SEPTEMBER FAVOURITES 2017

WHAT I'VE BEEN LOVING THIS SEPTEMBER

It seems like forever since I did a favourites post on this blog; and it actually is, I haven't written a favourites post since last year. Recently, I have been trying loads of new products and have found some that are my absolute favourites for the month of September, plus I have been using a couple of older products that I have realised are amazing and that I need to use more. In the past I have tried to do beauty, fashion and a mixture of homeware in my favourites post, but from now I am just going to focus on beauty when it comes to favourites (and then I will do a separate post on other bits I have been loving in that month). It is no doubt that I am absolutely obsessed with makeup and I am always trying out new products to write about on this blog so I don't always use the same products every single day for a month, but I found that in September I wasn't trying that many new products so I was able to really use the products I own and bought throughout September. Therefore, I have some amazing favourites to share with you this month ...

How are we already in September? I cannot believe how fast 2017 is going and I feel like it will be Christmas in no time. I feel like throughout 2017, there have been some amazing launches in the beauty world. And I feel like the launch of Fenty Beauty this September has been one of the best launches of the year; so of course there are some Fenty Beauty products in there plus there are some products that I got when I was in America. I have mainly makeup in this favourites post as that is what I have been testing out more recently, but I do have a new skincare favourite that I have been absolutely loving. Also, for once I am actually posting my monthly favourites on the last day of the month, which I don't think I have ever achieved before (so I am super proud of myself for that)! 

September has been a great month for me, I have found a new passion for this blog, and am truly excited to make this amazing for you all that read this and I am so happy to share with you all my September favourites. Also, I am 100% going to make this a series on here and will be doing monthly favourites at the end of every month from now on! (I promise)!

Without any more waffling on, here are my favourites for the month of September ...

HOW TO CUSTOMISE YOUR IKEA ALEX DRAWERS?

INTRODUCING YOU TO MY NEW IKEA ALEX DRAWERS!

The Ikea Alex - also know as the answer to every makeup obsessive's storage problems. This is a standard fixture in almost every beauty blogger's bedroom, as it is the perfect set of drawers to keep your makeup in. These drawers come in two sizes; the nine drawer or the five drawer. I decided to purchase the Alex nine drawer as I own way too much makeup and thought that the nine drawer would be better to store all my makeup in. My Alex drawers were delivered in May and they are the easiest thing to put together, but there is not denying that they look pretty boring. There is nothing wrong with keeping them white, but they do look quite clinical and plain. So I knew that I wanted to change my drawers to make them look more fun and not like they belonged in a doctor's office ...

I have seen so many tutorials on YouTube showing us how to customise our Ikea Alex drawers and I decided a few weeks ago that was what I was going to do. I don't mind the white drawers and I think that they look ok, but they never looked right in my beauty room as just plain white. My beauty room is also the spare room, so I have storage for my makeup, and then there is a bed and a wardrobe for guests to use when they stay. But the theme of this room is quite tropical and I have gone with a green and blue theme for the bedding and curtains. So I knew that I wanted to customise my Alex drawers so that they would fit in to my room. There are so many tutorials on YouTube and on other blogs that show you how to customise your Ikea Alex drawers, but I took inspiration from Fleur De Force, who created a really pretty striped look to her drawers. There are so many ways you can customise them; I have seen stripes, ombre, painting the whole drawers one colour and you could even paint spots and other shapes onto your Ikea Alex drawers.

So now let me introduce you to my new and improved Alex drawers, that I customised all by myself ...

The Ikea Alex Nine Drawers are available from Ikea for £95 and the Ikea Alex Five Drawers are £50.

FENTY BEAUTY - IS IT WORTH THE HYPE?

WHY RIHANNA IS SHOWING MAKEUP BRANDS HOW IT IS DONE!

