first impressions

The Body Shop Haul: Some New Products and Christmas Gift Sets

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It feels so early but a lot of stores are releasing their Christmas products. As I was planning on trying a few of the Body Shop’s new products I saw these two sets and wanted to give the new Christmas scents a try. This year they’re releasing a range of products in Berry Bon Bon (mixed berry sweets), Peppermint Candy Cane (sweet mint) and Vanilla Marshmallow (sweet vanilla, which didn’t appeal to me) and these sacks looked like they’d give a nice range of product types to try as well as meaning I now have some great travel sized products. I was quite good and resisted the advent calendars, for now anyway. I really want the £45 one but I would probably end up with too many advent calendars and no money if I got all the ones I want this year!

Some of the other products I chose are ones I’ve either wanted to try for a while or have just found out about and couldn’t resist. I’ve sort of fallen in and out of love with the Body Shop products over the years as they can be a bit of a single note scent and them being owned by L’Oreal, but their ginger shampoo is amazing and I’m always drawn in by the Christmas scents so I wanted to try them early this year rather than leaving it to the sales and missing out because I don’t know what they smell like.

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Primark Haul: Harry Potter, Friends and Disney

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Having spent more time than I probably should watching YouTube videos on the Primark goodies available and checking out their Instagram I went on a trip to a local Primark. I hadn’t been to the Peterborough one before and was hoping they’d have a larger home section than the one I normally go to, which it did slightly but still not the best. I think I may have missed most of the sale items but there were some of the new Friends, Harry Potter and Disney bits there.

There were definitely a lot of the latest clothes ranges around but I was good and tried to avoid most of them, I love the mustard and all the fluffy things around this year so I have a feeling there will be an Autumn/Winter Primark clothes haul coming up soon. I didn’t get everything I planned but probably half of my list was crossed off and there’s a mix of Disney, Harry Potter and Friends. I do love all the officially licensed products they’ve been coming out with, especially all the home ranges.

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Boots Summer Haul

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I didn’t realise until this week that hot weather can mess with the internet too! Ours has been playing up so this post was meant to go out on Wednesday but wouldn’t upload in over five hours! I’m crossing my fingers the cooler weather means it’ll work now.

Anyway, I think I’ve been pretty good when it comes to buying makeup recently, I haven’t bought too much and I’ve actually got rid of quite a few things. Next month’s things I used in August is going to have so many things I’ve decluttered in it. I may have ended up getting a bit more than I originally planned in this Boots haul but there’s quite a few essentials in there so I don’t feel too bad. Of course when I get more sun cream the sun disappears, though I think I forgot to photograph it it’s still sitting unopened from the beginning of the week.

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Happy Place Cosmetics July Box

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I’ve been a bit quiet recently, I’ve had an unplanned busy last few weeks and I was too drained to do anything last week and had to take a week off to recover. I’m back now, I’ll probably do a proper update on what I’ve been up to later in the week, and I had to do a first impressions type post on the Happy Place Cosmetics July Box that got here last week.
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I realised recently I haven’t bought anything from Happy Place Cosmetics for a while, I love their bath products but since they’ve become more popular I always seem to miss out on the restocks and everything I want is gone! I don’t know if it’s a recent thing but they do a monthly box, either sold individually or in a set of three, and I managed to get a July box before they sold out. These boxes come with full size or sample sizes and the products inside can be already on the site or exclusives to the boxes so you never really know what you’ll get.

In my box I got four full sized products, or I think they’re full sized but I’m not sure on the bath bomb, and each of them added up comes to more than the £30 price tag of the box. The July box has a face scrub a bath and shower whip (though I’m pretty sure it’s a sugar scrub I got), a lip balm and a bath bomb so there’s a good range of different products in there and it’d be a great way to try the company out.

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Candy Coat Haul and First Impressions

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I’ve had my eye on some of the products from Candy Coat, a company who make gel nail varnishes and accessories and have just launched a beauty line, for a while. They have such a range of colours and finishes and the pastel colours in particular really caught my eye. They do kits which save money with the amount of nail varnishes in them and they include a base and top coat so you have everything (even the lamp if you pick that option) to start out and try the company. They also claim to last from three to ten weeks so I’m hoping these will last well and won’t peel off like some of the others I’ve tried.

As I got a bit overwhelmed with the different colours, there are so many to choose from, I decided to go for one of the kits. The Beginner Kit costs £60 for ten nail varnishes including the base and top coats and is a great value box to get started. I also picked one of the Hard Candy Builder Gels, these cost £15 so they’re more expensive but they can be used to extend your nails or build up your nails for added depth and nail art. I’ve always wanted to try one and as I was doing an order anyway I decided to get one to try.

