Simple Kind To Skin Facial Cleansing Wipes

After finishing the Primark Tea Tree Cleansing Wipes I decided to try something else, and on a trip to Boots I picked up these Simple Facial Wipes.I didn't like the smell of the Primark ones, but luckily these Simple ones have no scent.

They contain pro-vitamin B5 that "actively restores, softens and smoothes", and have no alcohol, oil, perfume or colour, so should be suitable for sensitive skin. They work well for me, although my skin isn't actually sensitive. They clean well and I like it that even the last one is well soaked through with cleanser, so 25 days after opening the pack the last one still feels as moist as the first one did (I do store them upside down to make sure the top one doesn't dry out either).

All in all, I like these cleansing wipes and have already replaced the packet. They cost quite a bit more than the Primark ones, you get 25 wipes for £3.20 (although there's currently a 2 for £5 offer on at Boots) which is still very reasonable.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Primark... erm, Nail Polish

I picked up this beauty on a recent trip to Primark. It was part of a 4 pack together with some other nice metallic polishes, but none of them awfully special. However this one is quite a different story. A greenish grey purple duochrome that flashes purple or green at certain angles and has lots of very fine glitter. Very hard to capture in its true glory, the pictures don't do it justice.

Taken without flash

The pack or the individual polishes have no names, just some numbers on the bottom, but I have included a picture of the whole pack at the bottom so you know what to look for if you'd like to pick this up. You get 4 x 6 ml in the pack for £2, so it really is a bargain. The polish itself has a nice formula, although it was a bit difficult to apply as the brush is rather small. But all in all, it lasted on me for 3 days with just one little chip which is very good for me.

So this just proves that sometimes, cheap can be very good, and you can pick up some great bargains if you keep an eye open for them.

See more pictures after the jump!  

L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows Review and Swatches Part 8 - Glistening Garnet

As you know, I love L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadows and I'm always in search of new shades. I picked up Glistening Garnet from eBay as this shade is sadly not available in the UK. (I'm also awaiting the arrival of two other non-UK shades, so I'll review those as soon as I can too.

Glistening Garnet is a darkened fuchsia shade that looks quite dark in the pot, but applies quite a bit lighter. I used it with a blending brush in the crease and it applied and blended really nicely. It's a really pretty shade and I would love it if they released it in the UK too.

I bought this for $7.95 on eBay and with postage it cost me around £7.50 which isn't too bad. In the UK they cost £6.99 (obviously not this one).

I have a recap post with links to all my prevous reviews of L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadows here. There is also a website with a brilliant list comparing all the shades available in different countries here.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Mac Volcanic Ash Exfoliator

Mac has repromoted their (in)famous Volcanic Ash Exfoliator in the Heavenly Creature collection and surprisingly it's still in stock, so I thought I'd review it quickly for those who are still debating whether to get it.

What is it? Volcanic Ash Exfoliator is a coarse black coloured sweet smelling facial scrub/exfoliator that comes in a squeezy tube. It's made mostly of sugar, but it also contains some volcanic ash that gives it it's black colour. It is quite rough, although the sugar crystals do melt when rubbed, but I think those with sensitive skin might want to try it first to see if it's gentle enough for them. For me, this is the best facial scrub I've ever tried, and I also love using it as a lip scrub. It's very effective, it leaves my skin smooth. It's more gentle than St. Ives Apricot Scrub which I also like, but that is admittedly very rough. I use Volcanic Ash Exfoliator probably once or twice a week, depending on whether I remember to do so.

It comes in a 100 ml tube and one tube lasts me about 6 months if not more. You really only need a small amount. Unfortunately it is limited edition again, so if you like it, be sure to stock up on it, you don't know when it'll next come out (if it does). It's silly for skincare to be limited edition in my opinion, but what can you do, that's Mac for you?!

A tube of Volcanic Ash Exfoliator costs £21, which I believe is quite a bit more than what it cost 2 years ago, but I can't remember exactly. This time I only bought 2 tubes because I still have probably 5 or 6 left (I managed to buy 3 in the CCO in Florida last year). Hope they will repromote is again because it is definitely my favourite scrub.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Sephora Moody Woman

Another Sephora purchase. I ordered this nail polish together with another two a while back from Sephora.fr and I actually did this NOTD about 3 months ago, so about time I've showed you. Sephora Moody Woman is a gorgeous duochrome nail polish (I love duochrome nail polishes in case you didn't know), it's mostly green that flashes blue at certain angles, very pretty.

