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The highlights:     What is it?:  A fly (and wasp) catcher Does it work?:  Yes Would I buy it again?:  Yes Other options?:  loads of other options out there for fly catchers and zappers and papers etc – a quick google will bring up options Where to buy:   You can get this on Amazon: you can buy the twin pack , a triple twin pack , and the refills .   It would be really lo vely (if you like this post and want to receive updates on future posts) if you could  subscribe  - it's so nice to have you here, and I would be super happy to have you come back in the future! Also, in the interests of transparency, I want to make it clear that I am affiliate marketer. Want to find out more about affiliate marketing and my approach to it? Click here . As an aff iliate marketer, this blog may contain affiliate links. When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission. So, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Now, on to the Zero In Outdoor Fly Catcher review…     How it works   This fly catcher is pretty effective. The twin pack comes in a set of two, and each catcher has the powder that you empty into the tub (and then add 300ml of water to), as well as the tie to attach it somewhere outside. I would not recommend using this inside the house – see the section below regarding the smell discussion!     It’s plastic and has a screw-on lid that is designed in a way that the flies and wasps can enter the tub but then can’t get back out again. I imagine it lures them in because there’s something attractive about the liquid once you’ve mixed the powder with the water to create a yellowy mix. According to the description, it is non-hazardous and non-toxic. I hung it out of reach of the dog, who seemed to not even notice it being there! That is, apart from the odd sniff in the air, which could have been anything to be honest – he sniffs the air randomly a lot. You also don’t need to worry about this mixture separating slightly with the powder dropping to the bottom, mine did and it still worked very effectively! Also, when I looked at the contents it caught flies and wasps, but no bees which is good! Perhaps the entrance is too small for bees to get into? Or maybe it doesn’t smell good to bees? Either way, I was happy to see that no bees had fallen victim to this little trap’s clutches!   It comes with a plastic tie so you can hang it up, and because it’s a twist tie, it’s pretty easy to hang, and less likely to damage say a tree if you hang it on there. You will also need to top up the water if it starts to dry out – you have to hang it in the sun which means this will evaporate, and the water is needed to attract the flies, but will also (I imagine) reduce the risk of the inside of this turning from flies into maggots!     The description says to allow 24 hours for it to start working (perhaps because it partially works by the heat from the sun intensifying the scent that lures in the flies???) but mine started working before that. I did hang it on a very sunny day, so maybe the intensity of the heat from the sun made this start working almost immediately?  Once it was hanging, I took a series of photos…here it is after a few hours of being hung, and it has already captured 2 victims!     This is 24 hours later     And this is 6 days after that     After 3 weeks it was jam packed full of dead flies and wasps! The description says it can catch up to 20,000 flies per refill, but I’m not gonna lie guys, I didn’t sit and count them! It does look pretty full though!     So, as you can see, this does work to capture the flies and wasps! I hung this up just outside my back door with the double doors open, and it significantly reduced the number of flies coming in the house. Although the odd one did evade the allure of the fly trap and make its way into the house, but nowhere near the number of flies that had been trespassing in my kitchen before I hung this up!     Does it smell?   When you first hang it up and for a few days afterwards, it doesn’t smell bad at all. However, as time goes by the trap starts to fill with dead flies and wasps. The carcasses of those are probably rotting away sat in liquid in a plastic container in full sunlight, which I imagine makes the inside of this little trap pretty hot and pretty rancid! As the dead bodies pile up the smell from this intensifies and can get pretty horrific! I was in my kitchen one day with the door open, and I could smell something awful! I was wandering around the kitchen trying to sniff out the stench, when I realised that the awful smell was wafting in from the fly trap hanging outside the double doors!   It doesn’t smell terrible when you first fill and hang it, so I would recommend that you empty this sooner than I did to avoid the smelly kitchen situation! Also, because the attachments are little plastic ties, you could move one that is starting to smell, but not yet full of flies, to a point further away from the door and then hang a fresh one near the door again. That way you might get some of the flies before they even come near the door to the house! The description says it attracts flies up to 10 metres radius from the point of hanging and you need to hang it somewhere in full sunlight and out of the wind, so it may work just as well to have it a little further from the door. If you have a large garden, you can maybe even hang a few around the garden to help attract the flies before they go anywhere near your door! Sadly, my garden is not big enough for that to test the theory, so if you do have a larger garden and decide to give this a go, please do comment below to let me know how effective it is!   As the smell is because of the dead flies, rather than the liquid itself, this also means that you can start a fresh one (or two) of these to hang around if you’re having a BBQ or other outdoor event that usually attracts the flies and wasps. That said, I haven’t tested how effective this is at attracting the flies and wasps when they have competing BBQ smells to lure them in! So, if you do give this a go for that purpose, please do comment below on how effective these little fly traps are!   Reusable and the emptying process   This fly catcher is also reusable, so you can empty out all the dead flies and give it a rinse to use again. If this sounds far too off putting for you, though, you can also just bin it and buy another one (but keep reading how this might cause you smelly bin problems!). You can buy  the refill sachets of the powder separately. The description says to empty and refill every 2-3 weeks, which seems fair as mine was full by the end of week 3! The description also says that when emptying this, you can either bury the contents, or put it in a plastic bag within the household bin. I didn’t bury this in the garden as I have a very small garden, so didn’t really have anywhere to empty it out and bury it!  If you have a large garden, then burying it is an option for sure!     For me, I put it in the bin, but where I am the council collect black bags, and the liquid had leaked out of the black bag and gone all of the floor outside my house, which then smelt awful! So, I had to go out with some Zoflora mixed with water to swill it away! As such, if you do empty it into the bin, I would highly recommend that you do so by using multiple plastic bags and wrapping it up super well so that the liquid doesn’t seep out! I would also recommend that you wait until bin day so that you don’t potentially have the liquid seeping out for too long if it does accidently leak!   So, all in all, this does catch flies (and wasps) very effectively! Despite the smell, I would use this again because of how effective it is, although I’ve learned my lesson and would empty it more often or rotate the full ones further way from the entrance to the house! If you want to buy some, here’s the Amazon links again for: the twin pack , triple twin pack , and the refills .   I hope you found this review helpful! If you did, please  subscribe  to be kept in the future blog posts loop.    with love    Rebecca    xxx   P.S. Please note that this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The highlights: What is it?: This is a box that comes with ( almost ) everything you need to make a meal. So, the box contains ingredients and recipe cards which show everything you need for the recipe, and the steps to make it (unless you are ordering for 1 person or 5 people, in which case the app has the recipe cards in it) Cost: It depends on what size box you go for - I order the box for 2 people and on 5 meals and without the discount which I got when I first signed up, the full amount is £43.99 per order, plus delivery of £3.99 Does it work?: Yes Would I buy it again?: Yes - in fact, I have been using these boxes for a few months now Other options?: There are other options out there, but I haven't tried any of them, so can't comment on how good they are, but the other recipe box options include: Hello Fresh , Mindful Chef , Simply Cook , Prep Kitchen , Field Doctor , Green Chef , Riverford , Nonna Tonda , to name just a few. There's also specific boxes catering to dietary needs, like plant based Grubby boxes. If you're not in the UK, recipe boxes are available in lots of countries now - do a quick Google search to find suppliers near you! Where to buy: Direct from Gousto It would be really lovely (if you like this post and want to receive updates on future posts) if you could subscribe  - it's so nice to have you here, and I would be super happy to have you come back in the future! Anyway, on to the Gousto r ecipe box review... Overall, I am impressed by the Gousto recipe boxes. My first order arrived on 13 January 2025, and I started to draft this post in February, and I am finalising and updating this post in April 2025, so I have been using them for a couple of months now. Although I am generally impressed, there are things I love and things I don't love, so I have tried to cover all of those things in this post. The box itself contains the ingredients and recipe card (or the app if you are cooking for 1 person or 5 people) to make a meal - easy and simple, and I imagine most people know what a recipe box is these days, so I won't focus on what it is and how to use it. Here's the box's contents on one of the weeks that I ordered it: So, for this review of the Gousto Recipe Box, which is quite a long one, I have split my thoughts into sort of sub-categories - if one rings a bell of interest with you, read it, if it doesn't you can skip that section - I promise I won't be offended! Of course, you can also read the whole post, but if you do want to skip to sections, here are the themes I've divided my views into - just click on the one that you are most interested in: Time Saving: Finding Recipes and doing shopping Choice of recipes & how nice are the finished meals? It Could Save Me More Time: I still have to do some shopping Time Saving: Actual cooking and cleaning up time How easy is it to make the meals? Space Saving: Great for Small Kitchens Environmental Impact: Reducing Food Waste   Environmental Impact: Recyclable packaging - but pros and cons Environmental Impact: No option to indicate that you already have a recipe card Portion sizes: and weight loss! Quality of Ingredients Cooking for 1? or 5? or everything in between? App Useability: Generally, and if there's an issue with your order   How the box arrives and is delivered   Cost: Pros and Cons Time Saving: Finding recipes and doing shopping What I love most about the Gousto recipe box is that its buys me time - and if you have read my blog posts before, you will know that I think that anything that buys you time or buys you an experience are things worth spending your money on. I do cook everything from scratch normally, so would often spend a couple of hours on a Sunday looking for recipes to make, and making a note of the ingredients. Also, I used to spend time having to find recipes with the same ingredients to reduce waste and cost - for example, you can't buy one spring onion, you can only buy a bunch of spring onions, so I then needed to find other recipes that would use up the other 5 spring onions! Argh! And there's the time I spent categorising recipes so that I could easily find which ones used spring onions! Now, I don't have to go hunting down recipes, that I then have to cross reference when either shopping online for my food shop or making a list to go down to the supermarket. I cannot even begin to explain how much time I have accumulated by not having to do all of these steps! Time that I can instead spend doing something far more enjoyable, like a walk with the dog, or reading a book, or (frankly) sitting on my butt in front of the tv for a change! Yes, I still have to search the recipes Gousto have, but these are all in an app, and would equate to the recipe searching part of how I previously did it, so everything after that is time I have saved. Also, you can pick your recipes a few orders in advance, (I think it is 3) so I can sit for 30 minutes on Sunday and order my meals for almost the rest of the month! Finding recipes is also made easier by the app - Gousto recommend recipes based on what you have previously ordered and/or rated. So this means that when I open the app, I usually only have to scan through that list rather than looking at the total recipes, of which as at February 2025, there are 201. That said, if you do want to find something specific, there is a search bar. So if you fancy pasta, type in pasta, and it will bring up all the recipes, plus the picture has little tags to tell you if it is a new recipe, how long it takes to cook, how many calories in a serving, what category (see the table below) it falls into, and if the surcharge applies. Some of the recipes have a surcharge - the premium ones for example, often have surcharges. The lowest surcharge I've noticed is 50p, and the highest I've seen is £5 (usually for meals that include steaks). There are also amounts in between, like £1 or £1.75 - because this is clearly displayed on the app when scanning the recipes, you can just scroll by them if you don't want to pay the extra. There are certainly enough recipes that don't have the surcharge. The recipes themselves also clearly state on the app (and online) how many calories are in them, and the nutritional values for each meal. This is also on the front of all of the recipe cards. If you are careful about how many calories etc. you consume, then you don't need to calculate any of this information - the totals for whole meals are there for you! Another way to search for meals is to scan the various categories. These categories (in February 2025) include the following: Recipe Category Number of recipes currently on the app Limited edition and new recipes (which they add regularly) 34 Plot Twist Pies 5 Championship Burgers 6 Health Club 36 Quick and Easy 54 Dinner & Dessert 4 Family Kitchen 4 Breakfast Time 5 Everyday Favourites 10 Premium 18 10-minute meals 32 Prepped in 5 13 Chicken 40 Beef & Pork 55 Fish 43 Dairy free 111 Vegetarian 57 Plant-based 21 Gluten free 54 Choice of recipes & how nice are the finished meals? You can tell from this table above, that there are a