Haute Future Haute Haul... Christmas Gifts!

I know this is late... I apologize but as I've said in my previous post, I've been laid up in bed with a horrible cold for the past few days (since the day before Christmas Eve in fact!) Poor me. But never fear, I am in relatively good health again, which means that the excitement of all the lovely goodies I've had has actually hit me! Here are my pressies before I opened them... I couldn't for the life of me work out what the big one was. My mom thought she was hilarious when she went, 'It's the doll you asked for!!!' My parents made me leave it until the end. What could it be? :)

Here are a couple of Christmas dinner pictures to keep you in suspense...

Mummy sets the table so pretty... 

Prawn Cocktail and Brown Bread to start!

TURKEY TIME!!!

And now, without much further ado... it's present time! Let's start with my stocking fillers. Since my sister found out 'The Truth' we have chosen items to put in each other's stockings. We buy the bits, wrap them up, then leave them in a bag. Then, overnight, Father Christmas puts them in our respective stockings and adds extra goodies :) The bits for my sister are in the festive pine-cone and snowed-on-leaves paper, I thought it was so cute!

Weeee presents for meeeeee!

Here is the mess I created after opening all of my goodies...

These are the bits my sister chose for me... I have some chocolate lady-bugs in a ice-cream cup, four (already burned one) Yankee Candle tarts in yummy winter scents like cinnamon and apple cider, some dill sauce (random, but nom nonetheless), a hot chocolate stick, a Hershey's Cookies and Cream bar, a mixer for making raspberry mojitos, some Twizzlers (my favorite US candy), two pairs of earrings and a silver ring. Thanks Meewps :)

These are the bits which Santa Claus added for me... I also had a couple of sachets of delicious popping candy but they're long gone now. In my belly. Thanks Santa :)

As if that's not enough sweets and chocolate, these are some more that I found all wrapped up downstairs too! I'm going to be FAT in the New Year. And I don't even care. That is of course until the New Year...

Now, let's get onto the best bits... The Beauty Pieces! First up, I got the Trevor Sorbie Beautiful Volume collection. I love this brand since I received it last Christmas. It makes my hair look so healthy and their leave-in conditioner is the best detangler I've found so far.

This one has been a long time coming, but I am finally the proud owner of an Urban Decay NAKED palette! Rejoice! I can't wait to practice some awesome new eye looks... the possibilities are endless with this collection and I simply cannot wait :)

These are the five little pieces which I've wanted for ages... Two beauty-product celebrities, NARS blush in Orgasm and my first ever MAC brush, the 219 (this seems to have been cut from the top of the picture somehow, no fair.) I've also got some great benefit bits which I've had my eye on since the summer. The mango-tinted stain ChaChaTint, Moon Beam and the 2011 miracle mascara, They're Real!

As requested, I received a gift box of Soap N Glory goodies. They include Clean on Me, Flake Away, Glad Hair Day, Hand Food, Girligio, The Righteous Butter, a loofah and this nice big toiletry bag. I prefer showers when I'm sick, so I can't wait to have a nice long pampering soak in the bath now I'm better...

These two items are total luxuries! The In Crowd Nails INC collection contains 15 of the companies best selling polishes, and the benefit Crescent Row perfume collection carries four of the most beautiful scents I've known so far. I'm already a massive fan of So Hooked on Carmella by benefit, so I'm sure I'll get on with these perfumes like a house on fire!

I've also been gifted these two little toiletry boxes. My next door neighbors gave me the Champneys box which contains a couple of rich body creams, a loofah, a body wash and a bubble bath. My cousin Ruby treated me to this Natural Moods set which contains a soap and a body wash also... Thanks guys! 

My best pal Vikki so kindly bought me ALL THESE BITS!!! A super-cute little brown satchel from Primarni, a pair of adorable socks from New Look, the Terry's Chocolate Orange (featured in my chocolate and sweets pic), an electric blue nail art pen by Flirt which I can't wait to experiment with, an eyeliner from Soap N Glory's new cosmetics range and finally, one of my all-time favorite perfumes, Ghost in Ghost. What did I do to deserve all these presents Vik??? Hardly complaining though! Thanks a dozen baby. 

