A Late July Haul Featuring W7, Avon, Primark, Make Up Revolution And More - Pic Heavy!

I'm late again I know but it's July haul time x I had quite a few opportunities to go shopping in July and I took advantage of every single one of them :)

First up Primark, every time I go into Primark lately I want to buy everything, thankfully though for my bank balance it's nigh on impossible at the moment in my local store to get anything above a size 12, grr. By going in on a regular basis though I managed to pick a couple of things up including this kimono.

I'm a huge, huge kimono fan and I have been for quite a while now. They're fab if your conscious of your upper arms and there great for dressing up just a plain pair of jeans. This one has an cream / ivory base and features a bright almost neon, floral design, which features abstract birds and butterflies. This was £10 and they also had a similar one in black.

Speaking of kimonos I also got this one from Primark, this was a little bit more expensive at £15 but it's the type of thing that you would pick up in Monsoon, or Zara and pay a lot more money for.

It's looking quite grey here but it's actually more of a light duck egg blue shade. It's made of a sort of chiffon trimmed with a distressed tone on tone lace. It's so so unusual and reminds me a bit of the old Hollywood era, and all those glamorous bed jackets :)

This next purchase from Primark is something that is just me. I love, tunic tops, I wear a lot of leggings, jeggings and skinny jeans and I love long tops to cover my bulgy bits. Sorry the pics are a bit blurry these couple were taken on my phone.

The feel and texture of the fabric is amazing, it's so soft and silky. It comes compete with a detachable chain necklace that graduates from silver to gold. This was £8 and also came in a coral.

My final clothing purchase was just a basic mint / aqua vest top, which was just £2. This vest matches the floral print, H&M trousers that I got here perfectly. I just hope the sunny weather comes back so I get a chance to wear them!

My final Primark clothing and accessories purchase were these earrings. They are gold tone and in a tear drop shape studded with crystals, and bright blue enamelling even though it's looking more black here. I love these and I actually went back to get them after I'd left the shop. I love the colours and the shape and to me they really have a Bollywood type feel.




I only made one other jewellery purchase in July, and that was from the new Purple Ivy range at Poundland. I was a little sceptical at first but they actually have some really nice bits. I indulged in my bow obsession and got this cute stretch bracelet, with a crystal bow detail.

My final clothing and accessories buy of the month was this not overtly trendy bag for life from Tesco. They seem to have a few cartoon and Disney style bags in and I fell in love with this Bambi one. They're just a £1 and I think I'm going to be using mine to keep my monthly haul items in :)

On to beauty buys and back to Primark - first up something I seem to pick up every time I go, their tea tree and witch hazel face wipes.

Although the packaging has changed they are exactly the same as they were and you get 2 packets for a £1. As well as the wipes I also got this nail polish remover pot.

I have mixed feeling on these pots if I'm honest but the Bourjois one is by far my favourite and this is supposed to be a pretty good dupe. It was only a £1 so I'll let you know how I get on.

Although I'm supposed to be calming it down and buying less nail polish, I still managed to accumulate 3 new ones in July, all from Avon, including Cultured Purple and All Khakied Out.

As well as the two nail polishes I also got a couple of make items including the Extra Lasting Eyeshadow Ink in Forever Bronze.

This is basically a long wear cream eyeshadow pot, in the most gorgeous shade of chocolatey, bronze. I am a huge lover of cream shadows and I can't wait to try this out. I'll let you know how I get on x

Next up something else that I can't wait to review, the weather really is playing havoc with my make up at the moment, and setting and cooling sprays are a must. I'm still a MAC Fix + devotee but like everything else I'm looking for a cheaper alternative so I thought I'd try out this Avon Makeup Setting Spray.

Again I'll let you know how I get on x They were the items that I purchased in July from Avon but didn't I say I get 3 nail polishes? Well they had an offer on where if you spent so much you got a free gift pack and I did so I got one x There were a choice of nail polishes and I went for Naked Truth - a proper pink / nude.

I also got a free Super Shock Vivid Liquid Eye Shadow in Chromed Cocoa, a sort of metallic brown.

