jxdecharlotte: favourites

favourites

Getting back into the swing of things – and because it’s practically been a century since I’ve done one – I thought I’d do a monthly favourites post… In the middle of the month because that makes perfect sense. There’s been so many new things I’ve fallen in love with (become obsessed with) recently. So to hopefully make things make sense, I’ll split it into categories.

Face & Beauty

Amie morning clear purifying facial wash & Morning dew matte-finish moisturiser – My skin has been terribly oily since my early teens and it seemed that no matter how many different brands I’ve used or products I’ve tried, nothing wants to long-term banish the grease and zap the blackheads away. I was finding that even the cleansers that claimed to be the gentlest out there were bringing me out in a painful red rash. So just I ended up resigning myself to face wipes. I first heard about Amie Skincare through one of Lucy Moon’s videos, and from the sounds of it, she was having similar skin troubles, so off I popped to pick up a few products to try myself. I’ve been using both of these for just over a month now; twice a day for the face wash and once in the morning for the moisturiser; and the results are pretty amazing. The face wash is extremely kind and gentle with no added chemicals to irritate the skin. It removes all of my make-up as well as all the build-up of dirt and oils. The Morning Dew moisturiser also does its job by stopping my skin from becoming greasy again throughout the day and it isn’t sticky when applied. I’ll defiantly be repurchasing both. Also, the entire brand is cruelty free, so huge brownie points there too.

No7 Stay Perfect foundation – I’ll hold my hand up. I’m the world’s worst at getting my foundation to match my skin tone. What seems to suit me in store always looks bright orange at home. It’s not a good look to say the least. After running out of my last bottle of Rimmel Wake Me Up I just thought “sod it” and decided to get myself colour matched properly at my local Boots. The lady there was lovely and after doing the little test with the fancy machine, it turns out I’m not as orange as I thought. In fact, I’m apparently the lightest shade they have. Must be all my teenage years avoiding the sun coming back to haunt me. I picked up both the foundation and corresponding concealer in the shade ‘Calico’ and have been beyond obsessed ever since. One of the things I love most about this is that it’s not at all ‘cakey’, but still manages to cover old spot scars and thing perfectly as well as staying in place. I’m just happy I look more natural these days.

Benefit They’re Real mascara – For a while now I’ve noticed my eyes were stinging like mad and becoming incredibly irritated whenever I used black mascara. I tried switching to a new tube but it kept happening, and it wasn’t until I mentioned it to my optician that she suggested using a brown one instead. So far this has worked a treat and my eyes have been perfectly fine. I find it just as uplifting as the traditional black, as well as giving a ‘no make-up’ make-up look which is just my cuppa tea.

Charlotte Tilbury Bitch Perfect lipstick – After hearing the world rave about this brand as a whole (and spending countless hours poring through hundreds of fabulous blog posts) I managed to battle my way through the jam packed Covent Garden flagship store during my recent trip to London to get my mitts on this baby. In the end I went for the shade ‘Bitch Perfect’ as I was just so drawn to the colour and loved how it looked on. It’s a bit on the pricier side of things but I’d say that It’s defiantly worth every penny, just simply based on its staying power alone. I swear to you, it point blank refuses to budge from my lips – which is always a winning point for me. It also helps that I’m a complete sucker for rose gold packaging.

Fashion

Braletts – I’ve really gotten into the whole bralett trend recently. I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me at least, they’re a hell of a lot more comfortable than your run-of-the-mill bra. With no pesky wires or structure to keep jabbing me in the armpit/sideboob, I’m finding myself reaching for these more and more. Plus, there’s also the fact that they look so darn cute too. The most recent additions to my wardrobe is the lacy blue bralett and cotton grey triangle ones, both from Brandy Melville, and the delicate pink one which is from Primark and actually came as part of a set.

TV Shows

Stranger Things – If you haven’t already watched Stranger Things, what have you been doing all summer? Seriously all the hype that surrounds this show is so well deserved. I won’t say too much here as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but trust me. You’ll love this. Everything from the performances (shout out to Millie Bobby Brown) and the storylines and the set design is just perfectly flawless. Also, my inner fangirl is thrilled to have Winona Ryder back in the spotlight and just being her amazing self. I’ve missed her; welcome back Winona.

The Great British Bake Off – I won’t linger too much on the recent drama that’s surrounding our beloved Bake Off. I just hope and pray to Mary Berry herself (because she’s just that fabulous) that they go down the same route as Top Gear (the good old one, not the new one!) and remake it as their own on somewhere like Amazon or Netflix. Please, can this just happen already? It’s breaking my heart. Anyway, as I’m sure you can already tell, I’m addicted to the Great British Bake Off. It’s just so cozy and brilliant to curl up on the sofa to after a day of work with a cup of tea and a whole pack of chocolate Hobnobs. Because the Bake Off always makes me hungry. My favourites so far are Val, Andrew, Selasi (because who couldn’t like him?) and Tom, just because of that ‘T’ for Thor bread and all the innuendos and puns that came up with it.

