Christmas Gifts for All

This is a small selection of the many potential gifts that I would love to buy for or receive from my friends and family. I have already purchased a few of these as Christmas gifts this year. So if you are looking for inspiration or just browsing for yourself here’s is my recommended gift list. It’s Christmas and everyone is allowed to ask Santa for something special so you never know!

For the Home:

1. Cire Trudon Nazareth Candle, £60. Beautiful looking, strong, lasting smell of orange zest, cinnamon, clove and incense.

2. Nicki McWilliams Tunnock Teacake Cushion, £29.50. I love the whole range of her biscuit cushions, especially the caramel wafer, pink wafer, malted milk and custard cream.

3. Brissi Sevigny Glass Canister, £24. I have been after a huge sweet jar for ages – one that I can leave on the dining table full of sweets over Christmas for my daughter to enjoy!

For the Bath:

1. Aromatherapy Associates Relax Deep Bath and Shower Oil, £37. Everyone knows the legendary powers of this bath oil. Instant sleep and pure indulgence.

2. Gel Spa Jelly Bath, £20. Amazing product that turns your bath into jelly and back to water again when you are done – magic!

3. Acqua Di Parma Iris Nobile Precious Bath Oil, £47. I love bath oils and this beautiful bottle will add glamour to any bathroom shelf.

For Women:

1. Lola Rose Leopard Heart Scarf in Blue, £50. I am a bit of a animal print addict and love the subtle print of this scarf.

2. Aspinal Large Flat Cosmetic Mock Snake Pouch in Gold, £49. Perfect for carrying your makeup over the festive season.

5. Liu Perfumed Shimmer Powder Guerlain, £45.45. I bought one from Guerlain’s previous range from last year – beautiful subtle smell, iridescent shimmer. Can be sprayed on your face body and hair.

For Men:

1. Miller Harris Feuilles de Tabac Shaving Cream, £14. My husband loves this stuff, as a recent convert to the benefits proper skincare (total sceptic before) this stuff must be good!

2. Molton Brown Shaving Brush and Stand, £95. Another beautiful addition to any bathroom!

3. Dagnyknit Dark Grey hand knitted men long scarf with celtic cable pattern, Etsy £65. I love the chunky texture combined with the softness of alpaca.

For Children:

1. Ceramic Rabbit Lamp, £68. I am so in love with this lamp and am desperately waiting for my daughter to be old enough to really appreciate it – maybe next year!

2. Moulin Roty Bunny and Mouse Little Wardrobe, £55. How gorgeous is this? I couldn’t resist and have bought this for my daughter for Christmas – shhh.

3. Graham and Green Felt Animal Heads, £79. Love these and what a statement piece for any children’s room.

Christmas for your Eyes

I have been after these stick on eye makeup and liners by Mily and Violent Eyes for a while now. They are both available from Selfridges.

The ones from Mily that I really like are the Eye Flashes as I think they look really cute and would really work for a Christmas party.

These glitter stick on eyeliners from Violent Eyes look amazing. Probably a good one for a really glam party or maybe even New Years Eve? I am definitely after the the bronze ones.

My Jewellery Lust List

These are a few of pieces of jewellery that I am currently coveting. They would of course make great Christmas gifts too.

First are these stunning earrings from Stella and Dot (£45). I just love the colour and the design like a faberge egg! Statement earring are everywhere at the moment but these are definitely one of my favourites.

Next are these beautiful rose gold stud earrings from Astrid & Miyu (£79). Perfect for day or night.

These earrings are from Beadycats on Etsy (about £25). They have a very vintage feel and decadent too.

This necklace is from Daisy Jewellery and its called the Halo. Basically you buy the necklace which has a “coin holder” and then you buy the coins separately. Mix and match opportunities are endless. They come in silver, gold and rose gold and two chain lengths 18 inches or 30 inches. Genius! Prices range from £75-105 for the chains and £30-39 for the coins.

I love the chakra coins inserts and I also love their chakra bracelets (£58-86). I have one and wear it all the time. It was my sister who first introduced me to them. 

I am going to end with the very cool Michael Kors rose gold watch (about £230). My husband bought me one for Christmas two years ago and I have worn it everyday since! It’s very chunky and just looks great on. It works really well with other jewellery layered next to it which I like!

