blogmas #7: The Christmas Tag

I wanted today's blogmas post to be super festive, and what better way to do that than to do the Christmas Tag! I've seen a few version of this floating around but I chose to do this one from Makeup Savvy (link here). At the bottom I've included the questions so you can easily copy & paste them onto your own blog if you want to do the tag!

1. What is your favourite Christmas Movie/s?
Elf! It's funny every time and I just can't get enough of it; I watch it at least 5 times every Christmas. For a Christmas lover I actually haven't seen that many festive films so this years I'm hoping to make up for it and watch loads.

2. Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?
In my family we spread them throughout Christmas Day. When my parents wake up we open our main presents, and then we have a couple every few hours throughout the day. My parents also like to save one presents each for me and my brother for Boxing Day so that Christmas can go on a bit longer ahaah.

3. Do you have a favourite Christmas memory?
I don't remember a specific Christmas, but when I was younger I used to love going into my parents room early on Christmas morning and watching all the limited edition Christmas cartoons that used to be on TV. Then we would all go down together, check that Father Christmas had eaten his mince pie, and that Rudolph had eaten his carrot, and then excitedly open our presents!

4. Favourite festive food?
I'm not really a massive fan of most Christmas foods; I don't hate them, but I certainly don't love them. However, Terry's Chocolate Oranges are a huge favourite of mine. Although they're not strictly a festive food, I go a bit crazy with them over the festive period, and I especially love the variety boxes with the different types of segment!

5. Favourite Christmas gift?
It sounds very cliche, but when I look back at previous Christmas' I find it very hard to remember what I actually received as gifts. I don't know that it's my favourite gift, but I do recall once getting a Disney CD and spending the entire day playing it on repeat and absolutely loving life, so at the time that present was a firm favourite of mine.

6. Favourite Christmas scent?
This seems to change every year for me as I'm constantly trying new scents and loving them more than my previous favourite, but at the moment it's anything cranberry scented. I'm currently loving the Cranberry Ice Yankee Candle and The Body Shop's Frosted Cranberry Shower Gel. We also have a really nice smelling diffuser in our bathroom, I don't know what the scent is, but it basically just smells of Christmas haha.

7. Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions?
We used to go to church in the evening but we've stopped that now. For the last few years, one of my friends has come round and we've done lots of Christmassy baking which always leaves the house smelling amazing! We basically spend the day being super festive and getting hyped for Christmas the next day.

8. What tops your tree?
We have a very traditional looking angel that I'm not overly keen on but my parents like it so there's not a lot I can do about it! Our entire tree is actually pretty crazy, which no matching baubles, and all sorts of random decorations. I prefer a nice traditional tree, with a nice colour scheme and evenly spaced decorations, and of course plenty of glitter and sparkle.

9. As a kid what was the one (crazy, wild, extravagant) gift you always asked for but never received?
A puppy! Every year since I was about 5 it's been at the very top of my wishlist, and it still is now! I just love dogs and want one so badly but my parents don't want a pet running around the house. As soon as I move out, I'm sure there will be a new fluffy addition to the family.

10. What's the best part about Christmas for you?
Definitely the build up to Christmas. I love everything about it, including the lovely decorations, late night shopping, the growing excitement, choosing presents for my friends and family, seeing people I haven't seen for ages and festive baking! I just love it all and am 100% one of those people that looks forward to Christmas all year round.

Hope you've enjoyed this tag! If you also do the tag make sure to let me know as I'd love to read your answers!

emma x

1. What is your favourite Christmas Movie/s?
2. Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?
3. Do you have a favourite Christmas memory?
4. Favourite festive food?
5. Favourite Christmas gift?
6. Favourite Christmas scent?
7. Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions?
8. What tops your tree?
9. As a kid what was the one (crazy, wild, extravagant) gift you always asked for but never received?
10. What's the best part about Christmas for you?

The Beauty Blogger Tag

So I have a tag post for you guys today, which I'm really excited about as I love writing these and I feel like it helps my readers to get to know me better. I was tagged by the lovely Bethany over at Beauty By Bethany (link here) to do the Beauty Blogger Tag so thank you Bethany!

