Boots Natural Collection Body Sprays | A Cheaper Alternative

If you've been searching for a cheap and cheerful body spray, or an alternative to the £12 Hollister mists - then you've come to the right place. If not, then this post may just inspire you to try something new out! 

I've always thought carrying around a body spray was a great alternative to carrying around you most loved and expensive perfume. Just for on the go, when you want a quick splash of fresh fragrance. Obviously body sprays aren't less concentrated and definitely don't last as long as a perfume, but you can purchase a lot more product for an incredibly cheaper price. Yes, some body sprays *cough* Hollister's *cough* are expensive, but I've been questioning recently if they're really worth the price (£12 per 250ml bottle, or 3 for £24). 

Every time I walk past the Hollister store I can't help but smell their 'signature' scent - musky, but sweet and 'girly' too. Therefore a while ago I decided to purchase one of their body sprays, and opted for the scent 'crescent bay', one of their most popular scents and I can understand why. The pink liquid in contained within a clear plastic tall bottle, which is labelled with their pretty packaging. As mentioned before the bottle holds 250ml of product, and it really seems to last forever. But I knew I could find a product that was just as good, for a much more reasonable price. Which successfully, I have.  

I wouldn't say Boot's natural collection body sprays meet all the standards of Hollister's, but for me they do just fine. The Boot's sprays come at a price of £2 - but I happened to catch a 3 for 2 deal, and got 3 for £4. Whilst the Boot's sprays are significantly cheaper, I obviously wasn't expecting the quality to be as good as a £12 spray. So yes, the amount of product only came to 150ml and the packaging is pretty basic and not so luxurious. Other than that, the collection still contains at least 3 scents I really love (I chose mango & papaya, apple & lime and vanilla). Out of the three I wear the apple an lime the most, and the vanilla the least. As I can find the vanilla a bit too sweet at times, but it varies meaning having 3 to chose from is perfect really. 

As much as I wanted to repurchase Hollister's sprays again, and take advantage of their 3 for £24 deal. I knew buying 3 boots sprays for £4 would save me £20 - and £20 at my age adds a lot to my purse. I'm just glad I opted for this alternative, as these body sprays do have less product, but actually work out fitting in my handbag better too. Meaning no regrets here, even though I'd love to try the rest of Hollister's range. But I did manage to get my hands on some of Hollister's body care for only £3 in the sale, so click here to see a full review of their hand and body cream. 

Hope you've had a lovely Easter and holiday off - the perfect time for hobbies like blogging, that's if you don't have exams... And sadly I do. Therefore I apologise for not posting for quite some time, as well as having limited time I feel uninspired. However once exams are over I will make a conscious effort, and remind myself how fun it is to share all my beauty and fashion thoughts with you all!

Have you tried any of Boots' natural collection body sprays? 

Collective Haul | Sales

This weeks post is a post I've been waiting to do for a few weeks, Christmas has been and gone which left me with some Christmas money and many sales to search for. A few days after Christmas my friend Laura and I went on a trip shopping, Laura is also a lovely blogger and I recommend you follow her here! I knew I had some money to play with but didn't initially think to spend much of it. But walking into shops and seeing so many inviting deals and sales drew me in…Therefore the past 3 or 4 weeks have consisted of a lot of shopping and spending. The weekend after I wanted to pick one product up from boots, but the deal of ‘Buy one, get the second half price’ persuaded me to buy the ‘second’ – of course of which I wanted but didn't need! As well as these two trips, Kathryn and I (another blogger who you should follow, to see her blog click here), went shopping too. Once again a large amount of sales caught my eye, I’m sorry but a stand of Topshop half price makeup couldn't be walked away from.

Therefore after weeks of searching and purchasing (I forgot to mention yesterday was another day spent in shops…) I felt the need to do a collective haul and share what sales I had found as well as some good buys  -  also I will be featuring  my ‘Top 3 Buys’ out of everything I have bought in this haul too!

