Birchbox Review: November

This month's box was a collaboration with Skinnydip London, an awesome accessories company that I’ve known about for a while. It seemed like a bit of a random pairing, and bar the box design and an add-on phone case and voucher (which you had to spend £22 to redeem anyway) there didn’t seem to be much Skinnydip influence. I was disappointed in the phone case design, as Skinnydip do a lot of really cool, quirky cases - such as this one - but the Birchbox offering was the same shell print as was on the box. I didn’t go for it because you also had to pay a small fee to have it included. The brand did take over Birchbox's Instagram page for a day, which was fun, and the box itself was packed!

Christmas Gift Guide

As it’s getting so close to the big day, I wanted to do a last-minute Christmas gift guide! I’m normally the headless chicken running around on December 23rd panic-buying; amazingly, I’ve managed to turn that around this year, but here’s what I’d be pursuing if I still had people to buy for. 

Reviews! The Courtyard Café and 'Carol'

A few weeks ago, I went with my family to the Hartley Whitney Christmas Market. The Christmas festivities in my town get worse yet more crowded every year, and HW is such cute little place full of independent boutiques; much more promising. Ironically, the highlight of the night ended up being the meal we had in a permanent HW fixture: the Courtyard Café - a cafe/restaurant at the back of Hartley Antiques. I’d been there for coffee before, but hadn’t really appreciated how much of a bar/restuarant it was too, and as the burger vans on the street weren’t the most appealing, we decided to give it a proper try while we waited for the fireworks that always end the event. 

Blogs baby!

I actually find blogs to read through Instagram. I am completely addicted to Instagram - I’m forever scrolling through my feed and furiously double-tapping! Even with blogs I’ve known about for a while, I often click through to new content having read an Instagram post about it. So when I was thinking about who I might include in this “fave bloggers” post, I got straight to looking at my Instagram likes. The four lovely ladies below are the ones whose photos I “heart” almost every single time, and I’ve tried to show you why they make my Insta-feed sparkle!  

Dear Santa...

I’ve seen lots of ‘Christmas gift guides’ around, and while it’s a bit self-indulgent writing about what I’d like to find under the tree, I thought I’d share them before doing a more traditional ‘gift ideas’ post. Let me know what you think in the comments: what’s on your Christmas list? What are you thinking about getting other people? Do you like surprises or have you already shared your Amazon wishlist with all your family and friends?

Birchbox Review: October

So since I'm on a bit of a reduced budget now that Student Finance isn't my main source of income, I decided to invest in a monthly beauty box. I spend way too much money on new products every month, so I figured this was a way to try out new things without breaking the bank (and my dressing table drawers!). After a bit of research, I chose Birchbox, and I've been recording the results by posting reviews on my new Villoid profile! But as that's a rather limited platform, I wanted to include an expanded version here. This month there were a few products that I’ve decided to save, so I’m not able to review them just yet! One of the things I like most about these kinds of boxes is the size of the products; I can keep them to use when travelling! This way I save money, and have loads of luxury beauty items to use whilst I’m away. Let me know what boxes you subscribe to (or would like to!) and your opinions on the products featured, and any others!

"Welcome to the world Caitlyn"

Disclaimer: I acknowledge that I am not the ideal commentator on this topic, being a cisgendered, heterosexual, middle-class white woman. I don’t often talk about these matters for fear that I will offend and/or upset someone. But as I think of this blog as my space to express – amongst other things – my personal opinion, I decided that I would give it a go. Like most people, I am not perfect, and if anything I’ve said does trouble you, please let me know in a kind and respectful manner. To that end, I use male pronouns when talking about (the now-eradicated) Bruce Jenner, and switch when I start to discuss the post-transition woman Caitlyn Jenner.    

So after years of speculation – accelerated especially within the last few months, since his divorce from Kris Jenner – an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer, and a two-part Keeping Up With the Kardashians special, Vanity Fair today released shots of Bruce Jenner that will form the core of their next issue. These photos are the first that show Jenner as she will now be known: as Caitlyn Jenner. That is her chosen female name, and it is now clear that she has undergone gender-reassignment surgery. On the cover, Caitlyn perches on a stool, her arms behind her back and her curly hair falling over her – yes, still broad – shoulders as her eyes stare into the camera in a way that turns her closed mouth into a slip of a smile.

Le gai Paris!

Our tiny (perfect) little apartment!

I was fortunate enough to spend a few days in the beautiful city of Paris at the start of this year, so I thought I'd write a little post on the adventure!

I actually managed to get very cheap (£60 return) plane tickets with EasyJet, which worked out as quicker and cheaper then taking the Eurostar! My boyfriend and I stayed in a lovely little apartment a five minute walk away from Notre-Dame and packed as much as we could into the three(ish) days we were there. 

The first thing we did was go and look at the Eiffel Tower (#tourists). We'd both been up it before, and were planning on climbing the Arch de Triumphe, so decided to save on the entry tickets and instead had our first crêpes of the trip. We didn't actually manage to make it up the Arch either, because it was so foggy the entire time we were there that it probably wouldn't have been worth it.

Shoe review: Drench 'em.

One thing about getting a dog is that you (quickly) learn that you're going to need a better pair of Wellington boots than the ones you picked up in the Topshop sale for £12 two years ago. Granted, I do have the trusty bogey-green pair that have somehow managed to fit me for the last ten years, but my mothers commandeered those recently. Luckily, I was perusing the Dr. Martens sale the other day (yes I'm waiting for you Molly/Holly) and saw that their "Drench" style - aka Doc wellies - were in the sale for £40! Jumping right on that, I ordered a pair in matte purple, just to be on the jazzy side of things.They came a couple of weeks ago, and even though I had time to Instagram them fresh out of the box, I haven't (/still don't, really) had time to write a proper post.