A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I don’t do many ‘haul’ posts, I don’t think they’re quite as popular in the blogosphere as they used to be?  Taken over by beauty box posts perhaps?

Anyway, I’ve been having a bit of a high-street love-in this past week and in the town where I’m currently staying, I’m limited to a Boots and a Superdrug – the Superdrug is a good ‘un, the Boots store massively blows but I did spot a good discounted section at the back that I didn’t have a chance to check out.  My LUSH purchases came from my local store in Southampton just before I drove up North. Um, that’s about it really – here’s what’s prompted me to open my purse this week!

When you’ve got a full fringe, dry shampoo is your friend and I thought I’d give Batiste Cherry a spin, I usually go for the original, dark, or tropical but I think this one is my new favourite.  I’m a massive fan of Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation and surprised myself when I realised that I hadn’t given the Healthy Mix Serum version a go – again, this is a big hit with me (so far).  I think it suits my dryer skin even better and gives a slightly more translucent coverage.  The only gloss that I’ve ever repurchased is BarryM’s Lip Gloss in Toffee, it’s a wonderful colour with a pretty amount of shimmer and a non-sticky texture, I love it!

As for my LUSH dabble, I picked up another holy grail in the form of Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter, it’s the one I keep in my handbag and I generally alternate between this and CND’s Solar Oil which I use immediately after painting my nails.  I was sent a bottle of LUSH 9 to 5 Cleansing Lotion a few weeks ago and whilst I’ve been enjoying using it, it hasn’t set my world alight you know?  I’m not really expecting LUSH Ultrabland to either, but I wanted to try another cleanser to discover the differences and to see which one I lean towards in terms of formula, as they’re both quite different.  Finally, I picked up a bath bomb for Leila – yes, it’s Space Girl.  Yes, it contains copious amounts of glitter.  No, I didn’t have a say in the selection and yes, I will be the one left cleaning the bath.

What was the last beauty product you snapped up?

I’m a total sucker for a bit of leopard print, much to my mother’s amusement.  Or is it disgust… sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Batiste have introduced a new scent to their legendary lineup… we all know that some of the Batiste ‘fragrances’ pong more than others *cough* Blush *cough* but I’m intrigued to try this new one described as: A feminine and daring Oriental aroma with top notes of cocoa, a floral heart and sensual vanilla, musk and wood base notes.

Batiste has become a bit of a staple in my haircare routine since the beginning of the Summer.  I seem to have developed a sorry case of the greasies (thanks hormones) and this stuff stops me from having to wash my hair every morning.  Does that make me a bit of a grot?  Whatever, bet you do it too.  Do you have a favourite Batiste scent?

Batiste Dry Shampoo in WILD is exclusive to Boots and priced at £2.99 for 200ml

It’s all go over at Batiste towers this week…

BIGGER CANS!

They’ve listened to the fans and SUPERSIZED three of the most popular fragrances.

Original, Blush and Tropical scents can now be purchased in 400ml cans… that’s double the size of the standard versions and promises to deliver around 20 applications.

The new size cans will retail at £4.99 each which I’m assured, represents a saving of almost 17% if you opt for the larger size over the 200ml version.

NEW PACKAGING!

Even the original sizes are getting a makeover.  The 150ml cans will be increasing to 200ml as standard which does mean a slight price hike, but from my quick maths this is fairly in line with the increase in volume rather than a sneaky way to squeeze more pennies from us.  Cynical? Moi?

If you’re unsure what to look out for next time you go shopping… here’s a visual of the new packaging changes.  Can you spot your usual fragrance?

NEW PRODUCT!

Finally…

Batiste have introduced another new product to the ever-expanding range…

XXL Volume promises to “provide a volumising makeover to help transform dull or limp hair into big and bouncy locks“.  I achieve a fair volume boost from the original range but will be interested to see how this aids in wrangling my flat locks into big, pouffy hair styles!

Batiste XXL Volume retails at £3.99 for 200ml and will be available from Superdrug, Boots, Sainsbury’s and Independent Pharmacies from June.

Phew! I think they need a nice cup of tea and a lie down!

I do love reading about the things that people pick up in their lunch breaks, so hope mine is somewhat interesting too!  This wasn’t a lunch break… more of a ‘coffee’ break with the lovely Ally.

Since getting my Clarisonic, I’ve turned into a bit of a cleansing freak and there’s nothing I like more now than experimenting with all manner of different cleansers in conjunction with the gadget!  Honestly?  I don’t know how I didn’t get the crap beaten out of me at school.