Taken without flash - green and blue

The formula of this was really nice and it's very easy to apply thanks to a flat, wide brush. I used 3 coats for this manicure. Unfortunately on me this isn't very long lasting, it started chipping within the first 24 hours. (My record so far is about 60 hours without any chipping.) I still like it a lot and as it was so easy to apply and it's very pretty, I can forgive it.

Also it is very reasonably priced at €4.90 (just under £4) for 5 ml, so can't argue with that. Sephora has 65 different shades of their own brand nail polish and 3 of those are duochrome. As well as Moody Woman there's also a Chanel Peridot dupe/lookalike and a Deborah Lippmann Wicked Game dupe/lookalike, if you like duochromes, definitely worth checking them out as they're fraction of the price of the Chanel and Deborah Lippmann ones.

See more pictures after the jump!

Sephora Moonshadow Trios in Bermuda Triangle and Dusk Till Dawn - Review and Swatches

I bought these eyeshadow trios from Sephora last month when I ordered the new Chanel Illusion D'Ombre eyeshadows and I was looking for something else to order to offset the shipping cost. I like baked eyeshadows, so I thought I'd give these a go. I have only used one of them so far, but swatched both, so I thought I'd share them with you anyway.

Bermuda Triangle,  Dusk Till Dawn

Both shadows contain 3 shades, Bermuda Triangle has yellow gold, copper and teal, and Dusk Till Dawn includes light violet, light pink and mauve. The shadows are big enough for the shades to be used separately, although you need to be quite careful when using the middle shade as the strip isn't very wide. The colour payoff for these was actually very good, which can be an issue with baked shadows. I only tried them dry, but I'm guessing the colours would be even more intense when used wet. I have only used Dusk Till Dawn on my eyes, haven't tried Bermuda Triangle, but they both swatched very nicely and when used, Dusk Till Dawn didn't have any significan fallout, other than a tiny bit during application. The colours stayed vivid and the shadows didn't crease on me at all.

Sephora recommends that you use the top shade on your lid, then the bottom shade in the crease and the middle strip to highlight the browbone. I mixed it up and used the violet shade on the lid, mauve in the crease and light pink to highlight. With Bermuda Triangle I would probably use the gold to highlight, copper on the lid and teal in the crease, I really don't think the copper would look good on the browbone. The copper strip reminded me of the Mac Red She Said mineralize eyeshadow trios but it is actually much nicer than them, although it is chunkier than the rest of the shades, it's still pretty smooth and has a great colour payoff.

The eyeshadows weight 1.8 g each and cost €14.90 each (roughly £12) from Sephora.fr. They come in 6 colour combinations.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows - The Recap

Having swatched and reviewed all the shades I was possibly interested in (until some new ones come out of course), I've decided to do a summary post with links to all the individual reviews, so you can find what you're looking for more easily. I will update this with more links as and when I have more reviews up. For now these are the ones I have done so far:

Part 1 (Purple Obsession, Flashback Silver, Goldmine, Bronze Divine)
Part 2 (Permanent Kaki, Sahara Treasure)
Part 3 (Infinite Sky, Amber Rush)
Part 4 (Naughty Strawberry, Innocent Turqouise, Sassy Marshmallow, Magnetic Coral)
Part 5 (All Night Blue, Time Resist White)
Part 6 (Forever Pink, Smoothie Kiwi) 
Part 7 (Metallic Lilac)
Part 8 (Glistening Garnet) 
Part 9 (Golden Emerald, Endless Sea)

I have also found a really extensive comparison list of all the shade names, as you may know most of the shades have different names in the US, Canada and Europe. And of course some of the shades are only available in certain countires. So if you've seen a shade you like and want to know if it's available in your country and under what name, click here: MACnunu L'Oreal Color Infallible Eyeshadow Comparison List Thank you to Nunu for putting this list together, it has been very helpful!

And The Winner Is...

Many thanks to all of you who entered my 3 Year Anniversary Giveaway. Sorry it has taken me this long to annouce the winner, but I have been very busy (you have no idea how long it's been since I last wrote up a blogpost, thank goodness for scheduled posting is all I'm saying). Also, I had to go through 132 entries which did take a long time, but finally, I can announce the winner and she is...

