In October last year, I wrote a post simply titled 'Losing My Blogging Mojo'. I don't think I planned to publish it nor did I have the guts too, but it was more of a cathartic brain dump for me. Now it's 3 months later and I found the post in my drafts and reading it just made me feel a little sad for myself.  At the time of writing I wasn't feeling my blog at all, but now it's 2019 - I've redesigned my site and I feel SO much more motivated to get back into this and really give it my all (or as much as I can while still keeping a good balance). I am so glad I feel as those I have a bit of my mojo back.

One of my favourite little boxes to receive each month is my monthly bellabox* subscription box. This Australian operated service delivers a little blue box of around 5 beauty products within Australia and New Zealand and they always include a wide range of different brands, some you may be familiar with, but also some that you may never have heard of. Each month is a surprise, although they do give you sneak peeks and sometimes you get to chose a particular shade of a certain product.

I am sure by now you would have either read it, heard of, seen it, or binge watched Marie Kondo's Tidying Up on Netflix (based on her best selling books Spark Joy (2012) and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (2012)). It is truly a phenomenon and came perfectly timed at the beginning of a new year. My boyfriend actually read the book a couple of years back and he went through the methods at the time which I definitely benefitted from. We now fold our clothes using the KonMari method and utilise a lot of her ideas around parting with things and trying to maintain a relatively clutter-free home. It is without a doubt a daunting process but like many, the end result is worth it and going forward you start to get a much better grasp on what truly 'sparks joy' for you.

I am getting a little behind on my Empties reviews so this is a bit of a catch-up and you can expect another Empties post in a week or so. I enjoy sharing these because sometimes I don't talk about a product the entire time I'm using it and I always find it interesting to see what people are actually finishing and if it worked for them or not.

This post has been parked at the bottom of my drafts, only to have just been discovered now! Unfortunately, this palette; the adorable Take Me Home Mini Shadow Palette, is no longer available on Colourpop but most of the shades included are available as single shadows or in other palettes so this should hopefully still be a relevant and helpful review. If you already own this palette, you are very lucky because I think it's such a high-quality palette with some perfect shades included.

For the first post of 2019, I am kicking it with an eyeshadow palette that I have been loving over the past few months. I am a sucker for the Urban Decay Palettes and I especially love their smaller 'Basics' series of palettes. The Aphrodisiac Eyeshadow Palette takes on the same size and layout of these palettes as well as the newer Naked Petite Heat (review and swatches here) but instead of being all matte like its predecessors this one has a mix of shimmer and matte.