Haul & GWP: Lancome at Debenhams

Hello my pretties! Today we have snow...the most we've had all winter, so I'm all cosied up indoors getting on with lots of overdue posts! Blogger decided to change the image upload thing today though, so I could only upload one image into the post at a time (usually you can add up to 5), why do people keep changing these things and for the worst? It confuses my little brain and I don't need any more time-consuming ways of editing along with the nightmare that is Photobucket!  Text is flowing into photos and I'm struggling to align everything in this post, images just keep moving from left to right without me touching them...the new system sucks and is causing me stress!  Anyway, back to last week when I had the dental hospital and I took a little trip to Debenhams afterwards. As you know I've been watching the pennies and have not been shopping since last year (for numerous reasons, but one is, it stops me spending!). I had £25 on my Debenhams Beauty Card and when I spied this little gift with purchase, I indulged a little but showed some restraint!
The gift is still available and you can also get it online with the purchase of two or more products. As Lancome are official beauty partners to the BAFTA's, each year they offer a little 'BAFTA' inspired GWP, hence the glittery clutch bag. There is a choice of skincare inside your bag, you can either opt for Hydra Zen or Renergie Multi-Lift (I went for the latter); the lipstick (L'Absolu Rouge in 06 Rose Nu) comes with Renergie, you get a Juicy Tubes gloss in 17 Fraise with the Hydra Zen. My only complaint about Lancome GWP's would be that I wished they switched up the colours. I get a lot of their gifts over the year and each time those are the only lipstick or gloss choices and I'm bored of that as I've got loads of them. It would be nice to try something new and different. Both sets also come with a little Hypnose mascara and Genefique serum.
 
Onto what I bought and the new Spring makeup range is out! It's called 'In Love' and is fronted by Emma Watson. It's quite a nice little, colourful collection. The packaging is fun and aimed at a younger market I'd say.
 
There are two Blush In Love palettes in funky bright pink cardboard packaging which really caught my eye. Inside are two shades of blusher which you could either swirl together or pick out the one shade if you so wish. I really wanted one of these, but at £34 decided against it. I'm sure I would use it lots, but I already own too many blushes to justify buying another at that price, even with £25 off. There's also Kohl In Love (£16), which are eye pencils. My counter only had two of the three shades and I can confirm that the Jade Crush colour is very, very intense. I swatched it and it took until the next day to come off and that was after repeated hand washing (obviously!). Next are Ombre In Love eyeshadows (£19) which are similarly packaged to the blush and come in 6 shades of purples, pinks and turquoise. There was quite a lot of shimmer in these (if I remember correctly) and they looked very nice. Finally there are three Vernis in Love (£12) nail polish shades, which I think are not limited edition but repromotes from that line (can't be sure as I didn't look too closely) and Baume In Love (£20) in four shades. This is a translucent neon lip balm and is limited edition. Now don't be put off by the colours, two are very bright pink, one a deep purple and the other a bright coral. They are extremely sheer, as they are balms not lipsticks and you just get a subtle hint of colour with each one and lots of moisture.
As pretty as they are, I looked at them and thought they were a waste of money as they would hardly show up (I don't believe you'd get as much colour as on Emma Watson here!) and that's not really what I look for in a lip product. My Mum however fell in love (!) with them and wanted one. My Mother who wears no makeup and only started a skincare routine after years of protests from me! She opted for the dark purple, 130 A La Folie Cherry. It comes out a really pretty pink and the packaging is ultra pretty. The tube is quite weighty and has a lovely design on it.  My nephews have all gone through a phase of rummaging through their Granny's bag and playing with (and applying) her lip balm, so I had her pre-warned not to let the rascals loose with a £20 Lancome one!  After babysitting them this week, she said the first thing the wee one did was pull out the shiny silver box and was straight into it before my Mum grabbed it from him.  Poor wee thing thought his luck was in, if he could speak I'm sure he'd say "wow, this ain't no Nivea"!!
So after me discounting everything and swithering with the blush, I opted for an Artliner instead! I haven't owned the 'real' Artliner in years as I've been buying L'oreal SuperLiner which is very similar. I rarely get to Boots these days to buy the L'Oreal one and I thought it was worth splashing out that little bit more when I was getting the GWP and using my points. It was £20, so was entirely free and I also let my Mum have a fiver off her lip balm!
As my backdrop can confirm (above), the liner works!  That's probably a fiver of splodge wasted on that cardboard, grrrr!  I have to add it has been really nice to get to use Artliner again, it's so damn slick!  For some reason I felt really guilty about this haul even although I didn't spend a penny and got a new eyeliner and the gift! I think I've just been trying to be so good at not spending money, that it seemed like an extravagance that I didn't really 'need'. I also think in the back of my mind I wanted something a bit more exciting or special with my £25 rewards, even if I do love the liner.  Nothing much else took my fancy at the beauty counters it has to be said, but that's probably because I'm preparing for spending a fortune on all the new MAC things that are out or coming out!