Boxing Day Sale Haul 2018

I wasn’t actually going to do this post yet as I thought I might buy more in the sales, but alas I think I might be careful with money and actually stop spending. 😛

We are now in that confusing and dull lull between Christmas New Year and quite honestly, as much as I love the break from work, I want to be out of holiday mode now and be back to normal! I just want time for myself again, as since breaking up for Christmas I’ve only had Boxing Day for myself.

Just before Christmas, as well as after I ordered some goodies in the Boxing Day sales, because it would have been rude not to!

I didn’t buy loads in all fairness, but what I’ve picked up I’m chuffed with, especially the first items I plan on talking about. 😛

The first items I picked up in the sale were from Killstar and I was so excited for their sale to start as I’ve been eyeing up some of the items on my wish list for quite some time. I really love Killstar but they aren’t the cheapest in the world, but I get that. So whenever there’s a sale I’ll always try and pick something up for myself! At first they had 20% off of everything, but then after Christmas they had their well known buy one get one half price. So I decided to take up the 20% offer and bought myself a couple of dresses. FYI I am aware the pictures of the dresses aren’t the best… 😦

The first one I added to my basket is the Coven Cutie Skater Dress, which I’ve wanted since it came out around September time. There’s an Instagram account I follow and she wears this dress for work often and it looks lovely! I’ve never been 100% sure what my size is with Killstar so I ordered an L to be on the safe side and it’s perfect! It’s not too big, or too small, it’s just perfect and super comfortable. This dress is a black skater dress with a zip on the chest that has a crescent moon on it, as well as a pleather collar, which I really like. It really does add something more to a plain and boring black skater dress. This will be perfect for both work and in general! I plan to wear this for my birthday on Sunday. 😛 I plan to wear this with tights, flats, my Docs, rainbow cardigans and eventually I’ll be getting some new brothel creepers to wear this with too. 😛

The second dress I picked up is the Widows Skater Dress which is another skater dress I’ve had my eye on for a while now. This isn’t anything special BUT I love how this dress still has a smidgen of alternative in there, without it being in your face. So it’s a black skater dress, but on the back it’s open with a spiderweb pattern, which I really like! It’s in the perfect position on the back too so it won’t show off your bra straps or band of your bra. PERFECT! This again will be great for both work and in general and like the Coven Cutie dress I’ll wear this with all sorts of shoes and bright rainbow cardigans! It’ll also be perfect for the summer too as it’s not too thick.

Although I love everything I picked up, my Killstar buys are definitely my favourites as I’ve been craving some lovely new dresses for some time now. I already want to pick up some more, but I’m going to wait until the next sale me thinks.

Next item I picked up is this AMAZING AND SUPER CUTE plushie from Firebox.

This is a Stuffed Water Bear and it’s meant to be a cuddly and cute version of a tardigrade, which is a water dwelling micro animal. Wow, what a mouthful! 😛 This is just adorable and I have wanted it for some time now. I know it’s nothing special and a little silly thing, but it’s so damn adorable and considering it was in the sale, I knew I had to get it. 😛 I also had a £5.00 voucher to use on Firebox, so I put it towards the Stuffed Water Bear. It’s so damn snuggly and cute and actually reminds me of like a puppy or a guinea pig. 😛

If you like anything in the Firebox sale, or even in their normal range you can get a fiver to spend on the store FOR FREE if you use my code! 😀 https://www.firebox.com/r/natalee-e9e09e

The final items I picked up in the sales was from The Body Shop. I actually had more items in my basket originally but I removed loads as it came to a really silly amount of money, which in reality I didn’t need to spend. I opted for grabbed a couple of items I wanted to try and restock in my bathroom.

First of all I ordered the HUGE 750ml bottle of Strawberry Shower Gel. Dane loves this shower gel, as do I. It reminds me of when I was little as my mom would always buy me a bottle of this as a kid, so whenever I use this it just makes me think of weekday mornings getting ready for school. 🙂 Dane uses this shower gel more than I do, but I still love using it in the shower. 🙂

The next items I ordered are from the Christmas collection! I fell in love with the peppermint candy cane scent and knew I had to have it in my life. Apart from the bath bomb (which I reviewed and you can check out here) I didn’t pick up any of this collection, until the sales. I just didn’t want to I guess, I wanted to wait and see what I was gifted at Christmas and alas I was gifted some of this for Christmas (you can read what I got for Christmas here)!

