Layla and Buster getting together for Christmas

I couldn't get my pictures I took back home up over Xmas, so I'm getting round to it now. I feel slightly ashamed at myself, looking back through my camera that the vast majority of my photographs are of the dogs, not my family! What can I say...

I drove up to my parents house in the Midlands on Tuesday night after taking some tests for my course in the city. I'm so glad we decided to drive up that night as early Wednesday morning brought a lot of snow to the region. I feel like the snow has followed me because we had a lot in the South when no other regions had any, and the South escaped it this time around! I don't mind the snow when it doesn't disrupt my plans, but no-one loves it as much as Layla seems to. She had a lot of fun running around in the snow, and even helped my boyfriend build a snowman.On Christmas day she opened her presents. She figured out how to do it once she's watched everyone else open theirs. I think she liked her presents, although a squeaky snowman was broken before it was out of the wrapper.On boxing day, her best friend Buster (a Maltese terrier) came over to visit. They become very energetic together, chasing each other and play fighting. Here's a rare calm moment I was lucky to capture.

Happy New Year everyone!

Lush Wild Child gift box and a few extras...

First of all, I loved the name of this gift box from Lush. Wild Child is full of sweet and fruity scented goodies. It contains the blackcurrant fruit pastille scented shower jelly Sweetie Pie which I have previously reviewed. It has the Rockstar soap which is the same fragrance as Snow Fairy shower gel. Bubblegum lip scrub, Up you Get shower emotibomb and Happy Hippy shower gel. It's a great set with a good mix of products in it and I will review these items individually at a later date.

I also got a few extra Lush bits as stocking fillers, you're never too old for a stocking!Daddy O shampoo which smells like parma violets, I've never tried a Lush liquid shampoo so was quite excited about this.Honey trap lip balm, again another product I have not tried before, I've already clumsily dug my nail in it.

Mask of Magnaminty which I have used about 3 times since Christmas already, it's great stuff. It has a few little exfoliating bits in it which is a nice touch, and it tingles but not in an acid way, but in a natural minty way!

Boxing Day festivities

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas day whatever you got up to! I was so happy to spend time with my family. I haven't been home since the summer nearly six months ago so it's really been so nice for me to be back here and escape London life for a week.


Christmas Day was spent having a lie-in, eating lots of breakfast, and watching lots of films. We had a white Christmas here in the Midlands. Although it didn't snow, it's been below freezing since it snowed a couple of days ago so the snow has remained on the ground and rooftops, as has the rather pathetic excuse for a snowman my boyfriend and I made. My Mum was working so Christmas didn't start officially until she came home. We waited until she'd finished to open our presents, admittedly, the child in me found this a little difficult! The build-up to Christmas always seems a bigger deal than the day itself, and today it was hard to believe that Christmas is over for another year. I enjoyed today just as much, my brother and sister-in-law came over with their puppy Buster so with two dogs under the roof it felt like a full house hold. I brought my camera down with me but forgot my computer lead so I will have to wait until I get back to show you the photos, both of the dogs, and of my lovely pressies.

I really hope everyone has had as lovely time as I have. I'm now really looking forward to NYE and having a get together in London before the reality of returning to work kicks in!

Merry Christmas and a Giveaway!

It really doesn't seem that long ago since I did my 100 followers giveaway. I decided to do another since reaching 250 followers seems like a big milestone to me. Since I have been all over the Sleek Sparkle palette since it's release, and since it's Christmas time, I think a Sparkle palette is the perfect giveaway gift (sorry if you have it already!) so here's an opportunity to get hold of one.

I wrote a previous post about this palette and another post with a FOTD using the palette which you can check out if you want to see how pigmented and wonderful the colours are.

The giveaway is international so wherever you are in the world I will post it to you! The only requirement I ask is that you are over 18 years old, or if younger, you have parental permission to enter the giveaway. You must be willing to provide an address I can post the palette to via email.

Since this is a followers giveaway, you obviously have to be following my blog. To enter, please leave a comment below, and keeping it Christmassy, I want to know:

What is the thing you love most about Christmas time?

The winner will be picked randomly. For an additional entry to the contest and therefore a greater chance of winning, you may post a link to my giveaway on your own blog.

The giveaway will be open for one week, so you have until 31st December 2010, 17:00 GMT to leave your comment. Good luck and Merry Christmas!

FOTD using Sleek Sparkle Palette

Just a quick post to show you a look I created today using the Sleek Sparkle palette. I'm obsessed with this palette lately so there may be a few of these posts to come. Today I used a couple of colours from the palette to create a yellow and green look. I'm really happy with the outcome, I generally love these colours together anyway, I usually use gold mixed with green so this is just a bolder twist on that look. It's hard to find a true yellow eyeshadow with good colour pay-off but Sleek doesn't disappoint. Here I used the colour Tinsel all over the lid, and Mistletoe in the crease. This is a perfect combination to be used with Nylon on the brow bone. Nylon is a colour I love but usually find difficult to pull off, it has a slight lemonish tinge to it, which works well with the yellow and green. Tinsel is a shimmery but non-glitter shade, whilst Mistletoe is one of the glittery eyeshadows, this works quite nicely if you want just a little glitter but not full on glitter city.

Other products I used: Une Skin Glow foundation in G06, Maybelline Falsies mascara, Une eye kohl in black, MAC Springsheen blusher, MAC Creme d'nude lipstick. Lighting is crappy bathroom lighting I'm afraid, the best I can do during these dark winter days.

Hope you like this look and it's convinced you that the Sparkle palette is actually wearable! The shades are very bold, and I literally only touch my brush in the eyeshadow to get enough.

Has anyone else got their hands on a Sparkle palette yet? What are your thoughts?

Lush Xmas Collection

I find it hard to get into Christmas this early on, aside from getting all my shopping out of the way, I don't really like to think about Christmas until a couple of days before. Popping into Lush and looking at all the Christmas goodies helps me feel Chistmassy.

Recently I picked up Sugar Plum Fairy sugar scrub, I wrote about a previous sugar scrub experience on here before. This contains plum kernel oil which is fantastic for dry skin. I thought it was unusual to find a scrub which is used to exfoliate, also contains a decent moisturising ingredient. It's good because it should replace any moisture you might lose from removing the dead skin. It apparently has an almondy fragrance to it aswell, the sweetness reminds me of marzipan, but in a good way. A lovely little Christmas scrub, and great value at £1.95 too.
Along with this, I got Christmas Eve bubble bar. It contains ylang ylang and jasmine which instantly puts this in my favourites. I loved the Youki-Hi bath ballistic but it was sadly discontinued. That contained nearly the same ingredients and smelt the same as this so I am tempted to stock up on this beauty. It does look glittery, (and I've discovered I'm no longer a fan of copious amounts of glitter in the bath, yes it looks pretty but it is incredibly inconvenient to remove!) but it's only on the outside of the bubble bar which I'm glad Lush realise is all you need. The rest of the bar crumbles and bubbles away to leave your bath water a lovely relaxing midnight blue colour.

So that is all I've picked up from the Lush Christmas collection, there's a little bit too much to choose from, it seems to grow every year. There's a few other things I'd like to try though, those gingerbread bubble bars look too cute, and Christmas wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't get a bottle of Snow Fairy shower gel.

What are your Lush Christmas favourites?