Beauty, Bargains and Beyond

I have just received the May 2014 issue of InStyle magazine and there are a couple of freebies worth mentioning.  There is a voucher in the magazine to pick up a free L'Occitane Almond Milk Concentrate worth £11.  You can pick it up at your nearest L'Occitane Boutique before 30 April 2014 while stocks last. In next months magazine  they are giving away Nails Inc nail polishes worth £11 each.  The Brazil Collection includes 3 limited edition shades - Sugarloaf Sunset is a bubblegum pink, Sao Paulo Streets is a pale neutral colour and Copacabana Coral is a dark coral colour.  I am seriously tempted to buy 3 magazines to pick up each colour. Next months magazine is on sale from 1st May.  Let me know if you see any freebies in any other magazines. Leighlee I bought this magazine with my own money

I have just received an email from Cult Beauty and they are giving away a free goody bag worth £90+ when you spend £75.  If that's not enough to get you shopping I don't know what is.  The goody bag includes Eve Lom, Erno Laszlo, Alpha-H & Zelens.  All brands that I really want to try out.  Check out the offer here .  All you have to do is enter the giftcode ALLGOOD at checkout. Leighlee This blog post is not sponsored

I just wanted to let you know about the Glamour Shopping Evening at Trinity Leeds.  Its on the 2nd April and if you register you are entitled to exclusive offers and discounts on the night.   The offers on the night are below. This will be my first chance to go to an event by Glamour so I'm looking forward to going and maybe partaking in a few of the offers. Is anyone else going? Leighlee This post is not sponsored.

I bought a few things from MAC when I was in LA as they work out cheaper than buying them in the UK.  Here's what I bought: I bought an eyeshadow called Sumptuous Olive which is a lovely shimmery golden khaki colour.  I am really loving this type of colour and it is really versatile. This was $15. I bought 2 lipsticks.  I had been thinking about buying Plumful  for ages.  This is a lovely berry colour and is so wearable, I know I will get loads of use out of it. This is a lustre lipstick. This was $15. I also bought Can't Resist which is a sheen supreme lipstick.  This is a lovely red bronze colour that is so shiny its almost like a gloss.  This was $17. Here are the swatches: Plumful, Can't Resist, Sumptuous Olive As a side note I bought them in the Mac store near Hollywood Boulevard, which is in the same building as the Dolby Theatre where the Oscars take place.  If you watched the Oscars recently, where the  stars were ...

I did it and I'm really chuffed. I managed to complete a 60 day shopping ban this week. Yay me.  It was originally a 30 day shopping ban which I started in the first week of January but I ended up breaking it in the Boots 70% sale (not really worth it to be honest), so I made myself do a 60 day ban.  I basically didn't go anywhere that could tempt me, so stayed away from town centres and managed to stop myself going mental with the online offers like the Harvey Nichols offer that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago.  Anyway to celebrate ending the ban I obviously went shopping.  Here's my Leeds haul that I bought today. I bought 3 Models Own Speckled Egg Nail Polishes in Swan (Lilac), Magpie (Green) and Duck (Blue).  They are £5 each but there is an offer in Superdrug at the moment where they are 3 for 2 so I got them for £10. I couldn't wait to try Duck when I got home so I put it on straight away and its a lovely polish.  I only needed to apply...

I went to the cinema this week and decided to go and see Need for Speed. I had seen the trailer and thought it looked pretty similar to Fast and Furious which is a franchise I really enjoy. I wasn't in a rush to see it as it didn't have anyone in the film that I was familiar with, but I actually ended up seeing it when it was on preview as I changed my plans at the last minute after work.  I wasn't expecting much as its about street racing in really expensive cars which is not something I'm generally interested in. I was surprised though as I ended up really enjoying it.  Its got the expensive cars and racing for the boys and a romantic storyline for the girls.  I really enjoyed both sides of the story.  The storyline is based on a computer game, which I have to admit I'm not familiar with, but don't let that put you off if like me you aren't into computer games. The storyline centres around Toby Marshall who is a great driver but ...

I was really excited to find out that this months Birchbox was a collaboration with the designer Lulu Guinness, but I think the concept has been slightly overhyped to be honest. Don't get me wrong its a decent box, but I am not sure why a designer has been asked to pick the items for the box.  Really all that has been contributed is a sleeve that goes over the normal box and bizarrely a stick of lulu themed rock. Heres what I received: Benefit Stay Don't Stray primer for concealers & eyeshadows - 2.5ml (worth £5.13) - I already have this product and I am not a big fan.  It has the consistency of a concealer anyway so you have to blend it in on your eyelids quite a lot before applying eyeshadow and I don't generally need a a primer for concealers. Dr.Brandt Pores No More Pore Refiner - 7.5ml (worth £5.77) - This is an instant matifying pore refiner.  I have not tried this brand before, so I am looking forward to giving it...

