Christmas Presents - Beauty and Candles

I am SO late putting this post up! Christmas seems so long ago now, I hope you all had a fabulous one.  I was happy to see the back of 2013, it was a stressful year and so far 2014 is shaping up to be a good year. This post was ready to go a couple of weeks ago but a BT engineer was working at my neighbours house and managed to cut off both our phone line and internet.  I was surprised at how often I use the internet, it was so frustrating not being able to just "Google" something!

Anyway, I loved reading posts showing what lovely goodies you all got for Christmas and I hope you enjoy reading mine.

Dollish Polish Welcome to Camp Crystal Lake

Polish Addict Unicorn Love

Liquid Sky Lacquer Fuchsia Illusion (Thermal Polish)

My hubby Jon got me these polishes from Rainbow Connection, a UK stockist of international indie brands.

My best friend, Vicki, got me these. 

China Glaze Cosmic Dust and Strap on Your Moonboots.

Jon got me these crystal Leighton Denny nail files, a large one to keep at home and a smaller one with a case to keep in my handbag.

Every year Jon gets me the Soap & Glory set when Boots have their weekly offer on.  Every time I smell Soap & Glory it reminds me of Christmas. So many fab goodies in this years gift set!

Hand Food Hand Cream

Sugar Crush Body Wash (the Sugar Crush Scrub gave me cravings for key lime pie when I was pregnant!)

Righteous Butter Body Butter

Peaches & Clean Deep Purifying Cleanser

Heel Genius Foot Cream

Butter Yourself Body Lotion

The Scrub of Your Life Body Buffer

Thick & Fast Super Volume Mascara

Sexy Mother Pucker Lip Plumper

Limited Edition Jonathan Saunders Bag

My Dad and Stepmum got me these Bayliss & Harding Hand Wash and Hand Lotion duo.  They come in a stand which is quite handy to put next to the sink in the bathroom.  They smell lovely!

I suffer with a lot of joint pain and muscle stiffness so Jon was very thoughtful and bought me this massager and oil (although I think he was just trying to get out of having to give massages!).  I have tried it on my back and it definitely helps get out any knots!

I am a big fan of Caudalie products and Jon got me this soap, it smells lovely and fresh.

Sandra from Beauty Balm got me this soap from Planet Soap, it smells absolutely amazing! When I put her present under the tree I kept getting a lovely scent coming from it everytime I walked past!

I was very spoilt by my hubby this year!

Nars At First Sight Palette

Dior Addict Lip Glow (I love this!)

Nars Guy Bourdin Fling

Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Dolce Vita

Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil in Baroque

Lippy in Roman Holiday

Lippy in Damage

The lip case is fab! Its bigger than I thought it would be, I have put it on my bedside table to put my jewellery in at night.

Rosslyn Candle Company sadly announced on Facebook that they were closing down their shop.  I have one of their teacups with the bluebell wood candle in and Jon got me this lovely hamper which contains a selection of their best selling candles.  

Salted Caramel candle! Yes it does smell as delicious as it sounds!  

Sandra got me this handcream too, I have been very spoilt!

We had a Secret Santa swap on one of the beauty pages and Grace from All That Slap got me these gorgeous gifts.

I know its not technically a beauty item but Jon got me this notebook for me to write my blog post ideas etc in.

Leave me a link if you did a post like this, I love seeing what people got and it's inspiration for gifts throughout the year!

Yankee Candle Haul

Hi everyone, hope you are having a good weekend and not letting all this rain put a dampner on your plans!

My car was booked in for its MOT and Service this morning so while I was waiting I had a wander around the shops.

There's a Birthdays shop with Clinton Cards and Thorntons inside and they have a closing down sale on with everything reduced and today there was an additional 20% off all items.

All the Yankee candles had 20% off then the additional 20% - I can never resist a good bargain!

Citrus Water Medium Jar - it smells really fruity and lemony and I'll burn this in the conservatory when the sun (fingers crossed!) comes out. This size candle burns for 55-75 hours.

£12.49 but with 40% off £7.49

A set of three small jars (L-R) Garden Sage, Fresh Water and Cherry Vanilla.

