Current Favourites & I'm Back (again lol)

HI.

 Well, my big 'I'M BACK' post from two months ago didn't really work out did it?

So I'm making another appearance, hopefully I'll try and stick to some kind of schedule this time (but no promises, you might be seeing a post similar to this in a few months time apologising for this time not working out...)

If I'm honest I kind of fell out of love with blogging, I didn't really have any inspiration or motivation to post. 

I got a bit bored of constantly talking about lipsticks and eyeshadow (quite ironic, seeing as both of these feature in this post...), so this time round, I'm hoping to still write loads about beauty (because there's no denying I'm still obsessed with makeup), but I really want to include lots of other things I like, such as books, music, tags and things like that. So I'm all filled with enthusiasm and am really excited to start writing on here regularly again!

Anyway, onto what this post is actually on - things I've been loving recently!

For beauty, the first thing I've been loving is an eyeshadow palette by Makeup Revolution. It's called the Flawless Mattes 2, and I've been using it for months. It has so many shades that I use all the time, and it's really versatile, as it has warm shades, cool shades and even a gorgeous row of peachy, orangey shades which I love. I use this a lot for school, and the quality is really high, the colours are all really pigmented and blend really easily! It can be a bit flimsy though, as the lid has snapped off mine, so I need to be really careful with it as I'm taking it on holiday with me!

This is going in a bit of a funny order, but next up is the Clearasil 5 in 1 Cleansing Pads. These are so amazing if you have problems with spots or spot scarring, which I really do. They're little pads soaked in a magical solution that you rub on your face every morning and night, and they work so well at fading spots and scars. I've used up my first tub and so far my skin has almost completely cleared up!

Another beauty love is MAC's Boldly Bare Lipliner. This is practically all I wear in terms of lip products nowadays, as it a nice peachy, orangey shade. As it's a lip liner, it lasts all day and it just goes with every lipstick. This is my second one, as I managed to lose my other at a party (well done me) so I had to go without it for a week, and it was a horrendous time, let me tell you.

Another beauty favourite is my Makeup Geek eyeshadows. my four favourites are in the photo: Shimma Shimma and Cosmopolitan, and then two foiled shadows in Grandstand and In The Spotlight. I got a small Z Palette for my Christmas and I've slowly been building a small Z Palette. I really like these eyeshadows as they're so pigmented and last all day. I only tend to buy shimmery shades from Makeup Geek as I have a gazillion and one other warm matte eyeshadows in eyeshadow palettes that I don't really see the point. I just really love using these when I'm in a rush as I just blend my bronzer in my crease and then put one of these all my over and it looks as though you've made a huge effort (when you really haven't!)

I've been using the Benefit Galefornia Blush every single time I do my makeup. I got this for my birthday, and now it's the only blush I use. It's just a really pretty hot pink with tiny bits of shimmer in it. And it smells so amazing, it just reminds me of suncream and holidays! In all honesty, this isn't the most pigmented blush I've ever used, but I do like that as I seem to have quite a heavy hand when putting makeup on, so it does prevent me from ending up looking like a clown!

Lastly, for beauty favs is the Imperial Leather Marshmallow Shower Gel. I know it's a bit strange to include a shower gel in a favourites, but this smells so amazing that I simply can't miss it out. This smells so sweet and delicious, and the smell lasts for ages once you use it. I would take this shower gel over any Lush one, and it's so cheap too.

Onto non beauty favourites, I had to include probably my favourite book that I've read this month. I picked up Passenger by Alexandra Bracken after seeing it's amazing reviews on Goodreads, and I don't think I've enjoyed a book as much as I've enjoyed this for a long while!

It's about a girl, Etta; who finds out she is a traveller, and can travel through different years and events in history through portals. She meets Nicholas, who is also a traveller and lives in the 18th century, and they go on a series of adventures to retrieve the Astrolabe that controls these time portals from a group of powerful travellers.

That tiny description did really not do the book justice, but you should really give it a go as it's such a well written and amazing book. As I'm writing this, I'm just after reading Wayfarer, the sequel, and I loved that just as much as the first!

Probably my biggest favourite of the month (and every month since March) is the live action Beauty and The Beast. I only have the soundtrack in the picture as when I took these photos the DVD wasn't out yet, but you can bet I rushed out to my local Tesco to pick this up on the day it was released!

Anyway, if you have not seen this film, please do. It's absolutely stunning, from the character development to costumes to settings to the songs. I fell in love with it the very first time I saw it in the cinema, and ended up going to see it numerous times and watched it online. 

I just adore this film, and the way you see the relationship between Belle and the Beast grow and blossom, and I loved the special little things that were added in, such as the scene in Paris and more insight into the Beast's history. In all honesty, I think the 2017 version was better than the original, as it went so much more in depth into both Belle and the Beast's life, and way they changed things so that the Beast loved books as much as Belle and you could see how they bonded and became friends over this was just so beautiful!

The songs and even background music is absolutely beautiful (I'm listening to it as I type this!), Emma Watson, Dan Stevens and the rest of the cast had such amazing voices! I cry every single time I watch this without fail, I just love the ending and the whole message behind the film and how both Belle and the Prince get the happy ending that they've always wanted. 

I realise how long I've been talking about this film, so I'll stop now,but if you take one message from this post, let it be to WATCH BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

Next up is Reign, which is a TV show on Netflix. I'm really into period dramas and tv shows set in the past, so I was really excited to start this! It's based on the Reign of Mary Queen of Scots and her life in both France and  Scotland. I ended up watching all 4 seasons in around 2 weeks, and I lost count of the amount of times I've cried while watching the show! It's very dramatic and not too political, you can't look away for just 30 seconds because you've probably missed something huge! 

Adeline Kane who plays Mary is such a good actress and I loved seeing the relationship with her first husband, Francis II of France (just a fair warning, they will end up being your biggest OTP). The costumes are gorgeous too, and the different settings of the French, English and Scottish courts. 

I've really been getting into watercolour painting this month, which is a bit odd for me as I thought I'd be mentally scarred from using them in art for my national 5 and higher exams.(GCSEs and ALevels in England). But I found that after sending my higher portfolio away to be marked at the end of April, I found that I was actually missing painting, so I ordered myself a cheap set of watercolour paints and brushes and a sketchbook, and I've really been enjoying doing little paintings every now and then. I'm most certainly not the next Van Gogh or Da Vinci, but I love painting and drawing doing it, so I thought I'd give it a mention.

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So those were all of my current favs of the past few months! I hope you enjoyed this post! If all goes to plan, I should have anew post up next week, and then I'll hopefully get back into the swing of things and start uploading weekly like I used to!

Thank you so much for reading, and I'll see you next week!