Christmas Gift Guide | Men

Hopefully you read my Christmas Gift Guide for women which I posted the other day and I thought it was only fair I did a gift guide for men because I find it super hard to buy presents for my Dad and I know a lot of people say the same thing so I'm here to help.

Favourite Aftershave/Scent- This is quite a generic gift but aftershave isn't really something you would get yourself so it's nice to get it for the man you're buying for. For this gift guide I chose the Boss Bottled Gift Set 100ml which you can get from Fragrance Direct.

New Watch- A classic watch is a nice gift because he'll always use it and if the man you're buying for is fashion conscious, they'll appreciate it because this Daniel Wellington Classic Bristol 40 Silver Watch is a nice accessory to any outfit.

Tickets- If you want a gift that you could do together, why not get some tickets to a favourite event (his, sadly not yours but you could do something you both like as a couple). The best place to get tickets would be Ticketmaster as there's a range and you know it's safe. 

Nice Coat- Living in the UK coats always come in handy this time of year and why not get them a nice coat that they can dress up for work and also dress down when being casual and that's why I think this Ted Baker Coat would be perfect for that. 

Luggage Set- If your man is someone who's always going away whether it's for work or he just loves to travel, get him a nice luggage set because a cheap one will break especially after the airports luggage handlers throw them about and a nice set is this set from Biba at House Of Frazer 

Wash Bag- Another thing that's also for travelling is a nice wash bag and if I was a guy I would totally use this because it's looks nice and because it's Ted Baker you know it's going to be good quailty.  

Beauty Set- Guys don't really like treating themselves when it comes to beauty bits so why not get them a gift set of all different stuff and it's also good for travelling as they're a good size. For this gift guide I've chose this Men U Selection Box from Mankind

Chocolate- Most people love chocolate so a classic gift you can always get and never go wrong is good old chocolate. You could get some luxurious, expensive chocolate but what about the good old cheap chocolate like Heroes. 

Beer- As I'm only 14 I probably shouldn't be talking about alcohol on here but if you are of an age where you can buy alcohol, I think it would be a good gift as most men love a good Fosters and this pack you get 20 cans.

Gift Card- If you're not too sure what to get someone, you can never go wrong with a gift card as they can choose what they want and you could also get them a cinema or restaurant gift card as hopefully you'll be invited to join them. A good place to buy gift cards is the Gift Card Centre. 

So I hope you enjoyed these Christmas gift guides that I have posted the last couple of days. If you have any other Christmas posts you want me to do, let me know as I would love to do them for you.

Christmas Gift Guide | Women

Today I have my Christmas gift guide which I'm super excited about and I was supposed to do one last year however it took me so long I didn't get to finish it which was sad and if I did finish it, it would've been too near Christmas so that's why I'm writing this in advance so I do finish it and I also will be doing a gift guide for men. 

Bath/Shower Gift Set- I know this is quite a basic Christmas present but everyone can always use shower gel and body lotion and I do like receiving sets with all matching scents in because you can layer up the products. This Cath Kidston Rose Wash Bag Gift Set is a really nice set as you get products and a wash bag. 

Perfume Gift Set- Like with the bath and shower gift set this is quite a generic present but also a really nice one because perfume is always a good present and it's nice to have a matching shower gel and body lotion which is usually what it comes with. The gift set I chose for this Gift Guide is the Little Mix Gold Magic 100ml EDP Gift Set.

Handbag- You probably know how much I love handbags and I know a lot of other women do so if you're woman is a handbag gal a nice designer handbag won't go a miss. Ted Baker is a nice brand because it's not too expensive but it's good quailty and classic and I really like this TedBaker Maude Harlequin Print Leather Cross Body Bag from them.

Nice Jacket/Winter Coats- Living in the UK means coats are an essential so why not treat your woman to a nice coat or jacket which they will get a lot of wear out of. A nice classic winter coat is this Whistle Jules Parka from Asos and even though it's quite expensive you'll get a lot of wear out of it.

High End Makeup/Lipstick- Any makeup lover would love to receive some high end makeup, especially if they mainly buy drugstore and don't treat them self but you think they should. A perfect gift would be the Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Lipstick Wardrobe as you get 12 gorgeous lipsticks or you could buy this and give out a lipstick each to a friend so you don't need to buy 12 presents.

