After I published my July beauty favourites over a week ago, you may have been wondering where this post was. I took a week off and did a complete digital detox last week and rather than cramming this into a busy week of posts prior to my holiday, I decided to wait until I came back to share it with you. I hope you find some new loves in amongst the books, films and clothing I’ve been loving in July.
Let’s start with the two books I’ve really enjoyed this month. Eat Beautiful by Wendy Rowe (£13.60 from Amazon) is the ultimate guide to looking after your skin from the inside and the outside. There are breakdowns of all the different foods that help your skin to look its best and help solve specific concerns, with corresponding healthy recipes incorporating them – the Frozen Banana Lollies are amazing. It’s such a gorgeous, minimalist coffee table book that will have all beauty lovers engrossed. Wendy Rowe is a real beauty expert and she also shares all her skincare tips in the book so that you can help it look radiant from the outside too.
Another great book from my month is a fashion and career orientated one. Find Your Extraordinary: Dream Bigger, Live Happier and Achieve Success on Your Own Terms by Jessica Herrin (£13.48 from Amazon) is a book about how to harness your entrepreneurial spirit to succeed in work and at home. It’s written by the CEO and founder of Stella & Dot, Jessica Herrin, and she helps you to define what success means to you and the steps you can take to achieve it on your own. I am definitely an entrepreneur who likes to build and create my own work (and personal life) the way I want it. I found this book very motivating and helpful in devising a plan to progress my dreams further.
On the visual front, a film I loved so much this month is Eye In The Sky. It’s sadly Alan Rickman’s last movie before his death, and also stars fellow brit Helen Mirren. This is a love it or hate it film – some will find it really boring and others, like me, will be engrossed. I don’t want to give too much away, but the whole film follows a UK military officer (Helen Mirren) and other UK and US army and government personnel as they debate whether to launch a drone strike on a civillian area in Kenya where they believe suicide bombers and several key high-value terrorists are hiding. The operation is extremely time-sensitive, but there are lots of moral arguments to have and protocol to follow before the final instruction to fire can be given. I was gripped from start to finish and it really made me look at modern war from all sides and think about the implications of it for everyone involved – sometimes terrible, life-destroying decisions have to be taken for the greater good. It’s not all black and white.
Onto fashion! If you live in the UK like me, you’ll know how much rain we get in summer. I picked up this cute black and white heart-print rain mac from George at Asda for £12. It’s not available online anymore, but might still be in your local store. I think it looks really fun; plus it’s light, cooling and protects me from the frequent showers we get.
My other fashion favourite is my new handbag from Zara (£29.99) – I only bought it about 4 weeks ago, but it’s not available online now either. I’m totally in love! It’s a black crossbody with a silver chain and it’s covered in cool and quirky patches that say things such as ‘No Bad Vibes’. I am really into colourful patches and flair at the moment, so when I spotted this on someone else’s blog, I had to go straight onto the Zara site to order it.
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