Category Archives: Life & Style

Bluebeards Revenge – Shaving Product Review

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Today we are reviewing a new British shaving product. Bluebeards Revenge‘s innovative new shaving cream, designed and marketed as an ultra masculine product not for girls. Blue beard was designed by a Desperate Dan fed up with his constant stubble.

What makes this product special?

This product is Paraben free. Parabens are essentially a preservative for cosmetic products. They have become increasingly controversial as they have been linked to cancer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraben No worries with Bluebeards revenge though as its Paraben free.

The product contains decelerine. Decelerine has been proven to reduce hair growth and nurture shaved skin. It results in a more comfortable shave and stops stubble coming back by the end of the day. Both the shaving cream and post shave balm contain decelerine so you’ll need to shave less often.

The cream has a pleasant clean and fresh fragrance. It creates an excellent lather. Don’t be fooled by the skull and cross bones. The shaving cream is perfect for sensitive skin and a close irritation free shave. All in all an excellent and much needed product.

Post Shaving Cream Balm

The post shaving balm is good to. It contains aloe vera and witch hazel and does an excellent job of soothing and calming your skin. It also contains decelerine and also helps with stopping hair growth.

This a great new British company and we hope you try their excellent products

Staying Motivated When Dieting

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STAYING MOTIVATED

By Alison Clark, independent nutritionist and spokesperson for Europe’s no 1 healthy eating plan, Eurodiet.co.uk

The New Year is a great time to set positive goals and make resolutions, and many of us use this time as an opportunity to try and embrace a healthier lifestyle. Making these plans is the easy part but sticking to them can be more difficult! Follow these tips to stay motivated and make 2012 the year that you achieve your health goals.

1. Team up

Changing old habits that may have been ingrained for ten or twenty years can be hard and having the support of friends and colleagues will help you to stay focused.

* Share tips and test new recipes with friends, family and colleagues. Online communities can be hugely helpful here, Eurodiet has a Facebook community.

2. Get organised

Try to plan ahead, jot down which ingredients and products you need. This will make it easier for you to stick to your eating plan and less likely to pick up unhealthy options when you are on the go.

* Try cooking larger amounts and freezing portions for the days when you don’t have enough time to cook.

3. Clean out your cupboards

Having tempting foods in the house or in your desk will make it much more difficult for you to resist eating them.

* Give away any post-celebration goodies which are still lurking around the house – if they are not there you won’t be able to eat them!

4.Don’t be defeated on ‘Difficult days’

It is normal to have days where you find it more difficult to stick to your resolutions. The important thing is not to let these days get you down and stop you from continuing with your good work – draw a line and stay positive. It’s what you do most of the time that counts!

* If you have a sweet craving try one of the low calorie sweet options available on the Eurodiet.co.uk eating plan – like gooey vanilla caramel chocolate bars or apple crumble.

5.Identify your triggers

Next time you have a hard time resisting a second helping or you skip an exercise class, think about why it happened. Try to identify the feelings that triggered your behaviour, for example hunger, fatigue or stress. How could you change the outcome next time?

* Control your hunger by eating regular meals and ensure you have enough protein in your diet. Protein is essential for sending signals to the brain to say, “Thank you, I’m full”. Introduce healthy snacks if needed like cereal bars or fruit.

6.Make it fun!

Write a list of milestones you expect to pass on your journey towards your final goal and find ways to reward yourself as you reach each one. This will encourage you to stay on track and make the challenge more enjoyable too!

* Treat yourself to a massage, enjoy a spa day, take a new class, buy a new dress, try a new sport.

* Stay positive!

How to Get Out of Debt and Avoid Fraud

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Be careful with credit counseling agencies that don’t always deliver what they promise

More than one and a half million people file for bankruptcy every year. Many people fall behind on their bills because they’ve lost their jobs, suffered from a long-term illness, or because they were unable to manage their personal finances properly.

Fortunately, there are many resources out there that can help you put together a plan to pay off your debt, including credit counseling agencies.

