Slime, Gelli Baff and SnoBall fun with Zimpli Kids – Review

Do your kids love playing with Slime, Gelli and Fake Snow?  Then Zimpli Kids have the answer to all of their messy play dreams with simple, easy to use products that kids love and parents don’t have to worry about too much mess.  We were sent to review a selection of their products to try out and see what we thought.

The Slime Baff is a really easy to use slime kit made by simply adding a sachet to a bath of water and stirring around until it thickens up and becomes….. SLIME!!  The children were excited at this and happily got their arms in to stir around the green, gooey looking water and they loved feeling it turning into slime, not quite believing that I was actually going to let them get into an entire bath full of slime!  (For me though, this seems like a contained way to play, keeping all the mess in one place)

Once in the bath it was impossible to contain their excitement swishing the slime around, stretching it in to the air and showing each other what they could do with it!

Here’s a short slime video to show you the slime in action and my 8yr old’s thoughts on Zimpli Kids Slime Baff after he’d come out of the bath tub and I think I can safely say it was a complete hit and something they’d definitely do again.  What I love about it is when they have finished playing (about an hour later), you just dilute the slime a little bit before letting it run down the plug hole.  I then transferred the children across to the shower for a rinse off and their daily wash. Simple!

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Next up from Zimpli Kids is Gelli Baff which is a firm favourite with us having first tried it back in 2013 with my then 6 yr old.  She’s now 11 and loved it just as much this time and my boy who just admired from afar last time as a toddler but this time got completely stuck in and thoroughly enjoyed himself.

With the Gelli Baff you simply stir the coloured sachet into the water, the solution gradually thickens up to produce a jelly like consistency.  As you can see below we made it quite thick at first and slowly added more water to get it to a soft textured mixture that the children enjoyed sitting in as it was warm and loved feeling it endlessly running through their fingers.

The children found this relaxing but fun and when you’ve had enough you simply add the sachet of salt to dissolve the mixture before letting it run down the plughole.

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Our final product to share from Zimpli Kids is SnoBall Play which is a small sachet that when mixed with water creates a fake like snow substance allowing you to mould snow balls and have a snow ball fight.  Seeing as we rarely get snow in the South West, the children were delighted to try this one out.

Mixing with water produced a soft mouldable snow like substance that the children were really excited with.  Despite the weather being damp and cold, we had a brief sunny spell so they got outside and started making their snow balls.  All I could hear was excitement and laughter as they attempted to hit each other.

The SnoBall Play went down a treat with my two and they were constantly entertained and giggling until the snow ran out!  They then came in and despite the snowy substance being left on the lawn I didn’t have to worry as it’s degradable and a couple of days later I noticed that it had all disappeared.

Overall I have to say that all of the Zimpli Kids products have provided much enjoyment, fun, laughter and all round entertainment for my children.  The products are different from their normal toys and activities, all kids love a tactile substance to get their hands into and who doesn’t love a good old snowball fight?

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.

Professor Scrubbington’s Review and Giveaway

Professor Scrubbington’s Emporium of Clean is a new brand range of young persons wash products with a quirky style that I love and products that have been thought about in both packaging and what’s inside.  Suitable for both males and females, I was keen to see what my children thought about them.

scrubbingtonsWhen my parcel of goodies arrived, I was immediately impressed with the packaging, therefore knew there must be something good inside.  The cardboard box resembled a suitcase with various luggage style stickers attached – so cute!!

Inside was a selection of Professor Scrubbington products ranging from hand wash to body wash, hair shampoo and conditioner and even a deodorant.

scrubbingtons 2The packaging is very unisex and the bottles a good chunky, easier to hold design.  Where they are a little bit different is in the lids.  The hand wash has a large, chunky pump style top which is great for younger hands to push down.  The body wash, shampoo and conditioner have large style lids with a flat end meaning you can keep them stored upside down, meaning the product is always at the end of the bottle you need it at.  A simple squeeze and the product is easily dispensed into your hand.

scrubbingtons 3All the products are a minimum of 95% and free of parabens.  With gentle, mositurising Aloe Vera in them they have a light, delicate fragrance.  One of the best properties about these products is the way they foam into a rich lather, perfect for little hands to help spread the product across their bodies.

scrubbingtons 4My children loved using these products and I love the ease of use and they look good in the bathroom.  I’m therefore happy to offer one of my readers the chance to win a set of Professor Scrubbington products, just fill in the gleam from below:

 

Professor scrubbingtons

 

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the products in order to write the review.

Bath Treats from The Bath Mama – Review

There’s nothing better than some me time and a bit of pampering in the bathtub, so receiving some treats form The Bath Mama on the run up to my 40th birthday was just what I needed.

bathmama 2The lavender bath petals come in a heart shaped box, consisting of three soap roses.  The petals can be broken off the rose and sprinkled on top of your bath water.  I found they dissolved quite quickly in the water leaving a soft creamy layer on top of the water and of course the aroma of lavender fills the bathroom.

bathmama 1These would be perfect to give as part of a gift of just for yourself if you want a little indulgence at bathtime.

