Women's Stocking Filler / Secret Santa Gift Guide

I did a couple of gift guides back in November (here and here) as that's usually when I start my Christmas shopping, but I tend to get the last little bits in December. So I thought I'd put together a few little items that would be perfect last minute gifts either for a Secret Santa of as stocking fillers, they're all priced at or under £10, which is a typical Secret Santa price.. hope you like!

1) Topshop Pink Mushroom Mug - £10.00
Need I say more really? It's a pink mushroom mug! I'd love this cute addition to my Christmas stocking!

2) MAC Eye Shadow/Pro Palette Refill Pan - £10.00

For any serious makeup lover is the MAC Pro Paletter pan, and at just £10 you can buy a refill insert. There's so many gorgeous shades to chose from and with this highly pigmented, easy blendable formula, you really can't go wrong! Check out this post for my winter must have MAC palette shades!

3) Lush Baby Frosty - £9.75

Lush do the most gorgeous Christmas items, this Baby Frosty is no exception. The packaging is super cute and contains a Butterball bath bomb with chunks of cocoa butter through it and a Shoot For The Stars bath bomb whichwill turn your bath into an evening galaxy sky! As per usual... they smell delish.

4) The Body Shop's Jingle Gels Sleigh - £8.00

This Body Shop Santa Sleigh includes a selection of lovely smelling shower gels in very festive packaging, the perfect stocking filler, included scents are Satsuma, Mango, Strawberry &Moringa, all 60ml.

5) H&M iPhone 5/5s set- £7.99

This Christmassy set includes a sparkly iPhone 5/5s case and a pair of smartphone, touchscreen friendly gloves.Never get cold hands again! I think this an absolute bargain, it's probably cheaper due to the new iPhone 6 releases but I've just opted for a new iPhone 5s so will be making use of this one!

6) Next Dark Orchid And Patchouli Home Fragrance 3 Wick Candle - £8.00

This fragranced 3 wick candle is a lovely statement cadle, almost too pretty to burn! With a blend of orchid, patchouli and amber this candle burns for up to 40 hours. You can also get the £10 Fragrance Gift Set which includes a mini diffuser & two fragranced votive candles.

7) New Look Purple Check Brushed Boucle Oversized Scarf - £9.00 (Was £14.99)

I love a big oversized scarf, this one is in a soft brushed material with tassle endings. I love the colours and check design, perfect with a winter coat or leather jacket.

8) River island Coral colour block tab top purse - £10.00
This cute River Island purse is a pale coral and nude colour. There's lots of space for cards and notes and has a zip section for coins without being too bulky. If you're feeling extra genourous there's a matching handbag here.

9) Cath Kidston Spot Make Up Case - £10.00

This spotty Cath Kidston makeup case is the perfect size for my everyday makeup and great for travelling. According to the website you even get a matching mirror! 

These purse friendly gifts would be great stocking fillers for the ladies in your life and would make an excellent Secret Santa present. Are you taking part in Secret Santa this year? Whick Item would you love to find in your stocking?

Men's Christmas Gift Guide

So onto my Christmas Gift Guide for Men (you can check out my Women's Gift Guide here). I often find the men in my life incredibly hard to buy for. They don't really have hobbies and I always worry that they won't like what I pick for them. I think it's a much easier tactic to scour the Internet for fun, cool, stuff and then try and pair that to specific people than to try and find something with a person already in mind. So that's what I did this year and this is what I came up with. I actually think some of this stuff would be great for Women too, I know I'd like a lot of it!

1. Breaking Bad was recommended to me by a lot of my male friends and I loved it. The show has now ended so this is the complete box set with all of the seasons included. It's a show about a Chemistry teacher who learns that he has cancer and wants to provide for his family, he makes the obvious decision to become a drug dealer (of course). This funny and often moving show is a great pick and hopefully the men in your lives will love it as much as me and my guy friends! You can buy it from Tesco for £45.00.

2. Sticking with the theme here, I found this Heisenberg ceramic coffee/tea holder. At this time of year I take my flowery tea holder with me everywhere (well when I'm in the car at least). It keeps your hot drinks nice and hot during your commute and this is a breaking Bad themed one. Don't worry this is the last gift relating to the show! You can get this for £10 from River Island.

