September Empties

Excuse my language but holy shit I used up a lot of products in September! I don’t think I’ve ever had this many items in an empties post and it’s really surprised me.

I won’t lie, I am glad to be rid of a lot of the products I had as whilst most were good, it is good to have a clear out so that new things may be bought and wasted money on. 😛

I just want to get this out there now that when we enter into 2015, I’m not 100% sure if I will be writing up anymore empties posts as whilst I do enjoy doing them I do just think it’s a hassle to save up all the empty bottles in my bathroom. I am just putting this down to how much I saved up this month and I may change my mind, we shall see how the next three/four months go…

• Gillette Satin Care Shave Gel.

I’ve mentioned this before, if you would like to read more about it look here.

• Hello Kitty Liberty Body Wash.

I was given this body wash in a gift set from my sister-in-law and I really did love it! I saved it for quite a while until I decided to use it and within a few weeks it was gone and I have missed using it. It was softening on the skin, lathered beautifully and left my skin smelling gorgeous! It reminds me of the scent the old pink FCUK products that Boots sold at Christmas time in the early 00’s and it really did leave me with some childhood memories! If this is out again this year I’ll probably pick some up as I really enjoyed using this. I am really sad to see it finished.

• Philip Kingsley Body Building Shampoo.

I’ve had this shampoo for ages so when it finally came to its end I was really shocked! It just didn’t seem like it was ever going to run out. I’ve since repurchased this in a 1 litre bottle as I really do love this shampoo! If you want to read more about this it featured on my 2013 Favourites, you can find that here.

• Carex Strawberry Fun Shower & Bath.

I LOVED this shower and bath and when it ran out I was actually really sad, but at the same time I wasn’t as it only cost me a £1, YES A WHOLE POUND COIN! This really did smell like sweet strawberries and perfect for children or anyone who loves strawberries like myself. This really did remind me of The Body Shop’s strawberry shower gel and on a recently shopping trip I picked one up for my boyfriend, who loves it just as much as I do. This leaves your skin feeling great and smelling delicious and it was a treat to use in the bath alongside a fruity bath bomb. BUY IT if you want to try something good, you won’t regret it.

• I Love… Cosmetics Hand Wash in Mango & Papaya.

Although this featured in my favourites last month (read here), I really couldn’t wait to see the back of this product throughout September. It wasn’t a bad product but I found that due to its bright orange colour if you dripped any on the side, it would stain and has stained. I won’t be picking up this scent again, but I will pick up one of the others, preferably the coconut scent! Otherwise this was great, it smelt delicious and left my hands feeling clean and moisturised.

• Soap & Glory The Greatest Scrub Of All Facial Exfoliator.

Another product I couldn’t wait to see in the bin! I used to love this scrub, it was my holy grail and when I suffered with some dry eczema style rash on my face years ago, this was the only thing that cleared it up! However over the years I have grown bored with this and now I can’t stand using it anymore. I didn’t even finish this product up, it just one day seemed to go gloopy and I ended up just throwing the rest of the product away. The things I don’t like about this scrub is how greasy it feels on the skin after use, it makes me cringe just the thought of it! I think it’s just to moisturise the skin but I just don’t like it. As well as that the scent is disgusting, I don’t get soap & Glory’s scents but apart from Sugar Crush they all make me feel sick. Shame that as the past year has gone by, I’ve grown to dislike most of Soap & Glory’s products. It does make me rather sad.

• T-Zone Clear Pore Gel Facial Wash.

I LOVE this face wash and as soon as I was running low I picked up a replacement. This costs less than £2 to buy and it really is worth the money. I don’t know if it’s due to what food I eat, me getting older or the face products I now use but I’ve noticed since using this wash that my skin has improved a hell of a lot! I recommend this to teenagers with troublesome skin so SO much as this is what I used to use when I was a teenager and it really did help my oily skin. You can pick T-Zone up at great prices in Home Bargains and Body Care, so keep your eyes peeled.

• Sure Maximum Protection Deodorant in Sensitive.

I get through one of these every month and since May I haven’t mentioned one… I think because of the fact I always mention one and I always mention the same thing… Go and read about it here! 😛

• The Body Shop Coconut Hand Cleanse Gel.

I love my hand sanitizers and I REALLY loved this one! I bought it when I went to Bristol in June and since then it has been so lovely to use, having a sniff of the empty bottle now reminds me of summer and Bristol. Soon as I can I will be picking up another bottle. I recommend The Body Shop cleanse gels so much as not only do they keep your hands germ free, but they leave your hands smelling lovely too. Go and check them out!

