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

[OvaHere]

New thread as the old one is almost full.

All welcome to chat about beauty purchases, upcoming beauty boxes/GWP and to share your bargain finds.

I shall manage my expectations @JoRaRaRa and am forewarned. I can’t stand the smell of Bloom and Blossom shower oil but sadly have quite a bit to get through, so I feel your pain!

Oh that explains why I didn't have enough for free postage when I expected to!

(don't worry, I added something else to get the free postage :D)

That’s the one! I also had a polly pocket clock. Oh the memories 🥰
I was tempted to go back and order the brown palette just because I love the case so much!

I concur that Joonbyrd products smell awful, on a par with Sunday Riley Aquamarine Melt!

Well, low buy February isn't going according to plan. I blame Specsavers for not being able to find my glasses when I went to collect them. I wandered around the Arndale for an hour while they went looking, which took me to TK Maxx where I spotted a Byredo Floral set for £40. I was good and decided to have a sniff in SpaceNK first and thankfully wasn't keen. However, @DidILeaveTheGasOn peaked my interest in Summer Fridays lip butter, so I left with this.

But, but, but... it was 20% off and I had a £5 voucher, and I got a cute little charm for free 😊, so that's okay isn't it?

I also bought a few beauty bits in Primark, stationary and storage boxes in TK Maxx, plus 2 bundles and a Tatcha mist in Vinted 😕

Edited for typo.

Oh yeah, I've also succumbed to the Roka thing...

I don't get the Joonbyrd love? I know the Beauty Detective rates some of their products, but the couple of things I've received in edits didn't smell good and were swiftly donated.

Also succumbed to the Roka LD one last time, I need help 😬

Me and my sisters had so many Polly pockets. We sold them all for £50 at the car boot 🙈 we realised not long after that people were selling them on ebay for £100s. We were sat on a gold mine and didn't even realise it 🤣 oops!

I used the browns today, it's really nice 🥰

Sephora had them 30% off. Not sure if still available.

Goodness, you could have made a fortune!
Similarly, I wish I’d kept my Sylvanian families. They don’t make things like they used to

Thanks @OvaHere

@keepincool I hope you like it! I have managed to resist buying a replacement (so far). I was staying in an ice hotel (dh's 40th present!) and I put my SF lip balm inside the humongous sleeping bag they gave me to withstand the elements. It was -16 outside. Obviously I wussed out at 1 in the morning and dashed back into the aptly named 'warm building' for some sleep, leaving my sleeping bag, and lip balm, behind.

Feels like a slightly odd take on Cinderella. Perhaps a Norweigan Prince will come and bring it back to me, weary from travelling many miles on a husky sled. Ahh.

Long shot, but any Victoria Beckham codes? I want to buy some lip liners and they seem to be excluded from the SpaceNK discount. In no rush so will wait for an offer!

If you sign up to notifications they run 10-15% off here and there. The biggest discounts I've known them to do were over Black Friday and pre Xmas for members of the reward scheme (anyone who's made a previous purchase).

I've had a very strange experience with Merit CS. It's worked out in my favour but a bit odd.

As I mentioned last week I bought 2 new lipsticks that were just launched. Because I'm an idiot I forgot I'd bought the Merit Xmas set on sale which has one of the shades in it I purchased.

I emailed as soon as I realised to see if I could swap the shade but by the time they responded it was already shipped. So when it arrived the other day I put in a return request. Overnight yesterday they responded (think CS must be US based) and refunded me for the shade I wanted to keep.

So I emailed again saying thanks for refunding but it's the other one I want to return and where do I send it? Just had another response to say it's fine, please keep it as a gesture of goodwill as it's used - it's not used, I never took it out of the box.

Nice of them but I'm confused why I couldn't just return or even swap for a different colour. Not complaining, it's a good outcome for me but perhaps they can't deal with UK returns. They obviously have a distribution warehouse here because of the speed stuff ships but maybe that's all it is and it can't process stuff being sent back.

@OvaHere - some companies won’t let you return make up unless it’s faulty or in sealed packaging. Also I know that some US companies will give refunds if customers don’t like the shade of a particular product regardless of whether it’s been used or not.

Perhaps Merit have a policy of not accepting returns but will refund if a shade doesn’t suit and that’s what they thought you were doing, (and wouldn’t have accepted it back anyway) 🤷‍♀️

Either way it seems like good CS from them.

@OvaHere I agree with @IlovePond, take the win! I’m signed up to VB and have made purchases before so I guess I’ll have to be patient 😴

I take it you ordered Archival then? What was the other shade? I’m eyeing Bespoke.

Yes I think you must be right. Being a US company I expect they view returns differently.

You should try HIldun Beauty. Lipliners and eyeliners cheaper and in my opinion, much less smushy and last longer.

I ordered Gamay as the other one. It's a nice shade. There's a couple of others I like the look of but I'm not totally sold on this formula just yet. I loved their old matte formula.

Going to wear the ones I have for a while before impulsively getting any more. I find I'm getting increasingly picky about how lipsticks feel. Not sure if it's a age thing or that I've been spoiled now with some fantastic ones I never had access to in my younger years.

@user593 BLC6ZB5N9H878 this should be 15% off x

@OvaHere Gamay was the next one I was interested in! I’m worried they both might be too similar to Maxwell though. I just tried their old formula for the first time yesterday as I picked up Classic in the sale. It is very nice, I think they’re both nice in their own ways. The new formula reminds me of the Violette Bisou Balm but less matte, which is another favourite.

Thank you @Twinsandsome but unfortunately (or fortunately!) that code doesn’t work for me.

Classic is my second fave from the discontinued ones. Maison is the top one for me.

I haven't tried Violette. I think my main issue with this new formula compared to the old is that it feels slightly waxy and I'm aware I'm wearing it in a way I didn't get with the previous matte. I also felt with the old formula I could get away with not having lip prep where this one is a bit more unforgiving on dry patches.