It is my daughter’s ninth birthday and and I’ve been given the hard word to make sure its a cool party. The loot bags are always a big deal. In the past we have bought all sorts of bags an boxes from various party shops and web sites. I’ve never spent so much money on boxes and paper bags. This year, while searching for goodies to go in the bags, I stumbled across these very cool little handbags at the 1 2 3 Dollar Store. For a girls party, they are way classier than any paper bag or box and the added bonus is that the cost much less. For the miniscule outlay of $3 per bag we have the coolest loot bags in the class.

Product: Handbag aka Birthday Party Loot Bags

Price: $3

Where from: The 1 2 3 Dollar Store

Rating: 4 stars

Have I told you that I love Christmas because I really do, it is my most favorite time of the year, I love everything about it,  The Christmas present buying, decorating the tree, the shops full with wonderful things and not to mention my yearly get together at my home in December for my friends.  

No I’m not trying to scare you,  but believe it or not it’s only 8 weeks to Christmas and once again it has come around really quickly.  I know that some of you haven’t even thought about Christmas and the very idea of having to sort out your present list is just too much, let alone what to buy. 

So that’s where I come in.  I’m here to make your life during this time a whole lot easier, to give you some help on where to go to buy those special people in your life a really great gift.   I will tell you what’s hot, where to get, I can provide personal shopping advice when needed or just some general helpful tips for the silly seasons shopping.

Just in case some of you men were wondering if  buying your wife a cellulite massaging mit is a good idea, the answer to that would be a big NO.  Unless your planning on having an quiet Christmas, then I’d give it a miss.  So check in on the 15th November for Andrea’s Christmas List to help you with your Christmas shopping.   If you also have any difficult people to buy for and nothing on the list seems to suit,  just email me and I will get back to you with some other ideas.  At Andrea Stewart no one is to hard to buy for, it’s what I call a challenge. 

One early tip if you want really lovely wrapping paper without spending a fortune,  go to www.paperpak.co.nz.  I bought a big roll of white paper a few years ago and have been wraping all my presents with it, which is a huge saving.  I have just had this year’s order of paper and ribbon delivered to home today ready for me to start my wrapping.  So anyone can call and just use your credit card to save yourself a whole pile of time and money.

So subscribe to my RSS feed, or simply keep checking back for my helpful tips on how to get through the silly season with the least amount of stress and remember the 15th November for Andrea’s Christmas List.

Have I told you that I love Christmas because I really do, it is my most favorite time of the year, I love everything about it,  The Christmas present buying, decorating the tree, the shops full with wonderful things and not to mention my yearly get together at my home in December for my friends.  

No I’m not trying to scare you,  but believe it or not it’s only 8 weeks to Christmas and once again it has come around really quickly.  I know that some of you haven’t even thought about Christmas and the very idea of having to sort out your present list is just too much, let alone what to buy. 

So that’s where I come in.  I’m here to make your life during this time a whole lot easier, to give you some help on where to go to buy those special people in your life a really great gift.   I will tell you what’s hot, where to get, I can provide personal shopping advice when needed or just some general helpful tips for the silly seasons shopping.

Just in case some of you men were wondering if  buying your wife a cellulite massaging mit is a good idea, the answer to that would be a big NO.  Unless your planning on having an quiet Christmas, then I’d give it a miss.  So check in on the 15th November for Andrea’s Christmas List to help you with your Christmas shopping.   If you also have any difficult people to buy for and nothing on the list seems to suit,  just email me and I will get back to you with some other ideas.  At Andrea Stewart no one is to hard to buy for, it’s what I call a challenge. 

One early tip if you want really lovely wrapping paper without spending a fortune,  go to www.paperpak.co.nz.  I bought a big roll of white paper a few years ago and have been wraping all my presents with it, which is a huge saving.  I have just had this year’s order of paper and ribbon delivered to home today ready for me to start my wrapping.  So anyone can call and just use your credit card to save yourself a whole pile of time and money.

So subscribe to my RSS feed, or simply keep checking back for my helpful tips on how to get through the silly season with the least amount of stress and remember the 15th November for Andrea’s Christmas List.

  Now that we know better, we can do better. Protection is now the name of the game. So what am I talking about - sunscreen. It’s so often over looked but has now become one of the most important things we should do as part of our everyday life.

I am one of the generation who use to lie out in the sun and bake myself. I was renowned for my ability to get a tan in just two days at the start of summer. That was before we knew how bad the sun was and how much we would pay later on in life for that fabulous tan. Lets face it brown skin always looks so much better than white. Oh, if only we knew back then what we know now!

They all make such big promises and so often just don’t deliver. The sunscreen we took to Fiji is no exception. Sun Sense Sport Milk SPF 30+ with a 4 hour water resistance and UVA & UVB protection. It is absolutely useless, it didn’t work at all and we all actually got burnt while using it. I was so disappointed when I realised at the end of the day that both of my daughters were sunburned, even after following the instructions very carefully. I had bought the Sport Milk especially because I knew the girls were going to be in the pool all day. We applied the sunscreen at about 8.30am in the morning. We then reapplied just before the 4 hours was up in the middle of the day. At the end of the day after all that effort they where quite sun burnt. Yes it was non greasy as they claim and yes was suitable for children but did it protect them? Well that would be a big NO.

