Roll Up, Roll Up! A Box of High End Beauty Treats for Just £10!

As beauty fans, we know only too well how expensive those must-have products can be - especially the high end ones. That's why GlossyBox - a new beauty subscription service for £10 a month - is so fantastic.

Anyone who's heard of the American equivalent, Birchbox ,will no doubt be raring to get their hands on a GlossyBox.

So what's it all about then? Basically, pay £10 a month and you'll receive a cute gift box in the post (free delivery!) each month containing five 'exciting surprise products' in mini form.

But we're not talking about those ridiculously sized samples you get at beauty counters; these are pretty generous 'luxury sized' samples. 

Kind of like a beauty lucky dip, you really don't know what you'll receive from one month to the next - from Laura Mercier face powders, to nail polishes and face creams.

In a nutshell, this nifty little subscription service aims to save beauty fans a ton of cash. Simply try the products in the box and it's your choice whether to repurchase.

How many times have you purchased that essential high end blusher/lipstick/perfume only to discover you hate it after just one application? I know I have!

You can even cancel your subscription at ant time!

Intrigued? Just head to http://www.glossybox.co.uk/

What do you think of the GlossyBox concept? Will you be signing up?

FTC Disclaimer: I have not been paid to do this post, nor am I affiliated with the company. I am just letting my readers know as I believe this is something you'd be interested in. All opinions are 100% honest and my own, as always.

Aussie Lusciously Lighter Challenge: Week 1

If you read this post, you'll know all about the Lusciously Lighter challenge, set to a handful of bloggers by hair care brand Aussie.

Not sure what it's all about? Head on over to Aussie's latest blog post here to be filled in.

I'm now one week down and feeling hopeful that I'll have some positive results to share at the brand's upcoming bloggers' event in London next month.

Breakfasts this week have consisted of weetabix with milk, while lunches have been light (and have not included muffins!) and evening meals haven't been too stodgy. I've replaced cakes and crisps with blueberries, watermelon and low fat yogurt and I've taken to jumping on my exercise bike a couple of nights a week. I've also been drinking two litres of water a day and have really been feeling the benefit of a healthier diet.

Aussie are helping us on our health kick by posting motivational videos - the first one is below.


Aussie's Lusciously Light Videos: Part 1 from 1000heads on Vimeo.

Why not join us on the challenge? Good luck everyone!

PS: To those bloggers who believe Aussie are encouraging us to lose weight, that is totally not the case. I'd like to stand up for the brand and let you know that the PR folk behind Aussie have set up this merely as a bit of fun.

Here's a comment from Emma at the brand, just for clarification: "At no time have we challenged them [Aussie Angels] to lose weight or lighten their hair, and we absolutely would not ever, ever ask our Angels to undertake such things. This really is not what the activity is about – we chose the options based on what we saw on everyone’s blogs already – a desire to eat healthier and improve fitness and have a bit of a life ‘spring-clean’, and I hope that all our Angels enjoy their journey and have some fun with it!

"The activities are a bit of light-hearted fun and the Angels are under no obligation to take up the challenge. They chose which activity they would like to take part in, and now it is up to them how involved they would like to be. I will be doing all the activity with them as motivation, and overall just having a bit of a giggle along the way!"

Feeling Optimistic?

Want to win £500 to spend in-store at Paul Smith, a bottle of his new perfume Optimistic AND VIP entry to an exclusive party this summer?

Head to the brand's Facebook page, upload your 'most upbeat photos' into the Paul Smith Optimistic Facebook app - share your piccie with friends and get as many 'Likes' as possible.





The 50 most-liked photos at the end of the competition will win VIP invites for 2 to join the Paul Smith Optimistic family and top UK artists, with the top three most-liked photos also bagging £500 to spend at Paul Smith.

 
There are also weekly prizes to be won, so head to http://www.facebook.com/PaulSmithOptimistic or http://twitter.com/PSOptimistic

Good luck everyone!

