Summer Holidays!

Finally, the Summer holidays have arrived and after attending a wedding in Manchester over the weekend, I will be flying off to Istanbul tomorrow morning! I've been to Turkey before, but visited Bodrum which is on the South coast. There's a lot to see and do in Istanbul, which I am looking forward to. And I'm especially looking forward to doing some shopping (especially at the Grand Bazaar) and eating Turkish food (which I love!).

I'll be back next week with a blog post about my holiday =)



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Lush Oxford Street

Last weekend, I made the trip to Oxford Street and of course, I had to pay a visit to the new Lush store that had opened. In simple terms, the store is amazing. It's set out over three floors, with products stocked from floor to ceiling and across every possible surface. Lush Oxford Street has all the usual Lush products as well as many more that are exclusive to this store. I did pick up a few goodies (which will come in a haul post soon!), but for now, here are some pictures from inside the store. I'd also like to mention that even though it was a very busy Saturday afternoon inside the store, the staff were very friendly and available to talk through the products to help you choose the ones best suited for you. I walked out of the store with a bag full of goodies and my purse a lot lighter =)

 

Some of the products I tried out =)

If you're in and around London, then you can find Lush at 175-179 Oxford Street, opposite Uniqlo and next to Marks and Spencer. The closest station is Oxford Circus and it's less than a 5 minute walk from there.

 

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Sephora Valencia Haul

I didn't really get to buy many beauty products from Sephora thanks to the liquid restrictions for hand luggage, but I did manage to pick up a few items to try.

I love the Sephora Smart Liner which I picked it up in Dubai and it's my go-to eyeliner, so I had to get a back up for when my current one is finished. The liner is a true black shade and has a slight sheen once dried. The shape is really the selling point, because it's small and really comfortable to hold and use (especially as I use a hand held mirror to apply my makeup) making the application of eyeliner really easy.

I also picked up a selection of Sephora Fiber Sheet Masks from the store. I like using these masks on days when I don't have time to apply a cream or clay based mask. These are really simple and easy to use, as the mask only needs to be unfolded and laid over the face. There is a wide range available in the fiber masks, for the whole face as well as for use under the eyes. I'm looking forward to trying these out over the next few weeks.

At checkout I also got a Sephora blusher sample and miniature Clarins eye contour gel. Even though I didn't buy a lot, I now have a good idea for what I'll be putting on the shopping list for my next trip to Sephora (whenever that may be) =)


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Time for a Mini Break

I'm off to Valencia today for a little half term break with one of my best friend's (and to see my sister). I'm looking forward to the warmer weather and of course, some shopping. Although it's kind of restricted because I've only got hand luggage, so I can't buy too much!

Hope you all have a lovely week! I'll be back on Friday, so keep an eye out for a blog post full of pictures over the weekend =)




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Urban Decay Purchases

A few weeks ago, I was window shopping (online) and found the Urban Decay Shattered Face Case on sale at Debenhams. It was in my November wishlist, and so I added it to my basket alongside the Triple Threat Pencil Set (you can never have too many eyeliners!).

 

The face case is just the right size for me to pack in my suitcase this Summer, which means I don't have to take any extra makeup other than foundation. It contains 5 eyeshadows, 2 blushers and a highlighter, as well as a Super Saturated lip gloss pencil and travel size 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Zero.

 

I seem to have a collection of travel size UD 24/7 eyeliner pencils and this trio of smokey shades just adds to it. They're all colours that I would wear regularly, and I know I'll get a lot of use from them.

 

Swatches of the pencils: Smoke (grey), Perversion (blackest black) and Sabbath (navy blue).

 

 

 

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Bare Minerals 9-piece Get Started Kit

This summer was a summer for shopping! I (impulsively) picked up the 9 piece Bare Minerals Starter Kit on my way out of the UK this summer in duty free.

 

I chose to pick up the Tan set, as I had previously been matched to both the Golden Tan and Medium Tan shades. Luckily with mineral foundations I have found that I can get away with very slight shade differences if I buff and blend the foundation properly into my skin. The kit contains :

- Original spf 15 Foundation in Medium Tan (C30)

- Original spf 15 Foundation in Tan (N30)

- Tinted Mineral Veil

- Warmth All Over Face Colour

- Full Flawless Face Brush

- Flawless Application Brush

- Light Stroke Brush

- Prime Time Foundation Primer

Full Flawless Face, Light Stroke and Flawless Face brushes

 

Although the pots are smaller than the standard ones that are sold individually (1.5g - 2g in each pot in the kit and 8g for standard ones), the kit still works out better value for money, especially as there are 3 brushes and a foundation primer included. There is also a Get Started DVD in the box which is ideal if you want to perfect your application to get a flawless finish.