decent amount of recipe choices on the app. In my 6 weeks of use, I have not yet had the problem of not being able to find something that I might fancy. Also, Gousto update and add new recipes on what has felt like a weekly basis, so there are always new recipes to check out! Plus, all of the information you may need is on the app before you add anything to your basket - here's some pics for one of the chicken burger meals (which by the way is yummy!) Out of all of the meals I have cooked so far (and some I have had the same recipe more than once), there have been 10 that were okay, but I wasn't too keen on, so would not order again. Those recipe cards are in my 'no thanks' pile. I have made about 10 meals that were amazing, and I really loved. Those recipe cards are in an 'amazing' pile. The rest were nice and I have 43 recipe cards for those: I enjoyed them, and I would cook them again so are in the 'do again' pile. So overall, that's not bad! Plus I haven't had any that I thought were awful and I couldn't eat (at least not yet) so that's pretty good going too! Plus, you can rate the recipes and see how others have rated them too. Anything that you give 3 stars or less to, and you can add in a reason. You can also favourite recipes, and that's adds them to your cookbook in the app, so you can make them again (although you can't add them to your order from there as they might not be available recipes for that week). When scrolling through recipes, if you have added something to your favourites before, a little heart shows up when you click into the meal description, so you can add it then knowing that you've coked it before and enjoyed it! Gousto , if you're reading this, having the heart show on the scrolling recipes part of the app, or having somewhere that you can go to your favourites and add them would be great! Here's some of the meals I've cooked - don't ask me what they all are! I totally can't remember! But the are all from the Gousto box: It Could Save Me More Time: I still have to do some shopping Although you can have two subscription boxes going at once to accommodate more than one meal per day, there aren't many meals which you can do as lunches - unless, like me, you are at home at lot during the week. I order the box for 2 people, and half the meal to do a serving at lunch one day and a serving for dinner the next. You can also order boxes for 1 person, but they don't come with recipe cards and I didn't want to have to go on the app to find my recipe. I also wanted to be able to save the cards if I decide to stop ordering these boxes in the future. Also, there aren't many meals like sandwiches etc that would work if you want to brown bag your lunch, although some of the meals you can microwave at work to reheat them if you want to. Although you can add items like drinks and sides to your order, Gousto isn't a supermarket, so I still need to do my online food shop for fruit, milk, bread etc. Also, for the items which I have added, I haven't been impressed by them - the onion Bhajis were far too floury and more like dumplings, and the chocolate pot was ok, but the ones I get from the supermarket are much much nicer! So, I still have to go on my online shopping app to order my other food. Which, is fine, and doing that shop does take up far less time as I just scroll through my favourites, it would be nice if I could get all of the food I need for the week in just one shop. Also, as discussed in more detail below, the highest number of meals you can order a week is 5 - why not up to 7? Maybe it is my age, but I can't remember the last time I was out every Saturday and Sunday night! Time Saving: Actual cooking and cleaning up time The recipe card has the nutritional info on the front of the card, together with the list of ingredients. So, I gather all my ingredients together and I'm off - there's very little need for weighing etc because they send you what you need for the recipe. So, for example, the recipe needs 50g of cream cheese, and they send you a 50g tub of cream cheese, which you open, stir in, and it's that simple! What this also means is that there is less washing up afterwards - don't get me wrong, I do still rinse out the packaging ready to recycle, but this is definitely not the same amount of work as washing up the spoons, bowls, measuring gadgets etc that I used to have to do. Or, at least, used to have to do before I got my new dishwasher, which is the best dishwasher I have ever used in my whole life! Do subscribe if you want to be kept in the loop for when that review is published! Some items you do need to chop or slice, like the veg, but the meat is usually pre-chopped and ready to go. How easy is it to make the meals? I personally find these recipe cards really easy to use! If you are experienced in following recipes, I don't think you will have a problem following these recipes cards either, and being able to see the timings of when to do what. I have been cooking from scratch for several years now, so have no problems following the recipe cards. So, if this is you, you can skip this section (but you don't have to). However, if you are new to cooking, I think you should keep reading this section... On the front of the recipe card are all the ingredients you need to make that meal, then on the back of the card are all the steps you need to follow. I always quickly look at all the steps so I know what it is I have to do, and you can the all the slicing, chopping, and mixing before you actually start cooking. You might especially benefit from doing this if you are new to cooking. If you are not new to cooking you definitely don't need to prep everything first - I have made the meals where I haven't done that and I haven't had any problems - but I always call my parents on facetime on a night whilst cooking dinner, so tend to separate this out so that I am not too distracted by cooking multi-tasking when trying to have a conversation with them. Also, the recipe cards aren't always great at telling you when to start cooking something. So, for example, they'll often tell you to put something on to cook and then say "meanwhile, chop this, slice that, etc.". If you are new to cooking, this time spent slicing chopping and peeling might end up being longer than the time required by the recipe. So, before you start cooking have a look at the whole recipe and think about all the timings for how long things are cooking for to make sure that you have everything ready at the same time. Again, as an experienced recipe-follower, this won't be a problem, but if you are new to cooking you might have to think about some timings... So, for example, I did chicken burger, with bacon jam, sweet potato fries, and corn on the cob (by the way, this meal was delicious!). The chicken and fries had to go in for 25 minutes (although I cooked them for 5 minutes longer, because I personally don't think 25 mins is long enough for chicken or raw sweet potato), and the sweetcorn in a separate place on the recipe card said it had to go on to boil for 5-7 minutes. But the recipe card didn't make it super clear when to start cooking the sweetcorn - this may be a problem if you are brand new to cooking and just learning. If this is you - just put a timer on for the longest time. Have the timer sitting in front of you ticking down, and put things in ovens and on hobs when the timer gets down to that minute mark - so 7 minutes left on the timer? Put your sweetcorn on! Another way is to put a timer on for the minutes between steps, if you think you might miss what the timer says. This does involve some maths though, and math is not my strong point! But, in this example, you would do 25 minutes minus 7 minutes and put your timer on for 18 minutes, then when you add the sweetcorn, put the timer on for 7 minutes. Also, there have been times when I have amended what the recipe asked me to do, but I think amending and tweaking recipes is pretty standard in the wonderful world of home cooking. So, for example, quite often the recipe card will tell you to do a step, like draining potatoes, and then tell you to return them to the pan to steam. Personally, I have found that this has left the potatoes cold, so instead I recalculate the cooking times to make sure my spuds are ready at the same time as everything else. Often, when it comes to cooking rice, it tells you to add a specific amount of water to the pan, bring to the boil, and reduce the heat with the lid on. However, every time I have tried this, the rice has ended up being undercooked, so I have had to cook it for longer, leaving it a bit like mush. Now, when the recipe tells me to do this, I just cook the rice as I normally would: bring to the boil and simmer for 10-12 minutes, then rinse with boiling water. No doubt, you will learn how to tweak the recipes over time, and like I said, this is fairly common when following recipes anyway. The more you cook, the more intuitively you will know how to tweak the recipe. Space Saving: Great for Small Kitchens Almost everything you need is included in the box - the things that I have had to have in my kitchen cupboards are olive oil, vegetable oil, salt, pepper, flour, milk, butter, sugar - basically the types of things you would have for ordinary cooking in any event. However, the recipe does make it clear on the app when you order what other ingredients you need, and any utensils you might need, like a rolling pin, or a slow-cooker. You can also update your preferences for this so that the app will only show you recipes for the utensils you have in your house already - I have to admit, I bought a rolling pin as I didn't have one! So, back to what is included in the box, if you need dried oregano, there's a packet of that in the box, which means you don't need a jar of that taking up space in your kitchen. The types of packets that I've had are very varied, from herbs and spices, to mayonnaise, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, honey pots, and little pots of mustard. Also, because they are all little packets, even if this sounds like a lot, it takes up very little space in your kitchen cupboards. The same goes for the veg and meat - if you need 1 spring onion, they send you 1 spring onion, if you need 2 potatoes, they send you 2 potatoes, if you need 2 chicken breasts, they send you 2 chicken breasts - you get the picture! So, if you also have a small fridge, this will save space there too! Also, because everything is cooked from fresh, there's less need to rely on a freezer. So if the freezer you have is one of those tiny ones that are inside a fridge at the top, this won't be a problem either! Environmental Impact: Reducing Food Waste As I have said above, I hate having to buy an ingredient from the supermarket which does not come in singles, but is in packs - the example above is spring onions, other things like fresh red chillies come in packs and not singles from the supermarket. What this often means is that I end up having some chillies or spring onions going to waste, and I really hate waste given the impact this can have on our environment. With these recipe boxes, they only send you exactly what you need, meaning there's no wasted products. For me, this is super important! Environmental Impact: Recyclable packaging - but pros and cons All of the packaging is recyclable. I have read other reviews online where people say that the items come in single use plastics, which is true, they do, and obviously reusable is better than recyclable, but the packaging is all recyclable. The meat and fish tend to come in plastic packaging that is either hard plastics (which are kerbside recycled where I live) or soft plastics (which I just save up and take down in bulk to my local supermarket to pop in their soft plastics bins - you know, the ones that used to be for plastic shopping bags before you had to pay for them and were overflowing. Now, you can recycle all soft plastics there!) The packets of mayonnaise or tomato paste are usually in those little tubes that you can put in with your tins; the little packets of balsamic vinegar or sesame oil are soft plastics, which I also pop into the bag to take down to the supermarket soft plastics recycling bank; the tubs of honey or soft cheese are hard plastics, which I can recycle kerbside where I am; and the bags of herbs and spices are paper, so can be recycled kerbside too! They have also recently started using tetrapaks, which my council don't take - I think I have found online a recycling point for these at my local supermarket (the drinks carton bin) but I haven't physically been down to check that yet. If they don't have it, I will see where else might - my parents' council do recycle tetrapaks though, so I could always take them back home with me when I go visit - not ideal, but it may be my only option! On the plus side, if the government follows through with the plan to have all councils providing the same recycling services, maybe I will be able to put the tetrapaks in for the council here soon! Also, obviously, reusable is better than recyclable. In an ideal world, Gousto would think about a process for having reusable options - perhaps click lock boxes that can be rinsed out and returned? It may cost more initially for a box as a customer, but they could introduce a system where you get credit on your account for returning the boxes, which they could then clean. This is especially so considering the boxes are delivered by a courier, who could pick up the empties when they drop off the delivery. The only issue is, I don't think Gousto necessarily make all of their products, so I am not sure how feasible this would be. But, considering an increased awareness of environmental impact, I do think it is something worth investigating - Gousto , if you're reading this, get on it, yes? Environmental Impact: No option to indicate that you already have a recipe card The boxes for 1 and 5 people do not come with recipe cards. So if you order those, you go on the app to follow the recipe. You can also go on the app for the other boxes - it pops up with a checklist for all of the ingredients that you need, then you just 'next' your way through all the steps. Personally, I wanted the recipe cards so that I could keep them for future use. However, I have discovered some of the recipes that I really love, so I have added them to a future order. But, I couldn't see anywhere on the app to indicate that I didn't need another recipe card - again, these are cardboard, so can be recycled, but an option to indicate that would (I think) be better. Again, Gousto , if you are reading this - update the app to add this in, yes? Also, you could always give the really nice recipe cards to friends and family where you end up with a duplicate! Portion sizes: and weight loss! The portion sizes, when they first arrived, were (I won't lie) really disappointing to me! The meat or fish that you get is fine - so I had 13 jumbo prawns in a packet yesterday for the Spanish Style Garlic & Chilli Jumbo Prawns with Brown Rice - and they were really very big jumbo prawns (as in bigger than king prawns, and fatter too). So for one, that's 6 prawns (and you can either half the other one, or fight it out!) So, the meat and fish aren't the issue