October favourites.

So it's that time of the month again where I share with you what I've been enjoying throughout this month. This blog has had some serious neglect the past couple of weeks and it's time to kick myself back into shape! 

As we all know, October will soon be over and Christmas will be soon be upon us, but today's post will share with you what I've been enjoying in October, quite possibly one of my favourite months as the transition into Autumn/Winter starts to happen! 

To start this post off, I've really been enjoying the Carex Fun Edition Bubblegum hand soap. 

This thing smells like something directly descended from the Gods, it's so yummy. As you can see from the photo, it's really appealing to children due to it's bright colours and sweetie reference, but can I just say I was a little excited when I actually managed to find? I've used the strawberry lace and cola bottle versions of these and loved them but could never ever find this one! It leaves an absolutely gorgeous smell on your hands which isn't overpowering but you can definitely smell it. I love Carex hand soaps as they leave my hands super super soft and of course with this one, smelling absolutely delicious. I'm sure I picked this up in Sainsburys on offer for £1.00 but normally they're only around £1.50 anyway. 

The second thing I've been enjoying this month is the Essence Get Big Lashes mascara. 

I mentioned this mascara in my previous post as being one of my favourite mascaras, but this month has been the real "test drive" month for me. I've loved applying this mascara and have even been asked on a couple of occasions if I'm wearing false lashes. It makes them thick, long and it's one of the only mascaras I've used that doesn't flake off onto your face. Considering I've been using it for around 5 or so weeks now, it hasn't dried out which is also really good as normally my mascara would be nearly dried out by now. I've recommended this to a lot of people who have also said they love this mascara, so if your local Wilko has an Essence stand in it, grab this for £2.30 (ish) and get yourself an actual bargain. 

Another one of my favourites this month is quite an oldie but by no means forgotten. I'm extremely late in trying this foundation, but it's the Max Factor Facefinity Compact. 

I remember using this foundation years and years ago from one of my at the time friends, who absolutely loved it. I've been meaning to purchase this for quite a long time and I loved it, but have never felt the need to until now. Now I've begun using brushes and different tools to apply my foundation, I wanted something I could take along with me, should I need a touch up throughout the day. I picked this up in Porcelain, and me being a very pale girl, I'm extremely surprised at how well this matches my skin. In the pan, this product looks orange. I'm not even kidding, I swatched it in the shop and was like "great, it's a nice colour" but when I got it home I was shocked to find my product wasn't the same colour as the one in the pan in the shop. However, upon swatching mine, I was pleasantly surprised that it was so pale. It's an almost perfect match, if not a tiny tiny bit too dark. However, going into the winter months it'll be nice to have some sort of colour to my face! It's not a heavy coverage, I'd say more light to medium but definitely buildable. I wouldn't say it's extremely long lasting but I can definitely feel it on my face a couple of hours later. I managed to find this on offer for (I think) £7.00, but I think it normally retails for around the £15 mark. 

It's no shock to hear that I've also been enjoying yet another lip product this month. 

Again, the rosy lips vaseline is another tried and tested product but one I keep finding myself going back to time and time again. I won't go into to much detail about this as I'm sure I mentioned Vaseline in my top lip products, but I absolutely love the subtle pinky red colour this lip balm produces on my lips. These tins last me so long, at one point I'm sure I had two of these on the go as I lost one then rediscovered it! It's super moisturising, long lasting and to be honest, I wouldn't feel normal if I didn't have a tin of Vaseline hanging around on me somewhere! I picked this up for around £1.00 from Asda but I'm sure it's normally about £1.50.

Just to add to my Lush addiction, I have a new found love from there. 

I absolutely adore Lush hair products and I'm so glad I took the plunge into changing to using their shampoo, conditioner and hair moisturisers. However, this little gem seemed to pass my eyes for the past year or so. I have been using Jungle as a conditioner but felt like I needed something a bit heavier for my natural curly hair to feel "conditioned". After a good talk to one of the store assistants, I hurried away with a sample of this ready to use on my hair wash day. Can I just say, why the hell haven't I bought this before? It smells absolutely delicious, leaves my hair super soft in between washes and honestly is one of the best conditioners I have ever used. If you've ever seen a sample pot from Lush, you'll know they're tiny, however I managed to get 3 uses out of mine. This shocked me as I have really thick curly hair and usually would use SO MUCH conditioner but this is really easy to work into your hair, meaning for me, I actually used less but had extremely good results from it. After using this, I use R&B (another post I need to do...!) and my hair is left feeling silky smooth without looking or feeling greasy. I'm definitely going to be purchasing a full sized bottle of this when I get paid as I literally have fallen in love with yet ANOTHER Lush product! Kudos to you guys at Lush, you certainly know how to make your hair products. I'm sure this retails for around the £10.00 mark for one of the middle sized bottles but in my opinion, it's worth it as I say, I managed to get 3 uses out of my sample pot! 

