The Body Shop Haul

 Well I'm back again, today has been a rather productive day and you lucky lot are getting yet another haul! As you can probably tell I've gone a little bit crazy on new products.

 I always buy my mum Christmas presents from The Body Shop and this Christmas was no exception. Quite often The Body Shop run offers and when you make a purchase at the bottom of your receipt you get a money off voucher. On this occasion I was given a voucher for £10 off when you spend£25 which was valid until the end of this month so obviously had to take advantage and here is what I got:

 I apologise for the pictures I can't seem to get good ones today, here I've got the Banana Shampoo and Conditioner which I have been dying to try for ages. They retail at £4.50 and smell absolutely amazing! I've also just realised when looking at my receipt that the lady put through 2 of the shampoos so I was over charged. I also bought the Ginger Sparkle Shower Gel and Body Butter which were reduced in the sale to £3 and £5 retrospectively, the Vanilla Bliss Hand Lotion which was in the sale for £4 and I also got the Born Lippy lip balms in Strawberry and Plum which were £3 each. 

Before purchasing these items I hadn't tried any of these products and I'm quite happy with my purchases. I tried the Banana Shampoo and Conditioner on Sunday and they smell amazing and have made my hair really soft. I have also used the lips balms a couple of times and the hand lotion and so far I'm pretty happy with everything, the lip balms smell amazing and stayed on my lips for ages and made them feel really soft. Last Christmas I got the vanilla set and the hand lotion smells just like the shower gel, it smells like you could eat it. I've not opened the ginger stuff yet but I can't wait to because I know these smell amazing.

 As I said I had a £10 off voucher so this lot didn't come to as much as it should have done (ignoring the extra shampoo that was put on). I also have a The Body Shop card which gives you 10% off so I got this on top of that and I was also on my 8th stamp which gives you a free gift of your choice worth £10 (although I was told it was £5 so didn't choose something for £10 but as it was more than £5 offered to pay the difference - the £10 has come off the total though) and my card has actually ran out so I requested a new one and got another free gift worth £10 which I couldn't choose. These are the free items I got:

 Again bad picture I know! The free gift I got for getting a new card is Warming Mineral Mask which heats up when you put it on your face. I've only used this once and it made my skin so soft so I can see me enjoying this. The free gift I chose was from the Valentine's range and is a heart shaped tin with 3 lip balms in which are Strawberry, Raspberry and Passionberry. This tin retails for £7 and is really adorable, unfortunately I might have to wait to use them as I can't quite get my finger in with my acrylic nails on haha. When I was paying I made a comment about how I love the little tins they've been coming out with recently and the lady that served me gave me the snowman tin which had the Shea products in over Christmas for free. It doesn't have any products in which is why I got it for free but she told me that all the stuffs being taken out and put back on the shelves ready for when the sales finished so I could have a tin.

 I am really happy with my purchases and can't wait to give all these products a proper go. On my receipt I have another £10 off voucher to use in February and I've decided I will take advantage of it and will probably do this on the website. However, I really don't need anymore shower gels or body butters at the moment so I'm thinking of purchasing some of the skin care range The Body Shop have available. If any of you have tried any of the skincare, I would really appreciate it if you could send some recommendations my way of what I should try.

 Thanks for reading again and I'm sorry it was only another quick one but I haven't tried these products enough to comment too much on them at the moment.

Love 

    Lou xx

Avon Haul and First Impressions

 With Christmas and everything I stayed away from Avon and other makeup websites and shops and stayed away from treating myself but now it's all out of the way I've decided to treat myself although I did get these products out of my Christmas money that I had left. But yes I have been quite naughty recently and I will have another Avon haul within the next couple of weeks as I went a bit mad .... oops.

 I didn't go too wild on this one but I think everything I did get is new to Avon, I'll go from left to right and the products are: Khol Eye Liner with smudger in True Black (I'm not actually sure this one is new to the range), Irresistibly Sexy Sultry Lip Pencil in Sensual Pink and Promiscuous Plum, Color Trend Kiss n Go Lipstick Valentines Shades in Loveable, Avon Naturals Chocolate Body Scrub, Naturals Rose & Chocolate Fragrance Spray and Avon Naturals Leave in Treatment  in Apricot & Shea.

