The Body Shop

Events

The Body Shop Detox Party

February 5, 2015

Sunday night we were invited to a Bloggers Detox Party at the Birmingham Bullring Body Shop, and after the fun we had at the last The Body Shop event we knew we were in a for a great evening of pampering and treats!

We were inevitably early and made a beeline for the Starbucks next door where we had what can only be described as the absolute best soy chai lattes ever. The queue for the most heavenly beverage of vegan kind was rather long so by the time we got back to The Body Shop there were a gaggle of familiar faces to natter with before the event started.

After a quick catch up we were all rounded up by Elaine, the manager of the Bullring branch and officially one of the most lovely smiley ladies we’ve ever met, and offered some herbal tea to kickstart our skin detox. It’s worth mentioning a thousand times about just how lovely and enthusiastic the staff at The Body Shop (and that goes for every single member we’ve encountered at every single store!) are, every single one of them knows absolutely everything about the brand, the products and the ethos that drive the company and we’ve never once been greeted by anything but a warm smile in their stores. It’s also worth noting how passionate the staff are about the ethics behind the products and we’ve yet to find a staff member that doesn’t swear by at least one of the products.

We were taken over to Jessica who put us right at ease, going over our current skincare routines and troublesome areas with a patch test before helping us choose which ranges and products we wanted to try. Amie, who suffers with dry skin, went first and after stripping off the carefully applied make up (gasp!) she was treated to a lovely cleansing facial with the Camomile Sumptuous Cleansing Butter [£12.00] followed with a touch of Aloe Toner [£8.50] and Vitamin E intensive moisturiser [£13.00].

It was very quickly confirmed that Gemma has much oilier skin, so after another round of the amazing Camomile Sumptuous Cleansing Butter it was time to break out the tea tree and seaweed ranges (which we are both already very well acquainted with!) to get the oil slick under control. Special mention has to go to the Seaweed Mattifying Moisture Lotion [£12.00] which is amazing for shiny skin! We’re both familiar with the roller-ball style eye treatments that are amazing for working away those dark circles on the morning after the night before, but the Drops of Youth Eye Concentrate [£18.00] felt divine and certainly dispersed any worries about being bare faced in a room full of beauty bloggers – quite the opposite – everyone looked absolutely radiant!

Elaine was taking great care of everyone, checking in at each station to make sure everyone had everything they needed, and she came over to introduce us to the Drops of Youth Bouncy Face Mask [£22.00] which is absolutely the most delightful product we’ve come across in a long time! The best way to describe the texture is flubber! It’s bouncy and spongy and very gelatinous but doesn’t feel heavy at all on the skin. It’s an overnight treatment mask that we will be putting to the test very soon, but if the results after only a few minutes of it on are anything to go by, then it’s going to be an absolute skincare necessity!

Above is Amie’s re-applied makeup courtesy of Jessica and all the new shiny Body Shop makeup (BB cream in 00, Instablur Eye, Poppy Shimmer – Cube blue 31, Lip & Cheek Stick – 35 for cheeks and 50 for lips and Gel Eyeliner)

We also got a preview of the new Poppy make-up range, which has only just been released. This includes Lip & Cheek Velvet Sticks [£12.00] which comes in four shades, the Universal Lip & Cheek Velvet Stick [£12.00] which is a different shade depending on the PH in your skin, and two brand new Shimmer Cubes [£16.00] in yellow and pink, with some absolutely amazing colours!

At the end of the event, we were also treated to some mini samples of the new Smoky Poppy range, which included a sample of the Smoky Poppy Scrub [£13.00] and the Smoky Poppy Body Butter [£13.00] which are definitely a welcome addition to The Body Shop‘s extensive offerings. A gorgeous fragrance and a scrub that really does pack a punch when it comes down to ridding your skin of all those nasties, it’s definitely a range we will both be dipping into now it’s officially launched.

So we can only finish by congratulating The Body Shop Bullring staff on a wonderful evening and thanking them for giving us back a little bare-faced confidence! We were given a lovely selection of samples from the new Poppy range to play with, and picked up a few bits and pieces at a very generous discount!

Totally hellbent for herbal tea, facials and a little bit of post crimbo pampering

Gem & Pants

Events

#BHMBloggerMeet @ The Body Shop

December 4, 2014

It’s rare that we will venture together into Birmingham City Centre this time of year (there are plenty of quieter spots to do your Christmas shopping without the manic queues you get in town!) but we were very excited to be invited to the #BHMBloggerMeet, and couldn’t resist the lure of a night in The Body Shop with fellow local Bloggers!