The two items I picked up were the Peppermint Candy Cane Shower Gel and the Peppermint Candy Cane Body Butter. I’d received these in the sack I was gifted for Christmas, which was lovely as it meant I got to give them a go before the sales started. The shower gel is AMAZING! I love minty shower gels but I always find they leave you feeling tingly and cold, OH and don’t even get me started on what they do to your bits! 😛 This shower gel is nothing like the others out there however. It does give you a slight tingle, but nothing major.

I’m really odd with the body butters and prefer to use them as hand butters. They really help my eczema and as I always carry a little pot in my handbag, if my body DOES feel dry at any point I can quickly use some of this. I love the scent of this body butter and as it isn’t too thick, it’d probably be rather nice to use on my body. That’s my only issue with the body butters from The Body Shop, they can be quite heavy and greasy which is something I really dislike.

I was hoping to have a few more items to add onto this list, but I’m trying so badly to be good with money! I was going to go and pick up some new Vans as I have some vouchers I need to use. I’ll probably end up getting this over the weekend around my birthday. I’m FINALLY going to replace my old black and red checker board Vans. I want the original black and white pair now. I do love wearing my Darth Vader and 101 Dalmatians Vans but I just fancy something new and that I can try and make work with everything.

Image taken from Depop

Although it isn’t a sale item, I did pick up something I’ve wanted for the longest time at a STEAL of a price, which I’m rather chuffed with. After months, YEARS of waiting I’ve FINALLY got my hands on a decent and brand new Lazy Oaf Rainbow Cardigan. It’s not 100% brand new, but it’s only been tried on by the previous owner and still has the tags on it. I’ve paid £55 for it including P&P which I think is pretty decent considering it sells for £75.00 on the Lazy Oaf website!

I don’t have it yet (it’s being posted the start of this week) I cannot wait to show it to you guys! I’ll be teaming this up with my new Killstar dresses for work, as well as in general.

So, what items did you pick up in the Boxing Day sales? 😀 I want to know!

Of course as we all know, it’s New Year’s Eve and I cannot believe how quickly the past week and a bit have flown by since I broke up from work. Not just that, but also with how fast the year has flown too! It’s bloody crazy. 😛

What plans do you have for New Year’s Eve too? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

So have a Happy New Year and I’ll see you in 2019! 😀

What I Got For Christmas 2018

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I hope you all had a lovely day, whether it was with loved ones, friends or even (sadly) on your own.

I can’t believe how quick both Christmas Day and Boxing Day went! We just have that little slum between New Years Eve now and as depressing as it sounds, I’m working today and tomorrow… Which was completely my own choice! YES I chose to work. 😛

However, at the time of writing this, it’s Boxing Day morning and I’m snuggled up in bed and looking through all the gifts I was spoilt to this Christmas and as I always do, I share with you those lovely gifts I received.

Now I understand not a lot of people like posts like these because it’s seen as, “showing off” which I completely understand! I’m not showing off though, I’m just sharing what I received. I love reading and seeing what people get for Christmas, especially when they’re heartfelt and special gifts, where the receiver has clearly been thought about.

If you’re one of those people who think it’s showing off, you can bugger off because this post clearly won’t be for you. 😛 HASHTAG – honesty is the best policy.

Not all my Christmas presents have made it into this post sadly as I’m still yet to receive some from my best friends, but I can always share those in a separate post, can’t I?

Anyhoo, on with the post! There’s a lot of goodies to show off. 😛

The first gifts I’m going to talk about is what one of my best and oldest friends Sophi bought for me! She gave me my gifts back at the start of November so it’s been hard having to wait until now to open them! She bought me so many awesome bits and pieces and they’re all so fab! I’ve got so many Pusheen items it’s amazing.

These items include a Pusheen pyjama top, three pairs of shoe liner socks, Christmas Pusheen fluffy socks (which will be HEAVENLY to wear around the house!), a stationary pouch (which includes a notebook, blue pen, purple gel pen, two pencils, a sharpener and a rubber), a gorgeous notebook (which in turn I’ve had my eye on for agggges!), a pencil case/make up bag and finally some cute little pin badges! There was also some Japanese sweets inside the pencil case/makeup bag which taste AMAZING!

