January Favourites ’18

We are well and truly into 2018 now and I can’t believe how fast January came and went! It was a bit of a crappy month to be honest considering I was poorly for 2 weeks of it. It started with a stomach bug, then sinusitis, then a cold/flu and finally what seemed to be like a urine infection. URGH. Just crappy and I’m so glad to be into a new month now.

With a new month comes my monthly posts, yay! I love doing my monthly posts as I feel it’s a great to wrap up the previous one and get ready for the next.

I’m going to continue what I did in 2017 with writing about both my beauty and my lifestyle favourites. If there’s any monthly favourites topics you’d like to hear about as well, make sure to let me know.

Now, on with the favourites!

• Britney Spears Midnight Fantasy EDP.

I fancied wearing this on my birthday as it’s one of my favourite scents and since then I’ve worn it pretty much every day throughout January! I always forget how much I love it and it’s fruity scent. It reminds me of dark berries although it contains black cherry and plum. It’s gorgeous though and I’m pretty sure this was meant to be a limited edition scent originally, so the fact it’s still around 10 years later is amazing!

• Carmex Lip Balm in Sugar Plum.

I have been after this since before Christmas and when me and Dane were in town for my birthday I FINALLY FOUND IT! Was so pleased as well to be honest as I’d wanted it for the longest time and it was always sold out. This is such a gorgeous scent/flavour and it’s definitely my favourite now to be honest with you. I like to use it around the house and I sometimes have it with me when I’m at work. I wish I had bought a couple of these now just to have another one for when the first runs out. As far as I know this is limited edition but a part of me hopes they make it permanent edition! 😀

• L’Oreal Paris Pure Clay Face Mask in Detox (review here).

Sadly I don’t have this included in the picture above as it ran out and I threw it away… Sad times! I’ve been using this face mask loads throughout January and it’s really helped my skin  out whilst I’ve been poorly too as I felt so greasy and my skin felt so congested. I love the L’Oreal masks so much and would really like to try more of them! If you’re after a really deep cleaning and affordable clay mask, then I recommend picking this up!

• Winky Lux Green Flower Balm.

This is one of the gifts that Dane’s brother and his girlfriend bought for me (you can see what else I got for Christmas here too) and since getting it I’ve done nothing but use it! It’s a lip balm with PH tint which gifts a nice subtle pink colour. I keep this in my handbag now for on the go whenever I want to apply a nice lip colour. It has the balm with it too so it feels really comfortable to wear all day long. I definitely recommend picking up one of these if you can as they’re so lovely.

• Radox Men Muscle Therapy Bath Soak.

I know this is for men but I LOVE this bath soak so damn much! With how poorly and achey I’ve been lately this has really helped my muscles. It also smells gorgeous as well and reminds me of my Dad due to the masculine scent. I always pick this up whenever me and Dane got for a shop as it’s just a staple to have after a long day when your body needs a really good pick me up.

So now my beauty favourites are done, time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month!

Image taken from weheartit.com

Image taken from gramunion.com

Favourite TV Show – Black Mirror and How To Keep A Mummy.

I was SO excited for season 4 of Black Mirror to come out and me and Dane binge watched it before New Year. We loved it and I don’t know which episode was my favourite… Probably the last one to be honest as it was just perfect! If you’ve never watch any of the Black Mirror episodes then please get on it as it’s such an amazing show and it’s so smart too. Every episode will blow your mind and make you think about the present, as well as the future!

The other TV show I enjoyed thoroughly throughout January is a new anime series for Winter called How To Keep A Mummy and let me tell you, it’s by far one of the cutest fucking things I’ve seen for a very, VERY long time! It’s about high schooler Sora who is sent a little mummy called Mii-kun by his father who is travelling. The series focuses on how the two adapt a warm and loving friendship and how Mii-kun adapts to other people as well as outside of the house. It’s on Crunchyroll at the moment and if you love all things cute, then you will love this anime. I already want ALL THE MERCH as well as the manga. 😛

Favourite Film – Kimi No Na Wa/Your Name.

I think this will just be my favourite film of the month due to the fact it’s the one me and Dane watched together on my birthday. We snuggled up with takeaway Japanese food on our cuddle chair and when we were finished with food wrapped up under our blanket and finished watching the film. It was a lovely end to a great day and that film will just remind me of summer evenings when we went to watch it at the cinema and my birthday when we watched it together.

