Monthly Favourites | September

Hey guys,

WHITE RABBITS!

I literally cannot believe September is over!!!! When I was little it felt like months lasted for years but now they seem to begin and end before you know it. September meant back to Uni which was not good! although it also meant my boyfriend moving back which definitely made up for it. I can't wait for October, it means Halloween and it's getting closer to bonfire night and Christmas :) But anyway without further ado, time for monthly favourites...

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Herbal essences Hello Hydration - I literally swear by this shampoo and conditioner combo. My hair often suffers from being a bit limp and dry especially when it's really hot or really cold outside. I've tried loads of shampoos and conditioners which claim to nourish your hair including ones which were pretty pricey. Back in the summer I wanted a shampoo which was 'coconutty' and bought these because they were on offer and smelt nice. They made my hair soooo soft without making it look greasy. It looks shinier and I've noticed that I have noticeably less split ends and breakages. These are £3.39 for a 400ml bottle but you can get a smaller 250ml bottle. These seem to be available everywhere and I usually grab them when out grocery shopping with my family. I really recommend Herbal Essences especially these ones!

St Ives Apricot scrub - I seem to be talking about this all the time and I never realised how popular it was until I started blogging and it seemed to be floating around the blogosphere. I get episodes of really dry skin and so grabbed this just in a travel size to test out. It works!! It smells amazing and apparently contains 100% natural extracts. I got it in 'invigorating' to really fight my dry skin. This is pretty invigorating but not rough on the skin, it contains lots of small granules, sort of like sand sized, which really scrubs away at dead skin cells. This comes in gentle and blemish fighting too, both of which I want to try. They're about £5 a tube and definitely worth it! 

Maybelline Dream Fresh BB cream - I'm a sucker for BBs and this is my favourite! It's really reasonably priced at sort of £6 to £7 and it is lovely. It has SPF 30 which is pretty amazing for a foundation. I don't like to have heavy coverage as anything too thick makes my face look orange as i'm super pale skinned. This is sort of between a foundation and tinted moisturiser, it gives enough coverage without looking cakey. I have it in light and I did find that it is a little toooo light but with a bit of powder over the top, it looks lovely. 

E45 Cream - This stuff has been around for years but it is amazing. I got it a few weeks ago when I had a reaction to face wash and got super dry skin and it cleared it up nicely. Since then I've used it every day before putting on my foundation. It is a little greasy so I give it a while to sink in but it's so moisturising which is what my skin needs. Best of all it's £1.99 which is so much cheaper than other moisturisers.

Nail Paint by Barry M in 'Raspberry' - Oh My God I love this nail varnish, I literally cannot get enough. I only bought this just over a week ago but it made it into my monthly favourites very easily. The colour is amazing, although it looks just red in this picture, in person it's a much more wine/burgundy colour which is perfect for Autumn. I love Barry M anyway because it seems to be pretty hard wearing although mine is looking a bit worse for wear now. I did a NOTD with this one which you can find HERE if you'd like to see it on. I can't say much more about this apart from the fact that you should deffo check it out especially if you're looking for an Autumny colour.

Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover - I did a review on this a little while ago (which you can see HERE) and I quite literally love it. If you just have a plain colour on with no glitter or anything, this amazing product takes it off in seconds, it's a little longer if you have glitter on but it still works wonders. If you're a little lazy when it comes to taking off nail varnish (like me) you'll love this! It is a little bottle with a sponge inside which has a hole in it, you poke your finger into it, give it a twist and your nail varnish is gone (or almost gone, it sometimes takes a few twists). I'm not sure how long this lasts or what makes it run out, but I will deffo re-purchase. This leaves a lovely smell after which is apparently red fruit and vanilla which is a super plus. 

Benefit They're Real Mascara - I counted that I have 11 mascaras in my make up drawer but this is my favourite by far! It is the most expensive mascara I own but I'm completely in love. I'm not sure if it's the brush or the formula but something really makes my lashes look longer and separates them wonderfully. It also stays on much longer than previous mascara's I've used which I guess is what you get from spending a bit more money, I can put this on at 7 in the morning and it's still holding strong when I take it off at bed time.  

