February Shopping Haul

Starting to think this might become a regular monthly feature at the rate I'm going! normally I don't have very many shopping trips and I do far less random trips to the shops now I've changed jobs and I no longer work near shops so that's been helping and I'm spending less! Win Win! But in February one of my oldest friends was having a birthday party, so a small shopping trip was called for. Mostly in search of a dress or outfit to wear. But of course, I never managed to get an outfit. Instead I came back with other stuff. We hit Glasgow to get some bigger, better shops than usual, but still no success! But here's what I managed to sneak away with!

 

Philosophy - Pumpkin Pie and Apple Pie Shower Gels

 

 

First stop naturally was Boots. Where we all discovered these awesome bargains. I love Philosophy proudcts but very rarely will pay the high price that goes alongside them. However, Philosophy products on sale? I'm all over that. These were apparently from the Christmas range, and they were wait for it....£3.50 each. Holy Moly. And literally the apple pie one makes me hungry. Can't wait to get using these anyway! Yummy and a bargain, amazing.

 

Loreal Studio Line - Texturisng Spray and Heat Activated Wave Spray

 

I'd heard great reviews on this texturizing spray and thought I would have to try it on my curly hair days so I snapped it up. It was also buy 2 products for £4.50, so I found another one that took my fancy. Again, it's one to help with my curls, but I was curious and it states that drying my hair will still help keep waves and hopefully curls, so I need to get trying these both this weekend!

 

Forever 21 - Monochrome Scarf and Black Cardigan

 

 

Fairly standard for me. I needed another boring cardigan for work and I'm addicted to scarves. Pretty straight forward really. Plus the scarf is so soft it's loverly.

 

 

I also snapped up these accessories in Forever 21. Two funky hair bows and a chevron bracelet. I have a slgith thing for chevrons and I occasionally fancy bows in my hair at random times.  Not had a chance to use the bows as yet, annoyingly my job involves wearing a headset most of the time, so I'd probably end up knocking them around in my hair and looking silly. Save them for days off perhaps. I've worn the bracelet lots though so far, love it a lot. As far as I can remember the bracelet was £6.99 and the bows were around £4.

 

MAC - Black Grape Pressed Pigment and Amber Lights Eyeshadow

 

 

It's not a proper shopping trip to Glasgow without going into MAC really. I was only aiming to buy one more eyeshadow for my palette and somehow this pigment caught my eye. It's so shimmery. It spoke to me. Love them both. I have a feeling my MAC collection will just keep growing. Ahh well. What can you do?

 

Lush - Popcorn Lip Scrub and Celestial Moisturiser

 

 

In my aim for this year to wear lipstick more often, I thought I better start taking better care of my lips, so I headed right towards the lip scrubs when we hit Lush. And this one smells amazing, good thing you can eat it. I decided to go back to an 'old faithful' moisturiser I used to use a while ago that my skin seems to love. More than I would normally spend on a moisturiser, but my skin has been crying out for something decent, I thought it was worth a try going back to something I used to really like.

 

Shopping trip over. No outfit bought. I hit the internet shopping when I got home and found a dress though, so hooray!! but hey, it was a good day and I got some things I'm looking forward to using!

 

Empties - February 2014

So, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and get on with this empties malarkey! I love watching these videos on YouTube, so I thought I would do one every so often on the blog to show you guys what products I've been loving just that much that I've used them up totally! Let's face it, essentially this is a post about my rubbish. But hey, it might be interesting! Only a few products this month that were worth showing here, so I'll need to collect more for next time I guess! So, let's get a start on the products! Apologises in advance for the pictures, they were slightly rushed!

 

Lush - Snow Fairy Showergel/Shampoo

 

 

It's official, I am addicted to this stuff. Every time Christmas comes around, I hit Lush to treat myself to this beauty. I've been buying it for years anyway! It does take me a while to get through a bottle, mostly because I like to actually use this as a shampoo. It used to state on the bottle that it was a showergel/shampoo but there's no mention on this more recent packaging. But still, I love to use it on my hair. It makes it smell like candy floss. What's not to like? I find the scent lingers on my hair as well, more so than it does if I were to just use it as a shower gel anyhoo. Top product, more to come as soon as I can buy it again I would think!

 

Givenchy - Noir Couture Mascara Sample

 

 

I recently discovered this again, after getting it a Glossybox a while back and never using it. Just decided I would try and get it used up! It's got a weird wand with different sections on it and I found that this helped with volume on my lashes. It did begin to flake a little by the end of the day, but it did make my lashes look good all of my working day, so I stuck it out and got it used up. I would never pay the full price for this whatsoever though, so although it was a decent mascara, I have cheaper ones that do the same really.

 

Macadamia - Nourishing Leave in Cream

 

 

This is a leave in texturizing cream from macadamia. This means mostly that it smells insanely yummy. Like most macadamia products really! I used this on days I wasn't going to straighten my hair, so it would help give my curls texture and help them last a little longer. Since this ran out I've switched to a tigi product for my curls and they are both performing similarly so I'll maybe investigate if I can find a cheaper alternative when that runs out. I only tend to wear my hair curly on my 2 days off a week, so it will take me some time to get through my current product, but cheaper is what I'll look for next! Well, why not?

 

Urban Decay - All Nighter Make Up Setting Spray

 

 

Now, this product has taken me forever to use up. I honestly cannot remember when I bought it originally. It took me some time to start using it every day, I literally used to save it for nights out so it would help my makeup last all night, rather than using it to help it last all day as well. But hooray for youtubers using it in tutorials and I swapped to using it every day. I think it does help my make up last that bit longer, and I notice less creasing etc with my eyeshadows than I do when I've not used the spray. Really good product, I would buy again if I could afford to do so and now Urban Decay have lots of different versions of this spray so I'll need to investigate which one will suit me best first. At the moment I've done my usual and swapped to a cheaper alternative for now to see how it works for me. I couldn't really argue paying £3 for a similar product from MUA. Worth a shot I say!

