This time of year everyone is thinking about spring cleaning their homes and possibly their lives(!) but what about your make up bag?

If you are like me I tend to hoard my own beauty products, thinking they will last until I have used them up. But they don’t. If anything has changed colour, consistency or smells different from when you purchased it you should throw it away.

Product Used By Dates:

Cleanser’s, Toners, Serums & Moisturisers: Two years

Eye creams or gels: Two years

Facial Scrubs 7 Masks: Two years

Lipstick: Three years

Powders: They don’t deteriorate so keep them as long as they suit you.

Mascara: Four to six month’s due to the wand being in close proximity to the eye area.

Anti-blemish products: If they have been brought from a pharmacy it could have a shorter shelf life If the products contain anti-oxidants keep a eye out for colour changes.

Hand lotions: Two years.

Sunscreen: They nearly always have an expiry date on the back but if not eighteen months.

Perfume: To make these last longer store out of direct sunlight and through away if the scent alters or the colour changes.

Nail polish: One year.

Once you have thrown out all your old products, wipe down everything with an anti-bacterial spray, before putting them back.
If any products are in jars or pots, remove the lids and wipe round before replacing them.

Then, clean your brushes, tools, hairbrushes and tweezers. The best way to do this is to wash them in shampoo. Rinse them thoroughly and allow to dry naturally. Throw away dirty, used make up sponges as even washing them won’t remove the muck and bacteria they may harbour.Also, once brushes start shedding excessively or don not apply your make up properly, invest in some new.

So now you should have a nice clean make up bag, you know all your products are still ok to use and your tools are all nice and clean. You will probably have room to go out and buy some new items to keep in line with the new season’s trends.

If you’d like to find out more tips or new products please pop over to Pampered Mummy.

Photo by flickr user Baumig

Guest post by BigDaddy

Ok folks; let?s start with what we know about games consoles. If you are a bit of a poser with more money than sense you buy a Playstation 3 (Editor: His words not mine!). If you are a bit of a geek and are into ?serious? gaming you buy an Xbox 360 and if you?re looking for fun family games then you buy the Nintendo Wii.

Well I?m here to tell you things have changed! When Nintendo came along with the Wii they took everyone by surprise because you no longer had to sit on your bum bashing away at buttons to get the game to do anything, you simply held the remote and moved your hand. This opened up the world of gaming to a whole new audience (it also opened up their wallets) as the Wii became the must have console.

Watching from a-far Sony and Microsoft came up with their rival to the Wii. Sony decided on Playstation Move, a similar device to the Wii where you still have to hold a controller. Microsoft on the other hand decided to get rid of the controller all together and create Kinect, a sensor that scans your body and picks up your movements meaning YOU are the controller! This really is a revolutionary way to play games, with the Kinect Adventures game included you can race rafts down a river, do a mountain top obstacle course and much more all by waving your arms around and jumping about like a looney!

Kinect is so advanced it recognises you from your body shape and actually scans your face too. You?ll also get a chance to see how great you look doing all the moves as it takes in-game photos of you which are great fun to look through at the end. Also be prepared to feel a bit like Captain Kirk in Star Trek as Kinect responds to VOICE commands. How very 23rd century!

With more games being brought out almost weekly for Kinect and priced at the very reasonable ?129 for the Kinect sensor and Kinect Adventures, I believe this is the best family gaming system around and it?s all Erin ever wants to play. We have a Wii, but it?s sitting gathering dust because Kinect has taken its place. I mean, who wants to hold a controller to play games? That?s so last month!

A word from Littlemummy “As you can probably tell it’s the hubby who’s the gamer but for family entertainment the Kinect is where it’s at. It no longer matters about age gaps, which Erin proved just yesterday when she thrashed me at car racing grrrr. Good family fun that has been a godsend since we’ve been snowed in. I’d highly recommend it and comes with the ‘Littlemummy Must Have’ seal of approval”

Bit of a break in service here folks whilst I do a little bit of pitching

Attention all potential Littlemummy.com sponsors! Next year I’d like to attend the very successful and high profile Cybermummy Conference. The cybermummy event is the No.1 conference for British parent bloggers and I’d love to attend to represent my blog Littlemummy.com and you.

What I would like;

Ideally I would like the following to be provided for me by my sponsor.

