The end of the year is upon us and with it an enormous amount of reflection is due. A more serious take on that is coming but, for now, I thought I'd share some of my favourite things I discovered and did this year.

During the January sales, I bought two things I love dearly, a white fuzzy crop sweater that is just a huge 90s throwback, and Zara's Oriental perfume. That's also when I started wearing what is now my signature gold necklace, which I've mentioned in my Everyday Gold Accessories post.


For Valentine's, and actually, our 2 year anniversary, my boyfriend and I went over to my favourite place, Porto. This was my third time visiting, and I never want to come back home afterwards. Porto is the most beautiful city, with gorgeous architecture, amazing views and great places to visit and I'm basically living my film photography there because every corner is gorgeous. We stayed at CityBreak Apartments Coliseu and I can say for sure, I'll never book a different place, the room was beautiful and comfortable and everyone was so nice.



By May, two things happened: I turned 23 and decided it was time to chop my hair, and so I donated around 50 cm of hair and I never felt so free. These were some of my favourite gifts, my brother gave me my baby, my Fjallraven Kanken, while my boyfriend bought me this gorgeous silver choker with a mother of pearl horn charm and my mum gave an adorable midi polka dot skirt.

By the beginning of summer, I started getting really into a more sustainable lifestyle, you can read all my blog posts on this here, and that's really becoming a big part of my life. In July I went on our yearly trip to Algarve with my boyfriend's family and honestly, I've never enjoyed a couple of weeks in the sun more, I felt truly relaxed, which was much appreciated after all the stress I'd been dealing with for the past seven months. I had the time to just lay in the sun and read, and that's when I got into reading again, thanks to both Lolita* and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine*, which I must say, was my book of the year. While we were so close to Spain we also went on a little day trip to Ayamonte, where we always go to, and enjoyed a day eating calamari and doing some shopping, my boyfriend's parents even gave me a bottle of my favourite perfume, Black Opium* by YSL.

In August, I started working for a month, which, as great as it was actually being called to work, it also was a dreadful time and I hated every second of it, but every break was truly enjoyed as I read Call Me By Your Name* for the whole 10 minutes of them, and that soon became my second book of the year.


As we got into the cooler months, I stayed in a lot more and decided I wanted a new show to binge watch besides Friends, to be honest, I was afraid I was going to get sick of it, I've been pretty much watching it non stop for the past five years so, I think I was due a break. As everyone was always going on about it, and I actually remembered watching it years and years ago on TV, I decided to watch Gilmore Girls and let me tell you, I couldn't stop watching it (and yes, I was as disappointed as everyone else by the last season and by Year in The Life), I'd watch it from the time I woke up until 5 am when I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore, or I'd have to force myself to go to bed because I just wouldn't stop any other way. Safe to say this was the show of the year for me (although an honourable mention goes to The Walking Dead for seriously upping its game).

In early December I took a few days with my mum to go to Toulouse to visit my brother and it was pretty refreshing. I had visited twice before, once on my own and another time with my mum for Christmas, and it had always been maniac, the first time they were trying to show me around, the second time they did the same for my mum, and now I pretty much know the city so I can get around easily and at will. Although Toulouse will never have the same appeal as Paris to me (I'll never forgive my brother from moving), Toulouse can be so pretty. Winter was also the time when I got super into my Black Opium* YSL and I'm so sad to think it'll be over any day now...

As for a few year-round favourites, I had to mention my Godsend, The Ordinary*. Back in June, I wrote this blog post, all about my skincare routine and an honest review on The Ordinary Skincare and I still can't imagine using any other products. At the time I mentioned the Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%* and the Salicylic Acid 2% Solution*, I was also using the Alpha Arbutin 2% + HA*, at the time I didn't think I really needed the Alpha Arbutin, but once I had stopped using it for a while I could really see a difference on my skin and its texture so, I'll be repurchasing it. I'm currently trying out the Lactic Acid 10% + HA* as the Salicylic Acid was out of stock at the time I had to repurchase my products, but it really is no match to my old classic, so I'll be going back to my tried and tested regimen next time.

Lastly, every month this year I decided to add my favourite songs to a playlist which as now created my stuck playlist, with all my favourite songs for this year, it's much better than the Spotify one they make every year, trust me.

And there we go, a year in favourites, how fast did that go by? What were some of your favourite things this year? Let me know in the comments below.