Blanx White Shock Intensive Teeth Whitening Review

Some teeth whitening is plain scary. I mean, putting peroxide in your mouth! Crazy. I have never been willing to damage my health in the pursuit of beauty, I am just not that vain. But any shortcut or product that promises beauty improvements without the risk and I am all for it.

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I drink quite a lot of tea but I don’t think my teeth are too bad. Not yet anyway. I don’t mind the colour of my teeth but they are not pure white and I am getting married soon. Blanx White Shock Intensive Teeth Whitening is a treatment that you use as a toothpaste. It has no sodium lauryl sulphate, parabens, PEG  or titanium dioxide. It comes with an LED Bite. You use the treatment and then the LED Bite for one minute. So it is pretty easy. For an even more shocking whiteness you can use the LED Bite for ten minutes, once a week.

This product really leaves your teeth feeling clean. The cleanness lasts all day long with a feeling of freshness. It also noticeably whitens teeth and is non-abrasive. Overall I am very impressed. It works and it leaves your mouth feeling clean. It also only costs £10.71 from feelunique.com A bargain compared to most teeth whitening treatments. What more could you want? I’m hooked.

What do you think?

 

LighterLife Fast Review: The Easy Way To Do The 5:2 Diet?

The 5:2 diet really took off last year and is still huge. If you have been living under a rock and don’t know what it is: you eat normally for 5 days a week and then the other two days you fast, having 500 calories if you are female, or 600 if you are male. It sounds better than most diets and you get to eat what you want (within reason) the other five days. What makes it hard though is finding something low-calorie to eat on the fasting days. Enter LighterLife Fast, which we got sent to review recently. It is a new product from Superdrug that makes the 5:2 diet easier. On your fasting days you just have four packets of the LighterLife Fast foodpacks.

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They are not only convenient but they also make sure you get all of your nutrients while you fast. They are very handy and you can pop them into the microwave, or on a hob, which I prefer. We got sent two different bars, two shakes (chocolate and strawberry), porridge, vegetable soup, pasta carbonara and spaghetti bolognese flavoured meals. Note that I said ‘flavoured’ these are mostly dehydrated meals that you add water too.

 

LighterLife Fasting has a number of things going for it: no cooking, no counting calories and you get 100% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamins and minerals, along with good amounts of protein and fibre. The taste lets it down a little but it is what you would expect, ranging from okay to edible depending on personal preference.

 

More importantly, do they work? Well, yes. Our reviewer lost about a pound a week. They are a good diet aid, and good for people who are busy too, making the 5:2 diet manageable and without compromising on getting all of your nutrients. It doesn’t taste nice and you will yearn for real food, but it makes things easier. Available from Superdrug.

 

What do you think?

 

 

The Wealthy Women: A Man Is Not A Financial Plan Book Review

The Wealthy Woman: A Man is Not a Financial Plan: A Woman's Guide to Achieving Financial SecurityThe Wealthy Woman is a book that is sorely needed. I have lost count of the amount of women I have met who are terrible at finance, and that is saying nothing for the ones that really do think that a man is a financial plan. I mean, they’re really not.

Relying financially on a man causes a lot of problems: he could leave you, he could lose his job, he could treat you badly and you  feel you can’t leave because you would be too poor, he could think he has all of the power because he pays the bills…the list goes on. True freedom and happiness comes when a women is financially independent. Can this book help? Yes.

Some finance books can be scary but this one isn’t. In fact it is fun, concise, comprehensive and educational all at once. The author also takes two women, one savvy and one not-so-savvy, and follows them through the years and charts the consequences of their financial decisions. I found this particularly useful. I think a lot of women would read it and it will (hopefully) give them a wake-up call.

The book gives you financial advice for each decade of your life, and where you will end up. It let’s you know that only you can be responsible for your financial future and being an ostrich won’t help at all. It also helps you calculate your net worth, sort out your finances and get out of debt if you have it.

It also covers pensions, saving and investing. In fact, most things are covered in this excellent book. Buy it for yourself or/and the females in your life. It is packed with good advice and tips that could change your life for the better.

 

‘The Wealthy Woman – a man is not a financial plan’ by Mary Waring has worked with 100s of women helping them take control of their finances.

Far too many women find ‘dealing with the money’ a daunting task and leave it in the hands of their partners. However, this can leave them with little control over their own financial lives and sadly, if they then get divorced or are widowed, they are left floundering with little understanding of how much money they have, or don’t have, and what this means to their lifestyle.

By understanding your finances and taking control you can make your money work for you. That’s the message in Mary Waring’s new book ‘The Wealthy Woman: A Man is Not a Financial Plan: A Woman’s Guide to Achieving Financial Security’.

“Many women tell me that they simply don’t do maths – and this mental block seems to be an epidemic among women everywhere. However, these are often admirable women with high-level jobs. My message is simple – you are more than able to handle all of your finances,” says Mary Waring.

So, do you want to be more confident about your finances? Do you want to be a wealthy woman?

“Wealthy” will mean different things to different women. It doesn’t necessarily mean “rolling in it” and having so much money that you’ll enter The Times ‘rich list’. It may simply mean you feel confident you will have enough money to do the things that you plan to do in the future, no matter how lavish or frugal a lifestyle you lead.

