Collective Haul | Including Primark, Zara, Boots and Charity Shops

First up; my apologies for being a bit absent of late! I had my graduation on Tuesday which was absolutely amazing (if you want I can do an OOTD? Let me know in the comments), the weather was beautiful as it has been recently and we had a lovely meal out afterwards.

Anyhow, today I'm going to do a little collective haul for you. Admittedly, although I tried to take pictures of things as and when I bought them, I forgot to take a lot of things and now can't remember what I bought (bad blogger), but here are just a few of the things I have been buying recently.

Blazer | £15 £11 | Primark

 Chain and fabric necklace | £3 | Primark
T-shirt*| £19.99  £12.99  £9.99 | Zara

I have been to Primark twice within the last week and have tried my best to be seriously restrained. My friends and I are going to be booking a holiday soon, which obviously means I will need to go holiday shopping beforehand so I am trying not to buy too much stuff until I know where we'll be jetting off to!

My old navy blazer is getting a bit tatty so for £11 I couldn't really resist this one, which actually feels a lot better quality than my old Primark one too. They had a few other colours available too; I'll be keeping my eye out for the nude one next time I pop in store.

I had £10 left on a Zara voucher I won a while back so I thought I'd get this simple t-shirt.
Admittedly I'm not actually sure what 'Nouvelle Belle' means, but it was oversized and perfect for wearing with my disco pants for a laid-back look.

Denim skater skirt | £8 | Primark

Dusky pink batwing shirt | £25 £7 | Republic

This gorgeous weather has made me realise how few skirts and dresses I have for wearing in such hot weather, so after seeing one of my bestests wearing this one I decided to get it too.

We all know that sadly Republic will be bidding us a fond farewell soon, so I decided to pop in for a peek at the sales and found this simple, staple shirt for a mere 7 quid. Bargain.

Shoes | £5 | Primark

I needed some blue flat shoes to go with my interview dress (note emphasis on the word 'flat', as heels would almost definitely end in disaster), so I grabbed these for a fiver

Stripy skirt | £2.50 | Charity Shop
High waist denim shorts | around £2 | Next via Charity Shop

Both bargains which I unfortunately failed to resist. My vintage levis are slightly on the small side for me, so I thought these denim shorts could act as my comfier version and I've worn them to death already. The skirt needs taking in a little and although I can't wait to wear it, it's a really thick, woolly material so I'm definitely not going to be risking it in this heat.

Loreal Elnett Satin Extra Strength Hairspray | £4 | Boots

Seventeen Sculpting Brow Pencil in Natural Brown | £2.89 | Boots

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in Medium | £4.19 | Boots

Collection Hot Look Nails in Bongo Beat | £1.99 free! | Boots

These are mostly essentials; my old eyebrow pencil wasn't the right shade and whilst my Maybelline Dream Touch Lumi Concealer is good for under my eyes, it's not so great at concealing my spots so it was time to try out the much loved Lasting Perfection Concealer. To my delight, I discovered that spending £4 or more on Collection products would qualify me for a free Hot Looks nail varnish, so I chose the shade Bongo Beat; a lot greener in colour than the image suggests.

 Derma V10 Rejuvenating Night Cream | £0.99 | Bodycare
Derma V10 Coconut Body Butter | £0.99 | Bodycare
Lacura Lip Balms in (clockwise from top left) Classic, Summer and Sensitive | £1.50 for 3 | Aldi

The Night Cream was a bit of an unnecessary purchase but I was interested to see what the quality would be like for the price. I also wanted to try out the Derma V10 Body Butter to see if I can get away with using it in place of my trusty Body Shop Body Butter, as that could save me a hefty sum of money in the long run!
I've heard a lot of good things about the Aldi cosmetics brand Lacura, and so my mum and I decided to give these lip balms a whirl. They are so cheap, selling at just £1.50 for 3 so we decided to get three different packets and split them between my mum, my sister and I.

So there we have it, my most recent purchases!

Have you done any haul posts lately? I'd love you to link me in the comments!

Love,
Jo xx

Battle of the BB's | 17 Blemish Balm vs. Maybelline Dream Fresh BB

With the warmer weather we've been having recently here in the UK, I've been reaching for BB creams over foundation for a lighter, barely-there coverage. The two I have been trialling are 17's BB Blemish Balm and Maybelline's Dream Fresh BB; cue the battle of the BB's!

17 BB Blemish Balm in Medium

The 17 packaging is really nice and simple (I know it has been altered more recently, but the difference is minimal), and the product dispenses nicely, without spontaneously leaking out of the nozzle; always a plus for obvious reasons. 

On application it felt lovely, fresh and light on my face. Literally just what you need in the hot weather and in my opinion, perfect if you're jetting off on holiday and don't want to feel caked in makeup.

It blends in really easily to provide an even coverage over blotchy skin, but definitely needs a little help from concealer for covering up those pesky spots.

Overall though, a really pleasant, easy and light product to wear. Definitely gets the thumbs up from me!

Maybelline Dream Fresh BB in Universal Glow

Although this Maybelline packaging is easy on the eye, unfortunately the product is so thin and watery that it just seems to leak out into the lid, which is near impossible to avoid and also means that you always dispense way more of the product than you actually need.

