The Art Of Festive Self Gifting - A Haul

I'm going to admit right here from the off that I am terrible at going waaaay over budget with people's Christmas gifts. And by this I mean I spend more than I had planned on people, and then I also accidentally on purpose spend money on myself. Take a 3 for 2 for example. I'll buy something for my Mum, something for J, and then have to have the free thing for myself. Naughty. It's only the 6th of December and already my tree is littered with wrapped pressies - how's that for organisation?

I've been doing my Christmas shopping in stages this year and wrapping as I go. This means that I've been saving up this haul for quite some time (I bought my first gifts in October - you just can't do it all in one payday, am I right?) and ultimately ended up picking up lots of exciting goodies for myself…'To Louise, love from Louise' is an art I have perfected!

First up was Waterstones where I bought a book for my work Secret Santa and then had some money left over on a gift card to buy Vogue on Coco Chanel. I'm really into learning about Chanel's history at the moment. The more products I try from their makeup brand the more I want to know everything about Chanel and what better place to begin than to trust Vogue? This is a lovely book full of text and pictures. I'm excited to cuddle up after work to begin this.

 My second stop was to Topshop to buy my Mum some socks for Christmas (no kidding, this is what she asked for!). I ended up browsing the socks for myself and came away with the little Reindeer and snowflake pair you see above. I also couldn't pass up the opportunity to pick up the gingerbread man jumper from my ultimate Christmas wish list (I managed to score 10% off 'cause I found the smallest of holes in the arm!) and I absolutely love it. It's so cosy, and is a lot thicker and warmer than I had imagined it would be. Finally I decided that I couldn't pass up actually buying a hot water bottle. It's something that I've never owned before and I adore the colours of the deer and the butterfly on this knitted pom pom one.

 No shopping trip is ever complete without a trip to Primark, where I was on the hunt for some bits and pieces for J. I found said pieces, and also walked away with 3 pairs of Disney socks (there were more designs but at £2.50 per pair they're a bit steep by Primark's standards!), a necklace and some hair accessories. Ever the Blair Waldorf fan (I love Gossip Girl!) I purchased a headband to add to my growing collection of hair jewels, and I also got some cute bow hair ties to put around my bun for work.

What haul would be complete on a Beauty style blog without a hint of any beauty products?! Well we ventured into Lush in Bristol recently and J bought me the Santa lip scrub and some bath bombs (which I've used already - boo!) and I popped into Boots and found a 'buy 3 products get a free Babylips' offer on the Maybelline stand. I've been wanting to try out their Brow Drama eyebrow wand for ages and their new Master Kajal black eyeliner so I picked up both of those and then chose a teal coloured eyeliner pencil as my third product. All are lovely little pieces and I'd highly recommend any of them if you're an eyeliner fan or brow fanatic.
My last makeup splurge was a YSL Babydoll mascara where I received 10% off due to an event happening in my local department store, Beales. I'd never tried this before, only heard rave reviews from friends and I have to say that I am so, so glad I picked this up because it's truly amazing. It's like my other mascara love, Maybelline The Rocket, but better. Simply amazing!

 My penultimate port of call was the Body Shop, which, despite investing in a Body Shop card I'd not really bought anything from in a while. My mum loves the hand sanitisers from the Body Shop and that prompted me to pick up a Mango scented one (so much more luxurious than Carex, eh!). I then went a bit over board on the body wash/ shower gel front and picked up all 3 festive scents (Vanilla, Cranberry and Ginger Sparkle - buy 3 save £4!) and a chocolate scent because it smelled absolutely delicious. I also had a £3 gift card from this month's Glamour magazine which made my little gingerbread man body mitt only 50p!

Finally, I was out with my friend (Hi Courtney!) and she purchased the most amazing pair of boots from River Island. Now I'm not normal one for heeled boots because I feel a bit rude being 5"7.5 and J only 5"5 because wearing heels makes me tower over him whenever we're together. I cast all these doubts aside though because I wanted my own pair of chunky black boots and triumphed in New Look with these for £29.99. I find that New Look is currently the only place I can get decent shoes because I have such wide feet and they have such an amazing selection I found it quite hard to choose! These are super comfortable, have a big chunky heel (perfect for clumsy people like me!) and look fabulous on my feet. I may be sold on heeled boots after all…

From January 1st I am officially on a spending ban. I tried one before but seeing as I attempted to do it in the middle of the month, and I'm the kind of girl that would rather start at the very beginning - i.e New Year, new start and so on - I think I'll be more successful at adhering to a ban at the start of a fresh year. I'll pop up a post about that soon.

What have you bought recently?
Are you guilty of self gifting too?