Glossy Box or Birchbox?

In last few years the demand and sales of the beauty products have skyrocketed and as per the report of the British Beauty Council, £2.2 billion were spent in the United Kingdom on beauty services and products during the year 2018, which clearly shows that there are a lot of people who are obsessed with beauty and many of them requested to provide my thoughts on which beauty subscription boxes is the best option to go with.
After I got a lot of requests, I started searching and here’s what I found out.

Before getting deeper into to question we need to actually understand the types of boxes. I’ve gone through a lot of beauty boxes but there are only two in which I got stucked, Glossybox and the Birchbox. To be very honest it was really difficult for me to make a final decision on them that’s why I thought I’ll explain both with their pros and cons so let’s dive in a bit deeper and have a look what I found out.

Glossybox
Glossybox allows you to treat yourself with a perfect combination of deluxe and full sized beauty product samples from top brands. Each month they deliver you a value box loaded with latest makeup products, tools and beauty creams and the best thing is that it only costs you £13.25 per month.
Let’s take a look at its pros and cons.

Pros
• With Glossybox subscription, you will receive a box containing top products from national and international brands.
• They will deliver you a box loaded with products of worth up to £47 and you won’t receive any product twice.
• Each month with your beauty box you will receive a coupon code which can be spent to buy other products, which is quite interesting in my opinion

Cons

• Glossybox doesn’t send you the products according to your profile as they send you a blend of products.
• If you are willing to buy some specific products then you’ll need to visit each brand’s website accordingly as Glossybox doesn’t allow you to buy a specific item.

Birchbox
Honestly speaking when it comes to beauty boxes, the Birchbox will be always on the top of the list and there’s no second thought on it but like other it also has some pros and cons. Birchbox allows you to get their monthly subscription at only £12.95 a month and once you’ve subscribed to their service you will receive a beautiful box each month at your doorsteps containing 2 high quality beauty and life style samples. The best thing is that these samples will be picked according to your profile and other than samples you will also receive some coupons which you can use on your next purchase to buy some of your favorite products.
Unlike Glossybox, Birchbox offers you three different plans to go with which are monthly subscription, three months and six months subscription plan.

Pros

• Once you have subscribed to their service, each month you will get a perfect blend of products according to your choice and if you want to try a specific product before you actually buy it then these samples are the best option for you.
• The interesting thing about Birchbox is that you will earn reward points for reviewing products and you can use them to purchase a lot of other full sized products and not only that, you will also receive £15 for referring each friend, I also used a coupon I receive and I got a beautiful makeup bag in exchange of my coupon code.
• Also if you purchase their products to certain amount, you will get a lot of promo codes which can spent to get yourself popular titles.

Cons
• With Birchbox the product samples you will receive each month from huge brands are small in size.
• The turning point of Birchbox is that the amount you will pay each month to get the products from Birchbox, the amount will be same if you buy them individually.

So this was all the things I noticed in both of the boxes as I have subscribed to both of them. Frankly speaking if I tell you about my personal preference then it’s the Glossybox for sure as the products you will receive each month, costs up to 47 pounds usually and they are always high-quality and full-sized ones as compared to the Birchbox. So yes in my opinion Glossybox is better than Birchbox.
You can also share your thoughts with me by using the comments section below and I’d love to hear from you too.

Back in February I was invited to become a Britax Mumbassador and I certainly didn’t need asking twice. As always we are happy to try out new products. Pushchairs and car seats are no exception!

When I was given the opportunity to try out one of their pushchair/strollers it came at the right time for us needing an upgrade from our trusty ageing stroller. It had served its purpose but after four years use its easy handing and nifty steering wheels were not as they once were.

The key requirements we look for in a stroller are that they are easy to handle, compact and lightweight.

The one that fitted the bill to best suit our needs was the brand new B-MOTION 4.  I mentioned that our previous stroller had been getting a little tired looking and certainly not maneouvering like it once did and I really wanted a stroller that enabled me to to push it one handed. I usually need a free arm for my four year old or a shopping basket/both and colliding with people and stands in shops is not helpful and often stressful.

Now firstly, if you want a ‘light’ stroller then this is more than likely not going to be what you are looking for. It weighs in at 10.5 kgs, so not too much but you can definitely feel the weight more than umbrella folding style strollers. This pushchair is ideal for use from birth as it fully reclines, so it takes away the need for the carry cot attachment – although this is still available to use with it (purchased separately). It all very much depends on your needs but I found that with my first travel system, I barely used the carry cot as my son disliked lying down completely flat it in.

The colours available are called Neon Black or Chili Pepper (red). More colours would be nice in the future and I am sure they will be in the pipeline at some point. We opted for black as you can see from the pictures below.

The design enables you to release the stroller using one hand, using a quick release lever. It took me a little while to master opening it when it first arrived as once you have released the lever you need to pull a handle situated where the stroller folds in two on the top. It can certainly be opened using one hand but it does take a fair amount of force to encourage it to open fully. Once it does it clicks into place with its automatic chassis lock and you’re ready to go.

