Monthly Archives: April 2020

Glossybox Reviews for the March Mystery and April Blossom Boxes

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As a birthday present from March I have received a couple of boxes from Glossybox and I wanted to review their contents for you. Because I had a Mystery box at the end of March followed swiftly by the April Blossom box, I figured I would combine the two unboxing reviews instead of bring you too many beauty posts within a short time frame.

I made the choice to head into isolation quite early, it was the week of my birthday, and following that only weeks later it was Mother’s Day. I didn’t do a lot for either of then and it left me feeling pretty low as the prospect of now not seeing family for months dawned upon me. So I made the decision to order a Glossybox on a deal which saw me receive a Mystery Box for the end of March and a week later I got the April Blossom Box. They were little pick-me-ups at a time when I needed some distraction from everything going on.

In the early morning light, I was ready to test these beauties!

I had never had a Glossybox before but having followed them on social media for a long time, I knew about their concepts for the box and hoped I would find the products inside useful. Well I wasn’t wrong!

March Mystery Box

I’m first going to talk about the March Mystery Glossybox, which I have tested several of items from that box which appealed to me the most. This box was my first impression of Glossybox as a brand. I liked how neatly everything arrived and it was a nice gift to unwrap surprises.

Here are the five items that arrived in the March Mystery Box.

Maria Nila 1 Shampoo and 1 Conditioner Bottles 1 of each 100ml
Mitchell and Peach Eau de Parfum 15ml
Kandi Skin Work Out Mask
Bang Beauty Black Felt Tip Eyeliner 1.8g

I was interested in the Shampoo and Conditioner, as someone with naturally curly hair, Sulphate Free Shampoo usually works for me.

Maria Nila True Soft Shampoo and Conditioner
100ml Bottles x 2 (one of each)
Produced in Sweden
with a Colour Guard Complex and Softening Argan Oil
Vegan, Cruelty Free, Sulphate Free, Paraben Free

These Shampoo and Conditioner smelt lovely and were lovely and soft in my hands. As for my hair, they made it soft and lightweight and helped with my unruly curly frizz. I did find that my hair required washing a day earlier than I would usually do so though. Otherwise a lovely product I will happily continue to use until they are all gone.

Mitchell and Peach
Flora no.1 Fine Edition
Eau de Parfum
15ml

The Mitchell and Peach perfume smells nice, it isn’t the type of scent I would normally wear, however it is nice and spring-like. The bottle size is ideal for a handbag or travel bag. It says it is created in England using essential oils from the Mitchell Estate, which is very interesting, and I like to support British business where I can.

Now I am going to talk about the April “Blossom” Glossybox which honestly I was really impressed by. My first proper Glossybox containing the handpicked products that they had chosen for this month as opposed to the mystery box I received initially. They did well to stick with the Blossom theme within the products and even the box smelt nice when I opened it.

The products that I had inside my “Blossom” box for April were the following:

Nails INC Nail Polish – Pink – “Blossom Kisses” 14ml
Avant Face Exfoliant “Gentle Rose Beautifying” 50ml
The Ritual of Sakura Cherry Blossom Rice Body Scrub 70ml
Sanctuary Spa Nourishing Rose Petal Face Mask 30g
Sport FX Raspberry + Rhubarb Recovery Lip Balm SPF15 8g

I have tested everything except for the Mask as I haven’t had time to do it. Three products stood out for me in quality, the lip balm smells really lovely and was nice when worn, but it is not the best balm I have tested. I would give it a 4/5.

It’s hard for me to pick a true favourite item in this box because I have three that I loved and would rate all three of these 5/5. So I’m going to tell you about each of them now and why.

Firstly the Nails INC Nail Polish was such good quality, one coat lasted ten days with minor chipping, that includes daily chores, washing my hands tons of extra times a day and playing and bathing my toddler! It’s an excellent brand of polish and a lovely shade of pink as well, you can see photos of me wearing this polish on my social media. The quality and ease of application with the nicely shaped brush are why I give it 5/5.

My second favourite is the Ritual Cherry Blossom Body Scrub. It made my skin smell lovely and feel soft. It was a nice product for a bit of much needed self care, I used mine in the shower as I have little time for a bath these days! Cherry Blossoms are some of my favourite flowering trees. For how it made my skin feel, with no reactions and a little of it went a long way too, that’s why it gets 5/5.