Of course whilst we were already in the heaving shopping centres it would have been rude not to do a little shopping. Or a lot! We had a fair few bags by the time we made our way to The Body Shop, but it seemed everyone else did too! After all the shopping was stashed safely away we had a little time to mingle and browse before the fun and games started, but really the whole night felt very casual and fun from start to finish.

Time flew by in a whirl of make-up demonstrations, hand massages, games, sampling all the treats on offer and of course shopping. The staff at The Body Shop were all so passionate about their jobs and the core values and ethics of the company, they really made the night for us and recommended quite a few products that we’ve never considered before (which of course we snatched up right away!)

One of the games involved writing a little message for a cupcake and instagramming the results and Gemma won a goody bag for the best caption (or possibly the best Instagram filter ;)

Remember that sparkles are forever, not just for #Christmas! #bhmbloggermeet #bbloggers

A photo posted by Gemma Lawler (@gemma_dakesis) on Nov 11, 2014 at 11:27am PST

The night was so much fun and time flew past so quickly, but of course we made time to grab a whole host of treats for ourselves with a very generous 50% off, which has now unfortunately ended, but don’t let that stop you popping in store or online to grab some festive bargains. We definitely recommend the seasonal ranges – Glazed Apple, Vanilla Brulee and Frosted Cranberry. We only planned on indulging in the hand creams (which Amie reviewed here) but at 50% off we couldn’t resist quite a few other pieces!

At the end we were given a lovely goodie bag containing even more treats from The Body Shop including vouchers and samples of the seasonal body butters, a bag of scrumptious Propercorn, a reusable cup from Starbucks, and an adorable chocolate reindeer!

We will be sharing our mini-hauls in another post later in the week, so keep an eye out!

Finally we have to say a massive thank you to the lovely Abbigayle of StealStylist.com for hosting and organising the event, and to the amazing staff at The Body Shop for their warm hospitality and infectious enthusiasm!

Totally Hellbent for some of our favorite things – bloggers and The Body Shop!

Gem & Pants

Skincare

The Body Shop Festive Sweet Treats Hand Cream in Vanilla brulee, Glazed Apple & Frosted Cranberry Review

November 12, 2014

Gem and I have been saving up some of our Body Shop “little card of Christmas wishes” from various magazines for a few weeks now. As it happened, we both went to meet a friend in town on Monday and thought it would be such a wasted opportunity if we didn’t go in store and use one of our £3 off cards. After all the new “Christmas” ranges were out and we were both desperate to try out “Vanilla Brulee”.

Despite our best intentions, we both failed at only picking up one item and both ended up with three hand creams thanks to their in store “buy two get one free” offer. I decided to pick up the new ranges; Vanilla Brulee, Glazed Apple and Frosted Cranberry.

Glazed apple is actually much nicer than anticipated and is that typical candy apple fragrance, without being too sickly or sweet. Frosted Cranberry seems to be a new take on the usual “Cranberry” range, but I think this smells much nicer than previous years so I don’t know if they have changed the formula. Lastly, Vanilla Brulee is another gorgeous scent and after sniffing everything else in the range, I’m definitely adding all of the Vanilla Brulee products to my Christmas list this year.

Each hand cream is just £3.50 (from as little as 50p if you’ve picked up a recent little card of Christmas wishes) and in stores they are 3 for 2, so although I didn’t get to use my card due to opting for the in store offer, all three only set me back £7. These are great for testing out the new scents, without diving in head first and purchasing the whole the range in one go.

If you’d like to check out the rest of the range, simply visit The Body Shop’s website here. Although if you’ve already tried these, or the other products then we’d love to hear your thoughts?

Totally hellbent for Christmas time and festive season treats

-Pants

Empties

Summer Empties 2014 – Body

October 15, 2014

Since I’ve been away from blogging for what seems like almost all of Summer, I’ve had a whole host of empties collecting dust in my craft room waiting to be photographed and reviewed, so instead of your typical May, June, July empty post, I’ll be posting the products I’ve used up over this summer over the next few weeks as we move into those horrible dark evenings and frosty mornings.

