Pamper Me Now Please 

¬  The festive season has well and truly packed up its tinsel, unplugged its sparkly lights and climbed neatly in to the attic until next year. As I have mentioned before, January can be such a bleak month and if the weather info I am reading on accuweather.com is anywhere near the truth we are facing a cold spell, possibly snow here in Ireland!  Bearing this in mind (any excuse really!) I found myself planning a pampering session on truly mammoth proportions over the weekend. To begin my preparations I found myself in good old Penny’s/Primark.....where else I hear myself say. When I am on the hunt for cost effective  night ware essentials  I find myself always starting the search in Penny’s/Primark as often they have the softest cosiest little bits for bed, slumber and curling up with prices so reasonable  you have to buy two – or again is that just me? Anyway of course I stumbled across more than a few great little finds in the night-ware department, a department aptly titled ‘Secret Possessions’. I should add at this point that my night wear requirements may differ from many people. I never sleep in full p.j’s as in a jumper and trousers of the fleece or heavy cotton variety. Instead I am a vest and shorts or a slip nightdress wearer. I just find the whole p.j’s rigout too warm and heavy. However I love lounge wear like the aforementioned fleecy p.j’s as my cosy comfy clothes for around the house. Not sure if the recent trend of going to the shops in your fleecy rigout reached outside Ireland but I am not fan! Cosy lounge wear is for the house and not beyond!! All my little finds are below.

A Navy cotton shift night slip,  V neck laced with cream lace. Just skimming the knee it is really comfy. 

Navy and Cream Vest and Shorts Combo. Cotton and comfy with navy bow detail and v neck with lace detail. €4 each so a total of €8.00 

My favorite of this haul is a black and red lace vest and shorts set. Black cotton vest with v neck and red lace detail and red lace shorts. Again a total of €8

Cute cotton nave with red roses and blue flower detail. Trimmed with navy lace and red bows. €8 for the set. 

Lounge wear at its best. The softest of cotton navy jog pants with draw sting and sliver speckles through out. Matching navy short sleeve top. €10 for the full set. 

Next stop on my pamper preparation adventure was a little trip to the Lush Shop. I do love Lush but recently I have not used it simply because I have to travel a decent journey to reach the store. I don’t think that Lush products are ideal products for internet shopping as to get the best items to suit your taste you need to smell and touch the products. As they are all handmade from natural products they do have quite a strong aroma and consistency so it is nice to browse and pick and choose your products to your own taste. I settled on a few items, some I have used before and enjoyed , others that are new to me but have been reading about them so was dying to try. My purchases included:

1.  Love lettuce Fresh Face Mask – I have used this face mask before and I liked it a lot. It is very refreshing and leaves your skin feeling clean and hydrated. I like to pop the little tub into the fridge about 30 minutes before use to have it really cool on my skin. I apply it all over my face and neck. The tub holds a surprisingly generous amount so you will get at least two applications. 

Price = €7.30 or £5.95/75g

2. Bubblegum Lip Scrub – I had never used this before but I had read in many an accomplished blog that was a real treat of a product.....it is!         The mere smell of it brings me back to being in primary school and buying 5p bubble gums chewing them for 10 minutes then having to have new one. Again the tub does give a generous amount so at least 5 applications. It leaves your lips the smoothest I have ever felt them. I had to grab the wonderful BF for a quick kiss to ask him were my lips as luscious as I imagined.....once again any excuse! 

Price = €6.40 or £5.25/25g

3. Big Shampoo – This is one of my favourite Lush products. I am a self- confessed big hair junkie. I absolutely love volume and often to the detriment of my hair unfortunately as I back comb, more than likely over use heated appliances and products. Let me add, at this point, if by any chance any one reading this has tips on achieving big voluminous hair please let me know! Simply put this shampoo gives you big hair. It smells nice; hair is fresh, clean and well big. I <3 it. I do follow shampooing with a spray of leave in condition. It does have gritty bits (apologies for not having the correct term) so in my experience your scalp gets a great exfoliate as an added bonus!

Price = €14.00 or £11.25/330g

4. Creamy Candy Bubble Bar - Who does not love a big bubble bath and who does not love a big pink bubble.......me thats who! This bubble bar is lovely, it smells so sweet but not over powering. Like many LUSH products it leaves your skin so soft. 

Price = €3.10 or £2.50/each

5. Blue Skies and Fluffy white clouds bubble bar

Have not used this product before but what attracted me to it was its usual smell. So this will be my first bath time companion of this recent LUSH haul.

Price = €5.20 or £4.25/each

www.lush.co.uk for more details. 

Last but certainly not least, I have one more thing to add to future pampering sessions.  A bright fabulous smelling candle. I love candles and love candles that smell fantastic and last for more than two hours. Where else do you look only to Yankee Candles. I have used many different products from the Yankee range including wax scented tablets, candles, scented oils etc so I am familiar with how good Yankee really are. My favourite at the moment is Lavender & Ylang Ylang Aromatherapy Pillar. This is just lovely and relaxing. The scent is soothing and delicate but enough to last and leave the room/bath room smelling really nice. Lavender is always relaxing but the mixture of Ylang Ylang is said to be uplifting. Overall I just really like the smell of this Candle. I Bought mine in August and as you can see its just over half gone and I burn it for a few hours at least once or twice a week. www.yankee.ie have a really good range of candles at a great prices with amazing customer service from Arlene & Peter combined with superfast delivery.

·       Price €11.95 or £9.70 Large 6" x 3" Pillar.

So there you have it – all the ingredients I am combining to throw myself a ‘beat the blues’ January pampering party. The “do not disturb – unless you have a big glass of wine for me” sign will be firmly placed on the bathroom door. I tunes will be switch to my Twilight Instrumental Playlist (another guilty pleasure) and I will float away on a combination of bubbles and lavender. January Blues can just pick another victim.....well for today anyway.

xoxo

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