Beauty, Fashion & Lush Haul

Hi Everyone!

If you caught my recent post about my holiday to New York, you'll know that I promised to do a haul of the goodies I treated myself to while I was away, but instead I thought I'd do a haul of everything I've bought recently.

My first holiday purchase was a Kate Spade Felix Satchel and matching purse.  I've always been a handbag girl as opposed to shoes (mainly as I'm a size 9 so don't tend to have much choice), but have never been able to justify spending £1000 on a mulberry - ouch! - so tend to stick to my next and Ted Baker bags. However, when I found out about the Kate Spade outlet at Woodbury Common I knew I wouldn't be able to resist. As this is my first designer bag I'm just a little completely obsessed with it! I love the fact that the bag has both shorter handles and also a long strap so you can wear it as a cross-body bag, which I find so much more wearable day-to-day.

The next thing I picked up is this Rouge in Love Lancome lipstick in the shade 277N Violine Lamee. I'm usually quite shy when it comes to lipsticks and tend to stick to my nudes and rosy pink tones, but decided to leave myself in the hands of the assistant in Macy's and fell in LOVE with this shade! It's a bit strong for me as a daytime/work colour, but can't wait to wear it on an evening out I have coming up. Unlike some other dark lipsticks I've tried it's very pigmented but doesn't dry out my lips like matte colours, which is very helpful at this time of year!
Lancome

(Apologies for the quality of this photo - I'm still learning!) My next stop was to the Mac counter - where I've now discovered I have little to none in the way of self-control! - and picked up the Studio Waterweight SPF 30 Foundation in the shade NW25. The packaging of this product is quite simple but I immediately fell in love with the pipette dropper, which makes it last so long! As the name suggests it is lightweight, which has been really good for me recently as I've been breaking out quite a lot, but as well as having a light coverage it is also very build-able so you can choose to add a little more if you, like me, tend to be a little rosy-cheeked at this time of year.

To go with the Lancome lipstick, I picked up the Mac Pro Longwear Lip Pencil in Bespoken For.  I haven't tried this yet but as you can see from the swatch on my hand above, the pencil is really pigmented and gives a really nice silky finish.  

The next thing I picked up was the Mac Fluidline Eye-liner gel in Blacktrack (I've only just noticed that this is currently out of stock so sorry to give you a sort of 'what you could have won' moment here!).  I've always been more of a liquid liner person - majorly as I'm a creature of habit and find it hard to put my trust in new products - but as the assistant was giving me a bit of makeover, I had to comment on the precision of her eyeliner and she said it was this gel liner.  I bought it and gave it a try, and can now definitely say that my loyalties have changed! I do think it takes a bit of practise for everyone (and it's not just me that gets the jitters every time something goes anywhere near my lashline!) but once you get the hang of it, the precision and lasting power of this liner means that I can wear it to simply emphasize my lash line a bit during the day at work and then top it up and go for a full on feline flick in the evening without it smudging/disappearing.

Now I know I may get lynched for admitting to this, but I've never actually owned a Lush product in my adult life! So when I was out for a quick all day shopping spree with my friend and made this quite shocking admission, I was dragged straight to that shop that seems to smell like every ingredient known to man.  This is one of the reasons that I think I've never owned any of their products before as there are so many that I found it quite overwhelming!  However, thanks to one of the very sweet shop attendants I walked out with a few little goodies.  

The first thing that caught my eye was the Prince Charming shower cream.  It's smell of pomegranate, vanilla and marshmallow - yes, marshmallow! - is gorgeous but kind of makes you want to eat it rather than wash in! Also, due to the strong colouring of the cream, you actually end up a bright pink colour all over, and who doesn't want to be turned into a giant pink marshmallow??  

Once I'd got my first item that was it, I had to carry on.  My friend recommended the Whoosh Shower Jelly. I can't lie, at first I found it quite difficult to get used to as it kept flying around the bathroom! However, the smell was gorgeous and it was extremely good value for money as you only need to use around the size of your finger nail and it lathers up enough to cover your whole body. I'd definitely recommend this and will be purchasing the other scents.

My last purchase was this L'oreal Elvive Extraordinary Clay shampoo. This is the second stage to L'oreal's Extraordinary Clay treatment, which claims to balance hair that's prone to greasy roots and dry ends - which is unfortunately a group I fall into. I haven't had a chance to try this yet, but it's promising some good results so I'll be posting some updates with a full review of this and the rest of the products in the line soon! 

If there's any products you think I should try let me know!

Love Sara