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Sunday 24 May 2015

What to do in Madrid

I realise that when I do posts about trips to other countries, I concentrate mainly on the food, which is fine because its a vegan blog, but I do more than just eat on holiday!

Madrid is an amazing city, its one of those places that you could go back to several times and do completely different things.  In fact, it can feel a little overwhelming having so much to do in a short space of time.  Hence why I wanted to do a short guide on Madrid.

Madrid Metro
Starting with Madrid's Metro. The Boy is fascinated with both trains and underground network, so first thing he susses out when we book a trip is if they have a underground system, one of our dreams is to create a guide book of underground systems around the world and how to use them.  I've been on New York and Barcelona's underground systems which whilst the trains are air conditioned, the stations are not, and in hot weather it makes waiting five minutes for your next train feel like a year in the sweltering heat.  The great thing about Madrid's system is that BOTH the stations and trains are air conditioned.  This makes Madrid's metro my second favorite underground network so far- number one is Prague's metro, just for the crazily fast and super steep and long escalators and the fact that you can tell the train is approaching just from feeling a sudden gust of wind!

In terms of tickets and prices, there are basically three options for tourists, a single ticket for if you just want to make the one trip and don't plan on using the metro that often, a ten trip ticket for around 12,20 Euro that does exactly what it says on the tin and then tourist ticket that allows you to purchase unlimited travel on the metro for a certain number of days.  We went for a five day tourist ticket for zone A (City Centre and Airport) at a cost of 26,80 Euro, which works out around just under £4 per day at today's exchange rate. Zone A covers everything are that you want to see as a tourist, and I doubt that you could get as good a deal on London's underground, plus the tourist tickets include unlimited travel on buses and Madrid's train network within Zone A. In addition it includes the 3 Euro airport station surcharge.

Tourist Bus
The Boy's parent's really like the tourists buses that you find in big cities and we tried the one in La Palma in Gran Canaria and were massively disappointed.  However we knew that on the hottest day we were there, we thought going around on a bus might be a good way to keep cool.  The tourist bus ticket in Madrid is 21 Euro, and includes unlimited use for 24 hours, or 48 hours for around 5 Euros extra.  It was a lot better than the one in Gran Canaria, firstly because the ports you plug your headphones in to listen to the talk actually worked and also because it covers a massive area of Madrid, in fact there are two tour bus routes to cover all the various sites as well as extended tours for each of the routes.  It's definitely a good method to suss out Madrid and although we did the tour on the third day, its a good thing to do on your first day to help plan your itinerary.

Temple of Debod
I did try and do a bit of research on things to do before setting off and one of the things on my to do list was to visit the Temple of Debod, which is an ancient Egyptian temple that was given to Spain by Egypt, dismantled and then rebuilt in Madrid.  I've always been fascinated by the ancient Egyptians, and I really want to visit Cairo and the pyramids one day, until then, this was a great opportunity to see an real Egyptian temple.  We ended up stumbling on it completely by accident whilst walking through Parque de Oeste looking for the cable car. I was expecting to just be able to look at it from the outside, so I was excited to see that you could actually walk in it, and touch the inscriptions on the wall!



Cable Car
Near Parque de Oeste you can catch a cable car that gives you a birds eye view of Madrid and takes you to Casa de Campo park, Madrid's largest park. The views are stunning.


Metro Museum
Chamberi metro station is an abandoned station on Madrid's metro system and four years ago they converted it to a museum. It's free to visit and you get to step back in time and see how Madrid's Metro use to look before they modernised it.  Madrid's metro was apparently built around about the same time and London's underground, so the design of the platforms is very similar to London's with the patterned tiles and it also reminded me a bit of Victoria Baths in Manchester too.


The museum has very limited opening hours and is only open Friday 11am-1pm, 5pm-7pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am-2pm. Also last access is 30 minutes before closing time, so plan your visit carefully!

Parks
What Madrid lacks in beaches, it makes up in parks, and there are tons of them dotted all around the city!

Campo del Moro and the Sabatini Gardens, next to the royal palace.


Parque Juan Carlos I, which is a park full of various sculptures.


The Botanical Gardens, which is a hot house inside Atocha train station.



There is also Casa de Campo and Parque de Ouse that I mentioned before.  The park we kept on coming back to was Retiro Park which is one of Madrid's best known parks, and has a boating lake and two palaces that you can walk in- Palacio de Cristal, a glass palace, and Palacio de Valazquez, which is now owned by the Ministry of Culture and holds various exhibitions.