Nice Watch- I don't really care about watches as I check the time on my phone but some people love watches and a really nice watch is the Michael Kors MK3507 Ladies Bracelet Watch and it looks really nice and will look great with any outfits.

Gift Cards/Shopping Vouchers- I know a lot of women are like me and love shopping so a gift card will be a really nice present. Choose one of their favourite shops and give them a gift card or you could go for a shopping voucher from High Street Vouchers  as you can get one voucher for loads of shops and it's good for a shopping spree.

Experience Days- If you don't want to get a materialistic present you could go for an experience day from Virgin because there's so many you could choose from and it's great bonding time. If I was to get an experience day I would choose a spa day because I love relaxing and I hate anything active.

Home Accessories- You might think this isn't a good present as it's only good for adults but a lot of teenagers also love decorating their rooms and I'm sure they would love to recieve some new decor. Also with this photo frame from Next  you could fill photos of special memories and then it's more personal.

Magazine Subscription- I love chilling with a magazine and it would be a nice treat every month/week to receive a magazine and a magazine subscription from Magazine Direct would be the gift that keeps on giving.

That's my gift guide for women. As I said at the begining of this post my next post will be my gift guide for men and I don't know about you guys but I find it really hard to buy presents for men and especially my dad so I usually get him chocolate.

What I Got For My Birthday & Christmas!

Today I have a What I Got My Birthday And Christmas post because I love watching/reading these types of posts so I wanted to do one of my own. I'm just going to say the typical disclaimer that I'm not doing this to brag, I just wanted to do one because I love these types of posts.

I'm also combining my What I Got For My Birthday with my What I Got For Christmas because my birthday and Christmas are quite near so I thought it would be the best way to do them.

Enough rambling, lets get started with my birthday presents! 

Lets start with my birthday presents because my birthday was first on 8th December!

The first present I got was this handbag which I love because I love the shape of it and because of the colours it goes with everything. I haven't got a handbag like this and I wanted one for a long time so I was happy to get this. Side note- I actually chose this so I know it's from Primark.

Is it weird to buy yourself Christmas presents?!? Well I bought myself this from Tesco as a pre-birthday present to pamper myself and it was really cheap so it didn't matter. It included a skin polish, body lotion and bath crystals which is the perfect mini set to pamper yourself.

I had wanted to try eos lip balms for a while now so I was really happy to receive this pack of 5 with such amazing flavours/scents/whatever you call them.  There is Sweet Mint (which is heavenly), Strawberry Sorbet, Passion Fruit, Blueberry Acai and Summer Fruit and they are all amazing.

Cath Kidston is a brand I have a love-hate relationship with as some things are really cute but some looks like their old-fashioned 1950s wallpaper and I'm not a fan of that. However I love these and they all smell amazing. I also love the small size of these as they fit in ANY handbag.

I had wanted to read Girl Online On Tour for ages as I loved the first book so I was really happy that I got this for my birthday. This book is really amazing and had me hooked; I couldn't put it down! I don't know what book I prefer as they're both amazing! Also the cover is super adorable.

My amazing friend Cerys got me this beautiful heart necklace which I love as it's so simple but cute and I love simple things like that. Cerys also got me a Superdrug gift card (which was amazing as I'm always in Superdrug) and I got this with it...

So I bought this with the gift card Cerys got me and I got the Zoella Beauty Wonder Hand Moisturising Hand Cream which was something I had wanted for ages. I was actually going to buy this with my birthday money so I'm so happy I had a gift card. This is super moisturising and smells delightful!

I love Along Came Betty products because the packaging is super cute and the products are really good and moisturising or whatever they claim to do. This set contained bath soak, shower wash, skin polish, bath crystals and body lotion and it also came with some exfoliating gloves. 

The Body Shop is a shop I hardly go in because in my local shopping place it's outside and I rarely go to them outside shops but I decided to have a little look at the Christmas stuff and saw this cute mini shower gel set to try out what scents I like. These are all 60ml which is the perfect travel size.

