Hello I'm Terri Lowe

I've not done a 'food' post for a while, so here's a few things that have been taste sensations (or not so) lately!

The first is 'Cocobay' Coconut Rum from Aldi.

The last product I've sampled on this quest was the new Dove conditioner.

Hello! Happy Friday! 

I've been posting a lot about beauty products lately and totally forgot about all the wonderful new grub I have been filling my belly with. Here's a few I have sampled lately....

Mmmm nothing is more delicious than almonds and cherries! (well, I can actually think of a million things just as delicious really, I'm sooo greedy) Spotted this yoghurt in M&S the other week and had to try it, it was about 60p and immediately got me intrigued. It had crushed almonds and cherries in it and was a really nice thick creamy yoghurt. The only downside was they also added a very artificial cherry taste which was unnecessary when it had so many actual ingredients in!

 It was a cold day and I fancied something stodgy and filling, this looked like proper comfort food! (although I will admit the price was not so comfortable, it was about £7!!!)

Thankfully it was the best one I smelt, which was Gin and Rosewater.... They are pretty pricey though and retail at around £30 for a 25ml bottle. HMPH.

The first one I got was the 'Let them eat cake' balm....

It had Marie Antoinette themed packaging, which was nice.

The little pot itself was really nice too, the balm was quite vaseline like though and smelt a tad too sickly for my taste but who cares? ITS TOKYO MILK haha.

The next balm I got was the Iced Green Tea one.

An oriental theme packaging for this.

Digging more into my hoard of goodies I discovered the Studiomakeup liner styler pen. I appreciate that they've sent a black one, usually in things like this you get some crazy colour no one really uses, black eyeliner is a staple of my FACE so this is going to be put to some use. It's full size too and should cost £12! Trying it on my hand it's a really pigmented rich shade too, I've used the bourjois one before and found it a bit too transparent.

So, this week I have mostly been trying the following new 'tings;

I'm a big fan of 'Rockstar' energy drinks regardless of their immensely cringy brand name (!!) The blue and the red ones are really nice and fruity. This however, was shit. Really flavourless and bland. It was supposed to be strawberry, raspberry and something else. It doesn't really matter what the other berry was it was supposed to taste like to be honest because it tasted of nothing anyway.

They're really hard wearing and rich colours. The set of 5 cost £9.99 altogether from TK Max so a bit of a bargain. 

The pot has a long brush and also a more accurate pen nib. A frikking bargain. It's quite hard wearing also.

I hope this clears up the mystery for some of how these nails are done!

Once again I find myself back tracking through all the images taken months ago, playing a nice game of catch up with all these fancy pants things I like to consume....

Here's a nice discovery; Rice Flame Bar and Grill is a really nice, simple and (relatively) cheap restaurant based in Manchester. As you know I love a bit of oriental and when it's a 'fusion' it's a new level of intrigue. I did feel a little guilty not going to my all time favourite  Asian Fusion place, Tampopo (which pisses ALL over Wagamama's, it's a lot less corporate and the menu is more interesting and the food is so much nicer!)

But regardless of this I had a go;

The menu was a little hard to read to be honest, I see what they did though. They tried to make everything simple with clear descriptions of what was in each dish. You choose a main and then the rice or noodles to go as the base of the dish.

I chose Japanese Java Curry with a base of coconut rice (all time favourite type of rice)

It was all freshly prepared on an open kitchen and came super fast to the table. The coconut rice was AMAZING. It wasn't how you usually find it when they add a tin of coconut milk. It had a lot more flavour in and was just delicious. God knows what they did to it. The curry itself was a pretty much typical japanese curry but not as thick, all the veg was crunchy and cooked perfectly. I think it cost around £5.99 for the dish and it was a good portion, overall very pleased!

The consistency was good and even though it was a 'skinny' soup it still had a really nice creamyness about it. There wasn't a carrot taste to it at all. I bought it on offer for £1 but it usually retails at around £2.50 I think. I don't think I'd pay that much for it as there are other brands that do very similar tastes and style of this kind of soup.

