Beauty: Showel Gel Problem

I have a problem. I can't stop buying shower gels.

But hey, even if I have more shower gels than I realistically have time to use, at least that means I can show them to you guys and tell you about them (blog post — ta dah!). There is always a silver lining.

TREACLE MOON Warm Apple Pie Hugs and Sweet Blackberry Memories (£2.99, Tesco)

Visiting my local Tesco Extra is dangerous just because of these beauties. Massive 500ml bottles for £2.99 (currently on offer for £2.49 though — even more tempting!), wide array of different scents, all beautifully presented and colourful. Sold. Which is why I have two full size bottles despite the fact that I have almost 1/3 left of my first bottle...

And talking of said first bottle, I'm currently using Warm Cinnamon Nights. The bottle is no longer pretty enough to warrant a photo so you will just have to imagine the red-hued pink gel which creates pink bubbles and smells like cinnamon-flavoured candy: spicy yet sweet. I wish the scent lingered on skin longer, because I want to smell like that all the time. So. Good.

Warm Apple Pie Hugs is a sweet, crisp apple scent reminiscent of Granny Smiths. That said, it doesn't remind me of apple pies. But that's probably just me — I associate apple pie with scent of cinnamon, as I've always had my apple pies sprinkled with cinnamon. It's an addicting scent though, and I'm always a big fan of crisp apple scent. It's so clean and fresh.

Sweet Blackberry Memories is lovely sweet yet fresh scent, and reminds me of a few berry-flavoured green/white teas I've had over the years. Absolute winner. This is definitely a summer scent.

I'm still lusting over The Honeycomb Secret (very similar to LUSH It's Raining Men), but I'll restrain myself (for now). Treacle Moon also gets extra brownie points for being cruelty-free!

SUPER BEAUTY Ginger & Pear (currently on offer for £2.49, normally £4.99, Boots)

Ginger and pear are a combination that I will always love, regardless of the context. Tea, cake, jam, shower gel... I'll have them all. Perfect zing of ginger combined with sweet and juicy scent of pear. I can't wait to try this out!

LUSH Hot Toddy (limited edition, sold out)

I got these from the Christmas sales and boy am I happy I got two small ones instead of just one. I'm a lover of anything spicy and Christmas-y all year round, so these fit the bill perfectly. Bonus points for the glitter. I'm very happy I got the small bottles, as they're perfect for travelling (which has been happening a fair bit lately!).

LUSH Sweetie Pie

This is my second pot of the stuff and I can't get enough. The form (being jelly) takes a little of getting used to, but I think it's quite a fun and original feature. Apparently Sweetie Pie has the same scent as the ever popular The Comforter bubble bar — if so, I can see why it's popular. The scent is amazing. Beautifully sweet, reminding me of a natural version of Ribena (if such existed). Win. Plus, it's glittery jelly!

SOAP&GLORY Orangeasm

Soap&Glory is always a good idea, but when I saw the Orangeasm gift set reduced to 70% off in Boots after New Year, I could hardly pass it by! Especially after seeing everyone and their grandmothers fawning over the smell. Certainly worth the try with that price tag! A lovely fresh citrus scent, and I love the pump bottle design.

Haul: Sales (The Finnish Edition)

As anyone who has read my posts before probably knows, I love a good sale! So I can't say I'm not slightly miffed to miss all the Boxing Day sale bargains in the UK. In Finland, everything was still closed on Boxing Day (not bad thing at all) and in here "sale" generally means 20-30% off the original price tag. The original prices are already higher than the UK equivalents (good example being Lush massage bars which are £6.50 in UK and £9.80 (12.50€) in Finland — say whaaaat), so Finnish sales generally don't excite me much. With few exceptions.

Finnish brands. I'm a dedicated buyer of Arabia dishware, Iittala glassware and Finlayson home textiles. I wish I could say I was a dedicated buyer of Minna Parikka, who designs the most beautiful shoes on the planet, but I can only say I am a dedicated visitor of her website.

