The week that was...

Once again it's been a while since my last post and a lot has happened!

I bought a new car and sold my old one! My new car used to be a police car so it needed an aerial and a new radio which is turning out to be a pain to get fitted as when they took out the police radio they cut one set of wires too short so it needs new ones and then the aerial wire is missing somewhere! It's getting sorted on saturday but it means all week without a radio which will be fun on my hours drive to work!

I also finally got my tax back, almost £700 which as nice!

I'm also doing some christmas crafting including making gift bags and I'm now planning on doing some simple but stylish cards, I'll post photos when complete!

And I got an interview for a job! It's still working in the same city but at another hospital which is easier to get to and would save me a minimum of 30 mins travelling each way. My interview is on friday so I just have to ask for the day off now.

Oooo and also this evening I received an email from HMV saying my Harry Potter DVD has been dispatched! So excited as I didn't see the film at the cinema!

Hope you've all had a good few weeks!

Reminders

Cetaphil giveaway - win 1 of 5 bottles

Blog sale

Christmas gift ideas: £31 - £50

My christmas gift ideas this week are all priced from £31 to £50.

ASOS

Nars Love Thrill gift set - £45

Ren rose bath gift set - £45

House of Fraser

Molten Brown Kaleidoscope giftset - £36

Laura Mercier creme brulee trio gift set - £50

Debenhams

Urban Decay 15 year anniversary palette - £39

Dior eye palette - £38

Christmas gift ideas: £11 - £30

 This weeks christmas gift ideas are all priced between £11 and £30.

Argos

Baylis and Harding gift set - £19.99

Tesco

Patisserie de Bain bath melts - £21

Naked shower gel gift set - £12

Debenhams

Bliss snow wonder gift set - £29

Betty Jackson mini body care collection - £25

ASOS

Illamasqua lashes and eyeliner - £25

L'Occitane blockbuster set - £25

Hope I've given you all some ideas!

Review - L'occitane limited edition handcreams

I've always been a fan of L'Occitane's handcreams, I got my first one way back five years ago when I bought the huge shea butter one whilst at uni which lasted me about two years using it on and off! I love the shea butter one to use an a more intensive treatment so I mainly use it at night but during the day I like to use a less intense formulation so L'Occitane's scented handcreams are perfect!

In Marie Claires magazine they offered readers a free gift of a new limited edition L'Occitane handcream with every magazine.

L-R: Hibiscus flower, Cocoa flower and Desert Rose.

As you can see I couldn't decide which one to get so I got all three! I thought I'd love the cocoa flower scent but it is really feint and I had no idea what hibiscus would smell like but I love it! It's my favourite by far! The desert rose is also nice, not over the top floral, nice and delicate.

You can also buy these from L'Occitane boutiques along with matching items such as lipgloss and body cream. The handcreams retail at £7.50 each or you can get a giftset for £20.00.

New Batiste Wild!

I was very lucky to receive a surprise parcel on Friday from the lovely people at Batiste!

I got a can of their brand new Wild dry shampoo, a cute leopard keyring and a bag containing Tipsy Feet leopard print shoes! Excuse the streaky fake tanned legs in the photo below!

New Wild dry shampoo is scented with cocoa, floral notes, vanilla, musk and wood base notes and I can confirm it smells gorgeous!

Wild is available exclusively from Boots and is priced at £2.99 for a 200ml can.

Win 1 of 5 Cetaphil cleansers worth £8.99! CLOSED!

I haven't ran a competition for a while now so here is your chance to win 1 of 5 Cetaphil cleansers! I have been sent one of these that I have been using for a week or so and believe that you won't be disappointed if you win one!

So what do you have to do to win?

You MUST live in the UK

You MUST follow my blog with GFC, leave your name in your comment (1 entry)

Leave your email address/Twitter name so you can be contacted if you win!

Extra entres:

Follow my blog using Blog Lovin' (1 entry)

Follow me on Twitter, leave your Twitter name (1 entry)

Tweet about my giveaway, link me @karla8852 in your tweet (1 entry)

Only 1 comment per person please!

Giveaway will end in 3 weeks on the 4th December!

Good Luck!

Christmas gift ideas - £10 and under

Every Friday for the next few weeks I'm going to show a selection of christmas gifts which will suit whatever your budget! All gifts on this post are for £10 and under! There are some really cute gifts and it just proves you don't have to spend a fortune to give a decent gift.

