2013’s Top 10 Favourites

Image taken from weheartit.com

Well I can’t believe 2013 has come and gone, and boy what a year it has been! I’m glad to be starting a New Year and with that I thought I would share my top 10 favourites from 2013! I probably couldn’t have picked any favourites from December itself as due to Christmas and such I was so busy trying to get everything sorted, as well as working and being with my boyfriend, my family and my friends.

So here are my top 10 favourites!

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  • Sure Maximum Protection Anti-Perspirant Deodorant Cream in Sensitive.

Since buying this deodorant in the summer time, it’s by far one of the best things I’ve EVER bought and since getting it, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to live without it. I sweat terribly during the winter time so when the summer comes upon us I panic like crazy about if I’ll leave patches on clothes or smell really bad. However since buying this stuff I’ve not had an problems at all! You’re meant to apply this before you go to bed and even if you shower it off in the morning, it’ll still work. However I just apply it when I’m getting ready after a shower and it works for me that way. I’ve only recently started my second one of these, so it lasts a long time as you really don’t need a lot of product, it goes a long way. I have this in sensitive due to my sensitive skin. This isn’t cheap and costs just over £5.00 but it’s definitely worth it if you suffer with terrible sweating like myself. I was close to going to my doctor for help, but this stuff has saved me the embarrassment!

  • Diesel Loverdose EDP.

I’ve owned this perfume for quite a while now, since it came out in 2011 to be exact and since November time it’s been running out and I desperately need another bottle! My boyfriend loves when I wear this perfume and I do too as it smells gorgeous and nothing like I’ve smelt before. It contains various notes such as liquorice, vanilla, mandarin, star anise and dry woods. This is a scent I wear all year around, but more so during the colder months as it has a lovely warming scent to it. I was going to try and pick another 30ml bottle up in the sales but I really need to save money right now. Hopefully I can get a bottle in the near future, as when this runs out I’ll be rather sad.

  • Dettol Honey Nourishing Hand Wash with E45.

I LOVE this hand wash and although I’ve been using it more towards the end of the year it has fast become one of the best hand washes I’ve ever used. As regular readers will know, I suffer from eczema on my hands and most hand washes can irritate it and make it worse, however this hand wash helps it and keeps my hands lovely and soft. This is because of the E45 and after you wash your hands with this you can feel how soft it leaves your hands afterwards too, which is great. As well as that it smells of honey and the Dettol inside makes sure to wash off any bacteria, thus leaving your hands smelling lovely, feeling soft and being germ free. What more could you want from a hand wash?!

  • Aqueous Cream.

As well as the steroid cream I get from my doctor for my eczema, my aqueous cream is amazing stuff and seems to be the only thing that keeps my hands soft and smooth. I use various different hand creams and more during December than any other month, so I didn’t feel I could really include those in my top 10 for 2013, but I’m sure they will feature in a post in the near future! However aqueous cream is an amazing invention and my boyfriend bought me this massive tub a few months ago as something to use alongside my eczema cream. I use this alongside that, as well as on its own but it’s also amazing to use on any dry patches on skin, which I sometimes get on my face. You don’t need a lot of this and it goes a long way and I always apply it after washing my hands to ensure that my hands stay lovely and soft. This huge tub cost £2 and for the new year I’m going to be finding a little pump tub or tube to keep this on for when I’m at work. I recommend this stuff to anyone, it’s especially lovely to use in the bath if you’re suffering from dry skin, as well as using it in place of a shower gel. Amazing product for not much money!

  • Philip Kingsley Body Building Shampoo.

Over the year I’ve owned this shampoo a couple of times and the first time I owned it, I really couldn’t get on with it and if anything I hated it. I felt that it was making my hair thin, not thick like it is supposed to. You need to ensure your hair is soaking wet to ensure you get a lather with this otherwise it won’t give you any lather, I learnt this after months of usage. This shampoo smells amazing and I love sniffing my hair after I use it (didn’t just sniff my hair!) and I don’t really know if it’s making my hair thicker, but my hair feels and smells lovely and clean, as well as leaving it feeling soft and gorgeous looking. Over the past month or two I’ve only just started to enjoy this shampoo and use it once a week, alongside my tea tree shampoo which I use once or twice a week. I would love to try more of the Philip Kingsley shampoos, as they seem like amazing products and well worth the money!

