Beauty Christmas Wishlist

Christmas is a time of glitz and glamour, a time where we pull on our sparkly dresses and attend more parties than we have done all year. However much we doubt it, there's a big emphasis on how we look and present ourselves Christmas whether it be the office party or a big family reunion. Finding that perfect outfit and applying your makeup to perfection has never been more important. 

To ensure I look my best this Christmas, I've put together a little beauty wish list of all the essentials from prepping my skin to the final spritzing of the perfume and as money is a little bit tight from buying everyone's Christmas presents the majority of my wish list comes from the website Unineed. Unineed is a online fashion and beauty retailer which overs over 150 premium brands generous discounts - sometimes up to 70% off. Not only that, Unineed ships to over 150 countries from their delivery centre in the UK, bringing savings to the masses.

The first item on my Christmas wish list is the Chloe by Chloe Eau de Parfum spray. It has always been one of my favourite perfumes and despite having big gaps between using it, I always tend to go back and repurchase. The Eau de Parfum by Chloe has genuine silver plating on the neck of the bottle and is perfectly finished with a hand tied bow.  The perfume has top notes of Freesia and Peony, heart notes of magnolia and rose and base notes of amber and cedar. Perfect for those looking for a soft, musky fragrance.

To ensure I'm in a festive mood, the next item on my wish list is this beautiful 'Collins Avenue' OPI nail polish. I love my pinky red nail polishes, rather than vibrant blood reds and this collins avenue colour is the perfect colour to go with my Christmas dresses. My aim is to find a similar colour matching Chanel Rouge Allure lipstick so my lips and nails complement each other.

The last item on my beauty wish list is the Clarins Daily Energising pack as waking up in the morning when it is so dark can be so difficult. The Clarins Daily Energising pack comes with a 30ml cleansing gel, a 30ml wake up booster serum and a 15ml daily cream. When I first started my job I swore by the Clarins wake up booster as it revived my skin first thing in the morning and made me feel awake and fresh as daisy. Now that i've run out of all the products, this little pack would perfect for me whilst I try to recover from my Christmas spending.

Have you ever shopped at Unineed before?

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Yves Rocher Black Friday Wish List

If you haven't heard of Black Friday (I don't know how you have managed to escape it if you haven't), Black Friday is when all the major high street stores slash their prices to celebrate the start of Christmas. It's a one day mega sale where you can grab everything you would need at a fraction of the price and most importantly, start buying those Christmas presents.

One of my favourite French cosmetic brands Yves Rocher* are also participating in Black Friday this year and even better, rather than giving you one day of discounts, they have started their sale today. From 25th November until 1st of December, Yves Rocher are making the most of the Black Friday offers with some of their best products being up to 70% off.To celebrate this, I have put together a small wish list of the products that I would love to try from the Yves Rocher website. 

If you're an avid reader of my blog, you will have noticed that I have talked about the brand quite frequently and one of my favourite products by them is the Moment De Bonheur fragrance I reviewed a few months ago. Following my discovery of beautifully Yves Rocher perfumes, I'm keen to try one of their other fragrances the So Elixir. The So Elixir is described as 'a fresh and radiant breeze of femininity' and features essence of pink berry and bergamot.

The next item on my wish list is this gorgeous quad eyeshadow palette in 'Sumptuous color'. The palette features four earthy tones that can be blended to create either a natural or smokey eye look. To finish off the makeup look, I'd love to try their Shimmering Water with Gold Pearls. Using a cotton pad, the shimmer water promises to enhance your makeup by adding extra shine.

Finally, to keep my dry skin at bay I would love to try this Intense Nutrition Night Balm which promises to repair your skin through the night, comfort and reduce skin tightness and heal dry skin on a long term basis. The product is made using nourishing Ash Tree concentrate which according to the Yves Rocher specialised Botanical Beauty Research team, holds the secret to fighting dry skin.

Have you tried any Yves Rocher products before?

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Friday Night Wish List

It's Friday night and I'm sat alone on the sofa in my leopard print onesie sipping amaretto and cranberry. The man has left me for a Friday 'lads night out' and I'm feeling lonely. My only comforts at the moment is the fluffy white rabbit that is nibbling everything in sight, the fact that Bridget Jone's Diary is on the television and the fact that I can cheer myself up by a bit of online shopping....he shouldn't have left me alone with my credit card (jokes...or maybe i'm serious).

