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

I've been real life shopping today with DS. Had a lovely day with lunch but have done some damage. More clothes than anything else but I did buy the Prequel Gleanser in SNK and a really pretty hair clip from their summer society range. I had a £10 voucher towards them so not too bad.

I tried the Refy blush in Apricot which swatched really nicely but I refrained for now.

I was hoping to try shade matching the YSL cushion foundation but it's not going into the stores until mid August.

We spent quite a bit of time hunting down as many of the non Harrods exclusive fragrances from the advent as possible. We both liked Oud for Greatness but DS more than me.

Thameen Patalia is nice but I felt like I had to spray a lot to even smell it. It does sort of develop over time, not sure if that's a me thing. There's something in MFK Baccarat Rouge that means I can barely smell it so this could be the same.

Unsure about the Delina Exclusif. I have a 5ml somewhere so I need to try it properly but feel like I prefer the original.

I forgot to try hunting down the Memo one. Not sure if that's only sold in Selfridges as I didn't happen upon it in HN or JL.

Tried Dior Paradise again. Wish that was in a BAC!

The new FdB Lucius Maximus is lovely. I wasn't keen on the OG version from last years HN calendar but this I would wear. DS loved it too, think he was angling after it going on his Xmas list. I think not at £320. 😂

Finally, and I'd like a round of applause for this one. I found a singular full sized AB The Serum on the sale table reduced down to £217...and I walked away and left it there!!! 😵

Partly due to the 'are you insane?' look that DS gave me for considering it. Also I still have my stash of the FtF bargain MZ serum which I prefer anyway. It was a tough call though. 😂

That’s great value @LouScot

I have done some damage in Covent Garden at the Ordinary store and the Rituals store. Also Waterstones 😀

@OvaHere I think it was for the best that you walked away from the ab serum, you could buy nearly a full AC for that and get a few more to try 😊

Someone on insta said that the memo one was an Harrods exclusive. I know the btso and the Brompton immortals are, they said there's 6 of them, which other ones are exclusives?

Did you smell the jeroboam? That's the one that intrigues me the most. I'm not sure it'll be my favourite though.

I also went to the John Lewis event and had lots of fun, picked up lots of perfume samples and looking forward to trying the New Note ones and played a few games. I headed straight to Decypher first and got colour matched so looking forward to trying that tomorrow.
I also went to Liberty and got the Grown Alchemist gift with purchase and tested a few fragrances from the scent edit.

No, I didn't see that brand. I could have just missed them though. Are they sold through HN or JL? Annoying if I missed it as that's one I think I could really like.

I'm surprised people have managed to get the GA gwp seeing as they only had 20. Maybe only MN beauty threads members even noticed it was an offer? 😂

@LouScot is there a code for this? I don’t have the offer in my app but the beauty boxes have the offer icon next to them. I haven’t bought beauty boxes before.

There’s no way they only had 20. There were 20 people at least in the morning

Jarrolds have a beauty edit for £55, or £46.75 for loyalty members. It's not as good as last years Lemon Drop edit though 🙁

https://www.jarrolds.co.uk/departments/beauty/gwps/ready-steady-glow-beauty-bag

I think HN sells it, I'm not sure about JL though. I don't think the calendar is bad, I think it's good actually, the value is still insane, but last year's was phenomenal so I think it's raised the expectation. I think even those who are disappointed with it will still buy it if they can.

Thanks @keepincool . It’s nice but I think I’m safe. Apart from the perfume I think I have everything else in my stash or know I don’t like it. I’m actually quite glad it’s not for me as I really want to put my beauty spending in hold until the advents are released.

Not drawn to this one. Good job really after my trip out to the shops.

It was in my card offers, so I don't know if there's an individual code as such, sorry

It’s not in my advantage card offers, but as I have bought the box before, that’s very reasonable 😀

I'm not tempted either. I purchased the FtF summer saviours edit today, so had my fix.

I looooove the gleanser, I know this sounds normal but it isn't for me - it doesn't make my skin red at all! It feels lovely and hydrating and just pleasant to use, I hope you love it too 🙌 I only use about half a pump at a time so it'll last yonks

I like glycerin cleansers in the AM for the same reason. Beauty Pie do a good one. I don't mind something a bit harsher on an evening as my skin settles overnight but I don't want redness in the morning.

I quite like the sound of the new MediK8 cleanser with probiotics too.

Oooooooh. I’ve been using my horse one almost daily and it hardly shows any change. I wonder if they’ll do a special case like the horse that I had the fox put into. I like all the eye colours as well.

I may or may not have hidden my goodie bag and purchases in the landing cupboard… remind me to get them out tomorrow when DH is at the gym 😀

I went to the 4pm JL event today - gosh it was hot. The queues for some stalls were massive!

I missed the Brow/Blink stall - I went back to it just before closing but the woman wouldn’t give me a sample of whatever they were dishing out, because they were ‘closed’, which I thought was rude as the event hadn’t actually ended. Ditto the free drink, which also closed early. By contrast, the Killian people were lovely and were still giving out cocktails and samples as we were being herded out the door 😹

I skipped Dyson as I don’t even own a hairdryer and missed Sculpted by Aimee and Dcypher due to the queues.

I think I visited everything else. I am a complete sucker for games so enjoyed them all. I won products on the CT and the Chantecaille spin to win. I’m glad I went to Neom first, as the little cloth bag with gift they gave out came in handy for storing all the samples.

Given my dislike of niche perfumes, I was surprised to really like Angel’s Share by Killian. Staff there were very nice.

The guys on the New Notes stall were lovely - the founder was there. I wish he’d been the one to talk to me as he was giving out handfuls of samples! The only trouble was that they kept talking to and spraying each person for ages, which meant the queue was very long. I liked some of those perfumes too, particularly the orange one - mandarina?

I also liked one of the perfumes on the Chloe Atelier stall -the lady there was nice too and left me have two samples of it.

I’ve just been to the theatre, (went there afterwards via a quick meal in Chinatown). Still not back yet, so will have a proper look at what I got from the event when I get home.

That was my session too @IlovePond 🙂

I didn’t go to Dyson, new notes, blink brow, dermatologica or dcypher. I think i went everywhere else, apart from the licorice balls as I wouldn’t have gone there if it was the last stall on earth ( what a random addition!)

ETA what did you see at the theatre?

@IlovePond 100% agree the lady at Chloe Atelier was lovely, I had a proper fragrance nerd convo with her and then ruined it all when she asked what I was doing for the rest of the day and I said I was going to Liberty beauty hall 😂

@SheilaFentiman oh I wondered what the balls were! I hate liquorice so glad I didn't bother 😅

@SheilaFentiman - I missed the liquorice balls! I did think it was odd that JL had also lugged sofas, quilts, rugs and a bed down there for no apparent reason!

I wonder if we saw each other without realising! We need a MN hand signal or a secret password so that we can recognise each other in the wild!

Adult DS1 and I went to see Beetlejuice as his extremely belated birthday present. It was interesting - very lively. He really enjoyed it, which was the point really and I haven’t been to the theatre since before Covid so it was nice to go again.

It is absolutely NOT suitable for young children, imo. There were some children in the audience, though and I hope all the sexual innuendo, highly sexual actions and some of the more crude jokes went over their heads! DS says I have just become prudish in my old age, though 😹