July Favourites – Things I’ve Been Loving

The past month has been a very strange one as we’ve had proper summer, literally sun every single day and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand everyone is much more positive and happy when the sun is out and it’s nice experimenting with clothing instead of just sticking with jeans and a tshirt like I always do. But the heat at night when I’m trying to sleep and the change in my feet from a month wearing sandals is quite a lot to handle.

Who knows what August will hold for us weather wise, although I am starting off the month with a trip to Romania which promises another mixture of weather. I have found the weather has influenced some of my July favourites as a few revolve around items with SPF in them, but here are some of the things I’ve been loving over the past month.

Make up

I have been trying to add daily SPF to my skincare and makeup game for the past few months and while I’ve been yearning for some of the Sarah Chapman products I’ve not got around to buying them but in the interim I have found a few products below which have helped me make sure that my dry skin remains healthy and looks better in the summer months.

Last month ASOS released a Clinique beauty box and I bought it the day it went on sale because I absolutely love Clinique and I find the boxes are a great way to try new products. The City Block Cream is my stand out from the box as it’s an oil-free face protector with a good level of SPF. I find a lot of standalone SPF’s can be quite thick or the white colouring doesn’t blend as well but this is a nude colouring so it blends well and is so weightless that it sinks into the skin. I’ve been using this as the first step in my makeup routine underneath a primer spray and it’s a lovely feel on my skin.

I first bought the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer after seeing Fleur De Force rave about it on YouTube and at about £4 it seemed silly to not try it. I very much believe in the ‘you get what you pay for’ ethos so tend to find high street makeup items aren’t quite as good as their high end partners but this blows that theory out of the water. It has a creamy consistency so it doesn’t stick into the creases under my eyes or feel drying like some concealers do and it’s staying power is just as good as other concealers I have which were 5/6 times the price. If you’re after a new concealer but don’t want to spend much you can’t go wrong with this.

I had been meaning to try the It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC Cream for quite a while but my extensive base collection was telling me I didn’t need it. July was the month I bit the bullet as in the hot weather I’ve been wearing less foundation and instead trying to switch to CC or BB creams as they’re much lighter on my skin and allow it to breathe much better. I also had Boots advantage card points so thought I had nothing to lose. Firstly I absolutely love the packaging the tube is really practical as it’s lightweight and easy to take away if you’re travelling but it also has a pump which makes application so much easier. The CC Cream has SPF 50+ which is a game changer for me as I’m really trying to be better at using SPF on my face and this reduces the number of steps I need to take in the morning.

The choice of colours in the IT Cosmetics range is really good and there are still 2 shades lighter than me which is quite unusual as I’m usually pretty pale but the sun seems to have changed that. It blends into the skin really well and I find it evens out my skin tone really well without looking like my skins caked.

Skincare/ Body

I go through shower gel quite quickly so I’m always on the hunt for new ones and what’s better than Gin and Tonic Bathing Gel* which smells like the drink?! The scent is fresh like a gin and tonic without being too overpowering and for this time of the year it isn’t too heavy which is something I’m finding trying to use my stash of bathing products which goes back to festive ranges. The fresh lemon and juniper smells wake me up as soon as I get into the shower and it lathers up pretty well which for me is a very good thing.

Lifestyle

For the odd evenings when I get a chance to properly relax and I take some me time, I’ve been loving my Buddha Board*. The board is a quick-drying mindfulness board where you can paint on it with just a brush and water and on the board it looks like ink but just a few minutes later the water dries and the board goes blank again. It’s great to have with you when you’re watching the telly and you can want to doodle and let your mind wander as it’s so relaxing.

This one is a little bit of an odd one but a July favourite has been the Book Cafe – Buy, Sell, Swap Facebook Group. I have a huge amount of books and while I’ve managed to give most away to my mum or charity shops I was forever then spending out money on buying new books and feeling like I wasting money. I’d been thinking about trying to find a book swap for a while and discovered this group a while back but it wasn’t until July that I first used it. I’ve sold and swapped quite a few books meaning I’ve sent on my read books to people who really want them and have managed to get some new things for me to read without spending out loads of money which is win win really.

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