Autumn/Winter Yankee Candle Wax Melts

It's no secret that I'm a massive fan of Yankee Candle, especially their wax tarts. It's a great way of testing out different scents without spending a fortune, and I often find they smell stronger than the large jars too.

Every year I treat myself to some of the new A/W scents, with a couple of old favourites thrown in.  I get mine from eBay. They were on buy 5 get 1 free so I only picked up 6 this time as a few of the new scents were out of stock. Hopefully they'll restock them soon and I'll grab a few more Christmas ones. P.S. If order some, don't forget to use your cashback apps!

Glittering Star (new for 2018)

Icy Blue Spruce (new for 2018)

Winter Wonder (new for 2018)

Winter Glow (one of my absolute faves)

Autumn Pearl (new for 2018)

Season of Peace (another firm winter fave)

What's your favourite scent?

eBay Basket: The Christmas Edit

I bloody love eBay, it's no secret. You should actually see my basket. It's shameful, but I just love browsing and looking for bargains. Here's my pick of the Christmas bargains. All items are linked.

Autumn/Winter Yankee Candle Haul

It's no secret that I LOVE a Yankee Candle, well in fact, candles in general. My love of candles first started with Yankee Candle Wax Tarts, as I found it was the best way to sample scents without splurging £18+ on a large jar that I didn't even end up liking. This past year I'd got myself into a rut of buying large jars on sale and then not even enjyoing them and literally having to burn then in another room. #burnandavoid. So I decided to head over to eBay for a tart haul to sample the latest A/W scents.

New B&M Winter Candles

I spoke recently about the amazing Bath & Body Works Candle Dupes in B&M (post here), and how everyone went crazy for them. Well they're back with a whole new Winter range... and they're GORGEOUS!!

The winter versions include the cutest snowflake-embossed lids and the same double-wicks. They burn so evenly and last at least 20hours. Which, for £2.99 is an absolute steal!! I managed to get my hands on 3 but I've seen at least one more (which I need 😂). 

Iced Candy - Fresh & Sweet

Frosted Cranberry - Sweet Berry

Winter Mist - Fresh, Fruity Scent

(Wow, I'm so bad at describing candles, ha)

All I'm saying is.. get to B&M! 

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B&BW Autumn Candle Dupes

I'm sure you'll have heard about these by now, but if not? Where've ya been like? So the US brand Bath & Body Works do the most instagram-worthy candles and apparently they smell amazing. However, they're really tricky to get hold of here in the UK and I'm not one for hopping on a plane to the US willy-nilly, so when I heard about these dupes from... wait for it... B&M, I did a little dance and ran out to get some. I'm not even joking when I say I visited 4 different B&M's in my area before I actually found a couple of scents. Damn you eager beavers getting there before me.

With their silver leaf-embossed lids, they're blatent knock-offs of the B&BW candles, but that's ok! They're so pretty, and for £2.99 for a double-wicked candle I think they're an absolute steal. I managed to pick up Apple Orchard (a spicy, red apple scent) and Radiant Red Maple (a sweet, vanilla scent with a hint of spice). I really wanted Brown Sugar Allspice too but I couldn't find it anywhere. Boooo.

Because of the double wick, they burn really evenly and clean. It says they burn for 25 hours but I suspect they have a little bit less than that, which is still fine by me for £2.99.

Next on my list.... the winter/christmas varieties!!

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DIY Copper Home Accessories

I'm on a bit of a copper rampage at the minute. Since getting our new kitchen and garage conversion, I've been adding bits of copper into our very grey/white colour scheme and I'm loving the results. I had a few silver accessories (Ikea Plant Pot, Kitchen Towel Holder & Fruit Bowl) that just didn't go and I thought instead of throwing them out I'd give spray painting a go. I also sprayed a large mirror we had in our hallway and I don't even have anywhere for it to go now. Safe to say I'm addicted! I used this spray paint from Amazon...

Rustoleum Metallic Brilliant Bright Copper Spray Paint | £9.49 | link

 I think it's given all 3 pieces a brand new lease of life and I think they look SO much better! The spray paint was super easy to use and really fast drying. I can't wait to have a go at some more items!

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Yankee Candle Jelly Bean | Easter 2016

Yankee Candles are most definitely my guilty pleasure. Although tbf I'm not actually guilty about it at all. Gotta love a nice smelling house! The hubby and I are borderline obsessed, so when I spied that the new Easter ones were being released I needed to get one. I actually wanted to get Bunny Cake as it looks so cute, but when I sniffed it in store I thought it was a bit too sickly and just fell in love with Jelly Bean, which was also a limited edition last Easter, but I never got chance to try it.

