Empties #1

I can't actually believe it's the end of January, I'd say it's flown by but in all honesty it doesn't feel like it has! Except for a trip to London for the boys birthday and a cinema date night to see Django Unchained (words cannot describe how good it is) the rest of January has been spent staying in, watching the pennies until the arrival of pay day. I've even found some evenings revolving around the eating of my gingerbread house! I'll certainly be welcoming February will open arms as I have a jam packed month full of birthdays, hen parties and trips to Spain and Liverpool to name a few....exciting!

Todays post is my first ever empties post, these are one of my favourite types of posts to read (and watch on YouTube) as it means you can have a good ol' nosy into the bloggers bathroom cabinet or Muji storage unit to find out the answer to that all important question, would they repurchase?

Eve Lom Cleanser 100ml - Just the tiniest amount of this herbal scented cleansing balm massaged into my face ensures all my make-up is removed with a quick sweep of a hot muslin cloth. Afterwards my skin feels fresh, smooth and most importantly clean without that stripped feeling. At £55 this could be one of the most expensive cleansers you'll ever buy but it has lasted just over 3 months and I use it almost every night. Will I be repurchasing? I'm not going to lie ladies, I'm already on my second tub of this beauty. I would love to try the Emma Hardie Moringa cleansing balm to compare as it sounds very similar and is even a little cheaper at £34.

Kiehls Ultra Face Cream 50ml - This is an incredibly gentle and hydrating face cream which promises to help water replenishment and hydrate skin for up to 24 hours. At first I loved this moisturiser and quickly went through one tub and repurchased (this is my second tub). Now whether my skin got used to it or not, I'm not entirely sure but I found my combination skin wasn't as hydrated as it should be. I found my dry patches still felt dry after application whilst my more oily patches felt over moisturised. At £24 I find this neither high end nor high street and would personally recommend this to someone where hydration was their main concern, as someone with combination skin I wouldn't repurchase this.

Elemental Herbology Perfect Balance 50ml - Did someone say holy grail moisturiser? Well this is an extremely bold claim but this is how I feel about Perfect Balance - with twenty active ingredients and five anti oxidants it's packed full of skincare goodness. Unlike the Kiehls cream this has kicked my dry patches into touch and overall I find my skin more normal as there's no longer obvious dry or oily patches - this all happened when I started using the Eve Lom cleanser and Perfect Balance together so I haven't switched up my routine much since. At £40 this is certainly high end but I would feel seriously lost without it. Read more about the combination of the Eve Lom Cleanser and Perfect Balance here.

Max Factor False Lash Effect Limited Edition Mascara - I have literally tried, what feels like thousands of mascaras from Dior to YSL yet I always come back to reliable Max Factor. This mascara has a huge plastic wand which means I'm able to get enough volume for the day with just one coat - you would definitely need a few more coats for the evening though. This is by no means the perfect mascara as I do find it can look clumpy after more than two coats. At £10.99 I do think the False Lash Effect mascara is pricey especially when you can get a Clinique mascaras for £16 so this gets a big thumbs down for price. I have recently bought the new Max Factor Clump Defy Volumising Mascara to replace this one and to hopefully combat the clumpy look so I promise to keep you updated. 

Body Shop Body Butter in Chocomania & Cocoa Butter - For as many years as I can remember I have been a huge fan of the Body Shop and more specifically their body butters - I have an unhealthy obsession with them and liberally apply these after every bath or shower. I know so many people hate using body moisturiser but I love the whole ritual of slathering my entire body in sweet smelling body butter. Scent wise I'd say Chocomania is slightly sweeter whilst Cocoa Butter is a tad more subtle. I'm yet to find a body butter as moisturising as these and that sinks in so quickly plus the scent stays around forever too. At £13 a pop they're certainly not the cheapest but Body Shop regularly have discount days and promotions on. I challenge you to recommend me something as moisturising and heavenly smelling as these?

Neom Refresh Travel Candle - If I was more of an emotional person I would have easily shed a tear when this had it's final burn. This was my first ever Neom candle and it certainly won't be my last - the Refresh fragrance is everything you want in a candle and I find the key note of Sicilian lemon comes through the strongest but in the most subtle and beautiful way. I love how Neom candles burn clean and release no nasties into the atmosphere. I was also pretty impressed with the burn time to say how small the candle is, at £15 I will definitely be buying another...now which scent should I pick? If you fancy getting your mitts on your very own Neom candle then hop on over to my follower giveaway here.

Have you ever tried any of my empties? Which would you like to try the most?

Neom Giveaway: For Reaching 50 Followers

So it's finally here guys, as promised, my giveaway! To thank you all for following and reaching my first milestone of 50 GFC followers I'm giving away this beautiful Happiness candle from Neom. I recently finished the end of my Neom Refresh candle (sob) and not only did I love how it smelt but how it burnt - Neom candles are made with a mixture of vegetable wax and essential oils so they burn cleanly releasing no soot, toxins or harmful pollutants, result!