Nóra 

Congratulations, I have e-mailed you, please let me have your postal address, so I can send you your goodies!

Those of you who didn't win this time, don't worry, there will be another giveaway coming up very shortly.

NOTD: Nails Inc. Burlington Arcade + Zoya Chloe

I picked up loads of Nails Inc. polishes from TKMaxx over the past couple of months, one of them was Burlington Arcade, a pretty burgundy shade. I decided to spice it up a bit and layer Zoya Chloe, a sheer pink flakie with orange, green and pink flakes. Here's the result:

I did two coats of Burlington Arcade and one coat of Chloe. This manicure lasted on me for the average 2 days without chipping. I love how the light catches on the flakes, it's very pretty.

Nails Inc. polishes normally retail for £11 for 10 ml and Zoya polishes cost around £8 (or more like $8 in the US) for 15 ml. The sets in TKMaxx cost £12.99 for 3 or £14.99 for 4 polishes, a bargain! I buy all my Zoya polishes on eBay from US sellers for about $7 a bottle (obviously you have to factor in the shipping cost and possible customs duty as well).

See more pictures after the jump!

Primark Oil Balancing Cleansing Wipes With Tea Tree

I like shopping in Primark, everything is so cheap. I buy a lot of my children's clothes there as they only need to last through a couple of seasons since they grow out of them so quickly anyway. On a recent trip to Primark I found these cleansing wipes, and since they were 2 packs (of 25 wipes) for £1 I thought I'd pick them up and see what they're like.

I'm sorry about showing you the empty pack, but I never got around to taking a picture before they were all gone. So what are they like? Meh. As far as cleansing wipes go they are fine, they cleanse my face fine, taking off all the make up. They don't dry out quickly, so even the last one was as moist as the first one which is good. The smell, however, is just so strong and unpleasant, I will not be buying these again. I can't really describe the smell, but it reminds me of insect spray, that sort of strong, chemical, yucky smell. I guess since they're not scented, this is just the smell of the chemicals in them? I don't know, but it's really strong and not nice. So in this instance, cheap is definitely not cheerful.

See the list of ingredients after the jump!

Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover Review

I had to pick up Bourjois's Magic Nail Polish remover after all the raves I saw on other blogs. When something says magic in the name, you just feel like you have to try it and see just how magic it really is. Well I do anyway. So I tried it out, both with regular and glitter nail polish.

But firstly, let me explain what it is. You get a plastic tub with a black sponge inside soaked in nail polish remover with a hole in the top that you put your finger in, then twist and remove to find all the nail polish has disappeared. Sounds magical, doesn't it?

Well, it doesn't quite do what it promises. With regular nail polish it works rather quickly, but I still need to put my fingers in for a second or even third time to get all the nail polish off. So make that more like 5-6 seconds. Which is about how long it takes me to wipe a nail with cotton wool soaked in nail polish remover. With glitter nail polish it takes a lot longer than 1 second, but I was expecting that. It probably takes about 30 seconds per finger and I need to keep putting my finger in and twisting and pulling out and again and again. What I like though is that unlike with cotton wool, it doesn't stick into the glitter as it dissolves. You do end up with a few flecks of black sponge, but that's all.

The product is heavily scented, the scent reminds me of raspberries, so it's not unpleasant, but rather heavy. I do not like the sticky, greasy residue on my hands afterwards though, I have to wash them a few times with soap afterwards to get rid of the sticky feeling it leaves behind. At least it's not drying, although I haven't used it long enough to see if it makes my weak, peeling nails better or worse in the long run.

All in all, I'm not blown over by this product and it's certainly not magic, but I can see it being very useful if you're travelling and don't want to bother with a bottle of nail polish remover and cotton wool pads. Plus it does work quickly, and it does make glitter nail polish removal much easier. However, due to the sticky residue I will be only be using it for glitter nail polish removal in the future. I'm perfectly happy with my Sally Hansen nail polish remover and a cotton wool pad for regular nail polish.

You get 75 ml which I believe is all soaked into the pad (as the pad goes all the way down) for £4.99 which makes it a lot more expensive than my regular Sally Hansen nail polish remover. It is available from Boots, Superdrug and whereever they sell Bourjois products.

See another picture after the jump!

NOTD: Chanel Diwali Nail Polish

Today I have Chanel's exclusive limited edition nail polish, Diwali to show you. This came out with the Bombay Express collection and I've already showed it to you here, however now I have swatches as well.