As well as these two items I also got something else free but I've added that to my prize package for my upcoming 400 Bloglovin followers giveaway. I'm not quite there yet but the prize package in coming along nicely with some bits of Avon, Purple Ivy, and Make Up Revolution already added to the prize pot. So if you want a chance to win click here and follow me on bloglovin :)

I bought quite a few make up bits in July including a couple of bits you've already seen - the Make Up Revolution I♥MAKEUP I Heart Chocolate Palette and the Make Up Revolution I♥MAKEUP Blushing Hearts Triple Baked Blusher In Blushing Hearts; You can read my reviews here and here if you haven't already but I've been loving both throughout July and the early parts of August x As well as these I also got a few bits from Superdrug including this NYC Beautifying Blushable Cream Stick in 001 Soho Pink.

Quite a while ago now I got a couple of these in a UK / Canada swap with Michelle from Lipstick Rules and although they were supposedly coming to the UK there never arrived, until now more than two years later, when they've supposedly been discontinued in the USA and Canada. The colours aren't identical so I could easily justify picking up another one. These sticks are super pigmented, and smooth and creamy. They look quite scary but they blend out to give the skin a lovely flush. We only seem to be getting two shades but at about £1.99 they are well worth picking up.

My second Superdrug purchase was one of the new Maybelline Electro Baby Lips in Berry Bomb.

For someone who doesn't get the Baby Lips phenomenon I certainly seem to have quite a few in my collection. Berry Bomb is bright purple in colour, and tastes of fruits and berries. The purple looks scary but these only give the tiniest hint of colour, and the result is more a sheer lilac. I'm not sure these are worth the hype but they are nice moisturising balms with just a hint of colour.

Finally from Superdrug I picked up another of the Imperial Leather Foambursts, this time in Bewitching Blackberry and Wild Fig.

You can read my original review here x This one is gorgeous it's fresh and fruity but not sweet or sickly. It actually quite a sophisticated fragrance which is a pleasure to use. I completely forgot about this so it isn't in the video below but it definitely deserves a mention x

My final proper purchases of the month came from the cheap make up stall - Making Faces in the Metro Centre. These little stalls are always worth a look and you can often pick up some real gems. Last month I picked up a couple of W7 items including one of the W7 Chunky Lips in Scandal.

Just about every brand under the sun seems to be doing these chunky lip crayons at the moment and this is W7's version. I have to say I'm pretty impressed, although it has no discernible taste or smell, it's soft and creamy and the pigmentation is immense.

The colour I went for was Scandal, a cool toned, but wearable hot pink. I only paid about £1.50 for this one so it was a real bargain  x

As well as the Chunky Lips I also picked up something that I mentioned recently that I really wanted to get my hands on, W7 The Honey Queen Honeycomb Blusher.

I screwed my description of this on my video up a bit but what I was trying to say is that this has been compared quite a lot to Benefit's Rockateur and whilst I can see where they re coming from I'm not sure I agree.

I don't own Rockateur but when I've swatched it, it has a lot more of a metallic, shimmery, rose gold finish. In my opinion  Honey Queen is more like Benefit's Sugarbomb.

Sugarbomb is one of my all time blush / bronzers, that adds just a hint of peach, bronze nude colour to the cheeks. The colours in Honey Queen are almost identical to those in Sugarbomb, and although I haven't swatched Sugarbomb here, it is very, very similar, if maybe only a touch darker.

This was just £1.99 which to be honest I thought was a mistake. The quality is fantastic and it's a worthy replacement when my Sugarbomb gives up the ghost.

Like every other month of 2014 so far I think in July I picked up a pile of magazines with some pretty decent freebies in them. Alas I didn't manage to get my hands on a copy of Glamour with a free Clinique Chubby Stick, neither I think did anyone else in the north east of England but I did buy a copy of Cosmopolitan.

July Cosmopolitan came with a free New CID product. They had a couple of different ones to choose from but I went for the i-crayon Lip and Cheek Tint in 9055 Rose Tint.

I've tried a few products from this brand over the years and to be honest on some I have mixed feelings (I really must get round to reviewing some bits for you!) but this is a definite winner - it has  a lovely taste and smell and feels really nice on the lips, and the colour is really wearable.

I also got a couple of skincare items including this 40ml Balance Me Cleanse and Smooth Face Balm with Marie Claire and this mini Malin + Goetz skincare kit which came with ELLE.

