T.K Maxx Haul! ft. puppies & foal!

On Saturday, the day where I grabbed all those Nails Inc polishes, we decided to pop into T.K Maxx on the way back from shopping a bit.

Originally I had freaked out over some Urban Decay products but I passed them up in favour of a few different items when I went back today. The UD products had been ransacked and some stupid idiot had opened all the boxes! Plus the shades weren't really what I was looking for - I do really want that ''Jilted'' lipstick now that I don't have it though! It's insane for my standards but sigh...still...

T.K Maxx is so affordable, I can't wait to go shopping with Pearl and go to a even bigger store!

Sorry for the ramble, on to the products!

Eh, really bad quality pic. Xtah's Sebastion Silken Hair Cream.

At RRP £13.50 this product was being sold at £3.99! Huge saving or what?!
This product has quite fond memories for me, for one it is from the sole reason why beauty products are so fascinating for me today. I was on YouTube one day and the featured video was from Bubzbeauty. I fell in love instantly with the concept of make-up videos and it opened my eyes to the true art and beauty behind something I once considered so vain. I remember when she had only about 11k subbies (me included!) and whenever she did a hair tutorial she used her trusty Sebastian Crude Clay. Since then, it has been renamed a few times. I once agonised over the fact that it is discontinued and very expensive online, to get it at £3.99 is so amazing imo! ^^ Okay, end of story/ramble haha!

The product itself is very hard so I was worried at the start that it had gone bad. You actually need to dip your finger in quite a bit or use something, i.e. spatula, to scoop it out. It then melts beautiful on your finger tips and ''emulsifies'' so you can run it through your hair. So far, I've been enjoying playing with this in my hair and giving it a bit of extra volume!
The smell is interesting - a bit like Vicks/toothpaste. But pleasant!


Next up is a real bargain - The Balm products!I grabbed the bronzer, Bahama Mama, and the blush/eyeshadow in Hot Mama. They are both RRP at £19 (way too expensive!) and I got them at £5.99! So I only paid £11.98 out of the £38 I was supposed to pay!

As you can see, the packaging is pretty cool. It's a little bit cringe-worthy, I felt so awkward at the till!
Nevertheless, it adds a certain power to the products. I have heard a lot of stuff about ''copying'' from Benefit and in my opinion The Balm is fantastic for doing this. Benefit tests on animals so I don't support them!

Bahama Mama is a matte, midtone bronze colour. I think it would be perfect for pale people (i.e. me) when blended a fair bit & also darker skin tones. If you catch it in the light, it has a SLIGHT shimmer. It is however barely noticeable, which is great & it makes this a fantastic bronzer!

L-R: Blended, swatched Bahama Mama - It felt quite silky and was a heaven to swatch!

Hot Mama is gorgeous. It's a slight shimmery-golden-peachy-pink that is apparently not unlike Nars Orgasm blush. This felt even better to swatch, so silky! It is truely amazing. I think it's quite a universal colour and I couldn't pass it up at this price!

L-R: Hot Mama Blended, Swatched. Felt so silky! This is not a true to colour picture, sadly.

Comparison of Bronzer & Blush - pretty no?

Nails Inc & Diet Coke Promotion Haul! (+China Glaze polish!)

''Haul'' isn't really the appropriate word, I only grabbed 2/4 polishes for myself!

That doesn't mean I was totally normal, walking about with (eek) four bottles of Diet Coke to get my freebie nail polish. No way, I had to go in twice (the second time I admit to forcing my mum to go buy for me) to get 8 bottles of coke and 4 bottles of nail polish. Each bottle of coke cost £1.18, so that was a total of £9.44.

I skipped out on the last shade (I may regret this later) but it seemed like a very generic Berry/Plum/Red/Pink thing that I passed.

I was grabbing the Heather Grey & Denim shades for me, whilst I knew my good friend wanted the Denim shade. I also grabbed her the Caramel shade, as although this would look hideous with my pale skin, would compliment hers so much better. Plus she is a fiend for nude polishes lately, I gave her an OPI one today in fact!