So I definitely wouldn’t waste your money on this sunscreen this summer. They claim they are innovators in sunscreen technology, maybe they need to go back to the drawing board with this one.

We reverted to an old favorite and had no problems for the rest of the holiday. Stay tuned for the review of that in the future.

Rating: 0

Product: Sun Sense Sport Milk

  Rushing through Duty Free as you do when you are going away on holiday, I chose a new bottle of perfume which is great. It’s so hard when you are in the Duty Free shop as you often don’t have a lot of time and there is so much to choose from. I often get overwhelmed and can’t be bothered fending off the pushy sales staff so just give up.

But this trip I discovered a new perfume out by Yves Saint Laurent and it’s called Young Sexy Lovely. Great name isn’t it! Just buying it with a name like that made me smile.

I know that buying perfume is a very personal choice and in most cases I wont even attempt to buy someone else perfume, but this one would be a good choice if you did. The reason why I like this one so much is that it isn’t over powering but has a subtle lovely lingering fragrance which seems to suit most people.

Described by YSL as one of their new style fragrances that is attitude trendy. It’s fresh and feminine which makes it a good choice with summer coming. My husband doesn’t like strong smelling perfumes and doesn’t seem to mind this one, so that is really saying something.

New out. It’s available in a couple of different size bottles in Eau De Toilette and you can buy a body lotion to layer your fragrance to give it longevity. Especially important when you are wearing an Eau De Toilette as these don’t tend to last as long as an Eau De Perfume.

Would make a great birthday or Christmas gift for that someone special and better still it is very reasonable in price.

Available: Farmers stores nationwide

Price: Eau De Toilette Perfume - 30ml $69.00, 50ml $99.00

Body Lotion - 200ml $78.00

  Do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell, closer let me whisper in your ear and say the words you love to hear… diamonds, beautiful diamonds.

I have found the most wonderful new jewelry and want to share my secret with you all. I am the worlds worst magpie, anything shinny and sparkly I am attracted too. So it stands to reason that beautiful jewelry is one of my most favorite things to buy.

It’s called Secrets and it’s one of the world’s finest diamond simulants. It’s so perfect it’s impossible to tell with the naked eye if it’s a manufactured diamond or a mined one. They are set in 14ct gold, come with a lifetime guarantee and basically look, feel and behave like the real thing.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to not buy a diamond engagement ring or wedding ring, but this jewelry is pretty fantastic! I’ve grown up with an uncle as a jeweler and already own some gorgeous jewelry, but I love this as an alternative at a fraction of the cost.

If your anything like me I love new things and this is no exception. The best part about it is the price! It’s all roughly $1000 per item and under. That’s not bad considering you can have a pendant or a ring, bracelet whatever you like for a fraction of the cost of anything else you can buy.

I am currently wearing an eclipse cut 4 carat ring set in yellow gold which I paid $650 for and the comments are endless. Not a day goes buy without someone noticing my ring. It’s positively stunning and I get an enormous amount of pleasure in wearing something so beautiful.

Buying a secrets ring now gives me the opportunity I’ve never had before to change my jewelry on a more regular basis than ever before. Trust me when I say if you pay a visit to the Secrets website or visit one of their three store’s in Auckland you will be amazed.

Jewelry that was once only reserved for the privileged few is now not only attainable, it’s glamorous and can now be yours.

So visit www.secrets-shhh.com but better still visit the store I promise you, you wont be disappointed.

  Ok, so I know we all get bombarded with lots of new ways to help us fight the ageing process, and trust me I’m the first to put my hand up for that. Anything I can do to keep that next wrinkle at bay, I’m there. Hence one of the reasons for starting my blog, to help us all to decide what works and what doesn’t. Show me the next greatest wonder wrinkle remover and I’ll be first in line.

But I do think we need to start being a little more discerning about what we are prepared to do in our fight against the dreaded wrinkle. We need to be aware of what the pitfalls are, as well as the benefits.

One of the latest crazes to hit the beauty departments and clinics is Microdermabrasion. It promises to take off the top layer of skin on your face, smooth fine lines and help in the promotion of collagen. You can go to a beauty clinic to have it done. They tend to use a much stronger method which they claim can be more effective than the at home treatments you can buy.

So in my quest to achieve that youthful glow and help to produce more collagen, I went to a beauty clinic to have it done professionally. Bad move. I am still paying the price for having had it done. Not only did it hurt, uncomfortable is how I would describe it, it has also resulted in me now having broken blood vessels which I didn’t have before. I know these are a direct result of the treatment I had because they have appeared since the treatment and where I was particularly red for days.

I know that I have done irreparable damage to my face.

Now, some may argue that it wasn’t done correctly, but still this whole experience has lead me to investigate further the benefits of Microdermabrasion.

My take on it is this. I won’t go to a clinic to have it done ever again. I don’t believe it’s a good idea to have somebody rub a machine over your face, like sandpaper, in order to shave a couple of layers of skin off to achieve that younger fresh faced look. What we need to do is to be more careful and not fall for all the hype that’s associated with this particular treatment. Think about what it is you are actually doing. Taking layers of skin off your face. There are much smarter ways of doing this and I do believe that the at home treatments are just as effective and in most cases much better for you.

Save your money and your skin. Use a face cloth rubbed over your face to remove dead skin cells, buy an “at home kit”, but don’t go to a clinic! It is just too harsh and too risky.