Christmas Haul and Swap Reveal Photos

Happy 2014 everyone!  I am officially on holiday so I'm sitting here in my PJ's in total hibernation mode.  I finally gathered up all my haul and swap items in December and can now do a proper post about all the things that I purchased or swapped for.

I've been working on downsizing my stash and swapping for items that I will use, so I'm very proud that I managed to get all my beauty stash into my makeup unit on my vanity and an IKEA Helmer :)

**Warning: Long post :) and apologies for the iphone pics, my camera is broke**

Let's start with my favourite purchase of the season!
Acne Comet Boots (purchased from Harrods)
I recently posted about this, but they are finally here. I wore them to work for 2 days and they were so comfortable and I received so many compliments ::blush::
My only grievance is that the box is pretty standard and flimsy. For boots that originally cost over £400, I expected a little bit more.

 

Do you see that bright bag in the background? I also treated myself to the 

Vivienne Westwood vs. Cambridge Satchel Company bag  

(purchased from The Cambridge Satchel Company in Covent Garden)

These bags are so sturdy and well constructed. I just fell in love with the energy and vibrancy of this design.  My friend who bought this for me told me to go for this one instead of the brown one that I was initially going to go for.

Continuing with the Vivienne Westwood theme...

Lush x Vivienne Westwood Scarves 

 (purchased from my local Lush shop)

These were very limited and I'm happy to have secured both.

Guerlain Terra Nerolia Highlighter 

(purchased from Debenhams)

I was shocked to see this at 50% off as usually these limited edition products sell out before they can even go on sale.  I love the Guerlain palettes so much. They smell so fresh and fruity and the craftsmanship is so stunning.

 

A few more purchases for the New Years

I didn't want to pay the money for a Louis Vuitton refill in my agenda, so I headed to TK Maxx in hopes to find the Taschen Calendar Diary and Viola! there were tons. Many years ago at Uni, I purchased a Dali one and I loved it. The pages are filled with a lot of graphics and the paper is high gloss and sturdy.  It will last all year and it's worth the £5.99 price tag as well.

Also included in this photo are Muji pens. A co-worker gave these to me and I accepted with a huge smile on my face :)

 

The next item was a bargain find on ebay for only 99p. 

The Ninja Bunny Drawstring bag is very kawaii! I currently use it as my makeup bag.  

The last of my purchases before I move onto my swap reveal...

Lush Shower Gels: Ponche, Rose Jam, and Snow Fairy

My favourite of the three has always been Snow Fairy, but I had to get Rose Jam and Ponche for their unique scents.  Ponche is fresh orange juice and tequila and Rose Jam is a modern take on the traditional Rose smell.  Both are full of zest, freshness, and I love using them!  I had to stock up so I ended up buying 3 large bottles after I bought the travel sizes.

They are indeed limited edition, you can try your luck at your local Lush shop.

 

Ok ladies & gents, onto the swap reveals....

TheFACEShop Fruit Face Mask from Korea

I haven't tried them yet so can't comment, but these are actual cotton mask you put onto your face. They look a bit creepy, but fun ha!

 

(From L-R)

Caudalie Huile Divine OIl

I have only used their moisturisers before, but the oil smells "divine" for real!

 

Lucy Annabella Organics - Argan & Bergamot oil

I never heard of this brand, but the scent is fresh and I'm looking forward to using this on my legs tonight

S5 Purity Serum

This is another brand that I haven't heard of. I'm in love with oils and serums lately, so happy to give this one a try

The Body Shop Pink Grapefruit hand cleanser

Anyone who knows me that I don't support the Body shop since they were recently bought out by L'oreal.  I will say though that this hand sanitizer leaves an orange scent on your hand for a long time.

Escada Cherry In The Air (gift)

If you like sweet and uncomplicated perfumes that borderline body sprays, then this one is for you.

Ren Neroli & Grapefruit body cream 

I love Neroli so much! It is actually moisturising as well. I know Ren had a huge marketing presence when they first launched so I'm excited to finally try this before investing in money

Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation (only £2.99 from fragrancedirect.com)

I couldn't believe how inexpensive this was on fragrancedirect as Boots and Superdrugs is selling it far more.  I actually love using this foundation on days where I'm just running to the supermarket.

Clarins Santal Face Treatment Oil 

This was a free tester from my friend at the Clarins counter. The oil is so pure and rich. I put this on my face but wasn't so keen on the heaviest of it, so I will be using this in my hair.

Fresh Mangosteen Soap (gift)

I am happy to see that Fresh is still up and running. It's very difficult to get Fresh here in the UK, so a friend sent this to me as a gift. I currently have so much soap that I'm not sure when I'm going to use this one, but soon for sure.

Jo Malone Lime Basil & Mandarin perfume (gift)

Jo Malone is one of those brands that keeps growing. I'm not sure if they are growing too fast or not as their scents are becoming far too predictable; however, this one is very different and unique.  Just my kind of perfume.

MAC muscle tone nail polish (gift)

I always forget about MAC products, especially MAC nail polish.  This one takes 4 coats to make opaque

Perfume Guide from Luca Turin and Tanya Sanchez
I swapped for this book and I'm so happy to have it. The book goes over both high street and niche perfumes with humour, great insight, and knowledge. I've enjoyed reading this and feel very inspired to grow my perfume collection

MAC 217 Blending Brush was a gift. It's such a great blending brush. It's soft and blends shadow without striping the colour.

Bare Minerals Original Foundation in Medium Beige 

I swapped for this as it's one of my HG foundations.  I love using this on it's own in the summer or on top of my liquid foundation during the winter.  This is honestly an amazing foundation that highlights skin that is maturing (aka my skin now :(  )

Well that's all folks! These are the products that I will be working through along with my stash.  I'm really making an effort not to purchase too much but purchase quality products that I can enjoy using all year. 

I'd love to know what your fav purchase was in 2013? and Happy New Years to new and old readers.  May 2014 be filled with lovely products and happiness x

New NOTD, New Storage, New Shoes

Ok, so I want to show you guys how excited I am about this new storage system that DH has bought me...ok, now don't get all jealous because my DH is not the type of guy who notices anything that I like haha.  He bought it after I drilled it into his head that I needed new storage equipment hahaha.  So yes, after much bitching, he could no longer resist and purchased this for my birthday lol.

I was searching onine for an acrylic storage set that wasn't Clear Cube nor Muji.  I love the look of a see-through storage set, but I wasn't about to pay those kinds of prices.  I already have a MUJI flip top lid narrow 2 tier acrylic storage unit.  Sure, I paid less because I won it off of ebay, but the retail of this tiny tiny unit was £8.50 for the 17.5(w) x 13(d) x 9.5(h)cm unit.  I mean seriously?  If you read my blog, then you probably are just as big (or bigger) beauty product fanatic, and that wouldn't even hold 10% of our collection.  I personally didn't know how small these units were, so that was my bad, but since then I have done my research and MUJI cases are quite expensive, especially since you need like 3-4 to get to the size of 1 clear cube unit.  Speaking of Clear Cube, I'm sorry but unless you got money like that, Clear Cube is a HUGE investment, and frankly I just don't have the funds nor the balls to fork over $275-$400 on a makeup storage unit.  I would much rather buy shoes or makeup with that money haha.  But I will say that Clear Cube units do looks very lovely, and I can definitely see the allure of those.  Anyways, enough blabbing..let me show you what was ordered today.

This is by Osco, a office solutions company.  It is a 3 tier acrylic paper sorter.  It is quite deep and spacious and I love it.  I initially found it lone and then went into town to actually see it for myself, and it is the same quality as Muji.

I will be getting two of these units.  

The dimensions are 13.7(h) x 23.9(w) x 32.2(d)

It is very very spacious ladies, and it doesn't look like the typical papersorter.

I think two units of this will take care of 90% of my stash, and I'm so excited.

They retail for £27.99 each at Rymans, ebay and Amazon.

But if you act before Jan 15th, Home Base sells these for £20.99 and

currently you can get there is 15% off (PROMO CODE: DISC15)

I think I'll upload my first video onto youtube, once I get this unit and my set up is all organised.  This way you guys can see the difference between this and my MUJI acrylic storage items. I'm super excited to get these.  My inner OCD and methodical side will be satisfied once I'm able to finally get my stash organised. YAY!

I saw these in town the other day, and I think I need them.

Topshop is a danger zone for me.  They steal my money all the time, and I honestly don't know how they do it.  I need new flats, as I walk around so much here in England now vs. being in the states where I use to just hop into my car.  I saw these for £28 and I didn't buy them, but I will.  I did a little google search and they seem quite popular with the young girls.  I dunno, sometimes I wonder if I dress too young for my age haha, but then I think, who the f- cares, as long as makes me happy right? lol.

TOPSHOP Vectra3 Studded Flat Slippers

(sorry about the crappy iphone spy pic)

I just can't justify the Christian Louboutin pair (which clearly Topshop drew their inspiration from), as I'm trying to save up the Louboutin black decollete 100 as I need them a bit more.  I don't any close toe black pumps? What is wrong with me? 

I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I need these...yeah, need them baaadddddd.

 And next is something not as exciting, but....my love for instagram, and my lack of creativity to do nail art has bumped heads and created these mannequin hands of mine.

The polish is Nails Inc Basil Street.

I know I haven't done a NOTD in a long time.  I'll be honest with you, I am getting a bit bored with NOTD.  I was doing them so much, and then it just seemed so mundane.  I know a lot of my followers are nail lovers, so I'll make more of the effort to show you my NOTDs :)

 

Well hope everyone is having a safe & lucky Friday the 13th. 

I'll be back very soon with the review on the awesome awesome 

Benefit "They're Real" Mascara!

 

Muji Acrylic Storage Solutions

As promised, I wanted to show you all the other Muji storage solutions that I own.  I actually got these off of ebay along with a picture frame for such a cheap price (I forget now how much).  I really can't wait to go into Muji the next time I'm in london.  I absolutely find them  quite useful and I love them so much!!

2 tier case

 The drawers come out completely if you're not careful.  They are easy construction, but it looks very sleek when all your makeup is inside of it.

6 slot divider

The dividers come out so that you can have as many slots as you want.

They are both very easy to clean and very sturdy. 

I am looking at getting more tiered cases so I can stack them up.

Show me your Muji :)

Until next time 

take it ez :)

I love MUJI

Hands down...Muji is my favourite place to shop for storage accessories and solutions. I know Muji is hot right now for their acrylic storage solutions, but did you know they do a whole range of other things?  It's great.  There is something to this understated (and quite pricey) and chic Japanese chain that I'm just loving right now.  It is pricey for what they are asking, but they present it all so well, and I have fallen prey. 

I picked up two pill boxes from them off of ebay for half the retail price.  It's ashame that they came with broken clasps, but I'll manage.  Initially, I was going to use them to depot some lipsticks, but I noticed they had a slit on the dividing walls so that wouldn't work.  So I decided instead to use it to storage my small studs and such.

They are small and compact, and I like the frosty look as well.

You can purchase these at MUJI online or at the shops for £1.50 each.

I will be blogging soon about my other Muji storage solutions that I have as well.

How do you all store your jewellery? accessories? makeup?