Mini Beauty Haul || Drugstore Edition

Oh man, it has been a hot minute since I last hauled a little haul here on Babbles With Beth. Of course, I have been buying everything bar the kitchen sink regardless, but it's been an age since I actually sat down, photographed, and wrote a blog post about the things that I have been buying. So I thought I'd dip my toes back in the water with a little haul of some beauty bits and bobs I picked up yesterday whilst in Boots and Superdrug. 

Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation (Light Porcelain) - £8.99, Boots

An oldie, but a goodie. I was in the market for a new foundation, and really wanted to try out a NYX Cosmetics foundation, but obviously they did not have it in my shade. Bloody sods law. And so I settled for an old favourite, one that many people swear by, Rimmel Wake Me Up. I'm sure you know everything there is to know about this bad boy - good buildable coverage, makes you look like you've had more sleep than you actually has, nice formulation, applies really well. It's just a good, solid foundation to have in your collection.

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer (Number 1, Fair) - £4.19, Boots

I had to use this concealer this morning, and so obviously I shoved it in my makeup bag and forgot to photograph it! Again, it's an oldie and a goodie, so many people (looking at you, Zoella), swear by this one, yadda yadda. Inexpensive, good colour, decent coverage. All you want in something that conceals spots and red patches. I always have one in my make up bag, but because it's winter and I'm more pale than Casper the Friendly Ghost, I had to pick one up in the lightest shade. So long, number 2 (cool medium). We had fun whilst it lasted.  

Tanya Burr Cosmetics Soft Luxe Collection Matte Lip (Rhubarb and Custard) - £5.99, Superdrug

I won't lie to you, I am every advertisers/marketing persons wet dream. I am a sucker for anything released by the big YouTubers (at least, the ones I watch), and I've wanted to get my mitts on one of the Matte Lips from Tanya Burr Cosmetics ever since I saw they were released, but alas it was never the right time. Either they'd all sold out, or I just didn't have the money. So when I spotted this little gem nestled amongst the lip glosses in my local Superdrug yesterday, I swooped in and nabbed it! And I do love it. It applies so smoothly and dries quickly without feeling like it's sucking all the moisture out of your lips, the smell is inoffensive and very faint, and the pigment is so bold and so bright and so pretty. Yes, I am in love, and I think it will be my go to colour for quite some time.

Studio London Eye Brush Set - £3, Superdrug

When I moved to London, somehow I left the majority of my makeup collection back home in Devon, and thus had no eye brushes with me to apply my eye shadow. Rookie error Beth, rookie error. And so my mission yesterday was to find some inexpensive eye brushes to tide me over until I can get back to my beloved brushes, and I thought I'd hit the jack pot when I saw the little set of three (blending brush, flat brush, angled brush) reduced down from £6 to £3! I should've known it was too good to be true. I like my eye brushes to be fairly soft, since eyes are delicate and I don't want to hurt the poor little sausages, but these brushes are so stiff and so tricky to use, it is actually almost painful to apply eye shadow. Not what you want from your brush, to be quite honest. I will use them for now, but definitely would not repurchase.

Real Techniques Miracle Sculpting Sponge - £5.99, Superdrug

Since the day I discovered the delights of the makeup sponge, I've not used anything else to apply my foundation and concealer. The Real Techniques line, as well as doing my favourite brushes, make my all time favourite beauty sponge, which is just their first and original. But when I went to repurchase yesterday, I saw the newish Miracle Sculpting Sponge and knew I had to give it a try. It has two different ends - one bigger and perfect for foundation, and the other smaller, with a pointed tip, and perfect for concealer and getting in all the creases around your nose etc. On the large side, it also has a rounded edge and a flat edge, and I really need to explore them and see what works best. But from a first look and fiddle, it looks amazing, and I think it might be a new staple.

Grey Pompom Keychain - Superdrug

I do love me a good promotion. And currently in Superdrug, if you buy three cosmetics, you get a free fluffy pompom! I love these, and I was so excited to receive mine, especially as I knew nothing about this promotion! Yes, it has gone straight onto my bag. And yes, I keep stroking it.

