Vegan Friendly Toiletries from A Pony Called Steve

A Pony Called Steve is an ethical and vegan friendly company that produce the most utterly divine scented products to fill your bathroom with joy.  With a quirky edge and retro feel, the array of fragrances are ones that bring back memories and sound edible but have been brought up to date in a modern natural way and can now be part of my daily bathroom routine.

If you’re wondering where the name ‘A Pony Called Steve‘ comes from then I suggest you read this, but for me I’m won over by their unique but familiar fragrances.   It’s clear from the initial sniff that they source high quality, cruelty free ingredients to make the most highly fragranced, but natural smelling products.  Their range is toiletry based so think along the lines of soap bars, liquid hand soap, body wash, bath fizz, body lotion and even candles.

The quirky scents are what draw you in with names such as Pear Drops, Cherry Cola, Parma Violets, Mojito, Honeyed Raspberry to name just a few, they all sound great and if they smell as good as the Pink Lemonade then I can assure you that they will be worth worth trying out.  Everything is packaged in fun, colourful designs that will look great in your bathroom and make delightful gifts.

Onto the Pink Lemonade products that I’ve been trying out, the hand soap and bar of soap.  To be quite honest these smell totally luscious – I could sniff them all day and I do love smelling my hands after washing them.  The fragrance is just divine – not at all artificial, just natural and quite frankly amazing.  The product itself lathers well in both liquid and solid forms and leaves my hands/body beautifully clean.  I love these products and they are most definitely the sort of thing I’d add to my birthday/Christmas lists and think would make a great gift for others too.  Being as natural as they can, no testing on animals whatsoever and vegan friendly, they are well worth checking out as one of the fresh new brands around and one I’d be more than happy to receive myself!

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

Nickelodeon Experimake Superb Sea Shaped Soaps

Nickelodeon Experimake Superb Sea Shaped Soaps by Addo Play is a fun science based craft kit aimed at children aged 8-10 years.  Available from The Entertainer toy shop it is part of a bigger range of craft kits all containing various experiment type projects. This one consists of making sea shaped soaps using included moulds, colourings and fragrances.

When opening the box the contents are displayed in two cardboard trays covered in science images which was rather fun but also helped us keep all the bits neatly together.

Included are:

  • 3 sea related moulds
  • red and blue colouring
  • vanilla fragrance
  • 3 pipettes
  • stirring sticks
  • soap base
  • gloves
  • gift bags
  • gift labels

The children couldn’t wait to get started and set about making their own sea life soaps.  I gave them each a microwaveable plastic pot to which they added the soap base cubes.  They put these in the microwave for short bursts until the soap had melted and then loved donning a glove each to add their chosen colours.  They quickly worked out that they could mix the colours to create new ones so by adding a couple of drops of red and a couple of blue which created purple.  They also noted that the yellow vanilla fragrance added to the blue created a green colour.  They thoroughly enjoyed using the pipettes and creating their own little liquid soap ready to pour into the seashaped moulds.

The instructions also suggest additional ingredients you can add to the soaps to give different properties such as salt for exfolitating, oats for an oatmeal soap, dried flowers for a rose petal soap or herbs for an aromatic soap – all things you may already have at home and can add to make more inventive style soaps.

We popped the moulds into the fridge for half an hour to set and then we found them easy to pop out, although you do need to press evenly across the shape to ensure it comes out whole and doesn’t break.  The children were thrilled with the finished results and really proud of the soaps they made.  They can’t wait to use them at bedtime!

A really nice touch with this set are the included three little organza gift bags and sticky labels that you can use to give the soaps as gifts. This really finishes off the set and makes a lovely handmade gift for your child to give.  My two are currently decided who they are going to gift a soap too and which ones to keep for their own use.

Overall I think the Nickelodeon Experimake Superb Sea Shaped Soaps is a really lovely set for children to create with and it’s relatively simple to do.  Obviously due to the high heat of the melted soap pieces it is best placed with slightly older children but it’s great to bring the science element into play at home with liquids/solids, adding liquids with a pipette and colour mixing.  A great set that would make a lovely gift for boy or girl!

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

Wild! Science Cake Soap Factory

With British Science Week upon us, the sets from Wild! Science are perfect for children to experiment with various things and come up with some fun creations.  We’ve been trying out the Wild! Science Cake Soap Factory and I’m amazed at some of the fun edible looking soaps Miss M has come up with. If you do try out one of the Wild! Science kits then be sure to keep your receipt as there is a chance to win a fabulous competition to Orlando Florida!

The set includes everything you need to make the soaps from transparent soap blocks, pigment soap blocks, colours, stirring sticks, glitter, 2 plastic measuring beakers, piping bag & nozzles and of course a cake shaped mould tray.

9yr old Miss M was eager to get started and we found the instructions simple to follow and carry out.  You simply put various amounts of blocks of glycerine soap and pigment into a beaker and melt it in the microwave.  Once in liquid form you can add drops of colouring and stir in, then before it turns to a solid again, quickly pour it into the moulds to set.  We repeated this process several times making different colours and multiple cake pieces.

Miss M’s favourite part was whisking up some water with liquid soap to form a foamy soap which can be piped between or on top of cakes to represent cream.  This was great fun but you have to work quickly before it sets.

Aren’t the finished soaps beautiful?  In fact we think they look good enough to eat although of course they won’t be very tasty!

The Wild! Science Cake Soap Factory is a fantastic educational set in which you can experiment with liquids and solids.  It is fun to use and has been thoroughly enjoyed by my 9yr old who can’t wait to use her new soaps in the bath and shower.

It’s well worth getting a Wild! Science play set at the moment as they have an amazing competition running at the moment.  The Wild! Science Global Challenge is giving families (2 adults and 2 children) a chance to win:

  • A trip to Orlando Florida
  • Entry to Disney World
  • Accomodation to a 5 star resort for 7 days
  • Car hire for 7 days
  • A full set of Wild! Science products
  • Entry to the Kennedy Space Centre to meet a real astronaut

How to enter:

  1. Buy a Wild! Science Kit and send a receipt copy with your online application
  2. Design and create an awesome new Wild! Science Kit
  3. Write and illustrate a basic instruction book to show other kids how to use your awesome Wild! Science Kit

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

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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.