I'll put the Garden Sage in the Kitchen, Fresh Water in the bathroom and Cherry Vanilla in the lounge.

These all burn for 25-40 hours.

It cost me £7.50 for the set.

Sweet Pea Large Jar - this is my favourite out of all the candles I picked up today.  

I'll be having this for my dressing table :)

This size burns for 100-135 hours!

With the 40% off it cost me £8.99.

Three Bartlett Pear Samplers - these may be small but they burn for up to 15 hours.

I'll be putting these in the kitchen.

For the three it came to £2.68

How pretty is this Yankee Candle holder!

It's from the Summers Day collection.

After the discount it was £3.18

I will be going back for another one of these, they are so pretty!

We have started giving our son pocket money and have told him that every time he saves a certain amount we will give him a £5 bonus! Trying to encourage him to save instead of spend....

He picked this cute dinosaur money box to save his money in.

It has a space on its side where you can put a badge with your name on, we never find anything with his name on so being an 8 year old boy Dynamic & Energetic seemed very fitting! Plus he can write his name on the space provided.

I'm really pleased with all the candles I picked up today, they should last me for months!

Easter Box Swaps

Finished work now until Tuesday - love, love, love bank holiday weekends!

Got home to find a huge brown box that had been delivered via courier, thought no more of it as I assumed it was components that work had ordered - then thought well I better open it incase they need me to pop back into work with the contents.  Opened the brown box to find a big pink box inside - definitely not components, only my Easter Box swaps from the lovely Wendy over at Beauty Box Swaps. 

The Easter box swap worked by finding a buddy from the group to pair up with, agreeing a budget, agreeing a postage date/method then putting together a surprise box to send to your buddy in time for Easter.

We agreed on a £10 budget, but I think Wendy may have gone "slightly" over!

Wowzers! Couldn't believe it when I opened the box

I love bird print and this felt bag is gorgeous, I will be using this to store bits in...

....once I've eaten the stash of Haribo!

Yummy, yummy chocolate - the bag of Thorntons has already been munched!

It feels like my birthday! How cute is the little pink chick?!

These are shea butter bath truffles and they smell absolutely divine, they are strawberry scented and smell good enough to eat.  I tried to get my hubby to lick one -although it does say on the bottom Do Not Eat so I mustn't be the only person thats thought they might be edible!

Fan di Fendi, I didn't get this in my Harrods Glossybox and I had been trying without luck to get my hands on one in a swap.  Hmmm maybe Wendy had something to do with that!

Orly Smudge Fixer, this will come in so handy. 

Maybelline eyeshadow palette in Grey Pink Drama, perfect colours for me.

Bracelets (they are darker in reality, the camera makes them look really bright) These will go with lots of my clothes.

Yankee candle in black cherry - oh this smells soooo nice.

Toe separators, nail block and manicure kit

OPI mini stems!!!! We had agreed a future swap on these, but she saw that we have booked a holiday and she thought these would be perfect holiday colours so she put them in the box.

I love every single thing she sent me.  She is such a kind and thoughtful lady and I hope she likes the box I sent her (which is nowhere near as good as this box!)

Beauty Box Swaps is a fabulous community of ladies who swap new or lightly used beauty items. It is a great page so pop over and have a look x

Yankee Candles

Yay its Wednesday and its a bank holiday weekend, one more morning in work and I'm off until Tuesday. Although where has the glorious sunshine gone? Its freezing and the heating is on!

Well these little freebies from Yankee Central brightened up my day, I only had to pay postage of £1.99 for delivery. Oh and this was before Beauty Budget Challenge, I'm doing really well this week not spent a single penny of my £10 budget!

They all smell absolutely gorgeous! I have pink dragonfruit lit at the moment and it gives off a lot of scent for a small candle.

They have 10% off the RRP for these products on orders placed before Saturday - you can order them on Yankee Central

They are doing a sample offer for the new candles coming out in Autumn and Christmas you can buy them here for £3.75.  Enter SAMPLES at checkout for £2.25 discount.