LottieLately: January 2014

Tuesday, 21 January 2014

Christmas Gift Card Haul!

As promised here is my second haul post from the festive period. I was given quite a few gift cards for different shops this year, so when I went shopping to Swansea I made use of them. I do have a few gift cards left though, so be warned another haul may be coming soon!

Primark was on top of the agenda as, I rarely get a chance to go shopping there.

So this first item I picked up was these cute little tartan pajama shorts. I really wanted to get a pair of tartan pajama bottoms to wear for Christmas, but these are something that I'll wear all year round.

I am obsessed with daisy's, I don't know why I just think they are really pretty. I brought this beautiful black scarf with white daisy's dotted all over, it is my new favourite accessory.

Oh look! more daisy's..

I saw this and just knew I had to get it. It is a black large boxy t-shirt with giant daisy's all over. It has short turn up sleeves and an oval neck line.

I had been wanting a new makeup bag for a while and saw this one while shopping and just thought it was really cute. It's a black and pink stripy bag that clips together at the top. Inside there are two large zipped compartments. I like to keep all my makeup in one side and then the brushes and the bulkier items in the other.

The last items are three products that I picked up in boots.

They had a 3 for 2 offer on L'Oreal products and I just couldn't resist, I knew I wanted two products so then I decided I could pick up a little extra as a treat.

I chose the L'Oreal True Match foundation that I had been wanting to try for ages.

I also picked up the L'Oreal Telescopic Mascara, that I had seen loads of reviews about.

Then I decided to try the L'Oreal Collection Privee by Cheryl lipstick as the treat.

I hope you like what I brought and if you would like to see any reviews of the products let me know!

Hope you have a great day :)

Love Charlotte xxx

Friday, 17 January 2014

Personalise Your Beauty with My Beauty Compare!

Today I want to share with you a brilliant new website that I have been introduced to and one which I now use everyday (oops) for online shopping.

My Beauty Compare is the wolds 1st personalised recommendation site that allows you to discover new products suitable for you and at the right price.

When shopping for beauty products, even after reading hundreds of reviews on makeup alley or searching the entire of YouTube you still never know what products will be suitable for you. Well My Beauty Compare makes the whole experience just that little bit more easier, with their unique method they show you a range of products that might just work for you.

All you have to do is sign up (it's free) and then fill out the quiz. You will then be able to browse a range of different products that have been recommended for you based on your answers. Simple

The quiz asks you about a number of different factors including; Skin Complexion, Skin Type, Skin Concerns, Eyes, Hair, Water intake, Alcohol Consumption, Sleeping hours, Climate type, Diet and Occupation.

There is already over 50,000 people using this site including myself and with 1500 brands to choose from, you can't really go wrong.

As you can see in the two pictures below, the site has recommended me some skincare and concelear products to look at based on my input from the quiz.

So the has site has chosen some skincare products to help combat my spots, but has also taken in consideration that I have sensitive skin.

Then here the site has matched me to products that will conceal the blemishes and also have good staying power as I have oily skin.

I think that this is a great website, it is easy to use and fab for when your searching for a particular type of product to suit your needs. For more information about the site you can click here, to see their press release.

So what are you waiting for.. Happy Shopping!

I hope you liked this post, and that you found it useful.

I just wanted to share with you all this great website, as it has definetly made online shopping for beauty products much easier for me.

Love Charlotte xxx

*DISCLAIMER: I was introduced to the site and asked to share my thoughts and opinions. This is not a sponsored post and I was not payed or forced to write this. My thoughts and opinions are my own and 100% honest.*

Wednesday, 15 January 2014

Weight Loss Wednesday #2

Hey everyone, I hope you are all well.
In this weeks #bloggersWLW I wanted to share with you some recipes to make some healthy smoothies.

I hope you enjoy this post and maybe try a few of them out - I know I will be!

Smoothie Recipes

All these smoothies serve 4 glasses, so you could make a bunch for your family or save the rest for later on in the day.

Mango & passion fruit smoothie

400g/14oz peeled and chopped ripe mango

2 x 125g pots fat-free mango yogurt

250ml skimmed milk

juice 1 lime

4 passion fruits, halved

Mix the mango, yogurt and milk together in a blender until smooth. Then add some lime juice and stir it in. Then carefully pour into a glass. Scoop the pulp of a passion fruit into each one, and swirl before serving.

Super berry smoothie

450g bag frozen berries

450g pot fat-free strawberry yogurt

100ml milk

25g porridge oats

2 tsp honey (optional)

Put the berries, yogurt and milk together in a blender and blend until smooth. Add in the porridge oats and stir through. Then pour into a glass and serve with a drizzle of honey, if you like.