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  • Soap & Glory Smoothie Star Body Lotion.

I bought this lotion back around the start of 2013 and around the end of spring I sadly stopped using this due to work and being too busy to apply it due to needing to leave the house in a rush. This being said this lotion is amazing and is the most used one of  2013! Since getting loads of Soap & Glory products in the Yule Monty gift set I have realised I do really need to keep my body moisturised and it’s something that a lot of us seem to neglect due to lack of time or laziness, mine being the latter. Since Christmas Day I have been moisturising more, only not doing it on the odd occasion due to not feeling too well. Smoothie Star is one of my favourite lotions as it smells of vanilla and honey, which is of course a smell enjoyed by many, including myself. I will be using this body lotion before work as it’s a very nourishing lotion but it’s rather thin so as soon as you rub this onto the skin it will begin to sink in and get to work, which is good! It only takes me 5-10 minutes to apply this to the skin and doesn’t feel sticky or take ages to dry! I can’t wait to start using this again and probably will for my birthday in a couple of days!

  • Montagne Jeunesse various face masks.

I love Montagne Jeunesse face masks, usually clay or sheet ones as the peel off masks really irritate my sensitive skin and causes break outs to happen. But this being said the clay and sheet masks leave my skin feeling clean, soft and fresh and usually something I use at night-time during a hot bath or whilst I do some blog writing. My favourite this year is probably the Tea Tree and Dead Sea sheet masks, alongside the Chocolate clay mask. The Tea Tree mask helps when I have break outs as it calms them down and stops any redness too, this one proved to be amazing during the summer as the tingling and cooling feeling the mask left behind on my skin really helped to cool me down during the hot summer nights. The Dead Sea mask is just lovely to have as a treat if my skin is feeling and looking a little dull and needs some perking up, I use this one at least once a month, maybe once every two months depending. Like the Tea Tree mask, it leaves my skin feeling tingly and a little cold which is lovely during the summer too. Finally the Chocolate mask is a winner and one I pick up whenever I know I’m running out! It’s a very thick mask and smells just like Cadbury’s chocolate! This mask helps to soften your skin and leave it feeling clean too, which is what I always look for in a mask. Some of the masks I’ve tried by Montagne Jeunesse have left me with break outs days later, but as of yet I’ve never had a problem with the Chocolate mask… Well apart from wanting to eat it off of my face, of course! I recommend these face masks as whilst they aren’t the cheapest out there, they are by far the best and worth every penny! You can pick these up in Home Bargains at 3 for £2, which is pretty good. Primark also sell these at 99p each and Body Care sell them at around that price too. Also check out Montagne Jeunesse’s Facebook page as they have some great offers on there and competitions where you can win loads of their face masks.

  • MAC Archie’s Girls Lipstick in Daddy’s Little Girl..

I couldn’t pick one MAC lipstick but I finally came to one choice and it was Daddy’s Little Girl, which came out in March for the Archie’s Girls collection. I debated for ages which lipstick to buy from this collection and Daddy’s Little Girl was at the bottom of my list, as swatches of this lipstick online were completely wrong and made the lipstick look bright purple! Instead it is a subtle purple pink that can be worn all year around, which is why it has won a place in my top 10 favourites for 2013! I wore this lipstick loads during the year and most people I know really love this lipstick. I wear this for work quite a lot too as it lasts ages and looks lovely over the end of summer, during autumn and throughout winter so far. Most of my MAC lipsticks can be worn throughout the year but this is the one I seemed to reach for the most. I don’t know if it’s due to its purple pink colour, or because of the limited edition packaging shouting out at me, but either way I love this lipstick and the day it comes to an end, is the day I’ll probably pay a lot to get a new tube of this lipstick. If you wish to read more about it, please check out my review!

  • Nails Inc Nail Polish in South Molton Street.

Since I got these at the start of 2013, I have discovered that I have never EVER used a nail polish as much as I have with this one, as you’ll see from the image above. This is a gorgeous pink manicure pink and I used to wear this in my old job to try and make my nails looks healthier than they probably are, even though I wasn’t allowed to wear nail polish, sneaky Nat! It dries with a slight gel feel to it and with two coats it looks beautiful on the nails. I wear this for work now and I’ve had many compliments on it! As well as that, I wore it for New Years as I really couldn’t be bothered to paint my nails all special and such and I had lots of compliments on how healthy my nails looked, if only they knew! I kid, I told them it was nail polish! My Mom bought me South Molton Street in a two pack set for about £20 which is good considering Nails Inc nail polishes sell for £12-£12.50. So I’m glad I have a back up of this polish as I know I’ll probably be finishing this bottle off during 2014! I will be writing up a review for South Molton Street early 2014, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

  • The Body Shop Shower Gel in Strawberry.

