*: January 2014

I've been obsessed.

I love Lush. But not enough to pay $8-10 for some soap.

I've tried many lush products in the past and in the end didn't find it to be anything special besides just being fun to use.

I still go into Lush occasionally for a browse but have not purchased their stuff regularly anymore.

Now that i've had to cut down on my products and have to be extremely careful of ingredients in the products i use, i don't shop as often for beauty items anymore.

I did check out the Lush Christmas collection early December and wasn't tempted by anything besides their Santa Baby Lip Tint. Having gotten rid of 20+ MAC lipsticks, i felt like i had nothing to put on my lips in the morning! So when i swatched this Lip Tint and found it to be a very rich full pigmented red, i knew i needed to hoard these. I have been loving red lips for a year now! I dab it on so it's not completely in your face bright. The ingredients appear gluten free and have been safe on my lips so far :)

The only downside is that it is very dry. It is almost rough and clumpy when i'm trying to smooth some product out of the tin. However it dabs on the lips fine and spreads easily with some lipbalm on the lips first :)

Also the expiry dates are only for a year long. I purchased 3 when i first spotted them and tried to not go crazy since i knew they would last forever and boxing day will have 50% off all Christmas Lush items.

I did end up going to the city on Boxing Day even though i had no plans to be part of the crowd. So my first priority shop was to Lush! Only one Santa Baby Lip Tint was found on the shelf so i grabbed that instantly. Originally $9.95 so half price was pretty good. I also grabbed one of their lipsticks that come in a dropper style bottle. I have been eyeing their lipsticks FOREVER but cannot justify paying $24.95 on another make up item when i have so much already. I got the shade Strong which is a dark deep orange. I absolutely love orange on my lips. It's like a pin-up red but much more cute :)

And that was all i got. The shelves were all ravaged to the point of almost empty. The line was to the door and the sales assistants were being extremely slow and inefficient. They love to talk and talk and TALK. When the line is out the door and the heat is up to 40 degrees C in there, you would think they would hurry up a bit more? That's the problem i've experienced at Lush. They are lovely but too friendly. There were times i've missed the train because they don't stop talking even when it's to the point where you're feeling awkward now and they need to stop. If i'm looking for something and you're helping me, ok fine. But when i've helped myself and gone to the counter because i want to pay and leave, please just stop :(

I went home with no regrets of not buying anything else from Lush. I didn't even think about it.

A Lush Kiosk opened near where i work and somehow it has tempted me after that. I walked pass during work and had a few looks. And in the end, decided to buy some of the gift sets while they were half off. It's the best time to buy so i needed to take advantage!

It started with one big gift set and a small one.

Then when i went home and got all excited smelling each item and looking at the pretty packaging, i ended up going back the next day at work and got another gift set and some small items.

Also when i notice one gift set being the last one left, i tend to just NEED to buy it.

So through all Boxing Day till this date, i've been popping into lush constantly and buying an item here and there. There isn't much left unfortunately and i feel sad i didn't decide to buy while there was still stock around. Today i did finally make an order from the Lush website which does have SOME stock left that i couldn't find in stores. There's only 3 different gifts sets left and like maybe 2 other single items. Not much at all. :(

I have unboxed a lot of the items that came in gift sets, cling wrapped them and put into my Lush tin anad threw all my extras into a bag.

I've got a whole assortment of stuff so i won't list everything i got.

Products which has stood out to me are, the Mr Punchy Soap. The smell is just so fruity and nice, i bought a few of the gift sets it came in. Keep in mind the 2 item sets were around $6-7 and 3 item sets were $10-13. The most expensive gift set i got was for $31.50 and there was 9 items. Overall i figured they worked out to be around $3.50 each item which is a super good deal!

I also love the Candy Mountain scent. My sister described it as cherry flavoured medicine which isn't very off from what it smells like. The Snow Fairy Massage Bar is the same scent and i was so reluctant to buy these at $5 still after being discounted but when i noticed stock was running low, i did purchase a few here and there. It's so creamy, i just love touching it. They won't last though and are very melty.

