BEAUTY - Online haul Part 2 - eBay & Boots - Plus my new Xbox!

Sorry it's taken so long to do this, just had so much going on with organising my uni accommodation and then going on holiday last week so been rather busy. Also I got my own Xbox 360 a couple of weeks ago (£45 eBay, Bargain!) so I confess I've been on that a lot too! I always used to go on my brothers when he wasn't playing it, but now I have my own! I've still been playing his games of course! :) Assassin's Creed 2 (couldn't put this down as it was so amazing!), AC Brotherhood, Viva Pinata and Narnia Prince Caspian. Plan to start playing the Halo games and maybe Bioshock and Red Dead too.

And so on to the second part of my haul.

From Boots I bought my Multivitamins as I always do. I get these because they are lifesavers. They really do reduce the amount of illnesses you get as they give you all the vitamins and nutrients your body needs to defend it better. I used to get two really bad colds a year. One would be in the early/mid part of the year and would be a mixture of really bad cold and chesty cough. The second would be in the late part of the year (winter) where my cold would be as awful as before and my cough would get so bad I would lose my voice and this would happen every year! I remember having to go to college when I lost my voice and I could hardly say anything properly to anyone. I would try to talk but only a hoarse whisper would emerge and occasionally a normal word or two. It really was awful, but since taking the Boots multivitamins every day (well almost every day as my memory is so bad I forget to take them sometimes) I have only had mild coughs and colds. Woohoo!! I know it is definitely the vitamins that work as when I was taking them every day I went almost a year with no illnesses, however once, I took so long getting another bottle that I ran out and didn't take any for quite a while. Then came the awful cough and cold just as I had had before. So proof that they really do work! I get the Boots Pharmaceuticals General Health A-Z Teen tablets as I absolutely cannot take proper tablets or capsules so I have to have chewable ones! :)

The second thing I got from there was the Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer. I wasn't disappointed with this at all! It really is as good as they say and does what it says on the tin. It gives amazing coverage and a little goes a long way. The lightest shade (Fair) is perfect for me and you can use it wherever you need it (undereyes, spots, redness etc). And the best part is that it was only £4.19! Bargain for the perfect concealer. The only problem I have with it is the packaging as the printed writing on the outside just slides off and marks your fingers, so if you decide to get it yourself, I suggest you remove the writing with a wipe as soon as you get it to avoid getting black marks everywhere.

From eBay I got the Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer Kit genuine for £12 which is pretty much half the price! The concealer is beautiful but hardly has any coverage, however it brightens wonderfully and the powder that comes with it is fab! I think this would work perfectly with the creamy corrector.

Another bargain I got was the Bourjois Volume Fast and Perfect Rotating Mascara. When I saw this in the shops I just thought it was another unnecessary gimick, however when I decided to buy and try it from eBay I was really surprised at how good this was. The rotation curves and lengthens the lashes great and if you put on enough they really can look as great as false lashes especially if when you get to the ends of your lashes you hold it for a few seconds so it rotates on the ends focusing on lengthening them. Love this and will purchase again. It was only £5.25 whereas the Boots price is £11.99 so less than half price.

I also got Benefit's High Beam illuminator which is gorgeous, easy to apply and really brings out your cheekbones. When I'm doing a full face of make-up, I apply it in a C shape on my cheek bones up onto my brow bone, then down the centre of my nose avoiding the tip of it and on my cupids bow. I got a 4ml tube for £4.99 which is a good price considering you don't need to use a lot.

The final thing I purchased from eBay was the Real Techniques by Sam Chapman Starter Set. This brush set is amazing! Their application is brilliant and they are so soft. They are synthetic brushes made from taklon bristles which means they are 100% animal cruelty free and can also be used with all different types of make-up.
They are also extremely diverse as they are cut so well, for instance, I sometimes use the base shadow brush for concealer and occasionally the brow brush for eyeliner. They really are the best brushes I've come across. They're also a reasonable price too. They don't sell them on their website yet so I looked around elsewhere for them as I didn't like the site they mentioned to get them from. So I found them on eBay for £17.99 with only £1.75 P&P.

It is worth looking at products on eBay but you really do have to be careful as there are A LOT of fakes out there. Keep in mind that I did a lot of research while buying off eBay and tried my best to make sure I was buying genuines, however you can't always be totally sure.
There are a few ways to try and find out if what your buying is genuine and if the seller is any good.

• Firstly, check the sellers feedback. If they have 100% positive then great but look anyway to see what some of the feedback is like and see if there is any feedback from the people that bought the same item you are looking at. If it is less than 100% try and stay within the high 90's and check what their negative and neutral feedback is like. If the negative is unjustified with the seller giving a rational explanation then they are probably okay. This can sometimes happen with the big sellers with 10's of thousands of feedback with people trying to scam the sellers. If something bad did happen then see how the seller dealt with it. For example a neg/neut comment may say that the item was never delivered or took a long time to dispatch, check if the seller replied to this either saying something like item was sent or have discussed with seller and refund will be issued
• If they are a Top-Rated Seller then they are most probably genuine
• Do they do returns/refunds? You might not want to risk it if they don't do either of these.
• Look for something that says genuine or original in the title/description
• You can always try looking for a home seller who has bought it, tried it and it didn't suit them or something
• Finally, make sure the postage is reasonable. A lot of the good big people do free postage which is a great help.

There are more things you can do to make sure what your buying is genuine like comparing the sellers item picture to a picture of the item on it's official website or somewhere else trustworthy, but these are just the basic ones.

Last but certainly not least, I decided to get the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser as I have heard such good things about it and I also ran out of my Pond's Cold Cream. I got the 50ml pump starter kit as I didn't know how my skin would react. I must say that my skin hasn't improved much since I started using it, but it feels lovely on it and smells so clean and fresh. There is a bit of a fuss with the cloth it comes with as it gets dirty so quick, so it has to be machine washed every few days which is ridiculous. I now use cleansing wipes to take it off as that is what I used to do with my Pond's cleanser. I may try taking it off with water and cotton buds to see if it makes it any better. It may just be the fact that I am still getting used to cream cleansers as I only discovered them a couple of months ago when I wanted an alternative to annoying wash cleansers. The thing I loved most when the parcel arrived is that the way they package the item is absolutely gorgeous. I've never seen anything like it. They put so much effort into it all you can see that they really care. My cleanser came in a lovely little handy Liz Earle wash bag, I recieved a mini sample of the same product with another muslin cloth which I gave to my brother for his skin. They put in a booklet containing all the information on ALL their products with a price list inside and there was an envelope too containing a letter and then a note signed off by the person who packaged the item. Along with all this, the product is wrapped in the most beautiful tissue paper just to finish off the presentation. It made me feel very special and a bit like a VIP customer!

So that's all the beauty things I've been buying at the moment, hope you guys liked it and found it useful.

x

p.s. You HAVE to check out this song and video. It's so creepy but so great! I've been hoping Skylar would bring out some solo music since I heard her vocals in I Need A Doctor by Eminem and I was not let down! It's amazing stuff and not only does she have a great voice, she's a real role model too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rwvSW4ljU0