January Birchbox Goodies

Hello there everyone!

How are we all? Hope you're all having a great start to 2017. Everything should be back in routine now. I was thinking the other day how the Festive Season seems so long ago. As soon as the lights and Christmas tree is down and the shops have taken down their gift set sales and festivities, we are back to reality.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand, January Birchbox! I will be showing you what goodies I got in this month's box, as I usually do.

I'm liking the theme for this month! Sprinkle Happiness. I'm all about positivity, so I think we all need a sprinkle of happiness. I like how the box is also decorated with the dominant colour of yellow on the sliding box, which I feel represents brightness - Birchbox's way of wishing us a Happy New Year and hoping it's happy and bright perhaps?

This leaflet that they supplied in the box is so cute, because not only does it fold out and show us the details of the products that's included in the box, but for this month it shows a tick list of cheer to help you smile throughout 2017. A sweet idea to start off the year. There are also little voucher codes for Hello Fresh, SecretSales and LaLaLab within the leaflet. Always helpful to save a few pennies.

Let's begin!

Lord & Berry

Conceal-It-Crayon in shade Beige

Full sized product (1.6g)

RRP: £12 in the Birchbox shop

Now this is interesting because I don't think I've tried a pencil/crayon concealer before, I guess I've always thought they would be rough to use on the skin but this may surprise me. Will need to give this a go!

Benefit Cosmetics

Hoola Zero Tan Lines (15.0ml)

Full size RRP: £19.50 at the Birchbox shop

This is a glow-boosting gel body bronzer. I barely use bronzing products or tanning products so I might not make use of this. But in the description, it says you can mix it in with your body lotion for a subtle radiance, so I might give it a try some day if I'm in an adventurous mood.

Merci Handy

Hand Cream

Full Sized Product (30ml)

RRP: £4.90 in the Birchbox shop

Hand creams always come in handy, sometimes my hands do feel a little dry so I would usually reach for some sort of hand cream and try to always carry one in my hand bag. I also keep one at my desk at work. So I will definitely use this product up!

Nails inc.

Nail Polish (4ml)

Full size RRP: £15 in the Birchbox shop

I'm a nail polish junkie and have so many nail polishes, so this will be another one for my collection. This will look great on the accent nail.

Yes To

Carrots Moisturising Eye Cream

Full Sized Product (15ml)

RRP: £9.99 at the Birchbox shop

I got a bit excited when I saw this product. I'm always on the lookout for an eye cream so I'm keen to try this out when my current eye cream runs out.

And there are all the products in this months box!

I think we got spoiled we got 3 full sized items which if you add up the value of these full sized items, its already worth more than what you paid for for the box. I think it was a good one this month.

I'm excited for next month's box though! They showed a teaser of what's to come in next month's box and it has made me excited...

I have one brush from Spectrum, which was also received from a Birchbox, and I really like the brush, so I'm sure this brush will be just as good.

Hope you all have a lovely week ahead!

Happy New Year! | Goals

Hey everyone!

First of all, Happy New Year! Hope we all aim to make it even better than the last year.

I guess it wouldn't feel right to start off my blogging this year without posting a little introduction to this coming year and share some goals that I would like to attempt to achieve.

Now, I'm not calling this my New Years Resolutions, I'm just simply setting some goals for myself that I want to achieve. I'm not setting a time limit of one year to do these goals. I just want to get a little more organised and actually sit down and write down things that I want to achieve for myself whether it be little or small. I don't believe that we all should wait for the 1st of January to set resolutions for the year. Just manage your goals and priorities and no matter how long it takes to achieve them, you will, and you will feel great that you actually set your mind to something and you did it!

This may sound silly because here I am in the beginning of January setting goals for myself which is similarly like doing New Years resolutions but I'm not. I just thought to myself that I have always thought about doing things and never actually getting round to doing them. I guess I just thought it's about time to do something and follow through with it!

Below are some goals that I have set for myself and hoping to follow through with them.

I'm also hoping that by writing them down, on paper and here on my blog, it will help me achieve them.

