Christmas Part 2 - What I GAVE as presents

Hi All,

This is part 2 of my Christmas Haul post for all you hanging onto Christmas. This post may inspire you next year, so I hope you enjoy seeing what I gave for Christmas. I bought most of the presents from Westfield in London before I came home for Christmas.

I don't know about anyone else but I prefer giving presents to receiving them, in fact it may be my favourite part about Christmas. Last year at uni, I had so much time to look for presents, but this year with my job I got most of them all in one weekend. Next year I'd love to do more shopping!

If you would like to know any more about any of them, please let me know.



Mum
My mum's present was actually the first one I bought. She is a huge fan of Jo Malone as am I, but our hometown doesn't have a Jo Malone shop so she only has one of the perfumes. Her favourite is the pomegranate scent, which I recommend if you haven't smelt it.

I spotted this pomegranate gift set, complete with perfume, body lotion and bath oil which would be perfect for her. Jo Malone is quite expensive and I had to venture into the designer part of Westfield to pick this up but it is so lovely. She was delighted with this and loved her present as she doesn't always get to browse Jo Malone to buy new products from there.

Have any of you ever used Jo Malone, if so what do you think?

Sister

The first present I bought my sister was a Pandora bracelet and charm. Neither of us has had anything from Pandora before, but I know a lot of people who have to trust it was worth it. My sister has a lot of friendship bracelets and I wanted to get her something like that she could wear everyday so decided to go with the leather style. I personally prefer this as it's not too over the top and I chose a grey colour to match any outfit.

I decided on only 1 charm because firstly I wasn't sure if she would even wear it, and secondly I don't like the one's with loads of charms as they can get a bit too busy. She LOVED this which I was so pleased about, and wants to stick to one charm as the one I got her is meaningful, very happy!

Now, if you've seen my last blog post you'll know that we both bought each other Harry Potter tickets, which was my second present to my sister, but as we were told we both got the same thing I had to return these and get her some other little things which she loved. We are both very excited for Harry Potter!




Dad
Originally I had planned to get my Dad his favourite Creed aftershave, and left it till last minute because there was a shop at home that stocked it. However, when I went to the shop a few days before christmas, I was told they stopped suppling it and you could only get in it in London. Where I'd just come from!! TYPICAL So, I went on the hunt for more presents. He's a massive sweet tooth so the sweet shop from an American shop went down a treat.

The Waitrose Food Guide was also bought from him by me. My mum and dad love travelling around going to pubs for food so this will be perfect for them! He also used the Molton Brown range everyday so this is always needed. He was very happy indeed!

So these are my main presents I handed out to my family on the day. I framed my graduation photo's for my grandparents which they absolutely loved as well! I love shopping for people, and I love to make sure I've got them something which is relevant or personal as it makes it that bit more special. 

What did you give for christmas and would anyone you know like any of these presents?

Cya x

What I Got For Christmas

Hi All,

Firstly I hope you had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed your day whatever it was you were doing!

In today's post I will be sharing with you some of the lovely things I received for Christmas. I will be doing this post in 2 parts and will shortly be posting a 'What I Gave' blog post for you all. So on with the presents! Now I am not going to share with you EVERY present I got, so I am just going to share with you a selection of my favourites.

BaByliss Curl Secret

If you follow me, or know me at all, you will know I have been banging on about this for AGES. I asked for this for christmas and yes I finally got it. I am so excited to use this! A lot of you have asked me to do a review of this because I know it is highly sort after, but the price puts a lot of people off so I will be doing a review for you to let you know exactly what I think of it.


I have actually used this already as I was far too excited to try it and did a photo shoot with the after effects to show you. I am currently editing all the photos and videos now which is taking a lot of time so will be posting this in a few weeks for you.

Here's a sneak preview from the shoot <<


Now onto more presents..

