MERRY CHRISTMAS!

                                

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you all had an absolutely amazing time and Santa left you some lovely presents! I am so busy at the moment I have unfortunately neglected my blog over Christmas, so I apologise that this is only a small post! I thought I would share with you some pretty self explanatory pictures of how I spent my Christmas and would love you to tell me about yours in the comments below! 

Christmas Eve I always spend at the carol service at Durham cathedral, it is becoming quite a tradition now, it is always so magical I love it! Then, I spent Christmas Day at home, I got some absolutely lovely presents, some of which included an I pad mini from my boyfriend, a giant polar bear toy, a ted baker makeup set, pandora ring and charm, daisy perfume, fashion books, fiorelli bracelet, a beautiful faux pony skin leather handbag,ted baker tablet case, Zoella book,nail polishes, mac lipglosses and my favourite present; a build a bear reindeer toy.. I literally LOVE it. What did you all get for Christmas? 

I spent the evening of Christmas Day at my dad's house, meaning more prezzies! Boxing Day was also spent at my dads and my boyfriend also came over. As always the week between Christmas and new year will be spent keeping up the festivities! 

                      How did you all spend your Christmas? Leave me a little comment below! :)

#Blogmas day 20| Yankee Candles

Yankee candle mini 'Christmas Eve', £1.35, Clinton cards

I don't know about you, but to be honest I am only really interested in candles at Christmas time. Candles are absolutely perfect for creating a beautiful atmosphere in your home but I just never really think about candles any other time of the year. 

The one thing I love about Christmas is the smell, you just can't beat it. As soon as you smell spiced cinnamon and cranberry you know it's Christmas! My mum is a huge fan of candles at Christmas which is why I love them too, we have sooo many! What inspired me to but this one was down to seeing a blogger reviewing this candle on her blog, it's so cute! I just love that it's called Christmas Eve, I literally can't wait to light it!

The best thing about Yankee candles is not only the smells, but they are such high quality at affordable prices and they have such an array of scents, especially Christmassy ones! They have mini candles, medium, large or even sets, this little one only cost me £1.35 from Clinton cards but you can also buy them most places! 

Do you like candles? What's your fave Yankee candle? Leave me a comment below! :)

#Blogmas Day 19| My weekend in pictures

I haven't done a post like this in absolutely ages so I thought since I've had such a good weekend I would share a few pictures with you all!

 My weekend started on Friday when I finally got picked up to come home for Christmas, honestly I have wanted to home home from uni for so long I just couldn't wait! When I got back I was literally so excited to see my kittens, love them! Friday night was one of the best, despite only being able to go out in the very small town that I live in, it was so good seeing all my best friends from home! I don't know about you, but I would rather have a night out at home where I know everyone, than in Leeds where I know very few people! 

Saturday was such a good day, I went to York with my dad to do some last minute Christmas shopping, despite it being freezing cold, York is such a beautiful place I just love it! When we got home I made some Christmas decorations (I can't help being so festive) hehe. 

Sunday I went to the metro centre with my boyfriend, I haven't seen him so long it was amazing! I also haven't been to the metro centre in ages so I was so so excited! We went to see paddington, (I highly reccomend) it's so funny! I can't help but love kids films haha. After this we went to Brewsters, if you've heard of it it's just like a chain of pub restaurants, nothing fancy but sometimes I love it more than nandos or frankie and benny's or something! Anyway, my evening ended with some Christmas wrapping with the help of my kitten miffy, she kind of just laid across all the presents and tried to unwrap them all but nevermind!

What have you all been up to this weekend? Leave me a comment below! :)

#Blogmas Day 17| Christmas Decorations!

Right, well when thinking about what I could do todays blogmas post on today, I remembered I meant to share with you a Christmas decorations post! I actually put these decorations up on the 29th of November... this might seem excessively early to you all, and when I told my housemates they were mortified of how early I was but it was the only weekend I was back from uni so why not?!

 

I don't know about you, but putting the Christmas decorations up is one of my absolute favourite things about the festive season, they just make your home look so cosy and inviting, and what is better than living in a beautiful Christmassy home throughout December?

 

When it comes to decorations, it becomes an expression of yourself, and that's what makes your tree individual. Do you love a real tree? Do you hate tinsel? White or colourful fairy lights? Is your tree colour coordinated? The possibilities are endless. At home we tend to stick to a real tree which we buy from a local castle, they make your home smell divine! We always get a huge tree, the rule is it has to be taller than all of us! Then to decorate, anything goes really, everyone puts on their favourite decorations and all of the hand made bits and pieces are saved till last. Although some people hate tinsel, I really like it! I just love the different shiny colours.

