August Favourites - Oopsie, it's the middle of September!

Hiya Peeps! 

Happy Sunday! I'm back with another post, finally! I know it's a little late but I'm going with my August favourites.

I've actually had quite a few favourites last month but I'm still loving a lot of stuff from July. I apologise in advance for the poor images. I'm taking the photos at the moment on my iPhone and they're not brilliantly edited or great quality, but hey ho!

Maybelline Baby Lips

I'm sure that these have been released in the US for quite a long time but they came to the UK last month. I was sooo excited to try them because there was so much hype around them and they definitely didn't disappoint. I have them in two colours (Peach Kiss and Cherry Me) and I really like them both. The red colour is super pigmented for a lip balm so you can really see it on my lips. I love the Peach shade for when I'm going for a more natural look or if I'm wearing really simple make-up. I would definitely recommend these for younger girls who are experimenting with make-up as they're a cheap alternative to a lipstick and aren't as heavy.

Kate Moss Rimmel Lipsticks

 
Like I said in my July favourites, I've never been a real wearer of lipstick. I've been experimenting more and recently tried the Kate Moss range from Rimmel. I bought one colour from each of her ranges and actually wear them both an awful lot. I have shade 1 from the Lasting Finish range which is a gorgeous bright red colour. This is something I NEVER thought I'd wear, but I really love it. It works so well for evening make-up, but I really like wearing it in the day for a burst of colour when I've gone for really simple make-up. The second I have is from the matte collection is called Soft Pink (no 16?) and is a great colour for everyday wear. A definite must have in your collection.

Natural Collection Blush -Dusky Pink

I tried this blush just by chance and was so impressed because it was super cheap! It was only like £1.99 and it's super pigmented. This shade is so great for everyday wear and gives my cheeks the very slight, pink blush that I need to look healthy.

Wearing My Hair Tied Up
 I know this really won't apply to any of you, and this isn't really something you can try off the back off my recommendation, but all throughout August, I loved wearing my hair up. During some parts of the month it was just sooo hot and virtually impossible to wear my hair down and I eventually really started liking the way my hair looked when it was up. But yeah, just wanted to put this in. It's not really relevant to you guys but yeah haha.

Hoodie Allen
 
All through August I was completely obsessed by this man. For those of you who don't know who Hoodie is, he's an American rapper. If you're not familiar with his music, you should definitely check his music out. All of his EP's are available for free download on his website so go get them! I was lucky enough to see him in London at the start of September and it's been one of my favourite shows to date. Yeah, just go check him out.

Slimming World
Now, as some of you will know from previous posts of mine, I've been trying to lose some of the many extra pounds I've got hanging around. I decided to give Slimming World a go with my nan (woooo!) and I'm actually really impressed with the results. I've actually lost a stone and 4lbs now, and I know I've still got a long way to go, but I'm happy with how it's going so far. The diet itself doesn't make sense and I still don't really understand how it actually works, but it does! I'm really trying to keep it up because I'm finally starting to see results. If you're looking for a way of losing a bit of weight, I really would recommend Slimming World. It's a lot easier than it looks and it really does work.

Peach Sprite

 This is more of just a side note really as I've only actually had this once during August. I met up with my friend Ben (@Ben_Tarrant) in London and we went for lunch at Five Guys. If you haven't been there and you like burgers, just go. You won't regret it. But yeah, in there they have these immense drinks machines where you can basically put any flavour into any soft drink and it's craaaazy! I went with peach Sprite and it was b-e-a-utiful. I know that it's not something that's readily available in the UK, but what about in the US or the other countries that you're reading from. If you have peach flavoured Sprite in your country, please let me know!

But that's pretty much it. There are quite a few things that I've already fallen in love with in the month of September, so you have next month's favourites to look forward to, and they're coming a lot sooner than this one did.

For next week, I kind of want to sign my post over to you guys. If you've got anything that you'd like me to talk about please let me know in the comments below or drop me a tweet @amyjcollins and I'll do my best to give it a try! I also really want to do a review week real soon where people ask me to review products / things and I give my honest opinion on a different thing each day. Again, let me know if you have any ideas.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by.
Take care, stay beautiful and dream big!
All the love in the world,
amyjcollins
xox

Things I'm Loving At The Moment...

Hiya Peeps!

So I've moved over to 'Blogger' and it's really hard to get used to, but I am really liking it. I love that it's linked with Google+ which means I can try and get a bit more savvy at that as well. I know a lot of bloggers are using this platform to post so I thought I'd give it a whirl!

I just wanted to do a little post about 'Things I'm loving at the moment'. It's not necessarily just going to be products or items of clothing that I'm enjoying; I'm going to include things that I'm doing and maybe some people (because I'm massively cheeky!).

Something I'm really loving at the moment is working. Now, I know this sounds completely insane coming from me as I moaned the whole way through my degree about the heavy work load and how much I hated it. I'm currently doing an internship with a Social and Mobile media company (more in Big Life Updates post!) and it's honestly so much fun. I really feel like all the work I did in Uni is starting to pay off and I'm absolutely loving learning more about an industry I think I'd really like to work in. I like the routine of going to work and it keeps me in a much healthier mindset meaning I'm much more motivated to do other things and to actually get up in the morning. I feel important on this internship and feel like my ideas and opinions are being heard. It's a great feeling having a team of people that believe in me and who I really enjoying going to work with! I will be writing a blog / series of blogs about my time with Coup so stay tuned for those if you want to find out what I've been getting up to and any tips I have for those of you looking for internships or who are about to embark on your first internship!

