LUSH FOCUS | MAGIC WAND

Hey guys! Today's post is yet another Lush focus in which I review a specific goodie from Lush and tell you all about it. On the blog today is Magic Wand - a reusable, candy scented Christmas bubble bar, enjoy!

Here's what Lush has to say about this product:

Conjure up candy suds. Close your eyes, swish your Magic Wand in the tub as it fills, and your wish for mounds of sweet cotton candy-scented bubbles will be granted! There’s enough magic in this wand for several baths full of candy-scented bubbles and sweet pink waters, so pop it on the side of your tub for the next time you need a magical bathtime escape.

As the description states, Magic Wand is a reusable bubble bar - the bubbles themselves are created by swishing the bubble bar in running water until satisfied. The scent of the bar is much like that of the much loved Snow Fairy and this factor definitely makes it one of my favourite Christmas products from Lush. I'd say you can get around 3-5 baths from it making it also one of most cost effective bubble bars in the range which is always something that I look for!

The design of this bubble bar is also super cute with the glitter coating and the pretty little silver bow wrapped around the handle with a bell attached - it's festive yet still girly and cute which I love!

What I Got For Christmas: Beauty Edition

Hello everyone and happy 2017! It's weird to say that but it's also exciting to be at the start of another year. In this post, I thought I'd reflect on and share with you some of the items I received for Christmas. This isn't everything - certain things I'm going to leave for reviews / focused posts but it's most of the beauty type gifts I was lucky enough to receive from friends and family members. 

Whilst I'd like to hope most people would already know this, this post isn't to brag about the things I received. I'm an inherently nosey individual and I love seeing the lovely things people buy and receive be it at Christmas, birthdays or as part of a haul, so I thought I'd also create my own "What I Got for Christmas" post too. Needless to say I'm so grateful for receiving the presents that I did and even more importantly than that, I feel blessed to have such wonderful, caring and loving people in my life. Soppiness over with, let's jump right in!

I received three perfumes in total this year from my friends and family - a fact a perfume junkie like me is more than excited about. I've really been getting into fragrance this past year so it's safe to say I was really happy to receive some this year for Christmas. The scents I got were Olympea by Paco Robanne, Bon Bon by Viktor & Rolf and finally Gucci Bamboo by Gucci. I'll list the scent notes in the captions of the perfumes' photo just incase you're interested too! I'd been lusting over all three of these scents for quite a while - particularly Bon Bon so I'm really excited to start wearing them all.

Scent Notes:
Gucci Bamboo by Gucci: Top - Bergamot, Heart - Ylang-Ylang & Orange Blossom, Base - Amber & Sandalwood
Bon Bon by Viktor & Rolf: Top - Mandarin & Peach, Heart - Caramel, Base - Amber, Sandalwood & Cedar
Olympea by Paco Roxanne: Top - Green Mandarin & Jasmine, Heart - Vanilla, Base - Cashmere Wood & Sandalwood

Next off I got these stunning brushes from Zoeva. As a makeup lover and wearer, new beauty tools always come in handy and it's a bonus when they're as pretty as these ones are. I loved the Zoeva brushes I had previously but had never delved much into their facial brushes and had only really tried their eye ones. I'm really excited to have a play around with all of the brushes in this collection - I can see all of them being staples that I'll be using regularly.

Zoeva Rose Gold Collection Brush Set Volume 2

Let's also just take a moment to appreciate the beautiful design of these brushes as well as that gorgeous rose gold bag too!

Next off I got this MAC palette - it features 9 purple toned shades and I absolutely love it. Purple is my favourite colour and I love how it looks on my blue eyes. I've never tried any MAC shadows before so I'll be looking forward to testing out this palette.

This palette also has a great range of light to dark shades so I feel as if there's a lot of opportunity for a multitude of different looks. As you can see there is also a lot of different finishes in these shadows from mattes, to shimmers to satins.

MAC Purple x 9 Palette

The final beauty item I received for Christmas that I wanted to share with you is this Natural Eyes palette from TooFaced. I am a massive TooFaced fan - especially when it comes to their palettes. I think they have amazing pigmentation and such buttery formulas. I'd been eyeing up this palette for quite a while mainly for it's beautiful shimmer shades. I think a neutral palette is always so versatile in a makeup collection and I can't wait to use this one.

TooFaced Natural Eyes Palette

And there you have my Christmas beauty haul featuring most of the beauty products I was lucky to get for Christmas this year. As I mentioned before, there are some beauty products I got that aren't included in this post and that's because I wanted to feature them in posts of their own. I also got some fashion pieces that I'll be showcasing in some upcoming posts soon too so please do stay tuned for that if you're interested.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year and I'd to see your Christmas haul posts if you've written any too so please do send the link for them my way! As always, thanks so much for reading and have a happy Monday.

Levinia,
 xo

Instant Memories

For a long time now, I have loved and appreciated photography. I love the fact that I can capture a moment in time - everlasting within an image for me to look back upon and reminisce of times gone by. So when I was gifted an Instax Mini 8 for Christmas, it's safe to say I was more than pleased about it. My friend James gifted the camera to me and my other lovely friend Heather got me the accessory pack that matches - also containing a selfie attachment which is totally appropriate for me.

