Birthday & Christmas Wish List

December is fast approaching and is not only a firm festive favourite but is also my birthday month, in fact my birthday is a mere 6 days away.

So here is my birthday wish list, and anything left over goes straight onto the Christmas list (lol)!

1. Hunter Wellies

So I moved to Bristol, and let me tell you a little secret - it rains! A lot! I'm fed up of getting wet feet which makes me miserable for the whole day. These are glossy and adjustable, what more could you want from something so practical.

2. Evernote moleskine notebook

If your not already using Evernote to help you organise your life, then you need to be. I have since 2011 and it literally has my whole life on it. This notebook is designed to make photographing the notes even easier and so will really help when I'm planning some of my work projects. Also who would ever hate receiving stationery!

3. Hunter welly socks

I don't just want dry feet, but I want warm feet to, and these will be just perfect.

4. Lily flame candle in Blush

I was given one of these as a present maybe 3 years ago for Christmas and I was hoooked. The whole range smells AMAZING but this one in particular is my favourtie. It is a strong floral, girly smell and I love, love, love it. It has a regular spot on any gift list I am creating! The whole range is available at John Lewis, and I suggest you go down and have a sniff.

5. Calvin Klein Euphoria

Check out my post on 'My Favourite....Fragrance' - nuff said.

6. Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight face mask

I have read so many great reviews on this, but I have such sensitive skin. So I went to Origins and got a tester and I love it. It makes my skin feel amazing and it also smells delicious too, and so the full size product has earned its way onto the wish list - fingers crossed.

7. Per Una Slippers

These also make a regular appearance as they are my favourite. They look snuggly and the fleece lining means they are. They also have memory foam soles, so they shape to your feet. My shoulders relax just thinking about slipping these on!

8. Duo Boots

Duo boots, is a shop (both online and in the real world) that specialises in making boots in a variety of calf and foot widths. So those of you with the skinnest and the curviest of legs can still get your hands on very fashionable shoes. I brought my first pair a couple of years ago, and until their recent demise wore them almost religiously from around October to April. It is time to invest in another pair and these have caught my eye. I have noted to the parentals, that I appreciate they are rather expensive so we could compromise and for one time only I would consider a joint birthday and Christmas present (one of the horrible things about having a birthday in December).

9. A Personal Planner

I saw these on blogs from those who attended the Leeds #bblogger meet up and I'm hooked. Anything that says; stationery, personal, and organised has me hooked. The site allows you design your own diary or planner and upload your own cover and name. What could be more perfect for a budding blogger.

Next stop...New York

Hhmmmm I was supposed to be shopping for a pressie for the grandmother when I came across this little beauty! It's part of the new home fragrance collection from Next with 4 signature fragrances each named after a famous cosmopolitan hub - New York, London, Paris and Milan.

I loved the very classy looking packaging and was then blown away with the smell of these. I really liked the London smell as well but New York was definitely my favourite. I knew I would when I read the words orange blossom and jasmine as these are 2 of my favourite smells and feature in some of my favourite fragrances.

The top notes are bergamot and orange blossom, with a heart of tuberose and gardenia and a base of amber and patchouli. Lighting this candle envelops your room in a beautifully warming fragrance perfect for these dark long nights!

They also have a reed diffuser, eau du parfum and body cream and prices are from £8 to £18. The candle was £9 and burns for approx 55 hours and would definitely make a great gift!

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Bobbi Brown Cleansing Oil

I recently made a Bobbi Brown order (more on that in another post) and with it got sent a sample size of the cleansing oil. I have heard mixed reviews on cleansing oils, but given my dry skin I wondered whether they might be really good for me, and how great that the first one I get to try is from this skin care range.

Unfortunately my thoughts are very much 'meh'! No matter what anyone says it does feel wierd to cover your face in oil and to be honest I wasn't sure how much oil to use. After covering my face in a thin layer of oil, I splashed a small amount of warm water and massaged my face. This caused the oil to foam but not in any great quantities, and then rinsed by splashing more water on my face in the old fashioned way, no fancy muslin cloths or sponges here!

After rinsing I thought it left my face a little tight feeling and surprisingly dry given I'd just covered it in oil. It definitely didn't feel as moisturised and glowing as when I get my Liz Earle on. That said it did get rid of all traces of make up, so actually my recommendation is, if you can bring yourself to put oil on your skin and you would class your skin as 'normal' or perhaps 'combination' then this may work for you, provided you have a spare £29 in the bank!

Have any of you tried it, what did you think?

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Friday Night Curry from Maaza Namaskar Lounge

It would break all the rules if you didn't eat curry on a Friday night, so last week the hubby and I headed down to the Water Front in Bristol city centre to sample the Asian delights of Maaza Namaskar Lounge.

This is not the traditional curry house - no flocked wall paper, no psychedelic carpet or overly patterned crockery in this place. Just gorgeous sleek modern interior design with a nod towards 1920's styling which screams glamour, and makes it a necessity to have a Namaskar cocktail at the deep mahogany bar!

The menu is a modern and small version of a traditional curry house menu, along with some of the chefs specials. We were tempted by the Namaskar stuffed pepper, and onion bhajya but opted for the mixed BBQ to share; lamb and chicken tikka and lamb sheekh kebab all smothered in the chefs special BBQ sauce Followed by a very hot chicken dhansak, the chefs speial lamb adrakh, pilau rice, sagg aloo and nann all cooked in front of our eyes in the live kitchen.

Delicious - we left satisfied and with full bellies! I can confirm that it also tasted amazing re-heated up for Saturday lunchtime.

A perfect Friday night! Do you have any favourite spots in the South West to share?

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How To Look The Best At Everything

 The last time I brought anything from Benefit was well over 2 years ago when I lived in London and worked in Angel so was a regular at the gorgeous Benefit boutique on Upper Street!

As I mentioned in my last post I booked myself in for a little make up session at the Benefit counter to get a feel for some of the 'new' products and see if there was anything worth spending my hard earned money on - which wasn't hard. 

As well as the Gloss in my last post, I also brought the 'How To Look The Best At Everything' make up kit. 

The 'book' style case as well as looking totally cute on my new dressing tables contains a 7.5ml POREfessional, a 7ml Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow! foundation in Honey, 2 x 1.5g boi-ing concealers in shades 02 and 03 and 4g of the Hello Flawless pressed powder in Honey.

For £24 I think you get quite a lot of product, particularly as I really wanted to try them out before committing to the full purchase of some of these products. 

POREfessioal is one of those products that I hear raved about all the time, but have yet to try...until now. When I got married I chickened out of buying this and instead brought a Loreal Studio primer instead. I thought this was perfectly OK but after trying this I would not repurchase the cheaper product! It gave my skin an amazing softness which allowed the foundation to glide on so smoothly and left my skin looking almost flawless and more importantly that look lasted all day.

I loved the look of the foundation after my trial, it gives amazing coverage without any cakey feel, instead giving the gorgeous dewy glow that I crave, and is often unachievable without a little high beam highlighter, but this achieved it. The powder set it beautifully without looking over the top.

Oh boi-ing, why oh why did I ever stop buying you! By far one of the best concealers and this little pack has reminded me of this. Not chalky and gets rid of redness and dark circles in one for me. It is quite oily, but that suits my dry skin. A little goes a long long way, and so I can see these 2 little pots actually lasting quite a while.

It was definitely worth buying this to trial the products, so much so that my mother in law is travelling to America in the next couple of weeks and I put the primer, foundation and powder on my Christmas list for her to pick up while she is there!

I have loved re-discovering an old friend, is there anything else you think I should be trying?

Until next time...