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. 

Review: Les Miserables

It's going to be quite hard to write this review without completely gushing, we're only in January and I think I may have already found my favourite film of the year. Les Miserables based on the stage show by Schonberg & Boublil follows Jean Valjean through decades as he's being hunted by policeman Javert. I saw the show in London a few years ago now and enjoyed it but was never a mega fan and I think that's the best way to see the film because from what I've seen online the mega fans are going to be more nit picky over the film.

Being a self confessed musical nerd, it's an exciting time anytime a show gets a big screen adaption and I think Les Mis is a particularly good one for showing all the people who can't stand them that they're not all cheese and jazz hands. That said if you're expecting to see some perfect belting singing then you will be disappointed, this film is all about the raw emotion of the characters and this was perfectly filmed with extreme close ups by Tom Hooper. I also think the live singing works well with this rather than having the actors mime to pre recorded vocals. 

The cast are all brilliant and I personally enjoyed playing spot the West End actor with all their cameos. In terms of the lead cast, Anne Hathaway is fantastic and she will be robbed if she doesn't win the Oscar for this performance. I also enjoyed performances by Hugh Jackman, Samantha Barks and yes although Russell Crowe cannot sing I think his Javert works well for this adaption. I left the cinema immediately wanting to watch it again and am hopefully going again next Sunday to see it in IMAX.

Review: Starlight Express - Brighton Centre

Whilst I was off work over Christmas and sales shopping, I decided I needed to book myself some theatre tickets for 2013 and I thought what better way to start than a musical on the first Saturday in January. 

Starlight Express written by Andrew Lloyd Webber is currently touring the UK with this Bill Kenwright production. I pretty much knew nothing going in except they're pretending to be trains on rollerskates. IMO ALW gets a lot of unfair stick in the musical theatre world, Evita would have to be my favourite musical of his and I would recommend it to everyone, it's a real stunning piece of music. It's a shame I can't say the same for this show, I was bored and thinking now I can't remember any of the songs bar one and I only saw it 3 days ago. I did read in the program that ALW wrote this for his children so maybe I'm just not the intended audience but then again that's no excuse for shoddy work.

Part of the reason I think is because it's a Bill Kenwright production and they're nothing if not know for being cheap. There was no set bar a giant LED screen and two half pipes to skate on, I imagine the show was stunning when it opened at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London but it just wasn't working for me at the Brighton Centre. When I walked in I was handed a pair of 3D glasses which are used to show the race part of the show but again I read in my program this was introduced in 1993 and needs some serious updating. It did amuse me that Pearl is blonde in the show and suddenly in the 3D film she's ginger.  The actors have my admiration for dancing and singing on rollerskates even though most of their routines did seem to involve skating in circles and I thought the costumes were good but again looking a little tired. All in all I can't say it was worth the £50 I spent on a ticket.

Looking forward to the other shows I've booked, next Saturday I'll be off to see Taboo in Brixton which has had rave reviews so fingers crossed I'll enjoy that one a little more. Also when I get paid I need to book myself tickets for The Book of Mormon, Once & A Chorus Line, they're probably the shows I'm most looking forward to in 2013.

What about everyone else? Has anyone else got any shows planned they're looking forward to? Or other TV, music or film that I should look out for?

Long Time No Blog

Oops I've already slipped into bad habits of not blogging. To be fair it is of course the busiest time of the year, just before Christmas I came down with a nice bout of Laryngitis which meant I had a rotten time at my works Christmas party. I managed to stay for the three course dinner but after that I had to be picked up and went straight home to bed.

Soon after that Christmas was already upon us. My office is open all the days between the bank holidays but I decided to take them off for some lazy time. This turned out to be a great idea because the 90 minute Homeland season finale was on the night before Christmas Eve. The first hour was dull and nothing happened but I feel that lulled the audience into a false sense of security and then BOOM! (Quite literally.) This has raised some questions for the next series but I'm mostly looking forward to Saul becoming head of the CIA and Carrie basically mirroring the first series but this time she needs to prove Brody's innocence.

