Thursday 31 December 2015

2015 Favourites

Tomorrow is 2016! Can you believe it because I certainly can't! This year has gone by super quickly and it feels like it was New Years Eve 2014 yesterday. As an end of year treat I thought I would do a 2015 Favourites instead of a December favourites- hope you don't mind. I will join my December favourites to my January favourites in case you're wondering. Enough rambling lets get started!


Fashion
Leather Jacket
I had wanted a leather jacket for ages because I loved the look of them and when I saw this one in Primark and fell in love and knew I had to get it. I wear this with a lot of things because it’s just so versatile. It was also only £14 and Primark had a huge selection so if you want to get an affordable leather jacket go to Primark because most likely you will find something you’ll love.


Top and Jumper Combo Thingy 
I just want to quickly add that all of my fashion faves are from Primark- sorry. I really like this jumper with the shirt detail because it’s super cute and something I wouldn’t typically wear but now I love clothes like that. My style has definitely changed recently because it used to be super girly but now it’s more comfortable but cute.


Denim High Tops
I got these shoes last year (2014) but I have been wearing them a lot this year to so they are a favourite. I really like these shoes because they’re super comfy but stylish at the same time. I also like them because if you’re wearing quite a plain coloured outfit these add something different to the outfit because of the blue denim and the stars.


Mini Grey Handbag
As you guys might know I love handbags and this one was my most used. This was probably my most used bag because I love the colour and it’s just so practical because there are 3 big pockets to store your essentials with mini pockets as well and then there is also straps to use it as a typical handbag or you could throw it over your shoulder and use it as a shoulder bag- perfect!

Beauty
Maybelline Baby Lips in Melon Mania
Before using this I had used baby lips before but I wasn’t a big fan but when I got this one and used it I loved it so now I wanna try more as this one moisturises my lips and smells gorgeous. I would get another Baby Lips but I currently have 5 EOS lip balms (I got them in a pack for my birthday) so I probably should use them first.


Barry M Showgirl Extra Volume Black Mascara
This has been my mascara fave of the year. I don’t hear many people talk about this mascara so when I bought it I wasn’t too sure but I loved it because it makes my lashes look really long and volumized and that’s what I want from my mascara. I also love the packaging because it’s metal and I have been loving metals the last quarter of the year.


Technic Pink Lipstick
This has been my favourite lipstick this year because the colour is gorgeous and could suit any skin colour well and the pigmentation is great which you might not get from an affordable brand like Technic. I also have been trying to do red lips a bit more this year- sometimes they go really well others not so well. Pink is always a shade I can get right however.


Lush Bath Bombs and Bubble Bars
Lush has been great this year with all of their bath bombs and bubble bars, especially with their Christmas collection. One of my favourite bath bombs was The Experimenter, which you can get all year round, and one of my favourite bubble bars was the Candy Mountain bubble bar, which you can only get at Christmas.


Zoella Beauty Range
As you guys know I love Zoella and beauty so obviously I love the idea that Zoe released a beauty range. I have tried a few of her products this year and I loved them (apart from the fizz bars). I tried the Just Say Yes makeup bag, the lace collar cosmetic bag and the Hey Roomie diffuser which are all amazing. If you would like a Zoella Beauty Review let me know!
EDIT- Since writing this and taking the above picture I have since got the Wonder Hand Hand Cream

Music
Jess Glynne’s I Cry When I Laugh
            -Take Me Home
               -Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself
               -Saddest Vanilla ft. Emeli Sande
I’m a huge fan of Jess Glynne and her debut album was released in August and I loved every song on it. Every time I go to listen to an album I always feel like there will be at least one song I don’t like but with I Cry When I Laugh I loved all of the songs and my 3 favourites are Take Me Home, Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself and Saddest Vanilla which features Emeli Sande

Little Mix’s Get Weird 
            -Secret Love Song ft. Jason Derulo
               -OMG
               -Hair
Get Weird by Little Mix was such a good album; I loved every song. The album is mainly upbeat but there are a few ballads such as Secret Love Song (featuring Jason Derulo), Secret Love Song Part II and Love Me or Leave Me. My top 3 favourites are Secret Love Song with Jason Derulo, Hair and OMG.


The next 6 songs have been some of my favourite songs overall. I included 4 of them in My 2015 Playlist (Link here) but 2 I haven’t because I forgot and it’s an exclusive for my 2015 Favourites reader! 1. Lay Me Down- Sam Smith, 2. Hold Back The River- James Bay, 3. Let It Go- James Bay, 4. The Hills- The Weeknd, 5. Perfect- One Direction and 6. I’m In Love With A Monster- Fifth Harmony

YouTube
AlishaMarie
AlishaMarie has probably been my most favourite YouTubers this year because I love her videos and her personality. I found her through MyLifeAsEva and I’m so glad I did because I bloody love her now. Alisha also has a vlog channel which is vlogbby11 which I love and usually I get bored of vlogs but I can actually sit through a vlog from her which is good.

Emma Blackery
For this favourite I would like to thank Cerys as without her I probably wouldn’t have known Emma existed because the style of videos she does weren’t the videos I watched but now I love them sorts of funny videos. I love how Emma says things how it is and isn’t fake like a lot of other YouTubers.


