Have a Lush Valentines Day || Haul

Happy Valentines Day you beautiful bunch!

Obviously with it being Valentines Day today, I thought it would be nice to share some bits and bobs that I picked up from the Lush Valentines day range because I am a magnet to anything that glitters, sparkles or smells nice!

The first thing I picked up was the giant love locket that left a giant dent in my purse at near enough £7 which I think is pretty expensive for a bath ballistic. However this beauty does redeem itself in the fact that it would do about three baths with its outer shell and also contains another bath ballistic inside it. I am looking forward to using this but not to having to cut it up and separate it. Although I was planning to avoid this one in order to save money, it smelt so beautiful that I just had to pick it up. It has a very sweet vanilla scent but not overpowering, it's a really nice smell.

I also picked up the Unicorn Horn which is so different to anything I've seen Lush do before. It has so many colours in it, pastel colours which obviously drew me in and has sparkles and pretty little stars. This one I'm not entirely sure of what the smell is but I know I wouldn't have bought it for its smell alone, it was definitely the aesthetics that made me fall in love with this one. It's quite a relaxing, herbal, lavender almost earthy smell, definitely not a favourite by scent but it is growing on me slowly but surely.

I was in need of another Lush lip scrub because my bubblegum one has started to taste a little funky because its passed its use by date so instead of buying the same again I thought I would go for something different. In the end I went for The Kiss with it being Valentines and all, this has cute little sprinkles on top and love hearts. I wasn't sure about getting a limited edition one because I really don't like the Christmas Santa lip scrub but I'm hoping this one will be a lot nicer!

The last thing I bought isn't from the Valentines collection but I believe it may be part of the Mothers day collection because I haven't seen it before in the shop is this Ultraviolet bubble bar. It looks a lot like the Comforter or Brightside but in deep purple and blues but it was it's beautiful scent that made me unable to leave the shop without it. Parma violets are one of my favourite sweets from my childhood and this smells exactly like a big packet of parma violets, so like it that if I closed my eyes I'd probably try eat it. This one was nearly £5 but this is massive so you could definitely get four baths out of this and I'm so excited to see what colour the water goes with this one.

Have you tried anything from Lushes Valentines collection? What are you doing this Valentines? Me and Gary are just going out for a nice meal, then out for some drinks before coming home to watch a movie and have snuggles with the pup. Hope you all have a lovely night whatever you're doing! 

Lots of Love,

♥

Valentines Day Ideas

Last year, a month into blogging, I shared with you all a few cute, cheap and personal Valentines Day ideas so that you can get some inspiration if you're stuck with what to buy etc. However, back then I didn't even have a quarter of the followers that I do now so I thought I would link them within this post so you all can benefit from these posts too. 

I did plan on posting some new Valentines Day ideas this year too but I'm not very organised at the moment and I've been struck down with some horrible flu/virus thing. This has been the first day I've actually been able to open my laptop in a few days so everythings running a bit behind so I think realistically I'd be better just sharing my old ones with you guys!! However, I have a few days to myself where I don't need to be anywhere or do anything so I can lie in bed, rest and hopefully do some work without feeling guilty that I'm missing things.

♥ Kinder Egg Surprise

♥ Cute 52 Reasons Why I Love You Cards

Please let me know what you think of them, I'm really gutted that I've used them both last year so I'm going to have to try think of some new ideas for Gary this year!

Lots of Love,

♥

My Valentines Day 2014

Hellooo my lovelies,

I hope you all had a really amazing Valentines Day! I actually had a blog post scheduled to go up of Valentines Day outfits but annoyingly it didn't post so I'm assuming nobody will really want to see it now?? Anywaaay this Valentines Day I was a very lucky girl and Gary (my boyfriend) took me away to a five star hotel in Glasgow which is about an hours train from where we live and we also went for food and cocktails! When I came back there was gorgeous red roses waiting for me at my house with an adorable note so I have been well and truly spoilt this year! I took some pictures of the hotel and the roses so I thought it would be nice to share it with you. (photo-heavy post oncoming)

Fried Egg hearts for breakfast (chef Abby)

Nutella Cake that I made Gary

Long train journey essentials are obviously Company, Cosmopolitan and Millies cookies (yum, yum, yum!)