Not only that, but despite having found a total JOY in the new Elemis Melting Cleanser, I *still* can’t resist picking up these ‘just incase’.  This is my problem though… by the time I’ve finished experimenting to see if I can find a cheaper alternative, I will have spent what it costs to go and by the Elemis twice over!  Please tell me I’m not alone in that kind of nonsense!

So after that rambling… what did I get?

Well, there’s currently a rather tempting 3for2 across skincare lines in Boots at the moment so that’s where I indulged!  I picked up the Boots Botanics Organic Cleansing Balm (£6.63) after reading the on-site reviews.

I also grabbed a nifty looking Boots Botanics Organic Nourishing Eye Makeup Remover (£3.99) (US link – I can’t find it on the UK site!) and the much revered Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation in Opal (£14.30) which I’m hoping to use as a redness concealer.

One last stop near the haircare and I grabbed the new Batiste dry shampoo for brown hair.  I’m not sure if this is reformulated or just repackaged from this one.  I’m secretly hoping this can will get me through those days where it takes you longer than it should to realise that you seriously should go buy some more hair dye.  Like now.

I’m in London today and I’ll be doing my best to avoid ‘popping’ into Boots for another look before the offer ends.  Honest!

What have you been hauling recently?

Any of you bright-eyed sparks noticed the MASSIVE bargain you can bag in Superdrug at the moment?

In my 2 nearest stores, there’s a huge basket near the tills… full to the brim of Batiste Dry Shampoo Sprays.

Choose between: Original, Blush and Tropical (possibly Boho too – can’t remember!).  Sadly no coloured varients or I would have cleared the lot!

I wonder if they’re repackaging?  Curious!

As a Batiste-lovin’ brunette, my one and only issue with the product was the insane amount of “distribution” I had to do everytime I used the dry shampoo.  It was a tiresome but critical step to ensure that I didn’t make myself look like this little Romeo…

Oh Mon Cheri! xx xx xx xx xx xx (sorry.. I’m having a Pepe Le Pew moment)

Anyway, I wrote about the new range of Batiste dry shampoos for dark hair a few weeks ago, and got the opportunity to see how I got on with the new product.  I’m glad I did, because could I find the coloured range in the Boots stores nearest to me?  Could I hell.  The shelves were bare!  I think that my experiences with hunting the stuff down are being echoed throughout the land.  Hopefully as it becomes a more established feature, stock numbers will increase.

Now, I don’t know how complicated this stuff is to produce, or what goes into it.  All I know is that it needs to perform one simple task.  I need it to dry up any oils that are weighing my hair down at the roots and making it look flat and dull, and in an ideal world, it’s gonna achieve that one thing without any additional side effects.

I swatched it for ya! Ha!

It’s most definitely brown!  The lighter patch in the middle is where I got a bit heavy handed and went back in for a 2nd spray.  As it dries, the colour deepens, so the paler spot didn’t take long to deepen to the same shade as the surrounding colour.

It works aswell as the original formulas, smells fine enough and does what it’s supposed to without making me look like Cruella de Vil.  It’s better than other generic dry shampoos and in my experience, works just aswell as the more expensive varieties.

This really is a staple for me, something that I purchase over and over.  Finally, I can be a little more sloppy with it when I’m in a rush.  Woo ha!

However…

I go through this stuff pretty quickly and I noticed that it’s priced up at nearly £3 in my local store compared to the original (and other scented varieties) which are priced at just above the £2 mark.  So that’s a 1/3rd more expensive and I would love to find out why.

To be blunt, as much as I’m impressed with the product… and truly can’t fault the way it works.  I won’t purchase it now I’ve got the ‘novelty’ factor out of my system unless the price comes down in line with the rest of the brand.

Perhaps if a can of it lasted me longer than 5 minutes then I’d pay a bit more without noticing the hit to my purse.  But if I’m repurchasing this a couple of times a month, then I think I’d rather get a bit of arm ache and spend my £3 saved on a Eggnog Latte instead 😉

Have you tried it yet?  What are your thoughts on the pricing?

Fellow dark-haired lovelies, RUN to your nearest stockist for Batiste’s latest brainwave (it’s a good’un!)

Batiste Coloured Dry Shampoo!

This promises to solve the only problem I’ve ever had with dry shampoo!

Props where it’s due, Batiste have done so well to revamp their image in recent years and have become a cult favourite the world over.

I’m all for quick starts in the morning and since discovering Batiste I can’t remember the last time I had to scrape my hair back in a ponytail.

Just one thing… what about the redheads?

Are you a dry shampoo fanatic?