A Great Christmas Gift Idea From 31st State

In my experience males are extremely hard to buy for when it comes to gift giving, whether it's my partner, my dad, teenage nephew or godsons, I always struggle and I find teenagers and young men especially hard to buy for. 

When I was asked if I would like to share some products with you from the brand 31st State I read up on the brand and loved the story behind the brand and instantly said "yes please" I wanted to share the brand with you and also thought their products would be perfect for gift ideas for any males you might have to buy for. 

About 31st State

When 31st State founder Stephanie Capuano's sons started to have problems with their skin, she did what most of us do and googled the best skin care for teenage boys, but after searching online and on the high street for both budget and high end brands, she couldn't find what she was looking for, which was skincare without harsh chemicals added,  and products her sons would use. Stephanie wanted natural products and her sons wanted the products to work and being teenagers, to be cool. 

Inspired by what she felt like growing up in California (the 31st State), Stephanie created a brand devoted to teenage boys which felt more current for Gen Z and inspired by the idea of simple, effortless, California clean.  

31st State Starter Set - £53.00

The 31st State Starter Set is a brilliant way of trying the brand and it's products and comes in a good sized canvas bag too. The starter set contains 5 products, some skincare and some hair and body care, a great mix and the products are full size, which sometimes isn't the case with gift sets and often they have travel or larger travel sized products. 

The gift set includes the following products 

• 2 in 1 Hair & Body Wash - 250ml 

• Foaming Face Wash - 150ml

• Overnight Pads - 50 pads

• Style & Shape Hair Putty - 100ml

• Roll On Deodorant - 50ml

All the 31st State products are alcohol free, all packaging can be recycled and all products are tested on teenage boys and not animals and are suitable for vegetarians and vegans. 

2 in 1 Hair & Body Wash

Foaming Face Wash 

Overnight Pads 

Style & Shape Hair Putty

Roll On Deodorant

All the products in the 31st State Starter Set smell amazing, and I think this would make an ideal Christmas gift, the bag is great and a great size. I like that the set contains both skincare and hair and body care products, the gift set would be great to take on holiday as there's everything needed in one bag. 

I love the packaging, I love that all the ingredients are natural with no nasties to be found,  anything that strips, irritates, bothers or annoys sensitive skin is off limits and the products are very reasonably priced too. 

All in all, a great brand with great products, and the Starter Set is ideal for a Christmas gift. On the 31st State website there is some great information about the brand and their products including an FAQ section. 

If you would like to try the 31st State products, or gift sets including the Starter Set, you can find all the information you need on the 31st State website. 

Do you struggle to buy gifts for men? Let me know your thoughts on 31st State. 

Products featured on Mammafulzo are PR samples unless otherwise stated, the links used in this post are NOT affiliate links. Please see my disclaimer for more details. 

Superdrug Fruity Strawberry And Raspberry bath And Body Set

I love receiving bath and body products as Christmas gifts and my preferred scents are always fruity ones, so this Superdrug Fruity Strawberry And Raspberry Bath & Body Set appealed to me immediately, in fact the whole Fruity range available from Superdrug looks lovely and they have some really nice items and gift sets too. 

The Strawberry And Raspberry Bath & Body Set contains 7 items, they are,  

350ml 1 x Strawberry & Raspberry Shower Gel

100ml 1 x Strawberry & Raspberry Body Lotion

100ml 1 x Strawberry & Raspberry Body Scrub

2 x Eye Mask Pads

1 x Puff

1 x Sponge

2 x Exfoliating Gloves

The fruity bath and body products smell absolutely incredible and work really well. The sponge is super cute but also works really well or if you prefer theres a poof which is also brilliant and both work really well when used with the shower gel, it lathers up well and leaves my skin feeling soft and clean and look how cute that strawberry packaging is!  

The body scrub is fantastic and brilliant for my very dry skin, leaving it feeling lovely and smooth. My daughter also loves the scrub for removing her false tan, and combined with the exfoliating gloves it is brilliant, but the gloves also work well with the shower gel for exfoliating. 

The body lotion is lovely and leaves my skin feeling soft and smooth and smelling incredible and the eye masks are lovely especially after being in the fridge, I suffer from migraines as do my daughters and these have been absolutely wonderful to use when either of us is suffering, but they are also lovely for tired eyes and leaving them less puffy. 

