July + August Beauty Favourites

I am slacking so much with monthly favourites posts, oops! This months post is a combination of my July and August beauty favourites, so basically my summer favourites ft. skincare, perfume, makeup and the best dry shampoo ever!

Skincare, Haircare & Perfume 

My skin is dry and sensitive so I'm quite selective about the products I use but one brand that I have been loving is Supermood which is a brand based in Finland. The Supermood Beauty Sleep Serum doesn't irritate my skin even when I'm having an eczema flareup, it leaves my skin so smooth and soft and I've nearly finished the bottle - I can't recommend it enough.

Lush is one of my favourite stores and one product that I have loved for years is the Honey I Washed The Kids Soap; it is basically the best smelling soap ever made and I cannot get enough. I wish this soap fragrance was made into a perfume as I would buy it instantly. The soap doesn't leave my skin dry and it doesn't irritate the eczema I have on my hands.

August was my birthday month and one of my best friends bought me the Lush The President's Hat fragrance which has been on my wish list for at least a year and I LOVE it. It is so musky, deep and autumnal, the packaging is stunning and as I have the mini 10ml pipette size, it's perfect for traveling. I took this fragrance with me to London and the Harry Potter tour and it was a perfect size.

Lastly, the best dry shampoo ever! The Moroccan Oil Dark Dry Shampoo which unlike other dry shampoos, leaves my hair looking at lot less greasy and soft; for me and my dry hair, it is the perfect shampoo so I will be buying a new bottle when this one is empty even though it is a little pricey.

Makeup

For my makeup favourites I have a few products that are new and others that I've been loving for years. Let's start with my long term favourites including the best mattifying powder, the Bourjois Healthy Balance Powder in 52 vanille. August at times has been SO hot *when we were in London it was 32 degrees celsius* so mattifying powders were essential and this was a makeup saver!

Another long lasting and long term favourite is the Stila Waterproof Liquid Liner. I wore this on the day of travelling down to London and this eyeliner survived an eight hour coach journey, greasy/sweaty skin and 32 degrees celsius. I applied the liner at about 6am and I took it off at about 11PM and it was pretty much exactly the same as when I first applied it *very impressive*.

I feel like August was the month of amazingly long lasting products, the Eylure Brow Pomade is a massive favourite; when you get used to it, it's incredibly quick and easy to apply. It looks natural but it gives such definition and volume to my brows, the shade is a perfect warm brown and it lasts ALL day. It takes me a while to remove this brow pomade as well as the next product.

The last super long lasting product in my favourites is the NYX Lingerie Liquid Lipstick in 08 Bedtime Flirt and I wore it when we went to the Harry Potter tour; it survived eating Mcdonalds, drinking, hot weather and a 7 hour coach journey back to rainy manchester - again I was super impressed, now I need more shades ASAP!

Tom Ford makeup is pretty much the most beautifully packaged makeup ever and I wish I could own more but I only have one mascara (which probably needs throwing away) which I won - it's the Extreme Mascara. It gives instant deep black lashes with dentition and volume, I love it but it's so expensive.

The final makeup item for my July and August favourites is the Etude House Precious Mineral BB Cream in Light Beige; I don't tend to like BB creams as they are usually nothing more than tinted moisturiser but asian BB creams are more like light/medium coverage foundations = at least thats the coverage I get from this. The shade is very pale so it suits my ghostly skin perfectly, it doesn't highlight dryness (unless it's really bad!) and it lasts all day.

Have you tried any of these products? What products have you been loving this summer?

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London + Harry Potter Studio Tour

Yesterday we came back from a quite arduous and infuriating two day trip to London and the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour trip with National Holidays; there were SO many problems that we would never go on another National Holidays trip again and all of the other passengers agreed. The coach was overbooked so we had a delay, we only had 90 minutes in London after an 8 hour journey to get there, the air-con broke so we had to be in a coach that was at least 35 degrees celsius for over an hour to the hotel, we weren't booked into the hotel until the last minute and the journey back was about 6 hours *we spent so much more time in service stations than in London!* so it's safe to say that we are exhausted.

We didn't really get to see anything in London because 90 minutes isn't enough time to travel to the major sites, never mind going in anywhere so we spent the time walking around and in Hyde Park. It was SO hot in London, I think I actually melted. Now get ready for so much Harry Potter!