Please take that as a word of warning, I can imagine there have been many mishaps involving this BB!

As this shade is called 'Universal Glow', I expected a nice muted, natural colour.

Boy was I wrong.

It's an extremely frightening looking shade of orange (which I've added a picture of below for reference; g'ah!). Because of this, I found it difficult to blend evenly, and it took more effort than I would have liked to get my face to a normal colour. However, when I did finally get to that stage, my skin did actually look quite naturally tanned.

Although it feels quite light once blended, like the 17 BB it isn't great at covering blemishes and needs a little help from a spot or two of concealer.

Overall I haven't really got on with this product too well. Although it does eventually blend in, I don't feel all that comfortable applying such a pigmented and awkward product. It also has a really unusual, strong smell that I can't put my finger on exactly, but slightly resembles gone off fake tan.

Sorry Maybelline, but this really isn't one of my favourites from you guys!

I think it's obvious who wins this battle.

 17 Blemish Balm BB Cream can be purchased here from Boots for £6.99

Maybelline Dream Fresh BB can also be found in Boots for £7.99 here

What's your favourite BB cream?

Love,

Jo xx

Collective Haul | Includes Zara, Boots and Mally

Wow, what a busy year third year is! I have been working hard at placement whilst also juggling uni lectures and my dissertation, but lets face it, us girls can always find the time to do a spot of shopping. So I thought I'd show you what I've been buying of late. Hope you enjoy!

First up, I mentioned a while back that I won a £25 Zara voucher from Twitter. Well, having my nearest Zara store quite far away I have only just broken into the voucher, so here are my first couple of purchases with it. Thankfully I still have a tenner of it left after a nice surprise at the checkout!

Baggy t-shirt* | Zara | £15.99 £5.99

I'm in desperate need of some new t-shirts so this is great and really comfy for lazier days, and is long enough to cover your bum and wear with leggings.

Dark blue trousers* | Zara | £35.99 £9.99

These were marked as £22.99 but were £9.99 at the till, don't you just love it when that happens?! They were really hard to photograph and they do just look like jeans on here, but they are lovely dark blue skinny trousers that give a smarter look than jeans. I especially love the gold zips on the legs!

Jumper | Oasis at Debenhams | £40 £15

Another bargain, this is actually a nice deep aubergine purple (again difficult to photograph) and has sparkly thread intertwined. It also has a dipped hem at the back.

M. Asam Aqua Intense Face Toner | TK Maxx | £11.35 £3.99

Max Factor Kohl Eye Liner Pencil | Boots| £4.99 £2.49

Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara | Boots | £10.99

I bought the Max Factor products when there was an offer for buy one get one half price. I have repurchased the mascara about four times now and it is my absolute favourite.

17 lipstick in Belle | this eBay seller | £2.40

This was recommended to me by Mollie a while back after I mentioned I was looking for a 'your-lips-but-better' lippy shade. So far so good!

Last but certainly not least is this amazing selection of Mally makeup my auntie gave to me! I am SO excited to try all this out, as I've never tried anything from Mally before!

The selection includes:

3 x cute metallic Mally gift bags and the gorgeous box

1 x 24/7 Illuminating Blush in Deep

3 x High-Shine Liquid Lipstick Pens in (top-bottom) Punch, Raspberry and Peach Sorbet

3 x Age Rebel Eyeshadow stick in Jade, Sugar and Burnished Violet

1 x Shaded Liquid Face Defender Foundation in Tan

1 x Face Defender Blush in Pink Perfection

1 x Double Ended Concealer Brush

1 x Champneys Ultra Shine Lip Gloss in Rose

Amazing selection! If there's any particular product you'd like me to review please let me know in the comments. As you probably know, I'm so busy at the moment so I'm not sure how long it will take me to start getting some of these reviews done (sorryyy!).

Have you tried any Mally products before?

What have you been buying recently?

Jo xx

Makeup Haul

So the other day we had a visit from my auntie. After a bit of a chinwag and a cup of tea, she made her excuses and off she popped, leaving behind a bag of makeup goodies...

...my auntie is always buying makeup (not that I'm complaining, obviously) but due to her very sensitive skin she has to be careful as to what she uses. Which kind of works in my favour. Okay, it really works in my favour.

Here are the fabulous goodies she left me with!

Avon true colour 6 in 1 eye pallette in Glamour Eyes

Bourjois Delice de Soleil bronzing powder in 12 fair/medium

Maybelline Dream Fresh BB cream

17 BB Blemish Balm

Bourjois blush in 92 Santal

Maybelline Instant Anti-Age The Smoother primer

Laura Geller Baked Marble Eyeshadow in Moonstone/Blue Heaven

Laura Geller Blush 'n' Brighten in Berry

I know, I have the best auntie ever, right?!

I am still a BB cream virgin so I am partiularly looking forward to testing these out!

I will be reviewing all of these products but due to the fact that I have a never-ending list of things to review, if you're interested in seeing a review of anything in particular sooner rather than later, please let me know in the comments and I'll put it to the top of my list!

What do you think of the selection?
Have you tried any of these out before?

Thanks for reading,

Jo xx