Monday haul!

Good evening lovelies!
Today I went shopping for the first time in over a month, and I bought some well-deserved presents for myself (mostly for getting the degree result I wanted!) and this is just a big post to show you the items I bought, what I think of them and just get me back into writing again! :)
I don't really have much money right now, so most of the things I bought were either on offer or were very cheap, and some are new products and others are things I've had before - so here goes!

 First of all, I bought some new clothes! (oops!) from Primark because I couldn't resist them and I have a festival coming up this weekend and I thought this outfit would be brill to take with me :)
I bought a blue checked shirt (£6), a (kinda) My Little Pony print tie shirt (£6) and some leopard print shorts (£10), which look great on and they fit so well considering I usually have trouble with Primark clothes!

They really have improved the fitting of their clothes recently and I think the quality of these clothes are brill in regards to how cheap they are, I usually avoid Primark clothes for that reason but I'm glad I gave them another chance :) I'll be wearing this outfit with some vintage cowboy boots and a rockabilly bandana, with neutral eye makeup and maybe some dark lipstick :)



The next item I grabbed was this beautiful miracle worker! I sampled this a few weeks ago and I have NEEDED it ever since, I adore it! It's Garnier's Miracle Skin Perfector all-in-one BB cream (it was either £9.99 or 2 Garnier items for £15 in Boots - bargain!) I bought the light colour as my skin is practically white and I know that I'll be using this every day. Having sampled a few BB creams over the last month or so I decided on this one because of its smooth, primer-like bubbly texture, the amazing smell and because of the added goodness Garnier have added to this BB cream. It is SPF15 which is perfect, especially in July and it contains Vitamin C and mineral pigments to actually care for your skin while you're wearing it, rather than just act as a cover-up like many of the others. I have found that most days I am skipping wearing any foundation because of the amazing coverage this cream gives me and it really does mask any redness or imperfections my skin may have. I am quite concious about my freckles showing through makeup as I find they ruin the picture-perfect look I really want to achieve, but I have found that this BB really does help to cover them up and make my skin look flawless - without 3 layers of concealor! Definitely a product I'd recommend and I can see myself never being without it from now on.

Because Garnier products were 2 for £15 I also picked up this day moisturiser!
It is a day cream from their Youthful Radiance range, for 'multi-action smoothing' and a 'boost of radiance' - something I could benefit from! This cream smells absolutely amazing and has a gel-like consistency rather than the usual opaque creamy texture of day creams. It feels so light on my skin and makes my skin feel supple and healthy - it also prevents drying without adding greasiness, which is a problem I often come across with day creams.
This cream works by using caffeine and grape anti-oxidants to stimulate re-development of skin cells to encourage radiance and also reduce the appearance of imperfections and lines. I have a feeling that this cream teamed up with their BB cream will have my skin looking HD photo-ready in no time!

Next was this Nivea Green Tea and Cucumber soap (Savers- £1!) which I have wanted for absolutely ages. I have a theory that I only get spots and imperfections when I use too many chemicals or skin-altering products such as cleansers, scrubs, masks, dry exfoliators, blah blah blah. I find that my skin looks its best when I use only the kindest of soaps just to wash away any makeup or dirt and leave it alone - I usually use Clinique's soap bar to wash my face and I have also found that Dove's Beauty Bar soap works wonders too, but I really wanted to try this because of the ingredients. Green Tea and cucumber are two things I know to work well for skin, especially sensitive or dry skin. The cucumber calms while the green tea cleanses, so I thought this soap would be perfect! I am yet to open it and try it (I don't want to, the packet makes it look so pretty!) but I thought for £1 I couldn't really say no!

The next product I reached for when I realised they were only £1 was this packet of Kleenex eye makeup remover wipes for sensitive skin. I have always been a cleansing wipe snob - I refuse to use anything cheap that suds up when you use them and make your eyes sting, or ones which are not soft enough or that don't smell very nice. I wear contact lenses so I have to buy non-stinging wipes which I find is only possible if you spend a little more on them, and when I saw these on offer I grabbed them without hesitation. They claim to be softer than usual cleansing wipes and they're not lying - they are so soft and they smell amazing! I also really like the packet too, I will definitely be using these from now on!

 The next product I bought is Rimmel's eyebrow pencil in Hazel (around £3 from Boots) which is my favourite eyebrow pencil. I am thinking now I should have tried the darker brown shade, because when I am using this shade you can see my eyebrow hairs underneath sometimes and it takes me a little longer to perfect them, but I have been using this shade for months now so I guess I can trust it!
It comes with an eyebrow brush on the lid which I use to gently brush the hairs upwards and outwards before I pencil over them, and the pencil itself isn't a dry formula so it doesn't take much doing to get a perfect shape. The only worry I have about this pencil is the shade, as you can see on this picture (I apologise for my eyebrows in this, they look so horrible!) but I always feel concious of my brows looking too dark against my white/grey hair. Other than that - a brilliant brow pencil for the price!

Once I had paid for my other items in Boots I was given the best piece of paper any cashier could give - a Boots No7 £5 voucher :') It always makes me so happy when they give me these because I absolutely adore No7 products and I can never afford them unless they give me a voucher, so when I realised I had forgotten to buy a kohl eyeliner I decided to use my voucher to buy this beautiful pencil here!
I have used this pencil before, it's No7's Amazing Eyes pencil in black. I love this kohl liner because it's such a thick, high-pigmented, smooth liner that stays put for hours - something I have trouble with when using black liner on my lower lash-line. The pencil also comes with a handy smudging tip on the other end too, so it means 1 less brush to carry around with me whenever I am traveling or staying over somewhere!
I love this eyeliner, and I am so grateful to Boots for letting me have it for £2.70!

Finally, I picked up another Natural Collection pressed powder in Cool! (£1.99 from Boots) I adore this powder because of how much I can rely on it despite the price. This powder is almost creamy and doesn't feel dry over foundation at all, meaning I can carry  it around with me everywhere and despite touch-ups never looks powdery or over-done. The shade of this pressed powder works so well with my skin tone and as you can see from the picture, it doesn't look orange at all, which is something I find is a problem with pressed powders on light skin.
I like to think that this powder gives my skin a doll-like porcelain finish over foundation and it is always in my bag. I would definitely recommend it to anyone with light-toned skin, especially if you find that after a few hours your makeup may not be covering any imperfections anymore or if your T-zone can become oily.

So, they were the products I bought today! I had such a successful shopping trip and it's not often I get what I need without spending the entire contents of my bank account!
Like I said on my Twitter, I have less things to do now so I will be resuming blogging properly once again

I hope you're all well!
Jennifer xo