Last of all we have the amazing Strawberry shower gel by The Body Shop. It is by far my favourite shower gel EVER so the fact I own a huge 750ml bottle, as well as a cute little 250ml bottle makes me very happy! I got the little bottle for just a £1, thanks to the £3 gift card I got from Glamour Magazine in November and I picked up the massive bottle for less than £6.00, bargain huh? They’re selling for £8 at the moment in The Body Shop and as tempted as I’ve been to buy another, I’m being good and not doing that, however I did pick up a Satsuma one too so I have plenty of shower gel to last me until the end of 2014! Anyway, a story about this shower gel. When I was little my Mom would take me to The Body Shop once and month and buy me a bottle of the Strawberry and the Satsuma shower gels to use before school, as well as in the bath after school and over the weekends. I would be so excited to use them and as soon as they ran out she would take me back to The Body Shop to buy more bottles. The scent of them both just reminds me of my childhood, the Strawberry one more so than the Satsuma one. Sadly after a while she stopped taking me to The Body Shop and therefore I stopped having the lovely shower gels in my shower. I’m so glad to have picked these us up and both at bargain prices too! I’m going to have a lovely smelling 2014 me thinks.

So that’s my top 10 for 2013! It was hard to pick all those items, but I’m rather pleased with what I chose.

So, what top 10 products did you love during 2013? Do you like any of the ones I mentioned? Let me know in the comments down below!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you’re not feeling too hungover and if you’re a Sherlock fan, make sure to watch the first episode for series 3 tonight! I know me and my boyfriend will be eating yummy food, playing Beyond Two Souls and watching Sherlock all day!

Here’s to 2014! Take care all and have a great New Years Day.

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What I Wore (5th October 2013) *BONUS SOPPYNESS AT THE END!*

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Wow it’s been over two months since I last did a what I wore post and I can safely say I have missed doing these posts. The last one I did was during the summer and it was so hot the day me and my boyfriend went out that we wore next to nothing. Now the weather has completely changed and I’m finding myself snuggled up in baggy jumpers and bigger shoes.

During a weekend away at his we decided to go to a children’s farm to go walk around the countryside and see the farm animals that are kept there. I’d never been before and my boyfriend had wanted to take me for a couple of months now, so it was nice to finally be able to go.

We were meant to leave really early but we felt lazy and stayed in bed eating peanut butter Oreos and played GTA V Online, eventually we left to head to the farm, all snuggled up in our warm jumpers.

There will be a post about our trip to the children’s farm tomorrow and Wednesday so keep your eyes peeled for those if you wish to read them.

Anyhoo, on with the outfit I wore, these are by far the best pictures I have ever had taken of me for a what I wore post and they’ve been edited too so they look amazing! I want to thank my boyfriend for both  taking and editing these, he did such an amazing job and no matter what he does, I feel like the luckiest woman in the world right now.

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Black beanie – Urban Outfitters.

Glasses – Versace.

Lipstick – MAC’s Daddy’s Little Girl.

Fox jumper – New Look.

Jean shorts – Peacocks.

Black tights – Primark.

Black socks – Primark.

Brothel creepers – Shoe Zone.

Nail polish – Barry M Matte Nail Paint in Vanilla.

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As it seemed chilly out last weekend I decided to pop a beanie on, that and my hair wasn’t having one of its best days and we were in a bit of a hurry to go out. This hat is actually from the men’s section in Urban Outfitters and I bought it on one of mine and my boyfriends first dates, wearing it the day we got together. It’s lovely and warm and big enough to wear folded or unfolded. As I HAVE to wear glasses, I may as well mention that my glasses are by Versace and ultimate geek chic! I love them, won’t be replacing them for a while. The lipstick I decided to wear is Daddy’s Little Girl from the Archie’s Girls Collection by MAC, I wrote a review for this when I first bought it, which you can find linked above. I love this lipstick and I’ve been waiting for the colder months to come back so that I could wear these types of shades again!

