The Christmas Tag

2 days to go and I can barely contain my excitement! I spied this Christmas Tag on Becky's blog and just couldn't resist doing it myself.


1. What is your favourite Christmas Movie/s?

Love Actually will always be my favourite Christmas movie but I generally love any! I try to watch as many Christmas movies as possible before the big day. I know this is cheating but I always watch the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special whilst wrapping presents as it just puts me into such a festive mood! 

2. Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

I don't know how this tradition started but for as long as I can remember, we have always opened one present on Christmas Eve and the rest as soon as we wake up on Christmas Morning. I could never be one of those people who wait until after Christmas dinner to open their prezzies! 

3. Do you have a favourite Christmas memory?

I have so many favourite Christmas memories so this is a toughie! One of my faves was when we had Christmas at my Grandad's house and my brothers, sisters, aunty and I couldn't get to sleep as we were so excited so we just tried to stay awake until the morning. Eventually we all fell to sleep but it was so fun trying to stay away - I think that was the most excited I've ever been! That was also the Christmas my Grandad set his hair on fire whilst checking on the turkey. So funny! 

4. Favourite festive food?

This is a recent favourite for me but MR KIPLING'S FROSTED FANCIES! They are the most gorgeous, melt in your mouth cakes I've ever eaten. I think I could eat all 8 in one go...not even joking! If you haven't tried them yet, grab a pack ASAP!

5. Favourite Christmas gift? 

My favourite Christmas gift was when I got one of those TV's with the built in video players in it. I thought I was the coolest person in the world and just spent hours re-watching the same videos cause I didn't have very many, haha. My micro scooter was a close second though. I used to spend hours on that bad boy.

6. Favourite Christmas scent?

I love the scent of gingerbread but I also love the fresh pine needle scent! I can't choose so I'll have those two. 
 

7. Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions?

We open a present at Midnight and put our pyjamas on really early. My Mum usually disappears to wrap presents and we don't see her until about 11pm.
 

8. What tops your tree?

It used to always be an angel but it's recently changed to a star.

9. As a kid what was the one (crazy, wild, extravagant) gift you always asked for but never received?

This isn't crazy, wild or even extravagant in the slightest. The one present I ALWAYS asked for was the Get Set Chocolate Factory. My mum would never buy it for me as she said it was a waste of money but honestly, I dreamed of this! I even saw it in Woolworths after Christmas and it was half price but I still wasn't allowed to buy it!
 

10. What's the best part about Christmas for you?

Spending time with family, seeing them happy and watching their faces as they unwrap the gifts I spent all year working to buy. Just joking - but I do like seeing them unwrap their prezzies! 

AAAH,  I feel super Christmassy now! I tag the following people to do this tag:

Natalie at Life is but a Peach 
Hailey at Hailey and The Beauty Blog 
Nuala at All of a Flutter 
Eloise at Frolics and Fashion

Inside my Mum's shop - Something to Love

A couple of months ago, my Mum finally took the plunge and opened her own shop after months of deliberation.  Something to Love is based in Knighton, Powys - I doubt any of you have heard of Knighton as it's such a tiny little town on the Welsh border that you're probably never going to visit but still, I thought it'd be nice to share a few photos of the shop.

An array of bath bombs, soaps and bath melts take centre stage in the shop. My favourites are the bubblegum and parma violets bath bombs - they smell good enough to eat! I really like the look of the vintage signs although they aren't something that would suit my house unfortunately.  I can imagine these in a retro, historic office or games room. There are dozens of old annuals to choose from which always spark a lot of memories for the over 40's.  When I see annuals like this, I just think of what it'll be like in years to come in little vintage shops - will people be selling One Direction and Top Gear annuals?! Crazy!

My favourite pieces by far are the decoupaged items. I'd love a pair of matching floral bedside tables or a nice little cabinet to store my makeup.  I never realised how easy decoupage was to do, you just cut out bits of fabric/wallpaper/napkins and paste them on to whichever item you fancy with PVA glue and then just glue over the top of it then varnish over your creation and it's done! It is very time consuming though and if you're a neat freak, you need to have a lot of patience.  My mum spends so long making these pieces and sells them so cheap - she is craaazy!

