Topshop, Superdrug and Yankee Candle Haul

Hi.. My name's Hannah and I have a problem.

I used all the willpower that I have inside of me and it was still no use in helping me to resist going for a little shop and buying lots of new things. I've been feeling a little down recently and the one thing that cheers me up better than anything else, yes, even better than Ben and Jerrys and a cup of tea ..is shopping! I had a little splurge on Topshop make up, picked up a few skin and hair care items in Superdrug, placed an online order with Yankee Direct, and also one with Models Own (eep!).

Topshop

 

I got myself two new nail varnishes (not that I need any more), one metallic shade 'Glimmer' (£6.00) and a matte shade 'Celestial' (£5.00). The shade 'Celestial' was chosen by my giveaway winner so I picked up one for her and liked the look of it so much that I got one for myself too. After much swatching and a handful of pink streaks down the back of my hand I decided on a bright pink matte lipstick in the shade 'All About Me' (£8.00). Finally, after eyeing up the 'Sunbeam' highlighter for about a year I saw Kayleigh's review on the 'Crescent Moon' one a couple of days ago and decided that one looked like a far nicer shade so changed my intentions and headed straight for 'Crescent Moon' (£10.00) instead. I held them side by side each other in the shop and there is quite a considerable colour difference between the two, and even the description on the packaging; 'Crescent Moon' is listed as 'white' and 'Sunbeam' is listed as 'yellow'.

Superdrug

I was disappointed when I got to Boots and found that their 3 for 2 offer isn't on anymore because I had a big long mental list of things that I wanted to get! However, I hadn't been browsing long when quite a scummy looking pregnant lady started causing a scene in the middle of the store. At first there was just a few raised voices and as I couldn't quite see where the commotion was coming from I just assumed it was a woman telling off her child.. but then the shouting continued and when I heard the line 'f**king touch me again and I'll kill you' I knew this was more than a mother and child incident! It continued to 'get your hands off me, I'm waiting until the police get here' and 'I'm pregnant, you've assaulted my baby' and because the voices were so, so loud the entire store had stopped what they were doing and were engrossed in watching this argument. Human nature prevailed and I peeked around the ailses to find the source of the trouble and it was infact between a woman and a security guard! I have no idea how this whole situation started off but I popped my head around the corner just in time to see her swing an almighty punch right in the security guard's face!! This is most certainly not something I am used to seeing at 1pm on a Friday in the middle of Boots! The security guard kept his cool the best he could while another guard ran to help the situation and the woman started angrily thrashing her arms around to get away and started pushing and kicking all of the surrounding stands! It really was quite an experience to see - Benefit and Clarins products flying through the air, lipsticks scattered everywhere, skin care smashing across the floor - wow! As curious as I was I thought it was best I scooted myself out of the store before it went any further as it was pretty certain she was about to be arrested and I didn't want to be one of those gawping members of the public that just stands and watches it all go down, so I quickly escaped and ran to Superdrug instead!

That was nothing to do with my shopping, I just wanted to tell the story! But incase you didn't know Superdrug is now running a 3 for 2 offer instead, only on cosmetics/make up though. I picked up three Nivea items; a raspberry lip butter (£1.25), a rich moisturiser to combat the dry skin that winter brings (£3.00), and their newly released moisturiser/primer that every girl and their grandma seems to be talking about recently (£3.99). I also picked up the VO5 moisture soak elixir (£4.25) that is regularly raved about by Lily - I did think it seemed a little pricey for what it is so I hope that it works! On a complete whim I picked up something I have never seen before and that is the Tresemme Liquid Gold Restorative Treatment (£3.45) and I only really got it because it was on offer and I liked the name 'liquid gold' *big sigh*.

