Agave Bun

Disclaimer first - this was a free sample I have picked up on Naturisimo website. In order to get it, I had to purchase something, for which I had paid with my own money.

I love samples! Mainly because I love trying different things but also because they allow you to try a product without having to splurge out for a full version which you might not like. Unfortunately, there are no shops with extensive green beauty stock and availability of samples where I live hence I rely on online retailers to obtain my samples. Naturisimo is one of my favourites because they have regular '10-15% off' promotions and a good variety of samples. Unfortunately not everything on their website can be sampled which would have been especially useful for makeup when you really do need to try foundation before you pay £30 for a bottle which might be of wrong shade. From time to time some of their samples become free hence I picked up this moisturiser when shopping for something else. RRP is £38 for 50ml.

I have used Madara before and I have generally liked everything I have tried from them. Madara is a Latvian brand which uses natural and organic ingredients in their products. One of the biggest selling points is that they do not use water, instead, they use birch water (or sap) which is native to the Baltic regions. Birch sap is full of nature elements, such as potassium, zinc, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus, as well as amino acids. It is great for drinking but I have not seen another skincare company which uses birch water. Water as the main ingredient is one of my pet peeves - a lot of the natural and 'green' beauty products are pricey hence I feel like they could maximise the benefit of their products if something more nourishing is used instead of water, such as aloe vera. Using birch water to me feels like taking the ingredients game a step higher!

What can you give to a person who does not want anything? I am talking about my dad because my default option for mum for be some sort of skincare. He asked for a bottle of whiskey but since I am opposing both alcohol and smoking this option was not on the list. And then it struck me - a subscription box! I love tea and my parents usually like something more exciting than plain black so getting a tea subscription box would allow them to try out some new flavours. After a quick search I have settled on BRUU. They have a number of gift box options but I wanted a monthly delivery option rather than a one-off box so I went with £10/month plan + free P&P (1st box was half price with code BRUU). Each month you get 3 different flavours which should make around 40 cups of tea. You can personalise the selection to black, green, white, herbal, fruit, oolong, chai and rooibos tea. The subscription can be cancelled and paused by emailing the customer service.

The Vegan Kind is a Scottish company founded in 2013 with the aim to alleviate all the tedious time spent looking at food labels during shopping. TVK is one of the most famous vegan subscription boxes out there which offers both the monthly food box and the quarterly beauty box. The food (or "lifestyle" as they call it) box is priced £13.15 (£10 for the box and £3.15 for delivery) and £18.15 for beauty box (£15.00 for the box and £3.15 for delivery). These prices may increase in the short future following an Instagram post on TVK page that they may be changing from Royal Mail to a courier service due to customer complaints of boxes not arriving.