And last but not least...I've found yet ANOTHER tool to put my foundation on with.

Now, I've seen these brushes floating around for a while and love the way foundation looks when applied with one of these so really, I had to have a go for myself. I didn't want to break the bank by spending over £10 on one from Real Techniques so I picked this one up from my local Wilkinsons for around £3-4 I think. I love how flawless this makes my foundation look when I've applied it, it doesn't cake it on and it doesn't leave streaks where I've buffed it into my skin. The bristles on this brush are really soft and delicate, and as of yet, mine hasn't even lost any bristles! It really surprised me because I was expecting for some to fall out as soon as I used it, but nothing has fallen out yet. I'm glad I've tried this out, I'm definitely converted. I love using this brush, it's really easy to clean too and dried out in literally half an hour. 

This brings my post to an end, yet another month has (nearly) passed us by! I cannot believe we're at the end of October already, this year has gone SO fast. 

What products have you been loving this month? 

♥

Top 3: Mascaras.

The last few months have been a huge change for me regarding my makeup. I've been more adventurous with both applying and purchasing makeup I necessarily wouldn't have done beforehand. One thing I'm quite...anal (shush!) about is my mascara. I like big, thick, dramatic lashes. My natural lashes are quite dark, long and thick anyway but I like serious lashes! The only downside is the price of most of the mascaras I like is normally over £10 and I'm sorry but I'm just not okay with spending that amount on a mascara. This is why I shop around and try out mascaras people normally would pass their eyes over. 

My top 3 mascaras price range is from £2.30 to £7.99, but each of these have topped it as my favourite because they all do the same thing, which is making my lashes thick, long and dramatic. 

The first mascara is Essence Get Big Lashes volume curl mascara.

Essence has taken the beauty world by storm and for quite a good reason too. I've tried a couple of their products and have been seriously impressed with them. This mascara is a good, thick formula and even though I've been using it for a couple of weeks, it doesn't seem like it's dried out at all which is a good thing because 99% of mascaras I've owned in the past have dried out in a couple of weeks! The tube itself is quite large, so it's easily to hold whilst you're applying the product. The brush itself is a classic bristle brush, but it's quite large which means it can cover more lashes in one swipe. It's also curved, which obviously means (or is supposed to...) it changes the shape of your lashes. And yes, this mascara costs £2.30. An absolute BARGAIN. This, for me, has taken over a firm favourite of mine because it does exactly the same as the more expensive mascara I will mention in this post. It makes my lashes long and thick in one swipe and is easily buildable for more dramatic lashes. I love the formula of this mascara, I love the brush, it doesn't flake off on my face and doesn't clump easily either. Did I mention it was only £2.30? This mascara retails at Wilkinsons both in store and online. 

The next mascara is Rimmel Extra Super Lash.

This was one I had been using for years as it was the cheapest I could find. Again, this mascara has a curved brush but I didn't actually realise you could get just a straight brush in this mascara too. To me, this has quite a wet formula so you have to be careful when you're applying it because if you blink it'll go everywhere! I found this was better after the first week or so of use as it had dried out a little. You definitely have to build layers with this if you want thick lashes but it definitely gives you long lashes in one swipe. The tube itself is quite thin so it doesn't feel like you get a lot of product but my last tube lasted me quite a while. I'm not sure I'd repurchase this mascara now I've found better ones, but it was one I had repurchased time and time again, normally for around £4.99. It's widely available with Rimmel retailers and online too. 

The last and possibly the most popular mascara, Maybelline "The Falsies" mascara.

