Bargain Haul - Savers

Hi Ladies,

Hope you're all doing well, i've been shopping again, eeek i'm so addicted but I went to town today and my aim was too do a bit of christmas shopping and I did do that but then I ended up in savers and managed to buy a fair few items. I've never been in savers before really, which is probably why I got so excited over the shop and how blooming cheap it's prices are and picked up as much stuff as I did. I'm one of those people who can't resist a bargain, especially if I know that boots or super drug would offer these beauty goodies at substantially more. Anyway let's get on to the haul, I ramble way too much for my own good. You can see below everything I brought from savers, and I really did save an awful lot of money (excuse the rubbish pun!) I picked up two things from the 'Beauty Parlour', four things from Rimmel, 6 packs of face wipes, Kleenex facial cloths and some fake nails.

Beauty Parlour

The first thing I picked up was these two products from the Beauty Parlour, I don't really think i've ever tried anything from this brand but they instantly caught my eye because they have very cute packaging, i'm not sure if they're kind of a cheaper version of Soap and Glory? Anyway the packaging was lovely and the products were lovely and sounded really interesting so I thought i'd pick those up and give them ago. The first product I got was the T-zone oil control mattifying moisturiser, this I think is basically a long winded way of saying it's a primer for the t-zone which is meant to keep it matte throughout the day. I think this product was £1.99 and you get 100ml of product so I thought I would give it ago and see if it works. I love the Rimmel Primer that I repurchased in this haul but if I run out or for oilier days I can see this being quite a good alternative. I haven't tried it so I can't tell you if it's any good or not but I used it on my hand and it felt like a fairly good consistency. The second product I purchased was a basic face scrub, I am loving anything skincare related at the moment so I decided to pick this up to help me exfoliate my skin especially as the weather gets colder and I need to try and deal with dry area's creeping up on my face, this was £1.50 so another massive bargain! I'm hoping these products will be really good, i'll report back after using them for a bit and we'll see!

Rimmel 

The next set of products I purchased were four Rimmel Products that I absolutely love, I was going to pick all of these products up at Boots anyway but they're half the price in Savers for some reason. Making the foundation, primer, powder and concealer all under a fiver! Massive bargain. I won't go on about these products too much, I have already done a review of the Rimmel Wake me up foundation and the Rimmel Fix Pro Primer which is one of my favourite products ever - here. I think Rimmel have become my favourite drugstore brand of makeup, their products are amazing and the four products that I brought are my four essentials to get a flawless face. I love love love them and the price that they are in savers makes these products even better. (Let me know in the comment box if you would like to see some more information about the powder and concealer by the way, because I don't mind doing that for you guys at all!)

Face Wipes

The next set of products I brought from Savers was 6 packs of 30 face wipes, they cost me £2.00 for all of them and are going to last me for bloody ages. I always keep a pack of face wipes for lazy days or for removing makeup if it all goes wrong and I was sick of paying 3 or 4 pound from my local supermarket so thought these would be good. 

Fake Nails

The next thing I brought were these fake nails, i'm not sure how i'm feeling about them at the moment, they were £1.00 so I can't really complain and I only really brought them so that I could start doing more nail varnish swatches for my blog, so we'll see!

Palmers Cocoa Butter

Next I brought 2 mini Palmers Cocoa Butter bottles, oh my god, I think this product deserves a full review on my blog at some point. It is my favourite moisturiser in the whole entire world, it smells amazing, leaves your skin feeling like nothing else and is just a really bloomin' good product. I already have a full-size of this product but thought i'd get some mini's so that they'd be the perfect size for my handbag and on the go. I can't explain how amazing this is or how lush it smells!

Kleenex Facial Cloths

The last thing I brought were these Kleenex Facial Cloths, the reason I brought these were completely random, I was going to buy some more of the cheap cloths because I use these to apply my toner to my face before bed and these were only £1.00 for like 50 so I thought I may as well pick these ones up instead and see how they were. In actual fact, although it sounds silly I really love these, I find them so much nicer than the cheap cloths I normally use on my face and these absorb less product meaning i'm not wasting my toner so much, they distribute the product more evenly on my skin as well and they are so much softer and less 'scratchy' so although you get less for the same price I would be more than happy to buy these again! 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my bargain haul!

Found any bargains lately?

