Tag Archives: Review

Funkin Cocktail Mixers Review

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We love cocktails at Frost and upon receiving these cocktail mixers, or mocktails if you want to go sans alcohol, we were very happy. Especially as you don’t usually have all of the ingredients in your kitchen when you are in the mood for one. Well, problem solved: you just need one of these.

cocktail mixers funkin reviewAll Funkin cocktail mixers are 100% natural and contain only sun ripened fruit, so all the goodness and natural flavour is retained, meaning you can enjoy a wonderfully delicious mocktail by just adding sparkling water and ice!  They are fruity and fresh.

Choose to bring a taste of vibrant Rio to the cold streets of Blighty with the Funkin Brazilian, a tropical blend of mangoes, passion fruit and oranges with Amazonian Guarana, the ‘super seed’, which contains twice the energy of coffee beans, giving you a delicious natural energy kick: this tastes amazing and really gives you a kick. Great for energy and fun. Excellent taste.

Alternatively, opt for the nation’s most popular fruit to bring the taste of summer flooding back and try Funkin Strawberry Daiquiri. a flavour recently voted one of the UK’s favourite cocktails*.  (brilliant and tastes great. Not artificial) And complete your marvellous mocktail collection with the Funkin Mojito, made with the highest quality Persian limes blended with the freshest limes for a sharp, refreshing taste.(tastes like a proper Mojito, we added some rum and the taste was amazing)

The Funkin team travels all over the world sourcing the very best ingredients to ensure you enjoy the best tasting drinks. Each Funkin cocktail mixer has been created in consultation with some of the world’s best bartenders, with no artificial colours, flavours, preservatives or additives.

These mixers are great, they don’t taste artificial and they are fresh and fruity. We were surprised at just how great they tasted. Very impressive for something that comes out of a carton.

The full Funkin range is available nationwide at Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Co-op, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Majestic Wine, Harrods, Ocado, Amazon, DrinkShop.com

 

Austenland Film Review

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austenlandAustenland is a quirky and fun film; a delightful romantic comedy and a modern twist on the timeless tales of Jane Austen’s romance novels. The imaginative story focuses on a woman named Jane, played by Keri Russell (TV’s “Felicity” and The Americans) who is obsessed with the Regency era and the famed author’s fiction. Determined to be the heroine of her own story, Jane spends her life savings on a trip to Austenland, an eccentric resort where guests experience complete immersion in the Regency era. Armed with her bonnet, corset and needlepoint, Jane strives to avoid spinsterhood … but has a difficult time determining where fantasy ends and real life—and maybe even love—begins.

Jennifer Coolidge is hilarious and adds some brashness while Keri Russell plays the introverted, Austen-obsessed thirty-something women who still believes in old fashioned love and romance. I would have liked a little bit more of the background of her love life, it is referenced to but you feel like you are missing something. Although it is obvious that she was hurt badly.

I love the progression of Russell’s character, Jane. She slowly becomes more kick ass, in a way this is a coming-of-age comedy, or coming-of-self comedy. The regency era set and Austenland itself is amazing. The supporting cast are great, bringing excellent comedy timing and some OTT moments. The script is very good; different and funny. Jane Seymour is also great as the stuck-up owner of Austenland.

Will Jane find true love? Will she regret spending her life savings on going to Austenland? Watch the film and find out. This is a good, funny comedy.

Austenland [DVD] [2013]

 

How To Get Glowing Skin: What Products To Use

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You want healthy glowing skin? Of course you do. I have had lots of fun testing these products. Let me know what you think.

Beauty review, Glowing skin, good beauty products.

 

Stila Set & Illuminate Baked Powder Trio

Now this is a setting powder. So why is it in an piece about glowing skin? Well, not all setting powders are chalky and cakey. When used properly they can give you great skin. This Set & Illuminate Baked Powder Trio adds radiance to the skin and makes foundation and blusher stay put all day. It gives you airbrushed, fresh, naturally beautiful skin. Really great stuff.

The powder is made up of three different shades and comes with a plastic shaver which gives you just the right amount of product when you half turn it. It also stops mess, so points for the great design, especially the slick, black compact. The best thing about this product is that it is subtle. It’s not glittery or shimmery and it’s not too much for daytime. It just makes your skin look fresh and perfect in a very subtle and natural way. Available from stilacosmetics.com and costs £24.