Misc

Newt Scamanader funko pop - From practically the very first second Fantastic Beasts was announced I was desperate to get my own miniature little Newt. I’ve managed to build up a small collection of these cute little guys and girls from the Harry Potter line, so I knew straight away that I wanted to add Newt to the bunch. Just look at how stinking cute he is.

Thanks for reading,

Jade x

Friday, September 16, 2016
beauty

monthly favourites.

Face & Beauty

Fashion

TV Shows

Misc

Thanks for reading,

Jade x

Well, what can I say really apart from I'm sorry. We're at the end of January and I've only blogged once in thirty days! That's shocking! I could ramble on and list off a dozen and one excuses as to why I haven't put my fingers to a keyboard in quite some time, but let's face it, it mostly just comes down the the simple fact that I'm been extremely lazy and also just simply haven't had the time. I've been racing around like a mad women, back and forth between work and other general mundane life situations and in amongst all of that the whole month seems to have just vanished before my eyes; I swear that we were only ringing in the new year just last week.

Now with February upon us and hopefully some sunshine too, I just can't stand this constant cold snap, I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things once more and, fingers crossed, not full into such a blogging rut as this one has been. Okay, now that the apologies and feeble excuses are out of the way I decided to cobble together a small list of things that I've been enjoying this month, in a vein attempt to make this post somewhat relevant or at least to give you some ideas of what you could possible doing whilst trying to escape the cold weather.

• the cinema: there are an abundance of amazing films currently playing at cinemas around the country at the moment, not to mention all the awards nominated ones. So far I have seen a grand total of two of this years Oscar contenders; The Imitation Game, which myself and Grandma saw just before Christmas, and The Theory Of Everything, which we all went to see last week. I still haven't decided which one my I loves best as they were both truly stunningly brilliant films and they both deserve all the recognition that they're currently receiving, however in my heart of hearts I have to lean more towards TTOE, as it made me cry throughout and just the sheer physical transformation that Eddie Redmayne had to go through in order to portray Stephen Hawking was phenomenal. I now also have a contender in the 'why are you so perfect, heart eyes everywhere' camp in the form of one Eddie Redmayne, however I will still forever see him as Marius, not that that's a bad thing!

• Fruit tea: over the month I've rediscovered my love of fruit teas in general, especially the strawberry and raspberry offering from Twinings. It makes such a nice change to mix things up once and a while as, as much as I'm partial to a old fashioned builder's tea there's something very refreshing about it's fruity counterpart that you just don't seem to get from your box standard blends. I also want to give an honourable mention to the Blackcurrant and Vanilla tea, also from Twinings which I've been drinking like it was going out of fashion, that is some yummy tea right there.

• Music: I seem to be stumbling across lots of new (to me at least) music this month, the first being Years & Years which I actually found via the indie film God Help The Girl and my love of Emily Browning, who I personally think is a fantastic actress. The band's lead singer, Olly Alexander co-stars in the film with Browning and the ever loveable Hannah Murray (you'll probably remember her as Cassie from Skins) and after hearing him sing a few songs; did I mention that the film is based to the music by Belle & Sebastian? I hopped onto the wondrous magical YouTube and hey presto, up popped Years & Years. They have just recently started to gain more recognition and have also just been awarded the top spot in BBC Radio One's Sound of 2015. So if you haven't already heard about them get cracking and take a listen to what you're missing! And for anyone wondering, yes the film is pretty good too so maybe give that a watch when you're next browsing Netflix.

• Books, books everywhere: As I'm sure you all know I'm a huge bookworm, actually I think 'huge' is a bit of an understatement as my relationship with books has become a tad ridiculous. They seem to have migrated off of my overcrowded bookcase and are now setting up their own little stacks and towers on my bedroom floor, under my bed and in every last possible nook and cranny that they can wedge themselves into. However, the odd thing about it is that I haven't actually brought a new book since November, instead I'm slowly finally getting around to picking up all the books that have been sat gathering dust that I've been meaning to read for quite some time. At the moment I'm currently halfway through Looking For Alaska (yes I know I'm most defiantly late to the party with that one!) Orange Is The New Black and I'm just about to finish The Book Thief.

• Accessories: As I'm a complete baby whenever I encounter anything even remotely cold I've been on the hunt for a decent hat for quite some time. 'But Jade, surely just whack on a knitted bobble hat and you're good to go!' I hear you cry, well it's just not that simple, I wish it was, but it's not. As I have such a tiny pea head I constantly find that bobble hats either swamp my head and end up falling down and covering my eyes or that I'm left with the stupid flap of extra material at the top which makes me look like one of the seven dwarfs; which at four foot ten is something I'd quite like to avoid. Anyway, I finally found just what I was looking for in the Topshop sale last week; sadly I had to venture into Bournemouth as my local store was very rudely shut down! I still don't think that I've quite recovered from the emotional trauma that that bright neon green closing sign caused! As I was saying I found this super cozy Russian style hat in the sale that had been reduced to a purse friendly £5 from its original £22! That's not too bad if you ask me. The great thing is that it's actually extremely small so it fits on top of my noggin perfectly, however I have been asked why I had a hedgehog on my head from the children at work, I guess everyone's a fashion critic these days!