Taken with flash

Diwali is a very pretty, light, almost silvery gold, looks like liquid gold on the fingers. The formula is nice, it's a bit on the runnier side, but not too much and this allows you to do thin coats. Opaque in two coats and dries quickly. The brush strokes aren't too noticeable, despite it being rather metallic. Unfortunately Chanel polishes really don't last on me at all long, this one chipped on me within 24 hours, and by 48 hours I had some rather big chips and pretty much on every finger. Nail polish doesn't last that long on me normally, but I would expect to get through a whole day without chipping.

It costs £18 for 13 ml, so it's not cheap, but it's Chanel, so there you go. The Chanel Bombay Express collection is available exclusively from Chanel boutiques, Harrods, Selfridges W1, Selfridges Manchester Exchange, House of Fraser Glasgow and Fenwick Newcastle. I ordered mine from Harrods, they charge £8.50 for shipping (ouch!).

See more pictures after the jump!

FOTD: L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows

I did this look a little while ago using some of my lovely L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadows and I really liked the look, so I thought I'd share it with you.

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer all over lid
L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadow in Forever Pink all over the lid
L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadow in Metallic Lilac in the outer corner and crease
L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadow in Time Resist White in the inner corner and on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Radium on lower lashline
Givenchy Phenomen'eyes mascara in Acid Blue
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:

Guerlain Parure Aqua foundation in 02 Beige Clair
Guerlain Perles D'Azur Meteorites
Lancome Blush Subtil Rose #10 Rose Rose on cheeks

Lips:

Mac Girl About Town lipglass

See more pictures after the jump!

Guerlain Le 2 de Guerlain Mascara - 14 Blu 2 Pucci

This is the last product I picked up from the Guerlain summer collection. Possibly the most expensive mascara I own, but I love Guerlain's Le 2 mascara range so much, I think they are well worth the money. 14 Blu 2 Pucci is a beautiful purple-blue shade, very similar in colour to Riviera nail polish. Such a gorgeous, gorgeous shade, even if you don't "do" blue mascara, check this out.

If you don't know what's so different about Guerlain Le 2 mascaras, then let me explain. They're called Le 2 de Guerlain because they have two ends, one with spiky plastic bristles for the upper lasher that gives fantastic length and great volume to my thin, short lashes, and another little one with spiral bristles for the tiny lower lashes. The formula's lovely, doesn't clump, flake or smudge. These mascaras are not scented unlike the Noir G de Guerlain mascara, so may suit those better who don't like their eye make up scented. As I said these are one of my favourite mascaras.

Because this is a special edition colour, the mascara comes in a dark brown tube and you have the same Pucci prints inside the black outer box as you do with the other products in this collection. My pictures don't show the true colour, it's slightly more purple, but my camera is incapable of picking up purples sadly.

Guerlain Le 2 mascaras are pricy, they cost £25 and for that you get 7.6 ml which is a generous size. The summer collection is still available if you fancy picking this up for yourself.

See more pictures after the jump!

My Mac Heavenly Creature Haul Part 3 - Eyeshadows

Here's the final part of my Mac Heavenly Creature haul, this time it's the mineralize eyeshadows. You may know that I'm a massive fan of them and own almost every one Mac has released. (I didn't get two of the Chen Man ones that were exact dupes of some colours that were released earlier, but that's all.) I did a post on my Mac mineralize eyeshadow stash a while ago, but of course I have even more now. And of course I had to buy all 9 eyeshadows in the Heavenly Creature collection too.

I have to add that I have not used them all yet, but I have swatched them and they all seem very nice. Some are more shimmery than others (Invincible Light in particular is rather shimmery and frosty), but some are more satiny than anything. The colour payoff is very good, they are all really nicely pigmented. The ones I wore stayed on without creasing and fading for 10+ hours and there was only very mininmal fallout and that was only during application which is not a big deal for me at all.

The beauty of these mineralized eyeshadows is that you get 3 different colours swirled into one pot and they can create multidimensional colours, and also of course you can use them separately if you get large enough patches. Some of mine have really nice large patches, especially my Water with the big yellow patch in the middle and I've been able to use the separate colours in my Neo Nebula and Bright Moon as well. Of course the swirls also mean they are really pretty and nice to look at.