 

That's it then! I hope this is actually interesting to you guys, please let me know if you want to see these posts more regularly and I'll do my best to remember and save my empty products to show off!

 

Birchbox February 2014 Review

 

Birchbox were quick off the mark this month, boxes out in great time, love receiving it quickly! This months theme was London Fashion Week and We Love Your Style and it's showcased a lot of products to help you look fab and survive a hectic week! As usual, birchbox were doing pretty great this month, so let's get onto the products!

 

Eyeko - Skinny Liquid Eyeliner £12

 

 

I've used this product before, but not in black, but olive green. I tested it out on dress down Friday just passed at my work, and even over a very strong silver eyeshadow it went on well and lasted all through my shift without budging. It did look a little worse for wear later in the evening, but otherwise, all good and I'm pretty impressed with this one.

 

Beauty Protector - Protect & Oil £16

 

 

This was pretty hard to photograph, but hey! It's a small bottle of hair oil. You put a few drops onto damp hair and it'll help smooth and protect against UV rays, heat and breakage. Not half bad. I love the smell of it. It's just lovely, and I can smell it all day too. It has made a difference to the feel of my hair as well, it seems a lot smoother. Only small thing that annoyed me about this was the fact that it doesn't have a pump (the full size might though I guess), which means that sometimes I was getting too much oil out from it, but otherwise, I do really like it.

 

Janjira - Argan Oil Concentrate Serum £48

 

 

Serums have become a stable in my morning skincare routine now, so I do actually like trying new ones. This one so far has been lovely feeling on my skin, it smells ok but I've yet to see if it'll make any difference in my skin. It's meant to be youth boosting and plump up the skin, this still remains to be seen! But either way, no chance would I be paying the full price for this. Holy moly.

 

Green & Blacks - Dark Chocolate £2.29

 

 

Nom Nom. That is all.

 

Gilchrist & Soames - The London Collection Shower Gel £13.75

 

 

Standard showergel sample again, but this one smells pretty yummy so they're almost forgiven. It wakes you up nicely in your morning shower and it has left my skin feeling really soft today, so wahey!

 

Leighton Denny - Nail Colour £11

 

 

Yey a nail polish! by now you all know I love me some nail polish. Just a tad. Honest. I'm not the biggest fan of Leighton Denny, but it's a nice dark silver colour and probably worth a shot. I feel like I already have a colour very like this in my stash though, so I'll have to compare and keep the best one! I'll let you know how I get on!

 

Now, I really can't wait until the march Birchbox. Apparently, Birchbox have partnered with Lulu Guinness for this one, so that's really exciting! Hopefully it'll look gorgeous as well! I'm looking forward to reviewing it anyway!

Glossybox January 2014 Review

 

New Year, new Glossybox? So apparently the box was redesigned this month...

 

 

 

so, yea. It's pretty much the same. The box was more shiny and there was a different ribbon. Bout all I noticed anyway! Nothing desperately exciting! This was meant to be my last Glossybox but since hearing we're meant to be getting a Ciate polish in the Valentine's one, I'm hanging on for February, then I need to start saving money so it really has to go! Plus they seem to charge you for them really quickly at the moment, like they charged for the Febraury box on the like the 5th, before I really had to chance to decide what I was going to do! But if I get a Ciate, that at least softens the blow I guess. Anyhoo, let's get onto January's box. Well, again, I just wasn't overly impressed. Let's see how.

 



 Yu-Be Moisturising Skin Cream: Full size £13.50

 

This, I've definatley tried in a box before and was never really bothered by it then either. It's meant to revamp your skin and protect it from the elements. It's trying to be the 8 hour cream I think. And it just doesn't get there. Handy size for the handbag to help with dry patches, but otherwise, I'm just not bothered!

 

Balance Me Super Toning Body Wash: Full Size £10.25

 

 

I dunno what it is with Glossybox and balance me products. But, generally, I've had enough of receiving them. They are always very floral smelling (bleurgh!) and they just don't entice me at all. I would never pay the full price for any of their products at all. I appreciate that their organic and natural products, but still! Give us something different rather than a shower gel I'll end up saving to take travelling!

 

Vintage Cosmetics Company Floral Tweezers : £8

 

 

Awww. Cute. But at the end of the day? It's just a pair of tweezers. They do work well, and they look pretty, but they do seem expensive for basic tweezers with a pattern.

 

Vaseline Essential Moisture Lotion: Full Size £4.99

 

 

Vaseline Lotion. I can easily pick this up in Boots. Which makes it less exciting really. This has pure oat extract in it, which means it smells rather odd. Not unpleasant but kinda odd. It does the job and is a good moisturiser, just not overly exciting I guess. If I'd wanted to try this I probably would have bought it already myself.

 

Anatomicals Puffy the Eye Bag Slayer Wake-Up Under Eye Patches: Full Size £6 for 3

 

 

Now, I do love me almost anything from Anatomicals. Mostly because of their names and the blurb on the products that makes you laugh. I've used these previously so I did actually appreciate getting more of the them. They generally revitalise your eye area and are cooling as well. Lovely stuff. So, all in all a bit of a miss mash this month, some good and some annoyingly familiar. I must be picky that I just want to see something I couldn't find down the shops, or to try something I might normally be able to afford and these days I feel Glossybox is going more high street and there's just less of that! Here's hoping the valentines box is good anyway, I'll aim to get the post up quicker this time I promise!