Tesco

Baylis & Harding sock gift set - £5

Naked coco de mer gift set - £10 

Boots

 Soap & Glory you cube gift box - £10

ASOS

Korres tropical holiday set - £10

Models Own beetle juice nail polish set - £10

The Body Shop

Moroccan rose gift cube - £6

Christmas shopping

I've done most of my christmas shopping already, I've just got a few more bits to get but here's what I have bought already.

Asda

 N-Spa shower and bath gels - £5 each (was £6)

Thorntons and Marks and Spencer

 

Thorntons - Cupcake chocolates - £4.99 each (3 for 2)

M&S - Reed diffuser - £15

M&S - Candle - £5 (I got this for £2.50 as a buy one get one half price promotion was running)

Marks and Spencer

Chocolate houses - £4

Mini ginger bread men - £2

Coconut mushrooms - £4

These were on 3 for 2

Primark

T-shirt  £1.50

Jeans - £6

Amazon and other

Home Bargain - Huge bag of Cadbury's caramels - £3.99

Amazon - New Kindle and charger - £89

Poundshop - Kindle screen protector - £1!

So that's my presents for friends, my dad, grandma and my cousins little boy. I know what else I've got to buy I just need to wait for next payday so I can afford them!

Wednesday Wishlist - 6

1. Benefit - Crescent row perfume set (£29.50)

2. Lace Dress with mesh skirt (£60)

3. Nip + Fab Have Your Cake and Eat It (£29.95)

4. OPI Christmas Mini Set (£12.95)

5. Paul & Joe cosmetic bag with travel skincare products (£11)

These are all available at ASOS

Do you know what's in your beauty products?

When you go and buy a new lipstick/shower gel/perfume/face wash what do you look at? Colour, price, brand, or something else? I bet you don't immediately look at the ingredients? No? Me neither, but mainly because they are either scientific gobble-de-gook or you just have no idea what it is. But even if you did know something about an ingredient would you know where it is from? I have done a little bit of investigating in the past and identified two ingredients that I now try to avoid: parabens and SLS, see my previous post here. So what else do your beauty products contain?

Yes we all love our animals but did you know that alot of ingredients in our beloved beauty products are actually Animal by-products? So what should you be looking out for?

Collagen

This is created in our own bodies naturally but it is also created from connective tissue in animals.

Products it's in: Anti-aging products

Gelatin/Agar Agar

Hmmm yes I know what you're probably thinking, isn't that jelly? Well yes it is used in jelly and other food products but it can also be found in your beauty products. It is made from reconstituted animal bones, connective tissue and intestines.

Products it's in: Nail polish remover

Glycerine

Created from animal fat

Products it's in: Soap

Guanine

This is fish scales, usually from herrings, which are used for their pearlescent shimmer

Products it's in: Eyeshadow, blusher

Elastin

Again this is also created naturally by our own bodies but it is also sourced from connective tissue.

Products it's in: Anti-aging products

Keratin

This is a structural protein found in the hair, nails and horns of mammals. 

Products it's in: 

Lanolin

This is excreted from sheep and it is infact sebum, rather like the sebum or oil which is excreted through our own skin, but on a sheep it is from their wool. Sheep are often bred to create more wool to create more sebum. 

Products it's use in: Lipstick

Musk

Derived from the genitals of muskrats, beavers and other animals

Products it's in: Perfume

Silk

Created from the fibre from silk worms

Products it's in: Face powders, soaps

Sponge

Yes natural sponge is as it suggests natural and it was once a living creature.  Sponges live in the sea

Products it's in: Sponge!

Squalane/Squalene

This is mainly sort from sharks but can also be derived from olive oil. As a result deep sea sharks are being greatly overfished for this product.

Products it's in: Oil-free moisturiser

Stearic Acid

Often taken form the stomach of pigs

Products it's in: cosmetics, soaps, hairspray, deodorant

Tallow

This is an animal fat usually obtained from cows. It can also be derived from plant oils but these don't have the same benefits.

Products it's in: soap, lipstick, shaving creams.

Urea

Excreted from urine and other bodily from animals

Products it's in: deodorant, handcreams, body lotions

The week that was...

Wow it's been literally ages since my last week that was post, so a quick round up.

I treated myself to an early christmas present which was an iPad! I've been thinking of getting one for a while and finally bit the bullet!

I got the white one as it matches my iBook laptop and my iMac! Yes I'm a Mac geek!

Also I've been off work this last week and me and my mum went up to Newcastle for 3 days to visit family and to go to the Metro Centre! I did abit of christmas shopping but I don't have many people to buy for this year so I've almost done. I've scheduled a post to show what I've bought so keep an eye out for it.

