Most loved in December.

I really struggled this month to think of different products for my December favourite post, as a lot of my favourites are still the same as previous months.

I did manage to think of a few though.

First up, Bourjois 123 Perfect CC cream, I bought this way back in June(?) when Bourjois were still being sold on Japan. My love of Bourjois products was reignited just before I found out they were ceasing business in Japan. Sod’s law. This is a medium coverage foundation, that touts 24hr hydration and will give you a luminous complexion and smooth skin. With 3 pigments to counteract varying problems, there is apricot for anti- fatigue, green for anti-redness and then white for anti-dark spots.

What I love about it is that it really evens out my complexion and while I did initially buy it as a replacement for my Laura Mercier tinted moisturiser that I love using in the summer. I actually found I’ve used this more in the winter than the summer. 24hr hydration isn’t really selling point to me, as I never intend to wear my make up that long. But I definitely feel this is perfect for my skin in Japanese winters.

The only thing I don’t like about this product is the packaging, the product leaks out and for some reason even when I store it nib side up, it still seems to leak product into the lid. It baffles me.

Next three favourites are all lip products.

Revlon’s Colour Stay Moisture Stain. I saw lots of mixed review floating around on the Internet about these but still decided to pick one up since they supposedly a dupe for the much raved about YSL glossy stain. I don’t own a YSL glossy stain to compare but I still really love this product. So much so I went out an picked up another one. It’s a strange hybrid of a gloss, stain and gel. I love the colours, the gel like texture, the applicator and how it drys down into a lovely non-drying stain. As a bonus too, I can wear it over my eczema without it emphasising or drying out my lips more. I have the lovely orange coral; Miami Fever and the perfect for winter berry; Parisian Passion.

Nuxe Rêve de Miel lip balm is a product I’ve reviewed before and spoke about how much I loved it. As it’s getting drier here, I have found myself reaching for it more and more, as it is the only lip balm product that can save my lips from Japanese weather. Weather here hates my lips and hands.

Also included this month is the NARS Digital World gift set. I love all of these lip pencils, the formulas are amazing, the colours are fantastic. Nothing more to say about them really.

Winter isn’t kind to my skin at all, and I find shower gel dries it out even more and I hate moisturising in the winter (it’s too cold!). So I wanted to try a similar product from Lush but I couldn’t justify the 3000 yen price tag, and instead opted for the cheaper option, Nivea in-shower body lotion. I was initially reluctant to try this as I have had issues with other Nivea products in the past. But I’m glad to report I was pleasantly surprised by this product and it has really helped my skin.

Since I have very few beauty favourites this month, I felt like I would include some other favourites. I did used to do something similar under the tag #currentloves.

Kindle:

I feel like I go though big reading bursts and then I stop reading for what feels like months. I am in one of those burst now. Recently as a way to relax and switch off at night, I’ve started reading again and I recently finished Catherine the great. Biographies have been one of my favourite genres recently, especially ones about the Russian Royal Family. I did also re-read Roal Dahl’s The Twits and David Nicholls’s One Day. If I ever get around to filming my flat tour, I’ll show you my little book collection. I had to leave a lot of my books in the UK.

Apps: Hipstamantic and VSCO Cam

In recently months, I have noticed the camera on my iPhone 5 is getting progressively worse. I sound insane when I say it, but I swear it wasn’t that crap to begin with. So to counteract this, I have been trying some old favourite apps. Hipstamantic feels a bit like taking a photos with a film camera, in that you change the lens, the film and you don’t know the outcome until after you’ve taking the photo. This can be fun but sometimes I don’t have the time to faff about with trying to find the right combination of lens and film to create the perfect photo.

Cue VSCO Cam, what I like about this app is that I just take a photo and I can edit and add filters to it later, with in the same app.

TV: Modern Family

My friend Abby introduced this to me many years ago, but it sort of got lost in the big long list of programs I want to watch, books I want to read and places I want to go to and I never watched it.

Until I spotted it on Hulu, which is the only streaming site like Netflix available in Japan. I like it because I can watch familiar shows, I ought to use it for Japanese study but instead I just watch friends and Modern Family. Oh well, such is life. I manage to get Ksk into it as well, so now we watch it together.  It’s set as a mockumentary (think the Office style) about 3 families within a family. It’s refreshing and laugh out loud.

What are your December favourites?

Thank you for reading,

Alanna

#beauty #mostloved