 

As for the rest of the house, well, I wish I had included a picture. Me, my brother and sister aim to transform the house into a Santa's grotto, so we have a lot of paper chains and snowflakes daggling everywhere imaginable. Have you ever seen the Christmas film Elf? When he transforms the department store that is basically us.

  What are your Christmas decorations like? I would love for you to leave me a comment below! :)

#BLOGMAS DAY 16| OOTN

 

I'm wearing: Ripped Joni Jeans, Topshop| High neck velvet top, Missguided| 'Cyber' satin lipstick, MAC.  

So last night was actually the first time I have had a Christmas night out this Christmas, so when all of you have been dashing around trying to find your perfect Christmas party outfit I have been sat alone doing my uni assignments... with no plans. Anyway last night I went to a house party to celebrate the end of this semester, I cannot believe how quickly it has gone, like it has seriously flown by! SCARY.

 

House parties are always so difficult to dress for, because although it is usually a really informal occasion where jeans will do, but sometimes you have absolutely no idea what everyone else is going to be wearing, are they going to be too dressed up or not enough? It is a true dilemma. Anyway I decided that I was going to wear my ripped Joni jeans which are my absolute fave right now, and then teamed it with a velvet high neck crop top. Velvet is such a great trend right now, even if there is just a hint of it in your outfit, high necks are also very on trend at the moment, this one was only £9.99 from Missguided!

 

So I think I got the balance right between smart and casual last night, but just to be on the safe side I made sure my hair was kept simple and then dressed my whole outfit up with my favourite MAC lipstick 'cyber', its deep purple tones are so great for winter!

 

What have you been wearing for Christmas parties and get together's this season? Leave me a comment below! :)

#Blogmas Day 14| Festive Lip Balm

Frosted Cranberry Lip Balm- £4- The Body Shop  

If you haven't been inside one of The Body Shop stores recently you are seriously missing out! Their stores smell absolutely divine and are jam-packed full of the most amazing Christmas gift sets, and products that are perfect for making you feel extra special in the run up to Christmas.

 

I Don't know if any of you have noticed but inside this months issue of Cosmopolitan there is the perfect festive treat for you. The magazine contains a little gift card with a minimum of £3 credit on it, all you have to do is take it into one of The Body Shop stores to reveal your prize! You could win anything between £3 or £50 off on Body Shop products (no minimum spend applies) or even £1000! Anyway when I went to see what my prize was the other day I found it was £3 but I was really satisfied with it, not everyone can win £1000 right?

 

I have had my eye on the 'frosted cranberry' range that The Body Shop has at the moment, if you remember, they had a similar product range last year called "cranberry joy", I had the body butter for this last year and I just loved it. Not only does it smell typically fruity and wonderful, but it has an added festive touch to it, the scent is divine!

 

I am a massive fan of lip balms at the moment, as during the cold months my lips are so prone to cracking and becoming sore, so I love to use a little balm to soften and smoothen them. Despite having several lip products on the go at the moment, when I saw a frosted cranberry lip balm I knew I just had to have it, and with my voucher it only cost me £1, bargain! (it is still only £4).

 

The thing I love most about this product is the fact it is so smooth and easy to apply, you only need to add a little but it adds a lovely shine and reddy/pink touch to your lips, plus it smells absolutely gorgeous! I highly recommend you bag yourselves one of these, or if you're buying Christmas presents this year, it would make a perfect little stocking filler :)

  What is your favourite body shop product range? What's your favourite product? Leave me a comment below! :)

#Blogmas Day 13| Festive Nails #2

 "Little angel"- £2- Claire's  

This is the second of my festive nails posts, what?! I never change my nails this often! Really.. I literally change my nail polish colour every month minimum, but seen as its Christmas I have so many lovely Christmassy nail polishes, I just want to try them all out. This one in particular is from Claire's Accessories, now if like me, you used to spend all of your pocket money on Claire's hair scrunchies, sparkly hair clips, fluffy purses and garish eye shadow palettes when you were younger, you probably stopped shopping at Claire's a long time ago. However, after popping in there on a couple of occasions recently, I remembered just how much I loved it. I am such a girly girl so I can't resist their jewellery and most importantly, their nail polish collection.