Signs Your Finances Are in Trouble

You don’t have to be close to filing for bankruptcy to realize that you are in financial trouble. These are some signs that you might have too much debt:

* You are frequently late on your payments
* You are close to your credit limit on your credit cards
* You use your credit cards to make payments on other cards
* You find it difficult to save money
* You’ve been denied credit recently

How to Get out of Debt

To get out of debt and set your finances straight, carefully analyze your income and expenses. Make sure you:

* Make a budget and stay within its limits.
* Figure out your total debt and also what you owe to each creditor, your monthly payments, interest and payment due dates.
* Prioritize repayments, focusing first on things such as your mortgage, rent, and utilities.
* Make a repayment plan for each creditor and determine how long it will take you to pay off the debt. Make sure to review your credit card statements, as they will include information about how long it will take to pay off your balance, per new credit card laws that went into effect in 2010.
* Don’t incur any additional debt.

How to Choose a Credit Counseling Agency

Consider a credit counseling agency if your debt is too much to handle. These companies offer workshops on how to manage your money and advice on how to administer your debt. They can also help you create a budget and even negotiate your debt with creditors.

Many of these companies are nonprofit organizations, however be careful, as some charge excessive fees for their services and others might not even deliver what they promise. Consider these important suggestions before choosing a credit counseling agency:

* Pick a counseling agency that offers several services. This will help you avoid organizations that promote only certain services.
* Avoid credit counseling agencies that charge you for simply providing information, or agencies that demand a percentage of the amount that you are supposedly saving. Ideally, you should request the cost of their services in advance and in writing.
* Stay away from agencies that ask you to stop making payments on your debt or ask you not to contact creditors.

The Department of Justice has a list of credit counseling agencies that are approved to provide pre-bankruptcy counseling.

SOURCE GobiernoUSA.gov/USA.gov

No.3 London Dry Gin Review

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This gin is beautifully packaged and designed in every way. I especially love the key on the bottle. This No.3 London Dry Gin from Berry Brothers & Rudd, Britain’s oldest wine and spirit merchants, uses just 3 fruits and 3 spices (the ‘botanicals’ which flavour every gin), The No.3 also comes from Berry Brothers’ home; No.3 St. James’s Street.

This is now my favourite gin. Careful though, it’s 46% ABV. It’s crisp and fresh. I also made a Gin & Tonic with it which tasted perfect. It is pure class all the way. 46% is also the perfect strength for a Dry Martini.

To make a G & T

50ml of No.3 London Dry Gin, pour into high top glass over ice, add a slice of Lemon and stir, then top up with tonic water to taste.

Dr. David Clutton is the only person to have a PhD in gin flavour, the team deliberately set out to make No.3 taste ‘as gin should’ – without the use of an excessive amount of ingredients and distilled in traditional copper pot stills without any over-elaboration. So, with classic simplicity the goal, the experts placed a robust helping of juniper – the key ingredient in any gin – at the heart of No.3. This striking juniper quality was then cleverly complemented by just 5 other fruits and spices; namely, sweet Spanish orange peel, grapefruit peel, Angelica root, Moroccan coriander and cardamom seeds.

From Waitrose RRP of £33.65 for a 70cl bottle, but it’s worth it!

www.no3gin.com or Twitter @No3Gin. 

The Kraken Black Spiced Rum Review.

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The name of this rum brings out legends of the sea. The Kraken was a sea beast of myth and legend, a connotation that suits this strong, rich and black rum. Even the bottle is a reminder of the beast, the two glass handles mimic the eyes of the Kraken.

This Spiced Caribbean Rum has a thick caramel taste, it’s a wonderfully spiced liquor which goes brilliantly with coke (Krakencoke), or in a cocktail like a Perfect Storm: The Kraken poured over ice, topped with ginger beer and accompanied with a squeezed slice of lime.

 

The Kraken is 40%. It is distilled in Trinidad & Tobago from sweet molasses. It is then mixed with 14 spices including cinnamon, ginger and clove. It takes effort and time to make, and you can tell. It’s delicious.