& finally we have a 'new' yoghurt from Asda. It's Orange and Chocolate flavour and once again; the bane of my life 'low fat'.....

I had high expectations for this yoghurt.  I thought it would be just like the Muller chocolate orange flavour yoghurt (which, by the way, is very nice) Unfortunately this was nowhere near as good. The yoghurt itself was pretty much flavourless and the orange bits were tasteless also. The chocolate flakes tasted like cheap chocolate (soz I know you're thinking 'its a fucking asda yoghurt what do you want!) but considering there's such a small ratio of choc to yog you'd imagine they're splash out a few more pennies to make it taste nice!

And there were 3 small perfume samples in little vials. Which are handy.

They come individually packed so handy to take out and about (emergency ginger beverage? idk)

I added two to my cup ready for the boiling water (poured without adult supervision, living on the edge)

The taste is slightly stronger than a traditional ginger tea bag would be. A more 'natural' ginger flavour though. I think I prefer eating them as sweets though even though the texture it a bit weird you get a more concentrated hit of the spicy ginger flavour.

As you can see, it looked a lot like frog spawn.... not the most appetising appearance. This didn't put me off though as it reminded me of  my favourite China Town tipple; Aloe Vera King Juice which contains aloe vera pulp. Anyway.... I am disappointed to say this did not taste like that, and was more of a honey flavour?!! The basil seeds weren't offensive and this would be nice if you like honey, but unfortunately I don't! It was a bit like a liquid version of a Halls Soother. Grim.

This was banana and lavender flavour, it's served really chilled so really refreshing. You can have it without the 'bubbles' too which I did when I tried it the second time from Wasabi in Manchester (which by the way, is an awesome sushi restaurant, that pisses all over yo! shushi).

In the next blog entry I'll be having a try of some morrisons juices and ginger tablets (you'll see!)

I love Thai and Oriental food, so when I saw this on offer for half price I had to try it...

It was just kind of like a fancy Micro Noodles pot but with king prawn wontons in.... Because it had to be microwaved the wontons were all goopy and soft. The broth was really bland and the noodles were soggy. However, the prawns were a good size and quite juicy! For £1.24 I think the price was ok for a quick snack/light lunch.

This yoghurt is amazing!!!! It's on offer at the moment in Morrisons (2 for £3) they're in lovely little buckets. The yoghurt itself is slightly sour, but the cinnamon and apple goo at the bottom is the best,   and if you're a tight bastard like me you can save the cute little bucket to keep other shit in.

This is 'Rosehip' juice from Ikea to be honest I had no idea what the expect flavour wise for this, so had to try it. It's very syrupy and not a very pleasant taste, especially when it's not chilled. I defo would not buy it again. Soz Ikea! It was about a quid too so pretty expensive for a little drink like this, and I reckon the only health benefits would be if I wanted to get diabetes as it was very sugary. 

I am a massive fan of feta cheese (in fact it's been on every meal I've had for the past 6 meals now, whoops) and enjoy a bit of beetroot now and again, so I saw this and it instantly had appeal... And for £2.99 it's a very reasonable price considering it's M&S. Some of the salads in major supermarkets are nearly this price and just consist of pasta and mayo and are by no stretch of the imagination anywhere NEAR as tasty as this.

to jazz it up a bit and because I have more potatoes in than an Irish potato farmer, I sliced up some spuds, coated them in pepper, sea salt and rosemary and fried them for a bit too!

The outcome was amazing, the best salad I have had in a long time! I must admit the lentils got a bit much after a bit though and there were 3 slices of apple in the pack (which I still can't work out if they were there by accident or not) but saying this is was by no means offensive! I ate every last leaf. Yum yum.