Stila Set & Bronze Baked Powder Trio

This is similar to the Set & Illuminate in design: it has the same handy plastic shaver in a beautiful black compact. The compact also has a mirror.  The difference is in the word ‘bronze’. This give healthy looking tanned skin. In the only way you should get tanned skin (no sunbeds). It comes with three shades:

  • Matte bronze – which bronzes and warms the skin
  • Kitten shimmer –  to brighten and illuminate
  • Bronze shimmer – enhances skintone

You can wear this alone if you have good skin but it also sets foundation. It makes makeup last all day. The powder also has Vitamin E and jojoba oils so it moisturises and conditions. It gives natural glowing skin rather than turning you into a glitter ball. Not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with that. Available from ASOS and costs £24

Stila Illuminating Liquid Foundation 20 Watts

This is also natural and makes you look like you are not wearing makeup. I love the bottle it comes in. It is very sturdy and I like the weight of it. There is no SPF in it which some people prefer, although due to my pale skin I tend to take SPF whenever I can. The foundation gives a very subtle shimmer. It is light and it gives a sheer coverage which is just better than a tinted moisturiser. If you like heavy coverage this won’t be for you, but it is a great, natural foundation to give you glowing skin. It’s not matte, it gives a smooth look without looking like you are overly done up. Perfect for a radiance boost.

£25 or cheaper if you shop around. Try Google Shopping or buy from feelunique.com

Stila All Over Shimmer Liquid Luminizer Pink Shimmer

This adds a delicate shimmer for a radiant glow. This is not really a pink shimmer, but more a beautiful champagne shade. This also has antioxidant and grape seed oil which conditions and cares for the skin while you glow. The soft-focus pigments help diminish the appearance of fine lines and skin imperfections while adding uplifting highlights. This product is great as you can use it as a highlighter on cheekbones and underneath the brow bone. It can be used on top of foundation or mixed with moisturiser. Great stuff. From feelunique.com

Stila Sheer Pressed Powder

I have included this because getting shine under control is always going to give healthy looking skin. The oil-control formula is finely milled for a smooth, flawless finish. It makes skin look clean and polished. It doesn’t look cakey or heavy on the skin. Good stuff. Available here.

Simple Kind To Skin Illuminating Radiance Cream

This product is more glittery than the Stila products. It is more obvious but I got a lot of compliments when I was wearing it. I love Simple products because they don’t put a lot of nasty stuff in them. I have sensitive skin and they are gentle but they really work. The cream has Pro-Vitamin B3, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin E and Bisabolol, Ginger Root Extract, Sweet Almond Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil. It also doesn’t have any artificial perfumes, colours or chemicals. It has light reflecting minerals along with UVA/UVB SPF15 protection. I have actually been wearing this cream almost everyday. Sometimes I wear it alone (usually with concealer) or as a primer under foundation or BB cream. When I use it as a primer I don’t use a lot of foundation or BB cream. Overall this is really good, inexpensive stuff. Recommended. £8.99 for 50ml at Superdrug

Laura Geller Spackle Neutralizing Colour-Correcting Under Make Up Primer

This is a good primer that improves skin’s texture so makeup glides on and looks freshly applied for hours. It has subtle peach undertones, is lightweight and “neutralises” skin imperfections. It is oil-free and paraben-free and has botanicals such as Aloe Vera to help calm skin and reduce the appearance of redness, as well as Centella Asiatica and White Tea Extracts which provide antioxidant protection. A very good primer, available from QVC

Bourjois Blush Exclusif

This is a great pink blusher that suits everyone. It has self-adjusting technology that gives everyone a personalised pink. You can watch it transform on your skin which is pretty cool. Quite impressive. According to Superdrug’s ‘its formula contains pH reactive pigments to transform your cheeks into a customised pink shade’. Just put a little on the apples of your cheeks and hello health! Makes even the most tired skin look like you go for a daily morning run. This is a suit-everyone pink cream blusher and that lasts all day. It is just dream-worthy, it works like a highlighter and blusher. Very glowy.

£7.99 from Very.com or Superdrug

Elemis Pro-Radiance Illuminating Cream

A hybrid moisturiser which works as a radiance booster, a primer and a light moisturiser. Is a great all-in-one but if you have dry skin then you might need another moisturiser. Gives skin a beautiful, shimmer-free, dewy glow.

£32 from QVC or Harvey Nichols

Benefit Finding Mr Bright Makeup Set: Girl Meets Pearl, Posie Tint, Highbeam and Erase Paste.

