Things you have bought that were immediately shite (Christmas/New Year Edition)

[PandaChopChop]

Bought beautiful new bedsheets. Reduced in the sale, gorgeous colours with toadstools on them, felt ok in the shop.
Got them home, washed them and they have gone shiny 🤬 like the kind of static shiny so that your duvet ends up in a weird shape and you're rolled up like a stuck sweating pig.

Am absolutely gutted (and furious 😠) and hoping a trip to Homesense will cure me of my wierd shiny-bedsheet-hate.

We got these too , they were appalling. My husband has sent a picture of the mess it was to them. Hopefully they can improve on the mistake now they know it exists!

We have three Ketter. Boxes, they are fine an keep dry inside.

I got mathmos ones this year. Pricey but brilliant

Actuslly @PandaChopChop I should have said in my previous that not only does a lot of stainless steel have nickel in (even some surgical grades), you need at least 14 carat gold to avoid nickel in gold as well. White gold always has some in though. Sterling silver (93.5% pure but with copper and germanium added) usually affects my ears despite not having nickel in.

Gold and silver, like titanium and niobium, are elements but too soft to make into jewellery in pure form. Niobium and Titanium are strong and don’t need anything added hence being used for medical implants but some people may still be allergic. It’s a bit of a minefield!

Laura geller máscara is amazing. I've had to dig out the eye makeup remover to get it off.

can I ask if you use the laura geller baked make up set too? I keep seeing adverts for this with offers... considering it for me but never sure if the comments are true or not.

You're welcome. DD reports that the one I bought her for Xmas is also bobbling a lot.

Plastic pyjamas 😳 A relative has fully bought into the "family smiling in a happy group wearing fluffy matching PJs" shit. So we got the full complement of monstrous, sweaty, cheap nightwear. I can't wear it, it makes me sweat like a trapped animal. Proudly made of melted down bottles?! I cannot.

Two kids have sensory issues so they outright refuse to even look at plastic pyjamas .The remaining will wear it to play in, but it washes weird and either hyper absorbs the laundry detergent scent, or dries too slow and ends up smelling of wet dog. And every time you touch them you get a static shock... The dog is very on edge during the child's wearing of said garments 😅

Every bit of Waitrose party food was truly disgusting. The mini burgers were shameful for the price. Greasy, boring, cheaply made, the cheese sauce tasted like vomit.

Their Teriyaki beef balls on sticks tasted like cat treats. Duck spring rolls were greasy and basic with approx 0.0005% actual duck within.
Waitrose chocolate cake was a disc of synthetic hell fodder, I felt like it was a laboratory experiment in just how far removed "food" can be from actual basic real ingredients. Never again! Their pigs in blankets looked good but tasted greasy and cheap.

Special mention for Morrisons chocolate chip pannetone. Now that was truly obscene as an experience. Somehow rancid tasting, overfilled with what can only be described as pellets of brown wax disguised as choc chips. I had a bite, and fell into such a trance of horror/disbelief that I actually ate a few more bits to see if it was real, if it could REALLY be that disgusting...? Yes, is the answer. It was a dense puck of inedible sour wax, strongly reminiscent of a chunk of palm oil I once saw washed up on a beach.

Morrisons "best" fruit lemonades in glass bottles were literal fizzy chemical scum as well. It evoked the 1990s experience of licking one of those bath pearls filled with scented oil.
That lemonade/raspberryade is heinously grotesque as a fluid, how they dare to dress it up in a glass bottle with a premium label, it's some sort of horrendous social experiment I'm sure, to see just how much we'll tolerate in terms of terrible products. My tooth enamel is just too important since the demise of NHS dentistry, to ever risk drinking Morrisons premium lemonade again.

Oh dear. I've got things permanently using adaptors. Had them for years in a previous place too.

I've used LG in the past when it was on QVC.
The baked foundation is good for a light coverage , you need to really buff it well ( bit like Bare Minerals ) otherwise it can look cakey . Getting the right shade to ( they blether on about how forgiving the colours are with the marbling colour . Theres colour charts but they rattled on about ^if your skin is Nicole Kidman then you're a shade X , if you;re Courtney Cox you're a Shade D ..." but there's much more to it . Am I pink toned or yellow toned ...?

The blusher was lovely unfortunately mine smashed when I dropped it
The dual eyeshadow had amazing staying power especially if you used a wet brush
Not keen on the lipsticks or mascaras .
Not tried the Spackle ( primer )

You are not supposed to wear earings constantly. But I keep in a pair of studs which are definitely not high-end and have a plain metal stud - never have inflamed piercing even after a week (longest I leave them). This might be a reaction to something else other than the Swarovski earings - I find cleaning with antiseptic helps and also cold tea.

@travelforthesoul i use the foundation, bronzer and highlighter. I've got her eyeshadow too but no brush! (I rate bobbi brown eyeshadow pencil)
I really like it and it's quick to put on x

thanks @notnorman

The poinsettia plant I was given this Christmas.
Despite all the love, light and water I’ve lavished on it, from day one it has been losing leaves and flowers by the handful. They just click off the stem.
What a pathetic side plot to the festive season…

@Woodythewonderpony please can you link me to your hair stylet ? I really want one !

Bedding and towels normally say to wash before use. I assumed it was because of starch they put on bedding to make it fold into the packaging. And towels because they'll shed fluff if you don't.

Generally I don't wash clothes before use except white stuff, washed clothes are less likely to stain than new clothes.

But this years school polo's from M&S stunk or at least the packaging stunk.

They are literally designed to kill things. Insecticides act on the nervous system. They are 100% poisons and all of them will come with instructions to avoid breathing them or skin contact.

In the case of bedding and clothing, it isn't just a short contact either - you are spending hours with them on your body. Just because they may not make you feel ill does not mean that they are not causing damage to nerves and cells.

A quick wash with soap/detergent will get rid of them. If you look at the small print on eg a duvet cover packaging it will advise to wash before use.

Oh this has happened twice to me and I am really cross. Look at how green we are not using plastic, yes but you’ve made a proportion of the wrapping paper unusable . It should be cheaper I think or longer to account for the fact you lose some. The last one didn’t rip like yours but the seal took the top of the paper off so the pattern went. Bloody virtue signalling supermarkets!!

Oh thank you for those, added those to my ideas for my presents for next Christmas lol. I find it difficult to find books I can really settle into now (my brains a bit all over the place life wise) but Agathta Christie is one I always go back to

Duck spring rolls were greasy and basic with approx 0.0005% actual duck within.

@KnoblesseOblige The food might have been crap but your descriptions of it are very entertaining 😃

I bought M and S Very Merry Munch. I'd first tried it a couple years ago when first out and enjoyed it. This time...meh. Ended up throwing it away.

@StMarie4me which Primark mascara please ?

Farah bamboo boot socks. Lovely colours, soft and comfy. Bought for DP.

Worn once, hole in toe.

From US to UK? In which case they are either dual voltage or you’ve been very lucky.

We moved back from the US and plugged a hand mixer into a converter that apparently wasn’t wired properly and therefore acted as an adaptor instead. The mixer massively over-revved and then the motor blew with a loud bang. It was a scary illustration of what running UK power through a US device can do.

I bought myself a gift / treat, the MD London WAVE hair curler. I didn’t realise you can’t use it on damp hair. I thought it was like a hot air brush
I have a short bob and was hoping to do some waves but I can’t seem to master it and I don’t want to ruin my hair by repeatedly trying.
Back to the old trusty GHD straighteners