CHARLOTTE LAUREN // MAKEUP ARTISTRY: 2015

Christmas is by far my favourite time of the year, and I personally love doing my Christmas shopping, I know most people hate it so that's why I'm here to help! So this is my first gift guide 'for her'...

The Makeup Junkie (AKA me)

The first one is the makeup junkie, so here's a list of 3 big things in the makeup world right now that would be the perfect gift for anyone makeup obsessed!

Number one would have to be a contour kit, the makeup world has gone crazy over contouring thanks to Kim Kardashian and contouring kits are must! The most spoken about are the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour kits (£28.03), but almost every makeup brand has some form of this palette at all different price ranges.

Next up is the highlighter to rule all highlighters, Becca/Jaclyn Hill Shimmering Skin Perfector In Champagne Pop (£26.63), glowing skin is all in and highlighters are the perfect way to create a gorgeous dewy shimmer to the skin on the coldest winter days, Champagne Pop fits almost every skin colour and is an amazing product with a creamy texture that glides on so easily and is a must in my makeup bag.

Eyeshadow palettes in general are a good present because they give you a lot of options and a ton of different looks to create, so whoever you're buying for is guaranteed to like at least a few of the colours in the palette and you don't have to worry about picking out the perfect single eyeshadow. The morphe (£15.00) ones are very big right now and are a really good price for fantastic quality eyeshadows!

The Perfume Addict

With the help of some friends (one of which being a complete perfume snob haha) I've compiled a list of our all time favourite perfumes, and I think we've cracked it.

First is Viktor and Rolf Flowerbomb (£50.00/30ml), if luxury came in a bottle I'm fairly sure this would be it, I'm not the hugest fan of flowery scents but this perfume is absolutely gorgeous! It comes with a pretty hefty price tag but the smell lasts for ages on the skin and the bottle looks so stunning on your dressing table, a must for any perfume collection.

Another fave is Armani Code for women (£45.00/30ml), it's a very elegant night time scent, but at the same time still quite sweet and fruity with top notes of jasmine and orange. It is in a beautiful blue and floral patterned bottle that looks very chic and glamorous on your vanity.

Next is Paco Rabanne Black XS (£30.00/30ml), a little bit of a cheaper option than the others, recommended by one of my friends who's bought new bottles of it every year since 2009! It's quite a musky night time scent but still sweet at the same time, with notes of pink pepper berries and cranberry making it the perfect winter perfume!

The Home Body

A few gifts for the girl who's perfect night is a cosy movie marathon on the couch, and who's favourite days are the ones spent entirely in PJ's!

Candles are a gift I personally love receiving! Specifically Yankee Candles (£19.99 for a large jar, other sizes are available!), as the packaging is so cute, I love the look of these when they're burning, they have an excellent scent throw and they burn really nice and evenly. They come out with a range of winter scents every year and would be such a nice gift to open on Christmas day!

You can't go wrong with a cosy dressing gown and these J by Jasper Conran Dressing Gowns (£45.00) are amazing! They're so luxurious and soft and the quality is amazing! Such an essential for a cosy night in and perfect for freezing winter weather.

A nice gift that wont break the bank is Novelty Mugs (£4.99), pair this with some hot chocolate and some marshmallows and it'll make the cutest gift for a night in, and with so much choice with almost every shop coming out with their own novelty mugs around Christmas it shouldn't be too hard to find and most are great value for money!

The Fashionista

I wouldn't consider myself really into fashion, I don't keep up the big trends and black dresses are my everyday go to, however I've picked out some staple pieces I feel like you can't go wrong with!

First is a statement bag, I've picked this one from Ted Baker (£189) because I love the look of this one personally, but safer options would obviously be black bags but the more you know the person the more you'll know their style and will be able to pick one perfect for them!

Next is a nice scarf, this one is from Miss Selfridges (£14.40), in winter these are essential for keeping out the cold and scarves are one of my favourite accessories,I feel like you can pair them with so many different outfits you can really make them fit most styles and outfits making them a good present choice as whoever you're buying for can wear it in their own way!

The Girl Who Has Everything

We all have that one person who we find impossible to find good presents for, so here are some go to gifts and the things that I buy when I've fully ran out of ideas!! One of which is always a nice perfume (see above!)

Bath gift sets! Every girl needs some TLC from time to time, I seem to receive a ton of Soap & Glory gift sets (£60.00) for christmas and they never go to waste! Also, even if they already own some of the things in gift sets like these it doesn't hurt to have some back ups.

Food presents are always a good idea, this is a Twinings tea tray (£16.50), but you can match it to anything the person you're buying for likes, whether that be tea, coffee, wine, whiskey or Nandos peri peri salt! haha They're just fun practical gift that wont go to waste.

The last thing is gift vouchers, although they don't take much thought sometimes they're just the best bet. Especially if whoever you're buying for never likes to spend money on treats for themsleves because with a gift card, you have no choice but to do just that! Want to put it in savings? Nope. Want to spend it on this weeks food shopping? Nope. And it gives them the choice to spend it on whatever they want!

I hope this helped a few of you looking for gift ideas, obviously these gifts aren't perfect for everybody but I think we've covered a wide range of girly treats for Christmas!
Charlie xo

I felt like blogging again, so this could go really well, or it could go terrible like the last time. One blog post early January, and one blog post... now. I think it's safe to say I've been slacking. So i'm going to do my false tan routine because I think I've finally cracked it!

