Mid-January Favourites & Sunday Catch-Up

Happy Sunday :) I thought today I'd try something different and blog about my favourite mid-January things. I've also put together a collage of recent photos for something that I intend to make a recurring feature called 'Sunday Catch-Up'. I don't have much time to write during the week, so I thought that if I don't, I can do something regular on a Sunday to compensate for it.

So, here are my mid-January favourites...

Make-up products
1. The Body Shop Colourglide Lip Colour in shade 48, Soft Peony. I picked this up just after Christmas when I was looking for a nice pink lipstick that wasn't too bright but was still very obviously pink. I trailed around all of the stores that sell lipsticks in Wakefield and found nothing that I liked enough to warrant spending money on, then tried out The Body Shop at the last minute. I found many pink shades in here and took a liking to this one, shade 48/Soft Peony. It's not *too* bright and its staying power is quite good. I think it was £8.
2. Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Sin. This is my favourite shade in the Naked palette, and has gone straight in as my number one eyeshadow shade. The only shadow I own that I could potentially see becoming just as favourable is MAC Patina. I find that Sin is a good base for any colour-combination that I'm likely to use on an everyday basis. I got this single shadow for Christmas because I hit pan on it in the palette :( 
3. The Body Shop Lip Balm in Pink Grapefruit. I owned this several years ago, and I also had the shower gel, but the lip balm lived in my school bag and I never seemed to use it. It ended up with things stuck in it and it just became unusable. I repurchased at the same time as buying the lipstick, and have been using it a lot during the day since. I absolutely adore the smell and it's not too greasy.
4. Nails Inc polishes in Madison Avenue (full) and Holland Park Road (mini). I also received these for Christmas and am in love with both shades. Madison Avenue is definitely my current favourite polish, with Holland Park Road taking second place. Madison Avenue is the perfect deep green, and Holland Park Road is what I would describe as 'alternative purple' - it's not fully purple, but purple with undertones of maroons and pinks. Both of these take two coats on my nails. 

Randoms
1. Books. The first book I've been loving this month is Jon Richardson's 'It's Not Me, It's You!'. The book itself had me laughing hysterically (and several people can vouch for this) in public, but also contemplating life and love and everything in between. It's also made me even more excited to see him live in March (woo!). I've also been reading The Complete Winnie the Pooh. My mum bought me the latest film for Christmas and after watching, I dug out the book. Winnie the Pooh will never get old. Ever.
2. Jewellery. The necklace in the top-right corner is one of my favourite ever purchases. I bought it in the autumn at some point and it has become one of my everyday pieces. I love the different colours in it and how it changes colour in the light. The second necklace, the black butterfly, is another piece that has become one of my 'everyday wears'. Both necklaces came from Accessorize and I bought them at the same time. The butterfly actually has a proper butterfly print on the other side, but I wear mine backwards because I just like the black silhouette of the butterfly. I often pair up both necklaces too. The pink rose ring is handmade. I've been enjoying wearing it as a 'statement' piece recently. I bought the ring backs from Hobbycraft, and the rose itself came from Yum Yum Beads in Leeds. 
3. Stationery. A bit of an odd one, but still, we'll go with it. I've been loving using my document holders from Artbox this month a lot. I have three with Rilakkuma designs on them. I bought the first one years ago when I visited the Covent Garden store with my family, and I'm currently using it to house all of my spare lined paper. The one pictured is my Spanish oral exam notes folder. The second picture is of my neon pink (my camera washed the colour out no matter which settings I used) heart stickers from Paperchase. The pack cost £1.99 (I believe, don't quote me on that though) and there are several sheets of the small stickers. I just thought they were quite cute and they seem to come in handy for random things - like sticking down an envelope that wouldn't close yesterday :) The third photo is of Sharpie highlighters. I'm mainly mentioning these because I've been without proper highlighters since starting college again in September and my one green highlighter was driving me insane. These have small tips, so if you're highlighting small text (like I do because my handwriting is very small) it's all nice and neat, unlike if using a highlighter with a thick tip. I use these everyday without fail.

And here is my Sunday catch-up...

 
1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14 & 15 Last night was my friend Katie's 18th party (Katie is the girl I'm with in #1). Pretty much everybody stayed right until the end and had a good time :) Highlights included 'the balloon game' (everybody's played that, right? Where you have to keep the balloon off the floor?) and watching Eliza completely fail at the Macarena.

2 We spent a bit of time checking over Miss Peanut yesterday afternoon after I thought she didn't look herself. My mum decided to make her stand on her feet (kind of).

3 Delivery of Artbox goodies. The I <3 Artbox badge was free.

8 While taking photos of Peanut, I couldn't help but get this shot of Miss Dusty, who was very intrigued as to what was going on and why she was not receiving much attention. 

9 Nails Inc Electric Avenue. My party nails for last night.

10 Delivery of Mark Watson's 'Bullet Points'. VERY excited to read this when I finish Winnie the Pooh.

11 Speaking of Winnie the Pooh...

12 An odd drive to college with Fern. The sky was striped and just completely unique. I took this when we stopped at traffic lights and Fern, who was driving, thought I was insane.

Besos ♥
Rachel