16 Sept 2019

August Favourites - 2019

And we are back again and it is time to list my August Favourites! A lot of things happened this month, with spending over half of the month in sunny Orlando Florida, so just a pre-warning that this post is going to be quite long. If you have missed any of my previous favourites posts you will be able to find them listed here:


Beauty


Urban Decay: Ravenswood Lipstick

 I have previously only used the Urban Decay Eyeshadow pallets - specifically the Naked Heat Pallet and the Naked Cherry Pallet - but when looking online, I had read a lot of recommendations to try out the Urban Decay Lipsticks.

Whilst on holiday, I found myself wandering into the Sephora located at Disney Springs, and I wandered a bit too far into the Urban Decay section. I was immediately drawn to the lipstick collection I could see laid our on the shelf and instantly fell in love with the Ravenswood Lipstick. It was a nude colour, but had a lot of pink/purple hues whereas a lot of the nude colours I had back at home were more browny. I decided to go ahead and buy it. with a $20 price tag attached too it.

Although it is very expensive for a lipstick, I could feel a complete quality different in it compared to the other lipsticks I have used at home. It doesn't feel like you are wearing it when you put it on and it is very long lasting - it lasted me for a full 8 hour flight back from Florida, so if that is not long lasting I don't really know what is! It is a very pretty lipstick and I do absolutely love it, but I admit that if I wasn't on holiday I wouldn't be able to justify spending that much on one lipstick.

Mac Ruby Woo Matte Lipstick

I admit it, I became a victim to the duty free shop in the airport and spent my remaining dollars on three Mac Lipsticks, but I needed to use them up! (At $19 each, I definitely wouldn't have spent this much on lipsticks at home, but with my left over dollars I sort of gave into temptation).

 So with that explained (since I've just mentioned above that I wouldn't be able to justify spending $20 on a lipstick and then listing below 3 more (practically) $20 lipsticks I felt like I should have explained the backstory to these guys first) I ended up buying my first Mac lipsticks. I had read all over the internet that the best red lipstick that you could find was Mac Rudy Woo, and I had no idea why until now. It is flattering on any skin tone, no matter how dark or fair skinned you are, and it is bold and beautiful. 


 I have way to many drugstore red lipsticks, but there is most certainly a quality difference between those guys and my new Mac Lipstick. Like the Urban Decay Lipstick, the Mac Lipstick has a completely different texture to it that doesn't really feel like you are wearing lipstick at all, and it is very long lasting. Also I found that my Mac Lipsticks smell really nice, but I don't know if that is just the lipsticks I bought or if Mac lipsticks in general smell nice. I would appreciate it if somebody could let me know at some point!



 Mac You wouldn't get it Matte Lipstick

The general formula of the Mac Lipsticks are the same, so in the next two points I am pretty much going to be chatting about the colour. Now this was a pinky colour that I picked up, which probably belongs in the pink category rather than the nude category, but I really like it. It is not too bold so it may still look natural from far away, but at the same time it is a fun way to mix up your look. I really love this lipstick!


Mac D is for Danger Matte Lipstick

And this is the last Mac Lipstick for a while I promise! I panic picked this one in the airport, since I had $80 left which meant I could get at least 3 lipsticks and then some snacks for the aeroplane, so I picked up a colour that I liked and took it to the till. This one is more of a purple colour than the other two, which is something that I love. I never really wore purple lipstick before July this year, and I have grown a liking to it! I really love this colour and how it looks and I look forward to wearing it more often. 


Kat Von D Go big or go Home Mascara

I needed a new mascara, and I just picked on up at the till point in Sephora, and the Kat Von D Go Big or Go Home Mascara just so happened to be the mascara that I picked up. At $13, it is probably no more expensive than any of the mascaras that I buy at home, and I would say that the quality is about the same as my mascara from home too. 

Not that this is necessarily a bad mascara, I was just expecting more from such a big brand name. Unlike the lipsticks, I cannot feel a quality difference between this one and my mascara at home (which is probably a Revolution one because lets be honest, I live for Revolution makeup back at home!). Either way, I do very much like this mascara! 