Cetaphil - Now Available in ASDA!

Love Cetaphil? Me too! Seeing as it's such a nuisance to track down, I've been paying well over the odds for the facial cleanser for over a year - so I was chuffed to bits when I spotted it in the Chemist of my local ASDA store. Get in! I love a beauty bargain, don't you?

After a quick natter with the chemist, I discovered it was new in - and it's currently available for £4 a bottle (almost half what I was paying on Chemist Direct). Now I'm not too sure if this is an introductory offer or it's permanently so cheap,
but either way I'd say skip on down to ASDA to see if it's in your local store and grab a few bottles to save a few squids on Internet shipping.

Haven't tried Cetaphil yet? It's basically just a super gentle face wash which aims to: `cleanse and moisturise gently, without stripping out the skin's natural oils or without disturbing the skin's natural ph palance." Ideal for all skin types including sensitive skin, this product is also great for sufferers of acne, eczema, rosacea and psoriasis.

You can give it a go for nowt - the was a whole shelf of free samples in the chemist today, despite the product hitting the shelves over a week ago.

Have you tried Cetaphil? If not, what cleanser do you swear by?

Find out what I thought of the Cetaphil moisturiser (also just £4 in ASDA) in an upcoming post...

Egg-citing Beauty Prizes up for Grabs - From 1p Each!

Fancy bagging yourself some egg-stra special beauty prizes? Thought so! Then head on over to Beautique, who are holding a fun Easter promotion today.

The beauty site is giving people the chance to win one of 15 prizes, ranging from soaps to a £100 hamper. All you need to do is head to the website and find some specially hidden Easter eggs.

Up for grabs is five lots of soaps, five £5 vouchers, four £20 vouchers and one grand prize of a £100 hamper!
Beautique will be hiding 15 eggs amongst different brand pages throughout the site - and all you have to do to be in with the chance of winning is hunt the eggs down by clicking through the various pages.

Each prize will have to be purchased by the players and all prizes are priced at just 1p. The game starts at 11am today (Thursday). Players are only permitted to find one egg each, and players who do find and purchase more than one will be disqualified (and their order will be cancelled).

Beautique will be reporting the event live on their Twitter and Facebook pages and welcome anyone and everyone to play! The shipping costs for these prizes are on the site, so there really isn’t anything to lose (well a penny).

Ready, eggy, go! Good luck!

Sweets for my Sweets: And the Winner Is....

Thanks to everyone who entered my competition to win some delicious Easter treats from new website Kingdom of Sweets.

The winner (picked by a work colleague out of a hat) is....London's Beauty!

Congratulations!. Please email your address to me at laurenholden6@gmail.com and I'll get your prize sent out tomorrow!

Happy Easter everyone!

Sweets for My Sweets!

With Easter just around the corner, here's a sweet treat for my subscribers - the chance to bag yourself er...bags of sweets!

Anyone who read my previous post here will know that I've cut out all things sugary. Sob. But don't worry, my loss is your gain!

I've teamed up with brand new company called Kingdom of Sweets to give you the opportunity to win all these scrumptious sweets (below), just in time for Easter - UK subscribers only please.

You'll win: Chocolate fudge, chocolate truffles, candy necklaces & jelly hearts and strawberries - all wrapped up in these retro stripey sweet shop bags.

All you need to do is subscribe to my blog (if you haven't already) and leave me a comment below. Simples! I'll pick a winner at random tomorrow (Tuesday, 19th April) at midday and announce on my blog.

Tempted? Go on...enter below.

Good luck!

Wish Me Luck!

I have a ridiculously sweet tooth. But despite not being able to eat chocolate (for health reasons, blub, blub), I love sugar - and lots of it! Jelly sweets, muffins, cakes, biscuits - you name it, I'll scoff it! And while I'm a healthy size 10/12,  on numerous occasions I've tried (and failed) to go on a health kick.

