Gift Inspiration: Burt’s Bees and Tangle Teezer

03rd November 2016
When it comes to Christmas shopping one of my favourite things to search for and buy is stocking fillers. Building up the perfect bundle of gifts for a friend or loved one gives me great pleasure and today I am featuring a couple of items that would be just perfect for the beauty lovers I know (including myself) and will hopefully serve as inspiration for anyone else in the midst of their shopping too.
First up I bring you the new and limited edition Ginger Spice Lip Balm from Burt’s Bees* (£3.99). The abundance of gingerbread flavoured products at this time of year fills me with joy, I’m currently addicted to gingerbread men and this lip balm manages to embody the scent of my favourite baked good perfectly whilst delivering the excellent TLC one would expect from a Burt’s Bees product. As with all of their lip products this is 100% natural, super moisturising and contains no parabens, phthalates, SLS or petrolatum (and uses recyclable materials in it’s packaging too). As these are limited edition I fully plan to stock up for the next few months and I strongly suggest that you do too, be it for yourself or as a gift.
Second up are some goodies from Tangle Teezer* who kindly sent over two of their compact styling hairbrushes- the Hello Kitty edition and Lulu Guinness lipstick print one. Tangle Teezer is pretty much the only hair brush brand that I use these days. Having really thick hair with a tendency to curl and then knot these are the only brushes that have managed to de-tangle my locks without wreaking havoc in the process. The compact stylers are perfect for popping in to your handbag for sorting out hair nightmares on the move. I kept the Hello Kitty one for myself and gave Mum the Lulu Guinness one and although I can’t speak for her I can confirm mine has come to my rescue several times already.

I think these would make a lovely gift for a hair/beauty obsessed friend and there are so many colours and designs available that there’s bound to be the perfect colour or print for everyone. The compact stylers cost £12.50 for a plain design and £13.50 for the designer ones.

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*post contains PR samples gifted for blog consideration*.

Posted in beauty, christmas, inspiration, review

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Gift Inspiration: Getting Personal with Snapfish

02nd November 2016
As much as I love shopping, or window shopping for things for myself there is actually nothing that gives me greater pleasure than shopping for other people. Hours can pass me by whilst I browse for the perfect present to show someone how much they mean to me and if I find I can add a personal touch to the gift then that’s even better. Needless to say when Snapfish got in touch offering me site credit to test out their new and improved personalised gifts (perfect for stocking fillers might I add) I couldn’t resist.

As soon as I was given the opportunity I knew exactly how I wanted to spend the credit. These last few months have been rocky to say the least and it is only with the love and support of my family and friends that I’m sat at home writing this post today. I’ve received such amazing support both online and in “real life” but it’s that which came from my Mum, Dad, Granddad and Best Friend that really went above and beyond. They’ve seen me through some of the toughest times in my life and I’ve put them through hell over the years and yet their support has never wavered, not even for a second. It went without saying that I was going to create something special for them, a drop in the ocean for all that they have done for me.

For my best friend I decided to make a table-top photo panel (from £9.99) using one of my favourite ever photos of us taken at a wedding a couple of years ago. After uploading my photo I used one of Snapfish’s new embellishments to add a personal touch- cheesy as it sounds life really is for good friends and adventures and we’ve certainly had a few over the last 19 years of friendship!
For my family I decided that mugs were the way forward, stuffed with sweets (my own little touch) to make for the perfect personalised Christmas gift. Again after uploading my choice of photos I personalised things further using the new embellishment tools, picking simple but true statements for my parents and a lovely quote about grandfathers for my granddad.

I was really happy with the quality of the mugs (and price- only £7.99 each) especially as two of the photos came from my iPhone rather than camera and I had worried that this would be detrimental to the quality. I really like the new creative tools on Snapfish, being able to add quotes and images to further personalise an already special gift really added that little something extra and filling the mugs with the recipients favourite sweets was my own final bit of pizazz.

Have you used Snapfish recently? Who would you most likely to spoil with the personal touch?