I've had some of the other products from the chocolate block  range and haven't been overly disappointed by any of them yet. They retail at £1.70 each or 3 for £5 .... which sounds wonderful doesn't it? Great offer yes? NO. I was fully annoyed when I looked at my receipt and found I only saved 10pence! On the plus side I do have 2 more bars of chocolate than first intended. And thankfully it's pretty tasty.... It's got a kind of artificial cherry flavour to it, which isn't as bad as it sounds. Very sweet  but not like glacier cherry sweet though, because they are just plain horrid. It has some really small biscuity bits in too, which is usually a thing I loathe but in this it works well. Very nice and everyone should definately try some of the range! There's loads of different ones. My favourite so far has been the slightly salted pistachio flavour.

Immediately drawn towards it because 1. I love oriental/east asian cuisine and 2. It had a cute name! A really simple and quick concept of ordering where you choose if you want rice or noodles, then pick your meat then sauce, et voilá you have you express meal to go! Pretty cheap too, I had rice, tempura prawns and thai sauce which came to £5.20. Fairly tasty, obviously don't expect the orient express in a bowl but for the price the quality and taste was definitely there..... It was just what I needed after deciding Birmingham was my least favourite city to visit in the world EVER. (sorry brummies, I just can't handle the city centre's layout and lack of nice things to looks at!)

Anyway that's all for my first post. I'll be backtracking on stuff for a while yet; currently sifting through my phone images as I have an abundance of pictures of food/drink and the cat..... That'd probably depress most people but it's what I thrive on dammit!! 

If you know me, you will know that I love anything; new, cute or colourful. Bubble tea ticks ALL of these boxes. If you haven't already heard of bubble tea, I imagine you will do VERY soon, because if these don't take off properly in the UK this year there is something very wrong with our society!

I'll fill you in for the time being though.... Bubble tea can come hot or cold. The 'bubbles' are traditionally tapioca pearls which become chewy and gooey when prepared for the drink. I understand the tapioca is not to everyones taste and I'll admit they're a bit weird and I can imagine some people may be a bit grossed out by the consistency. But never fear, some companies have mixed this up a bit and put juice bubbles in or flavoured jelly (I've yet to try the jelly version) to give the same bubble tea goodness in a fruitier, more universally enjoyable form - huzzah! (apologies in advance for the inconsistent images on this post! I'll update them at some point in my life)

Really, I should of chose the darker coloured flavour for the lighter drinks but I didn't plan to blog about these. But I simply had too haha.

Anyway, I'm drinking the grape flavour first. It's just the right amount of tea and flavour combination. I know a lot of people aren't keen on flavoured tea's as they can be slightly bland and tasteless. Not bobo tea's though! They're fruity and delicious. And unlike iced 'tea' you get at high street coffee places *cough*Costa*cough* they're actual TEA, not a syrup concentrate splashed in a bit of water *shakes fist* So disappointed when I got charged about £4 for that in Costa during the summer!!

They remind me a little bit of Cod Liver Oil capsules but a lot yummier and not as good for the ol' joints.

So far I have tried a few of the iced fruit ones, my favourite over all though is the matcha green tea frappe with cream on top, I'm sure the antioxidants in green tea counteract the sugar and cream ;)

I bought this Pantene Ice Shine Anti-Frizz Smoothing Créme a few weeks ago, and I'll be honest, I don't quite get what it's meant to be or do. I bought it because I thought it may be a bit like a serum but in a cream version, if they even exist. Either way the ice shine range hadn't really let me down yet. But this has. Because it doesn't seem to have a purpose in life.

 It says 'frizz control with added shine' so I squirted a bit out and smoothed it onto my hair. I didn't even use that much and it made my hair lank, greasy looking and heavy. So yeah it smoothed the frizz but also made me look like I'd been dunking head first in a chip pan.

It's just a really odd product, definitely not what I wanted or expected. Even the tiniest amount doesn't work or do what I wanted and thought it was for. However, all is not lost. Even though it does not work on straightened/neat hair that you want to wear down, it could work for smoothing an 'up do'. I have also been using it to create a waved effect. I curl my hair with some medium barrel curlers brush it through then rub this through out. It's the only way I can find to use it that doesn't end in greasy looking disastHAIR.

