BuddyBox Review From The Blurt Foundation (Unboxing)

Reviews | 1 comment

This Christmas I thought it would be nice to buy myself a gift and what better gift than ‘a hug in a box’, AKA the BuddyBox.

I have followed the Blurt Foundation with interest over the past few years. When you struggle with mental health it always feels like a victory when companies emerge with genuine desire to get people talking about it. I follow their social media posts which are inspiring and uplifting but also REAL – life with depression and anxiety sucks sometimes and they don’t shy away from the bad stuff too.

I ordered the December Buddybox as a one-off (you can have them sent every month if you wanted to subscribe), which was themed Our S-Elf Care is Snow Joke. I had a rough period with anxiety towards the end of 2018 and wanted to up my self care game, so the theme sounded perfect.

The box arrived about a week before Christmas and I asked my husband to wrap it up for me and pop it under the tree.

Opening it up on Christmas morning was just lovely. I didn’t have a proper look as I wanted to save myself for writing this blog, but of course I couldn’t resist a peek!

Here’s what was inside:

  • Wild Olive Cranberry & Orange Bath Melt
  • The Little Book of Wonder by Bernadette Russell: Rediscover the power of creativity, curiosity and imagination
  • 4 A6 sheets of illustrated self-care reward stickers by the marvellous Gemma Correll
  • Blurt Foundation 2019 Self-kindness desk calendar
  • Overthinking Mapology Guide – Free your mind from troubling thoughts
  • Blurt-zine – a mini mag from The Blurt Foundation
  • A Stacie Swift postcard with a motivational quote (see below)

A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life

Christopher K. Germer

Check out this video on YouTube to see each item as I reveal it from the box and my mini review of each product is below…

Wild Olive: Cranberry & Orange Bath Soak

OMG this smells DIVINE! I could smell it when I first opened the box, despite it being sealed up. I can’t say I could distinguish the cranberry and orange scents, but when something smells that good, who cares! My lovely self-care bath time was enhanced by such a fab product and I came out of the bath with gorgeously soft, scented skin.

The Little Book of Wonder by Bernadette Russell

This book is one I’m going to get stuck into very early on in 2019 (just got to finish Eat That Frog! first). Having had a quick scan through, what I like about it is it has lots of pratical tasks you can do, along with action boxes. I’m confident this book will help my unlock my creativity and spark my imagination.

Mapology Guides – Overthinking

I had never heard of mapology before, so this was a welcome surprise. The guide opens right out and has a poster on one side displaying an illustrated cartoon fairground scene. There are lots of little speech bubbles saying things like “we are not our thoughts” and “this too shall pass”.

On the other side is lots of practical advice to help with overthinking (and I am a BIG over thinker – part of my anxiety is rumination), along with quick wins, real life stories and challenges.

The poster will definitely be going up on my office wall once I read all the tips.

Self-kindness Calendar from The Blurt Foundation

This cute desk calendar has pride of place…on my desk! It’s not functional for writing on, but it serves the purpose of scanning the day/date/year when I don’t know what day it is. Which happens quite often.

There is also a new self-kindness quote or message every month to remind you to be kind to yourself. Here’s the message for March, my Birthday month:

YOU ARE WORTHY…of all that’s good, even when; you make a mistake, change your mind, say ‘no’, trip up, question yourself, question your reflection, your brain is being a sod, other people are being sods, you’re being a sod, life weighs heavy, you carry regret, you feel unworthy

Blurt Foundation

Gemma Correll Self-care Reward Stickers

Being a total stationery addict, I am in love with these stickers. I particularly love the one that says “Didn’t pretend I was fine when I wasn’t” because I am guilty of always doing this, which is probably much the same as most people in the UK. So the next time someone asks me, I’m going to be honest. Hopefully they won’t run away!

Quote postcard by Stacie Swift

This is already on my cork board which sits on my desk and will serve as a reminder to be compassionate to myself and to others.

Blurt-zine

This mini magazine has got small print so I had to get my bins on to read it! The topics for December were; Shake Off the ‘Shoulds’ and Don’t Get Caught Up In The Jingle Jangle Juggle.

Both were really useful articles about the expectations we put on ourselves, especially at Christmastime. I loved the last paragraph in the juggle article; “The festive season is difficult for lots of us, for different reasons, you aren’t alone.”

My Verdict

So, what was the verdict? Well as you can see in this video over on the Calmpreneur YouTube channel, I was certainly very pleased with the contents!

Would I order a Buddybox again? Yes! Do I recommend it? Yes!

At £21.50 for the standard Buddybox, I think it’s great value for money, especially when you add the cost of all the items inside together. If that’s out of your budget, there is a ‘lite’ version as an alternative which is £12.

The fact that you don’t know what’s going to be in your box is a lovely surprise and it would make a fantastic gift for a buddy who is going through a hard time with their mental health. I hope to be able to send some out to my friends over the coming year.

Have you ordered a Buddybox before, either for yourself or for a friend? Comment below and tell me your Buddybox story…

1 Comment

  1. Jazz

    Amazing review, appreciate the detail & love the personality you put into your writing! ☆

    Reply

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