What I got for my birthday (2015)

I love reading everyone’s Christmas and Birthday posts, as they often give me inspiration – I’m so late with this post though as my birthday was a month ago today. It was my quarter-of-a-century and so was extended over a couple of weeks. I spent my birthday with friends at Pizza Express, the next day with family for a Thai meal and the following weekend with the girls in London. Here are a few of my gifts.

Source: AX Paris

Lace contrast midi dress – AX Paris [link]

With my birthday being so close to Christmas, my mum never knows what to get me and there’s never anything I want. This year, she said she’d buy the dress I chose for my London night out. I instantly fell in love with dress when I saw it online and it was even better when it arrived. The fit was great and it was the right level of formality for a night at Madison. I love the contrast look and who doesn’t love a bit of lace?

Urban Decay Naked Palette [link]

My Auntie and Uncle bought me the Urban Decay Naked Palette – something I’ve wanted for so long and a beauty blogger’s must-have. I love all the shades, but particularly the shimmer ones. The palette looks great on my dressing table and I’ve used it every day since I’ve opened it. I’m gonna check out some tutorials to create some killer looks – which shade combos does everyone love?

My best friend Laura knows me so well and bought me a bottle of my favourite fizz (Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Rosé, btw), as well as a gorgeous necklace (see above) and the cutest satchel-style bag in an orangey coral – both from Accessorize. It’s gonna be perfect for spring and it’ll be my handbag for my city break next month!

I got films from my brother as I’m forever adding to the list of DVDs I want – and you can never have too many, right? Girl Most Likely has been on my list for absolute ages because it just looked hilarious; Chocolat is such a classic film and I’d not seen it for a good few years and Silver Linings Playbook I saw at Jakes and it was such a good film. I’m often watching films in bed too, so it was a great gift for me.

Soap & Glory – The Next Big Thing [link]

Jake’s mum bought the most gorgeous Soap & Glory gift set – she knows how much I love the brand and is always buying me bits for Christmas and my birthday. This was a limited edition set for Christmas/Winter 2014 but is still available for extortionate prices on Amazon and eBay. The Hand Food and Heel Genius are my favourite creams and I always have a tube of Sexy Mother Pucker in my handbag. There are a couple of products I’m yet to try (Orangeasm and Off Your Face), which is exciting. Plus the box is great for storing all my Soap & Glory products, especially those half-used ones which end up everywhere!

Saving the best ‘til last and I can hardly contain my excitement! Jake didn’t know what to get me so he told me to book a couple of days off work as he was planning a trip away. I didn’t know where we going until I got my card and present – but we are going to Budapest for three nights at the beginning of March, given away by The Grand Budapest Hotel DVD. He’s booked us into the 5* Buddha-Bar Hotel, sorted flights and everything. I’m never normally good with surprises but this is the best surprise ever and I really can’t wait for the next couple of weeks to fly by!