• Carex Strawberry Laces Hand Gel.

Whilst The Body Shop cleanse gel was great, this was a let down and I couldn’t wait to finish the bottle! When you smell the bottle it has a light scent of strawberries, which is pleasant but when you use this on your hands it just stinks of alcohol and I hated it because of that. It wasn’t worth the money I paid (I paid £2 for 2) and I regretted buying it as soon as I started to use it. I don’t recommend, head to The Body Shop and pick up their strawberry cleanse gel, it’ll be worth the extra money and last longer! The cap on this was also rubbish and it opened inside my work apron and leaked everywhere, was really annoying. Don’t waste your money!

• Wilko Fruits Bath Bomb in Strawberry & Pomegranate.

The first thing I want to say about this bath bomb is how awful it is. My Mom bought me 3 bath bombs for £3, as she knows how much I love my bath bombs! As soon as she brought them home I knew I wanted to try one out, so I popped the whole bomb into the bath and had a good, long soak! I just want to apologise if I go into TMI here but I just want to get out there how this product made me poorly. Before using this in the bath, I was fine but the day after I didn’t feel myself, but the day after that I was rather poorly… And it turned out I had thrush. I suffered from it for a week and it was painful and uncomfortable and I KNOW for a fact it was due to this bath bomb. If you have sensitive skin (or sensitive bits like I clearly do!) then steer clear of this product as whilst it felt moisturising on my skin it really did leave me feeling poorly and run down. I haven’t used the other 2 bath bombs and I have contemplated taking them back to get my money back. I’m not going to bother wasting mine or anyone else’s money on the Fruits collection anymore. I am really disappointed as the collection has had a lot of positive comments. For a little money I would just prefer to splash out on Lush.

So those were my empties of September, I still can’t believe how many products I finished! I doubt it’ll be the same in October, but who knows!

I hope everyone had a great September and I shall see you next month.

Until next time, take care all.

Christmas 2013!

To start off this post, I am in no way, shape or form trying to show off about what I received for Christmas and if you already feel a bit sore about this post then I advice you to leave now. Around this time of year I like to read of what other bloggers have been given for Christmas and the reasons behind why they may have received such items from loved ones, family and friends, so I thought I would make one myself as I’ve always wanted to. Plus regular readers may wish to know what I had nice.

I’ve never written a post like this before (from memory anyway!) as I haven’t received this much stuff since I was a teenager! I love everything I was bought and I know everything had some kind and lovely thoughts behind them.

So without further ado, let me show you what I got! 🙂

So this is the big pile of presents I received Christmas Day! As well as two presents from my boyfriends parents, which I will mention and show pictures of at the end of this post.

These were a mixture of presents from both my parents, my best friend, my sister-in-law and nephews and my boyfriend. I also received £20 from my aunt and £40 from my brother, which was lovely of them all! I intend to go shopping with my boyfriend Saturday morning to buy myself Beyond: Two Souls for my PS3 as well as a new diary. The rest of the money will be saved until I find something I really want or need.

A lot of my presents this year were fox related, which in itself is amazing as I love them so much!

This gorgeous fox wash bag with some toiletries in there was from my best friend. We met up Monday afternoon to have a catch up, a bite to eat and to exchange presents. We were going to wait until Christmas Day to open these but decided to there and then as she just got me worked up as to what she had bought me. I had been eying this up every time I went into Boots but never thought to buy it for myself, I’m so happy my best friend bought it for me mind! In the set you get a body butter, body wash and bubble bath and look how cute the packaging is for the body was and bubble bath! They also smell amazing! It reminds me of a mango and passion fruit lip balm I had when I was at school, but my boyfriend commented how he thought it smelt of strawberries. Either way it smells amazing and this little wash bag will come in handy too.

This is a lovely Liberty London Hello Kitty set was from my sister-in-law and nephews. I wasn’t expecting anything from her as she’s been so busy and such lately with the boys so it was lovely that she was able to get myself and my Dad something nice. In this set there is a shower gel and body lotion, along with a shower cap which has a gorgeous pattern on it! I used the body lotion yesterday before my boyfriend and I went over to his Gran’s with family for a party. It was lovely to meet the rest of his family and his Gran is so sweet and Irish so that’s a definite win! 😀 With the shower cap, I can’t see me using this unless I use some special conditioning mask on my hair, but otherwise when I shower I usually put my hair up in a high bun. The last time I used a shower cap was when I last had head lice! Shower caps freak me out to this day and always remind me of when I had head lice. *shudder* Either way this is gorgeous and the body lotion and shower gel smell amazing! I’m keeping the body lotion at my boyfriends to use when I’m over here.

