Hello beauties and welcome to another monthly favourites! January has literally flown by and I can't believe we're already a month into 2014, it still feels like 2010 was only yesterday to me! Anyway, on with my favourites, I've been trying out some new things this month that I still haven't completely made my mind up on, but a lot of them I have loved so there are quite a few newbies this month!
So, this month I have three new skincare favourites. Firstly, is 100% Argan Oil which I use to moisturise my face at night. I have actually had this and been using it for a few months now but seeing as I didn't do a December Favourites I thought I'd mention it in this post. I have dry/normal/combination skin (literally it's all over the place) and I find this great for whatever phase my skins going through. It's pretty heavy so I put it on an hour or so before I go to bed so it can sink in, and then when I wake up my skin feels lovely and soft and moisturised!
Secondly is Eau Roma Water Toner from Lush which I mentioned in my recent Lush Haul post. I wasn't actually expecting great things from this toner aside from a little added hydration but it's really helped to sooth my skin and actually reduced a lot of my redness. Plus it smells really calming and spa like so I'm in total love with it!
Thirdly is an old favourite (although if you've been reading my blog a while you'll notice I finally bought a new one) and also a product mentioned in my recent Lush Haul. Grease Lightning is, without a shadow of a doubt, my favourite spot treatment because it reduces any breakouts I have super quickly without really drying my skin out. I had a really annoying hormonal breakout on my jaw this month and this just really helped to reduce it super quickly!
On to makeup, and this is a product which I hadn't really cared for in the past. I got this mini Porefessional ages ago as a free gift with another Benefit purchase and I had used it on and off and never really seen what was so great about it. But this month I found that everyday when I got in from college I was noticed my makeup had settled into the pores around my nose, so I decided to give this another go and, as you can probably guess, it sorted the problem out straight away. I ended up liking it so much that I pretty much entirely used up the sample. Now before I repurchase it, I am going to try the new Maybelline baby skin primer to see how it compares but I can see myself repurchasing this very soon.
Next is a pretty cult product here in the beauty world. I don't know why it took me so long to buy Studio Finish but now I finally got it I'm beginning to wonder how I coped without it. This makes any redness and unevenness I have completely disappear and it's absolutely amazing on breakouts! Not only is it super amazing coverage, but it has great lasting power so you don't have to keep touching up throughout the day. My only issue is that I think I may have got the wrong colour. The neareast MAC counter to me is very far away, especially when you don't have a car so I ordered this online going off my Pro Long Wear concealer as a guide. Although I can get away with NW15 with some blending, I do think NW20 would have suited me a little better. So, I don't know whether to order it or just make do with this one. Either way, I still love this product.
Finally for makeup, is another old favourite. For a while I went through a phase of either not contouring at all or when I did, having a really diffused contour but this month I have gotten full back into having a really defined and structured contour and so, my eyes fell to my Sleek Face Form palette to do so. Although the contour colour is a bit orange, I do really love it and love how easy it is to blend. I've also been loving the highlight for the cheekbones, brow bone and cupid's bow to add some winter glow.
Last in my beauty favourites is a hair product. Now, I'm not a huge hair styling person, hair is not my thing I'm just not very good at it. But, I recently got my hair chopped quite a lot and I decided to put more effort into it. My Mum spotted this Batiste volumising powder in Superdrug on an introductory offer so obviously I snapped it up (having quite fine flat hair naturally I need all the volume I can get). I've been trying to find the Schwartzkopf volumising powder for ages but for some reason my local Superdrug just doesn't carry it! So, I grabbed this and I absolutely love it! It does make your hair feel quite thick and sticky and actually a little dirty, but you can't tell to look at it. It pretty much stays in all day too and it's so quick that I don't even need to make much time for my hair in the mornings!
Random Favourite!
My non-beauty favourite this month is Animal Crossing: New Leaf! This has been out for a while now and I was super, super excited for it but I didn't get around to buying it until a little after Christmas. There's still a hell of a lot I need to do in my town but I really love playing it a little everyday and it's lived up to and beyond all my expectations. The only bad thing about it is that it means I'm neglecting my Wild World town - oops!
Well that's it for this month, I hope January treated you well and that February treats you even better!
Have a fabulous day,
Nikki x
