My Sales Haul | Winter 2014

Hi everyone !

First of all, my apologies for the lack of posts these days (or rather these weeks, huh). I've been so busy with university and work that I couldn't find the time to sit down and write a proper thing. But I'm back today with a haul !

I know it's a bit late but I've decided to do a sales haul. I don't post hauls every time I go shopping, but I'm so happy with what I got this year (in terms of clothing) that I cannot keep that to myself !

I've picked up a few nice pieces for very good prices, which always makes you happy, right ? I'll start with the clothes because that's the main thing I bought, then I'll show you the two tiny makeup items I bought also.

First from New Look, I got two cute dresses, which look like this :

As you can see, it is a black dress with pink and purple flowers all over. Isn't it cute ? I've taken a better picture for you to see the print :

 

The shape is also very flattering, and this is the main reason why I finally bought the dress. It really fits me and makes a pretty silhouette :)

It was 12.00€ reduced from 29.99€, so quite a bargain !

The second dress from New Look is this one :

And the detailing on the top part looks like this :

It is a simple black dress, with a floaty skirt (I love it !), and the only touch of colour is the detailing on the top, embroidered with light pink flowers (you can't really see the colours on the pics though). I thought it was very feminine, and it looks waaay prettier in real life ! I know it's going to become one of my favourite dresses.

Again, it was 12.00€ reduced from 29.99€ !

I bought another dress, from Pull and Bear this time. It is a light beige dress with lace on the sides and on the top part. It will be perfect for spring and summer !

 

I looove the detailing around the edges at the top, it is so pretty and makes it looks more "finished" and delicate. It was 25.99€ reduced from 39.99€, which is a good price compared to what I would have paid for it if I had bought it a few weeks earlier !

Next I went to H&M, where I bought two amazing shirts/blouses.

The first one is this beige blousy top with lace at the front :

 

It is very sheer so you have to wear something underneath it. The sleeves are in a different material than the rest, very flowy and nice. You can't really see it but the collar goes up on the neck, which gives the blouse a very vintage style. I looove it ! It was 15.00€ instead of 29.95€.

The second one is a pale pink shirt :

The colour doesn't really show in the pictureS but it is pink. The thing that got me to buy it was the collar, I think it is the cutest thing ever. It is a very simple shirt, but then it can be worn with anything so it's a staple to have in your wardrobe. This one was also 15.00€, instead of 24.95€.

I'm done with the clothes ! Here are the few beauty things that I got :

 I got two lip products from Sephora :

 - An ultra vinyl lip pencil, in this pretty pink shade, perfect for spring. The pencil reminds me of the Chubby sticks, although the quality is not as good obviously.

 - A long-lasting vinyl lip lacquer. I bought it because of the colour, which is dark, almost burgundy, but with fushia pink sparkles on it. When you put it on the lips, it is darker than what it is in the packaging. The texture is very sticky, which bugs me a little. It is quite difficult to apply also, you struggle to have an even colour everywhere on your lips and you have to take your time to apply it properly. I'm very disappointed in it, if I knew that I wouldn't have bought it even if it was really cheap !

They were both 2.00€, so I got them for 4.00€ instead of 16.80€.

Lastly, I went to a Make Up Forever shop, because I heard they were making sales on a selection of products (unfortunately it wasn't in the whole shop) and some were very interesting. And indeed, you have some little palettes which were reduced by 70%. Amazing ! There were also liners, and the other things I don't remember.

The only thing I bought was this small-sized HD Powder, which was also with 70% off. It contains 5g of powder, so I think it will last for a while ! And for 4.26€, it was totally worth it !

***

So that's it for my sales haul ! I thought I would get more beauty products than clothes, but I'm actually happy that I came across such bargains to add to my wardrobe !

Julia xx

My empties #1

Hi everyone !

Today I'm trying a new type of posts that I've seen in many other blogs but that I never thought about doing before. Empties posts are quite nice to discover new products or see if something is worth the try or not.

