The best present ever...

Hello my darlings!

Today the weather is miserable and i was also a little miserable too. I began to tidy my house, did the kitchen, gave up and started watching episode after episode of Peep Show. Then a knock at my door turned my day right around. A parcel, a massive parcel at that, was handed to me. This parcel has been sent from Danielle, a beauty box swapper for the Queens Jubilee Swap (any excuse ladies!). As you can tell from my blog, i am a huge fan of swaps, there is nothing more exciting than opening beauty gifts in my opinion. I have swapped with Danielle before, you can see that post here. I thought i would share what i received with you as i personally love reading these sort of posts.

Such pretty wrapping

Made from a recycled bottle

I bought this lipstick off ebay - I had no idea Danielle was the seller! 

Oh my gosh

How seriously stunning

Is this?!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

 I am totally blown away. This is the best present ever! Its so strange to think somebody knows exactly what i like when they have never met me. I really hope Danielle likes her gifts as much as i like mine.

I will be doing some serious reviewing this month with all my new things!

A very very happy,
Kerri
xxxxxxxxxx

My pound shop make up haul

Hello Chickens,
Today i had an hour to kill before work so i popped into town and had a gander in the new pound shop. I found a whole wall dedicated to beauty, the majority of it was rubbish however there were some interesting products. Firstly i discovered that pound land stocks cat shaped vajazzles, these seem popular as half of the stand was empty, wow! After that shock i had had a gander at the make up items and was rather impressed with the selection. I only picked up a few bits because i had spent up buying baby bits for my nephew.

My £3.00 Haul

Firstly i picked up a Sally Hansen nail varnish in Hollywood Scarlet. I always read and watch blogs and Youtube videos about these but i have only ever found the treatments such as the nail hardeners.

Sally Hansen Salon nail lacquer in 350 Hollywood Scarlet

Sorry about the terrible picture quality, its dark and i have been struggling to get my camera to focus. The bottle is really nice, something i would be happy to display on my dressing table. The lid is rubberised with grips which i think is a good touch as i have on a few occasions dropped a nail varnish lid and its gone on my carpet, eeps. The brush is small which is a bit annoying as its harder to apply neatly as it does not really fan out but the consistency is fabulous and two coats looks perfect. There were loads of other pastel colours, i know these are bang on trend right now but they look rubbish with my super pale skin and stumpy little nails - all in all really worth a quid if your passing!

Secondly i picked up a Maybelline cool effect blush duo.

Maybelline Cool Effect Blush in 01 Pretty cool pink and 06 Chillin' Chocolate

These were in a pack together so i could not test the colours in the shop. I have never seen these before so i thought it was worth a try for 50p each. After swatching these it was pretty obvious these are not suitable for  the same skin tone so a pretty rubbish duo, however i really quite like the pink toned one.

Left: Chillin Chocolate Right: Pretty cool pink

These are applied by a brush, similar to a nail varnish. Chillin Chocolate is way too dark for my skin and i will not be using this, however Pretty Cool Pink is quite flattering to my skin tone and works in the same way as Benefit High Beam and is rather similar in colour too! The consistency to these are rather runny and i would not use the brush to apply it on my face and would use my finger instead. As i have said on a previous post i have my main make up bag which lives on the dresser but i plonk other products in my bag for touch ups for during the day, for which this is perfect. If you are strapped for pennies i would suggest this as a very cheap Benefit high beam dupe. I found these online for around $6 each.

and finally i picked up this lipstick by Rimmel in Alarm, a very bright red.

Rimmel 170 Alarm

I recently lost my only bright red lipstick so was very happy to see this. Again this came in a packet so could not see the colour in store but the sticker on the bottom is pretty true to colour. This lipstick is very bright, i applied it using the stick and it looked terrible for a photo, need to use a lip brush with this one because mistakes are super obvious! I did a quick search online and found that this exact lipstick is stocked now in Lloyds pharmacy for £4.99 so this is a pretty good bargain.

I will be going again very soon because there were a few other things i fancied trying, including nail art pens, eye liners, lip glosses and some bargain face and hair masks (10 for a £1!). For a quid i think its worth a risk and the majority of the brands were from well known drug store brands.

Have you found any beauty bargains in discount stores, i would love you to share your finds :)


xxxxx

Today's Haul

Whoops.....
I have been very naughty and purchased some new goodies that i probably should not have done.  I do have an excuse (kind of). Firstly i received £15 worth of L'Oreal vouchers as i bought my usual Telescopic Mascara which had no product in when i opened it! After sending it back they sent me vouchers in return through the post which were a little more than the mascara so i could not let them go to waste and purchased some other lovely things which then led to buying some other bits and bobs.

So here is what i got,

So due to the vouchers i got a few L'Oreal things as they also had 3 for 2 on.
L'Oreal False Lash Telescopic Mascara in Magnetic Black. I find that L'Oreal mascaras are great but have not tried this particular one out as i bought a stockpile of Lash architect 4D mascara a few months ago because they had an offer on. I am keen to try this as it has a plastic brush which is different to my usual mascara. I have used plastic brush ones before (i can not remember which brand) and hated it as it kind of flicked back and me and got mascara everywhere so keen to try this one out and see if it works well for me.

I then bought two nail varnishes from the Colour Riche collection in number 601, French Riviera and number 202, Marie Antoinette. I have never fried L'Oreal nail varnishes out so i am keep to give them ago. I have Terrible nails at the moment, they have all snapped off and turned flaky so i am hoping they grow again and i can have myself some beautiful talons (unlikely).

Next i got the Studio Secrets universal lip glow. I know i read about this somewhere and could not remember if it was good or bad so tried to Google it on my phone while in Boots - my internet on my Blackberry was so slow the shop assistant in boots came over to ask if i was OK so i just gave up and bought it.

So i went to the counter and purchased these goods which all came up to £10 after i cashed my vouchers in and used some boots points which was a bargain and they gave me a £5 voucher! I instantly went to No7 and got a nail varnish for £2 in the colour Betty Blues then i remembered i needed conditioner so went searching for some. On a pretty stand i found L'Oreal Elvive Nutri-gloss crystal shampoo and conditioner  which comes in a pink bottle and the shampoo is glittery so had to grab that too (i am a sucker for anything pink or glittery). I got another No7 voucher but put it in my purse this time because the guy in boots was looking at me like i was crackers by this point.

I then nipped to a cheap shop in my little town that sells the most random things ever, i got some nail varnish remover (essential) and some pads and at the till there were Rimmel Mono eye shadows for 39p in the colour Frivolity - So i grabbed two. I would not wear pink on my eyes but thought it might work as a blush highlight as it has a little bit of glitter in it.

After this i got myself home as quickly as possible because my purse was getting very light and i am rather poor at the moment. I start a new job next week so will soon have more pennies to buy more pretty things which excites me greatly - i am super fed up of buying things like paint and washing machines.

As this is a brand new blog i have decided that i am going to do a little give away once i reach 20 subscribers. I will be giving away one of the Rimmel eye shadows and a brand new No7 nail varnish in the colour of your choice, OoOo.

Will be posting back here soon with some reviews and stuffs so please subscribe :)

Lots of love,
Kerri
xx