Christmas Gifts 2015

Can you believe that it's Christmas again! It's my favorite time of year lovely cosy nights in by the fire and shopping for gifts! I am especially looking forward to christmas dinner this year as I missed out last year with morning sickness!

This year I have tried to cater for different ages as opposed to just beauty gifts although they are in there too! 

For small girls or boys I came across some beautiful Christmas themed books. I am such a book nerd my little boy is only 4 months old and already has a shelf full of books complete with some really cool dinosaur book ends (thanks julie!) 

This one is gorgeous one about Santa Claus visiting Ireland. Its a nice little story and nice to have some familiar place names too. I picked this up in tesco for €6

Next up is a gift for any man or football loving lady it is literally a gift for all ages from small boy to grandad! A personalised football from mitre.com. i was told that as footballs go mitre are really amazing ones and so a personalised one is a very special gift that will be treasured for years. The one featured here is a size 5 Training quality ball and retails for £30.
it arrives fully pumped and in a display box.

You can find all of the details to pick up one of these babies on www.mitre.com 

I have a teenage girl to try and buy for this year, i really think its the most difficult age to try buy for as i think a lot of the time they dont know what they want themselves! 

I have put together two options that you could choose either together or gift seperately both of which id be pretty happy with myself so although I'm aiming at teens they really are a great gift across the board. 

The first is a gorgeous wash bag from the quintessential by collier cambell filled with some goodies from wetnwild. Ive paired these two together as young teens starting off with makeup will often choose a more budget friendly brand like wet n wild and this wash bag is so pretty and such a great size that it makes a really lovely gift. 

The quintessential is a wholesale company (featured again below) so make sure to tell your local shopsto get onto them quickly and become stockists. http://www.thequintessential.co.uk/

Wet n wild is available in most pharmacies and dunnes stores nationwide prices for wet n' wild are from €1.99 to €6.49.

So also from the quintessential is this beautiful shawl\scarf  from their folk collection these colours are perfect for brightening up any Christmas outfits and their fabrics are fantastic quality. as the quintessential are wholesale be sure to ask your local shops to become stockists so you can get your hand on their fantastic range!

So lets get to the Christmas bit so every year christmas decor gets better and more sophisticated my absolute favorite i have seen this year is this pair of silver baby deer for on top of mantelpiece/bookshelf/window from thechristmasboutique.co.uk this is not only a christmas piece i would be quiet happy to have these in my house all year long. 

These retail at £ 14.95

Some other pieces from the christmas boutique are this hessian santa sack currently half price at         £ 4.48

And this lovely wooden  Advent house currently on offer at £22.46 

My favorite gift to get every year is one from the body shop its been a christmas tradition in my house since the time of their partnership with WWF in the 1990s  as always the body shop has teamed up with a great charity so you get to do good while getting something really lovely. This years charity is water aid and "With every specially selected gift bought this Christmas, The Body Shop will provide a family in Ethiopia with one day of safe drinking water"

the gift that caught my eye immediately is this one for the boys, the Maca Root Shaving Kit €39.95 its got gorgeous packaging and I think is a really practical gift too. 

The body shop always brings out a new festive scent ( I'm a massive fan of glazed apple) this years is frosted plum and I think the bath fizzies look like a gorgeous gift! € 20.50.

And last but not least. 

The new Instyler max is one that has been on my wishlist for a while at €120 it straightens, curls and adds volume. Having a new baby I don't get any me time so something that will give me a salon style without taking too much effort or time gets my thumbs up!

If I have missed out on any groups or you would like any more info or gift ideas drop me a comment or a tweet

clare x 

The Quintessential Handbags and Twitter Parties!

Hi guys I am very excited to be back with another collaboration with The Quintessential a wholesale treasure trove of scarves, bags, wash bags, stationary and the list goes on!
I worked with The Quintessential previously when I reviewed one of their beautiful scarves which you can see here. 
Today's post will focus on a review of  the beautiful new season tropical bird shoulder bag from the Collier Campbell collection. I will also be showing you a wash bag from the Eve collection plus a chance to win some prizes from The Quintessential!

I must say I was very impressed when I first saw the tropical shoulder bag in person It is a real eye catching bag. The colors of the bag draw you in without being overpowering, It almost appears like the whole thing has been hand drawn onto the canvas bag. The  pattern is done to such a high standard and the detail is very impressive and like the colors used really draw you in. The first day that I wore this down the street I was asked by two different shop owners where it was from and when I explained they both asked for details to become stockists.

The bag is very well made and feels really sturdy, the addition of a board for the bottom of the bag adds to the solid feel. The fabric is beautiful both outside and in, the bag is fully lined in grey with a slightly different pattern to the outside but the same bird theme. There is great storage for small bits with the addition of some small zipped pockets and also a special string inside for attaching your keys to which is a godsend if your like me and your keys like to play hide and seek with you!

The biggest draw with this bag for me is how pretty and unique the design is, I am currently searching for a changing bag for baby no.1 and am a bit devastated that they dont do any in their range but hopefully it will be something that they expand to in the future.

The wash bag which is from their EVE collection and at w32 and h19 cm its a really great size wash bag perfect for travelling with your essentials or for use as your make up bag. This bag has a pretty floral design in cream, burnt orange and green. As a wash bag by far its most impressive feature is the wire going through the top opening which allows it to remain open while you are using it rather than annoyingly folding in on itself like all of my wash bags tend to do. I also love the washable lining on the interior which if using as a makeup bag is very handy and important addition to clean up spills.
Im very impressed with this and will certainly be adding more of these to my collection.

The Quintessential as you have seen above is a wholesale business and so we want to let all of our lovely local shops know about them so they will become stockists and we can buy all of the loveliness from them :)
In order to become a stockist you should check out you should check out their website http://www.thequintessential.co.uk/

So what was that about winning prizes? Follow myself @clareken86 and @quintessentia_l on twitter and join us next Tuesday May 5th between 7-8 for a twitter party. We will be chatting about the Quintessentials new collections and there will be gorgeous prizes to be won!
To get a head start on being in for those prizes take a look on the website at the collections and tag some of your local shops that you would like to see the Quintessential stocked in, tag some of your friends too so that we can have lots of people taking part in our twitter party. For the twitter party we will be using the #thequintessential, for this time the twitter party prizes will only be open to Ireland and the UK but we would still love for you to take part in the chat.