 How amazing does this bed look?! I tell you I've never had a comfier nights sleep and I fell asleep as soon as I got in (could have been down to the numerous cocktails...). It's so beautiful aswell I honestly just wanted to move in and never ever leave!

Cute little desk

 Our room had a gorgeous bay window which looked out to an unfortunately very rainy/snowy Glasgow!! However on the Saturday it was an absolutely beautiful day and sunny which was a complete change from the snow storms the night before!

Even the toilet roll had little Hilton stickers on it! (cute)

   The hotel had a really nice pool with a spa, sauna, jacuzzi and steam room with sunbeds around the edge of it that I really wanted to photograph. However, I felt I'd look a bit of a creep if I went down with an SLR and started snapping away whilst people were swimming haha!! The steam room and sauna both had dark ceilings with lights embedded into it so it was like a starry night sky which was so cool and really relaxing. We're both hoping to go back there soon!

Quick selfie sesh before we went out for drinks and food was obvvviously an essential!

  This is the outfit that I wore on the Friday night which I really really like. It's a black playsuit with a pink floral print on the top and it has lace detailing around the edges and the middle. I thought it was very elegant and quite classy too. We decided to stay in our hotel for drinks and food because the hotel was perfect as it was and it was a very snowy, wet and cold night in Glasgow. So luckily I was able to wear bare legs without being cold and I also wore creamy nude heels from Misguided that were suede so it was definitely a good plan staying within our hotel! The playsuit is also from Misguided and was £27.99. I went for a really simple makeup look using my Naked 3 palette Buzz, Liar, Dust and Blackheart and on the lips I wore Mac's cremecup and on top Tanya Burr's lipgloss in Picnic In The Park. On my cheeks I used my Sleek contour kit and also filled in my brows with this since I 'forgot' my eyebrow eyeshadow (it was in my bag all along...sigh) and Benefit's Coralista blusher. With my hair I just curled it then brushed it through with my tangle teezer!

Accidentally cut off Gary's head oops!

Teeth-cleaning selfies hehehe.

Cocktails (How pretty are they?!)

Hotel Bar

 I had a really nice dinner, pizza obviously because why would you ever eat anything else when pizza is on the menu?! The cocktails were amazing -very very pricy at near enough £9 a cocktail and £6 a vodka but they were so so worth it! The staff were so lovely and the drinks came presented beautiful with different fruits floating in them. My favourite one's were the Summer Solstice one which was citrus vodka and mango and different fruity flavours and it just tasted like tropical juice...very yummy! Another nice one was the Drumstick Mule which tasted exactly like Drumstick lollies!!! The resemblance was uncanny and that one had three different vodka's, vanilla, raspberries and ginger beer in it! The atmosphere in the bar was pretty nice aswell with lots of boothes that had cute little candle's which were the only light in the bar.

A sunny Glasgow the next day!

My beautiful flowers in my very messy room

 I was truly spoilt on Valentines Day, I am very grateful and I think Gary deserves a gold star for his effort here! What did you get up to on Valentines Day? Have you ever stayed at a Hilton hotel before?

Lots of Love, 

A x x x 

Kinder Egg Valentines Day Surprise

Today I thought I'd share with you something that I've done for my boyfriend for Valentines Day because I think it's a really cheap, easy, creative and of course romantic thing to do for Valentines Day. Boys are notoriously hard to buy for and this one is super quick and easy (great if you're a bit last minute) I have actually got him proper presents too just to clairfy haha!! Basically it's a kinder egg and you open it and put a cute note/picture in the little plastic holder that the toy is in and then you seal it back up! The person will defo not be expecting you to have been able to tamper with a kinder egg and this is best given not as a 'present' for maximum effect but just hand it over like it's no big deal and you've just bought them a sweet!