This mascara is just amazing. I've used this on and off for YEARS and something just keeps bringing me back to it. This mascara gives you thick, dramatic lashes in one swipe but again is easily buildable for even more out-there lashes. The brush is almost flat and curved, it's really odd but it gets lashes I didn't even know I had. I found this mascara would crumble quite easily which was rather annoying as I'd end up with black flecks on my face throughout the day. The only problem I have is that it dries out REALLY quickly, its fine for about the first couple of weeks then it goes dry and crumbly. I love the brush on this mascara, I have tried the "flared" version of this and wasn't so keen as they seemed to have changed the shape of the brush and found it a little more difficult to reach my corner lashes. Honestly, this would be my staple if it wasn't so expensive too! It retails for around £8 in almost every drugstore, so it's easily available. 

So, there we have it, my top 3 mascaras. Which mascaras are your favourites?

♥

September favourites.

I knowwww I know, we're already 5 days into October but I've been so busy with my new job I just haven't had time to sit and blog. However, I'm not doing anything today so lets get on with the show! I thought I'd do my first "favourites" post. I'm forever reading them on other blogs and always watching videos on youtube so hey, lets give it a go. 

To start off this favourites post, I'm going to show you my favourite food for this month. It's no secret that I do my weekly food shopping at Lidl, I just cannot get enough of it. The thing I've been consistently purchasing has been hazelnut spread filled croissants. They're so yummy, I know they're a bit indulgent for breakfast but they're really nice if warmed up slightly as the middle goes gooey. They're £1.29 (I think? Or there abouts...) for 5, so if you're ever in Lidl and see these about, grab some as they're so nice! 

My second favourite for this month is the Neutrogena Visibly Clear pink grapefruit facial wash. Recently I've been suffering with really oily skin and this seems to do the trick for me. As instructed on the packaging, I've been using this once in the morning (before I apply my makeup) and at night (once I've removed my makeup). It leaves my face feeling super clean without making my skin feel tight, if you know what I mean? It smells so nice too which is a bonus! I think I bought this from Tesco (I had a mini haul from there the start of the month) for around £3.00 and even though I use it twice daily, I've barely used any of this product. 

Now I had to jump on the bandwagon of using micellar water to remove my makeup and I'm 

really glad I have. I've been using Garnier Micellar Water to remove my makeup daily and it's really improved the look and feel of my skin. It's a lot more gentle on the skin and doesn't cause me to have any sort of dry patches or irritated patches. It's really cheap too, I bought this when it was on offer in Tesco for £2.00 and it's lasted me absolutely ages, I've been using it daily for around a month now and I'm not even half way through the bottle! Now before people go "it's just normal water" it's really not, it feels really weird when it's on your skin. I can't describe it, it makes my skin feel really silky...definitely buy some if you're thinking about it! 

I'm a sucker for dry shampoo as I've stated before, I only wash my hair twice a week. I've been accustomed to Superdrug own brand dry shampoo for years, then moving on to "Girls Only" even Wilkinsons own. I then finally tried several different ranges in Batiste. My favourite so far has to be the one with cherry packaging, however when I went to my local Superdrug they didn't seem to have any in so I picked up one with really pretty floral packaging. It smells absolutely amazing and definitely makes my hair feel cleaner when I've used it. I think this was around £1.49 on offer when I purchased it, it's a pretty basic dry shampoo and I definitely love it! 

And my final favourite of the month has to be The Sims 4. This was a total surprise present from my boyfriend, I'd been hassling him for ages saying how much I wanted to buy it but couldn't afford it (£50 was a lot at the time as I recently changed jobs and had no money coming in until recently..!) so one Friday when I came home from work, he asked me to make him a cup of coffee and  there it was, in the cutlery drawer! I was so happy I literally did a little dance in the kitchen and screamed! I instantly installed it on my laptop and have been hooked ever since. Okay, at the moment I don't think it's as good as TS3, but hey, it's only just been released, let's give it time! I'll more than likely do a separate post on TS4 but for now I'll keep it brief, it's actually okay despite so many negative reviews. 

Sorry this post has been so brief but I just felt like sharing a couple of my favourites from September 2014 as I hadn't updated my blog in a while. I've got a couple of posts in mind that I'd like to do, so when I've planned those out properly I'll have them up in no time!

Hopefully I'll be back up and will be updating regularly again when I have more spare time and when I have structured rotas from work, so I look forward to updating you guys then! 

♥