Merry Christmas Everyone!

Just a little message to say....

To my lovely readers I am sorry I have not blogged for so long, I will be back in the new year as I have LOTS to catch up on.

I hope you all have a blessed Christmas and have a brilliant time!

On the Christmas theme, here is a little Polyvore set I put together based on the dress I wore to our office Christmas party; what do you think?

See You At The Party? by LottieB featuring Miu Miu shoes

Items in this set:
Sally Jean ~ SHOP ~ Christmas 2009, $30
STRAPPY SUEDE SANDALS, 348 GBP
Maida Velvet Clutch By Malene Birger, 120 GBP
Kenneth Jay Lane Crystal-embellished earrings, $210
Judith Jack - Christmas Novelties Pin (Sterling Silver) - Jewelry, $154

Lots of love

Lottie x x x

Quick Monday Tag

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Hello my lovelies!

Hope you're having a fab day! I thought I'd do a quick tag from Karen's Beauty Blog to get me back into the swing of blogging again. I can't produce any exciting posts at the moment as I am desperately seeking my camera charger. I hope I didn't leave it in my hotel in Italy :/

1. Mood:
Happy/busy.

2. Do you read or study with the TV or music playing in the background?
Yes I don't like complete silence.

3. Do you wear glasses?
Yes! I am very shortsighted and although I mainly wear contacts I occasionally sport some funky turquoise and lime green DandGs!

4. Outfit:
Comfy tracksuit.

5. Cold weather — love it or hate it?
I think I was born into the wrong climate.

6. Eyes/Lips/Cheeks:
Body Shop number 16/ MAC Syrup lustre/ Clinque almost bronzer 01 light/medium and Prestige Skin Loving Minerals Baked Mineral Blush 03 Peach.

7. What was the last nice thing to happen to you?
A big cuddle from my fiancee.

8. Something you’d like to remind yourself of today:
“Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” (Matt. 7: 7)

9. Guys who carry man purses — yes or no?
Definitely yes! There is nothing more annoying than, "Can you carry my keys, wallet etc etc?". Plus, I think man bags are hot!

10. Weekly goals: Do my reading for my marketing course and go to the gym or go running three times.

Please feel free to do this tag!

Lottie x x x

Brilliant Botanics and The Power of Social Media!

I love discovering a new product at a decent price which hasn't been adorned with OOT advertising or PR. This is the type of product that is discovered by a blogger or YouTuber and quickly becomes a "must have". For example, Lollipop26's discovery of GOSH's "Darling" lipstick - who knew? Probably not even GOSH!

I think I first caught wind of Botanics Soothing Eye Make Up Remover from Hele Says's blog and it's slowly trickled through my Blogger dashboard ever since.

I'm not onto my second bottle of this stuff and would definitely recommend trying it to everyone.

It's cheap (I think £2.91 from memory and often on a 3 for 2 deal), does the job swiftly and easily and is gentle enough for the most sensitive eyes. It doesn't leave a dry feeling on the skin around the eyes and neither is it too greasy. An added bonus is that is smells nice and is very economical to use. In short, it ticks all the boxes at a sensible price; what more can you ask for?

To that end, I've decided to test out a couple more Botanics products: Organic Rosewater Toner, Skin Brightening Cleanser and Cleansing Mousse and shall keep you informed on my thoughts on these products.



Has anyone else tried the above products? What did they think?

I'd love to hear what your best online discovery found through Blogger or YT
has been!

Lottie x x x

Some things on your "to do" list will always be more fun!

Hey everyone,

Hope you've all had a great week!

I'm getting ready for one more week of work before setting off on our holiday! Those who follow me on Twitter will know that my "to do" list is growing seemingly larger; however, let's be honest, some things will always be more pleasant than others.

For example, deciding what nail varnish to wear on holiday! I'm thinking of something in the raspberry/coral/pink hue spectrum which can be easily topped up and will go with a variety of outfits.

The options I have are (L-R):



Collection 2000 35 "Dynasty"

Barry M 305 "Pink Flamingo"

Barry M 279 "Bright Pink"

Collection 2000 34 "Hoola Hoop"

Revlon 093 "Tropical Temptation"

Max Factor 215 "Pearl Maron"

No7 (Unknown)

Claire's (Unknown)

NYC 226B "Madison Avenue"

Advice please ladies! Decisions, decisions!

