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

Healthy Food Brands - Various

A little while ago Healthy Food Brands sent me some things to review, firstly I would like to say a big thank you to them. They sent several items which I was really happy with I will review them all below:

Please check out their website where you can see all the things they have to offer - http://www.healthyfoodbrands.co.uk/home


Clif Bars (68g)

I was sent two different flavours of the Clif bars to try, I got the Chocolate Chip and the Oatmeal Raisin Walnut.

The packaging is unique, if I were to see them on the shelf I would instantly know which brand they were, I have heard of these bars before trying them but up until recently I have never been interested in protein bars (I honestly thought they were only for body builders or something!).

Before trying for my second baby I wanted to get fit and lose some weight so I started to do running, I never really enjoyed protein bars or shakes and tried numerous different brands. I now have a 6 month old daughter and plan to start running again soon. For the purpose of this review I used the Clif bar as a healthy snack to keep me full so that I was not tempted to dip into the chocolate bars! However my partner tried one and he uses protein bars and shakes regularly to help with his exercise routine.

I gave the Oatmeal Raisin Walnut bar to my partner as I am not a big fan or raisins and thought he would enjoy it more. He was pleasantly surprised and said that they tasted great! He liked the texture of it as well he said it was chewier than other bars he has tried in the past.
I tried the Chocolate Chip bar and was very surprised at how much I liked it, the only thing I will say is it had the chalkiness that all protein bars seem to have - but you find that in all of them. The taste was a lot stronger and nicer than other bars I have tried (which I will admit is not a huge amount). I love chocolate and was a little bit afraid that it wouldn't be very 'chocolatey' but I could really taste it which is great. It was very filling and definitely suppressed my chocolate craving which is great, it kept me full for a few hours - which I  honestly didn't think would happen.

I am not sure on the amount of protein really needed for a post workout snack, upon research I found many different answers - the most common being around the 20-25g mark - this will obviously be different the bigger or smaller you are and for the outcomes you want to achieve.
Clif bars have around 10g per bar (it varies and is different in each bar) with the peanut butter being the highest. So a great snack post workout could be a Clif bar on its own or with a small portion of nuts - this sounds perfect to me. They are great for on the go, just to chuck in your gym bag, pocket, handbag or car, or just stocked up in your cupboard. I am going to be stocking up on these ready for my training and I am sure my partner will be stealing some too!

Clif bars retail at around £1.60 each which is a similar price to most bars on the market, you can buy multipacks which make them cheaper per bar and the price varies depending on where you buy.

Clif has a range of products which are for different types of exercises/needs - you can visit their site here. 

Here is the link to the Healthy Food Brands Clif Bar page where you can find out information and use links to find whats best for you - http://www.healthyfoodbrands.co.uk/clif_bar_page

For Clif Bars Facebook click here.
For their Twitter click here.
For Instagram try here. 
And for their YouTube click here.

Free & Easy ChickPea and Vegetable Curry (400g) 


I was sent a Free & Easy ready meal, it was the Chickpea and Vegetable Curry, unfortunately I took pictures of this on my old phone and it has since broken with no way to get the pictures so I have none to show you! :(

The packaging is quite simple, it has all the information you would need on there to help you decide wether you want the product or not. I felt the pattern around the product name was cute - I love the little pictures of ingredients around it. I would recognise the brand if I looked for it on the shelf which is always a good point. Although I think it could stand out a little more, with the background being black and the main colour on the packet being a picture of the meal itself perhaps the 'title' could be a little bolder? - It doesn't take away from any of the good points nor does it take away from the taste.

The Curry was very nice, it didn't look great I have to admit not quite as it looks on the package, and I am used to curry filled with big chunks of meat or veg - and this had neither. It was a mixture of Chickpeas and small chunks of carrot and different beans. I love veg so it wasn't a problem for me to try, but to be honest for anyone trying to cut meat down or out I don't think you would miss it with meals like this! It was spiced but not overwhelming and was made with tomato puree which I like and made it very tasty and thick. I ate this on its own for a quick lunch, but I think it would be great with rice, potatoes or pasta as a dinner or even with a slice of bread to dip in.

As you will probably know from previous posts I am really trying to be a lot healthier for myself and for my family. This ready meal was tinned and was so quick and easy to cook without using a microwave, it is low in fat which is great and it is also suitable for vegans which means it contains no animal products (all bonuses). It is Free From Celery, Free From Dairy, Free From Gluten, Free From Mustard, Free From Nuts, Free From Soya, Free From Wheat. I don't know if it would be suitable for my son but only because of the amount of spice it contains, he likes spicy but it was pretty hot. The site says medium spiced but I would say its more of a medium - high spiced to be completely honest. It has a very simple ingredients list which is great, I think the best meals are simple ones and it is also organic which is fantastic. I would definitely purchase this in the future and would like to try out other products in the range.

The price of a tin is around £1.50 - £2 depending on where you buy it, this is similar to other products which are available so it is good value for money. 

You can go to the Healthy Food Brands page where you can take a look at other products available in this range and find out what you might like to try - http://www.healthyfoodbrands.co.uk/free_and_easy_product_range


URTEKRAM Rose Shower Gel (500ml)

Lastly on the list today is the URTEKRAM shower gel, now I have to be honest and say I had never heard of this before contacting the company but they have a HUGE range of organic hair and body care products.

The packaging is lovely and depending on which ingredient/scent is present there is a little image at the top of the packaging which I think is so sweet. The scent is clear to see and so is the brands logo so it is easily recognisable.

I absolutely loved the scent of this, it made me think of turkish delight which I LOVE and we only really have it at Christmas for some reason so it was like Christmas had come early! As I showered the scent filled the room and it was amazing, I was sadly disappointed thought as it quickly disappeared and did not stay on my skin for very long - I wanted to carry it with me all day! It left me feeling clean and fresh and my skin felt soft for hours afterwards which is great. I have dry skin which I was hoping would be softened by the gel but I didn't see much of a difference there even after many uses!  I would like to try out the other scents because I really enjoyed this one, and want to be good to my body on the inside and the out.

The price of these shower gels are around the £7 mark which is quite expensive - however you get 500ml which is a big size and its full of good quality ingredients so it isn't bad value at all.

You can have a look at the full range here at the Healthy Food Brands website - http://www.healthyfoodbrands.co.uk/urtekram_products


Thanks for reading guys :)

Sophie Jo xx