Free Stuff UK is one of the most popular freebie websites in the United Kingdom. This website is full of special offers and freebies, including everything from voucher codes and competitions to free downloads and product samples.

Freebie hunting has always been popular – after all, who doesn’t like getting things without spending any money? However, it has become much more popular in the last few years as the economy has become less robust. Food prices have increased, many people are paying more rent now than they did a few years ago, and incomes are not increasing to match the cost of living. Even those who were previously quite relaxed about their finances are becoming increasingly price conscious, and what price is better than free?

Source: https://www.justfreestuff.co.uk/

Free Stuff UK doesn’t just include free samples and free trials, it also includes opportunities to make a little hobby money by filling out paid surveys or watching videos. There are a lot of great offers for people to take advantage of.

Of course, the companies that are giving away free stuff do want to get something back for their generosity. They give out products so that they can get people to hand over their personal information. You can expect to get a lot of marketing emails if you sign up to these free stuff offers. If you do not want to get a lot of this sort of email to your personal address, consider setting up an additional account just for freebies. A lot of people go one step further and set up one account for freebies and one for marketing emails. This ensures that they can still open the emails that they need to, such as links to verify requests, and that they can check their email regularly to make sure that they find out if they have won a competition. Meanwhile, they don’t have to worry about their private email inboxes being cluttered up by marketing emails.

Free Stuff UK is a great community, and there is something for everyone on there – whether you are looking for a free taster class for a sport, some free chocolate, some printable workbooks for your kids, free entry to an attraction, or a free veg box, there is a high chance that you will find what you are looking for one day on the Free Stuff UK website.

We’re one month into weaning now and quite frankly have such a great little piece of kit that makes the process really smooth running. This is where I want to tell you about the BabyBjörn high chair.

I actually really love this high chair. I mean who actually gets excited about a high chair? Well not me normally, but this chair really is an exception.

Firstly, the chair looks good. I don’t think there is any denying that. It’s effortlessly modern, compact and has clean lines. It’s unlikely to look out of place in any kitchen, especially as it doesn’t feature garish colours and patterns that high chairs so often have. In my opinion you can’t ever really fault classic white.

It has been ergonomically designed and straight away, I was impressed with all the features it has. Everything about this chair is easy. Even the initial set up that only involves the legs being snapped into place and you’re good to go.

It has a unique design and safety solution that holds your child in place, with a two-step lock that can only be opened by an adult. The table is also adjustable and sits quite snuggly against your child, making it difficult for them to stand up. It’s for children aged six months to three years old, so has a pretty good lifespan. Realistically though, I don’t think that it would be as suitable for babies and toddlers that are on the rather large side.

The safety lock underneath the tray requires you to push a button and turn the lock, in order to drop the tray. You do the reverse to bring the tray back up again, once your child is seated, and you hear a loud click when it’s slotted into place. This is very reassuring and it feels very sturdy and secure.

As it’s quite a snug fit, it prevents your child from slumping in the chair which in turn is good for them feeding as they are positioned nice and upright. It also helps trap any food that might otherwise fall on their lap and onto the floor.

I know that previous models of this design used to include a harness, I expect as an extra safety feature alongside the lock, but it’s much better now that it doesn’t have one now attached. Due to the clever design they are not needed and I have always found harnesses the worst part of high chairs, with having to clean them constantly and they’re not always easy to remove and reposition. Without them there, you simply only have hard surfaces to clean and you really can clean it in a jiffy and there are no crevices for food to get stuck in.

The tray is also removable. For meals that aren’t too messy, you can get away with just giving it a wipe down but for those times where the tray and your baby are caked in food, it’s great that you can whip it off for cleaning, even in the dishwasher if needs be. Sometimes you just can’t wipe little hands quick enough, without redistributing more mess everywhere!

I’d heard one negative about the high chair and that was that the tray is fairly small. If you compare it to some other brands, then yes it is a lot smaller. It’s meant to be though, it’s compact and in my opinion does all that you need it to. The tray on our last high chair was ridiculously big and cumbersome and did it prevent food from being thrown overboard? No. If your kid is going to lob food from all angles, then it doesn’t really make much difference. It just means with a smaller surface area, that the pieces of food are probably going to hit the floor a whole second earlier than they might do with a bulky tray. Eventually when they have a better grasp and have a piece of food that they really want, then they’ll hang into it. I know that I’d rather stick with the smaller tray.

If you’ve got a small kitchen like we have, then this chair is a great option. It doesn’t take up too much room and it’s easily moved around from room to room. This sidles up nicely to our dining room table and is just at the right level to feed her, without having to reach too far. We haven’t ventured out with it but you can easily pop it into the boot of your car, as it folds down quite flat. So it’s extremely portable to take away with you or when you’re visiting people without a high chair. You’ll love it so much that other options simply just won’t do!

If you like the look of this high chair, it’s also available in a couple of new colours – pink and aqua. I attended a BabyBjörn product launch last year and saw these in the ‘flesh’ and they really are very pretty. Once again no garish colours, just subtle pastels. The pink is very girly but the aqua is lovely for both sexes.

Have a look at it in action here and see how the features really do speak for themselves…