First of all I'm going to mention the body scrub, I had one from the same range last year but is was strawberry scented and actually smelt like strawberry nesquik. Besides the smell I really liked the scrub as well because it was really fine and gritty so I felt properly exfoliated after using it and it lasted ages but unfortunately they discontinued it and didn't bring another scent until now! So of course I had to buy this and it unsurprisingly smells like chocolate nesquik, I actually can't wait to use this.

I'll only quickly mention the fragrance spray, I always seem to buy these because I have an obsession with my house smelling nice, I have so many candles everywhere and other smelly stuff, and this is a new scent so I thought I'd get it and I've only used it briefly when I was cleaning and it smelt quite nice. 

 I also seem to have an obsession with hair masks and treatments, after years of bleaching my hair it is still quite damaged although as not as much as it used to be so I'm always trying new things to get the condition back in it. I've used this a couple of times and it's made my hair so soft. You only need a tiny dab of this as otherwise your hair will feel really greasy. I've decided I'm going to use up the leave in treatment I've been using before moving onto this one but I will let you know whether my opinion of this changes.

 These two are new products and the packaging both on the tube and the box is so pretty. I thought the bottom of these might twist like the lip crayons but they don't you would need to sharpen. With these being a pencil I'm not sure if the idea is to use these as a liner as they are a bit thick although they can be used as a full lip colour and line your lips at the same time. You could also probably use these as a base for your main lipstick. I have used both of these and I do really like them, they gave a good shape to my lips as I could line them and colour them at the same time and the colour pay off was really good. I've only used them once each so once I've used them a bit more I may do a little review on these.

 I think I have most of the Kiss n Go lipsticks however, I couldn't resist this one from the Valentines range and I'm so glad I didn't because the colour is so pretty! When I got it I thought it looked a bit darker than it was in the Avon book however, when you've got it on it's not too dark and it's not too light its like a nice darkish bubblegum pink and is definately wearable in the day.

 The lip colours from top to bottom are Sensual Pink, Promiscuous Plum and Loveable. As you can see they have quite good colour pay off but they seemed a bit better on the lips. Next to is I have swatched the eyeliner and then did it again using the smudger. I've not used this product yet but I will try it out over the next few days. Upon first swatching the eyeliner its self seems quite dark so hopefully i will get some use out of this but I think I'll have to play around with the smudger and maybe use on some other colours to see if I like it.

 This was just a quick one but from what I remember my next Avon haul might be a little bit more lengthy although I can't actually remember what I've ordered haha. 

  If any of you have tried any of these products I would be interested in hearing your opinions of them and I'd also be interested in any products you may recommend for me.

 As always thank you for reading and I shall be back quite soon with more goodies.

Love

     Lou xx

Lush Haul!!

Good Morning ladies,

 I was going to save this post for the weekend but I have unexpectedly been given the day off work so thought I might as well take the opportunity since I've been meaning to put this post up a couple of weeks ago. Anyway I'll crack on with it. I went to the Trafford Centre a couple of weeks ago and as most of you probably know, you can't just walk past a Lush or in without buying anything so here's what I bought.

(left to right: Space Girl Bath Ballistic (£2.25), Cupcake Fresh Face Mask (£5.95) and Creamy Candy Bubble Bar £2.50)

 The description of the Space Girl bath ballistic is from the website is: "A space-dust filled bath bomb with a sweet and fruity fragrance". This ballistic smells amazing and like sweets plus it looks so pretty and as you can see I chose one with as much glitter on as possible so my lovely new bathroom will be all girly and glittery after a bath with this. I've never used this ballistic before however, I have been tempted on a few occasions but stuck to ones I've had before.

