September Favourites: Beauty, Food & Lifestyle Finds

I am a completely addicted to blogger and vlogger monthly favourites so it seemed only natural that I followed suit and regularly shared with my readers the things that I am excited about.

I will be posting mostly food and beauty-related products but also a few random bits and bobs as well if they make me happy!

So, in September I was loving…

Barry M Cosmetics

I have used a few products from Barry M before but recently I was in Boots and went a little nuts on nail polish and eye make-up. I walked out with four nail polishes, two waterproof metallic eye liner pencils, two metallic eye shadow pencils, a lipstick and a tinted lip balm. A bit of a “whoops!” moment but totally worth it.

Barry M is against animal testing from ingredients to finished product and loads of their products are vegan (with a few using beeswax or other animal by-products).

Simply Grains Salads

Simply Grains is a new brand on the market. The whole range is vegetarian (hooray!) and many of their salads are vegan.

Disclaimer: I was provided with free sample products in exchange for a fair and honest review. Full disclaimer below.

I tried the Tabbouleh, the Mediterranean Spelt, and the Seasonal Barley salads.

My favourite was by far the Season Barley salad with its mix of vegetables and an amazing lemon dressing.

The Tabbouleh was tasty and the perfect side dish with some grilled veg and pitas.

My least favourite was the Mediterranean Spelt. I liked the spelt, the tomatoes and the feta but the salad also contained my food nemesis… olives.  Even though I picked them out, their taste lingered and made my taste buds a little sad. However, if olives are your thing then try it! I loved the other two salads so I’m sure it’s equally delicious to non olive-haters.

Blogger Cookbooks

Being a food blogger myself, I am naturally an avid reader of a whole host of other foodie blogs and websites. Over the past couple of years, more and more of these bloggers have released cookbooks and I excitedly snap them up and add them to my ever-expanding cookbook shelf.

The ones I added to my collection (or in one case, pre-ordered) in September were The Uncook Book by Tanya Maher of Better Raw, Deliciously Ella by Ella Woodward of (same-same) Deliciously Ella, and Thug Kitchen: The Party Grub Guide by the hilariously swear-y folks at Thug Kitchen.

The latter is currently on pre-order but I’ve added it to my favourites as I’m super-excited about its arrival. I have the original cookbook – Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give a F**k – and not only do the instructions and anecdotes make me laugh out loud but the book also has damn good recipes that are easy to follow and taste flippin’ amazing!

I have been a reader of Tanya’s site and a massive fan of her raw café in London for a couple of years now so when she announced she was releasing an “uncook book” I pre-ordered it straight away! This hardcover book is absolutely gorgeous with food styling and photography to die for.

I have only tried the one recipe so far – salted caramel slice – and though it didn’t go 100% to plan (my downfall may or may not have been my laziness in not soaking the dates as I was told…) it was super-delicious. I can’t wait to attempt to replicate the Tanya’s Cafe raw cheesecake that I’m so obsessed with…

Ella Woodward is another blogger who I have followed religiously for several years. Her cookbook has been on my wishlist for ages and for my birthday a couple of weeks ago, a lovely friend bought it for me. This is another beautiful hardcover (yes, I am obsessed; if I am ever cool enough to release a cookbook, you can bet it will be a hardcover) full of healthy, plant-based recipes and mouth-watering food photography.

So much cooking (and uncooking) to get on with!

Photography

This is a bit of a random one but it has been one of my absolute favourite things this past month…

I recently started a photography course and I am loving it. I have wanted to do a course for so long; one of the main motivations being that I want to improve the pictures on my blog. I have come a long way since my first posts (I cringe looking back at some of those photos) but I’d like to continue learning more skills and developing as a photographer.

Also, I desperately want to invest in a DSLR but I first want to understand more than the basics before parting with so much money. I currently have a hybrid/bridge camera and although I have long since progressed past basic point-and-shoot, I want to completely understand and utilise the manual settings.

I enrolled in Digital Photography and Photoshop Level 1, so I will also be improving my editing skills, which is a fun bonus. I’ve only attended my first three classes so far but I’m already thinking about signing up for Level 2. Gosh, I love learning…

Happy October, everyone!

Do you share my love for any of the above? What were your September favourites?

Disclaimer: I was provided with free sample products from Simply Grains in exchange for a fair and honest review. All views are entirely my own and not influenced by the manufacturer or its affiliates in any way. View disclaimer page here.