Lottie x x x

Poem of the day - The Road Not Travelled by Robert Frost

Image by James Jordan via Flickr

Hi all,

Hope you're all having a good bank holiday. This was recommended to me by someone relating to life's big decisions...enjoy!

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Copyright © 1962, 1967, 1970

Tip of the day - Eyeliners

Image by ♣ Glamorous _ girl ♣ via Flickr

Hello ladies of the blog!

I hope you're all having a stunning day!

Tip of the day today is, to make cheap eyeliners more blendable, just blast them with a hairdryer for a few seconds before use.

Hope this helps some of you!

Have a great evening!

Lottie x x x

Face of last weekend...

Hi guys,

Hope you've had a great day!

I thought I post some pictures of a recently green look I did last weekend for an afternoon shopping with Mummy :)

I enjoy being a bit more dramatic and colourful with eye make up at the weekend.






Products used were:

Face:

GOSH Velvet Touch Foundation Primer

Barbara Daly Make-up Moisture Foundation in "Ivory" applied with MAC 187 brush

MAC Select Cover Up in NC20

Prestige Skin Loving Minerals Sunbaked Mineral Bronzing Powder in "Pure Shimmer" applied with MAC 168 brush as highlight

Prestige Skin Loving Minerals Fresh Glow Baked Mineral Blush in "Peach" applied with MAC 168

Finished with MAC Fix+ Rose customised with "Vanilla" pigment a la Bubblegarm :)

Eyes:

Clarins Shimmer Eyeliner in "03 Turquoise" and The Body Shop Eye Definer Shade "11 Vibrant Emerald" (a freebie with this month's InStyle magazine) used as bases

MAC eyeshadow "Shimmermossb Veluxe Pearl" all over the lid with MAC 207 brush

Bobbi Brown eyeshadows "Eucalyptus" and "Sea Foam" used to contour with MAC 207 brush

APt Simply Mineral Rocks light green shade used in inner corner using small Sheer Cover Studio eyeshadow brush

All shadows blended with MAC 224 brush

YSL Faux Cils mascara in black

Lips: Glossy Tubes by Barry M Super shiny lip gloss No2

What do you think?

Have a lovely evening!

Lottie x x x

I'm back and am mostly thinking about holidays!

Hey guys,

Wow, it's been so long since I last did a post! My excuses aren't very exciting to say the least but now I'm in full blogging spirit again :)

Time is going amazingly quickly at the moment and I'm shocked that my holidays are only around the corner...We've managed to find a lovely hotel in a tranquil location with the added bonus of a spa - bliss!

We are visiting Sorrento in Southern Italy which I'm praying will be hotter than here. (It's August and it rained all day - fail).

Has anyone been here? Can they recommend any "must sees" or "must dos"?

Here are some Polyvore outfits inspired by the summer sun, I hope you like them!

To see all of my Polyvore creations, please visit my home page here.

Hope you're all having a great week!

Lottie x x x

Sorrento by LottieB featuring Banana Republic jewelry

Yellow and Blue by LottieB featuring Monsoon

Take me away by LottieB featuring Kenneth Jay Lane jewelry

London Calling!

London Town by LottieB featuring Louis Vuitton bags

Hello my lovely followers,

I hope you've had a fab day!

I'm planning an exciting little adventur to London with my fiance and wondered if anyone could recommend....well anything really! I'm a firm beliver in "word of mouth" to find cool places. I've been lucky enough to visit London quite a few times so have done the standard touristy things. It would be cool to find some interesting places to visit/eat/stay and above all shop!

I'm looking for somewhere a little unique/interestingand non generic to stay, preferably near the Canary Wharf area but anywhere central. Apartment or hotel room is fine. Obviously the less we have to spend on accomodation, the more money we have to spend on other things! Above all it must be clean and preferably modern.

Shopping - obviously an extremely important but I'm looking for unique and different places. Vintage and/or charity shops or markets would be great. Also are there any particulalry good places to find beads etc for jewellery making?

Also any other tips for a romantic break are much appreciated.

Please help!

Love Lottie x x x

FOTD and OOTD

Hey everyone!

Hope you've all had a great week!

As I've nearly recovered from a nasty virus (and no, it wasn't swine flu!), today was the day when I finally felt like wearing some nice clothes and wearing some make up. Hurray!

We went for a family lunch at The Garrison followed by an impronto visit to Castle Rushen, a national heritage site on the Isle of Man.