Why not start off with a high note and talk about my top 3 products?

Top 3 Buys...

1    1. This top buy is number 1 of my 3 for a reason and I think it will be an essential in my collection from now on, unless I find something better – but this is Miss Sporty’s Studio Lash incrediBALL mascara. Now when it comes to mascaras I often avoid purchasing a new one and let myself use up my current mascara until it’s basically dry! Now I find it’s because finding a new mascara just isn't an easy task, it’s so hard to get wrong and some can be £10.00 therefore you have to be careful! I once bought a miss sporty mascara and really loved it with a price of only a few pounds. For some reason I haven’t though of repurchasing any of their mascaras since. I now ask myself, why not?! This mascara only came to the price of £2.99 and is now a massive essential as I don’t touch any other mascara and can’t stop using this one. I’m not sure if I will review this or not but in a nutshell I love it and highly recommend you at least try it out!

2    2. My second out of my top three would be something I always wanted to try and it’s the ‘holy grail’ Maybelline Colour Tattoo, which I bought in the well known colour ‘On and On Bronze’. I've always put off buying this for some reason and who know why, the only reason I bought it was because Maybelline were promoting a ‘buy on get second half price’ therefore from being an appropriate £4.99  went down to a bargain of £2.99. All I can say is I use this most days, whether using it alone or underneath as a base it works a treat! I’m definitely considering buying more shades soon.

      3. The final out of my top 3 would be Topshop’s crème blush in ‘Prime Time’, the colour of the blush is a prime (how ironic) example of a ‘hot pink’ definitely not something I would go for on the cheeks. However a stand of HALF PRICE (yes 50% off!) Topshop makeup was definitely a yes for and I can’t normally justify spending that much on a product not purely branded as makeup (as Topshop is initially clothing). But there crème blushes normally stand at a decent £6 but half price to £3, so I couldn't resist and this was no regret of a purchase.

#

Now onto the rest…I’d be here for days if described every product in detail therefore the rest will be a short summary.

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder, £3.99 | sadly this product wasn't in the sale, but still at a reasonable price I wasn't going to give it a miss. I’ve repurchased this several times considering I use the product until it breaks (my last one was practically unusable) therefore no hesitation when buying this.

Mac Lustre Lipstick in ‘Plink!’ £15.00 | this was my first Mac purchase and probably not my last; I have quite a large Mac wish list but the price just daunt me. So when it comes to purchasing a high end product (I would class Mac as high end, other wouldn't), I do always research before to make sure I know what I want especially for lipsticks/eye shadow shades – I was pretty happy with this colour, it’s an every day (not that Ii will be wearing it every day) and subtle but pretty lipstick with a shimmery finish.

 

TopShop Lipstick in Saint, £4.00 (half price from £8.00) | As well as the crème blush I couldn't not buy some other half price Topshop makeup. Saint is a pinky-nude and has a creamy finish but I do have to finish this off with a pink gloss as it washes me out slightly.

Natural Collection Lipstick in Raspberry, £1.50 (3 for £5 deal, therefore around £1.50 from £1.99) | Kathryn was buying some natural collection products therefore we did a joint deal which work out well as it gave me a 25% off discount. Raspberry is a lovely rich, almost matte pink which I think will look lovely for spring.

Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in shade shade 15, £5.99 | this I also bought with a Maybelline Baby Lips in Cherry Me (sorry, I forgot to include this in the photo). This was still the same deal that Maybelline had of ‘buy one get second half price’ – therefore giving the baby lips a discount of £1.25 from £2.50. I have also bought the concealer once before and loved its creamy texture, it’s my current ‘go to’ concealer.

Topshop Lip Marker In Berry, £3 (half price from £6) | Autumn has past and winter is coming to an end soon, but why not still wear a deep berry lip? I did find this lip marker/stain was drying on the lips and was hard to apply however I’m in love with the colour.