here. The reason why I was disappointed was that the stuff that goes with it wasn't enough - not enough rice, pasta, potatoes, veg etc for my liking. So this was on the side of cons for me in the pros and cons toss up. The smaller portion sizes have meant that I have started ordering fruit to have after the meal or as a snack. So this is actually also encouraging me to eat more fruit, which is good health wise - not so great sugar and teeth wise, but I do have a water flosser which I bought to review for this blog, and it's great - I haven't done the review for that yet, but when I do I will link it back here. Otherwise, to stay updated, feel free to subscribe , download the app, or follow me on social media :) So, back to the small portions - I then noticed that I was losing weight! Not trying to, but yes, losing weight! Also, not masses of weight loss. Also, the meal in the box isn't everything I consume in a day. So, to help give you some perspective, here is my typical day: Breakfast: I don't eat anything for breakfast I do have 3-4 coffees on a morning, that I make with a lot of milk using my milk frother , so equate to 4 lattes. Lunch: the meal from the Gousto box a packet of low fat crisps, like Quavers, so around 86 kcals a low fat yoghurt pot, the one I eat is 56 kcals 20 grapes (yes, I count them!) 15-20 raspberries 6 cherries 6-8 teaspoons of pomegranate seeds a can of San Pelligrino, which is 66 kcals sometimes, I will also have an Eat Natural bar, which is 191 kcals Dinner: the meal from the Gousto box a (usually) large (but sometimes small) glass of white wine an ice cream cone - this is less than 196 kcals So, as you can see, I do add quite a lot of extra food to my daily intake (although less than I used to!), and I am still losing weight...So in two weeks I lost half a kilo (1 pound) - again, not masses of weight, but I wasn't paying attention or trying to lose weight, so it did make me think: does this make the portion sizes land back on the pros side of things - maybe! I think the reduced portion size is the reason for my losing weight! I also haven't increased my exercise regime - I don't do a lot of exercise, and I spend most of my day at a computer reading academic texts, but to put my exercise regime into context to help you compare it to you, I usually hit 8,000 - 13,000 steps a day depending on how often I take the dog out. Obi dog likes his walks, and we have to do several short walks throughout the day, rather than one big now, now that he had arthritis, but he will also refuse to go out if it's raining! That's about all the exercise I do! Also, because I only have Gousto for 5 days a week, there are 2 days of the week where I eat whatever I want, and it's usually after these 2 days that I noticed my weight going up slightly. On those days, I will usually have a carton of soup and a baguette for lunch, plus all the fruit etc. listed above and a standard dinner (plus the wine and ice cream cone) - maybe spaghetti bolognaise, or chilli and rice - 'healthy-ish' meals really. That said, my servings that I make myself have also reduced over time - apparently I'm getting used to smaller portion sizes! At the time of initially writing this in February, you couldn't do more than 5 days a week without ordering a second subscription, for a few weeks I noticed that Gousto had updated this, meaning you could 2 days onto your order. However, this did come with another delivery fee, and it appears to no longer be an option, so maybe they were just testing this? Gousto , if you're reading this, I would have added these to my order if there hadn't been another delivery fee! Maybe you could make bigger boxes? I used to eat so much food! I always have done! To give you an idea comparably, I usually cook 100g of rice for me, or I do 5 handfuls of pasta. When I did go into the office to work (before my PhD days that I am currently in) for my lunch I would have something like chicken casserole with potatoes carrots and peas, or maybe spaghetti bolognaise, or chilli-con-carne with rice - yes, I would cook that all on a morning before work, and ping it in the microwave at lunchtime - followed by 3 or 4 portions of fruit. Then, I would also have a cooked dinner on a night when I got home. And in my 20s-30s, eating massive portions was fine, but now I'm in my 40s, I do feel like it is easier to put on weight, and harder to get it off. So, I actually paused writing this post at the point that I realised that I had lost some weight - that was around the 16 February this year. It is now 19 April a nd since I noticed that I was losing weight, I have lost more weight. Before doing Gousto boxes, I weighed about 68 kilos (in January - thanks Christmas for that one!) and I am now 62.40 kilos. So that's about 5.6 kilos over about 14 weeks since I started ordering these boxes in January this year (save for the 2 days a week where I don't have a box recipe to cook). Again, this isn't masses of weight, but it is steadily coming off at about half a kilo every 7-14 days, and it requires very little effort by me! So, it looks like my main issue was portion control! Who knew? What's more, I've noticed that on the days when I cook a non-Gousto meal, I can't eat as much as I used to - I cooked as much as I used to cook, but I couldn't eat it all - so it is reducing my ability to eat large portions too! Plus, I reckon that if I added more exercise to my diet - maybe 30 minutes a day of running, swimming, cycling, yoga, etc. then the weight would probably come off faster! Now that the teaching term has finished, I have more time so I might start to build 30 minutes into my day! Also, because I have to order normal food shopping too, I have started to pay attention to what else I order to make sure I don't get too many treats in! That said, because everything I need is already in the house to make a meal, and because I make sure I order fruit every week, I have found that I don't bother about adding treats. Also, I don't bother about going out to get any treats etc - it's far too much hassle when I already have everything I need. Plus, not having to pop out to buy anything means I am less likely to pick up that packet of profiteroles as I walk past them in the supermarket! If you are someone who is not looking to lose weight, and also usually has quite large portions, however, then I would say that you may need to buy extra veg to go with what is sent to you. As stated above, you still have to do your normal food shopping, so it's not the end of the world that you add a bag of potatoes to your order, but it does take some of the convenience out of it, for sure! If all of this sounds like too much of a hassle, then maybe these recipes boxes aren't for you. That said, you can cancel your subscription at any time, or pause / skip deliveries, so you could always give it a go to get the recipe cards for future use! Unless, of course, you are ordering meals for 1 person or 5 people, in which case you don't get cards sent to you. Quality of Ingredients The packets of herbs, spices, vinegars, oils etc are all of good quality. The meat and fish I have had (so far) have also been decent. The gripes that I may have is that the chicken still has the white vein thing running through them, that I usually cut out and cook for the dog because I am not a fan of the texture of those bits, but if this doesn't bother you, then ignore me. Also, the steak mince is in plastic packaging that has squished it together a little - not as bad as the vacuum sealed varieties though (that remind me of dog food - gross!), so you can break it apart, but it isn't as nice as when it's in a tray-like-packaging and just falls apart. Also, you can't freeze all of the raw ingredients as some have already been frozen before - like the prawns. I couldn't tell this from the taste though, and only noticed it when I wanted to get a takeaway one night, but didn't want to waste the meal I had bought, so thought I would freeze it - nope! Can't do that! Which meant I didn't get the takeout and cooked (probably saving me pennies, but it was a little disappointing because I was super tired and wanted a night off). So, if you think you might want to freeze a meal before cooking it, check the packaging carefully as it will say if you can't freeze it. You can, of course, cook the meal and then freeze that if it is one that is suitable for freezing, like stew, chilli, bolognaise etc. I have seen other people complaining about the quality of the veg online before, but (so far) I haven't had any major issues with the quality of the veg - everything that has arrived is fresh. On the odd occasion a potato has had black bits inside it, which happens when you buy them from supermarkets too, or a pepper has been slightly bruised in transit, but not to the point where I've thought much about it! I have had an issue with a packet of peas that had split in transit on 3 different deliveries now (see the "App useability" section below  for how easy it was to sort that), but I have never had an issue with the food arriving and not being good enough. The boxes all come with a use-by date for each meal, although this is not on the recipe card, but on the e-mail from Gousto confirming that your order is on its way to you, or the app (or online in your account, but the app is so much easier when you're in the kitchen cooking). This is also displayed when you order the meals, and if you have too many with a short use-by, the app tells you so you can change the meals you have added. So, all in all, the quality of the ingredients is decent. I have been using Gousto for a few months now , so not a lifetime, but I think long enough to form an informed judgement. Cooking for 1? or 5? or everything in between? What I also really like about Gousto is they are one of the recipe boxes that do meals for 1 person - so few out there do this, and because I live alone (apart from Obi dog of course) I really wanted to find a box that did meals for 1 person. As it turns out, I actually order the boxes for 2 people because I do them for lunches and dinners, and use air tight tubs that I got from Tesco. These are really good klipfresh boxes. I got one pack that came in a pack 6 different sizes , but I don't really use the big ones for this as they are very big. So I would recommend you go for the smaller pack of of different sizes and then add little round ones . Taken together, these are the ones that I do use a lot. Plus they are stackable, which saves space in my fridge too! There's also a whole host of other options out there, such as on Amazon . Also, I haven't had a problem separating meals across two days as most of the recipes, often you can cook half of the recipe at a time. Also, the sauces, jus, gravy etc. can be mixed up in full and then divided between the meal I am about to eat, and the little air tight tub for the next day. Actually, often this works out quite well as it means on a lunchtime I'm not spending too much time cooking, so it doesn't eat into my day too much! You can, of course, do one meal across more than two days if you pay attention to the use-by dates when ordering. That said, if you are living alone and don't want to do this, then there is a box for you as they do boxes for 1 person! The down side to this is that the recipe card is not included in the box delivered, so you have to go onto the app, which I think is a real shame as it means you can't save the recipe card to remake the meals you really love again in the future. Equally, the 5 people box doesn't come with a recipe card. Gousto , if you are reading this, please introduce recipe cards for these categories - I think this would have put me off if I was going into work everyday so needed only dinners and not lunches. In fact, it may have put me off enough to decide not to bother because it impacts on the convenience and experimentation side of the motivations to do this, so you may be missing out! You can also pick how many meals a week you want - anything up to 5 recipes a week. Again, this is a little annoying - how many people really eat out two nights of the week these days given the cost of living crisis etc? So there isn't a clear "7 day option" when picking your box, but I have noticed that in the past 3ish weeks Gousto have added an option to add two more days to your order when picking your meals, so that's pretty good! I haven't had a go at what options it brings up, and if you do this, again, you would have to pay attention to the use-by dates on the meals, but it might be worth a try! App Useability: Generally, and if there's an issue with your order The app itself is super east to use! Just go on it, select the day in the list for your next delivery, scroll through the recipes and add which ones you want. There's a little "+" or "-" sign on the front of each recipe, so you can clearly see if you have already added it for that week. You can also replace recipes you have chosen if you come across another one that you would prefer to try. You have until about 4 days before the delivery date to pick your recipes - so, my deliveries are on a Saturday, and I have to have all my recipes for that week picked by the Wednesday lunchtime. If you don't pick anything, they will put the box together for you and pick the recipes. You can also pause/skip deliveries if you're going away for a week. You can change the delivery day at any point (except for the delivery which is already picked and scheduled). You can amend the recipes chosen right up until the cut-off point. So, all of this makes it very easy and flexible to use. The recipes are super easy to scroll through or search for - see the "Time Saving: finding recipes and doing shopping" section above for more details there. If there's an issue with your order, you just go on the app and click through a series of questions and it's sorted. I have had the blanched peas arrive a few times now, and the bag has split, so that some of the peas are spilled in the box. I just went on the app, clicked through all the buttons, and just like that they added credit to my account to use on the next order! No need to send proof, or speak to a bot, just done - just like that! Just be aware that the credit then comes off the amount they tale from your bank account, not the amount stated on the order itself, which can be confusing as it looks like the credit has disappeared, but it hasn't. So, you might want to keep an eye on how much they actually take from you to make sure the credit is applied. How the box arrives and is delivered The box arrives by courier - in my area they use either DPD or Yodel. So, I would recommend that you also download the app for the courier to keep an eye on delivery times. Gousto send you a text on the day of delivery with a 2 hour indicative time slot for delivery and a link to track it. Every time DPD have delivered, they have rang the bell and waited for me. Yodel, on the other hand, tend to drop the box off and ring the door bell. By the time I get to the front door, the delivery driver is already back in their van and heading off! So, they will just leave it at the front door. You might want to add in a "leave in special place" option for delivery drivers if you have had problems with deliveries going walkabout