Time passes really quickly when you’re having fun because whaddyaknow, we’ve already come to the end of the month. Heck, Christmas is just 85 days away!

Since it’s the end of the month, I thought I’d share my hit and miss list for September with you. These are the items I’ve used that are worth highlighting (apart from my product reviews). As usual, we have the good ones and the bad ones. This month, I particularly enjoyed the ones that aren’t just about beauty.

Want to know what they are? Read on to find out!

The Hit List

Garnier Fructus Miraculous Oil Brushing Express*
I’ve been using this each time I washed my hair for well over 6 months and look at the bottle. I barely made a dent! It nourishes my hair, protects my hair from the heat of the hairdryer and keeps the frizz to a minimum (well, as much as possible. My hair really is very frizzy!) and best of all, it smells really good. If you see this in store and it’s on sale, go for it!

Revlon Cream Blush in Flushed (not pictured because I forgot to add it in. Bugger.)
My favourite cream blush is Revlon’s Cream Blush in Coral Reef and I’ve been meaning to pick up the Flushed for ages. Cheapie me wouldn’t pay full price for it so I waited for Chemist Warehouse’s 50% off Revlon sale. I didn’t manage to get it during the last two sales because it was always sold out! Seriously, I must have waited over a year before I finally managed to score one a few weeks ago during their last 50% off all Rimmel, Maybelline and Revlon makeup sale. It’s not as dry or powdery as the Coral Reef that I have but it’s still as good in terms of colour payoff and staying power. It’s fantastic for travelling too because it means one less makeup brush to bring!

Kerastase Discipline Shampoo and Conditioner*
This is my shampoo and conditioner of choice for September. In terms of scent, I find that you can’t go wrong with Kerastase because most if not all of their products smell really good. The shampoo isn’t drying nor stripping on the hair and the conditioner does a decent job in keeping my hair soft and manageable. I didn’t see any significant changes in terms of minimised frizz. Still, it’s a good combo and one I’d consider purchasing when I’m done with these.

Lanolips Antibacterial Hand Cream*
I’ve been waiting for this baby to be released for months! This hand cream was highly recommended by many British beauty bloggers and it really annoys me that we had to wait so long for this to be released in Australia when this is, after all, an Australian brand. There may or may not have been complaints to Lanolips from yours truly about this issue 😛 . Anyway, now that it’s here, I’d say it’s worth the positive reviews. It smells quite good (the scent isn’t very strong), moisturises the hands well, dries quickly and best of all, it works like a hand sanitiser too because of its antibacterial properties. I’m tempted to ditch the hand sanitiser in my makeup bag and just carry this instead. A multitasking product is A-okay in my books!

Maybelline Baby Lips Electropop lipbalms*
Remember how much I disliked the original Baby Lips? I really thought I’d dislike these too and was hesitant to even give one a go. Curiosity got the better of me and I tried the ones in Oh! Orange! and Pink Shock out. They’re actually very good! It wasn’t waxy nor drying like the original Baby Lips. In fact, you might think they’re completely different lip balms altogether if it wasn’t for the name and packaging. I’ll even go as far as to say that I like these just as much as the Fresh Sugar lip balms and that’s a huge claim. The colour tints are just nice for me (not too light yet not too strong) and the lip balms are creamy. These lip balms are currently sitting in my makeup bag and for them to have a spot in there, I’d say they’re pretty damn good.

The Miss List

Maybelline SuperStay 14Hr Megawatt Lipsticks*
Even though Maybelline had a spot in my Hit List, unfortunately it also has a spot in my Miss list for September. I blogged about the SuperStay 14Hr Megawatt lipsticks a couple of weeks ago so I’m not going to write much about them this time. Suffice it to say, I’m not a fan of these dry lipsticks at all.

NUXE Nirvanesque 1st Wrinkles Smoothing Cream*
I was actually really excited to give this a go when I tested it out at a blogger’s event a few months ago. It smells lovely and the cream is light, non-greasy yet moisturising on the skin. Unfortunately, there must be an ingredient in there that didn’t agree with my skin because each time I used it, it broke my skin out. Day 1, a couple of pimples came out. Day 2, one more popped out. By day 5, I knew I had to stop using it because more spots emerged. I wasn’t using anything else that was new apart from the Nirvanesque cream nor was it that time of the month so I knew it had to be the cream that was wreaking havoc on my skin. It’s such a pity because I was hoping that this would work well for me.

It’s Not Just About Beauty

Kate Spade tote
This was a gift from Mum. She picked this up on her recent trip to the US. In the photo she sent me, I assumed it was going to be a small tote that I can perhaps even sling across my body but when I finally saw it in person, hot diggity, it’s a huge bag! It’s the sort of bag that you can probably fit a small kitchen sink in. No kidding! I can easily fit my iPad, laptop, wallet, makeup bag, scarf, cardigan, umbrella and more. Makes it bloody heavy, of course, but that’s how much you can fit in it. Plus I love the colour. What a cheery blue!

Hair Romance by Christina Butcher
One of my blogging heroes and inspiration, Christina, has released a book! Not just an ebook, but an honest-to-goodness, flipping, able-to-have-new-book-smell book! It’s aptly called “Hair Romance“; it contains images on how to create 82 cool hairstyles and there are even illustrations to show you how to create them step by step. You may even see some familiar faces in the models that Christina used to do her hair magic; I know I did. Even though my hair is now too short to do most of the hairstyles in the book, it’s still a great read. Well done, Christina!

Secret Bloggers’ Business
A few months ago, I was lucky to win a spot in the Secret Bloggers’ Business Course that is run by Kate Muegel from Drop Dead Gorgeous Daily. I’ll be honest; when it first started, I didn’t really think much of it because at that time, I was really busy and didn’t have the time to go through all of her material. But when I did, I was gobsmacked at the wealth of information Kate shared in the course. For those of you who attended the Problogger Event at Gold Coast this year, you’d have had the chance to hear her speak and see that Sponsored Post Formula she showed in her presentation. If you think that’s good, the information you’ll get from the course is even better. The best thing out of the course for me is the SBB community on Facebook and I even had the opportunity to meet some of them in real life at the Problogger Event. If I hadn’t won a spot in the course, I would have happily paid for it.

Smaggle
Carly is one of my favourite Australian bloggers and boy, she sure has been smashing out great blog posts this month. I’ve always enjoyed her blog but this month in particular, she wrote a few articles that spoke particularly to me (I really enjoyed this and this). If you haven’t heard of Smaggle nor checked her blog out yet, I highly recommend you do because she’s a great writer. To date, my favourite post from her blog is still How To Do Number Twos in a Public Toilet. Plus she did silly things to raise money for a school bus. This girl rocks.

What’s on your hit and miss list this month? What cut the mustard and what didn’t?

Disclaimer: The products marked with * were provided for editorial consideration.