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Bargain Buying, Fashion, Fragrance, Hair, Haul, Makeup, Skincare

Black Friday Deals / Cyber Monday 2018

It’s that time of the year again. Time for black Friday deals, and Cyber Monday to boot. I’m more of a Cyber Monday gal myself. I don’t tend to bother with the crowds 🙂

As a disclaimer, I will just say. You are under no obligation to buy any black Friday deals. I am doing this just because as a blogger I get sent a lot of the codes, so it’s easy enough to put them in one place. And also to be completely transparent, some of the links I will share are affiliate links. You pay no more using an affiliate link. All it means is that if you click on my link and choose to buy something, I make a minuscule commission.

Anyway, let’s get onto the black Friday deals. I’ll insert the ones I have already and then update this post as often as I can with more codes/links and cyber Monday deals too.

I’ll update as I source more or things change. Happy and safe shopping 🙂 And if this was helpful, please do share. Thanks.

Gemma

xxx

November 21, 2018/by Gem

Makeup

Huda Beauty Smokey Obsessions Palette

I hadn’t really planned on doing a dedicated post to the Huda Beauty Smokey Obsessions Palette.

A lot of chatting was done about the Mauve Obsessions here when I first got it so I thought people would be sick of hearing about them.

The Huda Beauty Smokey Obsessions Palette has been a constant in social media posts since I picked it up though so, I thought I needed to get a reference post up so I can link anyone to swatches and the likes.

If you’re unfamiliar with these palettes , they’re really very dinky. They fit into the palm of my very small palm. However the pans are decently sized within it. The eyeshadows also pack a real punch so you really don’t use much per look.

The Smokey Obsessions comes with nine colours in it’s miniature packaging.

You get five foiled shades and four mattes. They range from a light taupe, gold, silver, medium to dark browns and a matte black. So everything you need really to create a brown/black smokey eye or a more light, airy shimmery look. You get the best of both cool toned and warm tones from it. For me, it’s missing a base shade for setting the lid, but I don’t really mark it down, it just means I’ll always have to have another palette to hand for that.

The mattes are ultra pigmented and easy to blend. The foiled shades are really soft and creamy. However, I don’t think you get the best out of them with a brush. You need to press them on with your finger for full on opacity. This tends to be the case with most foiled shadows in my experience though, so doesn’t really bother me.Overall, I am a big fan of the Huda Beauty Smokey Obsessions Palette. The shade choices are all wearable for me. I have been reaching for it so much. At €28, these little palettes were a great introduction to the Huda Beauty brand for me too. I had never tried anything from them before. You can find all four colour ways online here.

xxx

February 14, 2018/by Gem

Haul, Makeup

Colourpop Haul!

I had to do it at least once! When Colourpop announced they are now shipping internationally, my heart skipped,skipped a beat 🙂

My heart then proceeded to drop when I saw what they were charging to ship internationally. $25! And that doesn’t include custom clearance! But like the good little makeup fiend that I am, I couldn’t stop thinking about ordering. They give you $5 off if you sign up to their newsletter so I thought, feck it! I’ll even just do it the once and take the hit. Then, I proceeded to go over the Irish customs limit too (I think anything over $25 puts you in the danger zone of having to pay tax. I just couldn’t justify all of that money to ship it over and only getting a couple of things. I wanted to get my monies worth. I risked it and it paid off. I did not have to pay customs on the package. But that doesn’t happen all the time, I think it really is just the luck of the draw. If you fancy fancy seeing what I got. Here’s my first ever Colourpop haul.

Colourpop really know how to package a…package! The box is so pretty.

The packaging on the products themselves is really nice too.

I picked up two of their Super Shock eyeshadows.

‘Game Face’ which is a penny bronzed metallic colour.

And ‘LALA’, which is a rose gold metallic shadow.

They both cost $5 each.

I picked up one of the Supershock Cheek Highlighters.

This is in the shade ‘Lunchmoney’.

