Illamasqua Sale Haul

I predict a lot of these posts popping up in the next few days! The Illamasqua sale is amazing. I literally could have bought triple what I did but I tried really really hard and restrained myself to just six beautiful items. Technically these could be considered my very first high end products and the best thing is, I got them with a drugstore price tag!

I never intended to take a photo of the box but when I saw how divine and luxurious this looked I couldn't resist! The delivery was really fast (3 working days) and I was sent an email telling me the exact hour that my beautiful goodies were due to arrive. It doesn't really get any better than that!

You'll have to excuse me in the mirror. I tried to get out of it to no avail. 

I have to immediately mention the utterly stunning packaging. I love the distinctive, signature shape of Illamasqua products and find the black and white colour scheme simple and beautiful. As you can see I decided on some stand out brights since originality is, afterall, what Illamasqua are famed for.

I chose:

Precision Ink in Havoc A beautiful aubergine/plum shade liquid liner
Powder Eyeshadow in Angst Classic matte red

Liquid Metal Palette in Art of Darkness Contains metallic cream pigments in Stoic, Solstice, Superior and Resolute

Illuminator in Slay Pearlescent white liquid highlighter

Nail Varnish in Caress Pastel blue

Nail Varnish in Blow Pastel yellow

Art of Darkness Palette 

Angst Powder Eyeshadow

These are such beautiful items and I can't wait to start reviewing them! I'm actually already wearing Caress and will be featuring it in tomorrows NOTD so stay tuned for that. I only paid £35 for all of this and got free delivery which is amazing since the palette alone was originally £34!

Has anything caught your eye in the Illamasqua Sale? What do you think to my picks?

Lauren

Boxing Day Sales Haul

I was feeling very brave on Boxing Day and decided to battle my way through the sea of people in such of some bargains! Sadly the only thing that I desperately wanted was the only thing I couldn't get - The Clinique Whole Lotta Colour set. Literally sold out EVERYWHERE. If you chat to me on Twitter you will have seen my pitiful moans about finding one. No success yet. Maybe there'll be a few about in January? Here's hoping. Here's what I did manage to find:

I picked up these ten W7 polishes from my new favourite nail varnish store - TKMaxx. I've had some fantastic luck in there recently, as you can see from this recent haul. I've never used W7 before but I just couldn't pass up this fantastic set of pastels for just £10! They are screaming SPRING at me and I can't wait for the daffodils that will be the backdrop to these ice cream shades. I can only hope that the formula will be up to scratch for me! Let me know if you've tried this brand before. Also, there's a massive amount of product in them, I've never seen 15ml nail polishes before! The only negative is that they don't come with names, only numbers. I love pretty names for products and I won't lie, I've spent some time fantasising about what I would name these. I won't tell you what I've named them because it's sad and embarrassing... how about Pina Colada for the yellow though?!

I also took a trip into one of my favourite shops - The Body Shop. They have an amazing selection of body butters in there for half price at the moment. I spent a while holding Cherry, Blueberry, Raspberry and Passion Fruit before I finally reasoned with myself that I should only take one. As you can see, I walked away with Passion Fruit but my heart is telling me that I'll have Raspberry by the end of the week. Oops. I adore the Green Apple shower gel and this is my second bottle. I recently drained my last one and it's going to be in my 2012 favourites. It's so fresh and not too sickly sweet. I'm gutted that it's been discontinued and I urge you to pick one up if you can find it, particularly for only £2 (or £1.80 with the loyalty card)! I'm in love with the Ginger Sparkle Christmas Range and recently reviewed quite a few pieces of it here. It was a no-brainer for me to grab this adorable little half price hand cream since my Soap and Glory Hand Food is on the way out. The three cosmetic bits were all in the sale AND on 3 for 2! I paid £4.05 (including my 10% discount) for two eye shadows in pretty green colours and a Delipscious Sheer Lip Colour in Pomegranate. I'd never heard of the Delipscious range before and I'm excited to try this one!

This Soap and Glory lip palette was £6 in the Boots sale and contains 6 pretty colours. I haven't tried any yet but I like the slightly brown/pink tones in some of these colours and I haven't got anything like them in my current collection. It also comes with a double ended applicator - I'm not sure about the quality of it yet but I'll let you know!

I've never shopped in Internacionale before but I decided to have a quick look on a whim and fell in love with these little pieces from the jewellery section. They were buy one get one half price (including sale stuff, yay!) so I picked these up for £3.49. Serious bargain. The cross is a lovely rose gold colour but I'm afraid the lighting was so bad it's impossible to tell from the picture. I wore the earrings yesterday and got a lot of compliments! People couldn't believe I'd got them for less than £2. They're not too heavy but look much more expensive than they are and I know I'm going to be wearing them a lot in the months to come.

So that's my little sales haul! Did you brave the shops on Boxing Day? Leave some links to show me what you picked up!

Lauren

The Body Shop Haul!

I love all things Body Shop. I'm a regular in my local store and I have a ridiculous amount of their products (I'll do a post on some at a later date) and love 99% of them.
So, seeing that there was a shopping event on yesterday with 20% off with a Love Your Body membership card (which I have! yay) free gifts (* indicates part of gift) AND my five pound voucher... It was time for a new haul :) I haven't used  any of these products yet (except the lip balm) so I can't review them just yet but I will in a few weeks when I've had some fair use out of them.

Everything came in these really cute Christmas bags. I love the colour and design. As if shopping needed to be any more fun.

The bigger bag at the back contains my free gifts (worth £20) the bag on the right is a pick up and go skin care regime for oily blemish-prone skin and the bag on the left is a collection for the green shimmer cubes eye shadows.

So here's everything! This was an absolutely ridiculous bargain. I paid £26 for over £80 worth of stuff. Who doesn't love a 70% off sale?

