How To Shop the Black Friday Sales on a Budget

Hey Owlets,

There’s Christmas music playing in the supermarket (earlier again this year!), Black Friday is here, there’s pressure to buy Christmas gifts and apparently 2020 is the gift that keeps on giving, because having navigated multiple lockdowns and a global health crisis, we’re now faced with the challenge of heating our homes, looking after our loved ones and enjoying the festive season with next to no budget (I write this as I’m in pyjamas and a wearable blanket, under a duvet for warmth). The pressure to spend more is huge at this time of year, and with the festive season looming a lot of people are turning to the Black Friday sales to try and make their money stretch further. 

The issue, as I’m sure most of you are aware, is that Black Friday is just one giant marketing tactic and a ploy to get you to part ways with your hard-earned cash. So before you dive head-first into the sales, here are a few tips to help you shop without breaking the bank.

How I Prep My Skin for Travel

*collaborative post

Hey Owlets,

I’ve you’ve followed me on Instagram for a while, you will probably have heard me mention that my body confidence is very much linked to how clear my skin is. I know that it shouldn’t matter but it does, and if my skin isn’t clear then I feel self conscious all day. I find that my skin breaks out after I’ve been travelling anyway but I try to keep my skin clear as much as I possibly can in the run up to travel so I can feel great while I’m exploring a new city. With this in mind, I thought it might be helpful to discuss some of the things I use to get my skin ready for my next adventure. To keep things simple I’ll split them into categories so you can skip straight to what you need.

Ultimate Black Friday & Christmas Shopping Guide: My Top Picks

Hey Owlets,

I will freely admit, I'm not usually Black Friday obsessed despite being on the internet for the last four years to witness the hype. Having said that, something about being at home for almost the entirety of this year has resulted in somewhat of an addiction to online shopping so this year I am completely sold! I've been planning Christmas gifts since August out of sheer boredom, so I have a list of things ready to buy (both for myself and my family) so I can fully take advantage of the best deals. I've already done way too much research on this for myself so I thought I could justify the time I spent scrolling by sharing the best Black Friday deals with you. I imagine this blog post is going to be quite a long one so I've split them into categories, and I've tried to include something for every budget from high street to high end; if you're looking for the perfect present for yourself or your family then I've absolutely got you covered with this list!

Heads up: This post contains affiliate links and some paid-for content, but my opinions are my own as always!

Airport Shopping with World Duty Free

*contains sponsored content*

Hey Owlets,

If you've been reading The Owlet for a while you'll know that I REALLY like shopping - I'm one of those people for who "retail therapy" is a real thing, and the only thing that improves it is getting a bargain. Since I started travelling I've managed to save a lot of money by waiting until I'm in Duty Free to top up on my favourite things.

Luxury Gift Guide: 2018

Hey Owlets,

Today I'm back with the final instalment in my gift guide series - if you've not already seen my advent calendar guide or my affordable Christmas gift guide then make sure you click through and have a read. But for now, here's my list of what to get anyone that you really want to spoil this year.

Affordable Gift Guide: 2018

Hey Owlets,

I have no idea where the last 11 months have gone, but it's Christmas gift guide season again! I've done things a little differently this time - I have an affordable gift guide, luxury gift guide and an advent calendar guide to share with you, with one product in each category because I'm not repeating the level of stress that I had last year! Today is the second of the three, which is my affordable gift guide. If you've not already seen my guide to alternative advent calendars, you can see that here. Now, I have lots of cool things to show you so I won't ramble on, time for the first gift!

Creating My Bespoke Fragrance: Review

*gifted product

Hey Owlets,

These days it’s rare I bring you a straight review of a product, but when I find something I think is really cool I just have to share. I don’t know what’s happened but over the last few years I’ve gone from never wearing perfume or getting something *interesting* in a bright blue Avon bottle, to having different scents for different occasions, keeping an eye on new releases and loving trying new scents. I’ve written a whole post about my favourite spring scents, and I’ve gotten close to “the one” fragrance, but it’s never been perfect - so why not mix my own?

