I've always loved the excitement and mystery of beauty parcels, where you pay for a collection but you don't know what it's going to contain.
When I was a young teenager I would wait excitedly for my parcel from Universal Beauty Club. I soon discovered that while they boasted of big-name products, most of the names in the parcel were obscure and from other countries. And I stopped subscribing when I received the truly dreadful Californian Poppy perfume.
But it didn't put me off from subscribing recently to Brand New You magazine's Brand New You Tube. It costs around £20 a quarter and you receive a big tube containing at least four products. You test the products and review them with your feedback included in the magazine. I've had two tubes so far. The big hit product for me in the first tube was the Tangle Teezer.
You can buy it here.I wish it had been around years ago when, as a child, I always had a hideous big tangle at the back of my head which my mum would try to pull out with a comb. I hated it so much I asked for my hair to be cut off, and I went round with very short hair like a boy for years.
Organic Apotheke Rujuvenating Face Cream
In th second tube which I received last week, I've so far been very enamoured with a moisturizer called "Rujuvenating Face Cream" from the Organic Apotheke.
I wasn't expecting great things because I am always buying expensive face creams that will plump up, reduce lines, make you look radiant etc, and to be perfectly frank, I seldom notice ANY difference except that they all generally prepare your skin for make-up and feel comfortable.
But this product, made entirely from organic botannicals and naturally occurring minerals, felt different from the start.
I could actually feel it tightening on my face at the first application. It forms a film which dries (it's not unpleasant) and really does make your skin look smoother and, yes!, more radiant. It has a lovely rose fragrance identical to Decleor's Rose d'Orient oil.
The only drawback is that you need to apply make-up quite gently because if you brush on blusher too vigorously it starts to come off in little pieces. But I found you can work around that.
Finally I wondered what happened to Universal Beauty Club. It still seems to exist: there is a website, but you can't see beyond the home page unless you sign up for parcels. I haven't seen it promoted in the UK for years. If anyone knows anything about it, do update us all.....
