Christmas Gift Ideas - Boots

Good evening everyone,

 With the festive season upon us, I fancied letting you all know about offers that are currently available for you to take advantage off  however, I've found quite a few gift ideas when I've been looking so I've decided to mix these gift ideas with the various offers available. As there is quite a lot rather than overloading you all I've decided to break it down into stores.

I popped into Boots today and although I didn't actually purchase anything as I'm planning on buying my Christmas presents next week, I did notice that they did have some good offers on particularly on fragrances. The offer available on quite a few fragrances seems to be up to 50% off however, I'm not sure if this offer will be able for a while or whether it is part of there 4 day offer event.

 The major offers I noticed on women's fragrance were Lady Gaga Fame 50ml which is on offer for £15.50 instead of £31 and Paco Rabanne Lady Million 50ml £31 instead of £48.50. I feel that the offer on the Lady Gaga perfume is pretty good as it would actually would out cheaper to buy two 50ml bottles than it would to buy one 100ml bottle.

 For men, I found that Paco Rabanna 1 Million 100ml was on offer for £35 instead of £54.50 and Hugo Boss 50ml is £26.66 instead of £39.99. Considering the R.R.P on these products I think its a particularly good deal.

 As I said I'm not sure how long this offer is available for so if you are interested in buying your loved ones a fragrance this Christmas then you might want to pop into boots or order from that website at some point over the weekend. If you are a Boots Advantage Card holder you will obviously also earn points on these purchases or if you're lucky enough to have enough points available to spend, you can use them as payment towards any of these items. I am aware that there will be good fragrance deals around at this time of year especially with websites available such as Cheap Smells so if I do find any of these fragrances or any others cheaper then I will let you know.

 The other good offer available at Boots at the minute is 3 for 2 on gifts. I'm sure you are all aware of this one as it's something Boots do every year and seems to be an on going offer all year round on Soap & Glory but I have picked out a few things that would make good presents for pretty much any woman. I've not picked out any men's gift as they all seem to be pretty much along the same lines but I am going to try and get together an overall men's gift idea guide together possibly with the help of my boyfriend.

 I'm quite a fan of Nivea products and my mum always seems to get me either a Nivea or Dove gift set every Christmas. When looking through the boots website I noticed these two and would quite like them as gifts myself so thought I'd share these products. The gift set on the left is Nivea Pampered Skin Ultimate Collection and does retail for £15 however I think that the price is worth it as you do get included Nivea Daily Essentials Gentle Facial Cleansing Wipes (20 pack), Rich Moisturising Day Cream SPF 15 (50ml), Nivea Aqua Effect Nourishing Honey Mask (2 packs of 75ml), Nivea Pearly Shine Lip, Nivea Irresistibly Smooth Body Lotion (75ml), Nivea Express Hydration Hand Lotion (100ml) and Nivea Soft Moisturising Cream (200ml). The set on the right is Nivea Silky Smooth Skin and is a lot cheaper at just £6 so if you are on a budget this one may be a bit more up your alley. For £6 this set includes Nivea Irresistibly Smooth Body Lotion (75ml), Nivea Smooth Nourishing Hand Cream (100ml) and Nivea Lip Butter in Vanilla & Macadamia. Personally I like both of these and think they're both quite a bargain.

 As the person you are purchasing the gift for may be more of a Dove fan than Nivea, I've found two gift ideas that would be the alternatives to the Nivea gift sets. First up we've got Dove Wonderful You Gift Set which is available for £15 and includes Silky Nourishment Cream (300ml), Purely Pampering Shea Butter Bar (100g), Silk Glow Nourishing Body Wash (250ml), Silk Care Cream Bath (500ml) and Pampering Nourishing Body Wash - Shea Butter with Warm Vanilla (250ml). This set also includes an eye mask and a shower puff. Up next we have Dove Radiance Duo Gift Set which is £6 and I think I may have had this one last Christmas but it may have been one similar. In this gift set you get a shower puff, Nourishing Body Wash Revive Pomegranate & Lemon Verbena (250ml) and Nourishing Body Wash Burst Nectarine & White Ginger (250ml).
With these gift sets I have given both a budget option and a slightly larger budget which won't break the balance however, below I'm going to show you two gift sets that are probably luxury purchases and a cheaper gift set from the same brands which although they aren't as cheap as £6 are a decent price.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find pictures of the next two gift sets however I will provide a link to where they can be found on the Boots website. Both of the gift sets are from No7 with the most expensive one being No7. The Ultimate Collection (http://www.boots.com/en/No7-The-Ultimate-Collection_1375459/) coming in at £65. Although this is an expensive product I do think it is worth it as there are 8 skin care products, a mascara and a lip gloss and all products seem to be full size as well (if not then they're still a good size). As I've provided this link for this I won't list the products enclosed as it can be found on that page. The bargain gift set I've found from No7 isn't the cheapest one they've got but it is only £15 and I thought was a lovely little gift for any female relative or friend. This gift set is No7 The Skincare Collection (http://www.boots.com/en/No7-The-Skincare-Collection_1375451/) and does contain 4 products, a muslin cloth and a headband.





Next up we've got everyone's favourite - Soap & Glory and I'm sure you can all guess that the luxury gift set from this company is The Yule Monty Gift Set which comes in a £60 however, if Boots do run the offer they did last year then this item may be on sale for a few days at half price. What I like about this gift set is that every year although revamped, it always comes in packaging that the products that could be kept in and can be used again with this years being a toiletry bag, In the gift set you will get Sugar Crush, The Righteous Butter, Heel Genius, Hand Food, Peaches & Clean, Thick & Fast mascara, The Scrub of your Life, Butter Yourself and Sexy Mother Pucker XL Plumping Gloss in Pink Out Loud. All of these products a full sizes as well.

