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mmm… cupcakes!

I’m catching up with some friends tomorrow for a bit of a girlie day! 🙂 We are going to try some new make up via a consultant our host has booked and we’ll be having high tea…

Here are the strawberry mini cupcakes I’ve baked to contribute to high tea! I just want to eat them all right now… but I can’t as there is now photo evidence they existed! 😉

Perhaps this could be considered a clever use of the blog to help me watch my weight? LOL! 🙂

Reader Request: Hand Lotions/Creams

Happy Saturday everyone! 🙂 Here the weather is just beautiful and fitting for the new (summer) season. I have been putting a giveaway pack together so that I can run a competition to thank my readers, visitors, and supporters… but I think I will wait to actually hold the comp in the new year! (Because December is such a busy month for everyone but also Australia Post – I don’t want the giveaway parcel to go missing!!)

How are people finding my use of CAPS for blog entry headers? I’ve started doing it as I think it fits better with the overall theme/design of the blog, but let me know what you think. With the use of CAPS, I’m not intending to shout!!!! 😛

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So, onto topic… 😉 I have received a request to review more hand lotions/creams, and here are my thoughts on three that I have recently tried. One of my first blog posts was actually about a hand cream, Hand Food from Soap & Glory (you can read about that here)! I will also mention another cream which I don’t currently own but find to be quite good and reliable when I do use it.

#1 : Dove Visible Beauty Hand Cream

Price range: approximately $6 AUD for 75mL

Where can I get it? most supermarkets and chemists.

This cream is in a handy handbag sized tube. It smells lovely, a bit like a mix of cucumber and honey, and is easily absorbed. However, the scent is relatively strong (not as strong as Hand Food! ;)) and the product seems to contain a lot of chemical/artificial products. When reading the back of the tube I did not understand what most of the ingredients were! (a lot of “stearate”s, “edta”s and other things)

Beautiful rating: quality 3/5, value 3/5 (I would not buy this one again, I’m not a huge fan of lotions/creams that have a high chemical content – unfortunately I did not take a look at the ingredient list before I bought it haha! ;))

#2: Burt’s Bees Burt’s Shea Butter Hand Repair Creme

Price range: I’m not sure, this was a gift. However most Burt’s Bees products are not for those on a tight budget!

Where can I get it? Chemists, particularly chemists with a good range of beauty products such as Priceline.

What I like about Burt’s Bees is that they are committed to using as many natural ingredients as possible in their products. In this one they stated that it is “98.00% natural”. Unfortunately, this was my least favourite of the creams! 😦 I feel that there are too many essential oils packed into this lotion and it leads it to have an overpowering and almost medicinal smell, which put me off. I then washed my hands to try to get rid of the smell but it only dissipated when I then used antibacterial alcohol based hand gel! 😮

Beautiful Rating: quality 3/5 (they did deliver on what they promised – a natural hand product – the smell is what lets it down), value 1/5

#3: DermaVeen Moisturising Cream

Price range: approx. $8 for 100mL

Where can I get it? Most chemists, some bigger supermarkets

Now I realise this isn’t marketed as a hand cream as such, but I’ve included it here as I love using it on my hands! It was originally recommended to me by my GP (general practitioner – Doctor) for some psoriasis that I had (:( )due to the colloidal oatmeal content. Oatmeal is in a lot of Aveeno’s products (who also have a hand cream on the market) as it is thought to have special soothing properties.

This lotion easily fits in your handbag and has a mild, slightly nutty scent (it’s probably the oatmeal). It is ideal for those with sensitive skin, as that is who it was originally designed for!

Beautiful rating: quality 5/5, value 5/5 (my *fave* of the three! :))

One that I haven’t recently used but recommend (haven’t used recently simply as I have so many others @ home right now ;)):

Vaseline’s Healthy Hand and Nail Conditioning Hand Lotion

Price range: approx. $5 for 75mL

Where can I get it? Most supermarkets and chemists.

This one is a little beauty! Subtle fragrance, tube lasts a long time (a little bit of it goes a long way), hands feel moisturised instantly.

Beautiful rating: quality 5/5, value 5/5

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So this wraps up my first Reader Request post! 🙂 I hope you have found it helpful and encourage people to contact me if there are things you’d like me to review. 🙂