Here's to 2013!

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Since this is my last post of the 2013, I figured I'd make it a soppy one to mark the occasion! The past year has probably been the best of my life so far, and part of that reason is you guys. I started the year as a college student who had just submitted my UCAS application and as 2013 ends I'm currently at my first choice University studying a subject that I love. Along the way, you guys doubled giving me so many amazing opportunities and before I left London I was able to attend two amazing events for Company Beauty Week, along discover my love for photography! 

I just want to thank you guys for sticking around, and helping make 2013 such a great year - I hope there's more good times to come in 2014 and that everyone has a great night! xx

A little Boxing Day sale haul..

I love a good sale, so as you would expect I was up bright and early this morning to make the most of the boxing day sales! To be honest I was a little disappointed, by the time I arrived my local shopping centre was so much busier than normal and a lot of the stuff I was planning on buying was already out of stock! Although I did manage to get a few gems! Normally my Lush sale is rubbish and I never leave with anything - although this year they had a load of gift sets left over.

The first gift set I brought was snow fairy which contained a 100ml bottle of Snow Fairy, a 30g shimmy shimmy shimmer bar and a 70g angels delight soap. Originally this was £13.50 although it was down to £6.75 in the sale. I think this is packed beautifully although my only issue with both gift sets is that the bombs/soaps aren't individually wrapped inside the outer packaging.

Next I picked up Mr Frosty, which contained a mini blue skies bubble bar along with a big blue bath and cinders ballistic. I thought this was great value at just £6.25 (originally £12.50) and look forward to putting it to use.

Admittedly I was left pretty disappointed with the Boots sale since my store looked more like a jumble sale with barely any products left, although I did manage to leave with four things I'm really happy with. Since I love perfumes I picked up this little sampler set to try some new ones out for just £7.50 (originally £15) it contained a 5ml Moschio Pink Bouqet, a 10ml bottle of Ghost Deep Night, a 10ml bottle of Lipsy London and a 5ml bottle of Ted Baker's Sweet Treat Polly. I also picked up a set of four french connection lipglosses for £6 (originally £12) as I really liked the look of them.

Of course I couldn't leave without getting my Soap and Glory fix and picked up two of their gift sets. Face time originally retailed at a whooping £25, although like everything else was half price in the sale. The set contains for items; The Feel Good Factor Translucent BB cream (50ml), Off your face cleansing wipes (25) Puffy Eye Attack Turbo boost hydragel (14ml) and a Smooth Operator lip balm. Next I picked up the 'You do the bath' gift set for just £8 with contained a full sized Foam call body wash and butter yourself body cream.

Finally I picked up some reduced slipper socks for just a pound in Primark along with a DVD in HMV to snuggle up with to night.

Have you found any good bargains?

What I got for Christmas..

 I love reading these kinds of posts, so I figured I'd write my own up while watching Home Alone on TV! I hope everyone has had a lovely day, while I'm sad its over I'm so excited to hit the boxing day sales tomorrow as I mainly received money. Although I seem to have gotten quite a few perfumes this year so thought they were a good place to start, the first perfume I got was Avon's Far Away from my Nan, I've always been curious about Avons perfumes so I'm looking forward to putting this to the test. I was also really happy to see a duo of Space NK's Laughter perfumes, they both smell amazing and are a great size for my handbag! Finally my Mum brought me a massive 100ml bottle of my favouite perfume Vera Wang's Lovestruck.

Make up wise I was also really lucky and received some lovely gifts! My mum got me this Snow White & Huntsman make up palette which I've wanted since it was first released some time ago now, along with my first high end mascara in the form of Lancome's Hypnose Star mascara which as such a beautiful tube! My Aunt also brought me this French Contention gift set which I really love the look of. Finally I received two Boots gift vouchers to treat myself with tomorrow!

While we're on the make up theme I also received another mascara from a friend along with three nail polishes which I look forward to trying. My sister brought me this nail ombre kit and I got these TBS lip balms from my good friend LFA.

