July Favourites ’18

Why hello August! I know, month after month I moan about how fast the year is going but as much as I hate how fast it is whizzing by BUT I’m not going to do that this month… I’m actually excited for September.

Both me and Dane had some lovely news in July, which I’m not going to mention here and NO before you guess we aren’t expecting or having a baby. 😛 Honestly, you will not see a post in 3 months of me holding a scan… Not unless it’s of a puppy fetus. 😛

URGH I really did ramble. I didn’t mean to. 😛

This months favourites were pretty easy to write up, but at the same time they did feel like a bit of a challenge. I hope you enjoy them either way, I always love writing my monthly favourites, so I hope you always enjoy reading them.

• The Body Shop Body Yogurt in Banana.

I recently posted a wish list Wednesday about The Body Shop and the majority of that wish list had the new limited edition banana range on it. Literally 3 days later I was in a store buying all of the goodies I had posted on that wish list. Since I picked up the body yogurt I have been using it daily and oh my, it has changed up my daily routine! My skin has been looking and feeling dry lately and I HATE moisturising. Not only do I find it a chore, but thick creams can leave me feeling clammy and warm so I avoid it like the plague. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the yogurts and it was Estelle’s The Body Shop haul post (which you can read here) where she spoke about the strawberry one that got me into giving it a go. Thanks Estelle! 😛 This has just been a game changer for my skin. It really is lightweight and only takes 5 minutes max to apply all over and thankfully doesn’t take long to dry so you can be dressed quickly. I plan to have a review of this up on my blog ASAP, possibly this time next week so keep your eyes peeled for that!

• Fairy Glo Gel Polishes.

Since I picked these up a couple of months ago I’ve been meaning to review them as they are AMAZING gel polishes for sod all money. Since getting my Le Mini Macaron gel nail kit I’ve been kind of obsessed with gel nail polish and have certainly gotten into it more. I picked up a massive 14 piece gel polish set, with 12 glitter/holographic shades as well as a base and top coat. All for £15.99 on Amazon with Prime too! I’ve worn the polishes a handful of times now and I do adore them. I feel so pretty when I have the shades on and I especially love the silver holographic shade, as well as the lilac and blue shades. My mom also recently gave me her UV lamp as it was taking me 2 hours to do my nails with the little one nail LED lamp that you get in the Le Mini Macaron kit. I’d love to start doing peoples nails, but that just isn’t going to happen. 😛

• Korres Wild Rose Lip Butter.

I really miss wearing lipstick(s) and yet I don’t know why I stopped wearing them. I think it’s due to the fact that I now have on and off eczema in the corners of my lips, which sucks to be honest with you. Using a stick lip balm is now a thing of the past for me and I have to constantly now use lip balm in tins, e.g. Vaseline. I recently picked up a couple of tinted lip balms from The Body Shop but I decided to dig out this old favourite and start using it at work. No, it isn’t lipstick but it’s a gorgeous tinted lip butter which leaves my lips feeling moisturised and with a gorgeous dark pink colour. I would love to try more of the Korres lip butters, but this one has lasted me so long, I don’t know if I need to. 😛

• The Body Shop Body Butter in Banana.

Yes, another one of the banana products from The Body Shop and this one I have fallen head over heels in love with, for many reasons. There is one product I dislike from The Body Shop and that’s their body butters. They’re really thick, and don’t last very long for how much you spend on them! I’ve tried at least 3 different ones over the years and each one has left me feeling sticky and hot both in the colder and hotter months. However, the banana one smelt amazing so I KNEW I had to pick it up. But I decided to pick up the little tub so that I could test what I thought of the body butter as a hand butter instead. Well, so far I am LOVING IT! It makes such an amazing and deeply nourishing hand butter and I do love it. Whenever I use it at work I get nothing but compliments on the scent, which in turn makes me happy. I’ll definitely invest in the bigger tub soon and just keep the little tub to decant the product into. I’ll also definitely give other scents a try in future, including strawberry.

• Clean & Clear Blackhead Clearing Cleanser.

This is another product I’ve mentioned recently on my blog (you can read that post here) and since I picked it up at the start of July I have loved using it on my skin! I was after a new toner and for years my mom has been using this one and always praised it up. My skin has been in atrocious condition for the longest time now, which was down to certain products I was using, including the old cleanser I was using. This one has helped clear my skin so much and for under £3.00 I am so CHUFFED to have finally discovered it.

So now my beauty favourites are done, time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month!

Image taken from tenor.com

Favourite TV Show – Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.

This is such a random one TV show to start watching, but recently BBC put it onto iPlayer so I’ve just been binge watching it pretty much. I used to LOVE Two Pints growing up and as a student, I just felt like I could relate to it, even with the humour and such. It also just reminds me of when I was younger too with the themes and the fact it’s set back when I was younger. I’m currently on season 5 and close to finishing it. If like me you loved Two Pints growing up, then honestly give yourself a blast to the past and watch the whole box set on iPlayer whilst it’s on there.