These Mac mineralize eyeshadows cost £16.50 and you get 2 g which is a bit smaller than some other mineralize eyeshadows (normally 2.2 g), but still rather large and they will last you absolutely forever.

See lots more pictures including swatches and a look I did, after the jump!

My Mac Heavenly Creature Haul Part 2 - Blushes

Here's part 2 of my Mac Heavenly Creature haul, this time it's the mineralize blushes. Don't worry this won't be such a long post as the skinfinishes' was, there are only 4 I've purchased (although I am thinking about going back for a back up for Solar Ray).

The collection includes 4 mineralize blushes, all of them come with a swirl pattern and contain 2 different colours. Some are again more shimmery than others, some just give you a nice sheen. None of them are metallic looking on the skin and all of them are wonderfully pigmented. I have included a picture at the bottom of the post of me wearing Supernova, the bright pink one, and boy it is very bright and extremely easy to overdo. Also Stratus is a very dark shade and need a very light hand if you are on the paler side.

My current favourite is Solar Ray, which is the lightest colour, it's a lovely peachy-pink with gold swirls. The gold is quite shimmery, but the overall effect is rather lovely. Ring Of Saturn is a mix of peachy pink and terracotta and it's another beautiful shade. That one isn't shimmery at all, it just had a lovely sheen. All of the blushes are very smooth and very pigmented.

Mac Mineralize Blushes cost £19 and you get 3.2 g which is once again slightly less than the usual 3.5 g weight. Have you picked up any of these shades? Which one is your favourite?

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

My Mac Heavenly Creature Haul Part 1 - Skinfinishes

Finally, the long awaited Mac collection, Heavenly Creature has launched in the UK and I have a lot of goodies to show you. I was very excited about all the mineralize products and ended up purchasing all of them, so I will do this haul post in 3 parts. Apart from the mineralize make up, I also bought a couple of tubes of Volcanic Ash Exfoliator which I won't be reviewing just now, but will hopefully get around to doing so sometime soon. So many products, so little time...

First off, here are the Mineralize Skinfinishes (or MSFs) I bought. There were 4 of them launched in this collection: Light Year, Star Wonder, Center Of The Universe and Earthshine. As I wanted to make sure I ended up with the ones I really wanted, as well as ordering from Debenhams as soon as the collection launched, I also picked up one of each MSF with patterns I really wanted. So all in all I ended up with 8 of them. I was actually very lucky in that the MSFs Debenhams sent me are also very much the colours/swirls I was after, but slightly different from the ones I picked up.

In the picture above the MSFs I picked out myself are in the top row and the ones I ordered from Debenhams are in the bottom row. I particularly wanted a Star Wonder with lots of purple and an Earthshine with very little burgundy. Out of the four Light Year is definitely my favourite, even though I thought it would be Star Wonder. I find Light Year less metallic looking on the skin and it's such a gorgeous peachy pink colour. Eartshine is slightly too dark for me to use as a blush (it looks dirty on my cheeks), but I will find a way of using it for sure. I have not worn Center Of The Universe yet, but it's a nice orange/coral blush and will no doubt work well for my skintone.

The MSFs are all very smooth, not gritty or glittery at all. Yes, there's some shimmer, some finer than other, and some of them, in perticular Star Wonder and Earthshine are quite metallic. I've found Light Year the smoothest and less shimmery. It of course depends on the exact pattern and combination of shades within each MSFs. 

Mac Mineralize Skinfinishes cost £21.50 and you get 7 grams which is actually quite a bit less than the usual weight of MSFs, they are normally 9 or 10 g, not sure why the difference. Have you picked up anything from this collection? Have you got a favourite? Let me know in the comments!

See LOTS more pictures including swatches after the jump!

L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows Review and Swatches Part 7 - Metallic Lilac

I wasn't going to get this. Honest. But then somehow it ended up in my basket in Superdrug. You know how these things are. I am happy I got it though as I really like the L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadows and Metallic Lilac is a very pretty shade. It's a silvery purple shade (more purple than Flashback Silver) with pretty pink flecks in it. The pink doesn't really show up in the overall colour, but it's ever so pretty to look at in the pan.

