We'll start off with some of the higher end bits and a little Space NK haul. Okay maybe it wasn't so little price wise but I was really good and despite a little discount promotion that was running at the time I only bought two items but what beauties they were.
I'm going to be doing a full review of both of these items so just a couple of sneaky peeks x First up one of the gorgeous Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blushers, Radiant Magenta
and the droolworthy, although now copied, NARS Dual Intensity Eyeshadow Palette. I'm loving NARS at the moment and this palette made a nice addition to my And God Created The Woman palette which I've also picked up recently (You can read my review and win one for yourself here x )
Any beauty blogger or beauty buyer loves a sample and I love Space NK's sampling policy. I know it quite common abroad but in the UK we seem to be a bit stingy with our samples but I was lucky enough to be able to choose two sample sachets to go with my Space NK order. I got the - Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer Oil Free SPF 15 and the Laura Mercier Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide in Ecru. Again I'll be reviewing these samples for you when my Sample Saturday series resumes later this month x
As well as NARS another brand that I'm loving at the moment is Tarte. For years and years it was impossible to get hold of in the UK but now we can be selected items through QVC. I've treat myself to a few bits lately including the gorgeous Poppy Picnic palette and cheek brush.
I will do a proper review of this soon but it's such a nice palette, with a beautiful shimmery blush, and easy to wear neutral matte eyeshadows x
Last week also saw the long awaited first ever Tarte Today's Special Value on QVC UK, and it was a goodie I used my remaining birthday money to make a little purchase.
Beautifully boxed in a Missoni type design, the kit came with a full size Lights Camera Lashes Mascara, an exclusive to this kit neutral toned, eyeshadow quad, a full size Coloured Clay Bronzer Blush in Park Avenue Princess, a Lipsurgence Lip Creme in Vintage, and exclusive double ended patterned brush and a full size Coloured Clay CC Primer in Light.
It also came with a gorgeous Missoni esq zig zag designed make up bag.
Most of the items are on sale separately either on QVC or via Sephora so I'm going to do a full review of the individual items as soon as possible x
So they were the high end bits now onto a few more budget friendly things starting with one of my favourite shops of the moment, Poundland, and their own Make Up Gallery line. After my positive experience with their Feeling Blush Blusher in Candyfloss 2 (read my thoughts here) I decided to try another shade, this time I purchased Soft Blush 1, a really neutral peach, nude tone x I haven't had a chance to use this one yet so I'll let you know what it's like when I do x
As well as the Make Up Gallery range it's always worth having a look at the rest of the make up on offer in Poundland. At the moment they seem to have an awful lot of Rimmel in, including Apocalips shades, Maybelline Colour Show polishes and lots of Barry M. Once one of the beauty bloggers favourite brands, Barry M is one of those brands that doesn't seem to get as much publicity as it once did but the nail polishes and Dazzle Dusts are still firm favourites in my eyes. The store I was on seemed to have a lot of Dazzle Dusts and a quick look at the Barry M website seems to suggest that a lot of the shades have been discontinued :( Not good news in my opinion but it's good for bargain hunters because I managed to pick up shade 1.
Excuse the terrible picture but this is a gorgeous champagne shade that will a fab highlight shade on the eyes or even on the cheek bones.
Although I don't think I'm going away on holiday this year, I'm still trying to get myself summer ready and summer ready means getting my feet out - there are a few things in this haul to make my feet look less hobbit like and one of those things is a set of Moisturising Socks from Allura.
The idea is simple, slather your feet with foot cream, and pop the socks on over night and voila much softer, less dry feet I swear by these and I also picked up some of the gloves to help with my dry, hands.
The other thing that you see in the picture is a piece of the nigh on impossible to get hold of Allura Acrylic Storage. This general make up one and the lipstick holders are like gold dust. I grabbed this one from my nearest Poundland and to be honest I haven't seen either style again.
I'm trying to revamp my make up storage yet again so I also made another acrylic storage purchase this time from ebay.
This two drawer set is much smaller than the Muji drawers that I own but they were ideal for the smaller space that I have. I'm going to use them for mascaras and eyeliner storage. They were £7.49 including postage from this ebay seller.
I've made quite a few ebay beauty purchases over the last few months and sticking with the dry feet and hands theme I also bought some of these hand and foot peels.
I've tried similar things in the past which were quite a bit more expensive then these so I'm hoping that they work .The foot masks were just 99p from this seller and the hand masks were also 99p from this seller.
Something else that I bought from ebay was something that I'd had on my watch list for quite a while - the Tony Moly Cats Wink Clear Pact Face Powder in No.1 Clear Skin.
Basically all it is, is a translucent face powder, but I couldn't resist the cat head shaped packaging. I love Asian cosmetics for their packaging and Toly Moly are definitely one of the cutest brands out there. I can't find the original ebay seller that I used but there are plenty of these available for around £4.80.
As well as the powder the seller I used was also kind enough to include some sample sachets, I got two sachets of the Tony Moly Glow Aura Luminous Glow Aura CC Cream SPF30 x Let me know if you would like to see a review xx
From super cute to interesting and practical - If your looking for a make up brush on a budget than ebay is the place to look. I loved the look of the Bare Minerals Perfecting Face Brush but the £24 price tag put me off, so I had a look on ebay and found this almost perfect dupe.
It just looks like a normal face brush but when you take a closer look (hard to see in these pics admittedly) you notice that the brush has a little well in the centre, where you put the foundation.
This is something else that I haven't managed to try yet, but for the price and the saving on the original it was worth a try. It was just 99p with 79p postage from this seller.
Over the last month of so I've also placed a couple of Avon orders, you seem some of my nail polish and jewellery buys already but I also got one make up item.
