The best things in life are free

As someone currently on the tightest of budgets, I find myself constantly justifying even the most basic purchases and convincing myself to only buy products that are reduced, on offer or just very cheap. I've gotten used to this, but every now and then, I still get the urge to leg it into the John Lewis beauty department, grab as many beautiful things as I can get my hands on, and stick them all on my credit card, all the while shrieking and laughing like a madwoman. Fortunately, I normally manage to fight this urge and have been pretty darn sensible lately. (NB It is my birthday at the end of the month and it's likely that a significant portion of birthday money will be spent during a burst of the aforementioned madwoman behaviour...).

Recently though, I've managed to get my hands on quite a few lovely things, without actually having to spend any money at all. No, no, I've not taken up shoplifting, don't worry, I've just been taking advantage of freebies. You're probably already aware of this, but Lush will give you a fresh face mask for absolutely nothing if you bring back five of their black pots! Last week, after finishing off my big tub of Dream Cream, I realised that I'd finally managed to acquire five pots, and headed to Lush, ready to grab a freebie.

Since I'm STILL being plagued by the little blocked pores around my chin, I decided to go for something really deep cleansing, in the hope that it'd shift the buggers once and for all. The guy in Lush recommended Cosmetic Warrior, so I snapped it up, handed over my pots and off I went, happy in the knowledge that not only had I just gotten a face mask that normally costs about £5.50 for nil points, but also, that I'm being a good recycler and that is very important.

Contains garlic, tea tree oil, honey and eggs to name but a few. Does not smell pleasant. I'll do a review at some point soon.

Later that same day, I randomly ended up going back into town to meet some friends, but as I got to town a bit early, I went into Superdrug for a nosey. Thank goodness I did because I then picked up my second excellent freebie of the day! I noticed near the entrance of Superdrug, there were lots of lttle makeup stations set up, each with what looked like a goodie bag next to them. I was obviously intrigued by this (gotta love a goodie bag) and as I went for a closer look, one of the girls who worked there asked me if I'd like to go to the Superdrug Beauty School? "DO I?!" I thought, "HELL YEAH IF I GET A GOODIE BAG... what is it?" The girl explained that basically I just had to sit at one of the booths and let her instruct me on how to apply makeup to recreate a specific 'look'. Easy. So I did. The look I had to to recreate was called 'Pop Lips', which consisted of bronzed skin, defined lashes and a bright coral lipstick - right up my street! I had to use Miss Sporty products, which I've not used for years, but I was pleasantly surprised, especially by the lipstick, which I think was called Bubblegum and was a lovely sheer pinky coral. The class took about ten minutes and I think was probably aimed at younger girls who aren't used to wearing makeup - the other two girls doing the class at the same time as me were both 15... I felt a bit silly when I told them I was 23... but ah well, any opportunity to mess about with makeup is fine with me!

I was really impressed with the goodie bag I got at the end of the class; while it is mainly just Superdrug's own brand stuff along with some samples and vouchers, they're all items I'd actually use, plus I literally had to do nothing to get it, just play with makeup for ten minutes!

Products in the goodie bag included a Nail Shaper, Delicious Body Spray (which smells lovely!), Dry Shampoo, Miss Sporty Disco Tech UV Topcoat, The Little Pink Tin lipbalm, Self Heating Smoothie Mask and a Self Tan Applicator Mitt, as well as samples of the new VO5 shampoo and conditioner and Vera Wang Lovestruck perfume, plus loads of money off vouchers. Not bad eh?

The Superdrug Beauty School is happening in larger branches of Superdrug all over the country - you can see the full list of participating stores here. It looks like the next class will be using 2True products, which I've never tried before, so I'm tempted to go back!

Had any good freebies lately? Has anyone else been to a Superdrug Beauty Class? What did you think?

Products of the Month - November

New video. I am a fluffhead.

This is the pixiwoo video using the Sleek Graphite Palette that I loved so much. Like I said, the colours in the Bad Girl Palette are very similar, so you could definitely recreate this;

TOO GORGEOUS.

Clean as a whistle

In case you hadn't noticed from some of my recent posts, aside from being dangerously obsessed with clothing, I'm also a bit of a beauty junkie. There is never a time when I don't 'need' some kind of cosmetics and every trip into town will generally end up with me wandering around Boots/Superdrug/Lush looking for something wonderful to buy. I've been thinking for a while now that since I spend so much time buying and messing about with makeup and stuff, I should write about some of my favourite products on this here blog. Hopefully people will find them useful, you know, a kind of "I try before you buy" type thing. Except, it only works if you're planning on buying things that I already own/am going to buy anyway. I really don't have the money to do requests. But if you want to send me things, that's fine. Or send money. I'd be ok with that too.

Ultra Bland - "The most thorough of all cleansers" from Lush

While something that proudly claims to be 'ultra bland' may not sound particularly appealing, blandness is actually a very good quality to have in a cleanser; all too often cleansers and facial washes are full of chemicals and perfumes which are harsh on your skin and strip it of its natural oils, but this stuff does no such thing. Appearance-wise; Ultra Bland is a thick, yellowish, oily substance which smells vaguely of peanuts, (NOTE If you have a nut allergy, you probably shouldn't use this as it contains peanut oil. It contains 'fresh iris extract' too so you should also avoid it if you have an issue with irises) so it clearly does differ from the majority of Lush products which are colourful and interesting and smell of joy. However this is their best-selling cleanser and I can absolutely see why; it leaves your skin feeling super clean and soft AND it's incredibly gentle, so you can use it to remove your eye makeup without worrying about going blind in the process.

The directions for use say to rub a small amount all over your face and then remove with damp cotton wool, but I found that the oiliness of it meant that I had to use a lot of cotton wool to remove it all, so instead I've been using a face cloth, which works just as well (just make sure to wash your face cloth regularly - hygiene is important!). What's great about it is that you only need a very small amount to get the job done so it lasts for ages AND, while a lot of Lush products have a use-by date because they contain fresh ingredients, Ultra Bland doesn't expire for over a year (I bought mine just before Christmas and the use-by date isn't until 2011) so you probably won't have to throw half a tub away because it's expired (I quite often do that with the fresh face masks from Lush because I put them in the fridge and then forget about them).

All in all, an excellent product. I can't remember the exact price but I think it was probably around £8, which is pretty reasonable for something that's going to last you a long time and makes your skin feel all soft and delightful.

As with all of their products, there's also the added bonus of knowing that Lush only use organic, vegetarian ingredients and don't test on animals, so you can wash your face safe in the knowledge that you are not only going to have lovely skin, but are probably going to Heaven too. Who said angels had dirty faces?