These are just a few of Madrid's parks and you can find a full list here.

This is just a taster of the things there are to do in Madrid, I hope you find it useful.  You can find more ideas at www.gomadrid.com/.

Wednesday 20 May 2015

Vegan in Madrid- Part 2

If I was travelling with fellow vegans in Madrid, I would have just eaten my way round all of Madrid's vegan establishment, of which there are plenty.  However as I was travelling with three omnis and a veggie I had to make a compromise.  In addition to the usual suspects (Italian and Indian), we also visited some veggie friendly places.

The first place we visited was La Pizzateca, near Anton Martin Subway station. A pizzeria that sold a vegan pizza, complete with vegan cheese. We had a 20 minute wait whilst they cooked the pizza but fortunately, they had lots of interesting arty books to help pass the time,  This one was my favourite, it was pretty bizarre and I really couldn't read the Spanish explanations.  I hope it wasn't anything too horrific?!


Although they had a few seats where you could eat your pizza inside, we decided to get them to takeaway and took them back to the hotel which was several metro stops away and involved changing lines, so by the time we got back they were cold.  Luckily I like cold pizza.


The pizza was pretty decent, the courgette was finely sliced and well cooked, although it was not Violife the cheese was nice and melted well.  It's a shame they didn't do any mock meats, as I think it would have made it more memorable. Although I should be more grateful that I found a pizza place with vegan cheese really!

The second place we went to was for a quick lunch at a place called Bolero meatball, which is (unsurprisingly) a meatball place that sells vegan meatballs.  The meatballs themselves contain quinoa and tofu along other ingredients.  The menu is completely in Spanish and is a little confusing, but basically you order your meatballs and then you can choose to have them on their own (platter), on a sandwich, or with rice, chips or pasta. I went for meatballs with rice and we took a seat whilst we waited for our meal.  I really liked this slogan on the wall.


Once your food is ready, you are called to go and collect it. I got a bit panicky when I saw them sprinkling something that looked like cheese on mine, but when I asked the waitress it turns out that it was peanut pieces, as the vegan meatballs come with a peanut sauce.


OMG! This was delicious! The sauce was amazing, and this meal was my favourite of the entire trip.  However I wish I'd also got a portion of chips too as I managed to nick one of The Boy's chips before he smothered them in mayo on purpose so I couldn't nick anymore and they were great too.  I really regret not getting the chance to go here again.

This was it in terms of vegan/vegan friendly places we visited in Madrid, well apart from the standard Italian and Indian places. I would say the food in Madrid on occasion is slightly more expensive than you might find in other areas of Spain, but it is the capital city and for the whole visit we never spent over the equivalent of £10.50 for a meal- well barring my Loving Hut splurge that still probably didn't even come to £15! I really loved Madrid, and my next Madrid post will be able things to do in the city other than eat!

Sunday 17 May 2015

Vegan in Madrid- Part 1

I've just got back from a five day break in Madrid with The Boy and his family.

The trip started with the flight to Manchester Airport, and although I've learnt now to bring a bucket load of snacks with me on planes and I definitely had more than enough to eat, I couldn't resist buying this falafel sandwich from the WH Smith at Manchester Terminal 3.


To be honest, it wasn't the most amazing sandwich I'd had, the falafels were a bit meh and as a general coriander hater I found the coriander was a bit over powering .  I do realise that it probably wasn't the best idea to buy a sandwich that clearly stated that it contained coriander hummus but I was too excited.  Plus by buying it hopefully WH Smith will be encouraged to keep stocking it and maybe expand the range.

On day one, we headed towards Opera Metro stop and the nearby Plaza Mayor where we stumbled on Mercado de San Miguel, which alongside fresh produce stalls also sells various tapas.  Although most of it was non- vegan, they did have a fruit stall that sold fresh juices and cups of fresh fruit at 3 Euros each.  The Carrefour Express across the road was selling cups of fruit cheaper, however it wasn't as fresh and delicious as the ones at the market.  There were also stalls selling olives and nuts that looked like they may be safe options.  We ended up here for breakfast on two occasions, on both times I got a cup of fruit and the last time I also go a cup of fresh strawberry juice that tasted amazing.  


I also loved the mountain of strawberries that the stall had. They were advertising 1 kilo of strawberries for just under 9 Euro!


