It's the end of December, and the end of 2015, so what better time to do my round up of Instagram posts from the past month.

December has definitely flown by; Christmas is now over, I spent a bit too much on online Boxing Day sales and now it's back to normal real life. I was using a lot of new products during December because of all the beauty shopping I did in America at the end of November (see the hauls here), and there were a lot of good products to choose from but I've nailed it down to the best of the best.

Another busy week has passed, with a rush of a lot of drinking and eating and celebrating Christmas. I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas time spent with family and friends, I sure did! Posts on CM did not stop though, so here is the low down of the past week.

As is always the way, I went into Farmers to buy one thing (albeit a boring skincare thing), to then come out with this 'Brit Kit' from Rimmel that was only $25! I did justify it because I had a $20 Farmers voucher which made it all the more cheaper at basically $5! I think this would make such a perfect Christmas gift for a makeup lover that you might know, so I'll break down the contents and give you the low down on the Kit.

Seeing as we are only a couple of days away from Christmas, I thought I would share a very appropriate festive manicure, perfect for the holiday season!

This week has just whizzed by in a blur of working, blogging and Christmas shopping! My Ulta3 advent calendar* has only three more doors to open, which makes my quite excited that Christmas is so close! The past week on CM was a lot of shopping talk and I shared the things I got while I was on holiday in the US last month. Each was split into categories with a break down of products and pricing including swatches where I could.

It's day five of the USA Hauls (catch up here; Drugstores, MAC, Nordstrom Rack, Sephora + Macy's), and today it is all about the nails. This is more of a collective of purchases I made at Walgreens, Sephora, Urban Outfitters and even at Bed, Bath + Beyond. I'm sure that all of these will be cropping up in NOTDs very soon, but I have included swatches of each shade on my nail wheels for your reference!

Finally they are here... the USA hauls! I've been hinting at these since I got back at the end of November that I had done a lot of shopping damage while on a family trip to San Francisco and Seattle, and today kicks off with #001. I did a shit load heck of a load of shopping in the space of a week because, a) #treatyoself, b) #feelingspendy, and c) the prices over there are so much better than they are in NZ, hence why I took full advantage of this.

Every single day this week will be a new haul post, I know... that is six days of hauls! It will include the drugstores, Nordstrom Rack, Macy's, some miscellaneous things, and of course, Sephora (a.k.a. the mothership), among others. I'll also be including product information, pricing, swatches and first impressions where I can (as I always try to do), so it's not simply "look at all the things I got". To kick off the week, I'm starting with the cheaper end of the scale; the drugstores, in particular Target and Walgreens.

It's Sunday and that means the WPC, and that we are a week closer to Christmas; boy is that creeping up fast! The blog this week was packed with products and lots of new releases and Summer/Christmas related things, so here is your chance to catch up on the last six posts on CM.

Australis is totally nailing it with the new releases lately (see a few in this post here), and the latest release of the AC/ME Metallic Collection* is no different. The collection is rock inspired with lots of darker hues and a heck load of shimmer; in eyeshadow, lip and nail form. 

There are so many amazing Christmas sets out there at the moment and this one from Za is just one of many available in NZ. This is their True White EX Skincare Set* that is only $39, with a value of $59, and is packed with three products to help brightening the skin tone and improve your complexion.

This is going up a lot early than I had expected because lately Lust Have It have been running a bit behind on deliveries, but I am glad they have finally got it sorted out. The November Women's Beauty Box* arrived early last week, almost a whole week earlier than usual! If you missed it, yesterday I posted my end of month reviews for each item in the August, September and October boxes (see it here). The November box had five items included; four full sized products and one sample sized.

It's time again for the weekly round up of the goings-on on CM! I was feeling very generous, it seems and actually have three giveaways currently running that all close next week, so if you haven't entered check them out!

It's been a bit of a giveaway crazy week on CM, with the Living Nature Bloom Lipsticks and Maybelline Color Elixir giveaways currently going on (still time to enter them both!), and now I am throwing another one in the mix! This is for one of three Physiogel products, kindly sent to me by Physiogel to share with all my readers. I will admit, it's not the most glamorous of products, but they are probably some of the most practical ones and perfect now that Summer is pretty much here!

The newest release from Maybelline has come in the form of these gloss slash liquid lipstick hybrids, dubbed The Color Elixirs*. They have been out for a wee while now but I finally got my hands on one to try and I also have a sneaky wee giveaway at the very end of this post...

After Living Nature read through the comments that you all left on my review of this gorgeous lipstick in the shade Bloom (see it here), they decided that it would be a great idea for me to giveaway two of these to my readers! I love this lipstick; I think the colour will be universally flattering, the creamy texture and pigmentation is top notch, plus Living Nature use all natural mineral, pigments and waxes to formulate their lipsticks and other cosmetics.

As you would have seen in my Instagram Round Up, I've had a very busy month that was filled with lots of travelling, so not a lot changed in my beauty line up. I found myself reaching for a lot of older favourites and not really introducing many new things into my everyday routine. That being said, there is one or two new additions that became Most Loved extremely quickly!

I'm going to keep this introduction brief; I took a lot of photos this month. My Insta was a hashtag busy one, purely due to the fact that I went to the States for a week and was very snap happy because it was all too exciting for me!