My Favourite Shoes (now)

So I have to admit to being a bit of Clarks shoes collector. I love wearing high heels but am not really a fan of crippling my toes in the process. I want a shoe that gives me style and real comfort  and that is what a Clarks shoe does. The great thing is that Clarks have really jumped into the “fashion” side of the market and they offer some very beautiful shoes for reasonable prices. I have had loads of clarks shoes but I am going to stick to the three that are in my current day to day wear.

First up is my black ankle boots (Kendra August) in the black snake skin effect leather. These are amazing to look at, go with everything and are so comfortable. I was in London a few weeks ago for a meeting with a male colleague and we got to Waterloo to find our train was leaving in less than three minutes so we ran for it. I was wearing these boots and I kid you not they were surprisingly easy to run in! We made our train and my colleague was well and truly impressed at my ability to run in heels!!

Next up is my black court shoes (Anika Kendra) again in the snake effect leather. These shoes are very smart and go really well with skinny jeans or trousers. I don’t tend to wear these with tights so in the winter I wear these mainly with trousers and in the summer with everything.

This the newest addition to my collection is this pair of court shoes in natural snake (again Anika Kendra) . They are basically the same as the black pair except in colour. I am very excited about these as I think they will add a contrast to my outfits and almost provide a clash in a good way!

And finally for something completely different! These shoes are from Zara and they are not only stunning but somehow extremely comfortable. The first time I wore these was to my friend’s wedding reception where I pretty much spent 3 hours dancing. I completely forgot I had new shoes on – they were that comfortable. So because they tick the beauty and comfort boxes and are perfect Christmas party shoes I thought it was only right to include them in this post!

Makeup Palettes for Christmas

It’s that time of year again when all the major cosmetic brands bring out their beautifully packaged makeup palettes for Christmas. I love to give makeup palettes as Christmas gifts. I think there is something so opulent about them. They can be expensive so these may well go on your own Christmas list, they are most definitely on mine!

So here are my current top five makeup palettes for this Christmas.

1. Dior Grand Bal Makeup Palette

2.Clarins Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in 09 Odyssey

3. Estée Lauder Pure Color Five Color Palette in Violet Underground

4. Bobbi Brown Caviar and Oyster Palette

5. Dior 5 Couleurs Iridescent Eyeshadow in Petal Shine

Recent Purchases

I have made a few recent purchases some while I was in Mumbles during my girls weekend away and some online from Zara. I have to admit that Christmas featured heavily in my purchases as I am already planning what I am going to wear to various parties! So that should explain the very blingy nature of some of the clothes!

First up is a lovely blouse from Dorothy Perkins. Its a gold satin with beautiful gold metal collar. I was drawn to the colour, texture and the lovely bit of gold on the collar which I think is great to dress up with smart black trousers but could also be worn with jeans for a more casual look. The blouse hangs really well and I think is very flattering. At £35 I thought it was a good purchase.

Next is my Zara purchase – I ordered a few trousers from Zara as I was looking for some evening trousers. As you can see I came home to find a very big box of goodies! After trying them all on I decided to keep the skinny black trousers with embossed pattern and zips (I am wearing them in all the photos on this page). Its very chic and wearable not just for the evening which is great. The trousers were £29 which I think is very reasonable. I particularly liked it with my Dorothy Perkins blouse which is a bonus!

And finally I bought this amazing top from Mumbles. Now I know its really annoying when people wear something you really like and its from some “boutique” shop far way but that’s exactly what happened with this top! Its a beautiful gold knit that I just fell in love with. Its glam but so easy to wear and I love the loose fit. I had to have it! I am sorry that you wont be able to buy it but you could go for similar options like this one from Asos.

Chakra Sprays

I discovered the Aveda Chakra Sprays a while back when I was browsing in John Lewis (as you do!). They are essential oil body sprays that are meant to balance your chosen Chakra using Ayurveda, the ancient healing art of India. Chakra are believed to be centers of the body from which a person can collect energy. There are seven different Chakra sprays to choose from. You can do this on the basis of the Chakra or on smell – I went on smell.

I am sucker for clever marketing…so I promptly purchased the Chakra 2 spray – a gorgeous blend of sandalwood, organic orange and geranium leaves. The Chakra 2 spray is meant to unblock and balance the pleasure chakra to give you stable energy, alertness, unblocked emotions and is connected to all five senses. I am not sure it necessarily does this but it definitely calms me and makes me feel quite centred if that makes sense! I spray it on before I go to my hot yoga class which seems to help me get into the right, relaxed mood. I have also taken this on long haul flights as it keeps all those awful airplane smells at bay without overpowering all your fellow passengers!

I absolutely love the smell of this spray and will definitely be replacing mine when I finish it.

