Hotel Chocolat Giant Milk Chocolate Truffle Tree Review and GIVEAWAY!

Ok, I know this is predominantly a beauty blog but you can't tell me that this isn't beautiful:

Seriously, though, without sounding gushy, I LOVE Hotel Chocolat - I always pop in when I'm in town and I've specifically requested some goodies for Christmas from my boyfriend (including their fancy Advent Calendar yeah!). It's a brand I'm genuinely interested in and that I hope that those of you that read my blog would be interested in too! So when I was contacted by Hotel Chocolat to ask if I'd like to host a giveaway I was more than happy to do so.

REVIEW

I had the Milk Chocolate Truffle Tree, but it's also available in Dark Chocolate. Described as "A thrilling blend of mellow 40% milk chocolate with crunchy roasted almonds, hand cut caramel florentines and the colourful contrast of Christmassy cranberries. Decked out with ultimate baubles – super smooth gianduja truffles", this definately doesn't disappoint! Have a look at http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/christmas-chocolate-trees-CHCTree/ for more info about the tree.

The tree is a massive 580g, so it's definately for sharing - if you can eat this on your own, I commend you as it's meant to serve 12 people! As well as it being aesthetically pleasing and festive, the chocolate is really thick and the milk chocolate actually wasn't overly sickly sweet but definately wasn't bitter, basically a good quality milk chocolate. It's also packed with "stuff" - almonds, florentines, dried cranberry and truffles. My favourite were the truffles, they were lovely and smooth with just the right amount of crunch to the outside. In fact, me and my boyfriend got a bit territorial/possessive over the truffles which was a bit daft as there was loads of them!

I think this would make a lovely gift or be nice to have on Christmas Eve/Day but after looking at the website properly, Hotel Chocolat actually do loads of other Christmassy stuff too, there are Christmas Gifts and even Stocking Fillers, which I think is a really nice touch. I'd be chuffed to bits if got something like this on Christmas (hint hint!)

P.S. As you might be able to tell from the pics, I got overexcited by my tree and I dropped it and cracked it, oops!

GIVEAWAY
So, if you'd like to win this gorgeous Christmas treat (you could even give it away as a Christmas present...yeah right!) in dark or milk chocolate, worth £22, all you have to do is:

1. Be a follower of my blog
2. Go to the http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/, then comment below and tell me what your favourite Hotel Chocolat product on their website is - don't forget to leave your email so I can get in touch with you if you're the winner!

For extra entries you can:

1. Follow Hotel Chocolat on Twitter @HotelChocolat
2. Tweet or blog (or both) about this giveaway - don't forget to use #hotelchocolat
3. Like Hotel Chocolat on Facebook

Don't forget to say in your comment if you've done any of the extra entries, and provide a link where possible! This giveaway will close at midnight (GMT) on November 28th 2010, and the winner will be chosen at random and notified by email. Prizes will be sent directly from Hotel Chocolat. Good luck and thanks for entering!

Last day to win a Miss Budd make up bag today!

If you haven't already entered my competition to win a Miss Budd make up bag, see my previous post for more info and details of how to enter here

Mini MAC Haul - Lovelorn and Chatterbox

I had a £30 Selfridges voucher that I got for my birthday, and let's face it, it was always going to be spent on MAC stuff! I bought Lovelorn and Chatterbox plus some lashes and Duo glue. Both the lipsticks are pink, which is all I tend to wear at the moment.

I had also planned to buy a Penultimate liner too but to be honest I wasn't that impressed with it - I think there are cheaper ones out there (Bourjois or 17) that do the job better at half the price! It was Halloween weekend and all the Sales Assistants/MUA's had amazing Halloween type make up looks, they were fab! It was also bloody rammed at MAC, I hate going on a Saturday but I was in town anyway.

Chatterbox

Amplified creme, mid pink - perfect for wearing everyday without it being too boring and neutral. I really like this and this is my repurchase, as I used the one I had in a few months!

Lovelorn

Lustre finish, light-mid pink. I think this might be a little too pale and sheer for me, I felt a bit like I layered loads on to get the look I wanted. I've got a little scar on my top lip on the left hand side (you might have noticed it in pics, if not, I've probably just drawn your attention to it, oops!) and I didn't feel like this covered it enough. To be honest though, I think my main issue with it is that it doesn't look hugely different to my actual lip colour, just better - it does look nice on though and is probably going to be what I wear for work a lot.

And just a little pic of the lashes (7's, my favourite lash ever) and Duo glue too!

Do you like my new Miss Budd make up bag? Well, you can win one, GIVEAWAY here!