Jelly Bean is described as "a colourful, fun childhood treat you never outgrow … bursting with the scent of sugary sweet fruits". Well this just has my name written all over it, even though Jelly Beans are one of the very few sweets I hate! It's the texture ok! I love most other sweets and just love sweet, fruity smelling candles. I wasn't disappointed, I really love this candle. It's not too overpowering which is what I like in a candle, as I often find the really strong ones just make me all headachey. So if you're like me, you need to go and give this one a sniff before it's gone for another year.

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DIY Ikea Vanity & Makeup Storage

One of my favourite posts to read (& vids to watch on YouTube) are makeup storage related. I just love having a nosey into how other people store their makeup. A few months ago we got a new bed (Ikea Brimnes King with storage headboard) and had a bit of a switch round, which meant I now had space for a dressing table in the corner, something I'd wanted for ages. Before this, I had my makeup stuffed into my other drawers and makeup bags and used to sit on the floor in front of a big mirror to get ready. Not good on the owld knees let me tell ya! Anyway, I'd been eyeing up the Ikea Alex 5 Drawers for a while, (cliché I know) and decided I wanted to incorporate them into a vanity. I'd seen a lot of ideas on Pinterest (example) which included having 2 sets of drawers either side with a large table top on top. I couldn't do that with the space I had, so I took to the Ikea website to see how I could do it.

Alex 5 Drawers | link
Linnmon Table Top | link
Adils Leg | link

The Ikea Alex drawers come with sticky round dots (technical term), specifically for table tops to stop them moving around, so all I needed were the drawers, a table top and 2 legs. 

The Linnmon Table Tops come in 4 different lengths, aswell as corner shapes etc, but I decided to go for the smallest (-100cm) one as the others were all too big, and to be fair it's the perfect size for a 

dressing table. I couldn't believe how cheap it was. I went for the cheapest, plainest legs at £2.25 each. I then picked up the Ingolf Stool (£20) to go with it and it fits underneath perfectly, I love it. The drawers seemed a bit tricky to put together, so I left that to Martin, and when he'd finished that I managed the rest (basically screwing two legs onto the tabletop, lol). 

TOTAL PRICE -  £80.40

What a bargain!!! Overall I'm so pleased with it, I feel so much more organised and have my makeup organised into different sections. I thought I'd show that aswell today, even though I'm not entirely happy with the compartments yet. Eventually I'd like to get some Muji storage or something similar, but for now I've tried to section things off with boxes. Yes it's messy but it'll get there eventually.

Makeup Storage

I'll start with what I keep on the top. On the left hand side I keep my Sali Hughes Pretty Honest book which, FYI I still haven't finished reading - must get onto that. On top of that I keep my No7 Illuminated Makeup Mirror, which I love. Next to that I keep a large Ikea Skurar Plant Pot which houses my large face brushes. I need to grab another one of these actually as it's jam packed. I then keep a smaller Ikea Skurar Candle Holder with all of my eye brushes, a few smaller face brushes & eyelash curlers etc. I then keep an Acrylic Lipstick Holder which holds 24 lipsticks. I keep meaning to order another one of these aswell (just so I have an excuse to fill one with MAC lippies - ha). I like to keep them upside down so I can easily see the shame names. Incase you're interested, my absolute favourite lipsticks are MAC's Syrup & Peach Blossom. Both so beautiful.

I then have a little Candlelit Names Tealight Holder with my name on, which I use to hold all of my eyeliners and brow pencils. Then next to that I have a glass tealight holder (from either B&M or Home Bargains) which holds my mascaras - again another tight squeeze. It's good this way though, as it makes me 'try' not to buy any more until I use up some that I already have. I also keep my Lush Lip Scrubs on the top aswell, as it reminds me to use them.

I then keep this Wooden Storage Box with 3 sections and a little drawer in the bottom. This holds some of my most used palettes, including my trusty Naked 1 Palette (isn't it just the best ever?). Inside the drawer I keep a collection of The Body Shop Colour Crush Lipsticks that I actually won in a Twitter competition. I really need to go through them at some point and see which ones I wanna keep. I then keep my lip liners, with my faves being the absolute bargainous £1 Essence Lip Liners. So I have every shade, so?