I've seen a little bit of a buzz about these CC Colour Correcting Pearls already, and their similarity to the Guerlain Météorites Pearls Powder so I thought I'd given them a go. They claim to perfect the skin and add radiance so I'll see how I get on. The Guerlain version retails at around £37.50 compared to £10 for these ones so they are well worth trying x
I also bought another foot care product to make hobbit not so much look better, but feel better. I mentioned in my most recent empties post that I suffer from hot, itchy and tired feet, well the Avon Foot Works Beautiful Cooling Crackling Mousse sounds like it's designed especially for me. It's basically a mousse that you rub onto your feet. I smells very like Elizabeth Arden Green Tea and it feels cool and fresh and the skin, and you also get a crackling popping sound and sensation very look popping candy. I'm still going to be picking up some more water refreshing spray but for just £3 this is definitely worth a try and I would thoroughly recommend it for anyone who spends a lot of time standing up and on their feet.
Next a couple of bits from Superdrug, this should have been a slightly larger haul but they messed my order up - I'm sure you'll already know about this if you follow me on twitter or instagram but needless to say I'm still not a happy bunny with Superdrug! Never mind I just ended up with two things - a replacement MUA Make Up Academy Power Pout in Irreplaceable (read my review here),
#
and another pressed powder - my skin is like a shiny mess at this time of year so I always like to make sure I have a face powder in every bag. This is a real budget one, the Miss Sporty So Clear Anti Spot Pressed Powder in Transparent.
It looks a tiny bit darker than what I'd normally go for but hopefully I get a bit more colour as summer goes on x
My final proper beauty purchase was yet another duo pack of the Primark Tea Tree Face Wipes, I've lost count of how many of these I've used over the years and at just a £1 for 2 packs they are well worth the money. I mainly use them for cleaning up swatches but they're also great for freshening up and quick make up removal.
You should now by now that I love a freebie, well over the last few months I've managed to pick up a few good ones, thanks to a few online chums. First of all Burberry ran an online promotion to get a free mini 1g Burberry Kisses Hydrating Lip Colour, Yes please, I requested No. 05 Nude Pink and it's a real beauty x I'll be featuring it in an upcoming Sample Saturday post but here is a sneaky peek.
Another high end website also had a little freebie promotion and that was brand de jour Charlotte Tilbury. This is definitely one of my most lusted after brands at the moment, and I quickly put my name down for some free foundation samples I was sent four 1.5ml sachets of the Charlotte Tilbury Light Wonder Youth Boosting Perfect Skin Foundation SPF 15 in 1 Fair, 2 Fair, 3 Fair and 4 Fair to help my pick my perfect shades. Again I'll be featuring swatches of all of these shades in a Sample Saturday post for you to lust over and pursue x
Some other freebies come courtesy of the news stand worth of magazine that I buy every month. Okay they're not technically free as you need to buy the magazine, but you can pick up some good things and it can give you a chance to try some new products at a much lower price. We're very lucky in the UK with our magazine cover mounts so I always take advantage when I see something I fancy. Alas some of the issues are no longer on stands but I'm just showing you in case you would like any review x
First up some Eyeko London Mascara Off Eye Make Up Remover Wipes which came with I think April's issue of InStyle. These retail at £6 for 10 wipes which made this a decent freebie. It seems a lot for just £10 wipes so I'll see if I think they are worth it. Also in the picture you can see something which came with last months copy of UK ELLE, a 30ml bottle of Percy & Reed Volumising No Oil Oil. I've already got one of these somewhere that I've never tried, this is a bit of a cult product though so I really need to give it a go.
Last months InStyle also included a free gift, a 10ml size of the new Clinique Smart Custom Repair Serum.
Last month's Red also had a free gift last month a 25ml size of the Rodial Stemcell Super-food Glam Balm which is worth around £21. This is basically just a rose, floral smelling multi purpose balm that you can use on your lips, your cuticles and any dry patches. It's a bit highly scented but I've been using it on my lips and cuticles last think at night and my lips definitely feel less cracked and dry.
Speaking of rose scents the May issue of Marie Claire also came with a 50ml Neals Yard Hand Cream. There were a few different scents to choose from but I went for Wild Rose.
As I say all of these magazines are long gone but I've also picked up a couple of free gifts that you can still get your hands on. The new issue of Marie Claire comes with a choice of two free 15ml Elemis products. You can either choose from the Papaya Enzyme Peel or the Pro Radiance Illuminating Flash Balm which was the one I went for.
The new issue of Glamour is not only just £1 but it also comes with one of four Model Co products. I've tried a few of their items in the past so I went for the Model Co VolumEyes mascara. Finally ELLE magazine, I haven't seen this issue in store yet and I'm not sure if this is just for subscribers but with my latest issue I got a Malin + Goetz mini set which contained a cleanser, a lip moisturiser and a face moisturiser.
If your still with me I'm proud of you - that was a pretty epic haul even for my standard, I'm going to try and review as many of these items as I can but if there is anything specific you would like to see please let me know xx Thanks for reading x
Wow great haul! I've been dying to try that tony moly cat wink powder for ages now but didn't realise u could get it so cheaply on eBay! That's brilliant! 😊 how did u get on with ordering from abroad though did it take ages to arrive & did u have to pay any extra for tax since its in Korea?? I always worry about that
ReplyDeleteHi Elena x Thanks for reading x It took about 10 days to arrive and there was no duty or tax to pay x Hope that helps xx
Deletethat's great! Thanks for getting back to me - might just try it then lol! :)
DeleteI didn't realise Poundland was doing the acrylic stands, I've been trying to decide wether to buy one from ebay, I hope they still have some at my local one! I love the Hourglass Blushers too and that shade looks lovely, as well as the Burberry Sample!
ReplyDeleteEloise x