before! The box arrives and one side of it is the cold stuff, which is in a cardboard box inside the box with a cardboard lid to it, to keep it cool. There are ice packs in with the food on this side to keep them cool too. In the colder months, this was 1 or 2 ice packs, but I have noticed that on warmer days there have been 3 ice packs in there. The icepacks can also be emptied and recycled, or you can keep them to reuse at home! I would recommend that you check that they are not leaking first though - I have had about 2 that have leaked once they defrosted, so now I leave them in the sink overnight to defrost just to make sure this doesn't happen for the ones I have kept to reuse. Also, chances are you will end up having far more than you can actually reuse, so feel free to share them with family or friends too! It would be great if these could be returned to Gousto to be reused in the future! Again, Gousto , if you are reading this, you can have people leave them out for collection by the courier dropping off the next box, then you can remove the paper cover and reuse the inside plastic and water part, no? On the other side of the box is all of the veg and things that don't need to be kept super cold (although the ice packs do make everything in the whole box chilled). There's also a brown paper bag with all of the smaller ingredients inside - the dried herbs, spices, garlic, vinegars, oils etc. So I tend to just put the whole bag in the fridge and then bring the whole bag out to get the ingredients I need for each recipe. Also in the box are the recipe cards (unless you are cooking for 1 or 5, in which case you have to go on the app for the recipe). The recipe cards are often slid down between the cardboard boxes, so do make sure you go hunting for them and don't throw them in the recycling! On a side note, the box iit all arrives in s pretty sturdy - I have kept some for storage in the garage, so if you know anyone who is moving house soon, keep the boxes for them! Cost: pros and cons The actual cost of each meal varies depending upon how many people you are cooking for. It also depends on whether you add any premium meals (that have an uplift) or if you stick to the meals that are covered. There's also a delivery charge each time, which adds into the overall cost of the meal. So, my meals that are standard and don't include any premium meals, work out at less than £5 a meal (right now). So, £10 a day on food for one person may seem like more than I would spend in the supermarket, especially when you factor in the other bits you buy, like milk, bread, fruit etc to top up the weekly shop that aren't part of the Gousto box. So, if you tend to cook pretty basic recipes and stick to the same ones most weeks, then it might be cheaper to just do a normal shop and skip these recipe boxes. If, however, you like to try new and exciting dishes, then Gousto is a good option, because if you have to buy all of the spices and different types of vinegars like rice wine and balsamic and red wine etc. as well as oils, like truffle oils etc. or pastes and different types of pesto that can soon add up to a lot! Whilst in the long run that evens out when you end up cooking a meal more than once, that's fine, but if you try a meal and it's not great then you may be left with ingredients that you paid a lot of money for, but which just sit in the cupboard or fridge until they get binned. So, these r5ecipe boxes might be a good way to at least try new recipes to see what you think, before you then pause your subscription and do the supermarket shop for a while knowing that the ingredients you are buying are for recipes you enjoy! Also, as explained above, using Gousto has saved me time when finding recipes , and during and after cooking, which may mean I am then free to work on this blog. So, the time you save, you can invest in other things that can then either earn you money to make up the difference, or give you time to spend with family and friends. All of this boils down to your lifestyle, and what you value most, and this is a choice that is completely up to you - there's no right or wrong answer to what you value most. If you do decide to give this a go, do make sure that you take advantage of any special offer discounts that are going on. If you scroll to the bottom of the main page, there is a section on student discounts, which also has other discount options which apply to non-students, so do check those out! The discounts are only available to new customers, and you can only take advantage of one offer. So, I realised after I had signed up using a special introductory offer, that they also do student discounts. So, I reached out to them to ask if, once the discount I had already received had evened out, if I could then switch to a student discount. That discount runs for a year. Sadly, I was told no as I had already had a discount offer and the offers are only available to new customers. This did annoy me somewhat, because their student discounts are not obviously displayed on their website, and usually the criteria for getting a student discount is, well, that you are a student! Which I am! Anyway, I guess it's up to businesses what discounts they offer, and they don't have to offer student discounts at all if they don't want to, but it did seem a little like the reason for their discount was to get a new customer, rather than to save money for students. Despite this, I am still ordering my boxes every week, so I guess it didn't put me off the boxes themselves, and I will get over it (eventually). So, all in all, I am pretty happy with these Gousto boxes. If you are tempted to give them a go, I would say, go for it! If your experience isn't as good as mine (which is always a possibility) then you can just cancel the subscription and either try a different provider , or go back to how you used to do it with your weekly supermarket shop (just remember to keep the recipe cards for any meals you really enjoyed). I hope you enjoyed this review! It's a little longer than normal reviews I do, but there was a decent amount to say on this one! If you want to, you can subscribe for updates on future posts! with love Rebecca xxx P.S. Please note that this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission.

The highlights:   What is it?:  A USB rechargeable electrical lighter that doesn’t use any gas. Does it work?:  Yes. Would I buy it again?:  Yes. Other options?:  I have seen other brands doing this, so there are some other options out there! Want to see other possibilities, a quick google will bring them up. Where to buy:   This one is the VEHHE Candle Lighter, Electric Rechargeable lighter, and I got it from Amazon . It would be really lovely (if you like this post and want to receive updates on future posts) if you could subscribe  - it's so nice to have you here, and I would be super happy to have you come back in the future! Also, in the interests of transparency, I want to make it clear that I am an affiliate marketer . (If you want to find out a bit more about what they is, and my approach to it, click here .) As such, this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission. So, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. On to the review of the VEHHE Candle Lighter, Electric Rechargeable Lighter How it works I have to say, I am pretty impressed by this rechargeable lighter . It works by the electricity passing between two metal prongs. When you press the button, you can hear the crackling electricity, which sort of reminds me of that scene in Star Wars where the Emperor is zapping Luke! Listen! It comes with a safety switch, so you slide that to on, and then have to press the button to make the electricity turn on too. Although, considering how well my 3-year-old nephew navigates his way around an iPhone, I don’t think this safety mechanism would be too much of challenge for most kids to work out, so it’s best kept out of their reach. Also, the part of the lighter where the electricity meets does get hot (although not as hot as traditional gas and fire based lighters), so it’s best kept out of reach of kids regardless! The lighter also automatically turns off at about 7 seconds if you hold the button down with the electricity coming across the prongs, which is another safety mechanism. To light the candle, you simply position the wick in between the two prongs and press the button. It does take a little getting used to, and it’s obviously much easier to do when you’re paying more attention to the wick than the camera you are filming it on! Here’s me lighting my Hamish Homemade Candle : So far, I have tested it on lighting candles and on lighting a gas stove (which my very kind neighbour let me use at their house because, as you know from the HG Hob Cleaner  review, I have an induction hob). For both the candle and hob, it worked really well! It is about the same length as the long gas lighters that you can get, so you can safely light the hob without being too close. Here’s the hob lighting moment: How it might be better than a traditional lighter The description on Amazon says that this product is windproof – I have tried testing this outside, and it hasn’t been blown out, but it also hasn’t been blowing a gale! That said, because traditional lighters use fuel in the form of gas, which the wind blows away and so the flame goes out, I don’t think the same problem would apply to this light. Simply because it is electricity, rather than a flame, I don’t think the wind could blow electricity away! Also, as this is electricity pumping between the two metal prongs, you won’t be able to use it if it’s raining, at least not without giving the lighter some sort of shelter from the elements! I think this lighter might be a pretty good little gadget to take camping! Not that I am much of a camping girl, to be honest. My idea of a place to stay would be more along the lines of a luxury hotel with spa! If you do take this camping, I think it would be best to take it in the box in case it accidentally gets turned on in your backpack! It comes in a little carboard box, so you can pop it back in there, but a metal or plastic box purchased especially might be good too! I think it’s just so that the on button isn’t accidentally pressed if the safety slide moves to the “on” position whilst its being jostled around on your trek! If you have (or get) one of these, and take it camping, let me know how it goes by commenting below! It’s not quite warm enough yet this year for a BBQ, but when I have one, I will test this little lighter and come back and update this post with further details! I can’t see any issues if you were to use firelighters, but we’ll see how it goes! If you have one of these and have tried it on a BBQ or fire stove, please feel free to comment below on how well it worked, or didn’t, as the case may be! Interested to hear more? Feel free to subscribe to my mailing list as I will be adding the updated products in those e-mails as and when they are applicable too. Charging the lighter It has 5 little blue lights on the front of it, which show how much charge it has. I got about 15 candle wick lightings out of one blue light, so assuming that each little blue light carries the same charge, one full charge should last a decent amount of time. Plus, when you first turn it on, the blue lights showing the amount of charge left come on – they also go off after a short while to conserve electricity. When you plug it in to charge, the blue light unit of charge that it is up to will flash, so you can clearly see if it's finished charging or not. The description on Amazon says that you should recharge this electric lighter when it gets down to 20%, so when it is on the last blue light. Once it had ran out of juice down to that point, I popped it back on to charge, and it took less than an hour to charge fully. So pretty good really! Although do check the instructions for how long you have to charge this for for the first time use and if not used regularly. The description on Amazon also says that you should charge this lighter regularly, even when not using it – I guess because it’s a lithium battery – so that might be an inconvenience. That said, if you are someone who has found this website because you googled rechargeable electrical lighter reviews, chances are it is because you use lighters often enough for this not to be a problem for you. The things I didn't love, or how this could be improved The criticisms I have of this, however, are that firstly the top part of it is bendable, but it isn’t really stiff enough to stay in the position you put it in – it can stay to the side, but not with any level of precision: Secondly, presumably because the top part is bendable, it is ridged, which meant I ended up getting candle wax stuck in between the ridges – obviously it didn’t help that I was trying to light a candle by paying more attention on the filming than where I was sticking the thing! But, if you have a candle in a jar that requires a little bit of angling, this might happen to you. The candle I was lighting, however, was a soy candle, which is softer than normal candle wax, so this might explain why the candle wax was so easily stuck in the ridges on the neck! That said, it wasn’t difficult to clean the wax out of the ridges with some kitchen roll, just a bit annoying! Another criticism is that the charging cable isn't very long, so when charging this I had to rest it on a little box as the USB port is in my plug socket in the wall. Otherwise it would have been left dangling! Final thoughts However, overall, I am pretty impressed by this little electric lighter . I love that it is rechargeable, and so I no longer need little gas cans under my sink to relight the longer lighters I have for candles…you know, the ones which never seem to fully refill and you can’t tell if it is actually refilling or not! No more disposable lighters laying around the house! Or, more accurately, collecting in the lighter drawer, which seems to accumulate enough lighters to take over the world, despite them all being out of gas! It also seems to do its job pretty well, which is always nice (although not always guaranteed to be the case) when you buy something for a specific task! I think this might be quite a nice addition to a gift set for someone who likes candles! You could always get a really lovely handmade candle, like the Hamish Handmade Candles  that I have reviewed before, and put it in a wee presentation box with this lighter and some tissue paper. I think that would be a really lovely homemade gift set! I hope you found this review helpful! If you did, please subscribe  to be kept in the future blog posts loop. with love Rebecca xxx P.S. Please note that this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The highlights:   What is it?:  A handmade candle - always a lovely gift for someone! This one is very big at 50cls, but they also make smaller ones, which might be better as a gift because they also come in a gift box. Does it work?:  Yes Would I buy it again?:  Yes, and if I had disposable income, I think I would buy these at least every few months, but now, being a student, I probably wouldn't buy this for myself because I don't have that level of