Squeezing in a GlossyBox Review - November

Thought that I would review my GlossyBox before I leave for Manchester!

November 2011 - The Christmas Gift-Guide: Part 1

5 products to try before your buy (whether for yourself or others)

Heres what I recieved//Arbonne FC5 Cooling Foot Creme//Dead Sea Spa Magik bath salts//Monu Skin Perfector//Nail Roc Designer Nail Wraps//Serge Lutens Perfume Samples

 I know a lot of people were disappointed with this months box as the Dead Sea Spa Magik bath salts were in a previous box, again we received perfume samples which you can pick up free at any beauty counter, also this box contains no make up.

 I feel they probably peaked too soon giving away such amazing samples when they first started and this months box was a bit of an anti-climax however I wouldn't say I am disappointed with it.

I love the Nail Rock wraps but unfortunately my nails are quite small and they wouldn't go on nicely but they would be fab for Christmas nights out. As I am a fan of Dead Sea Spa Magik I look forward to using the bath salts after my gym sessions as they are fabulous at relaxing the muscles.

I find the Serge Lutens samples quite nice actually, uni-sex and clean, fresh scent. A long cry from my favourite Viktor&Rolf Flowerbomb but they are lovely for everyday wear, not that I will be repurchasing them at £86.00 for 100ml!

I am yet to try the Monu Skin perfector but I hear it's a perfect primer for make-up and the Arbonne FC5 Cooling foot Creme will be given away at Christmas as a stocking filler.

All in all a good box but not fabulous, fingers crossed GlossyBox will pull something amazing out of the bag for their Christmas Box!

Love Mel & Finn xx

An Interlude

Hello lovelies,

We are headed up North again tonight to celebrate some birthdays. Ryan and I have had a lovely hotel stay booked for us, it'll be the first time we have left Finn over night, he'll be at his Nana and Gramps house but I'm still rather scared about this!

My orders have been delivered to the in-laws so I have lots of posts planned for when I return.

I shall leave you with a few things we have been up to in the past few days, none really beauty related I'm afraid, I have a horrible cold and I've been trying to sweat it out in the gym so I shan't scare you with my rough looking self at the moment!

Glossy box arrival//making salt dough feet//Lush baths//dog walks//nail wraps//sitting up unaided//chatting to daddy//floury hand prints//

Hope you all have a lovely week, it'll be decemeber when I'm home, one step closer to Christmas, eeeekk! Cannot wait to put my Christmas tree up!

Love Mel & Finn xxx

Sky Line Pink - Revlon Review

I promised a review of this a few days ago, since then I have been trying to take a photo that does this gorgeous lipstick justice. I previously thought I wasn't too bad a photographer but it seems not!

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Sky Line Pink is a light pink colour with a frosted shimmer. I had seen a few reviews of this lipstick before I bought it and I find it to be more of a golden nude colour on myself where on most its a pinky nude. Either way it's lovely soft and creamy muted golden/pink nude, perfect to go with dramatic eye make up for winter.

And just one of my cheeky monkey on our walk today.

I'm thinking of started a baby related blog, I want to do baby led weaning and there is little information on this, and we also might be re-locating in the near future so it would be nice for friends and family to see how Finn is growing, but I'm not sure if I can cope with two blogs!

Love Mel & Finn xxx

clumbsy me

Sorry I've been a rubbish blogger!

I had meant to schedual some posts in yesterday but I managed to fall down the stairs with Finn in my arms.

I some how just stepped off the fourth step thinking I was at the bottom, landed on my feet which then gave way so I ended up like a sack of spuds at the bottom!

Luckily he was fine but I landed awkardly on my wrist and decided to go to the 'walk in' doctors who sent me a&e to check it out, I've only stretched my ligaments with a possibly tear but it seriously hurts! I generally have quite a high pain thresshold but not today. bad times. so unfortunately my typing skills are pretty low at the moment

I have H&M, BooHoo and Next orders being delivered shortly so by then I should be back to normal hopefully!

