A rather large haul with Vanity-Fashionista!

For all of you who are not in the know, my shopping partner in crime (and fellow foodie) and I went and did what we do best this afternoon.  The day was supposed to be a day of handing in coursework however much to our non-surprise, we both went shopping afterwards and boy, did we shop!  First of all Vanity-Fashionista is a dear friend from University and she has a blog.  She’s also blogged in detail about the lovely things she picked up too!  So go check her out!

 

I finally picked up a new organising ‘thingymajig’ for my make-up brushes.  Those desk tidies I was using before was just no cutting it.  Not only did it look awful, it was not tidy and made looking for brushes even worse.  With six compartments I have organised all my brushes (besides the Crown brushes, which still reside neatly in my Swan pot) and they are look so COOL.  I got this from Muji which is one of my ultimate favourite stores!  I want to Mujify my whole house when I have one aand I’m looking into their storage units for my vanity table.  Unfortunatley you can’t take them away flat packed and my house is far from my Muji.  I’m a bit unsure about their online shipping but I will make the move to buy these one day.  I absolutely adore their storage units.  This particular pot tidy thing was a little more than £2.00.

So here is a picture of the brushes safely in their new home.  So far so good,I think I might buy another one when the collection expands.  It’s already looking quite crowded but a far improvement from the old get up it used to be stored in.  Oh brushes, you make me look so professional!

 

Anotherr thing I got from Muji are these gorgeous candles.  I’ve been seriously into candles recently and they are, what I call, my ‘blogging candles’.  Yes I burn candles when I blog, it just soothes me and puts me in the right mind frame.  I might replace this with a latte or something when I’m blogging on my net book outdoors. 

So I find a lot of the candles that I love tend to be very expensive.  It seems that I jus have expensive taste when it comes to candles.  However my eyes fell onto these candles at Muji and I know I got the best ones!  The pink one is Winter Rose Scented and the yellow coloured one is Elderflower Champagne.  Both of these smell absolutely fantastic and since coming home I’ve burned the Elderflower Champagne.  Oh it’s divine.  These can last burning up to 18 hours which is not bad at all.  They are also at a bargain price of £3.50 each!

Following my candle obsession, I’ve also come to love oil burners.  This was bought on a whim and I had not thought about it previously.  I picked this one up from The Body Shop and it was £10.  If you go to Vanity-Fashionta’s blog you will see that she bought a bargain oil burner set for £8 that comes with scented oils.  I did have my eye on that one however it doesn’t have a ‘door’ which is what guards the tea light from my cat’s paws!  Having candles can be a hazard around animals so I make a point of keeping it very safe and being present when an open flame is about.  I also love this one because of the design; I love anything white and floral.  The brass door design is just fabulous!  

To go with my new oil burner I picked up three different oils, two at full price and on sale.  The one on sale is the orange coloured one called Mandarin Ginger oil which just wakes you up and makes me feel so good.  This was £2.00.  The other two, at £3.50 each are so amazing and I got it in Green Tea and Sandalwood.  Sandalwood is one of my favourite scents and I used it the moment I got home.  I tell you I’ve been in a good mood all night!

Also I got a face brush to exfoliate my face.  The bristles on this is super soft but densely packed and I’m sure will do wonders for my skin.  I think those cost little of £3.50! 

Has anyone tried this brush before and do you like it?  If not, do you recommend another one?  I’ve recently been a bit obsessed with exfoliation and even been exfoliating my body!

And don’t be alarmed.  This is a pack of six carrot creams that just were taken from the Body Shop’s delivery boxes.  It’s not for me!  My Mum sent me to get her a load in case they discontinue it (although I hear it should be staying, guys!) and so yeah, I looked like a nut case who eats carrot cream.

I also went back into Lush; this time the Covent Garden branch.  Vanity-Fashionsta and I decided to use that previous deal and spend £10 each and hopefully share the £20 worth of free gifts.  I picked up another massage bar tin to store things in.  One is not enough!

