This post is me living vicariously for just a minute because wow the car broke this month and it turns out those things are EXPENSIVE and now I can barely afford a new candle to liven up my house for Autumn, let alone anything else.
I spent an embarrassing amount of time searching my local B & M last year to pick up one of these Essence candles. I was am obsessed with Bath and Body Works and wanted to own one of these dupes SO BADLY, but they'd all sold out by time I got anywhere near a store. So, this is my friendly little PSA: GO AND GET THESE NOW BEFORE THEY SELL OUT.
I'll be the first to admit that the house that me and my partner rent is bare. When we moved in we were intent on using our money to buy furniture. Then Christmas rolled around. Then a big holiday. Now, ten months in we're finally starting to get there. We've put some wall art up that's been hanging around in the basement since day 1. We've taken some rugs off of the floor that just weren't working for us (we've been ignoring it in the hope that it just ebbs away for months now).
I've been so intent on the idea that we need big, expensive things to make this house a home that I've overlooked the little things we could be changing. I'm obsessed with the idea of having lots of mirrors and real plants and decluttering our possessions, but we haven't had the time or money to sort any of this out.
But, it turns out that Homesense totally has my back. I always find that when I head in I either hate every single product I see, or find hundreds of things that I 'need'.
You see, I found a leftover Christmas voucher (yaaaaaas) and decided to actually spruce up our home with some little things to make a big difference. This haul has made me so inspired to switch things up in our house to make it more homely.
Candles
I love candles. To an almost unhealthy extent. I've got a big ol wicker toiletries basket of them, and if I'm sat down at my desk to do some work I usually have one or two lit up in my office. Burning candles has been something that has helped me concentrate on my work for years, and I actually always used to have one going when I was doing my homework.
I must have sniffed at least 50 candles in Homesense, until I found three that looked beautiful and smelt incredible.
Sand and Fog's simple glass candle with a patterned lid is only made better by the fact that it's strawberry mimosa scented. For real. I've never had a strawberry mimosa before, but I need to try one now. This is sweet and delicate and I cannot wait to burn it.
I couldn't resist DW Home's lavender chamomile candle either. I'm a BIG fan of lavender. But, so many lavender candles I smelt were either too bitter, too faint or just a bit musty. This is a fresh, sweet lavender scent and I love the fact that it's hand poured, so has that extra bit of love.
The last candle I picked is one that I want to burn whilst doing yoga. I've never had an aromatherapy candle before and the 'breathe' one from Mindful Earth smells incredible. It's a mix of citrus and herbs and freshness, and is the strangest smelling candle I've ever come across. But I love it. Plus, have you seen how pretty the jar is? It reminds me of an old-fashioned medicine bottle.
Plants
I really want a home filled with lots of plants. Real, fake, big, small, whatever. I want to breathe in their goodness and break up the stale white walls of our home. At the moment I have one solitary plant indoors. It's a red demon chili plant, and I'm SO proud of having grown it from little seedlings. BUT, the chilis are so strong that I can't handle eating any of them, ffs.
This cute lavender pot plant is exactly what I had in mind in terms of plants. I would LOVE a real lavender plant, and I'll get one someday. I really wanted a plant (or two) to pop in the bathroom, but there's no ventilation system in our one and I just know that any plant wouldn't thrive there. This fake lavender fits perfectly on our bathroom shelves and just adds a splash of colour to the room.
Beauty
Does anyone actually head into Homesense without coming home with a brand new strange beauty product? It's like hunting through a treasure chest to find a speck of beauty gold that 1.) isn't just pure shite and 2.) actually suits your needs.
I'm just about starting to get into the whole sheet mask trend. It took me a while to find ones that actually worked for my skin, and I'm really hoping these ones do too! I got a four pack of sheet masks from Beauty Concepts: two are tea tree and claim to repair your skin, and the other two are charcoal masks and claim to purify it. I honestly canNOT wait to give these a go as my skin is in serious need of being both repaired and purified.
Food
I always get drawn in to the weird and wonderful herbs and spices at HomeSense. Himalayan pink salt IMO is the way forward over regular table salt. It's a lot better for you, and although it's a little more expensive, I got this massive bag of it for £2.99 so I can keep my salt pot topped up.
So there we go: my little HomeSense haul which has totally inspired me to focus on changing the little things in our home to get a better overall image.
Christmas is SO close now, eeeeek! I CANNOT WAIT. So, in between writing my food shopping list for early tomorrow morning (yes, I am braving the supermarket on Christmas Eve) and wrapping the final few presents, I thought I'd share my five favourite candle scents of this time of year with you.
1.) Next's Festive Spice. Omg, I need this bottled for me. This has been my go-to throughout December, and I'm surprised at how much is left considering how often I've used it!
2.) Christmas pillar candle from Tiger (or Flying Tiger online). This is the white candle with small hearts and one Christmas tree on it. It is scent-free but I love the simplistic design.
3.) Wooden tealight holder. This is the only thing I've found in Homesense this Christmas that I loved enough to buy. This has been sat on my desk for the past few weeks and is the perfect insta-worthy festive accessory.
4.) Yankee Candle's Snowflake Cookie candle. I bought this for my sister last year and fell totally in LOVE. At the moment I just have a mini version of the candle, but I'm hoping that Santa leaves a full-sized one under my tree ...
5.) Yankee Candle's Candy Cane Lane candle. I bought this in the Christmas sales a couple of years ago and it's one of my favourite scents all year round. It smells sugary, vanilla-y and full of a touch of peppermint, just like your first lick of a candy cane.
I am allll about that home ware at the moment. Me and my boyfriend are moving into our very first flat together that isn't some grimy student hovel in the next month and I am busy collecting little things to make our house a home. So, when Zoella announced that she was bringing a new lifestyle range out I was a little ecstatic, I have to admit.