Collection 2000 brown Gel Liner - I am a lover of gel liner after I discovered the Maybelline one. My boots recently started doing that same one in brown and I headed to town to get it just to find that the only one left had been opened and tested by someone (I hate when people do that!!). I saw this one and decided I'd try it as I needed one and was very pleasantly surprised. This isn't as lasting as the Maybelline one but it lasts much longer than any liquid liner I've used. This comes in yellow too which is a bit crazy. I can't find it on the Boots website but I have a feeling it was about £5 which is really good, especially because it lasts so long. I really recommend this if you're looking for a good eye liner and are on a budget.

Avon Satin Satisfaction in 'Plush Plum' - This was in Avon's sale booklet recently, I like plum colours for Autumn and so grabbed this and it's lovely. It smells and tastes like honeycomb and so I keep smelling it, which is weird but still! haha. This has a silver almost blue shimmer to it which helps to make teeth look whiter which I love! It's not a sticky formula but it has a pretty good staying power.

17 Blusher in 'First Flush' - This is a lovely blush and one of my all time favourites, it reminds me of MAC blush but I can't recall which off the top of my head. It has a very slight shimmer but nothing too dramatic and it is very pigmented meaning you only need a tiny bit. I've used this blusher hundreds of times and barely made a dent. I recommend these blushes immensely.

Revlon Lip Butter in 'Raspberry Pie' - I'm an avid lip butter fan and have a bit of a collection of them already. As Autumn has come I wanted one which was a bit more of a berry colour and chose this one. It matches the Barry M nail varnish above to a tee and this colour is definitely one of my faves for Autumn! I'm not sure what else to say about this except for the fact that it's great. 

Thank you very much for reading.    

Lots of love, Lucy xx

Monthly Favourites | August

Hey Guys,

I feel everyone says this but seriously...where did that month go? I feel more like i'm flipping my calender over every fortnight now instead of every month. Never the less, it's time again for monthly favourites 

Woop Woop!!...

Aussie Miracle hair insurance - This month i've been loving Aussie's miracle hair insurance leave in conditioner. I've been using this for a few months now but have really started to notice my hair getting tonnes softer these past few weeks. It smells like bubblegum to me (if anyone ever had Spaghett gum...it smells exactly like that). It has Jojoba oil in it which helps to untangle and protect your hair. It isn't a heat defense spray so you still have to use one of those along with it, but this most certainly is a great addition. I have very fine hair and this doesn't leave it greasy or feeling heavy, which is a bonus.

CKIN2U - this scent by Calvin Klein has been my summer smell and I just love it. Boots.com describes the scents as....
"CKIN2U for her is spontaneous and seductive. It opens with a burst of pink grapefruit fizz, tart red currant leaves and zesty sicilian bergamot. The heart produces a surge of mouth watering sugar orchid that mingles with the hypnotic nectar of the white Cactus. The fragrance is lit from within as warm neon Amber floods throughout, while the base notes are flush with the seductive scents of luscious Vanilla soufflé and smoldering red Cedar."
Which puts it pretty well I think. It really is, it's a beautiful scent and I get tonnes of compliments on it, it's also very affordable being £24.56 for 100ml from Boots, check it out HERE.

Barry M Nail Paint in Peach Melba - This colour is gorgeous, I wish i'd have found it sooner as i would probably have worn it all spring and summer. It's a real lovely pastel peach, meaning that it's very wearable but still colourful and pretty. I'm going to wear this in Autumn still...i'll think up some excuse.

Barry M Nail Paint in Strawberry Ice Cream  -  This is a very pale pastel pink. It is again super pretty and the name makes me want to eat it (I won't, don't worry). I love Barry M nail varnishes in general, they are only around £3 but they are very long lasting. I painted my nails with the Peach Melba about 3 days ago (without using a top coat) and there are absolutely no chips so far. Fabulous!