I will admit that I am not the biggest Rihanna fan, I definitely listened to her music more when I was younger but nowadays there are other bands and artists that I listen to more. But I was excited to see that she was releasing a new makeup collection that would be exclusive to Sephora and Harvey Nichols. I usually won't buy makeup collections from celebrities because I find that it is often the case that the prices will be so high just because it has their name on it. For example, I have never purchased anything from Kylie Cosmetics or from Kim Kardashian West's KKW Beauty range because firstly the prices are quite high (without tax and shipping added on) and there has obviously been controversy over some of the products and customer service. However, I felt more reassured with Fenty Beauty as it was not going to be an online brand but would be exclusive to Sephora and Harvey Nichols online and in store. This has probably been the most hyped up brand of all of 2017 and everyone was going crazy over the fact that Rihanna was bringing out 40 foundation shades in her first collection; meaning there is a shade for everyone whether you have a fair or deep complexion (obviously some people might need to mix a couple of shades for the foundation to be a perfect match). Usually we never see this with a new brand, and instead a core selection of foundations are brought out that will sell well and then new shades will be added at a later date; but this is not the case with Fenty Beauty. They really are showing other brands how it is done!

What I loved about this range was that it is not for a select group of women and men (often brands will have shade selections that are perfect for fairer skin tones but don't cater to those who have a deeper complexion) and instead there is something that will suit every skin tone. Rihanna, herself, mentioned that she wanted a collection that "was created for everyone: For women of all shades, personalities, cultures and races," and so that every women would feel included. It would have been so easy for Rihanna to have just brought out a couple of products but instead she has given us the opportunity to create a flawless base that anyone can achieve and will look good in. Some brands will bring out purple lipsticks and bright eyeshadow palettes that won't suit everyone but I feel like this collection has really been thought about so that every product can be worn and there are different shades catered to every skin tone. I really admire the fact that every product is so wearable, even that stunning gold highlighter which will work beautifully as a highlighter and an eyeshadow. Actually all of these products can be used as other products which makes this brand a winner in my eyes.

The packaging of this collection is very simple and clean; I personally love how this collection looks. I think the packaging looks beautiful with the nude and white and it is definitely giving me some KKW Beauty vibes with the nude shade used for some of the products. I really like the fact that Rihanna has kept everything so clean and simple, but I love the hexagon and octagon shapes used for the compacts and cream Match Stix products. Also, I love the fact that the Match Stix products all have magnetic packaging, meaning that when they are placed together they will stick to each other to make it look like honeycomb. This just looks so cool and will make it so much easier to take these products with you when travelling.

In the collection, there are beauty tools, primer, foundation, cream stick products, powder highlighters, blotting powder, blotting paper and a lip gloss. Some of the products, like the lip gloss and blotting powder come in one universal shade that can be worn by every skin tone. Then there are products like the cream sticks that have a whole range of colour selection that can be used as a concealer, contour, blush or highlighter; plus they come in either a matte or shimmer finish. I decided to buy eight products from the collection as there was so much hype that I wanted to test out most of the range. I did spend a long time on the Harvey Nichols website, looking through every product and shade to see what products would work best on my skin. I have tried out every product at least twice now and I definitely have some impressions of the product. I have normal to dry skin so that is something to consider when I am reviewing these products.

A lot of the products in the Fenty Beauty collection are selling out quickly, especially the deeper foundation shades, but I know that most of the products are still in stock at the time of me writing this post, I am just not sure which shades are still in stock. Fenty Beauty by Rihanna is available online and in store from Sephora and Harvey Nichols (if you are in the UK).  

HAWAII SEPHORA HAUL PART 3: LIP PRODUCTS

LIP PRODUCTS PURCHASED AT SEPHORA

Sephora is truly the one shop that everyone who is obsessed with beauty and makeup needs to visit when they go to America. Unfortunately for me, Sephora is not in the UK anymore, so the only time I can shop with Sephora is either online or visit a store when I am on holiday. There are Sephoras all over the world, from the United States of America to France to Australia. However, the UK still has none (although there were a few Sephora stores in the UK between 1999 and 2005). So when I went to Sephora I decided to save a lot of money to buy products that I knew I could not always get over here in the UK. Of course I had to sign up for their VIB Programme and five trips to Sephora later, I became a VIB Rouge member (I don't know whether to feel ashamed or impressed with myself). I only became a VIB Rouge member because my mum has purchased quite a few items herself, plus other people from back home had given me money to buy them products that they could not get over here as well. So I didn't spend over $1,000 just on me, as that would be a ridiculous amount to spend in one trip to the States.

