THE INSTA DIARY #11 - CHRISTMAS EDITION | THE TWELVE DAYS OF BLOGMAS

Happy Saturday Everyone ... we've made it! It's the final day of Blogmas, but it's also the last day of the year! I hope everyone is having a fabulous day so far ... I'm currently sat on my sofa with a cup of  lemsip watching Beauty and the Beast! I seem to have got the Man Flu ... I hate being ill on a normal day but to be poorly on New Years Eve just isn't right! I should be out with a glass of champagne in my hand and busting a move! Enough of the self pity haha! For my last post this year I thought I would re-visit The Insta-Diary! I've really got back into Instagram this month ... although I'm still very much loving Snapchat haha! ... Enjoy!

And there we have it! Thank you so much for all of your love and support for this years 'Twelve Days of Blogmas! I know not all of my posts went up when they should have done but I still had so much fun writing each and every post! I hope you guys have an amazing New Years Eve! And I shall see you in the new year!

| The Twelve Days Of Blogmas |

Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six | Day Seven | Day Eight | Day Nine | Day Ten | Day Eleven | Day Twelve

THE SCENT - PACO RABANNE INVICTUS | THE TWELVE DAYS OF BLOGMAS

Happy Thursday Everyone! And welcome to Day 11 of The Twelve Days of Blogmas! Eeek, we are so close to the end! I know there were a few scheduling issues ... well a lot considering this series should have finished on Christmas Eve! But it's okay! We're just going to power through and forget that ever happened haha! For today's post I thought I would show you guys one of the gifts I got for Christmas! I'm always looking to expand on my scent portfolio and I'm doing pretty well! I always love it when people buy me fragrances because it's not always something that I would go for but I know I'll love an use ... if that makes sense? Anyway, for Christmas my lovely mum bought me a fragrance by Paco Rabanne! I already have the scent 'Million' which has become a cult classic! But I also now have 'Invictus'!

I generally tend to go for a more citrus based scent or something a little sweet, but this fragrance definitely has more of a woody feel to it. It's definitely a masculine scent! I think the notes that get me and have made me fall in love with the scent is how fresh it is! Sometimes wood based scents can be a bit dull and lifeless however this has some energy kicked back in with the help of some good old grapefruit top notes! If you've read my blog for a while you'll know how much I love grapefruit ... not to eat, but the smell! Once the fragrance has settled in the base notes start to seep through and with the help of some guaiac wood and patchouli amber gris accord, this is really where the magic happens. I would describe this scent as an oxymoron, there's a real clash between the two notes which makes the scent even more exciting! I hope you guys enjoyed this post! Let me know if you've tried this scent or if you have any recommendations! Hope you guys have a lovely day or evening and I shall see you very soon for the final post of The Twelve Days of Blogmas!

| The Twelve Days Of Blogmas |

Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six | Day Seven | Day Eight | Day Nine | Day Ten

THE CHRISTMAS PARTY | THE TWELVE DAYS OF BLOGMAS

Happy Tuesday Everyone! And welcome back to The Twelve Days of Blogmas! I hope everyone has had a magical Christmas! Mine was full of food, drink and so much love ... it was amazing! Now that I have recouperated I thought it was best to pick up where we left off! We're now on Day Ten and I really wanted to finish the posts before the New Year! For today's post I thought I would tell you all about this years Christmas Party! I did the same last year and it got a lot of love! This year the party had a 'Pirates of the Caribbean' theme! It wasn't as magical as last years Harry Potter theme but it was a bloody good night!