On a side note, Breaking Dawn was absolutely amazing, honestly the best film I have seen this year! We were 30mins early for the midnight showing and still had to sit right at the front, which gives me an excuse to go again to see the bits I might of missed!

Thanks to Beth @ MommaB&Babyboy I have managed to work out how to make collages, so here are our last few days.

Love Mel & Finn xx

When you can live forever, is anything worth dying for?

What do you wear to a midnight showing of a film if you're going for drinks first, do you dress up as you'll be in a bar, or do you dress down as you'll be in the cinema?

This doesn't bode well for the most indicisive girl in the world!

Love Mel & Finn xx

Gingerbread lattes....

On Friday before Finn's swimming lesson (which he did a 5 second under water swim!) we met up with my friend Lizzie and her gorgeous little boy for the obligatory Starbucks and had lunch at Wagamama's. Her little boy was a superstar and Finn unlike him was being a whinge!

Also had my first Gingerbread Latte of the season, I absolutely love them and I'm sure it'll be the first of many, sod the diet I NEED these!

Strangely I met Lizzie on NetMums on their 'meet a mum' board. You write a little bit about yourself and ask other mums to contact you, I imagine it's like writing a dating ad!

I have lots of friend with children but at the time I had Finn I only had one friend with a baby so thought it would be good plan to meet some other new mummies.

I remember adding Lizzie to facebook and then arranging to meet for a coffee (Starbucks as always) and Ryan asked me if I was going to be wearing a red rose so Lizzie would know who I was!

Two hours later we were still chatting over probably our third coffee with two dozing babies in prams.  Lizzie's little (I'm lying here, he's a chunky monkey!) boy is only a month older Finn so it'll be nice for them to be able to play together when they're a little bigger.

I'd definitely recommend it as a great way to meet other mums, obviously with meeting anyone online you have to be careful but luckily for me Lizzie wasn't a pervy man posing as a mum!

Hope you've all had a lovely day, it's been gorgeous here today, lots of sunshine and blue skies.

Love Mel & Finn xxx

NOTD - Facets of Fuchsia

Now I may be a bit slow on the uptake here as I have read so many reviews on this nail polish, but it is blindingly beautiful!

I am so glad I purchased it. Revlon's A/W collection includes 'Facets of Fuchsia' which has fuchsia glitter suspended in a black polish (so many reviews say in jelly, but it's just normal black polish to me!).

The first coat goes on really wishy washy and I was thinking that it would take at least three coats to be opaque but the second goes on really well and sealed with a top coat it's just gorgeous.

I imagine it is going to be a complete nightmare to remove but as I can't stop staring at my nails at the moment I'm really not fussed!

I cannot take a picture that does it justice and that shows up the true colour of the glitter but I'm sure you have seen the many pictures out there of it!

I have a bit of a Revlon obsession at the moment as I also bought the 'Sky Line Pink' Super Lustrous Lipstick, which I'll review shortly.

We've had some pretty drastic news here, which I may or may not blog about but it's going to mean some major changes and upheaval in the next couple of months but as the saying goes, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger!

I shall leave you with a few pictures of my smiley boy.

Lots of love, Mel & Finn xxx

****Oh I've just seen my first Coca Cola Christmas advert of this year, eeekkkk I can't wait!****

So the lion fell in love with the lamb

Today we have had a lazy day, with a visit from Finn's auntie's who were down for the day.

I thought I would introduce Shelley to Twilight, which I am totally addicted to, I could watch it over and over. I read so so many comments and status's about the saga on facebook at the time it came out that it put me off so when the hype had calmed down I dipped my toe in the Twilight water, and have in the words of Bella Swan, 'fallen hopelessly and irrevocably in love' with the books and films. I'm sure I've mentioned I have tickets to the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn, I might burst with excitement soon! Team Edward all the way.