Harry Potter

Now.. this was a funny one. Without knowing me and my sister bought each other one of the same presents. We are both HUGE Harry Potter fans and have been to Harry Potter land in America but haven't been to the studio tour in London yet. So.. for christmas we both accidentally got exactly that. Luckily before we both opened the same present for each other on christmas day my dad told us the situation once he found out and I was able to return them due to having already purchased tickets. 

So.. after all that palaver, me and my sister will be going to the Harry Potter studios in February, so we just catch it whilst it's still in the snow. I'm SO excited eeek.

Little Mermaid
I'm a huge huge huge Disney fan and my favourite Disney film, although a hard choice is The Little Mermaid. Now for the past few years, this has been a nightmare to get hold of, but as it was released recently my sister managed to snap me up a copy and get me the boxset. Can't wait to watch this!

As well as the first film, this contains the second one which I equally love and a third one I didn't even know about!

Have you seen or heard of the 3rd Little Mermaid film?



Oribe Texturising Spray
This spray is something I have wanted to try for a while now after seeing many other bloggers talk about it. The spray is quite expensive at £38 a bottle but I'm excited to try it. Having long hair, I really hope this is worth the price! This is also something I may do a review on.

Understandably it is not an everyday purchase at that price as many other dry shampoo's and volumisers are cheaper. However, if it's worth it is may be an investment.

Let me know if you'd like me to do a review on it?

So, like those are the main presents I wanted to share with you. Find below a nice little photo of all my presents. Some include a flashing Paris canvas, many cupcake books and a lot of nail varnish and jewellery. I hope you all had a wonderful day, I certainly did. I just can't believe how quick it goes by!

I will be posting part 2 of this next week where I share with you what I gave for christmas and make sure to stay tuned for the curl secret review in the next few weeks.

Cya x

Christmas Singalong - Royal Albert Hall

Hi All,

As some of you may know, this weekend I went to 'A Christmas Carol Singalong' at the Royal Albert Hall. This was my first time here and seeing the show so I was very excited indeed. All my family came down to London for this which was lovely and a great way to get in the Christmas spirit.

What happens?

So, as I have never been to this before, I wasn't sure what to expect, a musical, an event? In fact, it was everyone gathered together singing christmas carols with a choir and orchestra. Now I am by no means a good singer, but I love a good sing song so this was right up my street. I love the sound of an orchestra and this along with the choir was just beautiful.

Which songs?

Luckily there was a song sheet incase anyone didn't know the lyrics. I am more a christmas song person rather than a christmas carol person and the show did a great job at mixing up a bit of both songs so that there was a bit of variety for all ages. My favourite christmas song is 'I wish it could be Christmas everyday' and this was one of the last to be played which was fantastic.

The Royal Albert Hall                        Like I said, this was my first time here and it was absolutely beautiful. As you will see from the photo's later it was beautifully lit and the staging was wonderful. I was lucky enough to be in a box with my family and some of the other boxes had decorated there's with lights which was lovely.

The show

The conductor was a wonderfully charismatic man who really got the crowd going but the person who stole the show for me was the female lead vocalist. I believe she was actually the understudy as the lady who normally does it couldn't be there, but she was fantastic, she absolutely made the songs and her voice was superb.

All in all it was a brilliant show, it lasted about 3/4 hours and I was so happy and was dancing around by the end of it. There was such a great atmosphere in the hall, everyone was dancing and singing together and it was a really great experience to be a part of. 

If you would like to know more about this, click HERE

Below are some photo's and videos I took during the show. Enjoy!

I have SO many videos of this night, but I thought I would share with you my favourite song as well as a quick Instagram mash up I did of around 5 songs. if you would like to see any more of the videos just let me know!

 Videos

Cya! x

Winter Wonderland

Hello,

It's Christmas very soon and I don't know why but this year I wasn't feeling Christmassy. That is until I went to WINTER WONDERLAND.

If you don't know what Winter Wonderland is it is a huge event in London held in Hyde park. I had heard of this before I lived in London and always wanted to go and now I have moved to London, I couldn't not see what it was all about. 