Models Own

Following my ridiculous splurge during the Models Own 50% Summer Sale I have found a new favourite brand of nail varnish. I think they’re spot on with the quality and the price is great – plus their shade range seems to be never ending. It feels like only a week ago Models Own brought out the Mirrorball collection, a collection that didn’t really tempt me, but now they’ve brought out the Wonderland collection for winter and oh my. I. am. in. LOVE! The collection consists of five different types of glitter polishes and I wanted to exercise at least some restraint by not buying the entire set and only selecting two. After trawling the Internet for good quality swatches I settled for Jack Frost and Northern Lights. I am extremely happy with my choice and I just cannot stop staring at the beauty in a bottle. I don’t think that Northern Lights comes across as well as it could do in the pictures, but trust me it is beautiful! (£5.00 each).

Yankee Candle

Whilst in a spontaneously festive mood I ordered 11 Yankee Candle tarts from Yankee Direct which are predominately Christmas scented - it's never too early! The scents include 'Christmas Tree', 'Christmas Cookie', 'Christmas Cupcake', and 'Christmas Eve' - Christmas Eve has a smell? Really? I also picked up some others that are just generally seasonal appropriate: 'Cinnamon Stick', 'Spiced Orange', 'Sugared Apple'.. and the list goes on. (£0.90 - £1.10).

Random

I picked up Glamour magazine for £2.00 because of the free Nails Inc nail polishes that come with this months edition and these full size bottles retail at £11.00 a pop so it’s great deal, especially when Glamour is my fave mag to read anyway – it always makes me feel like a strong and independent woman after reading it. None of the four shades available particularly tempted me but in the end I went for ‘Glitter Glamour’ because you can’t go wrong with a glitter! I found this great post here: link that contains swatches of all four of the shades if you need help deciding. I also got two bars of the new Dairy Milk with Oreo because these seem to be like gold dust – I can’t find them anywhere! I don’t know why Tesco and Co-op don’t stock these. I found these bars for £1.00 each in Poundland.
 

 

My little student overdraft won't be able to withstand this addiction for much longer - get me to shopping rehab asap!

♥ 

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.

Enter now if you haven't already!

CLICK HERE FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN

♥

Current Benefit & Loccitane Magazine Freebies

Who loves a freebie? Everybody loves a freebie! So, just incase you hadn't already heard that there's two amazing magazine freebies this month... well now you know.

This month's InStyle are giving away a sample size of their well-known highlighter: Sunbeam.

InStyle is a magazine that I have bought in the past for a freebie and I remember not particularly enjoying the content of it. The same applied when I read it this time around while I was on the train home from uni on Friday night. I think that the reason it doesn't particularly interest me is because it's main focus is high end fashion; something that I cannot particularly relate to. High end make-up and skin care - yes. High end fashion - no. I know that high street stores take their inspirations from runway trends but I'd have more interest in reading about what's the latest in Topshop than what's new from the likes of Marc Jacobs or Gucci. Just a personal preference! Regardless, I purchased this from Wilkinsons for a whopping £3.80 just for the mini Sunbeam (measly 3ml) but I'm looking forward to using it for the first time tonight! InStyle is on offer for £2.50 in Tesco (So I've heard) but unfortunately my two local stores did not stock it. Also available: Cha Cha Tint and BeneTint.

This month's Marie Claire (£3.70) are giving away not one, but TWO freebies with their mag.

One is a limited edition Loccitane hand cream available in 4 different variations of Shea Butter and the second is a tube of Dove's intensive conditioning treatment. I've never read Marie Claire before but even if I have no interest in it then I still got myself a bargain of a 30ml hand cream and a 50ml conditioner. I picked up the last available copy in Tesco with the scent 'Date Bouquet' of the hand cream and scents also available are: Shea Butter, Rose Petals and Mango Flower. I absolutely love this hand cream and I am definitely going to purchase the full size when I run out; if you are interested in finding out more about L'occitane or picking up some for yourself you can go here: LINK.

Get yourselves out right now and get your November copies of InStyle and Marie Claire!

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

Enter now for your chance to win!

CLICK HERE

♥