Christmas is a bit of a weird one in my house because my mum and sister had to work so we didn't have the traditional dinner or presents until Boxing Day. The morning of Boxing Day I headed to the sales, I wasn't really all that impressed, I was in town first thing and then annoyed that Lush & Cath Kidston didn't open until 11am. I did manage to get a nice half price purse & cushion from Ollie & Nic and I went to Primark but only bought a few non sale items. I also got myself a decent TomTom sat nav so I need to go on a road trip somewhere and the day after I picked up a good few bargains at the George (Asda) sale. I'm more of a giver than a receiver when it comes to presents so I enjoyed watching everyone open what I got them, particularly my younger sister when she realised I got her a ticket to see her favourite singer Rihanna. I have to admit I'm really looking forward to seeing her too and now don't have to worry about accidentally mentioning it, phew!

This afternoon I went to see Pitch Perfect at the cinema. I hate the delay in movies we get here, this film is already out on DVD in the US but only just release over here. It's the same with all the Americans who have already got to see Les Mis and we have to wait until the 11th, I really can't wait to see that! Anyway back to Pitch Perfect, the plot centres around a cappella group college competition, yes basically a more grown up Glee. I enjoyed the film and the musicals geek in me loved all the performance numbers. I think Fat Amy is my spirit animal and I spent the whole film thinking "I'm sure that guy (who plays Jesse) is familiar" and then it turned out to be Skylar Astin from OBC Spring Awakening. If you like a good modern musical number and some comedy then I definitely recommend this film.

It's almost time for New Years Eve. I'm not up to anything myself, does anyone else have any plans? How about plans for the new year? I've booked myself some theatre tickets so there'll be posts on those and I also plan to take part in the 365 project so maybe posts on that too.

Review: Florence + the Machine - O2 Arena

                                                             Photo by me

Along with the theatre, I absolutely love going to gigs and when the opportunity came up to see Florence for the second time this year I just couldn't pass it up. I feel like a bit of a latecomer to f+tm as I didn't really fall in love with them until the release of Ceremonials and that's when I went back to listen to Lungs and realised what an incredible album that is too.

I made my way to the O2 yesterday and got there for about 6:30 when the doors opened so managed to get a decent standing spot only about 6 people back from the barriers. If you're not a seasoned gig goer I recommend aiming for the sides as you can normally get closer with everyone else aiming for the middle and as you can see above I didn't have a bad view at all.

After standing through the support act Haim (made up of 3 sisters and a lone male from California), who actually weren't all that bad but I was far too distracted by the bizarre facial expression the bassist kept pulling. It was finally time for Florence to take to the stage, the set and entrance were pretty much exactly the same as when I saw them at Alexandra Palace but who needs to focus on that when Florence is demanding all your attention. She's definitely up there in my favourites and just has so much energy bouncing around the stage it's impossible not to bounce with her in the pit. My personal highlights would have to be 'You've got the Love', 'Shake it Out', 'No Light, No Light', 'Sweet Nothing', 'Spectrum' & 'Dog Days.' As you can tell it's quite hard to pinpoint my exact favourites as I really enjoyed the whole concert. If you're a fan of the music then you definitely need to go see them live.

Review: The Magistrate - Olivier (National) Theatre

I begin my first review at the end, that is unless I decide to grab tickets to something last minute then this will be my last and 19th theatre trip of the year. Maybe I should find something else to see since I have an irrational hate of odd numbers. Anyway off to the National I went yesterday, as my time as an entry pass member comes to an end next May I'm trying to see anything and everything I can at £5 a show, well it would be silly not to.

The Magistrate by Arthur Wing Pinero promises to be a "fast, furious, brilliantly plotted Victorian farce" and whilst it's not the funniest thing I've seen on stage, I had an enjoyable afternoon. The story centres around how telling a little white lie can snowball into bigger things, John Lithgow plays the timid Aeneas Posket Police Magistrate and particularly shines when he gets to take centre stage near the beginning of the second act and recounts how he made an escape. I could find no faults in any of the other cast and enjoyed performances by Nancy Carroll, Christina Cole, Beverley Rudd & Joshua McGuire.

With only two different settings in each act I found the action not always as hilarious as it could be and the first half did start to drag a little, although this was certainly not helped by sitting up front in the National's uncomfortable seats. Each setting interlude was filled by a song from some Dandies which I enjoyed being more a fan of musicals than straight plays, especially the all cast number at the end of the play which guarantees the audience leaves with a smile on their faces. I can't finish this review without giving the impressive set a mention which often resembled a pop up book and certainly appropriately set the tone of the piece.

The Magistrate is a lovely piece of theatre and I believe this cast gives it that extra oomph that makes it worth seeing. It is playing at the Olivier Theatre at the National until February 10th and will be broadcast to cinemas across the UK and around the world on January 17th.