Choosing Scents for Spring

Hey Owlets,

I feel like I’ve been really heavy on the travel content recently so I asked on Twitter what you would like to see and I got loads of messages from you saying that you never see anyone write about perfumes, so your wish is my command! I actually asked if you wanted to see my recent perfume purchases or my favourite spring perfumes but the vote came out exactly 50/50 so I decided to cheat and combine the two!

It’s funny really - until the last few years I never really bothered with perfume, but throughout uni I’ve grown to love it. Scents are a really strong trigger for memories which is why it’s become so important to me. Jo Malone’s Cardamom and Mimosa takes me back to my graduation, Jo Malone’s Wood Sage and Sea Salt for the time I went to Ascot And Marc Jacobs Original Daisy for my first trip abroad without my parents.

Luxury Gift Guide: Blogmas 2017

Hey Owlets!!

Today is day two of my week of gift guides, and today I'm bringing you my favourite category because everyone likes a bit of luxury at Christmas, don't they? In this post you'll find gifts that are over £50, so if you're looking to treat someone (like yourself) then these next set of gifts are perfect!

Affordable Gift Guide: Blogmas 2017

Hey Owlets,

I've got a really exciting post for you today. I've always seen other bloggers doing gift guides so this year I decided to do my own- not just one in fact, but four - I never do things by half do I?!

Today I'm bringing you a few of my favourite affordable gift ideas that are guaranteed to wow whoever you're buying for. I've maybe done things a little differently, as I've actually tested every single thing in my gift guides so I can promise you that they're great, and they're all under £50 so won't break the bank. Now, time for the prezzies!

New Video: Blogger Mail Unboxing

Hi Loves,

Today there's new content over on my YouTube channel. A few weeks ago I visited Christmas in July Festival in London which is hands down one of the most amazing blog events I've been to recently. I had a few people ask me to do a haul of what I was given at the festival, but I had a few other bits I wanted to feature so I turned it into an unboxing video.

Fix Your Skin in 7 Days with 7 Products

Hello my lovelies,

I hope you're doing well! 

This week I'm once again impersonating a beauty blogger as I come back at you with a highly requested post. By the time you read this, I will have already graduated but as I'm writing, it's six days until my graduation ceremony. I'm usually super lazy with skincare - I just about cleanse and tone my face before falling asleep, face masks are a rarity and I only moisturise before doing my makeup because it applies better that way. However, this week is different because I REALLY don't want to be spotty for graduation. I've found and spoken about a couple of hero products before, but I put them all together this week and wow, what a difference.

If we're looking at this in terms of days 1-7, then using the Lush Mask of Magnaminty would be what I do on day one. I'll make sure my skin is clean and dry before applying the mask to any problem areas (basically all over my cheeks and chin). I warn you now, use this SPARINGLY. The mask smells and feels amazing - it's got peppermint in so it's really cooling, and is grainy so works wonders on any unwanted skin texture. However, if you don't put on a really thin layer then it takes forever to dry and cracks and falls off as it dries so you don't get the full effect. When it's dry, wet your face and massage your skin before washing the mask off  with warm water to be left with super smooth skin. I use this once a week as my skin's sort of "reset" - I feel like doing this gets rid of anything left behind over the past 7 days.

5 Ways To Hack Your Hair

*contains gifted products

Hey Owlets,

I will never understand how bloggers turn up to events looking like they’ve had an entire backstage team hiding in their bathroom. I, if you couldn’t tell, am not one of those bloggers. I bought my first curling iron the night before the Blog Awards because my hair stylist bailed on me, and I think it took me about three hours to get ready (I already had my makeup done so that was just my hair!). I’m getting better now but I thought it might be nice to share some hair hacks that I’ve found since I’ve started paying more attention to it.

Holland & Barrett: New Store and Haul

*gifted experience

Hey Owlets!

