Ziaja - Various Products

I was very kindly sent some lovely products from Ziaja. Ziaja has a huge range of face, body, hair and intimate care products - they also have a baby and kids range and they also do gift sets.

Firstly I was sent the Orange Butter Shower Scrub, the smell was divine I loved it! The scrub itself was a lot thinner than most of the scrubs I have used before and the actual grains were very small - they are called microgranuals! This was great as it wasn't rough on my skin and didn't leave me feeling scratched like some do. My skin smelt and felt amazing after use - even after one use my skin felt a lot softer and smoother - very well exfoliated! I was very happy with the results but feel that on very dry skin you may need something more - but for an everyday routine this is perfect. Looking online I can see that the price of this product is around £3.90 - I think this is a very average price for a decent body scrub in fact it is quite cheap compared to some other brands.

Next I tried out the colour change kids bath - again the smell was lovely and it was very delicate on their sensitive skin - this product is for children over the age of 1 year! I used it with my son who is 6 years old and the other night I also let my daughter in the bath with it as she turns one in a few days! There was no irritation even though the scent is quite strong (not overpowering though), some others I have used have caused dryness or irritation on their skin. I did however not see a difference in the water - no colour change! I am hoping to try it out a few more times, maybe use some more of the product and see if that makes a difference at all! I have no complaints about how it worked and how it left my kids skin soft and smooth! My daughter has dry skin by her ankles and after the bath it seemed to be a little smoother which is great. Again looking online I can see the price of this product is around £2.90 which is a good price, most of the products I normally buy for the kids are around the £2 - 3 mark so it is not expensive in comparison.

Then I tried the Hand Cream with Ceramides - I really liked the hand cream it was very moisturising and not sticky at all, however it did take a while to sink into the skin which can be a problem if you are in a rush! It claims to strengthen your nails so I am interested to see if it does - I feel I haven't been using it long enough yet to tell but my nails are so weak and break a lot! Looking online you can pick up the different hand creams for around £1.20 which is a brilliant price, I have paid a lot more for products which feel horrible and sticky when you rub them in and they just sit on the skin! Even better if it does strengthen your nails because that's a bonus when looking for a hand cream!

I saved the best until last - my favourite product out of them all was the Natural olive ointment - I really loved it! I've never really used anything like it! I was very interested as soon as I saw it because it can be used for a lot of things! I used it on my elbows as I get particularly dry skin there and also on my lips - the only thing I can compare it to is Vaseline - however I feel that Vaseline has an unpleasant smell - this has no smell and no taste at all which is great. It was not sticky on my lips like some balms and glosses can be and it sunk in reasonably quickly on my skin. My elbows are still dry but I have been using it for some time and I can see a big improvement! As for my lips, this weather really gets to them, always makes them sore - they have gotten sore this year but nothing that hasn't been sorted by this amazing ointment. I do not have particularly sensitive skin but there were no reactions so I don't think it will be harsh on any skin type! Looking about online it seems that this costs around £1.60 which is great! The one and only complaint I have about this is that the box seemed to be quite a lot bigger than the tube - this seems like a waste of packaging to me (there could be a reason for this but I can not think of one) - but as for the product itself it will now become part of my everyday routine and I will certainly be purchasing it in the future!

For more information and a look at all the products in the range, please visit their website - here.

Thank you for reading

Sophie Jo x

Fruit Bowl - Various Products

So recently I was very kindly send some Fruit Bowl goodies to try out! I have a 6 year old son who I am always trying to find new snacks for. I had heard about Fruit Bowl before but I had never tried any out.