Soap and Glory 3 for 2

I'm currently writing this whilst waiting for the dye to develop in my hair, I'm DIY ombre-ing it for the first time, so forgive me if this is a little tense, I'm only shitting myself a little bit!

But I am a sucker for a good deal, and Boots always has some wonderful deals on, mostly 3 for 2's on certain products and certain percentages off other brands such as premium brands, I just keep falling in love with my beloved store even more! But the deal that caught my eye this time was the 3 for 2 offer on Soap and Glory products. I am a long time fan of their skincare range, and have wanted to branch out into their makeup for a while, having seen some wonderful reviews floating around. However, for some reason I've always skipped past their stand, mainly for the price tag, but this deal drew me in!

I've been after a decent felt tip pen style liner for a while, and have been debating which one to get. Being a sucker for pretty packaging, the Supercat eyeliner £6.00 was a no brainer, and I am very much in love with it. I've used it every day since I purchased it, and it's so easy to use. A good black colour, the product glides on smoothly, and it's easy to get both a thick line and a fat line. A pretty good all rounder, does what it says on the tin pretty much. What I also like this one is it also comes in a super sized version with a thick nib, perfect for dramatic eyes!

Powder for me is such an important product, and I always feel digusting without it because I suffer from horrifically oily skin that is so shiny without something to control it. I usually rely on a light coloured or translucent pressed powder, but have found recently that I'm just not liking the look of any I have in my stash on my skin. This is where One Heck of a Blot £12.00 steps in! It's a blotting powder instead of a pressed powder, and is completely translucent. It only reduces shine, does nothing else, and is an actual wonder product for me! The formula is a dream, shine is instantly erased without looking like there is any product on my skin. I love this, it's my newest holy grail item. The packaging and name is also amazing, as per for Soap and Glory. I highly recommend this if you struggle with oily skin.

Concealer is also a must have product for me. I don't suffer from many blemishes, I'm lucky to have relatively clear skin, but I do have horrific black bags under my eyes which just won't disappear. Ever. I don't know whether it's down to bad sleep habits or whether I'm just really unlucky, but I think they're here to stay. Therefore, covering them is a daily job for me, and requires a pretty heavy duty concealer to do so. I haven't found one that quite does the job yet, but the Kick Ass concealer in light £10.00 is the closest I've found to perfect coverage. It's a three step product, as I'm sure you probably know, a cute compact containing a brightening under eye concealer, a yellower concealer for blemishes, and a setting powder so the concealer does not move. There is also a tiny mirror and little sponge included. I really like this. The under eye concealer really does brighten and conceal, and the blemish concealer is one of the best I've found. Good product, cracking name.

Have you taken advantage of any of the lovely Boots offers lately? Got any favourite Soap and Glory makeup recommendations?

x

Travel Haul: The Verdict

A week or so ago, I posted this travel haul of products that I had picked up to make life a little easier when I packed my bags to come to London this week, and I figured it was time for an update. I've been using these products for around a week now, which is an averageish amount of time you may be using them if you are taking them away with you, but they aren't products you'd necessarily use in everyday life.

The ones I liked:

1) The Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Reconstructor Deep Conditioner: This one is an old favourite anyway, I'm sure of a lot of people love this conditioner. It smells amazing, does a great job, what more do you need?

2) Clean, Girls by Soap and Glory: I love this. So much. I hadn't intended to pick it up, I'd wanted the Clean On Me, but I'm so glad I made the mistake! This has such a beautiful pink pearlescent colour to it, smells great, and makes my skin feel lovely and smoothy smooth.

3) The three dental products: Mouthwash, toothpaste, toothbrush holder. Bog standard everyday products, do what they say on the tin. Great for travelling, last quite a while. I got especially excited over the toothbrush holder, which could have been made a little sturdier, but for £1.55, I'm not going to complain!

4) Sudocrem: It's sudocrem. In a mini tube. It works just the same as my normal larger pot. Just in a handy dandy small tube size.

The ones I didn't like:

1) The two Charles Worthington Takeaway shampoo and conditioners: Have to say, usually love Charles Worthington, not a big fan of these. I thought I liked the design of the bottle, but the plastic is too stiff to be able to squeeze it and get a decent amount of product out. It also feels like there's not much in there, so I was scared of using too much and running out before the week was up. It did nothing but clean my hair, none of the volume that was promised. Basically just a massive flop.