My Ticket – ?80
My Flights – ?90
My Hotel – ?180

Total – ?350

In return the sponsor will benefit from the following;

Banner or Text Link placement in sidebar from now until 1st July 2011 – Value ?320

Blog Feature on Littlemummy.com (an entire post dedicated to sponsors product/service) – Value ?100

Links in every post relating to the cybermummy event – Value ?75

Sponsors hashtag in all tweets re. cybermummy event – Value Unknown

Badge (tasteful please!) to be worn by Littlemummy at the cybermummy event – Value Unknown

Total ?495 +

If you would like to be my sponsor for Cybermummy please contact me to discuss. Join Team Littlemummy now!

So after Monday’s disastrous trip to the community health spa I decided to treat my mum to a day at Bannatyne’s

The Bannatyne gym/health spa’s (owned by entrepreneur and ‘dragon’ Duncan Bannatyne) are doing an offer – ?59 for two and for that you have access to spa facilities, gym, workout classes and you both get a treatment. We booked our day and went on Sunday.

We were meant to be doing yoga at 8.30am followed by spinning at 11am. That rapidly turned into just spinning and then to neither

So at 10am we turned up bleary eyed and after a quick chat with the beautician we headed straight for th health spa. The wood panelled changing rooms gave us a positive impression and we were hopeful of a better experience. We used the pool, sauna, steam room and spa and it was lovely and relaxing.

After a bit of lunch I headed to the gym to ogle the fit guys pump some iron walk on the treadmill for a bit. I headed back to the spa to find mum lolling over the side of the spa looking totally relaxed. I joined her, we relaxed for a bit before she leaned forward to tell me how large the person’s nose was across the way – I told that such inappropriate comments were a sign that she’s getting old (she’s 46). I told her I would blog this and she didn’t believe me (mum, everything’s fodder to a blogger).

After relaxing a bit longer we got dressed and I went for a back and scalp massage which was amazing, especially the scalp bit, in fact I think I might have dribbled a bit. Mum headed for hers and returned with her t-shirt on inside out, so I’m guessing it was pretty good.

All in all a far more pleasant experience and one we’ll definitely repeat.

Thanks Dunc

Christmas has come early! I have a fab christmas themed jollybox for one lovely winner.

The Jollybox company offer a range of themed playtime boxes that encourage children to use their imagination.

Each Jollybox equips parents with the tools to transport their child into an exciting, imaginary world of characters, themes and scenarios. Whether it is a dinosaur, an explorer or an airline pilot, children are encouraged to explore their imaginations through creative play, acting and drawing. Jollyboxes have been created to promote problem-solving skills, strengthen communication and encourage social interaction in children at an early age.

The range includes The Explorer Box, The Wedding Box, and The Holiday Box. Each box contains illustrated flash cards, an inspiration booklet and an activity book with puzzles, themed games, amazing facts, exciting new characters and plenty of creative ideas for budding young artists.

I have the Christmas Box to giveaway, which is bound to keep the little ones busy throughout December, or you could even keep it as a special gift for Christmas Eve or the big day itself!

Two Ways to Win

1. Join my newsletter for one entry, how easy is that?

2. Leave a comment on this post on the subject ‘One thing I hope for this christmas….’. This will count as one entry too.

You can enter either way, or do both for two entries. Newsletter subscriber will automatically be given one entre

I will choose a random winner on Thursday 8th October 2009

*This competition is open to UK residents only*

I’ve been tagged by my new friend English Mum, she’s one of the other lucky bloggers going to Walt Disneyworld (we’ve been asked to use it’s full title, a small price to pay, yeah?)

The meme involves 80 mum bloggers around the world, this is how it should work;

Here?s how it?s going to work:? I?m going to link to a couple of other mom bloggers here in Canada, and to a couple of mom bloggers from other countries around the world, and they?ll write their posts, sharing 5 things that they love (or maybe what they don?t so much love – this playground doesn?t force conformity) about being a mom, and then they?ll tag a few more bloggers from their own country and from other countries, and so on. And you?re more than welcome to join: just write a post of your own (5 things that you love about being a mom) and find someone to link to and tag – someone from your own country, if you like, but definitely someone from another country (Google is a good resource if you don?t know any; google any country name and ?mom? in their blog search function) (be sure to let them know that you?ve tagged them!) – and link back here and leave a comment and we?ll add you to the ?itinerary,? ?.

and here’s the person that started it all.

and now for my five things I love about being a mum….

