Check this Out: Natures Healthbox

Ahhh the day is finally here. I've been building up to this for an age, the Natures HealthBox website has finally gone live y'all!

Natures Healthbox is a family run online business, specialising in the sale of natural, organic and eco-friendly products. It's the brainchild of three very passionate young entrepreneurs Jon, Keeley and Kerri. There are many reasons I am excited by this new development, it's not just that they kindly sent me some products to review, or that they are starting a really great niche and needed, online retail space at a time when others wouldn't dare, or that their available product list is making my credit card provider start to look nervous (Buy all the things!). I'm also excited because Kerri and Keeley are two personal friends of mine and I could not be prouder of my girlies at this time. You fucking go sisters!

Hmmm, I do wonder how much detail I can go into about my ladies without ruining thier newfound businesswomen chic. We happened upon each other on the tropical Island of Kao Tao in Thialiand and bounded over our lack of interest in diving and a whiskey bucket. Without saying too much more, our time together had many a laugh, at least one full moon party, some drunken tattoos and the girls kindly trying to help me locate my missing pants on a beach in Kao Phangnan.

That was then and this is now. We were young and now today we are business women, well they are, I'm still a big goofball.

So more than a month ago I was pleasantly surprised by large package arriving on my doorstep (don't you just love it when that happens). The guys from NH had kindly sent me some of the Bulldog Natural Skincare products for men, to review for them. Skincare products! Ladies (and you too Jon) how did you know? I am an easy sell for facial scrubs and moisturisers with being a gay and all but knowing my straight friends as I do, a proper daily skincare regime can be a harder sell to some men due to their fear of coming off a bit nelly. Cleverly averted by this product range with their very macho name-tag used to describe products containing effeminate ingredients such as green tea, algae, pumice and coconut shell, a sort of subscription to the 'Pepsi Max' school of advertising for men. Bravo Bulldog, Bravo. In fact the name makes me want  stick out my chest, like I am well 'ard and continue the rest of my review in a cockney accent but I'll spare you all my embarrasment of trying.

So I was kindly given three products to review, the Original Face Scrub, the Original Shave Gel and the Sensitive Moisturiser (how did you know again?). What can I say about these products? Well let's start with the scrub anyways because funnily enough Husband and I were actually in the market for a new one (our current one had us feeling a bit meh). Whoosh! What a refreshing way to snap the sleep out of you in the morning.  This beats our current scrub hands down and has had my skin looking all kind of fabulous. BG and NH you have converted me on this one and I just had a price check on your site there and whoa, what value for money. Yesum!

I improvised!

Shave gel, hmmm, eh a harder sell for us Homos who subscribe to the ideals of bearded is best and don't actually clean shave. Still I managed to improvise a use for this one. Also a massive thumbs up here, clean shave with zero break outs. Sure to smoothly aid in the shave of many a face, chest or ballsack. Yesum also!


So lastly onto the sensitive moisturiser, I've decided to be completely honest about this one because by letting you dear readers know that these guys are friends of mine, you might suspect some bias on my part when it comes to reviewing these products. Basically on a whole this moisturiser meets most of my needs, leaves my skin feeling great, gives me a refreshing jolt in the morning, tackles the patch dry skin I get around my nose, apart from one thing. A need that is satisfied by my current moisturiser, that as a forgetful and pasty Irish pale skinned ginger is kinda important to me. This moisturiser does not contain SPF. Probably because it is not a natural ingredient so makes sense, but on this basis I probably won't switch to Bulldog on this front. Sorry guys, you know what Meat Loaf says!

Now's your chance to sample some of the Natures Healthbox products for yourselves, as the guys over there have kindly offered a 10% discount voucher code for you dear readers. Isn't that lovely!

The code is BLOGTASTIC2013 and will be valid until midnight on the last day of January. It will be valid on all products available on the site and is in addition to the January offers on: 

25% off Salcura (amazing treatments for eczema, psoriasis, dry and irritable skin)15% off A.Vogel (a vast range of remedies and tinctures extracted from plants)20% off Amy's Kitchen (Seriously delicious soups with no nasties)

So you guys could receive up to 35% off of the selected lines!

Did someone just say bargain?

Any who you can check the guys web address below and don't forget to like them on Facebook and follow on Twitter to keep up on their latest offers.

Website: www.natureshealthbox.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/natureshealthbox

Twitter: @NaturesHBox

Enjoy my babies!

GBM

PS. NH guys if you are reading this thanks again for everything including my bar of Dairy Free Chocolate, it was Nom.

Friends like These

First wine of many consumed that day

When you have particular sense of humor, repetitive, juvenile, filled with vulgarity and just verging on slightly off kilter, there is a potential risk of you not finding common ground with people and finding friends that actually get you, especially if you come from a very small town like I did. That's why I feel so fortunate to have quite a large group of friends the majority of which I had met when I was still in secondary school (High School for my North American readers).  When I think back on it now what bonded us together was our differences, we were all a little weird, a little strange, with that same dark, off kilter, slightly juvenile sense of humor. We shared a love of music and alternative lifestyles, of not following the path expected of us and of getting together to just laugh our asses off, with, at and because of each other. It was hard to leave them behind but what I know and love about this mutually appreciating band of merry weirdos is the fact that we can go for days, months, years even, without seeing each other and pick up exactly where we left off. Let us meet and let us laugh. I tend not to name names or talk about anyone on my Blog without their express permission so the rest of this post will be focused on Blog Bomb but I just want the rest of my gang to know how much they mean to me and that I couldn't ask for a better group of friends to be fartarded with.

Blog Bomb and I met about 6 years ago and there was an instant connection, we could spend periods of almost 24 hours in one go in each others presence laughing at each others stupidity and childish behavior. No one else shares my love of making up terrible dance moves to even more terrible pop tunes. We share a love of absolute repetition, of playing our new most favorite you tube video or cheesy song du jour 150 times in a period of 7 hours. Our song of the weekend this time was 'Move This' by Technotronic.

  Not original video, fan made one with people doing silly dancing, feels more fitting:

We actually played this song in a hotel when they stopped playing their own tunes and began dancing around our phones with enjoyment, much to the general disapproval of the hotel guests. Who were we hurting? It takes a true kindred to enjoy a silly hat montage with a giant  Man-Boy with absolutely no shame or embarrassment, in fact with absolute gusto.

Our joy and excitement at being back in each others (and the rest of my posse) presence lead to maybe one too many drinks being consumed. It takes a true friend to get you out of a nightclub early on in the night before you lose your last shred of dignity (the key indicator being that we kept ending up in a giggling pile on the floor whilst practicing our dance moves, got the knee bruises to prove it). Time to leave, home to bed and asleep before 12 o'clock. And moreover it takes a true friend to let you know that whilst an outfit maybe be sliming it ultimately clashes with your hair (actually Husband's words but he's a true friend too and one of the best).

I didn't buy it in the end

Ahh precious memories.

GBM