Image taken from crunchyroll.com

Favourite Book – A Polar Bear In Love.

If there is a manga I have been really excited to buy and read since A Silent Voice it’s definitely A Polar Bear In Love! I heard about it from YouTuber akidearest (who you can watch here) when she mentioned it in one of her favourites videos. I straight away researched about it and found out that it was available to buy in the UK! Dane bought it me for my birthday and not long after getting it I’d finished reading it! I can’t wait for Vol. 2 to come out this month now!

Favourite Song/Album – Various Songs.

There’s loads of songs I’ve heard lately that I really like and I can’t pick one artist or one song etc because there’s just so many I like for various reasons, so I’ve added 3 here that I really like at the moment.

I’ve been hearing loads of Charlie Puth at work on the radio and this is the first song I heard by him and I couldn’t help but fall in love with it. He’s got a lovely singing voice and it’s really not my sort of music but it’s just a nice chilled song to listen to. ALSO I love the bass line in the song too and would love to learn how to play it myself.

I heard this song thanks to YouTuber heyitsfeiii (you can check her out here) when she put it on one of her vlog videos recently. I searched ages for it and when I finally found it I was listening to it for a while. It’s the sort of song you’d use on a YouTube video to show off fashion pieces or even for a snowboarding type video. I love it though!

Finally we have a song I found through some random videos on Facebook and it’s such a lovely song and one I’ll definitely love listening to in the summer months! It’s definitely a song I could imagine putting onto a snowboarding video.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Favourite Game – Persona 5.

I’m not sorry that this game keeps appearing here… I’m really not! I spent the start of 2018 playing this game again and as sad as it sounds, all because I want to 100% the game and get all the trophies! I love this game so damn much and as soon as I’ve completed this I will FINALLY move onto Persona 4: Golden and you won’t have to hear about this game anymore… 😛

So those are ALL my favourites from January! What’s your favourites from last month? Make sure to 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.

What I Got For Christmas!

Christmas is nearly over and bloody hell it went by fast! I can’t believe we’ve had the three magical days fly by us and leave a coating of snow behind.

I hope all of my readers and blogger friends had an amazing Christmas and (although it isn’t important) I hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas! I know I did and more!

So, (as pretty much most bloggers do now!) I thought I would write about what lovely gifts I got from Dane, my family and friends this Christmas.

I want to disclose here that this is by any means me showing off what I got this year and I never feel like when I read fellow bloggers posts, or watch YouTube videos about it that people are meaning to show off. I love reading and seeing what my fellow bloggers received (as I’m a nosey bitch! :P) as it’s nice to see goodies they’ve wished for throughout the year as well as special meaning behind them! If you feel this is me showing off, click off of this post now because, ain’t nobody got time for that!

NOW! On with the post!

When writing this post I haven’t actually received all my gifts and one of my best friends still hasn’t been able to give me hers, but I’ll be seeing her around my birthday so I can definitely mention it then!

The first gift I want to talk about is the gorgeous little Sylveon print that Sarah over at Raiin Monkey sent me in the post! I wasn’t expecting it and it’s so sweet of her! I’m going to pop it up in the office somewhere so I can look at it whilst doing blog work. 🙂

My friend Jacqui was able give me hers from both her and her boyfriend Chris and it was such a thoughtful and beautiful gift! It may not look like much to many, but we’ve had quite a few cocktail evenings together and my cocktail shaker isn’t the best. It gets stuck and then you struggle to get the lid off. So they bought us this Smirnoff kit, with a gorgeous red and silver shaker in (it matches our kitchen!) as well as a glass and measure cup in! I couldn’t be any happier with it to be honest.

My friend Sophi sent me a little box of goodies and I love them all so much! She sent us some little Japanese sweeties (which sadly we ate before I took my pictures! :P), a Pusheen tote bag and some Pusheen socks, as well as a pair of fox socks. I can’t complain at getting socks and I’ll be wearing them to work to keep my feet toasty over the rest of the winter months! OH and she also put in a cute little Pusheen keychain too, which I’ll pop on my tote bag!

Speaking of Pusheen! Dane’s brother and his girlfriend bought me a gorgeous boxed Pusheen mug with socks! I love it so much and am currently drinking some lemon green tea from it. The socks that came with it are so adorable and have paw prints on the feet. As well as that they also gave me a cute Minnie Mouse face mask as well as a Winky Lux flower balm in green. When you apply it to your lips it works with the PH and turns into a gorgeous light pink! I can’t wait to use this and I’ve wanted one of these since they first came out!

