July 2010 favourites

Happy weekend cupcakes! I hope you've all had a good week. It's the end of July, though you'd never think it with the weather. If you think you've had it bad, think of poor little me in South Wales - notoriously wet and rainy. If you guys had sunshine, we had showers, if you had showers, we had rain, if you had rain we had thunderstorms and if you had thunderstorms, we had galeforce winds and thunderstorms! I think we saw a measly two days of sunshine throughout July, which is rubbish. Oh well, August starts tomorrow, so hopefully it'll bring some sunshine with it! Onto my favourites:

Illamasqua Lipstick - Obey

After missing out on both Ever Hip and Jazzed from MAC, I looked for some dupes in my collection. I don't have any as it goes, but on my quest I remembered how gorgeous this lipstick is. It's mega pigmented and is super long lasting. I still have it on by lunchtime! The colour is gorgeous too - you can dab it on for more of a nudey coral, or whack it on for a full-on coral lip. Absolutely beautiful and I can't believe it's been sitting neglected for a while. It's been my go-to lip colour this month and it looks really pretty with a nude gloss too, which brings me to...

Revlon Lip Gloss - Peach Petal

It's been neglected until now because it didn't work with my tanned skin, but this month I've been laying off the self-tanner (due to laziness) so it's the perfect nude gloss. It's not shimmery, it's more of a creamy finish, and it's definitely one of my more pigmented glosses. My lips are naturally quite pink and I don't need to use a lot of this for it to show up.

Dove Silk Glow Body Lotion

This has been my lotion of choice this month. It has very subtle, fine golden glitters, so I love using it on top of a (currently non-existant) tan. Although shimmery, I find it adds a beautiful sheen rather than all out Cullen-esque sparkle, and it is a lovely moisturiser too so my skin has been feeling really nourished.

Lush Soaps - Honey I Washed The Kids and Summer Pudding

Both of these are really creamy soaps that make you feel clean and refreshed yet moisturised, but I've been loving them for their scents. They are absolutely scrummy, with Summer Pudding being sweet and delicious, and Honey I Washed The Kids being more musky, earthy, honeyish (obviously). These are actually, quite possibly, my two favourite soaps from Lush ever.

Barry M 3-in-1Basecoat, Topcoat and Nail Hardener

I bought this recently during Boots' 3for2 offer, and because my local Boots didn't really have much colour selection, I chose this as my freebie. However, it's become an absolute staple for nail colour application, and it has helped even my cheapest polishes that chip within hours last for well over a week - even when I'm wearing my work shoes which tend to chip the polish on my toes. Bargainlicious £2.95 too, so what's not to love?!

L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara

I used to use this years ago but switched to waterproof mascara because my eyes are so sensitive. I've recently switched back to non-waterproof so bought this again, and I am in love with it. It took me a while to adjust to the brush because I'm used to rubber bristles, but I quickly adapted and it's become a staple in my make up routine. I love the full effect my lashes get from this mascara, without clumping or crisping them up. LOVE it lots!

MAC Pigment - Vanilla

I only bought this last month and I can understand the hype. It's a really pretty shimmery white/gold colour and is really versatile. My favourite and super quick way to use it is to use a gold or bronze cream base from my lashes to crease, then put this over the top all the way up to the brow. It adds definition on the lid and crease and a highlight under the brow, all in one easy step. My next plan for this pigment is to use it with clear nail polish to add a shiny top coat - I bet that would look stunning.

What are your July favourites?

xoxo