Girl Meets Pearl gives you a light-from-within glow. Makes you look like you were born beautiful, Posie Tint gives the most gorgeous, rosy tint on cheeks and looks very natural, Highbeam is a silverish pink liquid that makes you glow like J-Lo. Put on your cheekbones, brow bones & the bridge of your nose. Erase Paste is a brilliant concealer, industrial strength to hide any flaws. This is a brilliant set and perfect for glowing, healthy skin. It’s not over the top, just makes you look happy and glowing. Available from Amazon UK and feelunique.com

What do you think?

 

Nip + Fab Body Slim Fix Review

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Nip + Fab Body Slim Fix , review, beautyI am a fan of Nip + Fab products, reviewing two things from their collection before; the Nip + Fab Glycolic Fix and their Nip + Fab Glycolic Fix Exfoliating Facial Pads. I was impressed with both. I noticed a difference in my skin whilst doing both reviews so was hoping for more of the same.

Nip + Fab Body Slim Fix has the same cool packaging and it smells really good. Always a bonus in a beauty product.

This is what Nip + Fab say:

Firm + tone your body with Body Slim Fix, a 2-in-1 fitness formula to hydrate + tone the skin.

Brand new to the Nip+Fab range, this daily toning body moisturiser works to improve the appearance of your body contours for a firmer, slimmer appearance.

Ideal for use post-workout or after a hot shower, Body Slim Fix is a fast acting formula to use alongside exercise for unparalleled results.

Body Slim Fix contains:

unislim helps sculpt + refine body contours
cocoa butter softens + smoothes
caffeine extract helps to improve skin tone + texture

Note that they say firmer, slimmer ‘appearance’, and this I have to agree with. I am usually very cynical about anti-cellulite cream (which this doesn’t say it is) and ‘slimming’ lotions, but I found that this great cream left my legs with a much better tone. I don’t believe you can just put a cream on and see a difference when it comes to becoming slimmer but Nip + Fab Body Slim Fix certainly made a difference when it comes to tone, it did make my body look better and smoother. It even made me legs look like they were glowing.

It also feels very soothing which I was not expecting. Immediately my skin looks more even and toned. After using for a while my legs definitely look better. I am as impressed with this as the other products in the Nip + Fab range and will be trying more.

Body Slim Fix can be bought here or from Debenhams.

 

Crystal Fairy Film Review

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crystalfairyfilmreviewA young American in a foreign land, ignorant to the culture and the language, at the crossroads of life, in search cheap booze and an ecstatic high. At first impressions, Crystal Fairy seems depressingly familiar. I’ve personally seen enough dopey nonsense about Americans running amok overseas to last a lifetime. Thankfully such thoughts are quickly dismissed in this unpolished original, made as a small off the cuff project next to psychological thriller Magic Magic by writer and Sebastian Silva. Shot in a largely improvised manner, the film centres on Jamie (Michael Cera, also star of Magic Magic), an obnoxious and self centred young man travelling across Chile with a group of local friends. Drunk at a party, he runs into a fellow American going by ‘Crystal Fairy’ (Gaby Hoffmann), an incredibly enthusiastic mystic willing to see the good in everyone and everything. He inadvertently invites her along with his friends to the north coast where they plan to sample the famed San Pedro cactus juice, known for it’s potent hallucinogenic effects. It’s an idea he immediately regrets as her easy going charm rubs his selfish impulses the wrong way and the group gravitate far more towards her than him. Perhaps losing their heads together may be the only way to get on with one another…

 

In a set up that seems painfully familiar, Crystal Fairy’s primary success is finding a fresh vitality in the worn material. Part of this is down to the beautiful photography of the film. From the urgency of the cityscape to the desolate yet hauntingly beautiful Atacama Desert, the handheld camerawork gives a woozy vibrancy to the films look that matches up with the story tone perfectly. The camera is constantly roving to find detail from the rhythms of everyday local life to fleeting gestures that betray the characters inner thoughts and motives. Its a style that best suits the semi improvisational tone of the writing and characterization. While there is a sense of narrative drift that some viewers may not have the patience for, if they do they will be rewarded by a deviation from the norms you expect from the set up. Jamie and Crystal sound on paper like incredibly two dimensional characters; the ignorant jerk and the manic pixie dream girl. Yet in the midst of the bleak landscape, wry humour and refreshing honesty they come to life in a believable manner that fleshes both of them out.

