Travalo - not just for perfume

Travalos (Travali?) are one of my favourite ever finds.  I think I bought my first one in October of last year and I soon bought a second.  For a while I was really happy with my set up, I had one in my bag filled with 'day-time' perfume and I had another that I could put in my clutch bag which I filled with my favourite 'night-time' perfume.  So that's how it stayed, I flitted between my two travalos and it was a wonderful system. Until  I had an idea about how to pack my toiletries efficiently for trips away.

So I went online and stalked the Fragrance Direct and Cheap Smells websites (my favourites for beauty bargains .  In the end I bought the following from Cheap Smells: a set of pink and gold travalos, a clear travalo with a black lid and a clear travalo with a purple lid.  So I ended up with four travalos (more than I had planned on, but when the internet shopping monsters comes out it me it is hard to control) for under £30.  A bit of a bargain I think.

The two clear travalos are going to be used for something a bit special - skincare.  I wanted a way to easily see the difference between perfume and skincare bottles and I thought the clear ones would serve this purpose well.  Nobody wants a face full of perfume.  The one with the black lid has been filled with my favourite toner of the moment - This Works 5 in 1 water.  The one with the purple lid is for my Urban Decay all-nighter spray, and yes I did buy the purple lidded one because it matched the UD colours - I'm that sad.

I love my new system, much better than travel spray bottles, takes up far less space and is more than adequate for short trips away.  As always the travalos are easy as pie to fill up and wonderfully simple to use.  I'm so glad I have done this, and I'm pretty sure this won't be the end of my travalo buying days.

Have you got a travalo?  Do you love it as much as I love mine?

Selfridges Haul - Exclusives and Limited Editions

So I've been a bit naughty.  I may have stumbled across some limited edition items on Selfridges.com and then some wonderful yellow boxes may have appeared at my house.  Tut tut.

Such beautiful packages.  Warning: everything I bought is limited edition and exclusive to Selfridges so credit cards at the ready if you want to get your beauty obsessed hands on these gems.

Here they are...

First of all I got the limited edition candle for Bourjois' 150th anniversary.  I remember being obsessed with the round pot eye shadows during my teens, I thought they were the height of sophistication.  

This little candle comes in a ceramic/glass holder and has a picture of the iconic Babette (The original Bourjois muse from the 20's).  This thing smells amazing just like their blushes and also exactly like parma violets.  I have spent a strange amount of time sniffing it, though I have yet to light it.  I plan on using the holder a way of storage cotton buds or some such beauty item.  If I''m honest I bought it more for that than for its candle properties.  This was £9.99 and can be found here.  

The next item I bought was the Kissing Make-up bag designed by Charlotte Tilbury.  I love all of the famous lips that adorn one side and the phrase on the other side makes me giggle every time I read it.  

If I'm honest I have no need for another make-up bag but I fell in love with it.  Plus it was designed for the charity Kids Company, so really I didn't have a choice.  Right?   It has a zip that comes a long way around so it can be opened up really wide which is so handy when sods law strikes and the thing you want is waaaayyyyyy at the bottom of your bag.  This cost just £15.00 (for a good cause) and can be found here. 

The last item I ordered was the Selfridges Festival Beauty Box.  This little baby is full of lots of goodies to see you through the collision of music and mud that is the festival season.  The retail price of all the beauty items in this box is £110 but Selfridges is treating us to the whole lot for only £25 and you can find it here.  After weighing up what I was and wasn't interested in I decided the numbers were on my side and that this was a bit of a bargain.  In this lovely yellow box there is: Topshop lip crayon in Powder Room, Sol de Janeiro Coconut Water Cooling Mist, Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner in Navy, Coloursmash Hair Shadow, Violent Lips Lip Appliques in Warm Rainbow, Illamasqua Liquid Metal metallic cream, Bare Minerals Pretty Amazing Moxie lip gloss, Azature nail polish in Champagne, Cowshed anti-bacterial hand gel, NPW mini scented hand & face wet wipes and a NPW chubby glitter stick.  I will be doing a full post on this box soon and will be give you my first opinions on each product.

So that's my little haul.  I can honestly say I love everything I bought.  It came to about £55 with postage and packing and came ridiculously quickly.  I couldn't be more impressed by my first online Selfridges shopping experience.

Have you bought any of these things?  What do you think of them?