Now onto the drawers. Like I say, they're not how I want them to be organised, but they're as good as I could do it for now, without spending a fortune on fancy Muji storage.

Top Drawer - Foundations | Concealers | BB Creams | Spare Blending Sponges

2nd Drawer - Primers | Highlighters | Setting Spray | Powders | Blushers | Blush Palettes

3rd Drawer - Bronzers | Brow Palettes | Extra Eyeshadow Palettes | Single Eyeshadows/Sticks/Creams | Extra Mascaras | False Lashes | Spare Tools

4th Drawer - Lip Products

5th Drawer - Nail Polishes & Tools

Note: Nail Polish Acrylic Storage from POUNDLAND - need more, ha!

So there you go. sorry for the massively picture heavy post. Hope you all enjoyed it, and if you have any better drawer storage ideas then be sure to throw them my way! And if you have a similar post like this then please leave your link below!

Have a lovely Sunday...

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Yankee Candle Vanilla Chai

My children (& step children) were very kind to me on Mother's Day this year! Yankee Candle Vanilla Chai (medium jar) was among the gifts I'd received. Vanilla scents are always one of my faves when it comes to candles and I was really chuffed and excited as I'd never burnt or even sniffed this particular scent. 

Vanilla Chai isn't your typical sickly vanilla scent. It's more spicy/cinnamon with hints of vanilla. I'd say, for me, these kinds of scents are more for Autumn/Winter. I can imagine getting those curtains drawn at 5pm and curling up in front of the TV with this burning. Ya get me? 

What they say:

"It's the perfect accompaniment to 'me' time - a supremely satisfyingly rich and spicy recipe of ginger, cinnamon and vanilla".

I actually expected to find this a bit headachey, as cinnamon scented candles usually do that to me, but I was pleasantly surprised by it. It's just enough spice without being overpowering and it's perfect for a cosy evening in. I think the vanilla counteracts the spice and gives it the perfect balance. Even though I think this would be better in Autumn/Winter, I've still been burning this every night now and loving it so it can go down as an all-rounder in my eyes.

What's your favourite Yankee Candle?

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Yankee Candle Honey & Spice and Leaf Mosaic Large Shade

Mother's Day was a good one for me this year. Having given birth to Freddie 2 weeks earlier, it meant it was that extra bit special. My babies (& step children) were extremely kind with their gifts this year (thanks Daddy, lol) and these 2 beauties are among the pressies I received. 

My Hubby Martin and I are massive candle lovers, with Yankee Candles being our absolute faves. We have an independent Yankee Candle stockist in our local village who we pay a visit to every few months when we run out of wax tarts and need to stock up. We usually just use the tarts as we have 2 burners on the go most nights in the house, but every now and again we like to get a jar, especially if we've found a tart we really like or if it's for a special treat or a gift.

Honey & Spice is a scent I don't think I'd ever sniffed. Martin chose this purely on what he thinks I'd like, and he did well! It's a sweet scent, but not sickly sweet, as the spice counteracts it to create a warm infusion of sweet and spice that's almost good enough to eat. Before I sniffed it I assumed it'd be a really strong, Autumn/Winter spicy kind of fragrance, but since burning it I reckon I'd burn it all year round. It's such a lovely, homely scent without being overpowering. It's not one of the strongest Yankees I've had, but to me that's a good thing as sometimes I find if they're too strong I end up getting a headache. 

What they say;

"Golden nectar and sugar cane mingle with cinnamon stick and cocoa to create this gourmand concoction".

Certainly one of my favourite scents to date and one I'll definitely consider repurchasing, maybe in tart form next time so I don't sicken myself off it.

Whilst I'm here, I also wanted to show you the beautiful Yankee accessory I received with my gifts this Mother's Day.





The Yankee Candle Leaf Mosaic Large Shade is the most wonderful addition to finish off a Yankee Candle. The Large Shades will fit both large and medium jars and look utterly adorable sitting on top of the jar to make it look more like a little lamp when the candle is lit.

"Designed exclusively for Yankee Candle, this attractive piece from our Mosaic accessory collection is anything but ordinary. It instantly elevates the look of any room with a dark golden mosaic effect and leaf design. With high quality detail and superbly hand finished. It instantly elevates the look of any room while also complementing a wide range of our fragrances".

The colours of this particular shade are absolutely stunning and compliment the colours in our living room perfectly, as well as the colours in the Honey & Spice candle.

The hubby did well!

Have you tried Honey & Spice?
What do you think of the shade?

Kate xx

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