Boots Haulin'

A few days ago I made a trip to my local Boots. This could only ever have ended badly (and by badly I mean with me emerging outside with a bag full to the brim of new beauty goodies - so perhaps not as bad as I thought). I also had a coupon on my app (sidenote - how amazing is that thing?!) for 200 Advantage Card points when I spent £20. This meant things could only have ended even worse. It had to be done. (Imagines situation where I'm physically forced into Boots, pushed round the aisles, where items magically drop into my basket, before being pushed in the direction of the till with my card flying out of my purse and straight into the machine.)

Admittedly a couple of my purchases were tried-and-tested ones, with both falling into the "I tried and loved this but thought the grass would be greener on the other side - and it wasn't" category. The first of these was the Herbal Essences Hello Hydration Shampoo. I went for the large size as the whole brand was (and still is I believe) on a half price offer so a bargain was certainly to be had. I first tried this a while back when on the hunt for a shampoo to use 'in between usual washes' (and by that I mean... I like to wash my hair every other day and alternate between using only a shampoo or a shampoo and a conditioner, and so wanted a shampoo to use on its own). When I tried this one I instantly loved it as it felt very nourishing for my hair and made it easy to manage and style afterwards. After using this shampoo all up I had the classic beauty addict 'too many products to try' conundrum and so my temptation was lured away and I opted for a Garnier one instead, which all in all left my hair abit 'over nourished' to the point where it was frizzy, fluffy and unmanageable to style (to say the day I used that was a bad hair day would be an understatement). After that bad experience I came back to my old faithful and I couldn't be happier.

This haul seemed to have abit of a 'hair' theme going on now I look at it, as I also picked up another two hair products. One I also had tried before but, unlike the shampoo, I had not strayed away from - I'd learnt my lesson ok? This was the Got2B Guardian Angel Heat Protection Spray - I love this stuff. I think I've gone through around two bottles of this now, so this is my third, and whilst I've tried and loved others, if there's ever that classic situation where I'm in Boots staring at the aisle in bewilderment as to what to buy to replace what I've used up, this is a product I'll return to. I know it works well for my hair and won't make it frizzy or fluffy (see example above).

Having late last year made the jump into becoming a fully fledged blonde, my final hair product of choice was the Lee Stafford Bleach Blondes Shampoo. I decided to only purchase the shampoo again for use as an 'in between washer' and of course to tone my hair which sometimes I've noticed can get a bit brassy and in some lights the blonde can come up a tad gingery - something I'd like to personally avoid. I remember Zoella talking about this shampoo in a favourites of hers about two years ago, where she raved about how good it was at keeping her ombre hair in good condition and stopping the blonde from turning orange. I'd also looked up other reviews which mainly gave a big thumbs up so in my basket it went. I'm looking forward to trying this as apparently it does come out looking more like purple paint than shampoo, so this could all become rather interesting!

I also picked up an eye cream as for a while now I've been meaning to buy one to use as part of my skincare routine but just haven't got round to it. Since purchasing a Benefit set full of a few of their minis, one being their 'It's Potent!' eye cream, and loving it, I wanted to see what others were available in the drugstore and for a a tad more reasonable price than that of the Benefit offering. In the end I chose the Boots own brand Vitamin E Eye Cream as it was the only one I could find that was described as more of a cream than a gel, as I wasn't interested in that type of consistency.

Finally I moved onto the cosmetics section which is where, if things haven't already got a bit crazy, they will now. Having already looked at the offers on my app, I saw I had one for £1 off the Barry M brand, which I love for their nail polish lines. A few weeks back I was watching a ViviannaDoesMakeup haul, where she pulled out this beauty from their new Gelly Hi Shine Effect collection - Kiwi. I instantly fell in love with the colour and decided it was one to be going on the shopping list and combined with the offer I had - the time was here. When I got the stand, I also saw that the brand was on a 3 for 2, so obviously I had to pick up another two shades - I opted for 'Green Berry' (very similar to Kiwi but lighter and slightly more turquoise in tone) and 'Damson' (a very pretty purply blue). I clearly had a bit of a moment where I forgot my typical girly colour scheme and went a bit out of my comfort zone - greens and blues?! Who would have thought it...