The scrabble decorations are so so sweet and are a nice little talking point for visitors as they're different to the usual Christmas decoration offerings. 

If you're ever in the Knighton area then be sure to pop in to Something to Love as it's filled with such unique, one of a kind items.  You can like Something to Love on facebook here, follow the instagram page here and follow on twitter here!

Hope you liked this post - I know it's a little different to normal but I like to shake things up every now and again!

Seventeen Instant Glow Cream Bronzer

With party season right on our doorsteps, now is a better time than ever to share my favourite bronzer/contour cream with you all.  I discovered Seventeen's Instant Glow Cream Bronzer around four months ago and have used it pretty much every single day since then!

On first swatching the bronzer, I thought MY GOD THIS IS ORANGE! and to be honest, it did actually put me off a little bit but being the absolute daredevil I am, I had a little play with it anyway.  Fear not, the bronzer is absolutely nothing like the shade it is on my hand when applied to the face.  It's a very buildable product and only has the tiniest hint of shimmer to it meaning that you don't look like a complete disco ball if you decide you want to sport more of a bronzed look.

I like to use this as a contour by sweeping it across my cheekbones, sides of my nose, jawline and hairline. As it's a creamy consistency, it does take a little getting used to and you need to move pretty quickly with it to ensure it gets distributed evenly but once you've mastered this, you'll never need another contour again as it really is the perfect product that stays put all day.

You can grab it from Boots here for £4.59. I promise you won't regret it!

Clothes Show Live Haul 2014!

Yesterday I blogged all about my day at the Clothes Show Live and today I'm going to show you everything I bought! You might want to grab a cuppa as this is going to be a long old post! 

So the first stand I spotted was Models Own and obviously I had to buy their goody bag! The offer was 3 nail polishes for £10 and with that you got a free bag full of goodies worth a whopping £65 and a Heat magazine. 

I searched high and low for the Flamingo Candle stand and was so happy when I finally found it! The offer was either 2 candles for £15 or a candle, a burner and 3 melts for £12.  I picked the Parma Violets candle which smells AMAZING and the bubblegum, candyfloss and milk bottles wax melts. I'm so excited to try these and will post a full review soon!

W7 did have a goody bag for £10 but I didn't particularly like any of the products that were included so I took advantage of their other deal instead - any 5 products for £10. I was browsing the stand for ages and eventually settled for the 5 above. I'll probably review each product individually but I already know I love the boxed blusher/bronzers.

There weren't as many magazine stands as usual which was a little disappointing but I did spot Cosmopolitan. The goody bag was £2 and is ok for that price I suppose but I did expect it to be a little better! You got a few samples, a Collection mascara, a copy of the magazine, a chocolate and a Whitworths shot.

I saw a stand that was selling bags for £10 with a free purse. I've got enough bags but I couldn't resist one at £10! I chose this beige/tan bag above which I really can't wait to start using. I'm not that keen on the purse but it's ok for a backup and it was freeee!

I've never heard of Mint London but their offer was 4 nail polishes for £10 and with that you got a bag of nail goodies and a nail polish remover! I thought this was a really good offer actually and I wish I'd bought two!

Possibly my favourite purchase of the day is this glittery sequined, horrifically tacky 'G'! It was £3 and I just couldn't resist it.

Right, I don't know what came over me but a lady was selling the above four perfumes for £20 and none of these are anything I'd usually wear BUT she sprayed them on me and one of them smelt amazing but I couldn't remember which! I will probably regret this purchase but yolo (yeah, I did actually just say that, cringe!)

Fab Brows gave my mum's brows a little makeover and they looked incredible! I just had to buy an eyebrow palette myself. I'm not going to talk about this in too much detail now as I want to do a full post on it but it cost £20. Hopefully it'll be worth it!

As usual, Barry M did not disappoint! Everything you see in the above photo cost £10 and you also got a makeup bag with it too. I can't wait to have a play around with all the nail polishes especially the magnetic one.

