Advent 2016: Day 22!

December 22, 2016 thoughtfulpigeon2016, adevtn, beauty, blue, calendar, candle, Ciate, creme, crystal nail file, festive, first impressions, leighton denny, manicure, Marks and Spencer, mini mani month, Nail file, nails, nails varnish, raincheck, review, swatches, tea light, tools, winter glow, yankeeLeave a comment

Today’s advent calendar presents are really nice, I think I might have my New Year’s Eve nail varnish base now as I have plans for nail art and needed a good navy for a night sky and the Ciate Raincheck is pretty much perfect for this. The Marks and Spencer beauty advent calendar had a great nail gift in it too with the Leighton Denny Crystal Nail File. I’ve considered getting these in the past but now I get to try one without having to spend the extra money and this is a great travel size though I’m not sure how suitable a crystal nail file would be for keeping in a bag without any protection. The Yankee Candle today is Winter Glow, I’m torn between loving this and not liking it, it seems to depend on the day and if I get the hint of pine air freshener from it. Today is a loving it day.

Finally finished all the mad dash Christmas shopping and actually have done some early birthday present shopping for the beginning of next year so I’m feeling organised for once. All that’s left is wrapping presents and the fun things you do on Christmas Eve and the day before like putting all the snacks out, and maybe sneaking some, and decorating the fake tree with the things that are slightly too broken or old for the nice tree.
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Advent 2016: Day 21!

December 21, 2016 thoughtfulpigeon2016, advent, beauty, calendar, candle, Christmas, Ciate, correcting, cupcake queeen, day 21, december, festive, first impressions, gelology, makeup, Marks and Spencer, mini, mini mani month, nail varnish, normal skin, orange, primer, pur, review, skin care, spiced orange, tea lights, white, yankeeLeave a comment

Four sleeps till Christmas and I’m not finished with present buying, this is definitely cutting it fine and the advent calendars are looking empty. I have to say that I am loving the snowballs in the Lindt advent calendar. They’re one of the Lindt products I haven’t tried before this and I love the mix of white and milk chocolate and how it’s all melty. They’ll probably be on my list of chocolates to get in the future at Christmas.

The other advent calendars today gave me a bright pink nail varnish in the Ciate Mini Mani Month and it’s called Cupcake Queen which is probably one of the most appropriate names from the calendar, to me anyway. The Marks and Spencer beauty advent calendar has a Pür Correcting Primer for normal skin which will be interesting to try and it’s a great travel size if I like it. The Yankee Candle is another Spiced Orange, one of the scents that has grown on me after the initial disappointment of it not being as orange as I expected the scent to be.
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Advent 2016: Day 20!

December 20, 2016 thoughtfulpigeon2016, advent, antique broach, beauty, calendar, candle, Ciate, december, first impressions, glitter, gold, Marks and Spencer, Moisturiser, night cream, review, skin care, sleep cream, snowlfake cookie, swatch, tea light, top coat, ultimate, yankee1 Comment

More sparkle in today’s Ciate Mini Mani Month with Antique Broach, it’s such a pretty colour and one I think will work all through the year as it’s surprisingly subtle on a neutral base considering the fact it’s a glitter. The Marks and Spencer beauty advent calendar has a Marks and Spencer exclusive, it’s one of their own brands that I haven’t heard of before called Formula Absolute. It’s the Ultimate Sleep Cream, a night cream for all skin types that I’m looking forward to trying when my skin settles down as it’s really dry in Winter. The Yankee Candle today is Snowflake Cookie, which goes well with the fact we did some baking today, more food making tomorrow getting ready for Christmas as it’s getting so close and we still have quite a few things on the to do list in the build up to Christmas.
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Advent 2016: Day 19!

