10 Things I've Been Loving Lately

I used to love doing Kate La Vie and Cupcakes of Cashmere-esque lists talking about things I'd been loving that week. I used to do posts about pins I'd found that I thought were cool. I used to post about whatever I wanted. Last month I put up a post on Instagram talking about embracing just talking about whatever I wanted and taking photos of whatever I wanted. But I've struggled to actually do that. So, here's an old-school lovin' lately post to try and get back into that.

01 Being lazy. Don't get me wrong, I have shit to do and I get it done. But in my free time it's nice to just sit on the couch with a face mask on and do nothing. I've perhaps been doing that a little too much this summer, but sometimes it feels necessary. I think a lot of people get caught up in doing something all the time and forget to just breathe.

02 Rewatching the Vampire Diaries. Speaking of being lazy, I've found that time consumed by rewatching TVD. I didn't mean to fall into the trap, but my girls at work started the series and I was like what the heck why not? As we all know starting a series over is basically a black hole of Netflix binging. I seriously need to read a book (recs, please).

03 The sun. Shock. Horror. Amelia what are you talking about? You hate summer!! Hell yeah I do. But the new house has a covered back porch that overlooks a sunny meadow and it's blimmin gorgeous. So when it's a bit cooler I've been loving sitting out there. I'm really in a do-nothing mood lately aren't I?

04 McDonald's Iced Coffee. Okay, honestly I'm a little peeved no one told me how good McD's coffee is. And it's $1. Here I've been, wasting my money on $4 Starbucks water with a lil bean juice thrown in. When $1 McDonald's nectar has been right there all along. Just to clarify, I do actually drink proper coffee from locally owned shops. My mum works in a coffee shop for heavens sake. To-go iced coffee is strictly for work and errand running.

05 Not washing my face in the morning. Okay that just sounds gross honestly. But, I've been using Pixi Glow Tonic in the morning instead of washing with a cleanser and it has helped my skin dramatically. Rather than stripping all of the oils away and then covering my skin back up with a moisturizer to hydrate, I'm just letting it breathe. Idk what science this is but my skin has physically improved since starting this.

06 Planning my trip back home. I haven't been back to England in probably six or seven years. And I've been getting really really antsy to go home. Because I love England. Don't get me wrong the states are cool, but it just is soooo different. So my friend Elle and I decided to go this summer as an early graduation present to ourselves. My gran lives in the middle of nowhere and I am so excited to be back in the countryside. We're also planning to go to London, York, Cambridge, and Blakeney with various family members and I couldn't be happier. Now I've just gotta plan my outfits, yikes.

07 Pinterest. Speaking of planning outfits, I've fallen back in love with Pinterest. Honestly, if I think too much about the concept it really series me out. We save pictures of things we want and will probably never have onto curated boards full of pictures we didn't take. Weird. But it is a great source of inspiration for things like wardrobe and outfit planning!

08 Wearing very very little makeup. This probably goes along with the being lazy thing, but I've hardly worn makeup the past few weeks. I'll do Skin Tint, Brows and maybe mascara but it rarely goes past that. And I've been really liking it. It takes me about 5 minutes to get ready for work and I can spend the rest of that time actually eating breakfast, win.

09 Interiors. I've always loved homewares and organizing and making my room look perfect. But right now since I'm sharing with my sister I am dreaming of having my own room back. The room I'll have in the new house is quite small, but I'm super excited to be able to make it my own again.

10 Finding new bloggers. I've been discovering so many new blogs through Instagram and Pinterest lately and I looooove finding new sites to read. Sometimes I think it can be a bit overwhelming to keep up with everyone because there are just so many people out there! But I've become addicted to blog reading again, and it's super inspiring. Who are your faves at the moment?

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Bobbi Brown Lip Favourites

I'm a Bobbi Brown girl. I've loved them for years and years and years, and I honestly don't think I've ever come across a Bobbi product I didn't like. I love everything the brand stands for, and that they're kind of the og 'love the skin you're in' makeup line. But sometimes, it's fun to add a punch of lip colour. And with a million formulas and shades, it can be a bit overwhelming to choose. So here are some of my faves!

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I think my favourite formula is just the normal Lip Colour. It's a creamy, semi-matte formula that feels super comfortable and delivers a huge amount of pigment. They have 30+ shades, all of which are beautiful, but I do have a few must haves. I've almost gone through an entire tube of Burnt Red, which a huge shocker considering the amount of lipsticks I own. This is a beautiful brick red that doesn't lean too warm. I'm also big into Brown which was the first lippie Bobbi ever made. It's a medium-tone pinky brown and is pretty much the perfect every day shade.

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The Luxe Lip Colours are fairly new to me, but I fell in love quite quickly. They're incredibly pigmented and long-wearing, but also somehow moisturizing without moving all over the place. I think they may actually be magic. I'm convinced. My all-time favourite shade is Parisian Red. This baby is sitting squarely on the list of 'Amelia's All Time Favourite Lipsticks.' It. Is. So. Flattering. I never thought I'd be able to pull of orange-based anything before trying this. But my opinions have changed. Bobbi describes this as a yellow red, which is maybe why I like it. Again, it's warm without being too warm. I could honestly happily buy all of these lipsticks, the nudes are divine. But if I had to pick two more faves they'd be Uber Beige and Pale Mauve.

