Collective Beauty Haul

The Body Shop
Strawberry Body Butter | £13.00

Mango Body Butter | £13.00

Vitamin E Sink In Moisture Mask | £12.00

All-in-One BB Cream | £12.00

During a big sale at The Body Shop with some crazy deals I ended up getting myself 3 of these products (not the BB Cream) for only £15 instead of £38 - What a saving! I love The Body Shop for their deals and I try to avoid buying anything until they have one of their amazing offers on so that I can stock up on things from my wishlist and take advantage of the savings like I have done here. 

Speaking of sales.. this little bundle right here I bought just yesterday while there was a flash 40% off the whole store! The offer is still on now (online too) so go take advantage! The mango scent is my absolute favourite and I just couldn't resist getting this shower gel and body scrub to wash myself in all of it's zesty fruity-ness. I also plan to do a full post on this whole range sometime soon.

Mango Body Scrub | £7.50
Mango Shower Gel | £4.00
Vitamin E Toner | £8.00

Boots

Lee Stafford Argan Oil Conditioner | £10.99

ArGh. £11 on a drugstore conditioner? Yikes! Someone was feeling flush. Yes it's pricey, but yes it was worth it. This conditioner was part of my 'Happy Healthy Hair' post and I pair it with the Hair Growth shampoo (also from Lee Stafford) - They're the perfect pair for stimulating growth and nourishing dry ends.

Superdrug

MUA Undress Me Too Eyeshadow Palette | £4.00

MUA Power Pouts Lipstick - 'Runway' and 'Broken Hearted' | £3.00 each

VO5 Plump It Up Dry Backcomb Spray | £2.44

A little Superdrug spree while cosmetics are '3 for 2' led me to the MUA stands to pick up some of their relatively recent releases. I adore their 'Undressed' palette and use it almost daily so I thought I'd add some variety to my eye life and get the 'Undress Me Too' - it's a bargain for only £4 too! These 'Power Pouts' are from the same concept as Clinique Chubby Sticks and Revlon Balm Stains, but on a budget. I've not actually tried them out at all yet but I'll review them in full if they're worth it!

Next

Summer Heat EDT 30ml | £6.00

Summer Dreams EDT 10ml | £3.50

These perfumes were my 'treat to myself' after I'd finished my first exam because I'd been revising my little bum off and deserved something to make me smile! Plus, it was a hot sunny day and I was craving a summer fragrance! I'm no professional in scent descriptions but.. 'Summer Heat' is a warm scent as it's citrus based with a strong hint of cinnamon, and 'Summer Dreams' is a lot more fresh and light. What I love about Summer Dreams is that it's a small 10ml bottle but still with a spritzer spray, rather than a rollerball (it's the simple things).

Other: Feel Unique, Look Fantastic and Tesco

The Original Tangle Teezer | £10.20 (10% off - £9.18)

REN ClearCalm 3 Clarifying Clay Cleanser | £16.20

Garnier Summerbody Gradual Tan | £5.00 (half price - £2.50)

I was sucked into the Tangle Teezer hype and LOVE it; the best hair brush I've ever used for taming my mop of thick hair, especially when it's wet - and just look at the colours of it! The REN Clarifying Clay Cleanser is also a firm favourite and an absolute love that I'm sure you'll hear a lot more about from me in the future, and I've already raved indepth about this Garnier tan (it was in my April Favourites and you can read my review on it here).

So, that's what I've been splashing my cash on recently in the beauty world. I think I'm going to chill out a little bit now on the shopping front until it comes to holiday preparation purchases - less than 5 weeks to go until I'm on that beach!

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Collective January Beauty Haul | Feel Unique, ASOS, Topshop and More..

|| Instagram: Hannahripley1

Hi there chums! Happy February! I thought I'd start off this month by showing you the accumulative beauty purchases from January. As a self-professed shopoholic I would say that what I've bought isn't tooo bad for a whole month of shopping as I'm usually a lot less controlled than this. I have also decided that I am going to choose February, the shortest month of the year, to put myself on a month long spending ban because if I can't do it for 28 days then I'll never be able to do it at all. Expect this post to be just one great big sneak peek of a lot of my upcoming posts this month! 

