Merry Christmas!

Hey guys, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the new year! I'm currently typing this from my wonderful new iPad mini courtesy of my lovely parents this holiday because once again I am sick (I swear my immune system has decided to go on holiday over Christmas). That said though I'm probably going to have to format this from my laptop anyway because the blogger app is appalling, sort it out Apple! (...please?)

Grumbling and sickness aside I had a really wonderful Christmas period, from the 22nd up until Christmas Eve I was in London with my boyfriend forcing my Christmas pixie ways upon him and just having our own little Christmas from our hotel room. For those of you who don't know I'm in a long distance relationship so being able to see someone so special this time of year really meant a lot to me (cue the eye rolls) and besides all the couplely crap he brought me Moomins which is always a huge plus!

The original plan was to visit winter wonderland but due to the horrific storm that hit the UK it was canceled, so not to put a damper on our spirits we headed into Covent Garden for a nose about before walking over to Picadilly just lapping up the Christmas spirit and having a cheeky pit stop in M&M world, which may I add A. Smells divine and B. Is bloody massive! As the night went on the storm got worse and worse so we headed back to our hotel and ordered in a pizza and played vanguard until two in the morning, because you know that's clearly the mature thing to do! The following day I also had my very first Wagamama's! This is a huge thing for me because I'm such a picky eater and I don't like trying new things but I will say it was utterly delicious, our waiter was a darling and I was full for the rest of the day which was a Christmas miracle in and of itself!

 

After a battle getting home on Christmas Eve thanks to many canceled trains I woke up Christmas morning to a lovely present opening session with my family which is always lovely with everyone in that happy sleepy state and Tub's shredding the discarded wrapping paper on the floor. In true Christmas spirit me and my little brother then proceeded to take millions of Christmas selfies, he is definitely taking after me with the camera whoring! My nan then came over and we had Christmas dinner, my dad brought a XL turkey for five people...yes it is now two days later and we're still living off it and will continue to do so for the rest of the year by the looks of things! After putting ourselves into food coma we settled down in the living room for bad TV and a game of Cluedo, who did it you may ask? We will never know, Tub's kept taking off with the pieces, so much so that professor plum no longer has a face. My dog is a tyrant!

So there's my Christmas in a nutshell, I really hope you all had a great Christmas too by the looks of all the blog posts I've seen it sure looks like it! If you were one of the unfortunate families that lost power due to the storm over Christmas I really hope you still made the most of it and are celebrating hard now the power has returned. So if any of you guys have done a Christmas post link me in the comments so I can give it a nose, if not let me know how it was or even better write one! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Love & TubTubs

Lush Review - Mask of Magnaminty

Hey guys! So I'm not sure how many of you have drifted over from my old blog but I did indeed have a temporary blog whilst I was fighting blogger for the AMP domain. So only having a few posts on that site I decided to move the few I had back over! Just thought I'd explain to those of you thinking this sounded familiar or those of you wondering why the writing style is slightly different. So without further ado lets get into a good ol' fashioned Lush review!

Mask of Magnaminty is one of Lush's better known skincare products from the permanent line and with everyone raving about it I thought I'd try it out myself.
 

The first thing I noticed when I opened the lid was the scent of it. I knew it was going to smell minty but it wasn't what I was expecting at all, I don't know if I had to high expectations on the scent but I was expecting it to smell like a packet of Polos, or maybe even slightly like toothpaste, instead the scent just reminded me of mint chewing gum that's started to lose it's flavor, a bit of a disappointment. I really do like the color of this mask and the consistency was really good and it spread over the skin easily without losing any product drown the drain. I also found I didn't have to use a lot, after doing an application on my face, my mum's and even my brother's there was only a dent in the product. You can definitely feel it working as it has a slight tingly feeling on the skin but I found it's not uncomfortable or painful just a little odd if you're someone who doesn't use face masks much (such as my brother).

When it came to washing it off i found this mask didn't stick in my eyebrows and came off in a matter of minutes. I have combination and acne prone skin, and once I'd dried my face and moisturized I can say my face was noticeably softer, didn't worsen my dry patches like I feared and did tackle my oily patches well, but to be honest with you that's all I can say for it. I found it didn't really do anything in clearing up any spots on my face even the morning after they were still there with no change at all which was a disappointment as the product description claims it's for getting rid of spots and blemishes.

So my final thoughts on this are that this mask are that it's doesn't really do much for the skin visibly as far as sorting out blemishes goes, it does however improve the texture of the skin. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on which skin type this mask would suit and mine is that people with oily or combination skin would benefit most from this mask. I'm yet to try it on my chest or back but I feel like it may be better for that rather then the face due to how little of the product you use up, though I do wish I'd gotten the smaller tub but with the long shelf life I'm sure I'll find a use for it.

