Two Cosy Bath Time Reviews: Isle of Wolf & Skin Blossom

So it's that time of year when all I want to do is sit around in the bath with a good book and soak away. My two essential ingredients for a good bath are as follows; a beautifully scented bath soak and a good quality soy candle that smells just as good. My two picks from MyPure this month have really been ticking all these boxes.

While I wait for my bath to fill, I pour in just a little of the Skin Blossom Therapeutic Bath Soak*. Skin Blossom are one of my top brands due to their brilliant ingredients, Soil Association accreditation (this product is 74% organic) and just the true value of their products. Everything is so well priced and this wonderful bath soak is no exception. You can grab a handy 300ml bottle from MyPure for just £7.95. This bath soak is foaming (using sodium coco-sulfate), but the appearance is far from your average bubble bath. The liquid is luxurious and richly scented with natural essentials oils, filling your bathroom with notes of relaxing rosemary and ylang-ylang. However, you can be sure the scents are by no-means overpowering. This is a massive plus-point for me as strong scents - especially after a couple reading hours in the bath - can leave me with terrible headaches. Fortunately, I've had absolutely no issues in this area when it comes to Skin Blossom products. I've really been enjoying using this soak, and the addition of the following Isle of Wolf candle has meant that my bath times have been equally luxurious and soothing. I'm usually not that picky with bath products but I've been thoroughly convinced by this offering and I'm pretty sure that it's going to be a continuing repurchase. 

Isle of Wolf is a totally new brand discovery for me. This wonderful brand - created out of the family-owned Viksala Manor near the Baltic Sea - creates gorgeous 100% natural  GMO-free soy-wax candles in the most divine of scents. I chose the suitably festive sounding Isle of Wolf Cinnamon Spice Candle* and I was most definitely not disappointed. This is actually my first time trying a soy-wax candle as post-veganism I've near enough just avoided them completely. However, I can now safely say that I am indeed a convert. I've never experienced a candle that has burnt so clean, without any black smoke or sooty residue. Everything about the candle is wonderfully crafted, from the natural Better Cotton Initiative wick, all the way down to the heatproof and scratch-proof coaster. I really am incredibly impressed with this candle and I am still all kinds of surprised that they only cost £20 for a whopping 40 hours of burn time. Of course, still considered a luxury, but considerably cheaper than most high-end mainstream candle houses. Unfortunately, this candle really has caught my fancy and I have already nearly burnt it through! :(

Both of these products are available from the MyPure website, and both would make stunning Christmas pressies for your loved ones next year!

Skin Blossom Soak Ingredients:

Aqua (Water), Sodium Coco-Sulfate, Cocoamidopropyl Betaine, Decyl Glucoside, Glycerin**, Sodium Chloride, Benzyl Alcohol, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Flower Oil*, Coco-Glucoside, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Powder*, Linalool, Lauryl Glucoside, Stearyl Citrate, Sucrose Laurate, Sodium Benzoate, Dehydroacetic Acid, Citric Acid, Tocopherol, Alcohol, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Fruit Extract*, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Oil*, Cananga Odorata (Ylang Ylang) Flower Oil*, Parfum*, Potassium Sorbate

Isle of Wolf Candle Ingredients:

100% pure plant wax & scented with 100% natural aromas obtained from pure essential oils. Natural cotton wick sourced from suppliers of Better Cotton Initiative Programme.

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Just checking in before the madness of Christmas ensues and I'm too incapacitated by stuffing and roasties to blog...

Hope you all have a wonderful festive season and normal(ish) blogging - and hopefully more videos! - shall resume next week.

See you soon! x

Winter Essentials

Hark, a blog post! I know, it has been a while. I say that in the beginning of every post but whatever. Ages ago, I was tagged by Tamara to do the Winter Essentials 'tag', which was started by Chesca of Fern & Moss. Basically, I'm going to talk about 5 items that are essential for me to make it through the winter. This can be anything, from fashion & beauty, to tea or food.

The number one absolute must for winter is a good scarf. My favourite at the moment is this space knit snood from New Look. I got this ages ago in the sale for a couple pounds and haven't looked back. It's thin enough to fit snugly under my coat but then thick enough to keep my neck nice and toasty! I've worn this pretty much everyday since it started getting chilly.

Beauty product-wise, this is where it gets obvious. A good hand cream is a definite essential. My favourite is the Skin Blossom Caring Hand Cream. I have to be really careful with hand creams due to my dermatitis, and this one hasn't given me any problems whatsoever. It has a lovely rose & geranium scent that I don't find irritating at all, and it has a thick formula that ensures my hands are moisturised without feeling greasy. 

