Bullring Bloggers Christmas Event

A few weeks ago I was kindly invited to the Bloggers Christmas event in the Bullring. I've already attended one previously which you can read about here and here.

The cookie is always the star of the show!

They out on a lovely spread for us as you can see! We then went round the various stalls to have a look. 

Selfridges had a lot of personalised gifts that anyone would enjoy! I've already seen the Nutella jars popping up everywhere but the scarf was a really nice addition that I hadn't seen before. You can get it personalised with your initials or even a message.

At the Benefit stall I saw some of the Christmas boxes which come with  a whole host of combinations of their bestsellers, and the boxes are super cute!

I then saw the Charlotte Tilbury supermodel videobox, isn't it beautiful! They do however come in at a hefty price tag of £200 (see here) so I probably won't be getting one anytime soon!

I then saw some new additions to RMK such as the blusher and concealer compact which are also very travel friendly.

Umberto Giannini were also styling peoples hair for the evening, all the hairstyles were amazing! I was watching in the hope that I might learn a tip or two. They also had a jar full of Oreo's which was really cool!

Lastly, we were given some goody bags to take home.

The hair products are from Umberto Giannini and we also received some samples of RMK's products, their cleansing balm is really good for melting away your makeup.

Benefit gave us samples of their eye and face cream packaged in one of these lovely gift boxes!

Lastly, Smiggle gave us a pack of a few of their products. Whilst I didn't see Smiggle at the evening I have visited their store in the Bullring a few times and it's always so packed! They specialise in fun and creative stationary and it's definitely popular with people of all ages. I can't wait to use these (plus being a student means you just love stationary!)

I hope you enjoyed this post!

Tom Ford Giveaway Win

A while ago I was lucky enough to win a giveaway from Pixi Picks for a Tom Ford lipstick!!!! 

(I'm still in shock)

Pixi Picks is a lovely blog filled with all sorts of beauty reviews, as well as a lot of lifestyle posts. You have to check out her coverage of the Clothes Show Live here.

I was super excited to try out the Tom Ford lippie as it's my first high end lipstick (can you believe that from a beauty blogger!)

The packaging as you can expect is beautiful, it's a black case with gold lettering.

The top has TF engraved which I think is a really nice touch and looks very classy.

 The shade I received is 04 Indian Rose.

The packaging is quite chunky and I think this gives it a more expensive feel as well. It's like nothing I've seen before.

In the tube I would say the lipstick looks like a medium dusky rose pink. It's quite a neutral shade that could be worn anywhere and everywhere.

On my lips which are quite a medium rosy colour I would say it's a your lips but better shade. It's about one shade lighter than my lip colour so it brightens them up a bit. It also has a bit of a mauvey undertone on me. It's opaque in one swipe which is great for a neutral that you can quickly apply.

It's not a matte shade as there is a bit of a sheen when you first apply it which goes down after a while but it's not completely satin either. I've worn it on a few occasions so far and I would say the wear time for me is average, around about 4 hours.

The formula itself is very smooth and very creamy, you can feel it on but it doesn't provide extra hydration. I did notice the lipstick had a slight scent which I couldn't place but it was unnoticeable after I put it on. It could also be used as a variation on the 90s trend, although it isn't as brown.

Overall, I'm super excited to try this out more as I don't often wear nudes, and a big thank you to Pixi Picks!

My Christmas Decorations and Advent Calendar

Christmas seems to come round faster every year! I put my tree and decorations up a few days ago but I've still got my presents to buy (if you're a last minute shopper like me you can imagine how wild it can get)!

Anyway I thought I would do a post to show you my Christmas decorations because I love looking at other peoples myself.

This is my tree, it's a basic one that cost me £10 a few years ago, I might get a new one for next year though (I'm not too keen of the sparseness).

This year I went for a silver and light pink theme, with a few multi-coloured decorations thrown in to spruce it up.

Here's a close up with the fairy lights on.

I love these giant snowflakes, they really add some sparkle! These were from the Christmas Boutique*.

The Christmas Boutique is an online shop owned by the retail group Urban33. Their Christmas shop is open 365 days a year and they specialise in all sorts of Christmas decorations and ornaments.

These mini glass baubles are really cute, they have small hooks at the end which mean you can stick them on at the tip of the branch. You can get them for £5.99 here*.

The mini silver glass baubles are also for £5.99 here*. The bigger silver and baby pink baubles came in a set from B&M for £1.99.

These heart glass baubles are for £4.00 here*. All the mini glass baubles come in a pack of 12. The tinsel is from Poundland/B&M for £1.

I absolutely love snowglobes so I was over the moon to get these. These come in a set of two for £12.99 here*. One of them is a reindeer and the other is a Santa. I leave these on my mantelpiece and they really set the atmosphere. The purple mini trees also came in a pack of two from Poundland.

Time for the best bit! The advent calendar! I always wanted to have a go at putting your own treats as a countdown. This was £25 but it's now on sale for £12.50 here*. They do a wide range of advent calenders at The Christmas Boutique, from wooden calenders to washing line style, like mine.

I really like how it looks over the fireplace, what do you think?

This is a close up of the stockings, they are shaped like slippers, gloves and hats (if only you could wear them!).

This is how my mantel looks put together!

Here are some of the gifts that I'll be putting in the stockings for my family. The clips are really cute and were for £2, although I don't know how to style them. I then got a small vanilla perfume to carry around from the Body Shop and some cocoa butter lotion. Lastly, I got some lips products for £1 each which I will be doing a post on soon. I've also included some chocolates in the stockings.

I hope you enjoyed this post!

I'd love to hear what theme you're doing this year or if you have a post up too!

Binky London AW 14/15 Nail Polish

Binky London is a cosmetics and nail polish brand set up by Binky Felstead. Before we go on I'd like to say that I don't watch reality tv shows and hence had no idea who she was! However, I got the chance to try out one of the shades from the collection, I received the gel nail polish in Mocha*.

First of all the packaging is decent, it's not the most luxurious or high quality but it gets the job done. Each bottle contains 12ml which is a generous amount and retails for £2.95 here.

The shade itself is a cool toned brown, it's a great alternative to blacks during the winter and it would look lovely with brown coats. They claim to give off incredible coverage and an even finish in one coat which I was quite dubious of. However I was very pleasantly shocked. The brush is quite wide making it easy to coat the nails in a few strokes and the formula itself is very smooth and leaves no streaks.

The formula was opaque in one coat, however a second coat added to the shinyness reminiscent of the Barry M gelly polishes.

Overall, I would say these are worth it at £2.95 and if you like the high shine trend these might be for you! However the shade range is quite limited with most of the other shades being quite bright and therefore it might not be for everyone just yet.

I'd love to hear what shades are tickling your fancy this Autumn/Winter!