Lush Oxford Street Haul 2....



Yep, it's another epic haul....!
I bought all this nearly a month ago, and I've been working my way through it all so I can share my reviews on everything after a few uses of them, well except for the bath bombs!
I got quite a mix of products this time, more hair care, soaps, lipsticks, facemasks and more.


Lush soaps take a while to work through, as they last for quite a long time, but for these new scents and designs it was worth picking some up.
In this batch I got Respect Your Elders (£3.40 per 100g), a purpley black soap with rather a kick of fragrance, full of bergamot oils, olibanum (a.k.a frankincense) for fragrant skin, mixed up with coconut and rapeseed oils to soften the skin.
The blue soap is Outback Mate (£3.40 per 100g), mixing eucalyptus, lemon grass and peppermint to help wake you up first thing it will leave your skin tingling.
I had to buy the Sea Salted Caramel soap (£4.10 per 100g), it being one of my favourite flavours it only made sense.
Full of fair-trade vanilla and sea salt, it's creams rather than lathers onto the skin leaving it smoothed due to the sea salt scrub, and moisturised from the coconut oils tho I did hope the smell would translate a little more sweet and strong, but it's still a beautiful creaming scrub.
My absolute favourite however is the Maypole (£3.10 per 100g), scented and resembling sticks of rock, this amazing smelling circle is one I've raved about many times, tho it does make a bit of a transferred mess onto my sink, it's totally worth it.
Peppermint oil gives this soap its pick me up scent, and canadian maple syrup adds a bit of extra sweetness you really feel the clean from this soap thats sure to keep you skipping all day.


Everyone has seen me rave about Rub Rub Rub many many times before, it is my all time ultimate favourite Lush product but this is no ordinary pot, this mega sized gargantuan pot of triple R is a godsend for any other triple R addicts who find themselves running out of it far too quickly.
Larger pots and bottles are also available in most products down in that there London.
The Comforter bubble bar has been a long time favourite, but if you aren't a bath person never fear! Finally this amazing scent now comes bottled in a comforter shower cream (from £4.75) for all you shower lovers, packed with cassis and bergamot oils, it gives a warm berry snuggle feeling and creams onto the skin leaving it soft and slightly shimmery.


Stinky feet? Let Lush be your saviour.
Roses and geraniums scent your feet with this Twinkle Toes (£5.95) powder, a little shimmer has been added too, in case you weren't feeling quite dressy enough, shimmer and glitter do seem to have become a big part of the Oxford Street products, it does feature more often than not so if you aren't a fan of the glitter (I must admit, I'm not a fan) then shop carefully.
Stepping Stone was a popular product for many years, tho it broke down a little too quickly for enough uses, but this new Pumice Powder (£3.10) is like a miniature soap/ scrub bar for the feet that sheds the dead skin and leaves the feet feeling light.


I'm always trying to convert people to the toothy tabs, maybe this new style of packaging may swing more people towards them, plus there are many many flavours available in Oxford Street and now even tooth powders to dip your brushes into.
Bling (£5.95) is a brazilian orange flavoured toothy tab, gold in colour and amazing in flavour, if you aren't a fan of that mint toothpaste flavour try something a bit different, try a bit of zest!
I do like the classic mint for a clean feeling, so this triple peppermint Miles of Smiles (£5.95) also ended up in my basket.
I like both of these, but have leaned towards that mint fresh more often than not for a clean white smile and appealing breath!


I didn't get too much in the way of haircare last visit, but this time I just had to nab a few of the offerings including Hair Custard (from £12.95) which was all out of stock last time I popped in.
Smelling like fresh custard, it contains vanilla for the scent, argan oil and free range eggs (so not vegan) to add strength and shine.
It has been designed to thicken the hair and stop static ends, and I really wanted to love it...but it just doesn't work for me.
I've tried it a few times and it really does help to thicken the hair, but it just doesn't distribute easily and left me with patches of hair that felt just greasy and gross.
It looked and smelt amazing, I just don't like the feel of it in my hair.
I shall be keeping on with it as I have a large pot to get through, but I've already given it a fair few goes so I'm not holding out much hope, sorry!
I liked Damaged so much last time I had to get another hair treatment, so I went with Tangled (£6.50 each) a peruvian rose and ylang ylang treatment so stop hair knotting and leaving you with soft manageable tresses.
Damaged treats dry hair, using avocado, almond and olive oils to replenish the hair while scenting with fair trade vanilla, it leaves the hair feeling amazing and they are both totally worth the price tags.
The babybel looking slice is the amazing Avocado Co-Wash (£9.50 for 100g), a once a week hair wash and conditioner, it's like washing your hair in a hair treatment, and is made up of 80% conditioner and 20% shampoo to co-wash, a current trend in hair care which now has this gorgeous smelling product designed especially for it.
It smells like some kind of sweet, feels amazing, and leaves the hair in such good condition, I'm torn between rationing it and using large amounts of it every week.
Finally to the solid conditioner, The Plumps (£5.95) that at first I wasn't too sure of, it wasn't seeming to cream or deposit onto the hair, but once I rinsed it out I realised it really had, and I've been using it religiously ever since. It is meant to help boost hair, but as I don't put conditioner onto my roots (don't do that, never do that) I'm not too sure how it would boost the hair, but I love it all the same.