While losing a couple of pounds would be a nice bonus, I realise I really don't need to. I don't want to be stick thin,  but I would like to be a little healthier. And since a package from the PR folk at Aussie dropped through my letterbox last Friday afternoon, I now have no excuse.

The girls at the brand, who've been busy promoting the new 'Lusciously Light' range of hair care products, have also been getting to work organising some seriously fun events for us Aussie Angels.

At the end of May, a bunch of devoted Lusciously Light bloggers - myself included - will be getting together to talk about their very special Aussie challenge.

What's that then?

Inside the aforementioned parcel was an Aussie Lusciously Light t-shirt, which I'll be donning at the end of May for a blogging event in London - which will be the culmination of weeks spent eating healthily and exercising. Eeek!

Aussie will be sending us exercise videos, healthy eating tips and the like to help us on our Lusciously Light 'journey' - and we'll all meet in the big smoke for Aussie Boot Camp  - a day of yoga, exercise, healthy eating and a general chit chat with fellow angels. There's even a prize for the angel who goes all out on the Lusciously Light mission!

Late nights, stodgy winter food and not nearly enough water has made me tired and sluggish. So I'm not looking at this as a diet - more a mission to become healthier.
I'll be cutting out those muffins, ditching fatty foods and adopting a healthier eating plan and some light regular exercise. I'll be honest, the very thought fills me with dread! I'll be updating you all here (hopefully daily) and via Twitter (@lauren2herself) with my progress. As I write this I'm eating an Eccles cake and drinking a red bush tea with 2 sugars, so it's not looking good!
 
 Tomorrow (Monday) is a good day to start so I'm cramming in as much sugar as I can tonight.

Want to know what it means to be an Aussie Angel (a fun blogging collective set up by Aussie)? Then go to http://www.uncoveraussie.co.uk/

For now though, wish me luck on my challenge - I think I'm going to need it! Anyone want to join me?

Tights in a Tin Fake Tan: And the Winners are.....

Thanks to everyone who entered my competition to win a bottle of Tights in a Tin fake tan!

I've selected a couple of names out of a hat.

And the winners are....

Lucy  and Dani.

Congratulations! Please email me at laurenholden6@gmail.com with your details and which colour you'd like and I'll arrange for your prize to be sent out to you.

Because Mums Deserve a Treat....

Way back at Christmas (remember then? Already seems like yonks ago!) I treated my Mum to a voucher to spend at her favourite spa - Alexandra House in West Yorkshire. As luck would have it, tucked deep inside my own festive stocking on December 25th was a voucher for the very same place. Thank you Daryl!

So when health and beauty company Wahanda offered to send me one of their very own gift certificates to redeem anywhere in the UK as a treat, who was I to say no? I figured that'd be a whole afternoon's pampering in the stunning Huddersfield-based spa for my dear Mum and me. And she blimming deserved it too!

And seeing as Mother's Day was just around the corner, I promptly booked us in for our regular facials (Karin Herzog and Eve Taylor) and a hot stones back massage each.

I first stumbled across Alexandra House after receiving a Wahanda gift voucher about 18 months ago. The spa happened to be en route home from my boyfriend's house (who lives over two hours way) and proved to be just the ticket before lengthy motorway journeys.

If you haven't yet checked out the Wahanda site, I fully recommend it. It's almost like Ebay for beauty bargains, offering a range of regular 'hot deals', including two for one pampering breaks and cut price appointments at top hair and beauty salons. The great thing is, you can redeem Wahanda vouchers at any participating spa or salon and you're generally the first to know about fantastic offers via the company's regular email updates. So if you love all things beauty, it really is worth signing up.


Onto the pampering day then....

The stunning Alexandra House

I've been visiting Alexandra House spa on a regular basis for the last 18 months - and it really is unlike any other spa I've visited. In my previous job as a reporter I had the opportunity to visit (and review) numerous spas and salons, but none quite live up to this one.