 

This characterization is further complimented by the excellent performances of both Cera and Hoffman. Cera’s presence could have potentially drawn more unwelcome parallels with thestereotypical fool abroad trope. Having made his name in nebbish, exasperated roles from Arrested Development onward some would argue that he has acted his way into a typecast corner. It’s refreshing to see him not only acting in such a niche project but also that he embraces such an unlikeable character. Jamie is spiky, attention seeking and outwardly hostile to pretty much everyone he crosses paths with. It’s a credit to Cera that his naive charm manages to overcome Jamie’s imperfections and make the inevitable softening of his edges work. Hoffmann pretty much steals the show, her eccentric energy lightening up the screen in pretty much every appearance and avoiding the pitfalls of annoyance that similar characters have fallen into. Together they see through a film that thankfully sidesteps convention and offers up a telling glimpse of young fears, desires and potential hope.

Crystal Fairy [DVD]

The Wolf Of Wall Street Review

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Greed, riches, drugs, naked women, sex…The Wolf Of Wall Street certainly is debauched, based on the memoirs of convicted stock market trader Jordan Belfort, a man who makes Gordon Gekko seem like a sweet office boy, the film certainly gives the financial industry a bad name- something that the friend I saw it with (a financial analyst) was non to pleased about.

The Wolf of Wall StreetIn truth Jordan Belfort is a different animal all together. He starts off with a wife and no intention to drink or do drugs. How hard he falls indeed. After losing his job at L.F Rothschild he gets a job trading penny stocks, from there he starts up his own business, the Stratton Oakmont brokerage firm (which was the inspiration for the 2000 film Boiler Room) with the help of friend Donnie Azoff, (played by Johan Hill who famously did the role for $60,000; which was less than $10,000 per the 10 month work), they steal from poor people and then work their way up to stealing from rich people. They do more than their own body weight in drugs and they sleep with so many women it is hard to believe their penis didn’t fall off.

It is hard to go wrong with a Scorsese film and DiCaprio and Scorsese make quite a team. DiCaprio deserves an Oscar for his performance. There were times he was so into his character I didn’t even recognise DiCaprio anywhere. He was once so good he was the De Niro of our generation. Now he is just the DiCaprio of our generation: an actor so good he is on a level all by himself. Johan Hill also gives an Oscar-worthy performance. His comic timing is perfect. He can deliver any line in the world and make it funny. This film shows his true potential. Hill has always been under-rated.

It is not necessarily the movies fault but this is a terrible film for women. Few women get to keep their clothes on and the rest do full-blown, full-frontal nudity with shaved ‘private areas’. Ahem. Even the lead, Margot Robbie who plays DiCaprio’s second wife,  who insisted she didn’t mind. Hmm. But despite all of this sex and the actual orgies the only real male nudity is a fake and flaccid fake penis and a from-the-back nude scene of DiCaprio (twice) and, yes, it was really him. Few women are more than window dressing, naked window dressing, and even one of the ‘original 20’ stockbrokers who is female, Kimmie Belzer, doesn’t even get a mention until the end of the movie. Another gets her head shaved for $10,000. An uncomfortable scene. All of the nudity is too much and embarrassing. It is supposed to be adult and decadent but is, actually, just sad and adolescent. I was depressed by the misogyny in the film. It’s 2014. Women deserve more than this.

The Wolf of Wall Street is an enjoyable movie (barring the nudity and I didn’t really get all the drug talk. I felt it was romanticised too much. Drugs actually aren’t cool kids), in fact it is more than enjoyable. It is nearly three hours long and it went by fast and was entertaining. However, Jordan Belfort is possibly one of the least likeable (real-life!) characters in movie history. He has absolutely no redeeming features. He is a complete bastard. Despite this, because he is played so brilliantly by DiCaprio he is also likable in a very weird way. You end up caring what happens to him but you resent yourself for it. These aren’t nice people and you will find yourself hoping Agent Patrick Denham nails them to the wall.

If you go and see The Wolf of Wall Street you will be entertained but you will also be left with a feeling of sexism, shallowness and emptiness.

 

iPhone 5c Review

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Upon receiving the iPhone 5c I thought two things; it’s pretty and it’s, actually, just a phone. The second comment upset my mother and fiancee, who were fast to tell me that the iPhone is certainly not ‘just a phone’. So with such passion inspired by this little smartphone I decided to give it a fair chance. I love Apple products myself and the only non-Apple piece of tech I own is my phone. Which is a Blackberry (don’t laugh), it is awful and never works. In fact, by the end of this review if I haven’t convinced you to get an iPhone I have absolutely no problem with that, after all this is only a review, but please, for the love of god, do not get a Blackberry. I don’t know a single person who is happy with them.

iphone5creview

So, to the iPhone 5c review.

