MAM Soothers Review

This is the first of many baby product reviews to come. But don't worry any followers who don't have kids, I will still be doing regular none baby posts too!

I know opinion is divided on the use of dummies/soothers/pacifiers - whatever you like to call them, but at times when your baby is very distressed or you are incredibly busy - in a rush to get somewhere - say a doctors appointment for your child, then they can be a lifesaver. Or those times at night when you are really, really struggling to stay awake with your child and they won't settle, sometimes you need to use one.

They have been helpful for Grace as she has had tummy problems and felt poorly/in pain since only a week old and now she is 7 weeks and still suffering. They have sometimes helped to soothe her when she is inconsolable and if something helps make her feel better that's fine by me.

I was worried about giving Grace one so soon, but felt better about it when I saw that they help prevent SID (sudden Infant Death Syndrome). They are FSID approved.We have a tub of soothers at home as before having my baby, I didn't know which would be best so brought Avent and MAM and was gifted some Tommee Tippee ones also. 

MAM website price: £4.58

The first one we happened to give Grace was a MAM 'I Love My Daddy' soother and because she became used to the shape and feel of the design, they became her favourite and she was a bit fussy towards the other makes.

Another important reason I support the use of soothers is that many these days are orthodontically designed so support the healthy and proper growth of your children's teeth and gums.

MAM are one company who use this concept. ALL of their soothers are orthodontically designed.

 

We only has two packs to begin with, the Mummy and Daddy set pictured above and a 0 - 2 month pack pictured to the left, which has a smaller plastic frame with larger airholes.

We also had another single one I got free with a magazine - Practical Parenting & Pregnancy I think, which Grace is pictured with below:

At the Manchester Baby Show MAM had a special offer on - 3 packs of soothers/clips for £10. It was too good an offer to miss, especially as I'd been wanting some more MAM soothers for Grace, but also as proved by her spitting her dummy onto the floor at the show, having some clips would come in handy too.

I got the blue and pink/lilac Night soother packs (pictured below), partly because I love the designs on them, but also as they are glow in the dark, like the one above.

MAM website price: £4.58

I think this is a excellent idea, because if your baby uses a soother at night and it has fallen out into their basket/crib/cot somewhere, you don't have to blindly rummage around to find it and also they provide a soothing glow for the baby. I'd definitely recommend them.

Here is Grace with some of her new ones during the day:

The clips we got here are pictured below, and again not only are useful, but have a pleasing design.

MAM website price: £4.38

So here's what makes MAM soothers extra special:

• The soothers are 'good for the skin thanks to air holes and MAMs unique inside surface'.
•  'MAMs patented silk teat is silky soft and thanks to the anti slip surface the soother stays easily in baby's mouth'.
• 'The orthodontic teat is ideal for baby's jaw and teeth development'.
• They are BPA free
• They are FSID approved.

 I also love that they don't have a handle to flap about, on top of the fact they are designed to benefit my baby as much as possible.

I don't plan to have her on them long term, but for now MAM soothers are the right ones for Grace.

As well as their website MAM soothers are also available at other retailers such as Asda and Boots.

MAM also have a Facebook page which runs regular competitions and is a good place to chat to other mums.

Do you use or plan to use soothers? If so which brand is your favourite?

                                                x - X - x

Urban Decay Naked Palette Giveaway

Ellis at EllyBellyBaybee Blog is giving away a gorgeous prize - an Urban Decay Naked Palette.

For your chance to win, click on the caption below the picture and it will take you straight to her blog and you need to become a follower to enter.

Urban Decay Naked Palette

I found her blog today and saw she was a fellow mummy to be and doing a beauty blog so thought I'd take a look and I love it. She even has a hello kitty cursor when you are on her site. I'm quite jealous!

Anyway what are you waiting for......go and enter! 

                                   Good Luck!

                                      x - X - x

Product Review: Lush Bath Balistics

I've been having quite a few baths recently due to being pregnant.....mainly bubble baths using Radox.....as I've needed the muscle ease and have been using the sleep easy one since month 8 to help me when I've had problems sleeping. 