Molton Brown Ylang Ylang Shower Gel & Body Lotion Impressions: I picked these up in one of my earlier Birchbox’s, I was pretty excited to discover that a few month’s after receiving the Shower Gel and I also had the matching Body Lotion. I’ve only recently used these in a bid to try and use up some of my vast and frankly quite worrying collection. My overall impression was that the smell was absolutely gorgeous, although I seemed to need a lot of the Shower Gel to feel clean, even though I was using my trusty shower puff. The lotion went on better but was a little thin and “drippy”, meaning I ended up dropping some on the carpet instead of on my body. Despite that my body was left with a beautiful light fragrance all day which I was pretty happy about
Cost: £18 for 300ml of the Body Wash £25 for 300ml of the Body Lotion £42 for 300ml of both the Body Wash & Body Lotion
Where can I buy this: Molton Brown Website
Repurchase: Probably not – I mean it smelt nice – but so does almost everything at The Body Shop. For such an expensive brand I wasn’t -that- blown away. I think this is more a of a status buy – you know – something you have on display in your bathroom to make you look more upperclass.

Avon Planet Spa Fantastically Firming Body Polisher Impressions: I wasn’t expecting much as I’ve never been a massive fan of Avon’s shower range, but I was pretty blown away by this. It smelt gorgeous and was really exfoliating, unlike some of their products I’ve tried before which hasn’t really had that “sand paper” effect I so desire. The fragrance didn’t really last as I always use body wash after exfoliating anyway, but I felt lovely and clean!
Cost: I picked this up at a discounted rate in my demo book, but it was available for less than £3
Where can I buy this: Unfortunately it’s no longer on sale for the next few campagins, but keep checking the the Avon online shop or your local representitive for details of it’s return.
Repurchase: Maybe – there are other exfoliating scrubs I have on my “to try” and “rebuy” lists before this one, but if I see it around at a fair price again I’ll definitely be picking some more up.

The Body Shop Strawberry Body Polish Impressions: This is still from my Christmas stash (which is still going may I add) and I have used this before. It’s full of seeds and grains which is a nice touch but it’s not rough enough for me. Alas it smells nice, especially when layered with the other products in the range and it didn’t leave me skin too dry which it has done previously.
Cost: £5.00
Where can I buy this: The Body Shop UK
Repurchase: Probably not, unless I receive this for Christmas (which I won’t complain about) I’m probably not going to be buying it myself.

Rituals Zensation Organic Rice Millk & Cherry Blosson Foaming Shower Gel Impressions: This has been absolutely amazing! It’s kind of like a shaving foam so this little can went a very long way. The great thing about it dispensing this way is you can control how much product you want, it’s really foamy and doesn’t drip everywhere and is small enough to just leave in your hand bag. (Great if you are having a few unexpected nights away and needs to freshen up in an unfamilar shower!) I actually took this away with me to Scotland and ended up using it as a hand wash as well as shower gel. The scent is also gorgeous and stuck with me throughout most of the day.
Cost: £8.50
Where can I buy this: Rituals UK Website
Repurchase: I’ll definitely be looking out for this come Summer time next year and stocking up.

The Body Shop Strawberry Shower Gel Impressions: As with the body polish, I’ve used this before. It’s pretty pleasant to use and similar to their the rest of their Body Wash range. The scent is a light but not overly chemically or synthetic Strawberry which makes layering these products very nice indeed.These big bottles seem to last me a fair while too, especially if I’m using a “shower-puff”.
Cost: £2
Where to buy: The Body Shop UK
Repurchase: As with the body polish, probably not but I wont be disapointed if it turns up under my tree this year.

The Body Shop Olive Oil Shower Gel Impressions: This was actually my second bottle of this. I’d bought it to try as my skin is quite sensitive and can become very dry and Olive based products is supposed to help. Having said that I didn’t notice much different, although it didn’t dry my skin out. I wasn’t too keen on the scent though.
Cost: From £2
Where to buy: Currently unavailable via the website, but check out the rest of the Olive range at The Body Shop UK
Repurchase: Probably not. I tried it, it was Okay but not that great so not something I’ll be buying again.

Gilchrist & Soames Shower Gel Impressions: I actually reviewed this not so long ago and was incredibly disappointed with it. Hotel tat comes to mind – you know the stuff you are left you find in your room when you go to a cheap European hotel? You can read my full review here.
Cost: From £11 (How do people spend this much money on this?)
Where can I buy this: The Gilchrist & Soames UK site
Repurchase: Definitely not. I’ll wait until the next time I end up in a3 star hotel in Holland to get my fill of cheap “hand wash” shower gel thankyou very much.