After breakfast we went for a wander around Madrid and came across the Royal Palace of Madrid and by complete coincidence a Foreign Diplomat was coming to visit so there was a crowd outside along with royal guards, a bit like what I imagine Buckingham Palace to be like at the changing of the guard. However the highlight was definitely the three peacocks just wandering around!


Around 4pm and after surviving on some fruit and ginger oatcakes all day I was getting quite hungry, however, in Spain places start to close around 4:30 and re-open later on so we weren't having much luck.  Eventually we came across Shi-Shang which is a vegetarian Chinese buffet that was still serving food.  After telling the waitress "Soy Vegana" (yes, that is the extent of my Spanish!) she explained that all the savoury dishes were vegan.  I don't know what I had as nothing was labelled and I was too hungry to care but it was your standard Chinese stuff of rice, noodles, fried stuff and mock meat curries.


The mains were a bit on the cold side, as they were coming up to closing time and a tiny bit greasy but for just 8.95 Euro for an all you can eat buffet you can't grumble. For some reason, all the mock meat dishes included pieces of hot dog sausages, which was a bit random but they were actually really nice so I wasn't complaining.

I was also happy to discover that they had vegan options for dessert, which were vegan chocolate brownies, strawberries and vegan custard.  The custard had separated a bit, but you just needed to stir it past the point of it looking like scrambled egg and then it was actually quite nice with a lovely vanilla flavour.  The only negative point about the desserts was that they also served jelly, which to be fair they had marked as not being suitable for vegetarians or vegans but it was a bit strange to see in a place that is suppose to be vegetarian.

The next day we wandered over to La Biotika near Anton Martin Metro stop, a vegetarian restaurant with a small shop attached so I could buy a few snacks for the next couple of days.  I managed to find some Clif bars for around 2.15 Euro, which works out around £1.63, a lot cheaper than what they cost over here not to mention that nowhere in Bolton sells them.  They were selling blueberry, peanut and white chocolate and macadamia nut flavours so I grabbed one of each and they tided me over for three breakfasts.  Despite never being a fan of white chocolate, the white chocolate one was my favorite and I checked the ingredients numerous times just to make sure it was vegan! I wish I'd visited that shop again to stock up now I'm home.

This time we were a little more organised and went to get lunch a bit earlier. One of the places we tried to go on the first day was Madrid's Loving Hut however the opening times on Happy Cow were wrong and they were closed.  But this time we were prepared and went when they were open.  When I'd attempted to do a bit of research I came across a blog post about Madrid's Loving Hut and the writer described it as one of the nicest that she'd been too and I have to agree it was light and airy and I loved the pictures of famous vegans and vegetarians on the wall.




They were offering a day menu for £10.50, which included bread, starter, main, dessert and a drink. However on our first visit I was determined to try something from the main menu so I went for a seaweed and pineapple curry with soya cutlets.


I was a bit confused at first as the soya cutlets look a lot like aubergine, but on tasting they hadn't got my order wrong. It was nice, but I was starting to regret not ordering the day menu like everyone else.  Of course, when your in a vegan place, it's the law to have dessert even if you're full to bursting. I originally ordered the Loving Hut chocolate cake, but they had sold out, so I ended up with chocolate ice cream.


This was amazingly chocolaty and rich with chocolate sauce and peanut pieces and definitely didn't feel like I was missing out.

We visited the Loving Hut again on the last day, and this time I went with the day menu, although as it was a public holiday the day menu was slightly more expensive at 13.50 Euro. For starter I had a cabbage salad, which was nice, however it was still just a salad and I was hoping that they were still serving the spinach hummus they had as a starter on our first visit. However, I was pleased that one of the options for the main was the tofu and seitan curry that I was jealous of.


This was truly delicious and the texture of the seitan was spot on. For dessert I went for the chocolate mousse.


Unfortunately this contained banana, and as I'm not a fan of banana it spoilt it a little, however the other flavours were strong enough to mask most of the banana taste but I still got a hint of it now and again. I also tried a bit of the vanilla flan that was also one of the dessert options on the day menu and that was more like a custard and tasted of cinnamon, lemon and vanilla and was really good too.

Going on holiday with three omnivores and one veggie meant that this was it in terms of visiting specific veggie and vegan places and the rest of the holiday consisted of visiting and Italian (cheese-less pizza) and an Indian as well as two veggie friendly places which I'll write about next time,

Wednesday 6 May 2015

LABL Fair Liverpool

There seems to be a great vegan scene developing in Liverpool and I've spent so many hours looking longingly at posts about all the great vegan and vegan friendly places popping up in Liverpool.  So I was really looking forward to visiting the Liverpool LABL Fair in April.