My Mum also got me the Soap & Glory Yule Monty gift set which contained a whole host of goodies including; Sugar Crush Body Wash, The Righteous Butter, Heel Genius, Hand Food, Peaches and Clean, Thick & Fast mascara, The Scrub of your life, Butter yourself lotion and a plumping lipgloss complete with a lovely bag.

On the body side of things I also got this mini Space NK Laughter showergel from a family friend along with this lovely bath bomb from LFA. I also got some Christmas themed PJ's from my Mum along with some comfy socks. One of my good friends brought me this amazingly scented cherry candle along with The Hunger Games on DVD.

Finally I got enough chocolate to last me a while with this Galaxy selection box and Peanut Butter Snowman. Last but not least my lovely friend LFA brought me this beautiful teapot!

What did you guys get for Christmas this year?

My Top Five Winter Nail Polishes..

Since coming home for Christmas I've been feeling rather festive, so I figured today I would show you guys my five favourite nail polishes for this time of year. I actually did a similar post to this last year which you can see here although my taste in nail polish seems to have changed greatly over the past 12 months!

Berry Cosmo by Barry M (£2.99/10ml) - I'm a big fan of Barry M polishes and was looking for some more wintery shades at the Barry M stand when I found this, My pictures in this dull winter weather do the pretty polish no justice so be sure to click here to see some other pictures of Berry Cosmo in action, because its a lovely shade!

Crush by Barry M (£3.99/10ml) - Yet another favourite from Barry M, although this matte nail paint happens to be one of my all time favourite polishes! There's just something about Crush which makes it such a wearable shade on all skin tones. Its such a beautiful winter shade, complete with a formula made to last!

Damson Dream by No7 (£6.00/10ml) - I got this Damson Dream mini in a gift set recently, although I'm pretty sure I'm in love! Damson Dream is just a perfect winter shade, It reminds me a lot of Barry M's Crush, only with shimmer thrown in for good measure! It looks stunning on the nails and last for a decent amount of time too. 

Star Spangled by Orly (£8.75/18ml) - I do love a good red glitter at this time of year, although the this happens to be subtler than the others in my collection. I adore the look of this on my nails and think the formula is great!

Maybelline's knitted gold (£3.99/7ml) over Collection 2000's Stormy Grey (£3.19/12ml) - Technically my last nail polish favourite is a combo, although Maybelline's knitted gold is the star of this show! Complete with pink and gold coloured glitter pieces this pretty polish is stunning on the nails and takes a whole new spin on the classic gold glitter!

So there you have it, my favourite nail polishes for this time of year - What are your winter favourites?

The Body Shop Haul!

After chasing the postman down the road yesterday morning, I figured I'd show you guys my latest spend on The Body Shop's website, where I picked up four products for just £15! The Body Shop are known for their amazing deals, although they appeared to outdo themselves this time giving shoppers 50% off  all items along with a free Vitamin E Moisture Cream worth £10 if you spent over a tenner on the site. If that wasn't enough they also had free shipping for good measure!

Camomile Sumptuous Cleansing Balm (£12.00/90ml) -I've heard a lot about cleansing balms and really wanted to try one, so with 50% off this seemed like the perfect chance! I'm really looking forward to trying this out and sharing my thoughts with you guys.

Coconut Body Butter (£13.00/200ml) - I'm a huge fan of all TBS Body Butters, although the Coconut one happens to be my all time favourite! It's been a while since I last used one so I figured I'd treat myself while they were on offer.

Almond Hand & Nail Cream (£5.00/30ml) - I needed a new hand cream so popped this into my basket since I found the Hemp I tried from TBS to be really effective - although I hated the smell. I hope that I will get along with this one better as I love the smell of almonds!

Vitamin E Moisture Cream (£10.00/50ml) - Last but not least is the free moisturiser I got for spending over £10 online, I forgot to pack a day time one in my travel bag so I'm looking forward to putting this to good use right away.

Did you make the most of this offer?

Home for Christmas!

