My Top 3s of 2018 | Books, Podcasts, Bloggers, Fashion, Beauty & More!
2018 has been a weird one. I’m honestly not sure whether I enjoyed it or not. But what I do know is that I have enjoyed so many things. Reading things, listening to things, wearing things, watching things, seeing things. I’ve consumed so much stuff that I have truly enjoyed and so I thought I would share it in one big post. I’m going to try and restrict myself to a sentence or two on each thing to avoid this being the longest post on my blog, but I love every single thing I’m recommending it so excuse me if I do ramble a little.
I hope you enjoy this blog post and I hope you go and consume all of the things I’m recommending during 2019 because they are SO worth your time.
Books
Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (This book is equal-parts gripping and moving. I recommend it to everyone I know. In fact, on Friday I recommended it to 3 people in one day and bought it as a gift. Please read this book!)
Normal People by Sally Rooney (Another extremely gripping and moving novel. It’s beautifully written and easy to read- what more can you ask for?)
Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton (I actually listened to this book on audible but it still counts doesn’t it? I love Dolly and everything she creates and this book is no exception.)
Blogs
Shot From The Street (So much creative content. I especially love Lizzy’s use of 35mm film photography.)
The Anna Edit (Anna uploads blog posts so frequently and all of her content is useful and interesting. I honestly don’t know how she keeps coming up with ideas.)
Ropes of Holland (I don’t read Lindsey’s blog as much as the other two I’ve mentioned, but Lindsey has created some amazing content this year, including her post on heartbreak.)
Instagram Accounts
@lucywilliams02 (Lucy’s Instagram will probably always be my favourite. Her wardrobe is to die for, as is her travelling schedule and she documents these things in a really authentic but beautiful way.)
@livpurvis (Liv’s feed is also beautiful, providing me with lots of fashion and travel inspo. But I also love her stories! She’s always chatting away on them and, just like her podcast, they make me feel like I’m talking to a friend.)
@alicecatherine (Alice uploads so much high quality, beautiful style inspiration. I love everything she uploads and I would kill for her vintage collection.)
Podcasts
The High Low (As I have mentioned, I love Dolly Alderton and I probably love and admire Pandora Sykes even more- my boyfriend often pulls me up on how much I mention her. This podcast is reliably insightful and interesting and it keeps me informed as much as it makes me laugh.)
The Fringe Of It (Listening to this podcast comprising Charlotte, of Betty Magazine, and Liv Purvis, of what Olivia Did, feels like a catch up with your best friends. It’s so easy to listen to and always brightens my day, plus the subject matter is usually really interesting.)
Nobody Panic (I would actually go as far to say that Stevie and Tessa, the hosts of this podcasts, have got me through some difficult times. This podcast never fails to make me laugh out loud and reassure me that I’m not failing at life as badly as I sometimes think I am!)
Youtubers
Sunbeamsjess (Jess is forever my favourite YouTuber because the content she creates is based around fashion and books, which are my two favourite things. I can always count on her vlogs, especially her Uni based ones, to cheer me up and she generally just always makes amazing content.)
Samantha Maria (Sammi is another Youtuber whose videos I always watch. I love her vlogs as much as her styling videos and she’s another one who I’ve followed for years so will always feel a little bit of a connection to.)
Emma Hill (I’ve discovered Emma’s YouTube channel, unlike the others, this year and since then, have watched pretty much all of her videos. Her content is so consistent- uploading 3 times a week- and her fashion and styling videos are always genuinely informative.)
Fashion/Styling Pieces
Charles & Keith Ankle Boots (This pair of boots only came into my life in the last month of 2018 but they’re still my number one item because I have found a pair of vegan leather boots that actually feel and look like real leather and don’t rub my feet. Plus they look amazing and are probably now the comfiest shows I own.)
THAT Topshop Satin Midi Skirt (This skirt has actually made me enjoy autumn/winter styling so much more. I have it in the red and the brown which are sadly sold out but there are lots of other colours available.)
ASOS Satchel Bag (This one is a little bit random. But my croc burgundy satchel bag from ASOS has been such a good styling tool for me during the last couple of summer months and during autumn/winter. I love it and it was a bargain.)
Beauty/Skincare
Glossier Milky Jelly Cleanser (I love this cleanser so much. It has not improved my skin by any great leaps and bounds but I love how it feels and smells and it’s the perfect non-offensive, easy cleanser for my morning routine. I’m on at least my third bottle and have a backup bottle waiting to go.)
The Ordinary Salicylic Acid (This is another one that I have backups for but, unlike the cleanser, this seriously has transformed my skin. A drop of this on any spots overnight reduces their appearance by at least 80% by the next morning and since putting it all over my face every night, any acne has been reduced so much.)
