Lush Sale Haul

Now that I am on 100 day spending ban I have finally opened the goodies that I bought in the Christmas sales! I kept them to open to ease the pain of no spending!

These are all the goodies I bought in Lush.

I wanted soaps more than bath bombs as I still have quite a few bath bombs to use up and I have really liked the soaps I have used so far from Lush so managed to get gift sets that contained mostly soap!

Winter Wonderland gift set £6.95 but half price in the sale, contains;

45g Dream Cream Lotion

70g Snowcake Soap

The dream cream is has quite a thick consistency and will be great for dry patches.  It is the number 1 selling Lush product worldwide, so must be good!

Snowcake soap is gorgeous, it smells of marzipan.  It feels quite moisturising on my skin and I could smell the scent for a few hours after my shower. 

....had a very shiny nose gift set £12.50 but again half price in the sale.  It contains;

100g Snow Globe Soap

100g North Pole Soap

100g Northern Lights Soap

L-R

Snow Globe contains lemon myrtle and grapefruit so smells quite refreshing - I think this may be more of a spring scent.

North Pole is peppermint and chocolate scented - I can't smell a chocolate scent but can definitely smell the peppermint and it smells good enough to eat! 

Northern Lights is fresh pine, cypress and lime scented.  This soap feels quite sticky compared to the others and I had to peel the packaging wotsit thingies off that had stuck to it.  This is quite strong scented and would definitely wake you up in your morning shower!

Mr Punch soap, again half price so cost me £1.69.

Mr Punch soap contains juniper berries, blackcurrant and lime oil.

It smells sooooo nice! Definitely like a fruity punch!

To prove I didn't break the ban!

I now have enough soap to last me for months!

Did you pick anything up in the Lush sale? What do you think of the Lush soaps?

Lush Emotional Brilliance

Emotional Brilliance is the new range of cosmetics from Lush.  It's based on the concept of choosing colours that will shape your mood. It consists of lip colours, eyeliners, eyeshadows, mascara, skin tints and powder ranging in price from £12 to £14.50. 

I got an email inviting me to the pre-launch at the Chester store which took place this evening - I've just got home and as the product launches tomorrow, I thought I best type it up quickly!

They had this all over the window so we couldn't have a sneaky peak while we were waiting outside!

As we arrived we were given shots of Wheatgrass, I've never tried this before but it tasted a lot better than it looks! A bit like cold tea.  The Lush employee told me that it would feed my lashes. She had a table set up with some of the ingredients that are in the cosmetics such as oats and rose petals.

We were free to wander around the shop trying out the products.

Blended nicely on the back of my hand, felt nice and light - one of the best products from the range but I wouldn't pay £12 for a pot of powder this size.

This gave a nice shimmery bronze colour to the skin and would look fab with a tan. Its a little too dark for my skin tone but I am very pale!

This took quite a bit of rubbing on the back of my hand to blend in, but it left a lovely iridescent sheen to the skin. 

Feeling younger on the right side of my hand, nothing on the left. Hope you can see the difference!

I like the pots that are used throughout the range they are cute and I love the font on the labels. You get 8g of product in the bottles and the majority of the packaging can be recycled.

A few swatches - my favourite is the teal/gold eyeliner (middle). All the colours are very pigmented and they look gorgeous all lined up - but I'm not actually sure how many of the colours I would use, maybe I'm just not very adventurous!

I only tried one product on my face and that was the lip tint in Glamourous - a baby pink.

Eyes Bright mascara - I would not be able to use this. The handle on the brush wand is very short and I would struggle to apply the mascara to my lashes properly. 

I was then called up to the colour wheel, told to close my eyes while she spoke to me and then to pick the first three colours that appealed to me when she told me to open my eyes.

The order in which the colours are picked has significance. The first one is your strength, the second one your subconscious need and the third one your talent.

So my strength is In Charge - erm well I am known to be a bit bossy!

My subconscious need is Intuitive

My talent is Glamorous

From reading other blogs the first one picked can be a strength or a weakness and that definitely applies to me. I need to learn that I don't have to be in charge of everything all the time. I had on a blue blazer and a white and blue top and I hardly ever wear blue so it was a bit weird!

