A little Shopping Trip

Sunday already, where does time go?
Yesterday I went shopping with my lovely mummy and did a little late sales shopping. Now that it's getting towards the end of January, the sales have really taken it up a notch so it's worth having a little look around for some good bargains.

We took a trip to the Swindon Designer Outlet where I picked up these goodies.
Now, I have been sending pleading emails to The Body Shop for a long time now, begging them to bring back the lychee blossom range properly to all of the stores but with no success, so I was really excited to find that they had the shower gel in the outlet shop and grabbed a couple. They also had a multi item discount on which meant that I only paid £4.10 for them both :)
I manage to be pretty restrained in the Yankee Candle Outlet and just picked up these two Christmas Cookie tarts for 45p a piece. I was hoping to find a small jar of Candy Cane Lane whilst they were only £2.99 but clearly everyone else had the same idea because they were sold out already.
I've never been a tea drinker despite being overly British in a lot of ways, however, I really enjoy the Whittard's fruit teas. I hadn't tried this flavour until seeing it sampled in the shop. It is delicious! Mango and lychee are two of my favourite flavours and this is like a match made in heaven. Light, fruity and uplifting. I think it will be great cold in the summer too with lots of ice and fruit :)
Finally, Thorntons! Two 490g boxes of Continentals for £10 so we got one each to satisfy the chocolate cravings ;)

I also picked up a pretty floral dress for work and a lovely soft black jumper sporting a gold and purple fox from French Connection and a pair of black ankle boots from M&S. I have to say a big thank you to mum for the boots and the dress as she spoilt me with those.

My final buy, I am embarrassed to admit, was an Ian Somerhalder 2015 calender...I feel like such a fan girl but he's just so pretty that I couldn't resist :P Please tell me I'm not the only one?!?

So that's my little haul from this weekend. Have you been sales shopping? What have you bought? Do you also have a rather guilty crush on Ian Somerhalder?!?...it can't just be me!

Annie xx

Seventeen Va Va Voom Mascara

Finding a new mascara is something I find a bit of a drag. They all promise so much and to be honest, I find that half of them just don't deliver so lately when I ran out of the Soap and Glory Thick and Fast (which does work well by the way!) I asked one of the girls I worked with what she would recommend for under £10 and just went with it. She recommended the Seventeen Va Va Voom offering for just £6.29, and you know what? I think it may just be the best mascara I've ever tried!

Seventeen cosmetics have always been consistently good in my experience so why I hadn't thought to try one of their mascaras before I don't know. I think it may have been the beauty snob inside me wanting to be using Benefit or Estee Lauder. Va Va Voom is a volume mascara that is designed to lift, give definition and give an almost false lash effect. I went for the shade blackest black and with a couple of coats I definitely agree that it lives up to its claims and have actually been asked several times whether I'm wearing false lashes.

The brush size is pretty good; nice and big without being too clumsy and the tapered end makes it easy to pick out shorter lashes. It picks up a good amount of product without having to wipe loads away before using it and what I love most is that I have no trouble at all with clumps with this mascara! I don't know whether it's the brush or the formula but it is just so perfectly non-clumpy!
I can't make up my mind about the packaging. It's hardly the sleek tube of a high end offering, but it is pretty funky and I like the black and white, and to be honest, I do my mascara in private (no one wants to see the mouth half open mascara face) and this only lives in my drawers anyway so who cares that it isn't gold or curved in an appealing manner!

For £6.29 you can't go wrong and I urge you to give the Va Va Voom mascara a chance when you next run out. I'm a convert.
Have you tried this before? What did you think? Which mascara do you always repurchase?
Annie xx

The Naughty Body Shop Haul!

I'm sure you've all heard about the Body Shop 40% discount code thats been floating around lately, simply enter EXTRATREAT online or mention the code 14668 instore for 40% everything-sale items included.
Of course I took full advantage and used this as a chance to stock up on all my favourites and the things I've been wanting to try. Needless to say, my basket ended up pretty full!
So what did I buy?

1. Rainforest Balance Shampoo- I've wanted to try this for a while because whilst I love Lush products I just haven't found the right shampoo for me so I thought I'd branch out and try a different range of cruelty free shampoos. This smells amazing and so far I really like it.
2. Cucumber Cleansing Milk- I grabbed this when I saw it reduced to £2 because the cucumber cleansers are known for being totally amazing. Really calming and soothing on the skin yet still effective. Well worth stocking up on.
3. Foundation Brush- If there was one thing I wish Lush sold its makeup brushes, I think they'd go down so well with customers who want something cruelty free and high quality but as we don't, Body Shop score top marks with me for theirs because they are cruelty free, super soft and very effective. One day I will own them all :p
4. Spiced Vanilla Hand Cream- I popped this Christmas range hand cream in my basket for £1 because I've previously tried the Candied Ginger one and got hooked on the smell and feel. I'm obsessed with hand cream so I've stashed it away for now whilst I finish off the L'occitane one I'm enjoying at the moment.
5. Ginger Shimmer Lip Balm- Another Christmas product found super cheap in the sale! Lip Balm is another addiction of mine and I always have at least 3 on the go. At the moment its Lush Honey Trap, Body Shop Chocomania and now this one too. The domed shape makes it really quick and easy to use and I really like how it looks too!
6. Facial Massager- Sorry Body Shop, but this is another product bought just because Lush don't make one. Facial massagers are great for stimulating blood flow around the face and really encouraging products to sink deeper into the skin maximising their effects. I use this in the evening wth my Lush Full of Grace serum bar and it feels totally amazing!
7. Seaweed Mattifying Moisture Lotion- I received a couple of sample pots of this lotion earlier in the year and haven't looked back since. I might even go as far as saying it is my perfect moisturiser. Its light, smells lovely and sinks in fast leaving skin feeling plumped, hydrated and soft without looking oily or clogging pores.
8. Vanilla Eau De Toilette- Total impulse buy here! Vanilla is one of my favourite scents. Soft, sweet and very comforting. As soon as I sniffed this it fell into my basket ready to be kept in my handbag for mid-day top ups. The scent is actually incredibly similar to the scented candles I burn constantly so maybe thats why I find it so cosy.
9. Vitamin C Energising Face Spritz- Another product I've wanted for a while. I was shown this just before going to Tenerife in February and haven't been able to get it out of my head. A quick spray every morning feeds my face and wakes me up ready to get going. The smell is also unbelievably good; zesty and fresh.