1. Going into her room when she’s asleep, tucking her in and giving her a kiss. I get a warm feeling knowing that she’s snug and happy, I often think about the mum’s, through no fault of their own, who cannot provide a warm dry place to sleep and a full belly, it makes me feel so lucky.

2. Three year old conversations can be so interesting (if a little repetitive).

3. I love the hugs, wherever and whenever, they are free and plentiful but my favourite is the cooch I get in bed in the morning.

4. I enjoy showing her how to do craft activities and how to make pasties, and then she tells me I’m doing it wrong and puts me right!

5. I love being a mum, but being a family is the ultimate. Enjoying new experiences, seeing my husband as a father, starting our own traditions…it’s at the centre of everything I do.

I tag Mother at Large in Edinburgh, Scribbit in Alaska, and Linda at You’ve Got Your Hands Full for the mother of multiples perspective.

Ring in the New Year with ?100. One savvy sleuth will win ?100 (or equivalent in Euros) worth of groceries to kick start the New Year!

Little Mummy and Allrecipes.co.uk have teamed up to give one lucky reader the chance to win ?100 in grocery vouchers. All you have to do is prove you know your mixed peel from your mincemeat!

To enter for your chance to win, simply follow these steps:

1. Find the answers to the five questions below

2. Take the first letter of each answer to make the secret code

3. Submit your five-letter code below

If you crack the code correctly, you could be the Little Mummy reader who gets ?100 worth of groceries!

Competition is open to UK and Ireland residents and closes on 15th January 2009.

Good luck!

Crack the code?

1. This sauce calls for 675g of _____ cranberries.

2. Which herb flavours this roast turkey recipe?

3. What type of butter is called for in this Christmas pudding?

4. This Christmas cake recipe comes from which country?

5. For how many hours must you bake this Christmas cake?

Cracked the code? Enter here for a chance to win!

………………………………………………………………………………………

Like this? Join the Littlemummy VIP list for automatic entry into prize draws and more competitions like this

I want to try something new, being a stay at home mum (although I work part-time now!) can be a little, um, monotonous. I need to step outside my comfort zone. I need a challenge.

That’s where my blogging friends (that’s you) come in. I’ve come up with a selection of five challenges (briefly described below), all I ask of you is to visit my blog and choose one from the poll in the sidebar. I’ll begin the chosen-for-me challenge this Friday. I’ll blog about the process and perhaps even master this flip video thing.

Media Diet (as per 4 hour work week)

I’m re-reading Tim Ferris’ 4 hour work week and trying to apply some of the principles. One of his challenges is to go on a media fast, a diet, not the ‘see food and eat it’ type, a REAL diet. No newspapers, no magazines, no television news, no (choke) RSS feed or ‘unnecessary web surfing’.

What is allowed? One hour of ‘pleasure viewing’ in the evening, one hour of non-fiction reading, access to my blog to write posts/upload videos.

Why? To increase productivity (read, perhaps I’ll get the cupboard under the stairs sorted!)

Build VIP list to 100

I’ve started a VIP list giving away prizes and freebies, the challenge would be to get subscribers to 100 within the week. This is a huge challenge as I’ve only just launched the VIP list (you can sign up in the sidebar btw) and haven’t really promoted it as yet.

Why? I have a terrible habit of starting projects and not finishing them, this challenge would force me to focus.

Make ?100 on Ebay

I have some stuff that I could sell and earn some money from, I’ve been delaying (being lazy) so it would get me off my lazy bum to clear some stuff and earn some extra money for christmas.

Make some flavoured oils and vinegars

I bought a beautiful book earlier in the year – A Slice of Organic Life. I’ve only implented two ideas so far (grow lettuce and herbs), so it would be good to try something new, learn something and have the produce to use over christmas

Spend ?0

One week. ?0. Is it possible? The whole family (all three of us!) would be involved in this exercise in frugality.

Why? To see if its possible, to (hopefully) curb our petty spending and taste for KFC.

So there are the challenges, just choose one from the poll in the sidebar. My fate will be revealed on Friday.