#2 What Did I Buy This Month? - November

Is it just me or has this month flown by? I can't believe we're coming up to the end of this year, life definitely goes too fast, and seems to go quicker as you get older.  I'd be quite happy staying eighteen I think! I spent quite a lot this month, I visited my friend Becca at university in Lincoln which was definitely a weekend to remember, and I've been very busy with applying to university and making important adult decisions, so quite a bit of retail therapy was needed (excuses excuses). Plus, the Superdrug 3 for 2 offer has been on, which would have been a crime to miss.

Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation £7.99: Just a re-purchase, but this is about my fourth bottle so it's definitely been a well loved product. It blends beautifully into the skin and True Ivory has been the best colour match I've found for my skin on the high street.
Rimmel Kate Moss Matte Lipstick in 107 £3.84: I couldn't resist picking up the highly coveted shade 107, especially when I saw on Twitter that it was going for this bargain price on ASOS! It's such a beautiful berry red, and it's lasting power is amazing.
BarryM Nail Paints in Black Multi Glitter, Amethyst Glitter, and Matt White £2.99: I saw Amethyst on a few blogs, and decided I just had to buy it. It's absolutely beautiful, and I'll be doing a post on it soon. I've needed a white polish for a while and this was cheap and cheerful.
MUA Cream Blusher in Dolly £2.00: I love cream blushes, so this has been on my list of products to try for a while. I love the colour, it's a gorgeous peachy shade.
MUA Blusher in Shade 5 £1.00: I picked this up last minute for the 3 for 2 offer in Superdrug, and I haven't actually tried it yet. I just thought it was a lovely colour and I can't believe it was only a pound!?

Garnier Pure Active Exfo-Brusher Wash £5.00: I really didn't like this product. I have pretty bad skin, and this made it a whole lot worse. I think the bristles may have been a bit harsh, because I broke out in places I've never broken out before. Safe to say I stopped using it straight away.
Soap & Glory Clear Here £8.99: This is a re-purchase, I have oily skin so this oil-control formula is perfect as an everyday moisturiser. It also unclogs pores and helps to soothe and keep spots at bay.
Soap & Glory The Righteous Butter £2.50: So I cheated on my beloved The Body Shop Body Butter, and decided to try a mini of this. I love it a hundred times more, it takes half the time to sink in and leaves my skin feeling so amazingly soft.
Soap & Glory Flake Away £2.50: Winter months = dry skin, so it was only fair on my body that I picked this up. I love the smell, and it goes great with The Righteous Butter.
Neutrogena Visibly Clear 2 in 1 Wash and Mask £2.99: I love that this is a 2 in 1 face wash and mask, it's such a great product to have on the shelf in the time of a skin emergency, which I have plenty of.
Neutrogena Spot Stress Control Daily Scrub £2.99: This is harsh enough to make a difference, but gentle enough to be used everyday. It's great for my oily skin and has definitely helped to improve my skin.

Missguided Berry Peplum Dress £24.99: I'm really trying to build up my 'going out' collection of clothes, as I never seem to have ANYTHING to wear. It was love at first sight with this dress, I love the bralet detail, and the peplum waist is sexy and flattering. I also thought the colour was perfect for this season.
Primark Black Suede Heels £16.00: I hate the shape of my feet with a passion. It's always difficult for me to find shoes that fit me properly, and especially heels. I've been trying to hunt down a pair of classic black heels for a long time, and the last place I thought I'd find them was Primark.

I really need to start Christmas shopping, I can't believe some people have already finished when I haven't even started! But it is very like me to leave things last minute, it wouldn't surprise me if I was one of the crazy people who did it all on Christmas Eve. I'll try my best not to let that happen though.

What have you bought this month? Have you tried any of these products?

Los Angeles Day#4 Part 2 - Hollywood Boulevard, Walk of Fame & Johnny Rockets Diner

It's even harder than usual for me to write these posts at the moment. They always make me feel depressingly nostalgic, but now the contrast between the weather outside my window and the weather in the pictures just makes me want to crawl into bed and hibernate. Of course I won't be doing that though, I'd hate to miss Christmas. Following on from Part 1 of Day Four, we'd already been on the Stars Homes Tour around Beverly Hills, and had climbed the many steps to the top of the Hollywood Bowl (ouch!). Now it was time to visit the iconic Hollywood Boulevard.

I'll be honest, Hollywood Boulevard wasn't half as glamorous as I envisioned it would be. But anyhow, I still managed to immerse myself in the magic of Hollywood. The Grauman's Chinese Theatre was definitely unlike anything I'd seen before, it looked like something out of Disneyland. I also never realised the amount of stars included in the Walk of Fame, it seemed to go on forever. I only managed to get pictures of Godzilla's and Destiny's Child's stars though, as people kept walking into the shot. Forever a Destiny's Child fan. I had so much fun fitting my hands and feet into the concrete shrines to the celebs. I found I have the same sized hands and feet as Kristen Stewart (OH MY GOD), but thank god I can say I have a larger amount of facial expressions. I did feel a bit disgusting after thinking about the amount of hands that must have touched the concrete, especially Marilyn Monroe's, luckily I had some anti-bacterial gel on me so the panic was over.