 I have used Lush's fresh face masks before however, I haven't used Cupcake before. When I was in Lush I read all of the tubs to see what was best for me to try as I have had some problems with my skin being quite oily recently. The description on the tub says: "Chocolate heaven for oily and teenage skin, Helps absorb excess oil and calm breakouts. Cocoa butter, linseed and cocoa powder soften with balancing peppermint, spearmint and sandalwood oils." When you look at this face mask it looks like chocolate icing but it does have a chocolate minty smell to it. I've used this mask a couple of times since getting it and my skin seems to have calmed down a little and that's just using it once a week so I may start using it every few days.

 Finally Creamy Candy is described as: "A nourishing, creamy-candy scented bubble bar with added cocoa butter for soft skin" whilst the scent is said to be candy floss and the same as Rock Star which you can definately tell although I'm not sure it smells like candy floss. To me it does smells very sweet and a little similar to Mmmelting Marshmallow Moment but I love the smell and can't wait to use this product.

 This is a quick one as I haven't used these products before however, I can see me purchasing these again as I love the scents but we will see how they are when I use them. It's also been quite hard for me to type this as Dexter keeps sitting on the laptop or chewing it haha. I do have a couple more hauls to post up which I'm hoping to get time to do at least one today but if not they will be up by the weekend.

 I hope you all enjoy this haul and I would be interested in hearing if anyone has tried these products and your opinions of them.

 Thanks for reading. 

Love

      Lou xx

A belated Happy New Year and my new addition

I know it is a little bit late but Happy New Year everyone!! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas, New Year and start to January, unfortunately I've had the dreaded cold/flu bug since a few days after Christmas 😔

For this next year my aim is to post on here a lot more whether this be from my phone or the laptop and it will be helped along by better pictures and Tom bought me a lovely new camera for Christmas. I have a few aims for myself this year and I've decided I will share them with you guys as it will add a bit of a mixture to my posts. 

Last year I wanted to lose some weight and at first I really struggled and then a stone dropped off in a few weeks but then I put half a stone back on and have been finding it difficult to get it back off so I am going to be working on that and will be letting you know of my progress and any tips as recipes. 

For my down time I have also decided I am going to set myself the challenge of reading 25 books this year and I will post reviews of the books I read. At the minute I am reading Game of Thrones and as there is 7 books so far I may just do an overall one when I finish them.

This year I am also going to be working on getting a new job, getting my driving license and I am toying with the idea of going back to university in September as I only have a year left of my degree however now I have my own house it is a lot to think about financially. I'm also hoping to go on a lot more adventures this year both in the UK and hopefully abroad as well and thought these could make some interesting posts.

Now it's time to introduce you all to my new addition; everybody meet Dexter.

Tom and I have talked about getting another cat for a while however, we were going to wait a few months and save up for a Bengal as Ozzy is three quarters Bengal. A couple of days before New Year I got home from work to be told we were going to see some 7 week old kittens and although they weren't Bengals we thought they were adorable. By the time we got there there was only 2 left and we wld have had both if we didn't already have Ozzy.

Dexter was the runt of the litter and so tiny! When we first brought him home Ozzy wasn't sure what to think of him but when we took him upstairs Ozzy started hissing and growling at him. Luckily Tom was off for a couple days although did get a couple of call outs so he could keep an eye on them and everyone kept telling me they'd be fine within a week or so. We'd only had Dexter 2 days by the time they started going on and they're now the best of friends. They're constantly play fighting with each other and following each other around and when they're not doing that they are cuddled up on the bed together.

Ozzy just seems huge compared to Dexter! 

As I have been typing this they've been running around the living room like crazy things chasing each other and Ozzy has now knocked a glass of water flying! If any of you are cat owners you will know they always play rough, with the size difference I keep thinking Ozzys going to kill Dexter but he's not hurting him and it's usually Dexter that's starts the play fighting.

Anyway I will stop babbling about my cats now as I need to do some tidying and get a list together of posts I would like to do and hopefully I will be back soon.

Thanks for reading guys.

Love

Lou xxx

Gift Ideas - Makeup

 I seem to have a bit of spare time today so thought I'd try and get another post up offering my gift ideas for any friend or relative you may have that is interested in makeup (or maybe even just a treat for yourself). The items that I have chosen for this are ones that I would be interested in myself and are probably mostly towards the high end and from Debenhams as they are currently offering 10% off their beauty products at the moment. Whether the products are high end or not I will let you know where they can be purchased, how much for and if there are any offers.