Bath and Body Works Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin Shower Gel 

Bath and Body Works is one of my favourite shops in the US (since sadly, it has not branched out over to the UK yet.) Pumpkin spice is also one of my favourite things. This is why I ended bringing home a shower-gel that smells very similar to pumpkin spice and it has soon become one of my bath time necessities. If you are ever over in America, I couldn't recommend a visit to Bath and Body Works more!


Bath and Body Works Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin Fine Fragrance Mist

Pretty similar to the explanation above, I just bought a spray that smells like Pumpkin Spice. And I do not regret it. There isn't really much more I can add to that other than I now walk around smelling like my all time favourite Starbucks Drink.


Fashion

Guess Pink Leather Jacket

I have a small problem with leather jackets - and that is the fact that I seem to keep buying them. At the moment I have three - including my newest edition which we shall get into - but I have bought 5 in total which I think is a lot for me!

Anyway, this was another thing that ended up coming home with me from Florida. When walking around the Orlando Premium Outlets we came across this shop which sold bags, leather jackets and other things and I was immediately drawn to this jacket. I have been after a lighter coloured jacket fro quite some time, since I just find it strange wearing some clothes and then a dark jacket. My issue with lighter jackets is that it is easy to see all the dirt and stains that may get on it - I have learned this mistake from buying a white leather jacket a couple of years ago. This is why I thought that pink was a safe colour.

It has become one of my favourite jackets, I love how it looks on and how it feels! Plus it allows me to do head to toe pastel outfits without ruining the aesthetic by throwing on a black jacket! It also gives me Barbie Vibes which I am living for!

Marc New York Backpack

In the same shop that I found my leather jacket in, I also found this bag which I thought was very cute. I have never really been a handbag kind of girl, I have always gone for rucksacks and backpacks and this was a backpack that I could not leave behind!

I love the floral pattern on the leather, it even has a couple of butterflies thrown in. It is also quite a spacious bag! I managed to bring all the hand luggage I brought on the plane with me in the bag to take back so that was an added bonus! It is very cute and I will enjoy using it!

Hollywood Studios T-Shirt

I have an appreciation for Hollywood Studios, it was one of my favourite parks when I first came to Orlando for the first time. So of course, when I saw that there was this T-Shirt with all the iconic things on it about the park, of course I had to buy it.

It is a very pretty shirt and is a nice one to add to my Disney Theme Park T-Shirt collection I have apparently started! (This one can sit next to the Space Mountain T-Shirt I bought on my last visit!)

No Belle Prize T-Shirt

I am a huge fan of a good pun, and when it is a Disney pun it is even better.Whilst shopping in Disney's Character Warehouse I came across this t shirt and knew that I needed to buy it. I am pretty sure that it was in the mens section, but still I needed it! Surprisingly it has not shrunk in the washing machine which is a relief, but it has easily become one of my favourite t shirts.


Loungefly Disney Backpack - Haunted Mansion

I have heard about the Loungefly Disney parks bags for the past couple of years now, and have wanted to buy one for the longest time. When wandering around the parks and Disney Springs, there was not really a bag that I really liked. But then, they released a lot of Haunted Mansion Merchandise to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Haunted Mansion and they also brought out a lot of Halloween Merchandise to prepare for Mickey's not so scary Halloween Party 2019. That is when I came across the Haunted Mansion backpack and I instantly fell in love!

It isn't something that you look at and immediately think "That is a Disney Bag," and I am okay with that. It is a way to subtly add Disney to my everyday life, although already somebody recognised it as a Haunted Mansion Bag in my hometown when I was wandering out and about, so people will know if they know!

It feels very well made, like the leather isn't going to peel off it and that the straps won't easily break which is very good! I have bought bags from Disney World before that have broken or have not really been the quality you would really expect from the price tag, so it's good to feel like I haven't wasted my money on it!

I also love that on the inside is also patterned. It just adds more to why I absolutely love this bag! To me, the Loungefly bags are the perfect size bags to take into the parks, I did see a lot of people wandering around the parks with them in their various designs. I did read reviews that people did not think these were suitable for the parks, and I think that it will apply to your situation and personal preference - if you are with a baby or small child who may require bigger and more items then this may not be the bag for you, but for me it is just a nice size to carry around the parks. Let me know if you would like me to do a "what I take to a theme park" esque post in the future!