It's quite small so it's a "day" makeup bag rather than something I'd take for a few nights away (need something much more heavy duty than that) but isn't it lovely? I absolutely love the print on it, and the bag is handmade. I got it from the ASOS sale and used my 20% off student discount to make it even more bargainous, yeah!


And, this is what I had inside it for the day - I don't bother carrying my foundation around with me, I use Estee Lauder Doublewear so I don't have to retouch through the day. Knowing my luck if I carried my foundation around I'd end up smashing the bottle or the lid coming off in my bag or something... Here we have Pixi Lip Blush, Sephora Gloss, Clarins Lip Balm, my little H&M heart mirror, Clinique mascara, Collection 2000 Pressed Powder, random powder brush, 17 Eyeliner and Pop Beauty Blush Cake.

GIVEAWAY

Do you fancy winning a Miss Budd make up bag? To enter, you need to:

1. Be a follower of my blog 2. Leave a comment below telling me what your make up bag at the moment looks like (make sure you leave your email address in there so I can contact you if you win)

For an extra entry:

1. Tweet and/or do a blog post about this giveaway (remember to include a link in your comment)

So, we have a maximum of 2 entries per person. The giveaway will close at midnight (GMT) on November 21st 2010, the giveaway is open internationally and the winner will be chosen at random and notified by email. Good luck!

Max Factor Lipfinity Lip Tint - 03 Pink Princess

I love lipstains and tints - the fact I don't have to reapply all the time is great! I also used to be a big fan of the original Lipfinity stuff, you know where you apply the colour first and the gloss second? In my opinion it's the best long lasting lipstick around. I'm a little less high maintenance now though, so I don't mind too much if my lipstick wears off.

So, when I found out Max Factor had brought out a lip stain I really wanted to try it! I had a bit of a swatching session and chose what looked to be the lightest (shown at the bottom, the other colours are the other colours available from 03-06, there isn't loads of choice), Pink Princess:

Like most lip stains, this had a felt tip style applicator and had a vague smell to it, not awful or nice, just a brief whiff of something. The applicator is actually one of the better lip stain ones I've used, it isn't rock hard or scratchy and there isn't any colour bleed on application.

On the lips, it was a much brighter and darker colour, however - this doesn't bother me as I quite like the colour it turned out, but still I was a bit surprised!

This is long lasting, it survived me eating and drinking and lasted 5 hours before it started to look a little faded. It is matte, putting gloss over it would reduce the longevity, and I would imagine if you wore this all the time it migt be a bit drying, but that's what I tend to expect from a lip stain/tint. You don't notice it's on your lips either. Would repurchase this but would like a few more colours?

These are on offer for £4.99 at Superdrug at the moment, so if you're wanting to check them out, now may be the time.

Girls With Attitude Nail Impact! Designer Nail Art for Tips and Toes

These were ridiculously easy to use - they come on a sheet as shown, are already sticky so you literally peel them off the sheet and stick them on to your painted nails. They're so cute aren't they? I love the little flower design, it's nice and subtle but it isn't boring. Plus they don't feel too bumpy or look like stickers on the nail either.

They also look even better on toes (is it not summer yet?!) and with topcoat are pretty hardwearing.

Priced at £2.50 and available from http://www.boots.com/ and http://www.girlswithattitude.co.uk/, these are ideal for those of you that are looking for quick and effective nail art with minimal effort (or those of you that are a little bit lazy or pushed for time, me on both counts!). They're also on Twitter @Girls_Attitude for those of you that like to tweet!

Beauty Heaven by Wahanda - sign up, share, win prizes and discounts. £5 Wahanda voucher just for signing up!

So, all of you know by now that I love Wahanda, and their MobDeals, right? If you don't know what Wahanda is, you might want to check out my previous post about Wahanda.

Well, they've come up with something new now...Beauty Heaven, perfect for the time of year when everyones pockets are a bit more stretched than usual (especially during this joyful recession). It's all about sharing, and reaping the rewards for doing so, Wahanda have over £10,000 of products and prizes to give away!

If you go to www.mybeautyheaven.com/beautyblogger and sign up, you get a £5 Wahanda voucher, just for taking part. Share Beauty Heaven with 5 friends (and if they sign up) and you get £25 worth of beauty treats including skincare products, nail polish and shampoo plus a £10 Wahanda voucher and a 50% discount from Mama Mio. The 50 people with the most friends get £125 of beauty treats plus a £50 Wahanda voucher.

The person who shares with the most people gets a massive Beauty Goddess prize -

£1000 Wahanda voucher* PLUS VIP Card
£500 worth of Pixi Makeup
A Pixi Makeup Master Class
A Champneys Spa Day for 2
£100 of Mama Mio products
A Mama Mio Party
Scandalous hair products

Easily done if you work in a big office, have a big family, have loads of mates, are part of an online community or even if you're a student, so get visiting www.mybeautyheaven.com/beautyblogger and get spreading the word!

