Bargain | From Aldi To Harrods

Poundland finds – April 2014

April 23, 2014 by Emma in Poundland Finds 14 Comments

Poundland Finds

I love having a good rummage around Poundland as there’s always something exciting to be found amongst the utter tat. Although I do love their tat too.

I popped in to the King’s Lynn (town centre) Poundland store mid-April and found some brilliant bargains that I had to share with you.

First up in pole position is this Carmex lipbalm in a stick! I have a bit of an addiction to Carmex stick balms, but they’re a massive £3.25 each in Boots. I tend to stock up whilst we’re in America for $1 each, but finding them in the UK for £1 each is amazing.

Sinful colours nail polishes are fast becoming my new favourites, even over OPI. There’s no chipping and the colour range is fantastic. They sell for £1.99 in Boots, so finding them in Poundland makes them half price.

I really couldn’t resist getting this Sally Hansen magnetic nail colour for £1. You can see the finished results in a photo I tweeted here – bearing in mind I’m not a beauty blogger so I hadn’t tidied them up or sorted my cuticles. The effect was brilliant, I’m very impressed for £1!

Various DVDs for £1 – Russell Kane – Smokescreens & Castles Live is £3.40 on Amazon, Paddy McGuiness Double Play saturday night live tour is £2.98 on Amazon and even Thomas, Percy & The Coal is £2.79.

What do you think of my Poundland finds?

Aldi 69p chocolate bunny

April 14, 2014 by Emma in Bargain 1 Comment

Aldi 69p chocolate bunny 1

Easter is around the corner, so I’ve been working very hard for you, my lovely readers, and I’ve been testing out Easter chocolate. I know, it’s been a real struggle to help you all out, but it has been a sacrifice I’ve been willing to make.

A few weeks ago, I spotted these great chocolate bunnies in Aldi for 99p and I tried out the white one. Well move over Tony, I’ve found a new love of my life. And even better, they’re now on sale for just 69p, nationwide! They’re available in white, milk and dark chocolate – I’ve tried the white and milk chocolate, and whilst they aren’t Lindt bunnies, they’re pretty darn close. And a 100g Lindt bunny will set you back £2.50 – the Aldi bunny is 120g. You still get your foil wrapped bunny, complete with a bow around the neck.

Aldi 69p chocolate bunny

You’d think a cheap bunny would use very little chocolate, but the chocolate is pretty thick, especially around the ears and the bottom. And did I mention it is delicious? We’ve bought 10 since seeing them in store a few weeks ago, and we’ll be stocking up again this week before they’re out of stock for Easter.

Reverse washing your hair – thick hair edition

April 12, 2014 by Emma in Bargain 6 Comments

REVERSE HAIR WASHING

I have long, thick hair that often gets weighed down and I suffer from product build up, often resorting to using bicarb to eliminate my greasy hair. I also straighten my hair with GHDs 95% of the time, which means the ends are always in need of conditioning. The condition of my hair is better since investing in a GHD air hair dryer, but I’m always looking for thrifty ways to improve my hair. I have to wash my hair every two days without fail, and sometimes i have to rely on Batiste dry shampoo to make it through the second day.

You’ve probably seen talk of reverse washing your hair all over the internet and social media these past few weeks, and most of the articles I’ve read mention that it is great for fine hair. Of course, my hair is anything but fine. I once made the mistake of buying shampoo for fine hair because it had pink sparkles in, but it did not do good things to my hair. The idea behind reverse hair washing is to use conditioner first (applied to wet hair), leave it on as long as you normally would condition, rinse with water and then use shampoo. So exactly the opposite of how you would normally wash your hair. And the science bit? Your hair still gets conditioned, but the shampoo leaves your hair extra squeaky and removes the residue left behind by the conditioner, making it lighter, easier to manage and gives you more volume. I’m definitely not in need of more volume, so I was slightly skeptical, but I had nothing to lose.

I washed my hair on Wednesday morning. I was working from home, so I thought if it turned out horrific I could just jump in the shower again and forget this whole nonsense. I don’t want to get preachy about this, but even in the shower I noticed a difference. I needed a lot less shampoo to get a lather going, and my hair was lighter. Drying it took a few less minutes than normal, which is always a bonus, and once straightened, it looked great! It felt soft and manageable. And definitely no added volume, phew.

