This and that from my life

adulting:

This is a better-safe-than-sorry thing, and also falls under the rubric of not noticing things about/commenting on others’ bodies, which is nearly always rude.

Also, if you heard second-hand that someone is pregnant, it’s still nice to feign surprise. Chances are she is happy about this, and sharing one’s happy news is a great pleasure in this life. 

Hi all,

January’s Bella Box has arrived and it’s so up my alley. It contains all natural products, which I love, and more smaller items too, which was a change from last month’s box of larger products. I’m liking that what will be in the box is always a surprise, right down to the number of samples and types of products.

This month’s box contains:

Pangea Organics Lip Balm in Italian Red Mandarin with Rose, 7g stick: Smells amazing, is a good size, slightly larger than a normal stick of lip balm, and is gluten-free too, so perfect to share with my GF Hubby.

First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream, 5.7g sachet: This moisturiser claims to be good for both the face and the body, and contain an antioxidant booster. It has no parabens, phthalates or colourants and is safe for sensitive skin. Looking forward to testing this one out.

Soleo Organics Sunscreen, 2X 3g sachets on a cardboard pamphlet: There was a lot of marketing material included in this month’s box, which I’m not adverse to on principle. In this case it included a detailed ingredient list and a list of excluded ingredients, which is good because sunscreens can contain a lot of chemicals.

Sparoma Organics Rejuvenate Lemon Myrtle & Organic Honey natural balm, 10g tin: I’ve already used a bit of this, and while it’s quite hard to begin with, it spreads quite easily and has helped clear up a lot of my scrapes from a weekend of hard labor, due to it’s two main antibacterial ingredients: lemon myrtle and honey. I’m really happy with this product and suspect it will last for ages. Some boxes contained a candle or roll-on perfume.

La Perla J’Aime & J’aime La Nuit perfume, 2X 1.5ml vaporisers: I don’t wear a lot of perfume, but quite like both of these fragrances, and there’s enough in each sample to give me a good idea of whether I’ll like it, and more importantly, whether it will give me a headache, like some perfumes do.

Laviol Organic Bearberry Brightening Moisturiser, 10ml: This is quite a large sample and should give me an idea of how I like it. It also came with a marketing postcard, but this one contains very little information.

Herban Essentials Towelettes, 1 towelette in a sachet: This towelette contains lemon oil to clean hands and kill germs. I’ll pop it in my handbag, but I’m not sure if it’s really for me. They seem quite expensive ($17.95 for 20) but I’m prepared to have my mind changed. Possible good for travelling?

Qi Tea, 2 teabags on a pamphlet: I’m a big tea drinker, but often a little wary of buying strange teas so this is a good way to test them out. I got a Detox Green Tea and a Green tea with Ginkgo, but the pamphlet covers a range of their teas. These teas are fairtrade and organic, two of my must haves for tea, so I’m pretty happy with this.

So all up, very happy with this month’s box and excited to see what next month’s theme will be. Let me know if you have any questions!

I’ve had lots of questions about my Bellabox and how I’m enjoying it and all, so decided to keep posting about my boxes. If there’s anything specific you want to know about the service in general or a specific product the email me, or comment her or on fb and I’ll try to answer.

This month’s box is titled (or themed, I guess) ‘Party in Style’ and contains products to try out in the upcoming Christmas Party season. I’m not a huge party animal but am really happy with this box overall as it offers a good range of products in excellent sized ‘samples’, as most seem to be full-sized.

 Included in December’s Bellabox: 

Eyelure Naturalites Intense Lash 140 false eyelashes, one reusable pair with adhesive. False eyelashes seem to be huge right now, and I’ve seen lots of pics of super-long, coloured or even animal-silhouette lashes around so while I’m terrified to try these out, I’m also pretty excited.

Kosmea Hydrating Rosewater Mist, 50ml. I love Kosmea’s products but haven’t tried this one before and think it will be perfect for combatting summer air on dryness. The bottle is a great size, more like a travel size than a sample.

Savoir Faire Concealler pack, containing two shades of concealer in a compact with a jar of finishing powder below. This concept is excellent, perfect for popping in a bag, it’s about the size of a tub of lipgloss but containing two products.

Ozotic nail polish, in Elytra #530, standard sized bottle. The description on Bellabox’s postcard claims this glitter nail polish changes colours and looks best over a black base. At this stage I can only see a reddy-orange but it’s still very pretty.

Elemis Tri-Enzyme Resurfacing Gel Mask, 3ml. This at-home mask claims to instantly uplift the skin after one application, so even though the sample is small, I should be able to get a good idea of how well it works. 

As you can see, there are less products than last month but all but one are full-sized or near enough. This made me really happy because some of last month samples felt a little small to really get a good idea of how well they work over a longer period. I’m still really happy at this stage and will definitely be continuing with Bellabox into the new year.