March Favourites 2015

Here are a few of my favourite items that I have been using through March 2015.

First of all from Bourjois I have been using their amazing lip crayons in the shades Plum Russian, a lovely plum colour and Red Island, a bright red colour. They have a lovely glossy finish and they stay put on your lips. I think they are the best lip crayons I have tried.

I finally got to try some of the products from Wilko's Fruits range and this lime and ginger scented shower gel is lovely. The scent reminded me of lime ice pops. I want to try the lime and ginger soap as well.

Urban Decay Naked Basics palette has been my eyeshadow palette of choice this month. I adore matte shades and you can go subtle or dramatic with this palette. I've been wearing bright lip colours a lot this month so I have kept my eyeshadow simple.

I keep trying new lip balms, but I always end up going back to my amazing EOS lip balm, which is in the flavour medicated tangerine.

I adore my brown New Look boots and I wear them nearly every time I leave the house. I absolutely love them and if I could still get them I'd buy them again. I'll be so sad when these wear out! They are perfect for me!

I've also had quite a lot of wear out of my new boohoo 'Maia' dress. I love the style of it and it can easily be dressed up or down. I'm loving navy at the minute as well!

MAC's Ruby Woo lipstick has also been impressing me this month. It is a matte lipstick, but it doesn't dry my lips out and it stays put even when I am eating or drinking and it never smudges. I love this one!

I mentioned I had my eye on this emerald and diamond ring way back in 2013 and this year I finally bought it and I have worn it loads. The cluster is actually quite small and it looks lovely on my finger!

What I Got For Christmas 2014 And A Little Bit Of Sales Shopping!

I was totally spoilt this Christmas and I love every gift that I received.

My husband bought me the new Tom Ford fragrance, Velvet Orchid, a gorgeous green floral dress from New Look, a Lord and Berry lip crayon, McBusted's DVD (I was a huge Busted fan) and a beautiful sapphire necklace.

As you may know I am a huge fan of fragrances and I got a few for Christmas.
As well as Tom Ford's Velvet Orchid from my husband I got a FCUK gift set, which has a lovely, fresh scent.

Lovely is a fragrance by Dainty and Heaps, a UK based company that I hadn't previously heard of. The fragrance has notes including star anise and liquorice and the scent reminds me of Diesel's Fuel For Life Unlimited. It's warm and spicy.

Avon's new fragrance, Christian Lacroix Ambre is one that I wanted as I have the other three Christian Lacroix fragrances by Avon; Rouge, Absynthe and Nuit.
Ambre is a lovely scent and the fragrance came with a Christian Lacroix make-up bag and a lipstick and eye shadow. 

I also received a mini fragrance gift set with miniatures of Moschino Pink Bouquet, Ghost Deep Night, Lipsy London and Ted Baker Sweet Treat Polly, which I thought was a lovely gift set as it allows me to try out lots of new fragrances and they are great for carrying around in your handbag. I already have Ghost Deep Night, but I adore it so I'm pleased to have a mini bottle of it now as well.

I received so many gift sets.

I hadn't tried Soap and Glory's new sweet lime scented products until I received the gift set on Christmas day and I love it.

The Baylis and Harding gift set I received is sweet mandarin and grapefruit scented, which I love.

Baylis and Harding also make the Beauticology gift sets and I received a Beauticology gift set (to the
left of the Nivea gift set) with vanilla frosting foot lotion and strawberry frosting foot soak crystals with some red and white fluffy socks, which I took out of the box as I have already worn them.

I received another Beauticology gift set (bottom right) with a cranberry body wash, which smells lovely and a gingerbread sparkle body wash, which has glitter in it and smells lovely. There is also a strawberry frosting scented soap in the set.

There are two gift sets from Next. One is a set of 4 lip glosses and the other is from the Gold range, which includes a small rollerball of the Gold eau de parfum, a scented hand cream, a shimmery nail polish and a pot of nail gems.

I also got plenty of candles. The Glade warm spice candle is really strong, but I love it!
The set of three candles with the silver floral patterned holders are very pretty and they are vanilla and roasted chestnut scented. They smell really nice, but I think the scent will be a lot more obvious when I start to burn them.
The set of three purple tealight holders shown at the bottom of the photo are a lovely design as well. They look very festive. 

As well as my green floral dress I got a few bits and pieces of clothing including a gorgeous grey bird print scarf, some white slippers, some black and pink gloves, which will be great for the rest of winter as I intend to take up running, some big thick Lipsy socks and two pairs of pyjamas.
I love both pairs of pyjamas. One pair are Disney with Winnie The Pooh on them and the other pair have patterned bottoms and a lovely fox on the top, which I think is such a cute design.
I was not disappointed in the slightest to receive two pairs of pyjamas.

I got lots of other bits and pieces shown in the first photo including a clock, a calendar, a purse, some floral note cards, bubble bath, a Tangle Teezer, sweets, a bottle of wine, a wine bottle holder, some ageing cream, a glass Christmas tree decoration, hand cream and a memo block.