The Fruity Strawberry & Raspberry Bath & Body Set is a lovely set and a lovely Christmas gift idea too, or if you're on the nice list, it's nice to buy as a treat to yourself too, because we all deserve a treat don't we? It would also be ideal for a Secret Santa gift if you have a budget under £15.00, because this huge gift set is just £12.00, which I think is a brilliant price for so many items and such lovely items too. 

The Fruity Strawberry And Raspberry Bath & Body Set can be found on the Superdrug website priced at £12.00.

Do you prefer fruity scents to other scents? Whats your favourite scent?

Products featured on Mammafulzo are PR samples unless otherwise stated, this post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclaimer for more details. 

The Summerton Club Spirits Subscription Service

Subscription boxes aren't something I have ever particularly been interested in myself, but I do think that buying someone a monthly subscription to something they love as a gift can be a lovely idea and I have bought them for gifts, there are so many different type of subscriptions to choose from including beauty boxes, magazines, music, knitting/sewing, food and many many more, so when I heard about a spirits subscription I was rather intrigued and couldn't wait to find out more about it. 

The Summerton Club was started after founder Daniel Humphreys knew what he wanted to purchase for his dad as a gift, he wanted to have a bottle of fantastic aged spirit delivered to his door every month, he wanted a different bottle every month so there would be an element of surprise and excitement each month for his dad and most importantly, Daniel wanted the spirits to be unique and not what could be found in the supermarkets or everyday brands, it had to be special. 

After researching and finding there wasn't anything available and also after asking his friends if they would be interested in something like that for their dads, and since he was sourcing the spirits for his dad anyway, he decided to create an alcohol subscription service, allowing others to gift this unique experience to someone special in their lives and in January 2018, The Summerton Club was born. 

The Summerton Club share beautifully aged bottles of spirits to their members, and you can choose which membership (subscription) you like, you can choose from, every month, bi monthly or even quarterly if you prefer. They focus on the three main groups of Whiskies (Bourbon, Whisky and Whiskey) Brandies (Armagnac, Cognac and Grappa) and Rums (Cachaca, Rum, Rum and Ron) but because The Summerton Club like to introduce their members to new experiences, they are contemplating something a little different maybe once a year, such as an aged Tequila but as yet they haven't found the right one as it has to be special and a great sip, like the main three.

The Summation Club work with a few master distillers to bring their members bottles of spirits that aren't available in the UK, this ensures they create new experiences for their members and also ensures they feel special and they won't send out anything they believe their members could purchase themselves for cheaper than the membership fee, which is £50 per delivery, deliveries will be sent out on the 20th of the month. You can pause or cancel your subscription at any time and delivery, posting and packaging is all included in the price of the membership. 

The Summerton also has Bottles Of The Month where you can see which spirits have been sent out to members previously, and one of the most recent Bottles Of The Month is the Mackmyra Gruvguld Swedish Single Malt Whisky, which is a well aged limited edition spirit, not available in the UK.

With the Bottle Of The Month, you will also receive some information about the spirit. I love the story behind the Mackmyra distillery, which without going into too much detail, was an idea formed by 8 friends in a cabin at a Swedish ski resort one night, one of the things I liked was that when they got their distillery up and running after a lot of hard work and research, they included public tasting to get production going forward and public tastings are still important to Mackmyra today.

Mackmyra is a smooth Swedish malt whisky aged in small casks, 50 metres below ground at Bodus mine, it's aromatic richness comes from the wide variety of cask types used to mature the whisky, including Olorosso, Bourbon and Swedish Oak. The whisky's character is oaky and spicy, with notes of vanilla fudge, tobacco leaves, pear drop and sandalwood. 

To create Gruvguld (which means gold from the mine) a team of talented people from the distillery selected whisky from over 300 casks, more than half of the whisky in this bottle was aged in 30 litre casks of different strengths and character with the rest coming from 100 litre and 128 litre casks. All the ingredients for this Swedish distillery are sourced locally, from local barley and bread yeast, to the Swedish peat and juniper branches used for smoking. 

The bottle of Mackmyra Gruvguld whisky came packaged in a lovely box and inside the box the whisky fitted safely so it wouldn't fall out in transit or when opening the box, the bottle has gold dots scattered over it, which is a lovely touch, I really liked the packaging and the bottle, both are lovely and look and feel luxurious. 

