Monthly Favourites | February

Mac '217' Brush, Real Techniques 'Buffing Brush' and Blush Brush' 

 Urban Decay 'Naked' palette and 'Primer Potion' sample.

My favourite colours: half-baked, smog and darkhorse. 

(Left-Right) Half-baked, smog and darkhorse

GOSH pigment in 'sunstone', Natural Collection blusher in 'Pink Cloud' 

Urban Decay 'Vice 2' palette. 

EOS in 'pomegranate raspberry' 

Urban Decay 'Flushed' palette

'Swatches of Stash' from the 'Vice 2' palette 'sunstone' pigment

Swatches of 'Pink Cloud' and the highlight shade from the Urban Decay 'Flushed' palette

 L'Oreal Paris Studio Matt & Messy Salt Spray

H&M tartan skirt, American Apparel navy blue velvet scunchie

Ikea Skubb draw dividers in the Hemnes 8 drawers.

'Under Control' by Calvin Harris, Alesso and Hurts, 'White Noise' by Disclosure and Aluna George

Hey, so today I have decided to post my first ever favourites post! I know I didn't do a January one but it was just because there wasn't too many things I was really liking that month however February is a completely different story. I don't want to make this post any longer than asI have a lot to talk about so on with my February Favourites! :)

I will start with the brushes I've been loving this month.. I've loved my 'buffing brush' for a while now but this month I have really liked using it for the application of my 'Stay Matte' powder by Rimmel. I use it to buff the powder into my nose, my nose/inner cheek bit and my forehead. These areas get particularly oily so I find that this way of applying powder combats this quite well. When I first got my 'blush brush', I wasn't much of a fan as I found it to be too big but this month I have been really loving it. It applies blush perfectly and the size no longer bothers me as I am now using a less pigmented blush. If you've read my post on my first ever MAC products then you will already know all about my love their '217' brush. I've been using it non-stop this month as it is the perfect companion to another of my February Favourites!

Onto my 217's best friend! If you read my Valentine's Day post, then you'll know my lovely boyfriend bought me Urban Decay's infamous 'Naked' palette. I must say, I am so in love with this thing! The packaging is gorgeous, the eye shadows are so soft and pigmented plus the palette comes with a sample size of UD's 'Primer Potion'. My favourite combination so far has to be 'half-baked' on the inner third, 'smog' in the center and blended through the crease and 'darkhorse' on the outer corner to really smoke it all out a bit. I really do love this palette so expect a review shortly!

As you all probably know, I love my 'Vice 2' palette from UD and this month, I have been loving one shade in particular. The shade I am talking about is 'stash'. For a while, I was thinking about building a MAC palette and one of the shades I would include is 'sumptuous olive', well with 'stash' I can save my pennies! Correct me if I'm wrong but they seem like such lovely dupes of each other. I love this colour as it's a brown/bronze with quite a bit of green in it. I use this colour to add a bit of interest to my 'naked' combination. It also looks lovely with 'poison' from the 'Vice 2' palette which is a black with a hint of green.

My cousin Gabbie recently went to New York and I asked to bring me back this EOS and she very kindly agreed. Since she gave it to me, I have fallen in love with it. After I bought 'Baby Lips' and hated them, I was on the hunt for the perfect lip balm as my lips tend to become very dry and I think I have found it. EOS' are hyped up on instagram so much and I can see why. The packaging is cute, the smell lovely and most importantly, they work. My only negative is that they're not available in the UK and if you can find them they are ridiculously priced. In America, they're $2.99 however I saw them in Beauty Bizarre priced at £9.99, the mind boggles. If you would like to check out Gabbie's blog, you can find it here.

When I really want to brighten up an eye look, this month I have been reaching for this GOSH pigment in the shade 'sunstone'. I forgot I had this pigment (along with another called 'copper' which I love!) and after re-discovering them whilst writing my 'drugstore favourites' post, I have been using it so much. These loose shadows are super pigmented and the formula is so soft and creamy. The only downside to these I have found is that they go EVERYWHERE as they're a loose powder. They also may have been discontinued as I just can't seen to find them on the Superdrug website! I hope this isn't true as I would like to pick up a couple more. 

As I said earlier, I have been loving my 'blush brush' this month and I have been pairing it with this Natural Collection blusher in the shade 'pink cloud'. As you can see on my swatch, this isn't too pigmented which I love as I tend to be a pretty heavy handed blush person! I saw on instagram that this is the perfect dupe for MAC's 'stay pretty' so if you're after that, definatley try 'pink cloud' as the price difference is astonishing at £15.50! Natural Collection is available at Boots :)

Another cheek product I have been loving this month is the highlight shade in UD's 'Flushed' palette. When I first used this, it scared me as I wasn't too good at applying it. I have since figured out how to use it and I know love it! I apply this product to the tops of my cheekbones using a RTs 'contour brush'. I have a review planned for this but as this is more of a summer product I will save it till then!

In terms of hair, I'm a pretty boring person as I just normally straighten my mid-length hair and that its. I've always wanted more textured hair but I just can't seem to make it work. When in Tesco, Joe was buying his usual hair stuff and I noticed they were two for £4.00 so I decided to get this for the bargain price of 50p! I pair this with my beautiful navy velvet scrunchie from AA and I really do love it. I spray this salt spray onto the ends of my hair then tie up half of it using the scrunchie! This is perfect as it keeps my hair off my face whilst still loving relatively stylish. Barbara Palvin also looks fabulous on the advert!

In terms of clothes, there is really one stand out item I have been reaching for lately. I've wanted this H&M skirt for a while now however when it first came out, I was pregnant then when I wasn't it was sold out! Eventually, I got my hands on and I have been wearing it non-stop! I normally wear this with a white and navy long-sleeved t-shirt from Topman (which I also have in green), my RI belt and my gold chain I got in Primark. I just love this outfit as its casual so I can wear it to college whilst still looking stylish. The blue running through the skirt also matches my scrunchie perfectly. My only downside to this skirt is that it's slightly too short but it's not too much of a problem as I would never wear it without tights. This skirt was a bargain at only £14.99.

This month, I got the 'Skubb' draw organizers from Ikea and I really love the way my makeup now looks! I don't have a massive amount of makeup but I was finding that I was forgetting about things with them being shoved in a makeup bag. Now, I can see everything and am getting a lot more wear out of many of my long-lost loves! I have six sections: face, single eye shadows/small sets, lips, mascaras/eyeliners, nails and tools. Its still not my ideal way of storing things but until I get a dressing table, this is how it will have to be!

My final favourites in this extremely long post are these two songs! 'Under Control' is on in the gym all of the time and it's now permantly stuck in my head. Its such a great song and one that definaley puts you in a good mood. The second is 'White Noise', I always seem to put this on when I'm on my laptop (I'd have it on right now if Charlie wasn't asleep next to me!) as its just a really great song. I quite like Disclosure at the moment and this song just seems to chill me out. They teamed up with Lorde at the Brits which I quite liked however Aluna George is terrible live! If you're wondering what I'm on about, you can watch their performance here.

So, we've come to the end of my February Favourites! I always say to myself 'Megan, make your posts shorted!' but then I get carrried away and this happens, oops! I will just once again apologize for the terrible quality in some of the photos (I'm looking at you Naked swatches!) as I am currently just using my iPhone until I can afford a decent camera. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed reading all about my February Favourites :)

Megan xx