 The more bargain product I've chosen from this brand is Relaxstation Gift Set coming in at £20. This isn't the cheapest gift set available from Soap & Glory however, I think it is a reasonable price for the products that you get. In this set you will get a full size Clean on Me and The Scrub of your Life along with minis of Hand Food, Heel Genius and The Righteous Butter. You'll also get a shower puff and hair turban thrown in there.

 All the gift sets I have shown you are available on the Boots website and I'm sure the majority of Boots stores will stock these items especially the larger ones and are all available on the 3 for 2 offer which I imagine will run up to Christmas. Half way through writing this post I did realise that all of the gift sets I've included are body and skin care gift sets but I have decided I'll do an overall makeup Christmas gifts in its own post within the next few weeks so I will include any makeup gift sets I find in that.

 I am sorry if this is just a rambling nonsense post but I hope it helps some of you if you are stuck on Christmas ideas for your loved ones.

 Thanks for reading guys.

 Love
       Lou xx

Lush Haul

Well good afternoon everyone.

I do realise it has been a while since I've posted anything but life's been quite hectic as of late but now I'm giving myself a kick up the backside starting with my recent Lush hauls.

I've always been a fan of Lush products and when I was at university as there was a Lush in the town I regularly purchased things from there but since I moved back home its been a rarity that I've bought anything as my nearest store means travelling into Manchester. The lack of Lush in my life needs to change.

We are currently in the process of having our bathroom taken out and a whole new one put in so I've decided that I'm going to always have a stock of Lush products in the new bathroom ready for me to have a nice relaxing bath (along with making the bathroom smell amazing!) With this in mind a couple of weeks ago I took a trip to the Trafford Centre and purchased the below items from the Christmas range.

(left - right: Bombardino bath ballistic - £2.50, Snow Fairy shower gel 100g - £3.50 and Candy Mountain bubble bar - £2.65)

I'm pretty sure you have all heard of Snow Fairy and Candy Mountain before as they seem to be a favourite amongst many bloggers out there but I just couldn't resist them as they're probably some of my favourites from Lush as well. Bombardino is new to the Christmas collection however, I have seen quite a buzz about this little guy in the blogger world. As some of you may not be familiar with these products, I will tell you what the little blurb on the labels says and my opinion of the smells.

Bombardino - This bath ballistic smells a little like a lemon meringue with added cocoa butter for your skin. Launch him into your bath and watch him fizz away.
 I'm not overly convinced this little guy smells like lemon meringue although it does smell sweet and does have a slight citrusy and probably a little bit like you could eat it (I realise I am rubbish at describing smells). Either way I really like the smell of this guy and will be purchasing another before the end of Christmas.

Snow Fairy - This product doesn't have a blurb on it however, the website says "Our winter temptress shower hair and body gel that’s bursting with fruit fragrance and has a sparkle of ice through it." Personally I wouldn't say this smells fruity, I think it smells a bit more like a sweet shop but it smells so yummy! Although I usually use this as a shower gel, it can also be used to wash your hair with which I have done in the past and it made my hair really soft.

Candy Mountain - This bubble bar shares its sugar sweet scent with Rock Star soap. Crumble under a hot running tap for mounds of pretty pink bubbles.  I can't quite figure out what this product smells like although it is very sweet and I do agree with the blurb that it smells like Rock Star. For those of you who are not familiar with Rock Star, the website describes this as being a sweet vanilla scent. It's definately sweet but I can't decide if I can smell vanilla. One of the things I like about this product is that you can use the whole thing in one go and create a mound of bubbles or due to the soft texture you can break a bit off and crumble it under the tap. If you do this you do get a few baths out of it.

Sticking to my idea I've had of either visiting the Lush store every few weeks or placing an ordering online, I went into Manchester over the weeekend and picked up another couple of products. This time I decided to go for a couple of items from their main range which is available all year round.

(left to right: The Comforter bubble bar  - £4.50 and Mmm Melting Marshmallow Moment bath melt - £3.95)

From what I've seen and heard, The Comforter is one of Lush's most popular bubble bars and although it is a little more on the pricey side it is definately worth it due to the size of it meaning you could probably get a few baths out of it. The blurb on the label doesn't actually describe the smell however, the website says "Berry yourself under a blanket of soft fruit foam" and I can get the hint of a typical berry scent but I also think this smells really sweet and a bit like those Swizzlers sweets you used to get as a kid, or maybe even Love Hearts. It smells so good!

Similarly to The Comforter, Mmm Melting Marshmallow Moment doesn't have a description of the scent on the blurb but the website says "If you love our sweet products like Snow Fairy Shower Gel and Godmother Soap, you’ll be pleased to know that this has the same fragrance." I completely agree with this statement as the smell does have that same sweet smell as Snow Fairy. I've not tried any of the bath  melts before but I've wanted to for a while and decided I'd give this a shot. It's also quite a decent size so you could probably cut a bit of and make it last. 

As you can probably tell, I seem to be drawn towards the products from Lush that smell really sweet and to be honest, I tend to go for this scent most in other products as well as fruity smells rather than floral ones. I can't wait to use these products and will probably be repurchasing some if not all of them.

That wraps up my Lush haul however, I would be interested in hearing what your favourite Lush products are or if there are any you would recommend me trying.

Thanks for reading guys.

Love
          Lou  xxx