Intuitive - I do actually make a lot of decisions based on my intuition, so my subconscious must be telling me to keep it up!

Glamorous - this was the only product that I had used on my face before I picked out the colours. Again a bit odd! 

A few pics for you to enjoy!

 Well done to Lush for having another stab at the cosmetic market after their sister company B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful failed to take off and had to be closed. All the products are suitable for Vegans and are not tested on animals. I seem to be reading a lot about companies  testing on animals and being honest it is something I thought didn't really happen anymore - when I was a teenager (gees that makes me sound so old) you couldn't go out clothes shopping on a Saturday without signing animal rights petitions and I naively and incorrectly thought that most cosmetic animal testing had stopped. 

The concept is a good one, although a little gimmicky - I do like colours but I don't think I would wear half the range. The bottles would look gorgeous on my dressing table though!

I'll go back and swatch some of the lip products when the store is a bit emptier to get a better idea of the product and for the price I would expect it to have great lasting power, but tonight was the first time I have walked out of Lush without making a purchase.

Did you go to a VIP event? What did you think?

Will you be buying anything from the range?

Beauty Box Swaps Meet Up!

Yesterday I meet up with the most lovely group of ladies from the Beauty Box Swapping page on Facebook.


We met up in Chester, which is a beautiful walled city founded by the Romans in AD79 - the city is full of important historic sites but also boasts top class shopping which we took full advantage of! You can read more about Chester here, its definitely worth a visit.

We started off the day at Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet, a huge outlet village about 10-15 minutes in the car from Chester train station.

I picked up this gorgeous coral coloured silk dress/shirt from Warehouse at Cheshire Oaks, bargain at £20 reduced from £70! Perfect for holiday with gold jewellery and sandals.

After a few hours of shopping we made our way back into Chester and had lunch at The Living Room in the town centre.

L-R Emma, Nardine, Nora, Wendy, Nina and Caroline

Having been fed and watered we were ready to hit the shops!

First stop Debenhams - as I said when I walked in it's a BBS heaven!

This lippy was on my wish list, look how pretty and pink it is!

Next stop the Lancome counter.  

I got the Hypnose mascara, which came with 30ml of Bi-Facil and a mini L'absolu rouge lippy, plus Teint Idole Ultra foundation. This is one of the only foundations I have found that is pale enough for my skin, I didn't like the matte finish when I first tried it but I love it now. When I finish this bottle off I am going to try the Estee Launder Double wear as recommended by Emma and Caroline :)

There was a free gift with 2 purchases offer on - look at all the goodies I got!

Can never resist a Lush purchase!

I got my son the Dorothy bubble bar, I get him something different everytime I go.  The products are all natural and don't irritate his skin.  He used to love the bath bombs but now he prefers the bubble bars! As the name suggests they make lots of bubbles and they last for more than one use.  Should get three baths out of this bar.  How cute is the rainbow?!

I got a bath melt called Happy Blooming, again this will last for three baths.  The smell of cherries is gorgeous.  I've not seen or tried this bath melt before, looking forward to a nice relaxing bath to try it out.

Once we were shopped out and had said goodbyes to Caroline and Emma, we made our way over to Chester Cathedral to sit in the sunshine and enjoy the surprise that Nardine and Nina had bought with them....

BBS Cupcakes!!! Sparkly ones!

Made by Laura, she couldn't make the meet up so she sent us some cupcakes.

Yum, yum! 

 Laura sent us three boxes of the most delicious cupcakes, she is super talented and should really think about starting a cupcake business - the girl has talent.

A Beauty Box Swap day wouldn't be complete without a little swap! Thanks Emma for the MAC Lovelorn lippy, this is a perfect daytime pink.  I will be wearing this everyday for work.

I had such a great day, they are a bunch of amazing ladies and I am proud to call them my friends.  We chat all the time on the swapping page but this is the first time we have all met up (I have met Nardine before in February) and it was just like we have known each other all our lives! We laughed so much our sides hurt and we shopped so hard our feet hurt! We will definitely be having more meet ups and I'm sure they will become a regular event :)

Breakfast this morning! Thanks for the cupcake Laura and for the chocolate Nardine!