However I have a few lush products building up again (not loads but just some I'd forgotten about plus some new) so decided to make use of them.

A couple of my maternity gifts from work were from lush ....two being bath ballistics. 

Think Pink: The first I used was 'Think Pink' pictured below to the left. I love the design of many of their products, very pretty making them more appealing but a little sad when they are dissolved and all gone haha!

Think Pink

After added to the bath

As you can see, it made my water a lovely girly pink colour, however it did slightly remind me of the fluid at the dentists you have to wash your mouth out with after treatment!

Here's what Lush have to say about the product: 

'The Think Pink Ballistic is back with a slimmer figure. We've made it smaller, but this hot pink bomb is still fragranced with tonka bean's edgy aroma and the sweetness of vanilla absolute. It's sweet, but not overbearingly so, with a subtle bite that will remind you of pink bon-bons. We highly recommend you spoil yourself and think pink'.

• It's one of their current products and costs £2.50/90g

Space Girl: The second I used was the 'Space Girl' bath ballistic, which also has a cute little design. 

'Space Girl' bath ballistic

Bath Ballistic in Action

Purple Bath Water :)

Another fun colourful one and this one didn't remind me of the dentist! 


Here's what Lush have to say about the product:

'A ballistic of astronomical proportions. We were inspired by The Imagined Village's intriguing interpretation of Space Girl from their second album, Empire & Love. It's shaped like Saturn with added space dust for our alien friends, and the refreshing scent of blackcurrant sweeties will make you hungry for your own space adventures. Space Girl is stellar, just remember your blaster and your freezer gun'.

• Again this is one of their current products and costs £1.90/125g 

Pud Bath Ballistic:  I do have my own pic of this one, but I've not uploaded it off my mobile onto my computer and am feeling too lazy to do so right now I'm sorry! But I may edit the post at some point and replace it with my pic.
I got a couple of these and some others for people as gifts at Christmas and also got one for myself as I thought it was cute and smelt lovely (spicy and Chritsmassy).
I hadn't yet used my Christmas treats from Lush that I'd brought myself, so for my next bath I got this one out. However when putting it in the water and it doing it's usual job of fizzing away, it looked horrible! Like something a dog might have done, and then when the colour had dissipated in the water, it just looked muddy and it put me off so much, that i wasted my ballistic and ran myself a new bath as i couldn't get in this one as it looked dirty (even though I  knew it wasn't)!

Evidently by the title this is not one of their current products, but here is some info I found on it: 

'The 'pud' is one of our most soothing ballistics. It's made with aloe vera extract to nurture dry or rough skin and add a little brown colour to the little bomb'.

• It was £2.25/200g and is available during the festive season! - So knowing the shops that will be in a few days :p

My reaction may have been a bit pathetic and I'm sure people will still love this variety of their ballistic, but it's not for me.

Lush do a range of amazing brightly coloured beautiful products, not just these ballistics, but I'm sure you all know! They make brilliant gifts for adults and children; I remember my nephews reaction when we first used a bubble bar in his bath and the water went bright blue. He loved it!

They also are a great self indulgent purchase and my favourite thing about them is that they are animal friendly. They don't use any animals products or anything tested on animals, which makes them Vegan and as they are all made with natural products they are kind to the skin, which is great for those with sensitive skin like me!

My favourite products are probably their bubble bars, also for use in the bath, which I shall do a review on at some point, but the ones I currently have are so pretty I'll be sad to let them go!


                                                    x - X - x

Product Review: Venus Spa Breeze

I was out at the supermarket (Morrisons) doing my general shopping and needed some new blades for my Wilkinsons Sword razor. To my horror they'd gone up to over £10 for only 3 blades! I just couldn't buy them, it was ridiculous. I found myself looking at the other razors and prices and saw the new Venus Spa Breeze for less than £5 complete with two replacement blades, so it was so much better value! Its currently only £4 at Asda, £4.49 at Tesco (however their site states its half price, so perhaps these are promotional offers) and £4.98 at Wilkinsons (the shop not the razor brand obviously :) ).