The kit can be bought from your nearest Bare Minerals counters and costs £49.

Have you tried the Bare Minerals foundation before?

 

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IMATs London 2013 Haul

I've been trying to keep my weekends free so I can get a little break before the working week starts again, however, last weekend, I went along to IMATs. IMATs is actually a trade show for makeup artists (which I am not), but I still wanted to go and pick up a few things that I wouldn't have got if I was out and about in London. I also had a little list of products that a few friends wanted as they weren't able to make it themselves.

As I got there pretty early, I was able to have a look around the NYX stand before the queue got ridiculously long (it was literally going all the way around the outside of the stand). NYX only had a selection of their products available, but I did get two matte lip creams, two lip liner pencils, a blusher and a eyebrow kit for myself (at a total of around £20).

Eyebrow kit in dark brown, Lip creams in Milan and San Paulo,

Blusher in Desert Rose, Lip pencils in Coffee and Mauve

I also had a look around Nars, where they had 60% off on selected products. There were plenty of eyeshadow duos and trios, nail polishes and eye pencils, but none of them stood out to me. Instead, I got myself (and another for my sister) a matte lip pencil in Never Say Never. There were a few other shades available but this one stood out the most. I got this for only £7.

Somehow I managed to pick up 5 (yes 5!) angle brushes, a mixture of Crown brushes and Royal and Langnickel. I'm not sure why I need 5 of them, but I think the smaller ones will come in handy for my canvas painting (sometimes makeup brushes work better than paint brushes).

The Mehron GlitterMark's, were something Safiyah pointed out to me and suggested that I could use them for glitter henna designs. I picked up the white and black glitters as I think I'd make the most use out of them. They have an alcohol free gel base and are safe to use on the face as well as the body.

I also won a 8ml BeautySoClean cosmetic sanitizer mist, which is a product designed to remove bacteria from powder-based products. I'm looking forward to trying this out!

And that's the end of my haul from IMATs. Luckily, I stuck to my budget and only bought what I needed (well...kinda!)





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Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft Show [haul]

Thanks to the lovely MangoWhirl for telling me about the Groupon half price offer on tickets for the Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft Show, which gave me the chance to snap up two tickets for the price of one and go to the show with my mum. The show was at the Excel Exhibition Centre in London (luckily not too far from me). We went on the last day of the show (Saturday 6th) and spent a good 3-4 hours browsing the different stalls, watching the creative fashion show, taking a look at the demonstrations and workshops and finally having a little bite to eat just as the show was ending. There were many different crafts exhibited at the show, including card making, scrapbooking, needlework, cross stitching, knitting and jewellery making.

One of the (many) stalls! This one selling beads and jewellery making components.

Decopatch Cat

There was an exhibition of patchwork quilts completed by artists as well a few other displays. I didn't manage to get great pictures, so I won't be sharing them on here. =(

I did pick up a few bits for my jewellery making box, as well as two mini cross stitch kits and a paper pad which I'll be using for scrapbooking. I also took advantage of the Decopatch offer which included the decopatch glue, brush, 2 papers and an item (value of £3) for £10. I'll be trying out decopatch for the first time and hopefully I'll end up with lots of decorated items to place around the house. The papers were just too pretty for me to pick out two, so I ended up buying 8 (2 with the original offer, and 6 that were on offer as well). My favourite paper has to be the black with the white lace design (which is why I picked up two of them!) =)

 

Are you into crafts? What sort of crafts do you enjoy?



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Sampling Foundations #1

I've accumulated quite a collection of foundation samples over the past year or two, and I thought now would be a good time to try and use them up before the end of the year and I decide whether or not I want to purchase a full size foundation. I currently own 2 full size foundations, which are Benefit Hello Gorgeous Oxygen Wow (I'm So Glam Amber) and Bare Minerals Original (Golden Tan). The Benefit one is actually my Summer foundations, as it applies a little dark on my face (clearly I must have been quite tanned when I got colour matched), so I've been sticking with the Bare Minerals foundation during the winter. However, my skin is also very dry and dehydrated at the moment (thanks to central heating and cold weather), so the mineral foundation doesn't sit properly once applied and it just doesn't look good. So I'll be going through all my foundation samples to see which one suits my skin the most during the winter months.

Here's a picture of all the foundation samples that I am hoping to work through!

(please ignore the Benefit Primer samples - they are clearly not foundation!)

Anyone else find that they accumulate a lot of samples, but never actually get around to using them?



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Blog-versary Giveaway Winner and Something New

I thought I'd start off the new year by announcing the blog-versary winner! And the person who I will be sending the giveaway prize to is...