Feel Unique

This online splurge made just before Feel Unique's winter sale ended was probably the priciest order/purchase from this month as it contains a couple of high end products and even though they were in the sale they still cost an arm and a leg. The Caudalie Beauty Elixir (£10.35 £9.90) was a repurchase, the Redken Smooth Lock treatment (£17.65 £14.21) is to go with the shampoo and conditioner from the same range that I use and love, the Redken Radiant-10 treatment spray (£22.10 £9.99) was one that I tried a sample size of months and months ago but just never got round to buying the full size until I saw it in the sale for less than half price, and the Burts Bees mango lip balm (£2.99) is something new for me but I'd heard great things and it was definitely love at first use.

ASOS

Models Own Freak Out - £5.00. I did a post on this glitter topcoat from Models Own Mirrorball collection a couple of days ago and it seemed to go down quite well. The colour that I'm wearing underneath is Models Own 'Feeling Blue' and you can see my full post on this nail varnish here: LINK.

Superdrug

I'm sure most people are aware of Superdrug's offer on their dry shampoo - buy one get two free! It's a great deal and one that I just couldn't turn down, especially when one can is only £1.99! While I was there I also picked up of the St. Ives facial scrubs to try out because these were on offer for half price and also only cost £1.99. The next time I went into Superdrug I got myself a little bargain with their Face Form Palette (£10.00) because I had enough points on my loyalty card to pay for it with points! Woo! This palette contains 3 pressed powders to create the perfect sculpted face (contour, highlighter and blush). I've not had much of a play with this yet but once I have I'll be sure to review it in full.

Boots

Well, this was inevitable! Rimmel's new release of their super pigmented and long lasting lip lacquers, cleverly named 'Apocalips', have taken the beauty world by storm and have only been out for just over a week. These cost £5.99 each and I originally picked up the shades Big Bang, Apocalyptic and Stellar as part of a 3 for 2 offer across all of Rimmel products in Boots, and loved them so much that I ended up going back for a 4th colour and picked up Nova! (I still want Celestial too). I originally intended to review these today but I woke up with a pretty little spot on my top lip - such annoying timing!! No one wants to see a lip swatch that includes a spot do they (haha!) so now I'm going to attack it with lotions and potions and post the review in a few days time when the spot has hopefully cleared off. 

Primark

I picked up these make-up bags because they were cheap and cheerful and will always come in handy. The studded turquoise one was in the sale for only £1.00 and the floral one cost £3.00. These nail pens look extremely similar to ones recently brought out by Topshop that cost £6.50 each, whereas these Primark dupes cost just £2.00 for a pair! I'm not one for creative nail art because my hand isn't very steady, but as a beginner it was worth the £2 just to be able to have a little experiment. One pen is black and the other is white, and both of them have a pen and a brush applicator, plus a little pot of gems too - bargain. This raspberry and papaya candle was only £2.00 and smells amazing!

Topshop

Topshop sale is still going on at the moment but I only managed to bag myself some accessories. Do tights count as accessories? These tights originally cost £10.00 a pair which I think is ridiculous, but they were down to just £2 in the sale, and I get student discount too which made them only £1.80. I found this bracelet/ring in the tangled up sale jewellery and I am pretty fond of it! I've never seen anybody with it before and it was only £2 too. As usual I was drawn over to the rainbow of a make-up stand and the colours I chose definitely reflect that I am pining for summer now! I got a velvet finish peachy pink lipstick 'Macaroon' (£8) and a similar shade nail varnish 'Flamingo Coral' (£5).

Lush

Last but not least, I nipped into Lush yesterday on my way to the train station to get a bath bomb for my weekend pamper and I walked out with Fizz Banger, a toffee apple scented bath ballistic that apparently fizzes and pops as it spins around the bath - I can't wait to use this tonight! (£3.20).

Clinique Bonus Time & Beauty Haul

 

Ummm.. I went shopping. Again. SOMEBODY RESTRAIN ME.

My shopping addict hardly ever involves clothes and never really has; I have too basic of a fashion sense to ever have an obsession with buying new clothes, but what I do get carried away with is buying myself new products and cosmetics ..hence the appropriate blog name of 'Cosmetic Crave'. Unfortunately for my bank balance and my ever failing will power I do need to walk through the town centre of Preston to get to and from university and my house, and last Wednesday afternoon when I had some free time I managed to stray from my usual direct 'head down - don't even look in the windows' route home to a more 'Oooh Debenhams, ooo Lush, ooo Boots, ooo The Body Shop' route home instead!!

