Winter Sales Haul

I did a bit more damage in the sales than I was originally planning. I did the majority of my spending online and, whilst that was great for avoiding the queues, I think it may have been my downfall where spending was concerned, as you can't physically see the damage that's been done until the products arrive a few days later. I think it's safe to say I won't be doing another big shop for a while! I know quite a lot of the stuff I bought was pretty popular and is no longer available, but if I can find any online still, I'll leave the links below.

Boots was the only shop I actually set foot in to do my sales shopping, I went on 27th December and, whilst the majority of the things I wanted from the sale were gone (probably a good thing!), I still managed to pick up a few good bits. I really want to start baking more this year and spotted the Rosie's Pantry Afternoon Tea Book which was just £3.25 and thought this would be a good place to start. From the half price gift sale, I also picked up the Soap & Glory Smoulder Kohl eyeliner set for £7. You get four in the set and they usually retail for £5 each, so I thought this was a bargain. I like to pick up a discounted fragrance set in the sales, as you can usually pick it up for around half the price that the original fragrance sells for on it's own. The shelves were pretty much empty by the time I got there, but I spotted the DKNY MYNY Gift Set at £24.33, around a third off which I thought was good for a relatively new scent. I love the Be Delicious range and from first impressions, this is a good scent too. My final buy from Boots was not a sale item per se, but it was a value set so there was a saving to be made! I'd been curious about the No7 blush sticks since they were released, but other things grabbed my interest more at the time so I never bothered with them. When I spotted the No7 Blush & Glow Collection for just £15 (each stick retails for £9.95 alone, so really great value) I thought it was the perfect time to try them out.

I actually shopped on feelunique.com before Christmas, which was a little naughty of me but I knew that with the sales starting so early I'd miss out on what I wanted if I waited. One thing I really wanted to get my hands on was the Stila Glow & Behold Gift Set, which was £14. I'd seen this on quite a few blogs throughout December and, as I'm still very new to Stila, this looked like a beautiful set to have. I wanted a Redken set last year, but they were all sold out by the time I got online. I remember them being a lot cheaper last year, but I think the bottles in the set may have been smaller. I picked up the Redken All Soft Set for £19.43. Another set I picked up from a brand I've been dying to try was the Ole Henriksen The Gift of Glow set for just £15.40. This set is out of stock now, but there are so many different Ole Henriksen sets to choose from, there's bound to be something left that you'd like. I tried Tanya Burr's lipglosses last year and wasn't the greatest fan of them, but I've heard much more positive reviews about her nail polishes, so I thought I'd pick up a set to try whilst they were discounted. The nail polish trio that I picked up contains Midnight Sparkles, Penguin Chic and Riding Hood, and cost £10.79.

Pre-Christmas, the Space nk sale was the one I was most excited about, but a lot of their best Christmas sets sold out before the big day and never made it to the sale *sob*. I thought I'd stock up on one of my new favourite brands, Aromatherapy Associates. Their oils are so good but just so expensive, so I like to purhcase their miniatures sets when they are reduced, All of their gift sets (the ones that were left anyway!) were 50% off after Christmas, so I picked up the Aromatherapy Associates Ultimate Bath Jewels collection, which contains 10 travel size oils for just £27.50. Also a really good deal at half price was the REN Radiance Gift Set which I bought for £15. I've had quite a few samples of REN products in the past but none are really big enough to make a decision on whether the product has done me any good or not. This set was the perfect way to give REN a proper try, and it contains the Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask, which I've been dying to try. Finally I indulged in my love for candles and bought the Space nk Winter Candle Trio for £17.50. I have a little review of these coming up next week, but can tell you now they smell beautiful.

My only purchase from Accessorize is one that I'm a little unsure about. I bought this Camera across body bag for £14.50. I'd been looking at it on the website for quite a while and thought it looked really nice but it's turned out to be a little more garish in real life. I'm sure I'll make it work as a statement piece to an otherwise plain outfit though.

I thought the New Look sale was really good, which was a nice surprise. Usually I can never find anything in clothes sales and end up browsing the New In section instead, and spending way much more money than I intended. As well as having some good quality items, everything was really well price too, with most things being around half price. The items I bought were:

Left column, top to bottom: Black Embellished Neck Tshirt £8, Yellow Knit Brushed Texture Jumper £7, Navy Premium Floral Devore Wide Sleeve Top £6
Middle Column, top to bottom: Burgundy Scuba Skater Skirt £6, Red Pocket Front Chiffon Blouse £9, Black Leather Look Skater Skirt £14.99 (not in sale)
Right coloumn: Black Lightweight Houndstooth Skater Dress £12

There's some great stuff left in the sale, including some of the items I bought, so I'd really recommend checking out the New Look website if you haven't already.

What did you buy in the sales?