Cranberry & raspberry smoothie

200ml cranberry juice

175g frozen raspberries, defrosted

100ml milk

200ml natural yogurt

1 tbsp caster sugar, or to taste

mint sprigs, to serve

Mix all the ingredients together using a blender, until it is nice and smooth. Pour into a glass and serve topped with fresh mint.

Mango & banana smoothie

1 medium mango

1 banana

500ml orange juice

4 ice cubes

Cut the mango and take out the stone, then peel and cut it into chunks. Then peel and chop the banana. After that put all the ingredients together into a blender and mix until smooth and thick. Once that is done, pour into a glass and drink.

Please do let me know if you try any of these smoothie recipes.
I hope you liked this post and feel free to comment below with some #bloggersWLW post suggestions.

Love Charlotte xxx

Monday, 13 January 2014

Sale shopping haul!

I do have another haul post coming soon but this is just a quick post of some of the bits I picked up while shopping 3 day's after Christmas.

So a couple of day's after the big event of Christmas was over, I went on a little shopping trip into town with my Mum, 2 Sisters, Auntie and Grandma. I needed a new pair of jeans, (as we found out on boxing day when we saw a hole in my favourite jeans while playing games - nice one Char) so that was my excuse for going shopping.

After traipsing around a lot of the shops my family wanted to go into, we popped into Clarke's as they had a good sale on. I really needed a new pair of boots as mine were falling apart, so we browsed all the size 4½'s to 5 sections. After a lot of searching I found some lovely black ankle boots, they fitted well and looked great, but my one dilemma; 'what if I go into another shop and see some boots I prefer' I really liked the boots, but I knew if I went to look in other shops and then come back for them they would be gone. My Auntie then inquired the store about holding onto them for an hour so then I could come back for them if I couldn't find any other boots. Fortunately the store said yes, and so then I was straight out the store, dashing into all the shops, trying on all the boots I could find. Luckily in the last shop on our agenda to find boots, I find the perfect pair. They were very different from the original boots I tried on, they were long and brown but they fitted like a dream. The pair was purchased and I was a happy girl.

So after all the mishap of finding some boots was over, my sister and I popped into New Look. Well they had some gorgeous clothes in the sale, it was just typical that none of the ones I liked were in my size. However I did pick up two things.

I brought this gorgeous purple coat, which I absolutely love. Although my family did laugh at me as I'm known to own quite a few too many coats.

I also managed to pick up these jeans, which are just basic dark skinny's. See, I told you I was going shopping for jeans!

The last shop we popped into was Outfit. The sale was mega and there was loads to choose from but I refrained myself and only brought the one item.

I picked up this beautiful quilted black leather jacket, which is now one of my favourite pieces of clothing to wear. Luckily it had 30% off and I was also able to use a gift card that I received for my birthday.

So that's everything I picked up from the little shopping trip with my family.

What did you pick up in the sales?

Love Charlotte xxx

Sunday, 12 January 2014

American Secret Santa Swap!

Nearing the end of November - just gone, 3 gorgeous girls; Gemma from Miss Makeup Magpie, Laura from Tease Flutter Pout and Danielle from Miss Sunshine and Sparkle organised a bloggers Secret Santa project.

Within the project there were 3 different categories.

1. The usual Secret Santa, where you do not know who your Santa is.

2. Non Secret UK swap, where you are just doing a swap with someone from the UK.

3. International swap, where you swap with someone from another country.

The one thing they all had in common were they were all done for Christmas.

I decided I would love to do a Christmas swap with someone from America. So after the 3 girls sorted out paring everyone up, I found out I would be doing a swap with the lovely Kate from Kate Spitz.

We chatted for a bit and made some arrangements, and then we settled on a price of £80 / $130

We both sent each other a shopping list of items we wanted to receive, but left some spending room for the other person to pick out a few extra bits as a surprise.

After buying all the items we both sent each others parcels on the same day.

I received mine just before Christmas and was delighted with everything I received.

Kate sent me this gorgeous card, which I now have stood up on my dressing table.

I received this cute REN - The Fab 4 skincare set, which I asked for. I had been wanting to try out some of REN's skincare for a while, but wasn't sure what product to try. So I decided to ask for this set of mini's so I could try a few of them out.

Kate also sent me this Boscia Bright White Mask, which I am excited to try out.

I was very happy to receive this from Kate, as I originally put this on my list of items I wanted.

It is one of the NYC trio's in Central Park Plums.

Kate sent me this lovely pink ELF lip stain and a Revlon Colorburst Lacquer Balm in the shade Whimsical.

Kate also kindly sent me this Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips, which looks absolutely gorgeous.

I have been wanting to get this Anastasia Brow Wiz for a while now, so was really pleased Kate got me this from my list.

Any chance to get a MAC lipstick cheaper than it is here in the UK.