Momento Mori Haunted Mansion Earrings

When we went to Florida, we bought two one day park tickets, so we were only planning on visiting two Disney parks once - of course one of them was Magic Kingdom. I have always had a love for the Haunted Mansion ride, and I had no idea that there was actually a gift shop for the ride, so this time when visiting, I intended to go into Momento Morri to buy some merchandise. However, our visit to the Magic Kingdom just so happened to be on the day of the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the Haunted Mansion meaning that the park was super busy and there was a massive queue for up to two hours just to get inside this shop! I decide that it was not worth the wait when we have only one day and so many other attractions to do, so I left it, being slightly disappointed (you may hear about this day at Magic Kingdom in the future). 
So I was very surprised when I saw a small section of exclusive merchandise from Momento Morri in the World of Disney shop when Disney brought out all of the Halloween merchandise. I was very happy that I would be able to see all of this merchandise out there that I would be able to look at, and I fell in love with these earrings.

I'm not really a dangle earring person, and these earrings really aren't my usual style, but I thought that they were very pretty, plus I was amused that they came with a tiny bag to put them in. I have not had chance to wear them yet, but I am determined to find something in my wardrobe that will go with these earrings!


Shopping


Bullet Journal

If you have been following me for a while, you will know that I have been keeping a bullet journal for the past six months now and I have absolutely loved it! There is just something so creative about creating my own diary, yet stress relieving about making it.
The journal I have is now filled up, so whilst shopping around in America I found this lovely notebook with dots on the inside and decided to buy it to be my new bullet journal. It is very pretty, not to mention that it is a little bit bigger than my previous journal so there is a bit more room for all the journally goodness to be put on the page.
My September pages are looking very good so far - although I do admit they are a little rushed due to the fact I have not had long to actually put this new journal together - but it is looking great. I am going for a slightly different approach to this journal and I am excited to see the progress I made with it!



Leather Bound Notebook

I am terrible when I go to the stationary section of any shop, I always end up accidentally buying 50 notebooks that I will never use. I managed to restrain myself and I only bought this one leather-bound Notebook which is lovely! Not only does it look pretty, but it also has many pages and is a nice size between an A4 notebook and an A5 notebook. It will do nicely for my notes in my lectures this year at university!


Papermate Pens

I have been buying these papermate pens for years, and they are my favourite felt tips that I have found! They have a thin tip so they are lovely for making notes or for doing revision. They have kept me sane ever since I started my revision for my GCSE Exams. These are the first pens that I have brought back from america, and some things I am noticing is that the colours are slightly bolder than the colours in my current pack which are a lot more darker, but the colours look amazing in my new bullet journal!


Bath and Body Works Pumpkin Apple Candle

My biggest regret from my last holiday was not bringing home a Bath and Body Works candle; I made sure to change this this visit. We went in and I was determined to come out with a candle. I really struggled to find one that I didn't like, it was a really tough choice trying to decide which candle was for me. They had just brought out an Autumn range so, since Autumn is my favourite season, I decided that I would get an autumnal scented candle - which still was no easy task.

I eventually decided that I would bring home the Pumpkin Apple Candle - which I then faced the issue of decided which version I wanted, since they had different cute designs of the candle. They really do not make this task easy!

Just like the other items I purchased from Bath and Body Works, I went with a pumpkin spice esque scent which to me is the ultimate autumn smell! This candle is beautiful and if you find yourself in Bath and Body Works I would definitely recommend buying this one!



Books


Things a Bright Girl can do by Sally Nicholls

This is just one of the books that I brought with me on holiday! I absolutely loved reading this book, and you can find out why in my review that I wrote. You can click here to access it.


Alex in Wonderland by Simon James Green 

This was the second book I took with me on holiday, which was again a lovely read. It is definitely a great book to read over the summer. Again, you can read my full thoughts of this book in the review I wrote for it here.


A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

I am writing this about four days before I am going to post this post, and I have just finished this book. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it that I still need to process in my head, but I did really enjoy reading it. Keep your eyes out for a review coming out for A Good Girls Guide to Murder coming soon!


