a Botani birthday giveaway!

Hip Hip Hooray, it's my birthday today!

 I thought it would be appropriate to showcase a product I love today, so here is my rave about the Botani Spirulina Salt Scrub! The lovely Sabine from Echolife sent this to me, and I promise that all opinions are honest and not affected by that in the slightest.

There are those times when you connect a certain scent to a place or to a memory, and it is forever attached to that no matter what you do. My favourite smell comes from my kindergarden, and I think it is because it opened my world to real learning which is to this day my passion. The kindy is just around the corner from me, and after I went there my sister worked there so I had opportunities to sneak back to visit that intoxicating smell. It smelt of cleaning products with a citrus twang, and some good old fashioned love from the lady who works there (still! she taught my nieces and nephews 10 years after she taught me!) If this description seems quite vague and hard to imagine, I have a solution for you.

Stick your nose into Botani's Spirulina Salt Scrub. It's that exact smell, it's crazy!
I was beyond ecstatic to find something that brought me back to such a happy memory, and even more so when I used the Botani Spirulina Salt Scrub and realised how amazing a product it is! I'm happy that on my 21st birthday I have this little pot of memories from my childhood to enjoy as I get ready to spend time with my family.

Made with the moisturising jojoba and shea butter, the Botani Spirulina Salt Scrub is scented with Australian lemon myrtle and mandarin which gives it that amazing smell. A little goes a long way, which is a big plus for me as I like to use a scrub each time I shower. It's a nice thick scrub, which is another thing I look for.

The scent lingers on the skin after you hop out of the shower, but in my opinion is not overwhelming. This scrub retails for $24.95 and is available from EchoLife online here, with free shipping. As stated at the beginning of my review, I was gifted this to trial and review, and Echolife have kindly offered another to giveaway to one of you! I figured that even though it was MY birthday, you deserved a treat,too!

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is be following my blog on GFC/email/bloglovin, and leave a comment on this post with a new years resolution! Please leave your email,too, so I can get in contact with you if you win. This competition will run until the 20th of January, and is open Australia wide. Good luck!

(Please note that this product was provided by Echolife for my review, and the giveaway is sponsored by them also. Honesty, always!)

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

a wonderful christmas

I had a lovely Christmas, despite working late on the eve of and starting at 7am on Boxing Day. I woke early on Christmas day (blame it on the giddiness that survives from my childhood) and spent the morning with my parents and Chris, cooking up lunch and opening gifts. I was more than spoilt with gifts, and I adore every single thing I received. Chris' family celebrates Christmas at lunch as do my family, so we were darting in and out the whole day. Luckily all of our family live only a few streets apart!

The darling mini Christmas tree at Chris' brothers house, where we had lunch. The food at lunch stop number one was incredible, with stuffed tomatoes and okra's in a gorgeous tomato based sauce that Chris' Mum always makes for me. They had a whole lamb on a spit (icky but they were excited) and a lasagne that looked wonderful but as I don't eat red meat I didn't give it a go.

Santa in edible picture form! The desserts were awesome there,too. Chris' sister in law made the most amazing, fresh from the oven lemon meringue pie that had me drooling as soon as I clapped eyes on it. Could go another slice right now, actually... Chris' brother made a cake with sponge and cream that was simple and lovely, and the table was heavy with lots of other sweet offerings as well. Needless to say, moving on to lunch # 2 was a matter of rolling me across to my house...

My niece made me the most gorgeous little cracker, and inside was a little ring she made for me out of red beads and an initial E. She's such a creative little girl, she made my other niece a skirt that matched one of hers so they can be cute twins together :)She's been taking sewing lessons for a while now and has made some beautiful clothes there.

Santa was a sweetheart and bought me the Aussie Monopoly (Chris and I are building a game collection for when we move in together) and a Kindle with 3g and Wifi. My handbag was forever heavy with books, and now I can carry them all with me on this lightweight thing! I also got a ladybug pillow pet, ala Miss Glamorazzi, to go with my panda pillow pet. Still a child at heart! Chris bought me the Nars Danmari palette and they also popped some perfume samples in there.

 Chris ordered me some Revlon Lip Butters from ebay (creme brulee was in my bag at the time of this photo) and nabbed me some L'Oreal Infallible shadows from the L'Or collection- these will be up on the blog soon, they're stunning. Michael Kors Very Hollywood was from my sister :) The shoes were from Santa, and the coasters with French images on them were from Chris' soon to be sister in law as part of my KK.

A French book safe and clock from KK, as well as some chocolate filled gold coins from my stocking! The striped blue square in the background is my new laptop case- Chris bought me a new laptop! I am so in love with it, and happy I can get back to reading all of your blogs.

Work KK was lovely this year, after we stayed late at work setting up we shared drinks and fingerfood and exchanged gifts. I got a gorgeous champagne pashmina and metal and fabric headband from Witchery from one of the new girls. How sweet is the card!

My sister bought me a funky oil burner, a silk dressing gown from Cotton On and these scrabble tile type canvas in my initial, and in Chris'. So cute! The purple scarf was in my stocking, it's so gorgeous I'm sure you'll see a glimpse of it in a FOTD soon.

A present that really warmed my heart was from the incredible Sabine from Echolife, which appeared on my doorstep just after Christmas and surprised me completely! This trio of Weleda products along with a Burts Bees balm was the nicest gesture, and a lovely Christmas surprise. Sabine supported me so much after my kitten Marie passed, and I will forever be grateful to her for that. To have someone who you have never met in person treat you like a friend is one of the best things to come from this blog. My goal for 2011 was to hit 20,000 hits on emmabovarybeauty, and I am so happy to say that I made it all the way to 21,000! This first year of the blog has been amazing, and I enjoy every minute I spend in my little online world.


I adore each and every one of my readers, and hope that your Christmas was wonderful and your New Years celebration was lots of fun. I'll be posting my 'best 11 of 2011' soon, so look out for it. Until then- enjoy this first day of 2012!