My aunt and cousin both bought me and Dane this gorgeous dachshund pillow which I’m going to have for the chair in the office! As well as that they also picked me up a gold fox keyring which was popped into my Christmas card.

Dane’s gran bought me a little something for Christmas and that’s a Bailey’s gift set with a little glass and some Lindt Lindor chocolates, which I LOVE! This will be enjoyed New Years Eve or on my birthday for definite! 😀

My sister in law and  my nephews bought me a cute little lip butter set, and it’s so strange! They’re lovely and you get three flavours, coconut, cherry and peppermint.. I’ve never used a lip butter like this before but I’ll definitely be keeping these for work and around the house!

Dane’s parents bought me some lovely gifts and one that really did make me chuckle! The first gift I noticed they’d bought me and one they get me every year is a Lush Christmas gift set! This year they bought me The Snowman gift set. This one contains The Snowman bubbleroon, Butterbear bath bomb, Man In The Moon bubble bar and Snow Angel bath melt. I’m super excited to try Man In The Moon!

They picked me up three hot chocolates on sticks! I LOVE these and they actually bought these from one of our friends coffee stalls in Coventry! These are so amazing and work really well! They bought me a normal one, a mocca one and a peppermint one! I can’t wait to try the peppermint flavour and I’ll definitely make it in my new Pusheen mug. 😛

One of my favourite presents from Dane’s parents has to be the Your Name Blu-ray that they bought me! This isn’t just the ordinary Blu-ray either, but actually a collector’s edition so it comes with both Blu-ray, DVD and also a CD of the films soundtrack! It’s such a beautiful film and was one of my favourites I’d been to see in the cinema last year. I definitely recommend watching it if you get the chance, or if you have Amazon Prime as it’s on there to watch in both subbed and dubbed right now!

Finally the present that made me chuckle is this little pom pom… That is actually a panic alarm! You pull the keychain and it makes a very loud noise! I doubt I’ll pop this onto my handbag but I’ll definitely keep it inside of my bag for emergencies! You never know to be fair. I get why she picked this up for me though to be honest! In my old job I would get to the car park at 5.30am, I would be the only one, it was dark and at one point we had issues with people hiding in the dark on the level of the car park I was on. It did frighten me! So this gift whilst being strange, as very thoughtful all the same.

Now onto the gifts that Dane bought me, I’m going to save the present my mom bought me until last. Usually I would save Dane’s until then, but wait until you see what she bought for me!

Since moving into our house we have a tradition now of making stockings up for each other, which consist of cute little bits and pieces, as well as Japanese sweets! This was no acceptation this year and we both gifted each other Japanese gifts!

He picked me up an assortment of Japanese treats, which includes some Puccho sweets in ramune flavour (Japanese soda), some sour candy sweets which are also ramune flavoured, some Pokemon grape gummy sweeties and some green matcha flavoured Kit Kats which are MY FAVOURITE! Finally he bought me a Gudetama DIY kit where you get to make a pudding version of Gudetama to eat! I cannot wait to do this and I think I’ll be saving it for my birthday. ^_^

Also in my stocking I had a few other bits and pieces such as a new refill for my Filofax and what a cutie he is, he bought me on in pink! I need to use my Filofax more this year!

Also in my stocking and presents overall was a couple of little Pokemon goodies, all of them are so cute! The first thing I opened was this Eevee pouch type bag, which is an official Pokemon Center item! I don’t know quite yet what I’ll use this for, but I can see it being for feminine products once a month and maybe some random handbag bits and pieces. This was a gift he’d asked me if I liked the look of when we were both having a nose online for gifts for one another. I wasn’t all that fussed at the time but all the same when I opened it Christmas Day I still loved it! It’s a little Eevee which you’re meant to rest over a glass, but I can see me sticking it to the PC monitor or even by the side of my bed. Another Pokemon gift he bought me was this blind box (although he knew which one he’d ordered) which contain desk buddies. Dane bought me this Pikachu one which holds your mobile phone for you. He bought me this to have for work but I want to have it for by my bed! It’s so cute and such a thoughtful gift all the same.

