In September my partner and I went to Belgium for a few days. We stayed in Brussels and took a day trip to Bruges. One of the many things that's famous over there is speculoos biscuits. Crunchy spiced biscuits that are completely delicious and moreish. Over in the UK you can buy Lotus biscuits from supermarkets, which are a massed produced version of the same yummy biscuit. Ever since we got back we've been buying a packet here and there to enjoy with coffee.

Lotus have also produced speculoos spread. All the yummyness of the biscuit in spread form. I'm reliably informed its like peanut butter (I don't eat peanut butter so I wouldn't know). A quick scout on google seems to suggest its sold in the US as biscoff spread. I brought back two jars from Brussels (along with a jar of caramel sauce and chocolate spread, om nom!) and spent a long time scouring the internet for recipes and ideas. The first thing I decided to try was making a cheesecake. I love speculoos biscuits, I love cheesecake. This idea could never fail, really! I've previously experimented with cheesecake recipes as can be seen in my blog post here, although I decided to go for a baked cheesecake this time rather than a no-cook one.

Yesterday I was near an Asda store, I'm not normally up that way so I thought I'd pop in for a browse as I'd heard good things about their beauty products, specifically nspa. Here's what I ended up getting:

• Melting Cleansing Gel
• Jojoba and White Vanilla foaming bath milk
• Jojoba and White Vanilla warming salt scrub
• 5 minute magic mask
• Jojoba and White Mask Dry Body Oil
• Jojoba and White Vanilla scented candle

Last night I was a football widow and with little interest in watching a bunch of fellas kick a ball around some grass on my TV, I decided it was time for a pampering session so I tried all of these products out in a luxurious bath. I loved the scent of the jojoba and white vanilla products, it smells really luxe and much more expensive than the price tags. The bath milk gives a good amount of bubbles and you're surrounded by the delivious scent.

The melting cleansing gel was quite interesting. It comes out as a peachy-pink gel which you rub all over your dry face. Then you wet your finger tips and massage the gel over your face again and it turns into a cleansing milk which you then wash off your face. It took all my makeup off with ease and didnt leave my skin feeling too tight after which is what I was worried about.

The salt scrub was a teeny bit disappointing as it wasn't very scrubby, but it did feel nice to use and made my skin feel really soft after using it, I just wasn't able to get a proper scrub of my skin like I wanted to first.

The 5 minute magic mask was a pink creamy consistency. You apply a layer across your face and  massage in to release the beads of Vitamin E which are suspended in the cream. You then leave on for 5 minutes before washing off. After using my skin felt smooth and soft and this morning, having applied some serum and night cream after my bath my skin still feels soft and smooth and doesn't feel greasy.

The dry body oil initially smells of alcohol when you first spray it and is a little unpleasant in that respect, but once you rub it in the alcohol evaporates and leaves a dry oil that absorbs quickly into the skin leaving the skin really soft.

All in all I was really impressed with these products. There was an offer on for 2 for £8 for the mask and cleansing gel and the foaming bath milk, scrub, oil and candle were about £3-4 each so they are good value for money. I can't wait for my next pampering session!

Have you used nspa before?

Well hello to you. For the first time in ages, I'm here with something crafty rather than beauty related.

For Christmas my lovely Mum gave me a 3 month subscription to Crafty Creatives. Crafty Creatives operate a monthly box service not dissimilar to the beauty box subscriptions. Except, of course, that rather than beauty samples they send you some lovely crafty bits to get your creative juices flowing.  My first box arrived yesterday!

This is an odd thing for a beauty box/beauty product obsessive to say, but, my favourite face cleanser is one I make myself and the main ingredient is something you would normally cook with. I remember reading about the oil cleansing method (or OCM for short) through a forum or through Livejournal. I have greasy skin that sometimes tends towards combination skin and am prone to breakouts and throughout my teenaged years I assumed face washes specifically designed for greasy skin were my best bet. I now realise that's not true. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that every single foaming face wash I've ever used has been quite damaging to my skin, in terms of drying it out, or making me overproduce oil on my face to compensate, or giving me horrendous breakouts. Some have even stripped so much from my face that its been left red and sore (and I don't have sensitive skin or any particular allergies to products that I'm aware of). If a face wash makes your skin feel dry, you'll end up piling on moisturiser to compensate, and you'll probably end up a greasy mess a few hours later.

When I first read about OCM I'll admit I thought it was lunacy. My skin is already oily, why on earth would I pour more oil on it?! But if you think about oil, it dissolves in other oils, and not in water. You can break it down with detergents (so soap and soup like products) as anyone who has done the dishes will know, but that will take every last bit of oil away. If you do that, your skin won't have anything, and will freak out, and will produce masses to compensate for its loss. And there you have it, the vicious cycle begins. I was still skeptical though, but when I first read about it, I figured I had nothing to lose. I tried it and I was really impressed with the results and anyone I've recommended it to has said the same.