Sunday evening after finally finishing my last two pieces of coursework, I made the long journey back to London after a mad rush to pack on time. Sadly my work doesn't end there and I have two exams coming up at the start of January although I definitely want to make up for the slow start to December blogging wise and have a few planned posts to come! In the rush I some how managed to pull together a make up bag full of some of my favourite products and figured I'd show you guys the products I have to work with over the next three weeks! The first thing I made a run for was my Bourjois Healthy mix foundation which gives quite a medium level of coverage while still feeling light on the skin, along with my MUA Undress your skin foundation which is more of a full coverage one for any events I maybe attending over the holiday season. Concealer wise I have my Collection lasting perfection one which is a firm favourite along with Maybelline's Dream Lumi for under my eyes. To set my make up I used the much hyped about Rimmel stay matte powder in translucent.

To finish of the face look I brought my favourite Topshop cream blush in the shade head over heels along with my Soap & Glory Solar Powder which has been my contour of choice for four months solid now! I also picked up my Watt's Up highlighter from Benefit to complete the cheek look.

For my eyes I have my two main essentials in the form of MUA's clear mascara for my eyebrows and Maybelline's the rocket for my lashes. I figured since it's the party season I'd pop a few eyeshadows in my bag, along with my all time favourite primer from MUA. Since its the Christmas season my eyeshadows all have a bit of a shimmer to them! I have a little Benefit cream eyeshadow in the shade Bikini-tini, a Maybelline colour tattoo in the shade on and on bronze and a Rimmel Scandaleyes in the shade rich russet.

I was having a hard time cutting back on lip products so I did the only logical thing and brought all of my favourites! The first product I picked up is my very battered Revlon kissable balm stain in the shade honey i tend to wear this one a lot and will probably get a load of use out of it. Although I'm not a massive lipgloss person, I had to bring my current favourite 'stay pink' from &other stories - this is just a great natural shade for more neutral days - I also love the packaging! If you couldn't tell from the picture I love the Kate Moss for Rimmel lipsticks and have three shades with me 19,101 and 107. Finally I have a Topshop 'Lips' in the shade Innocent.

What products have you been loving lately?

November Favourites!

I normally try to get favourites posts up a lot earlier than this, although as you may have guessed from my inconsistent posting over the past couple of months I've been super busy! I'm hoping that that will all change in just over a week when I make the annoyingly long journey back to London for Christmas! I am so excited to go home,I have quite a heavy work load at the moment so it will be nice to take a break from essay writing, work and house hunting (and study for my two exams in January..) Currently I have two big deadlines which I'm working towards so you may not see me for the next week or so, although I normally check my twitter regularly so if you have any questions feel free to contact me there! Before I ramble on for too much longer here are the products I've been loving this month!

Maybelline Rocket Volum' Express mascara (£7.99/10ml) - I'm not a huge fan of Maybelline mascaras, although for some reason I wanted to try this. I'm so happy I picked it up because I am in love! It really does make a huge difference to my lashes. So much so that on the first day I tried it my flat mate commented on my eyelashes baring in mind I normally wear Benefits They're Real which is so much more expensive than this! 

Bourjois Colour Boost lip crayon in Peach on the Beach (£7.99/2.75g) - I'm a big fan of lip crayons, so finally picked this up when Superdrug had a 3 for 2 offer. It's more balmy than most of these types of products, but I really love the feeling of it on my lips.

Bourjois Radiance Reveal Healthy Mix Foundation (£9.99/30ml) - This foundation is spoken about a lot in the beauty world, meaning I was pretty skeptical. Although I really enjoy using it and find it covers anything I want to cover up really well by also feeling light on my skin.

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge (£4.99) -  I particularly love this product for blending my concealer it does a great job at covering blemishes!

Batiste Dry Shampoo* (£2.99/200ml) - Normally I'll only used coloured dry shampoo as I worry about having white roots although this hasn't been a problem with this. It keeps my hair looking fresh on non wash days so its a winner in my book!

What have you been loving this month?