BLOGMAS #3- LEEDS CHRISTKINDELMARKT 2015

 

I recently visited the Christkindelmarkt in Leeds, as I do every year with family, it's one of my favourite paces to visit! As I am on placement at home this year it means I cant visit everyday like I could when I was at university in Leeds.... I really did go everyday...

 

The food is amazing there, not to mention there wide array of stalls and chalets filled with Christmas gifts. Although its not the biggest Christmas market around, it is still fab. We visited their "Alp Chalet", an authentic Bavarian eatery located at the centre of the market, and the food was sooooo good. I had their juicy crackling roast pork with beer sauce, red cabbage and potato dumplings- a firm favourite... I will definitely be back again before Christmas!

 

With a authentic German food, live music and a cosy atmosphere you cannot go wrong, it is also very affordable!

 

Of course while I Leeds I also went Christmas shopping- although I still haven't bought gifts for people yet!!

  Which Christmas markets do you recommend this year? Leave me a comment below!  
   

BLOGMAS #2- CHISTMAS TREE

Second post in a day... I can see I'm going to be doing a lot of catch up posts this Blogmas! Anyway- so I put the Christmas decorations up on Sunday, too early? I tend to put them up around the 30th of November as I couldn't bare not having a Christmassy home for the whole of December!

 

We always go for a real tree... although they come with a hefty price tag- £44... it is completely worth it to have that Christmas tree smell filling your home. We tend to get ours from Raby Castle, a local medieval castle. We go each year, as they also have a lovely Christmas market, Santas Grotto, Christmas shop, and the best countryside grounds. Although the weather was awful we still set out to find the perfect tree.

 

Once you have the tree up, you might as well put the rest of the decorations up. Although some people colour coordinate their decorations (I aspire to be one of these people), you can see ours tree is the complete opposite... we add to our decorations year on year so its a pretty random mix!

  Have you got your decorations up? Leave me a comment below!

BLOGMAS #1- LUSH FAVOURITES

 

Ok so my first #Blogmas post is a day late, oops. I am going to try my absolute hardest to get some posts scheduled to take part in Blogmas again this year- last year I found it was such a cute thing to do during the run up to Christmas, it really got me into the festive spirit! I would definitely recommend getting involved, and blogging about all things Christmassy!

 

So to kick #Blogmas off, I thought I would start with a little wish list. Have you been in Lush recently? If you have, then like me you were probably blown away by their huge array of festive bath bombs, Christmassy soaps and bubble bars.

 

For Christmas I actually asked for 7 of these.... ikr, a bit obsessive. Although they have a wide range of Christmas gift sets which include festive favourites and best sellers, I just couldn't find one that had all of the items I wanted, so I made my own!... if you want to do the same you can get your bath products wrapped in a Christmas scarf, so cute.

  My favourites from the Christmas range are:   - Bar Humbug - Peeping Santa - The Magic of Christmas - Holly Gollightly - Candy Mountain - Yog Nog - 5 Gold Rings - Snow Angel - Magic Wand   ...Sooooo kind of the whole range!  Have you got any favourites? Have you bought any Lush products recently? Leave me a comment below!

LONG WEEKEND IN PICTURES

Just a quick little post I thought I would share....my weekend in pictures, thankfully I also had Friday and Monday off work too! Although now I have no more holidays to take till Christmas, boooo.

 

Anyway, I spent my Thursday evening at the fireworks in Hyde Park- Leeds, I don't know about you but I love firework displays, there was no way I was missing out this bonfire night! I then made the most of my Friday and headed to York. York is one of my most favourite places, so beautiful and unique. Following a day shopping- in particular 'The Cat Gallery', 'Christmas angels' and 'The Disney Store'... starting to get an idea of the type of person I am?!... me and my boyfriend took a stroll in the park before heading home- I just loved how autumnal it looked!

 

Saturday was a bad day for my bank balance- while back in Leeds I managed to bag myself some  River Island winter boots, the most perfect Topshop Christmas pyjamas , some new New Look basic tops, jeans... and not to mention my binge in Victoria's Secret...