I've got five things that I've finished recently, so I'm going to show them to you and tell you what I think of them and if I'm going to repurchase them or not !

1/ Le Volume mascara, Chanel

I've spoken of this mascara in my all times favourites, some months ago. It is a really good product, makes your lashes look great. The brush is quite thick and takes every lash perfectly.

Although because of its price, I won't be buying it again for now (and I have a sample size of the great They're Real by Benefit to use hehe). But I'll surely buy it someday, because I loved it !

2/ Blueberry body butter, The Body Shop

I've had this body butter since last year, and I finally finished it ! I only used it during the autumn/winter times, so that's probably why it lasted me so long.

The smell is quite good, not too strong nor too sweet. And it lasts a few hours on the skin, which is always nice ! But I won't rebuy this one, because I want to try new scents from The Body Shop.

3/ Exfoliating body scrub, Galeries Lafayette

I bought this last summer during the sales, mainly because it was cheap and smelt good haha. It smells of iris, so a very floral and light scent. I used it as a scrub before using my shower gel, and it did a good job and left my skin soft. The exfoliating bits are tiny so they don't hurt your skin as some scrubs could do. But I won't be buying it again, because I have another one of the same brand to use !

It is only sold in the Galeries Lafayette in France I guess, but it is maybe something to try if you are in France and want a nice shower product !

4/ Gliss Ultimate Repair mask, Schwarzkopf

As I have curly coloured hair, I'm always on the hunt for a good mask that will moisturise my hair and leave it soft. I've tried sooo many that I couldn't list them all, but as I've just finished this one I can really say what I think about it.

It is one of those masks that you apply after your shampoo for a few minutes - I always left it for about three to five minutes. It does make your hair soft, and pretty shiny too. But this effect doesn't last, at least on me. If you have normal to dry hair I think it should work well - but if your hair is damaged or frizzy, it probably won't be enough.

Not sure I'll rebuy it because I'm always changing my hair routine (at this point this is not even a routine haha), but I can say that it's a pretty good product anyway!

5/ Vanilla dee-lite body lotion, Lush

I got this lotion on the Lush box I received for my birthday. I was excited to try it out, because I haven't had the chance to use a cream/body lotion from Lush before.

First, the smell is amazing. Although it is called Vanilla dee-lite, it doesn't smell of vanilla, but rather of jasmine, and it even reminds me a bit of lilac, which is my favourite flower ! So as you can imagine, I love the smell of it. It is very light-weight as it is a lotion obviously, and it is very refreshing. I would recommend it for the months of spring especially, because it is not at all a winter smell.

As it is very light, it doesn't moisturise your skin deeply, and if you have a very dry skin I would probably advise you to use a thicker texture. But I'd love to buy this again for spring and summer, I love it !

***

That's it for my first empties ! A lot of shower/body products as you can see, but naturally these are the ones we can finish the most easily. 

I'll do another empties post in a few months maybe, see if I can find new interesting products to show you !

Julia xx

Review : L'Oreal Skin Perfection 3 in 1 Purifying Miscellar Solution

Since I've discovered miscellar water and miscellar solutions to take makeup off, I haven't really found another type of makeup remover that satisfied me completely. Whenever I use a gel or a creamy texture, I feel like my face is still dirty and oily and I need to use a cleanser straight away to take off the makeup remover. With miscellar solutions, this didn't happen anymore !

My favourite one is the Bioderma miscellar solution for oily skin. As it is a French brand, I think you can't buy it in other countries, unless you buy it online of course. So I decided to try the L'Oréal one, which came out quite recently, and see if it was a good alternative to Bioderma.

Basically it's like water, but it does an incredible job at taking your makeup off. It doesn't have a scent, which is good if you don't like the (sometimes strong !) smells of common makeup removers.

It is really effective and takes off everything you have on your face very quickly and leaves your skin clean. I haven't tried it with waterproof mascara but I guess it should work well too.