I have just received an email about a great gift with purchase offer from Harvey Nichols. From Thursday 13 March, spend just £135 on fragrance, skincare, or beauty cosmetics to receive over £200 worth of award-winning treats from some of their most sought after brands.   The gift bag includes the following: Bliss Triple-Oxygen Instant Energising Cleansing Foam  Dermalogica’s Microfoliant  ESPA’s Replenishing Treatment Oil  Yves Saint Laurent’s Forever serum  Lancôme’s Advanced Genifique Clarins’ Multi Active Day Cream  Elemis’ Pro Radiance Illuminating Flash Balm  Laura Mercier’s Foundation Primer  Benefit’s Porefessional bareMinerals’ Ready Bronzer,  Cover FX’s Illuminating setting powder.  Trish McEvoy’s High Volume Mascara  Amyris Femme EDP – a fragrance created by legendary French perfumer Francis Kurkdjian.  Nails inc. signature scarlet red varnish for a polished finish, with an additiona...

I love going to the cinema and always have so I have a Cineworld Unlimited card which I've had for a few years now. I pay £15.90 a month (it's slightly more in London) and I can go to the cinema as many times as I want in any Cineworld other than in London. Usually I average 3-4 times a month which makes for a decent saving as I think its around £7-8 per film for an adult now (outside of London). Anyway I went to see a couple of films recently so I thought I would review  them. If you like chick flicks/romances than these films are for you. First I went to see A New York Winters Tale which stars Colin Farrell as a street thief 100 years ago who meets and falls in love with a terminally ill girl. It follows the usual storyline of boy meets & falls in love with girl who is dying, which to be fair has been done many times before. If you can ignore Colins dodgy hair style and you like a cheesy romance than it's a good movie. The first part of th...

I have received another great beauty box from YOU Beauty.  There were some great choices, but for me it was a bit of a no brainer, so I went for 2 cleansers.  Both were full size products and individually they are worth more than the subscription price for the box.  The box has a Best of British theme and here's what I received. The first product that I picked was The Body Shop Camomile Sumptuous Cleansing Butter.  This has been on my wish list for a while, since it was featured on the Beauty Mouth blog .  This is 90ml and costs £12.   Its suitable for all skin types.  I also received a Muslin Cleansing Cloth from the Body Shop worth £2.50.   The second product that I picked was BeautyLab Glyco Face Wash.  This is a skin refining oil-free 5% glycolic foaming gel with triggered release technology that removes impurities, unclogging pores, refining and cleansing.  I have not come across this brand before so I am interested in ...

I have just read about a great blogger competition over on the Nuxe website  here .  For the chance to win a Nuxe PamperHamper worth £250, all you have to do is choose some products from the Nuxe Range that you would want in order to get ready for spring. Here's my pick of their products: My first choice is the cult product Reve de Miel Ultra-Nourishing Lip Balm.  I use this product religiously throughout winter to keep my lips chap free and it works brilliantly. I like to leave it on overnight to make sure my lips are super soft every morning.  I have to admit I already have a back up of this product in my stash as I never want to be without it. My next pick is Huile Prodigieuse Multi Usage Dry Oil. This is a great product that you can use on your face, body and hair to keep them looking and feeling soft and moisturised.  I have dry frizzy hair that seems to hate winter so I put this oil on the ends of my hair to keep them frizz free. ...

I have just picked up the April 2014 issue of Elle magazine which includes a Percy & Reed Wonder Balm 75ml worth £18. The magazine itself costs £4. The Wonder Balm is a leave-in balm which helps give your hair moisture, shine, smoothness, definition, softness, light hold, high humidity protection and manageability. It apparently gives you healthy looking and flawless hair. I haven't used it yet but will do a review when I have tried it out. Next months issue of Elle will include a £10 Nails Inc gift card and 25% off products online (not including sale products). I'm not sure what the £10 off covers but it says in the mag use towards Nails Inc services. Leighlee I bought the magazine with my own money

I have just picked up the April 2014 issue of Glamour magazine which includes a choice of 5 ModelCo freebies worth £76 in total.  This is a great bargain when the magazine itself only costs £2. There are 5 products to choose from including 2 lipglosses (a berry colour and a nude colour worth £15 each), a mascara (worth £16), an eyeliner (worth £15) and a lip pencil (worth £15).  I chose the lipgloss in the raspberry pink shade appropriately called Berry Pink.  I am pretty sure they are the same products that were available free with the magazine last year, as I have just finished the ModelCo lipgloss that I got last year.  Its a really nice gloss, so I was happy to pick up another one, although I don't think I would pay the full price for it. I think I might pick up the nude lip gloss and the mascara next time I am out and about. The magazine also includes a 25% discount card for H&M, valid instore between March 3rd and April 4t...

Here is my first Use it or Lose it Challenge of 2014.  If you haven't read my previous posts on this subject them check out my first post here .  I basically pick out some products that I haven't used either ever or for quite some time and try them out and decide if I want to keep them or if I can part with them, as I will probably never get round to using them. First off are 3 mineral eyeshadows from MAC.  They all look very similar so I am going to try them all out and see if they are actually the same or if they are different enough to keep.  They are called Cloudy Afternoon, Snow Season & Mineral Mode. Next on the list is an Illamasqua Powder blush.  Its a coral colour called Lover and I just want to check if it suits my skin tone and also whether its similar to any of the blushes I use regularly. I picked a NARS nail polish called Purple Rain.  I really like the colour but I find it difficult to apply really dark colours to my shor...