Arabia and Iittala usually have good sales, particularly around Christmas time, but so far they've been a little sad (only 30% off most sale items). I'm waiting for January to kick off the 50% sales, but I've already caved and bought some little things. Tuokio jug (the one with blue marks), seasonal Moomin mug and Kimara jar (red fruit printed one on the right).

Finlayson offered 50% all sale items, so I picked up some Tove 100 items. I was already looking at these in January 2014 when they came out, but waiting was clearly a good idea, since I didn't desperately need them at the time. Not that I do now, but at least I'll have brand new things in my home when I graduate and move out of student accommodation — I'm preparing!

Though I did manage to get some bits from the Lush online sale in the UK (and what a nightmare that was), I picked up Yog Nog soap and So White bath bomb from the Lush store in Helsinki as well. The prices are extortionate though and I don't understand how anyone can justify them at full price.

I also got this wool blend blazer with suede-like elbow patches from H&M. It's out of stock in the UK website, so I won't link it. It's got the same problem as I always have with coats and jackets, sleeves being a little too long, but I liked it too much to care. It's got lovely lining so I can always turn the sleeves (like in the photo).

What have you found from post-Christmas sales so far? And please, someone tell me I'm not the only 20-something who gets excited over dishware and home textiles!

Haul: Beauty (and Other) Bargains Galore

You won't see much beauty posts in here, but I thought I'd post a beauty (& other bits) haul since I seem to have accumulated a lot of make-up in the past weeks (entirely without meaning to). Prepare yourselves.

So I went on a mad (for me) nail polish shopping spree. But! Barry M had 3 for 2 for all their things, and I was on a hunt for a dark wine red colour with purple undertone (after using 'Milano' by Mavala from my mother's cupboard in Finland) and a topcoat. So obviously, I picked up an extra shade, as it was free! The shades I picked up were Red Wine, Berry Cosmo and a clear base/top coat.

Then I went to Poundworld. Now, everyone always raves about Poundland for make-up bargains. And it is great. But I made some great discoveries from Poundworld too!

Revlon Perfumerie! I've been wanting to try these since they came out, but due to mixed reviews, I couldn't justify the £6.49 price tag. But for £1 each? Absolutely. I picked up the shades Wintermint (sparkly light mint green), Balsam Fir (dark green) and Wild Violets (shimmery black-purple). I also spotted Fresh Linen (white), Moonlit Woods (light purple), Powder Puff (baby pink), Italian Leather (shimmery grey-brown), Espresso (deep dark brown) and African Tea Rose (bright coral pink). So if you've wanted to try the Perfumerie range, now's your chance!

Poundland and Poundworld are both great for nail polishes at the moment, with vast ranges of Revlon, Sally Hansen, OPI, Maybelline and countless other great brands on offer. So if you're on a hunt for new shades to add to your collection, head there. Definite bargains to be found!

I also picked up a Rimmel eyeshadow palette in 013 Sweet Smoulder from Poundworld. I won't be using the pink shade (pink eyeshadows look terrible on me), but I like the other three shades and it was only £1, so you can't really go wrong.

I had a voucher for extra 100 points at Boots when you bought any Collection or Natural Collection products, so I picked up this powder blush in 'Dusky Pink' from Natural Collection for £1.99. It's a really lovely shade and I've been using it a lot. I actually haven't had a powder blush for a good while, as my old one broke ages ago and I've been using Rimmel's Stay Blushed Liquid Cheek Tint (in 004 Sunkissed Cherry) for the past months. I must say though, I miss my broken Lasting Finish Blendable Powder Blush & Highlighter in 'Winter Glow' by Rimmel and wish they still made it. It was such a perfect autumn/winter shade.

While I was in Finland, I found these Max Factor Lipfinity Lip Tints in shades 'Mystical Mauve 02' and 'Marshmallow 05' for 2e and 2.95e each. Pretty good, don't you think? I can't find them on Boots website anymore, so I assume they're being discontinued. You can still find them on various online shops though! I've just ordered myself 'The Royal Plum 06', which is a beautiful dark red.

