Whilst feeling spendy in Boots the other day - and being enticed by all the Christmas Gift Sets. Smashbox caught my eye with a £25 gift - which included 6 lipsticks and a small tube of Mattifying gloss.

I've always wanted to try Smashbox lipsticks, and this seemed like such a good offer.
The lipsticks are 2.4g in this set, when a full size is normally 3g - so actually it's really good value for money. It also gives you a taste for the brand, and includes a great selection of colours.

Inside it includes:
Legendary - A gorgeous postbox red.
Famous - A hot pink.
Primrose - An everyday pink nude.
Fig - A gorgeous deep berry toned pink.
Tabloid - Surprisingly wearable light purple.
Inspiration - A true nude shade.
Insta-matte - A mattyfying gloss

All the lipsticks are a cream formula, and super comfortable on the lips. They're also richly pigmented.
Tabloid (the purple) is a colour I would never spend money on, however it's actually really wearable and I would wear this out of the house! It's nice to try some colours out of my comfort zone. I also feel like all colours are covered here - nudes, reds, pinks and purples. There's something for everyone, and an excellent gift to lipstick lovers.

The Insta-Matte Lipstick Transformer is a clear gloss that quickly turns any creamy lipstick a comfortable matte - meaning you can create 12 looks out of these 6 lipsticks.

This is such a good treat to yourself, a friend, or simply split the lipsticks up for stocking fillers amongst friends - keep one for yourself though!

Expect more Christmas posts soon!

Over the past month I thought I'd do a quick roundup of small reviews on a few new purchases I've made over the past month.

I'll start off with the NYX jumbo eye pencils. The colour range of these is gorgeous, I wanted to pick them all up, but retrained myself to three. I picked up Yogurt, a pale shimmery pink, Rust, a dark pomegranate pink, and Gold, a pale shimmery gold (Obviously.) I really like the shades, but the formula is a little gel like which is a little harder to work with on the eyes.

I also picked up a NYX butter gloss in the shade Angel Cake - I've always wanted to try the butter glosses. There's just enough pigment and a subtle vanilla smell that makes me want to keep reapplying this. More are needed!

I spotted the next four gems at the front of the Boots checkout at half price - I would NEVER pay £29 for these...but £14.50 was reasonable enough and I was feeling spendy. They are the Smashbox L.A Lights to go. Four travel sized lip and cheek sticks in an array of wearable colours. Hollywood & Highlight, Beverly Hills Blush, Silver Lake Sunset, Venice Beach Bronze. These can be worn on the lips and cheeks due to the creamy consistency. I really love these, they work great under powder for more staying power, as well as creating depth to a look. 

The Juicy Couture La La Perfume was for sale at £20 for 50ml in Boots, so why would I say no? I love Juicy Couture perfumes - I especially loved Malibu which was a limited edition. This is fruity ad sweet and perfect for summer. Easy peasy.

What have you brought recently?

I certainly didn't need it.....but it just happened to fall into my basket in Boots before heading for a weekend away to Bruges.

I'd already started packing for our little trip away and was about to pack my Naked palette...whilst perusing for minis to pack, I stumbled across this teeny weeny (ridiculously priced) eye shadow palette by Smashbox - I'd seen this in Sephora hauls and was so excited seeing it my local boots It didn't even take a second thought! 

The palette is super compact and contains 8 beautiful eye shadows. There are 4 shimmer shades and 4 mattes - each a perfect neutral shade perfect for day and night looks. The pigmentation is really good and they blend together nicely. I still think the Urban Decay shadows are more 'buttery' but these are still really good quality. The shimmer shadows look gorgeous on the lid, and a little smokey matte shade on the crease look perfect.
I find with 8 colours it's a lot easier to create a simple, elegant look. 

This palette was £17.50. Pretty pricey but for a wearable compact palette that's going to get plenty of use? I think it's worth the splurge if you go away a lot or need it for your handbag.

Over the past few months I've brought a few items to pamper myself during our hectic house situation - I'm sorry thats all I'm ever going to talk about now!
It's nice to have a little treat every now and then; and the only place to do that is in Boots. Most of the items I picked up have either been on my lust list for a little while now, or I've seen them spoken about in videos so I had to try it out for myself! - Watching Youtube videos is so enabling!

Make up:
I found the cutest, tiniest eyeshadow palette from Smashbox that I couldn't refuse - the Smashbox Full Exposure palette has the perfect shades in it to be the only palette you ever need - Full review to come!
Benefit Gimmie brow has been on my list for a long time - and today I finally bit the £18 bullet and brought it. I haven't had much time (or a good enough mirror) to see to my brows recently and thought this would be great to tame things till I can get them professionally done. I havn't tried this yet so await a full review!
Whilst I was gorming at the Benefit counter I also picked up a Posiebalm - just cause it looked cute and I wanted a little treat for myself...I have no excuse, have you seen the packaging?

Skincare:
I had a sample of the Lush moisturiser in Skins Shangri La and remember it being like a drink for your skin. With all the stress from moving and months of decorating, this was very much needed! It's quite a thick creamy consistensy, and almost oily? If you suffer from oily skin this won't be for you; but for those who lack moisture this would be perfect. I use this as the last step in my routine to add a good dose of moisture before starting my day.
Hylamide Booster Glow Serum - I saw this brand on a few skincare blogs and was intrigued so I picked one up. It's from the same brains as Indeed labs, so I thought it would be worth a shot! I picked up the glow booster serum as my skin has always been a bit lacklustre...If I like this one I may have to stock up on more from the brand!

Tools:
On my sprees I also picked up two new brushes from varying spectrums of price. First is the tapered blush brush from the Real Techniques Bold Metals Collection - which I had been eyeing up for a while, and soon as I saw they were on offer I ran to the check out. Its a gorgeous colour, supersoft and applied blush like a dream - no regrets!
On the other side is a £3 blush brush from Wilkos. The softest brush, not too dense and visualy not at all bad...for anyone whose on a budget I highly reccomend taking a look!

Shower Products:
First I brought the St Tropez in shower gardual tan lotion; this was on every blog and every youtube channel and had some real mixed reviews. I've never been one for self tanning as I always end up turning orange or have a horrid streak down my arm. This is the perfect self tanning lotion for people who don't want to look orange and want a streak free application.
Next on my jollies I came across some Ritauls products in Marks Spencers. I chose the Indian rose scent in the foaming shower gel formula. This is similar to the Imperial Leather Foamburst, but a bit more luxurious and creamy.

Well there you have it! 2 months of purchases wrapped up! Expect full reviews very soon as I use the products and get to know them, and expect to see others in Most Used Monday posts - which will be back soon too!

I've really missed blogging and having my little space on the internet...it feels good to be back!