Hello my lovelies and welcome to BLOGMAS day 15!
Today my loves I am sharing with you what I received for Secret Santa. My friends and I at uni decided to do Secret Santa this year as we weren't really friends with one another last Christmas so there was no point. There is roughly 20 of us in our friendship group which means that is waaaaaay too many of us to buy gifts for individually, simply because were all too poor.
We were going to do it the classic way, where you ask who is taking part and then write everyone's names on a piece of paper then put them all in a hat or box and each individual picks out a piece of paper etc. But if you know our friendship group well, whenever we try to do events where we all meet up there's always someone that can't come or a smaller group that don't mention if they're coming and then we get extra people come who we didn't originally invite. It's basically just a nightmare trying to organise 20 people to be all together in the same room or same place to do the same thing at the same time.
So, my girl Meg mentioned this app...
Which is an online Secret Santa generator which makes events like Secret Santa with big groups of people so much easier. But you could also use it if you and your friends don't have time to meet up to organise the whole event or if you do not live close enough to one another to just meet and sort it all out. It doesn't just have to be for Christmas either, you could use it for birthday events or if you're planning a party. It's just a really helpful and easy all round app to use.
All you do is get all of your friends taking part to set up a free account and once that is complete you invite them to the Secret Santa event. Whoever invites the group is also the host of this event. For example, when our group used it Meg was the one who mentioned it and set the whole event up on the website/app therefore she was the host and the one who drew out the names when everyone had accepted the invitation.
Like I just mentioned, once everyone taking part has accepted the invite, the host will then draw out the names and it will automatically divide it up and give you a name. Depending on if you're using the app or the website when you've logged in.
On the website on your homepage will be a small drop down menu on the left that says, "friends, activity, messages, gift exchanges, groups, @work, @school, #Give Back" obviously depending on which options you've used there will be an extra drop down menu with in those categories. For example, in my gift exchange section it has the link to "Squad Secret Santa" as that's an event that was organised and I took part in in-relation to that category.
Then when you click on that gift exchange, again on the left side it states the organisers name, the gift exchange date and the time you're going to give them, the rules of the event, your spending limit, and the gift exchange location. Then if you scroll down it has the list of names of all the people taking part and if you have people not taking part or awaiting their reply. It's just a super easy website/app to use and for organising events with lots of people it makes life so much easier, I would highly recommend it for everyone.
When you first log in on the app, you have these three options. When I first created an account I started on my wishlist first and started that off. But I just selected the shop option this time as I don't need to make another wishlist at the moment.
After selecting shop, you can see you have different categories to look into for shopping or adding to wishlists etc. But along the bottom you can see we have different options.
Shop - obviously where you can shop for different items, add to your wishlists etc. Up the top, that small circle with the '+' in the middle is to give you the option of adding something to your wish list from the web. So you select web and a tab will pop up with Google or whatever your main web browser on your phone is. You type in the search bar just like you would when you use your web browser normally. Type in a website you want some on, e.g. Newlook then find the item you want on the website etc and once you've found it. Select add to wishlist and you select the photo you want it to use for that item.
Friends - to see who you follow and who is following you.
Exchanges - where you can keep up to date with what gift exchanges you are in, what events are coming up when, and of course where you can create an exchange.
Messages - to check messages you get sent on the website/app.
Me - to view your profile.
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| What the exchange section looks like on the app |
Here is just a small section of my Wishlist on the app format for you guys to take a peak at. As you can see it has the image of the item you've added along with what it's actually called on the website you retrieved it from. Then we've got add to wishlist as well, all in all, the website and app are just super simple and easy to use.
So for our actual event of Secret Santa, we figured out who actually had who in the end. Again, if you know our friendship group well, you'll learn nothing stays a secret for long. But I had my home girl, Katie, mentioned her so much on this blog she has now been promoted. But I got her a mug with a cute sweater on with a hot chocolate mix included, a mini hand warmer (those tiny hot water bottles), and a Captain America Tsum Tsum from the Disney store. She loved all her gifts which I'm so happy about.
Laura had me for Secret Santa and she got me gifts that were just 100% me.
Before we start with the actual presents, look at that gorgeous glittery gift bag. She even got the gift bag to be 100% me, let alone the presents inside.
These were all the lovely gifts I received, she knows me so well. I was delighted with each one. Unfortunately were missing one, a beauty blender from Primark that is black and when it was in the box had the face of a penguin in and the only reason it's missing is because I've already been using it.
She got me this, which I was so surprised about. If you're a beauty blogger, a beauty YouTuber, or just someone who loves beauty products, most likely you'll have heard of this product. I think this was super popular all over the beauty blogging and youtubing community either middle of last year or the year before at some point. But everyone always raved about it and I always wanted to try it but never knew where to get it from.
I opened this and I was so surprised, I didn't expect anything like this for a normal Christmas gift, let alone Secret Santa. I've already been using it and it's amazing. A super brightening power which is why I apply it under my eyes, middle of my forehead, down my nose, top and middle of my cheeks, and my chin. All the places I highlight anyway, but it really does brighten those areas up and makes my skin look healthy and awake. It is also perfect for baking contour which I'm so happy about, I'm literally using it every single day. I can't thank Laura enough for getting it for me.
Then we have this adorable little Rudolph lipgloss pot. He is so cute, I absolutely love him, he's that extra sprinkle of Christmas to carry in your handbag, plus Reindeer's are one of my favourite animals, especially at Christmas time. My favourite part about the strawberry Primark lipglosses and balms is the fact they smell like Calpol and I adore the smell of Calpol. So win, win.
Some festive fluffy socks! I feel like as a girl who loves Christmas and loves to keep cosy 24/7 I can never have enough fluffy socks. I think I pretty much always buy a new pack when I go into Primark, partly because mine get dirty so easily and fluffy socks are perfect to have with pyjamas, lounge wear, to keep your feet warm when you wear boots etc. Like always they're super comfy and these are a Katie J staple.
Now we move onto this actual perfection of beauty. A cream glitter eyeshadow pallet, I swatched them all literally when I opened it but I haven't done it for you guys in this post as it would've taken waaaay too long. But you get 28 stunning glittery cream eyeshadows and I cannot wait to play with this properly, some of the creams are more pigmented than others. But what I'm definitely going to do is place all of these over a base colour that is the same shade or use it for a pop of glitter on the middle of the lid etc. It's the perfect season to wear glitter eye looks constantly, especially at Christmas time. I'll defo be using this in a tutorial at some point soon.
Enjoy some close ups.
I hope you guys enjoyed seeing what I got for Secret Santa, I am so happy with all of my presents! Can't wait to play with them more. Just to remind you guys, this isn't me bragging whatsoever, just sharing with you what I am lucky to have and I am extremely grateful, especially for my beautiful friends.
Well guys, only 10 days left until Christmas! Whaaatt?! That is crazy, 2016 is just slipping away under my feet. Anyway, I shall see you tomorrow for more Blogmas posts!
Love,
Katie
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