aquarius – Chanelle Hayley

My birthday falls towards the end of January and if you follow me on Instagram you may have seen a few pictures I already shared from the day. I intended to write a blog post as well sharing what I treated myself to throughout January. There were a few items I wanted to get my hands on and I totally used my birthday as an excuse!

A couple of days before my birthday I booked in for an hour long therapeutic massage and it was lovely to be pampered. My muscles were a little sore the next day but thankfully the day after that on my birthday the aching had subsided.

My birthday was very chilled out. I woke up at 4:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I got up around 6am to feed Halo, tried to go back to sleep for a little while but wasn’t able to. At 8am I got up properly and started the day with a coffee in my favourite cup. Mum and I went out to get a chocolate sponge cake and for the majority of the day I did chores around home. I showered, listened to music and did my makeup in the afternoon ready for my boyfriend to pick me up in the evening. We’d decided to do an evening treewalk through the local forest and it was magical, all the lights are beautiful! My favourite section was one that looked like the lights were specks of glitter. I took plenty of photos and videos and loved the experience. I’m not worried about heights so being up in the trees didn’t scare me and because it’s dark you can’t see the ground and it doesn’t feel like you’re up high.

I don’t expect presents from other people and it’s truly the thought that counts. People say that I’m hard to buy for but I joke in response they don’t know me well enough! I don’t mind spoiling myself anyway, it’s the whole independence thing. My mum gave me money and my boyfriend got me a beautiful pair of earrings. My brother is giving me a Sephora gift card which I plan on putting towards the Pat McGrath Mthrshp Mega: Celestial Divinity Palette.

Here’s what I treated myself to:

Bras from Triumph

I find bra shopping difficult as I have very narrow shoulders and I’m petite but curvy. A lot of straps are too wide set and slip off my shoulders. I purchased two bras from Triumph last year and they fit incredibly well, they’re stylish, comfortable, good quality and the straps don’t fall down. I purchased three bras at the start of January and the order came to less than $100 which is very reasonable for lingerie. Understandably I’m not going to share pictures of me wearing the bras but the collage above shows the styles and colours I chose.

BECCA Highlighters

BECCA highlighters have the most beautiful formula, they’re soft, buildable and blend like a dream! Pretty much all of my highlighters are BECCA and it’s fun to mix and match which shade I wear based on my makeup look that day. I purchased the BECCA x Barbie Ferreira set from Sephora which contains three mini shades: Vanilla Quartz, Rose Quartz and Champagne Pop. I already own a mini of Champagne Pop so I will gift this to someone. Vanilla Quartz is stunning and a great one for day to day.

I also purchased the full size of Prismatic Amethyst (not from Sephora). I love purples on me and the duochrome shift in this shade is surprisingly wearable and doesn’t look too intense. This can be applied with a subtle hand or really built up to intensify the purple, it looks great with all purple makeup too!

BECCA Lipgloss Trio

I actually made two Sephora orders in January and this lipgloss set was the basis behind the second order. This set is also part of the Barbie Ferreira collaboration and the glosses are absolutely stunning. There are three shades Sparkle (a sparkly gold), Facet (a sparkly purple and my favourite shade in the set) and Foiled (a sparkly pink). Foiled is the most pigmented in the set but honestly all shades are wearable and are great as lip toppers. The gloss is not sticky at all and the small size is great as it won’t be difficult to use these up!

Fenty Gloss Bomb in Fenty Glow

I’m having a moment with lipgloss lately. I’m loving wearing glosses on their own on no makeup days to keep my lips nice and plump and applying glosses as toppers over lipsticks. Fenty Glow is the original gloss bomb shade and it’s supposedly universal and suits everyone. On first impressions I did find the shade a little warm but it’s still nice. I look forward to wearing it more and finding lipsticks in my collection to pair it with.

Benefit Pencil Sharpener

This is the most basic item to purchase but it’s a necessity. My old pencil sharpener from school days is cracked and everytime I’d go to sharpen my Rimmel brow pencil the lead would snap and I’d end up wasting a lot of product. This sharpener caters for three different sizes and it even comes with a handy little cleaning tool. This sharpener is also baby pink so it’s totally my aesthetic.