It is MUCH better than I expected it to be and it made me feel so chistmassy. I love stalls and little markets during Christmas and Winter Wonderland is full of them!! Full of food and gifts! As well as the section, there is also an ice skating rink, lots of bars, many game stalls where you can win cuddly toys and what not. However, my favorutire part of this was the rides.

I was expecting fair ground rides, but they are not little fairground rides.. These rides are suitablable for theme parks, hugeeee scary rides and there are so many it's brilliant. I am a huge fan of rides and this did not dissapoint! 

Winter Wonderland was amazing, the atmosphere was great, everyone was so happy and they were even blowing out fake snow! There was Christmas music being blasted out and a lot of mulled wine to go round.

The event itself is free to get into, however you have to pay to go on the rides, which can be very expensive. The average per ride is £6 so I only went on 3, but there are MANY rides I would've loved to go on! Winter Wonderland was a lot better than I was expecting, I can't get over the scale of it, it's split up into sections; the stalls, the food, the games, the ice kingdom, the ice rink, the rides and santa land. I would definitely go back, in fact I want to go back before christmas this year!

I would love to know if you've been and what you thought of it, or you haven't been and would like to go?

If you would like to find more out about Winter Wonderland, check out their website HERE where you can buy tickets and see what attractions they have.

Find some photos I snapped of the event below:

Check out the moose head on this pub

One of the very colourful rides

Mid spin during a very very fast ride

Now this is not the London Eye, it's their giant wheel

The carousel ride

I went on this drop ride and you could see the whole of London!

One of the roller coasters, this was amazing

Cya x

John Lewis Christmas Advert

Hi All,

So, the wait is over. The John Lewis Christmas advert is here.

I wait all year for the Christmas adverts, it is the one time of year that retailers know they have to get right and pull out all the stops to outdo their competitors. John Lewis have held the top spot for a while in the UK, and their adverts have now become almost iconic with people waiting all year for them and waiting to see what emotive advert they produce. I am one of these people. I have loved John Lewis' adverts from the start and throughout the year, not even around christmas time, I find myself searching for all of the adverts on YouTube and watching them from beginning.

So, if you are wondering why I am writing this blog post when it isn't even Christmas yet, it is because John Lewis have released their christmas advert. Yes people, it's been released!! It is due to be released on TV during the X Factor on Saturday night, however it has been released online for all of us searching for it prior. John Lewis have actually bought out the entire advert break during X Factor, which the agreement of Simon Cowell, to make sure their advert is memorable and everyone is talking about. Which I'm sure they will. Watch the new 2013 John Lewis Christmas advert below:

The advert tells the story of a bear and a hare around Christmas time. The advert is animated so is quite different to anything they have done before. It shows the bear not in the Christmas spirit, whereas his best friend the hare is trying his very hardest to get his best friend in the spirit so they can enjoy it together. The advert shows all the other animals enjoying decorating the tree etc but the bear yawning. It is soon clear the bear is going into hibernation, and will always miss christmas due to his sleeping patterns and is therefore not aware of how enjoyable christmas can be.

The advert really pulls on your heartstrings when the hare is looking at all the other animals enjoying christmas day and he is so upset his best friend can't be there. The next thing, the bear comes along with a huge smile on his face after receiving the hare's present of an alarm clock to wake him up just in time for Christmas. And they all live happily ever after. Of course.

The advert cost a whopping 7 million so I do hope they sell a lot of those alarm clocks!

Something I think John Lewis do perfectly with their adverts is the music choices, this again is a perfect choice and I'm sure this cover of Keane's 'Somewhere Only We know' by Lily Allen will be a hit, as all the other iconic, slowed down, covers are. The music is so emotive and beautifully fits with the story. The music for last year's snowman advert particularly stood out to me because it was so entrancing, it made the advert.

