Recent Highlights

My recent carboot finds include another Jo Malone item. This time it is a large bottle of Blackberry & Bay body lotion in a box complete with its bag. These usually sell at £40 at Jo Malone shops and concessions. I bought this for £20 which is more than I would have liked to have paid but it is still half price.

I saw one of my favourite sellers who had lots of Liz Earle products such as the hot cloth cleanser and body scrub but I passed on these buying instead two bottles of the newly released Botanical Essence No.9 Eau de Parfum for £15 each. These currently cost £54 a bottle so an excellent saving for me. I will be keeping one bottle for myself and one will be put away as a gift for someone at Christmas.

I bought two scarves which I assume are both copies as they cost me just £2. One is a Chanel square in green and gold - very 1980s. I'm not sure whether I will wear this around my neck or tie it to a handbag handle but I loved it for the price. The stall holder was a lovely and very glamourous lady. The second scarf is a long oblong one in red and black - a little gaudy but it should cheer up a black coat in the winter. This is a Louis Vuitton style scarf.

I loved these two Starbucks mugs in cream with a subtle Siren logo. These are a decent size for a cup of coffee, more a mug size so perfect for myself and David who like a large hot drink - none of those little cups for us. I looked these up on line when I got home and found that they have a G embossed on the handle to show they are size Grande. Others have a V for Venti etc. These cost £1 each. When I looked them up on eBay they were up for sale between £3.99 (plus postage) to £36.18 each.

On the pottery front I also bought this Mason's Christmas Village dish shaped like a Christmas tree for £1. I have one of these already and use it (obviously at Christmas) for serving nuts or chocolate truffles on.

I bought my usual selection of DVDs and all of these were 50p each from different stall holders. I've had a major clearout of my DVDs over the last week as they were starting to take over the dining room. I have a huge box full to sell on eBay now but as you can imagine I have got a little distracted with some of them and want to watch some again before I sell them.

I haven't listed any new items on eBay since May which is bad because I have dozens of items in my dining room ready to be listed and got rid of freeing up some space in my home. The dining room is suffering from some major clutter so I need to get a wriggle on and get listing. Having said that I still have quite a few items listed anyway and have sold 5 items in the last week.

I watched one of those recent shopping programmes with Greg Wallace where he looked at the changes in the way we shop, such as more people choosing to shop at Lidl & Aldi and visit less the standard supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsburys. I realised that although I no longer visit Tesco and Sainsburys I have changed to shopping to both extremes of the price range. My go to places are Marks & Spencer and Waitrose but also I visit B&M too, which is unbelievably cheap.

I find that the expensive supermarkets have major reductions towards the end of the day so I buy most of my fresh meat, fruit, vegetables and bread from these shops. I make some brilliant savings. I also visit the local B&M which is less than a mile away from Waitrose to buy household items such as laundry wash, fabric conditioner but also cat food, tinned food and wine.

My recent bargains in Waitrose included this beauty haul of Garnier facial moisturiser reduced from £13 a jar to £4.55 (I bought four jars); L'oreal facial oil (great as a night cream) reduced from £10 to £3.49 and two bottles of L'oreal facial oil cleanser reduced from £6 to £1.99 each. Now these prices are cheaper than B&M prices.

M&S Beauty Advent Calendar

I bought two tops and a pair of trousers on-line for wearing to work from Marks & Spencers, and as I had spent £35 I was able to buy their beauty advent calendar worth £250 for £35. Now my regular readers will know that I've already bought the Boots No7 advent calendar so I didn't need one at all but as this looked like a good deal £ wise I was unable resist.

I received it yesterday and could not resist having a beauty feast and opening it up all in one go. The packaging is brilliant. Individually numbered boxes that slide onto shelves in a Christmas Tree shape. All quite substantially made and not flimsy at all. Once I had taken out all the contents I packaged it up, popped it back into the delivery box and will use this next year. I'll fill it with some other items - not sure what yet - and give it as a gift to someone in the family.

