Bean's mum's blog

It is the second of December and after some lovely goodies yesterday I am looking forward to getting more goodies today. The first advent calendar that I will reveal today is by busy bee candles. Today is a melt in the scent 'Christmas Cookie'. It is a sweet scent that is rather like the cookie scents from the larger companies and these scents are a mainstay of the christmas lines for many customers and for me this will be a great year round melt scent. The next advent calendar today is by Youbeauty and this has a small aperture today. Inside the number two door is this Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm in the shade Rose.  It has a lovely red tint and looking at the ingredients I am quite happy as the four largest ingredients in this lip balm are coconut oil, vegetable oil, beeswax and olive oil.  On trying it I found that it was very soft on the lips and was very moisturising but looking at the ingredients it's not really surprising.  ...

I'm back (although that is hardly a surprise if you are reading this) and it is to this blog that I have returned to restart my yearly ritual of showing you advent calendars. It has been almost a year since I posted with regularity and hopefully these posts will be better timed than last year. But, enough of that. Here are my first items from this years advent calendars.  Welcome to December 2016 and my day one items. The first advent calendar today is tinc and the item was a luggage tag. It is really cute (as I expect from tinc) and I will probably use it on bean's luggage when we go on holiday this year. Although this is a useful item it is not something that I was desperate for. The next advent calendar item tonight is from busy bee candles and is a melt in the scent 'elf crazy'. To me this has a scent of mint and it is reminiscient to candy cane lane and candy cane forest from Yankee Candle to me. This is very sweet and would be a great s...

Here are the pictures of my advent calendars in the order of my preference of the contents for this year and here is the order. 1. Youbeauty has been the advent calendar that I recommended to everyone the last two years and this year didn't disappoint. I got this for just under £50 as I had a £10 off code and it was well worth the price and I will use it all apart from the tweezers. 2. Marks and spencer was fabulous for 2015 and I will definitely repurchase this year. It was £25 with a £25 purchase and it was fabulous value and I loved opening the little boxes every day. A really great value and with more 'classic' products it will be great for all. 3. In third place was lookfantastic and this one is here as it was £70.70 which makes it £20 more than youbeauty and £45 more than M and S and I can't see the value. I do prefer it to the others as I prefer the beauty calendars but not sure I will get it next year unless I get it on an...

Here are my non beauty advent calendars for day 24.

Here  are my non beauty advent calendars for the 23rd December and to be honest it was one of my best days as I fell in love with a Smiggle item.

Here are my non beauty advent calendars for the 22nd December.

It's very odd that I'm now on yesterday's non-beauty advent calendar review. But I seem to be getting there and here are the Smiggle, tinc and busy bee candles advent calendars for yesterday.

To be honest its quite scary how quickly we've got to day 20 and how quickly we getting through not just this month and advent but also through this year. The thought that very soon we will be in 2016 is a quite a scary thought for me. But I suppose you can't fight time. Here are my day 20 non beauty advent calendars.

It feels really odd to fall behind to this degree but I'm hoping that you will forgive me and that you're enjoying reading these daily reviews for the advent calendars. Hopefully next year I will be up-to-date with the reviews and hopefully I won't get ill. Here is day 19 of my non beauty advent calendars.

And we are onto the day 18 non beauty advent calendars. To be honest I think that non-Beauty advent calendars are slowly starting to grow on me and I am actually enjoying the items that I am receiving, especially from the stationary advent calendars. Granted that some days that tinc doesn't give me an item but I know that on Christmas Day can take off the back of the advent calendar and it will reveal all the items that I should've got and it will feel a little like an extra Christmas present. That's enough of that, though, and here are my day 18 non-beauty items.

And we are onto day 17of the non-beauty advent calendars I am sorry I'm running a bit behind but hopefully I will catch up soon and I will hopefully getting all of them up by Christmas. But here are the day 17 items for tinc, Smiggle and busy bee candles.

Here are my non-beauty advent calendars for 16 December.

I have to admit I feel a little like the turtle but I am slowly slowly slowly catching up. Here is my day 14 multibrand advent calendar review.

I'm sorry that I am actually publishing these non beauty advent calendars first but I find that these are easiest to review for you so here is my day 15th of my non beauty calendars. I hope you enjoy it.

Next is the review for my day 14 non beauty advent calendars. Once again I have managed to get three items which means that even from the start it is a good day. Here are my day 14 non beauty items though:

Back to my reviews and hopefully I can get more up to date today. But back to the subject in question and these are my day 13 nonbeauty advent calendars. Here is what I received in them: First is smiggle which has an interesting shaped aperture. Inside is a monster design bouncy ball. I think my son will really like it and it is really really cute. I particularly like the winking monster in the very centre with the horns. Strangely it makes me think of naughty children. Next is tinc and very happily has an item. Another nice item which is a keyring of a Christmas tree on which you can write your name on the back. This will be lovely for next year to put on my sons bag to label it. This is great and I'm really happy that I have actually received an item in the advent calendar today. Maybe I am easily pleased. The final advent calendar I will review for the 13th is the busy bees candles advent calendar. Inside is a scent ...

The first advent calendars that I will review for the twelfth of December are these non beauty advent calendars First I will start with smiggle and today we have a cute design with small children on the front. The design on this is really sweet and I have actually got more and more attached to it over time. There is a large slot today and that makes me wonder what is inside. So the item today is this ruler and it will be really useful and I will probably give it to my son when he starts school in September. It has a nice blue colour and has some really useful stencilled shapes. I particularly like the hearts and the numbers. Next is the busy bee candles advent calendar. Today's melt is in the scent  Christmas comfort. To me this has a hot zesty scent and I can also smell fruit. It i s right up my alley and I think I will really enjoy using this melt. The final advent calendar today is tinc and sadly once again today there is no ite...

Sorry for the long delay. This is my day 11 non-beauty Advent calendar review. Here are the items that I received:

Another day another three items in my non-beauty advent calendasr so I think that I'm on a bit of a winning streak. Also I have to admit that today I like it the items even more than yesterday too and I hope that you are enjoying these on boxing. But, enough jibber jabber and here are my day 10 items: I see the aperture and I am absolutely filled with dread. This was the same shaped aperture as the last Smiggle item that put up a real fight. So I have a good inkling that it will be another lollipop scented highlighter. And it is one of those one of those items. This is a pink highlighter with a slight berry scent to it. Thankfully this one didn't put up a fight and I didn't get it all over my hand and it will be nice to use and I will probably use it myself rather than giving it to my son because the likelihood is with this it will be rather messy and he will highlight everything. Next is tinc and seeing a pen shaped aperture I got worried b ut...

Today there will be less moaning and groaning because I have actually received three items on my non beauty advent calendar. But enough of that and here are the items that I received on the ninth day of advent for my non beauty advent calendars: