M went shopping last week and snapped up some SUPER bargains....all of the below she found in Debenhams on offer for £3 or so each which is unbelievable. We still can't work out why it was all being sold off but this lot was worth £95 and came to around £21....couldn't say no to that especially after the reviews I've seen on the serums! full posts will follow :)

Apart from eating and shopping me and M have also completed Tough Mudder. It was a really fun day but we were so exhausted afterwards we ended up driving straight home and skipping the after party! Next time (we've already agreed to do it all again!) we know to pick an earlier time so we have time to shower and dry off properly before everyone else starts queueing!

This weekend felt really boring in comparison to last weekend, so we decided to walk up Pen Y Fan which is one of the highest peaks in Wales for a bit of exercise and took my dog. He does love being a bit of a poser!

The last few weeks and months have been super stressful and time has sometimes flashed by really quickly. Now that I'm unemployed for a hopefully short time, I'm planning on enjoying myself and sorting my life out!

I've had a clear out recently but I may do it again to get rid of clutter and minimise everything. Mostly I'm looking forward to spending time with friends and hopefully having a fair few jugs of Pimms!

What have you all been up to recently? Do you have any interview tips and tricks?

I'd love to hear them!


L xxx