When I get bored and have nothing to do, I resort to being one of those people that does virtual online shopping. The ones that shove everything they see into an online shopping basket and then sulks when they can't afford everything. Then comes the task of withdrawing each item one by one until you're left with a less fulfilling one item in the basket, that the majority of the time you never really wanted in the first place. Finally you realise, to have got to that point you must have had far too much time on your hands and looking at the clock, you realise that you have wasted far too many hours doing pointless little things. To make my shopping wish lists seem a little less pointless, I thought I would create my 'Friday Night Wish list' and see what your thoughts are on the items that I am trying to resist buying.

The first item on my Friday Night Wish List are these beautiful Kandee Cherry Lip shoes (link). They look quirky, yet sophisticated and I love the see through edge. In fact, I'm highly tempted to buy a pair of these for my wedding day. My dress has a long train and I'm looking for a pair of quirky shoes I can show off in the wedding photographs. Kandee have always been one of my favourite shoe brands - let's face, what girl does not like sweeties and shoes? It's a match made in heaven.

Second item on my wish list is this gorgeous Marc by Marc Jacobs watch from Harrods (link). I was lured onto the Harrods site when I noticed that they are having a 10% off weekend and couldn't wait to see what bargains they had. I'm usually a big Michael Kors fan when it comes to watches, but recently I've been looking for something a little less subtle to wear. I'd like to buy another watch so I have more day to day options and this Marc Jacobs watch has a timeless look that can fit easily with most of the items in my wardrobe. It's something that I might have to save until next payday, but hopefully this watch will soon be mine.

Third item is the Touche Eclat YSL foundation (link). I've heard so many amazing things about this foundation and I've always wanted to try it for myself. Apparently it is pretty good for coverage and gives a dewy, youthful glow - all the things I look for in a foundation. I know that Illamasqua Skin Base is one of my all time favourites, but lately I'm feeling experimental. I will never stop searching for the 'Holy Grail' foundation.

My final wish list item is a new MAC lipstick. It has been awhile since I have shopped at MAC because I don't have one in my hometown and I usually like to try before I buy. Now that I work in the city, I have plenty of time to go exploring and I love the colours in the new Sheer Supreme Moody Blooms collection.

Have you been tempted to buy anything lately?

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Beauty Christmas Wish List

Shu Uemura Art of Hair: Full Shimmer Illuminating Treatment (£35),  Laura Mercier Colour to Go Portable Palette: Natural Nudes (£31), Nars Cosmetics Illuminator Copacabana (£22),  Nars Cosmetics Barbarella (£18.50),  Daniel Sandler Waterbrush (£15.35)

Christmas is only nine more sleeps away and I'm currently going through the phase where I'm trying to guess what everyone has bought me. The other day I left my fiance in town to buy a few of my Christmas presents whilst I went out for a meal with friends and about half an hour later I accidentally saw him with a giant House of Fraser bag. I'm no good with surprises - I get agitated and spend my entire time compiling Christmas lists in my head in hope that one of those items would make its way to under my tree. Christmas isn't really about the gifts and I prefer presents with more thought and personality. I'm not the type of person to argue against a pound shop gift or a top from Primarni. There's so many other people in the world that don't get anything and we should really value everything we receive however big or small.

Beauty products are the christmas presents I'm the most fussiest about. Running my own website and being a fan of higher end products, I generally ask people not to buy me them as they are something that I like to invest in myself and I know what works for my skin. Three years back my wonderful aunt bought me quite an expensive No7 gift set. I was really happy at the time and couldn't wait to try it, but after a very small application of their moisturising cream on my cheek I realised that I was allergic and came out in rashes. The only person I don't mind buying me beauty sets is my man and that's only because I go on and on about the products I like that it should have been drilled into his head. 

Last night I really couldn't sleep and spent most of my time browsing through the Urban Retreat Boutique* online store. Urban Retreat stock luxury hair and beauty items in prestigious stores such as Harrods,  as well as having various concessions specialising in apartments, home-ware and their online beauty store. 

The first item I would really like is the Shu Uemura shimmering hair mask as my hair is looking pretty lifeless and dull at the moment. I'm finding that my hair is making my confidence slip on a daily basis and it's something that needs seeing to straight away. I haven't tried any Shu Uemura hair care, but i've heard a lot about their beauty products and I can tell it's a trusted brand. I think this will definitely end up being a new year present for myself.