December 19, 2016 thoughtfulpigeonadvent, beauty, calendar, candle, Christmas, Ciate, day 19, december, festive, first impressions, hair care, M&S, Marks and Spencer, mini, mini mani month, nail saviour, nail treatment, nail varnish, nails, Percy & Reed, Percy and Reed, perfectly perfecting, review, tea light, treatment, winter glow, wondr balm, yankee, Yankee candleLeave a comment

The advent calendars today have some nice products, both a nail and hair care product that are supposed to help the condition of them so will be interesting to try them both and see how well they work. I have been looking for a similar hair product so it’s always good to get minis to try in that case. The Marks and Spencer beauty advent calendar has a Percy & Reed Perfectly Perfecting Wonder Balm for using on towel dried hair and the Ciate Mini Mani Month has a Nail Saviour, a new product to help improve the condition of your nails in seven ways so till be interesting to see if it actually does everything it claims to. The Yankee Candle is another Winter Glow candle which is a nice scent and definitely one of the ones that isn’t too Christmassy and more just winter so will be a good one for after Christmas in the colder weather, if we ever get the really cold weather here.

We finally finished the decorating today when we put some old baubles on the trees outside and made a wreath for the door, a bit close to Christmas but it’s finally finished.
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Advent 2016: Day 18!

December 18, 2016 thoughtfulpigeon2016, advent, beauty, berry, body cream, body lotion, calendar, candles, Christmas, Ciate, cosy by the fire, cream, creme, dark red, day 18, december, festive, first impressions, gelology, M&S, magic touch, Marks and Spencer, Moisturiser, raising the barre, review, rice milk. sherry blossom, ritual of sakura, rituals, skin care, tea light, yankee, Yankee candleLeave a comment

Today’s advent has a Cosy By the Fire tea light for the second day in a row, I guess they did it randomly but it would have been nice to have a bit of a gap between the same scent. The Ciate today has a really dark berry red, it’s so dark to see the more berry side of it and it looks like a very dark brown. I love the range in this year’s Mini Mani Month, it’s like a mini nail varnish collection in one go, I think it’d be a good gift for any nail varnish fan and down at half price at £25 on their own website if you want to get it. The Marks and Spencer beauty advent calendar has a tube of Rituals The Ritual of Sakura Magic Body Touch Body Cream, it’s the cream version of a shower gel foam we got last year so it seems like it’s a popular scent.

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Advent 2016: Day 17!

December 17, 2016 thoughtfulpigeon2016, advent, beauty, black, calendar, Christmas, Ciate, cosy by the fire, day 17, day cream, december, evercalm, festive, first impressions, glitter, global protection, M&S, Marks and Spencer, mini mani month, Moisturiser, nail topper, nail varnish, Ren, review, skin care, skincare, starry night, tea light, yankee, Yankee candleLeave a comment

I just realised today that were over half way through the month and were less than two weeks away from the beginning of 2017. How has this year gone by so fast? I think it took months for me to remember not to write 2015 at the beginning of this month so it’ll still be like its 2016 for a while yet for me.

After today my room is now covered in black glitter from the Ciate Mini Mani Month nail topper, it’s called Starry Night and I do love it but see things make so much mess no matter how careful I am. The Marks and Spencer advent calendar is a Ren Evercalm Global Day Cream, which I don’t think I’ve tried again though I have had things from the make before and I know they do tend to do well with my skin. The Yankee candle today is a Cosy By the Fire, one of the more stereotypically Christmas scents from Yankee that I quite like now.
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Advent 2016: Day 16!

December 16, 2016 thoughtfulpigeon2016, advent, beauty, calendar, candle, chain reaction, Christmas, Ciate, day 16, december, elasticizer, first impressions, gelology, hair care, M&S, Marks and Spencer, metallic, orange, Philip Kingsley, purple, review, spiced orange, tea light, yankee, Yankee candle1 Comment

Today was mince pie baking, something that always makes the house smell of Christmas, at least to me, so it really feels like the lead up to Christmas now. I know mince pies are a fairly stereotypically British Christmas thing but do people in other countries eat them too? Or does your country have something that’s ‘unusual’ as a food for around the holiday season? It’s something I’ve wondered as I only really see the German foods in local supermarkets and some Italian maybe but I have no idea if they’re Christmas food or just something we have at Christmas as something different and I see the more American foods in to shows and movies but I don’t know much about anywhere else.