Originally a French cosmetics store, Sephora has quickly been nicknamed a "Mecca" for all of us who love makeup. It is one of the leading global retailers of beauty, skincare and haircare and it continues to grow into one of the best stores for buying beauty products from. With now over 2,300 stores in 33 countries, Sephora is truly a place every beauty lover must go to. There are over 300 brands to choose from (ranging from Too Faced, Stila, Tom Ford, Hourglass and many more), plus they have their own private brand which is just as good as the high end makeup brands. There are so many to choose from and a lot of the time brands will have exclusive products that can only be found at Sephora. For us Brits, though, we can only purchase items from Sephora online or if we happen to go somewhere on holiday that has a Sephora store. I am definitely going to be making some purchases online in the future because there are products we cannot get over here and even with added Taxes, they often end up being a lot cheaper in the States than they are in the UK.

This haul is the third and final part of my Sephora haul - and this is probably my favourite part of the haul because it is all about the lip products that I purchased. I have a bit of an obsession when it comes to lip products and eyeshadow palettes (but when I went to Sephora, I didn't buy any eyeshadow palettes but I did go a bit over the top with lip products). For me, I can never have too many lipsticks, lipliners, liquid lipsticks and lip glosses in my collection. Now I am looking at all of them together I can see that I love my pinky nude shades and some of them do look similar in the tube to each other but when swatched they all have different undertones (at least that is what I tell myself). I bought these all on different trips to Sephora, so I didn't realise how similar some of the shades looked to the ones I had already bought, but like I say you can never have too many lip products. I tried to get products that I know I cannot get in the UK that easily and some I just wanted to try there and then. It does look at first like this post is not very long, so I could not have bought that many products but I did buy a couple of the same products in different shades, even if some do look identical!

I will leave links to all the items that you can get on Sephora below and I will also give a little mini first impression of each item. So let me show you what I purchased in terms of face products from Sephora ...

HAWAII SEPHORA HAUL PART 2: FACE PRODUCTS

FACE PRODUCTS PURCHASED AT SEPHORA

Sephora is truly the one shop that everyone who is obsessed with beauty and makeup needs to visit when they go to America. Unfortunately for me, Sephora is not in the UK anymore, so the only time I can shop with Sephora is either online or visit a store when I am on holiday. There are Sephoras all over the world, from the United States of America to France to Australia. However, the UK still has none (although there were a few Sephora stores in the UK between 1999 and 2005). So when I went to Sephora I decided to save a lot of money to buy products that I knew I could not always get over here in the UK. Of course I had to sign up for their VIB Programme and five trips to Sephora later, I became a VIB Rouge member (I don't know whether to feel ashamed or impressed with myself). I only became a VIB Rouge member because my mum has purchased quite a few items herself, plus other people from back home had given me money to buy them products that they could not get over here as well. So I didn't spend over $1,000 just on me, as that would be a ridiculous amount to spend in one trip to the States.

Originally a French cosmetics store, Sephora has quickly been nicknamed a "Mecca" for all of us who love makeup. It is one of the leading global retailers of beauty, skincare and haircare and it continues to grow into one of the best stores for buying beauty products from. With now over 2,300 stores in 33 countries, Sephora is truly a place every beauty lover must go to. There are over 300 brands to choose from (ranging from Too Faced, Stila, Tom Ford, Hourglass and many more), plus they have their own private brand which is just as good as the high end makeup brands. There are so many to choose from and a lot of the time brands will have exclusive products that can only be found at Sephora. For us Brits, though, we can only purchase items from Sephora online or if we happen to go somewhere on holiday that has a Sephora store. I am definitely going to be making some purchases online in the future because there are products we cannot get over here and even with added Taxes, they often end up being a lot cheaper in the States than they are in the UK.