I've been told the Valentines' Day collection will be out soon and i have the catalogue with all the products on there. I will definitely be checking it out but probably not purchase anything since i have so much now! Although, if a Valentines' Day sale also happens, i might learn my lesson from this time and quickly snap up all the good stuff first!

I'm a little obsessed but i've been nothing but work work work lately so it actaully feels good to have something to be excited over :)

Ok so i guess i've mention the other things i've purchased during this sale season :)

I've been quite good until this Lush obsession hit. I've only been on one other proper shopping trip.

I purchased a fabulous dress from Myer and of course in one of my favourite brands, Tokito for $45 which isn't too bad. I expected the sales to be much more and the Parramatta Myer sale sections were in such a mess. They threw all the sale clothes on 3 massive racks and after a bunch of browsing, you realise there's only a few styles on there but just all over the place. Things were still not considered cheap to me. There are constantly 30% off sales at Myer and the clothes were only marked down by that much anyways which didn't make anything a 'steal'.

I purchased a wrap bracelet from Fossil. They had half price on certain stock. However it is blended in which normal stock so you won't even notice they were having sales besides one dinky red sign in the corner of the shop somewhere. The bracelet i got turned out to be the last one so i was fine with taking the display since i was going to wear it anyways. However i noticed it was all scratched up and had a massive logo flaw where the metal had a dent. This made is quite upset so i took it to another Fossil store just to change it over to one that was in decent condition. The service was shocking. Not only to me. I noticed it towards other customers as well. 3 staff in the store, yet none can finish serving this one girl waiting to pay and no other customers were needing help besides me just wanting to exchange the bracelet over.

They took forever to get the bracelet out of the case, one girl standing at the case not doing much got annoyed she had to take it out for me, took the faulty bracelet and asked what was wrong with it rudely. When i showed her the obvious faults, she said 'that's what happens when you buy sale items'. Excuse me? Sale items aren't faulty items. And i've been a constant regular to this store and purchasing everything at full price all year round, now to have this kind of treatment makes me extremely turned off the brand. The lady taking 1 hour to process a simple exchange because all 3 staff were incompetent, eventually had to call someone from outside to do it. The girl came in, knew what to do straight away and gave me the new bracelet and let me go. The sad part is that it wasn't their usual staff who would have recognised me, and these 3 random staff seemed like they would have been head office people too because their heads clearly weren't on this planet.

I was going to do a massive order from the Fossil website since none of the sale items are even displayed or available in stores for some reason. However after that day, i don't think i will be buying anymore from Fossil.

My next purchase was at the Chanel counter. I've been needing a new powder to set my make up and i've been loving my Chanel blush so i decided to have a look at what they had. I purchased 2 items from them and the young girl there had the snootiest attitude. She stood on the spot and everytime someone called her over, she would roll her eyes a little and go to them, answer their question and walk off back to her spot. While the other 2 staff were actively helping other customers.

She was the only staff available for us to call over for us to make the purchase and even thinking about it now makes me annoyed at that kind of attitude. We were such an easy sale for her, she made no effect, she even tried to up sell me stuff after i told her what i wanted. To the point where i was going to change my mind because she told me what i'm buying is not for what i plan to use it for...

There's bad staff everywhere. It makes me sad how some much more capable people are more deserving of these jobs yet these kind of people get it instead.

Another thing i got was 2 Avene Body lotion creams for sensitive skin. This has been the best face moisturizer for me now. When my skin is flaring up from allergies and hormones or whatever, this is the most basic and nicest feeling cream for the face. It's also a massive tube so it will last agessss. But when Priceline had 40% off i couldnt resist to not buy 2 back ups :)

My Victoria Secrets order also came. I love their body mists. Everything of theirs just smells heavenly and luxurious! This is going to be one nice smelling year with all my new goodies i think :)