When the package arrived I was so excited, and so was my son! He really wanted to try them out straight away! He is a child who eats little and often so he is always asking for a snack just after school - I thought these would be perfect to try out at that time! I apologise for the lack of pictures - this is just due to most of them being used on the go! All the products were really good and we will definitely be trying out all the others in the range! My daughter is almost 1 so I would like to try out the little fruit bowl range too which is for children ages 12months +

The packaging is brightly coloured and easily recognised on the shelf! I would recognise the brand easily. These snacks are all suitable for putting in a lunch box, they seem great for all ages (including adults I loved the mango flakes!). Getting my son to eat fruit isn't too hard, but I have to say there is always waste, and when it has been in his lunch box there is always mess! Using some of these snacks can give your child 1 of their 5 a day without the mess or waste! You can use them out an about as well - as I previously said I took most of these as after school snacks for my son, they come in individually wrapped packages which are perfectly sized for little ones. I only personally ate the mango flakes which tasted delicious - I almost felt I was eating sweets they were so nice! I think this could be a great way to get your children to eat fruit especially if they are fussy or just do not like many fruits! I have found in the past that some fruit snacks have lots of ingredients in them - therefore they are probably not exactly as healthy for you as they claim to be! Fruit bowl, however, have very little ingredients in them besides the fruit! All of the snacks are Gluten free and suitable for vegetarians and the fruit flakes are also dairy free too. My son can be fussy with what he eats and we really do struggle with him eating enough sometimes so I was really glad when he liked all the snacks that he tried - I know he doesn't like mango and I do which is why I ended up having those.

On their site you can buy some of the snacks in the range, you buy them in packs of 18 for flakes and raisins or 24 for the bars and peelers. All the snacks work out between 30p and 40p each which is a really good deal and nothing compared to the chocolate bars you might buy for them to eat! A lot of the snacks are available from most leading supermarkets - on their site you can see which products are available from which stores.

As an example I took a look at Tesco and saw that you could buy 6 packs of Yoghurt Raisins or 6 packs of Strawberry Yoghurt flakes for £2 making them 30p per pack. You could also buy a pack of 5 school bars for £1.85 making them 37p each. These prices are very good, especially for the quality of ingredients you are getting inside them!

You can check out their site - here.

Their Facebook - here.

Thanks for reading,

Sophie Jo x

Moma Foods

Hi guys,

I was very kindly sent a whole load of Moma products to try out. I was so surprised when it arrived in the post because there were so many different things to try, I don't even think I originally realised how big their range was.

So I was very kindly sent 5 sachets of the cranberry and raisins porridge, 5 sachets of plain porridge, 5 sachets of super seeds porridge, a pot of plain porridge with added sugar, a pot of golden syrup porridge, a pot of the coconut and chia porridge and a box of raspberry and coconut bircher muesli (400g). 

I love breakfast and I love porridge in particular, I am always looking for healthy ways to feed myself and also my family but sometimes mornings can be a big rush and I end up not having any breakfast! These pots and sachets are perfect for this as they only take a few minutes to make and there is NO cooking! 

Firstly I love the brightly coloured packaging it really makes the products stand out on the shelf, its also great quality packaging - you can just feel that it is! All the products I was sent were gluten free which is great for me as I know I can recommend to my family members who have coeliac and can't eat gluten. All the products I was sent were suitable for vegetarians  and some were vegan too!

I tried out the plain porridge with sugar and the coconut and chia porridge both in the pots - I was expecting them to have a 'cardboard taste' because other porridges I have tired have been quite bland and you can definitely taste that they have come in a cardboard package, I was pleasantly surprised though because neither of them seemed to have that taste at all. My partner had the golden syrup pot and there were no complaints from him, he liked it!