The product claims to be good for dry and sensitive skin, and even though my skin isn't sensitive, from what I've heard it does indeed work well on these types of skin.

One thing though, you have to be careful when you put it on your cotton pad, the hole on the bottle is a bit too large so you could easily drop much more product than what you actually need.

It is nonetheless a good product, you won't be disappointed about it's efficiency ! But I think I still prefer the "eau miscellaire" by Bioderma (and that's the one I'll be buying next time). But for people who can't have easy access to Bioderma, this L'Oreal miscellar solution is still a good alternative !

Julia xx

What I got for Christmas + my Christmas cupcakes !

First of all, I want to wish you a happy new year ! May 2014 bring you joy, health and happiness :)

And I know it's a bit late, but I thought it would be nice to show you the things I got for Christmas. And at the end of this post, I'll feature some pictures of the Christmas cupcakes I made for my family gathering on Christmas Eve - everybody liked them and I'm quite proud so I wanted to share that too.

Let's start with the presents ! I really love them all, as I chose them myself - yep there was no surprise of any kind with those, but I was asked to choose and so I did. I'm so excited about all this, I always feel like a

child when I open my Christmas presents !

The first one I want to talk about is the one I coveted the most and for the longest time. My own Deathly Hallows necklace ! All Harry Potter fans will know what this is, and understand why I am so excited about it. This symbol represents the three objects that, when you possess them all, make you the Master of Death : the Cloak of Invisibility (the triangle), the Resurrection Stone (the circle), and the Elder Wand (the line in the middle).

I won't go in details about the whole story, but to me this symbol is one of the strongest signs we have in the Harry Potter fandom and universe, and I'm so so happy I now have this amazing necklace. 

I'm a little afraid to wear it honestly, I don't want to damage it - but I'll definitely do it anyway, it looks so cool !

Next is a perfume. I'm almost running out of the Flower by Kenzo I've been using for months (this is my signature scent I guess, one of my favourite perfumes ever), and my mother kindly suggested to buy me a new one for Christmas. I wanted to change and not buy the Kenzo again, and I went for the Dalhia Noir by Givenchy.

I remember smelling it when it first came on stores, and I immediately loved it. It is very different from the scents I go for usually. I couldn't describe it, but I feel like it is a more "mature" feminine scent, a bit stronger too than what I'm used to. So I decided to go for it ! It came in a little set with a nice box to keep it in.

To stay in the beauty theme, I got the Sugarlicious kit by Benefit. I've always wanted to try Benefit products, since everybody likes them and says the quality is really good. This kit is composed of the Sugarbomb blush, the High Beam highlighter, the Benetint for lips and cheeks and the Ultra Plush Sugarbomb gloss, all in sample size. I'm not going to talk too much about this since I want to do a complete review, but I can safely say that this kit is amazing and that I love every product in it !

That's all for the actual presents ! I mainly got money from my family, which is greatly appreciated because sales are starting tomorrow in France :P

And now, my Christmas cupcakes !

I really wanted to cook something for my family this year, because I always eat a lot but I don't really help to cook at all, which is a bit unfair to my nice aunties who spend their afternoon in the kitchen.

I found this wonderful cupcakes decoration kit in New Look, it is sooo cute ! 

It is composed of 24 little cases with cute Christmas patterns on it (I looove the reindeer !), and 24 toppers of four different styles : Santas, glittery stars, penguins and reindeer.

So I made vanilla-coconut cupcakes and used these items to make them look Christmassy. 

And here is what they looked like in the end :

And here is a close-up look :

I'm really glad with how they turned out, especially on the top. I wanted the topping to look like snow, and I just added the little gold sugar because it was nice haha. I don't think I need to write the recipe here, I basically just took one from the Internet and changed it a bit eventually. 

This part of my post doesn't have any relevance at all haha, but I just wanted to show this to you :)

And as this post is long enough already, I'm just gonna wish you a happy new year again, and I'll see you next time !

Lots of love,

Julia xx