A cheeky little beauty haul

The after Christmas sale is dangerous ground for someone like me, and I'm like a kid in a candy store looking at all the wonderful offers and discounts, trying my hardest not to get too carried away. Despite all the dangers lurking, I did tempt fate and braved the sales early one morning to beat the worst thing about sales - the crowds, and I ended up getting one or two things, well ok... maybe a few more than that...

After years of having played around with makeup but never really thinking about the tools that I was using, I fell in love with Real Techniques brushes last year, and I'm guessing I'm probably not the first one this has happened to. Previously I use to be content with using whatever little hard sponge applicator that came with the product, but having tried the amazingly fluffy, soft and pliable Real Techniques brushes, there's just no going back to anything less than this. Since I still can't quite get used to working with brushes to apply foundation. I decided that it would be better for me to invest in some more brushes for eye makeup and I ended up getting two of the Real Technique Shading Brushes (£7.99). I'm so looking forward to using these brushes with some new eye shadows that I got recently and I'm still completely enamored with Real Techniques brushes. and I have a feeling this new relationship will last for quite a long time to come.

One thing that I will do better this year is to take better care of my growing collection of quality brushes, so I definitely needed to pick up a brush cleanser, and I ended up getting the No 7 Makeup Brush Cleanser (£8). The cleanser is more of a quick fix between uses and it comes with a pump dispenser, so you can spray it onto some tissue paper and then wipe off the brushes. Sounds good to me and although I know I should cleanse the brushes properly at least once a month, this is a great stop gap for me and definitely a step in the right direction when it comes to brush cleansing - all I need to do now is to actually use it...

After these little essentials I passed the stand for Seventeen products and the range of mascaras caught my eye. I don't mind paying a bit more for a super quality mascara, however since I go through them at rocket pace I am always open to a bargain. When I saw what these picks from Seventeen promise to do for my lashes, for a fraction of the cost of what I would normally spend on a mascara, I just had to try them. I crave long, volumized, curled and preferably flared lashes. That's a tall order and that's what the Seventeen Falsifeye Mascara (£4) claims it can do - well I have actually started to use it and I'll do a review of it very soon, and we'll see how it did. The second mascara - the Seventeen Dolld Up Mascara (£4) also promises beautifully curved, volumised lashes for a wide eyed look that lasts 24 hrs and of course I just had to get that as well. I have never managed to get hold of a great mascara for less than approx. £8, but I'm keeping an open mind and let's see if any of them can give my beloved YSLs Baby Doll Mascara a run for its money.

The last product to hit my shopping basket in Boots was a cheeky little lipstick that I have been hunting high and low for, Estée Lauder's Pure Colour Vivid Shine Lipstick (£20) in the gorgeous shade Hot Lava. I love Estée Lauder lipsticks - they are beautifully moisturising, the shine is incredible and they have super wear throughout the day. Hot Lava is a creamy, glamorous, and timeless deep red wine shade that is simply stunning and despite the richness it's not too dark for Spring.

As you know for me no shopping trip is complete unless I get something new for my nails, and this time around I ended up with products that all speak to the OTT side of me (and believe me, there's absolutely no point in trying to quiet that side down). When I quickly browsed through Primark I accidentally spotted some very interesting caviar mixes and the price (£2) each was so low it would have been plain rude not to buy them. Both sets come with a base shade and a caviar mix and although I may not get much use out of the base shades or have very high hopes on the formula, at least I have two very interesting mixes to play with. The first one is a gorgeous and balanced mix of black, silver and gold and I just can't wait to try some different looks with this, and the second one is a lovely mix of different blues; navy, cobolt, deep sky blue, turquoise and silver. I imagine it would look amazing with a tan in the summer.

After that accidental purchase I wandered on to Superdrug where I found a great deal on Models Own products - 2 for £8, which was just too good an offer to refuse, and I ended up getting something I hadn't tried before - the Models Own Artistix Duo (£6) in Terra Crystal and Ember Red. It's the same principle as with Revlon's Moon Candy products, so it's basically 2 products in 1 with a plain base shade at one end and then a different effect top coat at the other. In the first one, Terra Crystal, the base shade is a muted bark brown and the effect is a glitter polish with pink and black particles in different sizes and together they create a very gritty but sparkly look. The base shade in the second one, Ember Red is a deep maroon and the top coat a shimmer mix of lustrous  bright red, orange and gold - I'm so looking forward to experimenting with both of these.

My last stop of this little treasure hunt was Debenhams, where a big sales sign at the Lancome section made me go a little overboard and I ended up getting a few Lancome Ombre In Love Eyeshadows (limited edition - £9.50). The shades are all beautiful shimmering pastels in pink and green with tempting names like Romance Tagada, Pistachio Cream and Cosmopolitan Mint and they looked soooo pretty. The eyeshadows had been taken out of the packaging so what I didn't realise was that they come in a slightly flimsy paper packaging. I really don't like it and it's not at all what I would have expected from Lancome, but I'll just take that in my happy blogger stride hoping that the formula won't disappoint.

I haven't tried any eye makeup from Lancome in a very long time so I kind of look at this as research for the blog, which we all know has to be done - hrmm... and as you may have seen from the Spring & Summer collections 2014, these shade will be VERY useful and I've been very good to plan ahead. Despite my disappointment in the Lancome packaging, I'm still quite happy about what I got overall and I look forward to start testing everything out and I'm planning on publishing the first review in a week or so.