Before I get onto the actual photos and descriptions, I wanted to say that this promotion will sadly end on Wednesday the 2nd of February. I'm just thankful I managed to grab these in time :)

From L-R: Denim, Denim, Heather Grey, Caramel, China Glaze's Little Drummer Boy.

Excuse the crappy lighting, it makes the two Denim shades appear differently! So to recap, I only kept one Denim & Heather Grey for me.

The China Glaze polish was a last minute impulse buy when I went to Sallys in the same day, cost me £2.40 with VAT due to the clearance/sale on the christmas range!

Heather Grey is definately my favourite, though it does come off a little too pink in the picture. Sorry! For good swatches just type in something like: Blog Nails Inc Diet Coke (shade name) swatches. It's what I do when I'm creating wish lists!

Until next time, (approx 20minutes or so!)

Huzzannah

LovelyLUSH: Review on Cupcake Fresh Face Mask

A review on the little Cupcake Fresh Face Mask from LUSH!

Retailing in the UK for £4.95 for 75g of product that only lasts for a maximum of 3 weeks (I personally would say longer, up to a max of a month, mind) I was a little dubious about this pot of wonder. Then again, I have already tried Catastrophe Cosmetic and I found that to be wonderful - despite the smell! Cupcake is however, a great improvement I'm pleased to say!





Funny fact - I'm currently using the mask! I've used it twice already and I figured, third times the charm for a blog post! There is still enough left in the pot for another mask so I can average roughly 4-5 uses per pot (so just above 1pound per pampering session, really)which isn't much but it is a treat. So let's go to the basics, shall we?

"Chocolate heaven for oil and teenage skin"

"Its action removes excess oil and calms breakouts. Rhassol Mud cleans and soothes, cocoa butter, linseed and cocoa powder soften the skin. Balancing peppermint, spearmint and sandalwood oils complete this effective and delicious experience....keep chilled." Sorry, I got lazy haha! Directly from LUSH's pot.^^

Product 7/10 - I love the scent, texture and the result. The only reason it doesn't get a better rating is because I seriously cannot see myself craving this product. It's very nice though. I have combination skin (a mad mix especially on my nose - it manages to be dry and flaky at the same time as being oily during the day!) so I tend to reach for things that deal with oily-ness whilst also being kind to sensitive and dry skin. This leaves a nice residue on the skin that is enough to tide me over till morning moisturisation (the first time I used this I made the mistake of moisturising after, It no longer felt smooth or silky and just felt like a mess.)It minimizes my pores somewhat aswell as calming any little spots I have. Overall it has encouraged me to try the rest of the family of LUSH masks. ^^
Smell 7/10 - Mhm. I wasn't sure on this one. The first time I smelt this (a friends pot from last year) I thought YUM! However, it definately has a slight herbal/mintyish scent that mixes in with the chocolate. It smells a lot better washed off your skin as the chocolate seems to linger. After two or so uses, I actually appreciate and enjoy the smell. It's a lot like other LUSH products (ie. soap) in that way.
Value 6/10 - Great if you have the money. You'd probably need about 12 pots of this a year, thats just under £50. Bear in mind the ''bring 5 black pots back and get a fresh face mask free'' promo though, so I guess really £50. It's going to be a slight indulgence for me really - I don't really have the effort to go out/buy online everytime this runs out or goes off. Great as a treat really.
Availability 2/10 Isn't that available if you don't have a local LUSH store to purchase from, as it is a FRESH product that goes off fairly quickly, thus it may be difficult to get your hands on. Sorry.
Ingredients 8/10 - Doesn't contain SLS, parabens and such like. I haven't done a full research into every detail but most of it sounds pretty good. Shame there isn't a paraben free preservative that could be added to make it last a little longer. The (rhassol) mud in it is great though. :)

Overall 7/10 - This has encouraged me to purchase the other face masks from LUSH and I look forward to doing so. This smelt great, felt great and left a lovely fresh face that smelt, well, great! Thumbs up from me!

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed!

Huzzannah <3