The staff are friendly and really know their stuff and the spa itself is simply stunning- a real haven tucked away down a quiet side street.

So what did we go for....?

Between us we had just over £100 in vouchers, which bought us a half hour hot stones massage and a facial each. I plumped for my favourite - the Karin Herzog Glyco Rose Peel, while my Mum (who suffers from extremely sensitive skin) opted for an Eve Taylor treatment, both £27 each.

While we've both visited the spa on numerous occasions for a facial, neither of us have tried a hot stones massage. There's a first time for everything....

How does it work?

Used in many different cultures for years, hot stone therapy can help in the treatment of muscular aches, pains, strains, back pain, multiple sclerosis and insomnia. As far as the latter goes it most definitely did its job ..as after little more than 5 minutes my Mum was snoozing away like nobody's business, much to her embarrassment later.

The treatment room. Picture: posed by models. Had my Mum not been in snooze mode we may have had our photo taken!

Usually basalt rocks, stones used for a treatment like this are placed in water and heated to approximately 52 °C before being placed on specific points on the back and massaged lightly. You know that lovely feeling when you're in a hot shower and the water's beating down on your back - well, this is much more relaxing than that. Well worth the money!

Picture: Posed by model!

The facials were as fantastic as ever and we both left the spa with glowing skin. We were advised not to apply make-up for the rest of the day but unfortunately/fortunately (delete as appropriate) Manchester Trafford Centre was on the way home and we just had to stop off for a quick nosey around the shops! The perfect girls' day out. Thank you Alexandra House and Wahanda!

How did you spend Mother's Day? Hope everyone had a fantastic day with their Mums/Step Mums/Nanas.

FTC Disclaimer: I have not been paid to write this review. All opinions are 100% honest and my own, as ever. I received a £50 voucher from Wahands to use at a spa of my choice and I paid for the additional treatments with my own (and Mum's) gift vouchers.

Ladies' Day: The Winners and the (Fashion) Losers

So if you're a Daily Mail reader you've no doubt already read Janet Street Porter's rant about the northern fashions on show at last weekend's ladies' day at Aintree.

And while I don't agree with everything she says in the article titled: 'Girls Up North are Great - so Why do they Dress Like Lily Savage', if some of the photos accompanying said piece are anything to go by, she kind of has a point. But surely this is just a snapshot (quite literally) of northern ladies and there must've been tons of ladies who made the journey to Aintree from much further afield, no?

She states:  "Without being too brutal — given a big occasion, Northern women have absolutely no sense of style."

So come on northern lasses....

Now's the time to say your piece. Does she have a right to speak of us "friendly, no nonsense" people like this, or is she bang out of order?

Personally, I'm of the opinion that people should be able to wear what they want, when they want...but if they're going to do so at a public event such as this one...do they deserve all they get? What do you think?

Head on over and take a look at Janet's article, but don't forget to leave a comment below.

It's About Time Too!

Thankfully, new laws regarding under 18s and their use of sunbeds have finally been put into place, something which Company magazine have been campaigning for for years.

Under the law it's now illegal for anyone under 18 to use a sunbed in places such as gyms, hotels, salons and businesses in England and Wales - and rightfully so.

While the tan hasn't completely been banned, this is definitely a step in the right direction. I for one have never used a sunbed and am perfectly happy with my fair skin, even if it is pasty white.

So what can the 'tanorexics' amongst you do prior to getting those pins out this summer?

W7 have launched Tights in a Tin - a brand new tanning product in a bottle.

The spray on product covers imperfections and enhances skin tone in seconds. The streak-free bronzing spray is the safe and convenient way to achieve perfect pins in no time at all.

Spray on to hand and apply to legs for a smooth golden glow and wash off easily with soap and warm water.

The product is available in two gorgeous shades, medium and deep glow - priced at £5.95 each.