Lots of love 

Gem xxx

MUA lipsticks

Hi Dolls,

Today's post is all about some of the MUA lipsticks, a lot of you may know that i've really been rating MUA over the last few months. MUA or Make Up Academy as it is also known offers such great products for hardly any money. The 3 lipsticks that I picked up from Super drug were only £1.00 each which is ridiculous value and i'm a massive fan of them all. The reason I like these lipsticks so much are because they're incredibly creamy and I feel like they're really moisturising on my lips, I am a fan of lipsticks like this simply because in the winter months I want to wear lip products that have that extra moisturiser in them. They go on really easy to my lips and are really easy to work with but perhaps the best thing about them is how extremely pigmented they are, as with all lipsticks you can get a very sheer coverage with these lipsticks if you only use a tiny amount of products but with 2 whole swipes of this product you will get an amazing and opaque coverage on your lips which is really good. I wouldn't say these were the best lipsticks i've ever tried in my life, but in all honesty they have one of the best formula's i've ever tried. I think another great thing about these lipsticks is the fact that they have quite a huge colour range, this is good for me because in the past I would stick to just buying baby pink lip colours but because these lipsticks are so cheap, I mean £1.00 that is ridiculously cheap! I feel like I can go and pick up a more 'out there' shade and try it out, if i don't like it then I know not to go and buy a shade equivalent from a more expensive brand like Mac. But these are honestly the best lipsticks I think you can find to wear everyday. They have a slight smell to them but to be honest I don't think it's overpowering and I couldn't really tell you exactly what they smell like, kind of vanilla like I would say. Also they are the perfect size to just pop in your handbag because they're really quite compact and seeming as they were only a pound the packaging of these lip products is fairly good as well. Another thing I would say about MUA lipsticks is the fact that they aren't completely matte, they come out nearly opaque in terms of colour pay off but they seem to have a slight sheen to them, nothing too over the top but just enough that you don't need to wear lipgloss with these products. Lasting time is fairly good though a fair few hours before needing to reapply them which is good for a product of this price point. I picked up 3 shades this time that I went to the Make up Academy counter firstly I got shade 7, shade 13 and shade 3.

The first one I picked up was Shade 7, this comes out of the tube much stronger and on the lips it seems to be a light coral colour, it comes out on the lips with much stronger orange undertones which I really like. This would be the absolute perfect colour for summer, it is such a strong colour and has a slight sheen to it but I would say it is the most matte of the shades I tried.

The next shade I picked up was Shade 13, this is a bright bright bright red, it is creamy and probably one of the more sheer colours out of the lipsticks I brought, I would say that this is a more wearable red because it doesn't come out completely matte and again has the sheen that I was talking about. 

The last colour I picked up was Shade 3, I am absolutely obsessed with this lipstick, I really really love it. This is a gorgeous bright pink colour, it's quite in your face, it reminds me of Mac's girl about town lipstick it's very out there but it works perfectly for my skin tone and makes my whole face pop. It's one of those colours you can wear and you will look instantly more put together It again has a slight sheen to it but not lots of sheen, it doesn't have any glitter or anything in it. And i've pretty much been wearing this lipstick every single day since I got it. I LOVE it. 

(Shade 7, Shade 13, Shade 3)

 (Me wearing Shade 3 lipstick, swatches of shade 7 and shade 3 lipsticks)

Hope you enjoyed this post

Have you checked out any MUA lipsticks?

Lots of love

Gem xxx

Small Primark Haul

Hi Ladies,

Today I have a haul for you from shopping I did at the end of last week, I visited Primark 
and got a few goodies that I thought I could show you. I know haul's are one of my favourite things to read on blogs, I love seeing what other people brought when they went shopping and I especially like hauls that include Primark, I think it's because they don't have a website so unless you see what other people have brought you go to the shop without having any idea what you're going to buy and that can be very dangerous for us beauty and fashion bloggers. Anyway, I had some money left at the end of last month and since I got paid on friday I thought it was the perfect excuse to splurge. I figured Christmas was coming and I would have to start buying countless amounts of presents so this was the last time I could really treat myself before the festive period. I could have spent a lot of money in Primark, because when i'm in there I kind of get into the mindset that everything's so cheap and such a bargain I might as well get one (I have no self control when it comes to a bargain) but actually I was quite well restrained. All I picked up was a shirt, a bag and some earrings

Firstly I picked up this really nice shirt, this shirt cost around £8-£10, I'm not quite sure of the pricing but it was somewhere around there. I love it because it's a little different. I've been seeing a lot of black and white striped shirts but I loved the fact that this one was navy and white stripes and therefore it was a bit different to the shirt that everyones been wearing. This shirt is super sheer so you have to wear a top underneath it but it's actually really nice. Another thing I loved about it was the gold detailing, the shirt has gold buttons, and then on the shoulders has some gold buttons on a little cuff which I think makes the shirt look much more expensive than it actually was.