Satsuma Body Butter 50ml*

The Body Shop are renowned for their body butters, and for good reason! Always thick and luxurious with a gorgeous smell, this is just the ticket for some winter pampering. It soaks in quickly too which is great. I haven't opened this one yet but I regularly use the shea nut butter and I've smelt the satsuma one in store (beautiful.) This was a part of my free gift and I was really excited about it as its one of my favourite scents.

Coconut Shower Cream*

I love the smell of coconut. It always reminds me of soaking up the rays on holiday. I usually go for fruity/nutty scents over floral for skincare as it just makes me feel fresher. The coconut shower cream smells just as good as I thought it would and I'm really excited to use it but I need to get through my green apple shower gel first (which I picked up for just £2 a few weeks ago.) I just know this is going to end up in an empties post! 

Cucumber Cleansing Milk*

I'm really happy they included this in the gift because I'm need of a good cleanser and hopefully this will be able to remove stubborn liquid liner and the maybelline colour tattoo shadows. At the moment I'm having to go over my eyes two or three times to get them clean which is such a pain. I think that the cucumber will be quite gentle too which is great because I have super sensitive skin, particularly on my face. Also, the milk may help with my dryness which will be a plus. Reviews to come soon :)

Refining Shower Lily in Red*

I always use these on my body to as they're a great gentle exfoliator that you can use daily with all kinds of body washes. This is the first time I've had one from The Body Shop though so I look forward to see how long it stays together!

Green Shimmer Cubes

I already have these in the bronzes and the limited edition Lily Cole set (bought for £5 in the sale.)  They retail for £16 which does seem a little steep but the sheer amount of product you get in them and the quality of the product more than makes up for it. They can be used dry or wet for a more intense look and are great for building a smoky eye.

I decided to pick up the greens simply because I don't have many brighter colours in my collection and I would really like to start doing some jewel coloured looks for A/W particularly around Christmas! I really love the dark teal colour and I think this set is really going to enhance my eyes. I look forward to creating some looks to post on here.

Born Lippy Lip Balm in Passion Fruit

This smells divine. I picked it up for just £2 because of the fabulous fragrance and berry colour. It has a really light colour pay off, being a balm, but I really feel like it warms up my complexion a bit. It has a great smooth consistency and applies easily. Soon to become a Winter staple.

Tea Tree Skin Clearing Skincare Regime

I bought this as a set as a present for my boyfriend. He has quite oily, blemish prone skin and it's something of an embarrassment to him. It's really lowered his confidence so he was pretty happy with this spur of the moment gift. Skincare is certainly not just for girls! Hopefully he'll be diligent enough with it to actually have an effect. The whole lot retailed for £15 which is a bargain to be honest and I didn't hesitate to grab one.

Tea Tree Skin Clearing Wash

This has a great fresh scent and an androgynous look which is ideal for my purposes! I already catch him stealing my old witch hazel and tea tree exfoliating face wash from Boots (which I abandoned because it just felt too harsh) which smells similar so I'm sure he's going to love this.

Tea Tree Skin Clearing Lotion

This is a light moisturiser for day time which controls shine. Everyone should be moisturising, even with oily skin, so I'm glad they included this. Should help stave off those early wrinkles and it will be great to put some extra moisture back into the skin after shaving.

Tea Tree Skin Clearing Exfoliating Pads

This is such a great product for my lazy man. Pull out a pad give your face a scrub and you're done! I may be stealing a few of these too as my Soap and Glory facial exfoliator can sometimes feel a bit harsh so I only use it once or twice a fortnight. These pads will be great for a midweek skin-brightening! :)

Tea Blemish Fade Night Lotion

This a really hydrating lotion which claims to reduce the appearance of skin blemishes such as spots and discolouration (both problems that he has.) I'm not sure how well this will work but only time will tell. I will also steal this if I ever have a break out. I look forward to posting the results :) 

Natrulift Firming Day Cream*

I was given two sachets of this but I can't see myself using them. It claims to make skin feel firmer and more hydrated and reduce the harshness of wrinkles. I don't really have any wrinkles that I could properly test these on just yet so I may pass them on to a colleague or more mature relative that could let me know how they worked out. Or I may pop them in a giveaway later on! We'll see

Super Volume Mascara in Black

This retails for £10 and claims to give lots of volume, intense colour and all without clumping. I actually already have this mascara and really like it. I did find that the wand felt a little clumsy in my hands as it's much larger than the "spoon" brushes I've been using with my Maybelline Colossal mascaras. The formula is really nice and I don't notice any flaking during the day. I may keep this for when my other one runs out or put it in as part of a giveaway :)

Carbon Eye Definer in Black

This seems like a great little product as it includes a smudger on the opposite end of the pencil. This does claim to be water resistant and longwearing which will need to be put to the test. I tried this in the shop and it certainly doesn't seem as blendable as some other eye liner pencils but we'll see how it looks on me later! Retails at £9.

Eye Shadow Brush

Last but not least! I definitely needed another one of these. This will be the second eyeshadow brush from The Body Shop. I've actually always used my fingers and occasionally sponge applicators to apply make up so these are my first brushes full stop and I have not been disappointed. It's great to have a second one for complex eye looks when I just wouldn't have the time to clean a brush inbetween! This brush is usually £9 which is not bad for a high quality brush. It's worth noting that all of The Body Shop tools are completely animal product free which I do feel is important.

The Body Shop in general is a very eco-friendly store which works hard to produce fair trade items.

Phew! Okay, so that is my massive Body Shop haul! I hope you liked it. Did you get down to the shopping event yesterday? What did you pick up? Which Body Shop products do you recommend? Let me know :)


Lauren