It’s pretty and pink. It looks the part; cool, high-tech, slick, expensive. There is a lot of screen which I love. I have seen people watch movies on iPhones and you can do so and have a great viewer experience. It comes in bright colours (green, yellow, pink, blue, white) and is the lower cost version of the iPhone, a cheaper version of the iPhone 5s. This was the first time Apple released two versions of the iPhone at the same time. Not only is it gorgeous, but it is also not made with cheap plastic. It is made from steel-reinforced, machined polycarbonate, and then coated in a glossy finish. The craftsmanship, the colours, the design, is all stunning. Although the cheaper version it is not a cheap phone. It will cost less to make and Apple will get a high profit margin but that doesn’t come across in the phone. It also has a great 4-inch Retina Display screen.

It has a lot of features that the iPhone 5 had but comes with an improved front-facing camera and global LTE support. The minus with the iPhone 5c is that you are not getting a lot of new technology. It is a lot like the iPhone 5 when it comes to features, which means you are paying a lot of money for a phone without a lot of new features. You also don’t get the fingerprint scanner that the iPhone 5s has.

If you are not someone who needs the latest technology and features then the iPhone 5c is a really good buy. It is smaller than the iPhone 5, which was long and slim. It is chunkier too but I like the size and you still get a decent screen. It is certainly lovely to look at. It was hard to not feel happy when holding a hot pink iPhone. The ‘c’ could mean ‘colour’.

It comes with iOS 7 and runs smoothly. It has good battery life. Something that used to be a negative with iPhones, they needed charged half-way through the day if you were lucky. The iPhone 5c has a lot going for it, although I know a few people see it as an iPhone for poor people. In fact, there is no such thing. Poor people definitely cannot afford iPhones, but with the lack of new software on the iPhone 5c it is easy to see why some people see it as a lesser version. However, it’s not. It is a good phone in it’s own right and it is beautiful to look at. So just make your own mind up.

iPhone 5c (green/ blue/ yellow/ pink/ white) available for £19 on Vodafone Red 4G-ready plans from £42 per month

Lone Survivor – Film Review

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lone_survivor_poster__spanNow I might be a man – actually scratch that. Now I might be an alpha male, no, scratch that again. I am an alpha male but call it what you will I have had my full of all those macho ‘Saving Private Ryan’ type flicks. The sort where everyone just dies in front of you and the director just relishes putting you in the thick heart of brutal battle. It is little wonder then that I was more than a little pessimistic about this film; let’s face it the title says it all.

However this Peter Berg film; director of blockbuster movie Battleship, in which the US Navy drove off an alien invasion opened with a much different kind of flavour than I was used to. Lone Survivor, opens by focussing on the inner endurance battles of these men as they go through training and the bonding they forge as a team, a brotherhood. In the opening montage we see them taught to handle pain, inhospitable conditions (sometimes naked), what’s more we see many people quit. It comes across as an insatiable drive to reconnect the audience with reality. It is this understanding and a mixture of top class acting and proficient story-telling that makes this film different to the run of the mill films we have seen.

It is little wonder actually, the film’s plot comes from the real life account of Marcus Luttrell, a former US Navy SEAL, and describes an operation in the mountains of Afghanistan in 2005, in which four American soldiers found themselves caught on the prongs of a moral dilemma.

Sent to assassinate a Taliban warlord, they unexpectedly encounter three goat herds; an elderly man, a young boy and a scowling teenager. They have three choices, each one with its own type of consequence. They can kill them, tie them up or let them go. After a lengthy discussion about the ethics and morals as well as what could happen to them they decide they are not animals and decide on the latter and that is where things go wrong.
The Taliban are as merciless as you would expect, and in as many ways as some may argue we are led to believe but what they don’t lack is in numbers and resources.

Where this film really succeeds is bringing the reality and the injustice of war to your eyes. The Marines, played by Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch and Ben Foster carry the film well and although the film becomes very frantic it remains coherent in its set up; we know who the men are, who’s married, who has kids and what each man stands to lose. I thought it was very brave too that the soldiers were not portrayed as superheroes. In one scene, cornered by the enemy they decide to fling themselves down a cliff to escape and we see their bodies smashed and ground by both rocks and bullets. It was very unnerving to see such a common scene shown for the reality it is.

The film doesn’t let up even at the last chapter and although some scenes are clichéd, based on the reality it is founded upon is something you can forgive. There are some real touching scenes there too which are executed very well.

So, how does one rate this film, do you rate it on the entertainment, the quality of the action and acting? do you rate the reality or just the horror of it? I guess I will praise it for the account it portrays about the men and women who put themselves in the position where such an account could be wrote. As a film it is not exceptional and is far from stylish, but I don’t think it was meant to be. However, the story it tells is certainly worthy.