Happy Halloween!

Here's a bit of nail art I did using Illamasqua Ruthless (red), Barry M Nail Effects (black) and a nail decal - it is meant to be Halloween themed but I think it looks a bit more Spiderman themed because of the colours and the spider decal!

As you can see, you can sort of tell it's a decal up close but from a normal distance away you can't tell, hopefully no-one will be that near my hand. Really like the Nail Effects too, hope they bring these out in other colours! I kept the last pic in as the flash has made my hand look like a scary pale zombie hand. Happy Halloween!

November Giveaways!

Since my blog is a year old in November, I decided that it's time for a giveaway for the lovely people that follow my blog. Then I decided that rather than having one big giveaway, I'd have one smaller one each week in November - that way it gives more people more chances to win.

Here's what the prizes are going to be:

• Week 1 - Montagne Jeunesse Indulgent Spa Facial set worth £20
• Week 2 - Wahanda voucher for Fish Pedicure at Wonda Fish, London
• Week 3 - Miss Budd Make Up Bag
• Week 4 - Hotel Chocolat Chocolate worth £22

So if any of those prizes interest you, keep an eye on my blog in November. The giveaways will be going up every Monday! You'll need to be a follower to enter, so if you're not following already, now's the perfect time - as ever, winners will be selected at random.

Two months until Christmas...

...and I'm pleased to say for the first time I have Lush Snow Fairy! I can't believe I've not tried this before, it's totally my thing - really sweet scented (like sugary, fruity candyfloss), a little sparkly and pink. The scent really lasts as well, on body and in the bathroom.

This is definately a Christmas tradition I'll be keeping up with! Weirdly my Dad bought me this, I don't know how he knew, I'd not even mentioned to anyone I wanted this.

Do you have any Christmas traditions you keep up? Will you be buying Snow Fairy this year? I totally love Christmas and get really into it!

Strawberry Carmex Lip Balm

In my opinion along with Anatomicals Stop Cracking Up and Balm Balm, Carmex is one of the best lipbalms for when your lips are really dry (i.e. winter) and need to sort them out. The only thing I'm not hugely keen on with Carmex is the smell/taste. So when I saw the strawberry one, I went for it.

Um...when you first but it on there is a vague whiff/taste of strawberry but after that it's back to the usual Carmex smell and taste. At least I tried! And since the product is so functional and does what it's meant to well, I can put up with that. If they could make one that smells like Lush Honey Trap, I'd be a happy girl.

Apparently they've brought out a mint one too, which I'll have to try to see if it's any better. Has anyone tried it? Have they ever made tinted Carmex too? If not, I think they should!

Lush Haul Update

I got round to using the rest of my Lush products that I blogged about previously here and here

Rockstar Soap

It's pink, smells sweet without smelling synthetic or overpowering, lathers really well and I have a huge chunk of it. Nuff said, I love it! Would definately buy this again.

Sweetie Pie

Really didn't like this. It smelled like synthetic sweet blackcurrant...really sickly. I also found it quite hard to use (though it did lather well) as it was quite firm in the pot, and left bits at the bottom of the shower rather than melting away. It does look cute though and I like its little pot.

Buffy

Oh my god, I loved this, why haven't I known about this before? It smells ok (there is an underlying scent that I got a whiff of tht I wasn't quite sure I liked) and it's a dream to use. It has ground almond shell in it that scrubs your skin as you use it over your body - it's definately the right amout of "scrubbiness" as well, it didn't feel harsh but it did its job. It even works on my extremely dry elbows, which is a feat in itself. It does leave a slight residue on the skin, but this is moisturising rather than oily or tacky. Definately one to repurchase as winter moves on!

So, two goods, one bad here...not bad really since I liked the Emotibombs and Creamy Candy Bubble Bar I bought too. Good work Lush!

OPI DS Chiffon

I love holos and have wanted a pink one for ages! After googling I was a bit overwhelmed by the choice (particularly the OPI DS and China Glaze OMG collections) but I went for OPI DS Chiffon as I wanted a light pink, not a bright or fuschia one. I should also have China Glaze BFF coming to me to but the store won't send me details of how to pay so......y'know, whatever.

OPI DS Chiffon

This is from OPI's Designer Series. I love the silver lid on this, miles better than the normal OPI black ones! Under normal light, this just looks like a medium pink glitter but under bright light or sunlight the holo shows,

Kind of hard to photograph the holo-ness of this, but you can see it in on the middle pic on the index finger. This is definately a subtle holo rather than a totally in your face blingy one.