Finally my third item of choice is the Avant Face Exfoliant. I often use a face cleanser and scrub so it was nice to try a new brand of one. It smells strongly of the Rose and was incredibly soft between my fingers. You can barely feel the scrub aspect, it’s gentle on your skin but very effective. I now use it three times a week to remove dead skin. This face exfoliant worked well with my skin, I had no reactions which is something I’m always wary of having sensitive skin. I have used it for two weeks now and would recommend it to others, I’m not even a quarter down the tube after multiple uses, for its quality I’d definitely like to give it a 5/5.

Thank you for joining me for this beauty review today, I know that it’s been a while since I shared any of my self care on my blog, that is mainly due to the fact I haven’t tried any new products for a while, plus my self care and skin routine has kind of gone out the window recently. I rectified this when I realised that I need to start taking better care of myself. I was putting all of my energy into being a good mother and it left me with very little time nor energy to do the little extras for myself. But do you know what? Trialing these products made me realise that I do deserve to do more than just cleanse and moisturise once a day. I have thoroughly enjoyed reviewing these items and noticed my skin improved too. Plus I have made time for skin care in my life through buying these boxes and that cannot be a bad thing! I just now need to maintain that time!

Would I recommend Glossybox to a friend? Or even any of you?
Yes I would. If you like to try and find new beauty and makeup products and enjoy the testing aspects, I would say go for it. It’s a box of treats and self care is so important.

If you would like to use my referral to get 20% off your first box then please click here.

See you around here soon I hope! Stay Safe!

✩ Sabrina ✩

Fun Easter Crafts

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HAPPY EASTER FROM SEVERN WISHES

Fun to Make ~ Easter Art and Crafts ~ with Sabrina of Severn Wishes

I have wanted to do this blog post for the last three years, and I have always been too busy to complete it! Mainly because it is a mixture of writing the blog, creating and making the craft items, and then taking the step by step images, processing all of those and then putting the entire lot together in one blog post. It is both time consuming and a lengthy in process too. So what changed this year? Well for one thing, I was more determined to do some more craft this year, but isolation has also made me re-evaluate what’s important, and that is to make happy memories with my son. No matter what is going on outside our home, he doesn’t understand, and it is my job to keep things as normal as possible, so extra fun, extra learning and extra memories are all on the table at the present time. I’m so glad you could join me to hopefully make some memories of your own!

So without any further ado, let’s get our crafty fingers at the ready! Depending upon which Crafty Project you wish to undertake you will need a variety of items. My idea is this, pick an item from the four below, and then match the “You Will Need” items with what you already have at home. Providing you have all the necessary bits and bobs then feel free to scroll down to that Project and then get cracking with my Step by Step guides! Happy Crafting!

1. 3D Friendly Ladybird
2. Wiggly Caterpillar
3. 3D Paper Flower (Can be Framed or Made into an Easter Card)
4. Hand Print Easter Bunny Rabbit
5. Other Craft Ideas

1. 3D Friendly Ladybird

You Will Need
Pritt Stick or Glue
Coloured Paper and / or Card
Circular Objects to Draw Around (This will determine the size of your Ladybird)
Pencil
Scissors
Black Pen
Googly Eyes (if you have some but not essential)

This is the easiest of my crafts today, and will take around twenty minutes to make. You can make it any size, any colour that you like. Why not make one for each member of the family? I am going to make several of them to put around my son’s bedroom. He loves Gaston from Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom, so my son is the inspiration behind this particular craft project.

Step 1. Choose the Size of your Ladybird. Choose your colour. Draw around a Circular object so that you have 4 Circles the same size, and then you will need a smaller circle for the head, judge this depending upon the size of the body. Cut out these 5 circles and then you’re ready to begin.

Step 2. On the small circle draw a line across the centre, you want to colour the half of this circle in with black pen. Don’t forget to draw eyes on it too like mine, if you don’t have any fun stick on eyes to hand! Then pop this face to one side you won’t need it now until Step 6.

Step 3. Take 3 out of the 4 Large Circles and fold them in half across their centre. Gently crease them with your fingers, take a look at my image below to see how they should look.

Step 4. Take the flat circle and cover it lightly in glue or pritt stick, I always prefer a glue stick when messing with card, less mess! Then take two of your folded circles, stick glue on their side that faces flat, place them back to back and glue them down on to the flat circle so that they make a V shape.

Step 5. Take the remaining Circle that is folded in half and cover it in glue before pressing it down into the centre of your Ladybird body, covering the two below neatly. You now have a finished insect body.

Step 6. You can now glue the head on by placing the glue on to the half you didn’t colour in, make sure you line it up with the V of the Ladybird to make it look right. See my image below.

