Its that time of year again....early Christmas shopping!

I'm one of those annoying people that loves thinking about and planning for Christmas...as early as September! I know, I should be ashamed but I'm not! ;-)

I absolutely detest the queues in stores nearer the festive period. The majority of people shopping for Christmas seem to be on a military style mission, all stressed out and annoyed. At that time I just want to wander around the shops, grab a coffee, enjoy the Christmas music playing in town etc.

A few years ago I started trying to do as much Christmas shopping as possible online. No queues, no stress and instead I can get on with all the enjoyable Christmas parts of preparing for Christmas.
 

MyPure is the perfect place to pick up a variety of gifts. Normally I just get beauty products from them but last month I noticed that they sell candles. Anyone that knows me knows that I am a candle addict. Between candles and oil burners I have every room in the house covered. Can anyone say obsessed? ;-) 

MyPure sells a whole variety of Munio Candela, natural soya wax scented candles. I ordered the marigold flower gift pack and at £15.30 I think it was an absolute bargain! It comes in a beautifully simple cardboard box. In the box there's a candle and wax tarts of various sizes, I love that small detail, because I have oil burners with different sized bowls. You can put the wax tarts in drawers, luggage etc. if you wish but I much prefer to melt the tarts and make the house smell lovely. I intend to pick up some of the cinnamon and clove gift packs for stocking fillers and as thank you gifts for a few people.
 

I also ordered the Eco Tools six piece starter set. I'm a big fan of Eco Tools. They're quite a recent find for me and so I'm building up my collection of them. I tend to have sensitive skin and where other brushes irritate my skin, the Eco Tools brushes are incredibly soft. When I was putting my makeup on this morning using the brushes it dawned on me that this set, at £13.49 would be the perfect gift to pop into each of my friend's Christmas gift bags.
While browsing through the MyPure website I have came up with so many more ideas for friends and family ~ shaving products for my dad, baby products to make up a little gift pack for my friend's soon-to-be-born baby, facial kits for my gran and mum. Have a look for yourself!

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?
Did you see anything you liked on the MyPure site?
 

The Blogger's Snail Mail

The lovely Gemma over at Lipsticks And Lashes regularly organises a blogger's snail mail exchange. Its a lovely way to meet someone new and its nice to receive something in the post that isn't advertising spam or bills.

This is my second time taking part in the exchange and this time I got paired with the lovely Steph from Stephanie Jayne. She's a mum-to-be so getting to know her brought back a lot of memories of my pregnancy and the anticipation of the new arrival.

There are just a few "rules" for the exchange:
- You send a gift to the value of £5, no more.
- You write a letter telling your person everything that you've learned about them.
- You send some positive, uplifting words.

Simple! :-)

Steph had mentioned that she was starting to get a wee collection of clothes together for her little lady. I immediately decided that the best thing I could send her would be an outfit for her little one. It was lovely to go shopping for it because I'm so used to shopping for my little boy. I can't wait to see her wee lassie wearing the outfit when she finally joins us. :-)

Steph was very thoughtful when it came to putting my gift together. She popped in chocolate (which my and my wee lad broke into straight away as you can see in the photo), a bath bomb, a wee candle and some face masks.

Last night I put O to bed and I ran myself a gorgeous bath, put one of the face masks on, lit the candle, grabbed a glass of wine and soaked for a good hour. Its the first time in ages that I set some time aside for me so it was very much appreciated. I of course have the evenings to relax when O goes to bed but I normally use that time to clean the house for the following day, complete some paperwork etc. It was lovely to just switch off and do absolutely nothing.

Thanks again Steph and thank you to Gemma for organising it all.

I look forward to the next swap.

Busy Bee Candles, a new addiction.

From other blog posts you will notice that I adore scented candles, wax tarts, anything that makes my home smell gorgeous.
In December I came across @BusyBeeCandles on Twitter & decided to have a nosey at their website (www.busybeecandles.co.uk). Big mistake! :-) I put in a small "test" order to see what I thought of them and suffice to say, I'm in love. I'm normally a die hard Yankee Candle fan & there's precious little that has made me stray from them over the years but because of Busy Bee Candles I haven't visited the Yankee Candle store since the end of last year.
At the moment I enjoy burning tartlets rather than candles because I can change the scent when it takes my fancy. Because of that reason, I'm loving Busy Bee Candle's Magik Beans. They rate their fragrances according to their strength which is a fab' idea! I tend to go for the stronger fragrances. A few Magik Beans burning in the living room & my entire house smells yummy. Their containers stack so they're not strewn all over one of my drawers. You can mix different beans to experiment and find a "recipe" you love.

Busy Bee Candles are really reasonably priced and I'm certainly spending less now per month than I was spending in Yankee Candle which only means that I can buy more! :-)
I have put in two orders recently & both have come to less than £15 & lasted me for a month. Who can complain about that?
I'm looking forward to working my way through their collection. :-)


What about you, have you used Busy Bee Candles? What did you think?


Much love.  xx


@latte_fiend on Twitter.

Bluebell 33 candles

I'm a big fan of scented candles. I love walking through my house & smelling different scents. Normally I'm a die hard Yankee Candle fan but at Christmas I received a Bluebell 33 candle. It was a single wick Pomegranate & Rosewood scent. My word, it is amazing! It's strong but not overpowering & I'm pretty sad that I'm getting to the end of it! :-)

                                                   

It's described on their site (www.bluebell33.com) as "A modern, sophisticated & spellbinding scent. Fruit top notes rest with a hint of clove nestling into a background rich in amber and musk." It comes with a pretty "Mummy" label on it which was such a nice touch since it was a Christmas gift from my wee baby son. :-)

It's suggested that the burn time is approximately 40 hours. 

I seen some sold on Amazon & the price seems to range from £12.95-£14. Very reasonable!

Have any of you burned any Bluebell 33 candles? 

Love. xx

@latte_fiend on Twitter.