Current Favourites and a Mini Blog Sale

Hi everyone! Sorry about the lack of posts lately...I started a new full-time job last month (I'm getting paid to write - eeee) so I've been busy settling in, so that unfortunately meant that my blogs have been a bit neglected!

In this post I'm firstly going to talk about my favourite products recently, and then I'm making my first foray into the world of blog sales with four items for sale including two MAC lipsticks.

So, recently my Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara has been looking a bit gloopy and generally worse for wear, so it was time to get a new mascara (one of the few makeup items I can justify buying despite being skint - because if you don't get a new mascara at least every six months you'd basically be putting yourself at risk of getting an eye infection!) I actually really liked that mascara, it was definitely one of the best I've tried in the past year or so and if it weren't for my penchant for trying new mascaras I'd probably repurchase it.

I decided to buy the Bourjois Volume 1 Seconde Mascara: (which was £3 off when I bought it but the offer has ended, sorry!)

Look at this fancy limited edition 'Retro Summer' packaging! It might not even really be summer anymore but this packaging is lovely and cheerful. This mascara is one Bourjois' most well known but the only mascara I've tried from them has been the Volumizer one (one of the many Mac Haute and Naughty copycat 2-in-1 mascaras that were coming out in 2010 - I really liked that one, even if the 2-in-1 thing is a bit gimmicky.)

Anyway, this isn't technically a favourite because I've only been using it a few weeks and haven't made my mind up yet (I'll probably write a full review on this once I've been using it longer) but so far I have quite mixed feelings on this mascara. On the one hand, it does provide a very nice look quickly, with good volume and length. You certainly don't have to put much effort in to get a decent mascara look. On the other hand, the brush is flipping massive, so you have to be careful, and I've noticed that at the end of the day a few times it has smudged onto my lower lash line, so that's not ideal. But I will keep using it and I'll let you know how it goes!

In terms of other makeup, I've been enjoying long-lasting lip products - at work sometimes I can simply have a cup of tea and a biscuit and the next thing I know the lovely pink lippy I had on before is almost gone. So Benefit's Lollitint (which I talked about in my high end favourites post) is great for increasing the wear of my lip colour. It looks good either on its own or layered with a lippie like Nars Roman Holiday.  

In terms of long-lasting lipsticks, Rimmel's Lasting Perfection lipstick by Kate in 01 and No7's Moisture Drench lipstick in Rosy Ribbon have been great options. Rosy Ribbon is a dark pink which leans slightly reddish on me, although next to Rimmel's Kate in 01 it looks very pink! It was recommended for my particular skin tone with the No7 Match Made Service.

Left - No7 Rosy Ribbon. Right - Rimmel Kate.

Rimmel Kate promises up to 8 hours wear, which I don't think is true although it does last very well. I can't see any claims about wear time in the description for No7's Rosy Ribbon, so it may or may not be this particular shade which is long lasting. At £5.49 Rimmel's Kate in 01 is more affordable than the No7 one which is £9.95 - quite pricey for a drugstore lipstick, but No7 do offers quite often, for example right now there's a 'buy one get second half price on selected No7 cosmetics' offer.

Moving on to concealer and I'm still loving the Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer - I don't know whether mine is actually starting to run out though as I keep having to put more effort in to get product out. It doesn't look like it's nearly empty, but still...nooooo. Living in London, I'm now on a serious budget so I can't really afford to repurchase this when it runs out, sad times. But I am still happy to use the good old Collection concealer (you know the one) as a perfect budget alternative which is around £18 cheaper (seriously.)

I'm still using and loving the Soap and Glory Peaches and Clean Cleansing Milk which I reviewed here. It smells amazing, albeit a little bit sickly sometimes, and is great for removing face makeup. Finally, a haircare favourite I wanted to mention was the Garnier Ultimate Blends The Colour Illuminator, a one minute treatment which nourishes my hair as well as protecting the colour radiance. My hair gets quite dry at the ends (especially as I've been blow drying it more lately - oops) and this stuff really helps. I also use coconut oil occasionally as an overnight treatment.

The Mini Blog Sale...

This is UK only - sorry! The prices below include £2.80 postage. Please let me know in the comments if you'd like to buy something and provide your PayPal email address - I will then send you a PayPal invoice. (If you don't want to post your email address on here, just DM me on Twitter.)

Please try to pay within 24 hours of me sending you the invoice and then I will post your item/s as soon as I can and let you know they're on the way. Also, if you live near ish to me in Tufnell Park in London then we might be able to knock £2.80 off the price (from postage) to meet up in person so I can give you what you bought - walking distance only though please. I won't accept returns/refunds I'm afraid.

