Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas // For The Guys!

This time of year and on quite a few blogs, you see tons of Christmas gift ideas for girls/women/ladies, but not so much for the guys! I don't know about anyone else but I really struggle on what to get the guys in my life for Christmas, be it a boyfriend/your dad/a brother/an uncle. SO, here's my list of gift ideas for the guys this Christmas...

Winter Nails

I know I’m all about the nude colours on the lips at the moment (not very autumnal of me) but I am loving the dark vampy nail polishes - case in point: The Chanel polish in Rouge Noir! It’s just so pretty! And it being Chanel makes it that much better! Am I right ladies?!

It’s a gorgeous dark dark red that in some lights looks almost black and in others looks like a very deep cherry red, I just love it! You know when you have a specific shade in mind you want for your nails but sometimes you just can’t seem to find it – well I found mine!

It look about 2 coats to get it looking how I wanted it and of course a top coat was needed – any woman who has owned a Chanel nail polish knows that the lasting power of these is pretty much non-existent without a good topcoat! I definitely recommend giving this a little swatch (or purchase?!) the next time you're near a Chanel counter.

There’s just something about nude lips with dark nails I just can’t get enough of lately! But if darker shades aren’t really your thang (yes I just went there) I spy that Chanel have now bought out their holiday collection and there are some gorgeous brighter red polishes in there! Go go go...

Nude Lip Lovin'

I don’t know what or why it is, but this season I’m obsessed with nude lips! I’m usually all over the vampy dark red lips bang waggon, but not this year! There’s just something about a darker eye with nude lips and vampy nails that I’ve been loving lately.

I’ve been expanding my nude lipstick collection the past month or so and these are my favourites that I’ve been crushing on (pretty hard!)…

01.  Chanel Lipstick in Voltage  //  A gorgeous nude that came out in Chanel's Christmas 2014 Collection.  I got my hands on this gem at the airport on my way to Berlin...what's a holiday without a little airport shopping?! It's a gorgeous pinky nude with just a tiney tiny hint of shimmer to it, if you have dry lips the colour of this may highlight that fact so I always put a lip balm on first.  I'm also completely obsessed with the packaging! Its the whole click it in and then it pops out thing that Chanel has got going on lately, I love it!

02.  Chanel Lipstick in Boy  //  This is a beautiful "my lips but better with a bit of a sheen" type shade – I’ve done a post on this thing of beauty, you can find that here.

03.  Mac Lipstick in Hue  //  This is a light pinky nude, again, it’s a barely there shade and it is quite matt on the lips, I do put a lip balm on my lips before applying this, but I do find this lipstick lasts a good while on the lips. For these nights where you want to rock a smokey eye and want something neutral on this lips - this is the lipstick to go for!

04.  Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk  //  I've recently just purchased the Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk (as you would have seen in my last post). I haven't had a chance to properly test it out yet but I know this is a winner and a must for any nude lip lover! I filled my lips in with this beauty the first day I got it to see what it was like and I'm majorly impressed!

05.  Clarins Lip Perfector in [02]  //  I couldn’t do a nude lip post without mentioning this. I’ve had this for a while and I’m pretty sure these lip products did the rounds this past spring/summer. This is an all round “nude lip winner” for me. Its moisturising on the lips, and gives just a hint of pinky nudey goodness and I’m always carrying this round with me – the boyfriend also approves of this particular product, he says it tastes like vanilla *wink wink!

06.  and a drug store offering in the form of the Maybelline Lipgloss in Cashmere Rose //  This is another one that did the rounds this spring/summer and with good reason too! It’s one of those throw on and go lip products, very similar to the Clarins but a slightly different shade of nude and of course is way more glossy on the lips and has a tiny hint of shimmer to it. If you’re looking for a drugstore lip gloss of the nude variety, I would highly recommend this shade! (ps. this also tastes rather nice!)

I’ve got my eye on a few other nude-y shades that I want to add my collection. I’m slightly in love with Tom Ford’s Nude Vanille lipstick and I NEED Mac’s Crème D’Nude (obvs!). If there are any other nude lip offerings out there, recommendations would be greatly appreciated! xo

A little "pick me up" haul...

I was sat at home the other evening feeling lonely and a bit from sorry for myself so thought I would treat myself to some little pretties from Selfridges.  I know I said I wouldn’t shop there again after I had a rather unpleasant experience the first time I stepped foot into their London flagship store (to buy my Michael Kors Bag – post on that here)… but it was 20% off! I just couldn’t resist!

I’ve been pining over the Diptyque candles for forever, so when the opportunity came up that I could buy one with 20% off, I needed no more persuading! I went for the Baise scent as people have been banging on about this one for a while now so I though it must be a pretty good one.  I do like the scent, it’s a tad bit rose-y for me, I’m not a fan of rose-y scents, but there’s just something different about this candle, I can’t not like it. It will look gorgeous in my room too!

I’ve heard nothing but good things about Charlotte Tilbury lip products and when HelloOctober mentioned the lip cheat in ‘Pillow Talk’ in one of her YouTube videos, I wanted needed it! Also this nude lip pencil will come in extremely handy as I’m currently suffering from a nude lipstick obsession! The packaging of all the Charlotte Tilbury products is to die for, very Great Gatsby I think!

Lastly I picked up another tube of my Holy Grail concealer, the Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla. I’ve rinsed my last one and have been meaning to get another - it just so happened that lady luck was on my side and I was able to get it with discount! Let’s face it, this concealer isn’t the cheapest concealer out there, but then again for a product like this, it’s worth saving those pennies for!

Tips for studying at home!

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I’m currently studying for a CILEx Legal Secretary Level 3 Diploma – it’s a home study course. I’ve not done anything like this before and the last time I did any studying, revision or coursework was when I was at college, and that’s going back a few years!

I decided that I wanted to go further in my career and decided that this course would be a good first step! I’m already a legal secretary but I wanted the qualification too, so I got off my butt and did something about it! 7 months later here we are and I’m right in the middle of my course. I’ve just handed in a beast of an assignment and now have one more assignment and one exam to go!

The great thing about this course is that you can go at your own pace and you can request when you want to start your assignment or when you want to take an exam, you have total control! – You just have to make sure that you finish the course within 15 months.

Studying at home can be difficult, especially if you have a full time job and any other commitments at home. There are some days where I’ve had a really long and stressful day at work and the last thing I want to do when I come home is studying, revising or working on that assignment! So… here are my tips for studying at home: