Beauty Haul & Spending Ban

I guess I should really call this post ‘Beauty Haul Plus Gifts From Mum’ because it also includes some items my mum picked up for me whilst she was in France last week. Lucky me! I’ve picked these bits and bobs up over the past few weeks, some of which were at a great price.

Lush

You’re probably not surprised to see that I went back to Lush so soon after my last couple of purchases. Although I do really want to try some of the Christmas range, I decided to give the Halloween ones a go first as they won’t be in stores for as long.

The two items above are both Bubble Bars, my current obsession! On the left is Wizard, which is £3.25. This smells citrusy, but also a bit floral and leaves your bath water purple with plenty of bubbles. This is the most crumbly bubble bar I’ve tried, which I think is a bit of a negative, as I find I get more bubbles if I hold the bubble bar under the tap instead of crumbling it into the water as instructed. However, I do like this and the oils in it left my skin soft so I am considering picking up another before they leave stores. This will last me for 3 baths.

The second bar, is Sparkly Pumpkin, which is £3.50. This is definitely my favourite of the two! The scent is so perfect for the season, being warming with spices and a fruitiness to it too. Watch out for the glitter on the outside though – it gets everywhere! (see image below) However, once in the bath, you do not end up completely covered in the stuff as it is just an outside coating. I really loved the scent of this and how it lasted my entire bath and lingered on the skin after. This made more baths than Wizard and was very moisturising, but will also last for 3 baths. I will definitely be picking up another one of these, because it is divine and made for a very luxurious bathing experience.

 

The Body Shop and Boots

I think I shop at these two stores too much, as they always seem to be in my beauty hauls. This was a conservative shop for me, but there were a couple of bits I needed to grab.

First, I went to The Body Shop to finally get my hands on the Vitamin C Moisturiser SPF 30 (£13), which I’m sure you’re all probably sick of me saying how much I want to try it. I had run out of my previous moisturiser and had to wait for this to be restocked before I could get it. I really really want to love this product, but at the moment I’m in two minds about it. It’s nice and moisturising and I love the high SPF, but I think it’s irritating my skin. I can’t quite decide whether something in it just doesn’t agree with me in general, or if it just aggravates the areas where I am currently struggling with breakouts. I’ll have to get back to you on that.

I also got the Vitamin E Hydrating Toner (£8.50), because I had an O2 Priority code for £10 off a £20 spend, so figured I might as well grab something else. I spent probably half an hour trying to choose as I really didn’t need anything else, but I wasn’t using a toner at the time so went for this. I don’t really know much about toner, so have no idea if this is actually the right one for me, but it is really gentle and doesn’t irritate my skin at all. It helps to keep my skin moisturised too. I don’t think it helps with pore size though. You might be wondering, why I bought this then and the answer is because I thought I should. I’ve been getting into skincare recently, but I’m still really new to it and I know toner is a step that people say is very important. Any advice on this area is welcomed!

In Boots, I grabbed this Herbal Essences Dry Shampoo on recommendation from  Rachael from Helpless While Drying. I know I only recently reviewed, and raved, about the new Aussie one, but unfortunately, my can stopped working even though there’s still a lot of product in it. I’m not the only person to have a dodgy can issue with the Aussie ones, which is a shame because the product is otherwise really good! But I decided to get something else to give them chance to get the dodgy cans off the shelves. So onto the new one – when I got to the checkout, I found it was £1 off, so only £1.99, which is very affordable. It is less powdery than Batiste, but not as sticky-looking as Aussie initially appears. I’ve only used it a couple of times so far, but I do like it, although I was more impressed with Aussie. Still at £1.99 its a good stop gap.

Wilkinsons

I never usually shop in Wilkinsons, but I was feeling a bit sorry for myself after a trip to the dentist (I had two fillings), so decided whilst I was nearby I’d go check out the Essences stand to see what I was missing. The thing that really stood out to me from the display was the nail varnishes, which are £1.60 each. I grabbed the purple glitter and the suede blue after much deliberation, as I don’t have anything else in my collection like them. I then found the blue glitter on clearance for 50p, so snapped that up too! Overall, I have to say I am very impressed at the quality of these, especially considering the price tag. I like the glitters most, but the suede finish is nice too (it’s actually a matte). Below are two coats of the glitter varnishes, which go beautifully together and gave great coverage. They did need a top coat after, but that’s not something I’m going to complain about.

TK Maxx

Okay, so I know I mentioned this in my Glossybox post, but I couldn’t resist showing you all what it looks like now that I’ve had chance to use it. Say hello to Ciate Stiletto, the most amazing true green nail varnish I have ever laid my eyes upon. This beaut should sell for £9, but I picked it up in TK Maxx for £2.99! These nail varnishes are really great quality and they only had a couple of bottles in my local store, so if you’ve got one nearby its definitely worth a look! I opted only to get the one colour from the limited selection as I have got a lot of nail varnish recently, but I couldn’t resist this.

Treats from Mum

How amazing is my mum for picking these amazing products up for me? Super amazing that’s what.

First, we have the Vichy Normaderm Night Cream, which I had heard great reviews of and I can tell you now that I love it after just a week! This is £15.50 here, but my mum paid €14.99, so saved a couple of pound by getting it in France. This cream says it reduces excess sebum, reduces redness around blemishes, tightens pores and leaves skin feeling clean. Does it really do all that? Yup. After just two uses! I am new to night cream, so forgot to use it one night and noticed my skin was greasier the next morning. Plus I have noticed my pores look better and my blemishes don’t seem as bad in the mornings. I am completely sold on this product already, highly recommended!

Next up, is this Bioderma Micellar Water twin pack, which was an absolute steal! In the UK, you can pay £14.50 for one 500ml bottle. But in France, my mum found this on offer for two bottles for approximately £18. This still makes them a lot more expensive than other Micellar Waters, but I am looking forward to trying these out once my skin finally settles down.

Finally, is this gorgeous Bobbi Brown Lip Gloss in Rose. These have a RRP of £18.50, but at an outlet store in Portsmouth, mum picked this up for £12.75! She got this as she knew I’d been looking at getting one. The shade I had been looking at was called Rosy, which is more pigmented and not as glittery as this, however, this one looks great over the top of lipstick for a softer look and is very long wearing.

Okay so that’s everything I picked up! A lot of skin care and nail varnish in here, as seems to be my current habit. However, I am now putting myself on a spending ban for the next few months as I do not need any more products and I need to buy Christmas presents. Plus I’m a Decemeber baby so I have to not buy things in case people get them for me for bday/xmas. There will be some exceptions to this, for instance I want to get a couple of Lush bubble bars as a payday treat and something from the Black Milk Nightmare Before Christmas release next month, and of course anything that I actually run out of and need to replace, although I think I have enough to see me through. Oh and I’m off to Comic Con today, so I’m clearly going to spend money there, but that’s already been budgeted. This sounds like a big list of excuses doesn’t it? I’ll update you on my spending ban at some point.

What do you think of my haul and spending ban? Anything you want to buy at the moment? Also, let me know if you’d like to see a post about my current skincare routine!