From left to right in the image above, here's what's on offer:

1. Eyeco Skinny Liquid Eyeliner Black (never opened or used as I already have one) RRP £12, Price: £7

2. Jemma Kidd Light as Air Foundation in Ultra Light (about 80% left) (not sure what its RRP was, I think around £25) Price: £13

This foundation used to get raved about a lot before Jemma Kidd's makeup line was discontinued. This is a really nice foundation but I'm selling it because it doesn't work very well with my oily skin. (It used to work with my skin when I first bought it!) It has an SPF of 18 and the shade Ultra Light matches fair skin tones like my own quite well.

3. MAC Viva Glam Nicki Lipstick (used about 4 times) RRP £15.50 Price: £11

I wrote about this in my MAC lipstick collection post - (you can see swatches for both lipsticks there.) It's a great lipstick but I'm selling it because it doesn't work well with my skintone! It's been discontinued.

4. MAC Vegas Volt Lipstick - used 4-5 times. RRP £15.50 Price: £10.50

I'm also selling a Chase Your Shadow: The Trials of Oscar Pistorius book over on Gumtree if anyone's interested!

Closer look images:

Thanks for reading!

Sabrina xx

Mini Boots Haul

I swear it's practically impossible for a beauty-obsessed person such as myself to go into Boots intending to buy an essential such as toothpaste, without ending up with that and some other items that were...well, slightly less essential. That's what happened with this haul. To be fair, I didn't get that much - I really wanted to pick up a Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet Lipstick as they all look gorgeous and are getting a lot of hype right now in the beauty world, but I resisted. (I know, go me! Haha.)

I've pictured the Nivea Daily Essentials Night Cream, £2.24, which I actually bought the previous week and mentioned in my last post. So far I'm really liking this product, it calms my skin down overnight when it's being a bit temperamental. The other night I was breaking out, used this product anyway (which I thought was a bit risky as it's quite a thick lotion) and obviously it didn't make the spot go away, but it did definitely help with redness and made my skin a bit happier. It's also very cheap especially as it's still half price at Boots so I'd definitely recommend trying it!

I also repurchased the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in Fair which is one I've repurchased a lot. I've raved about this so much on my blog before so I won't go on about it except to say that it's absolutely worth the hype if you ask me! I am still using the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer on dark circles and this one is for using on spots and blemishes. I did a post reviewing the Nars concealer and comparing it to Collection here.

I had my hair done on the same day I bought these items and I decided to try a new hair treatment seeing as though the ends of my hair get very dry. I've also just had it coloured again so it's now definitely in need of some TLC. I deliberated between the Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Colour Deep Treatment (I've tried the normal version and loved it, it smells so good) or the Garnier Ultimate Blends Colour Illuminator 1-Minute Treatment but got the latter because it was cheaper on offer for £2.99. I have the shampoo version of it as well which I quite like, especially for the smell (Argon Oil and Cranberry). I rarely use hair treatments because my hair gets greasy quite quickly but I'm excited to try this!

The last thing I got was Soap and Glory's Peaches and Clean Cleansing Milk which was also on offer for £6 instead of £8 and was the main impulse buy of the bunch seeing as though I might not have noticed it at all if it hadn't been on offer. However I'm looking forward to giving this a go, I was on the lookout for a new cleanser and this one gets very positive reviews on both Boots.com and Makeupalley. Also Khila (Miss Budget Beauty) raves about it a lot!

I just hope my sensitive skin gets on with this as it contains active ingredients/'glycols' (I know - blank face) and interestingly although Soap and Glory describe it as gentle and able to remove waterproof mascara, they also say not to use it on the eye area. I've used it a few times and so far, so good. It tingles a bit but other than that there are no signs of it irritating my skin. It had a very unusual minty yet peachy smell which I'm not sure what to make of yet. Also as usual with Soap and Glory the packaging is gorgeous.

Do you have any thoughts on these products? Have you made any drugstore purchases lately? :)

PS: This is obviously very unrelated to the rest of this post, but I saw this kimono over on Heather at Of Beauty & Nothingness' Summer Clothing Wish List and wanted to mention it as I'm in love with it as well as the whole outfit below...which adds up to £133! (Not including the necklace or sandals! I don't own a single kimono in my wardrobe as it's just not an item I would usually wear but I think this one is so beautiful:

Sabrina xx