Next I tried the sachets, I tried out the plain one and the super seed one - they were both great tasting on their own but I am very into sweet flavours so I just added a small sprinkle of brown sugar or a squiggle of honey on the top - this made them perfect for me! My son absolutely begged me, from the moment we received the package, to try them out and he had the super seed one - which again I added some honey over the top - he loved it and has had it twice since then! Porridge is definitely one of our favourite breakfasts, and the thing I love most about the Moma pots and sachets is that there is absolutely no cooking involved! Not even a microwave!! All you have to do is add boiling water to the pot or pour the oats in a mug and put boiling water in there, leave for 5 minutes and bang you have yourself a healthy nutritious breakfast! All the porridges are gluten free as I said before which I think is great - a lot of the time you have to pay over the top prices for things that are gluten free BUT the pots come in packs of 12 and cost £14.99 which works out at about £1.25 per pot, the sachets come in packs of 30 and cost £17.99 working out at around 60p each!!! That's nothing, about average for a porridge. The coconut and chia porridge is also vegan containing no dairy at all, which I think is great with the way the world is now changing and more and more people are becoming vegan! The only porridge I have not tried is the Cranberry and raisin sachets, this is because I am not the biggest fan of raisins and I don't think I would like it! I have, however, passed these on to people who will be able to enjoy them, and this is just a matter of taste not the quality of the ingredients! Lastly I tried out the DIY bircher muesli - I had never heard of bircher muesli until I received this in the post, if you were not aware is when oats are soaked (it was originally overnight but this can be done in 5mins with Moma) and then eaten with yogurt! The recipe on the back of the packet called for apple juice to be used, unfortunately I did not have any and decided to use a splash of milk, the oats used in Moma's bircher muesli are quick soak oats, meaning that it takes 5 minutes for the oats to soak up any liquid. I was not aware when I made this that the muesli contained raisins - however I did not find it offensive and actually enjoyed the taste.These come in 4's and cost £13.99 making them around £3.50 per box, again an average price for a good quality muesli! The muesli is also vegan! All the breakfasts kept me full until lunch time and I found when I ate them, I was not reaching for the biscuits in between meals - this is due to the slow release energy that they contain! Amazing!

All these options are so quick, so easy, and make the school run a lot nicer - before I was running out the door quite often having no breakfast! Now I can enjoy a healthy  meal which will keep me full until lunch and it only takes minutes to prepare! Even my son enjoys them, meaning I can send him to school knowing he has had a healthy start to the day! This is great because he is not the biggest or best of eaters! Each of the porridges have around 250calories - some are a little less and some are a little more but they are not high in calories and make the perfect start to the day for someone who is trying to get fit and healthy! Well, they make the perfect start to the day for anyone really.

You can shop for all their products at their shop - http://shop.momafoods.co.uk/  I think that their story of how they began is amazing so please take a look at that! Its amazing how something small can grow into something so delicious :)

Here are some photos of us enjoying the porridge:

You can find Moma at the following places:

Their site: http://www.momafoods.co.uk/

Their facebook: https://www.facebook.com/momafoods

Their twitter: https://twitter.com/moma

Their Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/momafoods/

Thanks for reading

Sophie Jo x

Couponing 101 - A guide for beginners

Hello all,

Recently I have many questions about how and where I get my coupons from so I thought I would do a little blog post about it.

Where do I get them?

Baby Clubs - Often when you sign up to baby clubs they will send out coupons and free samples just because you joined them. All you have to do is fill in a few details - they will send you some emails so if you want you can set up a separate email address for these. I have a post which links all the clubs I have signed up to and you can find that here.

Facebook - Every so often brands will put out printable coupons on their Facebook page, these could be first come first serve or there may be a competition to win them.

Coupon sites - There are certain sites which let you print off coupons for they are supersavvyme, caring everyday and extreme couponing uk.

Email - Take a bit of time to email your favourite brands and let them know how much you like them! You can ask for coupons or just compliment them, lots of places will say no so don't get disheartened - even when they say no they may give you ideas of how you can get their coupons or of any competitions coming up. If you have ever had a problem with something then you may also receive coupons for complaining, this is a way that companies can give you back your money while also keeping your business.



How do I know who to ask?

I always ask my favourite brands, or new brands I have never seen or heard of before. I am always honest when I email them and tell them why I want the coupons. The reasons I use are: I've never seen your products before and I would love to give them a try, I love your products and wondered if you had any coupons available and even My son loves your brand and I would like to know if you have coupons.


What if they say no? - don't worry just try somewhere else, like I said they may direct you to another way to win or get a coupon and even if they don't someone else will always send you something.

How to use them?