 

I have been looking for a snowflake effect nail polish for quite a while but don't really have the money to spare for a Nails Inc one, so when I found 'Fluffy' on their shelves I just had to have it (I probably should have included it in this post but never mind!) Anyway for £3 I thought it was an absolute bargain, and on that day all of the nail polishes were in the sale for just £2 EACH. This is when I decided I would try 'Little Angel'- a glittery pink polish, right up my street.

 

I knew I wanted to go for a full glitter nail but I know that with some glittery nail polishes it can take quite a while to apply layer upon layer of glitter until it starts to even become noticeable, and by that point you've put a big squishy dent in them anyway. So, I used a plain pink nail varnish as my base colour (you can see it on bits of my fingers in the picture as I forgot to clean it off) but this helped to provide a base in which to apply the glitter, it only took 2 coats! It also dries quite quickly and the effect is beautiful, and exactly what I wanted, although the picture makes it look a little darker than it is.

  Have you seen any great glitter nail polishes that you think I may like? What polish are you wearing at the moment? Leave me a comment below! :) 

#Blogmas Day 11| Glitter lips!

Holographic fuchsia- £13- Bellissimo Lips  

This is literally the most amazing makeup product I have ever seen...forget balms, lipsticks and glosses, and embrace glitter lips! Literally my lips are covered in glitter. When I first saw the 'Bellissimo lips' concession stand in Topshop a month a go I just had to have a look. Bellissimo offers the cutest packs of lip glue and glitter to create the cutest sparkly lip, despite being October at the time I knew this was a must have for the festive season!

 

They sell so many varieties of glitters, whether its crimson, pink, fuchsia, blue or purple they have such an array of colours; I was spoilt for choice, and being so indecisive I almost took them up on their offer of 3 packs for £20. I decided in the end to get the 'holographic fuchsia' glitter, which is a very bold pink but has hints of other colours too, making it the perfect colour!

 

I only actually tried this out as a tester the other day when I was bored, but honestly as soon as the glitter was on my lips I didn't want to take it off, it looks so pretty! Those of you who read my blog regularly will know how much of a sparkle lover I am, so this was perfect for me! I intend to wear it all through Christmas, especially for Christmas Day and New Year.

 

Despite being so pretty I would say there was a few issues, although it is super easy to apply with a cotton bud to avoid getting glitter all over the place, the glue used to apply dries super fast, so you have to be really quick in applying your glitter or your cotton bud starts to stick to your lips, not nice. Also although it I good that the glitter withstands food and drink meaning you don't need to re- apply, it is an absolute pain to get off , literally I had to scrub it off and then I had an awkward faint line of glitter around my lip line all day that just wouldn't budge!

 

Overall I absolutely love this product, although for what it is, you could definitely buy it for cheaper or make it yourself rather than paying £13. You can find the lip glitters HERE .

 

What do you think of the lip glitter look? Would you, or have you tried it yourself? Leave me a comment below! :)

#Blogmas Day 8| New Shoesies!

 

  Black extreme heel Chelsea boots- £29.99- New Look 

 

I have literally been looking for the perfect pair of winter boots for MONTHS. I bought some from River Island but I feel like I have made such a mistake and wasted £38 when I bought them on impulse a few months ago, they are baggy, and not high enough, I hate them. So then I looked around some more, and the only ones I could find were soooooo over priced (£60-£90) which is just so out of my budget... then to my amazement I found a whole range of boots in Garage shoes which were literally cheap replicas of all the boots Topshop, River Island sell at the moment, honestly it's crazy, they may not be the highest quality shoes but for half the price they are such a bargain!

 

Anyway I am going off track a little... just after I set my heart on a pair of River Island replicas from Garage shoes, I came across these babies in New Look. I can't believe I forgot how amazing the shoe section in New Look is... literally shoe heaven. Despite my money woes I knew I had to have these, they are shoe perfection I absolutely love them!

 

Although the material is suede and therefore very unsuitable for rain or snow, they look gorgeous, the shape is beautiful and they are super comfy inside... there is even extra padding to support your feet. Most importantly they look gorgeous! Honestly I feel so amazing wearing them I don't think I have ever owned such nice shoes for just £29.99, they are such great quality! Definitely recommend you bag yourself a pair of these while you can.... you can find my boots HERE.

