Skin Care Haul

Last night I had to nip to my local Tesco for a few bits for the Christmas Day starter (prawns and soup - exciting!). Needless to say, the inevitable happened and I soon found myself wandering up the health and beauty aisle... I think I was quite restrained though and stuck to the cheaper stuff so it wasn't too bad! Here's what I bought...

 

 

 

  

First up are the boring basics... Cotton buds, Baby Wipes and a pack of 100 cotton wool pads. The wipes were 97p (not sure how kind they will be to my skin yet but if they're good enough for a baby's bottom I'm sure they'll be good enough for me!), the cotton wool pads were 78p and the cotton wool buds were 30p - All cheap as chips which is what we like!

 

 

 

 

Next I needed some sort of lip balm/moisturiser as my poor lips were dry and cracked beyond belief! I managed to snap up the Blistex Daily Lip Conditioner and Intensive Moisturiser for just 90p each! (Currently on half price offer at Tesco so get yours now!).

 

 

 

 

I have seen quite a few reviews/features for the Witch Hazel Anti-Blemish Skin Clearing Primer lately and really wanted to give it a try. I picked a bottle up for £5.85 which I thought was quite reasonable for a primer and it seems perfect for my skin! I haven't had chance to use it yet though so I guess the proof will be in the pudding.... (Review to follow!)

 

 

 

Whilst browsing the skin care products I came across Tesco's own range of skin care. I picked up the Cucumber Face Scrub which was 80p (!) and the Sensitive Eye makeup remover which was also 80p (!). I also got the Skin Wisdom Night Cream which I thought was also 80p but I have just checked my receipt and it was actually £2.99!! I probably wouldn't have bought it if I had known it was that price but hey-ho!

 

 

 

 

The final item isn't something I bought but something I was given. I was rifling through my sister's make up bag and came across this MUA eye shadow which was unopened. She said she didn't like it and doesn't really wear eye shadow so kindly gave it to me :) The colour is Shade 1 - Pearl and I think it will make a perfect highlighter. I don't know the exact price of this as I didn't buy it but I'm guessing it was £1 from Superdrug as most MUA products are.

  

That's everything! Not a very interesting haul for you I'm afraid but a haul none the less! :)

 

I'll be reviewing some of these products in the near future so keep those eyes peeled!

 

With Love,

 

Rachel x

Mini Nail Varnish Haul.

I went shopping last Sunday and picked up a few goodies of the nail varnish variety for myself so here is a quick haul, just for you...

Barry M Nail Paints - Superdrug.

As I said in my Sleek Storm Palette Review, I am useless at applying eye shadow. Another thing I'm useless at is painting my nails... So, what did I decide to buy on a recent shopping trip with my Mum? Not one, not two but three Barry M Nail Paints. Well, technically I bought two as one was free (more on that later).

The first shade I bought was Grey (293). I've had my eye on this colour for a while as I aren't usually a fan of bright nails and prefer the understated, subtle shades (I really want to try Mushroom and Dusky Mauve next). My sister painted my nails with the Grey the night before my shopping trip and I loved it so much I had to have it for myself. My sister also applied the Barry M pink crackle over the top of the grey and the two went together really well. I did contemplate actually buying the pink crackle when I bought the Grey but decided that if I wanted to recreate the look my sister had done for me I could just borrow her pink crackle so decided against it. Maybe I will eventually buy it though as I cant keep 'borrowing' nail varnish from my fourteen year old sister...

Although I decided against the pink crackle, I did want one of the crackle colours. My sister already has the pink and blue so it seemed pointless buying any of those. I thought the black was a bit dull and if I were to wear it with the Grey it would just be too dark and dreary. I contemplated white but quickly decided that this would probably look like I had just applied Tippex to my nails... (I could be wrong though so if you have tried the white crackle please share your thoughts!) Then I clapped eyes on the purple crackle. Purple is my favouritest colour EVER and I quickly snapped it up. It did look a teeny bit dark in the bottle but I thought it would look amazing if put with the right colour.

As I had spent over £6 on Barry M products I received a free gift which was the Lilac Foil Effects (142). This isn't a colour I would usually buy but it is very pretty and cute. I didn't quite understand the whole 'foil' thing as it didn't really seem like a 'new, ground-breaking thing' to me as the advertising and bottle suggested. Metallic nail varnishes have been around for a loooong time and I couldn't quite work out what made this product so different, until I applied it... I will write a review on this over the next few days, but for now, let's just say I LOVE it! Receiving the Lilac Foil as a free gift made my choice of crackle perfect as the Lilac Foil and purple crackle look scrumptious together.

Collection 2000 Nail Varnish - Wilkinsons.

As well as picking up the three Barry M Nail Paints, I also treated myself to a bottle of Collection 2000's Buried Treasure. I was actually looking for a Rose Gold nail varnish as I have seen this on a few blogs and you tube videos but I couldn't find any [insert sad face here]. Buried Treasure was the closest thing I could find to Rose Gold but it is more of a creamy gold than a pinky gold - in fact, it is nothing like Rose Gold but I was adamant that I would be taking a gold shade nail varnish home with me and Buried Treasure was the nicest one I could find! I haven't actually used this yet but I have done a quick swatch on paper and I absolutely love the colour.

All About Face Nail Varnish - Tesco!

As said above, I had a mad search for Rose Gold nail varnish and, despite searching high and low, I just could not find any. After our frenzied dash around our local shopping centre, we rushed to Tesco (it was half past three on a Sunday may I add, and the shop was shutting in half an hour!) and while my Mum was looking for a Christmassy DVD I scoured the make up aisle - Or I would have done if they hadn't put those silly shutters down over all of the popular branded make up! This left me with the cheapo stuff to look at, and, I have to say, I didn't hold out much hope! I checked the 99p nail varnishes first but they didn't have anything even remotely like Rose Gold so I turned my search to the £1.49 nail varnishes (Last of the big spenders!) and actually found a shade quite similar to Rose Gold (Please note, I use the words 'quite similar' very loosely as it doesn't really resemble Rose Gold at all but at this point I was desperate and I think if somebody had presented me with a lime green nail varnish I would have said it was similar to Rose Gold and rushed to the checkout with it...). It was by 'All About Face' which I thought was a rather iffy brand name for nail varnish as you don't apply nail varnish to your face... Anywhoo, the shade is Fudge which I think is about as relevant as the brand name as it looks nothing like fudge! And even though its not really anything like Rose Gold I likes it and I'm happy that I added it to my (slowly growing) collection :)



Upper Swatch - Fudge & Lower Swatch - Buried Treasure



I thought both the Fudge and Buried Treasure were both nice festive-y (is that even a word?) colours and aren't too tacky, which golds (in my opinion) usually tend to be. 


So there you go, five new nail varnishes added to my collection in the space of two hours! Now just to practice actually painting my nails without making it look like I've been dipping my fingers in paint...

I'm going to do a review of the Barry M Nail Paints and Crackle next so watch this space for that!

With Love,

Rachel x