Too Faced Sweet Peach Eye Shadow Palette (I have loved wearing eyeshadow this year and this has been my go-to palette for everyday and more formal occasions. My favourite shades are Bellini, Puree and Luscious.)
Films
Call Me By Your Name (This film is everything I could ask for. It’s a little bit pretentious but in all the best ways and it never fails to make me feel emotional and inspired.)
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (I couldn’t include a post on 2018 without this film because I just adored it. It’s jam-packed with ABBA songs and without a doubt makes me feel good every time I watch it.)
Ladybird (I’ve watched this film upwards of 5 times this year- for someone who doesn't usually like watching a film more than once, this is A LOT. It’s relatable, hilarious and as easy to watch as much as it is thought-provoking. Plus it has Saoirse Ronan AND Timothee Chalamet starring in it, both of whom I love.)
Music
Rex Orange County (The music of Rex Orange County has soundtracked my year- as my Spotify Wrapped will tell you- and I could never get bored of his wonderful voice and lyrics. From the feel good songs to the ones that make me cry, I love them all.)
Mahalia (Spotify Wrapped will also assure you of my love for Mahalia. Her music always makes me feel like I can take on the world and I can’t wait to hear more from her in 2019.)
Jorja Smith (I’m late to the bandwagon with this one but I’ve fallen in love with Jorja Smith’s lyrics as much as I have with her voice this year.)
I could go on with more and more categories but I’ll stick with these for now. It was so difficult to limit each category to my top 3 but I can assure you that these really are the best of the best. Please do go out and consume some of this stuff, whatever it is you enjoy, because I can’t recommend all of it enough and I know I’ll be enjoying it all in 2019 just as much as I have in 2018.
I’d love to hear about your favourite stuff of 2018! Let me know in the comments or on social media, or link me to your posts/videos discussing your favourite things of 2018 as I’d love to read/watch them.
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My Morning Skincare and Beauty Routine (Cruelty Free)
Happy Friday! Today I'm going to be sharing with you my morning skincare and make-up routine. As I've mentioned before, I'm really crappy at make-up so I always go for something natural and simple but I thought I'd share it anyway as I feel like I'm using some products that I love at the moment. I love skincare and find it super interesting but my morning skincare routine is also pretty simple, both for time purposes and because that's what my skin seems to like. My evening skincare routine is much more complicated but I'm sure I'll do a blog post on that soon. In case you're wondering, I have oily, blemish-prone skin but it's in the best condition it's been in in a long time at the moment. Anyway here it is...
1. To start, I'll wet my face with a flannel before using the Glossier Milky Jelly Cleanser- my holy grail product. I've talked about this in detail in my blog post I wrote on the Glossier products that I own but it really is the perfect morning cleanser- so refreshing. If I'm going to be washing my hair that morning, I'll use this in the shower but if not I just wash it off with a flannel, which works fine.
2. Next, I spray my face with the Mario Badescu rosewater. I'm really not sure if this does anything but I love the smell and the feeling of it on my skin. It's so refreshing in the morning and, because my evening skincare routine is quite de-hydrating, it's a good way to really hydrate my skin at the beginning of the day.
3. The final step of my morning skincare routine (I told you it was basic) is this moisturiser from Lush called 'Enzymion'. I've used it for years and, despite trying various other moisturisers, I always come back to it. It's formulated for oily skin which makes it perfect for me and it smells of lemons which makes it really refreshing. It moisturises the skin without making you feel like you've got a heavy moisturiser on, which I like as I hate feeling like I have anything on my face.
4. Moving on to make-up, I've just started using The Ordinary Serum foundation in the shade 1.2N and I'm loving it. It's similar to the Glossier 'Perfecting Skin Tint' but it's a quarter of the price and has much better coverage. I like my coverage to be really light because, as mentioned, I don't like feeling as though I have anything on my face, so on some days when I'm not really doing anything I do prefer the Glossier one. But overall, this is far better priced and covers up any imperfections, unlike the Glossier product. I usually just blend it in with an ELF blending brush.
5. The next step is bronzer although if I have any breakouts I'll use the ELF concealer before this. I use the Urban Decay 'Beached Bronzer' which is buildable and so easy to apply. It's not too dark or too light which means applying it is effortless and it never leaves any brown splodges on the top of my cheekbones.
6. After this I'll either go in with a highlighter or with this Charlotte Tilbury blush stick- more often than not I use this as it's much easier to apply than highlighter and makes for a more natural look. This one is in the shade 'Moon Beach' and it's a kind of coral-y shade that definitely comes with a glow once applied. Super easy to use (can you see a theme here within my routine...) and something I actually get complimented on fairly often, which is always nice! Plus, it smells really good.