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I recently bought this jumper from New Look, infact the day before my October Wish List went live was the day I bought this as it went on sale from £24.99 to £12.00, so I tried it on  in store and I decided to buy it. It’s so warm and soft that I’d have been stupid not to buy it! Also as regular readers will know, I love foxes so anything with foxes on that looks nice and fashionable I’ll snap up! This isn’t the most fashionable jumper in the world, but at the end of the day it’s snug, comfortable, warm and looks cute teamed up with a skirt or shorts, which is what I did for this look, as you can see. It’s a cream and burgundy colour so it’s definitely on trend with the autumn colours and I know it’ll be something I’ll wrap myself up in as the weather gets colder.

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I’ve owned these shorts since I started university in 2008 so… 5 years now! They’re some of the most comfortable shorts I own and yet the smallest ones I own, size wise. They cost me £10 and with my 10% back when I was a student, I paid next to nothing for these! They go well with anything and everything, they fit comfortably and as well as that, they make my bum look awesome!  I love wearing these during the autumn season with baggy jumpers or a quirky t-shirt with a boyfriend cardigan. I know I’ll be wearing these quite a bit over the autumn season and with one of my boyfriends jackets or hoodies layered on top of a band t-shirt, it’ll make an outfit look rocker chic, no problem! They’re my favourite basic denim shorts and it’s a shame that I haven’t been able to find anymore like this since I bought them.

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As regular readers will know, I love wearing my creepers as they’re comfortable, a great alternative to flats or boots and are the perfect item to grunge up an outfit. This is my second pair of creepers after my first pair wore through the bottom and whilst out walking one day I was left with soggy socks and thus very wet feet! To buy a pair of creepers now you don’t need to break the bank and a decent pair won’t cost you no more than £20, I paid that much for my first pair, £15 for this pair. I love the suede finish on my creepers and all black too. I would like some with studs but as of yet I haven’t found a pair I either like or feel worthy of paying the amount of money that they ask for. Either way I love brothel creepers and I wish they had been around for these prices when I was at school, I’d have worn then to school all the time!

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These are my two favourite pictures from the day, the one on the left just looks like something you would see on a movie/TV poster or even a book cover and it just looks really nice. It looks natural too, as my boyfriend did pretty much say, “walk away from me for a bit.” to which he would follow me across the grass, towards the pond/lake. The picture on the right just reminds me of the awesome pictures I see fellow beauty and fashion bloggers getting themselves, and the type of thing I myself have tried to get since I started taking pictures for my what I wore section on my blog over a year ago. When I posed for this picture I didn’t think it was actually going to work, but it’s turned out exactly how I wanted it and not long after this image was taken, my boyfriend and I relaxed for a bit together in the field and then headed back to the car to go home.

I really loved today with my boyfriend and I’ll be excited for you guys to read the two adventure posts I have in store for you to read! We both had an amazing day and I can’t wait to share more days like this with him.

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I definitely feel like the luckiest woman alive right now, I finally seem to have the type of boyfriend I’ve always wanted. Someone special, kind, who treats me well and the way I wish to be treated and who looks after me when I’m poorly. My mental health hasn’t been too great these past couple of months and my boyfriend has stuck by me through it all, which has meant a lot. Usually people can get scared with this topic and flee as soon as possible, which in the past a lot of people have done, whether they were a partner or a friend. On top of this he is a real cutie, even for a ginger nut! He has these cute little dimples that I just want to poke with my finger, is that weird? He also makes me feel good about myself when I’m feeling at my worst. Majority of the time I’ll be a typical woman and complain how “fat” and “ugly” I am and he just turns it right around like a good boyfriend should and tells me all the good points about myself, which is really nice.

A lot of shit has happened during 2013, but me and my boyfriend getting together is by far the best thing that has happened to me this year and I haven’t felt so happy in someone’s company for a very long time.

Once again I want to thank my boyfriend for taking these pictures of me today, as well as taking the time to edit them all for me too. I wouldn’t be able to make this and my last what I wore post(s) possible if it wasn’t for him.

Stay tuned in the future for my first video on my blog, which will be the boyfriend tag!

If you have any questions or comments on how I styled my outfit, please feel free to leave them in the comments down below!

Until next time, take care and I hope everyone had as lovely a weekend as I did.

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