So what was inside the boxes?

Two fabulous full sized nail polishes in the kind of shades I love. One is a nailsinc gel one coat in Piccadilly Court and an Autograph one in Cranberry which has a iridescent sheen to it. Fabulous for the festive period although I do still love a Santa red.

Two decent sized tubes of Neal's Yard Bee Lovely handcream and Rituals magic touch body cream. This is in Ritual of Sakura scent which reminds me slightly of baby powder. Quite a comforting scent.

Eyeko Skinny liquid eyeliner in black. I use a pencil usually and favour a brown or dark purple so I think this will be going into my niece's Christmas stocking. A very wearable shade of Rosie for Autograph lip glossy. The shade is called Super Model Smile and I think will be a great day time shade for any time of year.

A lovely soft mini powder brush. The only thing mini about the brush is the handle as the head of the brush is full size. Great for bronzer, a powder foundation such as bare minerals or even for a blusher.

A couple of hair products. Percy & Reed wonder balm for using on both wet and dry hair. Josh Wood Radiant Shine hair oil for dry ends, smoothing a straight hair style or using as a pre-wash treatment. I think just a few drops of this will be enough as any more and my hair might just look greasy.

Three tubes of facial creams and treatments. Ultrasun factor 30 suntan cream. A must for me after my skin cancer on my nose last year. I don't face the day now without a high SPF cream. Filorga Time-Filler absolute wrinkle correction cream. I've not heard of this before and there are no directions on the tube. I assume - see a wrinkle, use this cream on it! That great brand Rodial, super acids x-treme acid rush peel. To be used as you would a face mask. 

Three smallish tubes of more face creams and potions. Studio 10 priming serum. I love a face serum and use one every day under moisturiser. REN day cream - nothing to write home about. Pur correcting primer for use over moisturiser and under make-up. I've not really used these before but think I'll give this a try straight away and see if I'm converted.

Leighton Denny mini glass nail file. This really is mini but a good size to pop into a travel bag and take away on holiday or for a weekend away. A full sized Burts Bees lip balm in original flavour/scent. I have a love/hate relationship with Burts Bees and luckily their lip balms fall into the love category.

A spray bottle of the most gorgeous smelling Shay & Blue perfume called Atropa Belladonna. The first hit is Parma violet sweeties but it softens to vanilla marzipan. A reasonable sized 10ml bottle. Great for taking away on a two week holiday.

A M&S night cream and a bottle of Alphah night treatment. This is used like a toner alternate nights under night cream to firm and revitalise. Again not something I have used before but I'll give this a try. 

Philip Kingsley hair Elasticizer. Now this is not my thing at all as I have had this product before in beauty boxes and I have sold them on eBay. That is where this one will be going too. Nuxe multi-purpose dry oil. I've had this product in other beauty boxes too although much smaller bottles than this one. I've never used it so don't know whether I like it or not so I think it might be put away for taking on a sunny holiday and using as an after sun or to restore dry hair. 

Finally three products that I don't know anything about at all. Emma Hardie Moringa Cleansing Balm. Skin Icelandic Relief Eyecream (in a tiny pot) and Pixi by Petra brow tamer. I've never had to tame my brows as they have always been well behaved. I think the balm and eyecream may be used but the brow tamer is destined for eBay. 

So, overall I am very happy with my purchase. I would say there are around 75% hits - perfume, nail polishes and make-up brush in particular -  with 25% misses or items that I have never hear of or didn't realise I needed - brow tamer and hair elasticizer in particular.

Have any of you bought yourself a beauty advent calendar?

Carboot Haul

I know I have been AWOL for a couple of weeks. More about the reason behind this in another posting but I have been out of the country for 12 days and returned late Friday afternoon. After two weeks without my beloved Cheshire Carboot Sale it was great to be back there again today even though it rained and the forcast had been for sun.