 

In my defence, all purchases are justified because I got lot's of things for free. Yep, free things make spending lots perfectly alright. Clinique are currently running their 'Bonus Time' which I only found out about because of my friend - I didn't receive any promotional e-mails, etc about this like I am usually bombarded with, Boots are running a '3 for 2' offer, and I had a voucher on the bottom of receipt for The Body Shop of '£10 off when spending £25' ..all of these offers I had available to me definitely warrented a little shopping spree.

It took me a very long time to get text onto my picture and I ended up distorting the quality too (editing novice!) - What do people normally use to edit text onto an image and keep the quality?

Here is what I picked up from Clinique @ Debenhams with my sights set on a free gift bag. The contents of the gift bag total £90 and it is received on purchase of two items with one being skincare or when spending over £45 on make-up alone. I treated myself to their 'Even Better' foundation not that long ago and loved it to death so repurchased. Even Better is a high coverage foundation for all skin types and costs £23 for 30ml which is reasonable priced for the exceptional quality. To qualify for the free gift I needed for spend another £22 on make-up or get a skin care product and after much consultation with a sales assistant I ended up with a £17 bottle of toner from their anti-blemish solutions range which I am looking forward to trying out. Spending £40 on two items and receiving 7 good quality high end items for free seems reasonable to me, especially as the foundation is something I would have bought regardless if the 'Bonus Time' offer was on or not.

I just know that with a dispenser like this I'll spill this everywhere!

The free gift is made up of: 1) a make-up bag, 2) 50ml Liquid Facial Mild Soap from the three step range, 3) 50ml Take The Day Off make-up remover solution, 4) 7ml All About Eyes eye cream, 5) 3.5ml High Impact mascara, 6) Chubby Stick in 04 Mega Melon, 7) Blush Powder in 07 Sunset Glow. Have you been and taken advantage of this offer yet?

 

Next I went to Boots to take advantage of their '3 for 2' offer on all make-up, beauty and hair products at the moment. I knew that I wanted the Core Collection of the Real Techniques brushes and also wanted the Stippling Brush too but unfortunately it wasn't stocked in my local Boots. The Core Collection cost £21.99 and without the Stippling Brush available I was at a bit of a loss of what else to get! In the end I got another Rimmel Lasting Finish lipstick as I think they're amazing and they cost less than a fiver. I got it in a classic bright red shade (164 Tantrum). My third product and the freebie of the bunch was one of Rimmel's newly released products: Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Eyeliner in 005 Nude (normally £3.99).

 



 

Finnnaaallllyyyyyy.. Sorry this post is so long! I'll keep it brief with what I got from The Body Shop but I love making a healthy saving when shopping - this should have totalled £26 but I paid £9.40 - Kerching! I had a voucher on the bottom of a previous receipt '£10 off when spending £25' so that knocked the total down to £16 straight away, and then I have a 'Love Your Body' Card which gives you 10% off everything you buy, giving me a £1.60 discount ontop of that and the LYB also gives you a gift of £5 off one transaction during your birthday month (it isn't actually this month but the silly lady wrote '10' instead of '11' when I told her November so I had to claim it this month instead), so that took it down to £9.40 - Wow. When all I really wanted was the Mango Body Mist which costs £7.50 alone it was worth spending an extra £1.90 for a bundle of extra stuff.

 

Camomile Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover £3.00 | Cocoa Butter Hand & Body Lotion £3.00 | Mango Body Mist £7.50 | Cucumber Freshening Water (Toner) £2.00 | Mango Lip Butter £4.00 | Papaya Body Butter £13.00 £6.50.

 

 Ten points to the first person who can spot the difference between the two pictures below!

Well done if you spotted it. The difference was one contains a Witch BB Cream and the other doesn't. If it helps I didn't actually buy this I won it in a giveaway and postie dropped it off while I was in the middle of snapping away so I threw that in the picture too.

