Autumn Haul | Skincare, Make-up & Bodycare

Hi there.

Beauty hauls are something of which I both really love to read and watch on YouTube, yet going through my Blog Archive, it appears to be something I rarely put together. So, today, I thought I would share with you the things I have bought over the month of October. I cannot believe we are nearly into November, this year has flown by.

I originally wanted to create a video for you guys, but I am not feeling super confident about YouTube at the moment. I am sure at some point in the near future I will be up and running again on my channel, but for now I am going to stick to writing on my bloggy. If any of my lovely readers have any tips for me regarding getting going with YouTube again they would be massively appreciated. I am quite shy and for me sitting in front of a camera is a huge battle. I know I am being silly, as I have obviously filmed videos before, and it isn’t the end of the world, but I really beat myself up about it. Mini rant over…

We all love The Body Shop don’t we? The Coconut Shimmer Body Butter has a bit of a tale to it actually. My mum uses this religiously, and she asked me to get her some. I gets to the store and as there were none on the shelf, I asked the sale assistant when there would next be a delivery of them. Her exact words were: “It has been discontinued but the other store on so and so street will have a few left.” I literally ran over to the Bold Street store in Liverpool and saw at least 10 on the shelf. Panicking my mum would have a fit finding out her favourite moisturiser was being discontinued, I took every single one off the shelf. £130 later or something ridiculous like that, I asked the girl at the till (after making the purchase may I point out) why the moisturiser had been discontinued. She gave me a very confused look and said IT WASN’T BEING DISCONTINUED. So that is how I ended up with the body butter, after spending a small fortune it was only fair I gave myself one.

As for the Tea Tree Skin Clearing Toner, I picked this up whilst shopping at the Bull Ring in Birmingham, with the one and only Megan from Wonderful You. I had ran out of my usual Lush Tea Tree Toner and fancied a change. So far, I am absolutely love this toner, it contains mattifying powders which leave your skin shine-free! So if you are oily like me then you must try this. I have been using a number of new things on my skin, but I definitely believe this toner is the reason my skin is clearer!

I also picked this Una Brennan Super Facialist Vitamin C Skin Renew Cleansing Oil up whilst shopping in Birmingham. I had ran out of my usual Nude Cleansing Oil, and having spent a small fortune on Kurt Geiger shoes I needed to curb the rest of my spending for that day. This cleanser is half the price of Nude so it was allowed to go into the basket. I had never even heard of this brand, but this cleanser caught my eye as it reminded me of Shu Uemura Classic Cleansing Oil. I have been using this 2-3 times a week of an evening, and I have to say I really really like it and my skin definitely appears more radiant. The packaging looks beautiful, but I have to say it isn’t really practical. To dispense the oil you simply pour from the opening and it can go everywhere if you are not careful. I much prefer a pump applicator when using oil, but other than that it really is lovely.

Another product from the Una Brennan range, something I am LOVING, is this Tea Flower Deep Clean Mattifying Moisturiser. You would think with it being Winter, my skin would begin to dry up? Oh no, my skin just never stops being oily. For the last few months, I have been using up various moisturiser samples and nothing really wowed me. I have been using this for the last few weeks, and it really does help my skin. It contains Salicylic Acid which is also great for me, as I suffer from the odd break out here and there.

The Vichy Idealia Life Serum I have seen pop up on many a beauty blog recently. I came across this a month ago, when I tried a sample from a magazine. I rarely use the samples you get in glossy mags, but for some reason I was really drawn to this, probably the utterly gorgeous packaging and the promise to help stress, fatigued skin. Due to personal reasons, the last three months I have been particularly stressed and my skin has definitely felt this. From just ONE use, the minutes following me applying the sample to my skin, I fell in love. You should know that I never jump on the back of any hype around a product, and wait to trial it properly, and this definitely lives up to all the love in the blogosphere. I had to have it, and whilst shopping with Megan I made sure I got my hands on it. I have been using it every day and my skin is looking healthier and more radiant. It is now a staple part of my skincare routine and I would not be without it now.

One thing I am really trying my best to do is get into wearing nail polish. It’s not that I don’t like wearing it, I am just so incredibly impatient and clumsy. The only time I am ever happy with how my nails look is when my sister Amy files them and paints them properly. I say properly because when I attempt to do it, it just looks ridiculous. Amy goes mad at me for having scruffy nails, especially because in my job you would expect me to have nice, manicured fingers. I picked up these Barry M Nail Paints on separate occasions, I must just get drawn to bluey green colours? Green is my favourite colour so that would make sense. The one on the left is called Teal, and is a pretty metallic turquoise shade, and the other is the popular Mint Green, which can only be described as.. Mint Green. I would have a photograph to follow to demonstrate me wearing these shades, but my nails have all broken off and it would be a sin to show you the state of them. Please just trust me when I say these are gorgeous shades.

My very first Chanel Nail Colour purchase. I felt very grown up buying this for some reason, like I was joining some elite group for “posh” nail varnish wearers. I bought this at the airport when I had some euros to get rid of. This is without a doubt my most favourite nail polish, Taboo is a stunning shade and something I will definitely be wearing during the Autumn/Winter months. I am now dying to buy more colours and build my Chanel collection, next on my list is Blue Satin after seeing the lovely lady Molly Lyon post a picture of her wearing it on her Instagram. If you don’t know Molly you can find her over at Lyon Notes – she has a great blog, you must check it out!

Last but not least, I picked up this YSL Le Teint Touche Eclat Foundation. I have been getting bored of my usual Illamasqua Skin Base foundation, and hardly reach for Nars Sheer Glow. I cannot even tell you why, but they just weren’t giving me the oomph feeling they used to do. Now that my skin is finally clearing up *touch wood* I feel like I can get away with wearing a lighter, more natural foundation and if I need to, I can just use concealer where necessary. This YSL foundation offers a beautiful silky semi-matte finish, with light to medium coverage. It isn’t buildable but I didn’t buy this to layer it on. I use less than one pump and buff it in with a kabuki brush. I set it with a light dusting of translucent powder and it stays put all day long.

I first tried this foundation after a lady at the YSL counter gave me a sample. She gave me Rosy Beige, BR30, and said it was unusual for them to receive such “light” samples. I got home, and it was actually 2-3 shades darker than my actual skin colour. So you have an idea, I am usually Deauville in Nars Sheer Glow, number 4 in Skin
Base Foundation, NW15 in M.A.C Studio Fix Fluid… you get the picture. I
am one pale mo’ fo.

Being naturally blonde, fair skinned and prone to burning in the sunshine, I have a cool undertone. My skin is typically pink in areas, however my veins sometimes have a greenish tint to them, so I sway more to neutral cool undertones. Therefore, this foundation sample, actually blended out really nicely to warm up my skin and there was no obvious line. Having moved back home from Mallorca, my true ghost like skin is coming to a head and I am not at all happy about it. I bought the BR30 shade and will be wearing a tinted body lotion over those times when I can be mistaken for a milk bottle.

That is all folks. I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you have any questions about any of these products, or would like to a see one under a full review let me know in the comment box below.