Emma's Candles

This isn't the first time I've blogged about Emma's candles, nor I doubt will it be the last. The first time I banged on about it was back in June and my love for these hasn't dwindled. Have a look at my first thoughts over here. In case your new to this brand, Emma and her husband are the two lovelies behind these beauts of candles. They are an Irish company to be proud of - as the loving Irish brands have been a little lacking in my last few posts, so it makes a really good change! 

I've been slowly but surely making my way through all of the scents they have on offer. A month or two ago I ordered a gorgeous candle of theirs in lemongrass that was made in a tea cup with a saucer. These are hard to come by and only pop up every so often. I was really delighted to get one but I haven't been able to bring myself to burn it yet. However every time I pass this I get the lovely scent of lemongrass so I guess I'm not really wasting the candle too much. I think this in particular would make an amazing Christmas present for a mammy or granny. I know both of mine are always commenting about how nice my room smells or how beautiful the cup candle is. Make sure to follow them on Twitter for updates on the next batch, you might get lucky!

Recently for my birthday I asked for one of their Christmas scents that they have just come out with, a candle in Masala Chia and also a regular wax melt in Neroli Fusion. They kindly gave me another Christmas scent wax melt in Mint Crisp as well. I've been using all of them, I can never decide which one I'm going to use! Each tin candle is €9.95 while the bigger glass candle is €18.50 and a wax melt is €4.95. They also do great multi buy special offers that all come packaged up with ribbons. Not that they need it really, as the packaging is all designed by Emma herself. Each design is suited to the candle can be really detailed, its a lovely touch.

The tin candle in Masala Chia is proper scent that reminds me of Christmas and one of my favourite drinks, chai lattes. This has ginger, cinnamon, clove and cardamon spices blends to make you feel warm and excited for the cold season thats starting to appear.

The Neroli Fusion wax melt is something totally different then I've ever had. I think any wax melts give off a much stronger scent that fills more of a room then most candles. It has orange oil, lavender and neroli oil. I think this would be an either love it or hate it scent, but so far everyone whose had a sniff loves it. I also really like the little white flowers that are on the packaging for this. 

Lastly is the *mint crisp that has to be my favourite out of the lot. This is another Christmas scent thats only out for the season. I had a dreadful head cold when I first used this, and at the time nothing was properly clearing up my head at night so breathing was hard and sleeping half upright wasn't ideal. I started to melt this as a little pick me up while sulking away in bed and found that my head started to clear up! Its like Vicks but one that you can melt and feel Christmasy while you sniff it. I really recommend stocking up on this if you have a cold. I can't use Vicks so this is the perfect substitute. Total love at first.. Sniff!

Emma's has recently updated their site to include a brand new look and easier to navigate. Make sure and have a goo at it over here.

*I did not pay for this item, it was a PR gift.  Please see my disclaimer here. 

Irish Brand: Green Angel

 If you know your Irish bands then Green Angel should be top of your list, along with the other greats. For those of you who are your new round here, then let me tell you I am a massive buy Irish fan and when I find a brand I love, I just have to tell everyone. Being honest I was well aware of this brand growing up, the mammy and granny always had a few pots of potions and lotions in their bedrooms. The type that you'd be smacked into next week if you touched - ah, Irish mammies, how we love them! 

But it wasn't until recently that I took a second look at Green Angel and realised that not only are they amazing all round, but they can be for younger skin as well as older skin. This isn't just for my mammy or granny anymore! They have a great range of products and gift sets to choose from and if I'm not going to get shot over it - I have my eye on a few things that would be perfect Christmas presents. (I know, I know! Not  even September yet.) I can't get over how gorgeous the presentation of the products are and the quality of the ingredients list. This brand is what I would call luxury.  

