Beauty chat - freebies/gifts with purchase/offers THREAD SEVEN

[OvaHere]

New thread for when the old one is finished. We rattled through the last thread being a chatty bunch.

Everyone welcome to chat about beauty and/or share bargain finds.

I've bought a few things in the sales since the Harrods elemis / tatcha ACs. I got a few more things in the Harrods sale, but I have given these to my husband to wrap for my birthday. I bought the Patrick Ta blushers from Cult beauty, but I'd already decided in December that I was going to buy these, so they don't count. And then some essentials from Look Fantastic (ysl primer, concealer and hair heat protect spray), along with a ysl blush as it had 25% off 🤣🤣 I've bought quite a few things on vinted, but these are to go in my backup stash.

I've not yet opened the boxes for the elemis / tatcha ACs. I thought I might need to sell some stuff to cover vet fees, but I think we're going to be OK with that 🤞

I don't feel bad for breaking my no buy Jan, my birthday will now be like our covid lockdown birthdays so it'll be nice to have a few gifts to open when I can't go out anywhere. The dog needs hands on care. My sister has offered to look after her whilst we pop out to prezzo for some food (our local Italian is shut on Mondays, but prezzo is just 5 mins away in the other direction), but it's not my weekend to London that I had planned 😔 Nevermind, I might book it for March to give me something to look forward to. I have suggested to my husband that I send him a few extra options that he can buy me for my birthday and he can just get me 1 of these as a surprise and this was his face 🤨 I think he's suggesting that I've had enough 🤭

Oops, that turned into a long comment 🙈

Glad your dog is okay, JoRaRaRa.
I think you are justified in treating yourself to a few more beauty bits after all the stress, and to make up for not being able to do the things you had originally planned for your birthday.

I thought about buying the CB stocking yesterday but have so many fragrances to get through so have resisted…for now! It is a really good bargain though.

Interesting to hear your feedback on the Valmont, OvaHere. I was expecting great things from that moisturiser for the price they sell it. I haven’t tried mine yet as have quite a lot of moisturisers to get through but have just purchased a second Valmont from Vinted as someone was selling it for £20. Thought that was too good a price to pass on, so now I have 30 ml to try.

This valmont £700 for a moisturiser thing, I mean who actually buys that. Maybe a couple of rich old ladies once a year in harrods? Aside from that its no better than avant with their ridiculous prices but you only ever see them in calendars and boxes. Id like to wager no one has ever paid full price for an avant item on its own, anywhere in the world.

I've bought the stocking too now, mostly out of curiosity to try some of the fragrances I've heard people talk about.

I've been using the Valmont for a while, generally in the mornings when I'm not planning to wear SPF or makeup as it doesn't layer well, but does leave my skin feeling lovely. Agree I'd never buy it full price, but also got another pot for £30 on Vinted so feel happy with that.

Ironically, my absolute favourite night cream is an Avant one! The vivifying one, it has a lovely smell and consistency, sinks in instantly and leaves my skin looking & feeling lovely the next day. I've actually repurchased & used up twice since my original one, and the benefit of Avant is that you can always pick some up on offer/in an edit/on Vinted. I'd pay up to £50 happily as it just works better for my skin than anything else I've tried.

I think you're right about that. My sisters best friend is a multi millionaire and was telling me that she refuses to pay la mer prices, which did make me wonder how rich do you need to be to pay £700 for a moisturiser. I did find it a bit funny though as she spends a lot on fillers and botox, so I wondered if maybe if she spent more on skincare, would she need less cosmetic procedures 🤔 There's more and more people my age getting cosmetic procedures to look younger, and here I am hoping my little teeny tiny pots of luxury cream will stop me from looking haggard next to them in 10 years time 🙈🤣

My cousin fell for the avant crap and bought the avant advent calendar for his wife who was not impressed - he's a bloke so had no idea. They probably sold it as £200 or whatever but 'worth' £1000 or whatever figure they make up.
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Maybe enough people fall for it that they sell enough to stay in business. They can also fake inflate the prices of beauty boxes using it hence another reason they sell to the retailers who put the beauty boxes together, it's like a bloody cartel!

@pinkchampagne1 thank you, I know I can rely on you to help me justify my spends 💁🏻‍♀️🤣

I now have 4 ubeauty serums in the stash, that's what I keep looking for. I love that serum, it's my surprise new discovery from the calendar. It wasn't one that I was particularly bothered about and I didn't buy the calendar for that but it's definitely my favourite from the calendar 🥰 Although, I've still got most of it to try. I've only seen the valmont listed at £40 so you did well to get it for £20 and @namechange0998776554799000 to get it for £30 😁 good bargain hunting there!!

