Christmas Gift Guide - Luxury Edition, Part 1: Handbags & Accessories!

Christmas shopping can invariably lead to stress, headache, and panic (for the unprepared, last minute Larrys, like I am this year)… not to mention extremely painful feet and potential for mild assault from other keen shoppers if you’re braving the shops, rather than shopping online. Personally, I try to stick to buying on the internet as much as I can, so as to avoid the physically painful part, at least.

Now I know there’s loads of gift guides floating around, but I firmly believe that you can never have too much inspiration if you’re truly stumped for things to buy – especially if like me, you have to buy both for the people who seemingly have everything, and also the people who actually want nothing (thanks dad… a jumper it is then, again); and so I’ve compiled a couple of guides for you covering a whole host of fabulous looking ‘stuff and things’ in the hope that I can maybe inspire you on the perfect gifts to buy for your nearest and dearest.

This guide focuses on luxurious and expensive products… my favourite. It was always going to be seriously difficult to keep the amount of ‘stuff and things’ that I want, errrr I mean that would be lovely for you to purchase for your loved ones to so few items – especially spanning so many categories such as gadgets, accessories, jewellery and more, and so I’ve split this particular guide into 3 posts for easier digestion!

And so without further ado, here’s a whole heap of fabulousness that I’d personally love to own/receive. I could probably have just called all these guides ‘Claire’s Wish Lists’ if I’m honest.

1. Michael Kors Selma Large Satchel Bag £315 – This stunning bag is definitely on my ‘most wanted’ list this Christmas, but alas I fear it’ll be a present that I’ll have to purchase for myself at some point in the New Year instead. I make no secret of my love for the colour pink, after finally realising that it is indeed my favourite colour (as opposed to pink, or purple) after only 33 years on this earth. I don’t really do favourites, due to my indecisive nature, and tendencies to like EVERYTHING, and lots of everything at that.

2. Dolce & Gabanna DG4192 Sunglasses in Bordeaux £125 – Now I’d usually go for sunglasses that were a bit bigger in size (hides more of my face, you see – ha) but the fact that these are sparkly just lured me in. I am SO easily won over when it comes to this stuff. SOLD… to the magpie named Claire.

3. Prada PR08OS Oversized Square Framed Sunglasses in Tortoiseshell £215 – Now these are more the kind of size I would normally go for, and I’m also partial to a bit of animal print, so these subtle tortoiseshell glasses are totally my kind of thing. I love the gold accent on the arm too, the shiny pleases me greatly.

4. Mulberry Alexa Polished Buffalo Satchel £1,100 – Who doesn’t want to own a Mulberry bag? I mean there must be some people, but there can’t actually be that many people who don’t secretly covet one of these beauties. The Alexa bag is probably one of the most well-known bags, and rightly so as it’s bloody lovely. I’d have one in multiple colours, just to sit and gaze at, mostly.

5. Mulberry Clemmie Embellished Satin Clutch £1,200 – Now put your hands up if you wouldn’t like to own a sparkly Mulberry bag. Holy macaroni, I love it. I don’t even care that it probably wouldn’t even fit half of my shit in it. I need it, give it to me now. Please. Thanks.

6. Saint Laurent ‘Monogramme’ Glitter Clutch £710 – I don’t know about you, but I’ll always call this brand Yves Saint Laurent, I mean why drop the Yves but then keep it in the iconic logo? It’s madness if you ask me. Anyway, this is another sparkly clutch that will no doubt hold about 0.01% of my ‘essentials’ on a night out, and again I don’t even care. It’s probably another item that I’ll just sit gazing at, and possibly stroking at home. I might even put it on a shelf as a display piece, ha.

7. Marc Jacobs Luna Messenger Bag in Orange £405 – This bright messenger bag stuck out to me during my massive window shopping session due to its vibrant orange colour. I’m a huge fan of bright colour, and whilst I still love muted, neutral shades too, I do lean more towards the bright. Even in autumn and winter. I’m especially a fan of orange with pink, which is a good job really, since those are the colours I currently sport in my hair. ;-) This bag looks perfect for everyday use, and I think it could even fit a great deal of my ‘stuff’ in it too – bonus.

8. Michael Kors Jetset Travel Chain Flap Over Purse in Gold £145 – There is probably no point in me ever owning this gorgeous metallic purse, owing to my utterly rubbish luck when it comes to not losing them lately. However, it doesn’t stop me wanting it all the same. I’m not sure if it’s more of a yellow gold in reality, but on my screen it looks like a rose gold, which I think I’d probably prefer. Stunning.

9. Michael Kors Dylan Baguette-Bezel Chronograph Watch (MK5412) in Rose Gold £279 – I love Michael Kors watches, in fact I just seem to love Michael Kors full stop; but in particular I love the watches. This rose gold sparkly affair is definitely on my ‘need to own’ list, since I can never have too many Michael Kors watches, especially if they have extra added sparkle to boot.

