Beauty Discount Shopping Spree Up Norf!

I was in Blackpool and Manchester over the weekend with himself for our 2 year anniversary - oh the glamour! I didn't leave an inch of space in my suitcase as I had no intention of shopping. At all. Let's just say the case has now gone to the great luggage rack in the sky and I ended up 'acessorizing' my return journey with a glamourous Tesco bag, or two. Yes, the scabby, noisy plastic kind.

Can I just say I am IN LOVE with T J Hughes! Sadly the closest one to me is in Watford - hours away since I don't drive, dahling.  I've since discovered it sells online, but the P&P charges are a bit steep.  I also hit up Aldi in Manchester for their Lacura range.  Shopping outside of London is great because things don't sell out within a matter of seconds like they do in the Big Smoke.

I found some great boots, jewellery and the satchel I've been hunting FOR AGES in Primani.  Post to come!

Okay first up, my T J Hughes finds.  Only one of these, the boxed contour powder, was impulse, the rest are all things I've wanted for a while.

£2.99

This W7 'Double Act' boxed powder is a nearly-as-good-as dupe for Benefit's 10 - one of my wishlist items. It was sealed so I bought it on a wing and a prayer (only £2.99! - over £20 less than '10') and am pleasantly surprised! The pink highlight is great and the bronzer is quite good but not as pigmented as '10's.  The brush is much better - well softer - than Benefit box powder brushes.  The packaging is very similar but the design on the box isn't as cute as 10.  So far it's doing much better than Primark's rip off version.  I'll give this a good go and then decide whether the one swipe = cheekbones approach works before I splash out on the real thing!

£10

This Escada perfume is the purchase I'm most over-joyed about.  A mini version featured in my May Favourites as I finished the bottle and was very sad that it was no longer for sale - it seems as though all Escada perfumes are released for a limited period only, and only the crappy ones hang around on sale in Debenhams and Beauty Base.  Can you imagine the state I was in when I saw 30mls of this Eau de Parfam for £10 in T J Hughes?! Load me up! (I got two - I would have got more but I have stacks of perfume and it goes off after a while anyway).  When I'd originally spotted it at Heathrow airport it was selling for £36, so a great bargain.  The scent is difficult to describe but to me it is a sweet but strong feminine '80s' scent - it reminds me of Saturday afternoons with my mum in Barkers on Kensington High Street sniffing our way around the perfume counters.  Ah, memories :) 

£6 for shampoo, £8 for conditioner

I've wanted to get this Bed Head Brunette Goddess shampoo and conditioner since I tried it at my friend Nat's house over two years ago.  It also makes my hair beautifully soft.  Sadly the shampoo suffered a small spillage over my St. Moriz finds.  Okay, I know I'm a redhead, but the shampoo is a very light colour (the bottle is ginger! Ha!) and I think it will work for me well long term to add shine.  But the best bit of all is the smell - it's like a vanilla biscuit shower gel I used for a while.    I'll let you know how my hair reacts after a month or so.

£2.99 each or 2 for £5

I got my last batch of St. Moriz mousse from Amazon Marketplace, but T J Hughes had the Instant Self Tanning Mist and Shimmering Bronzing Body Souffle.  I'm saving the spray mist for when I got on holiday (I have cream carpets) and it will be interesting to see what the souffle does to boost my tan - I'm hoping that it will be moisturising as St. Moriz mousse is extremely drying to my skin.  Can't beat it for colour and streak-less-ness though.  It' s a staple of my monthly favourites throughout summer!

In Manchester I spotted Aldi, which sells the Lacura range - a great bargain beauty and skincare line.  I own most of the stuff, so I picked up a few recent additions to the range.  Sadly they only had a tester left of their lipstick in shade '108' which looks like my exact lip colour and would be perfect.  The shelf-stacking monkey I asked for help wouldn't even look out the back for me! I don't think he got the significance of this lipstick! I should have asked a woman!

Face masks (4) £2.99, lipgloss and eyeshadow £1.99 each

I haven't had a chance to try the face masks yet but I will take a couple on hols with me where I'll have more time for a pampering session.  They're supposed to work on blackheads.  I resisted the Lacura eyeshadows for ages as I have about 632, but I really liked the brown and they're excellently pigmented and soft.  The lipgloss also looked right up my street colourwise, and I was right.  The consistency and scent are also lovely.  I've been wearing it an hour so far and it hasn't budged.  Let me know if you want me to do an overview of Lacura products (the good: pressed powder, the bad: mascara, etc).  One very interesting Lacura skincare product I use occassionly is 'WrinkleStop' which contains SYN-AKE - apparently an artificial version of snake venom which is supposed to have a 'botox' effect on wrinkles overtime.  I plan to use it 30 days straight to see if I notice any difference to the fine lines around my eyes.

Eyeshadow packaging, sleek but this one's difficult to open

I love the mirror in the lid - take heed, MAC

Shade 807 - Amythyst

Shade 200 - Coral

And of course the best thing I got was my Hello Kitty, won by himself after only putting £1 in the grabby machine! Woo!  

Have you ever seen so much GLEE?

Where do you go for the best beauty bargains?