Royal Quays Outlet Centre Beauty Haul

Hi Guys x I've got another long overdue haul for you today and this one is all about bargain beauty bits. A few weeks ago now me, my godmother and some of her friends went on a coach trip. Call me old and boring if you like but personally I'm all for coach trips, even if I was the youngest person on the coach by about 20 years.

Our destination was not one but two of the North East premier outlet shopping areas - Royal Quays, which is an outdoor outlet centre with all kinds of unusual and high street stores, and Boundary Mill, which is a huge store that sells everything from Jaegar, to Evans, to Yankee Candles, and Kitchenware. I mainly went to make a dent in my Christmas shopping but I did buy myself a few home bits in Boundary Mills (blog post to come), and a few beauty bits in Royal Quays.

It was a freezing cold day, and being so close to both the coast and the River Tyne, only the hardiest shoppers were braving the icy blasts of Royal Quays. Nothing warms my heart though then spotting a Beauty Outlet store. Unfortunately this wasn't one of the CCO (Cosmetic Company Outlets) that are owned by Estee Lauder, but after visiting their Dalton Park store earlier in the year, I knew that something would be sure to catch me eye.

If you like nail polishes these stores are well worth a look, one wall in this particular branch was covered in nail polishes for brands including, W7, Essie, OPI, Revlon and Nails Inc. It really was like a polish rainbow and although I saw several polishes that I really liked, I was good and just picked the one shade from Nails Inc.

This is the shade Edwards Mews and I think it's one of their polka dot colours, that you can either wear on it's own or over the top of other colours. It's a clear polish that contains lots of semi matte, small pieces of round glitter in black, pale blue, pale peachy, lemon and an orange. I love polishes like this and I regularly use them to revive a tired manicure or add a bit of interest of a ring finger. I can't seem to find this polish online more so it's obviously a discontinued shade but it was only £2.99 so I'm not complaining.

To be honest I could have spent a lot longer in their looking around, it really is an Aladdin's cave for beauty junkies, but because was some slightly less beauty obsessed people I tried to be as I could. A couple of display stands catch me eye though including one, with a whole load of Clarins boxes on it.
I couldn't resist a little peek and I came up trumps..

I don't own a lot of Clarins items but something that I have always using is the lipsticks. A little while ago now their Joli Rouge Long - Wearing Moisturising Lipstick range was given a bit of a makeover, the packaging changed and a lot of the shades were discontinued. The Royal Quays Beauty Outlet store had such a huge selection of colours to choose from on the old style, silver packaging that there really was a colour to suit everyone.

The colour I ended up going for is one of the shades that has been completely discontinued, 709 Parisian Pink.

This is one of those beautiful blue based pinks that suits most skin tones and ages. In fact my godmother who is in her mid 80's even bought the same colour.

This lipstick has a subtle fruity, rose scent and taste, and whilst it isn't the most hydrating lipstick I've ever worn, unlike a lot of long wear lip colours it doesn't leave your lips feeling like the Sahara Desert. The pigmentation is excellent and I've already worn this lipstick an awful lot, it's just the perfect Louise colour! Apologies that I haven't managed to snap a picture of this one on my lips but the winter light is definitely working against me. Hopefully the swatch below will give you some idea, and if you want to see it on my lips, then have a watch of most recent unboxing videos here and here x

The final thing that I bought in the Beauty Outlet store was a product that literally made my heart skip a beat, when i saw it.

I've been lucky enough over the years to pick up quite a few Wet 'n' Wild items from both swaps and from friends and family travelling to the states, and I've picked up the odd bit on eBay but for whatever reason this is one of the brands that's yet to make it's way across the Atlantic. I already have one of the 8 pan Color Icon Eyeshadow Palettes in the neutral toned Comfort Zone which I love but i always wanted the plum toned Petal Pusher.

With eBay and Amazon prices pushing £17 for what in essence is a drugstore palette, I'd just about given up hope of ever owning this one, but nestling at the end of one of the larger display stands was a small selection of US brands including Covergirl and Wet 'n' Wild.