Unfortunately, it also happened to be on the same weekend of the Grand National, but we've found that the cheapest way to get to Liverpool from Bolton is via Wigan so missed most of the chaos.  

Our train dropped us off at Liverpool Central Station, and our journey to the Black E, the venue for the fair this year took us down Bold Street.  I could have happy spent the day wondering down this street, it was kind of like Manchester's Northern Quarter but less rough (not that the Northern Quarter is rough, it just looks more dodgy than it is!) and on the way back we spent a while browsing in the shops.

When we reached the venue, I was blown away, I love old architecture and the Black E is just WOW! And the best thing was, the fair took over the entire building it was so big. Which meant we got to enjoy looking round an impressive building as well.

After sussing each floor out, we started on the ground floor and worked our way up.  first stop was Vegan Tuck Box and I was looking for a Jokerz bar, which is kinda like a vegan snickers. Unfortunately they didn't have any in, however I spotted that they had some Sarelle bars, I'd heard about these on some of the vegan Facebook groups and word is they taste like Ferrero Rocher, so I snapped one up. I've not eaten it yet, as I'm saving it for a special occasion when I've got some vegan wine to go with it!



Next stop was Teen VGN, I first saw these at the North West Vegan Fair in Blackpool last year and had entered their raffle, won and then was unable to collect my prize because I was already on my train home (lesson- if you enter a raffle at a fair, make sure you stay to collect it!).  Last time I was eyeing up one of their T Shirts as it was purple (my favourite colour) and the message was not too controversial but I think I'd ran out of money by that time.  So this time, I wasn't going to let that happen!


Apart from those two things, lunch and dessert (of course) I was pretty good as far as spending goes. The only other stall that I HAD to buy something from was Ananda Foods, where I bought a Round Up, which is a like a posh vegan wagon wheel. I never liked wagon wheels as I thought they just tasted cheap and nasty, but these taste so good that it didn't even make it back to Bolton! I did exercise some restraint as they had a deal on, you could buy a certain number of them (can't remember how many) and get a free Round Up mug. I wanted that mug so much!


The food hall was located on the basement floor (I think?) and I was a little disappointed by the lack of choice as not many of the options really grabbed me, but I think part of me was hoping that the Vegan Grindhouse would be there. However, one stall, St Best, selling Caribbean cuisine did catch my eye, especially when I saw you could get a thali. I went for chickpea, sweet potato and pumpkin curry, veggie chucks in a St Best Island Sauce and rice and peas.



As you can see I got a HUGE portion and I thought I was going to burst I was that full but  couldn't stop eating it as it was so delicious. My only criticism is that it was suppose to come with fried plantain (which taste nothing like banana!) but there was a bit queue for it so he gave me some callalou instead. Which I liked, but I was really looking forward to some plantain!

After all that, I somehow managed to squeeze in some cake from Cake Mamas, a Liverpool based cupcake shop that sells gluten, wheat, dairy and egg free cakes. They did mint slices, and I just cant resist mint chocolate desserts so I made a beeline for it. By this point I'd lost all the will to make an effort to take photos, so you'll just have to use your imagination. It was good cake, and some of the other cakes looked amazing and if I wasn't so stuffed I would have perhaps taken some more home. But at that point in time I just couldn't imagine being able to eat ever again.

After stuffing ourselves with food, we started to make our way back to the station and stopped in a few shops on Bold Street on the way.  First stop was somewhere I eyed up on the way to the fair, Central Perk, which is a chain of Friends themed coffee shops.  As a massive Friends fan, who is probably able to quote far too many lines off by heart, I was uber excited by this and insisted we go in for a drink. I was also very impressed to see it also sold Ten Acre crisps, unfortunately it didn't have the elusive chicken flavour ones, but I did manage to buy a pack of their popcorn, which I didn't even know existed.




After a quick drink whilst watching an episode of Friends, we headed to News From Nowhere, a awesome alternative bookshop that sells other bits and bobs. Including some interesting badges, I really wanted one but  I just couldn't pick one!