As part of their gift soap range we received a coconut scented heart shaped soap.  It is a lovely, firm well made soap that is very rich and creamy giving plently of lather.  I’m not a huge fan of coconut fragrance in general but found this not too overpowering with just a gentle, natural scent.

bathmamaThe Bath Mama offer a range of bath products such as bath bombs, fizzes, salts, soaps, gift sets and more.  Why not take a look at what they offer and maybe indulge yourself in a little bathtime luxury?

All reviews are my own opinions and I received some bath products in order to write the review.

 

Lush Blogger Night and Product Reviews

At the start of the summer I was invited to a blogger event at my local Lush store.  Lush being that shop that emits a heavenly fragrance across the mall before you even reach it, inviting you to step inside and try it’s delectable handmade products.  Being 100% vegetarian, not tested on animals and using only natural, ethical ingredients, this certainly ticks a lot of boxes for me so I was intrigued to find out more.

lush 1Walking into the shop, you can’t help but be mesmerised by the vast arrays of freshly made products, sitting naked on the shelves waiting for you to inhale their individual aroma’s, eager to try them on your skin.  When I walked in I was greeted by a friendly bunch of staff who turned out to be incredibly knowledgeable and full of facts and information about each of the numerous products on their shelves.  They gave us a demonstration of some of their top summer products, showing us the individual raw ingredients as well as letting us smell and try them out upon our skin.

Buffy – a body butter with exfoliator.  Made with cocoa and shea butters for moisturising, ground rice, almonds and aduki beans for exfoliation and some essential oils for both calming and uplifting.  This is a must have shower product to leave your skin silky soft all year round.

African Paradise – a body conditioner designed to be used in the shower and rinsed off leaving your skin perfectly hydrated.  This is made with softening and scented ingredients from mango juice to moringa oil, shea butter to aloe vera – leaving a very relaxing soothing, finish to the skin.

One of the highlights of the evening has to be making my very own Big Blue bath bomb!!  I never expected to get this close to making a product let alone actually doing it!  The Big Blue has calming properties using arame seaweed for it’s softening ability along with many vitamins and minerals.  Also both lemon and lavender oil are included which are both fragrances that appeal to me.

lush 2Once seeing a demonstration, it was time to make our own.  We were each given some ‘attractive’ blue rubber gloves, a Lush bomb mould with which we filled with ingredients, swishing and turning until we had the perfect ball!!

lush 3Ta-dah!!  Above you can see my perfectly formed Big Blue, I’m still in shock I actually made this and didn’t really want to use it but, well, I kinda had to!

lush 4So how did it feel?  Incredibly softening, more than I could have imagined.  It had a heady, calmy fragrance that was totally relaxing.  I was really surprised at how soft the water felt, really leaving my skin feeling soothed, mosturised and supersoft.  With it’s turquoise blue hue and floating bits of seaweed, it felt tranquil and allowed me 20 minutes of child feel relaxation, something that’s a bit of a rarity these days!

After receiving a demonstration of Stepping Stone, a foot shaped scrub, we were given one to try at home.  I was so looking forward to trying this as my feet do suffer, particularly as I’m prone to wearing flip flops over the summer months which doesn’t do my heels any favours leaving them dry and prone to cracks.

lush 6Stepping Stone can be used as a foot pumice or foot soak and I did both by breaking a piece off and letting it fizz in water to soak my feet and the rest I used to scrub over my feet to combat the dry skin.  With lime, lemon and lemongrass oils to combat foot odour this really smelt heavenly!

The new range of suncare products from Lush was rather interesting.  With unusual formats and textures they were very different but seemingly effective.  Sesame Suntan Lotion is a light creamy lotion giving SPF10 that sinks easily into the skin.  The Sunblock is a solid sunscreen wash giving a high SPF30 protection.  It works by massaging onto damp skin in the shower then with a gentle pat dry you are fully protected head to toe.

lush 5I took home a tub of Lifesaver, a rich, highly moisturising sunscreen cream with an SPF30 protection.  I saved this little tub until I went on holiday to really test it out.  With the sun quite hot and a tendency to get burnt shoulders I covered my arms and shoulders with this quite liberally and then sat on the beach.  Being on their for 3 or 4 hours I didn’t reapply but found this easily protected me and I didn’t burn in the slightest.  With moisturising shea butter this meant my skin didn’t dry out either leaving it feeling soft and soothed even at the end of the day in the hot sun.

I’ve really enjoyed trying out some new and different Lush products, it’s definitely made me realise that Lush has so much more to offer than just bath bombs and soap bars which are the main products I have used from there previously.  Being a highly ethical company and using lots of amazing natural products and fragrances, I’d definitely suggest popping in to try something out.  The staff members are welcoming and knowledgeable and can guide you towards products suitable to needs and skin type.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received some Lush products in order to write the review.

