Christmas Gift Guide - Last Minute Gifts From Boots!

If you're not very organised for Christmas and have pretty much missed all the last delivery dates for online purchases, then this little gift guide could hopefully give you a little help and save you from turning up empty handed on Christmas morning!

I think that Boots is a great place to visit for this last minute gift grabbing, as not only do they stock their usual fabulous cosmetics and fragrances (and more, but let's keep this beauty related) but they also have a plethora of Christmas gifts available at varying price points. Here's a selection of my favourite from this year's gift selection:

FrontCover:

Packing Case is a lovely little set from FrontCover that contains everything that they think you need for a weekend away; including 4 fine line baked powder eyeshadows, 4 fine line baked cheek colours, double ended black mascara/sealer, mini black kohl pencil with smudger, double ended suit-all lip stain and iridescent gloss, translucent pressed powder, mini tweezers, cheek brush and double ended eye applicator! Now that's quite a lot for the £18 that it costs... and that's without including it in the current 3 for 2 offer - bargain. I'll be posting swatches of these later today.


No7:

No7 Liplicious Library (£16 and included in 3 for 2 offer) - 5, 5ml No7 lipglosses in shades Marshmallow, Angel Cake, Caramel, Sweet Peaches and Sherbet Twist for £16 (also on 3 for 2 currently)! Perfect for the pouts of your loved one(s) and the colour selection is great too - there's a gloss for almost every occasion in there.

17:

17 Large Eye Palette (£10 and in 3 for 2 offer): - A great palette containing both day and night appropriate shades all in a slim case (not always a fan of cardboard casing, but a lot of brands are using it these days, so I won't moan about it throughout as that would get tedious)! The DAY shades included in the set are: Limited Edition Green, Medium Purple, Light Pink, Orange and Pink and the NIGHT shades include - Limited Edition Bronze, Dark Purple, Grey, Light Blue, Dark Blue (5g of each selection, 10g total). I had swatched these, but the photographs broke somehow - will try to redo on another post as soon as possible.


Strictly Come Dancing:

The Eye Colour Collection (£16 and included in 3 for 2 offer) - I think this set encompasses everything that Christmas is, shimmer, shine and glitter with double ended eyeliners (including glitter options), gold, silver and bronze chunky pencils, mascara and normal eyeliner pencils too. Again, a lot of the swatch photographs I took are with the ones that broke,but I did salvage this one from the chunky pencils.

Strictly Latin Lookbook (£10, and also included in the 3 for 2 offer): Another multi product gift set, containing eyeshadow, pressed powder, and lip glosses. I love that this comes with a pull out section with hints and tips on how to get the look. Bargain.

PR Samples - Views and extensive last minute gift shopping knowledge are my own!

Boots 'Better Than Half Price' Offer Of The Week - Protect & Perfect Intense Collection!

Christmas is coming and Boots are in full swing with their gift of the week promotion, this week they're selling a No7 Protect & Perfect Intense collection, a set that comprises of:

Protect & Perfect Intense Day Cream 50ml (RRP £22)
Protect & Perfect Intense Night Cream 50ml (RRP £23)
Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum 30ml (RRP £21)
Protect & Perfect Intense Body 200ml (RRP £27)

So, individually these products would cost you £93, but Boots currently have it on sale for £45, which is a £45 saving.

This would make a lovely present (if you know people like my mum, who love to receive skincare and make-up for Christmas) or even for yourself, whether you already use this regime, or just fancy trying it out for the first time!

Boots Site!

Swatches: No7 High Shine Lipgloss - Smile!

I got this lip gloss in a gift with purchase set quite a while ago but have only just got around to using it. I quite like it, it’s not a bright gloss – it’s actually rather sheer, but it’s great for daywear when you don’t want to rock a strong lip.

The gloss comes with a brush instead of the usual sponge-type applicator, which I quite like.

They say:

"A collagen boosting, moisturising gloss that glides on for voluptuous smoothing shine. With vitamins that protect and care."

I do find it to be quite smoothing (even on slightly dry lips), although not a miracle worker... it’s still a nice finish all the same. I have always liked glosses, I like the fullness they give to my lips – and this one is no different, but I am currently redeveloping my love for lipsticks lately, it has to be said.