Subah Raja!

Congratulations! Please email me (chocoholic-hijabi@hotmail.co.uk) with your details and I'll send the giveaway prize out to you soon =)

As a little treat I decided to buy a blog-versary gift for myself (and of course take advantage of the sales that are on at the moment). I purchased the Nikon 1 J1 compact system camera (okay so it's not that little of a gift) in the twin lens kit from Jessops (link here). Hopefully I'll be able to improve my photography skills and this will then mean I can take better pictures for the blog. Also, it'll give me the chance to learn something new!

(by the way, that's a new pinboard in the background that I picked up from Boots. It was only £8 and  I couldn't resist!)

Anyone else trying something new this year?




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Boxing Day Sales 2012 - Haul

This year I actually did get to do a little shopping on Boxing Day. Last year, I didn't do any sale shopping, so this time I decided to treat myself as well as pick up a few essentials. And here's what I got:

My Boxing Day Sale haul!

Close up of the stackable rings =)

From Next (which believe it or not, still had a long queue of people waiting to go in at 4pm, even though the store opened at 6am), I picked up a standard pack of ankle socks and a set of stackable rings (not very exciting, I know). Boots had 50% off all their christmas gift sets, so I bought the Soap & Glory Shower Trip case, which contains 6 travel size products and a rather handy (and large) bag, which will be perfect when I'm travelling. I also took advantage of the 50% off offer at Lush and got hold of one of the last few 500ml bottles of Snow Fairy in the store, which cost me just over £5. Superdrug also have plenty of offers going on at the moment, and one that caught my eye was a selection of Simple products priced at £2 each. My sister is currently using the Simple hydrating light moisturiser, and she really likes it (I'll try and get her to do a review), so I picked up the replenishing one, which is more suited for my dry skin as it's a rich moisturiser.

The one piece of clothing that I got was a black jersey maxi skirt, from a shop called Select Fashion. It wasn't on sale, but only cost me £10 (and there are lots more colours availableon the website). Not sure exactly when and how I'm going to wear it, so if you have any idea's, do let me know!


I forgot to have a look at shoes/boots so I'll probably be going back next week (hopefully when the crowds have all gone) =)

Did anyone pick up any good bargains during the boxing day sales?




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Cybercandy - Saving the World from Dull Candy [haul]

Whenever I'm out and about in Central London, I always try and stop by at one of the Cybercandy stores that are dotted across the city. I'm not sure when exactly I came across Cybercandy, but I can't seem to stop taking a detour whilst on my way to uni/lunch/shop etc. Cybercandy is the UK's largest retailer of American sweets, drinks and more, as well as stocking favourites from Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan (and a few other countries too).

My most recent purchase comes from the Cybercandy store in Covent Garden, conveniently located near the London Graphics Centre (where I get my art supplies) and the Beadworks London shop (where I go for jewellery making supplies). A rather small purchase but it was enough to satisfy my craving for Wonka Nerds and I got to try out the Hershey's Pumpkin Spice Kisses (two of them got eaten before I had even made it to Leicester Square Underground Station).

Giant Gumball dispenser in the middle of the shop floor

 

Mini Cybercandy Haul

I also had a 20% voucher to use on the Cybercandy website. Having never ordered online from them, I thought this would be a great opportunity to save the travel fare (and spend it on more goodies of course). And here is what I bought (although this should probably be classed as a haul!). If you follow me on Instagram (username: asmaa17) then you'll have already seen my box of goodies =)

 

 

Goodies!

 

What I ordered: Flipz (large and small packets), 2 x turtles, Wonka Nerds and a Mystery Parcel

What's inside the mystery parcel?

All of this!

Personal favourites: Reeses cups, Jelly Belly Jelly Beans and Wonka Nerds.

Looking forward to trying: Milka with Oreo and the Hello Panda

 

 

The great thing about the mystery box is that you don't actually know what you'll recieve! This is great for me because I never know what new treats I should try out, and always end up buying only my favourites. This mystery box was great because I've actually tried a few of these products before and I'm looking forward to trying the one's that I haven't. Unfortunately, the Pop Tarts contain gelatin, so these will be going to someone who can eat them. The small packet of Flipz and the Reeses cups have already disappeared (as well as one of the Turtles packets).

Cybercandy also have 3 other stores in London (located in Islington, Camden and Shoreditch) as well as stores in Brighton and Birmingham. Of course, if you can't get to any of the stores, then there is always the option of ordering online and having your goodies delivered to your door =)


Also, I'll be doing a giveaway for my 2nd blog-versary soon, so check back near the end of the month to see what's being given away =)




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