Hotel Chocolat Sleekster All About Mum Selection

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Dragons and Fairy Dust

Hotel Chocolat have a lovely range of gift ideas for Mothers Day. If you haven’t thought about Mothers Day yet, now is the time to do it. This year it is on Sunday 18th March, which is not that far away. Although most mums do not expect anything for Mothers Day it is a really nice way to let them know how much you appreciate all they do for you. Hotel Chocolat kindly sent me a box of their Sleekster All About Mum Selection to try and I can’t think of a nicer way to let your mum know you care.

The box says it all, the chocolates are

created especially for mums to enjoy with their feet up – with uplifting fruit recipes, silky smooth cream truffles and dreamy liquid caramels

That sounds perfect to me, before I even open the box I am excited to see what is inside. I am not disappointed, I am met with a gorgeous colourful display of chocolate. Each chocolate is a work of art, almost too lovely to eat.

There is a lovely selection, which come in the shapes of hearts, lips, spheres and even a seashell. The different shapes and colours on each one allows you to easily identify the flavours from the key provided. What a mix of flavours there are, from champagne and bucks fizz, to strawberry and black pepper to chilli and cherry – there is definitely something here to delight everyone.

The chocolates are beautiful to look at so I had to do a close ups just to show them off before they got eaten.

The use of colour is fantastic, it really makes them look special and you can definitely easily find the one you want to try. As for the taste, these really are luxury chocolates. They are not the sort of chocolates you can eat all at once, they are definitely the type you want to take your time over and savour. The fruit flavours were really fresh and mingled well with the chocolate casing. The truffles were really soft and melted perfectly in your mouth and the caramels were perfect. I think my favourite was the Bucks Fizz, I really loved its colourful outer case and gorgeous taste.

The Hotel Chocolat Sleekster All About Mum Selection is £22.oo and you get 26 chocolates in the box. You can buy it from their website http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/Mothers-Day-Chocolates-P260556/ . They also have a lovely range of different Mothers Day gifts http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/Mothers-Day-Gifts-CHCOMOTHER/

Any mum who received these would definitely feel special, so why not make your mums day this Mothers Day?

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Leap Year Day

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Dragons and Fairy Dust

It is 2012, which is a year that is divisible by twelve making this year a leap year. Today is 29th February, a day that only happens once every four years due to a strange quirk in the calendar. We calculate a year as the time it takes the earth to travel round the sun, 365 days. In actual fact it takes the earth approximately 365 days and 6 hours. This means that every four years we have gained an extra day, so we add this into the calendar to keep everything correct.

A fact that highly amused my son yesterday was that if you are born on the 29th February you only get a birthday every four years. You also get the honour of being called a leapling. I am not sure if it also makes you good at jumping however.

My son worked out that instead of being eleven he would only be 2 and three quarters. He then realised that he might not have been allowed to go to school and could have been kept in nursery with all the other two year olds. His next realization was that he would be missing out on birthday parties and presents and he decided it was definitely a good idea to avoid being born on this day. Still it kept him amused for a while and was a good exercise in Maths.

Traditionally if you are a woman this is the one day you are allowed to propose to your man. It seems a bit unfair that women are only allowed one day every four years when they can do this, so I dug a little to find out why. Apparently it is down to an old Irish legend, St Patrick apparently struck a deal with St Bridget to allow women to propose to men. It balanced out the traditional roles of men and women in the same way that the extra day balances out the calendar. Is anyone going to take advantage of that this year? I would love to hear your stories.

Bubble Melody App From Daredevil Development

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Dragons and Fairy Dust

Everyone loves popping bubbles, how many of you spend ages popping bubbles on bubble wrap just to hear the pop? With this new Bubble Melody App for the iPhone and iPad you can indulge this bubble popping love in a fun game. The game is created by DareDevil Development.

