Adventing with Marks & Spencer's Ultimate Beauty Advent Calendar

For the past few years I've been experimenting with alternative Advent Calendars. I've had Ciaté nail polish advents and challenged myself to use each one each day (that was tough!), I had the Yankee Candle house calendar last year and was left underwhelmed (it's definitely a case of the bigger the better quality where Yankee is concerned). And bar that one year where I was seduced by a Thorntons "The Snowman" calendar I've successfully managed to avoid chocolate! Well done me.

So why Marks & Spencer's?

Well at £25 it was one of the cheapest on the market and I am all about the bargains. Yes you had to spend £25 to get it down from the original £200 sticker price but I already had a payday date with some of the newly stocked Pixi products so it was a no brainer to stick this in my basket at the same time. My friend Katrina from Sugafix.com shared the deal and I was instantly sold. It's also one of the few affordable sets available where I would buy or have bought nearly all of the contents separately and am a fan of the brands. Deals like The Body Shop are great but do I really need 20 odd products I would never ever use? Not really, although I would turn it down as a gift! This one made sense.

What's in it?

I tried really hard to resist taking a peek at the products inside but it was an acne emergency that forced me to look at them just incase there was a miracle spot cream inside. There wasn't but there was pretty much every other type of beauty product in there. With multiple lipsticks and mascaras, various soaps, balms, masques, repair therapies, and nourishing creams it has everything to make you feel a wee bit special.

I shall leave you with a list of the products inside as there really isn't a definitive list available online and I know how fussy I am when choosing these things. I want to know that I'm going to enjoy at least 80% of what's inside.

Pur Minerals Volume Vixen Mascara Mini

Stila Lip Glaze

Autograph Ultra Shine Twist-up Lip Colour

Diego Della Palma The Lipstick n.46

Leighton Denny Renovate Nail Repair Therapy

Morgan Taylor Nail Varnish

Roger & Gallet Fleur De Figuier Hand & Nail Balm

Crabtree & Evelyn La Source Moisturising Soap

L'Occitane Verbena Shower Gel

Cowshed Grumpy Cow Body Lotion

Mio Liquid Yoga Resorative Bath Soak

Rituals Zensation Organic Rice Milk & Cherry Blossom Foaming Shower Gel

Butt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream

Rodial Dragon's Blood Sculpting Gel

Filorga Time-Filler (how mysterious does this sound?!?)

PIXI Glow Tonic

Neal's Yard Frankincense Nourishing Cream

Pure Super Grape Day Cream

REN Flash Rinse 1 Minute Facial

Rosie For Autograph Nuit Parfum Eau De Parfum

Philip Kingsley Geranium and Neroli Elasticizer

Swell Ultimate Volume Masque

Josh Wood Full Bodied Shampoo

Percy & Reed Volumising No Oil Oil

This item is sold out online however there was tonnes in stock in stores so I'd get in there. You have only a few days we can open our first box!!

Matcha Madness: The Body Shop Matcha Tea Face Mask Review

My name is Bex and I am a mask addict! I love masks. Cream, clay, mud, peeling, sheet, cellulose, nourishing... you name it and I love it! I recently spent an evening with the amazing staff from The Body Shop Belfast learning about all their key products and celebrating their cruelty free status and at the end of the night I was very kindly gifted their Japanese Matcha Tea pollution clearing mask - I was delighted! We all know that the world has gone Matcha crazy but beyond an occasional frappe from a well known coffee house my main experiences have been with Matcha flavour cakes from my local asian supermarket. They are seriously amazing and the lightest sponge I've ever eaten but it doesn't exactly scream "good for you". Thankfully, apart from being seriously tasty Matcha is ridiculously good for you. Traditionally brewed as a simple green tea it is packed full of antioxidants - 10 times the amount in normal green teas as you are consuming the precious groun...

Faeriwood Eats: Wolf & Devour, gluten free dining done right

I get asked a lot about how people can go about promoting their businesses and whilst it is a huge question one of the things I will always recommend is social media and Instagram. I love it. I've discovered so many good restaurants while browsing hashtags and local accounts. Recently I was scrolling through #Glutenfreebelfast and spotted five glorious words. Gluten. Free. Mac'n'Cheese. Balls. Cue heavy breathing. It wasn't until we were sitting down in the small but gorgeously laid out premises - think modern cantina with industrial and urban garden accents - that I realised I've actually seen the Wolf & Devour food truck around festivals and fairs but I had always assumed, being full of all things bready, that they were just a no go for little old Coeliac me. Knowing that they had at least this one gf item on the menu gave me the confidence to go and visit their Ballyhackamore restaurant as soon as I physically coul...

Ophrys Skincare

If you have been following my blogs and social media you will have seen that I am currently partnering with Therapie Clinics and trying out their range of specialist facials to try and improve my skin. Alongside the facials (my second of which is coming up in April!) I have really tried to up my game with my skin care. Rather than just slapping everything that says hydration on I am really trying to target specific areas and problems. This has not been without it's troubles as my sensitive skin tries to adjust to this higher level of care. As a result of this - and a few other internal factors - I have been experiencing a few more breakouts than normal but I have been coping with them better. It's all about the give and take. And when it comes to the 'give' I was very lucky to be approached by Ophrys Skincare to talk about their new range of low molecular hyaluronic skincare with their patented Mini-Hax particle. "Low Ma-what?" I hear you say? Well... Low ...

FaeriWood

Search This Blog