The first thing that I hesitantly tried was the Green Angel seaweed daily moisture face cream*. I never use face moisturisers as my skin is on the oily side of combination and it just makes my makeup slide off my face 10 minutes after I apply everything. But since I started swimming I've noticed my skin dry, tight and a little sore which I put down to the harsh chlorine. This was the first pot I reached for, just to see if it helped at all and it really smells divine, so it was a pleasure to use. I only needed the smallest fingertip of cream as it spreads out really well over the skin. With a consistency like that, I would say this 50ml jar would last you for ages even with daily use. Over the past few weeks I have seen a huge improvement in my skin, its not sore or tight anymore when I get out of the pool and its never dry either. The one thing I would suggest is really only using a little at a time and then building up the product if you feel your skin needs more as it is so rich and thick, so it can be hard to settle into your skin if too much is put on at once.

'The invigorating, beneficial and tension-relieving properties of seaweed have been documented from ancient times. Seaweed contains an even concentration of nutrient, vitamins and active natural resources that along with the high quality essential oils we use in our Green Angel Daily Moisture Face Cream, will visibly replenish the skin. This leaves the skin re-energized and invigorated with an improved sensation of radiance and energy.'

It is packed with vitamin E, seaweed from the west coast of Ireland, jasmine and neroli essential oils to name a few things. Its not tested on animals, paraben free and also says its biodegradable. Apart from how amazing this product is, the packaging is just as impressive. The lovely but really heavy green jar comes in a sturdy box that has all the information on it that you could want. I'm a big fan of sturdy packaging as a lot of things can just fall apart or not stand to the challenge of travelling. I wouldn't hesitate to throw this into my suitcase and not have a second though. This is about €25 which is a pinch but considering how long this will last me, how rich it is and that its supporting an Irish business, I think this is worth forking out a little extra for. 

Much like the moisturiser, the Green Angel seaweed body lotion* has a lot of the same traits. This contains some similar ingredients of neroli, seaweed, essential oils and a few others like  lavender and chamomile. Unlike the moisturiser though, it has quite a watery consistency so when using this I had to make sure only a little came out at a time or otherwise it would go everywhere. It has the same lovely scent as the other product, which would make me think that perhaps all the Green Angel line has that trade mark scent. If you pass by one of them in a shop, make sure to have a sniff as I'm awful at describing smells and I'm certain you don't regret it!

Another thing that I noticed about this lotion is that the bottle isn't as sturdy as the pot of cream above. The plastic isn't very thick and I doubt I would bring this anywhere with me as I feel it could break or easily open, which is a pity. However it is really a treat to use, it sinks into the skin well and the scent lasts all day. This isn't what I would call a heavy duty cream for the likes of sandpaper elbows or knees, but for everyday use its perfect and light. 

'Green Angel Seaweed Body Lotion is enriched with natural essential oils. It will nourish and soothe - condition and tone leaving the skin soft and silky'

This bottle is about €15 and although it is really lovely to use and I am in love with the smell, I think its too much money to hand over for 200ml. If the packaging was stronger I honestly think I would be more inclined to buy it as it does leave my skin soft and sinks in so well. 

Have you heard of this brand before? 

Would you try it?

*I did not pay for this item, it was a PR gift.  Please see my disclaimer here

Dream Dots

 If you come round these parts often, you'll know I have what I like to call a join the dots face. I'm in my early 20's and still suffer dreadfully with spots of all kinds. Theres always a constant battle to find the latest lotion or potion to try out on my skin, hoping that it will cure or at least reduce my ever growing spot covered face. Sometimes things work ok, sometimes I'm left wondering why I paid so much money for a product that gave me no results and at the end of the day sometimes I ignore my face and just slapping on extra make up. Is there anything out there that actually works and you can see the results? Well lads and ladies, I'm back on the hunt again today.

