Wow, less then one month to Christmas now, who can believe that?! This month I have been using a lot of different makeup products, delving into my collection and using things that I don't usually use on a everyday basis - it has been a lot of fun trying out different looks and products! But despite that there have been quite a few items I have been reaching for pretty much every day, let's get into it!

November has come and gone, in between finishing my exams at the start of the month to starting work over in Akaroa for the summer, not many Instagram's were actually snapped. But here is the round up of the photos I did take during the month of November.

I am so excited to have been nominated for Best Beauty Blog by Beauty Review. I am up against 14 other NZ based bloggers (all of whom are really great and I can't believe I am up against them!), my blog is in Heat 4 which has opened today and runs until Thursday 5th December.

I would love your…

A few weeks ago I teamed up with NZ Sale to promote their Flash Frenzy 3 day sale event and I was given $100 to spend on their site, which was so exciting! They had so many great sales going on and the O.P.I. sale was one I had my eye on. They had each bottle for only $10, an amazing bargain considering they are around $23 in store here in NZ (but generally I buy them off eBay for around $10-$12 anyway). I decided to buy 5 bottles and they had such a good selection of shades, it was hard to narrow it down to just a few!

It's time for a new Sample Bar Glam Pack! I always get so excited when this little package arrives on my door step and rip it open as soon as I can to see what this month brings. If you're not sure what Sample Bar is, it is a monthly subscription service for $25 (including shipping) and you get 5 or more samples of various products.

Both of these nail colours I have mentioned on my blog, the Orly one here in my Spring Polish Picks and the Maybelline Color Show Sequins here. I wanted to add a bit of glitter to my nails, so opted for the Maybelline Color Show Sequins in Silver Gleam and teamed it with Orly Coachella Dweller.

I've talked about Postie many times on my blog before as it is a great place to buy cheap, parallel imported makeup and beauty items. They often have good sales and when I went in to buy this lots, they had 30% off all beauty. I only picked up a few bits as the Postie I went to didn't have the best range compared to the one I got to normally.

Lush product were something I had just never got into, I had been gifted a few bath bombs and soaps over the years and only really ventured into the Lush shops every so often. Now that I keep seeing/watching Lush hauls on Youtube and reading endless blog posts all saying how amazing Lush is, I think I have been converted. I went into my local Lush with buying one of their lip scrubs and I came out with this little pottle of Christmas good-ness!

For today's nails I decided to go for something summery and found this gorgeous pastel lemon yellow polish tucked away in the back of my collection. This was a real cheap one brought from a small pharmacy in Akaroa a few years ago and to be honest I had totally forgotten about it! The bottle doesn't even have the the colour name on it, all I know is the brand is Coral Colours.

Another month, another Sample Bar end of month review.  The October Glam Pack was celebrating their first birthday, so it was expected to be a good one. The majority of the items I really loved but there was one that really did not need to be in their and another that I just haven't got the use out of. As boxes go, this was definitely not an all time favourite but I am still happy with the products. If you would like to see the October unboxing and initial impressions with more photos of the products, you can see it here. Now, on to the review!

Steam Cream was something I had never heard of, until I received this in a Sample Bar box at the start of the year and I absolutely love it! It says it is a moisturiser for face, body and hands but I generally just use it for my body and hands as I have many other dedicated face moisturisers. It is uses many natural and vegan friendly ingredients, as well as many essential oils which are great for the skin including lavender oil, jojoba, neroli and sweet almond.

We all have them, those tiny sachets of product samples that end up getting thrown into a drawer or container and forgotten about. That was me until a few months ago when I decided I needed to actually use the little testers and samples as it is a nice way to see how the product would work for you and try things you wouldn't necessarily buy. I have pulled out 7 samples from my stash and given them the test.

Yes, the oh-so-popular-always-out-of-stock MUA Undress Your Skin Shimmer Highlighter finally made its way back to Add To Cart status, and it straight away was being paid for and shipped off to me! I have been eyeing it up for so long and had come to accept that I will probably never be able to buy it due to its high popularity, but it seems they did a large run as it is still available on the website for only £3.00 [approx. NZD $5.80].

I love the site Once It, not only for its great sales on designer home, beauty and fashion things, but as a way to discover a lot of New Zealand based companies and artists. Sarah Jayne Kavali is one of the artists and I just have to share her work, as it is simple, elegant and beautifully done.

A sale for her work came up on Once It a couple of weeks ago and I instantly feel in love! I purchased a set of postcard dubbed Perfume Greats for only $19.95. There were larger A3 and A4 works also for sale but I just couldn't settle on one design so opted for the postcard set to get a bit of everything.