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Posted in christmas, gifts, inspiration, review

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My Purrfect Gift Box- the October edition

01st November 2016
Last month I had the super exciting opportunity to review My Purrfect Giftbox (see my post here) and was beyond impressed with both the concept and the execution. When I heard that the next box was going to be baking themed in honour of GBBO I was a little bit gutted as money is so tight for me at the moment I couldn’t justify treating myself to the box no matter how much I wanted to. Someone was clearly smiling down on me though as the wonderful Kim got in touch just before the boxes were sent out asking if I would like one- it took me all of half a second to fire off my excited response!
If you read my last post then you’ll already know this but before I get in to my review I just want to recap what My Purrfect Gift Box is all about:

Firstly you select which size box you would like, there are four sizes available (standard, lite, lite + gifts for kitty and standard + gifts for kitty) and it was the latter box that I was sent. Price wise the standard box + gifts for kitty costs £29.95 on a month to month basis, £86.95 for a three month subscription and £167.95 for a six month subscription. The standard and lite boxes are obviously lower priced with the same kind of discounts for longer term subscriptions. Now, on paper this might seem like quite a pricey option but I think when you see what is actually inside you’ll see that actually you’re getting a bloomin’ bargain!

My hopes were high for the October box based purely on the quality of the last one. As soon as I opened up the October box I knew those expectations had been well and truly smashed…

Firstly (because Mae is impatient and won’t wait for me) I’ll touch upon the gifts for cats- the first item out of the box was some luxury venison slices from The Innocent Cat Company (www.theinnocentcat.co.uk). Mae wasn’t sure about these at first, they have quite a pungent aroma which I think scared her a little, wimp that she is. Once she got past that issue she wolfed some down happily. At £14.95 for 3 x 100g packs these wouldn’t be an every day treat and we’re rationing these carefully but it’s lovely to be able to treat her to something so luxurious and wholesome! Equally popular with my feline friend was the tin of cat food from Applaws, these tins barely get a chance to touch her bowl when we give her one! Last up was a lovely cat nip filled mouse from KraftyKatsUK (find them on Etsy!) complete with baking themed fabric. This is Mae’s new BFF and at £3 each and a whole range of seasonal designs available she might find one or two in her Christmas stocking this year- if she behaves enough to deserve one, looking unlikely!

On to the human goodies and the first thing I opened up was this amazing oven mitt and tea towel from TextilesHomeDecor (on Etsy) which retails at £19.99 inc shipping from Germany. I absolutely love this and have stashed it safely away for when I move out of my parents place sometime next year- I’m 100% going with a cat themed kitchen this time!

Next up were these adorable cookie cutters. I already had some mini sized cat cutters which were good for well, mini treats but these are a really good size and perfect for making cookies and biscuits that you can then have amazing fun decorating, I can’t wait to get baking! If you fancy these for yourself then you can buy them for £10.00 from the My Purrfect Gift Box shop. Also pictured is the sweetest little set of cat themed cupcake cases from TheRandomBaker (on Etsy or available from the My Purrfect Gift Box site) as well as 12 rice paper cat toppers from LabelAmour. These only cost £1.50 and I’ll be using the recipe included in this months box to create some cat themed pumpkin cupcakes in the VERY near future.

And now, saving the best for last, my day was made when I saw these amazing ceramic cat shaped measuring spoons nestled in the box. These have been on my wish list for SO LONG along with measuring cups and are just the cutest kitchen accessory in the world. At the moment this set can be found at www.worldmarket.com and costs £9.99 with shipping from the USA. I’m still not over the joy of receiving these and I’ve been showing them off to anyone and everyone (I am that annoying cat person, sorry!).

As you can probably tell by now I was genuinely blown away by the October My Purrfect Gift Box and although I was sent one free of charge I 100% plan to treat myself and Mae to the occasional box once I’m back at work with a steady income coming in!

Still think My Purrfect Gift Box is expensive? Once you add up the value of all of the gifts included, not to metnion the time and care involved I think you’ll agree it’s a real bargain. A one off box would make an incredible gift for any cat lady- I can’t wait to see future themes.