After discovering the Superdrug Vitamin E Hot Cloth Cleanser the other day I have a new found obsession with this range. The offer is still on where you can purchase 2 products for £3.99 - so I'm certainly making the most of it. All the things I bought today should be £2.99 each. So what I bought should have come to £11.96 but I paid £7.98, which is pretty good going for 4 products.

Next I tried the face cream (yeah I was a bit wasteful and washed my face so all the oil kind of came off so I could see what the moisturiser was like on its own) It smells amazing. All of this range does, like a light coco butter type smell. It contains light reflecting pigments to instantly make your skin look fresh and dewy. I've not tried the MAC Strobe Cream to compare, but if it's anything like this it must be pretty good! It's SPF15 as well so perfect for the summer (when it comes) and once again the instructions do lack a bit. I'll be using it as a base for make up definitely though rather than just 'rubbing it in' like the tube says.

Overall I am just so impressed with the range. For the price and quality of the products you really can't go wrong. I want to try other things in the range but will work through this little lot first. Definitely worth a try if you've not yet discovered it!

I got my mitts on a £5 off any No 7 product in Boots this week. I don't usually bother with No 7 make up as I find their foundations are a really orange tone on me and it's kind of put me off the entire range. Regardless of that though, £5 off made me look again. I've been after a new liquid eyeliner and spotted their 'Amazing Eyes Liner' on the shelf for around £8.50. That's a pretty expensive price for eyeliner but I figured after the £5 was taken off it was a bit of a bargain.

Overall I probably wouldn't purchase this again. Not at full price anyway. I much prefer the bourjois liners. But it'll do for now. It's definitely not the worst one I've tried!

Closely followed by Firecracker

& finally Kid Gloves! Amazing.

Yesterday I went for a meal at Stoke on Trent's only Japanese restaurant - Miso. It's located in the deepest most darkest depths of Stoke town centre; an area I do not choose to frequent very often unless good food is promised! It is a truly horrid place (proven by some suspect chavs who walked past and shouted I was a 'dirty cow' on the way in haha!) But regardless of this the food was worth it and one day when I summon up the courage I will venture back and do a proper review of their goodness - that may be fairly soon as they currently have an offer on lunchtime Bento boxes for buy one get one free on Thursday's and Friday's!

Anyway, whilst I was there I noticed they now have a super mini shop bit where you can buy some little treats to take home - and being a sucker for anything new, cute or brightly packaged I got this little selection:

Altogether it came to £4.40 which isn't too pricey considering the price some of these fancy sweet shops sell foreign goodies for.

Pucca are little fish shaped pretzel snacks, chocolate on the outside and a creamy chocolate on the inside. I do not think that the restaurant have been keeping them in a 'cool dry place' though as they creamy inside was quite hard and gritty. The flavour was alright but I don't think you can beat good old fashioned English chocolate brands though.

Melon Milk sounds disgusting but I bought this after trying a few too many bubble tea's and love melon flavour drinks now. It was a really see through melon flavoured milkshake and was just the right amount of sweetness. I really liked it - a lot!

Pepero almond and chocolate pretzel sticks were once again not up to scratch due to the storage of them. The chocolate had gone all white and horrid looking but they still tasted fine. I like these because they have the right amount of almond within the chocolate. You don't get very many in the pack though which is a shame. They're the same as popular Japanese snack Pocky if you've ever tried those.

And finally

Well, I don't even know what the weird little sweet things were called but apparently they were ramune flavour, which I believe is a popular drink in Japan. They just tasted like sugar to me. And disintegrated very strangely in the mouth.

I have tried worse Japanese food, I used to like with a Japanese girl at uni and some of the strange and often wonderful food stuffs she would share was a really good experience. My favourite were those sour hot candies that are popular over there too, the least favourite being wasabi flavoured whitebait in a packet like crisps, yuck!

