Recent Beauty Buys

Hello! Well so far I've been successful in my makeup spending ban and have been happily using my stash rather than adding to it unnecessarily (I have been ridiculously tempted to get one of those Rouge Edition Velvet lipsticks from Bourjois though) so this post is going include a few skin and haircare bits that I've bought over the past month or so, with the Avene and Nice and Easy purchases being the most recent. Obviously it's only a matter of time before I crack and buy more makeup but hopefully by that point it will be something I actually need!

Firstly I went to Savers to save (heh) 80p off the Boots price for the Nice and Easy Root Touch Up Kit. My roots are beginning to show again and I fancied saving money by not going to the salon just yet and using this kit just to touch up my colour at the roots until I go again (for a haircut as well since I had my hair done yesterday.) I was deliberating between the Dark Blonde and the Medium Blonde shade as my hair is dark blonde but quite a few reviews of this I've read on Boots.com and Makeupalley have mentioned that this kit turned out darker than they expected. So I went for the Medium Blonde one and I'm just going to leave it on slightly longer than 10 minutes to let it have more time to develop and hopefully match the rest of my hair.

I'll let you know how I get on with this, probably in a review! I haven't seen many reviews of this in blogs but the ones on Boots/Makeupalley seem quite positive. The main complaint I've noticed seems to be from girls with very thick hair finding that they didn't have enough product, I have fine hair so that's okay but it's something to bear in mind.

I've pretty much all used up my No7 Beautiful Skin Day Cream (review here) so I picked up the Avene Cleanance MAT Mattifying Emulsion. Boots had an offer on in which you get a free 150ml Eau Thermal Spring Water Spray (worth £7) when you buy an Avene moisturiser so I was pleased with that - I've never tried anything from Avene but I've heard great things about the Thermal Spring Water, which is also part of the ingredients of the moisturiser. I'm going to use the water as my toner and then see how I get on with that and the moisturiser. Unfortunately I can't see anything about this offer online so it might just be an in store thing!

Anyway, I've only used these twice so far but I'm really liking both of them - the spray is very refreshing and the moisturiser sinks in perfectly, mattifies, and leaves my skin feeling really smooth. I'll probably review these properly once I've been using them for a while.

I've also been trying out the Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque which is a very highly rated product for fighting acne that I bought almost a month ago. I use it once a week because it's quite strong - I've used it 3 for 4 times so far but I haven't really noticed much change in my skin after using it yet which is a bit disappointing, but I'll keep trying it.

I wouldn't say I really have severe acne but when I mentioned my frequent breakouts in a visit to the Doctor's the other day I was actually prescribed Fucidin Cream which is an antibiotic. So hopefully my skin will clear up soon!

Moving on to hair stuff, and I bought the Dove Oxygen Moisture Root Lift Spray when it was on offer at Superdrug. (I just looked, and it's still on offer!) Again I may do a full review on this soon but so far I like it for using on wet hair, but can't seem to get it to do anything but wet my hair a bit when using it on dry hair (it's meant for both uses.) I feel like the fact that it's a spray makes it work better for blow drying, but I don't blow dry my hair often and I'm not sure that this has heat protectant.

When my trusty Batiste Dry Shampoo ran out I decided to try one from COLAB by Ruth Crilly as these have been raved about a lot lately. I have the Paris one which has a pleasant floral fragrance. However so far I haven't been sold on the oil-busting effects of this (I think a few times I've simply sprayed too much by accident and that's not helped) but I'll keep using this and trying not to spray too much of it and we'll see!

Update: Oops. Today I bought this month's InStyle Magazine and got the free 50ml St Tropez In Shower Gradual Tan and saw there was a voucher inside for £2 off the full size...guess what happened next.

I originally went into Boots for a prescription but when I saw that they'd restocked on the In Shower Gradual Tan I decided to ask if the £2 off voucher would work alongside the introductory 3rd off price (which has now ended, sorry!) and it did, meaning I only paid £8.33 I think for the full size one when it is worth £14.50! (For some reason it came to 10.33 rather than 9.67 on my receipt, but I didn't feel like querying it since it's only a small difference.) I'm going to use the 50ml one first as if I don't like it I can simply return the full size one unused.