disposable income. I would definitely buy one of these as a gift for someone who I know loves candles though! They also make smaller candles, so I think I would buy one of them as a special treat for myself in the future. Other options?:  Loads of people out there are making candles these days - both handmade by small independent businesses, and also the larger companies that mass produce them. Of course, not all candles are created equal, and it can be disappointing when you buy a nice candle that turns out not to be too nice at all! Where to buy:  I got this one from Hamish Candles on Amazon here in the UK. (Who knew that Amazon have a special shop set up just for handmade products?) The candle I got is a fragrance inspired by the aftershave, Creed, but they also do a whole host of other lovely sounding smells. They also appear to offer international shipping, so hopefully if you like this review and want to buy this outside of the UK, you can. It would be really lovely (if you like this post and want to receive updates on future posts) if you could subscribe  - it's so nice to have you here, and I would be super happy to have you come back in the future! Also, in the interests of transparency, I want to make it clear that I am affiliate marketer. Want to find out more about affiliate marketing and my approach to it? Click here . As an affiliate marketer, this blog may contain affiliate links. When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission. So, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Now, on to the review of Hamish Handmade Candles... I bought this candle for two reasons. Firstly, I like to have a candle burning whilst I am working at my desk - I find it makes studying all day a little bit more enjoyable, plus I have a dog, and if you have a dog sleeping beside you letting off every now and again, you probably go looking for nice smelling candles too! lol! Secondly, I picked this company, Hamish Candles , because it is a small independent business making candles by hand here in the UK. I like to support small businesses as much as possible, especially considering I have a small independent business making and selling jewellery (here's the link to my small business if you want to check those out - shameless self plug going on there!), so I know how hard it can be to build a customer base! On a side note, if you are looking for a lighter for candles, why not check out this review of the VEHHE electric rechargeable lighter . The large candle that I bought is 50cl and made from Soy Wax. It is 12cms or 4 and 3/4 inches in diameter, so it is quite a big one. Due to its size (I imagine) it doesn't come in a gift box, which is a shame if thinking of buying a gift for someone. That said, their smaller candles do come in gift boxes - so definitely check those out if thinking of buying a gift for someone. They can also do customisable labels to add little messages like Happy Birthday, or With Sympathy so you can adapt the gift to the circumstances. They can also add company logos, so they could be used as part of promotions, which is pretty cool! They also appear to ship internationally, so that's good for all the non-UK readers out there! As soon as it arrived, and before I even opened the box, I could smell the candle. I thought, wow, that's impressive, but then when I opened it, it was because there was some fragrance oil in the box itself. It must have been a spillage - it didn't impact on the candle at all, and sort of confirms to me that this really is handmade, but I did get the fragrance oil on my hands, which is unfortunate. That said, I used to make soaps...like this one.... So I know that if you do spill fragrance oil it is very hard to clean up - the oily-ness makes it difficult to wipe off. On a side note, if you ever order anything with fragrance oil in it, like candles, or reed diffusers, and you get the oil on your hands, make sure you wash them with soap and water straight away. Fragrance oil can be an irritant, so it's best not to leave it on your fingers! It can also damage surfaces, so make sure the you put down a stand of some sort, like an old coaster, to stop any residual oil from touching any surfaces. Anyway, aside from the fragrance oil in the box, which like I said did not impact at all on the candle itself, I am really impressed by this candle. The candle came well wrapped and had these little cards in them - another sign of something being handmade for sure! One of the cards is a simple "thank you card" with the maker's name on it, and the other is a "caring for your candle" advice card, which is really lovely! The candle also has the safety labels on the candle itself, which is good. The little business card also confirms that this candle is hand poured soy wax. It also says that wholesale is available (if you run a little shop and are looking for a good quality candle maker) and that they do refills, which is something I like from a sustainability perspective. The candle itself is very large and very strong in scent! In fact, it is so strong that I had to move it off my desk and put it at the other end of the room! Having it on my desk was a little overpowering! Within about 10 minutes, if you are near the candle, you can smell it. So if you have a small room, the smaller candles they do might be the better choice! Or if you have a large room, I wouldn't recommend having this candle too close to where you are sitting. It would be really lovely to light it when expecting company though - about an hour before they arrive should be enough to fill the whole room! Once lit, it takes about 30-60 minutes to fill my room (which is quite large) with the lovely smell. I like this fragrance, although I have no idea if it actually smells like Creed aftershave! lol! The scents that make up the candle are: Blackcurrant, Bergamot, Calville Blanc Apples and Pineapple. It says it has mid notes of Louisiana Birch, Moroccan Jasmine and Patchouli with a Base of Oak Moss, Musk, Ambergris and Vanilla. Basically, it smells lovely! The wicks are really easy to relight after they have been lit. I have had handmade candles in the past where I have struggled to relight the wicks or where they sat in too much wax or once lit were not staying alight. I did not have that problem with this candle. Here's a pic of when I first lit it: It also gives a really clean burn - none of those soot marks up the side of the candle (unless, of course, you light it using a short lighter - instead try a long lighter, like these which are apparently rechargeable and don't use gas! I have added this one to my 'to test' category, so if you want to keep updated on a review of this, make sure you subscribe !). Also, the burn on this candle is quite even compared to other candles I have had, both handmade and shop bought. One of the things I really dislike about candles is the wax that stays up the side of the container and feels like a waste. This candle has less of that happening, although there is still some wax up the side of the glass. I think I will try and melt that back into the candle to make this one last for as long as possible. As this is soy wax, it is also very soft when warm, so melts easily back into the pool at the bottom! So far, I have had this candle burning for a total of 17 hours and 30 minutes (added up over a series of days - not all at once), and it's just over halfway through the candle. It does say on Amazon that it is +60 hours burn time, but I am not sure this one will last that long - I will come back and update this post once the candle is finished to confirm how many hours burn I got out of it in total though. The description on Amazon also says that this is an eco-conscious and eco-friendly product, with lead-free cotton wicks. It also says that it is paraben and cruelty free, as well as being vegan friendly. So all in all, I am impressed by this candle - if you are thinking of a gift for someone, this candle or the smaller option , would be really lovely! Plus, it is really nice to have candles that have more masculine smells to them - I really like the smells of aftershaves, so it is nice to fill the room with this! I hope you found this review helpful! If you did, please subscribe  to be kept in the future blog posts loop. with love Rebecca xxx P.S. Please note that this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission.

Firstly, let's start with some background…. I started this blog because I got so sick of seeing people promoting products that, when I bought them, turned out to be rubbish! I wanted to buy products and give honest reviews. I didn’t start out with a view to becoming an affiliate marketer, but it turns out people like honest reviews, and when they started clicking through links, it made sense for me to become an affiliate marketer, as then I could use the money generated to (at least partially) reinvest into this little blog to help me create more reviews!   A little about how affiliate marketing works…   Affiliate marketing works by the marketer promoting a product with a link to the website that sells that product. That link is individual to each affiliate marketer, so that when you click on the link and buy something, that affiliate marketer gets a small commission. Commissions are often a percentage of the price of the product bought (or basket if there's more added) Commissions vary across websites and across categories, so sometimes the commission is as little as 1%, and sometimes it can be higher, like 10% or 25%. Which affiliate marketing scheme you can sign up to is determined by their criteria. Some are more burdensome than others. Some let you sign up to the general access to schemes, but then individual retailers and merchants determine whether to let you into their specific scheme. Some will analyse how many visitors you have to your website, or post views you've had. Some will look into your social media following. Some will let you sign up to the general scheme and then all merchants are automatically accessible to you. Some will let you in the front door, but then you have to meet a criteria, such as so many sales on the links clicked through within a certain period of time. Some have criteria about your response to the product itself. I have previously bought a product with a view to signing up to an affiliate marketing scheme, but then when I have looked at the criteria, it requires you to be passionate about their product(s). So, where I have not been passionate about a product, I have decided not to sign up to that scheme. I mean, I may not have been totally negative about the product, but what I have written I wouldn't describe as being passionate, so I have decided to keep my review honest, and skip out on the opportunity to make money through the links. Which leads me on to my approach. My approach to affiliate marketing… So, once I discovered that money can be made from reviews, it suddenly made sense as to why some (but obviously not all) people were out there promoting products that turned out to be rubbish – what do they care once they’ve got their commission, right? I approach affiliate marketing differently…I think that if I promote a product (that is rubbish) and you, my wonderful reader, buy that product, then I have lost you forever! Why on earth would you come back to my blog in the future and trust my view if you had already been burned by it before, right? And because affiliate marketing works on building those clicks through, a dishonest review would actually damage, rather than enhance, my chances of turning this little blog into a small business to (currently) help pay my way through uni.   So, because of this, my reviews are honest. Even where that means I would miss out on the commission that could be earned. If you are new to this site, you may not buy that, but if you are a repeat reader, chances are it’s because one of my previous reviews influenced your purchasing choices. So, for example, if you were to click through the Amazon link in the Detox Footpads blog post and buy that product, I would get paid a small commission from Amazon. However, chances are you aren’t going to click through on that link and buy that product because, well, the review makes it clear that in my view, Detox Footpads don’t actually do anything!   With all that said, I have started trying to find products that are likely to work, so that increases the chances of a good review. However, sometimes this effort fails after I have tested the product, so there’s no guarantees there! I test products for anything ranging from a couple of days to months. Sometimes, I will buy something and be testing it for ages before writing the review. Often, when buying from websites etc, the reviews on there are when the person has just bought the product. This is fine, but I personally feel that sometimes you don’t realise a product's downfalls until you have been using it for a while. So, for example, I tested Gousto Recipe Boxes  for a couple of months, and whilst personally I was impressed by these overall, the review I wrote includes lots of potential negatives, so that you can decide for yourself if that is worth trying! By contrast, the HG Hob Cleaner  and the Kilrock Gel Limescale Remover , were both products that I bought and tested pretty quickly, over a day or so, before being able to write the review. It all sort of depends on what the product is that I have bought to test. When it comes to writing reviews, I can take my time like this because I don’t have a boss to please, or targets to meet. In fact, the only person I have to impress is you, my reader! So in order to do that, I have to put in the time and effort to really get to know the products I buy so that I can give you as much information as possible to decide whether you want to buy that product or not.   Hopefully, this has helped explain a little more about what I do as an affiliate marketer, and how that relates to you as my reader. Building a following for a blog is hard work, and it takes consistent, trustworthy and reliable posts to be successful, so it’s in my best interests (and yours) for my reviews to be honest. Otherwise, I’d be shooting myself in the foot! Thank you for reading! If you want to subscribe , to be kept updated with future posts, it would be really lovely to have you here!   With love   Rebecca   xxx