This is all the goodies my boyfriend bought for me and as regular readers will know (as well as my friends who read my blog) this is  our first Christmas together and it sure is a wonderful one to have started off with. He really did spoil me this year and I love all the presents he bought as I know each and every one had thought behind it and for that it’s made each present as special as the next. However I do have my favourite one…

Running up to Christmas Day my boyfriend told me how a lot of my Christmas presents were fox related and I thought I only had one fox related present (which I already knew about) but this wasn’t the case and I received three fox related presents from him! This was probably my favourite Christmas present as I have been in search of another fox jumper for ages (I have my eye on one from Animal… It’s in their sale!) and when I saw this, I was over the moon! It’s a gorgeous cream colour with various different coloured dots running throughout the wool, which is lovely and looks different! Of course as you can see in the middle is a gorgeous fox, which is super soft and fluffy to touch! I’m going to wear this tomorrow when me and my boyfriend go shopping. I can’t wait to wear it! I’ll be teaming it either with a tartan skirt and my Chelsea boots or my wine skinny fit jeans and my Chelsea boots. Also with whatever I chose to wear I’ll be throwing my pleather biker jacket with spiked shoulders.

This is another one of my favourite presents from my boyfriend! He’d sneakily wrapped it up inside the snowboarding pants he’d bought me, which I knew about him buying me back in October. We’d ventured into Forbidden Planet whilst shopping in Coventry one afternoon when I spotted this Lumpy Space Princess beanie. I mentioned this on my December Wish List and was close to buying it myself the last time we went in there, but I’m glad I didn’t as it was a lovely surprise! This hat is gorgeous and soft, as well as warm and I’m wearing it today. It’s probably one of the nicest hats I own and I’ll be wearing it a lot over the winter season, as well as when I start snowboarding! BTW Lumpy Space Princess is from Adventure Time, a show me and my boyfriend started to get into recently! Here’s a video all about the gorgeous purple diva! She’s amazing and I know so many Adventure Time fans who love her. I also love Princess Rainicorn!

These are my banana pants, to you, my yellow snowboard pants. My boyfriend bought these for me months ago but then stated how he was going to get them me for Christmas. They weren’t cheap and probably cost him near to £50, if not over that amount and these babies were in the sale! They’re super comfortable and super baggy, which is exactly what I wanted! I just love the colour of these and how awesome they look on too. I so far have my snowboarding pants and some gloves, all I need to get now is a jacket, a helmet and some crash pants. Then as I learn and get better I can get my own boots, as well as some more protective gear and in the future a snowboard!

My boyfriend wanted me to open this before Christmas but I declined and said I wanted something to open on the actual day. He had told me it was a game and showed me the top left hand side of the box and hinted at, “This is a  game you’ve wanted a while but haven’t bought. Also we thought it was only available online too.” At first I couldn’t guess what it was but after asking if Pewdiepie on YouTube had played it and him saying yes I guessed it was The Binding Of Isaac and alas I was right. I have indeed wanted this game for a long time but after attempting to play it once, whilst tired after Christmas dinner and then once again after Boxing Day after yet being more tired I as yet haven’t really played this properly. However, my boyfriend hasn’t been able to stop playing it!

Everyone always gets me chocolates or biscuits and this year I got this gorgeous tin with two foxes on the front, with some chocolate chip cookies inside. My boyfriend and his Mom spotted this and picked it up for me. I love when people can see things in shops and think of me, which is why I’ve probably received so many fox related things this year. I probably won’t eat the biscuits out of this tin, but I’ll certainly re-use the tin for something! Maybe my lip products.

I always love receiving a new calendar at Christmas time and last year I received a Domo Kun one, when deep down I did really want a Simon’s Cat one. SO when I saw a calendar shaped present inside the big bag I had a feeling it was this calendar. I remember spotting it in Waterstones when my boyfriend and I went into there for a look one Sunday afternoon and I spotted this, his reaction being, “It has stickers!” So I’m really pleased to have received this, as I love Simon’s Cat! When I go sales shopping I’ll be picking up the diary to match, as I’ve had one the past three years now.

This is the final present I’ll be talking about that I received from my boyfriend, and also one of my favourites! I knew I had this present as the one time I visited the German Market with my boyfriend and our friends I stopped at the plush toy stand there and looked at the cute little fox plushies, as well as searching for a red panda one. My boyfriend offered to buy me this and I didn’t really turn his offer down so I said yes and he said I wouldn’t be able to accept it until Christmas Day, which of course was the other day. This fox plush is super soft and fluffy, I think I’ll be keeping it on my bed as it’ll always remind me of my boyfriend. I don’t know what to call him (or her!) at this moment in time, I don’t mind taking name ideas! 😉 Here’s a cute picture of me holding it! My boyfriend took loads, but this one was the best out of the bunch.

