Monthly Favorites | November
Welcome to the first full week of Blogmas! If you didn't know, I'll be posting every weekday up until Christmas Eve! To kick off the week I thought I'd jump in with my November favorites.
To be honest, November flew by and I can't believe we're in December. I'm not too sad though as there are so many exciting things happening this month. I also just know this month is going to fly by as I have every weekend planned till the end of the year! I'm heading down to Southern California this weekend to the happiest place on earth AKA Disneyland! You can definitely expect a photo diary to come - especially with all the holiday decorations. How could I not? In the books is also my first official office holiday party (wooo!) and some office renovations which equal a new work space. I love changing up my environment so I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited for the new space and to add some decorations to my desk (finally). When I started at my office in January there were talks of changes so I never personalized my space. But now almost a year later, it's finally happening. But enough chit chat, let's get into my November faves.
I haven't been using much makeup lately, a light application of foundation and a sweep of highlight for a natural look. I've been using the Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk foundation for the better part of November and it has quickly moved atop my list of favorite foundations. I think this will actually give me that little push to throw out some other foundations I've had around for a while that I really should just give the toss. Along with the GA foundation, I also mentioned in my recent 'Makeup Edit' post (HERE) that I've been loving reaching for the Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow palette for the highlight to sweep on top of my cheekbones. Sometimes I'd like to look a bit more glowy so I'll dab on the Glossier Haloscope in Quartz along my cheekbones for a little extra something. (Score 20% off your first purchase at Glossier here.) I've been absolutely obsessed with the Tatcha Dewy Skin Mist. This stuff is life changing and as Vanessa pointed out, it's like your face has been blessed by angels with this spray.
I feel like our senses have a huge influence on how we feel. I've been really fond of my Chloe EDP lately. It's a soft fragrance which just brings me to my happy place. I'm putting a hiatus on using up all my millions of perfume samples and am enjoying spraying from an actual perfume bottle. I took a photo of this Chloe bottle on Instagram the other day with my new lens, holy bokeh (check it out here!). I've also been reaching for my Aesop Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm. I feel like I go through this stuff so slowly, but the scent just makes me happy. I ended up taking this home from work as my cube-mate is pretty sensitive to scents. I get a little self-conscious using heavily scented items at work so I thought I'd just bring this one home to use. So even though this one has made little progress, I've enjoyed reaching for it in the evenings and on weekends - especially as the cold weather has truly started to hit.
The next sense I've been tailoring to has got to be sight. I'll admit I'm a bit of a pyromaniac and love burning things. I love the ambiance of a burning candle and after finishing up some smaller candles I had lying around in October / beginning of November, I picked up a large pack of candles from Ikea. They're unscented and large and know I'll be able to get many many hours of burn time from them with little pain to my wallet. I've been loving my Diptyque Figuier Candle and have been (sparingly) lighting it every once in a while. I just think it's the absolute best as it fills my room with a nice woody and fresh aroma. Perks - this one fills up my room with a fresh scent regardless if it is lit or not - double thumbs up. In addition, I picked up some LED Fairy Lights from Target (currently 30% off!). They were copper and they were on sale - I was sold. I've had fun playing around with this string and have bunched it up in a ball and left it on one of my hexagon plates, wired it around my new glitter 'hello' blocks, and stuffed them in a clear apothecary jar. They're quite versatile and I love having them on with a few candles around my room. (Can you just picture how all my Blogmas post writing settings are looking?)
If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen me posting a few stories here and there about my ornament painting hobby. I'm actually thinking of doing a whole post on DIY ornament stuff for the holidays, but it's been a favorite past time of mine as of late. I'll save most of the back story for my actual post, but in-short it's the best stress reliever. I've been painting dot ornaments for years now. Every Christmas season I'll usually get a photo/message from a friend with a photo of an ornament I'd gifted them from years before. I'm not big on gifting, but I do love giving personalized items like these. Apparently my office likes to hang up stockings and people will drop items off for one another. I may be taking on too much with Blogmas, but I do want to try and get some ornaments to some of my office work buds! And also some new ones for some friends / family as the ones I did when I was younger look prettttty shitty compared to the ones I'm capable of making now.
I've actually made the decision not to continue with 'Monthly Favorites' next year. As much as I love reading them, I think my new lifestyle choice of using items up more and purchasing less will probably account for less favorites. Typically, my favorites usually make up new items into my collection. I think I'm leaning more towards 'Monthly Edit' type posts where I catch you up on what's happening in my life and sharing more favorites (Think: TV/Movies, Food/Recipes, Music, and Blogs). I'm definitely taking a page out of Tenneil's book - I always love reading her monthly edits and I think they're the perfect way for me to share all of the things I love with you guys. Let me know what you think!
What are some items you've been loving lately?
