Lip Sync- The Winter Edit

Hi all,

At this time of year probably more than any other, I tend to go through an awful lot of lip products, and I have had to go through a number to find ones that actually work for me in the winter, as I have very dry lips and am also prone to cold sores.

At the top of the picture is my trusty Sexy Mother Pucker Gloss Stick from Soap and Glory, this one is in the shade Raplumzel, which is a lovely plum shade that isn’t too intense, so would suit most skin tones. As it is pencil shaped, you can also use it as a lip liner if you wanted to, with a plum coloured lipstick. This is beautifully moisturising, and with it’s 3D colour technology, even if your lips are a little dry to begin with, it fills them out. I also have this in the shade Bashful, which is a pretty pink/nude shade which is perfect if you prefer a more natural lip.

Underneath on the picture above, I have shown my favourite lip colour from my ‘Fall Favourites’- the Revlon Lip Butter in the shade Berry Smoothie. It’s my go-to lip product at this time of year as it is most like a tinted lip balm and lasts for ages without drying at all. There are a lot of different shades, however I tend to find that the others are too dark for a daytime look. You can pick both this and the Soap and Glory Lip Gloss up in Boots for around £8.

Bottom left on the image above is my favourite lip balm, the Nivea Lip Butter. I have one of these in most of my handbags and coat pockets, as well as the unscented ‘Original’ formula by my bed. Just one swipe of these will sort out my dry lips in a few minutes, and the formula is gentle enough that I can also rub it onto my cold sores if I have them, to stop them cracking. As I really do not rate Vaseline, I find these are a brilliant alternative and are about the same in price- approximately £2 from most supermarkets and drugstores.

Next to this is one of the Top Shop lipsticks, which are my favourite lipsticks of all time. I have been told that they are actually made in the same place as Mac lipsticks, from the same formula (but don’t quote me on that!). Both colours that I own have now been discontinued, a nude shade (which is perhaps too nude for my lips!) and a beautiful bright pink that compliments a brown smokey eye beautifully. The formula can be a little drying, but the colour payoff is amazing and there is no reason why you can’t pop a swipe of lip balm over the top. For only £8 compared to Mac’s £16 they are an absolute steal.

Finally we have Lucas’ Paw Paw Ointment, which is expensive to get your hands on (£8+shipping) as it is made in Australia, however it is worth every penny. I use this on dry lips, cold sores, dry elbows, sore noses after a cold, eyebrows to keep them in place, grazes scrapes, blisters… It’s a wonder product. You can get Paw Paw Ointment in Urban Outfitters, however it is not the same formula as this and I don’t believe works as well, although the pink one is very pretty as a cheek and lip tint.

So there you go, my favourite lip products for the winter all in one post, perhaps you could grab some of these with your vouchers after Christmas and store them away until next year!

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas!

Until next time,

B xoxo

Tis the season…

Hi all,

If of course you do not celebrate Christmas, or any holiday at this time of year, please feel free to ignore this post, however I think you might enjoy its message all the same.

Christmas in my family has always been the time of year that, regardless of what has been going on, we have all gotten together as a family and had an amazing time. I’m not going to sit and preach about the ‘Perfect Christmas,’ because I honestly think that the lack of perfection is what makes all of those amazing Christmas memories that you will talk about for years to come. Whether that is the time the power went out everywhere except the kitchen, the time that you fell out over the use of proper nouns in Scrabble (you’re totally not allowed to do that are you?!) or the time that everyone thought someone else had bought the turkey (not my family but still funny). There is so much emphasis, probably due to the influx of Christmas movies depicting perfect days with enormous trees and an immaculate blanket of snow, on having this perfect day when everyone gets precisely what they want and no one forgot to buy batteries. Christmas mornings in my house always revolved around my poor siblings putting together whatever my parents had bought me for Christmas, or waiting for my sister to come home from work so that we could do presents. I think that we have all forgotten that Christmas is about being with your family and/or friends and having a lovely day, with far too much food (because if your mother is anything like mine, she will be determined not to shop until at least the 27th), and good company. Be grateful that you have a family to spend time with, a home to be in, and food to eat. Try not to throw things at Great Aunty M when she mishears every word you say, yet demonstrates a remarkable knowledge of rhyming words. Store them up for your Scrabble games later.

I hope that you all have a wonderful day with your family and friends tomorrow, and that you continue to enjoy the season beyond that, I know that families can’t all be together on the 25th and so often have second celebrations. Enjoy them all, and even if you don’t get butterflies in your tummy when you wake up and realise that it’s the 25th, rejoice in everything you have. Thank you all who are reading this, and for all those who regularly read my ramblings, and I hope to have many more coming your way very soon.

Happy holidays to all and don’t forget, if you forgot to buy something for someone, a ‘so sorry, I didn’t realise that we were exchanging gifts this year, let me take you out to the movies/dinner/for a spa day in the new year,’ goes a really long way!