The highlights: What is it?: What I can only describe as a tea bag that you stick to your foot which contains herbal remedies that are designed to drag toxins out of your body as you sleep with them attached to the bottom of your foot. The claim behind detox footpads generally is that they are able to fix all sorts of issues from headaches and weight loss to insomnia and fatigue. Does it work?: I don’t think so. Would I buy it again?: No I wouldn’t bother wasting my money again. Other options?: Loads of similar treatments are available to buy online or have as treatments at salons. Where to buy: I got it from an ebay shop, and I went for the small pack of 28 pads. A quick google will provide you with a multitude of options. I have also found this same brand in a large pack on Amazon . It would be really lovely (if you like this post and want to receive updates on future posts) if you could subscribe  - it's so nice to have you here, and I would be super happy to have you come back in the future! Also, in the interests of transparency, I want to make it clear that I am affiliate marketer (want to find out what that means in more detail? Click here ). As such, this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission. So, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Now, on to the review of Detox Foot Pads... They are a bit like teabags with black powder inside that you place on the bottom of your foot and then use a big sticker to put on top to keep them in place. When you wake up you have to peel it off, and the stickiness stays on your feet and needs a bit of a scrub to get it off, so if you are an evening shower person you will have to make time to clean your feet on a morning. You also wake up with black gunk on the bottom of your foot, which is supposed to be evidence of the toxins coming out of your body, but I suspect is more a mix of sweat (caused by the bag being trapped against the foot) and the black powder in the bag which is made of a permeable substance, so is a bit like a weird method of osmosis. Generally, detox footpads claim to rectify insomnia, but I awoke in the middle of the night with a cracking headache whilst using these and could not for the life of me get back to sleep. I was awake from 3am until 6am when my alarm went off to get up for work, so I would say these pads do nothing at all to assist with insomnia, nor in the pursuance of relieving headaches. Claims related to weight loss are also unfounded based on my experience. I used the whole pack every night until they were all gone, and my weight didn't change at all! Nope! Not impressed! Granted, I only has a small pack of 28, so I didn't use these for long, but across the board I was disappointed: another gimmick that fails to live up to its claims I'm afraid...don't bother wasting your money, and now I have, you won't have to! With love Rebecca xxx P.S. Please note that this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The highlights:   What is it?:  This is a rubber mat with a pattern on the base – I have the one with squares along it – so that you can scrape a paste into the mat and it will keep your dog busy as they try and lick it all out. Looking at the promotional video, you can also get this for your cat…not that I have a cat, so I can’t review what a cat thinks of this, but it might be worth reading on to see if you think your cat would enjoy this! Does it work?:  Yes Would I buy it again?:  Yes Other options?:  Lots of different brands do these types of licking mats – just a quick search on Amazon  brings up the options. LickiMat is the brand name for this product, but licky mats aren’t, so you can search more generally using that too. Where to buy:   The one I got is from the brand ‘LickiMat’ and I have the classic design which is just basic squares – you can find this on Amazon . It would be really lovely (if you like this post and want to receive updates on future posts) if you could subscribe  - it's so nice to have you here, and I would be super happy to have you come back in the future! Anyway, on to the LickiMat review... I love Obi dog, but on an evening I wish he’d give me a break...If you want to jump straight to the section below for the LickiMat review, click here . If you want to hear about more about how Obi drives me crazy, and the thing s that I have done to try and address it (some more successfully than others!), then please read on. So, let me explain…here’s a typical day of life with Obi… We get up around 5.30 or 6am, he gets breakfast while I follow my morning coffee  ritual and plan my day of studying. (Side note - I have a print out designed for this which I put together to create the most productive way of organising my day, having watched countless videos on productive working etc – I will be adding a post about the daily planner I designed and other productivity tips that work for me in the upcoming weeks, so do subscribe  if you want to be notified about that!) It’s then shower time (for me, not Obi) and once I'm all dressed (an important step before leaving the house!) we then go out for our morning walk. On arriving home after our walk, I study. Obi sleeps. Then, like clockwork at around 10am, the once sleeping Obi wakes up and starts stretching – it’s time for our second walk of the day. Once back home, he’s fast asleep (again) on his bed beside my desk, while I study until lunchtime. When I stop for lunch he will lazily (and with great amounts of effort often accompanied by a little grumble) shift from the bed near my desk, to the one near where I have lunch, where he will sleep for another 45 minutes while I have lunch. As soon as I have finished lunch, he’s suddenly awake and waiting for his lunchtime snack. He gets some sort of human food at this point – generally, I give him beef or chicken which has been slow cooked in water – I know this sounds like he’s being spoiled, but it’s only so I can hide his dai ly arthritis pill in there! Plus, it’s not fancy meat. The beef is the Tesco frozen beef that has bad reviews from humans, but Obi enjoys it! I do sometimes have to cut the fat off though, as too much fat can give him the poops, and then I have to give him something for his tummy - Pro-Kolin . I will be reviewing that product in due course, so please do subscribe if this is a familiar thing for your pup! So , I put the cook from frozen beef chunks in the small slow cooker (which is designed for 1 - 2 people at around 1.5 - 1.8 litres and which was a gift, so I am not sure of the brand, but is about the same size as this one ), with just plain water, which means that the meat breaks apart really easily and all the little beef or chicken bits are them mixed in with the water, so one pot will do a few days at a time.   After lunch, we go for walk number 3, before coming back and he spends the afternoon snoozing again while I study. At 5, we shut down for the day and he gets his evening meal, which he usually sniffs at, has a mouthful of, and then decides that his time is better spent snoozing while I cook dinner. After dinner, he is up again expecting his leftovers, and he might get a scrambled egg or some rice or some more of his meat in water mixture before going back to eat a bit more of his dog food. Then, he is awake! And I mean wide awake! He will then bark at me every 5 minutes to go outside, and he will go stand outside, sniff the air for about 30 seconds, before deciding he doesn’t need a wee, and would rather be inside. So, we go back inside, I sit down on the sofa, press play on my paused programme, and he’s back, barking at me again. He wants more dinner! Or another wee, which turns out not to be a wee but just an opportunity to stand outside sniffing the air for about a minutes before heading back inside. So, it appears, it is just an excuse to interrupt the one time in the day when I am actually relaxing! This escapade goes on for 2 hours, until he decides it’s too much like hard work, and he’ll finally settle down at about 8pm. At 8.30pm, I wake him up to go for his evening wee and poop, before we head up to bed, where he will curl up on his bed upstairs and – you’ve guessed it – sleep while I read on my Perlego app for half an hour or so (again, review of that coming soon, so if that interests you, you can subscribe to this blog so you are kept in the loop) before turning off the lights and (hopefully) sleeping through the night without being woken up by Obi for another toilet break! This then gets repeated the next day, and this is our life! Aside from Sundays, when I try to have a day where I don’t study, this is how our week goes.   As you can see, he’s a real gem all day and the world’s laziest dog as he actually sleeps about 20 hours of the day, until it’s time for me to relax, then spends 2 of his awake hours driving me crazy as he has me up and down like a yo-yo! So, like I said, I love him – a lot! BUT I got to a point where I was like – Enough! I want to chill out! So, I decided to try and find things that would allow me to have just an hour of down time, while Obi is occupied. I did try some of the brain training toys, but because Obi is such a big breed, and now has arthritis, it’s not great for him to be stood up and bending all the way to the floor to reach those toys, so I only now play those with him if I hold it up off the floor for him. He also gets a little frustrated with those and ends up smacking them with his paw, which means he smacks me with his paw as I’m holding it at head height for him – not the best set-up for trying to relax at the end of a long day! I also play “find it” with him, which he really loves, but that generally gets him very excited, so isn’t always the best at the end of the day. If you have never played “find it” you should give it a go! Basically, you hide treats in a room, and then your dog has to hunt them out using their sniffers. You can use any treats, but I find the most effective are the really strong-smelling treats, like Bakers Whirlers , Sizzlers which both smell very strongly of bacon, or the Allsorts , which also smell very strongly of meat, but are a little harder to break up into smaller pieces! So, to set up the game, I put Obi in the hallway and close the living room door so I can hide the treats – he doesn’t like that and often has a little whine, but it’s not for long! Once all the treats are hidden around the room, I open the door and say “find it” and he runs around the room like a maniac sniffing out the treats! He loves this game, and it does make him tired, but only after he’s got over the excitement! Sometimes he gets so excited, that after one game he barks for another, and another, and another, so it’s not really a “wind down at the end of the day” kind of game! Here’s Obi playing “find it”:     So, if I do play “find it” with him, I will always follow it up with a cuddle or a more relaxed game, like his LickiMat . This is Obi about 15-20 minutes after playing "find it": I also have a treat ball, which Obi also really enjoys (although not as much as “find it”), and I will be reviewing that soon, so do subscribe  if you want to find out about that. I also bought some things to have a go at making my own snuffle mat (which you hide treats in for your dog to sniff out), to see if that works, so again, you can subscribe  to be kept in the loop! Also I have just noticed that the Emmi-Pet toothbrush is in the background of this photo too - again, I am in the process of testing that, so do subscribe if you want to know how that goes! Finally, I have this LickiMat . The LickiMat is made of soft rubber (that sort of reminds me of silicone) and it is dishwasher safe, but you can also handwash it. That said, because it is designed to make getting food out of the squares and shapes of the rubber difficult for your dog, it is quite difficult to clean - as you can see from this picture after Obi has licked as much peanut butter out as he can! So you may have to soak it before putting it in the dishwasher, or hand washing it. I don't need to soak this for my dishwasher, but my dishwasher is pretty amazing (again, I will be reviewing that in due course, so feel free to subscribe to be kept in the loop there!) I guess that if you buy one and it works for you and your pup, you could alw ays get a second one so that you have one “in use” while the other one is being cleaned. You can get the LickiMat in different designs, and in different colours, but they all have in common that the rubber has parts of the design which are higher than others. This means that you can rub anything that is dog safe and paste-like into the LickiMat so it all gets stuck in the joins, corners and crevices. I have the classic one which is just squares. Your pup (or cat) will then sit and lick at it for a decent chunk of time, focussing on the yummy taste and the need to get all of that yummy-ness out of the bumps, corners, sides, joins and crevices. Here's me prepping the LickiMat with the Peamutt Butter I use, plus Obi very obediently going to his bed before he can have it! I use dog safe Peamutt Butter , but anything which is a paste or cream like texture will do, so you can use dog pâté or pastes,   Kong Easy Treat Dog Paste , or any other dog safe paste like substance that will get between all of the raised and lowered parts of this mat! The makers of LickiMat say that you can use wet or raw food, canned food, doggie ice cream, kibble and soaked kibble. It is not a chew toy though, so if your dog is a big chewer, this may not be the best for you. That said, they do make another one which they say is better for chewers and can be put in the freezer! I haven’t tried that one, so can’t attest to how robust it is, but here’s the link  to that one if you want to check it out. That said, you shouldn’t leave your pup unsupervised when using this LickiMat , just in case they chew through it. I pop the LickiMat in front of Obi as he’s on his bed and he licks away while I get some peace and quiet! You could also use a Kong - they are more robust and you can stuff them with all sorts - I usually put the Peamutt Butter in these and then add some treats which stick to the Kong. Obi then flings it around and the treats come flying out, or he also sits and licks at it. I use the Kong less now that he is older (although it looks like Kong do one for senior dogs , which I didn't realise before), but when I first got him at 7 years old, he loved the Kong toys! Just don't fill them with smashed sweet potato - unless, of course, you want this all over the walls - lesson learned there! I also have the Kong bone, which they have changed the design of slightly since I bought mine, but I just add Peamutt Butter to the holes in the bone and he will sit and lick at that for a while too!   For the Lickimat , I spread dog safe Peamutt Butter into one corner of the LickiMat for Obi to lick at. On a side note, you can't use human peanut butter for dogs - it contains a sweetener that is toxic to pups! The LickiMat keeps him occupied for anything from 15-30 minutes depending on how much Peamutt Butter I use and how far I spread it out. I never fill the whole LickiMat because I think that might be too much of peanut butter all at once, but you could use the whole LickiMat surface if you decide to try this to feed your dog their actual dog food for sure! The description also says that the LickiMat is vet and trainer approved, and can help promote dental health by encouragin g saliva production. It says that it helps soothe anxiety and boredom. I am not sure about the anxiety side of things, as I have never tested this, but I think it definitely helps with boredom and because he has to focus on it for a while, I think it tires him out too! As soon as Obi is finished with his licking extravaganza, he jumps up, goes for a drink of water, barks for a wee, then comes back in and settles down on his bed. So, it must do something to help, otherwise he would still be getting me up and down like a yo-yo! I hope you found this review helpful! If you did, pl ease subscribe  to be kept in the future blog posts loop. with love Rebecca xxx P.S. Please note that this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission.