Anyway, I’m still contemplating having some kind of permanent makeup on my lips to even them out (as I feel they’re slightly wonky) so it’s not going to make me call off the search (Wahanda and Groupon are my best friends, currently), even though I do get the illusion of them being fuller with this.

New No7 Exquisite Curl Mascara!

I’ve been very lucky to be given the chance to test out No7’s new, not even released yet Exquisite Curl Mascara, and I was very excited to do so as I love love love their Exceptional Definition Mascara.


The blurb says:

“The aptly named Exquisite Curl Mascara has a curved brush, tailored to enhance curl and volume. The unique formula with curl-setting polymer helps keep lashes lifted throughout the day. The result? It curls lashes by up to 90 degrees. Eyes look more open and lashes extended from root to tip – get ready to va va voom!

Available in Black and Brown/Black.

“This mascara gives a lift to the lashes for a wide open-eyed look. The bend in the brush helps to manipulate the lashes in to place and get a good coating at the roots.”

Lisa Eldridge, No7 make-up artist and creative director”

I say:

I absolutely loved using this mascara, I could easily get away with just one coat (without my Clinique lash primer) and still get a fantastic curl – in fact I was so pleased with the curl that I’ve been able to stop using my heated eyelash curlers when using this product as the curl really is defined and it stays put – great for when you’re in a rush, or running late (like I usually am). Apparently this is down to 2 things, the first being the obvious curved brush which has been designed to enhance, curl and create volume; the second thing is a curl setting polymer that helps the curl to stay put all day long. Whatever it is, it works.

I had difficulty getting huge amounts of volume from the one coat, in fact I found that it actually gave more length than volume on my lashes (which isn’t bad, as who doesn’t want longer looking lashes?) but I did find that 2-3 coats gave a better volume.

The mascara consistency is quite thick, which I thought may cause a problem with coating the lashes, and also clumping but honestly there was hardly any – I think this was down to the brush being quite full and bristle-y (see below). I did need to work the lashes from the second coat to keep them separated, but this is quite the norm for me with most mascara to be honest!

I’ve already mentioned the staying power of the curl, but felt I should also mention that I was very impressed with the staying power of the mascara itself, again, without the use of any primer (to make it a fair test based purely on the mascara, not additional products giving it extra help). I don’t think it’s waterproof, but I do think that it’s as good as you’ll get without it being so, for staying power.

Once I have my brows threaded (on Friday), I’ll put up a before and after mascara shot to show you the full effect I got with it – I’m too embarrassed to show you right now as they’re in a sorry state (due to me putting my back out, and also being ill) and that just wouldn’t be right for the first ever viewing of my eyes on here, haha!

The mascara goes on sale on the 26th January and will cost £13.00 for 7ml of product – I’d be more than happy to pay this, and will actually do so when this tube runs out.

http://www.boots.com/en/No7-Exquisite-Curl-mascara_1161016/

The Beauty Scoop Christmas Gift Guide 2010 - Part 1!

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find myself at a loss as to what to buy my loved ones for Christmas. Now I know it’s the thought that counts, but I like buying gifts that are loved and actually used by the person I buy them for; not just given a polite acknowledgement and then stuffed to the back of the cupboard, waiting to be recycled into a present for somebody else because they secretly hate it!

I’ve decided to give a little run down of items, to suit all budgets that I think anybody would love to receive over Christmas; from stocking fillers to main presents I hope to give you a little inspiration from both the products that I have been using and loving and those that I would still love to receive in my present pile this Christmas!

Aveda have some utterly fabulous gifts available, and if you (or your intended recipient) haven’t had chance to try Aveda products then now is a great time to do so! Their Ritual of Repair gift set (£49) comes complete with Damage Remedy Shampoo, Conditioner, Intensive Treatment, Daily Hair Repair and Tagua Hair Band – it also has a £28 saving on the individual retail prices of the products included.

Burts Bees – Get lovely lips for kissing under the mistletoe with this fantastic Burt’s Bees ‘Lip Balm Tin Ornament’ (£9.99) that has 3 of their fabulous lip balms (Beeswax Lip Balm, Replenishing Lip Balm in Pomegranate and Honey Lip Balm) packaged in a metal tin that can be reused – so it’s also great for the environment too.

