Boxing Day Haul! JANBLOG #4

Every year Christmas rolls around, and the following day people go cray for the boxing day sales. I remember the days when I used to get up early and head over to the Next sale, when my siblings were a lot younger! This year I didn’t realise Boots were having a sale online (ON CHRISTMAS DAY!) until it was too late :( The origins face mask trio in particular was something I was eagerly awaiting the sales for..but alas people were far too quick!

Nevermind, I did pick up a few nice things, and I also didn’t go crazy and buy stuff for the sake of it being on sale *pats self on back* Some of you guys may know we are having a house extension right now, and in a few weeks I will be moving into my parent’s old bedroom which is sooo exciting! So as you can imagine there’s quite a few things I need to be saving for in terms of my new bedroom. I’m also planning on investing in my own DSLR, whether I buy it this January or wait for the sales later on remains to be seen..

Anyways lets get into the haul! So yes, as I mentioned the main store I wanted to visit was boots and AGAIN I was pretty gutted because A) the high end counters were not really advertising their sales, and I later found out you had to ask the counter girls for the sale items –_- B) Our local boots, which is fairly large by the way, doesn’t have an Origins counter. *sighs* After feeling disappointed for a couple of seconds I joined the hubble of people in the sales section, and picked up;

Part of my mum’s birthday present. I feel like you can’t go wrong with No.7 Skincare and makeup for a slightly older generation, and this set was a real bargain. Plus you get a large variety of skincare assortments to try in a generous size. I love giving really useful gifts (as well as meaningful ones) so I’m sure she’ll like this!

I then saw this No.7 Essential Eyes Kit and it was reduced to £6 which was phenomenal! Included are 3 limited edition eyeshadows (which cost £7 each normally!!) a blending brush and a pencil brush. This cheered me up a great deal because I’ve actually read quite a lot about this blending brush, when researching for the MAC 217 and I’m very happy to be adding that to my collection. I also didn’t own a specific pencil brush, so again another very welcome addition! The No.7 brushes and makeup in general aren’t something I really look into because for a ‘highstreet’ brand they’re a little pricy for my liking. They are also marketed towards the older age group, so it’s a no go area on the norm. However this set, worth around £35 was such a fantastic bargain and I’m chuffed I have it. The shadows are all fairly neutral and ones I will actually get use out of too so this was ahhmazing!

I also picked up the Stila In the lightpalette, which wasn’t on sale but I had been lusting after it for such a long time (plus the disappointment of missing all the beauty bargains I had planned on purchasing the previous day) lead to this impulsive but beautiful purchase. I love that it includes a range of mattes as well as shimmers, and as far as a neutral palette goes, this is near perfect!

You might remember this haul where I attended a boots points event, and so I had over £10 in points to spend. As I was passing through the S&G body sets deciding it was too soon to pick up MORE of the stuff, I saw some of the holiday makeup gift sets, which I didn’t notice online before (odd). This section was so packed and I would have loved to spend another 10 minutes examining the various kits and sets, but I did manage to pick up this GORGEOUS face powders palette and I’m thrilled! You get 3 full sized face powders as well as a decent brush which is handy for travelling. It’s in the S&G trademark cardboard packaging, and although I wasn’t planning on picking up these powders separately, I’m thrilled to have them in my collection. Again this saves around £23 (and buying it from points is an even bigger bonus!).

Although I was going to share my clothes findings, I decided to stick to beauty because clothes wise it wasn’t all that exciting. I managed to pick up a tee and a jumper from Next mens section, these wooden crates one for me and one for mum to store body care stuff in, and a pair of trousers from H&M. Thw wooden crates have ‘fruit’ and ‘veg’ on them, but they work great as storage boxes and no-one will know with the text facing the wall ^_^ As I’m enjoying my current wardrobe I wasn’t in the clothes hunting mood and was more eager to get to Ikea! I do however want to share this photo of the t-shirt, gah I love it so pretty!

I hope you all manaaged to pick up some lovely goodies in the sales if you went to them! Please leave any haul post links below, I LOVE reading them ^_^

(p.s finding it a little tricky keeping up with comments and posting daily as well as work, please bear with me!)

Boxing Day Haul! JANBLOG #4

Review | No7 Beautiful Skin BB Cream Normal/Dry

           No7 Beautiful Skin BB Cream for Normal / Dry skin - £12.95 – link

One of the things I got the opportunity to try for a few days was this BB cream from No7. To be honest I’ve never been that interested in this type of product since finding my HG (link). The way I see it a BB cream is a lighter version of a tinted moisturiser with added benefits like SPF etc.;

My skin is pretty good, the main problems are uneven skin tones and the odd blemishes, so when it comes to a base on a good day I opt for concealer where I need it, on a ‘normal’ day my beloved F&B and then when my skin is playing up and I don’t have a lot of time it’ll be my L’oreal True Match. Essentially I’d rather have nothing spread all over my face, than something that gives such a light base I’d have to dot concealer over it anyways.

Ok so I’ve painted quite a negative picture of my perception of BB creams, but believe me I approached this with positive curiosity ^_^

‘Its unique 3-in-1 formula evens and enhances skin tone and disguises imperfections, while the nutrient-enriched formula helps to banish blemishes.

The added protective power of SPF 15 and 5 * UVA technology to help skin stay youthful, No7 BB is the only way to wear this season’s must-have essential - perfectly-pared back, beautiful skin.’

Packaging: It is pretty simple, no pump just a squeeze bottle with a screw lid. It is pretty compact so easy to slip into a makeup bag for travelling and it won’t take up lots of space on the dressing table. It is easy to wipe clean and the tube contains 40ml of product. I actually think for the price and considering its a ‘drugstore brand’ this is quite pricy, and so would expect great results from it.

shade: So I had the shade fair to try, I did think it would be too light but actually has a warmer tone. According to the boots website it is only available in two shades fair and medium which isn’t brilliant as again a lack of choices for fair skins or darker tones. I was pleasantly surprised with the colour as I have a medium skin tone (I’m guessing around a NC35 but not 100% sure).

Application and feel: The consistency is very thin as expected, and on the packaging it is recommended to apply it with hands or a sponge. I worked this into my skin using my fingers and it blended very nicely. For a short while afterwards it did feel and look a little shiny, as it’s made for those with dry skin so once wearing it, I did feel like it was providing my skin with lots of moisture.

Overall finish: Once blended into my skin it did look slightly too light for my skin tone (but I do like picking a slightly warmer colour for my skin tone to add colour). This however wasn’t too much of an issue as that is the purpose of bronzer, however the actual look of the cream with its lack of coverage was fine for an ‘au natural’ day but for me personally as I’ve already said, I’d much rather skip the lightest base and use moisturiser and concealer instead. It did slightly even out my skintone, but I feel that it showed too many blemishes to be regarded as a quick go-to product and although it was non-patchy or sticky and did blend in nicely, if it was mine I wouldn’t repurchase it.

I do understand the appeal of BB creams, but once a girl has a HG it’s hard to measure up to that. Have you tried this BB cream? Also I’d love to know if there are any BB creams that you really recommend – challenge my opinion on them ;D

Review | No7 Beautiful Skin BB Cream Normal/Dry