InStyle Freebie

I love a magazine freebie and they don't come much better than this! 

I grabbed InStyle this morning and to my utter joy it came with a very generous 40ml sample of Philip Kingsley Elasticizer (worth £8). This is the prefect way to try a well loved beauty staple, raved about far and wide by the Beauty Industry.

I've never actually tried this before, but as I'm off on hols next week this appears to be perfect timing. I'll report back with my thoughts...

QVC Beauty TSV's August 2013

Friday 2nd August - Look Good, Feel Great

Tuesday 6th August - Leighton Denny Expert Nails

Thursday 8th August - StriVectin

Tuesday 13th August - Australian Bodycare

Saturday 17th August - In the Salon with Gatineau 

Friday 23rd August - Red Carpet Manicure Nail Studio

This is all I can find... for now!

Happy Shopping!

One to watch: Liverpool Lashes

My good friend Karen, aka Liverpool Lashes on YouTube is having a fabulous nail art giveaway to celebrate 10,000 subscribers to her channel - what a massive achievement!  *cue applause*

Karen is a qualified nail technician and has her finger well and truly on the beauty pulse, as her many clients will confirm.  I'm always so envious of her fab nail art designs and foil/shellac mani's.  She's lovely - and bloody hell she can talk! Yeah, I know. People in glass houses, shouldn't throw stones! That's probably why we get on so well. Two gabby Annie's together. 

The giveaway is International and open to her YouTube & Twitter followers, so pop along and subscribe/follow for a chance to win. You can also find her at liverpoollashes.blogspot.co.uk  

Do you have the XXX Factor?!

To any of you Brits reading this - woah mama! This heat wave is driving me mental and is making me rather grumpy.

To anyone from the rest of the world - I apologise that we Brits are NEVER happy with the weather. It's one of our flaws. I hope we can still be friends?!?

I digress. 

I'm lying her in front of my air con unit nekkid (yes, I have air con. Don't hate me, coz you ain't me! Haha) enjoying the ice cold air. Bliss! Apologies for unexpected XXX mental image - hey, at least I didn't include a picture. I spared you that much!! Yup. Thank god I can do what I like in the privacy of my own home. 

But if you haven't got air con, the ability or inclination to lie about as nekkid as the day you were born, might I suggest that you pick up a bottle of Original Source MEN (well, I've been using it too!) XXX strong black mint shower gel.  I've talked about this stuff before. I love it.

Before the nekkid air con time, I've enjoyed a rather tingletastic bath. I don't have a shower. I remembered I had this in my stash, after a rather hot and sweaty dinner date this evening, with The Boy - which followed a particularly hot and sweaty day in the office.  Even without the addition of air con, you can feel the cooling menthol tingle after use. If you're sensitive to fragrance or menthol then this one is not for you and WATCH OUT for those sensitive areas that you may not want tingling, if you get what I mean?! I don't want to be the cause of any issues for you...  But if you want to literally chill out before bed, or quite frankly any time of the day - I recommend this. Plus it's as cheap as chips. 

Right, better throw some jarmies on asap before The Boy gets the wrong idea!!!!!!!

Magazine freebies - July 2013 edition

It's that time again - the magazine freebies are out in force! 

First up, Glamour. Until recently I had a monthly subscription to Glamour and would have renewed it, but they never contacted me to ask me if I'd like the subscription to continue - ho hum!  Anyway, this month they've teamed up with Balance Me to offer items from their range. I got the 'super toning body wash' which at 100ml is the perfect travel size.  I haven't opened it yet, so I can't tell you what it smells like, but I think it's a pretty decent freebie and certainly something I'll use at home, or away.

Meanwhile Cosmo have joined forces with 'Nip + Fab' with a selection of body boosting freebies. I picked the 'Dry leg fix' for a touch of super intense moisturisation, which I might also throw in my travel bag.  I have to say, the inclusion of a bust cream is interesting. Not many beauty company's cater for this delicate area and for it to be included as a freebie in a magazine will give it lots of exposure - you know what I mean! ;-) I think I'd have picked this one, if I'd seen it in store. However, the women of Liverpool had beaten me to it!!  If anyone gets this sample, I'd be interested to hear what you think about it. 

Any other magazine freebies you want to tell me about? I'm all ears! 

Heads up: Boots Advantage Card offer - Thursday 11th July 2013

I love a bargain as much as the next person, so here's a quick heads up.

If you spend £30 or more in selected Boots stores (or £50 online at Boots.com) on Thursday 11th July, you'll receive £7.50 of advantage points. 

Now I don't know about you, but I find that pretty easy to do! New and exciting goodies seem to fall into my basket and before you know it, I'll be at the £30 mark. I need a refill on a few things and I have some birthday gift cards to spend, so if that means I can claim a bit of extra cash to spend on my Boxing Day Bargain purchases. Happy days. 

The question is, do you save up your Boots points? Or do you splurge as you go along? 

Goodbye Jo Malone Vanilla & Anise

Okay, seriously not impressed with Jo Malone right now. I've had confirmation from their staff that they are discontinuing my all time fave Vanilla & Anise fragrance. 

Once the stock runs out in stores - it's finito! That means bye-bye to the fragrance, the bath oil. the candle... the whole shebang. To say I'm devastated (dramatic much?!) is an understatement.

The poor girl at Jo Malone couldn't apologise enough, as she broke the news to me. I knew something was afoot, as I couldn't find the bath oil on the website.

She said this wasn't the only fragrance that was being discontinued and I'd like to be able to tell you what the others were, but I kind of stopped comprehending information when I heard her say "Oh sorry, Vanilla & Anise is being discontinued" 

These are indeed sad times *cue stockpiling*