10. Michael Kors Stainless Steel Bracelet Watch (MK3359) £379 – Shut the front door, sparkle galore!! My magpie senses are on full alert for this watch (and the next couple also), as well they should be. Any watch that has this many crystals automatically gets put on my list of things I need, imagine all that sparkly goodness every time you checked the time?! I don’t think I’d ever be late again… ok; I might be but let’s not dwell on that part.

11. Michael Kors Kerry Gold Tone Pave Crystal Bracelet Watch (MK3360) £399 – This is the gold version of the previous watch, as obviously it’d be rude to have one without the other. I’m not one for favouritism; I’m not even one for favourites due to my indecisive nature – hence the length of these guides (wishlists, ha)!

12. Michael Kors Two Colour Zebra Print Bracelet Watch (MK3315) £279 – This watch combines my love of animal print with my love of sparkle. What’s not to love?! I want it, I need it… I know I can only wear one watch at a time, but I really don’t care. Can I make wearing two watches or more at once a ‘thing’? It should be when there’s this much Michael Kors goodness to be had.

I think it's quite obvious that I love Michael Kors, so sorry if it's a bit Kors heavy but I like what I like and I'm certain others would love to receive anything from these items too. :-)

Part 2 coming soon...

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

eBay Introduces New Collections Tool - See My Collections & Tell me What You Think!

eBay to me has always been the place that I turned to when I couldn’t find an item in stock, or had baulked at paying, or just couldn’t stretch to paying full price for something in a shop/online. Yep, it’s hit and miss as to what you find on there, but that’s the beauty of it as, whilst at times it may not have what you’re looking for, you can set up alerts for these searches… and when you get that email saying something you had been looking for has been listed, it is game on!!

Sometimes though, eBay can be daunting, with the sheer volume of items on there that it can be hard to find the products you want, especially when running with a theme, or trying to match them up to other items in general. So, eBay have come up with a pretty cool solution with their new Collections tool, a way of saving, and showing items that you think work well together.

This is perfect for your own organisational reasons or for sharing with friends and family; and I can totally imagine this working well for things like birthday and Christmas wish lists, as when people are asking what you’d like, you can just point them in the direction of your collections. Clever, huh?!

In preparation for the launch, eBay asked me to make some collections of my own and so I spent a good few hours scouring the site to see what treats took my fancy. You could say this was just a more elaborate form of my usual way to window shop, where I add everything I would like to own into any given ‘cart’, see the total cost, laugh (and cry) before closing the tab in defeat – as attempting to whittle down any shopping cart like that is near on impossible for this indecisive lady. ;-)

Here are just a few of my favourite collections from all of the collections I have been making (all clickable):

Modern Twist on a Vintage Wedding

Natural Glamour.

GOLD...

Wild About Animal Print.

Girls Night Out!

All Hail The Nail.

The rest can be found HERE!

The collections format actually reminds me somewhat of Pinterest, and other similar sites in the way that you add items, and the way it appears overall, and I think it’s going to be a great addition to the site. I’m already making more collections to lust after, in the hope that I come into some money. Ha.

What do you think about the new addition? Have you seen or used the new collections tool? Could you make use of it? x

P.S: Apologies if you're using a mobile to view this post, if the images are a bit wonky - not entirely sure what has happened with that.

This post has been sponsored by eBay.

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

My First Michael Kors Watch - MK5361!

I had lusted after a Michael Kors watch for a long time before I got my hands on one, partly because I couldn't choose which one I wanted from all my favourites, but also partly as I had a secret yearning for the most expensive (and glitzy) one I'd seen at around £449-499... the MK5361.

I finally decided to go for this one when I saw it on sale (half price), late last year; I quickly made it my own and have treasured it ever since. It's beautiful, a total statement watch and I love it.

It's bigger than any other watch I own, I'd say that I've ever owned, but I owned a pop swatch 'back in the day' and whilst they weren't quite so substantial, they were rather large. It's also heavier than any watch I've ever owned, but not so much that it gets in the way and rather surprisingly, I find it very comfortable.

I don't wear it like a standard watch, I don't sleep in it and I certainly don't bathe/shower in it but it still gets a huge amount of wear from me. I reach for it a lot in place of a bracelet/bangle as I find it more comfortable, since it's more snug fitting and doesn't ride up and down my wrist yet still as 'decorative'.

I'm led to believe that the crystals on the face and bezel are swarovski crystals, but whatever they are, they're gorgeous - sparkly but actually not to the point of overdoing it.

I can't gush about this enough, but owning it has only given me the taste for more. There's about 4 others that I'd like, but in particular a rose gold one quite similar to this, that I'd like to own (and have been lusting over in Selfridges in Manchester, whenever I go in).

I'm trying desperately to justify paying the £400 price tag for it, but so far I haven't managed to do so - especially when it would be instead of being spent on something more sensible like paying the money off the mortgage, or putting it towards the wedding/things for the house and the million other things we need.

As soon as I can, I'll find out the model number of that one to show you (for you to lust after too?)... but until then, here's a few more gratuitous pictures of mine. Apologies for the slight over exposure in some of the pics, I really wanted to show how the crystals caught the light - so my pictures don't do it as much justice as it should.

What do you think? x

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk