REVISIT: The beauty advent calendar

I'm interrupting my normal twice weekly schedule to write a requested post. Requested! From an actual reader! It fills my heart with joy to know that people are reading my little corner of the world - thanks you guys! 

The comment appeared on my post about the Marks and Spencer beauty advent calendar and asked me to do a quick update on my favourite products, so here we go! 

First up I will say the calendar was all kinds of joyous. It was like Christmas started early and carried on every single day throughout December. Opening the box each day, followed by the text to my sister telling her what was inside, was quite simply fab. The products were all wrapped up in either black or purple tissue paper, a bit like pass the parcel, and the majority of them were mighty fine indeed. The stand out products for me were as follows:

• 100ml Cowshed Grumpy Cow Uplifting Body Lotion
• 2.5 fl.oz. L'Occitane Verbena Shower Gel
• 15ml REN Flash Rinse 1 Minute Facial
• 100ml Pixi Glow Tonic*

Out of all of them the Pixi Glow Tonic was the most coveted of all. I'd heard so many amazing things about it and was desperate to try it, but at nearly £20 a bottle it was out of my price range for a toner. The 100ml is half the size of the full price product so for a tenner worth of product to be featured in a £25 calendar...a really rather good deal, and I would imagine was a big attraction for many people who bought the calendar. 

The majority of the products were brilliant. The lipstick shades were mainly of the nude/rose variety, and to get 100ml of many of the products is a pretty decent size for you to really get to try something out and see if you like it for future repurchase. The only disappointment for me was that all of the hair products were focused on creating volume and zero offerings for frizz taming. I think a bit of balance here would have been much more desirable. Then again, my sister lucked out as she received a little goodie bag of the volume control products. Share the love. 

The big question: will I repurchase the calendar next year? If the price is the same I definitely would**, but I think it won't take Marks and Spencer long to realise that they can put it in a much higher price bracket and still move the same amount of stock. That will be a real shame for me as I think the £25 price label was certainly the biggest appeal for me.

*it won't come as much of a surprise to read that I love the glow tonic! I was worried about how my skin would react to the exfoliation but so far so good!

**as before, and to be entirely honest, the calendar was available at £25 for a spend of £25 on beauty products. To qualify I bought the most expensive body lotion I have ever used: REN Rose Otto Body Lotion (£26). I can see why people spend that much money on body lotion. It is quite simply lush. It sinks into the skin in mere seconds, smells divine, and leaves your skin feeling silky smooth. Even if the calendar had been utterly rubbish, the body lotion would have been an enjoyable splurge! 

If you'd like to know anything else about the calendar, comment below. Go on, make my day all over again! 

Round Our Way - The Museum of Hartlepool

When we found out there was an exhibition about pirates on at The Museum of Hartlepool, you didn't have to see 'oooh arrrr me hearties' twice before we were there! A tiny pop-up exhibition as you first enter the museum, there were costume recreations, loads of fascinating facts, helmets to pick up (weighing in at 3kg!), treasure boxes to open, and pistols and weapons galore. For the bargain price of FREE this was a cute little informative exhibition. Probably aimed more at little persons but these two big ones wandered around happily anyway. 

While we were there we decided it was worth looking around the rest of the museum, which was also free. Once again, lots of things to touch and feel and open for the littles, but also lots of really interesting stuff about Hartlepool. And buttons to press, which is still entertaining even when you're a biggie. It's a big place and includes a giant lighthouse light, a real fishing boat that you can climb aboard, and all sorts of artefacts from pre-war to present day. I've just learned today that it's in Britain's top ten free visitor attractions (yay, go Hartlepool!) and I would highly recommend a visit. You can find out more information here. 

 

 

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

I still have goose bumps. 

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty is the first and largest retrospective of the late designer's body of work to be shown in Europe. Housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, I can honestly say with hand on heart that this is one of the best exhibitions I have ever seen. For the sights, the sounds, the atmosphere, the presentation, the beauty, the 'savage beauty' if you will. 

* Spoiler alert * If you plan to go to this do not read any further! Have you stopped? Anyone left? Let's proceed. 

The exhibition sits in one of the farthest corners of the V&A. It's a favourite space of mine and has been home to many a fine exhibition, but nothing from the outside prepares the viewer for what is on the inside. The rooms transport you from one collection to another, the mannequins booted, masked, adorned with the designs - to say clothes just doesn't seem enough. I've never seen couture so close up before and it is breathtaking. The intricate designs, the vision, the tailoring skills, all brought to life in these incredible clothes that hang like nothing I own. I found myself standing in front of so many of them with my mouth wide open, eyes wide, and trying really really hard not to reach out and touch, just to feel the fabric between my fingers... (of course I didn't do this as everyone knows that is way against the rules, no matter how much you want to - glue your hands to your side if you are in any way tempted!)

And the rooms. How to even begin to describe the rooms. From the sparkling bones with the creepy blue lightplay above you, to the red clan room where every single dress was just. simply. stunning. To the cabinet of curiosities that I am certain made me gasp out loud. I've never seen anything like it before. Floor to ceiling shelving, the exhibition designers had literally made a cabinet of curiosities, and no matter where you looked you just weren't done. The mirrored boxes at the edge of the shelving that made you dizzy when you looked down, Mahler's 5th oozing out of one shelf that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and all the while iconic exhibit after iconic exhibit showing up in your sightline. Simply breathtaking. Just when you think it can't be topped, out of that room into a blackened room and a hologram that starts off as a tiny beating white light and turns into Kate Moss shimmying and spinning in a white lace creation with music that beats through your feet. By the time you reach the last couple of rooms with his final collection, you are spent, visually and emotionally. 

I still have goose bumps. And days later, when I close my eyes in bed, my mind takes me back to one of the rooms and I re-live it all over again. 

Breathtaking. Quite literally. 

From the lyrical to the practical. It's busy. Like mega-busy. Shuffling isn't uncommon. But you'll be so busy looking around yourself in awe that you'll soon forget the crowds. To say that I recommend you visit would be a minor understatement. If you can, do it. Even if you think that maybe it might be impossible, try moving heaven and earth to get to it. I truly don't think there will ever be anything like it again. Beauty. Truly Savage Beauty. 

Book tickets here: Savage Beauty tickets 

Cost: £17.50 (plus any additional moving of heaven and earth spends)

Dates: on until 2nd August 2015 

Times: various, time slots available at booking point

Location: Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL, UK (nearest tube is South Kensington)