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

[OvaHere]

New thread because we can't stop chit-chatting and failing our low buy resolutions.

Everyone welcome to join in, new and old alike. This thread is a bad influence zone though so be warned all who enter! 😂

How odd that the Boots skincare a/c is still/back in stock. Maybe they found a whole lot of extra stock at the back of a cupboard somewhere!

My friend got it for Xmas for £56 when they had 20% off and really liked it.

I can’t believe they are still selling it at full price.

Could you have a lucky dip of your stash? Or sell some on Vinted? I've been getting dopamine hits seeing my Vinted balance go up (I've made over £200 in the last 10 days). It's addictive and helping to reduce my stash.

Also - more Mothers Day and Spring edits should be landing soon 🌷

As a distraction from buying stuff, what are people’s favourite and/or spectacularly bargainous edits/beauty boxes/freebies from days gone by?

I’ll start:

Boots: I got a EL Bronze Goddess bronzer, Origins moisturiser and something else as a GWP with a really quite small beauty purchase a few years ago. They had a couple of options available and I ended up with two different freebies.

Also from Boots: I got a huge summer edit box crammed with goodies, free with - I think - a £30 purchase of beauty products a couple of years ago. Probably the best freebie ever. (I am assuming they had thousands to shift and needed them gone!)

M&S: Last year’s summer beauty bag was good, (I bought two), but the one from - I think - the year before was even better!

The current year ASOS a/c I got in a time-limited BF deal for £46.50 - I think it was 2022 or thereabouts. It was one of those two hour window things and I just happened to see it. Great a/c too. Unbelievably, I got buyer’s remorse and tried to cancel the order 🙈Fortunately, they ignored me 🤣

Rituals: The premium a/c I picked up for £45 from Bicester Village.

I have failed to get any real bargains in the 25/26 season, (although, tbf, that Tocobo deal from Boots clearance the other day was a rare good find!)

Selling is a good suggestion! I need to look at what to get shifted and what to charge.

The La Mer lip balm is not my preferred type, but seems omnipresent on Vinted. I could probably use the AB Eye Cream, but am wading through that once-only Liberty Eye Patch which never went into production. It’s a big pot which feels bottomless!

I’ll have a think!

Agreed - i'd buy it if it was reduced to 56 again

I sold my La Mer lil balm for a ludicrously low price on eBay @TragicMuse but I didn’t much care as it was useless to me!

Ditto the Paula’s Choice

I have also sold a couple of the CB fragrance stocking perfumes for peanuts - again, why not, as they were no good to me and it made me feel a bit better!

I bought a Fwee lip gloss from Amazon the other day - £11, next day delivery, doesn't take up much room and it's so cute it just brightens up my day, that worked as a good guilt free dopamine hit for me

@TragicMuse - One of my motivations to sell was doing a Caroline Hirons skincare questionnaire to see what products are recommended for my 59 year old face. The AB eye cream only got a 50% suitability rating (too rich for my thinning skin) - same with the Dermalogica products I had (too harsh).

I ended up with 2 Liberty AC's (I purchased one and one was gifted) so I sold the unopened AB cream for £50. The Dermalogica has also sold well. Nip+ Fab products didn't rate highly on the suitability scale either, so my £10-Tuesday deals have been sold. I've also done a couple of little bundles of minis which have sold.

I'm starting on my unwanted wardrobe items next 😊

I love the Fwee lip products that I got in Korea @namechange0998776554799000 - they are so cute and I agree - they really cheer me up when I see them on the shelf each day!

Good idea @TragicMuse

Hi, how do you access to this questionnaire where they review/ recommend other brands for you particular skin? I've only seen the one for Skin Rocks products. This sounds great and could save me loads of money

@IlovePond my very favourite edit was probably the one that started my beauty edit journey. It was a CB Summer Fridays edit back in the days where they sold out in a couple of hours and I managed to grab one. I couldn't believe what a bargain it was.

I've loved everything from it and bar a small retinol sample it was all full sizes. I've just last week opened the last product from it which is the Rich cushion cream, another really nice product.