The Happiness travel candle is perfect for scaring off the Winter blues with a blend of white neroli, mimosa and lemon - the scent is very clean and fresh. Every time I have a sniff I can't believe I'm actually giving it away and have to put it back in the box very quickly! I'd be amazed if you didn't love the scent as much as me plus isn't the name perfect for a giveaway? The Happiness travel candle has an average burn time of 20 hours, 30% longer than standard premium candles and it is the ideal size if you're just getting into candles or just fancy giving Neom a try.

To be in with a chance of winning this little beauty, the rules are as follows:

1. You must be following me on GFC - if you're not already a follower then what are you waiting for? 

2. You must also be following me on Twitter, which you can do here 

Once you've ticked both of these boxes simply leave me a comment below with your name, your blog url/GFC name and your Twitter name. For example: 

Hannah

www.cagneyandlace.com/ Cagneyandlace

@CagneyAndLace

I can then check all the entries on the closing date and pick a winner at random - most likely drawn out of a warm yet chic hat.

The giveaway will run from today (Sunday 27th January) until Saturday the 16th of February - unfortunately due to the nature of the prize the giveaway is only open to UK followers.

All that's left is for me to wish you the very best of luck and thank you again for following my blog.

A Gift For You, A Gift For Me

If you're anything like me you'll fall into the same trap every Christmas, you swear this year will be different yet after buying a couple of gifts you'll find yourself sneakily buying a gift for you, sound familiar? Surprisingly this hasn't been the case for me this year *pause for audible silence*. I've been incredibly strict with my Christmas gifting, sticking to budgets for each recipient (damn you house savings) and haven't bought myself any little treats along the way. Could I be a reformed character? Well.... As I've done so well with my Christmas shopping, completing it in record timing (if you're not so organised and need Christmas gift inspiration look here and here) I decided to treat myself to the three items pictured above. A reformed character? Not quite.

After a cheeky 30% off ASOS discount code landed in my inbox (thank you Yourvine) I had to buy the Elemental Herbology Moisture Replenish Starter Kit usually £20, but mine for a brilliant £14. I adore the perfect balance moisturiser by this brand, so much so I wrote a post about it here however since the weather has gone from bearable to arctic my usually well behaved combination skin has gone to the dry side. Cue the very welcome arrival of this set, perfect for targeting skin concerns, a Christmas gift for a skincare lover (the packaging is lovely) or as a get to know the brand exercise. The kit includes the purify & soothe cleansing balm, the cell plumping facial moisturiser, the facial glow radiance peel, a muslim cloth and my favourite product so far the facial souffle intensive overnight creme. This has been a real skin saviour especially on my dry patches. I promise to report back on the other Elemental Herbology goodies very soon.

I picked up my second treat, the Topshop nail polish in Jem after my recent trip to the Leeds store where I tried out the Topshop personal shopping service. This is the perfect Christmas nail polish and the bottle is full to the brim of large red glitter chunks. I'm currently wearing this on my ring fingers over Ciate's Dangerous Affair which came from my Mini Mani Month advent calendar, which I'm absolutely loving although I did pick up a Malteasers advent calendar (naughty Hannah!). At first I wasn't too enthused by the Topshop make-up range but now I have a few nail polishes and the moon beam highlighter I'm tempted to try out more from their range, particularly the lipsticks which I hear nothing but good things about. Any colour suggestions?

My final treat to myself was this travel size Neom candle in Refresh. Now I'd like to say this was a completely by chance purchase but I'd be lying, I've been hunting for one of these bad boys for a while so when I walked into a local boutique last Saturday and saw they did Neom I knew it was time to pounce. The Refresh scent is really uplifting with key notes of Sicilian lemon and basil, you'd think they wouldn't work together but they absolutely do. I really fancied the huge Christmas candle but at 40 odd pounds I deemed this more than just a treat. I can't wait to start burning my first Neom candle and feel like a proper blogger with a candle burning in the background whilst I write my posts.

Today feels like Friday for me as tomorrow I'm finishing work early (woop woop) to hop on the train with my mum and head to London for a pre Christmas treat, triple woop! The reason for our trip? Colours of the world, spice up your life (yes I did just sing this) we're off to see Viva Forever the musical and I for one cannot wait to get my Sporty Spice on, yes she really was my fave. Annoyingly I'm currently fighting a stupid viral infection so I'm hoping copious amounts of afternoon tea and the power of shopping might help to send it packing, fingers crossed. So this is a sort of heads up that I may be M.I.A for the rest of the week but don't fear, I will be back with London snaps galore, a run down on Viva Forever although I can't promise they'll be no singing- a full Cagney On Tour report if you will so keep your eyes peeled.

Have you succumbed and bought Christmas treats for yourself? What have you been buying?