Most coupons will tell you exactly what you can and can't do on the back, for example some may say only one per transaction - this means you can only use one of those coupons during a shop, others might say one per item - this means you can use as many as you like but if you have 4 coupons you have to buy 4 items. Most coupons will have an expiry date, that means you have to use the coupon on or before that date just like anything else. Some stores may have a limit to how many coupons you can use at once, I have used loads and never ever had a problem. Some may have a specific store that you have to use them in and some may have specific items that you can use them  against, others will just be for a certain brand.


How to make the most out of my coupon?

Wait until the items go on sale - this way they will be the cheapest possible. Look and see which store sells them cheapest and use them there. You can also make a really good deal by using BOGOF offers - for example if you have a coupon for 1 free bottle of juice and that juice is on a BOGOF offer in the store, then by using the coupon you will get both for free - 1 will be paid for by the store through its promotion and the other will be paid for by the company who gave you the coupon.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Always remember to be polite when asking for coupons, you will not receive them through rudeness - companies do not have to give out anything for free so if you get something then remember to be thankful. 
NEVER try and use a coupon for a product it is not meant for, this is unfair and may mean that the company or the store will lose money. 
NEVER complain if there is no complaint to be made! 


Another way I like to get the most out of my shopping is by using cashback apps. I will do a blog post about this at a later date but if you would like to check out my most recent video with some details about my 2 favourite apps then go ahead - you can find that here.

Betty Crocker - Baking Kits - The Insiders

Hey guys,

As part of The Insiders I was sent a great package from Betty Crocker to review. I love baking with my little one but in all honesty I am not that great at it! I am always using the baking kits and sometimes I even get them wrong but they are so much fun.

I just wanted to write a quick post about how great I found the kits - we were sent 1 x Chocolate Chip cookie mix, 1 x Chocolate fudge brownie mix, 1 x Velvety vanilla cake mix and a tub of vanilla icing. We were also sent some recipe cards which I thought were great as it showed me you can do more with those kits than what is shown on the back. I decided just to make the kits as they were - we have so far made the cookies and the brownies and I have to say I am impressed!

The cookies turned out brilliant they were crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside and so simple to make - all you had to do was add some water get the dough together and then separate the mixture and cook. The fun part of course was mixing it together my son loved it, it wasn't too messy either which is a bonus! The pack said you could make 8 cookies, I only managed to make 6 but they were pretty big ones - because they were a little bigger than they were meant to be they took a couple of extra mins in the oven - over all the whole process took about 20 - 25 mins !  The kit that I was sent can be found at tesco for £1.48 here. You couldn't buy many cookies as nice as the ones we made for that, and also its so much fun - plus everything tastes better when you've put a little work into it.


The brownies involved a couple more ingredients (water, oil and an egg) and a little more time in the oven - but they were definitely my favourite! I have never made a brownie before, not in a kit or otherwise and I was actually amazed at how well they turned out. There was a small crunch on the top, they held together and they were soft and gooey in the middle! We loved them and we shared them, and everybody else loved them too! The whole process took around 35mins and it was a little messier than the cookies to make but again the best bit is the mixing - oh and trying to get a 6 year old to crack the egg without getting half the shell in it (we used 3 to get there!). We cut this into 12 decently sized brownies and all the family enjoyed them. You can buy this kit from Tesco for £2.25 here. Again I think this is a reasonable price for it and you probably couldn't buy a pack of 12 Brownies for that price.

I am yet to try out the Vanilla cake or Icing but if the others are anything to go by they will be simple and delicious!

You can buy the cake mix here.
And the icing here.

Betty Crocker have a huge and amazing range of mixes, they also have Gluten free mixes which I think is great - I will definitely be trying these out as some of my family members are coeliac and are on a gluten free diet! Here is a link to their website where you can find loads more mixes and information - Betty Crocker -

Below are some pictures of us baking, the finished products and the recipe ideas I was sent incase you would like to try them out for yourself :).

(Pictures of recipe cards to be added)


Thanks so much for reading, hope you enjoyed!

Sophie Jo x

Nurture Drinks - Revisited

Hi guys,

Way back when I started this blog the first product I reviewed was the Imune Nurture drinks for kids, they have come back with a bang and changes which I would like to talk about in this post.

