What I Got For Christmas 2015

I've toyed and toyed with the idea of writing this post. Questioning whether or not people would think I'm bragging. But you know what? I don't care. I'm writing it anyway! Every year I enjoy watching videos or reading about what people have been given on Christmas morning, so I'm going to write my own post this year! I meant to write on last year but failed to, and this year I've seen a few of the bloggers I follow write up something similar, and I have really enjoyed seeing what Santa brought them for Christmas. And I, as always, was very lucky to receive some truly gorgeous and thoughtful gifts for Christmas. After being thoroughly spoiled, and eating my entire weight in Ben and Jerry's/Vienetta/Cheesecake, I have pretty much been slumped on the sofa enjoying all my Christmas gifts. But I've mustered up the energy to sit down and write, even if I am accompanied by a berry daiquiri. Yum.

Beauty

Since I'm primarily a beauty blogger, I'll start off with the ton of makeup and skincare items I received from family and friends! My mum always likes to treat me and my two younger sisters equally at christmas, and when they were both receiving expensive gadgets, my mum decided to sneak into my bedroom and see what things I was running out of. She had a good rummage, and I could actually tell that someone had been through my makeup, skincare and perfume as everything was out of place. After rummaging through my perfume drawer, she noticed that I was running out of my Clinique Happy and my Prada Candy Eau Florale perfumes - so she repurchased the Clinique for me (the cutie), and accidently picked up the Prada Candy L'Eau perfume - although I actually really like it! It's very different from the Eau Florale, so I will still go ahead and repurchase that in the New Year - but I think the L'Eau is a lot more winter appropriate! 

My mum knows I have wanted to try the Urban Decay lipsticks after I told her at least once a day for about 3 months. Whilst rummaging through my muji drawers, she noticed that I am a fan of brown toned pinks, so she picked up the Sheer Revolution Lipstick in the shade Sheer Rapture. It is absolutely gorgeous and I fell in love with it immediately! I just know I'm going to get a lot of wear out of it - especially in the spring! It is the perfect shade for daytime wear and I bloomin love it!! My mum also remembered how I'd been eying up the Mac Paint Pots every time we've been into Leeds. I've never really jumped on the Mac bandwagon. I bought two lipsticks and then gravitated more towards brands like Charlotte Tilbury and Nars (I'm so high maintenance hahaha). But I've really been wanting some of the Paint Pots to use use a bases, and I have been eying up quite a few different shades. My mum bought me the shade 'Vintage Selection' which is absolutely beautiful. I'm yet to try it out as I've not really been anywhere to wear it since she gave me it. If applying either on the go, in my stocking I received a cute little compact mirror from Cath Kidston, which will come in handy as I've misplaced my other compact!

In terms of skincare, I'd asked Santa for the Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate as it is such a cult products and I'm never one for buying myself expensive skincare. I actually knew that she got me this as she was having a bit of trouble checking out on the Debenhams website (she is useless with online shopping!) and ended up coming to me for help! I've used the Kiehl's oil for the past couple of evenings and I am in love! It leaves my skin looking hydrated and calm by morning, and it is a great accompaniment to a pamper evening! Speaking of pampering, I also got a lot of Lush for Christmas! My uncle got me a couple of loose bits, which somehow happened to be some of my favourite bits. I also received the Comfort and Joy gift set which has some of my all time favourite products in it! As the name would suggest it has a little bottle of the Comforter shower cream, alongside the Ro's Argan Body Conditioner, Reindeer Rock soap, and the Twilight shower gel.

Most of my real life/non-blogger friends know about my blog, and they bought me plenty of blog related things - including a few beauty bits! My friend Sarah bought me 'The Fashion Book' which is made up of an A-Z of icons, designers and all sorts! She also got me some of the Topshop beauty christmas baubles, and although the tree will be coming down soon, I have hung them on just for the time being. My friend Fern got me the Rimmel nail polish in the shade 'Chic in Chelsea' and the Soap and Glory Supercat eyeliner. I've actually wanted to try the Soap and Glory liner for some time, and I can't wait to try it out! 

Fashion

Who doesn't love a good pair of socks at Christmas! Last year my mum went a tad overboard on the socks and I think I received about 40 pairs - all of which were never seen again! Since the weather started to get chillier, I've kept complaining about how someone has stolen all my fluffy socks (*looks suspiciously at sisters*). I bought myself about 10 pairs from Primark last Christmas, wore them each once and then I've not seen them since! She picked out this gorgeous pair of chunky knit socks from Monki and they are so warm! I actually have them on now and my feet are so toastie! I also received some adorable Mr and Mrs Claus socks from ASOS which are so soft! Alongside the christmassy socks, I also got these christmassy pyjamas - which I will wear all year round! I am really fussy with pyjamas, and I prefer to have the ones that have a slim leg - so these ones fit the bill perfectly! Unfortunately both were in the wash when I was taking my post photos, so neither have made it into the post - but trust me they're cute!

Also from ASOS (my family love it just as much as me!) I got this lovely ring! I've only recently started to get into rings, and I absolutely love this one! I'd actually seen it online and liked it, but didn't realise it was so big until I opened up the little ASOS box. I absolutely love it and I wore it on Christmas day! I was also lucky to receive this gorgeous stacking rose gold ring from Pandora, which all my friends were admiring when we went out for our Christmas meetup on Sunday. I also wore a gorgeous chevron print scarf which I received from my sister, (also from ASOS) and I can't wait to go out and wear it again. I even wore it to the supermarket today! I love wearing scarves, and I have quite a collection but I've been on the hunt for some darker ones to wear with my grey coat. I usually wear a grey scarf, however it doesn't look at all right when I wear it with my coat as they are exactly the same shade of grey! This one will go perfectly with all my coats and it very oversized so I can still use it as a blanket in my lectures (even if my friends laugh at me)!

