BeneFit Gifts With Glamour

I'm maybe slightly late to the party with this post (although personally I found the gifts easy to find just last week), but it's that time of year again when Glamour magazine team up with a beauty brand to offer us some fab freebies! It's BeneFit this year and there's three gifts along with three covers (shown Eva Longoria and Kylie Minogue, the other is Fearne Cotton). Fearne only seemed to come with the mascara (Bad Gal) and I felt I didn't really need that one (even if it is only £2 for the mag) so I left it. The others are The PoreFessional; a lightweight, silky balm to be worn under or over makeup to minimise the look of pores and fine lines, for a smoother appearance. I have to say at this stage I haven't tried either of my samples yet. I haven't tried these two products at all actually so that's why I was keen to get these mini's. I think Glamour have perhaps over-exaggerated their worth at apparently £10 for this teeny 7.5ml! Having just checked the Benefit website it's £23.50 for the full size (22ml), so technically you're getting roughly £7.83 of product. At £2 some would argue it's still a bargain! Next is That Gal; a pink primer for brighter, smoother skin with light-reflecting pigments. Again, you wouldn't think you were getting £15 worth of product in this 7.5ml, but considering the full size (£21.50) is only 11ml, you're getting £14.73 in this wee tube right enough! I blended both swatches on my hand but it wasn't worth showing you the photo because you couldn't see anything! Have you tried either or will you be getting/got the magazine samples?

Swatches: Clinique Glamour Items

So I thought you may be interested in seeing some swatches of the Clinique makeup items included in the 10th b'day issue of Glamour which is out now! I know a lot of people are having trouble finding all 10 gifts, but this may help you decide if you want the cosmetics.
Here's the brush of High Impact Mascara-not too bushy which is good, as I don't like my brushes too big.
High Impact Lip Colour lipstick in Rosette is a colour that isn't completely up my street, although I haven't tried it on the lips yet. I'd describe it as a golden raspberry rose, very pigmented. Next to that is 'Air Kiss' Long Last Glosswear which I'm wearing today (see pics below), it's gorgeous! A pale, super glossy pink that is completely infused with 'grown up' shimmer-think smooth sparkle rather than gritty glitter chunks (and check out that magnified, close up image below). It makes your lips look super shiny and full and is completely non-sticky. Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss in 10 Grapefruit is slightly more pink than Air Kiss and I think there is a slight shimmer, but much more sporadic than in AK.

Let me know which gifts you've managed to grab yourself and if there's any new favourites in there for you.

All The Glamour/Clinique Gifts Here!

So as I mentioned the other day, I was on the look-out for the 10th birthday issue of Glamour which had free Clinique items with every issue. There were 10 different ones to collect and after the past few years of trying to buy (at most) 3 variations, I thought I had no chance. Sad or obsessed as I am, I decided I would stalk every newsagent in town on the day of release, preferably before lunchtime, so I could snap them all up before anyone else. The release date is tomorrow and I was going to write a list and mark each off, as I got it. The thing is, as any of you who have participated in past years will know, more often than not, the 'selection' each shop gets is actually 'x of the same gift' and they don't get variations. So I got a text from my sis at lunchtime to say she'd spotted Glamour in WH Smiths already and which issues did I want. I told her to get anything she could (not being able to remember off hand which gifts I wanted most). She then texted back to say she asked the guy in the shop which issues he had and he gave her all 10! All freaking 10!! This is how you get treated when you're 4ft 11" of cuteness obviously!
Apparently they usually get around 30 copies and this time they only got 2 boxes and she reckons one box contained 10 issues. So I bought half their stock-sorry to anyone who wanted to buy them there! It's just such a relief, as it was going to be a major hassle to go everywhere to try and find all 10. Thank you sis, cuteness will get you everything (plus I bought her 2 Bibi's cupcakes as a thank you). So what do you get? 30ml tubes of Liquid Facial Soap Mild, Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief, Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion and 7 Day Scrub Cream Rinse-Off Formula.
30ml bottle Take The Day Off Makeup Remover (love this), 5ml jar All About Eyes (like this too).
Then for makeup items, High Impact Mascara, Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss in 10 Grapefruit, Long last Glosswear SPF15 in Air Kiss and High Impact Lip Colour SPF15 in 17 Rosette which I've completely smudged the top of, trying to get the sticky glue off the back (go me!).
Altogether the collection is worth £80, so getting it and the mag (10 of) for £20 is pretty cool. I want to do something with my spare magazines though, seems like a waste to just recycle them. Perhaps the local hospital or dentist would like them for their waiting rooms? So did any of you manage to snag any? Stressful or lucky like me?

Free Cosmetics With Glamour & Red

Another thing that seems to have passed me by was the Benefit offer with the current issue of Glamour magazine. I subscribe and hadn't realised my subscription had just finished. When I was sifting through last months mag to recycle it, I noticed the advert offering 3 different Benefit pencils free with the July issue; Bad Gal eyeliner, It Stick concealer and Eye Bright highlighter. The mag came out on the 10th June and I know these issues are always extremely popular, so I had no chance of finding any. My wonderful little sister has checked all over town in her lunch hour and managed to find one copy in Tesco with the It Stick. Just as I sat cursing myself for letting this great offer slip through my fingers, Mum found loads in the newsagents at Dundee bus station today, so I now have Bad Gal and Eye Bright too. Yipee! That's £45 worth of makeup for only £6! If you are still searching for your mag, remember there are also 3 different cover stars, Lily Allen, Zoe Saldana and Alexandra Burke-also note the cover star doesn't go with a different product (I got 2 Lily's and one Alex).
At the weekend my sister phoned from Morrison's letting me know they didn't have any Glamour mags, but did I want Red, which had a free Jemma kidd lipgloss? I said "yes", the mag is crap btw, but the gloss is pretty. There are three different colours, a red, darkish pink (I think) and this one which is called 04 Shell-a sheerish pinky nude with fine shimmer.