After we'd all had enough of concrete and being grabbed by Michael Jackson impersonators (scariest experience ever) we set off to Johnny Rockets for lunch. Now, I'd heard about the stereotypical American sized portions, but this was on a whole new level. I ordered a hamburger, fries, and a strawberry and crushed oreo milkshake. This order accumulated to 2,500 calories (why did they have to put the calories on the menu?!). Yes, you did read that correctly! It was worth all it's high fat, sugar, and salt levels, and anyway, my excuse is that  I was on holiday. The diner was exactly how you'd imagine a typical American diner to be, featuring booths with red leather seats, retro posters, and mini jukeboxes jam-packed with hits from The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, and The Beach Boys on each table.  

We then had some free time to go crazy in the Hollywood and Highland shopping center. Hopefully without sounding like too much of a freak, before heading out to Los Angeles, I'd had a snoop around the Hollywood Boulevard area on google maps to find there was a SEPHORA! I rushed off, well attempted to with a belly full of 2,500 calories worth of high fat food, like a crazy person to satisfy my shopping needs. I only bought a few things, and I'm afraid I never actually photographed anything I got, so I do apologise for that. I also went to Victoria's Secret which I'm sorry to say I found to be rather disappointing and dare I say it, a bit tacky.

The next and last installment of my LA trip will be up soon, the next destination was one of my favourite places out of the places we visited, and I think it showed a calmer side to the city that is LA. 

Revlon Shanghai Collection - Top Speed Fast Dry Nail Enamel in Forbidden

There's a few things I look for in a satisfactory nail polish. Unfortunately, this didn't fit the bill. Although a beautiful rich red shade, I'm just not impressed by the lasting power. I applied this late on Sunday, and by Tuesday there was far too much tip wear for a polish of this price (£6.49). I'm glad I won this polish, because I'd be pretty annoyed if I'd paid that much for it. If you think about it, that could be two BarryM's, or a Models Own (and we all know how much I love Models Own), with some money left over.

The polish also claims to be a 'fast dry nail enamel', I don't agree! It definitely wasn't fast drying, and took longer than my polishes that have no fast drying claims. It's not all negative though. As I said, I love the colour. It's perfect for this time of year. It's also a very glossy formula, I did spend a while admiring the shininess I have to admit, but that was before it all went pear-shaped.

I won't completely rule out Revlon polishes though, hopefully this is just one bad formula out of the bunch. I've also reviewed the Cherry Blossom Lustrous Lipstick, a product I was very impressed with!

Have you had a similar experience with Revlon nail polishes?

Revlon Shanghai Collection - Cherry Blossom Lipstick & 300 Followers

I just wanted to say a BIG thank you to all of you lovely people, because somehow I managed to reach 300 GFC followers, and 10,000 page views. I'm naturally pretty astounded and thrilled by this. I remember when I first started my blog and was literally writing to myself. It's lovely to have kind comments and feedback from such a supportive, fun and lovely community. You're all babes, thank you.

I was lucky enough to recently win three items from the Revlon Shanghai collection from their twitter page. I love how easy it is to enter competitions on twitter, just a simple retweet and all done. I won a Colourstay Creme Gel Eye Liner in Black, a Top Speed Fast Dry Nail Enamel in Forbidden, and finally this Super Lustrous Lipstick in Cherry Blossom.  I have to admit, beforehand, I'd never tried any Revlon products. But, I've always viewed them as a luxurious and affordable brand so I was very excited to finally try them out.

Cherry Blossom is a beautiful cherry shade of red, as implied in the name. I've always been a fan of red lipstick, and I was expecting this to be the normal run-of-the-mill red, but to find it isn't was a nice surprise indeed. On first application, I made a bit of a mess. I think this lipstick definitely needs a lip liner, it bleeds pretty easily, and I somehow ended up getting it all over my teeth - hardly a sexy look.

I'm pretty impressed by the lasting power of this lipstick, although like many other bright lipsticks the colour does transfer easily which can be rather irritating. The product glided on smoothly, and it was very easy to build up the colour. It also felt rather lovely and moisturising on, and didn't feel like it was drying out my lips, which is always a bonus. You can get your hands on this beauty in Boots and Superdrug (3 for 2 on at the moment) for £7.49. I can see it suiting many skin tones so if you like the look of it, then definitely don't hesitate to check it out and have a cheeky swatch.