Recent Beauty Purchases

Over the past few months, most of my spare pennies have gone on baby purchases, because my god do they cost a 

lot when you realise everything you need when you are bringing one into the world, and also my wage is really not great!

Despite being a graduate, I'm just a lowly band 2 in the NHS, but its giving me experience which will hopefully help me progress to better jobs. 

Reality vs what I'd like

Anyway job aside, I'm not usually the best at saving money, although I desperately want too, as I have a severe lack of will power and a weakness when it comes to clothes, shoes, make up (on a lesser front), buying drinks for anyone and everyone when i get to my very drunk over generous stage on a night out, cheap DVDs (which add up when you buy quite a few!) and god knows what else. Which would probably explain why I run out out of money, as I can't really afford any of this, especially when I was renting a flat on my own, paying all the bills etc.

However since I've been pregnant and passed the anomaly scan stage at 22 weeks, which was a safety mark for me (I wasn't pushing my luck and buying anything until I knew all was ok), the normal desire of window shopping and lusting over things for myself had ebbed away. Possibly due to the fact my bump was starting to emerge, so clothes shopping was no longer the same, I was only buying the occasional thing to allow for an expanding bump, but also because some kind of maternal instinct had kicked in and all that I was interested in buying was baby themed.

Its taken a long time, but I think we finally have almost everything she needs.....for now, so I think signals went off in my brain in the past week that told me I was actually allowed to buy something for myself again (besides larger sized clothes, although I do love the maxi dresses I brought to help accommodate baby and my larger size).

So everyone's been chatting about Barry M nail polish......mainly nail effects or Peach Melba......but I've never tried any of their normal varnishes and ever since I spotted the blueberry ice cream shade, god knows how long ago, I have wanted it, and after a brief browse in Superdrug, also quite fancied the mint green and mushroom shades.

So yesterday, in the scorching heat, I dragged my heavily pregnant self into Leeds city center and to Boots, hoping the 2 for £5 offer was still on, but pretty expectant that it wouldn't be. Sadly I was right, there's now an offer of 3 for 2 on Barry M eye products instead, but I had my heart set on the varnishes and I chose:

Blue Moon, Blueberry Ice cream, Mint Green and Mushroom*

  *All paler looking shades in reality but the pic makes them look different

So I'm looking forward to trying them out, think I'm gonna go for blueberry first, but then mint green for if I am going somewhere since that's meant to be in fashion now according to More! magazine. As I said, I've never used Barry M varnish before so am not sure of the quality but the variety of colours they do in all their make up is appealing and I love their dazzle dusts too.

I also had happened to run out of Black Mascara, and even though I was lucky enough to get a blue Elizabeth Arden mascara for only the postage recently, black mascara is more my staple colour when doing my every day basic make up. Due to a small budget I often go for Collection 2000 mascara for the good prices, and when getting more extravagant ones from Rimmel on occasions I have been disappointed. I also use their shimmering glow, which I was running low on. Sadly they didn't have my shade, so I've decided to try out the mosaic glow, and opted for the waterproof version of the longer lash mascara this time, due to it being hayfever season and me being a bit hormonal......I want to reduce the risk of panda eyes lol. 

As if to make up for the Barry M offer being over, to my luck there was an offer on Collection 2000....buy any two of their products (which I needed to) and get a free Pure Lip Gloss. There were only a couple of shades and I have no idea what this product is like, but I have brought and liked some of their other ranges of lip gloss in the past and I love anything free so I picked one: 

Collection 2000: Mosaic Glow, Waterproof lengthening Mascara and Pure sheer Lip Gloss Shade: Honey 4

It looks all sparkly and lovely but I don't know what it will look like on, don't want to look like a 5 year old who's raided her mothers make up bag!

 My final reason for going to Boots was to get hold of some Jergens Naturals Skin firming body moisturiser that was mentioned in last weeks More Magazine. During this pregnancy, my legs have got a bit of the orange peel affect which is depressing as they used to be my best feature in my eyes. I can't afford expensive anti cellulite creams and magic potions, so I thought this was worth a try as it promises to 'visibly firm cellulite prone skin' but a few weeks ago I did also invest in a trustworthy body brush to get that circulation going too! As luck would have it, it was on offer too, all Jergens products half price in Boots. So I brought two!

I also grabbed a powder brush whilst I was there, went for the cheaper option of a 17 brush as it was less than half the price of the others,

but I guess that means I can't complain if its not great quality and bristles start falling out. But my cheap ELF one did quite well for several months. On that topic, I haven't treated myself to any ELF products for ages, but some of my purchases from them have been brilliant, in particular I LOVE their face primer and the foundation All Over Cover Stick. I've been a bit heartbroken getting the emails, saying free eyeshadow pallet with your order, knowing I couldn't make an order!

Anyway talking about things I want, my wishlist, is a whole other blog post!! So I'm off to have a bath and paint my nails since I stayed in to rest today instead of trekking around 36 weeks pregnant, wearing myself out!

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