London shoplog: beauty & make up

In case you didn’t know, last week I spent a few days in London. I took the trip as a well-deserved break from work and so I could gear up for the colder months. I’ve been to London every year since 2009 and so this was my 5th visit in a row. I love the city and did many things. One of those things was shop. In London so many brands are available that are not or very hard to get in Holland, and so I stocked up. Today I’m showing you the beauty and make up products I bought. On Friday I’ll show you fashion and on Sunday I will entail what I did besides shopping. So stay tuned for that!

I know that is a lot of make up & beauty products, but you should know that I had saved up for this trip. On top of that both Superdrug and Boots had 3 for 2 deals on products. At Superdrug on all cosmetics (YAY!) and at Boots the deal was for all Soap & Glory products. I actually ended up spending less than I did last year, so I think I did pretty alright. There are a few products in different categories and I’ll show you close ups below. Let me know which items you would like to see first so I can keep that in mind when planning future blogs.

Ren Rosa Centifolia No. 1 Purity Cleansing Balm
Pixi Glow Tonic (exfoliating toner)

First up some skincare products. Ever since I’ve become more adventurous with my skincare I’ve been looking to try new things. I heard of these products from international youtubers and when I bumped into them, I thought I’d buy them. I bought the Ren cleanser from Space NK and the Pixi toner from the beauty concession in Topshop.

Revolution London 32 Ultra Eyeshadow palette in Flawless

Found this brand at Superdrug. They had tons of different eyeshadow palettes for 4, 6, or 8 pounds each. Some of them were even dupes for Naked 1, 2 or 3 palettes. All testers were there and so I swatched a few shadows and pigmentation seems to be bang on. The palettes remind me a lot of Sleek quality and the way some of the palettes were laid out I think that these palettes may very well be produced by the same company or at least the same factory.

Soap & Glory Hand Food
This Works Deep Sleep Stress Less roller ball

A few miscellaneous bits. I had to stock up on my favorite hand cream in the world of course. So I made sure to pick up some of the Soap & Glory Hand Food. I had heard of the roller ball from several bloggers. When I found This Works at Harvey Nichols, I decided to check out a few of the products and fell in love with the smell of this. And I’m also very curious to see whether it actually works.

Real Techniques Nic’s picks brush set

When you go beauty shopping in the UK, you have to check out the Real Techniques brushes. I found the limited edition brush set that is out right now and thought it had some interesting looking brushes. I think the Cheek brush may be very nice for contouring as it’s quite flat.

Aussie Dry Shampoo volume
Batiste Nourish & Enrich dry shampoo

I also had to check out some haircare products. I picked up the Aussie dry shampoo because I have yet to find this in The Netherlands. Since Batiste is a UK brand (as far as I know) they sell about 20 different varieties of the product. My hair is quite dry naturally and so when I use dry shampoo it always gets worse. I am hoping this will make it look shiny rather than poodle.

Charlotte Tilbury Eye shadow palette in Dolce Vita
Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleon eyeshadow pencil in Dark Pearl (day for brown eyes)

One brand I really wanted to check out was Charlotte Tilbury. This brand is only sold at Selfridge’s and I had heard so many good things about it that I just wanted to try some products. I like the philosophy behind the brand: things should be easy to use, yet create great effect. I initially thought I wanted to buy the Vintage Vamp palette, but found it too purple overall, so I went with Dolce Vita as these are shades that I would actually wear. The eyeshadow pencil color was recommended to me by the MUA, but out of all the ones he showed me, I liked this color best. It’s a mauvy-taupy-brown with a hint of rose gold pearl. It’s stunning and should be very long-wearing.

Korres Fig Shower Gel & Body Milk
Soap & Glory Smoothie Star Body Butter Cream

I have seen and heard of Korres for a while now, but never bought anything yet. I never found a smell that enticed me, but when I found their fig line I was sold. This smells amazing and the promise of no parabens and other crappy ingredients sounds like it’s worth a try. I bought a body butter and lotion from Soap & Glory last year, and loved them so much that I opted for a full size product this time. This smells heavenly of pistachio, almond an a hint of vanilla. Great winter scent.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush in Diffused Heat

Another wishlist item: the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush. I also wanted to check out the Ambient Lighting Powders but none really tickled my fancy. And at almost 40 pounds a pop, a bit steeply priced for my tastes. The blush was a bit cheaper at 28 pounds and I fell in love with this color at first swatch. It’s a reddish pinky tone which will make for a nice healthy flushed look.

Orly Bonder base coat

I was in the market for a new base coat as my L’oreal one is running out. Many people rave about the Orly Bonder base coat so when I found it at the last minute at the airport, I didn’t hesitate and picked it up.

Topshop lipsticks in Armour & Beguiled
L’Oreal Color Riche Pure Red Collection Julliane’s Red
Revlon Color Stay Moisture Stain in Miami Fever
Rimmel Apocalips Matte Lip Velvet in Meteoric Matte

I also picked up some drugstore lipsticks. First of all, two Topshop ones. For real, I cannot understand why no more people are raving about Topshop lipsticks. They’re amazing and I picked up two in colors I didn’t have yet. The L’Oreal lipstick cost about half of what it costs in The Netherlands so that was a great deal. The Revlon and Rimmel lipsticks I had heard of and were on my ‘to check out’ list. I found the overall color selection of the Revlon Moisture Stains a bit drab, but this bright orange stood out at first swatch. The Matte Apocalips is a lovely berry color and I’m curious to see if I like this as much as the original.

Barry M Nail Paint in Moonlight (Christmas LE)
Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint in Sugar Apple
Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint in Rose Hip
Barry M Matte Nail Paint Vanilla
Butter London Bit Faker
Models Own Marquise Maroon
Models Own Beach Bag
Revlon Parfumerie Autumn Spice

Of course I had to pick up some nail polish in London. And with a 3 for 2 deal it was very tempting, but I kept it quite neat if I may say so. Barry M has two limited edition Christmas polishes out and I picked up one of them. I also took home some new Gelly Hi-Shine polishes because those are simply my favorites. I have been wanted to try Butter London polishes for ages, but never found a color that really struck me, until I found this stunning glitter. I have tried Models Own glitters, but none of their more opaque polishes, so I had to pick those up.

Soap & Glory Archery brow pencil in Blonde Shell
Collection Lasting Perfection concealer in 01 Fair and 02 Cool Medium

Finally I picked up this brow pencil because Viviannadoesmakeup on Youtube keeps raving about it. And last but not least, I picked up two of my favorite concealers. Two, because I wanted to have it in both a winter and a summer color.

What UK beauty item is on your wishlist?