Beauty advent calendars 2013!

OK, so it's not even November yet, but I can't honestly say that I haven't been tempted by an advent calendar or five already.

This amazing Selfridges 'Christmas Advent Calendar' is tempting despite its £84.99 price tag. It seems to have sold out on selfridges.com, which is understandable. It has so many luxury beauty products to try out.

This is well worth the price tag. 24 luxury branded treats. I'd be wishing the whole of December away so I could open every door.


There's also the Ciate Mini Mani advent calendar with mini nail treats with colours to cater for everyone's tastes. This is available from selfridges.com or can be purchased direct from ciate.co.uk.

Not forgetting Boots 24 days of treats advent calendar, which costs just £30.00. The products are miniatures and sample sizes, but it works out that you're only paying £1.25 per item. The items are from brands such as Soap and Glory, Nails Inc, Rimmel, Umberto Giannini, Nina Ricci, Ghost, Vichy and 17.
The products all seem reasonable, except for a Boots emery board, which is destined to be a disappointing day of door opening.

Pretty headbands!

Have you seen these pretty headbands from ASOS.com?

They have quite a variety on the website, but these are my favourites.

 

ASOS Premium Envy Crown Headband £20.00.
I love the detailed metal and the jewel is really pretty.

Love Rocks Extra Wide Rhinestone Headband £40.00.
This looks really pretty. I love the design.

ASOS Garden Tiara £25.00
This is also really pretty. I love the iridescent jewels, but if you look closely there is something not so pretty in this tiara...

Who came up with the idea of putting a giant golden bug in this pretty tiara? While I agree that the gold colour goes really well with the design, I don't think many ladies like to think they have a giant creepy crawly in their hair.
I have previously expressed my dislike of butterflies taking over the world on our clothes, photo frames and wedding cakes, but I still think a golden butterfly would have been less offensive than this giant beast. It's such a shame as it is an otherwise lovely headband.

My Juicy Collection (so far)!

I still haven't purchased Juicy Couture's Viva La Juicy Noir fragrance, which I was so desperate to try when it first came out earlier this year, but I have plenty of other fragrances from Juicy Couture to keep me going for now.

I love them. I bought them all online (on different occasions) at www.cheapsmells.com, which has now changed its name to www.allbeauty.com.

The site is genuine and often has significant discounts on fragrances and cosmetics.
These are the years which each fragrance was first released.


My fragrances are all 100ml bottles except for Viva La Juicy La Fleur, which was released in a whopping 150ml bottle so I bought that and the original 2006 fragrance, Juicy Couture, which I bought in a 50ml bottle.

I regretted buying the 50ml as it doesn't look as good as the larger chunkier bottles. The lid is the same height as the bottle, whereas the 100ml bottles are taller and also quite a bit wider.
I love the scent though. It has a sharp scent of hyacinth and is a more mature scent than the other Juicy Couture fragrances, which tend to be a bit more young and girly.

The recommended retail price for the 100ml bottles is around £63.00 each, but I have managed to get them online for around £37.00 each, which I think is great value.

I love Viva La Juicy. It is a fruity-floral fragrance and it smells amazing. Covered in bling, with its big, pink, satin bow, the bottle for Viva La Juicy is a beautiful ornament.

Couture Couture has a very different bottle design to the others from Juicy Couture. I love the detailed metal on the lid.
The fragrance has a lovely fruity-floral scent.

Peace, Love and Juicy Couture came next in 2010. It is another fragrance with the same bottle design as Juicy Couture and Viva La Juicy.
If you are not familiar with Juicy Couture's fragrances it is easy to get them mixed up.

My favourite Juicy Couture fragrance is Viva La Juicy La Fleur. The scent is gorgeous. It is the only fragrance that is available in a 150ml bottle, which is lovely and chunky! I even love the box - I love everything about this fragrance.
It does have a similar scent to Viva La Juicy. It is fruity and floral.

Couture La La was released at the end of 2012. Another fruity-floral, but a bit more of a mature scent with lily of the valley giving it a harsher edge.

I do hope to be purchasing Viva La Juicy Noir in the coming months. I have tried testers of it and it is gorgeous.


More photos of Peace, Love and Juicy Couture as requested:

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.

My camera print bargains!

