Beauty Haul

Thought I'd do a post on all the beauty related purchases I've made over the last month or so...and there's been quite a few!  I've tried out most of these products so I'll give you reviews on them aswell :)

By the way...I've crazily decided to post every day for 1 week (on top of my hectic uni/gym/work schedule eep!).  The first post was yesterdays beauty wishlist so keep checking back for my new things *kisses*

First up is the wonder of Illamasqua. How beautiful is that packaging?!? *le sigh*

I hadn't really been planning on buying anything during the Illamasqua sale until I saw a post (on Instagram I think) stating this nail polish, called Rare, was in the sale...I was on that site so fast I nearly got whiplash!  This has got to be one of my favourite spring/summer shades for nails and I am always seen with either a luminous yellow or pink, or a pretty lilac.  They just look so damn tasty with a tan!
I also plumped for a foundation as I haven't really used any high end foundations apart from MAC Face and Body, and Studio Fix Fluid.  This is a cream foundation which is completely different for me but on swatching on my hand the texture feels quite light and not at all cakey. I got shade CF133 which is classed as neutral.  Looking forward to trying this out in the next couple of days as I only received these on Monday.  Hurry because their sale ends at 2pm today!  Both were total bargains at £5 for the nail polish (normally £14.50) and the foundation was also £5 (normally £23)

Whoever came up with the concept of the Naked palettes at Urban Decay is a god/goddess...I think the Naked 3 palette has been in the hauls of pretty much every single beauty blogger over the last couple of months and with good reason.  Such a beautiful palette on the outside with incredibly pigmented powders of which pretty much every single one is suitable for everyday wear.  I'll be posting some of my favourite Naked 3 looks in the next couple of weeks so keep those peppers peeled!  I also decided to get the All Nighter Fixing Spray.  I've never used a fixing spray before, I used to use hairspray (what?!?) because it was cheap and I already had it but then I realised how stupid it was...my face always felt really sticky and stiff afterwards, not nice at all.  This is such a fantastic product especially with my oily skin.  My makeup stays pretty much perfect - especially in my troublesome t-zone - but it has yet to have the ultimate test...a 12 hour shift on a busy antenatal and postnatal ward.  That shall come soon enough!

Boots is my mecca and ultimate weakness.  It's very rare nowadays that I will go in and not come out with something...even when I swear I won't buy anything.  Firstly I purchased the L'Oreal Paris Studio Line #TXT Volume Supersizing Spray. What.  A.  Mouthful.  This was a slight impulse buy after I saw Zoella rave about it in a video.  It really is pretty awesome.  It's meant to give the same effect as backcombing your hair but without the damaging effects.  I found it worked really well on my thick hair and if it needs a boost you just give your roots a little rub.

I picked up two Maybelline items - the Fit Me Foundation Stick in shade 315 Soft Honey and the Falsies Volume Express Mascara.  I bought the foundation in a darker shade than my skin tone to use for contouring as I've tried powder contouring but couldn't seem to get it quite right.  It works perfectly for this purpose and blends well to stop it being too harsh.  The Falsies Mascara claims to give the flicked out effect of false eyelashes but I found it difficult to achieve this.  It gives great volume and length to my lashes but it doesn't fan my lashes out much if at all.

I also picked up a Benefit mini set that contained Bad Gal Lash, Stay Don't Stray Eyeshadow and Concealer Primer, and High Beam which is the main reason for my purchase(it was only £9 and I like the Bad Gal Mascara already).  I like the High Beam but I feel like it can look a bit too light and obvious on my skin depending on if I have contoured or not.

Last week I picked up Essie's Play Date nail polish purely because it is a more vibrant shade of lilac.  Do I need any other reason? As we all know Essie nail polish are fantastic to apply and generally long lasting so I'm not going to say much more about it.

I finally picked up 3 of the Revlon Colour Burst Matte Balms and I'll be doing a review of these tomorrow with swatches.  I decided to also buy the No7 Brush Cleanser after seeing a review of it on Nouvelle Daily as a method of spot cleaning.  I used to have the Kryolan brush cleaner that I bought during my makeup training which is more of an alcohol based cleaner and would dry my brushes out quite a lot so hopefully this will be a lot gentler.

The above were slight impulse buys during the SpaceNK sale.  I picked up the Aromatherapy Associates Revive Morning Shower and Bath Oil as I've heard so many good things about their range of oils.  I have yet to use this as it's such a tiny bottle but it smells glorious!  That was actually a planned purchase however the Laura Mercier Caviar Eye Sticks were more of an impulse purchase.  I had already heard great things about them on blogs but was torn over whether to try them.  When I saw them for half price on Boxing Day I just had to have them.  They are so easy to use and the shades are gorgeous ranging from a pale gold to a dark khaki and metallic chocolate shade.  They blend out well but you have to work quick to smudge them out if you want that look.  Lastly I plumped for a Tangle Teezer as I always looked at them in Boots and thought I'd better pick one up in SpaceNK since I was already spending a small fortune...girl logic.

I have been using little tester sachets of the Glam Glow Super Mud Mask that I got on their website after hearing such amazing reviews of it on YouTube but I felt it didn't make that much of a difference in my skin and as such decided to try out some drugstore masks for a bit. I picked up the Superdrug Naturally Radiant Brightening Renewal Face Mask and the Una Brennan Superfacialist Rose Hydrate Intensive Moisture Mask after reading Kate's (gh0stparties) post on her current skin detox.  I've only used these masks once so far so I'll post a more detailed review once I have more of an opinion about them.

Hope you've enjoyed this post and remember to keep checking back over the next week to see a new post every day!