I have tried to take pictures of every step so it's easy to follow and I'll explain each stage as I go along. I'm pretty sure most countries around the world sell Kinder Eggs, although I'm not positive on America because I think there's some kind of law against putting toys inside food. So I'm sorry if you can't get access to these in your country but I hope you enjoy reading this post anyway!

 The first step is to gently peel back the edges of the wrapper, really carefully and gently so as not to rip it because you don't want it to look like someone has tampered with it. Try to do it with cool hands aswell because you don't want the chocolate to melt or transfer your finger prints onto the chocolate because that might just give the game away...

 The next step is to gently peel these apart and seperate them so you have two perfect wrappers. It's a good idea to buy the three/six pack of these because it's unusual to get it perfect first time.

 Next you need a boiling hot mug of water and a sharp tool, I'm using this nail thingy I got in a set once that I never use on my nails. Make sure everything you use is sanitised and clean because you don't want to transfer germs onto the chocolate for your loved one!

 With this you dip the tool into the water so that it's boiling hot then you gently trace along the edges of the chocolate where it's joined together (very gently because you don't want the chocolate to shatter). Also stab it in lightly at four points on the egg until it's soft enough to break apart easily..patience is a virtue here guys!!

 You should then be left with two perfect egg halves and the little yellow tub that contains the toy. You want to empty the toy and instruction booklet out of this and add a cute notelet or picture. I just wrote a cute note because I don't have any pictures of us small enough to fold into that tub without ruining the picture. A nice idea would be to take a picture of yourself with a sign saying 'I Love You' and put that in it (which I was going to do but I was practicing and I got it right first time so wanted to make it up incase I couldn't do it as good again so I had to just have a cute note). You could even fill it with your other halves favourite sweets or a ring if it's a girl (wouldn't this just be such a cute way to propose to someone???...anywaaaay getting diverted here!!)

 Then what you want to do is reseal the little yellow tub and place it back into the egg.

 Then you want to soak your tool/needle into the hot water again (you may need to replace it if you've taken a long time so it's still boiling hot) and start to rub the tool against the edges of the egg. This makes the edges melt ever so slightly, you just want them to be tacky (kind of like how you want lash glue to be like ladies) just so it sticks to the other half again.

 Once you've got them to stick together just press them together lightly and then leave it to sit for five minutes or so till you're sure that it's firmly secured. Then you want to rewrap the egg again, I must admit this is the bit I found the hardest because its super hard to get the edges to go back into a position where it doesn't look like it's been opened or leaves a gap but I got there eventually. This does take a lot of patience but it's totally worth it!

 I think this would be an amazing Valentines Day gift for anyone, especially if you're on a budget or you and your partner have decided to keep things to a minimum this year! If you do decide to give this a go then be sure to let me know how you get on!

Lots of Love,

A x x x 

Valentines Day Gift Guide!

Hellooo my lovelies,

 So it's that time of year again, the time where couples start to get super excited and singletons start to feel extra lonely. I used to hate being single on Valentines Day and it always felt like I was really alone but I came up with a few things to make Valentines Day special even if you're single this year and nice gifts for those who are in a relationship. So I thought I would do a blog post and share these with you. I don't know if I have any male readers but for those of you who have a girlfriend or just want to buy their friend something special I've included a few ideas! I was going to wait till the first of February to post this but I'm super excited for Valentines Day and I'm already starting to get organised so I thought it would be nice to whap it up now. (I nearly managed to wait till February...)

