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

@Thelifeofawife
I was going to order 2 but watched some youtube vids and they all got the same whether ordering 1 or 2. X

I don't want to start any bad feeling etc, but my argument is that I don't see the point in buying it if you know you won't/can't use it. I know sometimes edits are just incredible value (as seems to have been the case with the CB x Sali Hughes) and I get it, but I've been buying these for years now so have got a bit more conscious of the waste and environmental concerns etc; even if it's financially a bargain there is another cost.

On a lighter note, Kiehls Ultra Facial cream is an excellent light moisturiser but it is a bit spendy. I find Aveeno calm and restore good too. It's not in the same league, but it is great for the price. For a dry face my holy grail is Biossance squalane + vit C rose oil topped with Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask, so perhaps consider an oil rather than a serum temporarily? Squalane is in the Kiehls cream too so maybe that's the secret.

I find it so misleading, they clearly only had one set of items that they wanted rid of as we all got the same, and no one had the pink variation.
I feel a bit stung but ultimately mystery bags are always a risk. I just need to stop getting so carried away 🙈😅

All this talk of swapping/sharing bits and pieces has reminded me that I’ve been a bit rude….i can’t remember if it was @TragicMuse or @MrsBnow12 who kindly offered to swap a mini of EA Green Tea for something a while back, and I realised I never replied 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ Either way, thank you so much for the kind offer 🙏💜

It’s unnecessary because a) I only wear it for gym/wfh spritzing when I don’t want to use anything spendier and b) (more importantly!) I have an enormous bottle of EA White Tea waiting in the backup stash to take its place once I eventually get through the current huge bottle!!! But I did mean to reply 😵‍💫

Thank you for the recommendations. I also react to rose oil, I'm fine with rose water. I think it's been my cleanser that has stripped my skin, so I just need a more hydrating moisturiser. I do have plenty in my stash so I'm going to try the sulwhasoo first and of course switch my cleanser. I'll try some oil tonight 😊

I also like the Kiehls Ultra Moisturiser a lot. The small tubs were in £10 Tuesday a while ago. If they reappear I’ll definitely get a couple more as I’ve already used up one of the two I bought.

I can’t remember who I was talking to about dark circles, might have been @Fillybuster
mine are awful (recent bereavement of a dear friend). Any recommendations.

I’m selling my SR on vinted too Using everything else but as pp would rather than have it languish in a drawer.

I've got a Zephrine I don't want from liberty I'd swap for a maze and you can have my mini adephi too from the box. Got quite a few around this size but I've managed to misplace a box of them. Commodity juice, santal beauty bibbi and jo loves amber lime bergamot. All tested once.

Sorry for your loss 💐I find the Beauty of Joseon eye masks really help brighten up my under eye area. They’re good value too.

@SummerLimesIm sorry for the loss of your friend.
i have been using tThe Ordinary Caffeine eye serum for about 6 weeks now and I find it helps my dark circlles. It works better for me than sone of the other pricier eye serums I have used.
For concealer/corrector product, I like Charlotte Tilbury Magic Vanish - it’s quite thick so I know it wouldn’t be for everyone. I also have Erborian CC Eye which is good too, but I find the CT easier to apply and blend in.

https://www.spacenk.com/uk/skincare/eyecare/eye-treatment/caffeine-solution-5-egcg-UK200029803.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=snk-uk-search&utm_term=alwayson-all-nb&utm_content=theordinary-designer-static&src=ppc&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20086701104&gclid=CjwKCAjw1IHTBhAaEiwA4AYNFu7uRNcFzTZeOLSV35Vvi7UjNJu10VROBMVKN9c4fnHcaS_DNRch_BoCL1UQAvD_BwE

Sorry for your loss @SummerLimes

I like the Numbuzin eye masks.

Sorry for your loss SummerLimes

Hooper’s in Tunbridge Wells had Thameen perfume reduced in the sale yesterday. They also had quite a lot of skincare and make up reduced and even one of the CD Xmas gold bags!

Oh @SummerLimes I’m so sorry 💔 Let’s focus on the dark circles, because we can do something to help with those…

MZ Skin eye brightening cream (bought 3 weeks ago at TKMaxx) is doing a fab job of making mine look better in the mornings.

The BoJ retinol and ginseng isn’t magic, but after 2 months or so of using it every night I think it’s pretty good esp for the price.

The Decree eye masks are great for a pick me up. And I also quite like the Ordinary caffeine serum. The Inky List have a good (cheap) caffeine eye cream that I sometimes use for a boost during the day.

From a makeup pov, I’m quite impressed by IT cosmetics under eye concealer, which has good shades (well, for me, anyway) and doesn’t seem too claggy.

@SummerLimes sorry to hear about your loss. Do you have the Caudalie Premier Cru eye cream in your stash? I think it was in last year's SNK advent. I just started using that recently and love it. Not sure whether it helps with brightening but the metal applicator is very cooling so I think good for puffiness.

The Tatcha brightening cream seems good. I've only tried a small sample but I'm hoping it might make an advent appearance this year.

Thank you, yes, i have maze word of warning it's unused but looks only 90% full. Mustn't have filled it up to the normal fill level. Happy to swap if you are ok with that! Will pm u.

After buying ilia yesterday via shop pay I've had no confirmation from ilia, although the transaction is confirmed on shop pay. Can't check if money has actually been taken as my credit card provider is v slow to update my account sometimes by 3-4 days! Hope it's just slow to process and is in the queue at Ilia but I don't like not getting at least an email conf.

Can anyone who has the liberty frag kit and tried pearl of dawn tell me what it is like? Sounds gourmand-y from fragrantica profile which im not really on the look out for this time of year.

I still have a vine theif to swap for adelphi or wild rosinda if anyone is interested!

@IDontHateRainbows That’s strange, I got my email confirmations pretty much immediately. Could there have been a typo in the email address? Or spam?

I'm a bit rubbish at describing scent but I'll try. It's a fruity, floral sort of scent but I get a hint of almost a fresh tobacco at the back of it. It's got quite a powdery dry down. I like it as I dont find it as fruity as the mango skin from the same kit.

Thay sounds worth trying, I like the challenge of a tobacco note! You are better at describing them than me.

I've checked all mail folders, but i remember having this problem with notino when I use that particular email it just filters it out bizzarely whereas my other email address is fine. So maybe same problem. Will trust it's on its way. I have it recorded in my shop pay account anyway.

Thank you, although you may well find it smells nothing like my description when you try it. 😅 I find trying to describe smells almost as challenging as trying to describe a colour. I'd love to be one of those people that can pick apart the different notes in a scent. This is my excuse for my rapidly expanding collection, it's all homework for developing my nose 😂

Much love to you, I’m sorry for your loss ❤️

My CB edit arrived today. I am really pleased with it 😊