1. Is your hair naturally curly or straight?
Normally dead straight but it can go a bit wavy overnight.

2. What is your natural hair colour?
I was born blonde, but my hair went a mousy brown colour when I was about 6. When I got to 15 it started getting even darker so it's now naturally a mid brown colour.

3. Do you dye it yourself or go to a salon?
I dye my hair lighter myself using the L'oreal Casting Sunkiss Jelly. It's only a very weak bleach and I just use it on the ends of my hair to give a slight dip dye effect, as well as adding in a few highlights.

4. How often do you wash your hair?
At least 4 times a week. My hair is very thin so it gets greasy quickly.

5. Do you wear the same hairstyle everyday or change it?
I tend to wear my hair the same for weeks on end, and then discover a new style and constantly wear my hair in that way instead.

6. Do you do your own mani/pedi or go to a salon?
I do my own. I've been painting my nails on a weekly basis for a couple of years now so I can do a mean manicure haha.

7. How often do you change your nail polish?
Normally I paint my nails every Saturday evening (I love a good regular schedule ahah) but sometimes I'll also redo them on Wednesday if they're looking a bit rough or I'm going out Friday or Saturday night.

8. Do you polish your toes in the winter too, or just in the summer?
I only do them in the summer as no one sees my toes in the winter, but to be honest I'm so lazy when it comes to painting my toe nails so I leave it on over a month before I change it, even in the summer.

9. How long does it take you to put on your makeup?
It depends whether I'm doing a full makeup routine or not. For college normally about 10 - 15 minutes, 15 - 20 at the weekends, and for a night out, anything up to 45 minutes really.

10. What do you do first - face or eyes?
I do my foundation first, then my eye makeup, and then my concealer and other face products so that any fall out from my eye makeup is covered over.

11. Do you 'collect' makeup or just buy it as you need it?
I did go through a stage of collecting a ridiculous amount of makeup, but now I'm more restrained and try to only buy what I need. However, if a new launch really catches my eye, or a product keeps popping up on other people's blogs, sometimes I just have to give in to temptation.

12. How often do you wear false lashes?
Very rarely; I wore them for prom and I think I've worn them to a couple of parties. I need to get a new pair actually, mine are pretty wrecked.

13. Do you wear a full face of makeup every day?
For college yes, but I won't go all out on my eye makeup.

14. Do you wear makeup when you're home alone (or with family)?
If I'm not going out at the weekend I won't put any on; I need to give my skin a bit of a break. If I'm going out with my family I will though.

15. Will you leave the house without makeup?
It sounds bad, but not really. I just look so dead without any makeup.

16. How many high end products do you have?
I have 2 MAC products, 2 from Urban Decay, 1 from Benefit and a few Benefit samples. Not loads but I'm so happy with the ones I have.

17. How often do you wash your makeup brushes?
I am so so bad at this! I literally only wash them every few months which is absolutely awful. I'm going to try to start doing them every month and work from there.

18. Do you plan your OOTD the night before or when you're getting dressed?
Usually I'll plan while I'm having my breakfast and washing in the morning, unless it is for something important.

19. How often do you change your bag?
I usually get a new handbag every 6 months as I like to swap as the seasons change. In terms of school bag, I generally get a new one at the start of each school year. I try to make them last longer but the straps always seem to break because of how much I have to carry.

20. What time do you get up and go to sleep?
My college timetable is all over the place, so it really depends when I have lessons, but I usually get up between 7:30 and 8:30. I'm really bad at lying in so even at the weekends I'm up by 9. I normally go to bed at 9:30, spend an hour or so on my iPod and then go to sleep.

21. How often and when do you work out?
I play badminton at county standard so I have regular physical training for that twice a week, as well as playing more casually twice a week. I also have free gym membership as I work at a gym so I try and make use of that at least once a week.

22. Left handed or right handed?
#leftiesforthewin

23. How tall are you?
5'10; I'm a bit of a giant.

24. Do you speak a foreign language?
I learnt German at GCSE but I'm certainly not fluent.

25. How many pets do you have?
None :(. I am desperate for a dog and have been for years now. I also really like cats but getting a dog will be my first priority when I move out!

26. How often are you on Blogger?
I use Bloglovin to read blog posts so I'm on that a couple of times a day. I use Blogger to write my posts so I'm on that a few times during to week to draft, check, edit and schedule posts.