I bought two medium sized Yankee Candle jars for £6 each from one seller who appeared to have a full Hallmark shop. These are usually £17.99 each so at £6 I wasn't arguing over the price. I bought Fireside Treats and Spiced Orange which I think will be great for Autumn. I have a large jar just coming to the end in Gingerbread Maple so these will come in handy in the next few weeks.

From the same seller I bought 9 Christmas cards for family and friends. These were 50p each or 3 for £1 so I bought £3 worth. I think cards are so expensive to buy these days at £2 upwards for a small plain card. I love all of the cards that I bought and believe it or not I am pretty much sorted for Christmas already. I have bought presents throughout the year and already have cards and wrapping paper stored which were bought in the January sales.

From a different seller I bought two bags of Yankee Candle samplers (I've always called these votives?). These were 15 samplers for £10 so work out to be 67p each. They range in price £1.35 - £1.71 usually so I reckon these to be half price or less each. I split the candles into two - one bag of Christmas and Winter scents and the other bag full of Spring/Summer scents.

My cosmetics lady was on today and I bought a new bottle of Creme de la mer facial toner from her. The toner is the oil absorbing one and usually costs £65. I paid £25. She has some fantastic bargains but usually only a couple of items. She has given me the heads up for further branded items coming in next week. 

I bought two Soap & Glory gift sets at £2 for each from two different sellers. Both of them contain 4 travel sized products and a shower puff. The travel sizes are normally £2.50 each and the shower puff £3.50. I think the gift sets are usually priced around £10. I may use these myself or give them as stocking fillers to my sister and niece.

One smart lady said she had had enough of the rain and said she was cold too. She hadn't many items left on her stall to sell and said that she was now selling everything at 50p an item. I found a Louis Vuitton silk scarf and asked her if this was 50p and she said yes because it was stained at one end and she couldn't be bothered getting it dry cleaned and she wanted to go home. I assumed it was fake, gave her 50p and put it away in my bag. Just as I was walking off she told me it was genuine. Really?  I'm not sure but I have given it a gentle soak in soft soapy water and the stain came out no problem. For 50p who cares? I think this will look great tied around the handle of one of my black leather handbags.

Another possible fake is a Links of London sweetie bracelet. I have an original one and a comparison does show some slight differences. I only paid £2 for it and the lady selling it was very disorganised. She had the links box full of earings, the empty cloth bag in another part of her stall and the bracelet in a bowl of bangles. I gathered all the items together and was happy with £2. It has a lovely heart charm on it and is fairly heavy. The elasticated section is double, the logo looks right and there are the standard number of spare loops for attaching charms. I don't know why she sold it for £2 unless it is a fake. Again - who cares! I love it as a lightweight spare to my authentic one which is very heavy with charms.

I bought another large sarong sized scarf for £1 and some cute Wristees in a beautiful magenta colour also for £1.  The scarf is for me and the Wristees are a gift for my sister.

My niece loves Lush products and so when I saw this Blooming Beautiful gift set for £1 I had to buy it for her. This is currently selling for £9.50.

I bought two mini bare minerals sets of loose powder and soft mini brush for 20p each. One is in my current medium beige shade. The other is in fairly light which may be okay for me come the middle of winter when I start to look paler. If this doesn't suit then I'll pass this on to my niece who has very pale skin (she is a strawberry blonde). I also bought this Revlon bronzing shimmer brick for 50p. Great for just chucking in my work makeup bag for touch ups during the day.

I found an IKEA throw for £1 that is the same as one I already have. I now have matching throws on both my settees. I did have two throws that are  the same but in different colours which worked well but I prefer the two in the same colour. It is a little crumpled but an iron will soon put that right.

I bought two books. A large Bill Bryson in hardback for 10p - I have loved Bill Bryson's writing after reading Notes from a Small Island about his travels in the UK. He has such a wonderful sense of humour. My second book was £1 and is a Sophie Dahl cookbook. Because of the rain these were both a bit damp and are currently in the airing cupboard drying off.

Finally I bought 3 DVDs, all new and sealed for 50p each.