Not sure if it's a case of rose tinted glasses but CB edits mostly don't seem as wow as they once were. Although I loved the blush edit they did last year. Probably a good thing that I'm able to pass on a lot of them now.

Ah, It didn't really recommend other brands, sorry - I did the questionnaire and then used the Skin Rocks App to look at the products I have and that gave me a rating based on the questionnaire

I do like Summer Fridays stuff @OvaHere

Ah thanks - I get it now.

The first few Cohorted subscription boxes I got about three years ago were brilliant. It was £40 a month and there was a Kate Somerville one which had a full size goats milk cleanser, full size goats milk moisturiser and another product in, plus lots of sample sachets and perfume samples, plus some sweets. There was a Murad one a couple of months after that which was great, plus a Living Proof one with loads of full sizes.

Then they stopped adding free samples, which was good for environmental reasons but made it less fun, and the boxes got less good so I stopped the subscription after a while.

The best bargain I ever got though was a Murad gift set on Amazon prime day - £21 and it had a full size AHA/BHA cleanser, a full size of the purple range moisturiser and a travel size serum.

@TragicMuse -was it you who contacted Kerastase about using the Genesis serum? If so, did they ever respond?

It’s really unclear from the info I have read online, whether they regard the 90ml bottle as lasting six weeks, then you repurchase, or if you are supposed to stop after six weeks/whenever it is used up and then leave it for however long 🤷‍♀️

Looking online, some people seem to use it constantly, others six weeks on/six weeks off.

I threw away the packaging so don’t know if there were clearer instructions on that.
I am finding that putting the serum onto damp hair stops the greasiness. (Using it on dry hair is a no-no for me.)

Thanks

On a related note:

I do feel like I am losing less hair when brushing/combing but can’t say I am seeing more growth, (but I don’t think it claims to do the latter, anyway).

I have switched to using a wide toothed comb instead of my tangle teezeer and combing my hair through in the shower whilst it has conditioner on it. I have no idea if this is a good thing to be doing, but it does seem to be reducing the amount of hair I was Lodi g just trying to comb it through after washing!

They sound really good @CorneliaStreet !

You'll be the end of me @OvaHere . First the Cosmic Brushes, now the Viseart sale... I ended up buying a mini palette, lip gloss and blusher. But even worse, I fell in love with one of the out of stock items and ended up tracking it down and buying at full price. Somebody stop me 😂

That was me @IlovePond, this is what they said:

It’s not recommended to use the serum continuously all year.

Each course lasts around 6 weeks and is best used during periods of hair fall. Once the initial 6 weeks (using daily) is complete then you can have a break, then restart the 6 weeks again or use the serum 1-2 times a week for maintenance.

Most people use it 1–2 times a year, or up to 3–4 times if needed.

If anyone is fancying a bargain VB Orchid eye wardrobe, I've listed mine on vinted. I was messing around with codes and ended up buying an extra one which VB won't take back. Anyway, it's listed if anyone was thinking of getting it and now fancies getting it a bit cheaper 😊

Glad he's doing well 💜

She's recovering in line with where she should be. It's a long recovery time, so it's going to be a while before she can be left on her own. We have our next check in on Friday where hopefully they'll sign her off for longer walks 🤞Thank you for asking 🥰

Ah thanks for that information @namechange0998776554799000 - sorry for mixing you up with @TragicMuse !

That’s useful to know, (and better for my bank balance!)

I reckon I will have a break from hair serums for a few weeks, then go on to the Grow Gorgeous stuff I have in the wings - use that up, (assuming it’s ok), then maybe re-introduce the Kerastase once or twice a week.

I also have the Korean hair growth stuff coming tomorrow so will put that into the rotation after the Grow Gorgeous!

I am also using the Act + Acre shampoo a couple of times a week. Don’t know if it’s doing any good for the money, but overall, my hair does feel a bit stronger.

Glad your pup is doing well too @JoRaRaRa

Btw: Speaking of hair serums.

I have been using new products on the side, under my hair line, for the first couple of uses to check for adverse reactions rather than plastering them on all over. I do find them quite scary, as I don’t want to make things worse 🙀