Beauty and Bentley

Today I'm trying something a little different and giving you list of different blog post ideas that are suitable for the month of December, I often look for these kinds of posts when I'm feeling uninspired or looking for new ideas. Most of the ideas listed below will be Christmasy or festive themed as it is December and I hope you find it useful!

1. Christmas Gift Guides -  I often try to create any gift guide posts in November but you can still post gift guides in December, I think a Last Minute Gift Guide or Christmas Eve Box Ideas post would be particularly good.

2. Festive Treats - Share some of your favourite Christmas recipes.

3. Your own Christmas wish list.

4. Goals for 2019.

5. Favourite products from 2018 - this could be beauty, lifestyle, books or a combination of everything that you've loved.

6. Blog about a Christmas event, this could be visiting your nearest Christmas market.

7. Create a list of your favourite Christmas movies.

8. Write about your favourite blog post that you created from the last 12 months and provide an update.

9. Revisit your previous goals for the year and see if you were able to achieve any of them, if you didn't create a post last year for your goals you can write up a review of the last 12 months.

10. Create an Instagram roundup showing all of the images you posted over the last 12 months, with a short description/story/link. You can also show your most popular picture this year and talk a bit about tips for growing your account.

11. Create a fashion post -  what to wear on your Christmas night out/how to dress for winter/top 10 Christmas jumpers....etc.

12. How to bake/decorate a gingerbread house.

13. How to feel festive on a budget.

14. A Christmas D.I.Y - if you don't have any crafty ideas you can test out an idea you found on Pinterest.

15. Make-up looks for Christmas/NYE.

16. How to stay healthy over Christmas, you can share healthy recipes and routines to follow that allow you to have a great Christmas but stay healthy.

17. How to survive your Christmas night out - create a survival kit/ways to prevent/cure that hangover.

18. Tips for sticking to a budget this Christmas - how not to overspend/how to make the most of the sales

19. Christmas decoration haul.

20. Winter beauty essentials.

21. What I got for Christmas haul.

22. Festive date night ideas

23. Create a Christmas bucket list 

24. Christmas eve pamper night routine

25. Christmas cocktail recipe.

It's that time of year, the nights are longer, it's cold outside and Christmas is on its way and all you want to do is spend time indoors being cosy! I am a huge fan of the cosy night in and I've been having a lot of them the last few weeks so I thought I'd share my routine with you.

Okay so to start off, I like to have my cosy night in when it's my day off so I will start the day running errands to get them out the way, I like to clean the house, buy in any food/snacks and walk the dog so that after 5pm I'm in for the night and can lock the doors.

Once I've done everything that needs to be completed for the day and I'm ready to start relaxing I will set the mood by creating a cosy atmosphere using light and scent. I will either light some scented candles or plug in my essential oil diffuser with a relaxing oil like lavender. Low lighting and relaxing scents instantly make you feel cosy especially when it's a cold rainy night outside.

The next thing I love to do is have a bubble bath, I'm a huge fan of baths and find they really help you to relax and unwind, sometimes I will also use this time to pamper myself and apply a face mask. I will always set up my phone at the side of my bath and watch YouTube or Netflix because as much as I love a bath they can get boring quite quickly so I love taking this time to catch up on some of my favourite shows. When I'm done I'll put on some fresh pyjamas and I also highly recommend changing your bedsheets that morning so when you get into bed everything is super fresh and soft.

Okay, so once I'm ready for the night I will sit downstairs and grab my extra large fluffy throw and bundle up on the couch to watch whatever show I'm binge-watching on Netflix (currently that's The Haunting of Hill House)

Shows I Highly Recommend

Bates Motel

Making A Murderer 

The Sinner

Hannibal

The Confession Tapes

Scream

Friday Night Dinner

Riverdale

My furry little four-legged sidekick Bentley is never far away and he loves to squish up close to me on the couch, he's also a fan of a cosy night in!

Whilst watching my favourite shows I always need to have some snacks, I love crisps and chocolate but if we're going all out we will order in a takeaway which needs to be pizza, I love love love pizza.

So that's usually the standard routine for my cosy night in but I will always incorporate some other things at some point in the evening depending on how I'm feeling, sometimes I might do some blogging and work on new ideas for posts and sometimes I will read a book, I tend to go through phases with reading but I do really enjoy it, currently I'm reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. It's a self-help book based on the law of attraction, I'm really enjoying the book and definitely going to put everything I've read into practice. It talks a lot about thinking positively and being grateful for what you already have to attract more good into your life, it's very interesting and really gets you thinking about how you currently live your life and the changes you want to make. I almost always read psychological thrillers so this is a nice change in genre.