Clinique have a selection of gifts available, from candles to skincare, they’ve got it all. Two gifts of note (ie that I would love to receive) are:

Laser Focus Repair Gift Set (£50, shown above), a silver travel bag containing Repairwear Laser Focus Wrinkle & UV Damage Corrector (30ml), Youth Surge SPF 15 Age Decelerating Moisturiser (in dry/combination) 15ml and Repairwear Intensive Eye Cream 7ml.

Pretty Day Into Night Looks Gift Set (£38), a gorgeous pink bag containing a Round Compact with 4 Eyeshadows & 2 Powder Blush Shades, High Impact Mascara 4g in Black, Double-Ended Lipstick in Different Grape 1.3g/Long Last Glosswear SPF15 in Bamboo Pink 4.5ml, Cream Shaper For Eyes in Starry Plum 1.1g and All About Eyes 15ml.

Dermalogica products would be a lovely gift for anybody who likes to look after their skin as Dermalogica, in my opinion are still one of the best skin care brands around (I thoroughly recommend that you try their PreCleanse if nothing else as it's suitable for all skin types, review coming soon to the blog). You may not be able to keep this one a secret as a skin mapping session is always recommended to find out the best products for your skin but you could actually make that part of the present if you were to pay for a facial too.

A Denman Brush (approximately £7) – If you want to give a gift that will just keep on giving then one of these bad boys would be great, they look fab and are built to last. There’s an assortment of great designs available (I’ve shown just a few of them here) and you just know they’ll be used as everybody brushes their hair, right?!

Elemis have a fabulous range of gift sets available, many of them offering a saving off the RRP of the individual products which is a winner to me. I especially like the Exotic Spa Secrets gift box (£49.50), which contains 3 full sized products including: Skin Nourishing Milk Bath, Exotic Frangipani Monoi Bath & Shower Cream and Exotic Frangipani Monoi Moisture Melt and offers a £38 saving from the usual retail price of each item. Other Elemis gift sets that are worth considering are: Elemis Skin Brilliance, Elemis Perfect Pro-Collagen and Elemis Timeless Radiance.

Front Cover Cosmetics have a selection of gift sets available but the one that stands right out for me is their Moonlit Metals set (£16, swatched here), as I think that the colours contained in it would suit most people -plus it also offers such fantastic value, is on trend and generally just looks like a nice present to give/receive (and is easy to wrap too)!

Molton Browns’ gifts are to die for. Their Treasure Island (£65) and Colour Purple (£42, shown above) gifts immediately caught my eye. The Treasure Island gift includes Heavenly Gingerlily Moisture Bath & Shower Gel, Body Cream, Shimmer Fragrance and Airlight. I haven’t had the pleasure of smelling this set but it sounds beautiful. The Colour Purple set contains Relaxing Yuan Zhi Bath & Shower Gel, Body Cream and Airlight - and might I add, smells divine.

No7 have some beautiful gifts and palettes available right now, I've recently swatched their Precious Metals Mini Nail Polish set (£8) here, and their Limited Edition MirrorBall Eye Palette (£12.50) here but there are so many other gorgeous gifts and fantastic products available (to suit all budgets) that I really do think that it's worth looking to the brand for both stocking fillers and main presents alike.

OPI's Burlesque range is causing quite a stir because it includes a great range of polishes, that all have a Christmassy feel (in my opinion) and I feel would be well received by most people as a gift for Christmas. If you didn’t want to buy them individually, there are gift sets available such as their Little Teasers Mini Lacquers Gift Set (available for around £12.15 online).

Better still QVC have a brilliant set available (shown above). For just £34.10 plus postage (this is an introductory price and could end anytime and go back to the usual price of £37.50) you can get a super gift box which includes: Original Nail Envy (15ml), Avoplex High Intensity Hand & Nail Cream (50ml), OPI Crystal Nail File, Bring on the Bling Lacquer (15ml), Tease-y Does It Lacquer (15ml), Let Me Entertain You Lacquer (15ml) and a mini cuticle stick. Bear in mind that the polishes alone usually retail for £9.95 each and you can see what good value this gift set is – and the person you’re buying for will think you’ve spent even more on them!

Perfumes or perfume gift sets are a safe bet for most people, I’m currently loving Paco Rabanne; in particular their ‘Lady Million’ and ‘Black XS’ fragrances. Other perfumes worth checking out are Viktor & Rolf’s ‘Flowerbomb’, Armani ‘Code’, Marc Jacobs ‘Daisy’ and/or ‘Lola’ and Nina Ricci’s ‘Nina’.

