Christmas Presents to Myself...

Hello!

So this month marks one year since I became so depressed that I was actually pretty sure that I wouldn't see the New Year. I was in the middle of a breakdown fuelled by too much work, an emotionally and mentally abusive relationship (as told to me by various friends/therapists) with someone who either didn't care or couldn't care about how I was feeling which made me feel worthless and unlovable and by me constantly putting myself down because of these feelings. This year I'm feeling SO much better about life and myself and consequently I have been treating myself a lot more than I did last year. This is also helped by the fact that I am single for the first Christmas in 3 years so have much more money to myself too! I'm not saying that I spent loads of money on my ex but I'm a pretty thoughtful gift giver (and I'm pretty bad at sticking to budgets I set myself for people!) and spent a lot of money on things like building him his own Zombie Survival box from scratch (the one gift I thought about asking for back as it was damn cool! Haha!) and his very own manly beauty box full of 40 items of manly skincare etc. When you factor in how much I used to spend on him I now have lots of extra money to spend on awesome things for myself! (not the only reason I'm glad to be single I promise....although it's a pretty big bonus! Haha!) The last few months have been a pretty big change around for me too....not only have I finally managed to let go of any feelings (love, anger, hate etc) to do with my ex (it's weird to be talking to a friend one day and realise that you feel nothing anymore!) but I've also started flirting with lots of men because I can and I want to! It's not led to any grand romances yet or anything but it's nice to feel like someone likes you for you and that they find you attractive too! A nice ego boost for me after the last few years that's for sure! I've also been able to focus on my work to really make my counter my own little baby but I've also been able to balance work and home life. I may have overtime to take but that doesn't mean I should push myself and work 10 days in a row. Everyone deserves a day off to chill out and you should take it when you can!! Anyway, let's get on with the gifts I've given myself over the last couple of months.....(I'm going to point out right now that not all of these were paid for by me. Some were gifts but I've included them because they're all things I would've brought anyway! Also included are the samples that I've had from work too....it's like buying new things without having to actually buy anything!)

So as you can tell by the socks poking out at the bottom of the photo, I had to stand up to take a picture of everything! Oops....

So first up is this Soap and Glory Girl O'Whirl set. I brought this when it was the Boots star gift and was £19.99. I've been lusting after the S&G highlighter for ages and for some reason thought that buying this would be a good idea instead of buying the highlighter by itself.....I mean....£8 extra and you get all of this?! Great offer!....except I probably won't use the rest of it really...I love the teal blue eyeshadow and the bronzer highlighter too but the rest probably won't get much use...hmm...probably not the best investment but I love it none the less! It's handy to have it in such big packaging too because I'm always putting my highlighters somewhere safe and then forgetting where I've put them! So this is going to be quite tough to lose this one somewhere safe!

Next up is the Lancome Christmas Beauty Box. I literally brought this for the blush trio. I'll be doing a full post on this soon so you can see it in full! This is £50 when you spend over £30 on your local Lancome counter (if they have any left...) and as I was buying my Sister her main Christmas gift on the counter in store my friend on Lancome convinced me to get this! I'd been eyeing it up for ages any way so it wasn't exactly tough to get me to buy it...plus it was 15% off....then I had my staff discount on top of that...and then I had £5 on my beauty card too so it only cost me £29!!! That's cheaper than buying the blush trio on it's own. I must admit that I won't use the skincare because I have my BM stuff and I gave the lovely eye shadow palette to a friend at work BUT....I will use the rest and it's always handy to have a back up eye makeup remover! Plus the red vanity case is beautiful! Justified right??

Here is my Lancome Highlighter (don't judge me...) and the freebies that I got with various purchases on Lancome. The makeup bags were from the gift with purchase a while back and contain 2 eyeshadow brushes of beautiful quality. The full size color fever lipgloss was awarded to me at work for helping out on an unmanned counter (at the time) which isn't my job, but it wasn't exactly busy so I didn't mind putting out their Christmas stuff....and then to be given a full size ex-free gift lipgloss for the trouble was a bonus and a half!  

Perfume wise, my neighbour gave me the full size Superdrug Precious Woman 50ml EDT as a gift for helping her out. It smells almost identical to Dior's Hypnotic Poison! The Armani Si was a gift from a woman at work. It came with the free gift of the two mini bottles, each 4ml, and it smells amazing! I love it!