The highlights:   What is it?:  NexTrend 4th Generation Garlic Twister – essentially, it does the job of a garlic crusher, but instead of having to push down, you twist the top and bottom around. Does it work?:  Yes Would I buy it again?:  Yes, although it comes with a Lifetime Guarantee, so I don’t think I’d have to! Other options?:  There are lots of other garlic crushers, but this design is patented so there shouldn’t be anyone else out there making the exact same thing…although I guess it’s always possible that someone has copied the design in breach of the patent, right? The NexTrend one has NexTrend written in the plastic of the garlic twister, so you should be able to see pretty easily if the one you are looking at is the right one! Where to buy:   My mum bought this for me a few years ago now as a gift, and it was a really great gift for someone who enjoys cooking! I have managed to find this on Amazon  though. It would be really lovely (if you like this post and want to receive updates on future posts) if you could subscribe  - it's so nice to have you here, and I would be super happy to have you come back in the future! Anyway, on to the NexTrend 4th Generation Garlic Twister Review...     Seriously, who knew a girl could get so excited about a garlic crusher! I love this little garlic twister , and whilst I still have the garlic crusher in the kitchen drawer, it rarely comes out! This garlic twister, for me, is just so much easier to use.   When using this twister, I find it much less effort than using a traditional push down garlic press type crusher, but using the twister does take a certain amount of strength in your wrists to twist it back and forth. Of course, you can cut the garlic into smaller pieces before putting it into the crusher to help with this. The more garlic you add, or the bigger the size of the garlic clove you put in (or both), the harder it is to twist it. NexTrend also add a disclaimer that if you have arthritis in your wrists, then you may struggle to use this product, but you know your own strength, so I’ll leave that up to you to decide. That said, I don’t think age in general makes a difference – in fact, my mum got me this one when I was still living in Leeds, so in my late 30s, because she bought one and loved it so much (don’t worry mum – I won’t disclose your age). I’m now 42 and I am still using the same garlic twister, and my mum still has hers too, so it is also pretty solidly made. Although I have never dropped it on the tiled floor or anything, so can’t confirm if it would survive that, from the perspective of everyday use (and yes, I do use garlic almost every day) then it has survived the test of time of about 3-4 years so far. It is more expensive that other options on the market, but I really love this, so would buy the same one again, and “cost per use” it’s pennies!   Also, this garlic twister  doesn’t leave loads of garlic behind – you know that part of the garlic clove that just won’t squish through the garlic press, no matter how hard you push? Well, that is a thing of the past with this! No more wasted garlic! And I do love garlic, so hate that I can’t get all of it out of a traditional garlic press! When using this garlic twister, the garlic can gather along the teeth, but I just twist it a little further out of the teeth and then use a teaspoon to pop it out and it’s done! Also, because the garlic twister  has a bottom and top to it, it is self-contained. This means I can crush the garlic, and leave it in the container while I get on with the other parts of cooking. When I am ready to add garlic, I just lift the lid, push out the crushed garlic with a teaspoon, then do the same with the bottom, and I’m done! I also love that this garlic twister  is dishwasher safe, so once I have used it, I fling it in my super-duper-best-dishwasher-I-have-ever-used (review of that coming soon – subscribe   to stay in the loop there!) and that’s it! I’m sorted! Made in the USA, the 4th Generation garlic twister is also BPA-Free, so you’re safe there if you worry about what goes into the plastics you eat and drink from! You can get the twister in clear, green or pink, but I just have the clear one. Besides, I’m not too worried about multicoloured cooking utensils. The product description itself says that you can use it with lots of other ingredients – ‘from garlic, to ginger, herbs, nuts and more!’ So, I tried it with ginger, and it works for that too! Although all the ginger juice does come out, so be careful you don’t turn it upside down. Also, ginger is tougher than garlic, so it was more difficult to twist it out. You will also have to slice the ginger very thinly for this to work, otherwise this will be quite hard work to use. I have a really good knife. It's made by the Japanese company, Kai Shun , which are pretty well established in the Japanese knives world. Their Kai Shun knives are super expensive, but you can get their Kai Wasabi knives which aren't as expensive. I'm not sure which one I have, as my brother got it for me for Christmas about 5 years ago, but I think looking at the knives on a London Based cook shop website that sells them, it might be a Kai Wasabi knife. Anyway, having a really good knife has meant that slicing the ginger very thinly was easy-peasy! If your kitchen knives aren't too great though, then this might be harder for you than it was for me! Here’s the video of the ginger: I have only tried it with garlic and ginger – if I get a chance to test out other ingredients, I will come back and update this review.  So, overall, I really love this little garlic crushing tool , hopefully you will too! I hope you found this review helpful! If you did, please subscribe  to be kept in the future blog posts loop. with love Rebecca xxx P.S. Please note that this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission.

The highlights:   What is it?:  It is a spray on alloy wheel cleaner. Does it work?:  Yes, but keep reading! Would I buy it again?:  I would if I had a fancier car! My car now does the job it needs to, and the back seats fold up out of the way so Obi dog has somewhere to lie down (which is frankly the main reason why I bought it), so I’m not complaining, but…given that my little put-put car is a 1.2 litre that takes about 3 hours to get from 0 to 60, and looks a little like a brick on wheels, I don’t think I need to worry about sparkling wheels! BUT if I still had my MG TF 115 (named Tiffany, and who I loved and adored!) then – Yes! Yes I would invest in this stuff because she needed to look pretty at all times! Other options?:  Tonnes of options out there for alloy wheel cleaners – a quick search on Amazon  brings up loads of options. Where to buy:   I got Wonder Wheels from Amazon   It would be really lovely (if you like this post and want to receive updates on future posts) if you could subscribe  - it's so nice to have you here, and I would be super happy to have you come back in the future! On to the Wonder Wheels Alloy Wheel Cleaner review... Wonder Wheels is super easy to use. As you can see, according to the container, it is designed to “cut through dirt, grease, and stubborn brake dust instantly”. Here's the how to use section: As you can see, it also advises that you should test this in an inconspicuous area first - I guess just in case it reacts badly in some way. Also, there's safety information, as always, which reads: The spray goes on as a liquid, and then sort of foams up a little as you work it with the brush. It’s not super foamy, but kind of gets some bubbles going on. Then, once you’ve brushed it and scrubbed it for a while (which wasn’t super hard work and didn’t involve too much effort), just rinse it off with plenty of water. In the application of this, I used gloves (because, if you read my blogs regularly, you probably know that I get very dry skin  when using cleaning products) but the directions do tell you that you have to wear gloves and protective clothing and eye and face protection. There’s 600ml in this bottle, and I didn’t have to use very much at all, so I think one bottle of this will last you a decent number of wheel cleans.  Here is the before video of my wheel - you can see, it was pretty dirty! I would say that I didn’t really have the right brush for this! So I started with an old toothbrush, which did sort of work on the general dusty dirt side of things, but it wasn’t quite strong enough to tackle the more engrained dirt. So, I switched to a greeny. You can, of course, buy brushes designed for car wheels , which would be presumably also be less likely to scratch the wheels, so this is an option! So, once you’ve sprayed it on, and lathered it up, you just rinse it off – this is what the whole process looked like using the toothbrush: As you can see, there was still some black stuff, so I thought I would switch to the greeny to have a go at this. This did work better (clearly I had the wrong tools!): So, this does work, and it works well. However, I thought, ok so does it work better than good old fashioned Fairy washing up liquid that you can get online from Amazon , Tesco , Morrisons , Iceland , Waitrose , Ocado , and pretty much every other supermarket and on the high street shop going. The washing up liquid seemed to clean the dirt off just as well as the Wonder Wheels  spray, so in respect of cleaning dirt, I don’t think you really need this spray. However, where it did make a difference, was the finish after the wheel had dried off. Maybe you can’t really tell from the photos, but the Wonder Wheel spray did leave more of a shine than the fairy washing up liquid. Here's my wheel after the Wonder Wheels use, and I can see the one section at the bottom where I used Wonder Wheels and the rest, which looks dull in comparison, where I used washing up liquid - if you can't see this difference, than maybe washing up liquid will be just fine, but if you can...: Close up on the Washing Up Liquid clean once the water had dried Also, once the wheels had dried, the washing up liquid parts had smears where I could still see some of the dirt that was left on. Maybe I didn't rinse it properly? But I couldn't see those smears and streaks when it was wet, so it would mean having to go back and clean the wheels again, which is a waste of time really. Using the Wonder Wheels from the start would remove this issue, and that section of the wheel was sparkly and shiny! Here's a close up of the Wonder Wheels part of the wheel after that section had dried: Close up of Wonder Wheels cleaned section of my wheel after that had dried So, I would say, you can use Wonder Wheels  to clean your wheels (I mean, the bottle is pretty big and it does seem like it’ll last a decent number of uses), or you can use a cheaper option to clean the dirt off and then finish off with Wonder Wheels  to leave more of a shine to your alloys. That said, if you’re not too bothered about the shine on your alloys or smears ad streaks left after cleaning them, then you could just stick with washing up liquid! Although I suspect that if you've googled this product, it's because dirty streaks just won't do, so Wonder Wheels is the way forward for you! I hope you found this review helpful! If you did, please subscribe  to be kept in the future blog posts loop. with love Rebecca xxx P.S. Please note that this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission.