I love me some Cotton On, although the quality can sometimes be a little dodgy, you pay for what you get and they have some great things at pretty cheap prices! Rubi Shoes and Typo all come under the Cotton On brand, so when I got the email they were offering free shipping to NZ on orders over $50 I jumped on the web straight away. I know I could have probably picked these up in my local Cotton On/Typo, but they had a few discounts and there is much better range available online (as it is based in Australia).

My blog has been a little nail polish heavy lately (unsurprising, seeing as I am a bit of an addict), anyway I have to share these amazing polishes with you all! I was so lucky to actually win these 4 Maybelline Sequin polishes through a competition on their Facebook page where you upload a picture of your nail art and people could like to vote it up and I was 1 of I think 20 other winners to score this set. It made my day when I found out and is quite funny because just the day before I nearly brought one of them but had decided to restrain myself and then the next day I've won 4 of them!

You may seen my mystery makeup bag from September, where I received a random assortment of makeup for $20 via Grabone - well they were at it again, this time with 8 items for $32. The last one I was pretty happy with so I thought why not try it again! They had a big list of things you could possibly get and they all sounded great so I took the leap (everyone needs a bit of excitement right!).

Of course I have been online shopping again and this time off a site I have always looked at but never brought from. Beauty Joint is a US based site and has things at crazy cheap prices with an amazing range of different brands. I had been hesitant to buy as shipping always seemed a little steep, but I think it has got much cheaper. It goes by weight and depends on how much you buy - the thing I love about the site is you can see your cart on the left side bar and can calculate the shipping right there and then for all countries - generally you get about 5 different shipping option at various prices.

For example, one Kleancolor polish at USD $1.75 with the cheapest shipping option to NZ is United States Postal Service Standard for USD $4.78. If you want it super fast, there is also an option which was USD $52.00 (!!), which is just ridiculous if you ask me.

I was amazingly impressed with the shipping for my 5 items - I paid just under $10 and it arrived literally in a week on the dot with the cheapest shipping option! It is well worth checking the site out and after such a great first experience, I will be buying a lot more off there in the future! Now onto what I got this order...

As it is finally feeling like Spring weather I decided to pull out my 10 favourite nail polishes that I think are perfect for Spring and the warmer months.

It's always nice when you get a freebie with a magazine and generally if I see a good mag with a free item, I'll more then likely buy it! Instyle is a great fashion and beauty magazine and I have been reading it on and off for years and years and when I saw that the November issue came with 3 free Napoleon Perdis products, well I couldn't get to the counter faster!

The site No Little Fool is a very new, NZ based site that sells some e.l.f, Sleek and Wet N' Wild things at really cheap and reasonable prices, specifically for e.l.f. products! Through NZ retailers, they can be over $12 for a Contouring Blush & Bronzer, which is pretty steep considering how cheap you can purchase them off US places (but I guess you have to factor in shipping/tax etc). I was so happy to find this site with e.l.f. products starting at $5 and the shipping is $5 or less. It arrived in about 4 days, was packaged so well and even had a few fruit bursts thrown in there - very impressed!

The Matte Palette from MUA (or Makeup Academy) was a new release a couple of months ago, with much anticipation. MUA are well known for their inexpensive eye shadow palettes, that are often great dupes for higher end brands, such as Urban Decay. I was so happy when this little gem turned up on my doorstep (in a rather large order... see haul post here) and I have been using it the past month giving it a good test run and I have to say I am very happy with my £4.00 - approx. $8 NZD - purchase. It is well worth grabbing if you get the chance and has just recently come back into stock as it sold out pretty quick from its first run, find it here.

I recently brought an ORLY mini set called Mash Up, which I included in my Mini Mani series and this was one of the polishes that came in the set, called Harmonious Mess. Words can't begin to say how much I am in love with this colour! It's a pastel purple/blue and I think it would look amazing on all skin tones and just makes me feel happy that it is spring time! Application was great, smooth, even and fully opaque in 2 thin coats.

Let's all just say it together... "I can't believe how fast this month has gone!" But honestly I don't know where 2013 is going, Christmas is in 2 months (although all the shops seem to think it's tomorrow) and I only have one more exam left, till I'm free for the summer!

I have a few products that I have been loving this month, although I feel like I spent most of the month make-up free studying away in my room, but the products I have been grabbing I just have to share. I also have some brilliant albums which have been on constant repeat this month.