Also, not that it should affect my choice of razor as you just want a good one that's kind to your skin, good value etc, but I loved the colour of this one, which I think helped catch my eye, as did the design and packaging. 

I never realised until after I had brought it and been using it that this was one of the razors Jennifer Lopez had been advertising, as tbh when she comes on TV I mentally switch off as for some reason I've always found her really annoying (I'm sure she is lovely). So it really was just the products packaging that initially jumped out at me and made me look at and consider this razor.

Brilliant Value

 The product is a 2 in 1, due to the fact that you don't actually need shower gel to shave with it. All you need is to wet your skin and get on with it due to the shower gel bars, which are also infused with white tea for a pleasant 'shaving experience'. I still do use shower gel with mine, as I didn't even realise until I used them for the first time that it had gel bars, then you could tell you don't need the shower gel. I use Imperial Leather Foamburst which is excellent for shaving and even though its not needed I use it anyway as it makes my legs extra smooth after I've shaved. Even though it sounds like a corny line from a 'real' person on an advert, its true that my legs have never been so smooth! The Venus Spa Breeze is gentle to my skin and my legs feel amazing afterwards.

I was so pleased with my purchase and not only is it a great razor and a lovely girly colour, the inner packaging is useful too. It has an inner section to hold your extra re fill blades so you don't lose them and they stay protected and the outer section holds your razor. I love it.

Good Razor Design, Good Packaging

Also as well as 4 blade refill packs being available £8.98 at Asda,  (already better than Wilkinson Swords stingy 3 blade pack for over £10), there is also a larger pack containing 8 blades, which I got this month, which means I will go a lot longer without having to buy refills.  

The size 8 refill packs look to be about ~£17 in most supermarkets but I got mine from Morrisons for £16.

Handy Larger Count Refill Packs

The refills are also each separately packaged to protect the blades and bars. So that maybe a bad thing environmentally as maybe this product is creating more waste, but its ensuring the quality of the product and making it easier for the customer, particularly if you are going away, you can just pop a handy refill capsule in your bag, with the knowledge its protected, you and your other items are protected and it won't take up any space.

Inside Razor case, separately packaged refills

The reviews on the Gillete site are varying however and I do agree that due to the gel bars, the refill can seem a little gunky after a few uses, but I always change my blades after 3 uses with the other razors I have had in the past anyway. They have all needed to be switched for a sharper blade at a similar time, so this did not bother me at all. Also even if you find you still need some shower gel for the shave, the gel bars still make it a much smoother gentler shave than other razors. 

I have only used 2 different razors (besides the disposable types) before this one, so maybe I'm not full of experience in the shaving product world, but this is definitely by far the best razor I have used and the best value so I would give it 4.5/5 and I would recommend it to anyone who's not tried a Venus razor before.

                                                       x - X - x

Recent Beauty Purchases

Over the past few months, most of my spare pennies have gone on baby purchases, because my god do they cost a 

lot when you realise everything you need when you are bringing one into the world, and also my wage is really not great!

Despite being a graduate, I'm just a lowly band 2 in the NHS, but its giving me experience which will hopefully help me progress to better jobs. 

Reality vs what I'd like

Anyway job aside, I'm not usually the best at saving money, although I desperately want too, as I have a severe lack of will power and a weakness when it comes to clothes, shoes, make up (on a lesser front), buying drinks for anyone and everyone when i get to my very drunk over generous stage on a night out, cheap DVDs (which add up when you buy quite a few!) and god knows what else. Which would probably explain why I run out out of money, as I can't really afford any of this, especially when I was renting a flat on my own, paying all the bills etc.