 

What do you think? Do you like the Chelsea boots trend? What are your winter boots? Leave me a comment below! :)  

 

#Blogmas Day 6| Gingerbread house!

Okay so it might have a massive hole in the roof, the walls are stuck together by the skin of their teeth and I have been told it looks like a gingerbread man crime scene, but this was one of the most fun things I have done in ages!

 

My boyfriend came to visit this weekend so seen as we won't be seeing much of each other before Christmas, we decided to have a super festive weekend together instead! Honestly, making a gingerbread house is the most difficult and frustrating things to make in the world, but so completely worth it! I can see the idea behind it, you make the perfect mixture, cut out the gingerbread pieces to the exact millimetre, everything falls into place, and everything is decorated fabulously to make a culinary masterpiece... but in reality it isn't going to happen. Some of your pieces will be thicker than others, some will be burnt to a crisp, and you'll spend half an hour holding all the pieces together and hoping the masses of sticky icing will act as super glue.... just for it all to fall to bits time and time again.

 

However, it's what makes it so fun! If like me you had no idea where on earth to start making your own gingerbread mixture, then you can pick up a gingerbread house kit for just £5 in Sainsbury's, or quite cheaply in other supermarkets too, although I do recommend you buy a lot more sweets and icing to decorate!

 

Just a quick post today anyway, i'm off to munch my way through this gingerbread house... have you made one? I would love for you to send me a link to your picture or comment below! :)  

#Blogmas Day 5| #AnabellesWigsChallenge

*When I found out about this challenge I just had to get involved! #AnabellesWigsChallenge basically requires you to style your Anabelle hair piece in three different ways! One of things I dislike the most about myself is my hair, I just can't get it to grow so this hair piece was absolutely perfect for me! 

 

Annabelle's Wigs are a hair company based in the UK who aims to stay ahead of fashion trends. Celebs such as Adele, The Saturdays, Amy Childs, Pixie Lott, Kelly Osbourne and

Katie Price are just some of those who have been spotted wearing Annabelle’s wigs hair pieces.

 

Their range consists of 1/2 or 3/4 hair pieces and they are so easy to wear, literally you clip them in and your done! The quality of the hair pieces are also fantastic... from somebody who spent £70 on hair extensions a few years ago which turned out to rubbish quality, I didn't expect much from this one for just £29.99 but I was pleasantly surprised. Although you cannot use heat on them, they are already perfectly styled and you can buy them in whatever style you like! I chose Daisy which is loose curls I would say with layers and is a 3/4 hair piece. You can find the whole range at http://www.annabelleswigs.co.uk/.

 

So, it's time for the challenge! I decided to style mine in my 3 favourite hairstyles; the big ponytail, to the side and also big bouncy curls. The hair is so easy to play around with, and the hair is so glossy and life like, this is literally my dream hair! Although there can be issues with matching the hair piece colour to your own hair, I sent a picture and they colour matched me perfectly, could not be happier!

 

Although this style is not something I would wear daytime as it is very big and thick, it is perfect for special occasions or a night out! :)

  What do you think? :)

#Blogmas Day 1| Festive Nails

I am especially excited about this post as it is my first #Blogmas post! I have been wondering the past couple of days what all this #Blogmas is about, turns out it is simply blogging everyday until Christmas or through December if you like! Admittedly I am 2 days late getting up to speed with this but hey ho I still want to do it!

 

I am a huge fan of Christmas, like literally I am festive all year around and make sure everyone else is too! So anyway, my first post is going to be all about how to make your nails ready for the festive season! Admittedly I haven't found some crazy Christmas nail stickers, or drawn some fantastic patterns with nail art pens, but I've added a sprinkle of glitter to my everyday nails, and in my opinion that's festive!

 

I actually found these nail polishes from last Christmas the other day so decided to retry them out on top of my every day nail polish- No7 Stay Perfect nail colour in 'Me Me Me', the two glitter polishes are by Models Own, Fireworks collection 'sparkler' and mirror ball collection 'hot stuff'. I absolutely love the combination of different glitter types and colours, they perfectly complement each other and would also look fab on separately if combined with other colours! I love this combo as it is super girly, I am a sucker for sparkles!

 

I always find that Models Own have such a wide range of different collections and colours to choose from, and they are such fab quality at such a low price, just £4.99 each, I can't wait to get some more! :)

 

What's your fave polish brand? Do you use Models Own? Leave me a comment below! :)