Mary’s book will guide you on your journey to become a wealthy woman by showing you how taking small steps on a regular basis can lead to a significant increase in your wealth.

If you currently have such a lack of control over your finances that you are too afraid to open your credit card statement at the end of the month, this book will show you how to take control.

“The Wealthy Woman” will encourage you to think about your attitude towards money and your relationship with it.

As Mary says; “It’s easy to be wealthy just as it’s easy to be poor. There’s very little difference in the way you can become either. You are in a position where you can improve your wealth. Whatever your dreams and aspirations around money there is nothing to stop you moving towards those dreams.”

Mary Waring is an independent financial adviser and the founder of Wealth For Women, specialising in financial advice to women going through divorce. She is both a Chartered Financial Planner and a Chartered Accountant, being one of only a handful of advisers in the whole of the UK with this high level of qualification.

Mary is passionate about changing the way women think about finance. Too many women stick their head in the sand and ignore it. Or…rely on a man to sort it for them.

‘The Wealthy Woman: A Man is Not a Financial Plan: A Woman’s Guide to Achieving Financial Security’ is available from Amazon and all good bookstores.

For more information see: www.mary-waring.co.uk

 

Beaujolais Villages ‘Combe aux Jacques’ 2012 Review

This wine is a ruby/purple colour and it has delicious aromas of fruits and a delicate freshness. The wine is ripe, savoury and juicy. It has raspberry and cherry flavours. It is medium bodied, reasonably priced and delicious. It also has a hint of savoury liquorice. Because this wine comes from Gamay grapes it can be drunk slightly chilled.

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This wine can be drunk young but it will also age well for the next two-three years.

Enjoy with: slow-cooked pork belly, grilled & roasted red meats, salads & picnic, also perfect with pate, charcuterie or crusty French bread. Also ideal as an aperitif.

Available from Tesco, Waitrose, Budgens,

 

Champagne Taittinger Brut Reserve NV Review

When it comes to champagne it is hard to beat Taittinger. This Brut Reserve is renowned for it’s golden yellow colour and has hints of fresh fruit, brioche and honey. It is a delicate, fresh and elegant wine. With good bubbles that are not too full on. It is consistent and fine but with great depth. This is a champagne that is excellent for the moment, but also could be drank everyday (if only). It also makes an excellent aperitif. A truly wonderful champagne.

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Enjoy with: grilled & roasted white meats, fish/shellfish and perfect as an aperitif or with canapes.

Available from Ocado, Tesco, Amazon and Waitrose

 

Contino Reserva 2007 Wine Review

This is a very classic red wine, ruby red in colour and clean with a fruity intensity. It has hints of strawberry, blueberry, vanilla and balsamic.

Established in 1973, this was the first Rioja region wine to be made in a single vineyard. Contino Reserva 2007 has great depth and flavour. It is medium bodied and stays on the tongue long after in a nice way. It is light with fresh acidity and silky tannins. This is a delicious wine, perfect for even fussy wine drinkers. It is pricey, usually more than £20 per bottle but worth splashing out on for a special treat. Available from Tesco and Waitrose.

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Goes with: grilled & roasted red meats, casseroles/stews, mature strong cheese and roast suckling pig.

 

Boris Entrup 10-Minute Make-Up Book Review

Boris Entrup 10-Minute Make-UpBoris Entrup is the resident make-up artist on Germany’s Next Top Model and is the exclusive make-up artist for Maybelline. It is fair to say that he knows his stuff.

This rather excellent book has 50 gorgeous looks that give you everything you need to transform your image in 10-minutes. There is a good variety of looks, from natural to glamourous, that are all easy to recreate as there is before and after pictures and an easy step-by-step guide.

If that wasn’t enough; there is also masses of insider tips, techniques and tricks that all help you reveal your natural beauty.

The book starts off with an introduction from Boris, then some advice on skincare, beauty tools and products. I have read a lot about beauty and review a lot of products but I found that I learned a lot. I also love that the book shows all 50 looks at a glance over two pages. Very handy and useful.

The book also goes through the basic techniques of applying different products and different facial features. It also gives advice on different face shapes and different tips for each decade of your life, along with S.O.S tips at the end.

This is a brilliant beauty book. It has great advice and pictures. I highly recommend it.

Boris Entrup 10-Minute Make-Up

Errazuriz Pinot Noir Wild Ferment 2011 Review

Errazuriz Pinot Noir Wild Ferment 2011 ReviewThis Pinot Noir has the perfect balance between light and full, harvested in the first week of March in Aconcagua Costa. This wine comes from Errazuriz, which was founded by Don Maximiano Errazuriz in 1870. Over 140 years later, They are now one of Chile’s most important wine producers.

The wine has aromatic intensity and is fresh and elegant. It has good structure and typicity and the tannins have ripened well. It is a beautiful ruby-red colour and it has subtle notes of sour cherries, rosehips and wild strawberries. It also has a smokey side thanks to being aged for ten months in French oak barrels, only 13% of which were new.

This is a wonderful Pinot Noir: crisp, juicy and with depth. It tastes great and goes down well. Drink now or let it age over the next 4 years. Drink with roasted lamb, turkey or goose.