July 2013 Favorites! | Victoria's Secret, Benefit, & More!

Hello everyone, and happy (almost) August! How was your July? I spent most of it going to Physical Therapy (my knee has gotten a lot better!), and taking piano lessons. I've accumulated quite a few favorites this month (maybe to make up for the fact that I didn't do a list of my favorites for June? whoops), so let's get down to business, shall we?
Makeup/Beauty:

Victoria's Secret Luscious Kisses Body Spray. I bought this a couple of years ago and soon after stopped using it entirely. My 18-year-old mind was convinced that instead of smelling like fruity coconut goodness, it smelled like overly salty playdough. What? Gross. A few years later, I find it tolerable again. In fact, I find it more than tolerable! I can't stop wearing it. I don't think this is available anymore, though. I checked the Victoria's Secret website and couldn't find it. Maybe you could find it at an outlet store?

TheBalm's Instain Blush in Swiss Dot. When I first saw this in my July Birchbox, I freaked. I've been wanting to try this since it launched and TheBalm's website crashed. Needless to say, I didn't get it then. But I have been using this deluxe sample a lot this month and I am so impressed with the staying power (and the cutest rosy color I've ever seen!). If you'd like to see swatches, check out my July Birchbox post.

Benefit's They're Real! Mascara. I've been doing minimal makeup this month (since I've really only been going to Physical Therapy for the knee rehabilitation), but something I never skip is mascara. I've been using this mascara the most! It gives incredible length, separates, and darkens my lashes so beautifully that I don't need to use a lash comb afterward (which is a good thing, I suppose, since I don't actually own one). If I use this every day, though, I notice that my lashes start to feel a little more brittle than usual. That's why I like to switch on and off with my other favorite this month...

Maybelline's Full n' Soft Mascara. This puppy is easy to overlook in the drugstore because of it's plain packaging, but it's one of my all-time favorites. I'm even on my second tube of it! This mascara gives me long lashes just as good as Benefit's They're Real!, but since the brushes are so different (this one has regular bristles, Benefit's has plastic) they give different looks. This is more of an everyday mascara, but if I'm feeling a little more glamorous, I'll use Benefit's.

Maybelline DreamLumi Touch Highlighting Concealer. I've been using this a lot this month with my minimalist makeup to brighten up my undereye circles. It's best used sparingly, though: too much and it can easily cake up under your eyes (several seconds after applying, actually). It isn't the best concealer out there for really dark undereye circles, but it's been suiting my everyday, minimalist makeup needs just fine. It's actually the first concealer I bought specifically for my undereye area, but I have tried others since that I like better.

EOS Lip Balm in Honeysuckle Honeydew. I know that this is a popular product, but I didn't particularly like it at first! This lip balm had been shelved for a couple of months after I first purchased it because I was more reliant on my Carmex at the time for the winter months. Now that it's nicer out and my lips aren't as dry, I like to use a more gentle lip balm like this one! It lightly conditions the lips and lasts for hours. I don't find myself reapplying it excessively like I do with my Carmex.

Pink Pewter "Alyssa" Headband. I got this in the first Little Black Bag that I bought sometime in May! It's a sturdy, black beaded headband with velvet lining and an elastic band in the back. Even though I've never been a big headband person, I find myself wearing all the time (especially to physical therapy! I look pretty fabulous while doing my rehabilitation exercises, if I do say so  myself).

If you're not familiar with Little Black Bag, it's a social shopping website in which you choose one item that you want to purchase, and if you'd like to pay a few dollars more, the website surprises you with two to three other pieces that their algorithm thinks you will like based off of the profile you fill out. If you don't like the extra items you get, you can swap them before the bag ships with other users directly on the site. If you'd like to sign up for Little Black Bag, you can use either my personal invitation link (I'll only get a few points if you make a purchase, so don't feel obligated to use this if you don't want to) or just go to their homepage and sign up from there. They have great customer service, as I wrote in my blog post for my last Little Black Bag!

Extras!

Celestial Seasonings' Sleepytime Vanilla tea. SleepyTime tea was my first tea as a child, so it holds a special place in my heart. I love that Celestial Seasonings has been coming out with more flavors of it! I know I featured SleepyTime Peach in my May favorites video, but what can I say? I'm digging the delicate vanilla flavor this month. (It's especially tasty with vanilla soymilk! Yum.)

My new iPhone! I've finally reached the 21st century and got a phone that actually works. I got my last phone at least four years ago, and I finally upgraded because 2 out of the 3 buttons on my old phone stopped working. I found that it was impeding my job (that heavily relies on telephone communication, documenting things while on rounds with camera phones, etc), so it had to go. I'm no stranger to iOS devices, though--I have both an iPod touch and an iPad, so the transition to my new phone was seamless! And now I can finally Instagram while I'm not at home. (Pssssst: You can follow me on instagram by clicking here!)

That's everything on my end! What have you been loving this month? Let me know in a comment.

Thanks for reading!
Until next time,


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