Me Me Me Blush me - I brought this boxed blush as I was longing for the Benefit boxed blush in 'Coralista', and then came across this little beauty for a fraction of the price (£8). I was looking for a good coral blusher anyway and this one ticks all the boxes. It's a gorgeous coral colour which is slightly shimmery. It comes with a flat square brush which is surprisingly soft, there is also a mirror in the lid, something which, I believe, the Benefit blushers do not have. 

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain - I picked this up in Rendezvous a few weeks ago and have fallen in love to be quite honest. It's not the most moisturising of all lip balms but the pigmentation is great and lasts quite some time regarding you don't drink or eat...but even then my lips still have a hint of the colour. And it tastes minty. I've done a full review on this so click HERE if you want to know more. 

Revlon Lip Butter - I have like 6 or 7 of the lip butters and I love them...when they were on offer I picked one up every time I was in town. My favourites so far are Sweet Tart which is a bright pink, Tutti Frutti an orangey coral (the same as Rendezvous above) and peach parfait (the one in the picture) which I have been reaching for most this month, this is a darker, pinky almost red peach which gold shimmer. 

MUA lipstick - I am a massive fan on MUA, especially their lipsicks, they're more like lip butters than lipsticks. They are super moisturising and some are quite sheer although others such as the red and a light coral are opaque. The biggest selling point is that they are only £1!!!! I can literally not say one bad thing about these lipsticks. The one i've been loving in August is shade 11. It's pretty similar to the Revlon Peach Parfait lip butter, but it has no shimmer. It is pretty much my lip colour, but better. My face doesn't seem to suit bright reds and pinks but this colour along with coral and peach ones look great. I thoroughly recommend these!

This picture will not rotate no matter how much I try and what I do, so apologies for that.

Benefit BADgal lash - I have been loving this mascara in August. the brush is super big meaning it created a lot of volume, something my lashes need because they're blonde. I got it in a travel size which has been very handy travelling around this summer. The mascara is very long wearing and just generally amazing. I'll have to see if I love Benefit's 'They're Real' as much as I love this one.

MUA Eyeshadow Pallet in 'Undressed' - Undressed is one of MUA's latest eyeshadow pallets. MUA eyeshadows are pretty well known now as being amazingly pigmented and great value for money. I went onto the website purposely to buy this and found that it had a pound knocked off so it was just £3. This pallet is supposedly a dupe for Urban Decay's Naked2 pallet. It contains a mixture of matte, pearly and shimmery eyeshadows and they're all pretty nude colours although there are two sort of grey/blue colours. You can make a number of different looks from this pallet from just simple nude shimmery eyes to full on smokey eyes. LOVE IT!

MUA eyeliner pencil in 'Rich Brown' - I hadn't given these much of a try before but I had a brown eyeliner from Collection 2000 which wasn't very soft and tugged at my eyes so I got this thinking "well it's only a pound i'll give it a try". I really love this eyeliner. It glides on very well without tugging at my eyes, the pigmentation is also amazing compared to my ones from brands such as Rimmel and Maybelline. It contains cocoa butter and bees wax and the lid is a sharpner which is very handy. The only downfall of this eyeliner is that it's staying power isn't very great especially on the waterline, for £1 though it's worth it.

MUA professional eye primer - I didn't have very high expectations of this considering it's only £4 but i was very pleasantly surprised. I did some swatches of eyeshadows on my arm over the primer and then some without to see how well it actually did. you can see the results below. On the top line I used no primer and used primer on the bottom. The second picture doesn't do it justice but the other lighter colours were also visible, but you can see even from the blue how drastic the difference is.  

  

It obviously isn't as good as  high end primers, but if you're on a budget then I really do recommend this. 

Maybelline Color Tattoo 24HR -  I got this in 'on and on bronze' because i'm loving bronze eye shadows atm and wanted a cream shadow. I'd heard good things about this so gave it a try and I love it. The colour is lovely and it stays on my eyelids for quite some time. If I put a swatch onto my hand and rub at it, it fades but doesn't come off completely. I can see this lasting me quite some time and it was only £4.99 so i've been using it a lot this month :)

That is it :) Thank you sooo much for reading and let me know if you've been loving any of the things i've talked about :)

Lots of Love, Lucy xx