 Firstly if you're single this Valentines, a really nice idea is to go out somewhere with your best friend/s for a meal or order a takeaway and have a nice pamper evening with your girls.Take the opportunity to get glammed up and put on a nice new dress to make you feel good. You can even buy each other small gifts, Valentines Day is about love, who said it has to be your love of a partner? It's can just be about appreciating and loving the people around you and yourself. If you don't have any single friends who can do something on Valentines day then treat you because you deserve it, so buy yourself some nice Lush products and run a nice deep bubble bath and take in your favourite book! Have a glass of wine or a cup of tea and sink into the suds and just relax, do a face mask and indulge in doing the little things for yourself that you normally wouldn't have time for. Such as giving yourself a manicure or buying yourself something you've been lusting after for a while. At the end of the day we don't always need someone else to treat us, we can treat ourselves too!

 For those of us who are lucky enough to have found that someone special, I have seen quite a few lovely gifts around that I'd love to receive for Valentines Day and ones that would be ideal for boys. Valentines Day is also pretty special to me because me and my boyfriend started going out on the 14th of June so Valentines Day is a mini anniversary for us too!

 The first gift I've seen which I think alot of you will have seen cause they've been everywhereeee at the minute!! is the rings from Pandora's Valentines Day collection. How amazing are these?! These little rings are gorgeous and are only £35!! I love how they're super simple so it would go with everything and you could wear it everyday to remind you of that special someone! Pandora's packaging is stunning so you don't need to worry about having shoddy gift wrapping skills either (which I definitely do!) The great thing about these is you don't need to worry about getting the size wrong, just guess the most popular sizes which I think Pandora say are 52, 54 and 56 and if it's wrong, you can take it to a store and Pandora change it for free! (so keep your receipts guys!!) Pandora have been super clever this year and I reckon they'll be the Michael Kors of Valentines Day! Which colour is your favourite? I can't decide but I think the red maybe has it for me! (Me not choosing pink for something again?! there must be something wrong!!)


 The second idea that I think is a really lovely and simple one is to buy rose petals which you can get off Amazon for super duper cheap and this could be used for both boys and girls. Then scatter them either in a nice bubble bath for your other half or on the bed and then light a few candles and it just creates a calm, romantic atmosphere. You could even have a shared bath...(awkward territory!)  With Valentines Day, the best thing is not the most expensive gift out there, it's the one with the most thought that shows you've put time and effort into thinking what the person would like. A nice bunch of red roses will never go wrong either, every girl likes receiving roses and if you know your girlfriend has a different favourite flower then go for a bunch of her favourite. Flowers are a must for Valentines day!

 A more pricy one that I think would be a lovely gift is a nice bottle of perfume, two really nice one's are YSL's Manifesto and Valentino's Valentina. They're both really gorgeous scents, I own YSL Manifesto and it's a very elegant, sexy scent but it is more on the pricy side. Valentina is a more girly, floral scent that's very cute and flirtatious, both are a really good way to go for Valentines Day! Or for the boys a nice bottle of aftershave, I loove Ralph Lauren's Red and Spicebomb by Viktor & Rolf. Red is a sweeter smell but it's honestly the nicest thing and Spicebomb as you would expect is spicier but I love them both very much and I think they'd make a really nice present.








Teddy bears are a gift that everyone will always appreciate, they're really cute and a nice way of giving your other half something to cuddle when you're not with them. A cute big fluffy bear would make anyone smile and if it's got personalised paws or a cute message on it then even better! The best thing about this gift is it can be relatively inexpensive depending on what one you chose but it's a classic Valentines Day gift that will always be welcomed. Every girl needs flowers and a teddy on Valentines Day!









 Lush have an amazing Valentines Day collection out this year and a really nice thing to do for your girlfriend or even your boyfriend would be to buy a massage bar and again the rose petals from Amazon and give each other a relaxing massage. Who doesn't enjoy a nice massage?! I'm verging on awkward territory once again so moving swiftly on..... Lush is really slow with their delivery (like I'm talking weeks) so make sure you order well in advance or pop into store to pick up the stuff.








A super duper cute one I found for the girls is this amazing pillow which says on it 'Every love story is beautiful but ours is my favourite'. I would love to receive this and I can't think of any girl who wouldn't however because it's purple I would say it's definitely more of a girls gift as I'm pretty sure my boyfriend wouldn't want this in his bedroom, don't know about yours..!