An added bonus was that my hair didn’t need washing again until Saturday, without the use of Batiste! That’s a whole extra day without washing my hair, whereas before, I was relying on Batiste to get me through my second day. Well I am converted!

Does it still work the second time? It did for me. Again, my hair is soft, doesn’t feel weighed down and dried quicker than normal. This is definitely a keeper to my beauty regime, and even better, it’s free!

Love you hair? You might also like the 99p shampoo that leaves hair soft or how you can have your hair done for free or cheap.

So have you tried reverse washing? I’d love to know how you found it.

beauty

Paid to buy yoghurt

April 7, 2014 by Emma in Bargain 1 Comment

We’ve just got back from our little trip to the Co-Op. A 3 minute walk at 7-7.30pm guarantees us something for 10p from their reduced shelf. But tonight was a whole other league.

Tony picked up a couple of reduced yoghurts and we grabbed a 10p loaf of bread, only for them to scan at -6p as a total. Some quick maths made me realise that the yoghurts were on a multi buy offer, meaning they were usually 68p each, or buy two for £1. Each one was reduced to 10p, so for every two we bought for 20p, the till was refunding us 36p – 16p profit.

Well you know what happened next! We raced back to the reduced shelf and cleared all the yoghurts in multiples of two. We bought 22 in the end which meant we were owed £1.76. The store couldn’t give us the money, so we used it to buy some cereal alongside 10p pancakes, muffins and bread. There was a hairy moment when the checkout assistant called a supervisor over, but she said as long as the store didn’t owe us money, it was okay.

Now….what can we do with 22 pots of yoghurt?

Aldi’s Lacura skin care and beauty products

March 17, 2014 by Emma in Bargain 3 Comments

ALDI SKINCARE

With a blog name like mine, you’ll understand that I’m a big fan of Aldi. An Aldi opened in Ely in March last year, so now it is even easier to shop there. Their skin care and beauty products have a great reputation, so I was thrilled when they got in touch to ask if I’d like to test out some products.

I was sent the Lacura Anti-fatigue face mask, Lacura Nutri Build-up face mask (both £3.99), Lacura CC cream (4.99) and the Lacura Body Butter in Coconut (£1.99). The packaging of these products is nice – it certainly doesn’t scream “budget brand” to me, and I’d love to receive these. I decided to try the anti-fatigue face mask first – it promises to deliver intensive moisturising treatment which counteracts the signs of tiredness, refreshes the skin and gives a bright and radiant complexion. The past two weeks have really taken their toll on me with lots of stress and very little sleep, so this was the ideal time to give it a try. I’ve also been suffering with flaky skin on my face for about 2 months now, so I was attracted to the moisturising features of this.

The Lacura Anti-fatigue face mask smells divine – very fruity and I had to resist tasting it. You apply it using a brush and it glides on easily – you can apply it as thickly as you want. It doesn’t dry on the skin and doesn’t get crusty, it’s more like a thick moisturiser that the skin doesn’t soak up. After 10 minutes, I rinsed it off using warm water and a face cloth, and my skin felt soft and most importantly to me, moisturised!

The CC cream promises to banish dull, red and sallow skin. It’s a little too dark for me (MAC NW20), but mixed in with some moisrusier to lighten it, it looks great. It provides good coverage as a base for my foundation – I’ve used it for 4 days now and I’m looking forward to seeing more changes to my skin.

The coconut body butter is absolutely divine – I’m a sucker for anything coconut scented, and this is a luxurious body butter without the hefty price tag. I’m looking forward to writing a post comparing this body butter to The Body Shop’s famous body butter – I really do love it. My elbows are particularly dry and after two uses of this body butter, they were fine. The body butter is also available in shea butter and raspberry – I’ll be picking up the shea butter one with this week’s shopping.

All these products will be available in Aldi stores now – great for Mother’s Day presents.

Have you used Aldi’s skincare? What do you think?