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I also bloody love the Art Sticks but am somehow missing all of mine (kind of freaking out). This is one of the best and easiest lip formulas I've come across. They're sort of like a chubby stick, but in a properly sharpenable wooden pencil. They're a creamy-matte finish that truly wear all day long. I sort of want to buy them all, but I think my faves are Dusty Pink and Sunset Orange (the most perfect guava shade). The reaaaally awesome think about these is that you can also use them as blush! I'm also a  big fan of Bobbi's normal Lip Pencils. Again, they're super long wearing but actually comfortable. Red is one that I'll purchase again and again.

Are you guys as in love with Bobbi as me? I think I have a bit of a problem (oops). Also! I've been switching up the format of my posts a bit, do you like these smaller sectioned off bits of info? Or my rambly long paragraphs? Maybe a bit of both!
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Drugstore Favourites

It's no secret that I don't really talk about drugstore products very often. I don't think I exclusively talk about high end brands, because we all know I love the Ordinary and Pixi. But when it comes to makeup, I like spending a little extra money for that luxe packaging and higher quality. Because lets face it, most drugstore packaging isn't the prettiest. But! I do have some products from the drugstore that I really do love and reach for often so I thought I'd tell you about them.

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We all know I'm a foundation-floozy so I've obviously tried a bunch from the drugstore. Generally I don't love them, but these two are really great. The Maybelline Better Skin Foundation is actually up there on my favourite foundations list. So much so that I've almost used this entire bottle. Me. Use up a foundation. Madness. It's got quite a thick, creamy texture but feels really lightweight on the skin and blends easily. The finish is a demi-matte and it has a medium coverage. It's also super long wearing and strangely water-resistant. I used the Pixi Makeup Setting Spray over this yesterday and it took two oil-based cleansers and a makeup wipe to get it off. This is meant to help make your skin better over time but obviously I don't use it often enough to see results from that. A good ol' tried and true foundation is the L'Oreal True Match. I go back and forth between loving and hating this, I think it depends on how my skin is acting. I think the main selling point of this is that it comes in a millllllion shades. It's a super liquidy consistency and provides a decent amount of coverage. It's got a satin to dewy finish and is honestly just really easy. A must try!

The Maybelline Master Concealer is one of the most full coverage concealers I've ever used. It's really creamy and a little bit goes a loooong way. I like it because it isn't super drying on my face, but still lasts well. However, it can definitely be really drying under the eyes so go for the Age Rewind if you're looking for an undereye concealer. I suppose I'll include the NYX Wonder Pencil here because it's sort of a concealer. This little guy is so incredible if you like clean lines in your makeup. I'm not so much bothered any more, but I used to use this around my eyebrows to make them super sharp. I really only use it now to create a really clean and crisp red lip. It makes it super easy to straighten out the lines of your lips, and the creamy formula means it blends effortlessly. The last base products I love from the drugstore are the Pixi Glow-y Powders. They are so finely milled and pigmented and beautiful it's kind of unreal. I wish the packaging was a little nicer, but the product is amazing so I deal with it. My favourite is London Lustre but the other two are equally as gorgeous.

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I don't use a ton of eyeshadows period any more, but I do still really like the L'Oreal Infallible Eye Shadows. They're basically like pressed pigments so have a ton of colour payoff and apply really nicely (especially with your finger). The wear time on these is pretty incredible, they basically stay as you applied them from dusk till dawn. Win. I also really love the elf Smudge Pots. I've talked about these before, but they're basically a gel-like cream shadow. The formula is super lightweight but I find that it easily lasts all day on me. My favourite shade is Cruisin' Chic, a taupey brown, but I definitely need to pick some more up! I think elf is generally a huge drugstore win. Their products are pretty hit or miss, but they're so cheap I don't mind picking things up just to try. Plus Target has an awesome return policy so if I reaaaally could be bothered to return things you can. Anywho, I discovered a gem this way...

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I picked up one of the elf Matte Lip Colours to make my order reach free shipping from Target (lol) and ended up falling in love. That was the shade Rich Red, which conincidentally is kind of like Target's red. It leans a little more orange and I love it. I recently picked up Natural and Tea Rose as well. The formula is similar to the NARS Velvet Matte Pencils, but a little creamier. They seriously last all day, and when you eat they actually fade pretty well (thank god).

As with the eyeshadows, I can't often be bothered with doing a full-on lip. But, the Rimmel Exaggerate Liners make the job a whole lot easier when I decide to. This is one of the first things the blogging community made me buy wayyy back when and I still love em'. They're really creamy so go on like a dream but once they set they seriously stay put. I mostly use Red Diva, but the neutrals like Ravish are nice as well.

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As far as drugstore skincare goes, I'm a Pixi Loyalist through and through. I have an entire post here about my favourites from the brand. If I had to tell you to go pick up a few things today, I'd say the Glow Tonic, Glow Mud Cleanser, and the new Rose Caviar Essence. These three are my faves at the moment. I don't think that I'll ever stop using Glow Tonic (100% serious, like never), it's incredible. I've started using it in the morning as well instead of washing my face and my skin loves me. I'll have more to say about the caviar essence soon but it feels incredible going on. SO hydrating.

That's it from me! Do you have any drugstore things you can't be without?
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Links I Love

This week I thought I'd give a little love to some of bloggin' babes and talk about some awesome posts!

01  Nida's post on Getting Rid of Skin Texture
02  Jennifer's post on Glowing Summer Skin
03  Cindy's Current Makeup Edit
04  Anna's Wedding Beauty Guide
05  Rebecca's post on Storing Beauty Products Safely (v important)
06  Kelsey's Makeup Lately
07  Kate's post on her City Travel Staples

I love reading blogs more than anything, so leave me some posts you've been loving in the comments!
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