Myself and Tara set off to Birmingham around half two-ish after a quick stop-off at Fosse Park to get some alcohol, food and eyelash glue ... #essentials! The drive down was like an episode of Carpool Karaoke! We had some amazing tunes on including what has basically become our driving tune, Sam Sparro - Black and Gold and Justin Timberlake - What Comes Around ... but only the rap bit! Haha! We got to the Hilton where the party was being held quite quickly, it probably helped that we didn't get lost this time round! As we drove in to the car park we found an amazing space only a few steps away from the entrance ... turns out this was a special spot and I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to park there! We did try and get out of the spot to move, but Tara couldn't get her car out of the spot haha! So we decided to leave it where it was and swiftly move on to checking in! Now for some reason me and T seem to be really lucky with Hotels ... we got upgraded to one of the executive suites! We didn't even realise until we were making our way to the room ... I'm not gonna lie, I was so excited! The room was HUGE! We had so much space to get ready, which we need! I am so messy when I'm getting ready ... it only takes five minuted and it looks like a tornado has dragged the entire contents of my suitcase across the room! Seeing as we got there around three we had a lot of time to get ready, but for whatever reason even four hours wasn't enough for me! I was due down for a champagne reception at seven ... you should have seen me at about half six. I was an absolute mess haha! I was running around deciding whether to finish my face, complete my outfit or down the vodka and lemonade we paid a ridiculous amount of money for! Thankfully T kept me cool and calm and stopped me from having a breakdown haha! I got to the reception just in time to give an impromptu speech about two of the most amazing women on my team! I babbled a bit but saved myself with a few laughs and hopefully I did them proud! Once I had drank a few glasses of Champagne I snuck out of the room with another glass for T and headed back to the room for an outfit change! That's right guys! I had an outfit change ... they don't call me a diva for anything! Once I was party ready and highlighted to the gods both myself and Tara went down to the party!

We walked through the entrance into the room where dinner was being served... well I walked whilst Tara practically ran! Haha! There were live parrots around and she has a thing about birds! There was a fab stage act where some pirates did some sword fighting before they started bringing out the food! The food had a tropical caribbean theme ... it was so nice! Although I'm pretty sure I drank more than I ate! Once food was over we all made our way into the party hall! As you can see from the few pictures above the whole place was decked out in an amazing pirate theme! There was even half an electronic octopus moving its way out a ship ... creepy but so cool! Now each year we have someone amazing perform at our parties and this year we had Fleur East! I absolutely love her, her voice, her moves but most importantly her sass! She performed a few songs from her album, some of which I knew but others I didn't and then to close she performed Uptown Funk and Sax! If you were there at the party you would have seen that Fleurs sass possessed mine and Tara's inner divas! We were on fire! After a thousand selfies and snapchats we had a good old boogie! This part of my night was fave ... Tara knows why #HushHush! Me and Tara became friends at my very first Christmas Party and it has become a tradition to sing our hearts out to 'All I Want For Christmas' ... and before I knew it the night was drawing to a close and the DJ played Mariah! Tara and I ran for some empty bottles left at the side of the stage for some makeshift mics and sang ... or whaled and screeched our very own rendition of what has become PAra's Christmas Jam!

We then decided to head to the bar once the party had finished but my feet were hurting so much and there was a massive queue and so we decided to head back to our room and ordered some room service! I think our eyes may have been bigger than our bellies because I managed to eat about 3 slices of my pizza before I gave up and crawled into my bed haha! The next morning we decided to sleep in and managed to check out a minute or two before our time was up ... I was so tired and achey the next morning, I needed a while to sleep in haha! Once we had checked out we went on our way to fulfil what has become another PAra Christmas Party tradition and drove to the nearest McDonalds! #AllTheCarbs! The Christmas Party is always such an amazing night and I just feel so happy being surrounded by so many people that I love! I hope you guys have enjoyed this post, like a lot of the things I write about on my blog I'm so excited to read back on this post! I hope you guys have a lovely day and I shall see you soon for Day Eleven of The Twelve Days of Blogmas!

| The Twelve Days Of Blogmas |

Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six | Day Seven | Day Eight | Day Nine 

THE CHRISTMAS TAG 2016 | THE TWELVE DAYS OF BLOGMAS

Happy Monday Everyone! And welcome to Day Nine of The Twelve Days of Blogmas! For today's post I thought I would do a little Christmas tag! I did something similar a few years ago and I really wanted to do one again, but everywhere I looked had the same questions that I had already answered! After about 20 odd minutes of searching a finally found one I hadn't done before! So ... there's not really a lot more to say! Lets do this!

What is your favourite Christmas film?

Does Harry Potter count ... no? Okay then! I think my favourite Christmas movie, well one of many, is Jingle All The Way! I love this classic flick! It takes me right back to my childhood, I remember many Christmases where this would be on my telly! Of course I have way more ... Home Alone, Elf, Arthur Christmas, Santa Clause ... I could  go on forever!

What are you favourite Christmas colours?

