Monthly Favourites | November

Happy 4th December and welcome to my belated November favourites. I shouldn't have to apologise really, but I am sorry for my pathetic attempt at being a regular blogger throughout the month of November - my efforts of frequently publishing new posts was pretty darn feeble, but what can I say when life just 'gets in the way'. I was trying to juggle too many things at once with working part time and being a full time student and having a life too, so when one thing had to give it ended up being Cosmetic Crave! Hopefully in the new year things at uni will be a little bit calmer and I'll have the chance to get back to posting 3-5 times a week again! 

Anyway, life rambles aside, this is a beauty blog and beauty post! Here's what I've been loving through the month of November: 

 Soap and Glory Righteous Butter Body Butter

I got this tub of body butter in last year's incredibly popular 'Best of All' Christmas gift set from Soap & Glory/Boots and it's only in the past couple of weeks that I've got into using it properly, which is a shame because I've been missing out on something special. I normally opt for The Body Shop body butters to soften up my skin after a shower, but Soap & Glory deserves more praise for their variants - the tubs are a whopping huge 300ml size, they're cheaper than The Body Shop, sink into the skin miles quicker and offer the same level of long-lasting moisturisation and silky softness to the surface of the skin.  The Righteous Butter is scented with S&G's 'Original Pink' fragrance, and it sounds off to say that something 'smells pink', but I can see where they're coming from. It's fluffy and girly, like marshmallows, roses and peaches - it's lovely!

Lush Glogg Shower Gel

Another product I've had lingering around for a long time (..since 2011 and it's technically out of date now), but this 'Glogg' shower gel from Lush is an amazing wake up call in a morning shower, especially on frosty early mornings - warm and spicy, this cinnamon scent fills your whole bathroom and gets right into your nostrils to give you a warm winter vibe. It's a limited edition Christmas scent and I think I'm gonna have to get a bigger bottle this year now I know how much I love it. I wouldn't have put myself down as a spicy scents fan if I'm honest. 

ELF Lip Exfoliator

Okay, so this little pickle didn't feel photogenic this afternoon and all I managed to salvage from a bad bundle of pictures was this kinda gross looking close up - doesn't look appealing does it?! It's not bad though, I promise. It's by no means 'oh my gosh HOLY GRAIL essential must have shout it from the roof tops' lip product, but I prefer it to the messy Lush Lip Scrubs (I hate being in public and scooping some pink sugar out of a jar and rubbing it into my lips - it looks weird), so this bullet style is tidier and more hygenic too. It's just like a lip balm with a gritty and grainy texture to smooth the lips out and remove any dry skin - perfect for prepping the lips for matte lipsticks and it's cheap as chips too. Bonus: it tastes like vanilla!

Collection Deluxe Lipstick - Prohibition

 

^^ Ugh, blurryyyy - having a mare with this post and it's photos today! I'm going to reward myself with some chocolate for not throwing in the towel for this post even though all the elements were against me. Yep. 

Anyway, my first lipstick love of the month has been one of the new Deluxe lipsticks from Collection that cost a grand total of £2.99. Not bad, eh! I spotted them when I was looking at the new Little Mix range and was drawn in by the 1920's America (my fave era) inspired shade names with the likes of Charleston and Silent Movie. It's a lovely bold cherry red shade leaning ever so slightly with a berry hue to make it seasonally appropriate, and I do feel like a glamorous flapper while wearing it. Well done, Collection!

ELF Mineral Lipstick - Rich Raspberry

L: Rich Raspberry | R: Prohibition

Andddd another problem I ran into was Picmonkey (the editing site I use) has decided not to work so I can't annotate the swatches. The left, lighter shade is 'Elf - Rich Raspberry', the right and more red shade is 'Collection - Prohibition'. Swatching a little darker than it looks in the bullet, Rich Rasperry is quite a brown based purple shade but it's one of the more wearable autumn lipsticks that I have and it makes a lovely 'every day' lipstick. I also love the finish of it because it's almost matte, but not quite there yet, but still feels creamy and balmy on the lips.

Clinique '3 Step' Skincare Range - Cleanser, Toner, Moisturiser

Mild Liquid Soap, Clarifying Lotion, Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel - For skintype 3.

Last but not least for this month's favourites, is the basic backbone for my recent skincare routine. I swap a few things in and out occasionally (mainly alternating with different cleansers), but more of less I've been sticking to this 3 step regime from Clinique. I bought one of the mini box sets where all of the products come in a smaller trial size and it's about £20 for what they say is a month's worth of product in each. This one is for skintype 3 which is combination oily - oily and it's worked well for me. I often hear negative things about Clinique skincare and people have said it's 'ruined their skin', but I was pleasantly surprised by all of the items in this kit and have happily used all 3 for about 5 weeks now (the moisturiser is about empty now, but the other 2 are still half full). 

I wouldn't buy all three of the items again individually, because the cleanser was a bit too drying to use for every single cleanse, and the toner has a lot of alcohol in it.. but I would definitely buy the moisturising gel again and it's already at the top of my Christmas list. I absolutely love it! 

Oh, and the nail varnish you can spy in a couple of pictures is Models Own 'Southern Lights'* - I've been loving that too!

Thanks for reading!

What've you been loving in November?

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