As well as Pusheen, Sophi also bought me a few Lady and The Tramp items, including a pyjama top and some shoe liner socks. I honestly love all the bits that Sophi bought for me, especially the Pusheen stationary to be honest with you! I’ve always been a sucker for stationary but I love using this sort of stuff at work and seeing as Dane bought me something lovely (stationary wise!) these bits from Sophi are perfect. 😀

The next gift I received is this gorgeous fox origami necklace and I got this from my gorgeous friend Sophie… Yes, another Sophie! 😛 I wasn’t expecting this so it was such a lovely gift to open when we met up recently. Since she gifted it me I’ve worn is everyday and I adore it so much. It’s definitely one of my favourite gifts I received this year. 🙂

The next gifts I received were the ones from Dane’s parents, which were all so lovely! The first thing I opened was the Empire Cinema voucher, which I found really random but when I read what they wrote inside it was so thoughtful and cute! It’s definitely the sweetest gift I’ve received so far. As you’ll probably see it says it’s for when Detective Pikachu comes out! You’ll see that I’ve blocked out some information, this is just to keep Dane’s parents names private, as well as how much is on the card.

They also gifted me this gorgeous fox hair towel from The Body Shop, as well as a cute patchouli fox candle, which I doubt I’ll ever burn! I think I’m going to keep it by the front door on our shoe cabinet, but I need something to stand it on before I pop it down there. It smells gorgeous to be honest.

Finally they bought me The Body Shop peppermint candy cane sack gift set. I’m so glad I got this as I LOVE the peppermint candy cane scent and I’ve already picked up a few items in the sales. I’ve tried a bit of the body butter on the back of my hand it’s so creamy and smells AMAZING! I can’t wait to try the shower gel out now, as well as the body scrub.

Next up we have the gifts my mom bought for me, one I knew about and two I didn’t. My mom knows me so well when it comes down to buying me gifts and every year not only does she surprise me, but she just reminds me of how much she knows me. 🙂

This was actually a gift for both me and Dane and that’s a massive refill bag of Australian Bodycare’s tea tree skin wash. I LOVE this stuff so much and have done since my mom bought it me as a teenager. I mostly use it on my face these days but I do occasionally use it all over my body, especially in the warmer months. I’ve already refilled my bottle with this, so I’m really chuffed! 😀

The second thing she bought me is this cleansing brush and it was such a surprise when I opened it! I’d mentioned to her a while ago how I’d stopped using the facial brush she bought me years ago as I found it didn’t work for me anymore… Not as in power, as in what it does to my skin. So when I opened this, oh man I’m so excited to give it a go! 😀 It’s easily charged and turns on and off easily! Not going to lie though, when I opened it on Christmas Day Dane made a lewd joke… 😛 Either way though this will hopefully work wonders on my skin!

Finally we have what is probably my favourite gift this Christmas. My mom had asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I mentioned this watch to her, which isn’t the cheapest in the world… So when she said she was more than happy to buy it for me, I was over the moon! I love gifts when they’re bought from someone, as they have some meaning behind them. I’ve wanted a new watch for some time now and have eyed up the Olivia Burton ones since I started my job just over a year ago. As many readers will know, I LOVE foxes, so when I finally saw that Olivia Burton were doing a fox design, my heart was kind of set on it. I showed it to my mom and she sent me the money to order it for myself. I mentioned how you could get your name stamped on the band and she told me to make sure I did just that! As you’ll see, I did and THANK GOD they spelt my name right. 😛

I adore my new watch so much and when I wore it Christmas Day it was so comfortable. I love it. :’)

Finally we move over to Dane and the gifts that he bought for me. He really spoilt me this year and although I feel lucky as anything throughout the year, when it comes to Christmas, birthday and anniversary he always reminds me just how loved I am, as well as just how well he knows me.

These were mostly in the stocking he made up for me, we started to do stockings when we moved into the house and I really do enjoy doing them. 🙂 So some of the items Dane gifted me were matcha/green tea related, which was lovely but so bloody random! 😛 I LOVE green team KitKat’s from Japan and I’ve already eaten one of these whilst writing this post. 😛 He also bought me some matcha knock off Oreo’s, which look yummy, I can’t wait to try those. Finally he bought me a matcha ramune drink… I can’t imagine how this is going to taste! I think I’m going to wait until my birthday to try it. 😛

I didn’t think Dane would buy me squishes, but he did and he did good! I’m not a squishy person to be fair BUT I do like them as they help me relax whilst when I’m anxious or overthinking. I find they’re great when I’m a passenger on the motorway. He did actually show me these and I can’t remember if he said he’d bought them for me  before or after showing them off to me. I LOVE the fox ninja so much and it’s definitely my favourite of the two, but this being said I love the panda ninja for squishing. Due to the way the paint is on the foxes face, I’d worry it would crack, so the panda is going to be my go to for squishing!

