A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

You have until the 31st March, promo code = TICKTOCK

Take advantage whilst you can!

Incidentally… I wonder what shade that Essie is supposed to be?  Imma on the hunt now!  Any ideas?

I first heard of Aurifere when I saw their stand at IMATS back in January…

…I was on the hunt for a Shu Uemura foundation brush dupe at a bargain price, when my eyes alighted on this domed goat-hair blush brush (Series 150) from Aurifere (£11.99).  It has a slight taper and I umm-ed and ahh-ed that it could be a possible match.

But before I could make the purchase, I got sidetracked by this:

Aurifere’s Series 480 blending brush in squirrel (£8.99).  Soft doesn’t even begin to describe this brush.

It has a beautifully sharp taper that gets right into the socket line for precise blending with complete control.  I find that unless I’m very careful, my MAC 217 can spread the shadow a little too far above and below the crease for me.  I’m not hugely aufait with MAC brushes, but I’m thinking that the MAC equivalent to the Aurifere 480 would be a 224 (tapered blending brush).

I paid around £9 for the Aurifere blending brush and I’m absolutely delighted with it, though I have been lamenting not picking up the 150 ever since!

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Fast forward a couple of months and you may have noticed from my top photo that I do now have the Aurifere 150 in my grubby little hands!  Shall I tell you how?

Aurifere have opened a web store!

Hot off the press, the store only opened last week and I was their first customer – yay me! Desperate much?

Whilst making my order, I also added another blending brush to my collection:

The Aurifere Series 490 (£9.59) is a goat-hair blending brush which is nicely packed but definitely scratchier than my 480 or MAC 217.  What I do love about it though is it’s ‘springiness’.  That’s a terrible way to describe it… but it blends out harsh lines effortlessly when I hold it near the end of the shaft and do windscreen wiper motions across my socket line… something I appreciate because I kinda suck at doing those little blending circles with my 217.  How crap was that testimonial?  Way to make myself sound like I have no clue about makeup application… but I hope at least some of you appreciate what I’m trying to say!

My package also contained the Aurifere Sablinsky Series 330, a synthetic brush that is amazing for cream shadows like my Benefit creaseless creams.  Total bargain at £6.69!

I am so happy to have given Aurifere a try, I simply haven’t been disappointed with anything I’ve bought so far.

I want to give the Series 150 (blush brush) a full try before passing judgement, but so far I’m liking it ok as a foundation brush, but I’m freaking loving it as a blush brush.

I emailed Aurifere and asked if they’d consider passing along a discount code for my readers and they obliged!

I have 30 codes available (single use only).  If you try one and it appears to have expired, come back and give another one a go!

Enter one of the following codes at checkout to get 5% off your order (I may have ‘accidently’ already used that first one, sorry ;)) and remember all items have free delivery:

I just treated myself to a Series 180 Racoon Powder Brush. Vex has one, and it’s softer than Leila’s bum. FACT.

Have you heard of Aurifere?  Used any of their brushes?  Let me know if you make an order and tell me what you get, I’m hopelessly nosey.

Space NK are celebrating the arrival of Spring with a 2-day promotion.  They’ll be offering complementary skincare consultations, makeup lessons, expert demonstrations and mini pampering sessions instore this week.

If that weren’t enough, spend over £60 instore and you’ll receive one of their ‘ultimate’ goodie bags.

The event will be taking place this week on Friday 26th March & Saturday 27th March at Space NK stores nationwide.

Dollipops wants to offer my lovely readers a 15% discount off your orders.

I’ve already shared my appreciation for the retro Jackie necklace, but I’m also particularly coveting:

1. Je T’aime (£5.99) – Silver plated chain with frosted heart charm and cute Eiffel tower pendant.

2. Black Leaf (£7.99) – Beautiful leaf hair slide, with sequin and bead detailing.

3. Monochrome Buttons (£3.99) – Set of two cute monochrome button grips.

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To get 15% off all orders online at Dollipops, enter the exclusive code LIPGLOSSIPING at checkout.

I received this email in my inbox yesterday and thought it may be of interest to some of my UK ladies.

The blurb:

We’ve got just the thing to lift you out of the January blues and make you feel fabulous – a free Barry M make-up kit! The five-piece set includes an eye pencil, eyeshadow, nail varnish and lipgloss, which all come in a gorgeous pink cosmetics bag, worth £20*!

To get yours, simply collect four of the tokens that will be appearing in Fabulous magazine every week for five weeks from this Sunday (17th January). Then redeem in any of our Superdrug stores between 7-14th February to collect your goodies.

On a mildly related and not very PR friendly note… does anyone else get the urge to kick Ms. Holden up her smug, bony arse?  Just me then…

Ruby & Millie make some decent brushes at reasonable prices, and this one is my favourite.  It’s great for gel eyeliners and brow powders… firm but supple.

The Ruby & Millie I-Define brush is priced at £6.00 in Boots, but is currently available for a recession-busting £1.00 with a No7/Ruby & Millie till spit*.

I’ve bought a couple since the offer’s been on and plan on getting some more of the Boots No7 Eyeshadow brushes which I enjoy using alongside my MAC 239.

The Boots No7 Eyeshadow brush is priced at £5.75 rendering it a 75p super-bargain with a till spit.  Only larger stores appear to carry these brushes though.  You can usually find them on the bottom shelf of the No7 stand (rather than amongst the general makeup brushes) housed in cardboard boxes.

*till spit = a voucher automatically printed by the till when you spend over £5 in a transaction.  I’m a geek and purposefully split my transactions into roughly £5 amounts to maximize my till spits *blush*

Till spits are valid until the 31st January, so get shopping!

Have you tried either of these brushes?  Do you recommend any other ’till spit’ bargains?

It’s not the best looking sale I’ve ever clapped eyes on despite it’s promises… but someone might find it useful!

Click the image to be taken to the Nails Inc. sale

My mind is awash with the current beauty discounts and codes.

Here are the one’s I know of, all in one place, not pretty… but tidy.

MAC – Free Shipping (ends midnight this Saturday) – FREESHIP09

HQHAIR – 25% off – SAVE25

HQHAIR – Free Shipping (expires today) – FSXMAS

ZUNETA – Free Shipping (’till 12pm Monday 14th) – FREESHIP

THE BODY SHOP – Upto 30% off by visiting: PasstheXmasParcel

SECRET SALES – 15% off – PR3S3NT (expires today) – psst.. have you seen the Nails Inc sale on there?!

Phew!

If you can find anything in stock, *grumble grumble* HQHair have released an altogether fabulous (and very festive) 25% off code!

You know what that means don’t you?  25 freakin percent off NARS!!!  That’s unheard of!!

Quick, RUN to HQ Hair and pile as much NARS (as you can find in stock *cough*) in your basket, checkout… then come back and tell me what you bought.

Wait!!  They’ve also reduced BECCA and Malin+Goetz stuff to half price…. get in!

Oh, you’ll be wanting the code won’t you?

SAVE25

…with Pass The Christmas Parcel from The Body Shop!

Click the image above to be taken to the site where you can claim your voucher.

After you’ve saved yourself some money, make yourself uber popular by sending the link on to your friends!

You can redeem online or in store, I got a 20% off voucher and Mr. L nabbed himself a 15% off voucher.  That 30% voucher eludes us this time, can you do better?  Find out now.

The Boots Advantage Card… greatest invention since mascara… nearly.

I had a panic attack when I thought I’d lost mine a couple of months ago.  No, seriously… I actually hyperventilated and needed to sit down.

I’m a savvy Bootser!  I take advantage (no pun intended) of the offers that are available, splitting my purchases in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways to maximize the points I can get.  Nerdy? Yes. Dull? Mostly.. Worth It? Absolutely!

Every January I dive into my (2nd) nearest Boots and buy up the leftover Christmas presents that get reduced down to 70% off.  If they’re not too Christmassy themed, they make for great emergency birthday presents throughout the year and now I have Leila, it’s even easier to maximize Boots Advantage Card points on baby stuff: nappies, wipes and toiletries.  It all adds up!

Every year around this time I gleefully check out the latest Advantage Card Deals, most recently they’re offering 750pts (£7.50) when you buy 3 or more premium beauty products.

I’ve just emptied my Advantage card on the Dior Holiday Palette and a (soon to be in my hands) YSL Singulier Mascara, onwards and upwards – time to start saving them up again!

Are you good at saving your points?  Do you have a big blow out or spend them as you go along?

Now that we’re hurtling headfirst into that downward spiral of financial gloom otherwise known as “the run up to Christmas”, I thought you lovely lot might be in need of a few discount codes to make those purse-hitting punches a little less painful.

Thanks to the penny-pinching money-savvy people over at VoucherCodes.co.uk, here’s the best of the discounts currently available:

20% Off and Free Delivery at The Body Shop
10% off plus Free Delivery at Elemis
10% Off first Orders at Zuneta
5% off Orders over £30 at Feel Unique
10% off and Free Delivery at TimeToSpa
£5 off Orders over £60 at Gorgeous Shop
5% over Orders over £50 at Salon Skincare
10% off Orders over £20 at The Beauty Room
5% off Christmas Selection at Treat Her

Click the image below for more money-saving discounts.