a very delayed...summer favorites.

So while I was on my unofficial blogging break, I missed posting my summer favorites. They're not necessarily favorites that can only be used throughout the Summer, but they were the things that I used, watched, and listened to throughout the Summer. I already had some of this post pre-written and thought out, so I thought I might as well finish it!

So while we're in the middle of Autumn, I hope you enjoy!

• Too Faced Born this Way Foundation

This has been my go-to summer foundation for the past two summers! Since I only use it in the summer when I'm tanning, it's taken me a little while to finish it, but I finally finished it this past summer! I absolutely love it. It has coconut in it to be a little less matte. It's medium to full coverage (depending on how much you put on). When I want a dewy-er look, I put the Too Faced Hangover Primer underneath. I absolutely love this foundation. I still haven't decided whether to repurchase it or to allow myself the chance to try out other foundations, but if you're curious about this foundation, I definitely recommend it for those who like more coverage!

• Too Faced Hangover Primer

I'm not going to talk too much about this product, because I mentioned it in my spring favorites post. Still loving this product! Running out, and am going to have to re-stock soon!

• Milk Hydro Grip Primer

This is another primer that I still love. While watching some videos online, I realized that some people aren't a big fan of this products! I guess it makes sense, because not everything can work for everyone. Especially with all the different kinds of skin types there are! I'm half way through this primer, and also wrote about this one in my spring favorites.

• Milk Kush Mascara

While I think I've mentioned this mascara in passing in some of my posts, I haven't talked about it in my actual favorites post. My favorite mascara used to be the Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara. It gave me both volume and length, which I loved! Then I realized that this mascara would occasionally flake, which would drive me crazy! After the rave reviews on the Kush mascara by Milk, I decided to give it a try.

This product completely changed my eyelashes. Because it has CBD oil in it, it has made my eyelashes naturally longer. Then when I put on the mascara is leaves my lashes super long and volumous! I'm obsessed, and I don't see myself going back to the Better than Sex mascara.

• Colourpop Precision Brow Pencil 

I've been a die hard ABH brow wiz for years. They have the perfect combination of pigment and it's long lasting power! I also like the fact that the pencil wasn't waxy at all, which a lot of dupes tend to be.

When I saw Colourpop came out with their own thin brow pencils, I decided to give it a try. At first I wasn't a fan, it was much waxier than the ABH pencil, but it had the pigment in it.

I stopped using it for about a month or two, and then one day when I misplaced my ABH pencil, I used the Colourpop pencil again. Man, I'm so glad I went back to giving it another try. I realized that the secret is using a lighter hand!

It creates those amazing thin hair-like lines and has a brow pencil shade that's similar to my hair color at the moment!

Since Ulta didn't sell, the ABH Brow Wiz pencils for sale this year, I'm definitely sticking to buying the Colourpop pencil until then! Definitely my favorite drugstore dupe for the ABH pencil. Looking for a new affordable thin brow pencil? This might be the one for you!

• Physicians Formula Butter Bronzer

This has been a cult favorite for years, and while I've owned this bronzer for about a year, this summer I really made good use out of it! It creates this beautiful bronzed look on the skin. While I hate the little brush/sponge that it comes with, if you use it with your own bronzing brush, you will look nice and tanned!

Since purchasing my own butter bronzer, they have come out with a lighter shade (for lighter skin tones), and a darker shade! Definitely check it out.

• Too Faced Peach My Cheeks Blush Melting Powder

I'm still obsessed with my melting cheeks cream blush from too faced. I've been using this blush non-stop, and even bought another shade during the Sephora sale! I talked this product in my winter favorites, if you want to read more about it. Still love and recommend this product!

• Violet Voss Flamingo Eye shadow Palette

In Sephora, they give you a free $100 gift card in exchange for 2,500 points! This past spring, I finally got my hands on one of them! With the $100 gift card I let my sister use it to get a product, and I got this palette among a few other things.

I used this palette for a lot of the summer, and I really liked it! It had a lot of those orange/yellow/pink tones that I love to use for the summer. It had a built in mirror and had lots of beautiful shimmer shades. I didn't really touch the blue shades much, but I'm working on playing around more with those kinds of colors!

I love this palette, and still see myself reaching for this palette throughout the fall & winter.

• Beauty Bakerie Flour Setting Powder

I've been on the search for the holy grail setting powder. The last one I tried was the Too Faced born this way setting powder, which I liked, but throughout the summer I've been using the Beauty Bakerie Flour Setting Powder.

The packaging for this is super cute, it comes in a mini little flour bag. The product itself is amazing. It's extremely finely milled, and leaves my face looking flawless. I really enjoy this setting powder, and if you're looking for a good traditional setting powder, I recommend this one!

• Colourpop Supershock highlighter (Shade: Wisp)

About a year ago or so, I wrote a post talking about the best drugstore highlighters. I can't believe when I wrote about them, I had never even tried the Colourpop supershock highlighters!