It seems to have become a tradition every Christmas now that Dane buys me Nichijou! I never really pick it up for myself throughout the year, so he does it for me. 🙂 I do really love the Nichijou series, it’s something different and a manga series everyone needs to read! They have an anime version of it too, which I also need to watch through, I’ve only watched the odd episode… I might suggest me and Dane watch it tonight whilst we have dinner. ^_^

I love getting calendars for Christmas and when I opened this one from Dane, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect… So when I saw it was Juniper I was so chuffed! Dane bought me the Juniper calendar for 2018 so it’s nice to have that lovely Instagram famous fox hung up in our living room again! I love writing down stuff me and Dane plan, as well as days off, birthdays and even blog events!

This was something I had a feeling Dane had bought me as he showed it me before Christmas and asked what I thought of it! It’s so adorable and I LOVE Pompom Purin. 🙂 I actually saw this when I was in the Japan Centre in London and I rather liked the look of it to be fair. I’m just not sure whether to have it for work, or for the house to keep my stationary in downstairs in the living room… We’ll see but either way it’s so adorable. 😛

Bless Dane, he’s such a cutie! When we went to EGX in September he asked if I liked the Spyro pin badges that had been released to coincide with the game as he wanted to buy them me for Christmas. Sadly I didn’t like the look of them… They just weren’t for me in all fairness. So he asked me to have a look around to see if there were any other Spyro items I liked the look of online, alas I found this incense burner and hey presto! He bought it for me. 😛 I haven’t had chance to use this yet as I need to get some incense cones for it, but how it works is you pop a cone into this and as it smokes, the smoke comes out of Spyro’s nose. Funky, eh?! 😀

This is definitely one of my favourite Christmas presents this year and one I had a feeling Dane had bought me. I spoke recently about this item here and how much I’ve wanted something for the wall behind our bed. Alas I found this awesome wall tapestry online at Redbubble and I just knew I had to have it! Me and Dane plan to buy some easy stick on and remove hooks, as well as some fairy lights and we’ll soon have our room taking some shape after a few years of it looking bare. 🙂

I was rather shocked by the size of this in all honesty, I thought it was going to be bigger like my other Morgana cushion (which you can see here). This was an ichiban kuji prize and as YY Kawaii was selling it, I asked Dane for it for Christmas. Alas here it is! It’s such a cute little pillow and will be nice to use as a head pillow whilst in bed, especially if I’m feeling poorly or under the weather and need to rest my head on something a little more.

These again are some of my favourite gifts that I received from Dane! Again, I had a feeling I was getting something like this for Christmas as I’d hinted to him about it and he’d asked me to put in order which ones I’d like. I’m not only 2 short of having ALL the Eeveelution plushies and I’ve now pre ordered them from YY Kawaii! Some of these were in my stocking and some were in my present bag, so it was a nice surprise when I found out I had another two to open! I cant wait to show all nine of the Eeveelutions off to you in the New Year!

I know I’ve said this for a few gifts now, but this is definitely up there in my top three Christmas presents! I know it’s just a pop vinyl figure and I know it’s just Wall-E BUT it’s Earth Day Wall-E and he’s pretty damn rare now! I mentioned on my post a few days ago how he’s now worth a maximum of £50 on places like Amazon and eBay, so the fact Dane managed to get him new for £15 on eBay is such a bargain. He’s how the original Wall-E should have looked in all honesty and I just love the look of him so much! He’ll be going into mine and Dane’s manga cabinet and he’ll be staying in the box. 😛

Finally we have my number one present, which of course is a Nendoroid! I was surprised to only see one in my Christmas bag as Dane and me usually go Nendoroid happy over Christmas, birthday and anniversary. I bought Dane three and he only bought me one. This being said, a lot of Nendoroid’s I want at the moment aren’t THAT easy to get a hold of, or I’ve already ordered them for myself. There’s quite a few of the Yuri On Ice Nendoroid’s I want, mostly the casual versions at the moment BUT I was missing Yuri Plisetsky, so I’m glad that Dane managed to get hold of him for me! I’m going to pose him as a cutie with kitty ears on with the other two guys. 😛

So that’s all the Christmas gifts I have received so far! I know I have a few bits left to get from two of my best friends, but that’s okay, they’ll be worth the wait. 🙂

I can’t believe the whole hype of Christmas we work ourselves up for is now over. It’s only 4 days now until New Years Eve and then it’ll be 2019. It’s crazy, I don’t honestly know where this month has gone. It’s flown and it’s rather scary to be honest with you.

What did you get for Christmas from family, friends, significant others and more? 🙂 I want to know! I love hearing about what gifts people receive.

Until next time all, I hope you had an amazing Christmas and Boxing Day!