Last day of London spam, I promise (well, maybe). If you're a blogger you probably have "that list". A list of brands you would love to work with, but never think it will happen. Well, I'm proof that it could.

Probably very few of you know this but I have a lot of issues with both sensitive skin and my stomach which means that I have a list longer than my arm that I either can't eat or can't put on my face, which has caused no end of issues over the years. It's because of this that I absolutely love Holland & Barrett - it's basically Heaven for picky eaters, and sensitive stomachs or skin - so when I was contacted by the lovely Emma to invite me to the opening of their new Marble Arch store I was over the moon!

Follow Me To: Birmingham & Stable

*gifted experience

Hello Owlets!!

First of all I just want to say how much I've missed you all! This has been my first week since I started The Owlet that I haven't blogged every day, and it's felt so weird! I feel a little lost sitting down at my computer to do coursework and not to write more posts. However, this week hasn't all been sitting at my desk typing all day- this Sunday I was in Birmingham for the day to attend a blogger event at Stable. While I was up there I did a little wandering so I thought you might like to see what I got up to (spoiler: there's a VLOG!)

Okay so we all know I'm predictable. The issue with the new New Street Station is that you come up from the platforms directly into a shopping centre- a shopping centre that just so happens to have all my favourite stores in. I went to the amazing homeware shop I spoke about during my last trip to Birmingham to eye up the rainbow once again, then went to Neil's Yard. The lady who served me was absolutely lovely - I had no idea what to try because of my sensitive skin, allergies and the issues I've had with it. She took half an hour, talked me through a lot of the products, suggested what might work best for me, and wrote all of those down so that I could go away and do more research before purchasing. I think it was amazing how happy to help she was, and the fact that it wasn't all about making a sale. After talking to her, I now want to order some rose-hip oil to help with scarring as she recommended this to me as something she herself uses.

I then went into the Bullring to go and drool at the Alice in Wonderland palette. I was really considering buying it as Debenhams had one left and it's absolutely beautiful, but I wasn't sure about the shade range as I tend to only wear more neutral colours, and the woman that served me was so rude it put me off completely!

However, I then walked further into Debenhams to the Elemis stand. The lady there was absolutely lovely and asked if I wanted her to do a skin panel. They basically take photos of your skin and ask you lifestyle questions, questions about your skin and your general health to build a complete picture. The idea behind this is that by looking at your life, the skincare will be more personalised and should be more effective. She gave me some samples to try, so I'll try those and report back and maybe talk about the process as a whole.

I then (of course) went straight to Meecha for my usual honeydew melon slush. I only had an hour or so before the Stable event so I didn't get much time to look around anywhere else (although there may have been a quick detour into Forever21...) so I drank this and ran straight over to the restaurant.

When we got to Stable there was a corner set out for bloggers. We sat down with a drink and chatted for a bit, before we were introduced to Mark and Abi who organised the event and were both absolutely lovely, and to Allen who created Hogan's Cider. After a little bit of time to chat, Allen led us through a cider tasting, with some of the best cider I have ever tasted (a huge accolade coming from a native Bristolian!). We then tried some cider brandy, which was funny as a few of us either didn't hear that it was brandy, hadn't tried brandy before or just wanted to try it anyway, and some of the faces around the table were hilarious!

After we'd tried all of the cider, Mark took us into the kitchen to create our own pizzas. Unfortunately, I don't quite think they'd banked on what it would be like getting bloggers to cook, as it took us about 20 minutes to make a single pizza due to all the filming/instagramming/tweeting/snapchatting that was happening in the kitchen!

I was pretty impressed with my efforts....until I saw others' pizzas, then I realised that my lack of imagination had perhaps gotten to me a little! I started off with chicken, with a plan to make a chicken and bacon concoction, but I looked over and something in my brain went "OOOH VEGETABLES!" at which point my pizza became chicken and just about every veg I could find in the kitchen...oops.