Image taken from Giphy.com

Image taken from giphy.com

Favourite Film – Inglorious Basterds.

This was such a random film for me to watch but I saw it on Netflix in July and just thought I’d pop it on to watch one morning whilst I got ready for work. One morning turned into a week pretty much! I do love this film so much and it’s definitely one of my favourites by Quentin Tarantino for many reasons. I remember going to see it with my dad when it came out and he loved it so much. When looking for gifs for this post I giggled at so many awesome ones! 😛

Image taken from giphy.com

Favourite Book – A Polar Bear In Love Vol 3.

Yay finally Vol.3 came out in July and I was so excited to read it after how they left off in Vol.2! I honestly love A Polar Bear In Love, as it is such an adorable manga and one that I will enjoy reading until it finishes. I FINALLY found a gif to use on my blog for posts like this one! They also have short anime clips out of parts from the manga, which is equally adorable, if not cuter. 😛 If you love cute manga, I cannot recommend this enough!

Favourite Song/Album – Daft Punk Random Access Memories.

Recently at work we were talking about music and one of the questions that went around the office was, “What band would you like to see before you die?” and my answer was Daft Punk. I have LOVED this band for as long as I can remember and they are a massive part of my life. They’re the reason for my love of a lot of music and are for sure a band I would love to see perform. This is the last album they released (I pray they’ll bring out another soon!) back in 2013 and it came out not long before I met Dane. This album reminds me of that year and how rough it was. I listened to it when things were hard because it always made me feel better. I even wrote a MASSIVE review on it back in the day, which I’ll link here. I’ve been listening to this album quite a lot since then and ARGH I just forgot how much I love it and how I need more Daft Punk albums on my iPod for my car. I’ve added a couple of my favourite songs from the album above.

Image taken from giphy.com

Favourite Game – Pokemon Go

Yes, I am still playing Pokemon Go and I am LOVING every minute of it. Me and Dane are still playing it loads and even going out late at night to play it. Since me and Dane bought our Pokemon Go Pluses we play it every day. I know it’s seen as a lazy way to play the game, but if you’re going for a walk, or a day out shopping you don’t have to get your phone out to get all the Poke Stops you walk past, which is so handy. The only issue I have is that the game drains my battery, but that’s what I have my battery pack for. 😛 Recently on our way home from visiting Dane’s parents we made a u turn to a local shopping area so that we could catch a Dragonite! It was for sure worth it and we both have a Pokemon we’ve wanted for AGES. I just love the game so much and I wish I’d never stopped playing it years ago. I remember the game coming out in July 2016 and that’s when me and Dane were doing up our house so it does take me back to that time too. 🙂

So those were my favourites from July! I feel like they weren’t anything special but to be honest with you I feel like July went by in a ball of madness! It’s been a pretty decent month to be honest in every single way. As I said at the start of the post me and Dane both had some great news, we’ve had some amazing sunny weather and some much needed rain. It’s overall been a pretty decent month and I’m excited for what August brings!

What were your favourites from July? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a great week so far.

Lip Wish List

Okay now I know the title of this post sounds odd but, bear with me. 😛

As regular readers or even friends of mine who read my blog will know, I don’t really wear make-up… Only lip products. Why? Because I like being this way.

When I was younger I always wore eye make-up and tinted lip balms but as I grew older I just didn’t like wearing make-up anymore and swapped pretty eye shadows and liners for gorgeous lipsticks instead. I’ve only ever worn concealer, foundation and blush once and it made me look fake and like a doll, I hated it and washed it off as soon as I could!

These days as well, even if I do see a pretty eyeshadow or liner that I would love to own, it would be a waste of money me buying it as eye make-up really hurts my eyes these days and as I wear glasses it’s pointless anyway. My eyelashes are naturally long (lucky me, eh?) so I don’t really need to wear mascara, but even if I wanted to I couldn’t. My eyelashes are so long they brush against the lenses of my glasses at times, so imagine how they would be with mascara on too?

So when I have a girly treat it’s usually on a lipstick or gloss or maybe even a new bottle of perfume and as I love wearing my lip products so much, I’m always finding new ones that I want to add to my collection… AND beauty bloggers don’t help that either! 😛

I’ve compiled a list of which ones I really want, both a mixture of expensive and affordable, so I hope you like this post, I thought it would be something different and you may even discover a lip product you never even knew existed! So enjoy!

L-R: NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Monte Carlo, Bourjois Paris Colour Boost Lip Crayon in Plum Russian, Clinique Chubby Stick Intense Moisturising Lip Colour Balm in Plushest Punch, Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in Candy Shimmer, Revlon Lip Butter in Pink Lemonade & NYX Butter Gloss in Peaches & Cream.
BL: Korres Lip Butter in Wild Rose.
BR: OCC Lip Tar Stained Gloss in New Wave.