As you may have noticed I'm a big fan of printed dresses and I also love my camera so when I saw this camera print dress and this cute bag I just had to have them especially as they're in the sale!
This bag was just £18.00 reduced from £40.00 from www.yumidirect.co.uk.

The bag and the dress are both by Yumi, which is a brand I have purchased from before from ASOS.com.

 

The Yumi website didn't have the dress in my size so I bought it from www.usc.co.uk. It cost £25.00 and said it was reduced from £50.00, but on the Yumi website it was only £22.50 in limited sizes and said it was reduced from £45.00.

I am trying to refrain from buying more clothes at the minute as I've run out of space for what I've got and I could do with saving some money. Some of the autumn dresses I have been seeing are incredibly tempting though.

From Versace skirts to ASOS sundresses!

I'm loving this Versace skirt for Spring/ Summer 2014 shown off at Milan Fashion Week this week.
I best get saving for it now!

I didn't even manage to get anything when Versace did their range for H&M. The H&M website sold out of everything I liked as soon as it was released. I love the black skirt and all of the fruit printed clothes and shoes they did.

Then Marni did a range for H&M including dresses and a skirt in this print.

I recognised the print straight away from an ASOS dress I had purchased in early 2010 with the exact same print, which cost just £28.00. I like the long sleeved Marni dress above on the left, but the hooded dress is not for me. I think my dress is a lot more wearable.

Plenty of Prints for me!

A few days ago I noticed a billboard advertising boohoo.com with, 'Pretty in prints', which was the name of my 31st August post. I didn't copy, honest!
The picture to go with it was of this dress..

I am not a fan of it myself. I don't like the black seams or the cut out design. I don't mind the print too much, but when I think of printed dresses I like to think of cute, ditsy prints that are more feminine and pretty than this heavily patterned dress.

I have gone crazy for prints this week and I have spent far too much money building up my collection and I am spending even more in my head drooling over even more pretty prints.

I ordered 4 new dresses from New Look’s website yesterday.

1) Mela Loves London Cream and Red Fruit Print Dress - This dress was in the sale for just £15.00 reduced from £25.00. I love the summery print and it has a lovely flattering shape.

2) New Look Burgundy Heart Print Pleated Sleeve Dress - I love this dress. It is a beautiful cut. The colour is gorgeous and looks great with the heart print. I absolutely love it and can't wait to wear it. It can easily be dressed up or down. It is really versatile. It only cost £19.99. Great design and great value, just like New Look's shoes!

3) Blue Vanilla Blue Blossom Floral Print Dress - Another flattering fit with gorgeous cherry blossom on blue skies. I love cherry blossom. This is a really pretty design. I paid £25.00, which I think is very reasonable.

4) Tenki Red Owl Print Dress - This cute owl print dress had me frustrated. I didn't know whether to buy it in dark blue or dark red, but ended up getting the dark red version. I love the print. This dress was £25.00.

I found a few dresses that I liked on boohoo.com at the weekend so I put an order in.

1) Imogen Feather Print Heart Back Skater Dress – This dress is described as mint coloured. It has an orange and pink feather print. It is feminine and summery. It was in the sale for just £10.00 reduced from £20.00. I absolutely love it.

2) Laura Sleeveless Printed Floral Skater Dress – A lovely pink, purple and green floral print dress, which was an absolute bargain at just £12.00 reduced from £18.00.

3) Maya Large Rose Print Knot Back Maxi Dress – I tend to only wear maxi dresses when I go on holiday and I try not to load my case full of them as they can be quite heavy so I try not to buy too many, but this colourful, large rose print maxi dress with the open back was too much for me to resist at only £12.00 reduced from £25.00.

I will be browsing Boohoo’s website a lot more in the future after finding these gems. I also ordered this pretty printed dress from House of Fraser. It is by Cutie and it cost just £20.00. The colour is lovely and the print is small and cute.

ASOS Petite Exclusive Skater Dress In Floral Print - I love this dress. I ordered it at the weekend in 'orange' although it looks red to me, but I love the blue and I really want it in blue too although they don't currently stock my size. It is on sale in limited sizes for £24.50 reduced from £35.00.

River Island Printed Smock Dress - I also decided to add this River Island dress to my collection. I love the busy, paisley pattern.
It cost £25.00 from ASOS.com.