Last stop was Forbidden Planet to embrace my amateur geek side. I spent a while admiring the Iron Man figurines and Tim Burton miniatures.  I also saw a book on Tim Burton art, that was cruelly stored up on a high shelf clearly made to taunt midgets like me. So much want.

After a major mess up that ended up with an hour wait at a changeover station in the middle of nowhere (our error) we finally made it back to Wigan and used the opportunity to pop into one of my favourite vegan shops, Nooch.  I love Nooch, its like an Aladdin's cave full of vegan wonder and beautiful crafty items. I couldn't help treating myself (again!) to my favourite vegan mayonnaise- Really! Not Dairy Roast Garlic mayonnaise (visiting CAT bar in Barcelona reminded me how much I love garlic mayo even if I'm not that fussed about normal mayo), a mint mini moo and a vivani white nougat crisp bar. They also had a little reduced table and they were giving away free hazelnuts and Ananda raspberry flavoured marshmallows because they had gone past their sell by date. I really love this idea, it's better that letting perfectly good food good to waste. 

Here is my haul at the end of the day (minus the Round Up!), which I was very happy with, and looking forward to more festivals over the next few months.  If you want to visit the next LABL fair in Liverpool, they have already announced a date- its a little earlier next year on Saturday 19th March 2016 in St Georges Hall. From the photos I'm already excited about having the chance to visit another stunning building! You can see more details here.




Tuesday 5 May 2015

Tropic Skincare Lash Extension Kit

I really don't bother with fake eyelashes, partly because I'm too low maintenance for all that hassle and partly because some of them just look like you super glued two dead spiders on your face!

However, I got given Tropic's lash extension kit as part of my starter kit.  This kit doesn't involve spending ages in front of the mirror try to stick a pair of ridiculous fake lashes on, instead it simply consists of a fixing gel and extension fibres.



You start with a coat of the fixing gel, which can be used on it's own as an every day mascara, followed immediately with a coat of the lash extension fibres.  Leave for 20 seconds and then finish with a coat of the fixing gel. And that's it, done!

And if you want SUPER long lashes, you can repeat the cycle as many times as you like to get the desired result.

The great thing is, that despite it not being a waterproof mascara it doesn't run.  But comes off easily at night when you actually want to take it off, so no more panda eyes!

The results look really natural, I've used it both with just the fixing gel and with the extension fibres and it's become my everyday mascara.  A lot better than my old Body Shop waterproof one that just use to run anyway and then STILL left me with panda eyes the next morning!

It's pricier than other mascaras, but since you get an every day mascara PLUS something more dramatic for fancier occasions it's worth the price. And all Tropic products are vegan society and BUAV approved with no nasty chemicals.

You can buy Tropic's Lash Extension Kit on my online shop: https://www.tropicskincare.co.uk/shop/amycox

Monday 4 May 2015

The Lowry Food and Drink Festival

I love a good food and drink festival, however being vegan now takes some of the joy out of it as I'm usually stuck with a falafel stall and some chutney and that's it.  And I'm not even that fond of chutney.

Discovering the Lowry Food and Drink Festival in Salford last year changed all that, and this year was no exception!


Fun Fact- You can get married at The Lowry Theatre and it has amazing views of the quays (which would look even more stunning at night). However it's super pricey!

After figuring out what's what and borrowing £10 of The Boy when I discovered my £20 wouldn't buy me all the things I wanted I headed straight for the Chaat Cart for some lunch.


Everything at this place is vegan, I had a lovely chat with one of the stall holders and found out they are opening a unit in Manchester Spinning Fields this month.  I ended up with a masala dosa, which is an Indian lentil crepe filled with a potato filling and served with two dips (I don't know what they were!) and it was delicious.  Sorry for the lack of photo, it was hard to hold it AND take a picture at the same time. Sometimes I wish I had more arms.

Next, it was time for dessert. Yes, I had the option of a dessert at a non-vegan festival! It came in the form of churros from the awesome people at Churtopia, who were also at Bolton's Food and Drink Festival last year. The chocolate sauce that comes with the churros isn't vegan but I was happy with cinnamon and sugar coating.


After being fed, I headed out to grab some things to take away, and it didn't involve just chutneys or curry sauces!  First place I headed to was an Indian stall, which is there for any kind of festival or market held at the Lowry. This stall is the reason I didn't starve at the Christmas Market when the Chaat Cart wasn't there, as they do several vegan samosas. Unfortunately, by the time I came to buy my samosas they had sold out of every flavour apart from their bombay aloo. Usually I get one of each flavour.  I think the spicy soya might be a new one too!