Lifestyle

My main present was so unexpected. I thought with expensive beauty products, I wouldn't receive anything else - but I nearly cried when I opened up a present containing the Fujifilm Instax Mini 90! I'd wanted an instant camera (and a Canon AE1, but I can still dream for one of those) years ago, but never received one - so when I opened this up I may have screamed a little bit! On Sunday I went out for an Italian with all my school friends as a little Christmas meetup before we all go back to university, and I took my new camera along. I had a photo with each of my friends (except one who wasn't able to make it!) and then we managed to get one all together. I also got a couple of packs of film and a camera bag alongside the camera, and I thought it was such a sweet gift! Plus the photos make for a good Instagram prop ;)

Another thing that makes for a good photo prop is a good book, and ever since the whole blogging community went mad for the book 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying' by Marie Kondo, I've wanted to read it. I'm not really one for being spotless as I'm usually too busy to put things away and then a mess builds up around me. But I honestly can't stand messy and unclean places. I've read the first chapter or so, and I really hope this book inspires me to make the time to tidy things away, and I can't wait to sit down with a nice cup of tea in my new Cath Kidston Mug and read the rest of it! And that's everything I received! Well... almost everything, there were a couple of gift received post photo taking, and a few other bits like chocolate, socks and money!

What did you get for Christmas?

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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2015: A Personal Reflection

With 2015 nearly over, I've felt a rush of excitement with the prospects of a new start. I always embrace the start of a new year with open arms, and the idea of a blank slate fuels me with determination. Over the last couple of months I've spent a lot of time reflecting on this past year. Thinking about what the year has brought me. What I've achieved, my accomplishments. How different I am from this point last year. What's gone wrong and how I can have a go at working on it over 2016. I've really been thinking about my blog and what I want to come from it in 2016, but I've decided I'm going to save that for an entirely separate post. This post is going to focus on personal achievements. 2015 has been an incredible year for me in terms of self-improvement. I lost a bit of weight. I gained some confidence (not much but still). I worked hard. I made some incredible friends. I ditched those who were getting me down, and generally just tried to improve my mental and physical health.

Every year I like to set myself goals. Not necessarily 'New Year's Resolutions', but something for me to work towards over the coming months. I'm a big believer in that these have to be realistic goals. There's no point me setting targets that are near on impossible to achieve. At the end of 2014, I told myself that by the end of 2015 I'd be more confident, 'a few pounds lighter', and more independent. And I have certainly achieved everything I set out to, and a lot more on top of that. I feel like I've really come into my stride over the last few months. I feel more settled at university and I'm really starting to discover who I really am (how cliché). As I am writing this, I am currently doing a research project on 'friendship', and it has seriously opened my eyes and redefined my thoughts on what it is to be a friend. I've built up such a good support system, and my project has made me appreciate them all the more.

I've had so many incredible opportunities and made some amazing memories, but I've also had my fair share of bad luck. One of the highlights of my year has to be going back to university in September.  As well as spending time with all my friends, I've also made great progress in terms of assignments and I've developed such a good work ethic. Over the last few weeks I've met up with my friends that are studying all over the country, and I've really enjoyed catching up and hearing all the things that are going on in their lives. I went out for coffee with a couple of my bestest friends at the start of December, and we spent nearly 4 hours talking non-stop because we hadn't seen each other since the end of September! Moments like these have kept me sane this year, I think if I hadn't as many I would have dropped out of university and taken up permanent residence in my bedroom.

I'm so glad I haven't dropped out or done anything too rash, as this year has been one of the best ones I've had in a long time. And on reflection, I feel as though next year is only going to improve on the last. One of the main things that I want to work on is my stress levels. I get incredibly stressed out over the slightest little things, and it has really started to get to me. My health has suffered quite a bit, and I spend so much of my time stressing that I have no time to do other things. And so I really want to make an effort to schedule in more time to relax. Although I always make the effort to treat myself to a regular face mask and a long hot soak in the bath, I want to try and schedule frequent calming sessions. Maybe trying meditation?

In general I just want to work on myself as that is exactly what I did last year, and it's something I want to continue to do throughout 2016. I have a few ideas of what I want to do but they aren't something I want to share here on my blog as they are quite personal and they wouldn't make for an interesting post anyway.

Have you or will you be making any New Year's Resolutions?

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hello everyone! Just an extremely short post for you today as I'm sure your busy wrapping last minute gifts and making sure everything is ready in time for christmas! I'd contemplated with the idea of giving up blogging over the christmas holidays, but obviously I realised I couldn't do that! I love it too much! Right now, I'm all wrapped up in blankets infront of an open fire - sipping on a delicious hot chocolate. I've finished university for the holidays and I'm ready to just chill out and enjoy a well deserved break. I was given so much work to do over the Christmas holidays and I have got nearly all of it done, but I'm saving the rest till the start of the new year. Thankfully this year I don't have January exams to stress out over and I can work through my to-do-list before I go back.

I've got all my presents wrapped and they are underneath the tree ready to be opened on Friday! I have done so much today and tomorrow I intend to fully relax. My family and I always go to the evening mass on christmas eve and we are planning to have a big chinese takeaway afterwards (mmmmm), but I'm most excited for christmas day! We always have my family over and have a massive feast! This year I'm in charge of making the yorkshire puddings for 7 people - the pressure is real haha! 

So I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and I hope you have a lovely day filled with as much festivity as possible! I'll be posting as usual on Sunday at 9am on the dot and I'll be sharing my musings and thoughts on 2015! 

What are you most excited for on Christmas day?

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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