 

Look at all of the jewelry my mom got for me... They all suit me so well. I've already worn one pair of the H&M earrings as you can tell from their absence on the card... 

My mom also bought me a lovely pajama set from Topshop... She also got me a lovely purple stripy dressing-gown from Topshop too, but it's not been off my back since I got it during opening my presents, and since I'm ill I've hardly had any photographs taken since then. You'll just have to trust me when I say it's really, really nice.

And the super-cool hot pink 80's jumper I sported on Christmas day. Jazzy, huh? I love it! 

I got two books about the Harry Potter series and films which will be perfect as I can use them in my dissertation of Children's Literature in the 20th Century. My grandma and grandad got me a cheese-board (I'M OBSESSED WITH CHEESE) and also a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin which apparently revolutionized American Literature, so I'm excited to read it. My parents got me a subscription to one of my favorite magazines, Company, plus two books about Retail Business. My dad took it upon himself to surprise me with  a book about how to recreate vintage-inspired make-up looks! So sweet!

And also... I GOT A KINDLE!!!!!!!! YES YES AND YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

We're now coming to the end of my haul. This next piece was a total suprise. Now, everyone who's anyone (even haters apparently...) know that I live in the box room as my parents moved my sister into my old room when I left for uni, and now I've returned home for my final year to save some money, it's only fair that I take her old room so she doesn't have to move all her things again. This is totally fine. However, this means I can hardly fit a wardrobe in my bedroom, so we've had to be creative with clothes storage ideas... My parents found this clothes hanger from a chic furniture store in Chester. It's absolutely perfect and I can't wait to put it up in the corner of my room and hang my prettiest dresses from it for the world to see :)

Finally, this is the big one. The one I never expected to get but have been quietly pining over since my interest in beauty began. My parents, crazy-beautiful people, have treated me to a big pink make-up train storage case!!! This is absolutely perfect, I can't believe they even got the one I've been fantasizing over!

This means my make-up won't be spread across my dresser anymore in a disorganized mess. There is a section for everything! I may even have space to store my hair-dryer and curlers in the bottom. My God, I can't thank them enough!

Isn't it beautiful?

I've really been terribly lucky this year. I also got a super pretty Kindle and laptop case and three pairs of socks which didn't get separately photographed... On top of all that, I also received about £65 worth of store vouchers. I can't wait to get spending in the sales... Boots, Topshop and River Island, here I come, and I'm taking no prisoners. Check out the bits I'm on the lookout for here.

So that's that! All of my presents are still stacked up in the living room so I could gaze longingly at them when I was sick...

I couldn't wait to start practicing with the make-up and sporting the gorgeous jewelry, but when you're sick as a dog, you don't even feel like getting dressed in the morning never mind painting my face or hanging my accessories. I couldn't even enjoy the chocolates as I couldn't swallow :(

SO glad I'm back on form and can eat myself into oblivion. After all, that's what Christmas is all about!

Thank you to everyone who bought me a gift this year! I hope that everyone I've bought for has enjoyed their presents as much as I am now enjoying mine :) Thanks to this haul, you can expect a ton of beauty reviews on the way pretty soon, so keep an eye out!

What have you had for Christmas? Do you know what you're spending your vouchers on? Did any of you get a Kindle too? I love mine already and I can't wait to work out some more of the features!

Thanks guys, and I wish you a (slightly) belated, Merry Christmas :)

Love

gabriellasofia

Are You A Feminist?

The past century has seen sexism come to be one of the top ways in which one can discriminate. This was brought into question through the fact that 'feminists' decided that they were being treated unfairly and that it should stop and hence has had much publicity over recent years and has resulted in fewer instances of a woman being judged or treated differently solely based on her gender.

So women are no longer campaigning for the vote, or burning their bras or chaining themselves to railings in order to get their message out and yet feminism is still active today, and what I was asked by a self-confessed 'feminist' friend of mine recently really got me thinking; "Are you a feminist?"