If you’ve seen anything that’s really caught your eye there is the added bonus of the My Purrfect Gift Box online shop where you can purchase items from past boxes so there is no FOMO.

Let me know if you treat yourself to a box or any of the goodies from the shop- it’s the purrfect pick me up and treat for both yourself and your favourite feline companion.

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Posted in cats, Mae, review

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The Cord Pinafore

31st October 2016

Hello and Happy Halloween! I thought today would be an apt day to post up this outfit as the colours are very in keeping with the occasion.

Yes, I have added yet another pinafore dress to my collection (and may have also discovered one that I had forgotten about too)…I’m pretty obsessed with them to be honest- so easy to chuck on and perfect for layering! I think I’m up to five now, perhaps six as I’m sure one is still missing- organisation is not my strongest point in some areas of my life!

Dress: New Look (direct link) | Top: New Look (similar) | Boots: ASOS

Sorry the pictures are terrible in terms of light- Mum and I left it far too late in the day to get photos but wanted to make the most of the dry weather so we just did our best to dodge the worst of the sun glare with varying degrees of success!

I couldn’t resist the colour of this dress in New Look, and I totally didn’t break my shopping ban for it either as I was lucky enough to have it bought for me! If you look on the website you’ll see it’s also available in about six other colours and I’m wondering if I can justify adding the khaki one to my basket any time soon. I was pleasantly surprised by the length of this as New Look tend to come up on the short side, it’s so nice to be able to walk around confident that I’m not flasking my knickers at all and sundry.

I’m still obsessed with my ASOS ankle boots which are once again out of stock. I’ve been wearing them with so many different things so despite my initial worries about what on earth they would go with they proven themselves surprisingly versatile.

What wardrobe items are you bulk buying this winter? Pinafores and roll neck jumpers are my achilles heel.

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Posted in life, outfits, shoes, shopping

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Jazzing things up with Pimps & Pinups

30th October 2016

Up until now I’ve managed to resist the trend for adding pastel colours to my hair. I did have a brief foray in to ombre a few years ago but the ensuing damage of a DIY bleach job was enough to put me off attempting it again- that and not wanting to commit to anything permanent. All of the temporary fixes I had come across involved yet more peroxide and knowing I’m somewhat phobic of hairdressers (although I did brave a cut and colour last week, yay!) I decided it was in my best interest to just steer clear.

That was until I was introduced to Pimps & Pinups and their high voltage hair pop paint (available from their London salon and on ASOS).

*products c/o Pimps & Pinups*

These sprays have a unique wet to dry formula and come in seven intense shades (I managed to fail to picture the blue and green ones, oops!). You simply spray these on to your hair- either directly or in to the palm of your hand first and wait literally seconds for it to dry. These are non-permanent and take to any hair colour, from icy blondes to deepest auburns. They are also rain resistant and stain proof and simply shampoo out, damage free.

Now, I have experimented with coloured hair sprays in the past including ones which claim to take to any hair colour and have been less than impressed with the results. I was slightly dubious that these could live up to the hype but always willing to be proved wrong I used Panther Pink and Purr Pull to colour the ends of my hair.

temporary-hair-colours
As you might have gathered by now I am somewhat inept when it comes to my hair so the result isn’t the neatest it could be but as you can see the colours did indeed take and this was with just a small amount of product. Because it dries so quickly the colour could easily be intensified by adding another coat or two on darker tones.

The only issue I had with these paints was going it alone (also explains the dodgy selfie) as things did get a bit messy (although it must be noted that not a trace is left on our white bathroom suite). I think that with a helping hand, or even a steady hand some really spectacular effects could be produced. As promised the colours washed out really easily although it did take a couple of washes to get the last traces of purple out!

On the whole I think these are fantastic, and at £7.99 per colour aren’t going to break the bank either. I’m looking forward to using them again especially in the run up to the festive season where it’s always fun to experiment with bolder looks. They are also an excellent way to test out if a certain bold colour will suit you before taking the plunge with bleach and actual hair dye.

What’s the wildest colour you’ve ever dyed your hair?

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Posted in beauty, hair, review

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