I LOVE CIATE! I spotted their deal of 10 mini nail polishes for £10 and picked out the ones above. I got a few duplicates as I want to give some as a Christmas present. I then walked round to the other side of the stand where they were selling a goody bag for £10 which included their Dolls House collection, the corrupted neon manicure set and a little bag of 3 mini polishes, a sponge and two pots of glitter. I love the Dolls House set - it's just so pretty!

I always want better hair so when I spotted the Aurora Band stand and watched a little demo of the headband in action, I was sold on the idea and ended up buying the product for £10! I'll do a separate post on this but I'm expecting big things. I'll be sad if it's not as good as they made it out to be.

Lee Stafford's offer was either a bag for £15 which included £90 worth of products, a bag for £10 which included £50 and I think there was another offer but I can't remember what it was! I picked the bag for £15 as I thought it was the best value. I'm so excited about these products and can't wait to try everything!

On the way out of the Clothes Show, you get a free bag of goodies and at one point, this bag used to be amazing! Now all you get is a few samples, a breakfast bar and 2 bottles of water. It's ok as it's free but you'd expect a bit more considering your ticket to the Clothes Show costs £30!

I hope you all enjoyed this post! If you attended, what was your favourite thing you bought?!

Clothes Show Live - My experience!

On Saturday 6th December at 7am, I set out for my annual trip to the Clothes Show Live at the NEC in Birmingham.  If you've not heard of the Clothes Show before it's basically an explosion of fashion shows, everything hair, beauty and clothes with a massive amount of stalls where you can buy everything a girl could dream of! It costs £30 a ticket but you can pay a little more for a platinum package which includes a Clothes Show bag with a few goodies in it and better seats to the fashion show but personally, I don't think it's worth it.

The Clothes Show has become a little tradition now that me, my sister and mum all get incredibly excited for as we're all a little beauty obsessed and love a bargain or ten! We had booked our seats to the fashion show for 11.15am so we could get it out of the way before we shopped 'til we dropped.  The show was presented by Rick Edwards and before the show starts they always have a singer/band play.  On Saturday, it was Jetta who I had actually never heard of before but she was fab and I reckon she'll do really well once she's a bit more established.  The show itself is always incredible and I'm completely in awe of all the amazing models, dancers and carefully put together outfits. The photos I took aren't the best as we sat quite far away! I do think this show was the worst I've seen compared to the last three years but it was still enjoyable.

After the fashion show was over, we had a bite to eat in the food hall. There are literally so many stalls to choose from when it comes to food but make sure you bring a million pound with you as the food is terribly expensive! I had a pizza and a pepsi which came to a whopping £12 but I guess it's expected in places like the NEC.

Next was my favourite part - the shopping! I walk around the stalls in such a haze as there's always people jumping out at you trying to convince you to buy their product. The stall holders will literally just grab you and start crimping your hair/swatching a foundation etc - sounds crazy but it is actually so fun and most of the time I do end up buying their products. Haha!

Some stalls to name were Models Own, Rimmel, Barry M, Carmex, Diet Coke, Laurens Way, Public Desire, Flamingo Candles, Bare Minerals, Boo Tea, Candy Kittens.  There's such a wide range of products to choose from but I usually stick to the hair/beauty stalls as the clothes are mostly quite cheap, market type stock that looks like it'd be ruined in just one wash. Most of the stalls will offer generous discounts and goody bags which is the main reason I like the Clothes Show so much if I'm being honest.

You are guaranteed to spot so many celebrities at the Clothes Show - mainly TOWIE/MIC stars and Peter Andre is there every single year! As you can see from the photo above, I managed to get a quick photo of Lauren Goodger and Amy Childs who both looked so gorgeous and seemed friendly enough.

Alfie Deyes made an appearance and did a little Q&A on one of the stages too and Fleur De Force was also there having photos taken with fans. Fleur's husband Mike was watching her as she posed for photos and my Mum had a little chat with him and told him how much she loved their wedding and then proceeded to tell him she was going red as she feels embarrassed because she knows him and he doesn't know her - haha! Mike was absolutely lovely though, so down to earth.

After our arms and legs were aching, we called it a day but not before treating ourselves to a milkshake whilst we gossiped about our day and discussed which were our favourite buys!

