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

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover... or a Perfume by its Advert!

   It should come as no shock to you Christmas shoppers out there that perfume and eau de toilette sales soar at this time of year. With millions of fashion brands, celebrities (from the A list right through Z), and even television shows and film productions (Twilight or Glee scented parfum anyone?) producing a handful of fragrances each every year, it can be kind of difficult to choose which to go for, particularly if you are purchasing as a gift.

   For those of you out there who don't know (usually men panicking about what gift to buy) perfume can be a very personal gift which some people would often rather choose for themselves. The scent that a person wears represents who they are and often who they would like to be, so you have to know someone quite well if you think you can choose something of your own accord which they would personally choose to wear on an almost daily basis. I say a daily basis as I wear perfume every day, and I don't believe that the people who read my blog are looking to buy something for someone only to be used on special occasions... that would be a waste in my opinion. 

   So with all that said, I hate to pile on the pressure, but it's there. You don't want to offend someone by getting them a super-duper sweet girly perfume when they wish to be taken seriously, and similarly, you don't want to get a really subtle, 'classy' or 'sophisticated' scent for someone who would rather be commended for their fun-loving personality.

   The pressure is there. So what do you do? Sniff all the sprays until your nostrils burn? Do 'eeny-meeny-miney-mo' on the first three bottles that caught your eye? No. This year, it's so much easier than all that, because an abundance of new perfume ads have graced our television screens during prime-time viewing, featuring beautiful, successful women with attractive, intelligent friends, as they head out into their perfectly idyllic surroundings without a care in the world (apart from how sexy and confident they're new perfume makes them feel, of course...) 

   Here is a handful of my six favorite perfume ads at the moment, which have really caught my eye, and my first impression from the advert itself... 

Opium by Yves Saint Laurent 

This advert suggests to me that the perfume will be quite an acquired taste... a 'dangerous' option, which some people might shy away from because of its rich and decadent scent, but others will become addicted to perhaps becoming their signature scent for life. 

The One by Dolce and Gabbana

This advert confuses me so much. The television advert only lasts for 20 seconds or so, which means that a lot of the sense (whatever sense is there...) is lost (IN TRANSLATION, sorry, couldn't resist.) It's clear from this full version of the advert that Scarlett Johnasson is being interviewed by a newspaper journalist. However, the advert leaves more questions to be asked than answered. 1) Why did her Italian boyfriend's mom break up with her for him? 2) What starts with the letter 'M'? 3) What the hell does the sunshine smell like??? Also, I don't know whether we are supposed to question whether she is answering these questions as Scarlett or as another character... Having said that, perhaps this is a clever trickery as she does call into question what an actress actually is, or who she is when she states, 'Actress is the hardest, because you never know who you are.' This advert is just weird and awkward. I assume that the perfume is supposed to smell like the 'sunshine' and thanks to the terrible product placement towards the end of the clip, I know what the bottle would look like on a store shelf. However, I'm sorry to say that although I LOVE Scarlett Johnansson to pieces, I would not buy this perfume... and she probably shouldn't either, I think this may well be her worst work in fact :(

Chanel No5

My ultimate favorite perfume advert of this season. I want to be Audrey Tatou. She has the most beautifully chic, yet simple, classic clothes, hair and make-up. She is a young girl traveling in a foreign country, in a foreign way (naked on a train?) and yet she seems confident in her own skin, she explores all these new sites alone, and she really doesn't NEED a man. And yet, at the end, once she's learnt who she is on her amazingly idyllic vacation, she gets the guy. The guy who has been driven wild by her presence since their outward journey, yet all the time she is cool, like she hardly knew he existed. This advert is so empowering to me, and it makes me want to kill for this perfume. On the television ad, the actual Chanel bottle isn't featured, apart from the fleeting shadow which is created by the light of the window which we see in this clip flash across the carriage. And yet, I remember that this is No5. This is Chanel. I imagine this scent to be quite warm, spicy perhaps, or faintly musky. Perhaps a quite subtle but never powdery. Sexy, sophisticated and chic. Of Chanel, I would hardly expect anything less.

Dior J'adore

This is an advert which made me sit up and listen. Although I don't personally hold much of a torch for Charlize Theron herself, I couldn't help but notice the familiar faces of the Hollywood-glamour archive as they slipped in and out of the shots. Did you spot the radiant Grace Kelly gazing into the distance? How about Marilyn Monroe effortlessly applying her iconic red lipstick? Marlene Dietrich is probably less known to our generation, but even if you don't know who she is, you would have to be blind not to have noticed those sharp cheekbones as she posed for a picture... As if all that isn't iconic enough, the backdrop of the Versailles Hall of Mirrors adds an extra something special to the advert. This advert looks expensive, so I expect the perfume will smell so also. On top of that, I can see that this fragrance is intended for a woman on the go, someone wishing to be noticed even in a room full of the most beautiful women ever to walk the earth. I don't really know how I expect it to smell... the hourglass shape of the bottle suggests that the scent may be slightly feminine but it's clear this scent is for a woman, not a girl.

Beautiful by Estee Lauder

This advert is just so sweet. It's simple, it's obvious, I like it. The bride is beautiful, the perfume is called 'Beautiful' and I expect it will smell beautiful too. There's really not a lot left to say! Although I do predict that I will find this scent quite fresh, sweet (but not in a sickly way, much more subtle and sophisticated than that,) and perhaps quite subtle for that innocence which one would expect such an angelic bride to possess. If this is all correct, then I wouldn't usually expect I would like it as a winter scent. However, I'm sure I'll love it nonetheless as in my books Estee Lauder can do no wrong :)

Valentina by Valentino

I must admit that I find this advert to be quite cliche... The whole 'famous-actress/model-in-high-demand-escapes-to-cause-a-bit-of-harmless-and-tame-mischief' thing has already been executed perfectly by the goddess that is Keira Knightly in the Chanel Coco Mademoiselle adverts over the years of her reign as Beauty Supreme. And yet, whilst the concept isn't particularly new, I can't say I'm not a fan of a young girl breaking the rules to have some fun and I think Valentino has portrayed just that. I would expect that Valentina will be quite a fun, memorable scent. Inoffensive and enjoyed by all sorts of people (friends, boyfriends, and in extreme cases, media alike) the Valentina advert gives me the impression that this may be quite a safe choice... But who knows?

   Each of these adverts has its merits and gives a very clear overview of what they want their perfume to voice. However, do the general atmospheres created by the adverts directly translate to the scents? Well, over the next few days, I'm going to be testing them out and giving you my verdict... If in doubt, don't judge a perfume by it's advert. Just wait for me to post my mini reviews instead!

   Hope you enjoyed watching the clips... Have you tried any of these perfumes? Are there any other amazing adverts I've forgotten to mention? What is your all-time favorite perfume? Let me know :)

Love

gabriellasofia

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