17 Lipstick in Berry Crush, £1 (sale, but I’m unsure of the original price) | this lip stain Ii prefer to Topshop’s as it comes with a non-tinted balm on the other side to give the lips more moisture, whilst blending in the stain. Berry lips are gorgeous and I love the fact that lip stains like these can be dark/deep coloured but with a smaller amount of pigment, therefore not too harsh.

Natural Collection Mascara in Lash care (see through), £1.99 | I normally use this for my brows to keep them in place and find it’s a simple cheap product that does the job, therefore another needed (well…) repurchase.

Topshop Nail Polish in Daredevil, £3 (half price from £6) | I really want to build a collection of their polishes as the colour range is insane and not to mention I just love Topshop’s packaging. As soon as I saw the rows of half price polishes I automatically knew I needed to buy one. I chose Daredevil as it’s a deep purple with gold specs, it’s a lovely colour and appropriate as I've been searching for a nice winter deep purple.

17 nail polish in silver (an iridescent polish, silver and purple), £0.50 (sale, but unsure of original price) | A nail polish for 50p, why not? It may not be something I usually go for but it could look nice on the nails let hope, but for 50p you can’t really go wrong.

17 lasting fix lipstick in the shade showbiz, £1.00 (from £4.49) | I have been wanting to try out a statement red lipstick for a while and when I saw this for only £1 I couldn't say now. In the bullet it appeared a matte red but once the fresh coating slides of it’s actually a slightly shimmey red with a pink hue. I can’t wait to try this out for an event or evening out!

Hollister Body Lotion in Silver Strand Beach, £2.99 (from £12, 75% off) | I’m very keen on Hollister’s signature scent and when me and Laura spotted they were selling a few lotions and moisturisers with a 75% discount we couldn't not. I normally tell myself £12 is too much when buying Hollister’s body care therefore this deal was perfect.

Hollister’s Hand and Body cream in Solane Beach, again £2.99 (from £12, 75% off) | I had to also pick up the hand and body cream, they all smell too good

Lush Space Girl (£2.25) and twilight (£3,25) bath bombs | Lush rarely have sales on but having some change left over in my purse and a trip to lush didn't leave me empty handed – I can’t wait to have a lush bath as I haven’t had one in ages.

Maybelline Baby Skin primer, £7.99 | a price of £7.99 whilst only receiving a small 22ml product, I thought I would try this out as it’s new in the ‘baby’ range that Maybelline sell. But currently I have mixed feelings on this… there may be a post including this soon.

Thank you for reading this massive haul, I think I will be putting myself on a spending ban from now on. But I hope you enjoyed it and have a lovely week!

~ Happiness is not a destination, it’s a way of life ~

What have you been purchasing recently? 

Skin, Hair & Nail Care Haul | Boots

I recently went shopping (well yesterday) looking for some sales, as most of you will know there are quite a few at the moment. There were a few things I also wanted to try out as well, therefore I ended up buying quite a few skin care products, and some hair and nail care too!

My favourite part to the element of shopping is actually going through all my purchases when I get home and re-viewing what I can't wait to try. I realised that I had actually bought a fair amount and for all under £10 (well £9.91 to be exact), which is pretty good if I'm honest. Therefore I thought I would share this with everyone - I did come across a few sales and offers but nothing too special, sorry I'm not the best at sale hunting!

3 for £3 - Boots Essential Skin Care Range

I have heard about this deal, I didn't know if it was permanent so I grabbed it whilst I could! 

3 Minute Clay Mask

 Moisturising Cream 

 Eye Gel

I'm very indecisive and therefore picking 3 products out of the range took me a while. But I eventually opted for: 3 Minute Clay Mask, Moisturising Cream and an Eye Gel. The clay mask was one of the first things I picked up as I have never had a face mask actually in a tube and have only ever bought the single 'tester' packaged ones, which never seem to agree with my skin either. Therefore this product looked good, as well as smelling really good! All the products in this range are enriched with the fresh scent of cucumber and are very refreshing - which I love.

