My Monthly Skincare & Makeup Favourites - November Edit

We are finally on the eve of December, when the halls are decked with boughs of holly, when the frantic search for gifts begins and when family pets decide that the tree must be toppled over. Not that that has happened to me.

Yet.

I decorated my tree today, a day earlier than planned, because I had such an awful morning as someone most likely stole a parcel right from my doorstep.

My sister paid for a lipstick from Besame Cosmetics on Wednesday for my birthday present, and it was sent out on Thursday. The problem was that I never received a tracking number in any of my emails from them, so I was waiting blindly for the parcel. Finally, on Monday, I called them and requested for the tracking number to be sent to me, and they said they would do so immediately after the call, but they didn't. Yesterday, in the afternoon, I contacted them again and they sent me a copy of the number late in the evening. That was when I found out that the parcel was marked as "delivered" only that I never received it.

The Cruelty-Cutter App Review

This is another late post and I apologise for that. Sure, I was a little bit busy, but that was not the main reason why I couldn't update a new post over the past week. The reason was because Sean took a few days off of work as part of his special leave and he's been using his MacBook most of the time, the laptop on which I do my blog work and photo-editing on. I decided to wake up earlier today to get the chance to use the laptop to finally upload this post, but I didn't get up until after 10:30am because I kept waking up very often. I'm still taking this opportunity to try and get some work done anyways.

Recently I discovered an app that I found on Twitter, and I was intrigued. Seriously, I was intrigued, because I never thought I'd see the day where there would be an app that let you scan the barcode on a product and that was all the work you had to do to find out if something was cruelty-free.

I spent quite some time playing with the app, and even whipped my phone out while shopping so I could test the parameters and see what worked, what didn't and what needed improvement. I went to Kmart to test pretty much all of the brands in store, and I got a really good grasp on how much the app covers, and what areas they needed to work on. Shall we begin with this review?

What Won't I Buy Online?

So it's time for my next post! And thankfully this one is right on time. I had a little bit of an internal debate as to whether I should post this because I don't want to come off as preachy or a know-it-all. This post is all based off of what I personally feel, and if you happen to prefer the other way around, that's cool, I don't mind. I try not to force my opinion on other people, so you won't be finding me preaching about vegetarianism, going cruelty-free, politics or whatever. I find that being pushy doesn't do anyone any favours, but if they have an interest in a certain subject, I don't mind explaining my view.

Such is the case with this post, I'm only trying to explain why I won't buy these particular products online, not to besmirch others for choosing to do so.

The Mission to Improve My Skin #4

This update is ridiculously late, but I've had to prioritise other things, and even now, I'm still quite busy. I've pretty much finished my putz house but I need to add some trees and put glitter on the base. other than that, I've had a pretty full week, and there was no end to it. I had my friend Livi's Anything But Clothes 18th birthday party on Saturday night, and I went as a Greek philosopher, donning a couple of sheets and an olive wreath on my head. Today, aside from doing a (long-ass) grocery run, I had to wash clothes, plant more tomatoes, do some tidying up, and write lists. I'm now sitting in the lounge room with all the windows open in hopes that there will be a cool breeze blowing through the house. It was too bloody hot today, mate!

Anyhow, I had planned on writing a skincare empties post before this one, but because this was meant to go up last Friday it ended up being a cross-over, so not only do you get the newest edition to the Mission, you also get to find out what I've used up lately. I aim to have the posts for the rest of this month uploaded to schedule, but as always, I can't promise anything.

Milani Cosmetics Rose Blush Review and Swatches

I feel like I haven't uploaded anything new to the blog in over a week when the reality is that it's only been a mere three days since my last update. I've had a really full few days, starting with yesterday where I had to visit Mum for a bit, do some shopping, visit my lovely Nonna for her birthday, and then head back home early enough to put together an outfit for a last-minute group interview as a travel consultant for Flight Center this morning. I had to wake up at 6:30am to make it in time, and I thought I did quite well. However, I didn't get the job. I'm a little bummed about it, but life (and this blog) goes on.

I'm running on so very little sleep over the past two days, so I'm sorry if this post is a little boring or low in quality. I really wanted to get this review up, as I've had the blushes for so long now it didn't make sense to keep putting it off.

My Birthday and Christmas Wishlist

Since my last wishlist, I've long since discovered that readers do not like seeing wishlists on blogs, which is weird because I love seeing them. However, seeing as how my birthday is coming up in a month, followed by Christmas, I thought I could give my family and friends a friendly nudge on what I would love for my Birthmas present. Since my birthday is less than two weeks away from Christmas, I'm often forgotten or I've been lumped in together with it.

There's exactly a month till the big day, so I thought that I'd take the guesswork out for everyone stumped on what to get for me. Not everything is beauty-related, I'll tell you that. There's a pasta machine thrown in too, for goodness sake!

Make Your Own Photography Boards!

Hola, amigos! I've been hard at work churning these projects of mine out, and the timber boards were right at the top of the list. I was getting really bored of the same old marble print for every post, and I'm sure you guys would agree with me on that. Marble is gorgeous and timeless, but you can't have too much of a good thing lest you get sick of it. Hey, Murphy made the law, not me!

I tried sample sheets of wallpaper that I bought from eBay, but I really disliked them - they were cheap, lacked depth, and looked quite unrealistic. I wanted the real thing but never got around to making them until now.

My To-Do List For November

I saw a similar post like this over on Sophie's blog, Sophie's Makeup, and thought it would be a fun way to show you all what I've planned for this month. If anyone wants to get all up in my grill because I may have missed an update, this is why!

I would have this up at the very start of the month but I had other posts planned for those days, so now you guys get this post on the 7th/8th of November. I've got lots of projects on my plate and I'm so excited to start on each and every single one of them. I've already finished putting together the boards, and now all I have to do is paint/stain the rest. I've got one of the boards in the photos for today's post.

A Little Bookshelf Tour

I've been wanting to show you guys my overall book collection for quite some time, but I kept putting it off. I needed to dust both of the bookcases before I could take photos, and guys, I'm too lazy for that! I took my chance the other day because I went on a cleaning spree in the living room, that is if wiping down the coffee table and dusting the TV unit qualifies as a cleaning spree. And because I already had a duster in hand, I went and attacked the bookshelves until not a speck of dust was in sight.

Dusting done, I took the photos as soon as the sun hit the windows at just the right angle so I had the best lighting possible. My place isn't very well lit, to be honest, even with the skylight, mainly because we have a dark-coloured brick wall along one side of the lounge. So, the subliminal lighting results in photos that are rather grainy, and there's only so much I can do with my, just as subliminal, camera. I made do with what I could on Photoshop to get rid of the noise, but I'm no wizard.

At least the lighting in my bedroom is the brightest and easiest to work with!

My Latest Cruelty-Free Beauty Buys

I've been of the cheeky sort this month. Sure, I've been thrifty wherever I could, but I had to replace a couple of skincare products because I'd run low on or finished, finally found a foundation that I could use, and a few other things. Not to mention I also picked a day planner for next year, because I cannot stand having my day all jumbled up and missing something because I forgot about it. I don't just write down birthdays and appointments, but reminders, to-do lists, ideas for posts, and checklists for my water consumption, skincare and blogging tasks.

Actually, I never write down birthdays in my diary... I should probably get around to doing that from now on instead of letting Facebook do the job of announcing birthdays on the spot.