I do enjoy trying everything twice! 

After posting about the amazing offer on Superdrug's own brand Vitamin E range, I had a few requests to do a follow up review on the product. So here it is! (If you're not aware of the previous post it's on offer as 2 for £3.99 but retails for £5.99 each anyway saving you around £8 quid!)

Anyway, since the post I have used the cleanser a few times. I'll admit I'm a bit of a cleanser n00b and not really bothered with it before. I usually just use Soap and Glory Soap & Clarity face soap which is quick and refreshing and has also kept spots at bay.... But the hot cloth cleanser has appealed to me for it's vitamin E goodness and the fact it's for normal to dry skin. 

It's a really nice, creamy consistency and smells amazing. Like a floral coco butter type smell. You rub it around your face in a circular motion then dunk the muslin cloth in warm water, you then buff the cream off your face until it's all gone. Finish off with a splash of cool water and pat dry. 

I must admit, I do find things like this a bit of a ball ache. I like the quick and easy option but saying this the results are really worth it! It's left my skin looking and feeling a lot smoother. I think for me personally, because I'm lazy, I will use it in the bath though for when I have a little bit more time to relax and take my time washing my big round face. I will definitely be investing in more of the Superdrug Vitamin E range though, especially whilst it's on this amazing offer. I almost bought the face oil and moisturiser and truly regretting it now, nothing a trip to town wont fix though!

I was perusing the shelves of Boots earlier specifically after a Hot Cloth Cleanser. The ones they had were so expensive, ranging from £12-£20! So I remembered the horrid little town I was in had a Superdrug as well so I nipped across and immediately noticed the awesome offer they had on their own brand Vitamin E skin care range; 2 for £3.99.

Initially, I'd just like to apologise for the abundance of nail posts this week (well, two, but that's two more than I would of liked really!) All my stuff is still in boxes because I'm a professional procrastinator. However, I nipped to a local outlet mall called Freeport yesterday and spotted this rather splendid Glittery nail varnish in Claires. I'm not sure if this is common knowledge but Claires outlets that are in these 'outlet malls' offer 30% off the high street price. And they still stock current products, so if I see something in a local Claires I always check out the Freeport one (which is about 2 miles down the road) and get it for a cheaper price! If you've not heard of Freeport it's the same company as Cheshire Oaks, I don't know the name of any others outside the Stoke on Trent/ Cheshire area though I'm afraid!

Frosty weather equals frosty finger tips. This also means inspiration for some frosty inspired nail varnish. I came across this '2true' nail varnish in Superdrug the other day for £1.99. It's a really lovely iridescent white/silver glitter, when its on alone its a bit wishy washy so I teamed it up with 17's new shade 'Heartbeat' (£2.99) for some wintery goodness.

These colours are also quite inkeeping with the Pasty Pastels trend I blogged about last week!

It's really hard to get a picture that shows how nice the colours are together, when the light hits in the right place there's a nice purple/pink hue.

One day I'll work out how to take a decent photograph of nails.

Wanna see something cute yet practical?

Here ya go!

I was recommended this book by a friend. I had never heard of it and really did not know what to expect. When I read it was a 'Gothic Horror Story' I expected all kinds of Twilight shit going down. Alas no vampires, no werewolves and definitely no Edward bastard Cullen. It's hard to write a book 'review' without giving away the entire plot of it all. But basically it follows a young Scottish lad called Frank. It's fair to say Frank is a bit odd. His days are made up of pissing on heads of dead animals and generally being an absolute loner and freak. Frank keeps a little contraption in his loft which he uses as a little house (or factory) to kill wasps, the wasps meet their demise in many ways, the most notable ways being set on fire or drowning in Franks piss.... He has a 'disability' which doesn't become clear until the end of the book. That's the serious twist. You simply don't see it coming but when it does - BOOM! It's a 'what the fuck' moment indeed.  In fact there are many 'WTF' moments throughout the book. When you find a chapter becoming slightly dull and lengthy a massive twist happens and you find yourself sucked in again. If you want to read more about the actual storyline check out the Wiki Page, but it does contain a few spoilers.