I loved Rosy Cheeks (£6.50) when I got it last time, I tried to buy three but this was literally the last one in the store! Sob.
But I decided to pick up Don't Look At Me (£6.50) which is a skin brightening mask, filled with ground rice to exfoliate the skin.
I haven't actually had a chance to use it just yet as I've been sticking with Rosy Cheeks in the run up to my wedding (squee!) as I didn't want to confuse my skin with brand new products. 
I will instagram the results however, so keep an eye out there!


I alread have so so so many bath bombs all over my house, I can't really justify buying many more so I decided to stick with these three.
From left to right, the Experimenter (£3.75) has been a product that has got a lot of people very excited, full of fair trade vanilla and popping candy, it's like a technicolor dream coat for your bath.
Guardians of the Forest (£3.35) is a woody earthy bath bomb, which I hoped would help me avoid the glitter, sadly not the case, but the smell is wonderful and calming, feel at one with your inner hippy chick with this one, and a disco queen when you get out covered in glitters!
Frozen (£3.75) is a mix of grapefruits and rose oils for an amazing scented soak, you may be able to tell from the colours it produces what movie inspired this particular bath bomb, but again it is filled with silver glitters that coated my skin leaving me shimmering all night long, great if you like that kind of thing but my sweats didn't compliment it so much...!
Keep an eye on my instagram page for sneak peeks at these products in action.



I just couldn't resist getting even more of the make up, and I actually wished I could have bought way more of it!
I nabbed three lipsticks again, you may have noticed if you have a super amazing memory that I bought True (£13.50) the lovely nude colour last time. Sadly Jake (my puppy) got it and chewed it to pieces so I had to re-buy when there.
I also got Ambition (£13.50) a bright bright red colour that somehow is perfect for every day wear, and Affectionate (£13.50) that I wanted to suit me, but it's just not my colouring sadly, swapsies anyone?!
Refresh (£15.50) is a brozer with gold shimmer, that is a great shade, but a very small amount will do for someone as pale as I am! Must get tan.
Rose Lollipop (£6.75) is a rosy lip balm that smells much greater than it tastes...! I love the scent of rose, but I always forget that every rose lip balm I've tried hasn't had the most pleasant taste to this, great conditioning but blurgh!
I can't find the info for the Orange Flower and Strawberry Bombshell lip tints, but I can tell you they are utterly amazing!
Giving just enough of a tint but way more than you've come to expect of a tint, these easy to apply balms are now a handbag essential to me.
Independent (£14.50) is Lushs jet black liquid liner, it stays on very well, but my brush was wonky and then fell out of the cap, so be sure to check the brush before you buy, or ask a sales assistant to before you buy, as I now just don't use it because of it.
Bit of a shame.


Lastly I needed a bag to pop all these products into, and what better than the Oxford Street exclusive tote bag (£13.50)?!?!
An eye-catching way to say "I have exclusive stuff, and you doooon't...!".
But fear not, as of today (7th August) some of these products will be rolling their way into stores nationwide, so now you can get your hands on these items without the travel to London.
Be sure to pop in this weekend to peruse, sniff, and try some of these items out for yourselves.
But which ones you ask...?
Well you'll just have to go and see!

Birchbag....!?!


I'm sure we've all figured by now, I'm not exactly the biggest fan of Birchbox, apart from a few rare instances I haven't found many of the products inside to be really very interesting or of use to myself personally, plus the amount of non cruelty free products I get from them puts me off completely.
I have asked them before for a cruelty free check box but to no avail, so if you strive for cruelty free skincare and make up, I would advise you avoid them.


To try and liven things up, Birchbox decided to try out a Birchbag for the summer, in four different neon shades for the quintessential 90's throw back look.
This meant they turned up in a thin green package that could be delivered through the letter box, wasn't the greatest idea tho for reasons that will soon become obvious.


Unani is an odd company, I can't find them online outside of Birchbox webpages so can't find if they are cruelty free, or anything about their company.
This is an aloe vera treatment to work as an after sun product, I rarely burn and never manage to tan, but I shall be passing this along to Edd who recently suffered with the worst sunburn I have ever seen! I think he'd appreciate it.
Balance Me however is a cruelty free company, who won't sell in countries where animal testing is compulsory.
This skin serum is basically a spot treatment to help unclog congested skin. I rarely right now am spot free (jinxed myself there....cue breakout pre wedding day) so can't test it fully, but I did wonder about how many ingredients are used in this product, especially the many chemically sounding names which makes me want to throw it away more than put it onto my skin.
I don't use benefit products, their own website FAQ's state they don't test on animals, except in cases where its legally required.
For me that is just not good enough.