Firstly they are now called Nurture - which I like - we nurture our little ones and this drink can help us do so!

Secondly the packaging has changed a lot, from the logo design to the actual packaging. Previously there was a picture of a boy and a girl on the front - which I liked, I thought it quickly and easily showed that this product is for little ones. However they now have a character - his name is Firsty and he is a little baby Elephant! I love him! He has little videos on 'Firsty TV' and you can even join his club which gets you exclusive discounts, the latest news and activities to do with your children. If you would like to do this now you can click here. The spout/straw at the top of the packaging has also changed previously my son Rhys found it hard to use - even I had a little trouble at first but it still seems to be non spill and it is now much easier to drink out of. The lid is also a lot less clumsy it was round and now it is square - which in my opinion is much easier to grab hold of. I am going to put pictures of the packaging before and the packaging now so you can see how much it has changed.

BEFORE 

NOW

The flavours are still the same, Cherry and Strawberry and Orange and Pineapple - my son loved the Cherry and Strawberry and has had all 4 that were sent but unfortunately like last time he still isn't a fan of pineapple and now that he can read he didn't even want to try! I tried it out and thought the taste was great, it wasn't too strong and in your face, pineapple isn't really a flavour that I see in many children's drinks. 

The science behind the drinks still amazes me you can read all about it here and there are even links to some videos which explain a little clearer using pictures if you click on the yellow circle 'Wellmune technology' !

The other thing that I have noticed is that previously the drink was suitable for children aged 2+ and now it is 1+ which I think may be due to the change in packaging. 

If you would like to check out my previous review click here. 

Please visit Firsty on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Thanks for reading guys, I hope you enjoyed!

Sophie Jo xx 

Pink Parcel Subscription Box

Hi guys,

I have seen the Pink Parcel subscription box around quite a lot on YouTube and other social media and found the concept quite interesting so I decided to give it a go.

In this post I will be talking about the value for money and the concept of the box as well as writing short reviews of some of the products inside. Enjoy :)!

Firstly I want to talk about the box as a whole, I think it is a brilliant idea - inside you get everything you need for your time of the month - you can choose whether thats tampons, pads or a mixture of both. You get a small cloth bag 'For Now' (which you can carry around in your hand bag and re fill), a box 'For Later' and a box 'For Night', you get a box 'For down there' (this normally contains some sort of refreshing wipe or intimate wash), You also get a small box 'For you' full of treats for yourself to help you get through. When I opened the box I also saw sat on top a £60 wine voucher, a pink parcel leaflet which has details about all the products inside and a pack of Little fab bags (disposable bags used for tampons and pads). I have never seen anything like it before and after seeing this one I did a search online and there are only a few others available - I do not think that the other available products are as unique as this one because you get treats inside as well as your monthly bits. I worked out the value of the 'For you' box to be around the £55 mark including the samples, I will break down the prices as I review the products from inside. The box as a whole including the pads/tampons and all the extras is around £125 - now considering you pay £9.99 plus postage I think thats a pretty good deal! Over all I am impressed with its value for money, however you will see during my reviews that I wouldn't necessarily spend these amounts on these products normally. I will definitely be purchasing another box, but think its going to be annoying if I really enjoy one of the expensive products (perhaps I will have to splurge if it's worth it).

Now on to the product reviews....

True Brit Nail Polish: Time of the Month - £12.50 

I absolutely love the packaging for this nail polish I think it looks great, the box is a lovely metallic golden colour and then the details on the polish bottle are silver. You can tell easily from the box and the bottle that the brand is british. I was not sure on the colour at first its a very pale grey not that I didn't like it but I wasn't sure how it would suit me! Once I applied the first coat I was slightly disappointed, I am not the best at nail polish on my right hand but it was very thin and patchy. I applied a second coat and found it looked much better so this isn't a polish you would be able to use if you were in a hurry! The polish took an incredibly long time to dry and I did end up ruining two of my nails before it dried. I did like the colour once it had dried, I thought it looked really pretty and was quite impressed, however at £12.50 per bottle I would expect this to last a while, 24 hours after I applied the polish it had already started to chip and by the time 72 hours was up most of the polish had chipped and them peeled away. On the plus side it did not ruin or stain my nails in any way and I think it would be easy to put another coat on and cover the chips up. I wasn't overly pleased with this product and I don't think I would buy it again, however I am intrigued to see whether all the shades do the same thing.