It's terrible, but certain stigma has been attached to those calling themselves feminists... Still to this day they are often considered unfeminine trouble-makers. There are even ignorant people out there who would call them 'men-haters', and in extreme cases 'butch' and other similarly derogatory names implying lesbianism because some assume women only fight for women's freedom because they 'love' women and 'hate' men. Of course, this is not the case.

Feminists are women who believe that men and women should be treated equally. It's as simple as that. So yes, I guess I am a feminist. It makes me angry that for the most part men are still on higher rates of pay than women who do the same jobs. It makes me mad that men are often chosen ahead of women for jobs purely because employers don't want to hire someone who may one day require maternity leave and pay. It makes me sad that there are still such negative connotations to various words used to describe women in comparison to the equivalent for men... if you don't believe me just consider the differences between 'bachelor' and 'spinster' or 'slut' and 'player', plus there are tons more examples out there. It confuses me that women are still considered as their father's property until they become that of their husband, demonstrated by the fact that most women take on their husband's names... Mrs Dr John Doe for example, why isn't she just considered as herself? It makes me shake with rage that some people out there, including Constable Michael Sanguinetti believe that a woman should be judged and hence treated 'accordingly' based on their appearance and the way they dress. The reason this makes me shake with rage is because this Toronto Constable actually suggested that 'Women should avoid dressing like sluts' in order to lessen the chances of rape. Shocking, right?

It's amazing that in this day and age people still go along with sexist conventions purely for the sake of maintaining tradition. So sexuality is being embraced more openly these days (in the past a man would have to secretly find a prostitute if he wanted to let off some steam, whereas now he need only buy a girl a drink before he has her in his bed... or in the club car park, depending on what that girl allows of course) and yet it still remains a taboo for a woman to explore her sexuality as openly. If we have become less 'prudish' over the years, then more power to us, but let's try and make the lack of judgement one-size-fits-all... Whatever the 'rules' are, they should apply to everyone!

Personally, I am not the kind of girl who wants to go on a night out and pull lots of guys, but I would like the option to if I so chose, without being concerned about how society would consider me because I'm a woman. That's the whole point of feminism; if you want to be a housewife, then that's fine! But the opportunity to be a politician, doctor or lawyer should be there too!

So that's one case where I don't want to go to the party but it would have been nice to be asked. And yet there are other cases where I do want to go to the party... and dress like a 'slut' if I feel like it, without being raped (SO THERE, CONSTABLE MICHAEL SANGUINETTI!) For

example, I don't want to be defined by the men in my life. I'm my own person.

Since I made this revelation I have decided to take on the less conventional 'Ms.' rather than 'Miss' or 'Mrs'. 'Ms' means I am a woman and you don't need to know whether I'm taken or 'belong' to a man for you to make your opinions about who I am and what I'm capable of. It's just a small change, but I figured, 'If men don't have to declare their marital status in paperwork, then why should I?'

Also, since the 'SlutWalk' campaign which took place on the 11th of June this year I have definitely decided that I will be attending the walk next year. Thousands of women took to the streets wearing the most provocative clothes they own, baring as much flesh as they wanted and marched in the name of the importance of sexual consent. Women who have been raped, or molested in the past walked with their heads held high and those who have been lucky enough never to have experienced something so terrible supported them anyway and marched carrying banners stating 'Cleavage does not mean consent', 'Short skirts don't cause rape, Rapists do' and 'Whatever we wear, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no'.

This made me realize that if women want to stand any chance of being treated as equals to men, we need to stand together. Just because we may not be affected by sexism right now doesn't mean we'll never face that barrier... Plus, I think feminism is cool, so we really have no

excuse!

I'm not saying every girl or woman out there should go out and wear no clothes, apply for a high powered job and introduce themselves as 'Ms.' However, we really should be more aware and understanding to those sorts of examples...

I hope I've given you some food for thought. Hopefully I will see as many of you as possible at next year's SlutWalk which can be found at www.facebook.com/slutwalkuk but until then, answer me this... Are You A Feminist?

Love and kisses

MS. gabriellasofia