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

The Magical Wonderland of TKMaxx

Who doesn't love TKMaxx?

I popped into one of the Aberdeen branches the other week, with the intention of just checking whether they would happen to be stocking my favourite granola (The Food Doctor), as TKMaxx seems to be the only place where it can (occasionally) be found in Aberdeen. Well, you know what they say about good intentions...

I left the shop with some great bargains in my bag. I bought two pairs of pants, rhubarb-strawberry loose leaf tea, a massive tin bucket of gourmet popcorn (almost a kilo!) and some protein pasta. There was also a very pretty vintage-esque red polka dot dress that I left in the shop. For once, reason reigned over — since 90% of the clothes I've bought over the last month have been either red, red-white or polka dot patterned, I decided that it wasn't special enough.

Popcorn and tea, what else does a girl need? Pasta and knickers weren't interesting enough to be included in the photo I'm afraid ;)

I got all the food items from the clearance section, and both the tea and the pasta were only £1 each! Best before dates are well in the next year, so I definitely got lucky. :) The bucket of cookies and cream popcorn was £3, which was also amazing for the amount. I had been wanting to try some gourmet popcorn for ages, but it's so expensive... But this was going out of date at the end of the month, hence the low price. I did however have another reason for buying that massive bucket of popcorn — because of the bucket. It's just so pretty, I just kept imagining it on my desk or shelf as a sweet smelling storage box, and I had to get it. I think £3 for a good-sized storage tin is already a fairly good price, so I was happy with my purchase, even if I can't feed the almost-a-kilo of popcorn to anyone (I will not eat it all by myself).

How delicious does that look?

Apart from the treasures I took with me, my branch also stocked other temptations such as lots of TIGI shampoos and conditioners (my absolute favourites), Benefit's Hello Flawless foundations (in shade far too dark for me), some other nice make-up items, deliciously smelling candles, Emma Bridgewater mugs and Le Creuset teapots. All for well reduced prices!

Have you made any finds in TKMaxx lately?

Until next time,
Jenni

Easter Haul (and Stylish Surprise)

Here we go...! So, over the last week of Easter holidays from Uni, I had a friend over up here in Aberdeen. We both share the love of clothes, make-up, all things sweet, as well as tea. This all is somewhat of a dangerous combination, especially as the week had a sense of novelty in it, because we see each other so rarely nowadays and it was her first time in Scotland.
And so we hit the shops in hunt for bargains.

 

 

 

1) Midi Skirt £4, New Look, 2) Revlon Renewist Lipstick in Shade 200 'Red Reinvented' £1, Poundland, 3) Lace dress in Dusty Mint £5, Primark, 4) Clip on earrings £1, Primark, 5) Scented Candle £2, Primark, 5) Hush Puppies Lonna Heels £24.99, TKMaxx (currently £65 in Schuh!)

 Everything except the candle was found from sales or bargain shops, like Poundland and TKMaxx. :)

We both love charity shops, the mixture of quirky, old, pretty and downright dreadful. After breaking my beautiful glass teapot halfway through the week, we decided to go look for a non-glass replacement in the many charity shops Aberdeen has to offer. And found two. I am only offering photos of one though, as the other one (carved brass) is currently going through a thorough cleaning process to find out whether it is actually usable, or whether it will be strictly for decoration purposes.

 

As you can probably see, this beauty has some cracks below the glossy top. Which means that it does not have much use left in it. But it was far too beautiful for me to pass it by, especially at £2.99 (British Heart Foundation).

 We also had an indulgent Chocolate Afternoon Tea at my absolute favourite place in Aberdeen: Cup. When I say indulgent, I do mean indulgent. Extremely so. We had a stack of Nutella Toasties, Dark Chocolate and Banana Scones with Raspberry Jam and Nutella, Chocolate Dipped Strawberries, Truffles, Chocolate Macarons and Chocolate Traybakes. And of course, delicious, high quality loose leaf tea. No pictures though, as we are both frustrated with the photo quality of our iPhone 3GS's (but at the same time refusing the splurge on a newer model while these still still work) and neither of us had our DSLR's with us. And of course, the chocolate decadence in front of us had a very strong call. Needless to say, it was incredibly delicious.

When I got back to Aberdeen, I also had a parcel waiting for me in the flat. This parcel contained my Modcloth Stylish Surprise —for those unaware, Stylish Surprise is an event held a couple of times a year by US based website Modcloth, and the idea is that you pay $10-15 for a mystery apparel or shoes ($5 for accessories) which can be worth anything from $29.99 to $299.99. A gamble, in other words. My previous two attempts had ended with me receiving a dress completely not my style (5'2 and maxi dresses made for people a head taller than you are just not a working combination) or ill fitting (the dress was cute, but the top was horribly loose around the chest — being a 30F, I really have no idea how that is even possible). This time around however, the price of the Stylish Surprise had been reduced to $10 from $15, so I took the plunge again, hoping for the best.

I received this beautiful blue off-shoulder dress, which has fits me like a glove (not an easy task). The only negative about this is that it is not casual by any stretch of the imagination, so finding an occasion to wear it will take a while...

I don't know what happened to the colours when I downloaded these to Blogger — they look completely different on my photo editing tool.