I’ve mentioned before about my love for purple, especially when it comes to nail varnish, so today’s Ciate Mini Mani Month nail varnish in Chain Reaction is definitely a good one for me being a metallic shimmery royal purple. The Marks and Spencer present is one I’ve had before a couple of times, I think once in a beauty box and the other in last year’s calendar and it’s the Philip Kingsley Elasticizer which seems a staple in beauty subscription boxes. The Yankee Candle today is Spiced Orange, probably the least Christmassy of the scents to me so these are actually mainly being kept until after Christmas as I have more tea lights than I need in the run up to it.
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Advent 2016: Day 15

December 15, 2016 thoughtfulpigeon2016, advent, autograph, beauty, calendar, candle, Christmas, Ciate, cosy by the fire, day 15, december, first impressions, gloss, lip, lip colour, lip gloss, M&S, makeup, Marks and Spencer, mini, mini mani month, Nail file, nail varnish, nails, pink, review, rosie, super model smile, tea light, winter, yankee, Yankee candleLeave a comment

There’s a bit of a colour match today with the Marks and Spencer Beauty advent calendar and the Ciate Mini Mani Month with the rose gold. I do love this colour so very happy that there are so many products using it this year as a large part of packaging or themes. Today was the day I was least excited about with the Ciate one as it’s the nail file day, it will get used but it’s always disappointing in these kinds of calendars. The Marks and Spencer beauty calendar has a Lip Glossy from the Rosie for Autograph range in Super Model smile, a nice pinky colour that’s fairly neutral and I think would work for most skin tones as it just adds a hint of a darker colour to your own lips. The Yankee Candle is another Cosy By the Fire tea candle today, another one that’s been growing on me as I use it and it’s a great one for a Christmassy feel.
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Advent 2016: Day 14

December 14, 2016 thoughtfulpigeon2016, advent, bblogger, beauty, bundle up, calendar, Christmas, Ciate, day 14, december, dry oil, festive, first impressions, hair care, huil prodigieuse, M&S, Marks and Spencer, mini, mini mani month, multipurpose, nail varnish, nails, neutral, nuxe, pretty in putty, review, skin care, skincare, tea light, winter, yankee, Yankee candle1 Comment

Today was meant to be a productive day but I’m still recovering from the weekend so it’s turned into more of a duvet, chicken soup and stream watching day. It’s so frustrating when you have plans and things to do and your body decides it does not want to cooperate but it seems like everyone is getting ill so I’m being more careful and hoping to avoid that!

I think today’s is one of the big hits in the advent calendar, both in size/weight and popularity in the Marks and Spencer calendar. When I was looking up reviews of some of the products in the M&S calendar when I had the list of products this is the one that seemed to be getting the best reviews and was one of the must have products so I’m very happy to open this one. It’s the Nuxe Huile Prodigeuse which is a multi use dry oil so I’ll have to have a play around and see how it works best for me. The Cuate nail varnish today from the Mini Mani Month is Pretty in Putty, a nice pale neutral colour, and the Yankee Candle has Bundle Up as its tea light and this scent is definitely growing on me throughout the month.
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Advent 2016: Day 13!

December 13, 2016 thoughtfulpigeon2016, advent, beauty, calendar, candle, Christmas, Ciate, day 13, december, eye cream, festive, first impressions, ibiza blues, Iceland, Icelandic Relief, M&S, Marks and Spencer, mini, mini mani month, nails, nails varnish, pastel, purple, review, Skyn, spiced orange, tea light, yankee, Yankee candleLeave a comment

Over half way through the calendars already, this month is going so quickly and we still haven’t actually finished all of the decorating yet! Been a bit hectic and it’ll be busy in the lead up to Christmas too. Another skin product today from the Marks and Spencer beauty advent calendar with a jar of Skyn Iceland Icelandic Relief Eye Cream. The Ciate Mini Mani Month has a pale purple called Ibiza Blues that’s a nice cool frosty colour so a good winter one but can work the rest of the year and the Yankee Candle tea lit today is a Spiced Orange. I do like having the different scents each day rather than having one large jar burning all the time, gives a bit of variety and keeps it Christmassy at the same time.
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