Christmas Beauty Baubles 2014

I mentioned in this post a few days ago about Christmas Tree decorations for beauty lovers and today's post introduces a few more ideas by way of Beauty Baubles. As a stocking filler, I think they are a brilliant idea, something quirky yet useful to hang on or from your tree.

Below you will find some of the ones I like the most, and this year it seems like there is so much more choice!

Boots No.7 - This No7 Nail Polish Christmas Star Bauble makes a lovely stocking filler for No7 fans! The star makes a stylish tree decoration and opens up to reveal a Stay Perfect nail polish. Price £6

Caudalie - Mini Caudalie Divine Oil - A multi-purpose, luxurious dry oil moisturises, nourishes and enhances the skin thanks to its unique formula made with an exceptional blend of oils (grape, hibiscus, sesame and argan) combined with our patented anti-oxidant Polyphenols. It envelops the skin with a subtle, floral and sun-kissed fragrance, with woody notes. Use it on the body, hair, nails, in the bath or as a massage oil. Price £8

This Works Hanging Sleep Balm - Inside you will find This Works’ award-winning Sleep Balm, formulated with a soothing fusion of lavender, vetiver and wild camomile to calm the mind and relax the body, helping induce a rejuvenating night of beauty sleep. Price £10

Molton Brown - Choose from some exceptionally bright and colourful festive baubles in a range of scents from Eucalyptus,Ylang-Ylang, Pink Pepperpod, Templetree, Frankincense & Allspice and Gingerlilly. Priced at just £10 it makes for a very interesting shower as they are filled with a Molton Brown Signature Scent!

Balmi - Available in three different flavours, this Balmi Bauble is filled with a lip balm which is packed full of vitamin E, shea butter and jojoba oil, it provides moisturisation and protection from harmful UVA rays. Price £5

Champneys - A choice of two baubles from Champneys in red or white. One contains a 50ml Champneys Oriental Opulence Body Cream and the other 50ml Champneys Exotic Retreat Body Cream. Priced at just £4 they are also a great stocking filler.

Eve Lom - The inimitable Eve Lom Kiss Mix lip treatment, presented in a limited edition star-shaped gift box.  Price £16

Purity - Made Simple, the one-step facial cleanser in trial-size 90ml, suitable for all skin types. Price £9

Origins - FThis gift set bauble contains Origins best sellers which are: GinZing™ Refreshing eye cream to brighten and depuff (5ml), Make a Difference™ Overnight hydrating repair cream (5ml), Clear Improvement® Active charcoal mask to clear pores (7ml), Drink Up™ Intensive Overnight mask to quench skin's thirst (7ml), Modern Friction™ Nature's gentle dermabrasion (15ml).  A great way to try before you buy and priced at £12.

Soap & Glory - Merry Kiss Much contains A GREAT KISSER™ Lip Balm in Juicy Peach, all wrapped up in a covetable, collectable, giftable bauble.  Price £5

Rodial - An alternative to the traditional baubles for the tree, why not surprise a loved one with a bespoke Rodial tree decoration this Christmas? This decoration contains best-selling glam balm lip that boasts 3D hyaluronic filling spheres for instant plumping. Priced at £19

The final item comes from Aromatherapy Associates in the form of a star. It is one of those products that really stands out with its's teal coloured packaging and it is perfect for hanging on the tree with the little elastic hoop at the top. Once inside the box, you will find a 7.5ml glass bottle of the Aromatherapy Associates Inner Strength Bath and Shower Oil.  This oil is absolutely amazing, it is just brilliant and was designed to help brin about a sense of calm and inner peace and it uses a combination of frankincense, clary sage and cardamom essential oils which are some of my favourites for this time of year.

The Inner Strength range is particularly special as 10% of all proceeds are donated to the Defence Against Cancer charity, which is such a thoughtful touch, especially as a couple of my family members are currently fighting cancer.

Have you got any beauty baubles for your tree? 

Are there any that you really like the look of?

Tesco Beauty Advent Calendar - Week 1

This year I managed to get my hands on the Tesco Beauty Advent Calendar, it looked brilliant from the start when I first saw it advertised and hopefully it will live up to expectations.  It cost £50 and was available online and through some Tesco stores, I believe it is still available for half the original price if you still want it.