Colourpop describe it as a soft light gold with a reflective duo chrome finish.

These cost $8 each.

The powder products feel like nothing I have ever used before. They’re nearly wet to the touch and have a gel like consistency when you apply them to the skin. Colourpop tell you that the formula is best applied with the fingertips.

I chose one of their Crème Gel Colour Liners to try.

This is in the colour ‘Show Me’.

I thought it would be complimentary to the shadows. These are $6 each.

And one of their Crème Gel Liner Pencils too that will hopefully go with the other eye products.

This is in the shade ‘Stomper’. These are $5 each.

Onto to lip products. I ended up getting three.

One of their sheer Lippie Stix.

This is in the shade ‘Tiger’.

It’s $5 each for these.

And then, two Ultra Matte Lips.

‘Beeper’.

‘Bumble’.

The Ultra Matte Lips are $6.

Colourpop haul dunzo 🙂

I placed my order with Colourpop on the 12th of July. They did give me a USPS tracking number and I could track my package up until it went on to the international flight. Then, I couldn’t get an update on it. I received my order from my regular postman, on the 26th of July. My total bill was $66 with the $5 discount. That worked out at €61.31 and I paid with Paypal. As I mentioned already though, I was lucky customs let the package through and I didn’t have to pay an extra penalty.

What do you think? Are you tempted? The products themselves are really reasonable priced, I think. If they brought down the shipping, I think I would be more than happy to shop with Colourpop again. First impressions are really good, I like the products I got, alot 🙂

xxx

July 27, 2016/7 Comments/by Gem

Archives, Bargain Buying, Beautynook Tips, Makeup

Easy Tip-How To Get Use Out Of Cheap Eyeliners

This is by no means a new tip in the world of makeup. But it’s handy to know if you’ve taken a chance and picked up a pencil eyeliner or lipliner that is just crap! It happens to the best of us, we think’ oh that looks nice, or that’s cheap’, but there’s no way of testing it out in the shop or you buy it online. You bring it home and it just doesn’t give any pay off, or it’s dry and it drags on your skin.

So my tip is, grab a lighter, or a match whatever you have to hand. And of course grab that stupid liner.

Run the pencil under the flame for a couple of seconds. Don’t leave it for too long, it will melt the product and you may end up with a fire on your hands too, noone wants that!

What this does is warm up the product and makes it softer so it’s easier to apply. Apply it to the back of your hand first to make sure its not too hot and of course that the heat has actually worked on it.

You will hopefully see the product applies a bit more easily on the skin and the colour pay off should be a bit better too.

Give it a go and let me know. I know it’s a bit more effort than using a decent pencil, but it’s also better than throwing out the unused ones you may have lying around 🙂

xxx

July 30, 2015/by Gem

Skincare

The Body Shop Camomile Cleansing Oil

I was given the Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel at an event, and I simply fell in love with it, but at over 35 quid it’s not ideal for the pocket. So I’ve been on the hunt for something that does the job but is a tad bit cheaper.

This brings me onto the whole point of this post The Body Shop Camomile Cleansing Oil. I’ve been a bit of an oil junkie of late, see my review of the Waxperts Beautiful Body Oil here, so I thought oil was a good way to go.

Like the Oskia gel, the Camomile Cleansing Oil is applied to your face when it’s dry to begin with. Give the bottle a shake and then you massage it in, then wet your hands to emulsify the oil and lather some more. I really like this two step method. I feel like your helping with circulation aswell as really getting the product into your pores and giving your face a good oul clean! You then just rinse your face (I use a muslin cloth) and the jobs oxo.

I really like the Camomile Cleansing Oil. It smells lovely and fresh and you only need a couple of pumps in the palm of your hand to do your whole face (and neck if you’re like myself) so it’s not a really messy operation. It also works! A couple of times after using it I checked for residue with some micellar water and a cotton pad and there was none, so it’s taking off all of my makeup, even the waterproof parts. I rub it into my lashes, it doesn’t sting or feel uncomfortable.