Lets start with some blogging goals:

• I would like to blog more and keep it regular. Atleast 1 or 2 posts a week. If I feel like there is a busy week ahead, I should try and write a post in advance so that I can stay regular.

• Improve on my blog photography.

• Try to film and edit makeup videos. Maybe start off by doing short ones for my
• Instagram then move on to Youtube.

• Read more blogs.

• Always promote my blog where I can.

Now to other goals that are not blogging related:

• Take up Portuguese and Spanish lessons. For those who don't know, I am Portuguese and can understand the Portuguese language but always get too shy to speak it so I want to get more confident in speaking it out loud. As for Spanish, I just really like the language and listen to a lot of Spanish songs and I find that Portuguese and Spanish are kind of similar so I'm hoping to pick it up quickly.

• I want to go to the gym at least 4 times a week. Preferably Monday-Thursday. If I miss a day, find another day in the week to make up for it.

• Set aside some time for jewelry making. This is a hobby that I kind of started and became really interested in and suddenly stopped practicing and making time to practice. I have loads of supplies, I just need to practice more and maybe one day start selling my hand made pieces. Also, take on some day courses for jewelry making and learn some new things.

• Write snail mail/pen pal letters. I have recently joined a pen pal community and will write 2 letters soon to 2 people. I just miss writing and thought it would be something fun and it's always nice to get to know someone new and possibly make new friends.

• Visit new places! I have been living in England for over 10 years and
• I feel like there are so many places that I have not visited.

• Learn to drive!

• Watch more episodes of series that are on my "To Watch" list.

• Spend more money on clothes and useful things rather than spending too much on make up (let's see how this one goes...)

• Get more into my skin care.

• Read more books.

Okay so these are just some of the goals that I have. It may seem like a lot, but there is no time limit, no deadlines. It's just in my list and in my mind to do and go through with it.

I will look back on this blog post on New Years Eve of this year and see if there is anything I can check off.

Hope you all have an awesome year and also achieve your goals!

The Christmas Tag

1. What’s your favourite Christmas movie?
My favourite Christmas movie is definitely The Santa Clause 1. I watched it so many times and that little boy in there is so cute! lol. I have 2 and 3 on DVD but I still need to watch it. Maybe later this week.

2. Have you ever had a white Christmas?
I think I have had a white Christmas, maybe back in 2010 when it snowed very heavily here in the UK. But it wasn't snowing on Christmas day, it snowed the day before and the snow was still settled on the ground and it was a White Christmas for sure.

3. Where do you spend your Christmas day?
We usually spend Christmas Day at home where we have a big Christmas lunch with the family. One year it will be at my house, the following year the family lunch is held at my aunty's house. So each year we alternate which house Christmas Day lunch will be held.

4. What’s your favourite Christmas song?
My favourite Christmas song is one of those traditional ones called Joy to the World. For some reason I really like this one. There is a group that I found on YouTube called Pentatonix that did a really good cover version of this song. I love their cover version. So good and very upbeat. 

5. Do you open your presents on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve?
Well, we usually wait on Christmas Eve then open the presents at midnight, so technically, early hours of Christmas day.

6. Can you name all Santa’s reindeers?
Is it bad that I can't name them all? I know Comet because I think in the movie Santa Clause 1, Comet is the little boys' favourite Reindeer.

7. What are you looking forward to about Christmas this year?
Spending time with family is the main thing. During the year, everyone is so busy so it's so rare that we can see other, so this is one of the days in the year where the whole family comes together.

8. Is your tree fake or real?
Fake tree. I don't think we've ever had a real Christmas tree.

9. What’s your favourite Christmas dish?
Don't think I have a favourite, I'm not too fussy with food. All food tastes good on Christmas!

10. Be honest. Do you prefer to give or to receive?
I like to give, especially when I know for sure that they will like the gift.

11. Best Christmas Gift?
I appreciate all the Christmas gifts I receive. However, last year I was so so so surprised at the gift my boyfriend got me! He bought me this big makeup storage/cosmetic case, it even has light bulbs inside, a mirror and legs for it to stand on. I'm able to store a lot of my makeup inside it so, that was really sweet of him and so unexpected.