I have been trying to narrow down all the MAC lipsticks I want, so when choosing which one to ask for I took to twitter. I asked between this and a couple of other shades and this beauty came out on top. So now I am the proud owner of MAC rebel lipstick.

Oh How Gorgeous!

As soon as I knew I as doing a swap with an American I knew I had to get something from Tarte.

I had heard numerous reviews about their blushers so I decided to ask for two.

I got the Amazonian clay 12-hour blushes in Exposed & Dollface.

So that's everything I got from my American Swap, please let me know if there's anything you would like me to do a review on.

A big thank you to Gemma, Laura and Danielle for organizing the Secret Santa project.

A big thank you to Kate for being an amazing partner for the swap.

I would love for you to check out all the girls blogs, and you can see what I sent Kate here.

Love Charlotte xxx

Wednesday, 8 January 2014

Weight Loss Wednesday #1

Hello everyone and welcome to #bloggersWLW!

Bloggers Weight Loss Wednesday!

Last week I posted about this great community and blog series (see post here), so if your looking to find some inspiration and motivation for loosing weight, you've come to the right place.

So here goes the first post of the series.

The main reason a lot of people say they cannot loose weight is because they lack or have no motivation.

I know this is one of the reasons I have failed at maintaining a healthy weight over the years.

So to help motivate and inspire myself and you lovely lot this week, I thought I would share my favourite pictures and quotes.

I would love for you to check out all the other girls posts and show your support!

1. Jennifer: Barely There Beauty

2. Emily: Bows and Nails

3. Laura: Shimmer of Pink

4. Sammie: Love from Sammie

5. Lucie: Fatbeautyx

6. Paige: Paige's Preferences

7. Stacy: Buttons and Bows

8.Jess: Beauty Bits & Bobs by Jess B

9. Aly: Aleelily

10. Nik: Makeup Junkie

11. Lucy: Lucy Loves

12. Mawuelome: Littered Lipstick

13. Natalie: Natalie's World

14. Becky: Beauty Becky

15. Noor: Day Dreaming

16. Valerie: Ohh Val

17. Natasha: Natasha's Wonderland

18. Michelle: Thou Shalt Not Covet

19. Chloe: Skinny Jeans

20. Chloe: How do you wear thatx

21.Taylor: Beauty and a Blogger

22. Sarah: Those Stars That Shine

23. Emma: Emma Alexandra

24. Amy: Nail the Look

25. Chloe: Thrifty Skies

26. Becka: Becka's Beauty Blog

27. Rukhsar: Love Makeup Love Fashion

28. Megan: Cupcakes and Converse

39. Beky: Beky Lou

30. Antonia: Mac & Cheese

31. Alexandra: Alexandra Elizabeth Beauty

32. Jordan: The Style Selections

33. Chantele: Daisy Dayz

34. Amy: Not Another One Amy

35. Hannah: Just A Little Blog

Please do let me know your opinions and thoughts :)

Love Charlotte xxx

Sunday, 5 January 2014

January 2014 Wishlist!

Hello everyone, so I thought I would start a new segment on my blog where each month I will show you what I am currently lusting for.

There may be a few of the same products on each months list, but that is only because I might not have purchased them yet, but there will definetly be some new items.. as a blogger there is always something to add!

So here is my January 2014 Wishlist!

Hopefully this time next month I will have brought some of these items.

Let me know what you are wishing for!

Love Charlotte xxx

Thursday, 2 January 2014

Starting off 2014!

Hello everyone! I hope you all are well, and that you had a fabulous Christmas!

It's the New Year, Woohoo!

First off, sorry for the lack of posts over the festive period. I have just been relaxing and enjoying spending time with my family :)

As promised last year.. I will be doing loads more beauty related posts on my blog, so keep your eyes peeled. Also I am hoping to start making YouTube videos, such a daunting task but hopefully it will go well and you all will enjoy them. I'm going to try and start filming tomorrow, so wish me luck!

The purpose of this post is to fill you in with an exciting project that I am taking part in.

One typical New Years resolution made by most women this time of year is to become healthier or loose weight. I admit it, I have said this every New Year for the past 5 years, and even though I may have put on a little bit of weight or maybe lost a little, I cannot say I have fully achieved this target.

This is why this year I am not setting that as my goal.

If I am honest I am not making any New Year resolutions.

I am simply going to try and be happy.

This being said I do want to be healthier, just not to be pressured to do it.

On to the project..

I have decided to join a bunch of gorgeous ladies to help on a quest to be healthier.

Meet the Weight Loss Wednesday gang!

1. Jennifer: Barely There Beauty

2. Emily: Bows and Nails

3. Laura: Shimmer of Pink

4. Sammie: Love from Sammie

5. Lucie: Fatbeautyx