The Ultimate South African Christmas Gift Guide - everything you need to know about keeping it local this festive season

The Ultimate South African Christmas Gift Guide - everything you need to know about keeping it local this festive season

Christmas is right around the corner (6 weeks away to be exact!) and to help you beat the stress and overwhelm that often takes over when it comes to buying gifts, I've put together the following gift guide.

All of these wonderful gifts are from local South Africans and buying them means you are supporting the small business trade. I love the idea of supporting small business owners, because with each gift bought for your loved ones, you are enabling that business owner do the same for their family...it's a win-win situation.

I've started the guide with gift ideas for the special ladies in your life, followed by a selection of ideas for men, and ending off with loads and loads of inspiration for the little ones.

Please do feel free to share this post with all your friends and family, and anyone else you can think of who may need a little help finding the perfect Christmas present this year.

This is a VERY image heavy post, so you might want to go put the kettle on and make yourself a warm cup of something while you wait for all the images to load. In the mean time, make sure you bookmark this post so you can come back to it if you need to.

Happy Shopping!

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Klairs Rich Moist Soothing Cream, Rich Moist Soothing Serum & Supple Preparation Toner {Review}

We are nearing the end of winter here in South Korea, and these Klairs products have been amazing in helping me deal with the winter dryness. I use the rich moist cream for day, and use my favourite Innisfree Eco Science Deep Cream (review to come) for night time. This toner, cream & serum work perfectly with the Black Sugar Scrub & Cleansing Oil I reviewed a little while ago (click here).  Another of my favourite products from Klairs is their Illuminating Supple BB Cream (click here to see the review).

And the best part about Klairs: 

Klairs Rich Moist Soothing Cream 50ml ($23.99 on WishTrend)

An ultra light cream for normal to dry skin. This cream leaves skin feeling soft, supple and looking radiant while providing a great canvas for makeup. This cream is particularly perfect for sensitive skin, helping to calm redness while restoring your skins natural balance. I've been using it for the last 3 months and have found my skin has become a lot calmer, with little to no redness after washing and exfoliating my skin. It also absorbs quickly into the skin without leaving any sticky residue.

It has faint traces of lavender perfume which always makes me feel  calm and relaxed. I have really liked using this cream and it has become a firm favorite, especially for day time wear. I have been needing something heavier for night time use, but for day time this cream is perfect!

You can read more reviews of this cream over on the WishTrend website, where over 100 women have left their thoughts on this great cream. 

For the Ingredients list click here.

Klairs Supple Preparation Toner 150ml ($21.99 on WishTrend)

This toner balances the skin’s pH levels, helping to improve the effectiveness
of your entire skincare regime by gently cleansing your pores to allow for full absorption your other skincare products. This toner is gentle yet effective and never once leaves my skin feeling dry or tingly.

Toning is a very important step in your skincare regime no matter what skin type you have. Toner helps to remove excess dirt and sebum from the skin after cleansing. Once your skin as been cleansed (using both your cleanser/wash and toner) it is prepped and ready for your serums and creams. Toners also aid the skin in being less prone to skin irritations from the environment and pollution by closing your pores. This limits the amount of pore clogging particles that can enter the pores of your skin and lead to potential skin troubles like blackheads, whiteheads and pimples.

Some of the key ingredients the Klairs Supple Preparation Facial Toner are:

  • Phyto-Oligo ingredients which helps moisture flow evenly throughout the skin to help with dryness.
  • Amino Acids which are anti-inflammatory, helping to reduce inflammation in the skin and provide deep hydration.

These anti-inflammatory properties also help to reduce redness in the skin, calm irritation as well as reduce redness in acne pimples (WishTrend).

Read reviews from over 60 women on the WishTrend website.

For the ingredients list click here

Klairs Rich Moist Soothing Serum 50ml ($22.99 on WishTrend)

This serum definitely lives up to it's name as I found it to be incredibly soothing and moisturising. It literally melts into your skin and leaves no sticky residue. I've ben using it under my cream both day and night and have found my skin looks healthier, but it feels softer too.

Why do you need to use a serum? Serums, are considered to be the most important step in any skincare routine as they contain smaller molecules with higher concentrations of beneficial ingredients compared to regular moisturisers. Serums are intensively infused with higher concentrations of active ingredients that can penetrate deeper into the skin, delivering more targeted results. Serums fit perfectly into every skin care routine to provide you with the optimal results your skin needs, no matter your skin type. 
Serums are also a great alternative for makeup primers. Use a serum to prime your skin before applying your skin makeup to get the most smooth and soft looking makeup application with all the benefits of serum; re hydrate fine lines, smooth over the appearance of pores and create a soft skin surface that is ready for makeup application (WishTrend).

For the ingredients list click here

You can read the reviews of over 60 other women on WishTrend.

Do any of these products sound like something you'd like to try? Let me know in the comments below!

Disclosure: I received the above products for review purposes but the opinions expressed here are 100% my own. This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission should you make a purchase using one of the links. 

New 2015 Calendars in Stock in my Stationery Store

I have some gorgeous new 2015 calendars in stock in my stationery store as of this morning. There are two desk standing calendars and one wall hanging calendar. All of them are unique and beautifully illustrated to help you get your planning for the new year done in style.

My top South African online stores

Online shopping in South Africa is definitely on the up with more and more stores offering free delivery and other great specials when purchasing online. But, it is a relatively new concept and a fair amount of shoppers prefer to physically touch the products they plan on spending their hard earned money on. Also, there is the age old fear of credit card fraud and the South African postal service to contend with too. I have been fighting with the post man when it comes to delivering my packages from my online store, but I am very happy and I hate to say it, surprised, to have had a 99% success rate on all my deliveries so far (the 1% being a package I sent to my mom last year which I believe has made its way back to me here in Korea after a rather unfortunate loss of the post mans arrival notification). I have a long term business plan for a nation wide delivery service, just for South Africans, that is fast, reliable and affordable...who wants to invest??? :)

BUT...the postage services are increasing in efficiency, with many online stores choosing to send packages with private services with a more reliable track record and all the shop owners I have spoken to have had no issues whatsoever. Which is good to know as today I want to highlight some of my favourite South African online stores. I haven't shopped at all of these yet as I have been out of the country for a while now, but there are a fair amount of birthdays coming up for my family & friends, I think I will just have to make some purchases soon.

(I had planned to blog about my Top 5 favourite stores and then spent hours scouring the web to fill my last 2 spots, but thanks to all the input from my lovely readers on Facebook, I was able to narrow their loooong list of great recommendations down to 7!).

And here they are, in no particular order:

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