I had been quite unsure about whether to buy this or not as not only is it pricey but it does get very mixed reviews - I think it might be a good option for me though as I'm super pale, still quite new to tanning and just looking for a radiant hint of colour rather than anything major.

I also bought two Soap and Glory Peaches and Clean Deep Cleansing Milk Cleansers (review here) for the following reasons:

1. Soap and Glory have kindly increased the amount of product you get from 200ml to 350ml but the price has stayed the same at £8 which makes it great value for money, especially compared to some of their other products.
2. Boots are currently doing a 'buy one get one half price' offer on Soap and Glory skincare, meaning I got these two for £12.
3. I also got double points for spending over £10 on Soap and Glory skincare (this offer was via the Boots app) - so around 80 points.
4. I'm happy for this to be my new makeup removing cleanser and now I have tons of the stuff so I won't need to buy any for quite a while (unfortunately I wouldn't be surprised if S&G increased the price soon.)
5. It smells amazing.

^ So yes, I have slight shopping guilt now but at least I've taken advantage of some great offers! The 350ml size does mean it's obviously heavier to travel around with so what I'm thinking of doing is using one of my new ones at home and keeping the 200ml one (which I don't have much left of) for taking with me next time I travel down to see my boyfriend.

Have you tried any of these products? What have you been buying and testing out lately? :)

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

High Street Haul: Boots, New Look and Superdrug!

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great Easter! Today I have a haul post to share, because I went to Boots, New Look and Superdrug, and stuff just happened...

I actually only got a few things from Superdrug so I'll start with those. I got two Barry M nail polishes from Superdrug as the £3.99 ones are currently on offer for 2 for £6 and I wanted to get a more expensive product for free when I took advantage of the 3 for 2 offer in Boots.

As I've said before, I do have too many nail polishes - but in my defence these two are both very unique in my collection, as I don't think I had any yellows at all before I bought this one!

I picked up one of the new Quick Dry polishes in Stop the Clock, which is a really pretty and summery pastel yellow. I'm not sure if this will go that well with my skin tone but I love the colour so it's worth the risk. I'm also looking forward to seeing if it does dry quickly as it promises!

The other colour I got was Almond in the 'Gelly Hi-shine' range which Anna from Vivianna Does Makeup said was an amazing dupe for Nails Inc's Porchester Square in this blog post. I don't normally go for this kind of taupe shade but I thought this would be a great work-appropriate neutral which is something a bit different from the light, natural pinks I usually go for when I think of more formal nail looks. I've tried a few shades from the Gelly range and they've all been great, and I love Barry M polishes in general!

Moving on to Boots, I went in knowing I was going to get the L'oreal Brow Artist Plumper, as Renata from Speaking Beauty wrote that it was a great dupe for Benefit's Gimme Brow, which I've tried at a Benefit counter - it looked great, but it's too overpriced for me at £18.50. L'oreal's offering is £5.99, but I got it free with the 3 for 2 offer and it's the first eyebrow product I've ever bought! They had no tester for the darker shade but I tested the lighter one and knew it would be too light so I got the darker one - I have dark blonde hair so I just hope my eyebrows don't clash too much with my hair colour.

'Dark Brunette' swatched

I quite like it so far! It's a welcome new addition to my everyday makeup as it definitely makes my eyebrows look more polished. I had a look at the even cheaper (£3.99) Rimmel version of the eyebrow mascara type product (Brow This Way) but the brush was shorter and larger so I wasn't sure about it. I like the brush of the L'oreal one, it's quite long yet small and it makes me feel like I know what I'm doing when I do my brows haha.

Before and After

But seriously, this kind of brow product did seem best for me as an eyebrow product beginner because I just don't know how to fill in my brows with products like Benefit's Brow Zings and the mascara-like brush does it all in one go so it's pretty effortless. I also wasn't sure if my eyebrows even need much filling in as they're quite thick already!

I also went in thinking I was probably going to buy the No7 Beautifully Matte Foundation - I had a sample of it and quite liked it, but I also noticed that L'oreal had a new foundation aimed at oily skin - Infallible Matte Foundation, which at the time of posting is on offer for £6.99.
It looked intriguing - it promises to stay on for 24 hours which is a slightly pointless claim considering that no one keeps their foundation on for 24 hours! In the end I went for the No7 Foundation as it has SPF which is great for daytime wear (I can use my Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation for night time wear to avoid flashback in any flash photography) and looking on Makeupalley on my phone I could see that the No7 foundation had a higher rating/more positive reviews than the L'oreal one. I would still love to try that L'oreal foundation sometime though! I have never tried a foundation from either L'oreal or No7.

