November Favorites

1) Bite Beauty Discovery Set - I stumbled on Bite Beauty while browsing sephora.com, and it's very exciting to find another natural-y brand. This set has five deluxe sample sized lip colors. Most of them are fairly mild in tint, but one (Pomegranate) has a very bright, vintage red--not sure I'm ready to wear it quite yet. Musk is a soft pink very close to my natural lip color; Fig is a little more pronounced, but also one of my favorites. Shiraz has a little more of a wine tone to its light pink, and Retsina is a nude color. What I like about these is that they don't look like/act like "natural" lipsticks--they're just themselves, made with good ingredients.

2) Perfume - I know this was on my list last month, but I have since acquired these wonderfully-sized samples, along with a few more of the regular little sample bottles. Miss Dior and Flowerbomb are both a little powdery for my tastes, but they're still nice and I do love the bottles.

3) Express Jeans - It had really been too long since I had bought jeans: finding ones that fit right is a task I loathe. What I like about these is that, though they are skinny jean style (I think one of them is even a legging jean), they aren't too tight (at least, even size zero isn't on me). They're also a comfortable, flexible material. I usually wear them tucked into boots.

4) Yerba Mate loose tea - Really, why do Americans never drink loose tea? Oh, that's right, most "normal" stores don't sell it. But there's something entrancing about loose tea--not to mention lots of cute tea infusers. I'm using a boring one right now, but I shall have to change that . . .

5) Mrs. Meyer's Dish Soap - Now, now, there is no rule that I can't include soap in this list. And this soap is worth the attention: I never buy any other kind. This one lasts longer, isn't harsh on your hands, has natural ingredients, and smells nice. And World Market sells it (Target, too, I think, and Whole Foods). I usually buy the lavender.

6) Christmas Decorating - I've decorated two full-sized tree and one tiny one I keep in my room, plus a couple of nativity sets and other trinkets. This picture is a silly vintage mouse I like to bring out.