My Favourite Christmas Movies

Who doesn't love a Christmas movie? I'm normally watching them in mid November in my pyjamas completely devouring a chocolate orange, but that just means I'm being festive right?
There was originally meant to be only 5 in this list but I kept remembering more and more that I couldn't not include. Tell me some of your favourite Christmas films in a comment! I'd love some recommendations.

Elf

Every time I watch this film I sing 'baby it's cold outside' repeatedly for days on end. It's a modern Christmas classic. If you don't crave spaghetti and chocolate syrup after watching this then there's something wrong with you.

Love Actually

Possibly the best Christmas rom-com. The scene with the signs gets me every time. I love this film. You love this film. Everyone loves this film.

The Family Stone

Another rom-com which again I think has gone under the Christmas movie radar. This has a great cast and is about an eccentric and free spirited family at Christmas. There's a lot going on in this film though so it doesn't work well as background noise whilst wrapping presents. 

Santa Claus (1985)

I'm not sure how many people have even heard of this film. This is Christmas for me. I've watched it every year since I was 5 and now it's a tradition. It's a really sweet film about Santa Claus, an adventurous elf and two children in New York.

The Grinch

Pretty much everyone's Christmas staple or at least one of them. If you haven't seen this film - you're missing out.

Fred Claus

I think this film is quite underrated as a 'feel good' Christmas film. It stars Vince Vaughn who plays Santa Claus' brother and Paul Giamatti as Santa himself. It's easily watchable and if anything it's just worth watching for Rachel Weisz's cockney accent. It's wonderful.

A Christmas Carol

I love this film. Whenever I think of a family Christmas film this is always the one that comes to mind. Everyone knows the story so I won't bother explaining it. And it would seem that Jim Carrey has quite the knack for Christmas films.

Rise Of The Guardians

I think this is underrated as a Christmas film too. It's about all the major 'make believe' things/people/creatures grouping together to fight 'The Boogey Man' aka Pitch to save children from nightmares and fear and to restore their faith in all of them. Cast includes, Santa, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy, The Sandman and Jack Frost. I'd definitely recommend this one. 

And there they are. 


Tell me your favourite! 


Lots of love.

Agent Zero Shine

- Benefit Agent Zero Shine Mattifying Setting Powder £23.50 -

For me, the search for the perfect setting powder is endless. I've tried hundreds. I have oily skin so not wearing one means that my make up has slid halfway down my face within an hour.

So I bought this one during a huge and completely unnecessary splurge about 2 months ago. I've been trying it out almost daily and to be honest, I really don't love it.

The product itself works. It does make my make up last longer and it does reduce the appearance of pores - so far so good. It's the packaging that ruins it for me. Usually I'll have to reapply at least once more during the day and the packaging of this makes it difficult, to say the least, to apply on the move. But the brush is my biggest problem. Normally I use a Real Techniques powder brush to apply setting powders, which is huge, so using this in comparison is not ideal. And if I do want to use my normal brush then I have to empty the product on to something else and then it gets messy, there's product wasted, it's unhygienic blah blah blah. 

I wouldn't say this was a complete waste of money because as I said the product is good but, for convenience purposes, this isn't going to be something I use very often. I'm a little bit disappointed but I know the main reason I don't like this as much as I hoped is down to my  own make up laziness.

Have you tried this product, what do you think?

Lots of love.

Balance Me Cleanse & Smooth Face Balm

- Balance Me Face Balm £20 -

This was yet another discovery through Birchbox. I got a sample of this a couple of months ago and left it sitting in a draw until I threw it into my suitcase when I went to Turkey in October. Ever since then I've been using it daily and have fallen in love with it. 

I haven't had much experience with cleansing balms but if this is anything to go by then I will soon have a collection of at least 100. 

On first impressions I thought the texture was lovely - it's really thick which makes it perfect for this weather and when applied it feels completely luxurious. 

It's full of great natural ingredients to cleanse and heal dry skin, remove make up, add radiance and make your skin feel as smooth as a baby's bum. And it really does do all of those things! I use this mostly as a make up remover as opposed to just using it to cleanse my face and it works really well. 

I'm looking forward to trying more cleansing balms and more from Balance Me in general. As a lover of radiance inducing skin care, this set from Birchbox seems like a great place to start trying other things from the brand.  Yet another thing to add to my christmas list!

Have you tried anything from Balance Me?

Lots of love.

Travel Diary #1: Side, Turkey

 Long time no see! I'm back with a travel diary which will, hopefully, be the first of many. I've just got back from spending the week in Side, Turkey. For October the weather wasn't awful apart from the three days it rained but being from London, or really England in general, it'll take a lot more than rain to ruin a holiday. Although the electrical storms almost did it. When there wasn't a storm we spent most of our time in the Old Town which is where almost all of the pictures above were taken. The streets are full of 'genuine fake' handbags, fresh pomegranate and orange juice stands and stray cats. 

Haggling is a skill I managed to pick up while I was there too and with my newly aquired skill I saved the equivalent of £50 on all the souvenirs I bought. Yes, I'm one of those people that buy all the souvenirs. Mugs and key rings galore. They also have handmade brass lamps of all sizes and handmade

 and decorated pottery which is all so beautifully made. I bought a matching bowl and mug and a small standing lamp along with a little wooden Buddah and about 200 key rings and post cards. 

There are more restaurants in Side than there are fish in the sea but disappointingly I didn't eat anything that was worth writing home about. There were so many restaurants we didn't have time to try though so there's always next time. The cocktails on the other hand were amazing. They definitely know how to make a Sex On The Beach with all the sparklers a girl could wish for. All the food was pretty reasonably priced and pretty much on par with any 'standard' kind of restaurant in London e.g £20 for a steak etc.

Apart from shopping and eating we really didn't do much so I can't recommend a whole lot of things to do. There are ruins in the old town by the harbour (pictured above) which are beautiful and definitely worth seeing. We also spent quite a lot of time on the beach (when it wasn't raining) and I built up enough courage to go parasailing! It really isn't a dangerous thing to do and I'm sure wouldn't require a lot of courage from most people, but being a person that can't swim, it is slightly petrifying to be dragged by a boat whilst floating 50ft over the ocean. It really is a lovely view from up there though, I'd definitely recommend it.

I hope you liked this post!

Did you go on holiday this year?

Lots of love.

P.S I'll try not to leave it so long next time x