On top of all this I got lots of Christmas money, which I bought an emerald and diamond cluster ring with from the Ernest Jones website. I mentioned the ring on my blog over a year ago as I have wanted it for so long, but unfortunately I had to take it back because I found the emerald's imperfections distracting. It looked like there was a crack running through it and I didn't want to pay so much money for something that I was a bit disappointed with.
To me this ring is the perfect design so I am not too pleased that I remain emeraldless after lusting after this ring for so long and even after finally making the big purchase.
I have thought about buying it again and hoping for a better emerald, but it was on sale when I bought it the first time and now it has gone back up to full price so the idea isn't too tempting.    

Finally on to what I got in the sales. I haven't been to the shops, but I have had dozens of emails from online retailers, whose websites I have used in the past and I ended up resisting spending on most websites, but I did make a few purchases from boots.com.

One of my favourite ever perfumes is Marc Jacobs Daisy Sunshine, which was released in Boots in early 2013, but as it was a limited edition fragrance it is no longer available.
I loved the Sunshine range from Marc Jacobs and managed to get a second bottle of Oh Lola! Sunsheer and a second bottle of Daisy Eau So Fresh Sunshine, but Boots were selling Daisy Sunshine again on their website on Boxing Day so they have maybe listed old stock they have found and it was only £22.50 (originally £45.00)!
I already have the fragrance, but I never ever wear it because I'm too scared of my bottle running out and it was the same with the other two scents from the range, but now I will be able to rest knowing I have a spare bottle if my first bottle runs out.

Boots.com has actually sold out of Daisy Sunshine already, but hopefully they will still be able to fulfil my order.

I also ordered a mini Smashbox gift set with a mini mascara, a mini under eye primer and a mini foundation primer, which was £12.50 reduced from £30.00. 

I had asked for the Lord and Berry lip crayon that my husband bought me and I really like it. I found a set on the Boots website with two Lord and Berry lip crayons. It is actually called the lip library gift set. You can get different colours, but I ordered the a red and a pink. The colours are called Fire and Fucsia (a foreign spelling of Fuchsia!?)
I'm hoping the pink isn't too bright as I think pinks can sometimes look really tacky, but the gift set was £13.33 reduced from £20.00 so I'm happy with that.

I also bought a few fragrances from allbeauty.com on Boxing Day to put away for my sisters for their birthdays because they had a deal on where if you spent £85.00 you could have £10.00 off.

I always say this, but I am going to try not to buy much in the sales because I've been spoilt so much this Christmas and there is nothing that I really need so hopefully I'll be able to resist the temptation to look online or in the shops.
It is the most difficult time of year to give up shopping, but I'll do my best.

My Christmas wish list!

I am trying to cut down on spending at the minute, which makes it difficult to browse the internet without wanting everything I see.

Here are a few things on my wish list at the moment.

1) An emerald ring - I have wanted an emerald ring for years now, but they don't come cheap. The one pictured below is 9 carat gold. It is from Ernest Jones and costs £399.00.

2) Camera print scarf - I saw this on notonthehighstreet.com for £12.95, but it is also on Amazon.co.uk for £4.99. As I have mentioned before I am a bit obsessed with printed fabrics at the minute and this scarf is perfect for me.

3) DKNY Sweet Delicious Key Lime Tart perfume - I tried this in Debenhams when I was on holiday in Devon earlier this year. It isn't available in the Debenhams stores near me, but is available online. I hope to get this before it sells out!

4) Rimmel Scandal Eyes Flex mascara - When I went out with a friend recently I couldn't stop staring at her lashes. I asked if she had dyed them as they looked dark, but natural. There was no clumps or anything and you couldn't tell she was wearing mascara although her lashes looked great.
She told me she was wearing this Rimmel mascara so I am now desperate to try it for myself!

5) Too Faced Pink Leopard Blushing Bronzer - I remember reading a review of this a year or so back and it is just so cute. The packaging is lovely as well. It is round and gold coloured to resemble a coin with a pattern around the outside and 'Too Faced' imprinted in the middle. I'd love to try this out.

6) Tan Contrst Croc Print Metal Plate Bowler Bag - I could do with a new handbag and a while ago when I was in New Look they had some lovely handbags at very reasonable prices and I was impressed.
I like this brown bowler bag that I found on their website. It is only £19.99, which I think is fantastic. It looks really smart.

7) Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy Noir - a fragrance I have wanted since long before it came out and I still have not bought this. I was going to buy it in Boots points event in July, but they only stock the 30ml and 50ml and I want the 100ml bottle so I didn't end up getting it. This is the only Juicy Couture fragrance that I don't own so it will definitely be joining my collection soon.

8) Irregular Choice clutch bag - I love this gorgeous detailed clutch bag. The large side bow looks great. I have had my eye on this for a while.

9) Iron Fist peep toe shoes - These peep toe shoes were in my basket today at www.ironfist.co.uk, where they were in the sale reduced from £74.99 to £18.75, which I think is great value, but I have so many shoes and so much to pay for these next few months that I talked myself out of buying them! They are so cute though. I love Iron Fist shoes. Their designs are so unique.

10) Barry M dazzle dust - You can never have enough Barry M dazzle dust. I only have a few pots. I have a silver and a bronze colour, but I'd love to add a few more bronze and gold shades as to my collection it is excellent quality and although the pots seem quite small they last for ages.