I will also make time at some point in the night for some self-care, at the moment I'm really enjoying Gua Sha which I have a full post about here if you want to learn more. In general, I like to take more time with my skincare when I'm having a cosy night in, as a previously mentioned I often apply a facemask or do some exfoliation to give my skin a much-needed boost.


There you have it, this is my cosy night in routine, I absolutely love to spend my evenings this way and I'm looking forward to doing this a lot more in the next few months and over that Christmas period.
What are your favourite things to do on a cosy night in? 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....................at least at my house, it is because I've just put up my Christmas tree! This is my first year in my own house so I've been too excited about decorating for Christmas and I thought I'd share my decorations and where I got them from.

I've gone for a bit of a winter wonderland theme with all white and silver decorations, I picked up my tree from Asda, it's the 6ft Snowy Pine Christmas Tree for £35.

Also from Asda, I picked up two sprigs of mistletoe for £1 each and a 12 pack of white glitter spiral hanging decorations for £2.

I picked up the bulk of my baubles from B&M, they have an amazing selection of decorations for a great price, there are tons of multipacks and I opted for the Luxury Bauble Value Pack (51 pieces) for £9.99, the Glitter Filled Luxury Baubles (6pk) for £2.49 and the Medium Luxury Christmas Baubles (24pk) which comes in silver matte, shimmer and glitter finishes for £1.99.

Finally, I went to Home Bargains and picked up a pack of 400 warm white lights for £14.99, 3pk of Silver Feather Birds and a 2pk of white poinsettias.



Here's a little sneak peek at how my tree is looking, I really love it! I will probably pick up a different tree topper and maybe a skirt or something to cover the legs at the bottom but regardless I'm very happy with how it's turned out and I've been able to put it all together very inexpensively!

The Art of Living Well and Finding Happiness According to Your Star Sign By Sally Kirkman (£7.99)

Bubbles for Prosecco (£3.99)

Lush Sleepy Gift Set (£13.50)

Kitsound Portable Speaker (Reduced to £14.99)
BOD Mermaid Bath Salts (£10)
Handmade Gourmet Popcorn Selection Box (£14.99)
Origins Mini Mask Musts (£15)
Gillette Fusion5 Razor Christmas Cracker Gift (£7.99)
Leather Textured Wallet (£10)

Yaaaay! It's finally that time of year when it's acceptable to start thinking about Christmas! Today I've got my stocking filler gift guide to share with you and you'll have seen above I've linked to some ideas but I'm also going to discuss some ideas below and hopefully, you feel inspired.

Beauty Gift Sets
Okay so my first suggestion is a pretty obvious one, beauty gift sets make great gifts for everyone and you can find them to suit any budget. I would highly recommend checking out stores like Boots as they always do a 3 for 2 offer on a huge selection of their gifts and they have tons of different beauty gifts sets. I've linked to the Lush Sleepy gift set above which I think would make a great small gift for friends or family I think this would be an especially good gift for a Christmas Eve box to help send them off to sleep before the big day.

Mugs
Okay I love a mug and I've not included any in the links above but I think a really cute mug makes a great stocking filler you can even jazz it up by adding some fluffy socks (another great stocking stuffer idea) and some sachets of hot chocolate or lip balm to the mug and wrapping in cellophane and ribbon. Some of my suggestions for cute mugs are Asda, Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters.

Books/Stationery
Books can be a great gift assuming whoever you are buying them for actually enjoys reading, these are a particularly good gift if you know the person well so you can pick a genre they will enjoy or if they have a hobby they love like cooking you could buy them a cookbook. If they aren't a big fan of reading an alternative idea is stationery, you could gift a new planner for the year ahead or even just some cute notebooks these would suit anyone who has a lot going on, enjoys being organised or is a student.

Something Quirky
We all have someone in our lives that can be difficult to shop for but there are a few good websites that sell fun and quirky gifts that you may not even know existed, Not On The High Street make some really lovely gifts many of which can be expensive but there's still plenty of stocking filler ideas. Prezzybox is another good option for more quirky options.

Okay, so these are just a few simple options that have hopefully given you some ideas, I will also link to the stocking filler gift guide I created last year for some additional ideas!
Happy Shopping!