I literally snatched it off the shelf and took it straight to the till and boy am I glad I did, and I was even happier still when I found out if was reduced to just £2. It contains a lovely mix of matte, shimmer, and out and out sparkly shades in some beautiful pink, purple, plum and grey shades. The pigmentation is pretty decent for the price and I can honestly say that there is only one shade, a matte warm, white that didn't live up to my expectations.

If you have a Beauty Outlet store near you I would definitely recommend that check them out if you haven't already. They do have a website (find it here) which seems to be under construction at the moment but you can sign up to their newsletter to find out when they go live. I have my fingers crossed for an online store but in the meantime, I can definitely see myself visiting my local stores again in 2017.

Other than the Beauty Outlet store, Royal Quays is a touch lacking if beauty is your thing but they do have one other store that I couldn't resist going into, The Body Shop Outlet.

I love The Body Shop at the best times but you know me if I can save a bit of money bring it on. They had a lot of bits and pieces including past season Christmas items, and some current lines but I headed straight towards the Cocoa Butter. I love The Body Shop Cocoa Butter range but as I mentioned in a previous post, it is becoming harder and harder to find! I looked on The Body Shop website today and they only have one product from the Cocoa Butter range in stock! I've been told by a couple of staff members that as far as they are aware the range is not being discontinued but unless they're having some supplier or packaging issues, it isn't looking good.

Thankfully the outlet had a few bits in stock so I but a few bits to keep me going, including this duo pack which contained a 250ml Shower Cream, and a 250ml Body Lotion, which was just £8.40 instead of £12. Not a huge saving I know but these are two of my holy grail products.

I also managed to pick a full size of one of the Cocoa Butter Body Butters - Apologies I can't remember how much this was but it was slightly less than retail. I really hope that the range isn't been discontinued and I'm going to keep asking until I get a firm answer. You can read why The Body Shop Cocoa Butter range is my Holy Grail in this post from way back in 2011 x

I've made a little video to accompany this haul which you can see below or via this link. Don't forget to subscribe to my You Tube channel, for lots of beauty and lifestyle videos, and some exclusive content including some unboxings, and coming soon an exclusive festive haul from The Body Shop.



I'm a bit of a bargain hunter so I do love a bit of outlet shopping when I get the chance. It's very much a case of you pays your money you makes your choice, sometimes you can get a real bargain and you could buy everything, and sometimes you'll come home empty handed it really is the luck of the drawer. Are you a fan of outlet shopping? Let me know your thoughts x

Vegas Treats From My Bestie - Tarte, Kat Von D, and Wet N Wild

Although I don't consider myself the most popular person on the planet I'm very lucky to have some amazing friends. It's not easy being friends with someone with chronic illness but one of my friends in particular seems to excel at it, and for that I'm truly thankful.

As well as being grateful to her for being there through thick and thin, I'm also pretty pleased that this year she chose to spend her main holiday in Las Vegas - what does that mean? Well for her it meant a fabulous holiday but for me it meant the opportunity to get my hands on some US goodies. She doesn't share my obsession with beauty and make up so I gave her a little list just in case she had a little bit of time to do some shopping.

The result was a Sephora bag filled with pretties, as well as a drugstore item and some Birthday Cake M&M's :). Although none of the make up items are available in the UK, you can probably get your hands on them via the Sephora website or via ebay, so I thought it was worth showing you just in case you fancy placing an online order or if you're lucky enough to be jetting across the Atlantic this holiday season.

Although we can get Tarte in the UK from QVC, I'm lead to believe that this palette - the Tarte Light Of The Party Collectors Make Up Case is a limited edition, Sephora exclusive. From the moment I clasped eyes on it though, I knew I needed it, no matter what the inconvenience or cost.

Open the beautiful metallic, chevron printed gift box and your greeted with a hard, palette come clutch bag. In a plain textured gold on one side, this bag / palette has a zip fastening, and one side is covered and I mean covered in an almost Aztec design picked out in hundreds of sequins.

If that isn't amazing enough, unzip it and you're subjected to neutral eyeshadow and make up heaven. The palette contains 24 of Tarte's famous Amazon Clay eye shadows, in every neutral shade from a creamy highlight colour, to a shimmering taupe, coppers, golds, nudes and rich chocolate browns.

