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 :) 

Benefit's Coralista Ultra Plush Lip Gloss Review

Benefit have recently bought out a range of lip glosses that coincide with the six bestselling colours of their infamous boxed blushers; Hoola, Dandelion, Coralista, Sugarbomb, Dallas and Bella Bamba. In my opinion, this is a really excellent concept as I think that matching your blusher to your lip gloss could give a really stunning and polished effect. Moreover, like many beauty bloggers, I received a sample size of this lip gloss as a free gift when I purchased Elle Magazine recently. I do not usually tend to buy Elle due to it's £4 price tag which in my opinion, is a little pricey for a magazine. However, I just couldn't resist this time! 

The sample size of this gloss is 6.5ml, which is just under half of the products usual 15ml amount which retails at £14.50. So, paying a mere £4 didn't seem so bad after all! Elle Magazine had three different colours from the range to choose from: Hoola (a shimmery, brown nude,) Coralista (a sheer coral) and Dandelion (a soft, pearly pink.)

I opted for Coralista as I thought that this colour would suit me the best and I was right! When I swatched it on the back of my hand, the gloss looks super pigmented but when applied to lips, it is rather sheer and gives just a subtle wash of colour. In a way, it is a tad disappointing but I still like the end finish nonetheless. As for the way the gloss feels, you can tell it is a more high-end product due to the fact that the formula is thick but not sticky. On the other hand, seeing as the glosses are silky instead of sticky, they do not adhere to your lips too well and in turn, do not have very good staying power. So, be prepared to top up your application a couple of times.

Overall, these glosses are easy to wear and are quite natural-looking on the lips. However, for me I would like to see a little more colour pay off but that is just down to personal preference as I love bright lip colours. I am pleased that I bought Elle for this gloss but I do not think that I would fathom spending that much on the full-sized product. If you have tried or bought a product from the Ultra Plush range, I would love to know what you thought of them so please do not hesitate to leave a comment below. Thank you!

Living And Dealing With Anxiety

It seems that many bloggers have come forward and spoken about their anxiety lately, which is amazing and incredibly brave of them to do so and now, I feel ready to do the same. Even though I have touched base with this subject before in my 'Saying Yes And Overcoming Your Fears' post, I have never gone into as much detail as I am going to today. Obviously this post is incredibly personal to me, as I am talking about something that affects me every single day to people that I do not even know in real life - yet somehow, this make it slightly easier. My main aim with this post is to share my experience with you all and hopefully, I might also be able to help some other people in similar situations along the way. Although writing this is rather daunting, inspiring others to not be ashamed of their anxiety will make it all worth while!

I have been suffering from anxiety and panic attacks for ten years now and until recently, I did absolutely nothing about it. However, last year really was the tip of the iceberg for me and I was in such a horrible place. I had a job I hated which made me ill and therefore, I became very reserved and reclusive. It got to the point where if I would have a panic attack in a particular place or situation, I would do everything in my power to never return to that place again through pure fear of the same thing happening again. Whenever my friends would invite me out, I would nine times of ten say no because I had some sort of irrational fear that something bad would happen to me. I would often become so distressed that I would violently shake, feel sick and be in tears. Plus, on the odd occasion when I did build up the courage to go out, I never fully enjoyed myself. It used to only cause me stress and unhappiness and let’s face it, that’s no way to live your life!

At this point, I knew that something had to change because my anxiety was starting to affect my daily life to the point where I couldn’t even hold down a job or career. This, consequently, controlled a lot of the choices that I made and it has stopped me from doing absolutely anything that is even slightly out of my comfort zone. It even hindered me in embracing certain opportunities that came my way that in hindsight would have benefited me a great deal. I regret saying no to certain things even to this day.

I still find it incredibly hard to really open up to my friends and family about my anxiety problem, even when the majority of them know about it. I tend to worry that they will judge me if I go into detail about how I feel in case they end up thinking that I am some kind of nutcase and no longer want to be around me. Where as in reality, it turns out that so many people suffer with similar problems to me. I worry that they may also think that I use my anxiety as an excuse for certain things or that I am being a nuisance, though I am slowly learning that this is not the case at all. I am very lucky in the fact that I have some really supportive people in my life who I know I can always turn to. However, this is not the case for all people. Though, with that being said, there are so many good mental health programmes out there, (Mind and Anxiety UK being two of these,) that offer anxiety sufferers help and guidance if they do feel alone or unable to talk to a relative or friend about their issues. There are also many routes that you can take to help ease your anxiety and panic attacks; medication, stress management classes and counselling etc.

For the past six months or so, I have been attending counselling sessions every Tuesday afternoon. I definitely feel that this is the best option for me after having tried medication around this time last year, as it didn't agree with me and it actually made me more ill in terms of feeling nauseous and getting regular migraines. However, the one struggle I have with counselling is that I do want to go but I dread it at the same time. It’s not a nice feeling having to talk to somebody who is essentially a stranger about really deep and personal things every single week, even when you know it will be beneficial in the long run. Most of us, including myself at times, would much rather block it out or deal with our emotions privately rather than share them (though I have come to learn that bottling emotions up is unhealthy.)

Now, it’s a year on and I am slowly feeling the way I want to. Although to some it may seem like I am moving at a snail’s pace and have not done an awful lot this year, I know in my mind that I have come on leaps and bounds in this time. I love going out now, in fact I thrive off of it, which is something I never would have imagined myself saying twelve months ago! I’m not going to lie and say that everything is a walk in the park; I still have a long way to go to. To this day, my comfort zone is very restrictive and small but I am working on expanding it at a pace that suits me. I always want to do something reckless like drive to a random destination but then I get disheartened by the fact that I will probably get half way there, freak out and come home. 

I still have a mixture of good days and bad days but I believe that is all the about taking little steps to eventually get me to where I want to be. Of course, I don’t know how long this will take. I often put pressure on myself by trying to put a time limit on things, convincing myself that I am not progressing fast enough. However, I have come to realise that as long as I know I am trying as hard as I possibly can, that’s all that counts. Overall, I am incredibly hopeful for what may happen over the next few months and I am optimistic that by this time next year, I will have come on leaps and bounds yet again.

I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to read about my personal experience with anxiety. I really hope that sharing my story has inspired at least one of you to start fighting your anxiety in the same way that I am. Remember that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and although you may be going through a tough time right now, things WILL get better!