This might be the best highlighter I have ever used. I don't mean good for an affordable highlighter, I mean the best I have ever used. It's a cream product, and goes on flawlessly!

I don't usually use a brush for this, because I feel that supershock products go on better with fingers over using a brush. I absolutely love this product and have been using it since June! I don't think I'm ever going to purchase a highlighter from another brand ever again!

• CeraVe Moisturizing Lotion

I spoke about this in my 2019 skincare routine and my spring favorites post. I don't have much more to say on this product, other than the fact that I'm still using it and I love it!

• Peter Thomas Roth FirmX Peeling Gel

This is another product that I've talked about in my skincare routine post & my spring favorites post. I'm almost running out of this product, and I think I'm going to try the Fresh natural exfoliant to see if I like it better!

• Fourth Ray AM to the PM Cleanser

I'm also almost finished with this product, but I've enjoyed using it. I spoke about this in my 2019 skincare routine and my spring favorites post, so if you want to read more about these products, definitely read about it there! I don't know if I'm going to re-purchase this soon, because I have two other cleansers to get through.

• First Aid Beauty Anti-Redness Serum

I purchased this product over the summer. I like First Aid Beauty, because they create products for sensitive skin. A lot of anti-redness products have something in them, that really irritate my skin, but this one doesn't! I found this product in TJ Maxx, and I am completely in love with it! It's an amazing product with good quality ingredients with it. Definitely check it out if you have sensitive skin.

• Fourth Ray Beauty BFD Cleansing Oil

I spoke about this product in my skincare routine, but I love using this product when I either didn't wear makeup that day or I just want to double cleanse my skin. It has a nice minty feel on the skin, which makes my skin feel so fresh!

I got this product in the set with the AM to PM cleanser. While I'm not sure whether I'm going to purchase the cleanser, I do know that I will for sure re-purchase this product! Definitely recommend

• Fresh Rose Face Mask

I've always wanted to splurge on Fresh products, and this was the product I decided to purchase. I love the smell of roses, and this product was meant to tone & hydrate the skin. I really like this product, whenever I use it my face feels really good! I'm definitely looking forward to branching out and trying other Fresh Products!

 

• Love Island UK

Over the summer, I'm all about the reality TV. I don't really have time to watch a lot of television, and so reality TV is that low-stress show. You don't have to watch every single episode if you don't want to.

Last year I binged all of the seasons of Love Island UK, and this season I actually got to enjoy the show live with everyone else from the UK. I really enjoy watching this show, I just wish I had the chance to vote!

• Love Island US

Towards the end of the Summer, Love Island created a version for the US. While the commentator wasn't really funny (actually extremely un-funny), and I miss hearing some of the UK phrases like pied off, snog, (and other phrases I can't think of off the top of my head at the moment) I still enjoyed having our own version. For the first time every, I was able to vote on things!

• Paradise Hotel

Like I said, the Summer is the time for reality TV. We also got this show called Paradise Hotel, which actually was a relaunch from 2005. I would actually compare this show to Love Island. It was on once a week, and there was a recoupling at the end of the week. The guys and the girls take turns coupling up, and towards the end, the final couple has the chance to split the money or steal the money.

• Bachelor in Paradise

This season of Bachelor in paradise was pretty good. They actually had their first lesbian couple for the show, which I was happy for, because believe it or not reality tv does have an influence on society!

As always the drama is pretty good to watch. I really enjoyed watching this season.

• Choices App

I love Role-playing games. Where your decisions affect the show. There's this game I play on my phone, where they have multiple games, from multiple genre's (action, horror, romance, fantasy), and you get to decide what happens in the game!

The game is a story role-playing game, so if you don't like reading, you might not like this game, but I absolutely love it! It's like reading tons of short stories, where your decisions change the outcome. Check it out if you like games like that!

• Tally App

This is a productivity app. Setting alarms on my phone don't really work, so I love this app. It's basically a habit trackers. I keep track of things such as my birth control, how many impulse buys I make, My Lost in Aster (my clothing store)'s followers, making sure I take my Halo Beauty, and how many days I work out.

This has actually been life changing in terms of keep track of things and keeping me productive! If you're having trouble keeping track of things, I definitely suggest checking this out.

• Lightroom 6 for PC

I've been using Lightroom for my computer for a little over a year now, and it's really been life changing. I've editing all my photos for Lost in Aster and my personal Instagram. It's crazy how changing the colors for a photo can change the overall photo. I feel like when I edit a photo in Lightroom, it makes a photo look more finished. The reason I have Lightroom 6 vs CC is because I didn't want to pay a monthly payment. I preferred to pay $100+ for a one time payment, instead a continuous payment. If you want to bring your photos to the next level, I recommend checking out lightroom for the computer.

So these are all of my favorites for right now! What are you loving as of recently? Let me know down below!

If you guys want to read my other favorites from this year, you can check them out here:

winter favorites 2019

spring favorites 2019

As always, I hope you have a great day/night. Sending you love, strength, and positivity.

-Melina xxx