The palette contains a nice combination of shimmers, satins and mattes and all of the shades are soft, and smooth and the pigmentation is excellent.

As well as the shadows, the palette also contains a 4ml deluxe sample size of Tarte's best selling Lights, Camera Lashes Mascara and a travel size, double ended shadow brush.

That isn't all though, the large square item on the right isn't just for show it's actually another Tarte palette so this really is a two for.

Simply remove the metallic, cardboard palette and your left with a large mirror in the main palette and a takeaway palette that ideal for your daily make up bag or for holidays or weekends away.

The takeaway palette contains another 6 neutral toned eye shadows, instead of just duplicating the colours though, you're getting 6 new shades that don't appear in the main palette.

It's not just about shadows though, you're also getting the Amazonian Clay Pink Champagne Highlighter, and a full size Amazonian Clay Bronzer in Social Butterfly and a blusher in Amazed. Again the shades are soft and pigmented and I can see the blusher and the highlighter especially becoming firm favourites in my make up collection.

I think that this is a lovely palette and I think it would make a great gift for anyone who loves make up, sparkle, or neutral eye shadows or someone who prefers their make up to be cruelty free. Everything is wearable, there are no dodgy colours and the quality is superb. The Tarte Light Of The Party Collector's Make Up Case retails at $59 from Sephora, and it has supposedly has a value of $394. I always take price comparisons like this with a pinch of salt but seeing as the same size blush and bronzer retail at $28 each, it's probably about right.

Like most of you I love nude eyeshadow palettes and personally, in my opinion, you can never have enough so I was super excited to take this out of my Sephora bag.

Although I'm currently ink less and tattoo less, I know who Kat Von D is, and as well as being a celebrity and a tattoo artist, she also has a highly rated beauty and make up line.

Like a lot of ranges it's unavailable in the UK, and since I've been eyeing up (haha) some of her eyeshadow palettes for a while now I added a couple to my Vegas list and my lovely bestie got me the Shade + Light Eye Contour Palette.

Packaged in a black cardboard this palette contains a full sized mirror and it comes with full instructions on how to create a variety of looks to define, balance and lift the eyes.

It contains 12 matte eye shadows, in 3 separate colour families -  a Neutral Quad, a Cool Quad, and a Warm Quad. Each of the 3 quads, contain a base colour, a contour colour, a shade to define and a shade to highlight.

You know me and mattes, for years I avoided them, but companies now are starting to do them right, and this palette is no exception, the colours are, soft, velvety and the pigmentation is nuts. Although the title of this palette makes you think that it might be something for people who are more experienced with make up, the instructions are really easy to follow and it gives you all in the information that you could need to create around 6 looks. It's also a great palette to experiment with, and it would also work really well with all of the neutrals in your no doubt very large collections. The Kat Von D Light + Shade Eye Contour Palette retails at $46 and it's something that I would really recommend.

How do you tell a true friend? Well it's the one that gets a sample in a shop and passes it on to you rather than keeping it for herself :), hence this little pot of First Aid Beauty Red Clay Deep Cleanser, I haven't tried anything from this brand and this sounds like a really interesting product so I'll let you know what I think when I try it x

Although I think we have an amazing choice in the UK when it comes to drugstore and budget make up,  but there are a few US brands that I wish would make that long journey across the pond, and one of them is Wet N Wild. This was one of the brands that appeared in selected stores for a little while and then disappeared almost overnight. I've picked up a few bits from ebay and from swaps and I've loved most of the pieces that I've managed to get, but I'm a particular fan of their eye shadows.

This gorgeous trio was the final item (bar the M&M's) in my bag and it's fabulous. Yes nudes again, but the Wet N Wild Color Icon Eye Shadow Trio in 380B Walking On Eggshells would be a valuable edition to anyones neutral eyeshadow collection, including mine.

