Boots Beauty Haul

I'm a sucker for a discount.

It's the student in me - we're always on the lookout for ways to cut costs, and when I saw on my Boots Advantage Card App a 10% off everything code I knew it was time to pay Brighton Boots a little visit. I needed a few bits like cotton pads and shampoo, so it couldn't be that bad?

..I mean, it could have been worse. My mistake was shopping while waiting for some photos to be developed, because suddenly I had an hour to wander around the store and then before I knew it I'd visited the BeneFit counter and the Clarins counter and I almost spent all of my (non-existent) money at the Clinique counter. Boots has a rather negative effect on my bank balance.

I wanted to write a quick post showing some of the things I picked up as I'm really getting more into beauty products, and a couple of the products I picked up are new to me; ones that I've seen or heard a lot about and wanted to try for myself.

First though, the tried and tested - I have purchased and repurchased the Rimmel Glam'Eyes Liquid Liner so many times since I was 16. I've tried other liners but nothing gives me the perfect cat eye flick like this does, and until I can get my hands on the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner I will continue to use this liner every single day.

I also picked up something I have, but in a different colour - the L'oreal Colour Riche Extraordinaire in the shade 500 Molto Mauve. It's kind of like a lip gloss, but thicker and certain shades are highly pigmented. I have the shade 401 Fuschia Drama which is a bright cool-toned pink but I wanted something more neutral for when I'm in a hurry and just want something quick and easy to apply. I've already worn this a couple of times and I love how smoothly it applies - they're also currently on offer at Boots, if you buy a bottle of Diet Coke these liquid lipsticks come down to £3.99!

I'll admit it, I got sucked in by all the hype. BeneFit recently launched their new Roller Lash Mascara and it has been the talk of the town on the blogosphere, This mascara is supposed to negate the need for curlers by giving you exaggerated curled lashes with their new plastic-tipped wand, and I'm really looking forward to trying this. I may end up doing a review/possibly a comparison post on this product sometime soon though because something I have noticed is how similar the mascara wand is to Rimmel's Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara (that's a mouthful!), and the Rimmel mascara is more than half the price. We shall see!

Onto haircare, and one of my favourite haircare brands currently is 1/3 off at Boots, so it really would have been rude not to grab something. I picked up the Toni & Guy Nourish Reconstruction Mask as, after my awful hair dye experience (long story short, I bleached my hair so much loads of it either died or fell out. I was left with bald patches, not a good look) I finally have non-damaged hair! So I am, of course, planning on dying it again. Nothing major, just a subtle ombré on the tips, but to keep my hair as healthy as possible it's always a good idea to have a very nourishing conditioner on hand.

As I had a little bit of time I also popped to the Clarins counter. Quite recently someone recommended that I invest in a good exfoliating toner just to help with some of my more stubborn spots and my acne scarring, and they actually originally recommended the Pixi Glow Tonic. Unfortunately with my super-sensitive skin I'm allergic to the witch hazel in their toner, so she recommended that instead I try out the Clarins Gentle Exfoliator Brightening Toner. Now £26 is an awful lot of money to blow on a product that I had no experience with, so the woman at the counter very kindly gave me a sample of it to try, so I'll be applying this twice a week to see if it makes a difference - it may possibly have to be a Boots points splurge. Just a word of advice to others with sensitive skin, having looked through the Clarins toner ingredients it does contain Parfum so if your skin is so sensitive it can't handle perfumed products this is definitely one to try before you buy.

I also picked up some more generic items, like cotton wool pads, lip balm and deodorant, but they're not really worth putting in a haul post. Also I couldn't fit them neatly on my bedside drawer to photograph. 

I'm really looking forward to trying some of these products, particularly as I seemed to have jumped on the Roller Lash bandwagon along with the rest of the blogging community. I'll update you soon on what I think!