Movies


Love Simon

 I watched Love Simon for the first time a whole ago, however I was very happy to see that it was showing on my aeroplane coming back from Florida. I re-watched Avengers: Endgame and just needed a bit of a lighter hearted movie to recover from it. Love Simon is possibly one of my favourite movies of all time, with it being one of the most accurate coming out stories I have seen in cinema. Nothing was sugar coated or idealised, it just showed life as it is, and I appreciated that. Way too many coming out stories in movies are treated as being too campy or being all doom and gloom. Of course, not everybody has the same coming out experience, but cinema tends to show it as being either black or white, whereas Love Simon explores the gray area. 


 Also I just really love the scene of Simon moving away to college with Whitney Houston's I wanna Dance with Somebody playing in the background. This is totally what I thought my life would be like after coming out (which to be honest, once I got past secondary school that is what my life was like!)


Into the Spider-verse

Sadly, I missed out on the opportunity to see Into the Spider-verse in the cinema when it was released last year. This was due to work commitments and packing to get ready to move to university for the first time. I really regretted not seeing it, but I was glad to see that it was also playing on the aeroplane journey to and from Florida.

 I did watch this movie whilst being extremely tired, so I did not concentrate on it as much as I would have liked to, so I will definitely need to watch it again at some point in the future. This movie was amazing though! I loved seeing Spider-man characters represented on screen that I knew very little about - particularly Spider Gwen. I also loved the animation style and how they managed to merge different animation styles which correlated with the world other Spider-verse characters were from. This is definitely not a movie to be missed, whether you are a superhero fan or not! A bonus of watching this movie is that you could go into it without being aware of the MCU or any previous Spider-man movie as it is a stand alone movie.


Other


Birthday Voucher and Badge - Hardrock Hotel

My holiday to Florida was kindly given to me from my Parents to celebrate my 21st Birthday, so when we decided to stay in Hardrock Hotel they mentioned to them that we were celebrating my birthday. When we got to the reception, I unexpectedly received a birthday badge and a voucher to claim a free desert from one of the restaurants around the resort.
The badge was lovely, it was a good quality pin that you would buy for pin trading, and they gave it to me for free which is something I found crazy! Unfortunately I did not have a lanyard so I could not add it on there for people to see, I did wear it on my top though!
I was also given a voucher to spend at one of the listed restaurants, and I went to go and get a scoop of ice-cream. I expected it to be a stingy scoop in a little bowl with maybe a happy birthday flag put on top, but this scoop of ice-cream was a full boat! The ladies asked me if I wanted cream, sauce and sprinkles on my ice-cream which is something that I did not expect, so I panic picked items which lead to me having a very strange combination, but it was still absolutely lovely. It definitely made our trip that little bit more magical, as this came at no extra cost to our booking!

Birthday Cake - Hardrock Hotel

The free gifts did not stop there. When we went up to our hotel room, there was this lovely little cake set up, with two free drinks vouchers and two chocolates. It was a lovely little unexpected surprise, and the cake was delicious! It was a white chocolate cake and it was massive! I ended up cutting the cake in half and gave the other half to my sister. 
Since I was not actually 21 at the time of our visit, my parents had the drinks vouchers, so I am unable to comment on how the drinks actually tasted themselves, but we were able to order any drink up to the value of $20. My parents both ordered cocktails that were about $13, and the bartender gave them an extra shot to make their drinks up to that value, which was another little surprise.


Polaroid Photos

It is no secret that I took a Polaroid camera away on holiday. I absolutely loved having this little camera with me to gather all the memories up, and the photos are lovely little keepsakes. They are mostly in a scrapbook that I have made to document our trip to Florida, although I did keep out my favourite photos to display in my new room at university. 
If you would like to read about why I would recommend taking a Polaroid camera on holiday, please click here. 

Ears

So if you remember form one of my previous posts I talked about buying these ears to wear in Magic Kingdom....well I wore them in Magic Kingdom...
I felt like these ears just needed another mention just so that they can be fully appreciated! I definitely got some lovely holiday photos with them, and they are one of the favourite things I brought with me on my holiday!


So that is my list of favourites for the month of August, let me know what your favourites were from last month!
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