It is a good, strong rum. I have only drank rum once before but this has changed my mind. Next time I’m out I’m having spiced rum. Everything about The Kraken is great, from the bottle, to the ad campaign, to the wonderful taste. It taste’s great neat for those who can take it, but I’ll be having it in cocktails, a lot.

 

RRP £22.99 for a 70cl bottle available mostly everywhere and online at thedrinkshop.co.uk

 

 

Montezuma's Real Chocolate Club Review

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Gourmet chocolate by post, every woman’s dream? I think so. Montezuma’s chocolate club is from an innovative British firm. These handmade chocolates are absolutely divine. They are one of the best things I have ever had come through my letterbox. Perfect for those January blues.

This month the chocolates were dessert themed. They came in three sections, and each section had a bar of chocolate and truffles on top. They were: Dark Chocolate Lemon Meringue Truffles and Milk chocolate with salted peanuts and butterscotch bar, Dark chocolate Eton Mess Truffles and milk chocolate treacle tart bar and milk chocolate apple crumble truffles & Dark chocolate with orange and hazelnuts bar. It’s hard to choose a favourite as they were all as delicious as they were original. The Eton Mess and Lemon Meringue were particularly amazing.

Chocolate by post must be the greatest invention ever.

It cost £19.99pcm for a whopping 600g of hand made gourmet chocolate, including postage. You can have sign up for as long or as little as you want, or give the chocolate as a gift. Though, really, do you like anyone that much?

Krabbe: The Disease That Needs More Awareness

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I had not heard of Krabbe disease until 2011, when a relative was diagnosed with it. Krabbe is also called Globoid cell leukodystrophy; Galactosylcerebrosidase deficiency; Galactosylceramidase deficiency. It is a rare genetic disorder of the nervous system and is a type of leukodystrophy. It is named after the Danish neurologist Knud Haraldsen Krabbe who discovered it.

Krabbe disease is caused by a defect in the GALC gene. People with this gene defect don’t make enough of a substance called galactocerebroside beta-galactosidase (galactosylceramidase).

This is needed by the body to make myelin, the material that surrounds and protects nerve fibers. Myelin breaks down without it, brain cells die, and nerves in the brain and other body areas do not work properly.

There are two forms of Krabbe disease.

  • Early-onset Krabbe disease appears in the first months of life.
  • Late-onset Krabbe disease begins in late childhood or early adolescence.

Krabbe disease is inherited, which means that it runs in families. To get this disease, each of your parents must pass you a copy of the faulty GALC gene.

This condition is very rare, Affecting 1 in 100,000 births.

Symptoms

  • Changing muscle tone from floppy to rigid.
  • Hearing loss that leads to deafness
  • Feeding difficulties
  • Irritability and sensitivity to loud sounds
  • Severe seizures
  • Unexplained fevers
  • Vision loss that leads to blindness
  • Vomiting

The condition is often misdiagnosed as cerebral palsy.

There is no specific treatment for Krabbe disease.It is possible to have a bone marrow transplant in the early stages of the disease, but this treatment has risks.The outcome of Krabbe is usually not good. On average, infants with Krabbe die before age 2. People who develop the disease at a later age have survived into adulthood with nervous system disease.

A blood test can be done to see if you carry the gene for Krabbe disease and prenatal tests can be done to screen a developing baby for this condition.

http://www.savebabiesuk.org/

United Leukodystrophy Foundation — www.ulf.org

http://www.krabbes.com/

huntershope

 

PROPERCORN – POPCORN DONE PROPERLY

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I often get frustrated by bad popcorn. At the cinema it’s poor quality and tasteless, in the shops it’s artificial. Usually one starts to feel ill after the first few mouthfuls.

Propercorn, the new British gourmet popcorn, is simply great popcorn. It’s full of flavour and extremely tasty. As I ate it I kept asking myself why is all popcorn not like this. Propercorn is a very appropriate name.

It’s simple and healthy as well and that comes across as you eat it. The version I’m sampling ‘Sweet and Salty’ has just four authentic ingredients, although the exact recipe remains a closely guarded secret. A whole pack is just 128 calories and its suitable for vegetarians. This is definitely worth trying.