ELF Haul

ELF have recently done a 48% off sale and as I'm never one to pass up on a bargain I decided to put in a little order. I ordered either Tuesday or Wednesday morning and it came on Saturday, super quick considering how many orders must have been placed during the sale.

As usual it arrived well packaged, in perfect condition and with everything included.

There was one thing in particular that I really wanted to order from ELF and was my main reason for putting an order in, this item was the brow stencils. I was chatting to a friend at work who mentioned these and I really wanted to give them a go, they were only £1.50 (78p after the discount) for 4 different shaped stencils. I can't use all of them due to the shape of my brows but there are two that I should be fine with.

So after popping these into my basket I then ended up with this

All for only £35 delivered, bargain in my opinion. I've had a quick go of everything apart from the mascaras and nothing has disappointed. A few items are repurchases such as the brushes but everything else was new to me.

I've broken them down into sections, first up is brushes

L-R Concealer brush, blending eye brush, angled eyeliner brush, eyeshadow brush, lip defining brush and Kabuki brush

All the white brushes are part of the essentials line and are £1.50 each, the angled liner brush is part of the studio line and is £3.75 and the Kabuki brush is also part of the studio line and is £6.00. I already have all of these brushes apart from the Kabuki brush and they are really good quality, especially the angled liner brush, I can't be without this now and its the only brush I use for applying my eyeliner. 

Next up we have eye products

L-R Jumbo Eyeshadow Stick (Little Miss Thing), Lengthening & Defining Mascara (Black),  Regular & Waterproof Mascara Duo (black),  Jumbo Eyeshadow Stick (Turkish Coffee), Jumbo Eyeshadow Stick ( Check Me Out), Mineral Eyeliner (Coffee) and Pressed Mineral Eyeshadow (Bridal Party)

The Jumbo Eyeshadow Sticks are £2.50 each and are great, I've given them a little go and I find them so much easier to use than the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils, they crease so badly on my lids but these are fab, even without a primer. The mascaras are both £1.50 but I haven't tried these as of yet because of the sheer amount of mascaras I have on the go at the moment. The eyeliner was £3.00, I swatched it on the back of my hand and it seems nicely pigmented and quite creamy and smooth so hopefully it wont tug when putting it on my eyes. The mineral eyeshadow was £3.50, its a really pretty white. I used it as a brow highlighter today and it worked perfectly fine for what I wanted.

Here we have a few lip products

L-R Luscious Liquid Lipstick (Baby Lips), Long Wear Lipliner (Natural Blush), Luscious Liquid Lipstick (Pink Lemonade), Long Wear Lipliner (Mauve Luxe) and Lipstick (Classy)

All of the lip products were £1.50 each. The liquid lipsticks are amazing and I can't wait to get my hands on some more. Baby Lips is definitely my favourite and I'll be popping a few more in my basket on my next order so I have plenty of backups. 

Finally we have the face products

Top Row L-R HD Blush (Superstar), HD Blush (Showstopper) Contouring Blush & Bronzing Powder (Turks & Caicos) , Contouring Blush & Bronzing Powder (Antigua)
Bottom Row L-R Maximum Coverage Concealer (Porcelain), Contouring Blush & Bronzing Cream (St. Lucia) and Healthy Glow Bronzing Powder (Luminance)

Everything here was £3.75 apart from the bronzing powder which was £1.50. I swatched the HD blushes and they are amazingly pigmented, I definitely going to need some practise with these, I put the tiniest amount on the back of my hand and blended it out and it covered the whole of my hand! I used the pink blush from the Antigua duo today when we went out for tea and its lovely, its really pigmented and really flattering, I had some concerns of it looking slightly clownish but it was just a really nice flush of pink when blended out. You can build it up to a more intense colour if thats what you like but I only used a tiny amount.

So that was my ELF haul, not bad for £35 I don't think. You can buy ELF from here if your in the UK or here if your in the US. If you have never tried ELF before I definitely recommend it, if you like them on Facebook they are always doing various offers and promotions so its worth keeping an eye out if your wanting to put in an order. They also have great customer service as well and have always got back to me really quickly if I have had any problems with anything, they are super friendly too!

I'll be doing full reviews on individual items once I have given them a good go but if there is anything above that you would specifically like a review or swatches of please comment below and I'll get one posted for you.

Thanks for reading!

First haul post

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I had a bit of money left over so I popped into town after work to see what I could find. I'm really happy with my purchases and can't wait to try them all out this weekend.

First I went into Boots, I knew exactly what I wanted from there so I was really happy to see they had one left!

This is the Rimmel Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal Eyeliner in nude. I used this today to line my waterline for a more natural looking alternative to white liner and I love this and it lasted all day, something that I very rarely find with high street brands. This is priced at £3.99 - bargain!

Boots currently have an offer on 3 for 2 on make up so not one to miss out on a bargain I picked up a couple of other products to take full advantage.

 These are the Barry M Hi Shine Gel Effect Nail Polishes, I think these I fairly new. I got them in Pomegranate (left) and Blackberry (right). These are really thick polishes, I tried them each out on one nail. The purple only needed one coat to be completely opaque but the pink would definitely need 2. They seemed to dry fairly quickly, however after coming out of the bath they both peeled off in one strip. I didn't put a base or top coat on as I was only testing the colour so this may help but I will be doing a full review of them shortly.
These were also priced at £3.99 so all three items came to a total of £7.98.

I then decided to take a trip into my local TK Maxx, I do love this shop and they sometimes have some real gems hidden but the beauty section in mine always has so many items that have been opened or smashed and its just really annoying. Having said that I did find some amazing (in my opinion) bargains that were in perfect condition.

First up I spotted these hidden right at the back of the shelf. It was a pack of 3 China Glaze nail crackles, they were £5.99. I've only ever tried the Barry M crackle polish and I wasn't overly impressed but I thought that with these being glitter and China Glaze they may be better.

As I was heading over to the till I spotted another shelf so went for a look and was really shocked to find it packed full of Urban Decay palettes for £12.99 each. I picked up this one as it had the most colours that I would actually use. Alot of the others had lots of greens and purples which I already have a lot of.

I love all these colours, this palette is called the Mariposa Palette and retailed for £26 so not bad at all for £12.99 I don't think.

The next item is the one that I was most excited about, I was actually looking at this online the other day but didn't order for whatever reason.

 I've wanted the Urban Decay liner in perversion for a while. Its supposed to the blackest black liner. The full size liner retails for £13 so I'm really happy to get 5 for less than the price of 1 full size to try. They are quite large for travel sizes (0.8g the Rimmel pencil is 1.2g) so I don't think I will even get through the travel sizes.

All in all I'm really impressed with my haul, I'm hopefully going back to TK Maxx this weekend to see if they have any other UD products in. I will be doing a full review of each item shortly.

Have you managed to bag any bargains from anywhere recently?