3. Chocolate Pizza! Yum. Head over to Firebox and you can create your own personalised chocolate pizza from all their different slices! In fact this is probably a bad present as I'd end up stealing it all for myself! These are available from £14.99 at Firebox.

4. Also from Firebox is this cool invention, a 3D pen! With the 3Doodler you can basically draw little ornaments in the air, it's a bit pricey at £99.99 but for a guy who loves gadgets this is spot on! Refills will be required for this pen but you can check out the full details here.

5. This Paco Rabanne 1 Million Gift Set includes a 50ml Eau de toilette and a 100ml Shower Gel. This is one of my favourite male scents and you should definitely check it out next time you're at a counter! It has notes of peppermint, cinnamon and amber and is just one of those scents you want to keep sniffing (whilst trying to not look creepy). You can pick this one up from Boots for £39.50.

6. I really like personalised presents and this one includes a mini Jack Daniels whiskey and a glass tumbler which you can have your own message engraved onto. You can get this at Asda for £24.99.

7. Another little personalised item. I've just bought some of these cuff links for my brother, you can have your own message engraved onto them. I opted for my niece's name, date and time of birth and her weight. You are limited to what you can have engraved onto these, but you can get creative. They come in a nice little presentation case and I think they're a really nice gift with a personal touch. Get them here for £15.95 plus P&P.

8. These Beats by Dr Dre headphones come in loads of different colours. I personally just liked the white! If the man in your life is a music junkie then these could be a great gift for him. I picked some up for my Dad last year. You can get them on Amazon for £99.

9. As much as men may like to deny it. They love a little pamper as much as we do. that's why we often find them stealing out beauty stash! This Soap and Glory set will make sure you're precious skincare items are nice and safe! The ALL-OUT PHWOAR Gift Set is £25 and includes 7 (Yes 7!) little treats, I actually think the boys get much more for their buck than we do with our gift sets so I think this is a brill little present. Get it at Boots here.

What do you think of my Christmas Gift Guide for Men? I've taken a very different tactic in my Christmas shopping this year, what's your plan of attack?

Womens Christmas Gift Guide

Welcome to the first instalment of my Christmas Gift Guides, this is one for the ladies in your life and has just a few ideas of what she might like.

1. This is an at home UV light nail kit, probably not the best gift for girls who are useless at painting their own nails (coughmecough), but for salon quality talons this is just the ticket. You get everything included for that sleek, gel polish look including two colours, (one raspberry and one pink chiffon) and gold and silver glitter so you can create accented nails, shimmer nails or glitter tips. This is £110 in Boots. If you were lucky enough to snap this up as part of their star product deal I'm very jealous!

2. This Soap and Glory 'Think Pamper' body kit includes 6 classic Soap and Glory products in miniature size, a cute pink travel bag and exfoliating body polisher. All for a reasonable £18. This is also available at Boots and is part of their 3 for 2 Christmas mix and match offer.

3. This cute phone case is available from Etsy, got to love an inspirational quote on your phone cover! This one starts from £10.27 depending on your phone model.

4. Hugo Boss Orange is one of my all time favourite scents, I'm not the best at describing scents, it's such a difficult one; but I'd say this is quite floral and light on top with some deeper (which is apparently sandalwood and vanilla). This little set includes a 50ml Eau de Toilette Spray & 100ml Body Lotion and is available from Fragrance Direct for £32.99.

5. I love this coat, it's kind of smart, kind of casual, best of both worlds for me, I feel like I could throw it on with absolutely anything and be nice and cosy and warm this winter! This beaut is from River Island and is £90.

6. This is the 'A Taste of Thornton's Chocolate Hamper' and I think it's a pretty good deal for a chocolate lover at £19.99! The hamper has 7 different sweet treats and while I should probably pretend they'd be excellent for the family to share, I'd probably scoff the lot myself quite easily!

7. Ooooooh shiny, pretty, newness. I'm in love with MAC, all those tags that ask if you could only wear one brand forever... this, always this. I love the Christmas sets that MAC do, and the brushes are such a good deal when you consider the price of the individual brushes. I bought two sets last year and seriously pined for the third. The sets come in at £42 each and have shorter handles than their full priced counter parts but if you really want to invest in some MAC brushes but find them out of your price range, I think this is a great way to make a few additions to your set. Anyone want to buy me them all?...no?...anyone?

