January Favourites

Remember when I was going to do these every month? Yeah, me too. Ironically, I found the June '14 post, congratulating myself for managing a "Favourites Of The Month" post for two months in a row...Languishing in the "Drafts" section still un-posted. So...that went well.

Start as I mean to go on, on with January Favourites!

Photo: Holland & Barrett

Dr Organic deodorant (£5.49, Holland & Barrett). This was originally on the June '14 post, but I can now tell you that it did survive the summer, and it does really work! For a while when I was younger I used a crystal deodorant (literally, a rock crystal that you wet). They work surprisingly well, for a rock, but some do still contain some of the nasties I was trying to avoid getting all up in my glands and stuff. Yuck! My favourite Dr Organics scent so far has to be the pomegranate one, though the tea tree one is lovely and cooling, an added benefit for the summer! After many sniff tests (sorry husband/sniffing guinea pig...Needs must!), I think they work just as well if not better than the one I was using before (Dove roll-on), and without all the nasty chemicals! Of course it's only seen a few scattered scorching days since I started using it, but that's a pretty accurate test period for England!

Photo: blog.pne.ca

Miracle Shammy Synthetic chamois cloth. I found this at Autosport International, which I go to every year with my Dad. The cheesy (sorry dude) salesman was doing his shopping channel spiel demo (you can see the US version here), and part of it was showing how these cloths soak up a 2l bottle of pop (or something similar...Maybe not the full 2l, it was really cheesy and I may not have paid 100% attention), and would dry a car in two swipes, or some such advertising, blah blah blah. However I saw it soak up all that liquid and thought "Hey! Microfiber hair towel!" I was eyeing wonder-towels on the internet before Christmas at around £20ish each. So I figured at £10 for four (plus two polish cloths, which are very good for glasses/watches, etc) I'd give these a shot instead. I told the guy he was missing a trick by not selling them as hair towels, and he laughed in my face. So, your loss my arrogant friend. They are AWESOME hair towels. I can cut my drying time by 50-75% by squeezing out my hair with one of these things first and they have no loops to snag and drag at the hair cuticles so it seems to dry smoother too.

Photo: Lush.co.uk

While we're on hair care, item #3 for January is the "New" shampoo bar from Lush (£5.75). I'd tried shampoo bars in the past and to be honest I wasn't that impressed. Turns out I just tried the wrong ones! New is full of cinnamon, clove and peppermint so it smells divine (and more than a little Christmassy), and supposedly boosts blood flow to stimulate the scalp. The shampoo bars last 60-80 washes, which for me is almost a year's worth of shampoo, for £5.75.

Read my full review here on my nail art blog.

OPI Sheer Tint top coats. Oh myyyyyy. I am in LOVE with these polishes. There are four in the range, all transparent, in pink, yellow, blue and purple. They are amazing. I can't wait to try out more manis with these!

I've also spent January busying away behind the scenes on another little project I've had running. If you have a moment to spare, please head over to my new Facebook group and Etsy shop, where I will be sharing my crafts and selling my wares.