I really enjoy shopping for Christmas gifts and I quite like a challenge so when I saw that Laura from A Scottish Lass and Georgina from Makeup-Pixi3 were jointly hosting a beauty bloggers secret santa I was excited to sign up. With this one, it wasn’t so much secret as you were paired with someone, but who really keeps their santa-hood secret anyway? I was paired with Claire from Claire Does Beauty.
Being the impatient type, I opened my parcel straight away. But Claire said that I could so it was fine! As you can see I was very spoiled and treated of lots of different things.
First up – the make up. I was very pleased to see the Bourjois Color Boost Lip Crayon in Plum Russian, a shade I can never find when I’m looking for it! On first swatches, the Barry M nail polish is a fabby top coat and super glittery in one sweep, I’ve look forward to jazzing up some dark mani’s with this. I’ve never tried anything by GOSH and I do like a smoky eye. I also don’t think I’ve tried any Barry M makeup for ages (too distracted by the nail polishes) so these two eye products will be fun to try out.
I love these mini brushes from Barry M, so cute!
Only the biggest tube of hand cream ever! This Hand and Nail Cream from Laura Ashley smells lovely, flowery but fresh, and will look totally amazeballs on my bedside table.
Christmas Yankee Candles! Yey! I love scented candles at this time of year and I think these votives are a great size to try out a scent. These smell great, the Sugared Apple is my favourite.
So a huge thank you to Claire for my gift. I’m really pleased with my goodies and I really hope that Claire enjoyed her gift too. Make sure you go check out her blog here. And thank you to Laura and Georgina too for organising, it must be quite a task but is very much appreciated.
A couple of months ago Kat from Tales Of a Pale Face announced another beauty bloggers swap, and as I enjoyed the last one so much, I signed up straight away. I was paired up with Clare from A Bit of This and That and The Make Up Obsessed Midlander and we got swapping! Check out what I received!
Beaut Natural Collection blush in ‘Peach Melba’, totally yummy Revlon Lip Butter in ‘Lollipop’ and OMG – my first MAC lippy. Clare is somewhat of a MAC aficionado – I think that she has 30 lipsticks – so she was well placed to pick one out for a newbie like me and she chose the classic ‘Creme Cup’.
Look at that – a bright and a nude. Perfect choices.
Clare also gave me a selection of face masks, a Macadamia hair mask, a selection of samples to try out and a little floral makeup bag. I love a good face mask and that Very Berry one is my absolute favourite. I can’t wait to have a good pamper night or two with the masks and samples.
I’ve always liked the idea of doing a beauty box swap. Who wouldn’t like the idea of getting a box of mystery goodies in the post? So when I saw that Kat of Tales of a Pale Face was holding a Summer Beauty Swap, I signed up immediately. I was paired up with Allie (yey for similar names) from Allie’s Beauty Blog. After a few emails I think we discovered that we were actually pretty similar in our tastes, so I knew this would be a fun experience.
This gorgeous make up bag made by Allie’s mum! What a talented lady! It’s so cute and the perfect size for a few nights away. Everything in the above photo fits easily inside it.
Samples galore! So looking forward to trying all of these, I’ve never used any of them before. Especially looking forward to trying Eye Hope – it’s got my name on it after all!
Mmmm I love a good face mask. I’ve never tried Liz Earle products, to be honest I’ve never really heard much about them but I’m excited to try them. You can tell they’re going to be good just by the packaging and the smell.
Not sure why, but Elemis reminds me of being in a fancy hotel. I am definitely going to be treating myself to a home spa post-festival (currently in the midst of a 3-week straight stint at work) and Elemis will be key. I also love the new look Impulses. I’m a sucker for anything raspberry scented so this was a great choice! How did she know?!
Nail stuff! I guess it must be tricky to buy nail products for an obvious nail junkie like me, but Allie managed to get me two products I’ve never tried. What a star! I don’t have any nail jewels and I’m looking forward to blinging up a few manis in the future. I also don’t have any of the Rimmel Salon Pro line even though I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. ‘Reggae Splash’ was the colour that stood out to me so I was super happy to see this peachy beauty in my box.
Lastly, some make up bits. Again, I’ve never tried any of these, so very good choices. Two 17 Wild Metallics cream eyeshadow in ‘Wild Green’ and ‘Wild Nude’, both of which are gorgeous. I was just thinking the other day that I need a paler colour to go with my Maybelline ‘On and On Bronze’ and boom ‘Wild Nude’ arrives! MUA Cream Blush in ‘Yummy’, a lovely dusky rose colour. It seems quite pigmented and easy to apply. Win! I also received my very first Revlon Lip Butter – yep, this blogger is a bit behind the times. Allie got me ‘Peach Parfait’ which I’m so happy about. I’m a bit shy about a bold lip so this one is perfect for me, looking at swatches it would have been my first choice. All of these products compliment each other perfectly too.