I'll show you everything I bought in a haul tomorrow which will one hundred percent make you want to attend next years Clothes Show! Let me know whether you went this weekend or whether you're going tomorrow or Tuesday.  If you've already been, what was your favourite part?!

Butter London Nail Polish in 'Champers'

A couple of months ago, I went on the hunt for a rose gold nail polish.  Ideally I would've liked a drug store offering but ended up purchasing Butter London's nail polish in 'Champers' purely for the fact that it looked stunning from the swatches online!

When it turned up, I was SO excited but was a little disappointed that it wasn't as rose gold as I'd hoped but more of a silver/champagne shade with flecks of metallic gold that shimmer in the light, nevertheless I applied it more or less straight away.  I applied three coats, waited for the polish to dry, tidied up a little bit and then went to bed.  I was actually quite impressed with the shade although I would've expected my nails to need two coats at most for the hefty price tag of £12!

The next morning, I inspected my nails in the daylight to find they were quite streaky - disappointing but I put this down to my application.  By lunchtime, the polish had chipped on most nails and it looked as though I'd been wearing the polish for a week, let alone barely 24 hours.

When I got home, my nails looked so horrendous that I just had to remove the polish straight away but to my dismay, the remnants of this Butter London bugger weren't going anywhere! Because of the metallic/foil finish, I think it makes it a lot harder to remove than any other polish I own. It's just so ironic that it chips instantly but takes forever to remove but oh well, you win some, you lose some!

I'd love to know what your experiences are with Butter London? I'm completely put off buying from them again but I'd be interested to know whether this was the case with all of their polishes?

Sleek Lipstick in 'Liquer'

When it comes to lipsticks, there's usually only one shade for me - PINK! When I was making an online Superdrug order last week, I was feeling a bit out there and decided to order a Sleek lipstick in the shade 'Liquer'.

The lipstick casing completely lives up to the brand's name - sleek! I like the matte finish as it makes the packaging seem just that little bit more luxe. I wasn't really sure what to expect with the shade as I googled the product before buying and it seems to look different on everyone! In the tube, the lipstick is a brown-ish pink tone with a prominent shimmer running through it but as you can see on my lips, it's a glowy nude-y pink shade. Swatched on my hand, it's more of a shimmery brown and looks completely different compared to when it's on my lips. Crazy eh?!

The consistency is by far my favourite thing about this Sleek offering - it's just so creamy! It literally feels like I'm wearing a lip balm! I found I had to apply two coats as it wasn't too pigmented but I can live with that.  I'd say that the lipstick lasts for a maximum of 3 and a half hours with eating and drinking which for the price tag of £4.99 isn't too bad.

I'm not really one for nude lipsticks but this has completely won me over and I'll be wearing this a lot throughout the next couple of months.

Have you tried any of the Sleek lipsticks?

Real Techniques Nic's Picks Brush Set

I had originally thought about asking for the Nic's Picks Brush Set for Christmas until I saw they were on offer in Superdrug at a bargainous £20! I was worried that they were going to be a complete sell out so I snapped them up almost immediately.  I do have quite a few of the Real Tecniques brushes but surprisingly none in this set.  I love that you get three exclusives too which just made me want the brushes even more if I'm honest!

I've been using the cheek brush to apply my foundation even though it's meant to be used for blush/bronzer.  I just find that it applies really evenly, it's definitely my favourite Real Techniques brush so far.  I'm not entirely sure on how I feel about the duo fiber face brush. I don't like that it's so fluffy and soft, I feel as though I don't get any product on my face which is a shame as I know a lot of people go crazy for the duo fiber brush.  

The eyeliner brush is great for applying eyeshadow just below your lower lash line and as it's very firm making it easy to control unlike a few other eyeliner brushes I've tried! I find the eyeshadow brushes a little too big for my liking! I'd prefer them if they were just a smidgen smaller but they are ok I suppose!

The main thing that attracted me to the brush set was the gorgeous silver handles. They look so luxe compared to the usual coloured Real Techniques brushes.  I love how all the brushes in the range have the names on their handle too as I do sometimes forget which each is for (bad blogger!). 

Is the Nic's Picks Brush Set on your Christmas list this year?