February 2014 Lifestyle Favourites!

It rained in February. A lot. I think all the gloomy days definitely took their toll but I'm hoping for many more sunshine filled mornings to come in March. I feel like I haven't managed to get as much done as I was hoping for, but February always makes me feel that way. Here's to a productive March, but for now I thought I'd mention a few of my favourite things from February.

Alibi Sparkling Citrus drink*
An entire case of these landed on my doorstep one morning a few weeks ago and although I'm not so keen on the pomegranate flavour, the citrus is really nice. I don't usually go for these kind of drinks, they're around 100 calories each and I'm someone that prefers to eat my calories rather than drink them so I go for water usually, but they've been a nice change for me. Not something I'd have all the time, but if I saw one and fancied something sparkling and citrus I'd pick one up for sure. 

My new blogging notebook!
I'm making it my mission to become an organised person and actually keep it up. I'm definitely someone that needs a list everyday because otherwise I end up getting distracted and working on things that I can do another time. Thank you for this, Rachel. It's definitely helping!

Vamplets Vampyre Kitten*
Because having a bright blue vampire kitty in my life has definitely made it better. She's sitting pride of place on my new shelf looking fabulous!

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
A truly wonderful book that will stay with me for a very long time. Auggie is an ordinary child with an extraordinary face and it's time for him to go to school for the first time. I smiled and cried my way through this book, I think it's a special one and I'm so glad it exists!

NEOM Luxury Organics Complete Bliss Reed Diffuser*
I think they've named this product perfectly, the scent really is complete bliss. It's a lot fresher than a lot of the Neom scents, it's actually not too far away from the Love candle, which is my favourite ever scent from them but sadly limited edition. I've never had a diffuser like this before so I'm intrigued to see how long it lasts for. So far I really like it, but I think that I still prefer their candles. I'll keep you updated for sure!

Dirty Cotton Scoundrals Police Cropped Sweater*
My go-to outfit for this month has been a smock dress, tights and this amazing cropped sweater. It's so comfortable and I like how it gives an oversized dress a little bit more shape around the waist because it means I don't have to wear a belt if I want my outfit to be a little more flattering. I'm not a fan of belts. I'm all about the comfy clothes right now!

Sweet notes that deserve to be framed! 
When I was in ikea picking up my new shelf I had to get one of the tiny frames to put the cutest little card I've ever seen in because it's far too sweet to just sit in a drawer somewhere never being looked at!

Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars.
The Civil Wars supported Adele when I saw her a few years ago and I've been hooked on their beautiful songs ever since. There's a touch of magic on this album. That's the only way I can really describe it, it's something a little bit special.

Was there anything you particularly loved in February? 

xoxo

February 2014 Beauty Favourites.

February always throws me because it's such a short month. I've had a bit of a product declutter and finally used some things up that I've had for a little while, which has been nice. In the process I've rediscovered a few old favourites and there are a couple of new products that have made their way into my favourites too.

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation (£9.99)
This is my last bottle of this in the old packaging. For some reason I managed to accumulate 3 bottles at once a really long time ago, I think they were on offer at some point or I just went crazy and bought multiples because I really liked it. Either way, I love this foundation! I stopped using it for a long time because I wanted to try other things, but nothing has really overtaken my love for it. Is the formula in the new packaging pretty much the same? I hope it is!

Lily Lolo Mineral Blush in Ooh La La* (£7.99)
This month I've managed to shoe-horn talking about how wonderful I think this blush is into multiple posts already, so I won't waffle on too much here. If you like mineral make up and you're looking for the perfect pink blush, this is definitely one to try.

Canmake Cheek & Cheek blush
This came into my life courtesy of the beautiful Rachel and it's love. The two shades swirled together give the prettiest peachy pink flush that I know will become a firm favourite this spring. There's something very warming about the colour, it instantly makes me look and feel a lot more awake and glowy. It's lovely.

Seventeen Blow Out Mascara (£6.29)
I'm not the biggest fan of the packaging, but it's undoubtedly very easy to find in my make up bag each morning so it wins points for that. The wand is pretty small so it's easy to coat both those tiny little lashes and bottom lashes really easily. It's not the most volumising or lengthening I've ever tried, but it's pretty good and I like it enough for this to be my second tube.

Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in 03 (£13.60)
As long as Clarins keep making these, I'll keep buying them. I own shades 01, 02 & 03 and I'm on my second tube of each. Yep. I love them a lot. At the moment I'm going through a real nude lip phase so this is the one I'm reaching for all the time. They're glossy but not sticky, really comfortable to wear and they smell like caramel. What's not to love?!

Odylique Balancing Citrus Super Tonic* (£15)
I do love a good face spritz and this is one of the nicest ones I've tried in a long time. I haven't used it for long enough to do an in depth review, but my skin feels more balanced and hydrated since incorporating it into my skincare routine. I'm interested to see if I keep seeing results, I hope so because I think this will be especially refreshing when the weather warms up a little!

Montagne Jeunesse Deep Cleanse Blemish Mud Mask (£1)
I love these little sachets, they're so affordable that it's totally okay to buy a couple of different ones to stash away for those evenings when you really want to relax and treat yourself. My current favourite from the range is this one. It leaves my skin feeling incredibly clean like it's has a good deep cleanse but it's also not drying at all. Perfect for when my skin is feeling a little oily and I have a few stubborn blemishes.

What were some of your favourite products during February? 

xoxo 

Lily Lolo Natural Lip Gloss in English Rose.

Lily Lolo Natural Lip Gloss in English Rose* (£7.99)

The old Lily Lolo gloss packaging was cute, but the new packaging is beautiful. Maybe it's a sign that I'm getting older (*sob* lets not talk about that!) but I do love me some simple designs and functional packaging. Don't get me wrong, I think I'll still love cutesy packaging as much when I'm eighty as I did when I was eighteen, but I've also learned to appreciate the simple and sophisticated too. When it works it's a winner and this design definitely works for me! There's also something about make up that comes in a box. Even if said box will eventually just find its way into the recycling, I like it. And I can't even really explain why.

English Rose is a true dusky pink. It's sheer enough to look pretty over your favourite pink or nude lipstick, but not too sheer that it doesn't do anything by itself. I've been trying to avoid the good old 'my lips but better' phrase for a few minutes now, but that's not happening because it describes it perfectly. It feels smooth and not sticky on the lips, applies evenly and wears nicely. It also smells and tastes like chocolate, which is a surprising choice but a welcome change from the usual vanilla that makes up most of my lipgloss stash.

For some reason I wasn't expecting to love this. The Clarins Lip Perfectors are my one true gloss love and although this one hasn't knocked those off the top spot, I actually think it's coming up a pretty close second. And for £7.99 I think that's quite impressive!

Have you tried anything from Lily Lolo before? 

xoxo

Memory Lane.

This song reminds me of the breezy afternoon in the photograph. It was late June 2008. A little chilly & the sun was sitting low in the sky bathing everything in a warm, ethereal pool of light.Whenever I hit the play button, I'm instantly transported back there. Looking for shapes in the clouds with not a care in the world. It was a good day.

xoxo

Stuck.

One of my least favourite personality traits is how easily I manage to get myself stuck in a rut. One minute I can be quite happily wandering along and the next I've ground to a sudden stop. Finding that burst of something to get going again often evades me for a long time. It likes to hide in the tiniest of spaces, close enough to see but I can't quite reach it.

Goodness knows where I'd be without this outlet. This space here. The one I've been able to turn to for the past four years. I'm not very good at talking out loud. The words to adequately describe how I'm feeling at any given moment seem to disappear entirely from my vocabulary whenever someone asks how I'm doing. And I get flustered. So I just say that I'm doing well, don't elaborate any further, and swiftly move the conversation back to the other person. Most of the time that's the truth and sometimes it's a little white lie. I'm no better at talking about the things that are going well for me (for worry of sounding too pleased with myself) that I am about talking about the meh things (for worry of sounding too whiny).

