August Favourites

Hi everyone, favourites time once again. This year has seriously been the quickest year ever!! I can't quite believe there is only a few months left til Christmas. But enough of that here's what I was loving in the month of August!

 

Yankee Candles - Strawberry Buttercream and Black Cherry

 

 

My non beauty favourites this month have been these two gorgeous Yankee Candles. I absolutely love the scent these give off when burnt together. Strawberry Buttercream smells very sweet, almost like the smell of baking cakes and Black Cherry is just a strong cherry scent. The two together fill my room with a sweet and fruity scent that is absolutely delicious. Neither one overpowers the other and I don't find the scent to be too sickly sweet. Strawberry Buttercream can get a bit much when burnt alone but Black Cherry cancels that out and burning together they are an absolute dream.

 

Essie Eternal Optimist and Barry M Princess

 

 

Another duo I have been loving are these two polishes I mentioned a few weeks ago. Essie's 'Eternal Optimist' is a gorgeous dusky rose colour that is fully opaque with two coats. Its a really lovely subtle colour that would be perfect for an occasion like a wedding or christening. Or even just for work when you don't want something that stands out too much, but still want a nice wash of colour. I have been pairing it with Barry M's baby pink glitter 'Princess' from their Royal Collection using this on just my ring fingers for a glitter accent. The glitters in this are not at all chunky and glide on the nails perfectly. I absolutely love these kind of glitters and would love some more, If you know of any I might like please comment below. All I seem to find are horrible chunky ones that go on the nails in patches. I've been switching up my nail colours a lot recently but throughout August I kept coming back to these two because I think they look so chic and classy together.

 

MUA Undress Me Too Palette

 



Again another product you have seen recently. My apologies but as you know I am at the minute out of a job and looking for work, so I have had to make deal with my current beauty stash because I can't afford any new products. I also think this featured in a favourites way back but that just goes to show how much I do really love it. I reach for this palette every single time I put make up on weather that's for, the eyebrow colour Lavish, a mixture a of a few shades for a complete eye look or just a highlight colour. I always go back to this palette because its just a perfect everyday palette that can be used for so many different looks. There isn't one colour I don't use in here. I have a lot of other palettes and this is not my favourite of the bunch buts its definitely the most used.

 

DHC Deep Cleansing Oil

 

 

Last but not least, and the only product that has not yet been featured on my blog is my first ever cleansing oil. I got this in the Summer edition of the Latest In Beauty Glamour Beauty Edit box a few months back. And I have been loving it ever since, although dispensing the oil has been a pain (there's a only a tiny hole for the product to come through when you un screw the white lid) this really is an excellent product. When massaged into a dry face, then wiped away with a muslin cloth soaked in warm water, it really does remove every scrap of makeup without irritating my skin or leaving it oily. The only problem I have with this product, except the dispenser, is the fact it can not be used on the eyes. Let me tell you if you put this on yours eyes it will temporarily blind you! In the products defence it does state to not use it on eyes but I tried it anyway, and although it removes eye makeup like a dream the momentary blindness and fuzzy film it leaves over the eyes is just not worth it!! So all in all a great product that I absolutely love I just wish it was friendly on the eyes. I am wanting to purchase an oil that can be used all over the face so let me know any suggestions you may have.

 

That's it for another month. What were you loving in August?

Much Love

Gemma xo.





What's on my bedside table

I saw many of these posts floating around a few months back and now that I'm back blogging I thought today I would share my version. Here's what I keep on the table next to my bed.

 

It's rather over crowded but I like my little set up. First up we have two gorgeous Yankee Candles, both gifted to me by my lovely boyfriend. The medium sized one is Strawberry Buttercream that he bought me for my birthday, this is really sweet so definitely not for those of you out there that don't like sweet scents, it can get rather sickly after a while. In all honesty it smells like all the other cakey scents they do but with a hint of strawberry, I absolutely love it. The small jar, Black Cherry is one he decided to pick up as a little gift when he got paid this month. It literally smells like cherries and it’s gorgeous. The two of them burning at once smells devine, really fruity and sweet, absolutely perfect for a nice relaxing night.

 

Behind these I have my red Guess glasses, I have two pairs of these, red leopard print ones for when I'm in the house and a nice cream neutral leopard print for when I'm out and about, that I keep in my handbag. Then there's a load of beauty products. On the left hand side I have all my perfumes and other smelly's. I have my Dove roll on deodorant, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle perfume, Elle by YSL perfume, Lady Gaga's perfume, along with a few other bottles, and a ton of testers from beauty boxes, gifts with purchases etc. I've also got a mini L'occitane shampoo, conditioner, body wash, body lotion and soap that I took from a hotel I stayed in (probably shouldn't admit that online but never mind) Then there’s just a few body sprays from Soap and Glory and Lynx. And a room spray from Avon.