It contains 3 colours and two sponge applicators, and each shade is embossed with whereabouts you should put it on your eyes - you get a shimmery, golden cream for the brow bone, a shimmery bronze, brown for the crease and a gorgeous warm, shimmery rose beige for the eyelid. Apologies for the lack of swatches but for the price this palette is amazing, the shadows are super creamy and the pigmentation is is beyond amazing for the price. These trios retail at around $2.99 from the likes of Walgreens, they are a little bit more expensive on Amazon and on ebay but there definitely worth snapping up.

It kind of irritates me that there are still so many brands that we can't access in the UK grrr! but I'm really, really grateful that my lovely bestie Dawn, managed to take a few moments out of her holiday to pick me up some fabulous goodies, that I'm going to really enjoy using and experimenting with. I hope that some of you have found this post useful, and if you've picked up any US goodies lately too, I love to hear what you got, so leave me a comment and let me know x

Metro Centre and Ebay Purchasing

Hey my loves this post is a little late because of bloggers meltdown, and my evening out but on Thursday me and Mummy Lou popped to the Metro Centre to see if we could find something for my birthday :) We got a few things for said event and I picked up a few things myself - first up Top Shop - If your a Top Shop cardholder you normally get sent a voucher just before your birthday containing a discount, you used to be able to use it online but for the last couple of years you've only been able to use it in store. My purchases weren't super interesting but still - first up these ruffle, ridge style vest in both white and in purple

Then just some plain vests in white and this kind of peachy nude colour

I also got one of the loose powder blushers in Rosy - it's quite a subtle peachy pink shade ideal for a splash of natural colour

the little sponge applicator

swatch

Then I popped to Superdrug to pick up one of the new Beauty Cards I also had a little look at the make up I was particularly looking for the new Sleek lipsticks but the Sleek display was pretty empty so I went to look at the new Beauty UK releases - like last week they still had no testers for anything but I took the chance and picked up two of the baked blushers - well it would have been wrong not too they had a special offer on where you could get 2 baked products for only £6.00 and Mummy LouLou paid :). First up I got one of the lovely pink shades 1 Candy Shop

It looks quite scary in the pan but it really isn't

I also got 5 Peaches and Cream, a lovely neutral peach tone

This is so pretty if you like Nars Orgasm then you should like this x

I am really impressed they maybe aren't for you if you don't like shimmer or if you have darker skins but they are really pretty - I wore the pink one on Friday night and I have to say it was soooo pretty and fresh  x

I know I said on twitter that I wasn't going to pick up another copy of Instyle but I did, my subscription copy didn't come with the free Nails Inc polish and once I saw some swatches of Electric Teal I knew I wanted it :)

So that was my Metro Centre haulage pretty restrained for me I'm sure you'll agree but I do have a few bits to show you that came from ebay - first up nails I placed a little order a few weeks ago with Enchanted Beauty Spot I just got the 3 things, an OPI polish in Not Like The Movies - this was from the Katy Perry collection and I love it, I love anything that shimmers and changes colour

Next up some OPI Avoplex -I've used lots and lots of nail oils and I have to say this is my favourite - my nails are so dry at the moment and I really need this heavy duty moisturiser

Finally I ordered Essie Allure - I am planning on wearing this nude shade with Bourjois Rose Lounge to try and replicate Catherine Middleton's wedding day nails x

This next purchase was my first post Project 10 Pan make up purchase I ordered these the day after I finished P10P Bad LouLou :) It was the much talked about Wet n Wild Color Icon palettes

I got the six palettes in 249 Vanity which is the brown toned palette, with 3 matte and 3 shimmer shades ranging from dark brown to cream

and I also got 247 Pride, which is the blues and greens palette again it contains 3 matte and 3 shimmer shades, ranging from a white to a dark blue x

I also got a few more US make up bits via ebay including a L'oreal HIP Eyeshadow Duo in 936 Rascal, a pinkish nude shade and a dark smokey grey

I also got a L'Oreal HIP Intense Definition Eye Pencil in 325 Dark Night, a dark brown

 

and a Maybelline Eye Studio Cream Shadow Trio in 102 Silver Starlet

If you have any questions or if you would like any reviews or any more swatches please let me know xx 

Obviously like most bloggers I am a little bit behind on my postings this week so I will try to catch up but obviously tomorrow is my birthday but I will try to sneak in a little post x