2) The Umberto Gianni dry shampoo: Again, I had high hopes for this one and maybe that was the problem. Umberto Gianni are a fairly expensive haircare brand, still high street and not high end but I did expect more. I noticed no difference to my hair after using this, and I do like my dry shampoo's to give my hair some volume and texture, which even the £1.50 dry shampoo I picked up from Wilkinsons once did.

3) The Sanctuary cleanser and toner: Not a big fan of these at all. Skincare is so subjective though that someone else might get along really well with them! I just found the cleanser really dried my skin out and made it feel really tight, which never happens with my uber oily skin. The toner just seemed to do nothing. Overall, not worth the money in my opinion.

Have you tried any of these products, travel sized or full sized? What do you think about them?

x

Travel Haul

I do adore a good haul, and when that haul contains cute travel sized products? Well, it's just ten times better. Who doesn't love a good fun sized product?!

I'm off to spend the week in London next week, staying with my dad and spending some quality family time, and I thought it was about time I invested in some actual travel sized products, rather than lugging all my normal sized products up with me like I usually do, which makes my bag tonnes heavier. Everything here I got from Boots, which is practically my second home these days and great for anything travel sized or travel related. I do love me some Boots.

Perusing the Boots website one evening, I realised that I was lacking in any form of toiletry/wash bag. Usually when I go away for a night, I just chuck everything I might need in the way of skin care/make up/hair products straight into my bag, which usually results in a frantic scrabble through my things in order to find something. So I decided it was about time to invest in some wash bags, and found these for £8 on boots.com, which I thought was pretty decent value for 3 good sized bags. I also liked that they're all different sizes and clear, which makes them ideal for taking away in all sorts of different scenarios, and the transparency means that you can see what's inside without having to root through. Lovely job.

Hair wise, I picked up the Charles Worthington Volume and Bounce shampoo and conditioner in 75ml bottles from instore, which I believe were around £2 each (I can't find a link to these on the Boots website). Charles Worthington is a brand I used to love, and I'm quite excited to find out whether these two do give my hair volume and bounce or not, and it would be rather lovely if they do. My other favourite thing about travel sized products is you can find out if something works or not without having to invest in a big sized bottle of product you might hate. I also picked up the Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Reconstructor instore, which again was around £2 (and I also can't find online, damn you boots.com). Aussie is my most beloved hair care brand, and I just love this stuff a lot. Finally for my hair, I picked up a cute sized dry shampoo, I got the Umberto Gianni Glam Hair Morning After Dry Shampoo, again I picked this up instore and cannot find a link on the website, but I believe that it was below £2. Umberto Gianni is meant to be a very good haircare brand, and I am curious to find out whether this lives up to my beloved Batiste dry shampoo. And clearly the Boots website does not have as many mini products as the stores do, which is a little odd, oui?

Next item I picked up is the Soap and Glory Clean, Girls Creamy Body Wash 75ml for £2.50. I love love love Soap and Glory for body washes, and I had been meaning to pick up my beloved Clean On Me in the travel sized version, but accidentally misread the packaging. I'm excited to use this one though, and see how it measures up. It also contains a built in moisturiser, which is always a must for me, and smells amazing. 

For my face I decided to go a little more upmarket than the usual Simple skincare I tend to pick up travel sized, and instead went for the Sanctuary Fresh Faced Purifying Wash 30ml and the Pore Refining Toner 30ml, both £2.99. It's been a while since I've used anything but my Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish, so I don't know how this is going to work out, but I'm curious to see if they're any good. Lastly for skincare, I picked up a Sudocrem Skin Care Cream 30g for £1.99, which made me very happy. Sudocrem is a holy grail product for me, and I find it amazing on my spots, burns from curler and straighteners, dry patches, it really is a cheap, versatile cream and I very much love it. This tube is not only going to be ideal for my trip, but also just to shove in my bag for any emergencies.