I've overcome my cancelled Elemis BAC disappointment by taking advantage of the Tatcha Fukubukuro event. I ordered the dewy skin cream & indigo overnight repair duo, the Brightening eye cream and the deep rice polish. With 15% off it came to £219, including the £200 lucky bag. I feel better now 😊

I choose the free option and they always upgrade it to next day delivery. I am even wondering if they actually have a slower service since it happens every time.

They do, and it takes forever!! It's great when they upgrade it but so agonisingly slow when they don't 🤣

Oh, I've been lucky then! 😊

It is nice so you haven't wasted money picking it up for £20. Someone with less dry winter skin than mine might really like it. With hindsight I may have been better using it from spring onwards.

Who knows, maybe if I used it for a year I'd have flawless skin but I'll never find out. Lol. A moisturiser only has one job really so it's hard to see what would ever justify such a price tag hence me trying to be fair but also critical. I don't see how a cream can ever meet the expectations of a £600 price tag. Some of the perceived value must be tied up in the very luxury purchase experience. It's definitely one you'd want to go in-store to buy and I'd expect a boatload of gwp. 😂

Where do you use the u beauty serum as in like what steps before and after? I think I’m going to try it next. I’m not keen on the valmomt cream at all I find it drys my skin the next day. I love AB rich cream after hearing so many of you talking about it decided to start using and love it. I can’t wait to see what you all think of the medik8 night cream as I love medik8 but can’t get on with that cream again it drys my skin x

I think we encourage each other 😂

I am now feeling I need to look out for more U Beauty serums! Did you find them all for bargain prices?
There is another Valmont cream on Vinted for £20 but she has removed the seal. There is another in there for £30 but all the others are £40 plus.

I nearly ordered another La Mer moisturiser yesterday as it was a bargain, but stopped myself as I haven’t tried the one we got in the calendar yet and have lots of moisturisers in my stash. Am now feeling sad because it has sold! I need banning from Vinted 😂

Be careful with Vinted listings of La Mer especially the boxed larger ones. Like the Hourglass and MBM brushes there's fake La Mer for sale on Aliexpress etc. Smaller ones might be fine if you can work out from their other listings they got it in an advent or beauty box.

I just use it after cleansing and toner instead of my usual serum, then moisturise. It has quite a few actives in it, so I'm only using it once or twice a week but I can still feel it working, especially on my forehead where I'm showing the most signs of aging.

Based on what you and ova are saying, I think I'll leave the valmont until springtime. Although, it would be nice to try it so I can decide if I want to pick up others on vinted 🤔

I've got 2 pots of medik8 night cream so I hope I like it 🤞

Catching up on the thread a bit today - glad to hear the poorly dogs are on the mend! Has anyone tried both the Tatcha Brightening eye cream and the Silk Peony one? I had a tiny sample of the Brightening one and absolutely loved it, felt so hydrating.

@JoRaRaRa I really need to try the U Beauty based on your glowing reviews of it. I'm guessing you need to use it instead of any other actives?

I nearly bought another la mer too, but I told myself to work through my collection first, this was whilst I was buying another ubeauty serum 🤣

Yes I was thinking that. There are some that also have Sisley products listed etc for very cheap prices so they look v suspicious.
This seller didn’t have a lot of other beauty products listed and had good reviews, but I really didn’t need yet another moisturiser so I stopped myself from pressing ‘buy’

I don’t have overly dry skin so am hoping the Valmont works ok for me. I might use it as a day cream. 🤔

@pinkchampagne1 forgot to reply about the price. I think I've paid £8 for one, £10, £12 and £15. So all bargain prices 💃

I bought a little pot of the medik8 night cream and haven't been impressed, which surprised me because I'm using & loving their vitamin c and retinal. I just found it a bit blah - nothing special about the texture/fragrance/feeling on my skin and it didn't feel particularly moisturised the next morning. But I think maybe it's one you need to use continuously for a while to see the benefits.

Wow, you did well there. So you got all 4 for half the price of what one should cost! 😃

Yes, I use this and then a barrier repair serum the next morning then the calming bioeffect serum the following evening, to stop my skin getting irritated. I suffer from hormonal cystic acne so I try to be careful with what I'm using and if I use an active, then I work at repairing and restoring afterwards. I'm sure everyone does but I feel like I have to put a bit of thought into it. Actually, now I think of it, I don't think I've had any acne spots come up since I've started using the ubeauty 😳 right, off to vinted to buy more 🤣 I also use a retinol serum in between the Bioeffect and then using the ubeauty again. So I have 3 serums on the go. I also have 2 serums on the go for mornings too, a barrier repair one for the morning after the ubeauty and then a more glowy one, so at the moment it's the dior capture le serum.

Wow, yes 😍 the £8 one was a surprise, the drawers in the AC work out at £10 each but I'm not complaining 🤣