7. For someone who is lazy with their make-up, I wear eyeshadow disproportionately often, pretty much every day. I've never been able to do liquid eyeliner and so eyeshadow is the something interesting and varied that I like to add to my make-up routine. My favourite palette for every day is the 'Sweet Peach' palette by Too Faced. It has a variety of different shades but I usually stick to the lighter ones, although I am partial to some glitter. My favourite and most worn shade is 'Bellini', which I'm wearing in these photos, which is a shimmery dark pink shade that I think brings out the blue in my eyes.
8. Another holy grail product for me is the Anastasia Beverly Hills 'Brow Wizz' in soft brown. For some reason that is completely unknown to me, I have random holes in my eyebrows and this brow pencil allows me to fill them in quickly and seamlessly. I also have bushy eyebrows that grow back quicker than I care to pluck them so an eyebrow brush is necessary for me everyday, even when I'm not wearing make-up. The only annoying thing about the 'Brow Wiz' is that the packaging breaks so easily (as you can see here) which means the spoolie brush that comes with it always disappears within the first week of me owning it.
9. For mascara, I *usually* use the Urban Decay 'Perversion' which is cruelty free however I didn't have it with me when I was taking these photos so I'm just using a random tester- sorry about that! I really don't have much to say about it as a mascara anyway apart from that it works and it's cruelty free and vegan, which is enough for me! I honestly don't know what makes a good mascara and usually can't tell one from another.
10. Finally, I use what is perhaps my favourite beauty product, the Glossier 'Balm Dot Com' in the shade/flavour (?) Birthday. It adds a slight shimmer and tastes incredible and is so soothing for my perennially dry lips. I don't usually wear lipstick day-to-day so I just slap a bit of this on and I'm good to go.
I hope you've enjoyed this post despite the fact that I am very apparently not that knowledgable about make-up! I do enjoy doing it and I especially enjoy doing skincare, so expect an evening skincare routine very soon where I can go a bit more into depth about my skin and what works for it. Let me know if you use any of the products I've mentioned and what your holy grail products are in the comments! Also if you are interested in any of the Glossier products I mentioned, you can click here to get 10% off your order!
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My Glossier Products Ranked
I'm really not that into beauty. Re-stocking my make-up bag is often more of a chore than something I look forward to (mostly due to the price of beauty products) and I really don't know much about how to apply make-up well. Skincare, on the other hand, I find really interesting. Trying out new skincare products is something I enjoy because it's just so satisfying seeing improvements in my skin. If the choice was between a new cleanser or a new pair of jeans though, I'd be happy to stick with a crappy cleanser for a while. Fashion is my favourite thing to spend money on without a doubt. So I never thought I'd be as excited as I am about a beauty brand until I discovered Glossier.
I don't know what it is about Glossier that gets me so excited. I mean, I'm not going to lie, their incredible marketing definitely lures me in and, to be honest, I'm okay with that because I'm definitely more likely to be excited about a beauty product if I like the packaging (or if said product comes with stickers!!) even if that is a little vain. I'm also okay with being consciously allured by their branding because I don't dislike any of the products I've tried and some of them, I absolutely love. I'm really behind the brand's ethos 'Beauty Products Inspired By Real Life' and the effortlessness they ensure their products provide because, as I said, I'm not one to get particularly excited over make-up and I'm pretty crap at applying it so the simpler for me, the better. Plus, they're cruelty free!
Since Glossier started shipping to the UK in October 2017, I've accumulated and tried out a fair amount of their products. So, seeing as I love their brand so much and have tried out rather a lot of their products, I thought I would rank them and talk a little bit about the pros and cons of each of them, in case you're looking to make an order from Glossier and aren't sure what to buy.
Also, before I start I should point out that I have oily, acne-prone skin so I'll be talking about the effectiveness of the products for me with reference to this skin type
My number one Glossier product has to be this cleanser. It hasn't transformed my skin by any means but it is the cleanest, most refreshing cleanser I've ever used. I love using it in the shower in the morning as the texture and the smell really help to wake me up. It's also nice and light which makes it perfect to use in the morning as well, because I don't like to pile on too many heavy products before starting my day. I always look forward to using this cleanser and it is by far my favourite cleanser I've ever used- I'm already on my second bottle. I've never attempted to take my make-up off with it because I've read lots of reviews that say it isn't great for that and I did initially use it in the night, but then swapped it for the Mario Badescu Enzyme Cleansing Gel, because I felt like it was a bit too light for my evening skincare routine. This is the only thing about the cleanser that I'd described as a 'con' but really the fact that I don't use it in the night is just personal preference and the because I own two cleansers and like to get my use out of both of them.