 

If you see me posting any more beauty buys between now and the end of November no matter what you must never, ever read my blog again in protest of my silly ways because I DO NOT need anything else for a long time. When my boyfriend saw my tweet about how much I'd just spent he actually text me and told me I needed to take it all back or I won't be able to afford food for the rest of the year.. but thankfully for me cosmetics can't be returned in this country due to hygiene rules.. Sooo looks like I'm keeping it all! Tehe.

 

And don't forget that I am currently running a celebratory 200 followers GIVEAWAY that ends at the end of this month.

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♥

Getting Sucked In By '3 for 2' Offers!

Aaah I am such a bad shopper! I am one of those super gullible people who walks into a shop and only wants and needs just one item, but spots a big shiny '3 for 2' sign and suddenly has to make a 30 minute decision on which three products I neeeed to have. Hannah, just pick up the one you wanted a walk away! They're not doing you any favours, they're not saving you money, they're making you spend more than you originally intended to. 

The two shops that yesterday I fell victim to this '3 for 2' trap in were Boots and The Body Shop. I went into Boots looking for Soap & Glory's 'Scrub Your Nose In It' because I'd heard good things about it and was in need of a new exfoliater for my face. The packaging of Soap & Glory is to die for and this scrub claims to 'help refine large pores and prevent blemishes, leaving skin looking brighter and more radiant'. Sounds fab and I can't wait to use it. So I could have just walked to the till with this in my hand, spent £7.50 and then walked out of the shop. But noooo, I had to spot a miniature 'Hand Food' infront of me, and the part of me that melts whenever I see anything mini thought 'you need that mini Hand Food in your life'. However, the '3 for 2' sign pointed out that miniatures and sachets were not included in this deal. So what did I do? ..Picked up the full size bottle of Hand Food! Logic? No. Then I needed a 3rd item to complete the deal but there was quite limited stock in this branch of Boots and I'm pretty stocked up for body lotions and washes at the moment so it was a difficult decision choosing this 3rd product. In the end I chose a second bottle of Hand Food, which doesn't make sense because I only wanted the Hand Food in the first place because the miniature tube was cute!

So, I walked away with 2 'Hand Foods' and 1 'Scrub Your Nose In It' for £12.50, instead of just one 'Scrub Your Nose In It' for £7.50. Not the end of the world of course, but a little bit unnecessary.

Unfortunately, I was a sucker for the very same trap just 5 minutes later when I walked a few doors down to The Body Shop. I wasn't going to fall for it again but the I was the only customer in so got the sales assistant's full attention and she was extremely persuasive. I'm forever falling for the 'Oh I use this and it's really great' line that they always seem to use. The one thing that I was after was the 'Tea Tree Pore Minimiser' (£7.50 for 30ml) as my teeny sample of Benefit's The Pore-fessional is coming to an end and the price tag is a bit too high for me to be purchasing the full size and I have heard that this Tea Tree Pore Minimiser is quite a similar product, and it's also targeted for blemished skin which is a bonus for me and my pesky spots. This was it, this was all that I wanted, I was SO close to walking away and paying, but then the lovely sales assistant starting asking me about my skin type and suggesting all these products that would suit me and my oily skin - damn her for making them sound so amazing! She tipped me over edge into buying the Seaweed Mattifying Day Cream (£9.00 for 50ml) which has actually caught my eye a few times in the past, but she told me all about how it's great at keeping her oil at bay underneath foundation so I went for it. And then here I am again, standing with 2 products in my hands knowing that I can have a 3rd one for free and the decision is always so hard! I was swaying between the Vitamin C Skin Reviver (£13.00 for 30ml) or the Tea Tree Blemish Fade Night Lotion (£8.00 for 30ml) and as my skin is especially blemished at the moment I opted for the Tea Tree product.

Ah, how did this happen to me! This would have totalled £24.50 but I saved £7.50 because of the '3 for 2' offer (isn't it funny that the one thing I wanted was actually the one I got free), and I also have a 'Love Your Body' Card which saved me 10% too, so in total I saved £9.20 (not bad) and the total came to £15.30. (She also threw a 1ml sample of Tea Tree Oil and a voucher for £10 off my next purchase when I spend more than £25). So, I ended up paying double what I intended to but I got quite a good bargain and some lovely new products that I can't wait to try, fingers crossed that they work and make a difference to my skin!

Tell me I'm not the only one who gets needlessly sucked in like this?!

♥