This was a limited edition shade for pink parcel but I could not find it on their site...however you can buy the other shades here. 

Badger Sleep Balm - £4.99

I love sleep balms, I find sleeping a really hard thing to do no matter how tired I am!! The Badger sleep balm comes in such cute packaging and in my opinion you can tell exactly what it does from the tin! The scent is lavender and bergamot - now I have to be brutally honest and say I've no idea what bergamot smells like but all I could smell was the lavender anyway. The scent was fairly subtle but strong enough that you could tell it was there. The best thing about this balm is that it is a natural way to encourage a good sleep naturally - no medication or chemicals are used so there are no worried about any side effects! I can't say it helped me sleep but I did enjoy the scent, right now I am on call all night for my 6 month old so I have good and bad nights all the time, I did find it pretty relaxing though. Honestly I felt that if this product does help (which I won't know for a few sleeps) I would definitely purchase this in the future.

You can get the mini size (21g) for £4.99 at feel unique here.  You can also buy a larger size (56g) for £7.99 here.

Cougar Perfect Pout Lip Plumper - £29

Wow! This product looks so sleek - the packaging is lovely, not too much going on either. At first I thought this was going to be a brightly coloured lip plumper because of the bright lips on the front and was quite scared! I was glad to find that it was a clear gloss though and couldn't wait to give it a try. The peppermint in the gloss tingles on your lips which feels really nice as well as smelling good. After researching I have found that the perfect pout lip plumper also has an active ingredient called Volulip which is what actually plumps the lips. I applied this product and took pictures after different amounts of time, I saw a small difference but I think my lips are quite big anyway. The gloss itself was VERY sticky which was literally the only thing I did not like about it, my hair got stuck to it and it just annoyed me. The gloss wore off after a few hours, so it is quite long wearing, the tingling stopped after about 30mins which is when I stopped taking the pictures. Honestly I like this product but I am not sure I would spend £29 on something to make my lips look bigger when they are quite large to begin with - I am sure this is targeted at people with smaller lips than me.

You can purchase the perfect pout lip plumper and find out a little more about Volulip here.

Rococo Bee Bar Honeycomb Crunch - £1.50

All I can honestly say about this chocolate bar is I couldn't taste much honeycomb, the bar is very thin and therefore the pieces of honeycomb are not very big. The chocolate was nice, it reminded me of calendar chocolate - which is my favourite type of chocolate because it means Christmas!! I love the packaging I think it is so cute, and I think its easy to tell what flavour you are getting from there. However, I don't think this is anything stand out and would not pay £1.50 for this either.

You can purchase this chocolate bar or buy others in the range here. 

Fudge Kitchen White Chocolate & Raspberry Cube - £10 for a box of 12

Such a sweet little cube packaged so nicely, I did enjoy it but in all honestly it just tasted like fudge to me with the most annoying bits of raspberries (the seeds) inside. The fudge was not flavoured so the raspberry and white chocolate did not come through well. The fudge itself was very creamy and looked good quality. Again, I did not dislike this product but I would not pay £10 for a box of it either. I had a look on their website and they have a lot of other things like home kits and fudge experiments which I think would be so fun and more worth the money.

You can purchase this and other flavours and gifts here. 

Also inside the box this month.....


Lottie London Concealer Brush - £5.00 - find it here.

English Tea Shop Chocolate Rooibos & Vanilla Tea - find that here.

Simple Soothing Facial Toner - get that here. 

Fab little bag - purchase them here.


I hope you enjoyed this review, I am thinking of reviewing a couple of products out of each box when I get them - let me know what you think :).

Thanks for reading
Sophie Jo x