The Calendar is said to contain everything you need to complete your Christmas party look, with brands such as Nip+Fab, Korres, Katy Perry, Dr. LeWinns, Baylis & Harding and Tanya Burr behind each door, it is bound to be 24 exciting days.

In my introductory post I opened door number one which you can read all about HERE and today I am going to share with you what else I have had in my Calendar this week. Starting with door number two:

So inside day 2 we have a Tanya Burr nail polish.  I am yet to encounter any of the Tanya Burr range but I do love the look of this nail polish which is shade Midnight Sparkles and it is described as being "is a sumptuous, purple nail colour infused with glitter, for a truly stunning finish". This Nail polish has an RRP £4.95.

For day 3 there is a 5ml perfume sample from Paul Smith and it is the Extreme Eau de Toilette.  Described as being "A sensual yet playful floral fragrance with a blackcurrant and violet infusion and rich woody final notes" it is actually an alright scent, probably not one that I would go out and purchase for myself, but it is nice.

Behind door number 4 we have a Spotlight Lipgloss by Sue Moxley and I have shade 'Fiesty' and it an LED light up gloss and it incorporates a mirror on the lid as well.  The shade is a quite bright pink shade which I will show in a later post. 

It's been quite hard to find information on this brand but the lipglosses do have an RRP £6.99 on Amazon.

Then behind door number 5 and here it is. A Katy Perry Meow Eau de Parfum locket.  The description is as follows "This solid perfume locket by Katy Perry is the perfect gift idea! The locket is in the shape of a cat's head with diamond effects on the ears and eyes. Twist it open to reveal solid perfume. This locket comes in a black drawstring pouch" I think this is such a fab item, it wasn't at all what I was expecting to find and I did initially think it was another perfume sample, which in a way it is, but it is a solid and in a locket which is super cute. It has an RRP £7.99

Behind door number 6 we have a mini organic soap which smells absolutely amazing and I am pleased to see it is totally free from detergents, SLS, Alcohol, parabens, silicones, sulphates, preservatives and sorbates! It's from The Little Soap Company.

Behind door number 7 which I have just opened, we have Candy Kittens Turquoise 20ml EDT which is described as follows: "This fragrance opens with a bright burst of citrus from bergamot and apple, followed by an enchanting heart comprised of earthy cedar wood and tender jasmine. The fragrance dries down slowly to a wonderfully sensual mix of earthy sandalwood and creamy vanilla".  As a fragrance it is quite nice, not one I would choose as I think it is something for  a teen but it is nice.

So there you have my first week of the Tesco Advent Calendar and I am totally chuffed with the contents so far.  What do you think?

Claudia Bradby | Christmas Guide for Mum

I am sure my Mum is like most Mum's when it comes to Christmas in that whenever the question "What would you like for Christmas" is poised, the response is one of three:

1) Oh I don't need anything
2) Anything really, a jumper or something
3) You decide

At which point stress levels rise because actually, I never have an idea as to what to buy for her. One thing she does like however is jewellery, nothing to blingy or over the top, but something straightforward, conservative and a little different.

Claudia Bradby jewellery is renowned for their hand selected modern pearl designs, they also include a few very special stone and silver collections to complement their pearl ranges. Each collection is handmade from silver, semi precious stones and exquisite pearls; crafted to help you build a wardrobe of contemporary jewellery to enhance every occasion.

Allow me to introduce the  Allegra Pearl and Silver Heart Bracelet which is described as follows:

"Our perennial classic white pearl bracelet with silver heart disc is a perfect gift choice. Finished length 19cm. Attractively irregular freshwater pearls approx 7mm, sterling silver heart 20mm x 20mm. The Allegra bracelet is one of our most popular gift choices as the flat silver heart is perfect for engraving".

Not only is this bracelet simple in design, but absolutely stunning to look at. The pearls are soft with no harsh ridges and the silver heart alongside them looks effortlessly stylish, something I know my mum is going to love.  

If this isn't quite your thing and you are looking for something a little more delicate, Claudia Bradby recently introduced a pearl giftset which is exquisite to look at or if you're not quite sure what mum would like, there is a choice of gift cards instead.

