My First Giveaway!

Oooooooooooooooohyeaaahhhhhhhh! I only went and got 100 followers on my blog! :O
As promised, I am doing a giveaway to thank you lovely lot because as cheesy as it sounds, without the followers it wouldn't be half as fun :)

My giveaway is for the MUA Immaculate Palette. 

It is brand new and sealed and bought with my own pennies.

 

The only mandatory entries are that you follow via GFC and leave your email for me to contact you on. The rest is optional. More entries can be gained each day by tweeting ;)

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- This is for UK residents only I'm afraid but the next one will be international I promise :)

 - The giveaway will end in 1 month (8th Nov).

- If necessary please ask permission to give your address, should you win.

- Any accounts used only for giveaways/competitions will not be counted.

- The winner will be contacted via email and given 2 days to respond otherwise another winner shall be picked.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

winter coats under £50

Brrrr! It's been getting right chilly lately and I've found myself putting my coat on whenever I leave the house so I thought I'd do a coaty post!
If you're anything like me (fussy and don't like parting with too much moneys) then you'll know how hard it is to find a coat for these colder months! So I've put together 5 coats for under £50 to help you :) - Well, it might help you but not if you don't like them! I like them, that's why I chose them but of course we're all different.. Let's get on with it shall we!

ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE

What do you think? - Do you like any of them? Personally I like them all so if anyone wants to buy them for me I promise not to mind ;) 

life #9 (big news)

Howdy doody blog buddies :)

Well, it's official, I'm an auntie. My sister had her little girl Wednesday evening and she's called Skye Anne Alexis Woodard. She looks a spitting image of my sister (poor cow!) lol..

and for reference this is me and my sister, Ocean.. she's 5 years younger than me:

I haven't seen Skye yet - Aaron has had the end of a cold so didn't want to risk it obviously. We are going over to my sisters place Sunday though and I'll try to get some pics when I have cuddles (with Skye!) It will be a bit strange but hopefully not too awkward between me and my sister as we didn't speak for a few months due to a fall out but we're working on getting past that. I'm sure Aaron and Karl (my sister's other half) will chat away so there shouldn't be any awkward silences!

My next big news is that as from after holiday, we will no longer live in a flat! - We'll live in a 3 storey town house, oohyeah! The place we live is originally a 3STH but the previous owner converted the bottom for his poorly mum and when the landlord bought it he rented it as 2 properties but with that has come a few problems (shared water bill, shared heating controls..) and the boy downstairs has had enough and is leaving. So the landlord asked if we want the lot and obviously we jumped at it! 

The thing I'm most excited about is getting a cat as we will have a garden! I absolutely love cats.. I'd be a cat lady if I was single, seriously! I've wanted another cat since mine died when I was school age but I was never able to get one until now! I'm hoping to get a male silver/smoke tabby or a male ginger tabby with white socks. If you follow me on Instagram (@xtiffyxx) or Twitter (@xtiffyxx) do expect lots of pictures almost every day!! I will be a little bit obsessed cause I think kitten are just the most cutest thing ever ever!

I am also excited about our holiday! - We go next weekend, to Wales. We went to south Wales last year and I just fell in love with the place. I absolutely love the accent, the people are so, so friendly and its beautiful. If ever we won the lottery or anything like that, I wouldn't hesitate in moving there. This time we're going to west Wales and have said we'd like to go back another year and visit north Wales. Its 282 miles from ours to where we're going in Wales and will take around 5 hours drive.. This means I will have to make a few new CDs for the journey.. Poor Aaron!! :D

I will set up a few posts for while I'm away, you know, in case anybody has withdrawals or anything!! ;) 

I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow, yeeeeaaahhhhh :) went longer without a cut this time so that I could get it done before holiday.. It's got sooo thick so I cant wait for a good trim and thin out!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend :)

Pin me happy

Well I don't know about you but I love when people get others to join in with posts, tags etc. they're always fun to do and make a nice change :)

Louise over at Sprinkle of Glitter done a "pin me happy" post about those little typography pictures we see floating around on Pinterest that can often do a good job of putting things into perspective on those 'merrrr' down days. She put a few of her favourite ones together in a post to share with us all and now I'm going to do the same :)

 

 

those 3 are my favourite :) link me if you joined in! xxx

She Said Beauty Box: October.

I signed up for a SSBB in mid September, a couple of weeks before my Birthday as I was hoping to get the latest one for my Birthday (their website said if I subscribed then I would get the September box) however after me emailing them, I was informed that I would not be getting the September box because of a "problem" however days later the website still said if you subscribed you'd get the September box so I emailed again but was told I was too late now and would have to wait for the October box. So I waited patiently and yesterday my box arrived!

I was so excited (like a kid at Christmas! - which is 83 days away by the way!) but unfortunately I was disappointed with everything I got. At first I thought there had been a mistake - I wondered if my box got mixed up with the Borrowers!! ;) I'd looked at the previous boxes on other blogs and they had all been the sort of thing I'd have liked so I was sure I'd be happy.. but this box was completely different.

Here's a quick look at my box ^ if you want to know more, keep reading!
Don't get me wrong, I didn't completely hate my box it's just that on my profile where you choose the kind of things you'd like/wouldn't like, I put that I preferred make up products, nail polish and perfume over the other stuff. So you can see why I was disappointed - this is everything I said I wasn't as keen on receiving!