First step if you want your tan to go remotely well is exfoliate! This is soooo important in tanning, you want to get rid of all the dead skin on your body so your tan goes on even! My favourite at the moment is the No 7 Intensive Radiance Body Scrub (£10.50), it's a really good scrub, never leaves any dry patches or that oily layer that I've found some exfoliaters do and it smells like a spa! Win Win

Next step, shave! A fresh shave is important to avoid those little dots where the tan builds up in the hair follicles. I dont even know what these razors are, whichever ones are on roll back at asda at the time hahaha.

One of the most important steps (aside from the actual tan) is moisturiser! This one is Soap & Glory Smoothie Star (£10.00), it smells like popcorn and nothing leaves my skin feeling as good as the Soap & Glory moisturisers do! They've been a fave for around 4 years and my love is still going strong.

Then, the actual most important step, is the tan! I've used quite a few tans but this one, quality and price wise is my favourite! Its the St. Moriz Instant tan Mousse (£4.99, cheaper in body care but I don't have a link) in medium, I don't like the dark one, it goes patchy and is soooo difficult to blend out nicely but the medium one is great, unfortunatly takes a bit more building up than the dark one but it works sooooo much better. I always get a streak free, patch free tan and the smell isnt over powering! One of my favourite things is how long this lasts on my skin, no matter how much I shower and exfoliate I still have a tan for about a week without having to reapply (obviously it does fade though!)

The last thing that goes hand in hand (no pun intended) with the false tan is a tanning mit! I think these make all the differece in your tan, it makes it go on smoother with less streaks and you dont get the awkward super dark palm that wont wash off for days. Thats not cute. I buy mine from bodycare but you can get them in most beauty shops or supermarkets, and they dont have to be really expensive, which is a plus when you dont wash them like me and have to replace them more often than you should, its a bad habit.

And thats it, my five steps to the perfect tan! I hope this helped, if you have any questions leave them below :) thanks for reading.

Charlie xo

I am a terrible blogger and I'm aware of that. I've accepted it, now lets move on. I know I haven't blogged for a while (a while being about half a year, oops) but with 2015, new year new me trend (and a new camera, goodbye Iphone quality) I thought I'd give it a go again! So here I am with a review of a bunch of things I've finished over the past few weeks!

First I have Maybelline Fit Me Foundation (£4.54 what?! bargain), and yes it is empty, I know it looks full it took me by surprise as well! I bought this foundation quite a while ago and at the time my skin was normal to oily and I found this foundation just made my face look waaay to shiny, it wasn't a good look for me, but as its gotten (is that even a word?) colder my skin has dried out so much it's ridiculous, but one good thing to come out of it is that this foundation now works for me!
It leaves my skin looking dewy but not oily and it doesnt looked caked on or stick to some of the dryer parts of my skin which is great! Overall I think if you have oily skin this foundation probably wouldn't be best but for those of you with dryer skin I definitely recommend giving it a go! I went to repurchase it but they didnt have my shade (120 if you was wondering!) so I got Maybelline 24 hour stay foundation (£9.18) instead, I'll let you know how I like it.

My only hair product is this Batiste Dry shampoo, this is actually my new one the one I ran out of was Blush (£2.99), and this one is XXL Volume (£4.00), as for the blush one it was a good dry hair shampoo, it gives your hair a cleaner look and feel when its looking a bit oily. There's not too much to say about it, it does it's job! It does leave a white cast in your hair like most dry shampoos if you dont rub them in well enough though. The XXL one is my personal fave though as it gives me great volume and texture, it doesnt give my hair a cleaner feel, it just feels like it's full of product after I use this but it does make it look cleaner and adds the volume I need so it's perfect for me, I don't think this one would be for everyone though just because it is a heavy product to be putting on your hair. Overall they're both great dry shampoos it all just depends on what your hair texture is like and which one you fancy!

Next I have another foundation (I tanned my neck and not my face so I have to fix that everyday now haha), this one is Revlon Colourstay (£8.49), I got this foundation a while ago but it was too dark for me so I just used it for my kit, however now that I've fake tanned my body it worked quite well to match out my face with my neck! I love this foundation and I use it on a lot of people. I find it looks great on both oily and dry skin even though this is the type for dry skin, I don't actually see much of a difference in the formulas of the dry and oily foundations but that's not really a problem. I've already repurchased this foundation in a light shade and a dark one to add to my kit again!

The first of my body products is this Soap and Glory shower gel (£6.50) called Foam Call, Soap and Glory have my all time favourite body washes I rarley use anything else and this one is no exception. They all leave my skin feeling moisturised after I get out the shower and they smell gorgeous! The one I'm using at the minute is called Rich and Foamous (£6.50) and it's my favourite of them all simply because it's my favourite scent! So if you're looking for a new body wash I would definitely recommend any in the Soap and Glory range just test out which of them you like the smell of! I don't see much difference in them (I'm sure they are different but they all leave my skin feeling silky soft and that's fine by me!).

This is the Dove Summer Glow Gradual Tanning Lotion (£3.49), I absolutely love this body lotion, I use it every other day to keep up my tan and I exfoliate about twice a week to make sure it looks nice. I use the one for 'normal' to dark skin (not entirely sure what colour normal skin is but it works) and it makes my skin a really nice shade, I have tried fair to medium but it made no difference to my skin at all! As far as the lotion goes it keeps my skin feeling soft and it soaks in really fast which I love it doesn't leave your skin feeling sticky which I find a lot. It does have a slight fake tan smell but it doesn't last very long so I cant see that being an issue, but personally I don't mind the smell of fake tan so maybe if you did it would me more offensive! I repurchased this product before I even completely ran out of it, so I would definitely recommend!

And thats everything I used up over the past few weeks! I hope you found this helpful, tell me if you've used any of these products. Thanks for reading.

Charlie xo

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