Marc Jacobs At Lash’d Mascara

I added this mascara to my order on a whim so I could qualify for free shipping. I have really enjoyed trying sample mascaras this past year and this sample was $24 for 8.4g of product which was a lot fairer priced than sample mascaras from Tarte or Benefit. I haven’t tried anything from Marc Jacobs before but this mascara sounds good, it aims to lift and volumise which sounds great for my lashes. The black and gold striped tube is neat too!

Body butters from The Body Shop

Ever since The Body Shop store in my city closed down I have missed it greatly. I now am strategic when I buy and try to make a bigger order as I can’t pop into town for a look anymore. I wanted to utulise my 20% off birthday discount and I was running low on body butter so purchased two in scents I hadn’t tried before. I purchased a 50ml of British Rose as I didn’t know if the scent would be too strong (it’s not on first sniff) and a 200ml of Japanese Cherry Blossom Strawberry Kiss. I finished up the regular Japanese Cherry Blossom a little while ago and it’s one of the best I’ve tried. I love the strawberry range too so the combination of both scents is a match made in heaven.

Do you treat yourself for your birthday? Have you tried any of these products?

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I got sick in the second half of October which I put down to the changeable weather, one day it’s warm sunshine and the next it’s cold and windy. I have spent the past week or so taking it easy and recovering. My asthma flared up too and it’s important not to do too much too soon or else you’ll set yourself back. I was able to work towards catching up on my Goodreads target and watch a handful of episodes of Poirot which are great sick day remedies. I’ve been a tad quiet on the Instagram front as well. I went through the accounts I follow and cleared out the ones I don’t interact with or accounts that are inactive.

Onto this month’s favourites:

1. Colourpop Super Shock Shadow – Dare – This shade is the kind of purple I expected to be in It’s My Pleasure but after using the palette and realising I was missing a super sparkly cool toned purple I knew this would fill the gap. I have worn Dare in conjunction with a few shades from It’s My Pleasure and the palette really enhances the shade. Each time I have worn Dare I have gotten compliments and I see it becoming one of my most worn Super Shock Shadows!

2. Colourpop Strawberry Shake Palette – I won’t ramble too much about this palette as I only shared a review last week *CLICK HERE* but in short I love it! The colour story (I dislike that term and this is probably the only time I’ll use it) is girly and fun but also wearable. This palette is versatile and it will also work as a complimentary palette with others in my collection. The orange-peach tones will work with Sol and the vibrant pink shades will work with the pinks in It’s My Pleasure. If you don’t have a lot of pink eyeshadows or you are looking to add some to your collection that aren’t as bright as those from Ooh La La, check out Strawberry Shake.

3. Freedom at Topshop Aquarius Necklace – I purchased a couple of bits on The Iconic last month and this necklace was one of them. The pendant features stones in the shape of the Aquarius constellation set against a lightweight gold-toned stainless steel chain. The chain can be worn at three different lengths depending on how far down you like a necklace to sit. I love the simplicity and how the necklace also feels semi-personalised with my starsign. The necklace cost around $20 (NZD) and it is well made, it doesn’t feel cheap. A good basic necklace that goes with everything.

4.Postscript by Cecelia Ahern – Cecelia Ahern is one of my favourite authors and when I heard she was a releasing a sequel to PS I Love You I was very excited! PS I Love You is a book that has stayed with me since I read it years ago and the sequel is just as moving and will also stay with me. I read Postscript in two days it was that good. Cecelia Ahern has a writing style that feels warm and friendly and will play on your emotions which is what a good writer should be able to do. My favourite novel of 2019!

Blurb from Goodreads below:

It’s been seven years since Holly Kennedy’s husband died – six since she read his final letter, urging Holly to find the courage to forge a new life.

She’s proud of all the ways in which she has grown and evolved. But when a group inspired by Gerry’s letters, calling themselves the PS, I Love You Club, approaches Holly asking for help, she finds herself drawn back into a world that she worked so hard to leave behind.

Reluctantly, Holly begins a relationship with the club, even as their friendship threatens to destroy the peace she believes she has achieved. As each of these people calls upon Holly to help them leave something meaningful behind for their loved ones, Holly will embark on a remarkable journey – one that will challenge her to ask whether embracing the future means betraying the past, and what it means to love someone forever…