I asked SSBB customer care on Twitter (@xtiffyxx - follow me!) when they would be tailoring the boxes to match up to peoples profiles and they said they're working on it and 'hopefully soon.' To which I asked if it was likely to be in the next 6 months and they said they couldn't give a definite time frame yet. So to me it doesn't sound like it will be happening too soon which is such a shame - please bare this in mind if you've been thinking of subscribing.

Onto what I got..

Herbacin: Wuta Kamille Hand Cream, full size - 20ml: 99p. Or 100ml: £3.49.

".. contains a wealth of natural ingredients designed to protect your hands from all weather condition including Chamomile flower. This key ingredients smooths and moisturises hands to ensure the skins elasticity & softness."

This is the product I disliked the least. I will definitely be using it as I've been after a hand cream for my handbag and it leaves my hands feeling all silky which is nice. Unfortunately the lid is quite loose and it doesn't take much to come off so I'll have be to careful or my handbag will be ruined. To me it smells of aniseed, which I'm not too keen on but that is personal preference.

Cellnique: Advanced Bio Renewal Masque, 3g sample. Full size: 50g: $51.00.

".. formulated with a complex of fresh fruit enzymes and acids. It effectively works in exfoliating dead skin cells, optimizing the cellular renewal performance and deeply cleanses the pores, thus revealing a softer, fresher and healthier skin."

I didn't mind this product. I will definitely use it but will probably only get one use out of it which isn't enough to know if it works or not so it should have been a bit bigger. It has a nice fruity smell and it is grainy, which i prefer with face scrubs. The only disappointing thing is the size really.. Although its not in my price range anyway so there is no chance of me purchasing it.

B.Liv: Off With Those Heads, 3 ml sample.  Full size - 30ml: $49.00 or 45ml: $63.00.

"Say goodbye to painful squeezing! This light cooling gel promises to easily remove stubborn blackheads and whiteheads. It keeps excessive oil secretion under control while preventing future irritation and breakouts."

Again, a small sample but this one should get more uses to find out how good it is.. however it isn't in my price range anyway. I know it sounds funny but it smells very clean.. it almost has a clinical sort of smell about it which is neither good nor bad in my opinion. The biggest problem I have with this product is that it says it keeps excessive oil secretion under control (which i suffer with, boo!) however, on the bottle it says "it is normal for more oil to be secreted during initial period." So the point of the sample is...? - It basically tells you that you won't get to find out if the product works by using the sample. Based on this I wonder how many people would go and buy it..

Biao: Beauty Rejuvenating Night Creme, 2ml sample. Full size - 118ml: $24.50. 

"Pamper your skin night after night with triple action properties that sooth, moisturise and protect against premature aging. Reveal a youthful and more luminous skin tone."

First of all, if you can use this sachet night after night, you need a bigger face deserve a medal! Secondly, I'm only 24 (and I'm sure 99% of the subscribers are younger than 30) so I don't need to make my skin look youthful, it does that on its own! I won't be using this product.. It smells of rose which I'm not a fan of and I don't like night cream much either. Also I read on SSB website that some people got 2 of these and others only got 1 which I find strange - I'd be annoyed if I liked it but I don't so I guess it's just as well!

KeraStraight: Moisture and Protein Masks, each sample 10ml. Full size - 100ml: £25.00.

"Two revolutionary conditioning products designed to smooth and renew hair from the inside out. Each has been formulated using the same breakthrough protein technology as KeraStraight's Revolutionary professional salon treatment, cutting down on the time it takes to maintain your hair on a daily basis."

Apparently these smell real nice which is always a good thing. I am looking forward to giving them a go although I have a lot of hair so how far they go is another story! - A couple of each sample would have been good. My hair isn't in bad condition but I do get a few split ends in between cuts cause of straightening so we'll see if these make a difference or not. The sachet does say to use after a KeraStraight treatment to maximise benefits.. So I wonder how many of us will get the "maximum benefits"..


Lastly, my SSB "treat"...

myvitamins: Total Chromium supplement. Full size - 30 tablets: from £2.49.

 "To stave off the dreaded winter cold, the SSB Girls are on a bit of a health kick, which is why we chose myvitamins as our SSB Treat item this month! With four amazing varieties of vitamins there's something to suit all of your bodies needs. Prepare to be vitalized!"

This product is going straight in the bin, unfortunately. The packet doesn't tell you anything about it so I headed straight over to Google and I didn't like what I read. It says this: "Some people experience side effects such as skin irritation, headaches, dizziness, nausea, mood changes and impaired thinking, judgment, and coordination." and this "Chromium might affect brain chemistry and might make behavioral or psychiatric conditions worse. If you have one of these conditions, be careful when using chromium supplements. Pay attention to any changes in how you feel." The bad things far outweigh the "good" and our bodies make this so nearly all of us do not need to take it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against taking supplements at all - If you need them or if they don't have so many negatives things written about them. 


So there you have it, my October She Said Beauty Box and my full, honest opinion on all of the products I received. Do you get the SSBB? Link me to your October box write up, I'd love to know what others think of the products or if you got anything different :)