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DIY Beauty: Cocoa Face Mask

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DIY-beauty-home-made-cocoa-face-mask-1.jpgI’ve always been interested in trying some DIY beauty products but have never got round to it, either because I didn’t have the right ingredients when it came to making them or I didn’t know what ones to try. Last weekend we had a couple of avocados that needed using up so I tried a face mask and a hair mask.

There are so many face masks out there I didn’t know which to try but I found a chocolate face mask that seemed like it’d work for what I want and we had all the ingredients in the cupboards, it seemed an obvious choice for a first attempt. This recipe is from the Marie Claire website, you can find it here along with five other easy face masks so if this doesn’t seem right for your skin type there are others to choose from instead.

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Marks and Spencer’s Summer Beauty Box

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I did have another post planned but as the Marks and Spencer’s Summer Beauty Box arrived in the post today I couldn’t wait to do a post on the products in it. Similar to their beauty advent calendar these boxes have a much higher value than this price, this one is around £135 of products they say on the site, but you have to spend £40 in Marks and Spencer’s to get it for the discounted price of £15. Since I wanted curtains from there anyway I just added this to the basket as it’s such a bargain and there are a few products in here I was planning on getting anyway.

There’s quite a good range of different products in the box. Some are full sized and others are travel sized or deluxe samples but they cover the spectrum of beauty pretty well. There’s a couple of makeup bits with mascara and liquid lipstick, some summer products like after sun and SPF lip balms and quite a few hair and body products. It’s actually pretty evenly spread out and a great way to try some of these brands as the full sized products of some would cost more than the box and any that aren’t full sized are still a decent sample size.

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A Mini Discworld Emporium Haul

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This is only a small haul but I love the things I got so much I think it deserves a post. For a long time I’ve been a fan of Terry Pratchett’s books, I think I read the first one when I was ten or eleven and since then I’ve reread them and the whole Discworld universe is one I love. If you don’t know the Discworld then this haul may seem slightly odd but hopefully you’ll enjoy it.

I was originally only getting something as a birthday present for someone, who I hope isn’t reading this but I’m not going to mention that thing just in case. When I was on the Discworld Emporium website I had a bit of a look around and found some things I wanted to get for myself, I was actually quite good as I could have spent a lot more with all the figures and things they do. I only got three things but I will be buying more from them in the future.

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Sleek Makeup Mini Haul

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It feels a bit like most of my posts recently have been hauls but this is probably the last for a while and one I’ve had planned for ages. I’ve had my eye on a few of the Sleek I-Divine eyeshadow palettes for a while and did plan on buying four, but the main one I actually wanted (Peach Perfect) was out of stock and off the website so I wanted to do this order before the rest disappeared too as they’re all limited editions. There will be proper reviews of these in the fairly near future when I’ve had a chance to play around with them but I wanted to show you guys how pretty they are in case they do a disappearing act too before I have a chance!

In a recent declutter I realised that, although I have many palettes and more than I actually need, I did have some gaps in the colours I had. Last spring I was loving their All the Fun of the Fair palette full of shimmery pastels and I really wanted some more pastels to add to my collection. The Nordic Skies palette was around last year and I thought I’d missed it but it appeared back in stock so I got it along with the Spirit Animal and Dream a Little Dream palettes. I also ended up buying their light eyebrow kit so now I’ve gone from having no eyebrow colour product to two. I’ll have to give it a go and see how it compares to the NYX one I got in my recent HQ Hair Haul and get back to you guys with what I find.

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Next Outlet Clothes Haul

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After a recent declutter of my wardrobe I had a list of things I was looking for and I’ve got better at not buying things in sales just because they’re cheap but I did end up getting some things I didn’t have planned on a couple of recent trips to the McArthur Glen Outlet shopping centre in Bridgend. Everything I bought ended up being from the Next Outlet, they have had such good bargains recently, £2 for a good quality top or £10 for some jeans is such a good price if they’re what you want. For years I didn’t get that much from Next but it feels a bit like half of my go to wardrobe comes from there.

The Next Outlet stores often have extra reductions, which is what happened with most of the things I’ve bought, beyond the reductions in the normal sales. They also have older stock in lots of sizes sometimes as well as a range of clothes that are exclusive to the Outlet stores in the Special Purchase range. I know some people have said they aren’t the same quality as the standard line, they’re definitely cheaper than equivalents at full price, but I’ve bought quite a few things from them and they last just as well for me.

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