The brand spankin' new *Dream Dots have just hit the market and I was intrigued to try them out. How could a tiny plaster-like product magically get rid of your spots, thats just crazy talk! (y'all cray cray in here! - don't judge me, I've been watching too much Netflix.) There are 24 little dream dots in a pack that are nicely sealed up and a little information leaflet that show you how the dot works and how to apply. All you need to do before bed is cleanse, peel off a little dot and stick it onto your spot, simple. Depending on the size of the spot, it might take up to three dots to get rid of it. You can also use the dream dots during the day and cover them up with make up, though I've not tried this yet as I like to deal with my face demons at night time.

The pictures below are woeful for two reasons. The first obviously because you have a nice close up shot of my spots, mmm sexy.. And the second, because the before and after shots of the spot I tried the dot on can't be clearly seen properly (ggrrr, feck sake!) Your just going to have to take my word for it when I tell you I had a crater of a spot on my neck for about four days and it wasn't reducing at all. Ok so maybe because I plastered it in make up and picked at it a lot didn't help.. But it was setting up a permanent home there! I put on a dream dot for two nights and not only did the dot stop me from picking at it, it helped to reduce it so so much. In the morning I could visibly notice the difference and was well impressed.  

So we know the little yokes to actually work, but would I recommend them and buy them myself? In some ways yes, I would totally recommend them to someone who had a small outbreak of spots and perhaps there was an important event that they really wanted clear skin for. But at €15 for 24, I wouldn't be running out to stock up on them every week. As someone with a lot of spots, I could easily use the entire pack in one night and that is just not value for money.

There were also a few things I noted when using them over the past week. The first is that not all my dots were as sticky as others and twice they came off my skin during the night. However on the other end of the scale those that did stick on were sometimes hard to get off and also very sore. It was like ripping a plaster off, ouch! Perhaps the dots will be updated in months to come and this problem will be resolved.

To round up, for the craters that pop up, I would definitely use one of theses, but for the price of a box I would be more inclined to get a cream for my many face uglies. Oh and on a very positive note, the Dream Dots site is very easy to navigate and also their social media sites are regularly updated and they interact well with the public - something shockingly enough that isn't done with a lot of companies so its really great to note. 

Do you think you would use Dream Dots? 

*I did not pay for this item, it was a PR gift.  Please see my disclaimer here. 

Bia Beauty Lemon Myrtle Hand Cream

If theres something I love, its a product that not only works, but one that you can physically see the results of in just a few days. Its not often you find a product like that, trust me I have a house full of potions and lotions to prove it! When this lovely little heavy 60ml pot of *Bia Beauty cream landed on my door step, I was hesitant to use it. Lemon Myrtle was not my idea of a nice sent, but I was so wrong. Its a lemony and pleasantly sweet fragrance with an all natural ingredients list of 'rich shea butter, soothing calendula and protective beeswax'. I can't begin to tell you how thick and rich this little pot of cream is! Honestly, I was so surprised when I poked a finger in to test it the first time. Of course its all down to the beeswax and the shea butter, but oh my you really have to try it in person to understand how satisfying it is. This hand cream is for all skin types.

Now I have to tell you a dirty little secret. After a few days of going from less then silky hands (hard skin on the sides of my fingers, damaged from bleach, too much time in chlorine filled swimming pools and general abuse) to a noticeably changed softer and more loved little paws it gave me an idea. I used it on my feet. Yup, I used hand cream on my feet! (But like, no need to gossip about it, thanks.) If theres one part of my body that I hate the most and ignore totally its my feet. I have a fear of them and occasionally make myself ill from remembering I own a pair means that foot products are never high on my must have list. And because of that I have sandpaper feet. I mean holy god, I'd jump out of bed in fright if I rubbed up against my feet in bed at night (ughhh, mental image.) So I tried a few different moisturisers in the hopes that they would resemble feet once again with no luck. That was until I decided to slap a bit of Bia Beauty hand cream on them. Seriously, I'm on my 4th day of using it and its worked a treat. Now both sets of the end of my limbs are silky. I tell ya, I'm a fancy girl, me!