Make up wise I went for green around my eyes using MAC Juxt satin eyeshadow with Body Shop 44 in the crease to match the green in the skirt. I used MAC Phloof! frost eyeshadow in the inner corners and Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner in black ink to line and do the 'flicks' with a MAC 208 brush.

Base in Revlon Beyond Natural Skin Matching Makeup (recently repurchased) in 210 Light Pale. No7 Instant radiance Concealer was used to attempt to cover my bags.

I also used (suprise suprise) Prestige Skin Loving Minerals mineral bronzing powder in 03 Pure Shimmer to highlight and a little bit of MAC Well dressed satin powder blush.

The outfit is:

T Shirt - Topshop
Cardigan - M&S
Skirt - recent purchase from the Laura Ashley sale - down to £45 from £65
Shoes - Topshop

Hope you all had a lovely day!

Lottie x x x

Organic Surge goodies!

I was also lucky enough this week to also be sent some goodies to try out from a company called Organic Surge. I hadn't heard of this range until we exchanged tweets a couple of months ago!

The range contains no Parabens, SLS, sulphates, synthetic perfumes, chemical antioxidants mineral oils, petroleum, propylene glycol or aggressive foaming agents.

The range is totally cruelty free with no animal derived ingredients in development or manufacturing.

Ethical ambitions are of primary importance to the Organic Surge brand. Its ultimate aim is to develop a highly successful brand which will help its efforts to release children from poverty and enable them to live enriched, meaningful lives. Donataions from Organic Surge products go towards creating educational scholarships in schools, helping the Kenya Children’s Home Orphanage in Kenya and supporting the Watoto children’s charity in Uganda.

Organic Surge also has an awesome blog on healthy living and beauty which you can check out here.

The products are readily available and are very reasonable in price. You can find a list of stockists here.

If there was ever beauty with a conscious, Organic Surge has it. I am extremely impressed with the ethos of the brand and I hope it will be very popular.

To try out I have: fresh ocean shower gel, tropical bergamot body scrub and a lavendar & geranium handcream. I've already had a smell of these products and they're great! I will update you on how I get on with the products in due course.

Have any of you guys tried Organic Surge products? What did you think?

Lottie x x x

UPDATE - Garnier Goodies!

Hey everyone,

Hope you are having a fun weekend! I was NOT impressed to wake up with a sore throat on Saturday morning which has now turned into a cold :(

Unfortunately I couldn't join the Garnier blogger's event which was held last month. However; its PR company has kindly sent me some products from the Garnier Pure Active range.

From the range I have: spot on roll on for blemishes, blackhead clearing scrub and a spot fighting 24 hr moisturiser.

You can find out more about the Garnier Pure Active range here.

After doing some Internet research, I am unable to confirm if Garnier products are cruelty free; does anyone know?

UPDATE - I have been informed by Garnier's representative's that the products ARE cruelty free. It is my view that products which are cruelty free should be labelled this way and I've recommended they do so in the future.

I'm looking forward to trying all of these products in due course. Have you already tried them? What did you think?

Lottie x x x

PDATE -

Recent Polyvore looks

"Dreams"

A beautiful dress complimented with matching accessories.



"Oh"

Autumnal colours with a summer vibe.



"Often Times"

Working in an office doesn't mean your style has to be boring!



"You Can't Pretend To Have Fun"

Floral style with an edge.



"Morocco"

Relax and enjoy your holiday!



"You Brighten Up My Day"

Feminine pastel style.

Two looks for Tsunimee

Lovely YouTuber and fellow Twitterer Tsunimee requested a couple of Polyvore looks and here they are:

"Golden goddess"



"Tropical purple and yellow"





What do you think?

Lottie x x x

The Lady, The Switch and The Wardrobe

I wanted to say a huge thank you for all the GEMS ladies at Living Hope Community Church for organising such an amazing event last Friday.

The aim of GEMS is to give a relational focus to ministry, being Christ-centred in our approach to each other and those around us.

We all took part in our first ever "Swish" or "Switch". The concept was to bring along three garments/jewellery pieces/shoes which you no longer loved in exchange for tokens. You could them use your tokens to exchange for any of the items on offer.

Also on the night was fantastic entertainment from singer/songwriter Becky Wright and dance performances too. The food was lovely too, especially the chocolate fondue!