I met up with a friend yesterday for coffee, cake and a good old gossip, which of course ended in a spot of shopping. Superdrug have a 3 for 2 on all cosmetics at the moment so I picked up my favourite lipstick, Shake up from Rimmel's Colour Show Off range. It is beautifully matte pink lipstick which gives a lovely 'pop' of colour.

Secondly I chose L'Oreal's Volume Million Lashes Luminizer for Hazel eyes which is black with a touch of amaysthe, it looks purple on the wand but goes on black. It's supposed to 'Luminize' (is that even a word) your eyes or in their words...

"Light-up your eyes with Volume Million Lashes Luminizer. For fanned-out, maxed-up lash look in 3 dazzling shades.

Put the twinkle in your eyes!"

I can't say it does that but it's a very nice mascara which does indeed give lovely fanned result as well as lifting and separating the lashes. I'm not however a fan of the wand, it's a huge plastic one and I don't get on well with those! This picture of at the end of the day so the slight fall out is from me rubbing my eyes all day from sleep deprivation!!

Did you know there is only 45 sleeps, and 4 hours until Christmas? What are you most looking forward to this Christmas? It will be our first with Finn and I absolutely cannot wait.

Love Mel & Finn xx

Splish Splash

I thought that I would test out the Stila Smudge Stick from this months GlossyBox at Finn's swimming lesson. 10 splashing babies surely is the ultimate test?

The smudge stick I (and everyone else) received is the colour Moray which is a gorgeous glittery olive green. It glides on gorgeously and delivers a beautiful colour.

This is the result after half an hour of heavy splashing and underwater swims...Sorry about the god awful picture but as you can see it stayed put very well!

On a side note if you're thinking of taking your baby/toddler to swimming lessons, then I highly recommend WaterBabies. It is quite pricey but worth every penny in my opinion. The classes are small enough for everyone to get individual attention, fun and full of energy, the babies are taught lots of life saving skills and seeing your baby swimming under water is just magical.

We are coming to the end of our 10 week course and Finn has done so many under water swims now that he is super confident in the water and loves it.

I'm looking forward to the next course where the mums/dads get to swim underwater with the babies too and play under water games. I think I might get more excited about the lesson than Finn!

Enjoy bonfire night if you're going to see a display, I love this time of year but alas it is pouring down here so I don't think we'll be going anywhere!

Love Mel & Finn xx

There is a light that never goes out

I have decided that as I am rubbish at titling my posts, if I'm stuck I'm just going to use my most favourite song lyrics!

Yesterday I took Finn (well me really) to see The Lion King in 3D, I loved this film as a little one myself and couldn't wait to see it in the cinema. Having a baby makes seeing Disney and kiddie films in the cinema just a that little bit better! It was every bit as good at I remember, luckily there was only four others in the cinema so I had a little sing along and a little cry to the movie! I can't wait to take him (me again) to see Arthur!

Today we went for lunch and a little shop with my friend Claire, WetherSpoons never fails for a yummy and filling lunch on a budget.

Finn got some little treats, a nice snuggly pram suit, some boys tights from H&M, a new swimming nappy as he is such a water baby, some Palmers Baby Butter for his nightly massage and we're looking forward to trying out some Palmers Bottom Butter as recommend by Emma @ Passion for Fashion

I had a few things to return to Primark, so in exchange I picked up a hooded scarf, a gorgeous maroon and cream striped jumper which will look fab with leggings and riding boots, some PJ's, a pretty bra and some Palmers moisturizer for mama too.

Finn was wrapped up nice and warm for our trip!

Love Mel & Finn xxx

M.I.A

Hello lovelies!

Sorry I've been a bit MIA since coming back from my jollies. I'll ease myself in gently with a photo post of the things we have done over the last three weeks. I'm busy catching up on your blogs and working out how to use twitter at the moment! * Warning * Picture heavy*

Love Mel & Finn xxx

If someone could tell me how to put my pictures in a different format I would love to know, it drives me insane having them straight down the page! I'm sure I can do it via Instagram or Flickr, but not sure how? Help!

xx