As you can see, I have a lot of products to talk about, so let’s get to it. There’s a mixture of lip creams, crayons, balms, butters, glosses, butters and even a stained gloss. It covers a bit of everything, well everything bar your standard lipstick, but I have plenty of those to keep me satisfied. I’ll be talking about these in the order they’re mentioned below the image, just to save confusion. 🙂

• NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Monte Carlo from nyxcosmeticsstore.co.uk – £5.50

I came to hear about this lip cream when searching for a duplicate colour for Lime Crime’s Red Velvet Velvetine. I looked at some beauty bloggers reviews for Monte Carlo and I was hooked on the shade. It’s a beautiful dark deep red shade that some beauty bloggers have commented saying that it’s more of a berry red, which is right up my street! I’ve never been a fan of the classic bright red lip, I’ve always liked my red lip shade to be dark and vampy looking and from checking out swatches of Monte Carlo online, it’s exactly that. As it’s a lip cream it will apply like a gloss but dries like a matte lipstick, but don’t forget it’s neither a lipstick or a lip gloss, it’s a lip cream. These are said to be moistursing and remind me of the lip creams by Collection 2000. I love my Collection 2000 Cream Puff lip creams (review for Fairy Cake here) but I would love to own more as they stay on the lips for ages and with the winter season coming up and dark lipsticks being all I wear during that season, I need this lip cream in my life as soon as possible. Plus it’s an affordable price and although I do need to shop around, NYX Cosmetics seem to have it at the cheapest price, however their delivery is £4.50, but as I want a few products from them, I may pay the postage fee… We shall see!

• Bourjois Paris Colour Boost Lip Crayon in Plum Russian from boots.com – £7.99

I eyed up these lip crayons by Bourjois when they first made their appearance over the summer. I’d seen them written about on most beauty blogs and Peach on the Beach caught my eye the most, however, when I went to swatch them in Boots one afternoon the colour no longer stood out to me, infact none of them did. The formula felt lovely and creamy mind and the type of product I would like to own in future. As if Bourjois heard my prayers that they would create some darker shades for autumn and winter, they brought out two new shades, one being Plum Russian. Many beauty bloggers described this as being a dupe of MAC Rebel (my review for that can be found here) but more creamy and upon checking out their swatches, I can see why they said this. After a week of searching for Plum Russian to see if these claims were accurate on my skin tone, I finally found it to swatch and it did look like a creamier version of Rebel on the back of the hand. As much as I love Rebel, it’s too dark for me to wear to work and its by far my favourite lipstick so it makes me a little sad, however I know this would be workable due to it being glossy and creamy. It’s not cheap at £7.99, so I’m going to wait until it’s on a 3 for 2 offer in Boots or Superdrug so I can pick up a few bits and pieces alongside it. I really do want to own a few more lip crayons, they’re easy to use and are really moisturising too, something we all need during the colder months.

• Clinique Chubby Stick Intense Moisturising Lip Colour Balm in Plushest Punch from clinique.co.uk – £17.00

I saw this reviewed on Temptalia’s blog in March and since then I have been wanting this lip crayon for a while. As I always say when I mention her, she always does the best swatches out there and some of the best reviews I’ve ever read, I always pop over to her blog when I want a good review on a MAC lipstick. It’s described as a raspberry pink, which is always a nice shade that can be worn throughout the year from spring to winter. I’ve come to notice that Chubby Stick’s have always had mixed reviews, some saying they were a waste of money due to lack of moisturisation and no scent or taste, whilst others have liked that they don’t have any scent or taste to them and commented how pigmented they are. Clinique are known for their products being allergy tested and 100% fragrance free, so of course they aren’t going to smell or taste of anything, they’re fragrance free! It’d make a nice change to have a lip product that didn’t have a taste of scent to it, just for a change as most days lip products taste of chocolate, vanilla, etc and that just makes me hungry! Especially Rebel, which reminds of warm doughnuts from those little huts in town centers. Anyway, I’ve digressed… I still need to swatch Plushest Punch as for all I know I could go to swatch it in store and find that I already have a lip product this same colour. Either way it looks gorgeous and is something I would like to have in my collection. I’ve actually been looking at buying a little sampler version of this from eBay for less than £7.00, but whether I do or not… We shall see!

• Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in Candy Shimmer from clarins.co.uk – £17.00

In June my friend Poppy told me about this lip balm, which she also reviewed over on her blog so when I went over for a nose at swatches, as well as her thoughts and feelings on it, I got to see how gorgeous this is. I eventually popped into Clarins to swatch it and it’s a gorgeous pink with shimmer running throughout it. I nearly bought it there and then but I knew I needed to save money and put the tube back down and admired the swatch on the back of my hand for the rest of the afternoon. The applicator is made out of soft sponge and feels really soft, as well as feeling it, which will be really delicate on the lips if they’re sore. For a lip balm, it is a tad on the expensive side but I actually thought this was a lip gloss, but as Clarins describes this as a balm, I’ll go with that! This is the type of thing I would wear if I’m having an off day, or just for work! Have found this cheaper on eBay, but whether or not I buy it from there, I’m unsure but it’s in my watch list for now.

• Revlon Lip Butter in Pink Lemonade from boots.com – Was £7.99, now £5.99

I currently own three lip butters, Candy Apple, Sweet Tart and Wild Watermelon (reviews of these anyone?) so you wouldn’t think I’d need anymore, surely? Well we all thought wrong as I’ve seen at least four I’ve wanted, but I’ll be good and just want this one… For now. When Revlon released some more shades in June for the summer, Pink Lemonade was one of them and at first I didn’t like the look of it, it looked pale and just not my type of shade, but after seeing Maybe It’s Megan Leigh review this over at her blog (she’s love BTW!) I just fell in love with the colour. It’s a pastel pink shade but due to the lip butter formula it looks more like a sheer pink gloss, which can be wearable for any occasion. Like Clarins Candy Shimmer I’d probably wear this when I’m feeling a tad under the weather, as well as for work. I swatched this a few weekends ago and it looked lovely and I discovered it’s pretty build-able too, so if you wanted it to be a lighter pale pink you would only need one covering, but if you wanted a darker pale pink then pack it on (but not TOO much of course!) I was close to buying this when swatching it, but I’m not in any rush and I’ve found people put brand new lip butters on eBay and beauty blog sales for next to nothing, so I’m keeping my eyes peeled for now, but this being said, £5.99 isn’t a bad price for a Revlon Lip Butter.

• NYX Butter Gloss in Peaches & Cream from nyxcosmeticsstore.co.uk – £5.00

Another NYX product, but this one is a little different from Monte Carlo. I’ve never heard of a butter gloss until now and according to NYX Cosmetics website it’s a lip gloss that gives you a sheer to medium coverage on your lips and doesn’t leave being the sticky feeling that most of us dislike with lip glosses. It can be used alone or over a lipstick of a similar shade, I’d use this on its own though. Once again, I discovered this product through Maybe It’s Megan Leigh and you can check her post/review out about Peaches & Cream here. It looks like a gorgeous bubble gum pink, even though it sounds like it’s meant to resemble a creamy peach shade. Nevertheless it looks gorgeous and for £5.00 I would wear this butter gloss quite a lot. I’d wear it to work, when out and about, as well as when seeing my boyfriend. It claims to be nourishing too, which would be a nice treat during the cold winter days when my lips may feel chapped and dry. This sounds really thick and creamy and right up my street for the type of lip glosses I like.

• Korres Lip Butter in Wild Rose from feelunique.com – £8.00

I’ve never really seen the hype amongst beauty bloggers about Korres lip butters, until I looked closer at them. All the different scents have different shades too, Wild Rose is a deep berry colour, which reminds me of Illamasqua’s Magnetism lipstick (you can read my review of that here) Deep berry is one of my favourite shades I like to wear during autumn and winter but sometimes I want that dark lip, but at the same time I want to moisturise my lips. Most lip balms and butters won’t give the pigmentation that a lipstick or gloss will, but this lip butter appears to do just that and after reading Sparkly Vodka’s post about Wild Rose, I can safely say I NEED this in my handbag at all times! I’ve found this new on eBay cheaper, but I’ll be keeping my eyes out for this in future.

• OCC Lip Tar Stained Gloss in New Wave from love-makeup.co.uk – £12.00

Since Temptalia reviewed this in May this year, I’ve been after getting New Wave to add to my lip product collection. I have heard nothing but positivity about OCC Lip Tar’s, but I really want the gloss version of these, as whilst the normal lip tars look great, the added gloss just looks lovely! New Wave is described as a classy neon pink, which it looks to be from the swatches Temptalia shows on her post about it. It looks lovely and is the type of thing I would wear on a cold day to pick me up, due to its neon like colour. I reckon I would have such fun using this lip tar and it comes with a little brush so that you can apply it too. I wouldn’t use this for work as it sounds a little fiddly, it’d be more something I would use for evenings and nights out and probably days out shopping with friends, maybe for meals too. Either way, I know I’ll be getting myself a lip tar by 2014!

So that was my lip wish list! Technically MAC – Speak Louder lipstick should be on that list too, but that’s in my November Wish List, which you can find (here).

So do you own any of the lip products on my wish list? If so which ones and are they good or bad?

Do you have a lip wish list? Or even an eye-make up or nail polish wish list? If you do, please feel free to share some of the products you want.

Leave all this down in the comments. 🙂

Until next time take care!