Noble Isle Bath & Body Wash Impressions: Hmm again, this struck me as the sort of thing you’d find in a hotel room but it was at least much nicer than Gilchrist & Soames. I managed to get a few washes out of it, it lathered well and it smelt quite nice. I can’t really say any more on it so it couldn’t have had the “wow” factor.
Cost: £20
Where can I buy this: Noble Isle website
Repurchase: No. Although after taking a nosy at their website, I am very much in love with some of their packaging for Christmas Gifts.

Thus concludes my first ever empties post! Finally! Keep your eyes peeled for my next installments of Summer empties. Have you tried any of the products above? If so I’d love to know your thoughts below.

Totally hellbent for remembering the glory of summer by reviewing all of the empties

– Pants

Hauls

Essential repurchases from The Body Shop

September 29, 2014

With the near constant special offers available at The Body Shop I never have to wait too long to grab my essentials at way below the high street price! I was pretty sensible this time and managed to get an absolute bargain on four of my all time favourite products.

Vanilla Body Mist (£7.50)

This is my absolute favourite body mist in the world – I think I’m onto my sixth or seventh bottle by now. I like to take this along to gigs to freshen up after an hour on a sweaty stage, and despite the glass bottle I’ve luckily never had any accidents! I always get a lot of compliments on this scent and find that it easily lasts as long as a good EDP. There are a few other fragrances I’d like to try from The Body Shop (especially the Raspberry EDT that Pants reviewed here), but I find that I come back to this one time and time again.

Early-Harvest Raspberry Shower Gel (£4.00)

My favourite of all the fruity shower gels on offer (With the new Argon Oil range there are now 10 different delicious scents!). I really think you can’t beat The Body Shop for shower products in this price range and I’m super-eager to finish off the bottle of scrumptious Honeymania I’m half way through at the moment so I can delve into this berry heaven.

Strawberry Soap (£2.00)

I’ve never been a fan of using soap on my skin, this is actually what I use for washing my make-up brushes. Unorthodox I know, but it’s the fastest way I’ve found yet and The Body Shop soaps are vegan friendly unlike some of the dedicated brush cleaners out there.

Vitamin E Moisture Cream (£11.00)

This was one of the first products I ever tried from The Body Shop and remains a firm favourite years later. Pants is the undisputed queen of the Vitamin E range (as demonstrated in her posts here and here!) but I always find myself dipping in and out of this simple but reliable face cream between other favourites. This is also the perfect moisturiser for mixing in with foundation on those days when you want a lighter finish.

So there you have it, one very restrained mini Body Shop haul that should have cost £24.50 but swung it’s way to me for a bargainous £11.09!

The offers change all the time but currently you can get 30% off when you buy three items or 40% off when you buy five items both in store and on-line with the code RADIANCE, so if you’re planning on restocking or trying something new head over to The Body Shop now where you can also bag free delivery on orders over £25!

Totally hellbent for reliable favourites

– Gem

Fragrance

The Body Shop Early Harvest Raspberry Eau De Toilette Review

August 26, 2014

A while ago now I picked up the Early Harvest Raspberry Eau De Toilette from The Body Shop. After being introduced to the Vanilla body mist by Gem, I’ve been a huge fan of their fragrances and spray’s ever since. They are so versatile and perfect for any occasion.

When I ordered the 30ml sized bottle, I wasn’t expecting it to be so small, but actually I’m more than happy with it’s hand bag friendly size since it means I can now drop it into my bag if I’m out and about. The bottle is nothing fancy, but looks nice enough next to my fragrance collection and has a gorgeous fuscia hue to the bottle.

The fragrance itself is light and fruity without being too overpowering. It has the signature raspberry smell of The Body Shop and the couple of times I’ve worn it, I’ve found the longevity to be pretty good. I think this is definitely a more summer scent and I think I will be drawn back to my Vanilla body mist once the sun decides it’s had enough of this year. Having said that I reckon I’ll get a few more uses out of it before then.

I bought this for £6 with a few other items a fair few months ago but it’s been sat in the “to be reviewed” box waiting for me to give it some much deserved attention. Unfortunately the Raspberry Eau De Toilette isn’t available from The Body Shop at the moment, but I expect they will re launch this again in Spring next year. You can check out the other fragrances available via their website here though where they generally retail for around £8.50.

I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for some of the other fragrances from The Body Shop and adding them to my collection.

Totally hellbent for fruity fragrances that fit in my bag

-Pants

Facemask Friday

Facemask Friday – The Body Shop Tea Tree Face Mask

December 20, 2013

I absolutely love tea tree products, one of my firm favourite’s used to be Superdrug’s exfoliating Tea Tree Face Pads before they changed the product slightly and they now don’t seem to resemble sandpaper as closely. (I know I know, bad for your skin but it feels so good!)