It also doesn’t feel like your stripping your skin or drying it out when you use it. As I have oily skin you would assume I would want my skin as dry as a bone after washing but if you strip your skin completely it’s just going to make even more oil to compensate, we don’t want that.

The Body Shop Camomile Cleansing Oil is made with fair trade camomile which is great and is the case for alot of The Body shop’s products. It also contains Almond Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil and Soy bean Oil so plenty of oil within the oil 🙂

In conclusion, I’ve found a really good alternative to my Oskia Cleansing Gel. It get the job done, doesn’t irritate and feels nice on the skin, I will definitely repurchase.

The Body Shop Camomile Cleansing Oil will set you back €17.50 which is half of what the Oskia would. Also Caroline Hirons had nice things to say about the Camomile Cleansing Oil, that alone would make me buy it 🙂

xxx

April 10, 2015/by Gem

Makeup

Chanel Vitalumiere Loose Powder Foundation

As you may have read in my post about what I got for Christmas here, I picked up the Chanel Vitalumiere Loose Powder Foundation in Brown Thomas with a voucher I got off my brother (thanks bro)!

With a price tag of €65.00 I did not want to like this product, but alas I fell in love from the get go, I apologise in advance 🙂

First off I will quickly mention the mini kabuki brush the foundation comes with.

This is the softest little synthetic brush I have ever come across, oh my god, it’s like rubbing a kitten on your face. Dramatic maybe, but it does a fab job at applying the product. It is the perfect density for it and it is very pretty, so a lovely addition to my makeup brushes. I have never owned a Chanel brush before and I feel very fancy indeed using and owning this one 🙂

The sifter on the pot is made of a textile/mesh material rather than plastic which is rather refreshing as you can just bounce the brush of it to get the product onto it. You do have to be careful, the brush can pick up alot, so be sure to tap before you dab onto your face.

Onto the main event, the foundation. I have used a few different powdered foundations in the past, and have always ended up just using them as setting powders as I never really got my desired coverage out of them.

This stuff has changed my mind. I feel comfortable wearing this as just my foundation with some concealer underneath (I have crap skin!), hallelujah!

The Vitalumiere Powder Foundation has an SPF of 15. It is finely milled and blends in very well. It does a good job at covering light imperfections, veins and redness and gives a lovely velvety finish to the skin. You definitely need something more heavy duty underneath for proper breakouts or under eye circles.

I have oily skin so for me this is the perfect kind of product for me. I think if you have dry skin or dry patches this foundation might cling and enhance them, so air on the side of caution and test it out at the counter.

I find this powder lasts really well on me, and looks natural and satin like. It does not oxidise which is brilliant too.

Overall, for such a lightweight powder it ticks so many positive boxes for me. I am nearly sad at this because lets face it, 65 quid is a pretty hefty amount of money to splurge. I suppose it is nice for a treat now and then though. When I enjoy a product like this I add it to my present list, so when family members are thinking of something to buy me, there is always a few reliable things on the list that I will be delighted with. How thoughtful am I? :p

Tell me, have you any favourite mineral foundations?

As always, thanks for reading.

Gemma

xxx

January 13, 2015/2 Comments/by Gem

Posts

I’ll update as I source more or things change. Happy and safe shopping 🙂 And if this was helpful, please do share. Thanks.

Gemma

xxx

I had to do it at least once! When Colourpop announced they are now shipping internationally, my heart skipped,skipped a beat 🙂

What do you think? Are you tempted? The products themselves are really reasonable priced, I think. If they brought down the shipping, I think I would be more than happy to shop with Colourpop again. First impressions are really good, I like the products I got, alot 🙂

I was given the Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel at an event, and I simply fell in love with it, but at over 35 quid it’s not ideal for the pocket. So I’ve been on the hunt for something that does the job but is a tad bit cheaper.