 

 

On the right hand side I have all of my skincare products, minus my cleansers and exfoliators that live in the bathroom. My everyday skincare items in here are, my Garnier miscellar water, Nivea eye makeup remover, Liz Earle toner, Clarins HydroQuench moisturiser, La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo +, YSL eye cream and a Clearasil spot cream. I also have a load of others I use from time to time including products from L'occitane, Simple, Nivea, Coola, Monu Spa, L'Oreal and loads more. I really do not know why I have so much. Lastly there is my full size Soap and Glory Hand Food and Heel Genius, and my boyfriend’s No7 moisturiser that I practically forced him to buy and he only ever uses once in a blue moon. Oh and that piece of card you can see with a baby’s head on it. Is my gorgeous invite to my goddaughter's christening, which asks me to be godmother, I intend on keeping it forever.

 

 

So that's what my bedside table looks like; organised chaos. Like the majority of things in my life. Thanks for reading, and if you haven't already done this, I tag you all :)

Much Love

Gemma xo.

Instagram Post #1

After seeing hundreds of these posts dotted around the net I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and make my own. So here's the pictures my Instgram has been blessed with recently.

I'll probably sound extremely spoilt here but the first 3 pictures are of things my boyfriend has bought me recently, when we were out looking for Christmas presents he spotted this jumper in New Look, he knows I love cats so he bought it without hesitation despite me telling him not too! I was in need of a new candle and he suprised me one day by bringing me these Yankee Candles, He told me he was getting me a replacement Glade candle so this was a fantastic suprise :D And lastly I went out for a meal one night with my friend and when I got back he had bought me these gorgeous pink fluffy slipper boots from Tesco! They are so lovely and warm! They've been keeping my usual freezing cold feet toasty since the day I got them! I wasn't sure weather or not to include a pole dancing picture in this post, but seeing as I'm thinking of writing a whole post dedicated to this misunderstood sport I thought I would ease it in gently, this is a rather advanced move called 'The Superman' it requires a lot of strength and hurts like hell the first few times you try it and believe me there is nothing sexy about doing this move! Next up we have recently had an American Sweet Stall open in our local market, I couldn't resist buying some Lucky Charms, I absolutely love them. And finally three Christmassy pictures, I love these glittery reindeer's from Asda that I bought for my Christmas tree about 3 or 4 years ago, they are my favourite decorations EVER. My Make Up area in my bedroom decorated with lights and a small Christmas tree. And lastly my black tree that's in the corner of my bedroom.

Hope you enjoyed this sneak peak into my life. More to come in the future I'm sure!

Much Love Gemma xo.

Christmas Yankee Candles

I have been eyeing up Yankee Candles for as long as I can remember, they used to be all over blogs and YouTube and I was dying to get my hands on them. But until last week that's all they were, an item on a list stored in my memory, of things I desperately wanted after seeing them online (let me tell you my little brain is storing A LOT of these items!) And to my sheer delight after listening to me bang on about these amazing candles and being dragged into Clinton Cards on numerous times to look at and smell the Yankee Candles they have to offer, my boyfriend surprised me with two small jars :D Cherries On Snow and Christmas Cookie.

please excuse the awful picture quality, i took the picture from my instagram, bad move!

I've only burnt Cherries On Snow so far, but I am very pleased with it. They burn so well and the smell is amazing. I admit the smell doesn't seem to be as strong as my old candle, which was Spiced Apple & Cinnamon from Glade. But what do you expect really? I was pretty much burning an air freshener! I much prefer the Yankee Candle, the smells is a lot nicer, and although its not as strong it is much more kinder on the nostrils, the Glade candles were just too overpowering!
As for the smell, I'm useless at describing scents. The Yankee website describes Cherries On Snow as 'An enchanted, sparkling blend of bright juicy cherries with sweet almonds and an icy freshness' personally I can smell all them things but my rubbish description skills would come up with something along the lines of a mixture between Cherry Soothers and Cherry Bubblegum with a slight hint of almonds. But either way its delicious! I love the smell of Cherries and this does not disappoint. Christmas Cookie literally just smells like cookies baking in the oven, the smell is very sweet and buttery and I cant wait to start burning this later tonight. My boyfriend wouldn't allow me to burn it until December because it has the word 'Christmas' in it! Spoil sport! So it will be going straight on when we go up to bed to watch tv later! I'm hoping the smell is even better as it burns!
Overall I'm really happy with my new candles. Apparently the woman in the shop told my boyfriend the two burnt together will let off a lovely scent so I think I'm going to try that out soon. I have a feeling I will be trying out a lot more of these candles in the future. I think I could well be in love.
Much Love Gemma xo.