Talking of perfume, Penhaligon's have some beautiful gifts available (as well as some stunning standalone perfumes) a few gifts of note are: the Crystal ‘Bullet’ Atomiser (in Amethyst £120), the Ladies Fragrance collection (£32) which includes 5 miniature 5ml bottles in a lovely bow-topped gift box, and their Votive Candle Collection (£45) which includes 4 miniature (70g) scented glass candles.

Sisley has a fantastic new autumn/winter makeup collection that may just hold a few potential gifts within it. Shown above, the collection contains 10 pieces – all of which I’d be happy to own. If the makeup collection doesn’t grab you then maybe a piece of their award winning skincare range may be more to your taste? After all, who doesn’t want to take care of their skin?!

Sleek palettes (£5.99 each) are cheap in price but fantastic in quality, there’s also a decent amount of palettes for you to choose from so you can be sure there’ll be something there to suit anybody you’re buying for. They’re currently on 3 for 2 at Superdrug, making them even cheaper – in fact if you have a secret santa present to buy then this could be a perfect purchase – much better than socks anyway!

Urban Decay’s Naked Palette (around £27) is bound to be a hit, you can’t really go wrong with neutrals as they suit everybody and this palette is currently one of the best to be had.

Anyway, this rounds up my first gift guide - I hope you've found it useful and maybe solved a few gift dilemmas too!

Swatches: No7 Limited Edition Christmas 2010 MirrorBall Eye Palette!

Another set of swatches, this time it’s the No7 Limited Edition MirrorBall Eye Palette which contains 4 shimmering eye shadows.

I love the shimmery effect of the shadows, and 3 of the colours are perfect for me... but I’m not a big wearer of light blue eye shadow, at least as a main colour; it just doesn’t suit me but I’m thinking maybe I could use it in conjunction with a darker blue – what do you think??

With flash (both with and without day lamp, sorry I mixed them up):

 

My mum has been eyeing mine up, she’s just like me – a magpie, anything that sparkles and she’s straight on it! The shimmer actually seems to be made up of very, very fine glitter particles which give the glistening, rather than glittery finished effect – I really like this, but I’m not sure my camera has caught it very well.

No flash:

No flash (day lamp):

Pigmentation is fine, it’s easy to build up the colour you want to give the effect you’re going for; it’s just a lovely little compact that I think most people would be happy to receive on Christmas day and at £12.50 it won’t bankrupt you.

Swatches: Boots No7 'Precious Metals' Mini Nail Polish Set!

Part of the No7 limited edition Christmas range this year is a mini set of nail polishes. They’re 4mls each and there are 4 in the set. I am so impressed with the colours, they are amazing; they do need a few coats to get good coverage (copper and gold especially) but they do apply nicely, not quite on par with Essie but still great for the money.

I've posted a lot of similar pictures due to slight different angles/light showing the details in the polishes (especially the black and copper) and how they look against different backgrounds, so apologies for how picture-heavy the post is. 

Without Flash:

 

 

It’s a real shame they’re only mini bottles as I would happily buy full sized ones of at least 2 of them (but most likely all of them) individually or a gift pack containing them all as full sized products.

My opinion on each of the colours:

Gold – This is a real classy gold – not at all brash and with a satiny metallic effect.

Copper – Love this, it’s also got a slight satiny effect but also has shimmer included which emphasises the metallic finish. The copper colour is also very flattering to skin, something I didn’t think it would be. I’ve been pleasantly surprised here.

Black with gold shimmer – Possibly one of my favourite colours, the black works so well with the gold flecks, they reflect the light beautifully and the black provides the perfect background for them to stand out against.

Deep red-purple – This is the one shade that confused me with this set, as I can’t see the metal reference; am I missing something here? Anyway the colour is lovely regardless of its link to the metal theme. It is almost an exact dupe (but seems a touch darker) against my Essie Velvet Voyeur (autumn 2010 collection) polish.

With Flash:

Anyway, they’re £8 for the set from Boots stores and also online, however they are currently out of stock on the boots.com website; and there appears to be 2 choices of colour available, precious metals as shown here and smoky jewels ('swatch' below from boots website).

This set is perfect for a stocking filler gift, or even a secret santa – but is even more perfect if you want to keep them all to yourself (I don’t blame you at all for this decision).