May Loves - The Beauty. The Book and The Rest

I normally like to do a favourite's post that's specifically beauty related however this month I found it quite difficult as I haven't really bought many new things. I've been trying to save a bit of money so instead of trying things out I've mainly been sticking with things that I've been using for years which has been kind of nice. I do have a few little beauty items to share with you as well as a few random things I've been loving this month.

The Beauty.

Up until this year I wasn't really that bothered about primer's, oh how starting a blog changes things and now  I've realised just how much of a difference it does make. I found out pretty early on that my skin doesn't like  primers that have a lot of silicone (Gosh velvet touch, Smashbox Photoready etc) so I began searching for a primer that wouldn't upset my temperamental skin and after reading a lot of reviews I decided to take a chance on Nivea Express Hydration Primer and I haven't looked back. I reveiwed it myself when I bought it which you can read here and you can find out exactly why I love it so much. I've also been really in to painting my nails this month and by that I mean the one's on my toes as I've been at work a lot and I can't wear nail polish (boo) and I've found that the only thing that makes me happier than looking down and seeing shiny red polish in my toes...is seeing bright pink polish on my toes, seriously It actually brightens up my mood to have slightly nice(er) looking feet as dancing and nice feet do not go hand in hand. I've been loving Essie's Bachelorette bash  whish is described as a 'bright, juicy fuschia' which is in apt description of this lovely summery colour. The next item I've only had for about a week as I popped into superdrug for some Ibuprofen and suddenly there was three for two on all makeup and we all know how the story goes from here. I know I've just done an entire post about another mascara (read it here) but I'm a mascara lover, always will be, so I can't resist a new mascara and the maybelline volum express line has never let me down (well they did once but I'm pretending that mascara doesn't exist.) Their latest offering is the Volum Express Mega Plush Mascara which I'm loving so far. It has a bristle brush which I mention all of the time how much I love, which has a strange bendy bit which I don't really know what it's supposed to do but It's a really great mascara so maybe they're on to something with this. If you would like me to do a full review of this let me know as I love any excuse to put mascara on. Lastly for the beauty side of things is the Aussie Dual Personality Curl definition and soft feel serum (try saying that really fast, it doesn't work.) My hair is naturally wavy bordering on curly depending on it's mood and left to it's own devices it has one style - big. So a little taming is needed which is where this little lovely comes in, a few pumps of this and the frizz is mostly banished and I'm left with soft, shiny waves, there's still a few frizzy bits here and there but my hair has been bleached from black to blonde so I'm not expecting miracles even if it does use that word on the bottle.

The Book.

I love to read, I always have and books are something that are in every room of our house. When I was younger I'd read anything and now It's still much of the same story except the only thing I can't get to the end of are the crime novels most of my family love. When it comes to my bed time reading I tend to choose pretty girly books aka 'chick-lit' (I don't like that title but I can't think of anything else.) as they are easy to read and I don't really have to think about the story which is better for me because if I started thinking deeply into things at night then I'd never sleep. I thought this book would be a nice bit of fluff to help me relax, I was wrong,This book lulled me in to a false sense of security with it's love story and then broke my heart in the last chapter. Now that my rant is out of the way I will say that this is really great book, it tackles a very difficult issue in the case of disability and the controversy that can often surround the choices of the person and their families. The story centres around Lou, a slightly dippy waitress who becomes a carer for Will, a man who became a quadriplegic in a motorcycle accident, despite having no experience with looking after anyone or anything and not actually knowing what the word quadriplegic actaully means. As the story developed I really began to understand the struggles of all of the characters and I ended up loving them all and wishing for a happy ending from halfway through the book.  don't really want to give too much away but It really did make me think about an issue that I've never personally been faced with before. It is very well written and I actually been and bought two more of the authors books to see if this wasn't a one off for me. If your looking for a book that will make you laugh and cry from chapter to chapter then you should give this a read but make sure not to forget the tissues.

The rest.

Over the past few years I've really gotten in to burning candles as I've found it's so relaxing to sit on my bed blogging with far too many candles burning on my windowsill especially with all this miserable weather going on. This time it's not a blogging things, this is a addiction that has been happening for a long time and I have an enabler in the form of my mother who I think I inherited my love of candles from. She actually gave this Chocolate Truffle Scented Candle to me as she isn't a fan of chocolate scented candles (she's more of a citrusy person) but she knows's I love them however It did make me question whether to put it in this post as she has no idea where it came from and I feel bad that you guys can't buy one for yourselves. So I won't go on about it too much and make you want one, all I will say is that is smells amazing and if you see a chocolate scented candle anywhere, buy it immediately! Nothing makes sitting inside with the rain beating down on the window and candles burning better than a nice cup of tea...except having cookies with said tea. Any cookie will do but I do have a soft spot for Millies cookies, especially their white chocolate one (which didn't make it home to be in this photograph) and their coconut and milk chocolate one which is the one front and centre on my little heart plate there. I've also been looking for the perfect travel mug for my early morning bus journeys and I think I found it, check out this little cutie, it even has a little spoon, you never know when you might just need a spoon. On the opposite side of the weather I was loving the sunshine we had over the bank holiday weekend, even being at work all couldn't ruin my good mood. I do love the sun and it does make me so happy even if it's only for a little while before the miserable weather makes me grumpy again. Which meant that of course the sunglasses had to come out. I (Jon) bought this pair in Rome as we went when the heavy snowfall happened in the uk and we weren't expecting the sunny weather. We got them from a little tiny shop near the Trevi fountain and at the time we were thinking that we got slightly ripped off however after a quick google I've found that Glassing is a pretty expensive brand so thank you to the little old Italian man who sold us these for less than they would cost in British pounds. 

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That's all from me as the title of this post has made me want to watch Beauty and The Beast so now I'm going to get my cup of tea and cookies, light my candles and do just that. What have you been loving this month?

xx