20th Birthday Presents

 

 

Hello my little lovely jubblies. I'm coming to you with a biiig smile on my face today after having another absolutely amazing weekend and have been spoilt so, so rotton! As some of you may know, it was my birthday on Friday and my nearest and dearest definitely treated me well, the little gems! I've hit the ripe old age of 20 now and have left those wonderful teenage years behind me *sob*, so as I'm an old prune now and this was no milestone age then I was expecting about 3 cards with a tenner shoved inside them and maybe some flowers from my boyfriend.. I didn't really expect to be showered with so many wonderful gifts and be up to my eyeballs in new and exciting things to try!

I feel like a spoilt little princess.

A very grateful, spoilt little princess.

 

Just a little disclaimer that this is no way intended to be any kind of 'bragging' or 'show off' kind of post at all, as it is basically just a haul.. apart from it wasn't me that picked the items out.. or paid for them. I personally like reading these kind of posts that other people do after their birthdays because more often than not they're full to the brim with beauty bits which excite me and also they're great for gift ideas so this could give you some hints and tips if you've not started Christmas shopping yet!

 

When I first caught wind of these advent calendars from Ciate way back in October I had my heart well and truely set on getting one - what could be better than opening a door to a bottle of nail varnish every single morning leading up to Christmas Day?! I puppy dog eyed my mummy if she could get me one as a birthday present and tryed my best to justify the steep price tag with the fact that it contains exclusive shades and and 4 bottles of the ever so famous caviar pearls. She finally said 'yes'.. but then let on to me that they had all sold out before she had chance to order one, allowing me to moan and sulk that I'd missed the chance and she well and truely threw me off the scent that she had snapped one up for me. Little minx. I was jumping for joy when I realised she'd tricked me and I ripped open that yellow Selfridges box and admired my new Ciate Mini Mani Month and all of it's glory with a great big smile on my face. Yay!
 

The Benefit 'How To Look The Best At Everything' gift set pictured above was from my younger sister and contains minis of everything that you need to create the ideal complexion and base with the Pore-fessional primer, Hello Flawless foundation, 2 shades of Boi-ing concealer, and Me Vain? setting powder and it comes in a super cute old fashioned book style packaging - LOVE. The earrings were from my boyfriend's parents and the elephant Pandora charm was from my Grandma. She also gave me some money with strict instructions that I 'must treat myself to something pretty' with it, and treating myself is of course one of my favourite things to do so I don't think I'll find that too hard!

 

Below is a 'Topshop Hottie', i.e. a hot water bottle, that I got from one of the girls that I live with at uni and she said that she picked this one out because it's a wolf.. but when he has his hood up he's a cosy little sheep - aw! Now, I know that the saying 'wolf in sheep's clothing' means something to do with pretending you're something you're not?.. but lets just pretend it's nothing to do with that and it's nothing but a cute little wolf with a fluffy white jumper on! This is adorable and who wouldn't want to receive this as a present?



The little collage above is all the gifts I got from my two best friends at university; how generous? Rachael decorated our house with 'Happy birthday' banners and even got me a little cupcake from Greggs and put a candle in it for me - aw! As if a gorgeous clutch bag from River Island wasn't enough there was a nice purple box absolutely full of little goodies! They definitely satified my beauty cravings as well as my massive sweet tooth! So many sweets haha. Soap and Glory goodies, earrings and a ring, eyelashes, Rihanna perfume, a Skittles candle (mmm) and more!

 

The collage below is presents from my boyfriend. I asked if there was any particular order that I should open them and his only specification was the one that needed to be last.. and it was the socks which confused me why these had to be last until I realised that inside one of the socks was a little Pandora box! It's the white mother of pearl 'Love Me' charm, and he said he didn't want it to be too obvious what it was straight away so tried to disguise what the box would be by putting it inside pair of socks haha! He also got me a Body Shop gift set with scrubs, body butters, soaps and shower gels and moisturisers in and although I've never known what 'Moringa' is before it turns out to be a scent I really like - it's fresh and floral so I'll be saving these for spring and summer, but the coconut body milk has already been put into regular use.

 

I think the biggest surprise was definitely a camera, there was no hints or clues about this one! I don't actually own a camera - I steal my mum's to take my blog pictures and have to take them in bulk too because she uses her camera all the time, but now I have my very own! It has lots of fancy settings on it that I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with yet but I've had a good play about with it and it has good focus on close up pictures which I really like. That's why this post is so photo heavy - I've been trialling my new camera!