Moving very swiftly on to the rest of the things I've been loving recently. Like I said before, it's a bunch of different types of things and I'm just going to list them and talk about them a bit. Ok, here they are.

I recently came across this really UH-MAZING singer on YouTube called Lewis Mokler. When I first heard him singing it was in the back of another video and I thought it was a new Ed Sheeran track. I went a bit crazy and started Googling lyrics and Shazam-ing the video so I could find out what it was. I can't actually remember how / when I found out who he was, but he's my 'favvy musician of the moment' (that could be a thing?!). If you've got a few spare £££'s, jump onto iTunes NOW and buy some of his music. My favvy's are Pieces, Nutella and The Traveller. He's got a bunch of stuff on YouTube as well so make sure you check him out! https://www.youtube.com/user/LewisMokler?feature=watch

At the moment, I'm really ill and there's literally nothing that makes me happier when I've got a cold than a mug of hot squash. I know what you're thinking... 'Amy, that's so weird', 'OMG, that's so gross, what's wrong with you?!', 'Can't you just have a coffee or something?!'. My response is that yes, it is weird and it's not the norm but it's literally so comforting. I don't like tea, coffee, hot chocolate or any other warm drink that may exist, but sometimes you just need something to soothe your throat when it's all gross and gravelly and a mug of hot blackcurrant sorts me right out. Plus, it reminds me of Brownie Camp when I was younger, and I like that.

I also feel that I need to quickly mention Grilled Cheese sandwiches. Yesterday I was 'stumbling' at work, and I came across this amazing image of a gooey, cheesy toasted sandwich thingy that I literally wanted the eat through the screen. It was so delightful looking that I immediately texted my friend to tell her about the delicacy and we decided to make them that evening. They were delish and you should Google how to make them because they're like heaven.

Moving very quickly into the make-up section of life which I know will shock anyone who knows me because I haven't always been a massive lover of the stuff and only recently started wearing it on a regular basis, but yes. I have been lovinggg the Real Techniques make-up brushes. I recently had the 'Core Collection' kit bought for me after I went on about it for weeks on Twitter and I'm so impressed. They're so soft, are great sizes and even come in a cheeky travel case which is extremely handy. My favvy is definitely the 'Buffing Brush' which I've been using for my liquid foundation. (I think it's very similar to their 'Expert Face Brush' which is also supposed to be good for foundation).

I also recently purchased my first eye primer and I went with the Rimmel Exaggerate Undercover Shadow Primer. I'm really impressed with this product because it does exactly what it's supposed to and it doesn't feel weird. It's a really light primer, blends really easily on the eyelid and lasts for blooming ages! It keeps my eye shadow on all day, and I absolutely swear by it!

My final make-up product that I'm loving is the Sleek Contouring and Blush palette. I'd seen a lot of reviews of this one going around and thought I'd give it a go. At £9.99, I was a little skeptical as make-up isn't something I'm used to spending a lot of money on, but when I thought about it I was in effect getting three products for the price of one and bought the thing anyway! I'm really glad I did because it's now part of my 'everyday' make-up and I just love it. It doesn't have a weird smell to it and the bronzer and blusher are super pigmented meaning I'm getting exactly what I paid for and what I can see in the palette, YAY! (Bet you're glad that's over!).

HOLY MOLY, this is a long post. I'm sorry guys!

The final thing I'm really loving at the moment though is really just having time. I know that sounds completely odd and everyone's probably reading this like 'Amy, what you on about man? Everyone's got time. Time isn't a thing that you have, whaaat?!' but it's really true. Now that I've finished Uni, it's meant that I've got so much more time to do things that I want to do and not worry about when my next deadline is or when I've next got to go out filming. Having this extra time has meant that I've been able to take an internship (which is great and I can't stop talking about) and it means that my friends and I can just enjoy spending time with each other without work climbing on top of us. Because most of us are going to be leaving Cardiff soon and going back to our home towns, it's nice to have this time together to just relax before we do all go our separate ways. Having this extra time has also meant that I get to have 'Hollyoaks sessions' with my housemate Verity which are usually extremely vocal and end with us screaming at the TV and eating copious amounts of bad food (banana custard and jam doughnuts). I've also started reading for leisure which I'm really pleased about. When you're studying it's really hard to enjoy a good novel because you're worrying about worm so much. I really like getting lost in a good book so I'm glad I've got the time to do it now! Happy days!

AND BREATHE. So that's finally it, guys. I know it's a long one and I'm sorry (but I'm not sorry if you've enjoyed it!). I'm going to try and blog a lot more regularly so I hope that's something you'd want to see. For me, it's kind of like a little diary that I get to keep online and people read if they fancy it (not me).

Take care, stay beautiful and dream BIG!

Thanks for stopping by <3.

@amyjcollins

xox