A little shopping trip

So its confession time, I have been a bit naughty again.  I am having a girls night out tomorrow and needed a couple of bits from town but got a teensy bit carried away.

I went into town knowing that I needed to get shampoo and conditioner and some new black flats, and here is what I came home with...

I am a out and proud flats girl, I own heels but for a night out dancing I choose comfort over glamour.  My favourite flats of all time are from none other than New Look for a mere £7.99.  I must own them in nearly every colour, however I always wreck the black ones fastest as I wear them the most.  You can see the black ones here and the lovely nude coloured ones here.  They are really soft and because they aren't made of a stiff material they don't rub me at all.  Another thing that I love is the fact that they bring out new colours for each season so I can never get bored.

The shampoo and conditioner I had decided on were from John Freida's go blonder range.  I have heard very mixed reviews (for example fleurdeforce's and missbudgetbeauty's)about these products but wanted to give them a go myself as I quite fancy having my hair a little lighter for what remains of the summer.  These were on offer at Superdrug for 2 for £7.49 along with many other John Freida products.  I also picked up the sheer blonde nourishing shampoo as the lid had been damaged so it was reduced to £2.  It was definitely a spur of the moment buy but I am interested to see if it is any good.

The other thing I bought, that wasn't really on my list, was the serum and hair masque from the TRESemme split remedy range.  These were also on offer (got to love a bargain) at Superdrug, 2 for £6.99.    You can see the serum here and the masque here.  I have read some rave reviews for these so am really looking forward to trying them out, plus they smell incredible.

The final thing that I picked up is off my wish list and it is the Max Factor  nail polish in Fantasy Fire.  it is the most beautiful shade, photos truly don't do it justice but you can look at more swatches here to get a better idea of just how much the colour changes in different lights.  I also bought this from Superdrug where it is currently £2.99 instead of £3.99.

I am happy with all of the thing I bought and feel as if I got some good deals on things that I am going to really enjoy using.  Keep you eyes peeled for review of these products.  Now I am off to start beautifying myself in preparation for a night on the town.

Controlled Naughtiness

It has been almost 3 weeks since I started my Spending ban (see my reasons for doing so here). When I started I gave myself 5 (seemingly) simple rules.   One of which was "If I see something from my wishlist heavily discounted I can buy it as long as I don't use it until Project Pan is over."  

Well, whilst browsing my beloved ASOS I spotted that they had #3 on my wishlist - Benefit 'Hello Flawless' powder foundation in Shell in the sale for only £17.50.  So I caved in a bought it along with a couple of other, non-beauty, items.

Indeed as I was writing this post the doorbell rung to tell me that my lovely postman (who is probably relieved to be lugging less parcels to my house) had brought my ASOS package.  I was pleasantly surprised as I only ordered a couple of days ago.  Well done ASOS.

So I decided to document my opening of said parcel and turn this into a mini haul post .  Enjoy :)

All my goodies :)

Here is the  Benefit 'Hello Flawless' My Holy Grail powder foundation.  I cannot wait until project pan is over so that I can use this lovely new one.  I will do a full review soon.   As you can see below it comes with both a brush (that I'm not super keen on) and a little sponge so that you can vary how much product you apply.  This was £17.50 (down from £25)

Next up because of the fickle weather we are currently suffering in England I bought this beautiful umbrella from Ella Doran for Fulton.  I have a huge love of all things butterfly particularly when they remind me of old natural history prints.  It folds up lovely and small, perfect for my bag and doesn't weigh too much either.  I am looking forward to seeing how it holds up in the next lot of showers.  This was also in the ASOS sale for £12 (down from £20)

Another sale item that I just couldn't resist at £3.50  (down from £9) was this beautiful Pieces Noam Scarf.  It is a really peculiar shape, almost a kite rather than a square.  I bought it to tie onto the handle of one of my bags to make it look a little more summery and more 'me'.  I am really glad I picked this up as I reckon it was a bit of a bargain.

Lastly, and probably my favourite, is this amazing bird print satchel from the amazing Kate Sheridan.  It was £36.50 (down from £155)  It is just wonderful, the fabric is really sturdy and the straps are made from leather so it will last really well.  This is my third Kate Sheridan bag and I wear my other ones all the time.  She is fast becoming one of my favourite British designers.  I love that it is subtle but still quirky.  The colours mean it will go with pretty much anything and the size means that I may have found my new day bag :)

 Have any of you purchased any of these things...or anything else good from the ASOS sale?