Boxing Day/January Sales!

Hello lovelies!

I hope you have been enjoying the January sales as much as I have. This year seems to have been absolutely fantastic. If you got into the shops early, you would have found some true bargains.

My make-up collection is now at a point where I have had to nip to IKEA to buy a set of draws to store my stuff in (as I literally had just a make-up bag before). So what did I manage to get my paws on?

Soap and Glory Powder Trip

£20 £10

This was something I managed to claim for myself. My boyfriend was doing some after-Christmas Christmas shopping for his family (as we were going to see them at the weekend) and he was buying some Soap and Glory goodies for his sister. When we realised the gifts were half price we grabbed this and a bath set for her. However, I was too besotted with this to gift to to someone else.

I knew this was a bargain as these products individually are over the £10 mark. I have wanted to try the blusher for a long while and wasn't too fussed on the bronzer as I am so pale. However I have been using the bronzer more than anything!

Solar Powder is a must have for pale-faced bronzing.

Debenhams

bareMinerals - An Affair to Remember - £35 £17.50

Lancome - Hypnose Doll Eyes by Alber Elbaz - £38 £19

Two gorgeous, bargain eyeshadow palettes for the quality of the brand.

The bareMinerals palette I nearly didn't get because, again, it was a present for my boyfriends other sister (who loves big-named cosmetics). I regretted instantly not buying one myself and was on the hunt for it again after.

Luckily, Debenhams in Nottingham City Centre had loads of these left so I managed to pick one up. Then the reduced Lancome stand allured me and I had to buy a palette from their too. Total? £36.50. I also got 500 points on my beauty card for spending over £35!.

Stila Cosmetics online

Positively Pink Set

£13 £3.75

A fantastic value set. I bought this when Stila had free shipping and their sale. I had never tried their products before but I knew it was regarded highly. I bought two of these, one for me and one as a birthday gift.

The quality of both products is fantastic. I would definitely purchase in their sale again.

Did you get anything great in the sales? If you did, link me your page so I can look!

Happy New Year! What did December bring me?

Hello fellow bloggers!

Wow, I have not posted for a very long while. December is a very busy month for most of us, Christmas and the shopping! Which means that I have sooo much to blog about but not enough time to do it. So I have decided to do a round up of what I've bought or received last month, so sit tight: it's going to be a long post!

Fragrance Direct Haul December 2013

(Italicised text are the things I kept) 

Eyes

Elizabeth Arden Beautiful Colour Maximum Volume Mascara

NYC Eyeshadow in Gossip Girl and On The Radar

Lips

Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in Mischief

Maybelline Super Stay 24h Lip Colour in Infinite Petal

Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in Oxford St Fuschia

Dainty Doll Lipstick in In His Kiss 005

Nails - OPI

Excuse Moi

Steady As She Rose

Diva of Geneva

Congeniality Is My Middle Name

Pedal Faster Suzi!

Miscellaneous

MNY Blush 101

NYC Applelicious Glossy Lip Balm in Apple Blueberry Pie

Pets Rock Compact Mirror

A big(-ish) haul, huh? The reason I did this haul was my itchy fingers when I see new OPI colours come into stock on the Fragrance Direct website. I was desperate to get my hands on ' Excuse Moi' from the Muppets Collection.

Best product of the haul: Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in Oxford St. Fuschia. I had heard people rave about this lipstick for a while and decided to pop one in my basket. Perfect colour and doesn't dry out my lips. I will probably purchase these again at full RRP if Fragrance Direct does not stock up again.

Most disappointing: Possibly the Mini Bourjois Nail Files shown in the first picture. I bought for my handbag to remedy snags away from home. These, however, just fall apart in one use. Not worth the 99p.

I wish I had kept: The Applelicious Lip Balm! I ordered two: one for my cousin and the other I had ordered accidentally. I was going to keep it but my sister needed bits for a stocking filler. She better like it!

Birthday (16th December)

With a birthday so close to Christmas, it is always difficult to figure out what you want. There is only so much stuff you can suggest to others to buy before running out of ideas. Now, I had asked my lovely BF for the Clarins 'The Essentials' Eye Palette and asked him weeks in advance. However, the last minute shopper that he is discovered that the shops had completely sold out. So this left him asking me if I wanted any fragrances. The only one I knew I wanted for my collection was J'adore Voile de Parfum. I didn't expect to get it because of it's extortionate price tag. However I was very lucky to be given the bigger size of this product (100 ml) to use. It is a gorgeous floral scent that is extremely classy. Gorgeous.

Secret Santa

I did two Secret Santa's this year: one with my University friends and one at my school (which was much bigger). I think I can safely say, those that picked my name knew me quite well. The budgets were £5 so I was pretty amazed with what I got.

The Secret Santa with my uni friends could have turned out to be a disaster. I was picked by a male friend of mine! Luckily, he had heard me gossiping in seminars with my girl friends. So I received two Claire's nail polishes which are all very Christmasy. I have yet to try them out but I will look forward to wearing them.

Next, I have no idea who bought me my Secret Santa when I I was at school but clearly I look like a girl who loves her make up! I got a three tins of lip balms in different flavours and a gorgeous eye shadow palette.

I could not have asked for better suited gifts!

Enough with this post. I will hopefully get round to posting a 'January Sales' post soon!

Did you get some lovely gifts for Xmas?