 

Andddd on top of all that he also got me some sweets and one of THE best onesies that I have ever seen.. ever! It's from Next and I'd spotted it before and told him that I'd never buy it myself as it's expensive for a onesie - and I wasn't even hinting! Safe to say I want to live in this now for the next few weeks, it so amazingly cosy and warm, and look how well I match my new hot water bottle!!

 

I like sweets more than I like cosmetics and I think people may have figured this out! My teeth are going to fall out after I've worked my way through this great big pile of sweets - mmmm!

 

♥

 



Huge Collective September Haul

Ooops. My spending ban failed. 

Here are the many, many items that slipped through the net....

Haul posts are actually my favourite posts to read, along with mini reviews such as monthly favourites and empties, but I know that they may not be to everybody's preference. So, instead of boring my readers and overloading everybody's dashboards with first an Avon haul, then a Superdrug haul, then a Topshop one, then an Asos one, then an eBay and miscellaneous one, etc etc, I thought I would combine them all into one quite lengthy collective haul.

Avon
Yesterday's haul post was all about the bits and bobs that I ordered from my new Avon representative a few weeks ago. They were an absolute bargain and I got 8 products for less than £15! If you want to see in more detail which bits I picked up then you can see the full post here: link.

Superdrug
When I arrived back at uni at the start of this month ready for a fortnight of 'freshers' antics, I realised that one of the things I had forgotten to pack up in my make-up etc was false eyelashes! For me, these are a must have for a night out to complete the glamorous look. I'd heard that Superdrug were having a 3 for £10 deal on Eyelure lashes but when I got there this offer was nowhere to be seen and must have finished. What I did find instead was this packet of 116's with a free extra pair inside. These cost £5.25 and I got 10% student discount too.

Topshop

A few weeks ago Topshop had free delivery on all orders to celebrate London Fashion Week and being a student who gets 10% off too, it was too hard to resist putting in an order. I was very well restrained with my order and all I wanted was a top that I'd had my eye on for a while and wanted to wear to a 21st party at the weekend paired with a maxi skirt. I got this black, printed cross cropped top* which costs £12.00 and by Topshop's prices that's pretty reasonable. The quality is very good and it's a flattering fit too. I like it because it's pretty basic so can be worn on a casual day, e.g. to lectures with a pair of jeans or can be glammed up and worn on a night out. I actually ended up being too ill to attend the 21st party at the weekend so instead I am planning on wearing this top on an upcoming night out in Manchester - stay tuned for an OOTN! I also got a pair of skeleton socks* for £3.50 because they're different, a bit quirky and I thought they'd be fun for Halloween. Topshop also threw me in some freebies of their magazine and a tote bag - thanks guys. 

ASOS

I'm such a sucker for an ASOS order on a rainy day. I can always rely on their reliable service, speedy free delivery, hassle free returns, reasonable prices and not to mention the student discount. It's the student discount that gets me everrrry time! For a limited time (48hours I think it was) ASOS were holding 25% student discount on everything on their site. I managed to ignore the temptation for this 48 hours but then fell into the trap when the discount was extended for an extra day and I placed an order. Only a little one though so that makes it okay. I only got 3 things and they had all been in my 'save for later' list for quite a long time. I got a holdall bag* to use when travelling between university and home and for any long weekend trips that I might take in the future. It's plenty big enough to hold everything that I need; good sturdy quality; nice and basic with plenty of pockets and compartments; and best of all it's pink and girly. This costs £17.50 in the sale reduced from £35 (link). I got two basic clothing items that can be worn again and again in different ways: a coral strapless skater dress* reduced to £8 from £14 in their sale (link) and a grey long sleeved crop jumper* that cost £15. 

TK Maxx

You can see my post from a few days ago here (link) of a couple of hair and nails bits and pieces that I found amongst the mess of TK Maxx. I've already talked quite a bit about them in the post that I did on them so won't talk about them again here!

eBay

I ordered three things from eBay this month, one of them (my favourite) I am still waiting to arrive and was warned that it can take up to 25 working days(!) to arrive as it is coming all the way from China. The other two are both related to nail art and will feature in upcoming nail posts when I have experimented with them. I've seen sets of nail art dotting tools on a few blogs before and can be used to create multiple effects on the nails - I ordered mine from this seller here (link) for just £1.18. I also just got a little pack of nail stickers to try out, nothing mind-blowing though - I ordered mine from this seller here (link) for 99p.