Why I cancelled my Glossybox

Some of you observant Bloggers have noticed the lack of Glossybox post from me this month and the simple reason is because I cancelled it.  It wasn't a decision I took lightly, after all I had subscribed to it for well over a year and it wasn't all bad, but when I decided to write my list of pro's and con's as to whether or not I kept it, it wasn't pretty reading, so I thought I would share some of those with you in a post and I would love to know your thoughts.

Some of the topics in this post will cover:

• Glossydots
• Special Boxes
• Themes
• Brands
• Samples
• Like, Love Loathe - products

Every month as people began to showcase their boxes, mine would arrived and more often that not I was disappointed with the contents, it was as though they had come to the bottom of the pile and just chucked random items in and it came to the point where I was preferring the design of the box to the contents.

One of the things that really irritated me recently was the change in compensation on Glossydots.  To drop from 50 to 20 I think was just a bit mean. For those people who are not subscribers, essentially every month you complete a short survey on each item in your box in exchange for 50 dots (now 20) which went towards getting a free Glossybox.  Each year you would get one or two 'free' Glossyboxes, where your subscription wasn't taken and your box was free.  To get this box you needed 1000 Glossypoints, so after every 4 boxes you probably had enough to 'cash out' - now at 20 points, it will be almost one year before this happens.  Add to this that any surveys you had to complete in your profile inbox were automatically reduced in value to 20 dots - slightly unfair in my view because we don't always use the products within a month to complete the survey to give an actual view.

The next thing that has been irritating me is the 'special' box. Currently (though it may now be sold out) there is a Harvey Nichols Box  which is full of really good items from really good brands - Laura Mercier, NARS, Benefit, OPI and Elemis to name a few.  Now this box costs £30 to subscribers plus P&P and £35 plus P&P and my main issue is -  WHY are these brands never in the boxes I have been paying for all this time? Why make it a 'special' box that anyone could have, when as a gesture, turn it into a box as a thank you or even keep it at the same monthly price? 

The themes - hmmm another issue I always had. Take the Stars and Stripes box that came back in July (you can see it here) and well I think from the comments that I got from other Bloggers let alone my own post, you can see the views and I didn't use a single item from that box, including those replacements. Compare that box to the Superdrug special  which you can see HERE,  for me, this is the best Glossybox I have ever had, not only did I use all the products, I actually re-purchased most of them.  For me, there is no point in having a theme if the products just don't fit it.  Dark Romance is just another odd theme to have with these products as the content.

Then we come to the brands.  One of the reasons I joined Glossybox was to try new and exciting products from brands I had heard of, maybe even bought products from and in the hope of discovering new brands.  Well, I guess I got a mixture of the two in many ways but then the repeated products would appear in another box later in the year, or there would be a few months where the same brand would appear and it began to grate on me a little bit which takes me back to the surveys.  As ive said, every month you get a survey to fill in about your products within your box and one of those questions is whether or not you like it, want to see more of them in your box and so on... so why if you say no, do they keep appearing? I got to the point with my surveys where I didn't see the point in completing them as I felt like no one was reading them.

Samples - now if I am paying £12.95 for a beauty box, I would like something more than a sample I can find in a magazine, admittedly some magazines had better freebies some months than my Glossybox (see this the March box).  Now I am all for perfume samples, though not every month, and samples of creams, but please, can they be bigger than two fingers worth which means I get to try them once and not form a view on them and nor do I want sachets of cream that I can get in Cosmo.

This wasn't meant to be a ranty post because it hasn't all been bad.  Infact had I not subscribed to Glossybox I would might never have tried Dr Lipp Nipple Balm which is one of my Holy Grail products, nor would I have bought Max Factor Primer, which I also love or the Nuxe Masque Creme Fraiche which I have a review on soon.  But from all the products I have had over the time I subscribed, isn't it quite sad that those are the only two that come to mind and jump out at me that I have loved? And that is what finally did it for me.  That and the USA both for a Tarte product this month, which alone would have been amazing but if I start comparing the UK box to the ones in the USA, I will get even more angry!

So that is for now, the end of Glossybox for me.  I am quite sad in a way because I did enjoy the excitement of getting the box every month, but I won't miss the disappointment of not getting products I want to use and I get to save an extra £12.95

Do you still subscribe to Glossybox? 

Do you think I have made any valid points?