The Great Hall

We hadn't been to the Harry Potter Studio Tour before so we didn't really know what to expect and the first thing to expect, if you've going, is queues. Be prepared to queue for a while and also be prepared to have your bag searched and the detector thing waved around you - I know they have to do this but it does make you feel like they think you might be a criminal...

There's a little cinema style introduction and then the doors to the great hall are revealed, which is such a 'OMG WE ARE IN HOGWARTS' kind of moment. The great hall is amazing, but not as big as I thought it would be and there are costumes of the teachers including Dumbledore *cries*. Then you get into a series of large warehouse style areas with SO many props, costumes, sets and more!

Potions and Hagrid's Hut

All of the sets were amazing, as were the props - they even had one of the prop makers there making items! I loved Hagrid's hut, the dormitory and potions classroom! There's SO much to see everywhere, it's like an Aladins cave of Harry Potter treasures. The tour was three hours long but you could easily spend so much more time there. When I say tour, I mean mini tour as they don't follow you around in a group and explain anything, the tour guides are only there for the very first part.

Platform 9 3?4 and The Hogwarts Express

Then we saw the Hogwarts Express! This was another 'OMG, I want to be a Hogwarts student' moment! You can walk on the train which was amazing and on the other side of the room was a section of train seats where you can sit and you are filmed/photographed which was so funny and a little embarrassing but we did get a photo (it was £14 for one photo...). There is a gift shop here which had a gorgeous cushion in that I wanted but I wanted to wait until the massive gift shop at the end but they didn't have the cushion *cries*.

Chess pieces, Hogwarts bridge and Privet Drive

This tour was full of 'OMG' moments as I've said already and going inside No.4 Privet Drive was another! We actually walked through, it was just downstairs, the staircase and one room with so many Hogwarts letters everywhere but it was really surreal. This is the only part of the tour that was outside; there were chess pieces, the Knight Bus and the Hogwarts bridge outside too which we walked along. There is also the Backlot cafe here too as well as the butterbeer area but we didn't get anything apart from drinks/snacks as it was a little expensive as were all of the shops.

Diagon Alley and Creature Props

When you go back inside you are immediately faced with all of the goblin masks, it's a little shocking and creepy! There are so many animal and creature props, I can't imagine how long it would have taken to make them all. You then proceed to Diagon Alley which is one of my favourite scenes/sets of the films and the tour. It is cobbled so if you have heels or can't walk on uneven ground then it may be a minor issue.

Hogwarts Model

Towards the end of the tour you see this amazing huge model of Hogwarts, it looks so incredible and detailed! We took so many photos on the tour, I ran out of room on my phone and had to delete old photos and videos! Then there's the gift shop...it's bloody massive and really bloody expensive on the whole. I bought a chocolate frog which was around £8.95 and a t-shirt which was £21.95 so it's not cheap.

Tips and advice for visiting:

• Take a power bank or extra batteries with you; I took my power bank as half way through the tour my battery was at 20%!
• Take your own snacks as the snacks and drinks there can be a little pricey 
• Be aware that they do search everyones bag so anything you don't want them to see *receipts from two months ago, sticky chocolate bar wrappers, pads/tampons* maybe keep them in your suitcase or hidden
• Also be prepared to queue and maybe take an umbrella for the outside section 
• Make sure you have LOTS of memory space on your phone or camera, you'll need it!
• If you want souvenirs, bring lots of money; the only items that weren't expensive were the sugar lollies and magnets but other jumpers and hoodies were £50-£70...

Overall, I would never go with National Holidays again but I would love to visit London some time soon. The Harry Potter tour was amazing, the props, sets, costumes and everything in between was breathtaking for a Harry Potter fan - even some of the children going to visit had Hogwarts uniforms on *how adorable!*. 

If you were following me on Instagram then you will have seen my videos and photos as I went around the tour. If you have any questions about the tour, National Holidays or anything else, just tweet me (@ofbeautyand). I'll have more photos on my instagram account if you want to check them out. 

Have you been to the Harry Potter London tour? Are you a Harry Potter fan? Have you been on a family trip with National Holidays? 

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