Phew, word heavy post! Thats my guilty haul. I also picked up the Pomegranate Day Cream for my mum and a Love Your Body card so 11 items all together. And the over all cost? £47 unbelievable right? I was more than happy with that.

Did you take advantage of the 40% offer? What did you buy? If you wrote a haul post then I'd love to see :)

Annie xx

Mini Illamasqua Haul

Recently Illamasqua did an amazing 50% discount promotion through their twitter on everything on their site. Muy emocionante, si?
I'm trying my best to be really good with not spending on cosmetics at the moment, but having a rather fabulous friend who happens to also get 20% on Illamasqua makeup anyway I thought it would be rude not to buy a few bits and take advantage of the 70% off ;)

I think I managed to be pretty restrained concidering! There were a couple more bits that I would have liked to buy but due to the 50% offer being worldwide they were out of stock by the time we made our order so I just got the Gleam in Aurora and nail varnishes in Untold and Scarce. I've got photos taken ready to review all three and I must say I love them all, especially Gleam :)
So the total price for the three? At full price they would have come to £47 but with the discount they cost just £14.10- thats less than one full priced nail varnish! Bargain!

Did you take advantage of the Illamasqua sale? What did you get?
Annie xx

TK Maxx Mini Splurge

Hello,
Isn't the weather today amazing? This morning was spent eating cake and drinking squash out in the sunshine, it was bliss. This afternoon my mum and I decided to go and take a look around TK Maxx. I've been looking for a new face powder for a while now, and they usually have some great offers on beauty products. I couldn't help myself and ended up picking up some amazing deals. Here's what I got:

 I love summer shoes and these Blowfish sandals will be perfect for spring and summer. I like how they have great ankle support/ These cost me £10 as apposed to the £40RRP. (In a separate photo because I'm superstitious so couldn't put new shoes on the table.)

I was so excited to find all four of these beauties. As you can see, I found a pressed powder (the very same Calvin Klein one I've been eyeing up online only much cheaper). I also picked up a Calvin Klein liquid eyeliner because my beloved French Connection one got all clogged up and dry. The Tri-pentox eye serum is a seriously exciting find for me, mainly because of the huuuge discount I got on it for such a great make, I can't wait to start using this every night. The trimmer pen I picked up simply because it was cheap and I was fascinated. The idea behind it is that use use the tiny blade to trim hair from small places, such as brows, top lip, toes (Eew! Who would use the same thing on their toes and then their face?!) and generally keep you looking neat. I think I'll use this mainly on the annoying little hairs that seems to be stray around my eyebrows.

Now, here's for my favourite bit. I added up the total RRP for each of these items and then added up how much I actually paid and the difference is actually shocking. Here's the Maths:

Blowfish Sandals- RRP £40, paid £10 = saving £30

CK eyeliner- RRP £15, paid £5 = saving £10

CK face powder- RRP £19, paid £7 = saving £12

Little Trimmer- RRP £10, paid £5 = saving £5

Tri-pentox cream- RRP £45, paid £7 = saving £37

30+10+12+5+37= £95

Thats right, I managed to save myself a massive £95 on the original RRP price. How crazy is that?! I knew I could expect to save money on great products, but even I was impressed at how much. I got £129 worth of products for just £34 so I'm over the moon : )

I shall of course write some reviews of all the beauty bits for you lovely ladies over the next few days. 

I'm off to doll myself up ready for a lovely evening out with Daniel. We're going out for drink and are then heading to Yo Sushi to pop our Yo Sushi cherries! Can't wait.

Annie x

Buyapowa = WOW!

Heya,
I found out about buyapowa when reading through a new blog I found called Brush Up and Make-up (which you should totally take a look at by the way)
It is a great site which I can't believe that I haven't heard of it before.
The idea is based on a co-operative style way of shopping where the more people who commit to buy a certain product, the cheaper the product will cost each person.
There are some great deals on offer there. I'm so excited that at the moment there is an offer on Benefit's Confessions of a Concealaholic which I have had my eye on for a while. They also sell many ranges such as YSL, Nars, MAC and Nails Inc. and there is the possibility of saving huge amounts of money on the luxury bits and bobs you usually cannot afford.

Here is a photo of the Benefit gift set that I'm so taken with that is on offer on the website at the moment.
If it looks up your street too, then follow my personal url *here* to pick it up and also give me the chance to win a set myself.

Is buyapowa a site that you use? What do you think of the idea? Would you ever use a co-operative based shopping site?
Annie x