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

[OvaHere]

New thread for everyone. Welcome back and hello to newbies and lurkers.

Advent season has now officially kicked off despite the heatwaves. There's a dedicated thread for advent calendar discussion with spoilers here
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5549187-beauty-fragrance-advent-calendars-infochat-2026-spoilers?page=1

Exactly this 👍🏻

I've stopped adding up how much I'm spending. Some months it's quite a lot, it all depends on new releases. One things for sure though, I'm not buying anything because I actually need it 🙈🤣

As someone who's used both Nivea and la mer, I can confirm that they're definitely not the same. For a long time I could only afford really cheap skincare, now I'm using more luxury products, my skin feels and looks a lot healthier and glowy despite getting older. It's very rare that I actually pay full price for anything, I tend to just buy edits and advent calendars.

I actually just bought the new Nivea body serum today 😅😅😅 I really like the Vaseline one but the tube is big and we’re going on holiday soon so when I saw a small tube of the Nivea half price I grabbed it to make up the £10 I needed to use my Boots recycling voucher. Funny timing, as I don’t normally buy Nivea!

So tried the supergoop in sunrise that came with the orange bag CB edit, I love their mineral sunscreen but did not like this. Though it's pale somehow looked muddy, also very shiny on me and I had some red spots after. However no burning or redness so worked as a sunscreen.
I also tried the Clarins body that came with the Debenhams edit, that I liked, it's quite scented though. It's thick which is good but absorbs really quickly and is matte, again no redness so worked as a sunscreen.

I love some of Beauty Pie's products @CorneliaStreet the mud mask was amazing for example, but the lipstick was such a let down because it came in a plain black case. My head knows it's a good product but my heart, well, it's just not singing.

I’m extremely allergic to Nivea - tried some of the cream as a student and had the most awful reaction. Tried a different Nivea product many, many years later - same result. Whatever awful ingredient was in that original cream is obviously still lurking in today’s incarnations - the smell is the giveaway.

Unfortunately DS2 has acquired a liking for Nivea but I can’t bear seeing it on the counter - it makes my skin itch just looking at it.

I’m all for dupes - but Nivea is NOT a dupe for La Mer!

Well just for fun, Harrods has sent me the GWP rather than the Scent Seeker set!

That's quite an error. Hopefully they'll send you the right one and let you keep the gwp!

I would phone them and hopefully they can get it sorted fast.

I’ve got my Liberty beauty drop . Not too mad with it and quite like the scent . Anyone else ?

Just this minute arrived - and so much better than the last one imo @SunnyPinkMoose!

I have just sprayed the perfume, which seems to be one of their better efforts!

I did a mini splurge on YSL https://www.yslbeauty.co.uk
as I needed to replace my empty bottle of Libre & decided to get a Lash Clash mascara too.

If you spend over £60 & use the code SUMMER you get a free YSL Marrakesh Neroli candle & if you spend over £110 & used the code MYGIFT you get to choose 3 mini items.
Both codes stack plus you get your 2 samples too.

So I've got a free posh candle, make up bag, mini love shine balm, 7.5ml Y Ice plus samples of Myself EDP & Libre EDP coming with my perfume & mascara.

Just got to get my parcel past the parcel police (my child) when it comes as she's like "what else have you ordered???" forgetting that she's just as bad 😂

I'm quite pleased. Like the perfume, will try the superdrops and the shampoo, conditioner and AB will come on holiday with me.
The lip liner is a nice treat and is £30rrp

I put all the perfumes plus a couple of other things I didn't want from the H beauty event on Vinted last night and I've made back almost half the money I spent. What a result!

Next time, I'm buying a lipstick, taking 5 items for recycling and selling the perfumes - I'll be in profit 😆

Will you message me with how much you listed them for please? I'm just listing mine now and no idea what to ask for 🙈 I've just listed the 3 red lipsticks from the mystery bag. Not heard a thing from Harrods about my complaint 😐

@JoRaRaRa will do. I think I'm cheap, but they sold really quickly.

Oh no, hopefully they will send scent seeker and let you keep the GWP, as the GWP didn't stack with the scent seeker so it wasn't possible to get both together (unless you bought something else).

I bought nothing else! I haven’t actually shopped at Harrods in a good few years. I’ve spoken to someone on WhatsApp and sent them all the photos so they’re going to follow up internally and get back to me.

Fingers crossed - that’s what I’m hoping too! I’m going on holiday on Friday so I don’t have a lot of time to sort this out!

@user593 @JoRaRaRa I hope Harrods customer service comes through and sorts both your issues out.

Has anyone tried the new Violette FR plume blushes? I am tempted to pick one up on the makeup day at Liberty but struggling to find reviews that are not the usual influencers etc.

@Fillybuster there is some weeks that I just apply new on top of old but generally I find out messy and rather start fresh. I’ve started using the new bellaminata oil tan which is none transfer and it honestly is non transfer. The Sisley face tan didn’t have too big of colour payoff but the sachet had enough for 2 uses so I put it on again today. The texture is just so so lovely so can’t wait to see if a second layer makes a bigger difference to colour x

Cult Beauty are doing 25% off skincare for Gold level members, so I got my Westman atelier there, skin activator and eye activator. The pore refining serum is a new product so the cult beauty discounts don’t apply, so I got that from Liberty with the 20% off discount. Annoyingly the Lisa Eldridge cleanser isn’t appearing as 20% off even though it’s skincare, and I didn’t buy reome broth as I’ve now got so much Westman atelier stuff to get through, plus lots of serums from the cult beauty advent calendar.

i would love to buy the roller ball skin activator which is only stocked at Liberty, but don’t want to buy two of the same very expensive serums.

couldn’t steal myself to buy the Westman atelier vitamin c at £225! But I have lots of brightening stuff to get through especially with the full size Liberty drop item today.

I used a £10 voucher converted from points at cult beauty, and a beauty drop credit and loyalty voucher for Liberty’s only ended up paying £18 for the WA pore refining serum.

what else… I really don’t like the soap and glory stuff I bought, but I have a feeling I mentioned that already?

after saying about refills last week, I had a look at what cult beauty had refill bags of. I bought the Joonbyrd body wash refill duo, and joonbyrd moisturiser refill duo, instead of my usual Ouai st Bart’s. You get the bottle and a bag and I used cbxbeautycalendar for 20% off so a great price. I am really happy with the products. Only need a tiny bit of the shower gel it really foams up even in hard water London. The moisturiser goes far too and my skin looks great. Like that smooth healthy sheen. Another brand that I thought was gimmicky. I am all for refill bags.

https://www.cultbeauty.co.uk/p/joonbyrd-little-love-body-lotion-refill-duo/17799406/

https://www.cultbeauty.co.uk/p/joonbyrd-moon-swim-body-wash-refill-duo/17799407/

@BakeOffRewatch im really interested in the Westman Atelia skincare. I popped to Liberty yo try the foundation stick and the products used to prep my skin were lovely. I was in a rush and forgot to ask the details so need to go back.
Glad you managed to get your items on 25% off 😊

I’m wondering about using the beauty drop week hair care to get some new shampoo and conditioner, any recommendations for fine, ageing hair please? Not Oribe as can’t stretch to that. Currently use Aveda but bit sick of it and doesn’t seem to be doing much. Also have rosemary from Style Korean but not keen on the smell! Thanks

I've just received an email to say that the Look Fantastic The Pro-Aging set is now available to buy for £45 on early access 🎀
The Pro-Ageing Edit (Worth £224)
https://www.lookfantastic.com/p/beauty-box/the-pro-ageing-edit-worth-224/17691470/