My tree for the past few years has had a black, silver and white theme and really apart from a touch of copper those really are my favourite Christmas colours! Gone are the days of colour from my Christmas world haha!

Do you stay in your PJ’s or get dressed  up for Christmas?

It really depends on what we're doing for Christmas but I mean of course PJ's! Who doesn't love spending the entire day in Christmas PJ's! 

If you could only buy one person a present this year who would it be?

Ooh, this is hard! And so not fair! But probably my mum ... #Awww #MummysBoy

Do you open your presents Christmas eve or Christmas morning?

Christmas Morning!

Have you ever built a gingerbread house?

No! Although I've always wanted to! It just looks like it would take a lot of time and I am really impatient ... especially when it comes to something I can eat haha!

What do you like to do on your Christmas break?

Netflix and Chill ... but in the non sexual way haha! Cosy days, all wrapped up with lots of food and movies!

Any Christmas wishes?

I can't tell you guys ... What!? Everyone knows you don't tell people what you wish for, If I said they wouldn't come true!

Favourite Christmas smell?

This year it's definitely the Vanilla Chai scent from The Body Shop ... it is super delicious!

Okay! Well those are all the questions for this tag! I hope you guys enjoyed this post, feel free to do your own version! Just pop a link to your post in the comments or tweet me! Hope you guys have a lovely day or evening! And I shall see you on Wednesday for Day Ten!

| The Twelve Days Of Blogmas |

Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six | Day Seven | Day Eight

THE FOOD DIARY - BILL'S | THE TWELVE DAYS OF BLOGMAS

Happy Sunday Everyone! And welcome back to 'The Twelve Days of Blogmas' ... we're on Day Eight, although we really should be on Day Nine! But don't worry, day nine will be going up tomorrow! Quickly followed by day ten on Tuesday! Back to Day Eight ... for the past two years me and my mamacomes #InsideJoke, go for an annual Christmas meal! This year we decided to stay in town and thought it would be nice to go to Bill's! 

I've been to Bill's a few times and I love every aspect of the experience that you have when you're dining there and so I had no objections when we decided this was where we were going to have our Christmas meal this year! The table was booked for 7.45 and so obviously I got there just after 8, If you know me at all, you know that I am always late! Although this time I had good reason ... I left to go pick Arti up with plenty of time, but I forgot my Secret Santa present at home! So I had to drive back to pick it up for the meal, haha! By the time we had got into town I was well and truly hungry! So we got to our seats and ordered some beautiful food! Whilst we were waiting for our food and drinks to arrive we decided to do our Secret Santa gifting! This year I had Suki, which was weird because the last time we did Secret Santa, I had her then too! I got her some Soap and Glory bits, along with a Burt's Bees lip balm and a set of candles! My Secret Santa was Jairaj who bought me an amazing Rituals gift set! I love it, it's beautifully packaged and smells amazing! You did well J!

The first thing I ordered was some of their infamous Pink Lemonade! I love lemonade as it is anyway ... and no, that's not down to Beyonce! Haha! I just think it tastes so fresh! Add a whole load of sugar and make it pink ... you have my dream beverage people! For starters I ordered the Crumbled Halloumi Sticks, I think the best part of Bill's menu is their starters! I've been there before and have had a meal out of just their starters, it was amazing! For mains I ordered the Buttermilk Chicken Burger, it was massive! I had to cut in four to be able to eat it haha! But oh my was it tasty! For dessert I ordered the Lemon Meringue Cheesecake in a Glass! It was so rich! The meringue itself was a tiny bit sickly but along with a the lemon and the biscuit base my mouth was in sweet heaven! Although it was only for a few hours, each minute was filled with so much love and laughter! We don't get to all see each other very often but that never makes a difference! I had such a great night and I couldn't wish for a set of better friends, I love you mamacomes! 