My DVD player broke this week too. It just kept spinning the disc around and beeping so I've had to buy a new one.

I've also been catching up with blog posts that I haven't read. I had over 500 to sort through and now have a manageable 130 to read! Phew!

I also got a surprise through the post on friday which was a cheque from my grandad for a rather large amount of money which is going to be put towards a new car :-)

Hope you've all been ok oh and let me know which apps you'd recommend for my iPad!

November's Feel Unique beauty box!

This morning I received my second Feel Unique beauty box and here is what I got:

Emma Hardie amazing face cleansing balm

Emma Hardie professional cleansing cloth

Schwarzkoft professional OSIS+ dust it mattifying powder

Xen Tan deep bronze luxe

Goldwell dualsenses ultra volume 60 sec treatment

Bella Piere shimmer powder

Reviews will be up as soon as I've tried these out!

My Money Saving Tips!

With christmas just round the corner we can all do with saving a bit of money so here are some of my top money saving tips that hopefully you'll all find useful:

1. Balance transfer credit cards

If you owe money on your credit cards and you're paying interest on it why not find a card which offers 0% APR on balance transfers. There are a number of good offers out there at the moment and Money Saving Expert contains some great information if you're interested in this. Also a quick snippet of advice, if you do do this then don't spend on your balance transfer card and don't rack up more debts on the card/s you've just cleared.

2. Get loyalty cards

By this I mean a card which rewards you for shopping at a retailer and not a store credit card. These are generally bad unless you pay them off straight away. Loyalty cards such at Boots Advantage Cards, Nectar, Tesco Clubcard, Superdrug Beauty Card, can be great as in effect the shop is paying you for shopping there. Even if you don't shop somewhere regularly still grab a card as it all adds up!

3. Use money back sites

If you do alot of online shopping, lets face it who doesn't, then find a website which offers money back if you shop certain sites through them. Sites include Quidco, Top CashBack, KidStart (this is great if you have kids) and of course Boots Treat Street where you get points to spend in store (only if you have an Advantage Card of course).

4. Recycle your old ink cartridges and gadget

I think we all own printers, have old mobile phones and other gadgets and instead of throwing them away or chucking them in a drawer for years on end recycle them for cash. Tesco and Boots offer ink cartridge recycle in exchange for loyalty card points and sites such as Mazuma and Envirofone offer mobile phone recycling. Boots also offers recycling for mobile phones, sat navs, MP3 players/iPods and digital cameras.

5. Sale shopping

Yes sale shopping can be good because who doesn't like buying something with money off but one thing to remember: don't just buy something because it is cheap. If you do this you just end up wasting money. If you need it then great buy it but if you're just buying it as an impulse sale buy then don't.

6. Save

You don't have to save alot, just start by saving your coppers. I save all my 1p, 2p and 5p's but soon I want to start saving my £2 coins. By doing this you will save up a decent amount of money in no time. Also if you can afford it save 10% of your wages. Generally this is about £80-£100 and if you do this every month in a year you could have saved between £960 and £1200!

7. Ebay you unwanted items

Ebay regularly have free listing weekends which are great for getting rid of your unwanted and unloved items. If you've never Ebayed before then start small but you can make a decent amount of money. Just remember you will have your Ebay seller fees and Paypal fees to take off at the end but still, to steal a phrase, every little helps!

Do you have any money saving tips that you'd recommend? Share them in the comments below!

Review - Thea skincare

A while ago I was sent a couple of products to try from a new organic skincare brand called Thea.

I received a mini pot of rebalance face creme and a mini rebalance foaming face cleanser.

When i first tried the face cream it didn't agree with my skin, it was too thick, but since I've had it my since broke out with awful eczema and it became quite useful having this little pot of cream. It's worked wonders on my dry patches and now they have practically disappeared.

The foaming face cleanser I simply LOVE! It doesn't foam up as much as others, but then again it doesn't contain any of the artificial foaming agents like some other products, but it still had a good lather and left my skin feeling clean & soft.

Both were lightly scented and overall I was really impressed with the products I got to try. Would I buy them again? I would without doubt purchase the cleanser again but I'm not sure I would buy the face cream.

The full sized 150ml cleanser is £15.95 and the full sized 50ml face cream is £22.95 and they are available directly from Thea.

Product use up

This post is a little late this month mainly because I've been rather lack on the blogging front! So how well have I done this month.

This month I've used up 7 items:

Face wipes x2

Deodorant

Make up remover

Hair straightening gel

Face wash

Body wash

Conditioner (not pictured)

How well have you done this month?