Review: Boots Zingy Berry Shower Gel

Hi everyone, 

Are you ok? Enjoying the easter break I hope?

Yesterday, making full use of my long weekend, i took a trip to my local boots store to stock up on make-up, toiletries and whatever else I could get my hands on. I took part in the obligatory beauty blogger's swatch-fest and spent far too much money on things I didn't really need because I wanted to test them out for reviews etc. - overall, it was pretty successful if you ask me! I love a good boots run!

One thing which caught my eye was the, cheap as chips at £1 a pop, Zingy Berry shower gel. A boots own brand and looking wonderful in their basic but bright packaging, I was in for a treat!

I tend to keep a large 'pump action' bottle in the shower for my body wash/shower gel and often buy four or five smaller bottles of whichever gel takes my fancy to top it up. I couldn't wait to try out the berry stuff, it smelt divine!!!

Unfortunately, it didn't quite turn out to be as wonderful as I thought it would... *cries*.

The texture of the gel was, in a word, WEIRD ! It was kind of lumpy... And wouldn't foam up with the addition of water, instead, it just slid off my hand and went straight down the drain, every single time I tried to use it! It almost broke into lots of lumpy bits and spread all over the shower floor, also making plenty of mess! In general, it was a little bit of a let down.

Ive now had to replace it with my trusty Imperial Leather Shower smoothy wash which has led to a waste of product, and money. So sad :(

I'm baffled, the boots range is always spot on and I've never ever had a problem before - I'm wondering if maybe it was just a bad batch? Maybe one of the other ones would be different?

Not sure if I want to spend another £1 to find out really. If anyone has had the same problem I'd love to hear about it!

Haul: Vivo Cosmetics

This is kind of old news to all you fellow beauty bloggers by now... but yes, Tesco have released a beauty range named Vivo - and it's actually pretty darn good! 

I purchased my collection of Vivo goodies the day after the products were launched in September - it's taken an awfully long time to get round to showing them to you. *oops*!!

You can't see it much in these pictures (I stupidly took them after swatching) but the "baked" products almost look similar to the MAC MSF's. They're beautifully pearly, without too much shimmer! 

"Peaches and Cream" Blush: £4.00

"Rosy" Blush: £4.00

"Rouge Shimmer" Blush: £4.00

For some reason I didn't swatch the bronzer. I think it made my hand look totally orange. I'm so pale that it doesn't really look right... 

They also offer some wonderful blush and shadow palettes. The colours are highly pigmented and also have the "mini MSF" look. I would definitely recommend these! 

These retail for around £6.00 each.

I also use a Vivo eyebrow kit at the moment, which I'm beyond impressed with. This will be featured in a future post so I won't duplicate the review. 

Vivo also have foundation, highlighters, lipsticks and individual eyeshadows, blushes and much more in their range - I've not even scraped the surface with this!! 

Have you used any of their "stuff" so far? What do you think?

Butter Biscuits: The Recipe

I do love baking. I mean, I'm not any good at it.. I try my best and I seem to manage a fluke every now and then, this is about the first thing to work properly for me! 

I found this recipe at the weekend and have already made three batches - I've tweaked the recipe a teeny weeny bit - it might not be to everyone's taste but give it a go and see what you think! 

Ingredients:

- 200g Unsalted Butter

- 200g Caster Sugar

- 300g Plain Flour

- 1 Egg

- 2 tsp Vanilla Flavouring

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl.

2. Beat in the vanilla and the egg. 

3. Add the flour in small parts - careful not to create a flour cloud... slowly does it.

4. Beat until smooth, you may need to get your hands in there to smoosh it all together (technical term for you there). 

5. When the dough is "smooshed" together, remove from the bowl and shape into two discs. 

6. Wrap with clingfilm and chill for around 60 minutes, until firm.

7. Heat the oven to 160/gas mark 4.

8. Dust the work top with flour and roll out each portion of the dough to around 4mm thick.

9. Use your favourite cookie cutters to use up all of the dough. Make as many as you can! 

 

10. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper (or just butter the trays like I've done) and lift the cookies onto it using a palette knife.

11. Bake for 15-17 minutes until just turning golden at the edges. 

12. Cool on a baking rack until you're able to munch them all up!!!!!

Hey, they're a little on the "over-brown" side, but they were lovely!!