12. What’s your dream destination to spend Christmas day?
To be honest, anywhere where I have my family with me. I don't think it would feel like Christmas without my family. But I would love to travel somewhere during the Christmas season to see all the Christmas lights and everything. Maybe Paris or New York....

13. Are you a pro wrapping presents, or do you fail miserably?
I'm not a pro, but I think I am getting better each year and slightly starting to enjoy the wrapping process.

14. Do you have a Favourite Christmas memory?
My favourite memories of Christmas is years ago when I was still living back home in Cape Town, and my aunty would have the family round her house and play her Portuguese music which got everyone into the spirit. Also, me and my cousin would love collecting all the little toys you get in the Christmas crackers. 

15. What led you to the truth about Santa?
I don't think I ever strongly believed in Santa. I always knew it was just a character.

16. Do you have New Year Resolutions? Do you stick to it?
I don't have New Year Resolutions, I have goals. I think it's better to set yourself goals that you would like to achieve. Just need to make sure to not forget what my goals are and try and take a step closer to reaching them. 

17. What makes Christmas so important to you?
Again, it would have to be family time.

Thank you to Carolina Franca for sharing the Christmas Tag that she done on her blog, I got this tag from her :)

Feel free to go ahead and do this tag and let me know so I can read your answers :)

Hope you all have a great Christmas!

Christmas Mini Gift/Stocking Filler Gift Guide for Her

Hey everyone!

Hope you're all doing well. Thought it was about that time of the month where I post up a Christmasy post. I won't be doing Blogmas, but I usually post once a week and I will try and post Christmas themed posts from now up until Christmas. December has started and it's officially time that we can all get a little festive!

Today's post is just some little gift ideas that you can fill up someones Christmas stocking with or even just add it on to someone's gift to add a little something something. I always have the habit of buying a main gift then also adding something small to it just to complete it. As you probably might have already seen, this is the time of year where a lot of shops sell gift sets, which makes it so tempting to them for yourself. I have picked up a few bits that I think will be a cute touch to a main gift or perhaps pair these little gifts with a box of chocolates and you're good to go!

First up we have this Best of Body Butter Festive Dome.

 This is so cute! It retails for £30 at the Body Shop but when I got this, I bought their advent calendar at the same time and because I spent over £30, I was able to get this gift for free. Which was a great surprise because I was eyeing this when I walked in the store! It includes 5 mini body butters in different flavours. You could give this as a whole or open up the dome and individually distribute them among your friends or family and decide which flavour they will like the best.

Here we have a gift set from Ted Baker. There is a nice selection of Ted Baker gift sets in Boots. Secretly, I bought this one because of how pretty the bag looks, and the zipper is a rose gold bow! It really caught my eye, so I had to get it. This would make a nice gift and they can use the bag for their makeup or toiletries. This retails for £14 at Boots.

Here we have a little trio of nail polishes from Primark's beauty range. I've never tried their polish before but I look forward to trying their nails range and see how it is. This just caught my eye because of the rose gold lids of the bottles and also that glittery pink shade in the middle! Perfect to get those nails looking festive with a little glitter! This trio retails for just £2.50! I bought this back in October/beginning November so I'm not sure if they still sell it.

Probably one of my favourites from the bunch, this is the Naturally Nude Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick set from Stila. This is a perfect gift for that makeup lover! I've heard good things about Stilas liquid lipstick and this is the perfect way to try it out with this little trio set. You can get it on Stila's website for £18. 

Last but not least, another nails trio from Essie. Retailing for £15 at Boots for 3 full sized nail polishes. You can also give these as a whole gift or give them out individually. That red is so pretty and a great colour for the festive season. I would wear these colours any time of the year. So this would be a great gift for that person who loves all things nails!

And there we have it! Different gift sets that can either be given as a whole or individually. I wish they sold gift sets all year round! Boots are also have a 3 for 2 offer going on at the moment on gift sets, so have a look in your local Boots.

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? 

Hope this post gave you some ideas on what to get. I finally started some Christmas shopping yesterday. 

Made a good start but still have more to buy.

Have a great week everyone!