My Monthly Favourites - November 2013

Hi guys! It's that time of the month again where I show you what I have been loving product-wise throughout November. It's hard to believe that Christmas is now upon us and as cliché as it sounds, this year has gone ridiculously fast! This is my second ever monthly favourites post which is rather shocking seeing as I have been blogging now for eight months now. The reason I held off for so long is because I go through stages where I do not really buy any new products and so I often run out of things to review. However, with that being said, I am going to try my best to be consistent and do my favourites every month without fail but do bear with me if I do skip a month. Now, let's get straight to my much loved products of November!

Dove Intensive Nourishment Hand Cream  - £3.49
Seeing as we are right in the midst of winter, the cold and bitter weather is upon us and as you all know, this can cause havoc with your skin making it much drier and troublesome. However, I think that many of us neglect our hands at this time of year. Recently, I have been using this hand cream from Dove that I got as part of a gift set a while back. As you can imagine, this product does exactly what it says on the tin (or tube, rather!) I tend to slather this cream on before I go to bed at night time and surprise, surprise; I wake up with nourished and soft hands. I really recommend this product as it is cheap, widely available in drugstores and most of all - it works!

Essie Luxe Effects Nail Polish in 'A Cut Above' - £7.99
Whilst I was in Boots with my Mum the other week, I was browsing down the make-up aisles when I came across this lovely nail varnish at the Essie stand. This polish is part of Essie's limited edition 'Luxe Effects' range which also features four other glittery top coats; 'As Gold As It Gets,' 'A Stroke Of Brilliance,' 'Pure Pearlfection' and 'Set In Stones.' I was drawn to this one in particular due to it's gorgeous pink/rose gold colouring. Although this product is advertised as a top coat, I built up a couple of coats of the polish on my nails to make them entirely sparkly and opaque. The end result is stunning and it lasted on my nails for over a week! The only problem I found was removing it; it took me about twenty minutes of vigorous scrubbing with pure acetone to get every scrap of it away but do not let that put you off, it's definitely worth it!

The Body Shop Vanilla Bliss Body Butter - £13.00
Next up is the ever-so-popular body butter from The Body Shop, which I received as a gift from my friend Sydney. I own a couple of different body butters as I am a bit of a moisturiser hoarder. I never seem to finish one bottle or tub before I move on to the next one - I think I like to alternate between them depending on my mood or the time of year. The 'Vanilla Bliss' scent is a limited edition one for Christmas and I love it! It is so rich and moisturising which is perfect for when my skin is dry, which it tends to be in the current cold conditions here in the UK. With this being said, my favourite Body Shop body butter is actually the passion fruit one as I much prefer fruity scents in general. Most of the other moisturisers I own (Dove and Garnier) are around the £5 mark, so spending £13 on one is a little steep for me but as a gift, it was a lovely treat and the tub lasts for ages, so in the end it is a worthwhile purchase if you are thinking of buying one for yourself!

Rimmel Lasting Finish Colour Rush Lip Crayon in 'The Redder The Better' - £5.99
As I have already written a seperate post on the Rimmel lip crayons here, I am not going to go too in detail about the product this time around. After loving the first shade I bought a few months ago called 'Rumour Has It,' I decided to go back and try another colour. 'The Redder The Better' is exactly as it seems; a really bright red colour that is really striking on the lips. As mentioned in my previous post, this crayon is really moisturising and glides on seamlessly. It also has a lovely vanilla/cocoa type scent to it which is a nice added touch. In addition, there is a lovely variation of colours to try and so there is something for everybody. I highly recommend this product!

The Body Shop White Musk Eau De Toilette (30ml) - £10.00
Last but not least is this lovely frangrance from The Body Shop. I love using this perfume on days when I'm not doing too much and do not want to reach for my more expensive perfumes. As you can probably guess from the title, this is a musky scent which has hints of flowers (lily, iris & rose) and vanilla running through it. I always get compliments when I wear this scent as it is quite strong at first but after a few hours, it wears off completely. So, although I love this eau de toilette, I would not recommend it if you need something a little more long-wearing.

I hope you have all enjoyed reading about my November favourites. I would love to know what your most-loved products have been this month, so please do not hesitate to leave a comment below :) 

My Month Via Instagram - October 2013

Hi guys! It's come to the time again for me to write about what I have been up to all throughout October. Granted we are now a whole five days into November (I cannot believe it is Christmas next month) and I am a little late uploading this post but none the less, let's get started!

1. This month I have been making a conscious effort to come up with a few new recipes to try at dinner time. I think that it is very easy to slip into a routine and end up eating the same things on a regular basis. The dish you can see in the picture is a garlic and herb chicken curry-like dish, which is really simple to make. I simply cut up and cooked a chicken breast whilst boiling some rice (and adding peas in a little later to make it more interesting.) Once the chicken was cooked, I poured over a Philadelphia 'Simply Stir' Garlic & Herb Sauce and let it simmer for a few minutes. Hey presto, a relatively healthy dinner in roughly 15-20 minutes!

2. Secondly, now that the cold weather is starting to creep in, I have been opting for a lot more baths as opposed to showers. Recently, I have been trying to have a lot of 'me' time and I love nothing more than having a nice, long soak in a bubble bath. In conjunction with this, I have really enjoyed lighting my cherry & vanilla Yankee candle to set the mood and relax even further. I have also switched from using my passion fruit Body Shop Body Butter to the vanilla scent instead, as I find it to be a much more winter-y smell.

3. As Halloween was creeping ever closer, I invented my friend Lucy to help me experiment with some cat make-up as she is one of the most artistic people I know. Being a cat for Halloween isn't exactly original but my funds are pretty low at the moment, so simplicity was key. For the look we eventually achieved, all that we needed was tonnes of eyeliner and an extremely steady hand! I also used some very feline fake eyelashes to make the end result even more striking.

4. On the same day, Lucy also helped me with some photography for my blog (which is featured in the 'My Favourite Autumn/Winter Outfit' post.) As we finished this rather quickly, I decided to then give Lucy a makeover. As she usually wears minimal make-up (eyeliner and mascara only,) I thought that she would be a great person to experiment on and of course, she looked gorgeous! To read the original blog post, please click here.

5. If any of you read my 'The Next Chapter Of My Life' post, you may know that I recently completed an intensive three day nail course which focused on manicure, pedicure and acrylic nails. Of course, it takes a lot longer than three days to perfect a craft and so I have been practicing on my friends and family a lot. One of the things I really want to learn, however, is how to create some intricate nail art designs. One evening, I gave my friend Sarah this nude and black leopard print design. I was really proud of the outcome seeing as it was my first ever attempt and I am looking forward to trying other designs in the future. 

6. Last but not least is a photo of what I actually looked like before I went clubbing for Halloween. As you can see, I was not able to fully mimic how well Lucy did my make-up for me earlier on in the week, but I still think that in the end it looked quite good! In the end I opted for a dark purple lipstick as I thought it was quite vampy, as opposed to the nude lip that me and Lucy practiced. Also, dressing up as a cat gave me the perfect excuse to wear my new black dress from Missguided that you can see here. I am obsessed with it and am even looking forward to the next time I can wear it (I'm sad like that!)

So, that's it for this month. I hope you all enjoyed reading about what I have gotten up to during October. Now, let's see what November brings!