Step 7. Push down all the flat surfaces of the Ladybird and leave for an hour or two for the glue to dry. Then using a Pen or Marker, draw on however many Spots you would like.

Step 8. Repeat steps for making other colours or other sizes if you have Card or Paper left over. If you need a base for your Ladybird to sit on, why not make him a cardboard leaf! (You need leaves for another of my crafts anyway!) 😉

CRAFT FINISHED

2. Wiggly Caterpillar (munching on a leaf)

You Will Need
Pritt Stick and PVA Glue
Green Paper or Card (Card is better)
A Mixture of Green and Black Pens
Poms Poms! All Colours Welcome!
Googly Eyes or Stick on Sequins
Scissors
A Pencil
A Piece of Cardboard (Cereal box is good!)

This is a fun craft to do with young children. They can make their Caterpillar whatever colour they want. All you need is some Pom Poms! You can follow my Steps or watch my video below!

Step 1. Draw and Cut Out a Leaf Shape (this is your main leaf) from your Cardboard. Then draw around this cut out piece of cardboard on to your green paper or card and Pritt Stick together.

Step 2. Draw your Leaf design on with Green pens. Set to one side.

Step 3. Decide what Pom Poms you want to use and arrange them!

Step 4. Make some antenna and extra leaves and stick your eyes on to a Pom Pom ready to assemble your bug!

Step 5. Using PVA glue stick your Caterpillar together, don’t forget the extra leaves, arrange however you wish, then leave to dry in a warm flat place.

Step 6. Add any additional things to your bug once it has dried.

Caterpillar Video

3. 3D Paper Flower (Can be Framed or Made into an Easter Card)

You Will Need
Pritt Stick or Glue
Different Coloured Cards or Papers
A Piece of Card for Sticking to
Scissors
Pencil
A Circular Object to Draw Around (it’s diameter will be half the width of the flower so choose wisely)

This idea is simple but looks so pretty when complete. It makes a great card.

Step 1. Take a piece of plain card, this will be your base. Draw a Stem or Cut Green Card or Paper and create one. Make sure you leave plenty of room to stick the flower part. Cut out leaves and small circles of yellow paper to create the centre of the flowers. Be as creative as you like.

Step 2. Making the petals next, you need to cut circles of different colours, you will end up with 8 Petals in total per flower. I did two different sized circles to end up with two sized flowers.

Step 3. Fold all of the petals in half so you end up with 16 halves with flat sides that stick up. This is how the petals will look 3D.

Step 4. Using Pritt Stick, stick the sides of the petals down so that they rotate around the centre of the flowers. You want them all to face the same way when you stick them around the yellow centre.

Step 5. Turn the flowers into a card if you like, or make other smaller flowers too using smaller circles, and make a pretty Easter meadow scene picture. Draw or Stick Easter Eggs and Rabbits and other Easter items along the edge like an Easter scene.

4. Hand Print Easter Bunny Rabbit

You Will Need
Paper or Card
Pencil
Hands!!!
Pens for the Details
Scissors
Paint

Paint works well for this one so you don’t have to colour in, unless you prefer to colour of course. It depends how much you’re painting, if you plan to do my hand prints picture (below) then you could do extra on different paper and make them into cute Rabbits!

Step 1. Draw around your hand and / or children’s hands. Or you can do a Hand Print on to Paper using Paint! MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE OUT THE THUMB! You want the shape to resemble a Rabbit head with two of each fingers being the ears! Keep two fingers together!

Step 2. Once dry you can cut the Rabbit shape out.

Step 3. Draw on Nose, Mouth and Eyes!

Step 4. Add any extras like whiskers, inner ears and freckles! Cut it out and hang it up or stick to a handmade card if you like.

FINISHED

Not the best hand print but you get the idea! My son was a bit reluctant to help out yesterday, ha ha!

5. Other Craft Ideas
If you want to just Print some Easter Egg patterns and do some Colouring in with younger children then here are a few that I really like that you can save and print 🙂

Alternatively you could do some Painting of Hands and do some Prints!

Layer the Prints of your Hands to make a nice picture.

Thanks so much for joining me for this blog post. I hope that you’ve had fun, maybe even a laugh at my crafty items. If you made something please share it with me on social media, tag me or my page! I would love to see them! What was your favourite? Would you like to see more Art and Craft? Leave me a comment. Have a wonderful fun and safe Easter!

Best wishes from me!

Sabrina

Review of Cloud and Moon Children’s Night Light from Lights 4 Fun

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Today I am reviewing a product that I purchased for my sons bedroom. I really liked a number of lights available on the Lights 4 Fun website, but I wanted something fairly small and battery operated, which narrowed down my search parameters.