After receiving it just before Christmas, I have been pretty obsessed with capturing festive moments and photo-worthy snapshots these past few days. What I find so cool about this camera is the fact that it's a polaroid and that you can have your image in your hand within seconds ready for you to admire. This instant component of the camera is what I think makes capturing images on it it so much more meaningful as you're much more aware of wanting to capture a special photo - you get one shot to get the image you want and so it really makes you appreciate what you're snapping even more in a way. 

Being a polaroid, every image also has this lovely, vintage feel and look about it and once again it really adds that special something to taking a photo - it draws you back to childhood memories and reminds of you a time when moments couldn't simply be recorded with the tap of a phone screen.

I have been writing the dates and a small description on each of the images I've taken so far. I plan to use these as part of a scrapbook I'm (eventually) going to compile. This camera is actually a brilliant tool for the scrapbooker as your images are printed there and then for you and ready to add straight away.

So, as you can probably tell I'm totally in love with this camera and I know I'll definitely be getting a whole lot of use out of it. If you're a photography lover, this may be something you'd be interested in and I'd certainly recommend it!

A Fragrant Christmas...

Hello everyone! I hope you all had an awesome Christmas and a fabulous New Year! Whilst the holidays are almost over, I thought I'd take the chance to reflect on some of the wonderful gifts I received in them. 

Working over Christmas at a fragrance counter has lead me to develop what some might call an unhealthy desire to own several beautiful smelling fragrances - if I didn't own enough already! So, with Christmas near to me, I took that as an opportunity to drop some not so subtle hints on the fragrances I'd love to receive off of my loved ones. Being the awesome people that my loved ones are, those hints were listened too and I was lucky enough to receive some fragrances that I'd been lusting over for quite some time! In this post, I thought I'd share with you and with the aid of Google, I shall be attempting to describe their scents to you as well!

1. Marc Jacobs - Oh, Lola!

This a sweet, floral and fresh scent that I've wanted for quite a while now. Like a lot of Marc Jacob's scents, it's light enough to wear daily and as always, comes with beautiful packaging!

Scent Notes:

Top Notes - Strawberry, Raspberry and Pear

Middle Notes - Magnolia, Peony and Cyclamen

Base Notes - Sandalwood, Tonka Bean and Vanilla.

2. Marc Jacobs - Decadence

The newest fragrance from Marc Jacobs, this is one I have only recently discovered. It is quite a mature scent to the ones usually released by this brand and indeed, to ones that I'd usually go for. It's a very sophisticated and luxurious smell and one that would be perfect for night time - though still light enough in my opinion to be worn in the day, too.

Scent Notes:

Top Notes - Plum, Iris and Saffron

Middle Notes - Bulgaria Rose, Jasmine and Orris

Base Notes - Amber, Vetiver and Papyrus

3. Thierry Mugler - Alien

A much loved and raved about perfume, this has always been one that I just haven't been sure about but have always been interested by. There is something so unusual about this fragrance that has always attracted me to this scent - it's a lot more intense and arguably muskier than scents I am used to wearing and so I've always been unsure of whether to get it. It's a very unique smell and one you'd definitely recognise instantly.

Scent Notes:

Top Notes - Jasmine

Middle Notes - Wood

Base Notes - Amber

So, those are the wonderful fragrances I received for Christmas. Are any of your favourites up there? If not, what are they?

Levinia x

Christmas Beauty Gifts from Too Faced and Benefit!

It's socially acceptable to start talking about Christmas now, right? Regardless, whether you're a fan of the early Christmas organiser or you leave it all to the last minute, it's nice to have some gift inspiration.

Whilst spending part of the money I should really be saving on you know, the necessities like makeup, I realised that some of these purchases would actually make great gifts. If you know someone who loves beauty and makeup, this may the post for you.

Too Faced's Melted French Kisses Gift Set - £22.00

TooFaced's infamous Melted Lipsticks are £19.00 a pop and so are quite the splurge for someone new to them and indeed, most of us in general for only one product. However, they recently came out with a cute little Christmas gift set containing four mini Melted Lipsticks for you to try and for the impressive price of only £22.00! You get a good variety of shades with some neutrals and brights as well as the chance to try not only their original formula, but also their "Metallic" formulation too. As a fan of their liquid lipsticks, I'm definitely all for this set and as anyone who has tried liquid lipsticks know, they last for ages so though these may be small, you're going to get a lot out of them.

The shades you get in this collection are (From L to R):

Metallic Peony, Chihuahua, Metallic Macaron & Berry. 

Benefit Stocking Filler Gift Set - £15.00

This last gift idea is probably my favourite and is one I treated myself to last year as well! Basically, every year Boots have on offer in which you receive a free (and super cute) Benefit stocking as well as 4 luxury sized samples from the brand for £15.00. The selections change slughly every year and this year, I got 2 mini's of their That Gal Primer, Bad Gal Lash Mascara and a mini Bad Gal eyeliner!

As with the TooFaced set, this is such a great way to try out some of what other brands have to offer - especially if you're new to them. You get deluxe samples in each set and so you're going to get a really good idea of what a product has to offer and whether or not it's for you!

What do you think of these cute Christmas gifts?