July Favourites

Hello my darlings! I hope you've all enjoyed your weekend despite the weather. I worked nine hours today so I am absolutely exhausted!
Today I'm going to share with you my July favourites. I originally planned to do this post as video and I did film it, along with favourite videos from months ago but after trying four or five times and them never turning out how I wanted them to I decided pictures and words would be better for everyone. So...lets begin!

First on my list of favourites are these beautiful Birkenstocks, I LOVE these sandals. I bought them from TK Maxx for only £24.99, yes you read correctly, only £24.99! I've wanted some Birkenstocks for ages but never bought any because I couldn't quite bear to part with £40 so when I saw them in TK Maxx for £25 I just couldn't say no. I chose the black patent ones although in the shop they had black patent, black leather and then red, green and pink patent ones as well. There were loads of them in all sorts of sizes so if you want a pair but don't want to fork out nearly fifty quid, get yourself to TK Maxx and get on it!

Next are these two brilliant items, the latest album by Kings of Leon, Mechanical Bull, and John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. Lets start with music, this album is amazing, honestly I am obsessed. It is an amazing album for summer, the songs are either really soft and gentle or really fun and catchy. I find myself either singing or dancing along to pretty much every song. If any of you guys are rock fans or like any of their singles you may have heard on the radio from this album, seriously check out the rest of the album I have it on nonstop! And now onto the book, the extremely popular The Fault in Stars. My best friend Sophie lent this to me all the way back in September but I put off reading it for a while because I was a little bit sceptical. The whole of the internet was obsessed and I unjustly assumed that it would be just another craze like Twilight or The Hunger Games. Now I haven't read The Hunger Games so I can't pass judgement, but I did read Twilight and that was pretty terrible. I usually only read classical literature these days anyway so modern books don't really appeal to me but this one I was pleasantly surprised at. I really enjoyed reading it although it wasn't quite as heart breaking as everyone made it out to be. Obviously I did tear up a few times, it would be impossible not to, but I wasn't bawling like everyone said I would. If you haven't read it I would seriously recommend it, its not one of my favourite books but it was a lovely yet emotional read.

Moving on to beauty, this is Burberry's Effortless Mascara in Midnight Black. I was given this product in a beauty prize from Burberry which I won whilst at the Vogue Festival in March and I have used it to death over the past month. I tried not to use my Burberry products and to save them for special use, but when I ran out my usual mascara and didn't have any money to go out and get a new one I had no other option. Annoyingly, I am now obsessed with it, it really is fantastic. It takes half the time for me to apply it than my other one and is so much easier, it gives me lovely long lashes that are perfectly formed and not at all spidery or stuck together. It really is effortless and looks so natural. I am now dreading the day I run out of it though because I was given this mascara and when it runs out I won't have the money to go out and buy it again, I will be left with second rate mascaras and it might just break my heart.

Now for another beauty favourite; The Body Shop's Aloe Eye Defence Cream, it has been my life saver this month. I have suffered horrendously this year with my hay fever, it has been a nightmare! If any of you also suffer you will know how bad it has been this year and it is driving me insane. I don't sneeze at all with my hay fever, my eyes just stream and stream and stream, I can't take a step outside of the house at the moment without crying my eyes out. Because of this I've been rubbing my eyes day after day and they have been ridiculously sore recently, to combat this I have been using the Aloe Eye Defence Cream and it has worked wonders. I usually use it each morning and night after I've put my moisturiser on and it has completely restored the skin around my eyes. It cost only £11 and it has worked so well, if you have had the same problem as me with your hay fever this year I would definitely recommend this product, it won't break the bank and it works wonderfully.

This is another favourite of mine from The Body Shop, their Seaweed Pore Cleansing Facial Exfoliator. Again, this product is amazing. This is the first product from their seaweed collection I've tried and I really love it. The seaweed collection is designed for oily/combination skin which I unfortunately suffer from. I use this product three or four times a week, usually in the morning to exfoliate my skin and keep it clear. I would usually use a Lush face mask to do this but I haven't bought one in a while and at the moment I don't need to because this is doing the exact same job to the same effect. It smells amazing and is currently working really well with my skin so if oily skin is something you have to deal with too, go check out the seaweed collection at Body Shop, its fab!

And that is the end of my first ever favourites post! I've really enjoyed writing this post and so I will definitely be doing another for next month. If you have enjoyed this post and you think it works well as pictures and words let me know or if you'd prefer to see it as a video tell me in the comments and I'll try my best to do one for next time. As always I hope you're all well and enjoying yourselves, I'll see you all very soon with a new video.
Love Holly x