Whats on my dressing table

I finally have a dressing table and organised make up, as well as somewhere to sit and do it which is amazing.  When I say dressing table I technically mean desk but it's my beauty area. When I own my own place hopefully I'll be able to have a gorgeous vintage one,  for now I'm over the moon and it beats sitting on a small gap on the floor and having my make up under the bed.

First things first I needed a mirror. Ideally I'd have a big one with lights and attached to the wall but being rented property a free standing one would do. I spotted this one in ikea. It's a great size and I like the metal feet. For £10 it went straight in the bag. Along with fairy lights (which my other half hates and thinks are pointless. He doesn't understand some things are there just for the pretty factor.

Next up was brushes.  My RT ones go in their holders but I needed something else. I originally had them in a cleaned out Yankee Candle jar but it was too big and not organised enough. I spotted this clear stationery organiser in my local staples and as they are closing it was half price and around £3. It's perfect. The Yankee Candle jar now houses my pretty lights.  I want a second set as it looks a little empty.

For my everyday grabbed for items I picked up these cute blue patterned boxes which go with the carpet and curtains perfectly for around the £4 mark from Ikea (I got lots of stuff from ikea. It's perfect for cheap storage). You get four different sized boxes. The largest I used elsewhere and these 3 house my most used items. I will post on these soon. And of course my Naked 2 palette which gets used every day!

Underneath is a box I had a Christmas present in that I thought was too pretty to mot use. I'll find a use for it. And the white bag holds my dirty make up brushes away from site. 

All my perfume and perfume samples also sit on here. I really need to use some up.

Lastly on my desk is my Yankee scented beads in my favourite scent, pink sands. I hope they bring these to the UK they are amazing.  Mine have been open since Mid October and still smell great!

Lastly under my desk is my jewellery which I'm yet to find a home for, my heated rollers which I adore and have reviewed on here before (as I'm Internet less on my laptop still I'll link at a later date but I think it was Feb/March time). The soap and glory bag holds my wand, curling iron and heated air styler.  

I wanted my straighteners and hairdryer easy to get so picked up some command strip hooks. Command strips are great as they stay stuck well and don't mark walls or surfaces when removed correctly.

The gold bag holds all my skincare stuff. Like samples, wipes and cotton pads.

So that's my dressing table. What do you have on yours? What's your must have items?

Love M

Xxx

Update

I feel like I've not posted in ages. I wrote a long post about Christmas eve. My favourite day of the year but didn't post it as when I was home I didn't have time to edit.

As L mentioned yesterday I spent Christmas back in Somerset with my family. I planned to do lots but it was so busy catching up wotj everyone I didn't get round to doing much.

Today is my first post from my phone. You may or may not have seen I moved flats yesterday so on top of a busy Christmas I moved. Not the best time to do it but I'm all sorted except for unpacking my clothes and make up. I'll finally have space and proper storage for it all.

This does mean I'll be posting from my phone now. Anyone who's used the bloggers app will know it can be a pain. As L and I write some posts together I'm not sure how it'll work but she's going to try to do the bits I can't on my phone.

If you read yesterday's post you'll have seen we are on a 100 day spending ban as of tomorrow. So I best get down to Ikea and boots today. Unpacking my toiletries yesterday showed me how I really don't need to spend anymore.

Hope you all had a great Christmas! I was lucky and got some great presents I can't wait to play with more. I'm sure some of them will make there way on here.

Anyway this is what awaits me now to unpack.

Hope you all have a fab New Years Eve.

Love
M

Xxx

Spending Ban

We're sure everyone else is feeling the same way....just getting over the last of the Christmas turkey leftovers, feeling very full and happy with all new gifts filling your wardrobes, purses and make up bags and then WHAM......the credit card bill comes.

Ohhhhhhh then you remember how much you spent on people's presents, and how many presents you accidentally bought yourself at the same time, the bargains that couldn't be left behind on 3 for 2 offers and the necessities for any party season.....

Oops!

Because of the serious amount of indulging going on we've both decided to take ourselves onto a 100 day spending ban.

Plenty of other bloggers have done this previously and we would guess lots of people will be doing this in January so hopefully we can all keep each other going!

The plan is not to buy any thing at all for 100 days, no clothes, make up, shoes, home ware, food, jewellery etc etc.

There are a few exceptions to this of course!

1) Any vouchers or money given for Christmas or birthdays can be spent, and also points such as on a Boots card. 

2) We both normally have a Christmas meal in place of buying presents for each other and because M went home for Christmas this year we haven't had chance to arrange this yet, so our Christmas meal is exempt from the ban.

3) It is my (L's) birthday at the end of March which is sadly still included in the ban! I'm not sure how I'm going to break the ban for this, but normally I buy a 'birthday dress' to wear out as most other girls do so will decide on this closer to the time.

4) The only time we can buy anything is if we actually run out of it and anything else that might be similar to it, so if I run out of face wash I will buy it so my skin doesn't break out etc, you get the picture!

Pretty simple and hopefully effective enough in helping us save some money, use up old products and hopefully find some old gems in our collections.

Will you be joining in a spending ban this year?

We both had plenty enough for Christmas that we should be able to keep up our posts without any need to buy anything!

Have you completed one of these? Would you be able to keep up no spending for 100 days?

L and M xxx

Product Buzzword of 2012

I know a lot of people will be writing posts about their best products of 2012 and I most likely will do the same once I've had the chance to think about what mine are!

However when I was thinking of what products have featured heavily in my 2012 and also in general in the cosmetic/blogging world there was only one type of product that stood out in my mind: oil.

Image from Thrive Farm Wordpress

How many types of oil are there available??

Hair oil, face oil, body oil, shower oil.......

In particular Moroccan/Macadamia/Argan oil have taken the cosmetics world by storm and although I haven't used much of it, I have used the Macadamia hair mask and the Ojon oil and am very much a fan of both!

I have used some body oils but I'm always in a rush and am yet to find one that sinks in fast enough and does a good job.

As skincare is one of my favourite topics and aisles to browse in store, I have tried and tested a few face oils this year that has been my biggest surprise.

Starting off my year with oily skin, the last thing I would have put on my face is oil!

Once my skin changed due to stress and became drier and covered in cysts, I was forced to apply more moisturiser to combat the lack of hydration that I'd never experience before.

This included oils and now I would never be without them!

They helped clear some scars on my face, hydrated dry patches and did not in any way affect my oily t-zone! (Particularly Antipodes Divine Oil)

This for me was a revelation and I have been happy to swallow my words on adding oil to oily skin.

Do you agree that oils have been the biggest buzzword of 2012?

It makes me wonder what will be the product type of 2013...does anyone have any ideas?

I think nail art comes a close second as the biggest hype in 2012, maybe it hasn't had its day yet....or maybe products with a distinct lack of chemicals will become even more popular and product choice will increase with demand?

Who knows!

You know however, that we will all be watching! I for one cannot wait for 2013!

L xxx