Their adverts are so iconic, and are always known for being a tearjerking and emotional. They could be criticised for being very repetitive and following the same story, which is some cases they do. A lot of John Lewis christmas adverts follow the same story for finding the perfect christmas gift for your love ones, which this new advert follows too. However, John Lewis know if they feature products in their adverts, people will buy them, which is exactly what happens. This alarm clock will now be on everyones Christmas list.

As much as I do love this advert, and think the animation and disney like style really sets it apart from anything they have done before, I do prefer some of their other christmas adverts. My all time favourite one (and this is a hard choice) is 'The Long Wait' and I know this is a similar view of many others. The advert shows the boy impatiently waiting for Christmas and when the day is finally here, he cannot wait a minute longer. You assume he is waiting for Christmas all the time, but in fact he is waiting to give his parents the present he has bought him. It is such an emotive advert I do remember I did actually shed a tear at this one, because it is unexpected. Watch it below:

There have been many other brilliant John Lewis Christmas adverts and another favourite of mine is the Sweet Child Of Mine 2009 advert, I absolutely love the transition at the end, it works perfectly. Here are their 2008, 2010 and 2012 adverts for you to have a look, and probably cry at.

I'm sure there will be many more Christmas adverts I will love and I'll make sure to share the best ones with you! So that's it, another long year of waiting for the John Lewis Christmas advert is upon us.

And remember, give someone a Christmas present they'll never forget!


Cya x

Babyliss Curl Secret

Hello Lovelies,

Haircare blog post today! If you don't know, I have very long hair, like really long hair. I usually straighten my hair and that itself takes a good half hour to do well. On the odd occasion I curl it, it will take over an hour, as well as how long hair my hair is, it is also very thick so curling it is a huge amount of effort. I don't own tongs or anything, I just use my straighteners as I rarely curl my hair, but on the odd occasion I do it looks lovely.

I also have dip dyed hair, and the effects of dip dye often look nicer curled than straight. If you curl the ends of your dip dyed hair, the blonde will really stand out. As my hair is so long the dip dye now reached my hips so the ends curled would look lovely. The only issue is time, so I really want to invest in a good pair of curlers, that take minimal time and effort.

Bang. Enter Curl Secret.

BaByliss Curl Secret is a curler like no other. This device is like a magic wand and I am so excited to try it out. The curler sucks up your hair automatically and without any effort or time you have a perfect curl. Before I go into more detail about it, watch the video below showing it in action.

How amazing does that look!

It sucks up your hair, so you don't have to physically wrap it round, it heats up your hair depending on the softness of the curl and you have a curl in 10 seconds. This will take much less time to curl my hair and I think it will be very handy indeed in the morning! The one thing I was worrying about was it zapping up your hair and getting tangled but I have done A LOT of research on this and it is clear this is not an issue although everyone initially thought it would be.

What my hair is currently like- Dip Dye

Something else I am worrying about is the length of my hair and how this will effect the mechanism, as I have said it's super long, way past my hips now so I'm not sure how this will be in the curler and I might have to start quite far down. If you have the same problem or really long hair I would love to know your thoughts on this and if this issue has effected you?

The product is quite expensive and sits at roughly £120 which for a curler is a lot of money, however, I think with the amount of time and effort you will be saving, this will be worth it. I have asked for this as my christmas present to justify the price and I am sure I will love it.

I have read some reviews of this on other blogs and watched many videos and the response all seems very positive so far which is great. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and if you have it, what it's like? Would you recommend it? Or if you don't have it, would you buy it?

My hair is something which is very important to me, I take care of it and like to look after it. It is a big feature for me because of it's length and thickness and is something which many people comment on, even strangers. Personally I think it is a bit too long now, I'm close to being able to sit on it and it is a lot of effort to maintain, but I just can't seem to part with it, and I am not ready to cut off the dip dye just yet as it has faded to a lovely colour. As I am so precious about my hair I need to make sure this product is the right one for me so I would love some of your feedback on this.

If I do get this BaByliss Curl Secret, I will do a tutorial and review on the product for you. Hopefully I will be amazed and it will be a good as everybody says it is!

Cya x