January Glossybox review

Obviously it's already February and so I'm a bit late with this one but I signed up only a week or so ago for three months to see how much use I get out of them and also I wanted to try out the products before writing a post. Now everyone who knows me knows I'm not the most beauty/fashion savvy so dipping my toes in the beauty bloggers territory is a little bit daunting but here I go. This month I received:

Monu Micro Exfolioant

I used this Friday evening when I got in from work. The past few months I've become a fully fledged Liz Earle devotee and it's going to be hard for a product to beat the legendary hot cloth cleanser for me. Upon applying this it felt much more rough than I expected and as I have sensitive skin probably too rough for me. I'll probably give it a go once a week to see how I continue to get on, my skin did look fully cleansed after but I don't feel it reduced the appearance of pores and fine lines at all.

Jason Lips Bee Healthier

I've tried this a couple of times now, after removing the lid the first thing I notice is a strong peppermint smell which surprised me since on the label it mentions "aloe & beeswax" and peppermint is quite far down the ingredients list but it's not an unpleasant smell. The texture of this feels quite hard when I'm applying it but it does leave my lips feeling nice and moisturised. Again though I'm currently devoted to my coconut flavoured Balmi so I don't think this is quite good enough to replace that. 

Premae Skincare Balance Rescue Face Tonique

Immediately I thought the packaging for this looked kinda cheap, like anyone can get a travel size bottle and print a label off for it. This is suppose to be applied after cleansing but I only have Boots Tea Tree & Witch Hazel cleanser & toner so I had to use it after that. This is made for combination skin and I definitely thought it mattified my skin but I'll have to give it a few more tries before seeing if it does leave my skin fresh and plump.

Sanctuary Spa Active Reverse Thermal Transformation Mask

This is a two step mask that's suppose to dramatically improve your skin the same way cosmetic injections would. The first step is a serum so it's a light and clear liquid and then you apply the second step which is thermal rose clay to generate a warming effect. After the first use the skin is supposed to look brighter and tauter, I do think my skin does look a little more firmer but I'm not sure if I'm fully sold. The price is the main thing that is putting me up trying the full size product so it's something I might keep my eye out for in case any special offers pop up for it, especially as I currently very rarely use face masks so maybe it's something I do need to get into the routine of doing.

Paul Mitchell Lavender Mint Moisturising Conditioner

This one is obviously a pretty straight product. The smell of the lavender and mint together is lush, it applied nicely to my hair and washed off leaving it feeling lovely and fresh. After I've washed my hair I towel dry and then leave it to dry naturally, no combing or anything. So this morning I was able to brush my hair easily and I think it has been left in a pretty good conditioner. I look forward to continuing to use this one.

Review: Kiss Me, Kate - The Old Vic

Get into London Theatre offer big shows at small prices, I've know about them for a few years now and never actually got round to booking shows through them until this year. Most of the shows do seem to only have tickets available Monday-Friday which is a bit of a pain when you don't live in London but luckily Kiss Me, Kate had some Saturday shows on there and you can't beat a good half price ticket. 

Now I'll readily admit that I'm a complete seat snob in theatres and rarely sit up in the gods and I'm trying to get used to it as when I turn 26 I apparently lose all entitlement to being a "young person." So my ticket at just £15 was in the Lilian Baylis circle (as pictured above) and I wonder if this played a part in my enjoyment (or rather lack of) of the show because I just felt so disjointed and far away. The audience's irritating behaviour also did not help, I'll forgive any fidgeting as I probably was just as bad myself with the uncomfortable seats but the constant mutter of comments, crackling of plastic water bottles, noses being blown and my chair being kicked was so distracting.

The show features a show within a show as we see a theatre company putting on a musical version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew but things are complicated when the leads Lilli Vanessi playing Katherine (Hannah Waddingham) and Fred Graham playing Petruchio (Alex Bourne) are ex-lovers. Things take a turn for the worst when Bill (Adam Garcia) racks up a gambling debt of $10,000 and signs a IOU in Fred's name prompting two gangsters to turn up to collect it during the show. Obviously it's an old fashioned musical and has a lot of long talking scenes and with the mixture of being so far away and surrounded by an irritating audience it was hard to keep concentration during them. I also can't say I was too comfortable about the ongoing joke that Fred had beat Lilli so hard that she was in constant pain.

This isn't the first show I've had the pleasure of seeing Hannah Waddingham in and she deservedly stills the limelight yet again. I also enjoyed seeing Adam Garcia on stage again as well as Clive Rowe as one of the gangsters. The ensemble were also wonderful to watch in their big numbers such as "Too Darn Hot." I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this show as much as I was expecting but I didn't hate it either, for me it was just ok.