The Laura Mercier Colour to Go Nudes palette is the second on my list, but unfortunately it's sold out at the moment. I don't usually buy many palettes, but this set incorporates all my favourite colours and styles. I like my makeup all natural with highlighted cheeks and a flick of pen eyeliner, I think this palette would be great for my daily makeup routine.

NARs have always been one of my favourite makeup brands and the NARS orgasm illuminator is one of my go-to products when I need a bit of colour to my cheeks. This time I'd like to invest in a lighter colour and I think Copacabana looks perfect. Teamed up the with Barbarella lipstick and I think this would make a striking winter look.

Finally, I really need a set of high quality makeup brushes as mine at the moment aren't the best and I'm finding a lot of the time I'm using my hands for blending, which isn't getting the best results. I really like the look of the Daniel Sandler brushes and I think this highlighting waterbrush would be an asset to my collection. After all, contouring is one of the most important elements of applying makeup.

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Kickstart My Heart: Divine Trash

At the moment I'm really obsessed with adding more leather to my wardrobe and channelling my inner rock chick. There are so many pieces on the high street that evoke the rock'n'roll vibe and look on trend this autumn. Since I'm trying to save money until December, I've decided to show you my current wish list and see what you think of the items I'm currently lusting over. The first item I would love to buy is the Hatched Horses Shirt by French Connection. I came across the website Divine Trash when I was searching for French Connection stockists and this was the first item to grab my attention. The beautiful print would look great all year round and teamed up with the leather pants from Topshop, it would make a fabulous indie style outfit. The earrings are from one of my favourite jewellery boutiques Bijoux Bazaar, a brand that I featured many times on my blog and the handbag is another French Connection beauty which is currently on sale for half the price on the Divine Trash website.

My second outfit is more of a glam evening style arrangement and I would love to wear something similar to this outfit during winter. This season there's a lot of skater inspired dresses about and ones that frequently combine the skater and leather trend. This dress is the Solar Panel dress from French Connection online. The dress has a structured body and incorporates leather into the body panel and pleated skirt. If you haven't read my blog before, it would come as no surprise after reading this post that I'm a massive French Connection fan as I love how their dresses fit me effortlessly, that their outfits always look timeless and the fact that every season they bring out clothes that I easily fall in love with. We all have a brand that we really admire and French Connection has always been rated highly in my fashion stakes. I would complete this outfit by adding the sexy, sophisticated heeled boots from New Look,  then teaming the entire look with the Miss Selfridge clutch bag and I would finally add the eagle necklace featured on the Divine Trash* website. 

What do you think of these outfits?

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Autumn at New Look

New Look is the first store I remember shopping in when I was a little girl. Being an only child, I admit that I was rather spoilt and every odd month my dad would give my mum a fair bit of money to take me on a mini shopping spree. I always remember that my first choice of clothing store was New Look. I was fascinated by all the styles and always regarded them as the trendiest shop around. I was a rather big child and the fact that I was in adult clothing way before I should have been meant that I struggled finding clothes that appealed to a younger girl and covered me up so that I didn't look too old for my age. New Look was always the balance that I desired. The clothing was and still is very trendy and fun, but also has a mixture of clothing for those wanting to look more sophisticated and demure. Since I was 12 years old I've been a loyal customer of New Look and ever since I got my first job, I think at least £50 of my monthly wage has been spent here. 

The other day I was walking to work and the weather took a turn for the worst. I was wearing a crop top and disco pants with my glittery jacket and totally unprepared for the cold chill that flew through the air. I quickly nipped into New Look looking for a jumper and returned with this quirky item. I love the wooly sheep design and the fabric is really soft and warming. I had quite a few funny comments made whilst working behind the bar wearing this and since I brought it home, I've barely been out of it. At £17.99 with student discount it's a fantastic price. Coming up to payday I couldn't quite afford the prices of Topshop and River Island, therefore New Look becomes my go-to store.

This autumn New Look has a fantastic range of clothing and if I was let loose with a handful of cash, I'd probably buy everything. There's everything that's on trend at the moment, as well as some cool, quirky pieces that really exhibit the New Look house style. So far I'm lusting after a pair of knee high riding boots for the winter, some thermal leggings to keep me warm, a classic green parka jacket and for some reason, I've become obsessed with American style jersey tops.

What would you like to buy from New Look?

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