 There's a lot of fuss about this product at the moment so I thought it would be the best product to start off my makeup gift ideas. I'm sure I don't need to tell any of you that this is the Urban Decay 'Naked 3' palette. On the Debenhams website this is priced at £37 and doesn't seem to be included in the 10% off deal but I'm sure you'll all agree that this would be a great gift for those makeup lovers.

 For any of those Benefit lovers out there, I have here the How to Look the Best at Everything kit which is usually £25 in Debenhams but is currently on offer for £22.95. I've been eyeing this product up for a while myself with its various face products and I like how this comes in 3 different shades so targets different skin tones however, I'm not sure if they would be suitable for everyone. In the kit you get POREfessional, boi-ing concealer (this is in 2 shades which vary dependent on the kit you get), hello flawless oxygen wow face brightener and hello flawless! powder.

 Next up we have another Benefit product and I'm sure you all know this is the World Famous Neutrals kits which cost £23.50 each but are currently on offer in Debenhams for £21.15. There are three of these kits all with different shades of neutrals (most galmorous nudes ever, easiest nudes ever and sexiest nudes ever) and come with 2 cream shadows and 4 powder shadows. Personally I think all 3 of these kits are gorgeous.

 This gift is a bit price coming in at £60 however, this is reduced from £99 and it may be something you lipstick lovers may want to put on your own Christmas lists. Although Illamasqua can be purchased in Debenhams, I found this gift on the Illamasqua website. It includes 6 lipsticks which are Plunge (bright mauve pink), Fable (bright rose pink), Scandal (warm coral pink), Over (bright coral pink), ESP (vivid violet) and Isis (red pink). For those of you who haven't tried Illamasqua lipsticks before, I have to admit they are one of my favourites and I don't actually have any of these colours. Due to the offer, each lipstick in the set works out at £10 whilst bought separately they would cost £16.50 each. For those of you who may be interested in trying these products but can't afford it, in the January sales Illamasqua had an amazing sale where some of their lipsticks were just £5. If they run this offer again I will let you all know.

 Here we have the Master Makeup Collection from E.L.F which is available at £35 and although E.L.F don't currently have an offer for a discount, they may well do nearer to Christmas however, if you do choose to order this now you will receive a free gift. I'm not sure what the free gift is but when E.L.F do offers like this its usually a palette of new products. The website doesn't list what this palette includes however, from the pictures it looks like 84 eyeshadows, 36 lipsticks/glosses, face powders, bronzer, blush, contouring powders and stuff thats included in their complexion kits and also some brushes. E.L.F products are surprisingly good for their price and I think this kits quite a good price for what you get. If you are interested in this product for yourself, you may want to wait until the sale starts after Christmas as E.L.F's sales are usually pretty good.

This 50pc Makeup Artist palette is also from E.L.F and is available for £15. In the set you get 40 eyeshadows which look to be pretty nice colours, 6 blushes and 6 bronzers. I think this kit is quite a handy little thing to have as it doesn't look look bad and has a mirror so may be quite a good product for travelling with.

 These are my top makeup choice that I personally think would make great gifts for a friend, relative or even yourself. I do realise there's not many but I'm going to try and not overload each post with loads of products. If I do see any other great makeup gift ideas and offers then I will be sure to let you all know.

 Thanks for reading.

Love
          Lou xxx

Gift Ideas - Body Shop

 If you're stuck on any gift ideas for your loved ones this Christmas, the Body Shop is a good place to look as they cater for everyone from your grandma to your little sister. At the moment Body Shop are running a 50% off all purchases offer on both their website and in store. If you're ordering from the website, there is also free delivery on orders of £5 and the offer of 50% off will apply when using the offer code 19809.

 The Body Shop is somewhere I always turn to for gifts especially for my mum as she loves their products but only tends to buy them herself if there's an offer on. I've had a quick look through the website and picked out a few gifts to show you in case you are stuck on any ideas.