Fleur DeForce
I have been watching Fleur for quite a while now (for over 2 years) and I have continued to love her since then. I really like her videos because I can learn a lot of beauty tricks and what products are good. I also love Fleur’s vlog channel, Fleur De Vlog, because I’m nosy and her dogs are so cute! I also love her book too.


IISuperwomanII
I found Lilly in the summer (I don’t know how I found her) and spent all night binge watching her videos, especially My Parents React series which is hilarious. Sometimes Lilly dresses up as her Indian parents and makes fun of them   which is so funny and I’m always laughing which is obviously a good thing!


LaurDIY
I found Lauren through Maybaby (she’s coming up next) and just binge watched her videos after their collab in spring or summer. I love watching DIYs in general but I’m too lazy to make them and I’m not a creative person at all so they would just fail. Lauren’s DIYs are really creative and her snacks make me drool.


Maybaby
I would like to thank my friend Nicha for telling me about Maybaby as otherwise I wouldn’t be watching her videos and I would be missing out. I love Megs videos because they’re different and great and I look forward to an upload. Meg was also in Royal Crush (a series on AwesomenessTV) which I love and also Nicha got me watching that.


Zoella
Like a lot of people Zoella has obviously been a favourite this year. I really like Zoe’s videos and vlogs because I like her personality and I have recently been loving her #24daysofzoella as it was super festive and a great thing to watch after school. I love Zoe’s vlogs (on MoreZoella) because they feel like a TV show (because of the length) and they’re such an easy thing to watch.


MyLifeAsEva
I have been watching Eva for over a year now and I still enjoy watching her because she’s super funny and her videos are great. In the summer Eva created an original series called How to Survive High School and it was super funny and it was cool to see what American schools are like as I always get confused and I wonder what it’s like to go to school in America.


ThatcherJoe
Joe has definitely been my favourite male YouTuber this year (he is the only one on my list) because he’s so funny. I really like his videos and vlogs because he’s funny and his main channel videos are super original (until Alfie steals the idea). By the time you’re reading this I would have got Joe & Caspar Hit the Road and I’m going to guess it was amazing.

Food and Drink


Costa Belgian Chocolate Creamy Cooler
I’m really missing these as these are part of the summer menu and obviously it’s the festive menu at the minute. My friend Cerys got me into this and I’m so thankful. I really like having these because it’s so creamy (as the name suggests) and I love cream and chocolate and the chocolate is so delicious and to die for.


Chocolate M&Ms
I’ve loved these for years but I still wanted to include these because I have still loved these so much. I don’t know why I love these lots but they’re just so nice and I eat the whole bag in one sitting every time I have them. My sister knows to get these for me as a save option because I will not be disappointed to receive a bag of these.


Cheddar & Onion Kettle Crisps
I have really been loving these recently. Cheese and onion is my favourite flavour of crisp but when a company labels their cheese and onion crisps, cheddar and onion I prefer them which is super strange and weird but that’s just me! I don’t get these regularly because small bags are hard to find so I have to get big bags which is unhealthier as I eat them all!

Goats Cheese & Pesto Pizza from Iceland
I have a new found love for pesto. If something on a menu has pesto, I’m most likely to have it. I JUST LOVE PESTO! I also really like goats cheese after having it in a salad at Pizza Express and finally I love pizza and always will do so just through on some pesto and goats cheese on a pizza base you will have a very, very happy Louise!

Random
Superdry Makeup Bag/Pencil Case
I got this in either May or June and have loved it ever since. I use this as my pencil case and I really like using it because it’s kinda see-through so I know where something is without taking out the whole contents of the pencil case. The only problem is the price as I do find £10 is a bit steep for a makeup bag/pencil case.


Black and Gold Earphones
I love listening to music (I’m listening to music as I write this; Coldplay if you’re wondering) so to carry on listening to music on the go I need earphones (I personably prefer earphones) and these are the ones I’m using. I like using these because they’re noise cancelling and the sound quality is amazing.


Primark
Primark has definitely been my favourite shop this year because they’ve had some really nice pieces in for super cheap. I get most of my clothes from Primark because they’re clothes are really stylish and I can’t afford to buy all of my clothes in Topshop or Zara or Next. Primark bags are defiantly a guilty pleasure of mine because they’re so pretty and affordable.


Costa
I have been to Costa a lot this year (well we do go before we do the weekly food shopping) and I really like their food and drink. As I said I love the Belgian Chocolate Creamy Cooler and out of the festive menu I love the Black Forest Hot Chocolate which is delicious and my life the last couple of months and food-wise I love the Mozzarella, Tomato and Pesto Panini (obviously!).


A4 Floral Casebound Notebook from WHSmith
I will be doing a post with this in, in early January so be patient but as this has been a fave I thought I should include it and give a sneak peak. I like this because it’s really gorgeous and I like writing plans and structures for my blog posts. These also have purple rim to the paper which looks really cool from the outside.

So I hope you enjoyed it- I'm sorry it's so long but I had a lot of favourites over a year. In 2016 I have a lot of great blog posts planned so I hope you check back at 7am every Sunday!
Thanks for reading
Louise
xxx

Sunday 27 December 2015

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