The highlights: What is it?: Doggy poop bags - biodegradable and made from a lot of recycled plastic, in either scented or unscented options! Does it work? Yes Would I buy it again? Yes Other options?: There are lots of doggy poop bags out there that are biodegradable, and I have tried some, but none of them were as good as this brand. Where to buy: I get mine from UK Amazon : you can get a small pack to try them of 270 bags; or if you trust me, you can get a better value large pack of 900 bags. If you are in the USA, here's the link to the same product. If you are new to this blog (hi and welcome!) you might not know that I always try to make more environmentally friendly choices. If you are not new to this site, you probably already know that from the reviews I have done on reusuable tassimo pods , Naked Sprout toilet roll made from bamboo, and the Ecoegg washing powder option. So, when I first adopted Obi dog from the Dogs Trust, I wanted to find doggy poop bags that were also environmentally friendly. I didn't want to be adding even more ever-existing plastic to landfill that the world sends there already! I have tried lots of different poop bags along the way, but I have been using Earth Rated poop bags for a long time now, because I am super impressed by them. Earth Rated , as a company is environmentally conscious and are B Corp certified to reflect the ways in which they integrate environmental choices across the company as a whole. They also say on the FAQs section of their website, that they regularly support animal rescue centres, and shelters, by making donations. Love that! Giving back is super important (and also one of the reasons, by the way, that I use PetPlan pet insurance as when I adopted Obi dog they gave me 4 weeks free insurance, and I have stayed with them since, but I digress!). The bags themselves are biodegradable and made from 65% recycled plastic. So, again, according to the FAQs section of their website , they stop 5 million pounds, or 2.2 million kilograms, of plastic going to landfill every year, and then use that plastic to turn into the doggy poo bags. Doggy poo bags which are then also biodegradable - the science baffles my mind - not only have they stopped plastic going to landfill, but they have then turned it into a biodegradable substance! I'm impressed! (On a side note, soft plastics are now widely recycled at supermarkets - where you used to put the supermarket bags, they now accept all types of soft plastics, so do bag it up and drop it off) Also, the boxes they come in and inner rolls are made from cardboard, so are recyclable too. The bags can be either scented, or unscented. I haven't tried the unscented ones, so if you try them, do let me know what they are like! The scented ones are lavender scented, and they do smell like lavender, but let's face it, no scented anything will totally mask the smell of our beloved pets bowel movements! So, with doggy poo in them, these poop bags smell like lavender scented poop! lol! The bags are also pretty thick - according to the description, 15 microns thick, but who knows what that means? All I can say is that other bags I have used have split or ripped when picking up poop - especially where the dog decides to poop on the pavement, or on a load of twigs! So far (and I have been using Earth Rated bags for years) I have never had one of these Earth Rated bags rip on me - like never! I cannot tell you how wonderful that is - I once tried another brand that I also got from Amazon, called Greener Walker , but I was not impressed, so would not recommend those at all! They didn't rip all the time, like when Obi had pooped on grass, they were fine, but they often ripped when Obi had pooped on the pavement and I tried to scrape it up, or when he had pooped on the grass on twigs, and the twigs poked through the bag and I got dog poop all over my hand! Considering I couldn't force the dog to poop, or not poop, in certain places, this uncertainty isn't good - I mean, when they gotta go, they gotta go, right? Walking around with dog poop on your hands is not good - in fact with the Greener Walker bags, I even started taking biodegradable baby wipes out with me as standard on all our walks! Luckily with Earth Rated poop bags, the baby wipes are not required! What's more, the Earth Rated poop bags have never leaked on me either. In fact, Earth rated pride themselves on this and, in their FAQs , actively encourage anyone who has had a leak to contact them! Love that! Businesses which want their customers to love their product and to address any issues just shows a mentality which can be so lacking in some modern corporations! The bags also come in two types - refill rolls and tie-handle. I have only ever tried the refill rolls, because honestly, they are big enough for my dog (who is a lurcher, so quite tall, but not terribly broad). In fact, when I go out at the end of the day to pick up Obi's poops in the garden, I can often pick up 2-3 poops with one bag! The refill bags are 9 inches x 13 inches. According to their website , the single bags are 8 inches x 13 inches and appear to come in a dispenser, a bit like a tissue box so you can get one bag at a time; and the easy tie handle bags are wider, as opposed to taller, at 7 inches x 13.5 inches. I use the refill bags, and to give you an idea (because let's face it all poop is different sizes!), I can put a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes, or baked beans, inside the bag and still have room to tie off the end. Another point to note is that there is a little sticker on the bag that is 3rd from the end of the roll, to let you know you only have 3 bags left, so you can get a new roll ready for the next walk. No being caught out with the last bag on the roll and then having a meltdown trying to find a carrier bag in your pocket, or figure out a way for you to pick up the poop with no bag, or how you are going to get home, get more bags, and then find the poop to pick it up! Yes, this is how my mind works! lol! All in all these are good poop bags - they do the job, they are environmentally friendly, and they are produced by a company that seems to care! So, if you want to try a small box, here's the link , or if you are keen to go for the bigger 900 bags box, here's that link too. I also found the tie-handle ones on Amazon . If you want to search for these yourself, just be aware that 'earth rated' is also a general term, so other companies may use this phrase to describe the bags themselves - make sure you go for the ones which match the pictures in this post, otherwise it might be another company. Also, if you are in the USA, click here to go to Amazon to find these. Happy poop picking!! with love Rebecca xxx P.S. Please note that this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission.

The highlights:   What is it?:  AA and AAA batteries that are used in so many household electronics, but these little guys are rechargeable, so I bought the ones that come with a docking station to recharge them. The charging station I bought came with AA batteries, so I also bought some AAA batteries separately . If you do decide to buy these, make sure you either buy the charging station separately, or buy the batteries that come with the charging station for your first purchase. Does it work?:  Yes, yes, yes - and if you buy some and they don't work then the specific ones sent to you are faulty and you need to contact the seller for a replacement (or refund)! Would I buy it again?:  Yes - in fact, I already have bought more of the rechargeable batteries so that I can have some charged and ready to go when I need them! Other options?:  Mine are Energizer, but there are a few different brands that do rechargeable batteries, so yes, some options are out there. Where to buy:  I actually bought mine from Tesco , but they are also available on Amazon , and I have seen them in high street shops (like B&M and Home Bargains). I imagine your local supermarket might sell these too, so maybe check next time you are in store! It would be really lovely (if you like this post and want to receive updates on future posts) if you could subscribe  - it's so nice to have you here, and I would be super happy to have you come back in the future! So on to the review of these rechargeable batteries by Energizer... Oh rechargeable batteries, where have you been my whole life? Honestly, I don’t know why it has taken me over 40 years to discover these! (hehemmmm showing my age!) I’ve used so many disposable batteries! What a waste of money! Not to mention the impact on the environment! Now, when I go to the supermarket and see the "old batteries drop off recycling unit" it makes me so sad - so many batteries that have had a one use lifetime and could have been replaced with reusable ones! Seriously! These rechargeable batteries are awesome! I highly recommend your buying some! These little guys last just as long as normal batteries (or at least I haven't noticed them running out of juice any quicker than normal batteries), but you don’t throw them away when they are all out of power! Instead, whop them in the charger for the recommended time on the instructions and that’s it! Fully charged and ready to go again! Saving money and reducing the impact of non-reusable batteries on the environment! Just make sure you don't try and charge batteries that are not rechargeable - that would be dangerous! That said, the Energizer ones do say "Recharge" on them, so pay attention to that if you are using up old non-rechargeable batteries before or during the switch to these. Also, there will be extra safety information on the ones that you do buy, so pay attention to that! The Energizer charging station I got has green lights to indicate that the batteries are charging. BUT these lights do not change colour once the batteries are fully charged, so do not wait for this as an indication and make sure you don't have them charging to over the time in the instructions. For example, mine says not to recharge the batteries for longer than 8 hours, so I set a reminder alarm on my phone when it is time to unplug them to remind me. The charger I bought takes 4 or 2 batteries at a time, and you can charge either AA or AAA batteries in it, which is great as it means you don’t need to buy more than one charging station for what are likely the most popular battery sizes. The charging station is in two sides, so you have to put the batteries next to each other with 2 on the left and/or 2 on the right - but not one on the left and one on the right! It connects to the power socket via a USB cable, so you’ll need either a USB output, adapter plug, or plug to charge these up, but it isn't too big and fits in my hand. Safety First - Battery Storage! Always store the charged batteries (and any batteries for the matter) in proper containers. My mum bought my containers for me, and I think she got them from ebay, but they look similar to these . My storage boxes are quite basic, but they do the job of keeping the batteries from touching each other, so reduce the risk of sparks! Who knew that batteries touching could cause fires!! Seriously! Google it - the risk is real! However, if you want a fancier looking case or one with more options beyond space for just AA or AAA batteries, Amazon have quite a few options that you can pick from. I have been using rechargeable batteries for several months now, and they are great! I have them in my wireless mouse for my computer, and have not noticed having to change them any more regularly than with normal batteries, so they seem to last pretty well! Plus, I'm at my desk 7 days a week - Monday to Friday I am working on my PhD from about 7.30am to anything from 3-5pm, and on the weekend I work on this blog, or on my website for my jewellery making business - so the batteries in this little mouse have certainly been put to the test! Not really much else to say about these - they work, and they work well! So head over to Tesco or Amazon , and add them to your basket! I hope you found this review helpful! If you did, please subscribe  to be kept in the future blog posts loop. with love Rebecca xxx P.S. Please note that this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission.

Yeah so this is pretty cool! The highlights: What is it?: A green aloe vera lipstick lip balm that once on your lips changes colour into various shades of pink Where to buy: I got this from an ebay seller, and you can access that shop here . You can also give it a search on Amazon Does it work? Yes. For sure! Would I buy it again? No, but only because I don't wear pink lipsticks, so the colour isn't to my liking, but if it was I would definitely buy this again. The product This is super cool stuff! It comes and it is a freaky looking green colour and, am not going to lie, I was genuinely massively sceptical on this one! But, put it on and within seconds it does change colour.... It does leave a pink stain on tissue when you first put it on (which contradicted some of the adverts I had seen showing that this didn't happen) but not to the same degree as normal lip glosses or balms. Once it has been on for a while, it turns into a stain more than a gloss, so it does not budge at all - and at that stage it hardly marks white tissues at all! It feels pretty moisturising and does not appear to fade away too quickly - I put is on 3 hours ago, and have had lunch and drinks since then, and it still seems ok - am impressed. The Down Side: Once it gets to the stage where it no longer marks the tissue, it also at that stage no longer feels like a gloss. That said, although it then felt dry (no gloss-like feel anymore), it didn’t dry my lips out, so this isn't the end of the world. Also, I have seen other reviews where people have said that it does dry out their lips, so if you are susceptible to dry lips, maybe give this one a miss! But, if this is you, and you are looking for a moisturising lip balm, check out this review . Also, you can't pick the colour it is going to be and bright pink isn't really my style, but if you like pink then this is worth a try for you for sure. I am not sure if it changes into different shades of pink. I have seen adverts for this type of product which seem to indicate that it reacts to your body temperature, and that determines the shade, but I haven't been able to test this to the point of knowing one way or another...the colour always looked pretty much the same to me! I have also reviewed a really great lip balm, Carmex, so if you are looking for a super moisturising lip balm, click here . Please click on the “f“ below to share to Facebook, and subscribe to keep up to date on new posts...you can also like my page on Facebook by clicking here With love Rebecca xxx P.S. Please note that this blog may contain affiliate links (including those to Amazon). When you click on the link and purchase the product, I receive a small commission.