I have wanted to do another Trying American Candy post for ages now so I thought this set would be perfect to use for another Trying American Candy post. I have no idea when that post will be posted as I've planned the post, took and edited the photos but I haven't actually wrote it so yeh :)

As you guys might know I have a Sharpie problem and addiction so obviously I got a massive pack. Actually the ones I bought last year with my last birthday money are kind of starting to run out and get grubby so I got this massive pack, which also have ultra fines, because it was super cheap if you got something else so I got...

Obviously me being me to get that offer I wasn't going to get something expensive so I got something quite cheap because that's me but honestly who would get something expensive just to get something cheaper?!? I got this OK multipack which has OK, New and Star magazines which are the magazines I read.

So now lets move onto my Christmas presents 

With the bottle that has the body lotion lable (the one the left) that's suposed to say body wash but I'm an idiot and put body lotion instead!

This was the Christmas present my friend Cerys got me and it's really amazing and things I will use. The scent is amazing and I know I will enjoy using these. I also love the florals on the packaging as it's super cute.

These are from my friend Lily and one of them is my birthday present and then the other is my Christmas but I don't know which is which so I've included them both in this section. These both smell amazing- I was so excited to use these that I've already used these because I was impatient but luckily I took a photo before hand!

I then got this Technic gift set which is really cool as it has so many lip colours and I love wearing lip products you get 3x lip crayons and 3x lip glosses in nude, pink and red which is the perfect set as they're all colours I will wear and they're all pigmented and long-lasting.

I also then got this set of lavender scented product which is really nice. They're all products I will use and the scent is really relaxing. I'm really glad there is a fragrance mist as I've been searching for one for the longest time and this set includes it so I'm really happy and I love it!

My sister got me this Bomb Cosmetics gift set which is absolutely amazing. It all smells amazing and they're all different to Lush which is cool. I usually go for Lush bath products but these products seem amazing so I can't wait to try these. I also love how cute the gingerbread man bath blaster is with the gold sparkles.

I got this £20 New Look gift card which is really cool because I love New Look and my local shopping centre has a new branch so it was cool to have this. I got 2 things with this which were a bag (obviously) and some fairy lights which I will show you below.

The first thing I got in New Look  was this bag which I love. I love the size of it as it's a great size and I love the blue on the sides as it's quite different. The bag is also like the Givenchy Antigona which everyone is lusting over and this is a cute dupe if you like that bag but don't have the money.

I also got these fairy lights which are the most adorable fairy lights I've ever seen. I love pink flowers in general and these add the little cute touch to my room which I love. I've got these over my dresser and they look so adorable and Tumblr-y which is really me!

I also got this £10 Argos gift card which I got a set of 4 makeup bags which I'll show you below and they're really pretty and essential for me.

As I said above I got this makeup bag set which is super cute because there's 4 makeup bags in 3 different sizes. There is 2 small ones (the blue polka dot and blue stripe one), a medium sized one (the red and white polka dot) and the large clear one which is great as I always need makeup bags.

I also got the Joe & Caspar Hit The Road DVD which is so cool as I love Joe and Caspar. I did know I was getting this as I asked for it so now I'm glad I've finally got it. I haven't watched it all yet but the bits that I have watched was hilarious such as Caspar failing at singing and him also falling into the river at Italy.

To go along with DVD I got the official calendar. I thought I would go with something a bit different than the last couple of years (I had Little Mix for the last couple of years). The pictures are from the DVD (obviously) and also quotes which will be really cool to see their journey from a week in 12 months!

My main present was my new phone however I actually got this in October so I have had it for a while. This is the Microsoft Lumia 640 and I love it and now I FINALLY have a smartphone I'm always on it checking Twitter and Instagram or texting- I'm now a proper teenager, let's say!

I also got loads of Zoella Beauty products which I'm so excited about as I wanted these for ages so now I've got them! I got the fizz bar, body scrub, solid fragrance and lip balm. I now have lots of Zoella Beauty products so I will be doing a haul some time in the future.