The next thing I picked up was this gorgeous navy bag, I love this bag, it's kind of a cross between a clutch bag and a small shoulder bag, it's too big to be a clutch bag and too small to be a shoulder bag but I think it's perfect for nights out because it's not too big that you're having to carry a big bulky bag around with you but it still has enough room that you can fit what you need in. It also comes with a strap that you can take off or leave on, I think this makes it much more versatile. The thing I loved about this bag the most was how simple it was and I really love the gold bow on the front of the bag because I think that gives the bag a bit of a statement but it's still simple enough that it will go with a lot of different outfits. This bag was also £8.00 so was a massive bargain! Actually they have lots of nice bags and clutches in Primark at the moment and nearly all of them look more expensive than they actually are. 

The third thing I picked up was some earrings, I liked these earrings because they're big, and I love to make statements with my earrings, they also have glitter and are quite blingy so I just like them really. I thought that they would go perfect with the shirt and the bag as well, so I was really liking that.

Hope you liked my mini haul!

Lots of love

Gem xxx

October Fav's

Hi Guys,

Hope you're all okay, today I'm going to be showing you some of my favourite products from October, I can't believe we're in November!! Christmas and New Year will be here before we know it. Anyway i'm going to get into showing you my personal favourites this month, I feel like I experimented quite a bit this month with quite a few new products so it's been a lot easier to pick some of my favourites this time around.

The first thing which I have been loving this month is the Sleek I-divine palette which I have already done a review on here I brought this palette because I thought all of the shades would work really nicely throughout the autumn months and it had a nice selection of neutrals as well as a few colours. In all honestly theres only a few shades that I actually really like, I like the shade 'James Brown' which is second in from the left, the shade next to it which is called Shalamar and then the burgundy red colour which is underneath James Brown and that ones actually called Ojays. The rest of the palette has been quite neglected by me because I love using the 3 colours i've just talked about blended on top of my maybelline colour tattoo in on and on bronze because I think that helps the colours to really stand out and gives me a lovely neutral eye for the day but also allows me to create quite a smokey eye for the nighttime. 

The second thing i've been loving this month is the Autograph primer which you can buy from the Marks and Spencers beauty counter/area. I recently ran out of my beloved Rimmel Pro Primer (that was a seriously sad day) and i've been using this primer instead and it's actually fairly good, I love how it has radiance particles in it which helps to make my dull autumn skin look a little brighter and gives me a really nice glow whilst also keeping my foundation in place.

The next thing i've been lovely lately is the MUA lipstick in shade 3, oh my gosh, this lipstick is seriously gorgeous, I never really used to be overly fussed on lipsticks, I would buy some and wear a few but this lipstick has been constantly on my lips everyday since I brought it about 2 weeks ago, it is amazingly pigmented, the colour is gorgeous and just wakes up the whole face and it just really compliments my skin type. I really really reaaaaallly adore this product and it was only £1.00?! what's not to love?!

The next product i've been loving this month is the maybelline colour tattoo is on and on bronze, as I have already said i've been wearing it with the sleek palette and it is a perfect base and honestly keeps my eyeshadow on all day long, I have honestly not ever seen a product with the lasting power that this product does, it's actually quite hard to get it off! I have reviewed this product here if you would like to know a little more about it. 

Another product i've recently rediscovered and it has reunited our love affair all over again is the L'oreal Super Liner in Carbon Gloss, this is simply a liquid eyeliner but it is by far the easiest eye liner ever to use, it stays on all day and it actually does give a 'carbon gloss' finish. This is a favourite of loads and loads of beauty bloggers so i'll spare you the boring details but I really think this is the best liquid eyeliner you can get on the high street and it will last you forever and make it easy to get a really precise line. 

Another bargain product i've been loving this month is this bronzer by MUA, by the way I just want to say that I think MUA is such a good brand for the money, their products are so cheap but yet they are all of a really good quality, which is great because I think it's actually quite hard to find a brand like that these days. Anyway, this bronzer is perfect, it is great for contouring your cheek bones or just giving the whole face a bronzed glow, it's a massive beast of a bronzer and I think you get like 10g of product for £3.00?! Which is a fab deal, this bronzer has a tad bit of golden shimmer running through it as well but it's nothing major or noticeable at all and i've really been liking using this on my face recently.

The next product i've been loving I've recently spoke about in my favourite products by soap and glory haul - here this is the 'Clean on me' shower gel, and it's gorgeous, it smells nice, is soooo creamy and just makes your skin feel so soft and clean, it's such a nice shower gel and I could invest in it again and again.

Finally, the last product i've been loving this month is the Neutrogena Face Scrub in pink grapefruit, this again smells really lovely and really helps to refresh your skin on these cold and dull autumn mornings, it has small pink beads in it that just help to liven up your skin and it's super easy to use, you simply spread some of the product over your face and then wash it off with some warm water. I think this really helps to clean out my pores as well.

Anyway, I hope you liked reading my monthly favourites, 

What were you loving during october?

Lots of Love

Gem xxx