So that was my pretty substantial haul x If you have any questions please leave me a comment and I'll do my best to get back to you x Oh and don't forget to watch the accompanying video here if you haven't already, and of course don't forget to follow my blog and follow with bloglovin if you aren't already - only 3 more followers to go till giveaway time!! xx

P.S I'm so sorry about the video quality it honestly wasn't that bad when I edited it :(.

W7 In The Buff Natural Nudes Eye Colour Palette* - A Perfect Dupe For Urban Decay Naked 2?

I've said it before and I'll say it again but at the moment I'm having a major love in with more budget friendly makeup. I love buying and owning high end products but at the moment I'm just not feeling the need to splash the cash. In my mum's day, cheap makeup was exactly that cheap - you just didn't get the quality and you didn't get the technology but thankfully now things have changed, and a cheaper product doesn't necessarily mean a bad one.

There seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment of budget brand producing palettes, and products inspired by higher end items. I know this has caused a bit of controversy in some quarters but personally I don't see the problem. Everybody from catwalk designers, to musicians, to bloggers and make up brands get their inspiration from somewhere, so at some point in time everybody is influenced by someone else or something else. It happens and as consumers in this case we're the ones that benefit, we can buy high end or we can hopefully buy something just as good at a cheaper price.

One budget brand that have consistently produced more affordable versions of high end products is W7. I have to be honest and I've only tried a couple of things from the brand mainly nail polishes, but  I've read a lot of good things and by and large I've been impressed. Recently I was lucky enough to be sent one of their most popular products to try out - The W7 In The Buff Natural Nudes Eye Colour Palette.

You know me I'm all about the nudes, so before I received it I did a little bit of online nosing and I found out that several people had described as a pretty much perfect dupe of Urban Decay's Naked 2 Palette. So as soon as I got it I dug out Naked 2 and did a little bit of comparison work.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between the two does there? I'm sure you've already either got a Naked 2 palette or seen a zillion posts on it already but in case you haven't, it's brilliant the shadows are smooth, creamy and pigmented and it's a neutral shadow lovers dream, but it retails at around £37 putting it out of the price range of a lot people. Compare that to the W7 In The Buff Palette which has a retail price of around £6.95 than you could be on to a winner, how does it perform though?

Well we'll start off with the packaging. The palette comes in a similar vintage style metal tin. It doesn't feel quite as sturdy as the Urban Decay version, and it doesn't contain a mirror, but it looks nice enough on a vanity and it does the job. It also comes with a double ended brush and sponge applicator. I would have preferred a double ended brush as oppose to the sponge end but it's not bad, and I would definitely use it.

The palette comes with 12 shadow, all of which are named which is a nice touch. The colours are almost identical to those in Naked 2, you get a nice combination of mattes and shimmers, featuring everything from matte highlighting shades, to bronzes, and golds, and shades that you could even use to create an alternative smokey eye look.

I don't think I really need to tell you this as I think it's pretty obvious from these pictures but the pigmentation is superb. All the shades feel very soft and creamy without being powdery. The matte shades in particular were a pleasant surprise. They feel very soft, and there is no chalkiness just smooth pigmented colour. All of the shades blend really well, and the wear time is pretty decent.

Basically if I'd had this palette before I'd had Naked 2, I wouldn't have bought it. There shades are almost identical, the pigmentation is easily on par, and every look with Naked 2 you can do with W7 In The Buff. Yes, it's nice to have a high end product and the packaging of  Naked 2 is definitely better quality but as often as I buy products for the packaging, it's the colours and product inside that matters. If your on a budget I would recommend this product and even if your not I can't recommend this palette highly enough. W7 In The Buff Natural Nudes Eye Colour Palette has a recommended retail of around £6.95 and is available from various outlet including the official W7 website where it retails for a slightly higher price. I've also seen for less so it's worth having a little search on the internet before you buy x

After this 100% positive W7 experience I'm definitely going to be trying more from the brand. I'm quite fancying the Honey Queen Bronzer Box, the new Make Up & Glow Bronzing Base, and the In The Nude Eye Colour Palette for starters, but if you have any recommendations I'd love to hear them. so leave me a comment and let me know what you love x

(*Press Sample)