Christmas Gift Guide

Happy Sunday morning!

I expect by now most of you have started to turn to the brochures and internet adverts that have suddenly been making its way into our inboxes and shopping baskets.

I have had loads of fun making wishlists and my own Christmas list from the Debenhams, Boots and Space NK Gift guides. So without further ado here are my picks of products that you might want to add to your wishlists or buy for fellow friends or loved ones.

Starting off with Boots, full of amazing product goodness that it would take a rather strong individual to ignore.

Smashbox always have some cracking products out for Christmas and I've always got my eye on the miniature primers. I've heard they're amazing and for £25 for the trio it's a good way to try them out.
The On The Rocks palette is also an extensive range of eye shadows for a bargainous £49 and would make a great gift.

Benefit gifts are extremely popular and it's not hard to see why, they're beautifully packaged and usually contain a great variety of their products as the perfect trial of something that may be new to you or as a travel kit. The above is the perfect pick me up for on the go make up or a cohesive travel kit, all you're missing is your base products and you're good to go! For £29.50 the Sexy and Scrumptious gift set is amazing.

Liz Earle have never sold their gift sets anywhere other than John Lewis. I think it's great they've gone more mainstream by selling at Boots and this gift set contains their infamous Cleanse and Polish followed by a skin tonic and eye cream. All have very good reviews and contain natural products so would be an ideal gift for someone new to the brand for £19.75

These pages are my favourite! It's like a perfect mix and match section; Nails Inc polishes ranging from £15/16, Benefit's Hoola bronzer, Lancome mascara and YSL Touche Eclat. All of which have rave reviews and anyone would be happy to receive. 

Ted Baker produce some amazing gift sets also and i particularly like their designs this year. I'm a fan of coral anyway but the bottles lined up in different colours as above remind me of being on holiday in Southern Italy on the Amalfi Coast as the houses are similar colours and this makes me happy.
The UpTed Abbey set above looks like a lovely gift and I would imagine it will be on offer as a star gift at Boots sometime soon.

Origins also have some great gift sets where the value can be worth around £30 more than the price it is on sale for. The set below costs £40 though is worth somewhere near £68. Ginzing is one of their most popular ranges and this gift set is the perfect range of products for someone who deserves a pamper via a skincare set packed with vitamins and minerals.

So what do Debenhams have to offer?

You can never go wrong with a bit of sparkle in the form of a piece of jewellery. Watches are a classic item and rose gold is a popular choice at the moment, although silver and gold are still the classics.

The Clarins palette contains a gorgeous selection of eyeshadows that anyone can wear, especially over the Christmas season and would be perfect in time for New Year's Eve. The ten shades are a great basic palette for £35, meaning it's only £3.50 per eyeshadow which is pretty good value for Clarins!

Lancome sets are also really good value for money and the larger set has a massive variety of trial sized products and an eyeshadow palette:

It is hard to even think about Debenhams without considering Urban Decay. They have plenty of products available year round but this year their Christmas sets are awesome. The limited edition Vice 3 palette is sure to sell out and the eyeliner and lipstick sets are musts in every beauty addicts collection. I've got Vice 3 and the Black Magic eyeliner set already, the others are sure to find their way into my life too! These products range from £27 to £42.

Lastly L'Occitane are another brand where you just cannot go wrong with gift sets, especially with scents such as Shea Butter as they're so soft and light that anyone would be happy to receive it and you just cannot go wrong, especially for £20 or £35.

I couldn't complete these Gift Guides without a mention from Space NK, my latest favourite store. Having never bought from them before until a few weeks ago I'm now a constant browser of their site and some gift sets have particularly caught my eye:

Nars Virtual Domination cheek palette; £45 but worth £117. I really need it but cannot afford it; I need to find someone who can afford to buy it for me! A lovely present for any female who loves good quality blushes.

This is nicely followed up with the Digital World Lip Coffret also from Nars featuring 5 lip pencils, 3 of which are limited edition all of £32. They also allegedly come in an acrylic style box for future storage which I always thing is a good idea.

GlamGlow have a gorgeous skincare set out containing three different mud treatments for £50. With a huge following for its tingling and cleansing muds this one is sure to make a skincare obsessive extremely happy!