When my skin is feeling a bit drab I love using this tea tree face mask from The Body Shop. It’s also probably one of the nicest face masks to apply due to how easily it goes on.

Above – this applies so well to the Skin and I find the coverage is amazing, this face mask also dries hard as you can see below which I generally prefer with masks. The other added bonus to this mask, is that I end up with a dry green face which is wonderful for freaking out my partner Brains.

Another thing I like is that this washes away so well. I generally take mine off in the shower and this rinses with ease. I find I don’t have to spend ages trying to find stealth green residual bits on my face! It also leaves my skin wonderfully soft and feeling full on pampered.

You can pick up The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Face Mask in store or online for just £10 (trust me when I say these pots go a long way!) If you have sensitive skin, just ask at your nearest store for a sample before hand and they usually oblige very kindly.

Totally hellbent for facemask’s that make you look like the incredible hulk

-Pants

Skincare

Body Shop special offer mini-haul PT. 2

November 25, 2013

Last week The Body Shop had two amazing special offers on, and of course I had to take full advantage of them both! I posted about the first here a few days ago, and now my second box of goodies has arrived!

This offer was a special treat for fans of The Body Shop’s Facebook Page, offering free P&P and a mini Chocomania set with purchases over £5, unfortunately the offer is no longer running as they had such a high number of orders but you can still get 35% off, free P&P and a secret free gift with this offer if you order today!

Now onto my choice of lovely treats! I actually only picked up one thing at full price, the Vanilla Bliss Manicure and Moisture duo for £6.00.

Thus receiving the Chocomania lip butter (worth £4.00), Chocomania Body Scrub (woth £5) and Chocomania shower cream (worth £2) for free!

I’ll be saving the scrub and shower cream for our upcoming adventure to Rotterdam, but the lip butter is amazing! So yummy!

Totally hellbent for free chocolate treats, even if you can’t eat them!

– Gem

Skincare

Body Shop special offer mini-haul PT. 1

November 22, 2013

The Body Shop is one of those places where I never seem to have to buy anything at full price because there is always a great offer on – at the moment you can get 35% off everything, free delivery and a free gift when you spend £5! This offer runs till Monday 25th Novemeber, so still plenty of time to get your hands on some shinies!

My first package arrived this morning (I’m waiting on another from a different offer that unfortunately has finished now) and here’s what I chose.

Ultra Fine Bath Lily – Aqua £2.00

Tea Tree Pore Minimiser – £7.50

And my free gift….

Shea Body Butter – RRP £13

So with my 35% discount and free bonus I paid only £6.17 for what should have been £22.50 (+P&P!).

Expect to see reviews on the pore minimiser and body butter coming soon, and look out for my second Body Shop mini-haul that hopefully will arrive over the next few days!

If you want to take advantage of this amazing offer just head to TheBodyShop.co.uk and use the code MYSTERY at checkout!

Did you get any nice treats with this special offer? If so, let me know what – and did you get a different free gift?

Totally hellbent for amazing savings!

– Gem

Facemask Friday, Skincare

Facemask Friday – Avon Planet Spa Thailand Lotus Flower

November 15, 2013

Well it’s Friday again, and after a rather rocky few weeks for Gem and I consisting of feeling under the weather and bogged down with reams of work as the festive season approaches it’s a chance to take a step back and relax. (Not for too long mind!)

Today’s facemask is the Avon Planet Spa Thailand Lotus Flower deep pore cleansing facemask. (Bit of a mouthful there!) My favourite thing about this mask, is the way it drys, it turns a beautiful lilac colour and smells beautiful.

Application is smooth, as it takes such a long time to dry there is time to spread the mask evenly. Although it’s heavily scented, it doesn’t seem to irritate my skin at all which is great.

The mask dry’s hard, but is easily washed off. I generally wash mine in the shower which probably makes it a bit easier, but I have also rinsed this with a soft flannel.

Once I’ve removed the mask, it does feel a little softer, although perhaps not as great as my Body Shop Warming Mineral Mask, however this is nicer for a more regular treat and brings a touch of luxury to the day!

You can pick up the Planet Spa face mask range online direct from Avon or from your nearest representative between £1.50 and £4.00. Unfortunately the Thailand Lotus Flower face mask is unavailable, but I’m sure they will re release this again soon.

Totally hellbent for perk me up facemasks!

-Pants