The thing that was probably the funniest about making pizzas was that apart from making the dough, we did everything. Once we made the pizzas, we were tasked with putting them on the spatula (I have no idea what its called but the giant paddle thing) to put them in the oven, which on the whole was disasterous. We then had to put them back on the paddle to put them on these wooden boards. I had visions of it flicking over the other side from the kitchen to the bar, but thankfully it slid onto the board perfectly without attacking any poor passers by!

The restaurant itself is beautiful, the cider was gorgeous and the pizza was lovely too (even though I made it!). Abi, Allen and Mark were lovely and it was so nice to go to a blogger event where you can just sit and relax and chat to everyone rather than it being more structured and formal. I had such a laugh and met some lovely people. Thank you so much to Stable for inviting me along and for making me so welcome!

What have you been up to this week? Let me know in the comments below!

Love and Feathers, 

 The Owlet 💜 

You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Bloglovin, Facebook & Pinterest

Follow Me To: M&S Blogging Party!

*gifted experience

I hope you haven't minded all the Bristol Fashion Week spam too much but so much happened that it's taken me a few posts to get through it all! Today I wanted to talk to you about the Marks and Spencer blogging party.

This was one of the first proper blogger parties I'd been to which was way too exciting!

The event was a preview to show off their spring/summer fashion (which, if you don't have time to read the post, was absolutely gorgeous) and some of the beauty brands they stock in store.

First of all, I loved the trends that were set out at the party. I was really surprised by how individual they were-  I felt like maybe they'd gone away from current trends just a little, which was interesting, but they'd done a great job of tying this in with some of the current trends like bright colours and mixed prints.

Photo Credit: Mall Cribbs Causeway

This green print seemed to be everywhere. It's not something I would personally wear as the colour isn't my favourite but the print is beautiful and I think it could be gorgeous if worn the right way. They had a few lighter floral prints which I thought were gorgeous, which were much more my thing.

I actually wore the same thing as I detailed in the Fashion Show post, as this was just after that event, so if you want links to everything then click here or above.

Shirt, headband,bracelets and bag: Primark

Jeans: M&S

Shoes: Converse

Photo Credit: Mall Cribbs Causeway

When we walked in we were greeted with food and drinks from their new summer picnic range (literally this would be the poshest picnic ever).

They had a few bits of summer home and garden decor out which was super cute too! We then got to wander round, have hand massages, a manicure and look at the beauty and fashion.

Photo Credit: Mall Cribbs Causeway

It's no secret that I've been crushing over the Rosie for Autograph collection since it came out. They eyeshadow palettes are stunning, as are the lipsticks and the strobe cream.... I just need it all, ok?

Photo Credit: Mall Cribbs Causeway

The thing that really surprised me was seeing Barry M and Bourjois. I've always seen M&S as the place to get premium beauty products, like with Debenhams and John Lewis where you can buy Pixi, Emma Hardie and Glam Glow. It just doesn't seem quite right them stocking more affordable brands, but I can definitely see the logic in it.

On the way out we were given a goody bag which had some amazing brands in like L'Occitane and the Phillip Kingsley Hair Elasticiser which I've been wanting to try for ages. 

I think it's fair to say I'm hooked on attending blogger events now; it's so nice meeting people like me that understand #BloggerProblems. I definitely want to go to more! Let me know what you've been up to this week in the comments below.

Love and Feathers, 

 The Owlet 💜 

You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Bloglovin, Facebook & Pinterest

Follow Me To: The Blogger's Hangout (London Part 2)

*gifted

So in my last travel blog I said I'd split it into two parts instead of having a tremendously long post- todayI bring you part two of my London trip: the Blogger's Tea Party!

This was my first ever blog event so I was really nervous! It was at the pop up patio in Finsbury Square. I absolutely love the venue- it's like a little conservatory in the middle of a park, and inside is super cosy.

Now before we get into talking about the event, I would just like to say how beautiful our surroundings were! Click the photo to see it bigger- I promise it's worth it!