27. Do you read the comments posted on blogs?
I'll read them if I'm looking at blog posts on my laptop but if I'm just on my phone I don't bother as it can be quite hard to scroll through them.

28. Do you keep a list of products to try as you see other blog posts?
I have a massive list of all the products I want, and then a much smaller list of ones that I 'need', and then usually a list of 4/5 essentials to buy the next time I'm out.

29. How did you come up with your blog name?
At the time I created my blog, I wore bows in my hair every day so that's where that bit came from. I still love bows now but I rarely wear them. And the beauty bit obviously comes from my love of makeup. The name 'bowsandbeauty' was already taken but I had fallen in love with it so I just put an 'x' on the end.

30. What kind of camera do you use for photographs?
I use my iPod touch camera. I did use my digital came for a couple of posts once but surprisingly the pictures weren't as higher quality so I've just stuck with my iPod. I am saving up for an DSLR so hopefully I'll be able to use that in a couple of months.

31. How often do you clean your house?
I live with my parents and my mum stays at home so she does most of the cleaning, but I tidy my room basically every day. I'm obsessed with tidiness.

32. What is your favourite colour?
Here's a new one for you: pastel turquoise. Kind of a mix between mint green and pastel blue, but not really. The closest I could find on Google was this picture of a nail varnish from thepastelaholic.com

33. What's your favourite beauty/fashion magazine?
There isn't really any magazines around that fit what I want from a magazine. If I really need one I usually go for Glamour but I'm not a massive fan.

34. Do you swear?
In all honesty, who doesn't?

35. What are you doing for the rest of the day?
I have training in a bit and then I'm having a quick shower so I'm ready in time for I'm A Celebrity.

And there we have it! I hope you enjoyed reading this post and I tag Anna (link here) Cristy (link here) and Georgia (link here) to do it next. Have fun girlies!

emma x

The Lipstick Tag

I'm super excited to be doing this tag today because in the last year I've really got into lip products and have bought a lot of new ones. I found that there were two versions of this tag, The Lipstick Tag, and The Lip Product Addict Tag, both with different questions, but as I couldn't decide which to do, I'm going to  use a selection of questions from both.

1. How many lipsticks do you own?
Only including lipsticks, and not tinted balms or glosses, I own 12 lipsticks, which isn't loads but I only recently started buying lip products and I do have a fair few colour options within my collection.

2. What was your first ever lipstick?
My first lipstick was from MUA, and I actually bought 3 as they were on 3 for 2. At the time I bought them because of the cheap price (£1!), but they are actually really good quality. I bought a bright pink, an orange and a nude.

3. What's your favourite brand for lipstick?
I only own 1 lipstick from most brands as I don't like to go overboard, but from what I've tried Rimmel seems to have the best lasting power, pigmentation and range of colours.

4. What is your best balm/treatment?
On a day to day basis I will use any lip balm I can find, but if my lips get really chapped, I apply a thick layer of Nivea SOS overnight and I wake up with completely rejuvenated lips.

5. What is your most worn lipstick?
This is easily the Rimmel Lasting Finish by Kate in the shade 105 which is a bright pink. I love this lipstick as it's suitable for all occasions; a thin coat is subtle enough for day, and a couple of coats builds up to a lovely intense colour for night time.

6. What is your most disappointing lip product?
For me, this would have to be the Maybelline Baby Lips. Because of the hype, I had really high expectations, but they were one of the worst lip balms I've tried, and actually left my lips in worse condition rather than better. I don't mind too much because they are fairly inexpensive but had this of happened to me with a more expensive product, I would not be a happy bunny.

7. How many lip produsts do you currently have in your handbag?
I have three; two lip balms that I leave in there, and one lipstick which changes daily depending on what lip colour I'm wearing.

8. What lip product are you currently lusting over?
As I don't yet own a MAC lipstick, I would really like to get one, probably the shade Creme Cup as it's fairly neutral so I'm sure it will suit me. I would also love to try the Maybelline Colour Elixir Lip Glosses but they are currently only available in the US, so I'll have to wait until they launch over here to fulfill that wish.

I hope you enjoyed reading, and leave a comment below if you've done this tag and I'll be sure to check it out.

emma x