 

 I also picked up a matt powder (since my old one broke in the suitcase) by Lumene (a great Finnish make-up brand) which was on sale for only 5 euros (I think the original price was 15e). I got the lightest shade, which is called 'Vanilla Cream'.

A little non-beauty find in the mix, I got this turquoise waist belt 70% off at Accessorize (£4.50), and I was so happy with this. I've been wanting an elasticated waist belt for ages but haven't found that I liked (except for some gorgeous ones on Etsy!). This is perfect though, it's quite narrow, simple and in a great colour. 

I also got this nailfile-tweezer-mirror set from Poundland. I forgot my tweezers in Finland so I needed a new pair, and these were just really cute. And only £1!

I got these cat eye sunglasses for 70% off at Accessorize (£4.20). They looked so good that I had to get them even though the summer seems to be over!

TKMaxx is one of my favourite shops, and this time I picked up this beautiful Orla Kiely notebook (£4), which is still being sold in Waterstones for £14.99! The paper tag around the cover had some damage, but as I would have thrown it away anyway, I did not mind the slightest. I'm planning to use it for my dissertation planning (eek!).

I also bought a new (incredibly soft) CRÈME Organique powder brush and a new hairbrush by elite Professional (both £3.99) on same trip to TKMaxx. Both were much needed purchases! My old powder brush was a very old kabuki brush from Primark and while it did it's job fine, it was time for it to go, and my old hairbrush was doing more damage than good to my locks. I could feel the difference immediately. The brush works on both wet and dry hair, and is really great for detangling (which my old one definitely wasn't).

I ordered some bits from ASOS (which I will share in another post), but for some reason I decided to include this belt by Pull&Bear (£1.50) in this post. Probably because it fits the colour scheme so nicely haha.

Aaaand that's it for now. Wow. That is a lot of things! But considering it was all fairly well priced and a lot of the things I bought were actually things I needed (notebook, hairbrush, tweezers, powder brush, facial powder...), I don't feel bad about it.

I feel like haul posts just work better as videos. But I don't feel comfortable making videos? Haha. Blogger problems.

Until next time,

Jenni

(mini)Hauls: LUSH and Superdrug

I recently finished up my pot of Let The Good Times Roll cleanser from Lush (which I plan on repurchasing, it was amazing!), and that just happened to be my fifth empty pot... which meant a free facemask! This also happened to be my payday, so of course I coudn't resist a cheeky pop into the shop to get a couple of other things too while we were in town to see a movie with my boyfriend.

After having read some positive reviews online, I also decided to get the Tea Tree Water Toner Water (£3.95/100g). I have used it a couple of times now, and it makes my face feel lovely and refreshed. :)

Love Lettuce Fresh Face Mask, £6.25/each

My free facemask! I chose Love Lettuce — I asked one of the shop assistants for help in choosing as this was my first facemask. I have a combination skin that gets both dry and oily, and I was assured this was a great choice. As you can see, I was too impatient to leave trying it out until after I'd taken photos haha. I'm loving it so far!

Sweetie Pie Shower Jelly, £3.25/100g

In addition to the facemask, I repurchased a pot of Sweetie Pie shower jelly. Cherries, blackcurrant, bergamot, coconut and glitter? Yes please. It actually sort of smells like Ribena, but ten times better. I absolutely loved it when I last had it and have been wanting to get another pot since I ran out!

New Charity Pot Hand & Body Lotion, £1/10g

There was also a New Charity Pot, which I of course happily got. It's such a handy thing to keep around. I don't like this scent quite as much as I liked the previous one (which I loved), but it's still a nice one. :)

I ran out of my BB cream, which meant I also had to make a quick trip to Superdrug! I couldn't decide on a new product to try, so I decided to be boring and repurchase the Maybelline Pure BB Cream in Light (£6.99), which I'd just ran out of. And as it happens, Maybelline had a Buy 1, Get 1 Half-Price offer on... so I picked the ColourSensational lipstick in Coral Fever (£6.99) as my half-price treat. The Nivea daycreams were half-price (so only £1.99), so I picked one up too for the future. :)

Until next time,
Jenni