RRP - £4.95 - 125g / £8.75 - 315g

Overall Rating - 5/10

Love & TubTubs

Deck The Halls!

Hey guys! So about a week ago me and my family all got together to put the Christmas decorations up which was really lovely considering we're all really busy people and the holidays are the only time in the year we actually get to do things together. So I thought I'd get you in the festive spirit by showing you some of the fruits of our labor!

Of course there had to be a cheeky Moomin thrown in there, what else would you expect from me!? This year was also the first year we got a real tree rather than the slightly naff artificial one that's been in the attic for god knows how long. I can also assure you that we did put more decorations than lights on the tree but all the pictures of the fancy bits and bobs came out blurry. Major fail on my part!

Something I love doing at Christmas time to add a super cozy feel to my space is to wrap fairy lights around things like the headboard of my bed or my curtain rail. Another thing that is not only beautiful to look at but smell delicious are scented candles, my favorite two this year are both by Yankee Candle and are "Cranberrys Ice" and "Candy Apple Wreath". Anything with a spicy scent to it is also a huge winner in my books!

Let me know in the comments your favorite ways to decorate at Christmas time or if you've got any pictures of your decorations on your blog leave me a link I'd love to have a look! Winter is the perfect time to make your space cozy and comforting after all with the days getting shorter and a weather taking a turn for the worst chances are you'll be spending a lot of time indoors so lets all make the most of it!

Love & TubTubs

 

The Festive Season Best & Worst

Hey guys! So I'm having a bit of an issue with technology at the moment,my laptop is slowly but surely falling apart on me and a few days ago the USB drives gave out...yes all four of them. So with this predicament I can't upload pictures from my camera to my laptop and have to do it on a friends computer. Then stick them on Google drive to upload them, and it's all a bit of a hassle so here is my question for you lot! Would you prefer me to use stock pictures for the next couple of posts I have up or hang on the extra few days so I can use original pictures? Let me know in the comments!

So not wanting to leave you all post-less whilst I sort out my camera struggles I thought I would sum up my best and worst things about the festive season. I know it's not the most exciting of things in the world but I didn't want you all to think I'd abandoned you again and it also means I don't need any new pictures (see some great initiative going on there!) and for those wondering why I'm being so pessimistic with the worst side of it, I need to appease my scrooges who I know are still lurking ;).

The Best

• No matter where you go town centers are always covered in lights and look magical
• Snow makes your skin look so much better in pictures
• Students get time off so it's the perfect opertunity to catch up with friends
• Shops have really awesome novel things in them at really low prices
• Pugs in jumpers...need more be said
• There is a perfectly reasonable excuse to stop dieting and eat everything in sight
• Presents! ...Let's be honest I'd be a lier if I didn't put this on here
• The little Christmas markets that pop up everywhere
• Christmas songs in every shop (I know that one is debatable but I love it!)
• Working in retail and having to wear a santa hat as part of your uniform
  

Some cheeky snaps from last years snowfall

The Worst

• The total havoc the weather plays on your skin, chapped lips anyone?
• When public transport grinds to a halt because of the weather
• Mince pies...ew
• The ridiculous amount of stress that is caused from last minute shopping
• Bloating...god damn tins of sweets
• Looming January exams
• Children who think it's okay to lob balls of ice at you...Just no. 

Okay so there's my best and worst lists, do you agree with any of the above & if you were to add one more thing to each list what would they be? Let me know in the comments! I'm sorry this post is a bit of a naff one but I figured that's better then leaving you with nothing, i'll get the camera malarkey sorted soon pinky promise! And besides...cute pug pictures make up for all right?

Love & TubTubs

Head Full of Flowers Interview

Hey guys! Just to let you all know I recently did a collaboration with Lizzy from Head Full of Flowers and I'm really excited to share it with you all. For those of you who used to follow my old blog it's a similar principle of interviewing bloggers and it's really quite cool to be on the opposite side of it all, lets be honest who doesn't like talking about themselves...that's the reason tags exist!

So for all of you who are interested you can read the interview right here!

Click me!

For those of you who don't want to read any more of my ramblings she also does other little bits and bobs such as projects and the occasional fashion related thing. Definitely check her out for a good read!

This post looked a little bare so have a lovely pug pirate

I'm afraid that's it for this very brief blog post but don't worry I'm not going to fob this off and count it as a real post towards my "monthly post target" (Yep that's a thing now!). I do still want to force my festive ways upon you whilst it's still December and I have my last exam of the semester on Tuesday so after that I'm free to blog until my hearts content. I'm spending a chunk of Christmas break in London but I'm planning to pay the extortionate Travelodge WiFi prices just so I can keep you lovely lot updated. I'm just that dedicated ;)

Love & TubTubs