The texture and longevity is pretty much the same as the other L'Oreal Infallible shadows I own (except for Smoothie Kiwi which isn't that great). If you would like to check out the other reviews I have posted on here, please click on the links below:

Part 1 (Purple Obsession, Flashback Silver, Goldmine, Bronze Divine)
Part 2 (Permanent Kaki, Sahara Treasure)
Part 3 (Infinite Sky, Amber Rush)
Part 4 (Naughty Strawberry, Innocent Turqouise, Sassy Marshmallow, Magnetic Coral)
Part 5 (All Night Blue, Time Resist White)
Part 6 (Forever Pink, Smoothie Kiwi)

As always, these eyeshadows acost £6.99 and available from Boots, Superdrug and other places that sell L'Oreal make up.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique Colour in Kylie

Andrea Fulerton nail polishes are one of the few that last on me for over 2 days without chipping, usually best part of 3. I know this isn't that fantastic by normal standards, but it is by mine as almost everything chips on me within 48 hours. And that is why I now own quite a few shades of these polishes. Also they are pretty cheap and readily available from Superdrug, and they come in many lovely shades.

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

I have the shade named Kylie here which is a silvery light purple with gold and purple tiny flecks of glitter. Yes, I am fully aware that in my pictures it doesn't look the slight bit of purple and you can't really see the gold and purple glitter, but trust me, it's all there. It is rather a unique shade and very pretty in the sunlight, sadly my pictures don't do it justice.

Like other Andrea Fulerton nail polishes, this also has a lovely, easy to apply formula and doesn't chip on me for 3 days. I think the above shows 3 coats, but I'm not 100% certain, however, I normally do 3, so let's go with that.

You get 5.5 ml, so it's a rather small size, but only costs £5.10 (currently on offer for £3.99) from Superdrug. Have you tried any Andrea Fulerton nail polishes? What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

See more pictures after the jump!

My Half Price Guerlain Haul :)

I don't know what I love more, using make up or buying make up. While I love choosing what I'm going to wear each day and applying it, seeing the looks turn out nicely (or sometimes not so) and making me look better than I started out (usually), I also love the anticipation of new make up collections and buying make up so much. I think we can safely say, I'm addicted to make up, both using and buying it.

With June being a slightly slow month for new collections (didn't like the new Mac collections and I'd pretty much bought everything from the other summer collections by the beginning of the month), I was itching to spend some more money on some pretty make up. So when I heard about the sale coming up at Bentalls (a department store where my nearest Guerlain counter is), I made sure I can go there as soon as it started and check out the Guerlain sale. One of the very few high end brands to have sales, they often have discontinued or left over limited edition Guerlain products for 50% the original price. This time they actually had a lot of things, including foundations, blushes, eyeshadows and even some Cruel Gardenia highlighters (yes, I thought they were completely sold out, but clearly not). So I took the opportunity to stock up on essentials and a few nice-to-haves. Here's what I picked up:

I bought a Parure Aqua liquid foundation in 03 Beige Naturel, Parure Nuit highlighter, Rouge G in 75 Rose Barbare and Terracotta Blush & Sun blushes in 01 Sun Light and 02 Sun Kissed. (I also picked up a Parure Aqua liquid foundation in 02 Beige Clair in the John Lewis sale - not pictured. Beige Clair is my winter shade and Beige Naturel is my summer shade, and I have just run out of my bottle of Beige Clair.) As you can see, they were all half price, so I ended up saving a significant amount of money. If there's anything I like more than shopping for make up is shopping for bargains!

Have you found any beauty bargains in the sales lately? Share your findings in the comments!

See another picture of my findings after the jump!

Chanel Route Des Indes Illuminating Powder and Diwali Nail Polish - Bombay Express Collection

Firstly I apologise, I don't have swatches. I just cannot bear to touch the gorgeous gold powder and I haven't had time to use Diwali nail polish yet. So all I have is some pretty pictures for you. But they are definitely very pretty!

The Chanel Bombay Express collection is available exclusively from Chanel boutiques, Harrods, Selfridges W1, Selfridges Manchester Exchange, House of Fraser Glasgow and Fenwick Newcastle. I ordered mine from Harrods. The powder cost £48 for 15 g and the nail polish was £18 for 13 ml. Harrods charge £8.50 for shipping (ouch!).

See lots more pretty pictures after the jump!

L'Oreal Glam Shine Miss Candy Lipglosses Review and Swatches

Along with the new shades of the Infallible eyeshadows, L'Oreal has also come sout with some rather pretty looking glosses for the summer. They are part of the Glam Shine line which I own quite a few of already, and the collection of 6 shades is called Miss Candy. The glosses are made up of swirls of two colours.

