Small Beauty Haul (Estee Lauder, Clinique, YSL)

As you may have been aware, I've been back and forth to the dental hospital for 6 appointments recently (and still one to go). It's taken up a lot of my energy, so I've been unable for much else and that's meant no shopping, which we all know is my favourite past-time! A few weeks back though, there were a couple of things I'd wanted from Debenhams and my beauty card rewards were burning a hole in my purse, so we decided to pop in after my appointment. It happened to be the worst appointment of them all, I'd had three injections in the same place, felt numb up to my eye, absolutely shattered and rather dizzy and disorientated after sitting, almost upside down for 40 minutes! I was in desperate need of some retail therapy!

I wanted to take a look at the new Estee Lauder colour collection which is rather outstanding this season I think.  Lots of colours and finishes that I wouldn't expect from the brand and I've been lusting after absolutely everything!  I've been especially desperate to purchase the Pure Color Vivid Shine Lipstick Luminizer (£19.50) which transforms the look and finish of any other lipstick when layered on top! There are four different shades and Gunmetal stood out as the most interesting for me, as the others were quite pale and shimmery and I felt more easy to dupe. Gunmetal though is as the name suggests a grey, pewter shimmer which aims to turn lips deep, dark and dramatic. The EL assistant was busy, so the Clinique girl came over to lend a hand and she said Gunmetal gave a real edge when layered, which was exactly what I was looking for. Personally I'd actually wear this on it's own as I think the colour is fabulous and very unique, but you'll see from my swatches later that it really does transform any lip shade and looks beautiful layered. I managed to snag the very last one and got completely sucked into the beautiful eyeshadows too.

After swatching a trillion, I decided on Pure Color Gelee (£19) in 14 Arctic Sky, a pretty periwinkle with pink flash and Cyber Metallic 04 Cyber Silver, a super metallic (funnily enough!) silver-grey. Sadly the latter had sold-out, so I just settled with the lilac one. It's an unusual colour, that I found came across more blue in these swatch pictures (and indeed the swatch on the EL site suggests a rather ugly, solid blue), when it leans more lilac in real life. As I mentioned there is a soft pink flash in certain lights. I've worn it loads already, but might try it wet, as I'm not sure it's quite as pretty and shiny on my lids as I'd hoped.

Anyway, the out of stock item sent me into a little frenzy, because they were running a bonus points offer when spending £40, so I needed something else to make it up. I'd wanted one of the new Lancome lipsticks, but I'm starting to think Europe, the UK or at least this counter didn't get it, because there wasn't even a tester for it (which threw me to begin with). I wanted to resist the LE highlighting powder this time, because I seriously own too many and don't use them enough. So I turned around and spied the cute Chubby Sticks (£16) at the Clinique counter. I grabbed the first one that 'looked like my type of colour' and said I'd have it! It was 09 Heaping Hazelnut (kinda odd name), and is one of the newer shades that was introduced. It was one of those spur of the moment purchases and I didn't exactly 'need' it, but it's fun to say I own a 'Chubby Stick'. Chubby Stick. See that's funny! It's quite a cute nudey shade, if a little bland and not super unique, but I like the concept of the fuss-free application and love that the pencils are self coloured. I had loads of points, so used an odd amount £9 something on this haul (so I still qualified for spending £40) and got 500 bonus points. She also threw in a wee sample of Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector, which I haven't tried yet and my Mother made the rather catty comment that the girl must have noticed a particularly large freckle I have on the side of my face, thanks Mum!

Then I decided to spend the rest of my money at the YSL counter. They had Rouge Volupte Lipstick (£23.50) in 7 Lingerie Pink which is one I've been coveting (and yes I totally have an addiction to RV lipsticks it seems). I think I ended up paying 20p for it and using all my points! Here's some swatches down below and I've also layered the EL Luminizer over the YSL and Chubby Stick just as an example of how it works.

It was a bit of a random and somewhat frantic haul, but shopping in the Debenhams beauty department is therapy for me I've decided!  I also got to try the new YSL fragrance, Manifesto.  There's something deeply captivating and almost addictive about it.  I'm not entirely sure it's 'me', it's heavier than I'd usually opt for, but I really liked it.