February Fairyloot Review| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?

As you guys know, I have a subscription to Fairyloot. This means that I can post monthly reviews on the boxes I get. The February box was one of my favourite boxes I have received so far. I'm pretty sure that it is safe to post this review as the March boxes are being shipped next week. If you don't want to be spoiled, do not read this review.

February Fairyloot- Emperors and Fugitives

So this is an overview of what was in the box. There was quite a lot packed into it.

The first item in the box was this exclusive full size Kalusian Sunset candle designed by Happy Piranha. I love that Fairyloot includes a candle almost every month.

It is this amazing purple colour that matches the purple worms Fairyloot uses. The scent is strawberry and champagne. It's probably my favourite candle Fairyloot has included.

Then there was this Rebel of the Sands pouch designed exclusively by Alisse Courtier. This is my favourite item in the box as I had been in need of a small pouch to keep all my important items in when I'm at college as my rucksack has no pockets. It says "the world makes things for each place" and is in this beautiful typography.

Fairyloot included a Baby Groot keychain Pop Funko. I only have one keychain Pop Funko, so I'm happy to have more.

He's so tiny and detailed. He's also a bobble head keyring. I'd attach this to my keys, but I'm terrified it will fall off!

This is my first ever book themed bath bomb and it was designed exclusively by Bathing Beauties. It's a celestial gunpowder bath bomb and smells of cupcakes. I'm not the biggest fan of sweet scents, but this one isn't too bad and I can't wait to use it.

Another first for me is bookish coasters. This one was designed exclusively by Read at Midnight. The quote is from Illuminae, which I have not read. I am going to read it, I think I'm going to wait for all the books to be out and then read it. I love this coaster as it's minimalistic.

 This blue space girl bookmark was designed exclusively by Till and Dill. I have wanted to get one of their bookmarks for ages, so I was really happy when Fairyloot included this. It reminds me of the Blue lady in Guardians of the Galaxy played by Karen Gillian.

Fairyloot included another double sided print this month. It was from Throne of Glass and this side is Prince Dorian (my fave). This was designed exclusively by Taratjah. I have been dying to get my hands on some of her designs and I'm definitely going to be getting some in the future. I love her Cassandra Clare designs the most.

The other side of the print is Manon. I'm probably one of the few people who doesn't like Manon, so I have mine displaying Dorian.

The book included was Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza. I hadn't heard of this book before, but I understand that it's a mix between fantasy and sci-fi. I've read a chapter and I'm finding a bit confusing, but hopefully I'll get into it soon.

As always, Fairyloot included this amazing info graphic card. I love the designs Fairyloot uses.

Fairyloot has this system that helps you find your reading buddy. Out of the 5 boxes I have got, I've only found my buddy once. My hashtag for February was #FairyLoot06878.

Since September, Fairyloot has included Fairyscoop. It's a leaflet which interviews the author and includes articles on the back from someone in the book community.

Fairyloot is amazing at including promotions for bookish companies and publishing houses. This months was a 30% discount code for MyBookmark. I haven't used this as the bookmarks are very expensive and unfortunately I can't justify that much money on a bookmark.

The other promotional item was for The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr. This book is already out, so I'll pick it up eventually.












So that concludes my review of Fairyloot. I've decided to move my reviews to earlier in the month as I feel that the end of the month is too late.
Love,
Carenza x

February 2017 Favourites| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?

It's reached that point in the month when I tell you what some of my favourites were from the previous month. This is probably the smallest favourites I have ever done as February just seemed to go so quickly and I had so much on I can't remember what happened. My posts are usually a lot longer, but I have under five favourites for this month. For the first time since I introduced the Bits'n'Bobs category, I have no random favourites.

Books

My favourite book that I read in February was Caraval by Stephanie Garber. I have a review of this, which you can read here. I have seen some mixed reviews about this book, but I personally loved it. I had started to hate reading fantasy, but this made me rethink my love for fantasy.

Culture

I only have one cultural favourite and that was a trip to London I made in mid-February. My family and I went to the British Museum and we saw an amazing exhibition on South Africa. I do like going to exhibitions, but sometimes I can find them a bit overwhelming, especially after a long journey. But I really enjoyed this one. We then went to a pub, which for the life of me I cannot remember the name, but it was one of the best pubs I have ever been to. But, the main reason we went to London was to see a play called La Ronde at a theater called the Bunker. It had one of my all time favourite actors in it, Alexander Vlahos. This play was definitely for more mature people as it dealt with sex and relationships. I'm not sure if it is still on, but if it is, I highly recommend.

My other vaguely cultural related thing is that I have been enjoying buying books from charity shops. Most of the books I have been buying are from charity shops. I feel that books from charity shops get a bad rep because they can be damaged, but at the end of the day you are getting a book and a charity is getting money towards its cause.

So that concludes my February favourites. I know this post is tiny compared to my usual favourite posts, but February went so quickly.

Love,

Carenza x    

February Illumicrate Review| It's Carenza B

Hello!
So today I have something a bit different planned and I am going to be reviewing the February Illumicrate. I ordered and received mine in February but I wanted to read the book and test the products out before sharing my opinions with you guys. Without further a do here is my February Illumicrate Review!

Before I start the review, I will answer some questions that might arise in the comments!

What is Illumicrate?
Illumicrate is a quarterly (every 3 months) subscription service. It is a book based subscription box and each box comes with a new release (typically YA) and 3-5 bookish items. It is a UK based service run by Daphne from Winged Reviews.

How much does it cost?
Illumicrate costs £29.99 per box. This includes postage if you live in the UK, but if you live outside of the UK you will have to pay shipping fees.