Next I went to the nut stall and bought a pack of cashew and pecan nuts coated in vanilla and cinnamon. It's great to have the option of nuts at a festival that haven't been coated in honey and I had nuts from this stall at the Christmas Market (Churtopia wasn't at the Christmas Market either- so disappointing!) and they're really moreish. They also do coated almonds but I wasn't too keen on them as I'm not a massive almond fan.

Next stop was a stall that I'd not seen before, which is great to see- as much as I love seeing the same companies return to a festival year after year, it's good to see newcomers too. It's proof that the Festival is growing in popularity and adds a bit of excitement. Orchard House Pate sells two vegan pates as well as more traditional pates-  three mushroom and sundried tomato, lentil and cashew. I was going to go for just one of each, but when I saw for just £2 more I could get a third one I got a second of the tomato and lentil one as it was my favorite out of the two. Whilst the stall holder was packing my order she told me that the day before she hadn't brought any of the tomato and lentil pate and some of her customers had "shouted" at her and she had to go home and make some up!  This shows two things- one, I picked well ordering two of them and two, either more people are choosing to avoid meat or at least cutting down on it.  They will also be at the brand new Castlefield Food Festival on the 15-17 May. I'm gutted that it clashes with my holiday and the Manchester Vegan Fair, as I definitely would have paid a visit.




Later on in the evening, I was feeling a bit peckish so I had some of the tomato and lentil pate with some tomato and linseed oat cakes I got as a Christmas present and hadn't got round to eating.  It was so good that I polished off half a pack of the oat cakes with the pate! The good thing about the pates is each pot is around 200 calories so you don't need to feel too guilty if you polish it off in one sitting and they can also be frozen.

There was also a falafel stall that looked like it could be vegan friendly and also sold sweet potato fries topped with hummus and pine nuts. I was put off it due to the HUGE queue and also, falafels at festivals is kinda tired.  It was also great to see Camp Cooks at the festival again, basically drag artists cooking and serving food with a bit of dancing thrown in. I don't know if any of their food is suitable for vegans, or if they could adapt anything but I still love them. In the picture below they're dancing to Around The Old Campfire.


I definitely recommend visiting this festival next year, and hopefully they'll be some more exciting stalls selling vegan goodies!

Sunday 3 May 2015

Tropic ABC Skincare Set and Refresh Herbal Roll On

For the past 29 years my daily skincare regime has mostly consisted of washing my face with either soap or a face wash and that's about it. I've dabbled with different things, but I'm lucky to have pretty good skin so I generally don't have a need to do anything different.

However, when I signed up to Tropic, my starter kit included their Deluxe Skincare collection, which includes amongst other things their Smoothing Cleanser (with free bamboo cloth), Vitamin Toner Refreshing Spritz, Skin Revive Nourishing Cream Concentrate and Refresh Herbal Roll On.  As Ambassadors are encouraged to try the products themselves and I'd ran out of face wash I thought I'd give it a go and I've been using it ever since!

Although they costs more than what I usually spend on face wash, a little bit goes a long way and the pumps on the bottles ensure that you don't accidentally pour out more than you need (a problem I often face). I generally use two to three pumps of cleanser and toner and just one pump of the nourishing cream because it's so concentrated.  The bamboo cloth is surprisingly soft and I found it really good at taking makeup off at night. All the products in the ABC skincare kits smell divine and the cucumber extract in the toner makes it really refreshing, perfect for early mornings. The great thing about Tropic products as well is that you can recognise ALL the ingredients in them and there are no long worded chemicals with unpronounceable names!



Although my skin is pretty good, one thing that I do feel self conscious about are the dark circles I have under my eyes.  However, using the Refresh Herbal Roll On twice a day under my eyes has really improved it and I now feel confident going without my concealer. Here's a picture I took this morning, with no concealer, I am however wearing Tropic's lash extension mascara which I will write about another time!



You can buy them all separately or you an get the ABC Skincare Kit either with the Refresh Herbal Roll On or with the Face Smooth Brightening Polish (great for people with dry skin).  Or if you really want to treat yourself the Deluxe Skincare Collection comes with the roll on and the polish PLUS Organic Elixir Oil (again great for dry skin) and a Tropic headband.

You can buy Tropic Skincare products from my website here: https://www.tropicskincare.co.uk/shop/amycox/products/dynamic.html