In fact i imagine at this rate I will be producing another Gift Guide in a week or so with other new products that I've found!

Do you find it easy or hard to buy for fellow females are Christmas time?
I think I could quite easily do it but may come into problems when a budget is required and also stopping myself from buying one for me too!

What are on your Gift Guides?

I've got another 'product free' gift guide coming next week!

L xxx

Life Update

Hi there!

It has been a little while since I did a life update as things have been so busy. I recently started a new job and things have been crazy, but I've been up to lots! Here's my pictures:

Having seen lots of pictures on twitter of everyone's Harry Potter t shirts I couldn't resist picking up the same as they were all from Primark and perfect for mine and M's upcoming Harry Potter party!
I got the Gryffindor tshirt (above) and the Hogwarts pyjamas.

I've been having a bit of a chocolate fest recently; it's been a long time since I've eaten it but with my Amelia Rope goodies (see post from yesterday) I've been given the taste for it again. I've made a nutella and banana smoothie, and my aunty made a massive white chocolate cheesecake for a family meal, it was HUGE!

 

That said, I've also been back at the gym a lot. My new job is based on shifts so I've been on earlies this week, meaning 4.30am starts which hasn't been too fun! However I've finished at 2 so this meant I could go to the gym straight from work and avoid the rush hour or go home and go back later for classes. I've been really enjoying being able to go to body pump again and building my weights back up, and hopefully seeing some results!

Both me and M went to an event recently for Neal's Yard Remedies and were kindly given the Wild Rose Beauty Balm. I honestly cannot describe how amazing this multi functional product is and it's become my go to for every skin problem. Come back tomorrow for a full review, even the packaging is just so beautiful!

With all of the NATO summit going on in Cardiff it was hard not to get frustrated with public transport and laugh at the ridiculous 'ring of steel' you can just about see on the corner of the picture above.
Me and my parents went down to Cardiff Bay to see the warships there, this is HMS Duncan one of the billion pound ships commissioned by the UK government. It was quite impressive to see it considering it's not something I'm interested in and the whole place was packed.

It was good to see so many policemen (and women!) from so many areas and they even grouped together for their own selfies in front of the ships!

I've also been on a bit of a spending spree (slaps the back of my hand). I managed to buy the Benefit items and Rimmel brow product with my points, the new eye liner was free when you swapped an old liner, the Mac lipstick (Coral Bliss) was a Back to Mac purchase and I also had money to spend on my Debenhams Beauty Card which was the rest of the Urban Decay products.

I was super lucky to have all of this as I've been saving them up for a splurge for a while! I've still got Boots points so I'm looking for my next Benefit buy! Here's a picture with the Pulp Fiction palette, Perversion liquid liner, Perversion mascara, Coral Bliss lipstick and Coralista:

I also had my hair dyed back darker finally! I've been waiting to do it for ages but wanted to wait until the summer months were over. Here's how light my hair was to begin with and how dark it was after dying it:

I loved it but unfortunately it's going to take a few goes to cover it all permanently as some of the colour has washed off already. I think when I go back to see my hairdresser next I will ask her to do it darker again too, as my natural colour is almost black.

I was planning on being good and not buying any more products now that I'm working again and can do overtime and hopefully pay my parents back whilst working my way through my stash.

That idea was totally thrown out the window when Space NK had their deal where you spend £150 and get a fabulous goodie bag, this time with 28 products in. I thought I was going to miss out but then I luckily sold some textbooks on amazon which helped towards the cost! Here's what I bought and am super excited to start playing with:

Up until this week I didn't own a Nars product....oops! Hourglass is a brand I've recently been reading about and their blush was too good to refuse, and I'm already a fan of Laura Mercier.

Here's a quick snap of the goodies in the Beauty Anthology bag:

Some products are only sachets or 5ml which is a bit disappointing as it doesn't give you much chance to use them but others are 30 and 50ml and I can't wait to try out all of them.

Do you see any of your favourite products in the goodie bag?? Have you been eating and exercising to make up for it like me? What do you think of my purchases?

I need to reel in my spending that's for sure!


L xxx