These are the lovely beauty related things my Mom got me for Christmas. I actually wasn’t expecting anything from her, as she said to me, “What would you like Nat? I haven’t bought you anything.” What a bloody liar! Bless her though, when I was handed three or four presents off of her I was pleasantly surprised and I love everything she has bought for me!

She bought me three Elemis items, Skin Nourishing Milk Bath, Quiet Mind Room Mist and Fruit Active Rejuvenating Mask. I haven’t yet tried any of these products but I intend to Saturday night or Sunday morning when I’m back in Birmingham (I’m in Coventry at the moment…) and I can tell you, I’m excited to try these! The milk bath smells of vanilla and honey, which is one of my favourite scents so I know I’ll enjoy using this in the bath to help me relax. I did give the room mist a spritz and it smells amazing! I’ll be using this on my bed when I change the covers every week and maybe on the curtains in my room once a month. It’s said to help you have a peaceful nights sleep, which I always long for! Finally the mask, I really can’t wait to try this, however I do have rather sensitive skin, so I really hope this doesn’t burn my skin whilst I’m wearing it, otherwise I will have to donate it back to my Mom.

It’s really quite funny about my Mom also buying me L’Occitane for Christmas, as I didn’t actually know she knew this brand existed, so I bought her some lavender soap and hand cream from L’Occitane in Birmingham, hoping she would like the set. We opened our presents at the same time and we were pleasantly surprised and both said how we had a L’Occitane hand cream to start 2014 off with! All four products are almond related and the only one I have tried so far is the Smooth Hands hand cream, which not only makes my hand feels amazing, but it smells delicious too! I think I have been converted to L’Occitane! As well as this I got a Foot Cream, Shower Scrub and Shower Oil, but this is an Eco Refill version, which doesn’t bother me. I can’t wait to try these out on Saturday night or Sunday morning too! I’m somewhat excited to smell of yummy almonds.

These were the last presents I received on Christmas Day (thus the reason for the iPhone pictures) and it is a Keri Smith book and a dressing gown with my name on off of my boyfriends parents. The dressing gown is a gorgeous dark pink colour and as you can see has my name (spelt correctly) stitched onto the right hand side of the gown. My boyfriend’s Mom bought me this to use whenever I stay over and it was a lovely buy from her! As I mentioned I received one of Keri Smith’s books, Finish This Book. I already own Wreck This Journal and I loved it! I want to soon enough own all of her books but this one had been on my wishlist for years (two or three to be precise) so the fact that I finally own it, makes me super happy! I’m going to give it a go over the weekend whilst I’m back in Birmingham. I can’t wait!

Finally we have the last of my presents that I received and my favourite ones this year too. My Dad bought me two Pandora charms to add to my bracelet that I received in November and whilst it wasn’t a surprise, it was lovely that he bought them for me.

I received two gorgeous charms off of my Dad and whilst he knew I wanted the Mrs Hedgehog charm he didn’t know I wanted the Bunny charm  until we popped into Pandora and bought these two charms, as well as two for my Mom. I love the two little charms I received and even popped the Mrs Hedgehog charm on my December Wish List. I mentioned over there (I think anyway!) that Mrs  reminds me of my Gran and has done since a young age so I knew I wanted this charm when I saw it on Pandora’s website back in November. As well as that after looking at the Bunny charm I loved the look of it. The detail on both of these charms is amazing! The Bunny has a little rucksack on, which has two Easter eggs inside. The Mrs Hedgehog charm has a cute little bow in her spikes, as well as a spotty dress on and a little handbag in her right hand. You can also see her little feet popping out of the bottom of her dress. The detail for them both is amazing and I can’t stop looking at my Pandora. I’m rather proud of the charms I’m starting to get on my bracelet and in the next week or so I’ll have a post on here all about my bracelet and which charms I own, as well as a wish list of which ones I’m wanting!

So, those were all the presents I received for Christmas this year! As I stated at the start of this post, this wasn’t written up to intend on showing off, or upsetting people. I like reading posts like this, so I thought regular readers, as well as new ones might want to read about what I received.

Any negative comments made on this post (as well as anywhere else on my blog) will be removed straight away and reported.

Anyhoo, what did you receive this Christmas? And did you have a lovely day? Let me know in the comments!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, I really enjoyed mine, as well as Boxing Day!

Until next time, take care and see you soon.