Recent Beauty Buys

Unfortunately for me, my boyfriend happened to turn up whilst I was preparing this post and while I was balancing everything in this nice posed picture ready for the cover photo.. uh oh bad timing! I got a mini lecture about 'why have you been buying so much?' but honestly, it just looks a lot when you've put it all together in one place! I swear.. 

Plus some bits were freebies (read on to find out why), and there have been lots of great deals on, including the amazing Boots 3 for 2 offers and their £5 No7 vouchers - Yay! Also in my defense, what you may or may not know is that I successfully completely a February Spending Ban without one single tiny slip up! I was so proud of myself for managing to do this, and needless to say my first purchase for this haul was made on March 1st! This is 5 weeks of collective shopping all bundled into one place to share with you all and to make things a bit more manageable I've broken it down into sections: hair, nails, make up, skin care, bath & body and just one miscellaneous piece at the end that didn't belong anywhere else!

Hair

Batiste Dry Shampoo (Tropical)
Directions Semi-Permanent Hair Dye - Atlantic Blue
Tresemme Keratin Smooth Hair Mask

Dry shampoo is an essential purchase and in my next empties post I'll do you will see that there is at least 3 empty cans of dry shampoo in there so it was worth getting the jumbo size. If you follow me on Instagram you will be able to see from photo's here, here and here that I dyed the blonde ends of my hair blue with a semi-permanent dye from Directions. Anddd, finally a hair mask because.. I don't have enough already (haha such a joker), but I've been wanting to try this since it came out so I snapped it up while it was on a half price offer for £2-3 and I really love it, it works so well at giving my hair a nourishment boost and making it soft and smooth - it's a new favourite product. 

Nails

Bourjois '1 Second' Nail Varnish Remover

Rimmel Pro Nail Varnishes - Matte Finish and Super Wear Top Coat

Barry M 'Gelly Hi-Shine' Nail Varnishes - Lychee, Dragon and Pomegranate

Essie Nail Varnish - 'Fiji'
Topshop Nail Varnish - 'Marine Scene'

Woah, woah, woah.. nail varnish overload! I absolutely love the Bourjois '1 Second' Remover and I featured it in my March Favourites post, here. It has come in really handy at removing my nail varnish easily so that I can experiment with all of these new shades! I've been loving the matte nails trend at the moment so got myself one of Rimmel's matte top coats which is great quality and works really well. I think they only cost about £4 so it's well worth getting a bottle to have a play around with, and they had a '2 for £6' offer on all Rimmel Pro nail varnishes so I treated myself to an ultra shine top coat too. The new Barry M Gelly nails that everybody is loving: on a '2 for £6' deal in Superdrug I opted for a nude called 'Lychee' and a bright 'Barbie pink' called 'Dragon'. It turns out I should have tried them earlier after all because I am a woman in love so a few weeks later I returned and purchased 'Pomegranate'; a lovely berry red. My first ever Essie nail varnish was 'Fiji', a favourite of many bloggers and nude nail lovers. I like it, but I wasn't too crazy about the £8 pricetag, sorry Essie but I won't be rushing back for more of you! Last but not least, another Topshop nail varnish (my favourites) in the shade 'Marine Scene' which is a dark greeny blue shade and coincidentally matches my hair!

Make Up

Bourjois Rouge Edition Lipstick 'Shade #17'
Topshop Lipstick 'Firecracker'

Topshop Blush 'Prime Time'
Rimmel Scandaleyes Waterproof Khol Kajal '001 Black'

I'm not too make up crazy really, I'd rather splash my cash on some nice new nail varnishes (evident in the section above), or something to treat my hair too.. with the only exception being that I like a new lipstick every now and again. I got myself one of the new lipsticks from Bourjois in their 'Rouge Edition' line and I aaabsolutely love it, I featured it in my March Favourites because I cannot stop wearing it. I also got a lipstick from Topshop in the shade 'Firecracker' which is an amazing bold red/orange that I did a full post on here. I also thought I'd test the waters with a cream blush from Toppers in the shade 'Prime Time' - these are a 'cream to powder' formulation and I've not actually had chance to try this out yet. I also got one of the Scandaleyes eyeliners from Rimmel because I love my nude one and thought that a black would come in handy if I ever fancied a more dramatic eye make up look. Again, I've not tried this one out yet. 