8. I think this is such a fun and quirky book. It's a cocktail recipe book with a slight literary twist, very clever. The perfect gift for anyone who loves to read and drink cocktails... yep, that would be me! Filled with 'whimsical illustrations' and even some drinking games, I think this would be a fun little addition to any bookshelf.

9. This is the Crushed Almonds Lily Flame Candle, but to be honest, any of the Lily Flame scented candle tins are gorgeous. They all have really lovely smells that fill the room and just look super cute too! I'd love to collect them all! Available from Lily Flame for £8.50, but you'll probably find them cheaper on Amazon depending on the scent you pick!

What do you think of these gifts? Do you just want to send me a parcel with all this in please? :)

Unique (Non-Beauty) Advent Calendars

So I know things have gone slightly crazy over beauty advent calendars over the past few years, I have been lucky enough to snap up this sold out beauty this time around (yay!). Whilst browsing for my Christmas Gift List posts, I came across quite a few other Advent Calendars that are not beauty related but are unique and quirky and I've never heard of any of them before! The Advent Calendar world is certainly booming at the moment and retailers are obviously going to take advantage of that. Here are a few of the best ones I found! (Spoiler alerts here, there and everywhere).

Firebox do a group of Alcoholic Advent Calendars ranging from £99.99 to £149.99 They offer gin, rum, whiskey and tequila varieties and each contain 24 miniature bottles. I'm not wanting to promote alcoholism here so I'd probably suggest saving them up for your New Years Eve party and sharing them, or even just keeping them for throughout the following year. The idea of a new alcoholic drink every day is a little OTT to me, but it's a nice idea for whiskey/rum etc lovers and they can save them for a special night when they just fancy a little tipple.

This Tea Lovers Advent Calendar from Not on the High Street is £19.50, quite expensive for 25 tea bags but perfect if you have a true tea lover in your life. It comes as 25 separate packages containing a tea bag rather than an actual calendar and contains a wide variety of teas. From fruity to earl grey and peppermint tea there's all sorts to try. The packages contain cute little quotes, pictures or Christmas Carols on them, which I think is a nice touch.

Topshop are offering a 24 Days of Nails Calendar this year at £50. (I know this is actually beauty but I haven't seen anyone else mention it yet). It works out quite reasonable at just over £2 per polish, however I'm not sure I'd want quite so many nail varnishes from Topshop, I like a bit of variety in my life! (Sorry Topshop). However if they'd included some of their other beauty items I think it would have made an amazing addition to the beauty advent calendar pickings this year.

Also from Topshop is their Jewellery Christmas Advent Calendar. Looking on their website I found a Freedom Jewellery Calendar (sold out) and a Jewellery Christmas Calendar (in stock). Not 100% sure what the differences are as the descriptions sound quite identical, but basically you can get 24 pieces of jewellery including 12 pairs of stud earrings, 8 necklaces and 4 bracelets. (For full spoiler visit their website). I tend to stick to my silver Tiffany and Pandora stuff 24/7 so won't be opting for this one, but if you love Topshop jewellery and changing up the pieces you wear, this could be a great find for you!

This Nutcracker Bracelet Advent Calendar is £16.95, it's a cute build-it kit for little girl where they get a bracelet and then a daily charm leaving them with a Christmassy charm bracelet on Christmas Eve. Available at Not on the High Street, make sure to find this one though as it's listed a few times at higher prices too.

The next one is probably my favourite, just because it really brings the spirit of Christmas to the forefront. This £15 'Advent Santa Sack' has 24 numbered packets that you can hide around your house to create a little treasure hunt. Each packet contains 2 Christmas shaped chocolates so it's great for sharing. Each little packet also has either a Christmassy joke or a thought of the day, and I think it's just a really nice idea that involves an activity too. If you're feeling extra creative you could make daily clues as to where today's chocolates are hiding!

And finally one for the chocolate lovers. This Luxury Sharable Advent Calendar from Hotel Chocolat is £26. Again you get 2 treats per day with this one, so it's brilliant for sharing (or indulging!). You get a nice mixture of truffles in this one including milk and dark chocolate and caramel, raspberry and mulled wine. Yummy!

Have you bought any kind of Advent Calendar this year? What would your top pick be?