This lip balm (or universal balm, as Glossier describe it) is so so great! It smells amazing, it hydrates my (extremely dry and often chapped) lips and the packaging is perfect. The only reason it's not at the top of my list is because it's unfortunately not vegan and I only purchase vegan beauty/skincare products (this was gifted to me and I use up all my gifts rather than letting them go to waste). It's such a shame because this really is the perfect lip balm and I'm very very tempted to re-purchase it once it runs out even though it isn't vegan. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it (which will hopefully be never)!
I was kindly gifted this perfume for Christmas and it has become my staple scent ever since- I mean, it's the only perfume I own so I don't really have much of a choice but I do genuinely love it and I know I would reach for it pretty much every day anyway even if I did own any other scents. This perfume is designed to smell different on everyone who uses it and the scent does feel very natural to me. If I could describe how I want to smell then I would describe this. I'm really not even going to even try to describe the scent because I really know nothing about perfumes so that would be totally pointless. But if you order anything from Glossier you can add a sample of the perfume to your order for free so you can try it out yourself. I would definitely recommend it as I always feel great when I'm wearing it and consistently receive compliments on it when I do.
4. Mega Greens Galaxy Pack Face Mask
First of all, sorry for the very crappy quality of this photo. I somehow lost the photos of this mask (and photos of the lipstick a little bit further down the page) and had to re-take them without natural light so I could get this blog post up in time and my camera's focus is not great without natural light (or even in natural light to be honest). Anyway, I've been using this mask for a few months and I've definitely noticed that my skin has improved. I started using a variety of new skincare products all at the same time though, so I can't be sure that it was this mask that has significantly improved my skin, although I do genuinely feel like it's helped. It stings a little while it's on my face, which I like because then I know it's doing something, and my skin is visibly brighter after removing it. I also really like the packaging because, even if tubs aren't the most hygienic form of packaging, I feel like I can use every last drop of the mask and am able to easily apply the right amount of mask to my face too. I don't know if I'd re-purchase this mask because it's not dramatically transformed my skin and I do like to try different masks because I find it fun/interesting. So I can't say I am totally besotted with this product but it's definitely worth trying.
This, along with the milky jelly cleanser, was the first Glossier product I purchased back in October and I've been using it as my base for make-up ever since. I really loved it at first. It's super natural as in, it provides little to no coverage. But I really like this because I prefer a natural make-up look anyway and I don't like how heavy foundation feels on my skin. I apply it with my fingers (which definitely works best because using an applicator means losing a significant amount of the product) which makes it super easy to apply and it's pretty much impossible to get foundation lines- so it's great in terms of ease. However, as I've got further through the product, I've been becoming more and more frustrated with the packing because it's so difficult to get any of the product out of it. I also think it's really overpriced for what it is and, after recently purchasing The Ordinary Serum Foundation, I think I much prefer the latter that I bought for a fraction of the price. So I don't think I will be re-purchasing this foundation purely because of the price and the packaging but it did work well for me for a period of time.
Again, sorry for the crappy quality of this photo. This lipstick is the most recent of my Glossier purchases and I do really like it. It's a nice shade of red and it's definitely buildable. However, it's just not really what I expected. I was hoping for a more natural red and one that wouldn't budge as easy as other red lipsticks do. I don't really think it's lived up to these expectations and isn't much different other red lipsticks I've tried but it is great for a standard matte red lip and one that was definitely missing from my collection.
In last place is the priming moisturiser. This just wasn't for me. As mentioned, I have oily skin and this moisturiser, in my opinion, isn't great for my skin type at all. I'm sure it would be great for people with less oily skin as it's super convenient in that it's a primer and moisturiser in one. I have tried it a few times underneath the Perfecting Skin Tint and it definitely improved the appearance of my skin for the first hour of wearing it, and helped the foundation to go on much more smoothly. However, after this hour, it would really just highlight my oiliness. So, not great for me, but it might work for you!
So we've reached the end of this fairly *comprehensive* (AKA rambly) post about the Glossier products I own. Please do let me know if you have any questions about any of the products I've mentioned. Or, if you've tried out any of Glossier's products, I'd love for you to recommend me your faves in the comments. Next on my list to buy is the Solution, closely followed by at least one shade of Lidstar.
You can also click here to use my code to get 10% off your Glossier order (and if you use it, Glossier reward me with some store credit- which is nice for the both of us)!