I've recently been longing for super long Rapunzel-esque locks, I've always loved long hair but at the start of the year, I had to have a chunk of my own hair cut off due to damage and the last couple of weeks I've been thinking about ways to cheat my way back to long hair. I've worn human extensions in the past but I always opted for cheaper ones that weren't the best quality, they did the job but I've decided if I'm going to get some more in the future I would want to invest in some great quality ones and right now I'm just not willing to splash that amount of cash. I went online and did some research and I stumbled across a company called LullaBellz. LullaBellz sells a wide range of hair pieces, extensions and wigs in both human and synthetic hair but they are most known for their selection of pre-styled synthetic hair extensions. A few years back I would never have considered synthetic hair as it conjures up images of overly shiny, wiry, plastic looking hair but I think technology has improved since I started wearing extensions and the quality is far more realistic when I saw Youtuber/Instagrammer Gemma Louise Miles wearing the brand I was sold as her hair always looks stunning so feeling a little reassured I decided to give synthetic extensions a try.

LullaBellz offer a colour match service where you can send an image of your hair and they will suggest a colour for you, I did this and I believe they suggested the shade Auburn but I felt my hair looked much warmer in the pictures than it does in real life so I decided to order the Super Thick 22" 5 Piece Blow Dry Wavy Clip In Hair Extensions (£28.00) in the shade Harvest Blonde. The delivery was quick, I only waited a few days before my pretty pink parcel arrived in the post, the packaging inside is very girlie and cute and there's a little window that allows you to check the colour of the extensions before opening. If you don't think your extensions are going to match then so long as the seal isn't broken you can send them back for an alternative shade, from what I could see the shade didn't look like a perfect match but it looked very close so I opened them up, making them mines forever. Now that I've opened them up and worn them I would maybe try a different shade in the future but it's a good enough match to still be wearable. The extensions themselves feel very soft and I was amazed at just how much hair you get (250g), there's some shine but it's not obnoxious and if you want to reduce this you can add in a little dry shampoo. When I initially put all 5 pieces in I was stunned, I almost felt like it was too much hair, you could easily split them up and use them as two sets if you want to get even more for your money. The quality overall is very good, you get an extra clip with your package but everything feels very secure so I doubt you would ever need it, they are very easy to put in the hair although if you've never worn extensions before it may take you a few attempts to gain confidence and make sure that all clips are hidden and the blend is seamless. I like this Wavy Blow Dry style as you don't really need to do much to your own hair to pull these off and make everything look natural. These are made of synthetic hair so you can't fully restyle them but you can use heat up to 180 degrees to make any tweaks that might be needed. The only thing I could say that isn't positive is because they are synthetic they do get a little more knotted than human hair so you may need to brush these more often to keep them looking good.

These extensions are a great option for anyone looking to try out extensions for the first time before making an investment in human hair extensions or for anyone wanting to look super glam on nights out and special occasions! Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase and I want to try out some other styles and hair pieces in the future (I'll probably also try a different shade), so, if you're looking for an inexpensive way to live out all your long hair dreams then I totally recommend LullaBellz!

We all love a good face mask to give our skin a treat and ourselves a bit of pampering and I recently became a fan of the serums from B. so I thought I'd try out some of their other products and today it's face masks. I've got two different types I've tried out the B. Glowing Clay Face Mask and the B. Hydrated Face Mask both cost £6.99 each and contain 50ml of product, I was actually able to pick them up on a buy one get one free offer so they were very inexpensive.

I really like the packaging on both products it's very sleek and clean looking and although it would probably be more hygienic in a pump container I still like the jars, the only issue is all the information is on the box about ingredient and application so if you would like to refer back to this information I would keep hold of the box.

B. Glowing Clay Face Mask

This mask contains finely ground apricot granules and seaweed extract to polish and revitalise the skin, you apply it directly onto cleansed dry skin and leave for 10-15mins (or until it's completely dry) then rinse the skin and pat dry. I've tried this out two times now and both times after initially applying the mask to the skin I felt a bit of irritation, this subsided after a few minutes and when I removed the mask my skin felt very clean and fresh but the second time my skin looked a little textured and I think overall this mask is just too irritating to my skin for me to continue using which is disappointing. It's quite surprising that this didn't work for me as I don't have particularly sensitive skin but my boyfriend who does have sensitive skin used it and loved it so this one has been gifted to him and he'll continue to use it.

B. Hydrated Leave On Face Mask

This mask contains hyaluronic acid and squalane to hydrate and smooth the skin, you can apply a generous layer to clean skin and leave for 10-15mins before massaging in the excess or leave overnight for an extra boost. This mask is really more like an intense moisturiser, it's a very rich cream that's great to use as we head into the winter months to stop the skin drying out. I like to leave it on overnight to get the maximum moisturising benefits and this works really well for me. My other half has also been helping himself to this mask and he really likes to apply this after using the clay mask as these types of maks can feel a little dry and tightening once they're rinsed off.