How did you hear about Illumicrate?
I heard about Illumicrate through Sasha Alsberg's YouTube channel and it sounded really good. I then reached out to Illumicrate to ask if they could send me a box, sadly they had run out but they did offer me a discount code instead.

So those are so quick questions that I think people might ask and now I'm going to go into detail about the contents of the box.

Contents

This is what the box looks like from the outside. There is a lot of yellow confetti when it is opened and I really enjoyed this. 

This is a brief overview of the contents of the box, you get a really good selection of products.

The first things I found were these cool pencils from Pobble and Ping. They are exclusive to Illumicrate and I really like them. I don't think I'll ever use them because I don't want to damage or lose them.

The next thing I found was this cool Bookcase Pouch designed by Elena Illustration. You may have seen this pouch on my Instagram account. I really like it and it is super good quality. I've already taken it on two holidays and it holds a lot of pencils. This is also exclusive to Illumicrate

Next I found these super cute Love themed bookmarks from BeeDoo. These have sparked my love for bookmarks and in particular magnetic bookmarks. They are really good quality and I am currently using the one on the left. Again these are exclusive to Illumicrate.

 Possibly my favourite item from the box is this candle from Simple Co Candles. This candle is inspired by A Darker Shade of Magic by V E Shcwab (Which I have not read) and there were 4 candles you could get. I received Grey London and to me it smells like lemongrass or some other masculine scent. This is also exclusive.

The final item was this bookmark inspired by the book (Which I will show you later). I think that it is a nice touch to put in a bookmark inspired by the book. This is designed by Daydreaming Designs and is also exclusive.

There was this cool card in which had a message from the author and gave you a little inside to the world in which the book is set in. I have this pinned up next to my bookshelves. It's a really cool quote from the book and I really like the typography.

There was also this signed bookplate which I have now stuck in the front of my book. I have never received a signed bookplate and her signature is really cool.

There were some promotional items included as well. They were for 2 books that are coming out soon, one is The It Girl by Katy Seagull and the other is The Dark Days Club and I don't know who this is by. I think it's really nice that they included promotional products as it lets the subscriber find new books.

Another thing that was included was this recipe for lemonade and it is made by a character called Grace Reed. I don't know where this is from but I think it's a nice touch and in summer I will be using this.

Finally the book, you guys might already know this as I reviewed it for my last Book Review Monday Post. The book was Truthwitch by Susan Dennard, my review of which you can read here. I won't go into too much detail as my review has all my opinions, but I will say that I didn't enjoy the book and that I found it rather repetitive and too complicated (my review explains why).

So overall I really liked my first Illumicrate and I will eventually get round to subscribing for the next box. I think it's good value for money and I really enjoy waiting for it. I rate it 4.5/5 stars.

So that was my review of Illumicrate, I hope you liked it. Leave a comment saying what your favourite item was and remember that I will not be blogging through April, May and June because of my exams (my full reason can be read in my February Update). If you have any business inquires please email me on my business email itscarenzab@gmail.com

Carenza x

February Update 2016| It's Carenza B

Hello!

So today I am bringing you my February Update, in case you don't know this is a series were I look back at the month and how I felt it went. You can read my January one here. Without further a do here is my February Update.

1) Be more organised i.e be more tidy
Again, like last month (January) I haven't made much progress. My bedroom and desk did not get tidied once, my blog became less organised and I would only remember on the day of the post going up that I had not written one. So far this month (March) I have become at lot more organised, I have made a revision timetable which I am trying to stick to and I have had a massive tidy of my bedroom.

2) Be more confident
I feel as though my confidence dipped in February, and that in general February was a bad month though not as bad as January. My 2016 has not got of to the best start and it is not something I want to talk about, and because my 2016 has been bad my confidence has suffered.

3) To get fit and feel happy with my body i.e drink more water
This was not happening at the beginning of the month and it wasn't until the middle did I pick it up again. I exercised for 4 days in a row, and I noticed such a difference in my mood and general well being over that time. My goal is to exercise everyday in April and there are no excuses unless I'm ill and that's the only excuse I'll accept.

4) Study more often
This needs to start happening, I started to revise a bit more in February but it wasn't general revision it was specif revision for tests and I need to start revising more. I've drawn up a revision timetable for Easter and on average, on weekdays I plan to do 6 hours a day and 5 hours a day at weekends (this is when my parents are off and I want to spend time with them)

5) Do more of what makes me HAPPY
This one has taken a step down from my last update but still has been done more than revision. I think it's because I had a bad start to the year and I'm still adjusting to what happened. I'm glad I'm happy but I am going to start revising more.

6) Write and read more
I think that this one hasn't happened as much either. I did a lot of writing during the Half Term Holidays but I am getting through books a lot quicker. I've started taking books with me when I am travelling and reading them. I've also started going to bed a bit earlier and have been getting more reading done that way.

General Update:
As you guys know, I start my GCSE's in May and this means that blogging will have to take a step down. I don't want to do this but I have to focus on my exams and I want to do really well in them. All my other social medias will be taking a step down as well as I won't have the time to post on them. It is because of this I have decided to post ONCE A MONTH with a general mash up of my usual posts (TBR and Wrap Up, Favourites and Update). These posts will start in April and will finish in June. I will start blogging properly in July as I would like to enjoy the stress free days I have after my exams. I hope you guys can understand why I am making these decisions about posting once a month (the posts will come on the last Friday of those months).

So that was my February update, I hope you guys enjoyed it. You can now follow my blog by using the follow by email option and I have direct links to my Twitter, Instagram and Goodreads down the sides. If you have any business inquiries please drop me an email at itscarenzab@gmail.com

Carenza x