 

Sunday was more chilled and I went to the cinema to see Hotel Transylvania 2... as cheesy as it sounds I just love kids films, so good. Monday was not a good day with just a dentist visit on my day off :(

 

 

What did you all get up too? Leave me a comment below! :)

 

FAUXMANCE| BENEFIT ULTRA PLUSH LIP GLOSS

Benefit Bella Bamba Ultraplush lipgloss- shade 'Fauxmance'- £14.50- Boots  

I'm not usually a fan of lip gloss, as I tend to find it ends up a bit slippery or sticky... anyone else experienced the hair in lip gloss situation?

 

I got this one a few months back from Boots, it is by Benefit and comes in 6 different colours, this one in particular is 'fauxmance'; a sultry pink tone with ultra plush gloss and a subtle hint of shimmer. The tip is designed for easy application, and is super smooth without the sticky effect. It is very easy to end up applying way too much gloss so I tend to apply it with my finger, once set it gives a lipstick like appearance.

 

I tend to find with a lot of lip glosses they tend to be colourless or wipe of straight away, this one surprisingly stays put (to some extent). The sheer, bright watermelon hue gives a plumping effect and has a fresh scent which I absolutely loved! Even the tube and packaging itself is super cute...

 

The only thing I would say is that at £14.50 this is way out of my budget, considering there are so many drug store alternatives! Although I would absolutely love to try the bright shade of pink 'Lollibop'...

 

What do you think? Have you tried the other shades? Leave me a comment below! :)

 

HALLOWEEN NAILS

Ok I might have mislead you, i'm guessing that by the title you thought that I was going to be showing you some fantastic Halloween nail art- as much as I would like too I'm actually useless! I just thought that this nail polish I picked up at the weekend was an absolutely perfect shade for both Halloween and autumn!

 

The nail polish is by Maybelline, from the color show 60 seconds range- shade 357 burgundy kiss. I would say it is a very deep shade of purple/ red and is less burgundy but is such a beautiful shade. As for claiming to dry within 60 seconds, I completely agree! It is perfect if you need to paint your nails in a hurry, I also noticed that not only does it dry quickly, but I also didn't have the problem of getting those little prints and idents in my nails straight after as they were completely dry.

 

I am still waiting to see how chip resistant this polish is, as I only applied it on Saturday, but so far, so good!

 

The color show range has so many nail polishes in it containing so many beautiful shades, I bought this one along with rose chic, a metallic rose gold glitter- of course I couldn't resist! The color show polishes are on offer at the moment in ASDA, Wilkinsons and Savers... not sure if Boots or Superdrug are running this offer! The plain colours such as burgundy kiss are reduced to £2.50, and the glitter polishes such as Rose Chic are now £3.50, I was very confused as to which polishes were which price so make sure to double check!

 

What do you think? What shade are you opting for this Halloween? Have you managed to do some crazy nail art? Leave me a comment below!

NEW HAIR DAY

Ok I finally took the leap. I got my hair cut. Am I the only girl who really doesn't like going to the hair dressers? I just never feel satisfied when I come out and instantly want to re-style it myself.

However since it has been way to long since my last hair cut- I wont be spilling the beans on this! I decided to go and get myself a trim, thankfully I was surprised to only need half an inch of, which considering my worshipping of GHD's was a miracle.

 

I have been in the process of growing my full fridge out since May (I had a side fringe before this), and since it got to an awkward length I decide to try bangs... the verdict? I love it.

 

I visited my local salon on Saturday Hair Haus in Bishop Auckland, I have been going there since I was very young so why break the habit of a lifetime?! It is fab in there and has such a good atmosphere, the staff are lovely, their facilities are great and the products they use literally transform my untameable frizzy hair... and at £29 for a wash, cut and blow dry I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't even need to wash my hair for 3 days after!... don't judge me.

 

One of the products they used on my hair was the Loreal SteamPod a new innovative straightening and smoothing iron which uses Keratin to repair hair as well as minimizing heat damage, if you haven't tried this then you seriously need to asap, I struggle massively with frizzy hair and I was pleased to find that my hair stayed smooth and poker straight for 4 days, even in the rain. I know what's going straight to the top of my Christmas list...

 

However I have found that bangs are an absolute nightmare to manage, how to you sleep without waking up with it stuck up all over the place? How do you correct them on a windy day? How do you stop oil from your skin making them greasy? Also how do you avoid comments about having 'curtains'.... i'ts a struggle and they are very high maintenance!!! If anyone has any tips send them in my direction....