September Favorites

I don't know what the weather's like where you're reading, but here in Michigan it has been mad! We are usually the first to get any sort of cold weather, the first to get snow, the first to get frost, so having an entire week in late September where the temps were in the 70-80-90 degree range was so strange but lovely! I've never been able to study and (attempt to) tan at the same time. Sadly, I think the warm weather is gone for good and the normal fall temperatures are on the way.

Anyway, I have a few beauty favorites, as always, and a few entertainment ones, so let's get into it!

Kiko Long Lasting Shadow Stick in 05 Rosy Brown
I placed my first Kiko order this month and this was my favorite item from it! This product is so easy to throw on all over the lid and it lasts really well. This color is absolutely gorgeous for any eye color, especially my brown ones.

Ipsy x Aurora Pro Color Corrector in Pistachio
I got this in an Ipsy bag several months ago and never really tried it until a few weeks ago. My cheeks and nose were looking really pink but I wanted to wear a light-coverage foundation. Green color correctors are supposed to cancel out red undertones, so I put a small amount of this on and it's almost like it absorbed the redness, leaving no trace of the green! Since then I've been putting it on just before my foundation.

Rosy Brown, Pistachio

Lavanila Vanilla Coconut Rollerball
It is so hard to find high-end fragrances that are guaranteed cruelty-free. A lot of the more popular ones, like Marc Jacobs, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, etc. are sold in China and therefore subject to animal testing, and with the smaller brands there is often little information about their cruelty-free status. Lavanilla, however, is a brand that has made their status clear and I've been wanting to try out their scents for a while. I found Vanilla Coconut in a rollerball form at TJ Maxx and happily purchased it! This is such a beautiful, strong summer fragrance. I usually don't like rollerballs because I don't smell it very strongly throughout the day, but this one definitely lingers. And it smells exactly as it sounds: like vanilla and coconut. I like to use this rollerball and then spray a different beachy scent all over my clothes. What can I say, I'm a sun chaser.

Lorac Ocean Sunset Unzipped palette (Review)
Sticking with this summery theme, I bought this new limited-edition palette from Lorac this month and haven't been able to put it down. The shade range is unique but still wearable, and the formula is just as easy to use as their pro formula! I've never had a palette dud from Lorac and now I'm considering the Desert Sunset palette, too.

Swatches from left to right: Mother of Pearl, Salt Water, Ocean Floor, Horizon, Sea Urchin, Bedrock, Sundown, Sandbar, High Tide, Stingray

A beauty fail: Morphe Cosmetics
In terms of products, I like Morphe's eyeshadows, but their customer service and shipping is complete shit. My best friend's birthday was in mid-September and she likes watching Jaclyn Hill, so I ordered Jaclyn's palette when it was restocked in August. I had to pay around $8 for shipping that was supposed to be 7-8 business days. It shipped out on August 25th and I just received it yesterday, more than a month later and a week and a half after my friend's birthday. I emailed Morphe about it and they never replied, and calling them was pointless, too. Needless to say, I will never be ordering from them again.

It
I'm a big fan of horror movies, so with all the hype around the It remake I knew I had to go see it! I've seen the original film but it was so long ago that I can't really compare them, but I thought the new one was really funny and well-done. I didn't find it very scary, but the plot was interesting, there weren't many cheap jump-scares, and the actors were so good! I bought the book and I'm planning to read it in October. If you're a comedy-horror fan I definitely recommend It (see what I did there?)

American Horror Story: Cult
Is there anything scarier than American politics right now? I didn't think so. AHS has worked the election into their storyline and I'm finding it really interesting so far. With scary clowns, a racist Evan Peters, and a delusional Sarah Paulson, I think this season could turn out much better than the past few have.

Harry Potter series
This semester I have a class called Potter & Politics, which is exactly as it sounds. We discuss the similarities between the Potter world and the Real world, such as the prison system, "racism", classism, the government structure, etc. This has given me a great incentive to reread the series!

Things We Have in Common
I've mentioned this book a few times already, but I finished it recently and want to recommend it even more! This book is somewhat of a thriller. It follows a girl named Yasmin who doesn't have any friends and is dealing poorly with the death of her father and remarriage of her mother. She is fixated on a girl in her class named Alice, keeping things that Alice has left behind and fantasizing about rescuing her from any sort of tragedy. She sees a man talking to Alice and becomes convinced that he wants to kidnap her. The reader is kept a bit in the dark because of how unreliable Yasmin is--(did the man actually look menacing, or is that just Yasmin's perception?) but the last page made my jaw drop.

...Ready For It?
Taylor Swift has been releasing new music and I am, indeed, ready for it. This song is Wildest Dreams 2.0. I am so excited for her new album!

And those are the things I've been loving in September! I would love to hear about any recommendations that you have.

Xx Katie