However since I've been pregnant and passed the anomaly scan stage at 22 weeks, which was a safety mark for me (I wasn't pushing my luck and buying anything until I knew all was ok), the normal desire of window shopping and lusting over things for myself had ebbed away. Possibly due to the fact my bump was starting to emerge, so clothes shopping was no longer the same, I was only buying the occasional thing to allow for an expanding bump, but also because some kind of maternal instinct had kicked in and all that I was interested in buying was baby themed.

Its taken a long time, but I think we finally have almost everything she needs.....for now, so I think signals went off in my brain in the past week that told me I was actually allowed to buy something for myself again (besides larger sized clothes, although I do love the maxi dresses I brought to help accommodate baby and my larger size).

So everyone's been chatting about Barry M nail polish......mainly nail effects or Peach Melba......but I've never tried any of their normal varnishes and ever since I spotted the blueberry ice cream shade, god knows how long ago, I have wanted it, and after a brief browse in Superdrug, also quite fancied the mint green and mushroom shades.

So yesterday, in the scorching heat, I dragged my heavily pregnant self into Leeds city center and to Boots, hoping the 2 for £5 offer was still on, but pretty expectant that it wouldn't be. Sadly I was right, there's now an offer of 3 for 2 on Barry M eye products instead, but I had my heart set on the varnishes and I chose:

Blue Moon, Blueberry Ice cream, Mint Green and Mushroom*

  *All paler looking shades in reality but the pic makes them look different

So I'm looking forward to trying them out, think I'm gonna go for blueberry first, but then mint green for if I am going somewhere since that's meant to be in fashion now according to More! magazine. As I said, I've never used Barry M varnish before so am not sure of the quality but the variety of colours they do in all their make up is appealing and I love their dazzle dusts too.

I also had happened to run out of Black Mascara, and even though I was lucky enough to get a blue Elizabeth Arden mascara for only the postage recently, black mascara is more my staple colour when doing my every day basic make up. Due to a small budget I often go for Collection 2000 mascara for the good prices, and when getting more extravagant ones from Rimmel on occasions I have been disappointed. I also use their shimmering glow, which I was running low on. Sadly they didn't have my shade, so I've decided to try out the mosaic glow, and opted for the waterproof version of the longer lash mascara this time, due to it being hayfever season and me being a bit hormonal......I want to reduce the risk of panda eyes lol. 

As if to make up for the Barry M offer being over, to my luck there was an offer on Collection 2000....buy any two of their products (which I needed to) and get a free Pure Lip Gloss. There were only a couple of shades and I have no idea what this product is like, but I have brought and liked some of their other ranges of lip gloss in the past and I love anything free so I picked one: 

Collection 2000: Mosaic Glow, Waterproof lengthening Mascara and Pure sheer Lip Gloss Shade: Honey 4

It looks all sparkly and lovely but I don't know what it will look like on, don't want to look like a 5 year old who's raided her mothers make up bag!

 My final reason for going to Boots was to get hold of some Jergens Naturals Skin firming body moisturiser that was mentioned in last weeks More Magazine. During this pregnancy, my legs have got a bit of the orange peel affect which is depressing as they used to be my best feature in my eyes. I can't afford expensive anti cellulite creams and magic potions, so I thought this was worth a try as it promises to 'visibly firm cellulite prone skin' but a few weeks ago I did also invest in a trustworthy body brush to get that circulation going too! As luck would have it, it was on offer too, all Jergens products half price in Boots. So I brought two!

I also grabbed a powder brush whilst I was there, went for the cheaper option of a 17 brush as it was less than half the price of the others,

but I guess that means I can't complain if its not great quality and bristles start falling out. But my cheap ELF one did quite well for several months. On that topic, I haven't treated myself to any ELF products for ages, but some of my purchases from them have been brilliant, in particular I LOVE their face primer and the foundation All Over Cover Stick. I've been a bit heartbroken getting the emails, saying free eyeshadow pallet with your order, knowing I couldn't make an order!

Anyway talking about things I want, my wishlist, is a whole other blog post!! So I'm off to have a bath and paint my nails since I stayed in to rest today instead of trekking around 36 weeks pregnant, wearing myself out!

                                           x - X - x