As well as getting Zoella Beauty products I also got some from Lush which are amazing and my favourite products from the Lush Christmas collection. There is Candy Mountain bubble bar, So White bath bomb, Butterbear bath bomb and Snow Fairy shower gel. Lush had a 50% Boxing Day sale so I got all of these for half price.

Finally I got this backpack from Superdry which I love. I love the floral patten so much because florals are my life. I'm going to use this as my school bag because it's massive so I will be able to fit so much in it and I'm sure it's good quality as it's Superdry.

Thanks for reading this super long post but I thought it was better to combine them. I also relized I got so many body things so either it's because I smell or so I have a lot so that'll not need to buy any! You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram @_louisecarter_ if you want to, the choice is there, you can take it or leave it.

Thanks for reading

Louise

xxx

The Christmas Tag

As Christmas is less than a week away I thought I should get into the festive spirit by making a Christmas Tag like I did for my birthday. I was going to make a Christmas Gift Guide but time got the better of me and it was taking forever so I couldn't get it up at a reasonable time. However, next year I'm going to go all out for Christmas on The Lipstick Insider. I do have a lot of 2015/2016 posts coming up in the next week or so. Sorry for the rambling so lets get started!

Elf- it’s just hilarious and the best Christmas film to get you in the Christmas spirit. I also like Narnina’s The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe which the BBC always shows at Christmas, even though I hate the sequel.  There are quite a lot of good Christmas films but there are quite a few I don’t like, for example Home Alone.

No but I want to have one because I’ve seen pictures on Tumblr and they look gorgeous. One year I remember there was some snow but it wasn’t much so it sadly wasn’t a beautiful white Tumblr Christmas.

I always spend Christmas at my house and no-one else’s. I’ve never spent a Christmas in someone else’s house which to you guys is probably strange but to me it’s completely normal.

All I Want for Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey and also the Fifth Harmony which I have been listening to a lot this year. Also, Michael Buble does the best Christmas songs, especially Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.

No! It’s just something I’ve never done and something I probably won’t do. I do open my friend’s presents before Christmas Day as I’m too impatient to wait and usually we open them together.

Rudolph, Blitzen, Dasher, Dancer… no I can’t name any more. I used to be able to name them all but now I can’t.

We don’t have many Christmas traditions so I can’t really say especially as this Christmas will be different.

Fake because a real one would be messy and with a fake one you can keep it for years. Also getting a new one every year would get expensive.

Christmas dinner wise I love stuffing balls, especially in gravy. I really want some stuffing balls right now. Snack/crisp wise I adore Cheeselets; I could eat a whole tub of them. Chocolate/sweet wise it would have to be Heroes apart from the Éclair’s which I hate so everyone else can have them.

I know this is going to sound cliché but I actually prefer giving gifts because I like planning what I’m going to buy my friends and family and how I’m going to present it to them in a cute gift bag and any other mini, cute presents.

Like I said in my Birthday Tag, I can’t remember many of my presents but I think my best Christmas present ever was my Nintendo DS which I loved but I sold it a couple of years later to trade it for a DSI.

I would want to go to New York in December because it looks gorgeous but I wouldn’t want to go for Christmas because I wouldn’t want to be on holiday on Christmas Day as for me that day is about homey time.

I can’t wrap presents so I just put everyone’s present in a gift bag.

In junior school and people in my class were talking about Santa not being real so I got it from there. Also I once heard my Mum and Dad talking about presents on Christmas Eve as I was being naughty staying up when I should’ve been sleeping.

I try to but I really can’t stick to them. Hopefully I’m going to make some for 2016 and try to stick to them; even though I probably won’t!

The Black Forest Hot Chocolate from Costa which I actually have all of the time when Costa releases their Christmas menu because I love it so much!

I hate candy canes so obviously its gingerbread men. I also recommend the Gingerbread & Cream Latte from Costa if you love gingerbread.

Hasn’t everybody! Yes but it hasn’t snowed much in the UK so I haven’t made many. I remember making one on the last day before Christmas in Year 3 and we made one as a class and I made one with my friends that was taller than us, I don’t know how we did it!

I hope you enjoyed this Christmas post and I'm sorry this is my only Christmas post. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year but I will be talking to you before the year is out!

Merry Christmas <3

Louise

xxx