Cloth Face Masks

This is going to be a long post. I will apologise for that straight off. The reason for the length of this post is because there is so much to say about these products. I only discovered them during a recent trip to Malaysia and they have become a key part of my routine ever since.

Basically what we are talking about here is serum-infused cloth face masks. Now doesn’t that sound like “a facial at home” heaven? Well it does to me.

There are many ways in which you can choose to apply these masks. What I mean is that you don’t have lie in the bath for half an hour turning into a wrinkly prune everywhere else whilst your face becomes plump and radiant. No you can just put on the mask and get on with your life…well there are limits, you don’t want to scare anyone. My daughter thinks I look hilarious in mine on a Sunday morning whilst making her pancakes (see offensive photo). I don’t care, I want maximum benefit from these. I generally try and leave them on for at least half an hour, often forty minutes, even up to an hour. There are those mornings when I look at myself in the mirror, sigh in resignation at the tired lacklustre skin but then suddenly remember the rejuvenating properties of these masks. On those days, I whip one on one for ten minutes, if I can, and it really does help.

So first of all you will need to clean your skin before application. You want your skin to be primed for maximum absorption. To do this I would recommend a hot cloth cleanse. This will open up your pores and allow all the lovely serum to infuse! Once you are ready for application, remove the mask from its packaging. The ones I have come in individual packs, with a plastic backing sheet. So you peel the cloth mask off the backing sheet and position it on your face. The mask comes with cut out eye, nose and mouth holes! Yes this does smack of Hannibal Lecter but its worth it so just go with it and embrace the weirdness! The cloths are surprisingly resilient to pulling and shaping. I even tear them a little around the eye area to make sure that its firmly stuck to my skin. Once you are happy with the positioning, you can get on with whatever you feel like while the mask does its thing. It’s worth noting that these masks do not dry out. I reckon you would have to wear it overnight before it fully dries!

So half an hour or an hour later, you just peel the mask off and voila beautiful radiant skin. DO NOT wash your face after removing the mask. The serum is serum i.e. its meant to be left on your skin. So massage in any serum left on your face right down to your décolletage. You may even find that there is serum left in the pack which you can also massage in wherever you want!

So the next big question is which type of mask are you going to go for? I found a really wide range available in Malaysia from a number of brands like My Beauty Diary, Hada Labo and Kila Doll. They all offer a huge variety of masks including moisturising, brightening, pore shrinking, oil control, anti ageing.. I could go on. The most popular ones have Hyaluronic Acid which is a MAJOR buzz word at the moment. It can be found in loads of products as its super moisturising. My favourite brand is My Beauty Diary because of the range of masks it has. My favourite masks are the Black Pearl mask which is for brightening and radiance and the Apple Polyphenol which is good for reducing enlarged pores and tightening skin.

 You can get these masks from Amazon and other stockists if you live in the UK. In Malaysia they cost me about £10 per box of ten. I stocked up and brought back about 12 boxes just for myself as I figured that would last me at least a year! I would expect to pay at least £20 per box in the UK. Brands like Shiseido and SKII have also started making cloth masks. They are much more expensive than the brands I tried but are definitely the high end of the market.

If you get the chance to try one of these cloth masks I guarantee you will hooked!

OPI Gelcolor – Skyfall

I am off to a girly weekend on Saturday so I thought I would have a long lasting manicure in preparation. I decided to go for an OPI Gelcolor manicure purely on the basis that they had just got in the new Skyfall range! I went for “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” which is a beautiful gunmetal shade with lots of sparkles.

If you have never had one of these types of manicures I would highly recommend it. There are quite a few around like Shellac, OPI Axxium and Gelcolor. They all last between 2-4 weeks and take minutes to apply and seconds to dry. No more smudging your beautiful manicure ten minutes after you leave the salon searching for your car keys at the bottom of your handbag..or is that just me?! If you get bored with the colour you can just paint over them with normal nail varnish but remember to use acetone free nail varnish remover.

I love my nails and will update you on how well they last as I am already planning my Christmas manicure! I may well have to stick with the Skyfall range and go for the very festive red “You Only Live Twice” or the amazing “Goldeneye”.

More Red Lips

I am in love with the extremely gorgeous but ridiculously expensive Solange Azagury-Partridge hot lips ring. So as I don’t have a spare £1000 (yes I know!!), I went on a hunt for a good alternative. The best one I found was from Etsy from a shop called Keykee88 at the bargain price of about £8 including delivery!