Since receiving this over two weeks ago, I've been using it daily and barely made a dent in the pot. I think this is well worth getting, if not for the lack of dent making you will make (what?! Ah you know what I mean) then for the fact that you will have silky bits in a few days, whatever bits of you you choose to cream up! For those of you that are subscribed to Chic Treat Club you will already have gotten your mitts on this pot of wonder in last months box. But for those of you who have yet to try it out you can find it over here. 

Another reason to love Bia Beauty is that its supporting an Irish business all the way from Co. Cork. Tracey started this as a project while in college and sold the products she made locally at farmers markets. The response was so positive that she created more and more products and so Bia Beauty was born. Now theres your little bit of inspiration for the day as well as soft hands. 

*I did not pay for this item, it was a PR gift.  Please see my disclaimer here. 

Buy Irish: Birthday PixiPots

This post was meant to be up last night, but I have an awful cold at the moment and fell asleep at half 8 instead! Colds really take it out of you, so apologies for that.

Last weekend I sat down with the lovely Vanessa over a cup of tea for a chat about her business and to pick up my birthday PixiPot. I had emailed Vanessa after I came across her Facebook page asking if I could order a purple medium pot with birthday decorations on it. I could not have been more delighted when I saw it and to hear all about this young Irish entrepreneur's journey. I have since filled the pot with little presents for my friend and red polka dot tissue paper. The pot was presented in the lovely purple tissue paper but I couldn't wait long enough to take pictures of it!

Tell me a bit about yourself: Well, I'm a teenager, I'm 18 and still in school in 6th year. I do the pots and painting in my spare time. I'm a big fan of playing sports and love them all!

How did you come up with the idea? Its kind of funny. My nanny had a ceramic ornament in her house that would sway form side to side when the light would hit it and it brought a smile to my face, so I thought yeah! thats what I'm going to do. I went out and bought a pot and painted it then I went to the Art&Hobbie shop to buy stickers. It turned out good!

What made you decide to sell them? I set up my business with Foroige which is a youth organisation. They have a programme called NFTE (Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship) that teachers young people business skills and how to set up a business. I'm heavily involved in  Foroige so I took part in this programme. They are really supportive of my business, which is in its third years now.

Thats brilliant, well done for that! Do the pots take hours to make and is it annoying, or do you really still enjoy what your do? I do still enjoy doing them because when I look at them they make me happy and when people buy them they say ''ah there really cute.'' I get pleasure out of making other people happy. But when I have a big craft fair, the pots and stickers would be everywhere over the house thats when it gets a bit stressful!

You say you do craft fairs, whats that all about? I have to book a stall. I had one in the RDS at Christmas time, and Foroige organised that. You go out and trade for a few hours. Before Christmas I had some that I organised myself in Kildare and Tallaght library. I try to grow my business as much as possible and try to sell where ever I can.

So tell me, do you think you'll stick with this?  I'd like to think that id stick with it because it is something thats very useful and can be used for anything, but next year when I go to college and have loads of work to do maybe I might not be able to do them as much as I'd like to.

Does art interest you in general? Are you going to be an artist in college? Eh, no! this is the only artistic thing you can do! I'm not good at art but I'm kind of creative, thats where PixiPots come in.

where did you come up with the name PixiPots? I actually didn't come up with the name, my sister did. We were sitting around the table having dinner thinking of names because I had a product that had no name! I called them magical because you never know what you can put in them.* My sister said pixies are magical, why don't you call them that?

So your sister gets a percentage of the profits for thinking up the name then? No!

I'd like to thank Vanessa for making my lovely pot and for her time answering all my questions! You can find her on her Facebook page PixiPots  to see samples of her designs. She has told me that she ships worldwide and is more then happy to make a pot for any occasion. I know I will be a returning customer, her effort and care for each individual pot clearly shows, making home made and buy Irish a must for me. 

*Personally, I would love to get one for my pens and pencils. I would also love a smaller one for all my make up brushes and hair pins too. It would add some lovely extra eye-catching pieces to my bedroom and bathroom! Its all going on my wish list.