I also received this incredibly cute pair of booties. They are not something I would have picked up on my own, but after I put them on, I fell in love with them. Somehow they manage to look really petite and cute on, rather than big and clunky, as they did out of the box! They feel really nice, but I noticed that the heel had worn off a lot at the back just after one use! Having only paid $10 for them though, I can deal with that and get the heels replaced.

 In other words, this time around the Stylish Surprise was a resounding success, and I can't wait for the next one, to grab more lucky bargains (especially shoes)!

Until next time,

Jenni

Mayday, mayday, it's May Day!

I don't know what happened, but it's suddenly May. All my good intentions about starting regular updates on my blog flew out of the window when the Easter holidays started and I was reunited with my boyfriend for precious two weeks (it had been three months). Then we said goodbye (until June), and I returned to Aberdeen with one of my best friends — and somehow another week flew by without me noticing. Then it was back to the hustle and bustle of University life, with two massive novels, Ulysses and Middlemarch, to wade through. Then came a dance weekend away in St. Andrews, which gave me sore fleet and a cold, which I am still nursing now.

But I decided that since it is May Day (which is a national holiday in my native Finland), I will make a post today, instead of finishing up Ulysses for tomorrow's morning seminar (what a way to begin a Friday, ay?). No outfit photos (though I do like my UNIQLO x Orla Kiely top and a midi skirt combo), as being ill means I look like death warmed up.

My three weeks off from Uni started off in a very controlled manner when it comes to shopping. During my two weeks with my boyfriend, I had only gathered the previously mentioned Uniqlo x Orla Kiely top (absolute bargain at £2.90), a red corduroy skirt (another £3 bargain), a pair of 'faded neon blue' (= light blue) Converse Lite's (a necessity buy, and also on sale, for £24) and foldover yoga capris from Forever 21 (£8.25).

Primark, £3

Uniqlo £2.90

I just love this print. While I do like to play with other colours too, the basic combination of red, black and white definitely has a special place in my heart. Also, anything a bit retro is a win in my book.

Converse Lite, photo from Office website. Because by the time I had been walking around in them in Brighton, Oxfordshire, London etc for a week, they aren't really in the condition to be paraded around this blog with close-ups. But seriously, 'faded neon blue'? 

When I say the Converse were a necessity buy, I really mean it. Here up north I was still wearing winter coats and so on, so though I had only packed lighter jackets for our Brighton trip, I still only had leather boots and a pair of heels for evenings with me. The gorgeous summery weather and my bare legs meant that my feet needed something fitting too. So off we went, to the first shop I saw, which happened to be Office. My boyfriend (who also kindly decided to pay for them, being in full-time employment) thought they were cute, so I chose these, as they were also more comfortable than the ballet flats that I had originally had in mind.

Mine are actually in reverse colours, the waistband is teal and the legs are black. Sadly I couldn't find a photo on F21 website that matched mine. Also, for some reason this picture looks really green on the blog, even though it's definitely teal on the website (and my yoga capris definitely have a teal waistband). But yeah. I love them. I have wanted foldover yoga capris with a coloured waist forever and I finally found a pair that I like that didn't break the bank. :)

So, only four things (apart from some bits from Whole Foods, which I couldn't resist!), despite touring my way through Brighton, Oxford, London and Strathford-Upon-Avon. This was mostly thanks to my boyfriend I think, as he's not a big fan of shopping, so there was only so many shops I could drag him into. :P

The last of the three weeks, with my friend? That is a different story, and most definitely needs its own post.

Until next time,

Jenni

Retail therapy

Yesterday I decided to indulge in a little retail therapy (not that I hadn't already received the ASOS goodies from my last post this week, and also ordered Stylish Surprise Apparel & Shoes from Modcloth...!), as a treat after the previous 3 weeks of insanity. Here's what I got!

 WHAT I GOT:
Two tops from H&M (25% off with a card I got from a Glamour Magazine!)

LUSH Let the Good Times Roll Cleanser (which I have been lusting after for AGES)

Loose leaf tea

Granola (Food Doctor granola is SO HARD to get hold of in Aberdeen, so this definitely classifies as a find — thank you TK Maxx. Still no sign of my coveted Spiced Carrot granola though, grrr.)

Top 1: Striped basic t-shirt | Top 2: Red polka dot shirt

I love my classics. Polka dots and stripes are absolute staples of my wardrobe, and you can see me sporting one or the other at least 3 times a week in some form or another. I've been wanting a white shirt with thin black lines for a little while now, so here we go.

 I finished my day out in John Lewis, who are offering a fantastic membership deal: free hot drink and cake every month! I had a pot of English Breakfast with a plain scone and raspberry jam. Sadly I could not see any clotted cream, and wasn't offered, so my experience was not quite as quintessentially English as it could have been. ;) The Espresso Bar (which I've been to the past two months) was packed at 4pm on a Saturday, so I opted for The Place To Eat. Not nearly as picturesque, so I did not feel the need to snap a photo of my solitary cream tea (sans the cream!).

A late night OOTD from yesterday!

Sadly the quality is a bit lacking – mostly because I can't be bothered to set up my camera and tripod since my room is not suitable as a background at the moment (hosting people, essay deadlines and a dance show to prepare for have left it in a state).
I also didn't actually wear the mint heels out. Despite my desperate hope for warmer weather, Aberdeen remains windy and cold, so my heels and ballet flats will have to bide their time until warmer weather, when my toes won't freeze. I'm crossing my fingers for Brighton next week.

Until next time,

Jenni