September Favourites 2016 & September Goals Update
Tuesday, 4 October 2016
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l-r: MAC Powder Blush in Dame, MAC Warm Neutrals Palette: Creative Copper, Amber Lights, Honey Lust & Ginger Snap, Charlotte Tilbury Hot Lips Matte Revolution Lipstick in Secret Salma & Benefit's They're Real Push-Up Liner in Beyond Black
Another month, another favourites post. I don't have a ton of favourites this month, with me going to the gym so much - I know! I never thought I would be typing that sentence either! - I've been wearing considerably less make up than usual, although I do still wear make up at the gym... like who does that?! Well I do. I know it's ridiculous, but it's self preservation, it's a giant room full of mirrors! Anyway I don't have a ton of beauty favourites, so I thought that now would be a good time to catch you up on my September Goals and let you know how I got on. This post might get long and rambly, so if you want to make a cup of tea and grab some food I will wait for you. First things first though favourites!
O.P.I Nail Lacquer in The I's Have It - £9.50 from Beauty Bay
I'm so excited for Autumn to properly set in. I'm so ready for it. In the meantime I've been making the most of the last couple of days of sunshine with this soft powder blue nail polish. My nails are really weak and bitten down at the moment so I haven't been painting them much, but I have been using this on my toes pretty much constantly for the past 5 weeks. The I's Have It is part of O.P.I's Alice Through The Looking Glass collection and it's so pretty. You guys know I can never resist a blue nail polish and this one has a really nice formula. It's creamy, it applies easily, it has a glossy, plumped finish and really nice pigmentation. I like it a lot, and it will probably be my last chance to wear it this year. Sob! But also yay!
MAC Powder Blush in Dame - £18.50 from MAC
I hadn't used this beaut of a blusher in a really long time, my original pan got wet so I couldn't use it anymore, I then repurchased it a couple of weeks ago and have completely fallen back in love with it. It's a blue toned, ballerina pink, it matches my skin tone perfectly and adds a really pretty, natural flush of colour to my Caspar-like complexion. I can't believe I've gone so long without using it because I used it every single day for well over three years and I love it so much! It's beautiful!
MAC Warm Neutrals Palette - £49.50 from MAC
I've been showing this palette a whole lot of love lately because it's really nice, especially for Autumnal smokey eye looks. I love it because the shadows themselves are amazing! They're pigmented, they blend beautifully and the shade range is on point. My favourite shadows in the palette are Honey Lust - a pale peachy bronze, Creative Copper - a yellow toned gold, Amber Lights - an orange toned bronze, and Ginger Snap - a rose gold, but I love the whole palette. I especially love that it's warm toned, my skin tone is very cool (read pale) so I don't use a lot of warm tones, except for on my eyes, warm toned neutrals work really well with lighter eyes. I have blue eyes and using warmer tones really makes them pop. It's a beautiful palette.
Charlotte Tilbury Hot Lips Matte Revolution Lipstick in Secret Salma - £23 from Charlotte Tilbury
Secret Salma is a really recent purchase, I only bought it two weeks ago, but it's already scored major favourites points by being an absolute dream of a lipstick. It's a really, really beautiful plum colour, which is my go to lipstick shade for Autumn, and the formulation is amazing. It's completely matte but not powdery or drying, it lasts a long time and due to the unique design of the bullet, it's so easy to apply. I've already used it a ton and I can definitely see that this will be making it's permanent home in my handbag and becoming my everyday lipstick. It's beautiful and the packaging is incredible!
Benefit They're Real Mascara - £19.50 from Boots
Until recently I've never really been a massive fan of this mascara, despite it achieving cult status in the beauty community. But after running out of my favourite Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara I started using this and I actually really like it. The rubber wand - despite the fact that it looks like a medieval torture device- really helps to define, lengthen and volumise the lashes, but the brush was never the problem. The problem I had was always with the formula, which felt really dry, it flaked and it made my lashes feel rubbery and almost like you could peel them off. Blerrgh! It doesn't seem to have that problem anymore, maybe it's got better because it's dried out a bit, I don't know why it suddenly works for me but it does so I'm not gonna question it.
Benefit They're Real Push-Up Liner in Beyond Black - £18.50 from Boots
I'm no slouch when it comes to winging my eyeliner, it took years of practice and trying every type of formulation that I could get my hands on, but I've pretty much nailed my technique now. When I'm feeling lazy with my wings - which is basically everyday... I want them but quickly! - this is the eyeliner I reach for. It's the simplest eyeliner in the world to use, even if you're not a seasoned pro like myself. The slanted silicone tip is designed specifically for fuss free flicks and it works! You just stamp the nib on the outer edge of the lash line and then glide. Stamp and glide. That's it! It has a good formula too, pigmented and budge proof, it ain't going no where for no one until you want it too. The only downfall is that it's a twist up pen, which is definitely a good thing, but there's a bit of a knack to getting the right amount of product out, and things can get a bit messy. Other than that I have no complaints.
Let's talk about my September Goals. We'll start with the negatives first because there are some, but luckily there are more positives. I'll admit I didn't quite live up to the challenge I set myself this month. To refresh your memory if you haven't read my September Goals post (you can here) my goals were to:
1. Post all content on time
2. Learn to play a complete song on the guitar
3. Change stone bracket
4. Do interval training on the treadmill
5. Post my first youtube video
Now I haven't managed to post all my content on time, nor have I posted my first youtube video, although that is definitely in the pipeline. This past month has been really manic and my blog has had to take a bit of a back seat to everything else unfortunately, hopefully things will calm down a bit so I can make it my top priority again. It was a bit of a different story when it came to youtubing, I actually have spent a couple of days filming and I was really unhappy with the results. I think I filmed about 6 versions of the same video and I was really not happy to upload it, so I didn't. I've realised that there is so much I need to learn about making videos before I feel that I can actually post anything. I will work on it though and you guys will be the first people to know when that happens. I'm hoping that that will be before the end of this year.
So that was the bad news now on to the good bit, everything else that I wanted to do in September, I have done and I'm over the moon. I'm so happy. Firstly guitar, I can actually play quite a few songs on my no longer neglected guitar, Maggie, but the first one I could play start to finish (and it actually sound like it!!!) is a song called Last Train Home by Ryan Star, which is a song I've loved since I was 16. Just to clarify I said I wanted to be able to play a song, I didn't say I had to be good at it. But I'm slowly getting there. Speaking of getting there I have changed my stone bracket. I now see a completely different number whenever I get on the scales. I've also gone down a dress size and, last time I checked I am due to check again, I have lost a total of 4.5 inches from all over my body. I'm so happy and feeling super motivated to stay on track. Last but not least interval training, this was the thing I was most worried about. I was convinced I wouldn't be able to do it, but I actually managed to achieve it quite early on in the month, and I now do it 3-4 times a week. I realised that my main problem was the way I approached it. I was so convinced that I couldn't do it that I couldn't do it. But once I started thinking that I could do it and I was gonna smash it that's when I did. The annoying thing is I'd tried to do it a few times previously, and I'd managed to do about 8 minutes of it, what I didn't know is that after 9 minutes it gets easy. So I'd already done the hard bit, I just didn't know. Even though I didn't achieve everything I wanted to I'm still really happy with my progress. I worked hard and it has paid off.
Love love love xxx
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