Basically the blogger's tea party was a place for us to hang out and meet other bloggers, but we were also introduced to some great brands and had the chance to meet and talk to them.

The brands there were as follows:

Bio-tiful Dairy- Yoghurt Drinks

Chikas - African Inspired Nuts and Savoury Goods

Drink Me - Chai Latte Powder

Jake's Boost - Nut Butter 

Just Bee - Drinks

MeadHo - Honey Mead Beer

Modo - Drinks

Pics Peanut Butter

Snact - Fruit Jerky

The Cocoa Den - Chocolate

The brands that really stood out to me were The Cocoa Den (of course, I do love chocolate!), Just Bee and MeadHo.

Cocoa Den-

The Cocoa Den offers courses and qualifications, makes amazing truffles and these incredibly decorations. I won't lie- it's the pineapple and the deer head that caught my attention, but the truffles tasted amazing and the owner is so lovely it's insane!!

Just Bee-

I love the idea of this. It came from a third generation bee keeper. It's spring water with honey and ginger in it. I normally don't like honey or ginger but I thought I can't write about it if I've not tried it (oh the things I do for you!) but I actually loved it! Super tasty and it also comes with blueberry and apple. Yum! Also, the lady I was talking to was absolutely lovely and you could tell they really believed in their product, which is a great bonus!

Mead Ho!

Now talking of things I don't like-  I don't like beer or ale or really anything that isn't cider (I'm Bristolian- forgive me!). So if you put honey and beer together, it should be awful, right? Uhh, apparently not...

Despite not liking beer or honey, honey beer is surprisingly good. It's made with mead, and I won't insult your intelligence by attempting to explain that (if Adam was reading over my shoulder now I'd get an essay on it!) but it's Latvian and the only mead beer sold in the country. The owner was lovely, and a little mad just like me! With wood pinched from her dad and a randomly found skull to complete the Scandinavian experience, the beer tastes great and is worth checking out.

Now there's two things I loved about this event- first of all, I loved that it was all small brands and it was about helping them to get their name out there. Secondly, I loved the idea of meeting over the bloggers. I say the idea, because this didn't really happen. Perhaps it's something to do with being blogger that it's just easier to talk through a keyboard than actually talking to someone in person, but despite being in a room full of bloggers, no one spoke to each other and it was really disappointing. I was also a little disappointed because it said tea party/ Mad Hatter themed (you know from my photographic project how much I was excited for this!) but this wasn't evident at all. Don't get me wrong, it was still a nice event, but it wasn't worth travelling to if you're not from London.

Now we come to the awkward bit- if you couldn't tell I HATE having photographs taken of me, and I don't like how I look so feel loved. I'm putting my face on the internet for your entertainment!

So this is what I wore:

The dress is a 50s style which I got from Amazon for £25 but I'm wearing it without the petticoat underneath so it sits a little more flat.

Dress Here

I wore it with a cropped black cardigan from M&S - cropped so it fitted better with the vintage style of the dress, but really it was just too cold not to wear it and it was the best I had!

I wore it with a set of three gold bracelets that I got from Primark for £3, and the bracelet that my parents had made for me for my 18th birthday.

I then wore this with my trusty Converses because I just don't do heels.

Oh, I also wore a flower garland in my hair (forgot about that one!) which I got from Primark for £3 but if, like me, you're super lazy and don't like leaving the house very often then there's a similar one here which is even cheaper.

I don't have a decent photo of my makeup but I wore this gold/copper eyeshadow look and a full coverage base with a rosy lip, using:

Makeup Revolution Flawless Palette

L'Oreal Infallible  24H-Matte Foundation in Porcelain

Kiko Velvet Mat in 604 ( No Longer Available- Dupe Listed)

So there we are, part two of my London trip. I hope you enjoyed joining me on my first ever blogger event! What have you been up to recently? Let me know in the comments below.

Love and Feathers, 

 The Owlet 💜 

You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Bloglovin, Facebook &Pinterest



Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links