This isn't an entirely safe place for me to escape to. Sometimes I get told that I'm miserable. It's like being punished for being comfortable enough to be honest and I think that's a shame because everyone should have somewhere they feel able to be honest. But I don't mind that criticism. I think it's mostly by sense of humour getting lost in translation. And when it's not, well, I don't think I could ever apologise for not being happy all the time. I've lost count of the number of posts I've written about things I love over the years. But if that's all I wrote about, it wouldn't be a true reflection of me. And I've never been here to pretend.

If I could describe myself in one word, most of the time I'd choose introspective, but not in a negative way. I'm not peppy. I could pretend to be, but what's the point in that? We're here for such a short time, I think it's always important to stay true to yourself. I'm not overtly smiley but that doesn't mean I'm not happy. There are a million different things going around in my head all the time. A lot of the time I'll be physically present, but my head will be somewhere else thinking about the book I read last week, the sweet old lady that smiled at me on the bus that morning or what little Ralphie thinks about as he's munching on his favourite treat.

So although I'm not peppy, I'm also not miserable. No one is just one thing or the other. Sometimes we're happy and sometimes we're not. That's okay. And it's okay to take some time to feel sad if you need to. No one should ever have to apologise for that. If you need to take a few days, or a few weeks to feel sad so you can process things and move forward, you do that and don't let anyone make you feel bad about it. You don't have to tell anyone the details of why you're feeling a particular way. Those that matter will understand. But if you need someone to sit with you, a shoulder to cry on, or someone to make you smile, please never be afraid to ask for a little bit of help. Sometimes we can't do everything alone, even if we think we can.

I feel displaced.

Things are moving fast in the bloggersphere these days. Perhaps I'm not forward thinking enough to have managed to keep up with everything. But I think I'm okay with just muddling through. Perhaps I don't have a particular place within the community and if I stopped writing tomorrow it wouldn't really matter. And that's okay. I don't mind sitting on the outskirts, taking a peek every once in a while at what's going on. I don't think that makes what I'm doing any more or less valuable than what anyone else is doing. Besides, I definitely wouldn't want to leave a gap that couldn't be filled. I much prefer the idea of someone coming along to fill the space and ending up doing things way better than I ever did in the first place. That's how things grow and move forward. And I suppose that's what's already happened. Things are growing and it's really quite wonderful to be able to see that. What a journey.

So, I suppose what I'm getting at here is that I'm stuck. I'll find myself a route out of it though. It might take a little while, but I'll get there and it will probably be worth the journey. And in true perks style, I'm both happy and sad simultaneously. I'm working on figuring out why. I'll get back to you on that one.

Maybe I need a holiday. Or a plan. Or a strong gin. Or all three. Who knows? I'll figure it out though...

xoxo

P.S. I'll be back tomorrow with a post about a lipgloss, I think. It's a really nice one too. From a post full of waffle to a post about lipgloss. It's an interesting combination. I don't think I really know why you read this, but I'm very thankful that you do.
P.P.S. Thank you for leaving lovely comments as always, I'll be back to reading & commenting on your posts this evening. I haven't checked my emails or twitter for a few days, I'll try and catch up on those too!
P.P.P.S. I'm okay, honestly. 

This Week #12

I've been feeling sick for a few days, which hasn't been fun and I've been home alone. I always feel worse when there's no one around when I'm not feeling great, it's nice knowing there's someone there to make a hot lemon or something & it never tastes quite as good when I make it myself. But I've been using it as an excuse for lots of naps and reruns of CSI! 

This amazing cropped sweater* has been thrown over every smock dress I own this week because it's so comfortable and I don't want to stop wearing it!

No words necessary! Cutie pie.

Got to show just a little more love to the most perfect pink blush ever. Read all about it here.

This can only really be very loosely described as my favourite moment because it's one where I made a complete tit of myself.

I opened the door to the postman on Friday, he handed me a parcel and I replied with... 'Thanks Dad!' What a corker! I don't know where my head was at! And he's now on my list of people I need to avoid for a little while although I don't think either of us will forget that anytime soon. Oh dear. Successfully embarrassing myself since '89...!

The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared has been sitting on my shelf for a few weeks now and I've been really looking forward to starting it. I'm about 200 pages or so in at the moment and so far, I'm a little disappointed. I had really high expectations so I'm hoping that it starts to pick up a little bit.

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend! 

xoxo