I hope you guys enjoyed this post! Sorry again for not having a post up on Friday but we'll catch up with Blogmas in the next few days, don't you worry! I hope you guys are having a lovely day or evening! And I shall see you again on Monday for Day Nine!

| The Twelve Days Of Blogmas |

Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six | Day Seven

THE JO MALONE REVIEW - LIME BASIL AND MANDARIN | THE TWELVE DAYS OF BLOGMAS

Happy Wednesday Everyone! And welcome to Day Seven of The Twelve Days of Blogmas! If you read 'Day Three' of Blogmas you'll know that I was recently in London! Now, I've been to London a  number of times, which of course means I've also been down Oxford Street a number of times! What I haven't done though is been into Selfridges! I've wanted to go for a very long time ... and each time I go to London I always try to fit it in. But if I'm completely honest with you, by the time I've worked myself down Oxford Street towards Selfridges ... I'm knackered! I just never have the energy to go on! However this time round it was definitely going to happen! Tara needed to go to Balenciaga within Selfridges and I was more than happy to go with her! Selfridges is massive, and really that is a whole blog post within itself! This post isn't about Selfridges but more about what I bought when I was there ... my very first Jo Malone fragrance!

The price point on the Cologne is expectedly quite high, but you're not just buying a fragrance with a purchase like this one ... you're buying the brand too. It was £43 for the smaller bottle which is 30ml, in all honesty it's more cost effective to buy the bigger bottle but as you can imagine the price tag is also higher! And so, I thought for my first fragrance I would test the waters with a smaller bottle to see how I get on. In terms of my personal taste I much prefer a citrus based scent and after sampling a few options I decided on the Lime Basil and Mandarin Cologne. The fragrance has a top, heart and base note, all which work together to create an immense scent. The Mandarin is the most prominent in the scent and really sets the tone for the fragrance. At first you are hit with a very fresh and tart scent, this comes from Mandarin blended with Lime to give you the main notes of citrus. Once the scent settles the top notes also begin to settle allowing the heart of the scent to take centre stage. The basil within the fragrance works so beautifully against the citrus notes. It adds warmth and depth to the scent with a peppery edge. Speaking of warmth, the base note of amber wood adds additional depth with an amber-like scent! I am in love with this scent, it has so many dimensions and lingers on the skin beautifully ... my bank account may be feeling sorry for itself but my sense of smell could not be happier! I think this is the beginning of a beautiful new relationship, I really can't wait to explore the other fragrances Jo Malone has to offer! Have you guys tried any fragrances from Jo Malone? If so let me know what you thought of them! I would love to hear your thoughts! I hope you guys enjoyed this post and I shall see you again on Wednesday for another edition of The Twelve Days of Blogmas!

| The Twelve Days Of Blogmas |

Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six

THE HELLO HANDOME SHAVING KIT - PREZZYBOX | THE TWELVE DAYS OF BLOGMAS

Happy Monday Everyone ... I can't quite believe it, but we are officially halfway through The Twelve Days of Blogmas! Christmas is so close that I can almost smell Christmas Dinner! If you guys have been following my Blogmas from the beginning this year, you would have seen that my first post was a collaboration with PrezzyBox! Like I mentioned in the post I had one more product to review, The Hello Handsome Shaving Kit!

This kit is perfect as a Secret Santa or a Stocking filler, the kit comes with a bar of shaving soap, a soothing balm and also a moisturiser ... so it really is the perfect shaving kit! Having used the kit for a week or two, it's definitely a great gateway for someone who's maybe just started out shaving or is branching away from the usual shaving foam style shave! The soap comes in wrapped packaging but I definitely think you need a good place to store it to stop it from drying out, I actually have min resting in a small Lush face mask pot! Scent wise I really think they have hit the mark with this one! Sandalwood is all the rage for Men's skincare at the moment, at first I was a little hesitant because I thought it was going to smell too musky? But it actually a lot of undertones which allows the scent to have a lovely clean and fresh note! The soothing balm works really well, it's not one of the best ones that I've tried but it has a really thick consistency, so you can really work the balm into the skin! The moisturiser has a really thin consistency which for me was a little too thin. However if you apply the moisturiser after the balm your skin will have just the right amount of moisture if you have oily or combination skin. I tend to be a little dry, more so than usual once I have had a shave and so I really need a high amount of moisturiser! Overall I think this is a fab kit and for a really great price too! Let me know if you've tried this before, I'd love to hear what you thought of the kit! Make sure you head over to PrezzyBox to see more about this product and check out some of the other fantastic gift ideas they have! Hope you guys have enjoyed this post and I shall see you again for Day Seven on Wednesday!

| The Twelve Days Of Blogmas |

Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five