Like I said, if I have finished a book, that alone means it's pretty good! Read it and be prepared to gasp...

GASP I TELL YOU.

The secret of the formula contains Walnut and Silk (although not that secret if it says it on the front of the box)

And it has a really retro poofer in to apply it with too. I've opted to use a big face brush instead though as I find the poofer awkward.

The powder itself is a really silky smooth one and easy to apply. It's has a slightly shimmery lustre to it giving you a nice fresh complexion and lasts throughout the day. I think in comparison to come translucent powders on the market you're definitely getting value for your money. Although it is not as good as my beloved Collection 2000 Perfecting Minerals it is definitely a good contender for a replacement during a day to day make up routine. I will use this for the daytime now and the remainder of my beloved for nights out or special occasions. The other thing that attracted me to Corn Silk was the fact it doesn't clog your pores and it's doesn't feel heavy on your face.

Have you got any retro beauty must haves? I've seen a few blog posts about the 80's classic Lipcote knocking around, I wonder what else will become popular again this year!?

You can see the rest of the contents of my budget make up bag here.

& in case you weren't convinced, watch the advert!

The first thing I noticed about the Tangle Teezer was the size. I'm not sure if it's just me who has abnormally small hands (I find it hard to play xbox games because of the clunky controller?!) but I find it very hard to hold. I must drop it at least twice each time I brush my hair. I think if they developed the design further and had a handle it would appeal to me a lot more and I'd drop it a lot less.

At The Drive In // One Armed Scissor

Refused // New Noise

And in case these aren't your cup of tea, go back to your happy place with this;

What type of music do you like?

What is your favourite song right now??

Wilko's have launched a new hair care range, in some super colourful packaging. I went in today for some dull parcel paper but saw the massive display containing the new range and was drawn towards it. Prices ranged from £1 - £3 and included shampoo's, conditioners, body wash and even hand sanitising gels in an array of fruity scents. Because I have way too many of the other products already I opted for the Hair Mist which cost a whopping £1.30.

And here's a few of my own snaps involving a light pasty colour palette. Both these dresses were from vintage shops.

They do actually have that 'totally tropical' coconut flavour. I was quite amazed as I thought it would be a horrid artificial taste. However, there is definitely something in candy from America that gives me a sore throat. I don't really know what it is! They taste really nice but for the price and side effects I think I'll pass next time.

Its a bit of a mixed bag this week. I've had my iTunes on shuffle which throws up all kinds of mental shit. But here's a select few I've hit repeat on.....

Beirut//Nantes.

Aphex Twin//Come to Daddy

Flight of the Conchords //The hiphopopotomus vs the rhymnocerous

IS IT BECAUSE I RAP ABOUT REALITY? LIKE MY AND MY GRANDMA HAVING A CUP OF TEA??

Enjoy.

This week I found a wonderful little crafty gadget in Aldi for £2.50; Recently graduating from a BA(hons) in 3D Design: Crafts (or as I like to deem it making cards for grown ups {I jest it was a bit more technical than that}) I'm always on the look out for little crafty goodness to keep my degree relevant to my life (and make me feel better about accumulating £1000's worth of debt for a degree not really relevant to getting a 'real job')

ANYWAY......

And there you go! You can switch and swap the letters to say whatever you like. It comes with an extra ink pad too!

I've been intrigued by glittery nails this week and was looking for just a nice, cheap, plain and simple clear silver glitter to put over the top of my existing nail varnishes. Alas this task is harder than it sounds! I scoured everywhere for some glittery nail varnish below £3 (as you can tell I begrudge spending more than certain amounts of money on certain things)

Anyway, I nipped in Beauty Fresh and found these rather splendid Technic Nail Varnishes:

I really don't like this.