Although the shade of this Soigné polish wasn't one I would pick myself, it does apply to the nails very evenly, dries quickly, and gives plenty of interesting sugary almond colour.
At £11 a bottle, and with loads and loads of other cute and lust inducing shades available on their website, I'm pretty sure I may start somewhat of a collection depending on how well this colour holds up!
Nail file is always handy, so er...yeah thanks for the nail file Birchbox.


So now you see why I don't think the bag was a great idea....
Who puts easily breakable powders into a slightly padded envelope and hope it holds up in our postal system!?!
I saw a lot of people have complained about receiving theirs the same way, some of which have had replacements sent to them, I didn't bother as really this product kinda looked cheap and not like something I would ever use anyway.
So one decent product that I could get mildly excited about in one months box, sorry bag, but not really enough to keep the subscription going.
I did only receive this months instalment as I signed up to see if the French Sole box I wrote about the other day was worth it, and didn't cancel in time to not get this one!
It has now been cancelled so I doubt I'll ever be writing about Birchbox again.

A Great Frenching...


It has been a while, I did keep picking up my camera and taking photo's of various blog subjects, but then never finding the time to sit and edit the photos, write and edit some blogs, and do the usual social media malarky....sorry!
In the run up to my wedding I'm going to try to set aside some time when I won't be stressing out with the upcoming nuptials and distract myself with some writing.
So some of these boxes may be a bit out of date now, but I shall still be giving a fair review on them all, and sometimes it does help to see a bit of what companies have done previously to see whether you'd like to sign up for their future boxes!
It's a battle of the French themed boxes, My Little Box is a company based in Paris bringing some genuine french chic to your door, and Birchbox is a well known company started up in New York but now sell all over the world.



Every box of My Little Box has very different and unique themes, all with a nod towards french etiquettes and styles, this months (well, last months I guess!) is a summer fresh French Riviera box.
In france it's the norm to summer on the southern coasts of the country, this box is the perfect nod to that, and lets me pretend momentarily that I have a summer chateau in St Tropez, not that I'm actually just quite skint generally and can't even afford a trip to Cornwall!


The contents of the My Little Boxes are always so different than what you would expect, it's one of the reasons I love them so much, as they are not the norm so you never know what to expect when it turns up at your door.
This box contained two plant pot holders, both with very cute nautical designs, and they could be used for more than just plants so let your imagination run wild!
I try my best with plants, but as you can probably tell from this photo, I haven't quite got the hang of it yet.
I'm a plant killer.


All the accessories I've got in these boxes have been so effortlessly chic, I almost imagine I could rock a monochrome linen suit with these sunglasses, made in conjunction with Sarah Lavoine, a French fashion designer, and interior designer who specialises in clean lines and slight 60's style.
I have many pairs of sunglasses, but these shall be making their way into my regular rotation.


I'm not always a huge fan of the beauty products in these boxes, simply due to L'Oréal being owner of many various make up brands, and french their products end up in these boxes far more than I'd like them to be.
I am however, always happy to receive the products from My Little Beauty, their own in house range of wonderful products, sadly not available to buy in the UK, but a treat is always tucked into their monthly boxes.
This month it was a sea salt scrub, with an adorable anchor design, which smells super fresh and leaves the skin feeling silky smooth due to its mineral rich sea salts.
Another collab with Sarah Lavoine brings this teal shade of nail polish, the perfect colour to have on the toenails upon a sandy beach!


I've had a subscription to Birchbox before, which I cancelled a long time ago due to just not being impressed. 
It's easy enough to go into stores and collect samples I actually want to try rather than pay for the privilege of getting some I'm not interested in sent straight to my door at £15 a month.
However when I saw this French Sole collaboration I decided to give it another chance, as a fan of French Sole products but being completely unable to afford such products.


Sadly instead of sending some actual shoes, or anything that was really a French Sole product, the box was once again full of samples.
It also had some temporary tattoos for people to try if they feel like being edgy one night, I however have real tattoos so I'm just edgy 24/7...
I have no space to put these fake tattoos, unless I popped them on top of real tattoos.


As well as perfume samples and fake tatts, you can also partake of miniature bottles of oils, if they haven't leaked all over the rest of the box like these ones had that is...!
Cowshed is a brand I do like, mainly vegan, cruelty free and paraben free, they offer a range of wonderful smelling products that are kind to skin and planet.
I will use this whenever I'm next travelling as I have so many shower products in my house!
I'm not one to use mascaras aside from my trusty Lush mascaras, every other I have tried has ended with eye irritation and red eye, so forgive me that I shall not be trying this one to review, especially so close to my wedding! 
Bridal pink eye, anyone?!


The only actual French Sole item in this box was a striped shoe bag, I'm assuming as it was possible to choose from three box patterns, this affected the shoe bag you received, but it's still a bit of a let down.
I don't have the French Sole shoes to put in it, and Primark ballet flats aren't quite so deserving of the outer label.
There was some French Sole shoes available at a slight discount of the Birchbox website, the ones I wanted seemed to not be discounted however, and there wasn't much of a discount on the others either.
All in all, I'd kinda like my £15 back please.
My Little Box wins this round, yet again!
Pull your socks up, Birchbox.
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