We aslo found out more about what GEMS will be doing throughout 2009 and beyond, including the up and coming Mosaic Conference in November this year. In addition, I really enojoyed hearing evertone's reports from Cherish, a Christian conference for women held at Abundant Life Church in Bradford. I have this in my diary :)

I went along to the event with my Mum. There were so many things which I liked and she kindly gave me some of her tokens too!

Here are the goodies I picked up:

A gorgeous coin neckelace with beaded detailing. I love the peach/pink colour.



A stunning turquoise vest top from Warehouse (still with the label on it, priced £35). I can see myself wearing this with a white skirt, chunky banges and some nice shoes on holiday.



A really nice pair of brown loafers from Per Una. I can tell from the soles that these have only been worn a couple of times). These will look great with jeans in the day and are a really comfortable height.



A lovely teal coloured pencil skirt from Dorothy Perkins (again with labels still on, priced £20).



All this was taken home in this pretty pink bag with matching tissue!



Thank you again GEMS ladies, it was a great night! More photos by fantastic photographer Kate Teare can be found here.

Have you ever been to a swishing party?

Lottie x x x

June comment love

Thank you very much everyone for all your lovely comments throughout June! I've enjoyed reading all of your blogs too and being part of the community! Let me know if you have any blog post requests for July.

Thanks again for reading my blog :)

Lottie x x x

Marie http://marie-loves.blogspot.com/

Ashley http://polkadotandpaisley.blogspot.com/

Nadia http://lovelipstickandlime.blogspot.com/

Elana http://elanasprthoughts.wordpress.com/

GiGi http://makeupdiaryconfessions.blogspot.com/

Miss Dolly Gal http://missdollygal.blogspot.com/

chulalouie http://chulalouie.blogspot.com/

tina_mbc http://allthevanity.blogspot.com/

Emma http://evilblackpixie.blogspot.com/

Ka http://kurtkaren.blogspot.com/

Kaz http://glittertoast.blogspot.com/

Ditzymakeup http://ditzymake-up.blogspot.com/

Tali http://theglossgoss.blogspot.com/

Kirsten http://bonbonrose9.blogspot.com/

Classy Dea 66 http://clasydea66.blogspot.com/

Laura http://romanticdreaming.blogspot.com/

Dila http://bubblymubblybubblegum.blogspot.com/

MissGlamTan http://missglamtan.blogspot.com/

Beauty Addict http://secretdiaryofabeautyaddict.blogspot.com/

Saskia The Salsa Fairy http://saskiathesalsafairy.blogspot.com/ (Special thanks for your wedding series, I love it!)

Shortiee31 http://shortiee31.blogspot.com/

Lipstick Rules http://lipstickrules.blogspot.com/

Mystical http://dazzling-within.blogspot.com/

Catanya http://catanyasthings.blogspot.com/

Black Vanilla Rose http://blackvanillarose.blogspot.com/

Sugar http://shewga.blogspot.com/

Mocha Mish Mash http://mochamishmash.blogspot.com/

Rocaille http://rocaille-writes.blogspot.com/

Superficial Girls http://superficialgirls.blogspot.com/

Shirley http://meek-n-mild.blogspot.com/

Courtney http://escourtn3y.blogspot.com/

Lauren http://laurensloves.blogspot.com/

Loveaudrey http://loveaudrey-loveaudrey.blogspot.com/

Alexis http://alpha-blonde.blogspot.com/

Hazeleyes http://greenxeyes.blogspot.com/

Caramel Diva http://jmtjm.blogspot.com/

fantastic http://suka-spice.blogspot.com/

Shopaholic http://jo-shopaholic.blogspot.com/

KitKat http://katzandthecity.blogspot.com/

fabulousfashions4sensiblestyle http://fabulousfashions4sensiblestyle.blogspot.com/

LV http://thelittlemusingsoflv.blogspot.com/

GinaG http://ginagloves.blogspot.com/

Sarah http://thepolished.blogspot.com/

sweetestsinsheroon http://sweetestsinsheroon.blogspot.com/

Tip of the day!

Have you run out of shaving foam/gel?

Fear not! Simple hair conditioner will work just as well and will protect the skin.

Try it out!

Lottie x x x

For Gabriela...

Angels With Dirty Faces http://gabriela-lifeinengland.blogspot.com/- check out her style!

Modern 1970s



Rock chic with a femine twist



What do you think?

Lottie x x x