Tart Lollipop, Pink Treat

I bought Tart Lollipop and Pink Treat, they seemed to be the most pigmented of the six. Tart Lollipop is a mix of sheer watermelon red and shimmery fuchsia pink, mixed together resulting in a shimmery sheer pinky red shade. Pink Treat is a mixture of shimmery pinky beige and glittery pearly pink (with multicolour glitter), mixed together resulting in a shimmery-glittery pinky beige colour. While they show up quite well when swatched, on the lips they mostly just add some shimmer to the lips. Pink Treat is more opaque, making it actually rather too light for me. Tart Lollipop is mostly just sheer pink shimmer on me.

The glosses are non-sticky and feel very comfortable to wear. Because they're so sheer, they disappear within an hour to 90 minutes, depending on whether I drink at all (they completely disappear if I eat while wearing them). They come with their unique raindrop applicator (which Lancome uses as well) that is very handy for applying the gloss neatly. You get 6 ml and they cost £7.65-£7.69 depending on where you buy them.

For me these glosses are a little on the sheer side, I prefer my glosses to have better colour pay off. They do look very cute though and if you like sheer glosses, they might be for you.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Guerlain Terracotta Light Sheer Bronzing Powder 04 Sun Blondes Review and Swatches

You are probably starting to think that I'm completely mad for buying so many bronzers, but I really got sucked into Guerlain this summer and ended up buying this gorgeous Terracotta Light Sheer Bronzing Powder in Sun Blondes as well as the other two bronzers I've already shown you (not to mention the ones from Dior and Chanel). I wasn't going to get this because I already have two similar ones (Blondes and Blondes Halees), but when the sales assitant showed it to me, I just couldn't say no. (This is the last bronzer I'm buying this year though, I promise.)

I'm not entirely sure if this shade and Sun Brunettes are limited edition for the summer or not, but they are still widely available, so you can pick them up if you so wish. The biggest difference between Sun Blondes and the original Blondes shade is that Sun Blondes is quite a bit pinker. It is also darker, so more suitable for the summer. Blondes Halees (limited edition summer shade from 2 years ago) is very similar to Sun Blondes, but it's a bit less pink and maybe a bit darker.

The compacts are practically the same dark brown plastic compacts with mirror in the lid. You get 10 g, so it's a nice size and they cost £33.50. (Obviously Blondes Halees isn't available anymore, but you can buy Blondes which is part of the permanent Terracotta collection.)

Did I need Sun Blondes? No, not really. If I had had Blondes Halees with me at the time, I probably wouldn't have got it as they really are very similar. If you missed out on Blondes Halees a couple of years ago, then Sun Blondes is a very good alternative. It gives my cheeks a pinky brown tint, I look like I've just caught the sun slightly. It's a bit shimmery, so not really an all over bronzing powder, but is lovely as a pink/bronzy blush. I adore its scent as well, which is hard to explain, but it's the usual Guerlain Terracotta scent (not parma violet like the Meteorites).

See more pictures including comparison swatches after the jump!

Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Eyeshadows in Vision and Abstraction and FOTD

One of my favourite Chanel products is Illusion D'Ombre and I was really pleased that there were two new shades of them coming out with Les Expressions de Chanel collection. I haven't actually seen these in any shop or online in the UK, I ordered mine from Sephora in France when they sent me yet another 20% off code.

Illusion D'Ombres are one of the best cream eyeshadows I own, they feel like jelly, they're quite springy, but also very easy to apply and blend. I often just use my fingers as it's easier, but they come with a little angled brust that you can also use to apply them. They work very well as eyeliners too.They don't crease and stay vibrant all day long.

The shades I got are Vision and Abstraction. Vision is sparkly yellow gold and Abstraction is pinky-coral with pink and gold shimmers. They are both very pretty, Abstraction is more subtle, but Vision is also a very wearable shade. In my swatches I managed to swatch Vision rather heavily, but it can be blended out for a more sheer finish. I have included some pictures of me wearing them at the bottom of the post, they looked really lovely on.

Each little pot contains 4 g of eyeshadow and in the UK they cost £23 (although as I said I have not seen these shades yet). So yes, they're not cheap, but they are really good, and these are such pretty shades too. Let me know what you think in the comments!

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did after the jump!