The second was the moisturising cream, I was 'uhming and arhing' about this but ended up buying it as I needed a plain old moisturiser for morning and night - I'll keep stealing my mothers otherwise. This was scented with cucumber more significantly in comparison to the rest and has a light consistency absorbing into the skin fast. 

The last product I picked up may seem strange but totally makes sense, this eye gel 'enriched with soothing cucumber and vitamins' and reduces puffiness - I love using this in the morning before applying my makeup as it's refreshing and, like it says, reduces puffiness - which I find very useful. 

I was pretty happy with this deal as 3 for £3 obviously means that comes to only £1 per product, which is very good in my opinion. 

Extra Skincare From Boots

On the same shopping trip (yesterday) I bought some Nivea Creme, a product I have been willing to try. This is a stronger moisturiser which can be used on the: face, lips and body... I think. I will be using this when I have dry patches on my face or experience flaky skin as this is a much thicker and I believe stronger moisturiser than the Boots essential one I also bought. This may sound strange but I actually have very dry elbows and shall be using this for them because I think it will work a treat! 

Just before buying all my products I was queuing and came across an anti bacterial hand gel, which coincidentally I was in need for. It was a fairly big bottle and I had used this make before and liked it, the scent is cucumber (I think I'm enjoying the scent of cucumber at the moment, haha) and garden mint. The scent is very refreshing and I much prefer this to the mango and passion flower scent this brand does. This was the only product on sale actually but I think it was reduced from £1.55 to £1.05. Not sure if any of you would be interested, but I cant go anywhere without hand gel, haha. 

As well as yesterday the other day my mum picked up some skin care from the drugstore for me, both products of which I really like and was in need for - I don't think I will need any more skincare for a while!

I didn't actually read the bottle before applying this late at night, I just grabbed something to take my makeup off with. I thought it was just a normal cleansing lotion but actually is a 'spot stress control' cleansing lotion, therefore isn't meant to remove makeup, in my case eye makeup. Therefore I stupidly applied to this to the eyes to try ad get rid of my eye makeup, but then it began to sting...oops. I read the bottle and just applied it to the rest of the face, but it still made my skin sting. However I think it's the formula working as it helps to clear spots, but I shall not be putting this near my eyes again, haha!

Here we go! Eye make-up remover, haha. My mum also picked this up for me and I actually used this afterwards to get rid of the excess eye make-up I still had on. It is a very oily product but this doesn't bother me as it's a makeup remover and afterwards I'm going to sleep... but this may bother some people if their skin is already oily? Anyway, I really like this product, it says 'soothing' and I agree it does sooth the skin with the oil based ingredients in this product - perfect! 

Hair Care

This was a product I had on my list whilst shopping yesterday and was actually recommended this by Catherine (candyxcosmetics.blogspot.co.uk) via twitter and I'm glad she did as I love it! I'm very impressed as this leave-in conditioner that boots supply comes to a price of only £1.39 and works lovely with my hair. It detangles and smooths the hair leaving a scent of coconut and almond! 

Nail Care

Recently I have been growing my nails (I'm a nail bitter...but hopefully no more!) and so far so good really, I just find it hard to stay out of the habit and easy to get back into it (a new years resolution I think). However I was close to purchasing OPI's Nail Envy but this is at a price of £18.80 and for one nail polish for me that's a lot. But I found it on amazon for only £8.80, which is great! I was close to buying this and thought it couldn't be duped because of how great it is, but just to check I researched and found that there actually is a dupe! which is this - Rimmel's NAIL NURSE nail rescue a 14 day nail treatment, very similar to OPI's Nail Envy. Therefore I was very impressed and thought to buy this at £4.49 instead, the price would only be four pound more if I were to get the Nail Envy but still every little counts! 

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and it helped you in some way, or you just enjoyed reading it! What skin, hair or nail care have you purchased or been loving recently?

Have a lovely New Year!