Less excitingly, still cute, very essential, I got dental related products. I picked up from instore just a mini 25ml Colgate toothpaste, which is my favourite brand, a Listerine Total Care Mouthwash Mini 95ml for £1.35 (which I will admit to getting mainly because I liked the pinky purple colour), and a Boots Frosted Travel Toothbrush Case for £1.55, which I got ridiculously excited about finding because my pet hate is having to chuck my toothpaste in with all my other bit and bobs, and then putting it in my mouth. Disgusting. 

And that was the end of my travel haul! It made me very happy, and I love everything that I got, and didn't actually go over the top, which is unusual! What are your favourite products to take away with you?

x

What's In My Bag!

I am one of the nosiest people on the planet, and I love reading blogs like this, where you get to have a sneak peek into someones bag/room/life. I think you get to know so much about someone from what's in their bag or what's their favourite part of their room, little things like that. And I figured if I liked reading those kind of things, other people would too, so I decided to share what's in my bag on a standard college day, minus the majority of the textbooks and things.

To start with, the bag itself. My favourite bag to use at the moment is a standard brown leather bag that is basically a tardis and hugely oversized, and fits basically my entire life in. I wish I could tell you which brand this is and where it comes from, but I was given this last year (alongside a smaller brown leather bag) by my dad, who got it from a shop somewhere in Cambridge. All I know is that it's absolutely massive, has a hand shoulder strap along with two normal sized handles, and a few little pockets on the inside to store handy things. It also has a built in cosmetics type bag, so I can stash all my makeup in there and not lose it. The inside is also printed with cute roses, which is a nice little touch. I just love this bag a lot.

There are several things I always have to have in my bag, and I always make sure I swap them over if I want to use my backpack or the smaller leather bag. I always make sure I carry a water bottle on me, at the moment I'm just reusing a plastic bottle from M&S, it's made of really sturdy plastic and just feels lovely to drink from, as well as being a hefty 750ml, so it keeps me going all day. Today I also have the Super Orange cold pressed juice by Nina's Savse, which is my all time favourite juice, and I picked this up in Boots this morning. I also have to have a lip balm and hand cream in my bag, at the moment I am favouring the Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm Tin (lovely and moisturising on the old lips, with added peppermint which makes them all tingly), and Soap and Glory's Hand Food Hand Cream (I have the mini which lasts me forever and is moisturising without being greasy and taking forever to sink in, which means it's great for on the go), both available from Boots.

 I also always have chewing gum in my bag, and at the moment I just have a packet of M&S curiously strong mint gum, which I mainly got because I liked the look of the packaging. Other essentials include some form of painkillers, generally in the shape of paracetamol/ibuprofen, a perfume of some description (at the moment I'm using the Paul's Boutique Me eau de parfum), and my purse, which is just a cute owl purse from Next which my mum gave to me.

Beauty wise, I never carry very much around with me, mainly because I am notorious for losing things when I take them out of the house (and when I'm in the house honestly). Usually, unless I'm going away somewhere, the only makeup I will chuck in my bag is a powder (today I was using the Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder), a powder brush and a lipgloss/lipstick depending on what I am using that day (today I had the Tanya Burr Lipgloss in Chic), and that will generally be all for beauty products. I also always carry a mirror around for essential repowdering, and I seem to have lost all my little compacts, so at the moment I am using this bigger spotty mirror from Boots, which is really handy to take away with me but looks a little stupid when I whip it out on the bus!

I always have my iPad and ancient relic iPhone with me (usually cracked, although I got my iPad fixed!), and some form of diary and a notebook. My friend got me the really cute pink organiser from Paperchase for Christmas, I think she was trying to tell me something, and it's great for organising homework/appointments/etc. I also got given the cute foil notebook for Christmas, and this is where I jot down any blog ideas/anything that comes to me when I am out and about. The big notebook is my creative writing journal and I'm terrified of losing it! Staying on the subject of books, I always carry a book with me for the bus/waiting around, and at the moment I am just finishing 'The Constant Princess' by Philippa Gregory, one of my all time favourite books. I do have the kindle app on my iPad and iPhone, but I do love having a physical copy. Last but by no means least, I always have a pen on me. At the moment I am using a pen given to me at Christmas, which is just a standard ball point with a picture of Elsa from Frozen on the front!

What are your everyday handbag essentials that you just couldn't live without?

x