Skincare

No7 Beautiful Skin Melting Gel Cleanser
Origins 'Modern Friction' Exfoliator
REN Pore Minimising Detox Mask

I've been trying to have a skincare overhaul recently in an attempt to make dramatic improvements to the condition of my skin; I want to be able to feel comfortable wearing no make up in the summer and on holiday! My skin also likes to make things hard for me being being a mixture of two extremes: really dry and really oily. With a £5.00 No7 voucher I got myself the No7 Melting Gel cleanser in an attempt to subdue my lust for the Clarins Melting Gel Cleanser. I've used this a couple of times and I just think that it's okay, I'm not blown away by it. I also received a mini facial from Origins at the beginning of March and was given some really good advice for my skin and what would work well for me. She told me that using my St Ives exfoliater every so often isn't enough for my skin and to prevent further blemishes I need to use a good quality exfoliater twice a week. Her amazing sales techniques left me walking away £31 lighter and with a tube of 'Modern Friction' in my bag. I do love it so a full review will follow soon. Also from my facial I bagged myself samples of: 'Clear Improvements' mask, 'Out of Trouble' mask, 'Perfect World' serum, and 'Gin Zing' eye cream - unfortunately I love them all and want them all. Sorry bank balance! Over the past month I've been trialing the REN Glycolactic Radiance Renewal mask and love it to pieces. I've heard equally amazing things about the Pore Minimising mask too so ordered myself one whilst Look Fantastic had 20% off REN. This only arrived yesterday so I've not had chance to use it yet - I will do a review if I like it though.

Bath and Body

Soap and Glory 'Sugar Crush' Body Wash
The Body Shop Body Butter - Raspberry

Okay, okay we're nearly finished. I reviewed the Sugar Crush in full here, and I also featured it in my 'March Favourites' post here, and my Weekend Pamper post here too so it is definitely a no regrets purchase and is well loved. However, I am sick of the sight of it on my blog now after it being in so many posts! Getting a body butter from The Body Shop for £4.50 instead of £13.00 is a crazy bargain! Nobody can turn that down. There was a special offer on a little while ago (I think it's still on now) for certain 'scents' of the body butters to be knocked down to just £5.00, and then with a Love Your Body card a further 10% discounted too. I love the body butters from The Body Shop and I'm building up quite a stash on them. They all smell super yummy, the raspberry one is no exception, and they do an amazing job at moisturising the skin. There's nothing better to complete a perfect pamper than with a layer of one of these!

Lush:

A little trip to Lush happened last week for some bath time treats. (It wasn't last week at all, you can see from the stickers I bought these on the 13th March!). Impressively, even with Lush's prices creeping up and up, all of these only came to £8.50 because the 'Catastrophe Cosmetic' Fresh Face Mask was a freebie after trading in 5 empty black pots. You can see my post on the recycling scheme here. While I was there I also got a 'You've Been Mangoed' Bath Melt and a 'Butter Ball' Bath Ballistic, both of which I haven't had chance to try yet. I have used the 'Fluffy Egg' Bath Ballistic from the Easter stock but I wasn't too impressed with it. Almost £3 and all it did was dye my water pink? It didn't create much of a fragrance (it is supposed to smell like candyfloss/bubblegum/Snow Fairy) but whatever mild fragrance it did create didn't linger for long; just a little bit of a let down!

Miscellaneous

Glamour Magazine | Freebie: Percy and Reed 'No Oil, Oil'

I didn't know where else to put this one, but I bought a Glamour magazine for a measly £2 at the train station the other week, giving myself some quality entertainment to pass the journey (I also feel like an empowered female as Glamour is extremely pro girl power) and I'm a sucker for a little freebie so enjoyed the added bonus of a Percy & Reed hair oil too. It's got a funny smell but it does make my hair lovely and soft, not bad for a freebie!

Phew, I'm definitely all shopped out now!

Have you been taking advantage of the '3 for 2' offers throughout Boots at the moment?

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