I initially wanted a night light so that I didn’t disturb him by clicking a switch. This battery powered night light features an on and off switch on the back, plus a very handy timer. The timer allows the light to stay on for 6 hours, and this was what swayed me into purchasing it, purely its convenience.

I really like the design and the painted finish look, it was neat and tidy and well made for the price. I chose to leave it on a table near his cot, the light pointed towards the wall to illuminate the corner of the bedroom. It was very bright for the first couple of uses, the first 36 hours it was almost so bright that I turned it away from him. But after that time and for the following three weeks we have had it, the light emanating from the Moon has been exactly the right strength and brightness. The battery is beginning to go now as the light is dim but still bright enough that I can see my son in the night.

I would highly recommend the company Lights 4 Fun, for both the quantity and range of their stock, there are some great choices to suit every kind of person. They are good quality and well made. What I bought was delivered well packaged and in a good time with regular delivery updates too. I would use them again in the future.

Product Name: Cloud & Moon Children’s Night Light
Product Information: Battery Powered, Timer of 6 hours, 12 Warm White LED Lights, made from Wood, the Design is Grey and White painted in colour. This can be Wall Mounted or Stood on a Flat Surface. Ideal for Children’s Bedroom as a Night Light due to its timed feature, it is for indoor use and has an illumination time of approximately 100 hours.
Product Dimensions: (H) 23 cm x (W) 30 cm x (D) 2.5 cm
Batteries Required: AAA x 2 (not included)
Product Price: £12.99
Link to the Product: Lights 4 Fun Website

My Review Scores

Quality of Product 5/5
Product Design 5/5
Product Features 5/5
Ease of Use 5/5

Thank you for reading this review today, if you’d like to know anymore about the item or see more images of it in use then please check out my social media such as Instagram. Alternatively click the product link I provided above to go to the Lights 4 Fun website.

✩ Sabrina ✩

April 2020 Treatbox Reveal

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Hello! Happy April to you!
Thank you for visiting Severn Wishes and reading the April 2020 Treatbox UK Reveal and Review with me, Sabrina.

It’s Spring Time! It’s also Isolation Lockdown in the UK! I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to the NHS, the other Key Workers such as Supermarket Staff, Delivery Drivers, the Post Force, and those who create Subscription services like Zoe and her team at Treatbox UK! They are keeping spirits high and are making us a bit happier in this dark situation, by making sure we get our post! Thank you!

The theme of this month’s box is “Time To Bloom” all ready for Spring.

The pink tissue paper wrapped around our April gifts this month has a sticker that reads “Keep Going” which is so appropriate with everything going on right now.

What’s actually inside this month’s box then?

Treatbox “You Are Enough” Drinks Coaster
Packet of Seeds “Keep Going Keep Growing”
Treatbox “It’s Your Time To Bloom” Special Positivity Diary
Treatbox A5 Print “Bloom Where You Are Planted”
Flower & White Raspberry Meringue Bar ~ 96 calories & GF
Joe Cool Pair of Flowery Socks

Here are some more images of the contents of the April box.

April 2020 Treatbox UK Reveal

My Honest Opinion on the Contents of the month’s box

Overall I am very happy with the April 2020 box. I love the Print, the Coaster and the Positivity Diary most. The floral design throughout really made me happy when I saw it, very pretty and representing Spring in a beautiful and colourful way.

Something like this diary will bring me a lot of joy to complete. And I plan on keeping it once it is full and then look back on it in years to come. This virus will be a turning point in some many peoples lives, and documenting what it was like will be interesting to show my children or even my grand children one day (hopefully!).

Socks are always nice to receive I think, and getting a pretty item is a bonus. I like that the edible item is British made in Shropshire from Eggs from this county, and considering it was the county I was born in, I like it even better!

Check out my previous Treatbox unboxing posts in this unique category of mine called ‘Treatbox’ it is specifically for these box reviews and reveals – Severn Wishes Treatbox.

Are you thinking of ordering a TreatBox for yourself or for a gift for someone?

Then you can find Treatbox subscriptions and build your own box at their website

Don’t forget you can follow my social media such as Instagram for more Treatbox photos and updates throughout the month including me using items! @SevernSabrina

Thank you for visiting Severn Wishes, have a great month of April! If you need some ideas for baking with the children or arts and crafts please check out the rest of my blog for inspiration.

✩ Sabrina ✩

I really needed to hear this quote this week, a great addition to my collection of coasters from Treatbox over the years! I think this has been my favourite so far!