Miscellaneous 

Wilkinsons - Again, something that I have already done a post on this month was some cheap and cheerful 'home decor' bits that I got from Wilkinsons to perk up my uni bedroom and wrote a post called 'Make A House A Home'. What I didn't mention in this post though was a pair of concealers that I got myself from their beauty section. I got the coveted Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer as I have never tried it before and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I've thrown away the receipt now but I think this cost £4.19 and I definitely understand the hype now that I've tried it! Super easy application and extremely high coverage that lasts nearly all day for a bargain price - love it. I also got the Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer as my beloved YSL Touche Eclat is coming to a finish and I need to find myself a cheaper dupe so thought I'd start with this. I've been using this for a few days as an under-eye brightening concealer and so far so good. This cost £6.98.

Nouveau Beauty - As I have a huge girl crush on Millie Mackintosh I decided I would try out some of her false eyelashes that she has recently released. I got the thickest and fullest of the 8 pairs and they're called Shoreditch. You can order them yourself here (link) for £8.95 each with free delivery, or you can see my full post on them here (link).

Pure Naturals - I saw this Healing Scars Face Scrub* on somebody's else blog after they had been sent it and reviewed it. I wrote down the blog that I saw it on to give some credit for influencing my life but when I went searching for it again to link the post it was no where to be seen! Not sure what happened there. But anyway, I read a glowing review on how this all natural face scrub helps to fade away scarring and also speed up the healing process of damaged skin. I like the sound of it containing all natural ingredients and I have scarring on my face so I was up for giving this a try. Pure Naturals has all sorts of natural products on their site to help with body, hair and face problems such as acne, eczema and psoriasis as well as scarring, so if you're troubled with any of these then maybe it's a site worth checking out. My scrub cost £6.95 and you can find it here: (link).

 

I think that's everything!

There might be something that I have forgotten to include but I think that this post is long enough.

Nobody let me buy anything else now!!

♥

*I know that some people are against bloggers using stock photos instead of their own, but I've lost my lead to connect to my laptop so could not upload my own pictures, sorry. I've marked items with stock photos used with (*) and they are all pictures taken from the website that I ordered from.

Millie Mackintosh Lashes

Unless you live underneath a rock I will assume that most of you will know who Millie Mackintosh is, or at least have heard of her. She came to most people's attention after starring in the 'reality' E4 TV programme Made In Chelsea (I have never, ever watched this programme) but she is also a beauty enthusiast, make up artist and a blogger, just like you and I. Not to mention she is also Professor Green's other half and in my eyes is one of the most beautiful women in the country. She oozes effortless, natural glowing beauty and she comes very high up in my list of girl crushes!

Millie recently launched her own range of false eyelashes and being such a huge fan of Miss Mackintosh I could not resist ordering some for myself, despite the £8.95 price tag. I ordered mine from this site here (link) and there is a range of 8 different styles; I think that they are all named after different parts of London but I don't know London very well and the only names that I recognised were Mayfair, Camden and Portobello. The delivery was free and they arrived the day after I ordered them which is very impressive.

This is what the Nouveau Beauty website has to say about Millie's lashes:

"As a make up artist, Millie knows all the tricks of the beauty trade and has been fully involved in every part of the process in designing her range. The strip lashes are made of natural hair, to give a more natural look so girls can imitate Millie’s minimal and sophisticated style."

And this is what Millie herself has to say about them:
“It’s no secret that I’m a complete beauty addict, and so designing my own range of lashes was a dream come true. My lashes are unique in that they are 100% natural hair, and the extra mild adhesive means that you can commit the cardinal sin of forgetting to take them off and still wake up looking gorgeous!” 

I am really excited to try these out as I have always been faithful to Eyelure lashes on a night out and have never recently strayed away and tested out another brand; in the past I have found that no other glue matches up to the quality of Eyelure and that is why I always return to them. With Millie's adhesive being 'extra mild' I hope that it being gentle on the skin doesn't compromise the staying power of the lashes - I hate it when the corners start to peel up half way through the night!

All of the lashes look very natural and could be worn in the day time but I ordered the pair 'Shoreditch' as these were the thickest and fullest looking of the 8 pairs and I look for a bolder eye on a night out as I already have quite long and think eyelashes anyway.

One thing that I know is not visible on the above image as it has been put through a filter on Instagram is the lack of airbrushing on the front of the box. I feel like this is a really awful thing for me to say and I was debating not writing it at all but it did please me to see that Millie has visible pores on her face and she has not been Photoshopped to unrealistic perfection; her face looks like a normal person's would (although she is quite a lot more beautiful than most people anyway). I don't know if that makes much sense for me to say but I just love the way that she still looks beautiful even without editing and airbrushing away minor 'flaws' on her face like other celebrities would do.

♥