Until next time,

B xoxo

Adventures with B-Edinburgh Christmas Market 2014

Hi all,

So today I thought I would try something a little different, I haven’t tended to share my more personal experiences on account of my day job (I work in a school and don’t like to make much stuff public!) However, seeing as it is almost Christmas (10 days, eek!) I thought that some people may be looking for a little festive spirit and where better to get it than some Christmas markets! I normally go to Manchester Christmas Market, however work sent me up to Edinburgh at the end of November (Black Friday to be precise… more on that later!) and so my friend from work and I decided to try out Edinburgh’s Christmas Market for ourselves.

The ‘Edinburgh Eye’, put up especially for the markets. Sadly it was foggy all weekend!

We took the train up on Friday afternoon and went to check into our B&B, which was the Gilmore Guest House about 15 minutes walk from Princes Street. It was a very basic room, and unfortunately our shower was out of order (which to their credit we were compensated for), however there was a communal shower on our floor. After dumping our bags and changing into cosier clothes, we head for Princes Street, which is the main shopping street outside the train station. Here we spent a bit of time mooching around the Black Friday sales, from which we came away with mittens and DVDs. Hard core shoppers we are not. By this time the market was quiet, and we got a good chance to wander round the stalls. There were a few hand craft stalls, with items such as Russian Nesting Dolls on them, there were LOTS of food stalls (we had an Aberdeen Angus burger a piece…amazing!), the usual sorts of fudge and mulled wine stalls, and some lovely knitwear stalls. As the market doesn’t shut until 10pm, it was worth going at 8.30pm(ish), as we missed most of the crowds and definitely most of the children!

At the bottom of the market we found… a Christmas Tree Maze. Now we may have been in our 20s but that did not stop us returning the following night to take part. There was also a lovely play park area for children, which I’m sure my nieces and nephews would have adored had I taken them with me. All of these things are paid for activities.

The Christmas Tree maze all lit up at night (this picture does not do it justice!)

On Saturday we got up nice and early and headed into town for some brunch. We stopped at The Filling Station, which is one of my favourite places to eat in Edinburgh. It is located on Rose Street, which is right behind Princes Street and filled with bars and restaurants (and the odd tartan shop). Although we waited 45 minutes for our food due to the morning rush, we went away without having to pay a penny, which certainly was a fantastic start to our day. We spent the day wandering Edinburgh, due to how busy it was, we avoided the main shopping areas and instead took ourselves up to The Elephant House, which is known as the ‘Birthplace of Harry Potter.’ I love this coffee shop as the cakes and coffee are delicious, as well as being reasonably priced, and I have to say there is something a little bit exciting about being sat in a place you know one of your favourite authors has been. For the full Elephant House experience, make sure you take a trip to the bathroom. No, really.

Following our refuel of coffee and cake, we went to the graveyard behind the Elephant House to find the graves of ‘Riddell’ and ‘McGonagall’, which are two names well known to Potter fans. From the graveyard you can also see the boarding school that inspired JK. Although we didn’t visit any of them on this day, I know from previous visits that there are some wonderful vintage and gift shops in this area, it is definitely somewhere worth exploring.

The night time view of the city.

On our return to Princes Street, we booked ourselves a table at a restaurant ready for supper,which is something really worth doing because everywhere is so busy around Princes Street. There are lots of lovely places, but we chose a Mexican restaurant called Chiquitos- I absolutely love their flatbreads, especially the goats cheese and roasted vegetables, and their sweet potato fries. It is also really reasonably priced in my opinion.

A beautiful tree found in a garden on Rose Street.

Sunday was unfortunately St Andrew’s Day, which made for a VERY busy Edinburgh. My friend and I sought refuge on George Street, which is behind Rose Street, where all the high end high street stores such as Joules and Cath Kidston are. We spent a lot of time in Paperchase, which is dressed as a modern store, but if you look up you can see all the old painted walls and beams, it’s really rather beautiful. We then found that Waterstones two doors down had a little Costa, and went in there to find coffee and have a peruse of the books. It was here that I made the exciting discovery of a signed book by one of my favourite authors, Anthony Horowitz. After chatting to a sales assistant, I found out that authors quite often sign some of their books in bookshops, as a little surprise for their fans- so keep an eye out folks!

At the bottom of George Street there was another section to the Christmas market, with a stall doing fandom based jewellery and watches, plus lots more food stalls, a helter skelter and a pretty amazing looking ice rink. I cannot stand ice skating (why I would spend all  that money for a wet bottom and a bruised ego I shall never understand!), however if you went over the top of the skating rink, there was a nice bar from which you could watch your friends and the general public. There were a lot more seating areas here, with picnic tables so you could sit down and enjoy a cuppa and a mince pie, which was a lovely idea.

A beautifully decorated hotel on George Street- it was even fake snowing in the foyer!

All in all, it really was a lovely weekend and definitely one for the memory books, however I think that if the market is your main focus of a visit, Edinburgh probably wasn’t the place for it. The atmosphere was wonderful and so were all of the people, however there wasn’t much shopping to be done on the stalls, which is one of the main reasons I love Manchester- there are all sorts of unusual gifts to be had! I hope you enjoyed this little insight into my life, and I shall be back very soon. If you enjoy this sort of post please let me know, and I will try and do as many as my job allows.

Until next time,

B xoxo

My signed copy of Moriarty!