I really like the concept of The Summerton Club, it is unlike anything I have seen or heard of before and the different subscription choices are perfect for someone who likes spirits and likes trying new ones, and is particularly hard to buy for when it comes to giving gifts. 

When my dad visited recently I showed him the whisky and he read all the information and was very impressed, he likes whisky and he loved the story behind both the whisky and The Summerton Club and said he would be thrilled with a subscription as a gift, so the proof is in the dad seal of approval I suppose. 

If you would like to try out the Summerton Club, or if you have someone who would love a subscription as a gift, check out their website here. 

Have you heard of a spirits subscription before? And do you have someone that you buy a gift for that would appreciate one?

Products featured on Mammafulzo are PR samples unless otherwise stated, the links used in this post are NOT affiliate links. Please see my disclaimer for more details. 

Leighton Denny Modern Bohemia Collection Including Swatches

It's no secret that I love nail polish, if you follow me on Instagram you will often see pics of my painted nails, but sadly, more recently I haven't been painting my nails as much, because unfortunately I reverted back to an old and bad habit of biting them over the last few months. 

I am really disappointed in myself even though I know exactly why I've done it and it's a knee jerk reaction to some rather horrible months, but and there's a but, I am back to growing my nails again (yipee) so when I received  a couple of polishes from the brand new Leighton Denny Modern Bohemia collection, I was pleased and it gave me the push to stop nibbling,  and couldn't wait to try them and to share them with you too. 

There are 5 shades in the Modern Bohemia collection and all are perfect for Autumn/Winter. The shades in the collection are -

Bohemian Spirit - A soft Grey/Lavender 

Dream Catcher - Multi-faceted Burgundy 

Electic Vibe - Burnished Green/Gold

Free Spirit - Rose Gold Glitter

Serendipity - Semi-Matte Pink Pearl 

All 5 shades are self levelling, chip resistant, high gloss and 5 free, they come in the signature Leighton Denny square bottles and have Modern Bohemia written on the clear part of the lid. The two shades I have are Bohemian Spirit and Free Spirit and I adore them both. 

Bohemian Spirit

Bohemian Spirit is described as a soft Grey/Lavender shade, I agree with the shade description totally, sometimes I see shade descriptions and think "woah, really?" but I completely agree with the description of Bohemian Spirit. It is a lovely Grey shade with a tough of a pearlescent Lavender shade, the Lavender shade is subtle and just catches the light,  so don't let that put you off, it just gives a really lovely finish to the polish. 

Free Spirit

Free Spirit is a lovely clear polish with Rose Gold glitter particles and is a gorgeous polish to apply over any polish to add an accent nail or on all the nails, it can be built up and worn alone also.  I think it looks best over another polish. It would be lovely worn over any polish in the Modern Bohemia collection or whatever polish you would like to apply it over that you have in your nail polish collection.  

Bohemian Spirit With Free Spirit Accent Nail

My Thoughts

I really like both the polishes, Bohemian Spirit is such a lovely shade and absolutely perfect for the autumn/winter months too, it is a gorgeous grey shade and looks lovely worn alone or with the Free Spirit shade over it and I have also worn other glitter top coat shades I own over the top as an accent nail or over all the nails and it looks lovely and gives a really lovely look, NOTD post coming soon. 

I love Free Spirit and it is lovely worn over Bohemian Spirit but also looks stunning over deep red, taupe and black shades too, it is also lovely built up and worn alone as an accent nail or on all nails if you're going for a full on sparkly look. It isn't hard to get an even amount of glitter particles when applied either, which some are and if you use glitter top coats or glitter polishes, you'll know what I mean. Some can take some doing and faffing until you have the right amount of glitter on each nail and an even look, but Free Spirit is lovely and applies really well, and in the swatches above, I just painted it on, no faffing required! 

Both polishes are lovely, both apply well, and remove easily too, and I get around 5 days wear time from them, sometimes more. 

If you would like to try either of the two polishes I have, or any of the other polishes in the collection, you can find them on the M&S website for £12.00 each.

Have you tried any of the Modern Bohemia Polishes? Which is your favourite from the two I have? And what is your favourite autumn/winter nail polish shade?