So, overall I can recommend the hydrating mask but unfortunately, I can't recommend the glowing one as it just didn't work for my skin type although my boyfriend is loving it, I would say if your skin is sensitive just be careful as you may experience a little irritation. These are very reasonably priced masks and great to have on hand when your skin needs a little bit of a boost. I do have a full review of the B. Nourished Advanced Serum which I love from the brand which you can read here.

Belle Jorden is a Youtuber/Make-up Artist known for her love of glitter and grungy make-up looks, she recently teamed up with Obsession (the same company as Makeup Revolution) to create an eyeshadow palette which I will be giving you my first impressions of today.

This palette costs £10.00 and comes with 16 shades, there's a range of mattes, shimmers and matte shades infused with glitter. The packaging is a beautiful pale pinky-grey shade with the Belle Jorden gold embossed logo on the front, there's a mirror inside and the palette itself has a good weight to it and feels like great quality, especially considering how affordable the palette is!

I've made this a first impression post rather than a review as I've only had the palette for about a week although I have swatched all the shades and used most of them in eye looks during the week I still feel these are my first impressions of the palette.

As a whole the shades in the palette are very pigmented and blendable, the quality is very impressive especially considering how inexpensive the palette is, I must also say I think Belle has done a great job at picking shades that work well together. You can create such a wide variety of looks with this palette ranging from very soft natural looks all the way up to bright dramatic looks, the shades give so many options and it's very easy to create a complete look without needing to dip into other palettes. Some of the shades have quite a bit of fallout, particularly the bright/sparkly ones so you may want to apply your eyeshadow before your base when creating more intense eye looks.


Shades!
Starlight -  This is a soft matte white shade that's not overly pigmented which I actually quite like because sometimes a very bright white can look very stark on the eyes, it's nice to set the eyelid or subtly highlight the brow bone.
Glow Baby - This shade is a shimmery champagne shade that's great for brightening up the centre of the eye or highlighting the inner corner, it does have a bit of fallout and it's best applied with your fingertips for intense pigmentation.
Pops - This is a matte warm brown shade with flecks of gold glitter, this works really well as a transition shade and although it does contain glitter if you tap off the excess from your brush most of the glitter will fall away.
Bear - The shade bear is a shimmery copper shade, it's very pretty and like most of the shimmer shades you can get more pigmentation if you apply it with your fingertips or a damp make-up brush.
Sagittarius - (Fun Fact - This is also my starsign) This is a bright orangey shade that can be used all over the lid or as a transition shade.
Sassy - This is probably the deepest shimmer shade and would work great for a very smokey eye look.
Hot Sauce - This shade is a very deep matte red-brown shade that's perfect for deepening up the outer corner of the eye and adding definition.
Queen - This is another matte shade with glitter particles in a deep red-purple tone, like Hot Sauce if could deepen up the outer corner or be used with Sassy to give you an intense smokey eye.
1706 - This is a much cooler toned shade in the palette and would be great for the crease to create a different kind of look, it's a matte shade and an interesting pink-grey colour.
Mama's Girl - This is a slightly darker shade than 1706 and has different coloured glittery particles which make it very pretty and different to a lot of other shades.
Magic - This is a shimmery pink shade that can feel a tiny bit crumbly and does have a fair amount of fallout but it's still a beautiful shade with lots of pigmentation.
So Cute - This shade is a super pigmented matte bright pink, I never usually wear pink but this shade is stunning and really adds a pop of colour to your eye looks.
Miami - This is a bright lilac shimmery shade that really adds a pop of colour and brightens up any eye look.
13 - This is another matte in a super dark purple shade which could be used in very dark smokey looks or to add depth and definition.
A.F. - This is technically a shimmer shade but it has particles of glitter in it that make it almost like an eyeshadow topper, it does have a fair bit of fallout so this is another one of the shades you may want to apply before your base.
Lola - A matte black shade, I've not used this shade in a look yet but it swatches very nicely and looks very pigmented.


Overall, I'm loving this palette, I think the shades are stunning and very well put together. The pigmentation is great and all of the shades blend easily, I would 100% recommend this palette and I can't wait to use it more and create lots of beautiful eye looks. This is the first product from Obsession and that I've tried out and I'm impressed and definitely want to try more in the future!