Ah nail polish...my greatest weakness! Sally Hansen Insta-Dri is a repurchase and a backup in case my current one runs out over Christmas. The Clinique set I brought a while ago because I love Clinique nail polishes....and because they had a free gift at the time too! I'm easily swayed! I went a bit mad with No7's new nail polish range recently as you can see! Again, GWP swayed me when buying a few of them... The Barry M one was just too pretty to pass up and the Nails Inc one was free with a magazine last month (I have a free Orly one too but couldn't find it in time for taking photos)

I brought the Clinique brush cleaner because apparently that's my new obsession...my Dior one hasn't even run out yet! It's really good though and will last ages...so there's that... All the bits next to it are bits that were in the two GWP that I got....and a few samples that I signed out too (thanks Clinique ladies for being so lovely!) I was excited to try a Chubby Stick and the blush (in the silver palette) looks pretty too!

Ah Dior Lipsticks....my favourite! When Rouge Dior were relaunched I was excited for the new colours and wasn't disappointed! I went straight for 671 as it's stunning....and bright pink obviously! The formula is much better than the old one and they last longer too. I also have 999 which is a bright red, gifted to me by a friend....along with the lip liner and a mini version of the lipstick too! I also got a mini version of one of the Addict lipglosses too when I brought the lipstick a while back.

The Estee Lauder eyeshadow trio is so so pretty! I'll be doing a full post on it soon too! The other bits are from the GWP but without the skincare as I'm allergic to it so passed it on to a friend.

All these Clarins bits are samples. A couple were in a goody bag from our Gala night that my Mum came to and the other 4 were given to me by the girl who works on Clarins when I brought the Lancome stuff. The bronzing duo is so cute!!

Ah....Seventeen! How I've fallen in love with you all over again! I had some vouchers to get a few bits half price and went a bit crazy with the Seventeen stand (plus Boots had a points offer on at the time too so that helped!) The 2 Stay Pout lipsticks and the Lip Lustre gloss are still sealed whilst I decide if I want to keep them or if I want to give them as gifts! It's a tough choice!! The Brow's That was a free gift when you brought 2 items and I'm almost at the end of my old brow kit so that was handy! It's a really nice set and a full review will be coming soon (so many reviews to do!!) I may have picked up another one for a giveaway I may or may not be having in the future....

I've been looking at the Rouge Edition lipsticks by Bourjois for a while now and, yet again, I grabbed the bright pink when they were on GWP. I picked up the eyeliner with the eraser bit on the end because it looked interesting and I don't have that kind of liquid liner in my ridiculous stash of eyeliners! The GWP is so pretty but again, a few bits might be popped into my up coming giveaway...

Here's my random stash....The Mac highlighter was a gift from a friend. She used to work for Estee Lauder and went on training in London and to the staff store....I asked her to pick me up the Lightscapade if it happened to be in there but it wasn't....but she asked a guy who she was on training with and he suggested this instead. It's beautiful!!! I haven't used it yet because I'm waiting for a special occasion (I'll be using it this Thursday!) The bareMinerals palette was my Christmas gift from them. I was very excited to see this in the jiffy bag from them as it's my favourite palette from this year! The Lauder brush was a gift from my friend who now doesn't work for them. It was to say thank you for all my help over the last year and a half. Such a lovely lady! (She now works on fragrance so is even closer to my counter so we can chat lots!) L'Occitane hand cream was free with a magazine and the No7 stuff was in GWP's, except the lash glue which I thought I'd try.

Perfume samples of my two favourite Marc Jacobs perfumes are always handy to have. A beautiful ring i spotted in Boots whilst in the queue...can anyone say "impulse purchase"?! I have brought lots of earrings too but I don't know which ones so I haven't included them. On the subject of earrings does anyone know of any good storage for earrings? I currently have them in a small drawer and they're a mess!

And last but not least, my favourite gift to myself this year! My Man of Steel limited edition numbered Blu-Ray set. It cost me a bit more than I would have paid normally for this film as I really disliked it and will most likely never watch the film again....buuuut...I bloody love Superman and this is the coolest limited edition case I've ever come across! I mean, my Dark Knight Rises one was pretty epic but this one is just.....well it's just beautiful.

So how bad am I for buying gifts for myself at this time of year?? Anything there that you're interested in or want a full review on? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time,

xoxo

P.S With all the Boots purchases I've racked up a fair few points (helped with their £12 points bonus a while back...) but is it just me who is saving them up for after Christmas to pick up a bunch of bargains in the sale?? Can't wait!!