Molton Brown's Muddled Plum Christmas Collection

I lay in wait for the Molton Brown Christmas Collection every year and I'm even more obsessed with this years range than I thought possible. Muddled Plum is Molton Brown's deliciously grown up Christmas collection featuring six beautiful products as well as a limited edition set perfect for Christmas. 

The opulent collection is available to buy now and I've been getting acquainted with the collection over the last couple of weeks and I'm in love. Who knew I was such a plum fan?

The Molton Brown Muddled Plum collection is a tantalising mix of oak aged rum, warming saffron and sandalwood paired with Victoria plums homegrown in Sussex. To create the rich scent, the plums are fermented in honeyed cordial trickled into a distillation of dark, rich rum. 

A Traditional Christmas with Mr Kipling

*This is a paid partnership with Mr Kipling*

What do you think of when you hear the word Christmas? I think of twinkling lights, Christmas carols, pigs in blankets and mince pies. Christmas has always been quite a traditional family affair and it is something I look forward to every year, especially when those first packs of Mr Kipling mince pies start appearing on the shop shelves.

L'Occitane Overnight Reset Serum

Anti-aging products are something I've really taken notice of this year, I'm fast approaching my thirties and it's important to me that I make sure my skin is getting everything it needs. I've always had a strong love for serums and so when I started to use the L'Occitane Overnight Reset Serum (£49.00) I was really excited to see results from the best selling product. 

The serum promises to change your skin overnight, big claims from a little bottle BUT with so many rave reviews, there had to be some truth and by the looks of my oh so fabulous skin right now, I'd say it's a pretty darn good. 

The super sleek city stroller from Ickle Bubba

(Features press sample - see disclaimer)

In the late summer, we made the decision that we needed to find ourselves a stroller for nipping into the city and for days out. We adore our iCandy Strawberry, so much so that I don't really want to put it away just yet but we needed something smaller, lighter and more compact and so we discovered Ickle Bubba. 

We hadn't heard of Ickle Bubba before, they're a relatively new brand that launched in 2013 stocking a whole host of affordable luxury products and after reading more about them and their award-winning travel systems and strollers we finally settled on the ultra-lightweight Globe Stroller. 

Possibly my favourite cleanser EVER

*Features press sample & affiliate links - see disclaimer*

Whenever I've asked for cleanser recommendations in the past, Eve Lom have always been the first suggestion yet it's only been now that I've tried it for the first time and I am kicking myself that I waited so long. I'm quite old fashioned in the way I like to purchase most of my beauty items in person and it's only been recently we've had a Space NK near to us for me to go and check out one of the most loved cleansers so when the oh so lovely guys at World Duty Free dropped The Eve Lom Cleanser Duo Set Exclusive into my hands, my prayers were answered and my skin has never looked so good.

I think it was fate. 

Three Faves from Tropic Skincare

*This post features press samples - see disclaimer*

Tropic Skincare has been everywhere this year. My favourite bloggers have been raving about it, family and friends have been buying it and then there was little old me that completely missed the memo but did eventually jump on the last train it seems. I've been using a handful of products from Tropic Skincare over the summer and I get the hype, I do and so here are my three favourite products that have been real standouts for me. 

September Beauty Favourites

The beauty of this job is always being able to discover new products. Some of them wow you, some of them end up in the meh pile and others quickly find their way into your routine and never leave. With September ending, I thought I'd share five favourites I've been using recently that I think you should be too. A little bit of hair, a little bit of skin and the eyeshadow palette that still hasn't left my makeup bag. 

The NEW IN from Clarins for Autumn

The Autumn collection from Clarins is one I wait for excitedly every year and this year does not disappoint especially with the oh so pretty packaging. There are three products in the collection, the all new Joli Rouge Gradation lipsticks, the limited edition Supra Volume which is one of my favourite mascaras ever and the waterproof gel liner. 

As the Joli Rouge lipsticks are some of the best lipsticks available on the beauty market, I'm going to show the three all new shades available now from Clarins. 

An unforgettable experience with Solent Forts

What is the first thing you think of when you think of luxury hotels?

Decadent rooms? The fluffiest white towels? A fort in the middle of the Solent?

The last one isn't something most people think of but it is a reality, a reality I was able to experience recently which includes just that when I spent the day with Solent Forts exploring Spitbank Fort, No Man's and Horse Sands. The forts, also known as The Palmerston Forts encircle Portsmouth and were built in response to the 1859 Royal Commission dealing with the perceived threat of a French invasion. The forts were intended to defend the Dockyard in Portsmouth. 

They took fifteen years to complete by which time the invasion no longer existed and they didn't really get their time to shine during both world wars either. By 1956 the forts became empty and unused until a couple bought the forts in the 1980's and then in 2009 work began by Solent Forts to bring you what you see today. 

Wicked the Musical at Mayflower Theatre

I have been sitting in wait for the arrival of Wicked, a musical I have wanted to see for years and yesterday, I finally took my seat and witnessed the West End and Broadway sensation for the first time and it exceeded all my expectations and more. 

It truly was unbelievable and I want to see it every night while it is in Southampton. 

Wicked opened at Mayflower Theatre 3rd October and will run until 27th October, casting a magical spell over Southampton in the process. The show has broken records across the world and is the 5th longest-running musical playing in the West End and after last nights performance, I can totally see why. It was captivating, exhilarating and magical. 

Coffee & Cake in Aid of Macmillan

(This is a paid partnership with Marks & Spencer - see disclaimer)

The World's Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan's biggest fundraising event and so Southampton Bloggers held our very own coffee morning last weekend to raise as much as we could for the charity. As many as one in two of us will face cancer and so Macmillan Cancer Support helps make that time that little bit easier so every penny counts. 

Getting our jerk on at Turtle Bay

Turtle Bay Southampton is the place to go for all your jerk needs and so we headed back in recently with Joshua to give him his very first taste. The restaurant and bar has always been a fave of ours, whether it's for lunch, dinner or cocktails with friends so when they launched their new look menu with a handful of new dishes featuring lots of vegan options, we couldn't wait to try it out. We spent a blustery Friday afternoon sipping on cocktails, fending Joshua off of our curries and bribing him with sweetcorn fritters. 

Joshua loved it, we loved it and we're already dying to go back for some more goat curry.