In the winter, I get pretty dry. My elbows, knees and feet are always a problem. My absolute wonder product for this is the MuLondon White Chocolate Elbow, Knee & Heel Cream. I won't talk too much about this one as it's well hyped in the green beauty community and I did a full post about it here. What I will say is that it's a wonderfully thick Shea butter based balm that melts in to an oil, and it smells good enough to eat. It really does smell like white chocolate.

The last two products kind of go hand-in-hand... a good book and a good candle. There is nothing better than cosying up with a book when it's all getting a little cold outside. I'm currently reading The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, creepy feminism-laced retellings of fairy tales. With that, I've been burning the Cinnamon Spice candle by Isle of Wolf*. There's nothing better than a proper Christmas-sy candle burning on a winter's evening. This is a brand new discovery, and something that I will be addressing in more depth pretty soon! Isle of Wolf candles are really well priced for their quality, and in fact, My Pure are currently are running an offer where you can get two for £30!

I'm gonna tag Annabel of Fragmented Splendour, Ru of Short, Small and Sweet, and Sarah of Sugarpuffish. I'm also tagging anyone and everyone who wants to take part as I am frightfully unsure about whether any of these girls have completed the tag already...

What I Learnt From #beautychallenge10 (And lots of empties!)

For those not in the know, #beautychallenge10 was a little challenge started by Tamara from Rainbow Feet. Yes, using up products is nothing too innovative but for some reason, this time I really went for it. 

Since making the switch to green/vegan beauty, I had fallen in to the trap of pretty much buying EVERYTHING. Therefore - considering my impending student status - I needed to reel things in and once again get a hold on my bank balance. I'll admit, things started slow. However, when I really got in to the swing of it, empties just kept coming and coming, leaving with me with the large pile of plastic shown above.

Doing this challenge has taught me a couple lessons:

1. Buy what you need. True happiness comes when you start to ignore the voices that tell you to buy in to every product review you read. Only make purchases when you run out of items, or when you need a back-up. This way, you aren't left with the impossible decision of 'which shower gel do I use next?!' Also, it avoids the temptation of having three face oils open at once. You'll never finish them before they go rancid.

2. Use-by dates are important. This one is pretty obvious. But when you're trying to use up your stash you may come across a moisturiser that smells a little iffy... and then you realise that you haven't used it in a year. Just, no. If I hadn't been using things up, it could have been festering for another year. Throw it out. Check use by dates. Most natural skincare items are between 6-9 months.

3. Beauty products won't fill a hole. I used to buy beauty products when I was feeling down. But they never truly made me feel better. I'd be hanging around a few days later with a guilty heart and an empty bank account. New purchases would sit unused for weeks at a time. Now I actually can enjoy the products that I buy. And when I'm feeling down - I don't run to the laptop - I run myself a bath cand sink in to a really good book (P.S. my beauty buying habits may have been replaced by book-buying...)

So enough of the boring stuff. Here is the mega list of products I used up during my #beautychallenge10 stint (roughly 3-4 months):

1. Acure Lemongrass Conditioner

2. The Body Shop Eye-Makeup Remover

3. Ilia Beauty Nightfall Mascara

4. Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer x2

5. The Body Shop Cleansing Oil

6. Yours Truly Organics Fix Me Serum

7. Rahua Conditioner Travel Size

8. Desert Essence Lemon Tea Tree Shampoo

9. Pink Konjac Sponge

10. Acure Hydrating Body Wash

11. Thayers Rose Toner

12. Acure Argan Shampoo

13. Trilogy Hydrating Toner

14. Herbivore Botanicals Blue Clay Soap

15. Balance Me Congested Skin Serum

16. Lily Lolo Mascara

17. Aussie Leave-in Conditioner/Heat Protectant

18. Lyons Leaf Beauty Balm Travel Size

19. 100% Pure Brightening Concealer

20. Acure Argan Conditioner

21. Odacite Black Cumin & Cajeput Facial Serum Concentrate

I'm so happy to see that so many of my empties were pre-vegan/unnatural items. But he ho, the empties won't be stopping any time soon. I'm on a roll!

The Blog-iversary

So today is actually my blog's one year anniversary. Which is crazy. I haven't been blogging green for that whole length of time, but dang am I proud that I've actually managed to keep to some level of activity for an entire 365 days. I'll be the first to admit that 'consistency' is not one of my strongest attributes, but I'd like to think that I've managed to make the last year even a tad more interesting for my readers.

I am planning to do a giveaway to celebrate this monumental occasion, however, I unfortunately do not have the time (or money) to do that right at this very moment. Therefore, I have decided to hold a major giveaway in the new year to give thanks to all my lovely subscribers, on here, and on Youtube. You better stay tuned for that. :-)

So... what would you like to win? And more importantly, what would you like to see on Katie Vibes in 2015?