I've never been a big fan of her beauty ranges, and actually have been so unexcited about them that I have yet to purchase anything. This is really because I've already got so many brands that I've fallen in love with, and so many that I prefer. BUT, this new release was full of totally dreamy products. I love anything that makes a home feel more cosy, and I cannot wait to fill my new flat with plenty of beautiful cushions and candles to make it smell like home. So, you can imagine my joy when I saw that Zoella had a lifestyle range with all of these things in as well as a few more goodies.
The Zoella lifestyle range isn't all homeware (and I feel like I should probably mention this in case you haven't had a peek at the products yet). There are a few bits and bobs of stationary as well as a backpack that you can pick up. We all know I'm a bit of a stationary addict, and as I knew that the Summer #BoxofLame (which you will be seeing on the blog soon *squeals*) was coming out a couple of days after this order, I decided to resist on the stationary front.
So, I should probably talk about things that I actually bought rather than nattering about things I haven't, right? Whoops. Obviously I can't resist a good candle, so I was always going to pick up at least one. As I was ordering online I couldn't get a good whiff of any of the candles before purchasing them, so I had to trust my gut and make some bold decisions. Ultimately it was quite easy as Seaside Stroll and Daisy Picking come in a duo set for £18, which is cheaper than buying any of the candles separately at £10 each.
Daisy Picking is my favourite of the three candles I picked up. It smells like walking into a garden full of flowers just as they're starting to bloom, with pollen in the air and a fresh breeze blowing past. Although I love Autumn, I do think it's nice to have a reminder that things start to grow again and this is what Daisy Picking does for me. Both Seaside Stroll and Daisy Picking have fairly subtle scents, and I haven't quite put my finger on what Seaside Stroll smells like yet! However I think it might have some vanilla in it.
Next I picked up another set. This was the lazy days candle and sock gift set and costs £16. This technically means you are paying £6 for a pair of socks, which is a little pricey, BUT, they are honestly the snuggliest, softest socks I have ever worn. And I have a whole section of my underwear drawer dedicated to soft bed socks, so there is some really tough competition there! Popping these on after a bath has been heavenly, and I felt like I was letting go of my first born when I put them in the wash.
And finally we all know I can't resist a good nap (seriously, at what age does napping on a daily basis become truly unacceptable?!), and so this Dream Maker cushion was number one on my wishlist. This was the only thing that I was 100% sure I wanted from the range, and it comes in at £12, which for a well made cushion is pretty reasonable in my opinion. I absolutely love the colour scheme of it, and it is so soft! As you can see from my pictures, even the cat is a fan of it.
If you fancy watching my first reactions to all of the products, here's a video I filmed for you all!
Since graduating, I've been determined to get more 'adult' about things (HA). Getting myself more organised and having a pretty house fill the top two spots in my adult-y agenda, so Coconut Lane is a pretty good place to start looking. If you've read my blog prop heaven post, you'll already know how much I love Coconut Lane's products. Me and my boyfriend are currently on the hunt for our first ever flat together aka HOORAY NO MORE STUDENT HOUSING, and I really want to take this opportunity to make the flat somewhere I genuinely enjoy spending time.
Coconut Lane's cushion collection is absolutely astounding, but my favourites from it have to be the Luxe Silky Gold Marble cushion cover and the Pancakes and Prosecco cushion cover. I can imagine the former sitting on our sofa and adding a splash of elegant colour to the room, whilst the latter will take pride of place in the centre of my bed. Pancakes and prosecco are some of my two favourite things, and once we have everything sorted with our flat I'll definitely be eyeing some up to celebrate with! The only cushion cover we own at the moment is a Heinz Baked Beans one, which was nice and quirky when I first moved in to student halls almost four years ago, but now just sits on our sofa looking a little sad and out of place.
We all know how obsessed I am with stationery as well, and I really want to get some nice prints to set up over my new desk (once I've saved up for one!) at the flat. I'm so sick of having bare walls, so this will really make the place feel at home for me. I'm also hoping to get some photos to hang up in pretty frames as well to give the place a bit of character. The 'I'm a Blogger' wall art is probably my favourite of the two. This will take pride of place above my desk and remind me that the blogging I do really empowers me and allows me to do things I once thought were impossible. The 'Born Sassy' wall art is something that I really want to hang up in the spare room, which will be my sister's room whenever she comes to stay as she was definitely born with a bucket-load of sass.
Now to move on to another one of my loves, phone cases. I've spoken more about this in my Caseapp phone case review, but basically I have a rather large horde of them at the moment. You can never have too many phone cases though, right? The Luxe Magic Feathers case is effectively a pastel dream. I'm always a big fan of going boho as the warmer weather creeps in, and this seems like the perfect accessory to do so! My second favourite is the Peacock Feather case. Peacocks are such beautiful creatures, and I really think Coconut Lane has captured this well with such a stunning design.
Finally it's jewelry time. Rings are something that I tend to wear much more often during summer, mostly because I'm not having to wear gloves everywhere and I feel like putting more effort into my outfit before I leave the house. At the moment I can't wear rings to work (boo) but as soon as I get my new job sorted I can get back into the swing of taking time to enjoy creating outfits for the day, and adding a bit of pretty jewelry to the look. The knot ring is available in three colours, but I'd definitely go with silver, just because I prefer wearing jewelry of that colour. This is such an elegant design and I fell head over heels for it. The arrow ring was another piece that really stuck out for me. The design is quite subtle, and I love the fact that it's not too traditional as the end don't meet but instead lie above and below one another.
You can get 20% off everything at Coconut Lane with the code 'nourishme20'.
