London haul & first impressions

November 29, 2014

Hey guys! I got back from London about a week ago (nothing to do with the song haha) and let me just say, it was absolutely amazing! We spent 5 days on a little holiday with my friend Safiya (you can find her here). Though I could speak endlessly about all the amazing food we had, the crazy shopping we did till we couldn't even walk anymore, i'm just going to focus on the beauty stuff i got from this trip.

The first thing I got, without even asking for it, was an awesome surprise which Safiya made me. I was literally head over heels while opening it! It's the Too Faced Everything Nice palette. This palette is the thing every beauty addict will want in their life, because it has such a wide range of colors there's literally nothing you can't do with it. The eyeshadows are SO pigmented it's crazy, my favorite at the moment is the shade 'Girly' and i'm sure you can tell by the way it looks on the picture. People have been giving me compliments about the way my makeup looks lately, little do they know it is thanks to this little piece of heaven I get to use every single morning! The palette also has one bronzer - including the iconic 'Chocolate Soleil' one - two blushes, including 'Papa don't Peach' my favorite at the moment, and a highlighter called 'Inner Light' which is also marvelous. It also comes with a pretty pink, sparkly pouch which you can use as a makeup bag, a mini 'Better Than Sex' mascara, and tiny golden cruelty free brushes. In a nutshell, it is GORGEOUS. I am serious guys. This is the best thing I've ever got in the history of my beauty obsession, and God knows how many products I've tried!

The next things I got were hair products : Organix 'Anti Breakage Keratin Oil' shampoo, Tresemme 'Keratin Smooth' heat protectant spray, and two bottles of the Aussie Miracle Moist conditioner, which i have been using for almost a year now, becoming really tired of having to purchase it online every single time. Until now, I was really liking my haircare routine using, among other things, the 'Rehab' shampoo from Lush but I still wanted to try something else. I was actually very impressed by the OGX because a) it smells amazingly good and b) my hair has never been so soft! I think I'll definitely repurchase it. The Tresemme Keratin Smooth spray is supposed to give your hair some shine after using heat tools on it, to be honest I've only noticed a slight difference, but nothing too crazy compared to my good ol' Heat Tamer Spray.

As our splurge to Boots continued - they had a 3 for 2 sale which got us totally obsessed and made us save a lot of money, we both went for some Soap and Glory stuff. I love me some great body products, and since I had never tried that brand before, I decided to give it a go with some sample size products. I got 'Hand Food' which is a really nice hand cream with shea butter, macadamia oil and marshmallow. It penetrates pretty fast and smells so good, I love it. The other products I got were 'Hand Maid', a hand sanitizer & 'Flake Away', a body scrub, but I haven't tried them yet. I also bought two nail polishes from the brand 'Model's Own' in the shades 'Luis Neon' and 'Blueberry Muffin', and the stippling brush from Real Techniques.

The next thing I got were some Sleek palettes : Garden of Eden, Original, v1 brights. I was really wanting to incorporate more bright colors into my makeup routine, so I thought : what's better than all the essential, flashy colors you need combined in one palette ? I've been using it to create a yellow inner corner and I really like it. I'm not going to go into too much detail in here but let me tell you, it is very pigmented, stays on really well and for the price, it's really good stuff.

from left to right : Garden of Eden, V1 Brights, Original

Since Safiya and I are both beauty freaks, it was really nice to shop together because we almost wanted the same things. We were both obsessed with the Kylie Jenner lip trend and wanted to get our hands on the MAC Whirl lip pencil, which is the color she uses. Unfortunately, it was sold out EVERYWHERE in London! We even checked on the MAC France website, and it was as well. So what we did was trying to find a close match, but we both have different skin tones (mine is darker). For me, the perfect color was 'Cream O' Spice' which looks like the color 'Spice' but with a darker, browner tone. Also, it moisturizes the lips which is something I find pretty hard to find in lipliners in general. It stays really well the entire day, and it has definitely become a staple of mine (although I did finally get my hands on Whirl!). I wear it everyday. The only downside is that, since it is a retractable pencil, it breaks off easily, so you have to be very gentle when you apply it.

The last thing I was dying to find in London was the Benefit 'Cheeky Sweet Pot' Limited Edition Blush Palette, and it was sold out in a lot of places, except in John Lewis. Here's the baby :

This palette contains 5 mini blushes from the brand - Dandelion, Bella Bamba, Sugarbomb, Coralista and Rockateur, 1 bronzer - Hoola - and the Watt's Up highlighter. Since I only owned the full size Hoola bronzer and was hitting the pan, but didn't want to spend €30 on blushes individually, this felt like a dream to get them all at once. They're all pretty warm-toned, which I really like since I think light-toned colors don't really suit me. The packaging is so cute, feels so 'Christmassy' but is also a little bulky and not that travel-friendly, and considering we had weight limit on the way back, that was such a bummer!

Finally, some home & productivity related things I got were this check list from Muji, a scrapbook from Primark, and a scented candle also from Primark. The check list was so useful since we had many things to do, and I got into the habit of writing down things I need to get done by the end of the week now. I think it helps you see more clearly where you're at and keeps you organized.

That's it guys for the haul guys ! Obviously, you noticed, but I've just switched my language to English since I think it is a more understandable language to anyone who might come across my blog, French speakers included. I hope you liked it :)

2 comments

UnknownDecember 2, 2014 at 12:02 AM
Hey, jviens de découvrir ton blog grâce a Safiya, premier article que j'lis mais il me tarde d'en lire d'autres (en anglais c'est superbe!) gros bisous!
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