Application was fine, it had the standard OPI brush (which I like, I know some people don't) and the formula was easy to work with - this is 3 coats. Longevity was fine too, it lasted 4 days on before it started looking a bit unkempt. I'm really pleased with my choice and this is definately a polish that I'll wear a lot.I just want a Nfu.Oh holo now...why are they such a pain to get hold of in the UK?! Are there any other amazing pink holos I need to know about?

NOTD - Models Own Grey Day with GOSH Rainbow

Just a quick NOTD for you - I'm not quite sure if it "works", what do you think? In some lights the flakies glow red and green...

The Sanctuary - Youth Boosting Warming Microbrasion Polish and 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask

I love Sanctuary products and I love products that warm up on your skin (especially now it’s gone so cold), so when I saw these on offer in Boots I had to try them. I used the machine that gives you extra points vouchers etc. in Boots and it gave me some extra points on these as well – I’m on about £14 of points now…YSL Rouge Volupte, you shall be mine!

The Sanctuary Youth Boosting Warming Microbrasion Polish

Sanctuary say: “Youth Boosting facial favourite. Our spa microdermabrasion combines intense warming to help open the pores and stimulate circulation, with an ultrafine polish of marine earth and natural kaolin to help detoxify and leave skin feeling deeply cleansed and refreshed.”

Packaging is nice, the product smells strongly of rosewater (or something like that anyway) which I don’t personally like. This is a good exfoliator; not so gritty that it’s taking off the first 5 layers of skin but not so gentle that you can’t actually feel it working. It was easy to apply.
Now, onto the “warming” part of this…it initially felt warm in my hands but that basically stopped as soon as I applied it to my skin. The warming bit was the bit I was most looking forward to!

My skin definitely looked more radiant and felt smooth after using this, so I’d probably buy it again if it was on offer.

The Sanctuary 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask

Sanctuary say: “The warmth of this self-heating mask helps to open up the pores so the charcoal and kaolin clay can help draw out the impurities from deep within the skin. As well as purifying, the mask also rebalances the skin’s oil levels to clarify, cleanse and leave skin with a silky touch, essential oil of myrrh helps soothe and calm.”

Again, nice packaging, the smell of this product is weird…it reminds me a bit of Play-doh or something, but that must be down to the charcoal in it. It also looks a bit weird…again, like grey Play-doh. I found this quite tricky to apply first as it has a weird consistency (almost a bit too “firm”?) that doesn’t quite seem to want to go onto your skin easily or evenly, I sort of got the hang of it, but it was tricker than applying face mask should be! The “warming” aspect was a bit disappointing again, it warmed up for about 10 seconds then that was it. Hmm, in comparison with the Montagne Jeunesse warming masks that smell lovely, apply easily and feel warm for ages (and cost 99p), this mask isn’t coming out to well.

But actually, it was worth it for how smooth, soft and evened out my skin looked and felt afterwards. I kept touching my face (not good, bacteria from hands+into pores=spots) because my skin felt so lovely. I used this when I’d been out for a few drinks the night before and the “detox” part was definitely true, you’d never have known I’d been out the night before!

I would buy this again as a bit of a boost for my skin when it needs it. It hasn’t quite replaced Montagne Jeunesse for me though, those little sachets do a similar job on the skin and smell, look and feel a bit nicer in some respects too. To me, this is a functional product rather than a nice treat!

Bringing the 90's back with a bit of nail piercing...

Just a little bit of sea-themed nail art I came up with here - I quite liked the way this turned out but I think it could have been better. And I don't think I'd wear this out of the house, the nail charm on its own would be enough of a pain!

To create this nail art I used:

• Random green striping polish (for the "seaweed)
• Leighton Denny polish in Notorious (for the background)
• Brush on nail glue (to attached the crushed shells)
• Viva La Nails crushed shells (for "sand")
• Millennium Nails seahorse nail charm
• Crystals (for the "bubbles)

Some more pics below if you're wanting a better idea of how it all looked:

It was all reasonably simple to do as well - painted nails, added nail glue to lunula and sprinkled the crushed shells on top, made sure they were stuck. Added the crystals and the seaweed, then attached the seahorse charm. I also managed to pick up the bag of diamantes from the wrong end and ended up with loads of crystals all over my floor - it looked ace! :-) And even though I've hoovered, I'm still finding the odd crystal stuck to my foot/bag/hairbrush etc.

What do you think? Of this design, and of nail art in general? I love nail art from a visual point of view and think some of it is amazing and requires loads of skill but I'm not brave enough to wear anything too "out there". I'd rather look at fancy nail art than go to an art gallery any day!