 Another really nice Valentines Day idea for those of you who are not on a budget would be to take your partner away either for a holiday or a weekend away. Not necessarily somewhere amazingly hot and expensive but just somewhere that will allow you to spend quality time with each other. A spa hotel or even a spa day would be a really nice choice as you can spend all day together whilst relaxing at the same time. Plus then you're buying yourself a present aswell as buying them one! Theatre tickets to their favourite show would be another thoughtful gift.

 Obviously a cute card or a cute letter is a must have, in the rush of life we often don't take the time to tell the people we love the most just how much we appreciate them. So writing it down somewhere where they can always keep it and read it is a lovely idea. I really liked the idea of sending it through the post aswell for your Valentine to read because it's unusual to get a letter these days, unless it's from the bank or somewhere boring. So it would be a nice traditional way of letting someone know you love them.

 Joma jewellery is also a lovely present for your girlfriend (or any jewellery really). I love their 'little' range and my boyfriend got me this one for my Christmas which I adore and it's really cute and I think it would be equally as good a Valentines Day present. They also have love heart one's which say 'wear this silver heart everyday to bring a little love your way'. There's a gold heart one as well 'this heart of gold I give to you because your heart is good and true'. They're not too expensive and they last really well, mines hasn't tarnished from perfume or from water etc so they really are good quality and they're nice and simple so go with most outfits. 

 I came across this gift at Christmas time and I noticed they did a Valentines version too and I think this would make an adorable gift. I know my boyfriend thought it was really sweet when I gave him it for Christmas so basically it's a survival kit and it just has really cute things in it to represent something (rubbish explanation I know!) For example the Valentines Day one has a matchstick 'because we are the perfect match', a rock 'because you are my rock', love heart sweets 'to show how much I love you', a paperclip 'to hold us close together' and lots of sweet things like that. They're really inexpensive and you can get them for just about every occasion you can think of so I think that's a lovely one to get!

 I also found this 'hello gorgeous' and 'hello handsome' mug set on Amazon which is really cute and would make a lovely gift! Amazon is surprisingly really good for unique and cute Valentines Day gifts.

 Finally anything engraved or personalised will always be amazing because it shows that you have thought about it and it hasn't just been a last minute hash-dash buy! Photo frames, books or just a collage of memories you've spent together, all of these will never fail! So if you're stuck for ideas I hope this has helped and I hope you all have a lovely Valentines Day whatever you're doing!

SHOP THIS POST:-
Pandora Rings £35.00 :- http://www.pandora.net/en-gb/explore/collections/valentines14#!190896SGR
Rose Petals £1.10 :- http://www.amazon.co.uk/LIGHTLY-SCENTED-QUALITY-CONFETTI-VALENTINE/dp/B006IQ5MO4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1390648721&sr=8-4&keywords=rose+petals
Boyfriend Survival Kit £6.95:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boyfriend-Valentines-Survival-novelty-present/dp/6041510424/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1390648926&sr=1-2&keywords=valentines+day
Mugs £6.99:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Morning-Gorgeous-Handsome-Tea-Coffee/dp/B00FJ295TQ/ref=sr_1_72?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1390649229&sr=1-72&keywords=valentines+day
Love Story Pillow £16.99:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/ROMANTIC-CUSHION-VALENTINES-ANNIVERSARY-YORKSHIRE/dp/B00AW8DX6I/ref=sr_1_4?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1390649819&sr=1-4&keywords=L%26S+PRINTS+FOAM+DESIGNS
Lush Valentines Day Collection £4.25 upwards :- https://www.lush.co.uk/product/6474/Love-Locket
Fragrance Direct (great place for picking up cheap fragrances):- http://www.fragrancedirect.co.uk/


What are your plans for Valentines Day this year? Which of these gifts would you like to receive?

Lots of love,

A x x x