The Body Shop Peppermint Candy Cane Bath Bomb – Review

CHRISTMAS IS COMING! Move over Scrooges because it’s officially less than a month until Christmas now. I don’t care how “early” it is to be talking about Christmas related stuff, I’m doing it. 😛

If there is one brand I am loving this Christmas it’s definitely The Body Shop. They’ve introduced three new scents to their Christmas range and I am LOVING THEM! There are three new scents, Berry Bon Bon, Vanilla Marshmallow and my favourite Peppermint Candy Cane.

I really want to pick up more of the range but at this moment in time I’m really skint and I’m not even halfway through my Christmas shopping yet. Meh.

When I went to London at the start of the month I popped into The Body Shop with my friend Sophi and we picked up some bits and pieces. They had some bath bombs in there and as I have fallen head over heels in love with The Body Shop’s bath bombs and bubble bars lately, I decided to buy a couple of each scent.

I recently and finally tried Peppermint Candy Cane’s bath bomb and I just knew I had to review it for your guys. As always on my blog, my reviews are honest there’s no BS here. 😛

So without further ado, let the review begin!

The one thing that bugs me the most about the bath bombs The Body Shop have brought out with the Christmas scents is that they don’t stock them online. I’ve only seen them in store and even then they fly off the shelves so quickly! When we were in the London store we had to ask if they had anymore of the Peppermint Candy Cane scent left as the shelf was empty. Then me and Sophi practically wiped the shelf clean of the other two scents.

I couldn’t wait to get home to give them all a go and the first one I decided to use is my favourite scent out of the three!

All of the bath bombs have colour schemes to match their scents as well as animals that are on the front of advent calendars. Berry Bon Bon is red with a fox, Vanilla Marshmallow is yellow with an owl and Peppermint Candy Cane is green with a deer. A lot of people are confused about whether the Berry Bon Bon bath bomb is a fox, a wolf or a raccoon. I can only assume it’s a fox as that’s the animal on the most expensive advent calendar box.

Each bath bomb costs £2.50 and you get 50g of product. The normal range of bath bombs cost £1.50 and you only get 10g. Such a bargain really when you think about it!

The character designs are all so cute, which makes these perfect for children and teenagers.

When it comes to bath bombs I usually break them in half so I get more for my money, aka Lush bath bombs. These are perfect though for just using in one go, which I really like.

In the packaging and as a whole the scent of this bath bomb isn’t in your face and strong, but it isn’t light enough that you cannot smell it.

The only way I can describe Peppermint Candy Cane is a fresh and minty scent with a warm sort of comforting smell too. Not like a fresh peppermint scent, but comforting and soft. That’s the main thing I love about this scent, it really does remind me of Christmas and I don’t feel like many places actually have peppermint scented things at this time of year. SO a massive thank you to The Body Shop for FINALLY doing it. 😛

Sadly when the bath bomb had finished fizzing and I got into the bath, I smelt NOTHING. Not a single thing and I was so disappointed. I sniffed the water, my skin, even when I finished bathing and went in and out of the bathroom I couldn’t smell anything. I don’t know what happened considering in the plastic wrap it smelt rather strong of the Peppermint Candy Cane scent. It’s to be honest, a bit shit.

I don’t even feel like this nourished my skin either, which was even more disappointing! It left a lovely pale green colour in the water, which was pretty but that’s pretty much all it was which for £2.50 is such a shame to me.

I bought two of these bath bombs and although I did wonder whether to give the second bath bomb a go to see if it was just a case of a had a dud bath bomb, I shouldn’t have to. What if I had just bought one? I’d be disappointed regardless, you know?

Sadly the only thing I really liked about this bath bomb was the way it looked and smelt BEFORE I decided to use it, which sucks.

Now if this had cost more than £2.50 I think I would complain more, but considering it didn’t break the bank I’m not surprised really. I’m just disappointed.

I feel like you would need to use this with either/or the bath foam, shower gel, body scrub, body lotion or even the body butter to feel the full effect of the peppermint scent. This in itself is annoying because as we all now, The Body Shop isn’t cheap.

I’m a bit miffed about the fact you can’t pick this up online considering the staff member in the London store told me it’s online. It’s really not.

Overall whilst this was a lovely idea I was left feeling meh about it and I just hope the other Peppermint Candy Cane bath bomb, as well as the other scents I own have a better pay off! If they do I’ll definitely update at the end of this post.

This bath bomb would be great for people with sensitive skin, children and teenagers. If you’re used to strong scented bath products like Lush and maybe even Bomb Cosmetics, then this is a no go for you.

Have you tried the Christmas bath bombs from The Body Shop? If you have, how did you get on? If not, will you give them a go? Let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a great week so far!