Side note: am I the only one who checks the overall rating of a product on Boots.com and Makeupalley whilst browsing in Boots or Superdrug?! I just don't want to take the risk of blindly buying a product without checking any reviews or ratings first, and I might even return a product unused if I did buy it blindly and then find that it has extremely negative reviews!

The final product I got in the 3 for 2 was the Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara, £7.99, which I've heard great things about on blogs. I've used it a few times now and I like it so far apart from that it's a little clumpy, but I'll let you know how I get on and probably do a full review soon!

I went to New Look just to see if they had any nice work appropriate pieces other than the usual white shirts and black trousers. I bought this dress with a contrast collar. It is a little short (I'm 5'9) so I'd probably wear it with tights. The only size 8 they had in this had foundation marks around the collar so I got 10% off and it's non-returnable. It is £19.99 normally and looking online it's currently on offer for £14.99 which is slightly annoying, but nevermind.

They also had a black version but no size 8s, I tried on the 6 and it was way too tight, so that made the decision for me on which colour to get!

Lastly I didn't intend to buy a bag and I haven't bought a new one in ages, but I fell in love with this one - it is such a classic style but in a gorgeous, unique colour, which I couldn't help but notice is very similar to the nail polish I bought earlier that day, Barry M's Almond.

The rose quilted design is very pretty and it's a good size - not too large or small, and I really like the adjustable strap. It was also very reasonably priced at £12.99!  I'm not sure if it goes that well with my new grey dress, but it doesn't clash either. Overall, everything about this bag is gorgeous, and I think it's suitable for finishing off both formal and casual outfits.

Thanks for reading!
Sabrina xx

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Nail Polish of the Week, and Some New Purchases!

Hello! So firstly - sorry for my absence. I've been pretty busy, having a work experience placement and then visiting my boyfriend. To make up for it, this post is practically two posts in one!

I wanted to share with you all the nail polish I've had on for the past week while I was at my boyfriend's. I don't think I've expressed my love for nail polish yet, but basically I own way too many (though thankfully I've been able to restrain myself from buying more for a while now.)

I wanted to share what I think is probably my all time favourite nail polish - Oh Cabana Boy by Orly.

This is the first and only polish I've tried from Orly but I'm in love with it.

I first heard about this when Fleur de Force raved about it on her blog here back in January 2012, and I bought it shortly after. So I've had this polish for three years now and have used it maybe five or six times, so I doubt I'll ever use up this huge bottle!

In fact, has anyone ever used up a nail polish? I feel like it's pretty unlikely, unless you love it and it's not too big! At 18ml, mine is a bit too big really, hence I've linked to the 5ml one!

Unfortunately, the little lid symbol with the number in (if you don't know what I'm talking about, check the packaging of your beauty products, they should have a lid symbol telling you how long it's good for, so mascara for example is good for 6 months and then you should chuck it) tells me this product stays good for 36 months, or three years. When I applied it I didn't notice that it had gone gloopy at all, and I hope it stays good for as long as possible!

Anyway, I absolutely love this colour. It is a bit like MAC Show Orchid Lipstick in nail polish form, as both are bright blue-toned fuchsia pinks, but I think Show Orchid is darker. It's unashamedly bright, definitely quite a 'night out' polish, and probably not ideal for work or school unfortunately.

This polish is slightly sheer in the first coat so 2-3 coats are needed to make it opaque. It applies nicely as the brush is fairly large and good for applying quickly.

It began to chip around the tips of my nails after 3 days of wear, so I topped it up but it then chipped more on day 5 or 6, so it's not the longest lasting polish, but it wasn't too bad either.

Also, this is a bit random but I do like the 'award winning' gripper cap. It feels safer and nicer than ordinary nail polish caps.

Moving on to new purchases, and I spotted Superdrug's own brand 'Simply Pure' range, aimed at sensitive skin, which basically contains none of the usual culprits that are considered harsh or irritating for the skin.

Some Exciting New Purchases

...or at least exciting for me!

So - oh dear. I caved.