One of my favourite gifts from Dane just has to be this onigiri squishy keyring from Tofu Cute! I get anxious during long car journeys, as well as in other certain situations! This not only feels relaxing to squish over and over, but it’s also scented with (what I think anyway) strawberries! On the way to and from Coventry for Christmas Day I was squishing away at this, as well as whilst at Dane’s parents on the day! It’s going to end up living in my handbag for when I feel anxious or angry and need to relieve some tension.

One of the presents I had asked for for Christmas after discovering its existence are these Haku chopsticks. Haku is the dragon from Spirited Away and is my favourite Studio Ghibli character! I didn’t know if these chopsticks would be real or fake, but when I inspected the packet they are in fact real and Studio Ghibli approved!

The first main gift that I opened was this, The Manga Cookbook, which also came with a pack of chopsticks! I love cooking Japanese food, especially if I’m craving Japanese and I can’t and don’t want to go out and eat or buy any. This is a cute little gift and I can’t wait for me and Dane to cook recipes together from it.

The next gifts are these two little Pokemon Center plushies, which are like Beanie Babies! I’ve been collecting these for a few years now, thanks to Dane but they’re now so hard to get hold of! I found someone in the UK selling these 2 for a decent price and I didn’t know if Dane wou;d pick them up or not… Alas he did and they’re so adorable! We have a Flareon and a Raichu here and they’ll go so well with my other Eeveelutions, as well as with my Pikachu!

If you got back and take a look at the Christmas wish list I made on Christmas Eve (which you can read here) you’ll see that I wished for a lot of anime shows/films on Blu-ray and apart from one, all of the ones I asked for I got! Two of those being A Silent Voice and Your Lie In April part 2. Alongside Your Name, A Silent Voice was one of my favourite films from 2017 and I’m so stocked to have it on Blu-ray! The box itself is gorgeous and I cannot wait to binge watch it with Dane one of the evenings this week. This is the collector’s edition Blu-ray too, which also includes a DVD and a special booklet that tells you all about the film, as well as about the manga.

The second Blu-ray Dane bought for me is part 2 of Your Lie In April, which is the final part of the special collector’s edition! He bought me part 1 and the special box at the start of the year for my birthday, so now I’m so happy to finally have the box set completed! This is definitely the first thing I’ll be watching with Dane out of all of the Blu-rays I received as I want to binge watch all of this with him! I haven’t continued to watch anymore of it until I had all of the box set for us to binge watch!

Aside from my main presents this was probably one of my favourites to be honest! It’s The Art Of Persona 5 and I have been lusting after this book since they announced it way back in the summer! I’m so pleased Dane bought it for me to be honest as on Christmas Day after I opened it I had a good flick through the whole thing and I cannot wait to sit down with a cup of coffee and read the whole thing, cover to cover. This year I discovered Persona 5, as well as the Persona franchise! I haven’t fallen in love with a franchise this hard since Pokemon and I am so chuffed that back when it came out at the start of the year that I bought it.

Finally we have the main gifts from Dane and my favourites! These are the 2 Nendoroid’s that Dane bought for me this Christmas and I was so surprised to be honest with you! I mentioned on my Christmas wish list that I had a feeling Dane would have bought me Yuri but when I opened Viktor and THEN Yuri I was so happy! I couldn’t have asked for better Nendoroid’s to have received this Christmas and I feel like such a lucky girl. We have no room right now to put these up anywhere so sadly they’ll be staying in the boxes until we have room. But I love my 2 YURI!!! boys so much and I cannot wait to play with them and display them in the future! So many YURI!!! On Ice Nendoroid’s have been announced lately that we will definitely be getting in the future!

Dane really spoilt me this year and I am so grateful for everything I received! I know I have another present arriving that he ordered me, it’s nothing special but it’s the thought that counts! FYI it’s a Macaroon Treats Yankee Candle!

Now onto my final present and definitely the one that blew me away the most. I was so surprised when I opened it to discover my mom had bought me a Dyson hairdryer! I know these aren’t cheap to be honest and I’ve lusted after one since they were announced, so the fact that my mom bought me one makes me feel so loved and special. I still can’t believe she bought it for me and after trying it, I really do adore it. I wish she could read how thankful and grateful I am.

So those were all the goodies I got for Christmas and I am so, SO thankful to everyone who bought myself, as well as Dane gifts this year!

What did you get for Christmas? Big or small I would love to hear what you got from loved ones. You know where to tell me. 😉

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re all resting after loads of Christmas and Boxing Day dinners!