November Favorites & Unfavorites!

Every month I'd like to share the beauty, food, fashion & lifestyle products that were my favorites.. and also the ones that were definitely not favorites, therefore "unfavorites"! It's a term I've picked up from one of my favorite YouTube-ers, LeighannSays. Anyway, let's jump right in!

1. Lorac PRO Palette, $42-- Definitely a favorite this month! For $42, you get so many high-quality shadows, and what made me buy this palette last month was the fact that the top row of shadows are all matte shadows, while the bottom ones are a little shimmery. There's pretty much any neutral shade I could need in this palette, and the quality is incredible: the shadows are definitely buttery and smooth. Definitely pick this palette up if you're in the market for some quality neutral shades, because I'm seeing that it's already sold out at a lot of Ulta's and Sephora's near me!

2. Benefit the POREfessional Primer, $30-- I've been fighting a losing battle with my foundation routine this past month.. and by that I mean I can't seem to find a foundation and primer that get along and don't make my face look like a grandma. That is, until I found Benefit's POREfessional. I have had a sample of this for forever but never used it because I don't have large or noticeable pores. But the texture of this is so smooth, and it seems that any foundation seems to just glide over and stay all day. 

3. Batiste Dry Shampoo, around $6-8-- I have a confession to make: I'm not a natural blonde. Fooled you all, didn't I? Just kidding. Now that the secret's out, I can admit that every 8 weeks, I get some serious highlights. Which makes my hair incredibly dry and damaged. I combat this by washing my hair (literally) 2 or 3 times a week. I've been struggling to find a dry shampoo that can handle my gross, infrequent hair-washing habits, and Batiste is truly a miracle worker, if you can get past the weird smell. 

4. Benefit they're Real! Mascara, $23-- I finally got around to trying this mascara when it came in my Ipsy bag last month. I really like it! And I think you will too, if you enjoy the "false lashes" effect. Which I am finding I can't live without. :)

5. Ferrara Chocolate Orange Ball, $3-4-- Every year, the day after Halloween immediately becomes Operation: Find the Nearest Chocolate Orange. To say that I'm obsessed is to put it mildly. They only sell these delicious little balls of happiness around the holidays, so I've indulged in one or two (or three) in the past month. I swear, I'm not addicted. I can stop whenever I want!....

6. Luna Fiber bar in Chocolate Raspberry-- For the days when I'm not indulging in an entire ball of chocolate, I've been loving these little Fiber bars from Luna in between meals. I'll usually eat them at work or if I'm trying to get a workout in before dinner and want something to tide me over until then. What I love is that they're 70% organic and have tons of good things for you in them and are only 110 calories. And they're yummy!

7. Neutrogena Naturals Lip Balm, $2.99-- I'm incredibly picky about the lip balms I use. I don't like waxy ones, I don't like heavily scented or fruity ones, and I hate bothering with a lip balm that doesn't work! This one has become my Holy-Grail lip balm because the light, fresh minty scent is very refreshing and it doesn't feel waxy on the lips, just moisturizing. Many lip balms actually contain ingredients that coat your lips and don't actually restore any moisture to them, but this lip balm actually seems to. And this month, while the temperature (and humidity) has been dropping daily, I need all the moisture I can get!

8. Leaves Candle, $19.50-- My husband and I picked up this candle from Bath & Body Works when we were on our honeymoon in September but I just really started burning it this month. It's definitely a "fall" scent, but it's not overwhelming and we've gotten a lot of burn time out of it. Love it!

Now onto a few "unfavorites"...

1. Aldo purse -- I can't find this online, which is understandable because I got it on sale in the store over a month ago. You may have seen me wearing it here. It's such a cute purse, but it's just trash! The quality is so poor. When I bought the bag, it had a little metal closure to keep the belt around the purse on, and the metal closure had a lock on it. A week into owning the purse, the lock fell off. Then two weeks after that, the entire metal closure broke, and then completely fell off. The stitching seems to be attempting to come undone. Either I put my bags through violence equivalent to that of the Vietnam War or Aldo bags are made poorly. Anyone else have any experience with them??

2. e.l.f. Tinted Moisturizer -- In attempts to conquer my afore mentioned foundation battle, I decided that maybe a tinted moisturizer would be better for me since I really don't have any acne or scarring that needs covering anyway. But this stuff just did not work for me, and I tried to make it work, because it looked good on. Good color match, great coverage for a tinted moisturizer, and had decent wear time. But once I'd take it off, it left mild rashes all over my skin. However, I do have really sensitive skin. If you don't have sensitive skin, this product may not bother you. I really did like everything else about it.

3. ModelCo Fibre Lashxtend mascara -- This kind of reminded me of Bad Gal lash by Benefit. Just didn't wow me. I really like thick, full, nearly-ridiculous lashes. I couldn't seem to build this stuff up enough to look like I was even wearing hardly any mascara. If you like a natural look, you might be into this. But if you like to look like you're wearing gigantic false lashes all the time like myself, you might not. ;)

So that's it for my November favorites & unfavorites! Let me know if you've done a blog post like this, and leave your link below! :)