New faves

As you know, I'm not one to do a monthly favourites post because I rarely have new things to report. I tend to find things I love and then stick with them - if it ain't broke don't fix it right? But lately I actually have a few things to report on. As you may have guessed, my favourites are not purely fashion and beauty orientated. In fact some are pretty random, but here's what I've been loving this month.

The first in a list of perfectly random ones but this has been my best purchase of the past month for sure. At my old job, I worked at a desktop computer and at my new one, I now work on a laptop. We have desktop screens that you can plug into if you want but I find it easier to have all my work in one place. So because a laptop is so much lower down, I was getting the worst back and neck ache ever from bowing my head all day. So I had a look on trusty eBay and found this laptop stand for only £10. It has loads of different height settings (working on the same mechanism as a sun lounger) and my laptop stays securely balanced on it. Plus my aches and pains have gone woohoo! Well worth getting.

I've always got to have a series on the go and I'm struggling more and more to find good chick flick dramas (given that I've watched gossip girl, the vampire diaries, the OC, one tree hill etc). So I googled recommendations and found Jane the Virgin which I remembered seeing advertised years ago and not fancying it. But I watched a promo and thought it actually looked pretty good and oh my god it's SO amazing. It's the story of Jane who is a third generation Venezuelan immigrant, raised by her mum (or mom) who had her at 16, and her Grandma (or Abuela, in Spanish). Determined not to repeat her mum's mistakes of raising a child alone, Jane has decided to save herself for marriage and is on track with fiance Michael. But then a doctor gets mixed up at a routine pap smear appointment and Jane ends up accidentally artificially inseminated. So she ends up a pregnant virgin! And even more complicated, is that the baby daddy is actually someone she kissed years ago, the rich hotel owner Rafael. While Jane tries to navigate her pregnancy, a love triangle quickly forms (obviously) and she finds herself stuck between Michael and Rafael. As if that classic storyline wasn't enough, the show is filled with murder, evil twins, long lost relatives, arch nemeses, drug crime lords, police investigations, dark family secrets and Jane's dad finally coming into her life. Each episode gets more and more elaborate and far-fetched but it's so juicy and enjoyable. I love that the show is something a little different from most, with a lot of diversity, and multiple languages. It also touches on important subjects like feminism and immigration. There's also plenty of lovable characters and love stories you can root for (Xo and Ro are my faves). And like with all good love triangles, you have to pick a side and I was on team Rafael from the start. It seems like Michael is the more popular choice with most viewers, but I always like the couple that the writers play the long game with (like Elena and Damon in the vampire diaries). I've nearly finished the fourth season so then I'll have to wait for season 5 like a peasant with everyone else!

I know we're meant to be all about 10 step skincare routines and cleansing 5 times a day with micellar water but I'm lazy. I like to just have to run a makeup wipe over my face and be done with it. So when I last ran out, my mum accidentally bought the wrong ones and got these exfoliating wipes instead of the cleansing ones. But actually they're really good! Not for taking your makeup off everyday - they're a little rough. But they're double sided so one side is exfoliating and the other is cleansing so it's like a 2 step skincare routine made super easy. Great for lazy girls like me.

With this change in weather, my skin, and my lips especially, have been suffering. When it suddenly gets cold I find that it can often dry your skin out so despite my constant lip care routine (putting lip balm on every night before bed and every day that I'm not wearing lipstick is something I've never wavered from), I still needed a little something extra. This lip scrub from Kiko is something I've had for a while now but haven't actually needed so I decided to give it a whirl and it was so good! It left my lips feeling brand new again and the fact that it's shaped like a lipstick (rather than loose in a pot) made it really easy to apply too.

I'm pretty certain I'm not the only person whose favourites list this would be on. I wasn't actually crazy excited about A Star is Born because the trailer seemed to give very little away, but my dad had seen the actors on Graham Norton and said we should all go see it. So after an amazing meal at Chiquitos (still making the most of that meerkat meals), we did just that. And oh wow, it was so good. It's the story of popular musician, Jackson Maine, who has been living life in the fast lane for a very long time and is now a totally dependant alcoholic. After a gig and on the hunt for a drink, he stumbles into a bar where Ally is singing. He is immediately intrigued by her no-nonsense personality and her incredible voice, and makes the struggling artist a star by bringing her on stage at his next show. The film follows the two as they fall in love and as they try to cope with his childhood issues and ever-present drinking problem, as well as her insecurities and climb to success. There's a whole host of beautiful songs in there (Shallow is my favourite, if an obvious choice) and Bradley Cooper was a surprisingly great singer. Lady Gaga is the real star in my opinion though. Her acting was raw and authentic and her voice was beautiful in every song that she sang. The film is poignant and tragic and an absolute must-see.

I don't know if I can actually count this one, seeing as it hasn't happened yet but oh my god, Halloween is my favourite and I'm so excited for it! I've already got my outfit ready and I reckon it's time to do some Halloween baking pretty soon. I just love the whole build-up and I really want to go a scarefest event this year too.

My opinions on veganism have always been the same. I think that as humans, we are naturally omnivorous and back in caveman times, we ate animals. So I've always thought that the actual act of meat eating is fine, but that the way in which we farm it is perhaps not. Like back in the olden days, every part of an animal was used and we only killed what we already had. Whereas now, we take out only the premium parts that we want and then throw away the rest, which is extremely wasteful, and we also breed animals purely to be raised for meat. And while this is what I've always thought, it's never been something I'm overly passionate about (not passionate enough to stop eating meat anyway). But the dairy industry is something I've never given much thought to. The time we're in now (social media wise) is bad for a lot of reasons but the great thing is the amount of knowledge and information right at our fingertips. And the more I read about cow's milk, the more I thought how weird it was. So I've made the swap to almond milk and I'm really happy about it. It may only be small, but it's shaved a little animal produce off my carbon footprint, it's loads healthier (half the calories of green top milk) and it lasts longer (which is great for me considering I don't actually use that much of it). Plus, it tastes exactly the same. Literally, exactly the same. So there seemed little reason not to swap, especially with all these environmental warnings about us only having 12 years to live or whatever it may be. In terms of other dairy products, I'm don't actually eat much so I haven't put a magnifying glass over this aspect in the same way. I only like egg yolks, not the white, so I don't tend to eat them that much and I stay away from cheese for the most part because it's high in fat. But who knows, maybe that's the next step. I don't think I could/would ever go vegan because I just love steak and a good sunday roast, but it's worth at least trying to cut down on animal products I think.