I also am loving that Sugar Scrub I got so I got it’s twin product, Sugar Babe and am looking forward to using it.  I then got seven tab toners for £4.25 and that includes 3 tea trees, 2 Q10s, 1 vitamin C and 1 vitamin e.  I’m looking forward to using those especially since my Body Shop Vitamin E face mist is running out.  These tabs are supposed to last you one a day – I highly doubt that even makes sense.  How possibly?  Unless its one table spoon of water per tab which is ridiculous!

     

 

  The one thing I must gripe about is horrific the Covent Garden branch is.  The staff are friendly yes but the free gifts were ridiculous.  I’m sure you can see from my previous Lush post that the amount of freebies I got were worth way more than £20 and I was overwhelmed, pleased and a satisfied customer.  This time the bag just had two soaps and a bath bomb.  I don’t know why we didn’t object but we didn’t.  I took one soap bar and despite the label CLEARLY saying it’s Noubar, when I opened it I realised it was actually good ol Miranda!  I don’t know I’m pleased or not.  I hate being conned but I remember not being a fan of Noubar anyway. 

We also visited MAC and on our second visit did we both buy somethng from the Warm & Cosy collection.  I have my eye on By Candlelight MSF for a long time actually and I was so pleased to finally get it.  It’s such a wonderful colour to enter spring into.  I also picked up Blissed Out nail polish and I’ve heard that the application is sheer but workable.  The colour is to die for … it’s the perfect ‘effortless’ colour!  So I was pleased with my MAC purchase…just not pleased that their make-up brushes have gone up in price.  Note: the staff in the MAC Covent garden are awful.  Much better in Carnaby Street!

So I’m going to drag you back to drugstore products.  This is Maxfactor’s Second Skin Foundation an you may recall that I bought one previously in another mad haul.  However this one is in another shade because the previous shade was too dark!  Before I was using Warm Almond and since losing my tan (which seemed like a few hours after buying this) I have become my usual pale faced self.  So I’ve been using it as a contour colour but not able to apply to the face.  Despite the reviews I’ve seen, I’ve loved this foundation so far so I thought I would spend the money to get another one.  £13.99 for a drugstore foundation seems a bit much but I’m a devout Maxfactor fan, so what can I say?  It also came with a free Master Touch Concealer which I gave up to Vanity-Fashionista because I’ve already tried and while I thought it was decent, she would probably have more fun trying it out for the first time. 

I also picked out something else on a whim.  I remember a while ago in Suzi’s (of Style Suzi) perfect red lip tutorial she was wearing a red that I had been DYING to know the name of.  I don’t remember whether I remembered it right or if this is even remotely close to what she had but I think it was Maybelline’s Moisture Extreme lipstick in Passion Red.  I’ve tried it and so far, I love it.  I want to rock the red lip more often and I already own a Revlon Matte red lipstick as well as Ruby Woo by MAC.  I love all of them but I suppose if you like something… buy it in every type?

Prompted by a subscriber, I found out about Origin’s Multi-grain make-up and decided it sounded like something I needed.  This promises me radiant skin and it boasts an impressive mix of oats, fortified mineral and all sort of nutrients for the skin.  Sounds like putting your cereal on your face.  The interesting thing is that when I applied it at the counter, I was told by Vanity-Fashionista that my skin looked great!  I was so pleased with her reaction so it was a sure by.  I am so excited to try this and I was also given a free head band too.  Nice!  This cost me £20.  I thought Origins was a much more expensive brand but really, it would be worse.  If this does what I’ve read it does then I am happy with that price!

So that’s the end of my haul.  Crazy, I know.

Below are some pictures of some gifts given to me by some family friends!  She went back to China and bought back some lovely faux eye lashes for me and also what looks like eye lash glue and…. eye…tape?  It seems the trend of faking a crease or ‘double eye lid’ is still hot in Asia.  I don’t know if I’ll be using it or if it will be in any use but I’m sure I will break it open to play with some time soon!!!!

    

Now thanks for getting to the bottom of this blog entry.  You make my writing at 4am all the worth while!  What I wanted to say last is that I have an amazing new product sent to me from Garnier that I must tell you about….STAY TUNED FOR MY NEXT POST!

Peace!

Cherry