The game is really simple, you need to pop bubbles. The bobbles move across the screen from the right to the left and you need to pop them before they reach the other side. If one escapes you lose a life. There is a twist however, some of the bubbles contain cute Miximals trapped inside. There are 8 Miximals in total, Eskimoo, Porkupineapple, Glambrock, Iced Bunny, Viking Kong, Octopuss, Kimono Dragon and Panda, my favourite is obviously the Kimono Dragon. In order to save them you need to pop the bubble and then quickly tap the Miximal before he falls the the ground. If the Miximal hits the ground it dies becoming an angel. You also lose a life signified by the five hearts at the bottom of the screen

You do need to be careful while frantically popping bubbles and saving Miximals from doom. There is an evil baddie called Boomskull. If you pop a bubble that contains him you will lose a life. You can spot him easily as he is all in black with a skull face.

The good news is that if you rescue all eight Miximals you get a life back. It starts off with a fairly easy wave of bubbles but as you progress though the game the game play becomes more and more manic and it is harder to pop all the bubbles before they reach the end. You get points for the bubbles you pop and extra points are available for complex combinations of bubbles popped.

It is a simple game but highly addictive and you will find yourself playing this over and over again. It does get quite hard, you find yourself popping bubbles automatically and get caught out by popping Boomskills bubble. Part of the attraction is the mad frantic popping and the bubbles do make a satisfying noise when they burst. My son also loved this and I lost my iPad to him for quite a while.

This is a video showing the game in action:

BubbleMelody is currently available for free in the App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/bubble-melody/id499653546?mt=8 and is suitable for children aged four and above.

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Dermalogica Power Duo Exfoliation Kit

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Dragons and Fairy Dust

I have recently been trying out Dermalogica Power Duo from John and Ginger Beauty. This is a kit that is said to power up your exfoliation which to me sounded intriguing. There are two different products in the packet, Daily Mircofoliant and Gentle Cream Exfoliation.

The Dermalogica Daily Mircofoliant is meant to be used every day to brighten up dull skin by lifting the surface debris. I am taking surface debris to mean dead skin cells. It comes in a small wide bottle and strangely it is in powder form.

You need to mix the powder with a small amount of water to form a paste which you then apply to cleansed skin. The product is for daily use. I used a little bit to start off with to see how far it went. I found that you did not need much. It goes onto the skin nicely with a slight warming effect and you rub it in gently to get the exfoliation to work. It felt nice on the skin and when rinsed off my face felt much softer and smoother. I also thought my skin looked a bit less dull than it does normally. It did not irritate my sensitive skin either as I often find exfoliators can do.

The Dermalogica Gentle Cream Exfoliator is a more traditional creamy product. This is meant to be used once or twice a week for stepping up cell renewal. It is meant to refresh and revive skin. The product goes onto your skin like a cream and has a nice creamy texture. It is easy to rinse off after use and my skin looked much brighter after application. Again I had no problems with my sensitive skin.

The product is a nice handy size so if you are going away it would be easy to slip into your toilet bag. I liked this product, it definitely made my skin much softer.

At the moment the Dermalogica Power Duo is available on John and Ginger Beauty for £12.50

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Dermalogica Exfoliating Body Scrub

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Dragons and Fairy Dust

I was recently sent a couple of sachets of Dermalogica Exfoliating Body Scrub from John and Ginger Beauty to try out. Body scrubs are normally used a couple of times a week to remove dead skin cells from your body and keep your skin soft. This goes a step further however, its blend of ingredients is meant to energise the skin and awaken the senses.

The body scrub has a slight orange tinge to it and you can see small grainy bits within it. The orange tinge is explained when you look at the ingredients, it contains essential oils of lavender, orange, sandalwood and rosemary. These give it a lovely smell which acts to wake you up and energise you. The smell is not overpowering and does not linger but is nice at the time. The exfoliating action is provided by fine fig, date and olive seed powders along with rice bran and papaya enzymes which help with skin renewal. It also contains green tea which has anti-oxidant properties to help guard against free radicals.

It has a lovely feel on application to the skin. It is a luxurious creamy scrub that creates a slight foam, but you can also feel the exfoliating action. The exfoliator is not too harsh, you can feel it cleansing your skin without feeling that it is being rubbed to roughly. It washes off without leaving any residue but does leave your skin feeling lovely and soft after use. My skin is sensitive, but I had absolutely no problems with this scrub at all.

For more information visit: http://www.johnandgingerbeauty.co.uk/dermalogica-exfoliating-body-scrub.html

RRP £19.90 for 150 g tube

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