 

 

Bath Crayons with Bathtime Buddies

Bathtime Buddies Bath Crayons were an instant hit with my two children, the idea of drawing in the bath was fun, but actually being able to draw on the bath itself and the tiles proved even more exciting.

Bath crayons 1Each pack contains five crayons, in bold looking colours although they aren’t as bold as they look, so don’t worry, these aren’t going to stain your bath!

Both my children were very excited to see these and they were thoroughly entertained in the bath using them.  They bounced off each other with ideas as they used the crayons to write their names, draw round their hands and draw rainbows!!

bath crayons 2Miss M even drew the words Bathtime Buddies and spelt it all correctly, I was very impressed!  She then decided she wanted to write numbers as Maths is her favourite subject at school at the moment, so she proceeded to write the numbers 1 all the way up to 100!!

bath crayons 3Mister B drew lots of squiggles but kept rubbing them out when done so it was hard to capture them.  But without a doubt, this is one of the most occupying activities we have had in the bath, the children kept on squiggling until the water was cold!!  They were washing a lot off as they went but the bits that I did have to rinse off after came off with minimal effort just using the shower spray over the tiles and it instantly washed away!

 

 ***  WIN £120 Supermarket shopping vouchers ***

If you want to have a go and try the crayons with our children then email hello@bathtime-buddies.co.uk to request a sample and if you are one of the first 50, you’ll be sent a sample of crayons for your children to get creative with in the bath!

Just upload your child’s creation to the Bathtime Buddies Facebook page to be in with a chance of winning a weeks worth of shopping!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and the product was sent to us in order to write the review.

Fun at Bathtime with Bathtime Buddies

Making bathtimes fun for the children is essential for me, it can often be a drag getting them up to the bath, but if you have some fun things lined up, they soon relax and enjoy being in the bath and actually want to stay in there, despite initially asking me to wash them quickly so they can get straight out.

I use many things to make bathtime more fun and Bathtime Buddies have a great range of accessories to help engage children in bathtime fun.  We received a few products to help make our bathtimes more fun, from Foam Alphabet Letters to Squirting Ducks and squirty Soapy Foam.

Bathtime 1The children’s eyes lit up when they saw the goodies, “Can we have them in the bath tonight”, they chorused as they eagerly checked them out.

bath 4They had great fun squirting water out of the ducks at each other and also used them to aim at foam shapes we have on the wall.  They also found if you squirted the alphabet letter they would drop down off the tiles which they found an exciting activity.  Miss M liked writing things with the letters such as their names and other random little words.  For Mister B who’s 3, I found them useful to get him to recognise his letters and practice the sounds.

bath 3By far the children’s favourite was the Soapy Foam which they played with endlessly.  They were fascinated by the huge volumes of foam that I squirted into their hands and then used it in a variety of ways from filling pots, to covering themselves or making swirly patterns with it using their fingers.  They love the texture of it and can sit for ages running it through their fingers.  Why not give them a handful while you are washing their hair?

Bath 1The children also like to sing in the bath and that can help extend the time they sit in the bath which particularly helps when I am detangling Miss M’s unruly curls with lots of conditioner!  I can never predict what song that will be and usually it is one of their own creations especially with Mister B who loves to make up silly rhymes although he went a little camera shy when I tried to capture him in action.  Miss M did a little tune which I’ve shared with you below:

Bathtime Buddies have come up with their own bathtime song, a verse and chorus and we’ve made up a couple of extra verses, so feel free to use them if you want to sing the song with your children in the bath.

You can listen to the Bathtime Buddies song here:

 Verse 1
Hey, Hey! The day is over
and it is time for bed.
First you must have a bath,
before you can rest your head.

Pre-Chorus
All of your friends are here to help you
wash all the days dirt and grime away.
Play with the ducks, “SQUIRT!”
Or Soapy Foam shapes, “SHAPES!”
Let’s see what else you can create, “YAY!”

Chorus x 4
Hey, Hey! Let’s go and play.
Let’s go and play with The Bathtime Buddies.
Learning is fun when it’s me and you!

Our Verse 2
Little squirty ducks,
can be so much fun.
Can you hit the targets
one by one?

Our Verse 3
Make Foamy Soap shapes
and balls of snow,
Or cover yourselves
from head to toe.

Our Verse 4
With the foam letters
you can write your name
Find the letters A-Z
or have a spelling game.

I think having fun in the bath is a great way to get children to enjoy the experience and make life easier for you, the adult.  There are so many ways to make bathtime fun, from coloured bubble bath, foamy soap, bath fizzers to all the little toys and accessories available.

Bath 2On Thursday 15th May 2014, H&A along with tots100 are having a twitter party at 1-2pm, there will be prizes for the best tweets so why not come along and join in using hashtag #KidsBathtimeFun.  Also remember to follow @tots100 and @BathtimeBuddies.

What fun things do you play or sing to keep your kids occupied in the bath?

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received we received some bathtime buddies products in order to write this post.