 First up we have a limited edition Christmas gift set and it is the Gingerbread scent which they also had last year although I don't remember this gift set being available last year, I feel like the only set available in a tin last Christmas was the Chocomania gift set. This gift set is quite a decent price at £17 at full price and it is really cute. I think the scent itself is probably not for everyone however, I do think its quite a Christmassy scent. This set includes Ginger Sparkle Shower Gel 250ml, Ginger Sparkle Body Butter 50ml, Ginger Sparkle Body Polish 75ml and Ginger Sparkle Mini Heart Soap.

 Next up I've decided to show you one of the more expensive gift sets that Body Shop have and this is also one of the limited edition Christmas ones but this time it's the Cranberry Joy one. This gift set is £25 however, if you do take advantage of the off then it would be only be £12.50. I think this gift set is good value for money as the products are all full size and you get Cranberry Joy Shower Gel 250ml, Cranberry Joy Body Butter 200ml, Cranberry Joy Body Polish 200ml and Cranberry Joy Lip Balm. 

 Sticking with the Christmas collection, this is the Vanilla Bliss gift set which at full price costs £17. I actually purchased most of the products in this set in the January sales and I think it smells so nice, it is probably one of those scents that cater for pretty much everyone although I do think the body polish smells a bit like battenburg and I wanted to eat it. In the gift set you get Vanilla Bliss Shower Gel 250ml, Vanilla Bliss Body Butter 50ml, Vanilla Bliss Body Polish 75ml and Vanilla Bliss Mini Heart Soap.

 I feel this Shea gift set is a pretty safe bet for anyone as it doesn't have a strong scent which some people not like so if you're not sure what sort of smells the person you are buying for would like then I would go for this one. I got this for my mum last year and she loved the products in this and says they were really nourishing. At full price this is again £17 and comes with Shea Shower Cream 250ml, Shea Soap, Shea Body Scrub 50ml, Shea Body Butter 50ml and a shower lily.

 If you are aware of smells the person you are buying for likes best then the Shea gift set does also come in Coconut, Mango, Olive, Satsuma, Strawberry, Chocomania and Honeymania so there's quite a choice to pick from and they all come with the same products in the respective scents. The Vanilla gift set is also available in Cranberry Joy whilst the Cranberry Joy gift set you can get in Chocomania, Coconut, Olive and Shea.

 I wasn't going to include this gift  at first but I decided to as I think it's quite a fun concept and a bargain with the 50% off. I also think this would make a great gift for anyone who loves body butters. This set is £20 and you get Coconut Body Butter 50ml, Shea Body Butter 50ml, Moringa Body Butter 50ml, Strawberry Body Butter 50ml and Satsuma Body Butter 50ml. Apart from the Strawberry and Satsuma scents which are quite strong, I think the products featured are quite suitable for anyone no matter what their preference of smell is.

 I hope this has helped a little if you have been struggling for ideas and I will be back with another gift ideas post hopefully within the next few days.

Love

       Lou xxx

Calling all Soap n Glory addicts

As promised, I have kept my eye out for any fantastic deals. I mentioned in my previous post that last year the Soap n Glory gift set that comes in at £60 did get reduced to half price for a couple of days. 

When looking through my emails this morning I noticed one from money saving expert which I get on a regular basis and would you believe it, Boots have decided to run the offer on this gift set again and it will be available as of tomorrow priced at £27 which is a huge saving.

I've been on the Boots website this morning and it currently says 'stock coming soon' so I'm assuming that the stocks being taken off the website until the offer launches as if last years anything to go by it will sell out pretty quick.

If you want to bag this gift set for yourself or as a Christmas present for a loved one then I suggest checking the Boots website first thing in the morning (maybe even later one tonight) or get to your nearest store as early as possible tomorrow. If I remember correctly the offer got extended for a few days last year but I would assume it's while the stocks last.

This is just a quick one as I am on my way to work but I'm hoping to be back tomorrow with some more Christmas offers/gift ideas for you all :)

Thanks for reading.

           Love 

              Lou xxx