This haul is the second part of my Sephora haul - I have another part coming which will focus on lip products that I bought. But this post is all about the face products that I got, from concealers, to blushes and brushes (plus many more). I didn't buy as many face products because I can get a lot of these products in the UK, but I had run out of some products while I was on holiday and thought I would restock while I had the chance. I didn't go as crazy on face products as I did with skincare, haircare and lip products but I got some makeup products that I have wanted to try for a very long time. What I spent in Sephora was a ridiculous amount, but I did get products for some friends and family who had asked me to buy certain items for them that we cannot get in the UK.

I will leave links to all the items that you can get on Sephora below and I will also give a little mini first impression of each item. So let me show you what I purchased in terms of face products from Sephora ...

HAWAII SEPHORA HAUL PART 1: SKINCARE AND HAIRCARE

SKINCARE & HAIRCARE PURCHASED AT SEPHORA

Sephora is truly the one shop that everyone who is obsessed with beauty and makeup needs to visit when they go to America. Unfortunately for me, Sephora is not in the UK anymore, so the only time I can shop with Sephora is either online or visit a store when I am on holiday. There are Sephoras all over the world, from the United States of America to France to Australia. However, the UK still has none (although there were a few Sephora stores in the UK between 1999 and 2005). So when I went to Sephora I decided to save a lot of money to buy products that I knew I could not always get over here in the UK. Of course I had to sign up for their VIB Programme and five trips to Sephora later, I became a VIB Rouge member (I don't know whether to feel ashamed or impressed with myself). I only became a VIB Rouge member because my mum has purchased quite a few items herself, plus other people from back home had given me money to buy them products that they could not get over here as well. So I didn't spend over $1,000 just on me, as that would be a ridiculous amount to spend in one trip to the States.

Originally a French cosmetics store, Sephora has quickly been nicknamed a "Mecca" for all of us who love makeup. It is one of the leading global retailers of beauty, skincare and haircare and it continues to grow into one of the best stores for buying beauty products from. With now over 2,300 stores in 33 countries, Sephora is truly a place every beauty lover must go to. There are over 300 brands to choose from (ranging from Too Faced, Stila, Tom Ford, Hourglass and many more), plus they have their own private brand which is just as good as the high end makeup brands. There are so many to choose from and a lot of the time brands will have exclusive products that can only be found at Sephora. For us Brits, though, we can only purchase items from Sephora online or if we happen to go somewhere on holiday that has a Sephora store. I am definitely going to be making some purchases online in the future because there are products we cannot get over here and even with added Taxes, they often end up being a lot cheaper in the States than they are in the UK.

This haul is only part 1 of 3 as I didn't want to make this post too long. Therefore, I decided to split this haul up into three parts: Skincare & Haircare, Face Products and then Lip Products. I will admit that this is a crazy amount of makeup to buy, but since coming home from holiday, I have only purchased two palettes which is pretty good for me. I went to Hawaii at the end of July and there are two Sephoras in Honolulu, so of course I had to go in multiple times (maybe five times in total, but I kept going back because I would forget things that other people had asked me to get them). I did find walking into Sephora a bit overwhelming at first, as there is just so much to look at and I just wanted to buy every single item but I did try to hold back and just buy the products that I truly wanted or could not purchase in the UK. Another thing that made my haul slightly larger was the infamous row of miniature products that they have right in front of you when you are lining up at the checkout; I only fell for this a couple of times as some of the miniature products were so expensive, but these products can definitely rack up the final cost.

I will leave links to all the items that you can get on Sephora below and I will also give a little mini first impression of each item. So let me show you what I purchased in terms of skincare and haircare from Sephora ...

THE PERFECT PALETTE TO TRANSITION FROM SUMMER TO FALL

THE PERFECT PALETTE TO TRANSITION FROM SUMMER TO FALL

Like with review of the Subculture palette from Anastasia Beverly Hills, I am late to the game with reviewing this palette. I actually bought the Urban Decay Naked Heat Palette back when it went on a one day sale in June, but I did not want to review it until it came out at the end of July. However, when it was released I was on holiday and then when I came home, I was ill with a cold (which I still have) and I was not too worried about playing with new makeup. However, that does mean that when I did want to apply makeup, I have had two months to test this palette out. I have tried every shade before I even started writing about it. I actually did take this palette on holiday with me and it was the best makeup companion for me as whenever we went out for an evening meal, I could use this palette and create warm toned looks with it. 

When Urban Decay announced that they were bringing out another Naked palette, I wasn't sure I was going to buy it. I find that the Naked palettes are either a hit or a miss with me, but when I saw the shades that they had included in this palette I knew instantly this was a palette that I would be able to get so much use out of it. Urban Decay really turned up the heat with their latest addition to the Naked collection, and I love the use of fiery oranges and deep browns. If you are thinking of buying one of the Naked palettes, I would definitely suggest you buy the Naked Heat palette as the shades are perfect for Autumn, plus they can be worn all year round. This is for sure my favourite Naked palette that I own and has restored my love for Urban Decay shadows.

I will usually go through a phases where I will only wear one eyeshadow palette at a time, and then after me using it for a couple of months it will be relegated to my eyeshadow palette drawer or given to someone who will use it more. However, I have used this palette so many times and I was still using it when I was testing out two other palettes from Anastasia Beverly Hills and Juvia's Place. I can definitely see myself wearing this palette even more as this palette screams Autumn and I think this will be my most reached for palette in the next few months.

The Urban Decay Naked Heat palette was released at the end of July and you can find it on Urban Decay, Debenhams, John Lewis, Selfridges and Sephora.

AN HONEST REVIEW OF THE ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS SUBCULTURE PALETTE

THE PALETTE THAT IS DIVIDING THE BEAUTY COMMUNITY

I am very late to the game when it comes to reviewing the latest palette from Anastasia Beverly Hills, and if you are reading this, then you have probably heard a lot about the controversy of this palette and how it is dividing the beauty community - some love it and some hate it. When I saw the photos of this palette, which were leaked earlier this year, I was initially on the fence about whether I wanted to buy this palette; the colours themselves are not shades that I would usually gravitate to. However, I thought it would be the same formula to the Modern Renaissance palette (that I am obsessed with) and thought I probably would end up buying it in the end. When the Subculture palette was released I was in Hawaii, and they did not have any stock of it in the Sephora in Honolulu. So I thought I would just buy it when I was back in the UK, until I watched Alissa Ashley's review on YouTube and started having second thoughts about the palette. I watched more videos and saw the issues they were experiencing with the palette and had pretty much forgotten about the palette, until I watched Kathleen Lights review. Kathleen is someone I have been watching for years and really trust her opinion, and when I saw that she did not seem to experience the same issues, I decided to buy this palette so I could give it a try and review it for all of you.

When it comes to Anastasia Beverly Hills products I am obsessed - there is not many products I don't like. I love their lip glosses, their brow products and of course I reviewed the Modern Renaissance palette (linked here) earlier on this year. The Modern Renaissance palette is one of my favourite palettes of all time and the formulation of those shadows are out of this world. So when I saw that ABH was bringing out what looked to be a sister palette for the Modern Renaissance, called the Subculture palette, I was pretty excited to get my hands on it and review it. I was hoping that because the packaging was identical to the Modern Renaissance, I was also hoping that the formulation would be identical as well.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may know that when it comes to buying eyeshadow palettes I will always watch reviews before buying it myself (as I do own so many palettes already). So I probably watched over 20 reviews on this one palette and the same comments were being made - there was too much fall out, the shadows could not be blended and even some were hitting pan after using it one time. I did seem some positive reviews of the palette, and after watching Kathleen Lights first impressions video on the Subculture palette, I decided to buy this palette and see for myself whether it was good or bad. I bought this palette from the Cult Beauty website a couple of weeks ago and finally decided to try it out for the first time this week and I am here to give you my first impressions of this palette and whether I think it is worth you buying.

The Subculture palette was released early this summer and you can find it on Anastasia Beverly Hills, Beauty Bay,  Cult Beauty and Sephora.