What a whirlwind week – so much has happened it feels like I was only writing my previous Friday Faves post yesterday! How has your week been? What are your Friday Faves? Let me know in the comments below – as I work from home you guys are pretty much my work colleagues, so let’s pretend we’re stood at the water cooler, sharing our recommendations!
GOOD WEEK: Yesterday was our third wedding anniversary. We are saving our celebrations for the weekend but I spent some time looking back at photos of the day. It was such a beautiful day but I can’t believe it’s been three years, it’s flown by! If you’d like to see the blogs I did about our wedding, you can find them here.
BAD WEEK: It has been an incredibly sad week for London with another terrorist attack devastating us last weekend. But the One Love Manchester concert was just what we needed to show our strength and tolerance. And then yesterday we rounded out the week with an precedented turnout for young people voting, plus huge gains made by the Labour party. There’s a lot of uncertainty, and a long way to go, but it feels like a small glimmer of hope and positivity which is desperately needed.
Let’s crack on with the Friday Faves shall we?
I’ve been searching for a new podcast addiction and it has finally arrived: Made Online has just launched and it is flipping wonderful. It’s hosted by Hayley from London Beauty Queen and, as the name would suggest, it focuses on people who have made themselves online – whether that’s their career, their reputation, their lives. Her first guest is Jane from British Beauty Blogger and if there’s anything these two don’t know about beauty and blogging, it’s not worth knowing! Listen, subscribe, and leave a review here.
The lovely Jen recommended the amazing Califia Farms Cold Brew Coffee and I ran (well, drove) (well, was driven) to Sainsbury’s to pick some up. My favourite is definitely the XX Espresso Cold Brew version – it tastes so smooth and vanilla/chocolatey. For some reason it’s not on the Sainsbury’s site at the moment, hopefully they rectify that in time for my next order! The unsweetened version tasted a little bit watery but I made it into cocktails with a bit of Kahlua and it was delicious! They’re suitable for vegans, dairy, soy and gluten free but obviously contain caffeine so rosacea folks may need to take it easy. I’ve just looked on their site and they do a Dirty Chai and Salted Caramel version – I NEED these to come to the UK immediately! At the moment Califia Farms is only stocked at some Sainsbury’s and Whole Foods.
The Urban Decay All-Nighter setting spray* has had a revamp and I’m very excited. It used to come in a white bottle with grey writing and lid which, not only was a bit boring to look at but, got grubby really quickly. So the new black and purple packaging is a vast improvement. If you don’t own a setting spray and want to improve the longevity of your make up, I really recommend this one. After you’ve finished your make up, you lightly mist this over the top and it really helps to keep everything in place with no tight or sticky feeling. I’ve also never had any kind of rosacea flare up with this so it’s one of my favourite products. The bottle in this picture is the travel-size which is £10, the full-size is £23.50.
Here’s one of those products that isn’t very sexy but I’ve been so impressed that I knew it had to go into this week’s Friday Faves. It’s the Dr Ceuticals Foot Rescue SOS Cream*. I am so terrible at taking care of my body. I am religious about my skin care routine for my face, my nails are always painted. But everything else falls by the wayside. Feet horrify me and I think I just try to pretend mine don’t exist, but then it gets to summer and I want to wear sandals and I feel so embarrassed of my dry and cracked hooves. This is a lightweight gel that smells minty and feels cool on my feet (which is lovely at the moment as it’s so hot), and it contains 25% urea, aloe vera, glycerine and shea butter. I’ve noticed such a change in my feet after using it for a few weeks – they’re so much softer and look a lot better. That’s a good excuse to go sandal shopping, right?
My last Friday Faves item is the Janjira Grapefruit & Tangerine Massage Therapy Candle*. I love the concept of massage candles but for a long time I didn’t buy into them because I thought you could only use them for massages! But my clever friend Beccy gave me the tip that has made me truly appreciate them: I light the candle when I get in the bath, enjoy the unbelievable fragrance, and then by the time I get out of the bath there’s just enough oil to cover my arms and feet, so I blow out the candle and pour from the little spout. I thought it would leave a horrible waxy or hard residue on the skin, but it just sinks in like any other oil and leave your skin so soft and smelling delicious.
A pretty good selection of Friday Faves I think! What has made you happy this week? What would you love to introduce me to?
Lex
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Excellent tip re. massage candles! I would never have thought of that – not a bath fan but I could pop one on and have a read after my shower while it melts!