What do you think about this new law? Long overdue or are you a fan of the sun bed tan?

WIN!
To help you stay away from the sun bed, I've teamed up with W7 to offer A Lauren to Herself subscribers the chance to win one of two bottles of Tights in a Tin (in your colour preference). Simply comment below and the winners will be picked at random on Friday, April 15th. Subscribers only please!

Tights in a Tin is available from http://www.faithcosmetics.co.uk/

Just Because....

....it's ace. Enjoy!

Thank You Batiste!

While Batiste has been around for years, the popular dry shampoo has never been so well...er...popular as it has in recent times. Whether it's the brand's social media campaigns or the fact that more and more of us are going to summer music festivals, the original dry shampoo is certainly doing well.

And the £2.35 I spent on a can of Batiste Blush Scented shampoo was certainly well spent yesterday. I've been a fan of the brand for some time but thought it wise to pack a can of the wonder stuff in my bag after myself and my Mum headed for a wonderful Mother's Day treat (for her) to the lovely Alexandra House spa Huddersfield - more on that later.

We opted for a relaxing hot stones back massage and a facial each. Anyone who's been for a facial will know that you come out looking like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards. While you leave with gorgeously glowing new skin, your hair is almost dripping with essential oils following the routine scalp massage that generally comes with a facial. Not a good look!

An hour later and what seemed like half a tub of industrial strength oil equals serious chip pan hair.

Chip pan hair? No thanks

Despite already spending a couple of hours shopping before the facial, myself and my Mum thought we'd stop at Trafford Centre on the way home. This is wher the Batiste came in. God knows how it does it, but it literally transformed our oily, greasy hair into beautiful silky locks in seconds. Who knows what we looked like spraying away like lunatics in the Trafford Centre car park but this miracle product was really put to the test on Saturday - and it worked! We spent the next couple of hours swanning around the shopping centre with what looked like newly washed hair.

Batiste saves the day

Absolute magic. Thank you Batiste - I (and my Mum!) salute you! I've used Batiste before (between hair washes and to freshen up before a night out) but I've never quite put it to such a rigerous test as this.

You definitely want to be slipping a few cans of this in your bag if you're heading to Glasto this year!

Have you tried Batiste? What do you think?

FTC Disclaimer: I was not paid to do this review, nor am I affiliated with Batiste. I bought this product with my own money and my opinions, as always, are my own and 100% honest.

Bleeping Ingenious!

Update! This was an April Fool. Hope you enjoyed it!

We've all made the mistake of piling on ridiculous amounts of blusher/bronzer at some time or other; either by getting a tad carried away as clueless teenagers or by hurriedly applying make-up in the back of a taxi.

So thank God for a new ingenious blusher compact from the site http://www.poissondavril.com/, which aims to make Coco the Clown cheeks a thing of the past.

The product - named Bleep 'n' Blush - comes in a sleek black Chanel-style container complete with mini blush brush. It hasn't yet made it onto the site, but already celebs across the globe are clambering to get hold of this clever new invention after hearing word about it on the beauty grapevine. The price is extremely pocket-friendly too - at just £7.99.

Intrigued?

So, how does it work?

The brush itself is the clever component in this new product. Using brand new  'apolrilfo' technology, complete with an ingenious sensor, the brush bleeps when too much product hits your face. If you've really gone overboard, a little recorded message in the compact shouts: "Too Much Blush, Too Much  Blush!" before continuing to bleep at a deafening tone until you grab the tissues and wipe some off.

Moi sporting overdone 'Clown' cheeks.

It all sounds very bizarre, but a spokesperson from the brand had this to say: "The product hasn't yet hit the virtual shelves here at http://www.poissondavril.com/ but we've already been inundated with requests from top A listers itching to get their hands on it. We really hope we can keep up with the demand as this is going to be a really big hit. Watch this space!"

So, would you try this? Or is it just another useless invention in a sea of gimmicky beauty products?