The January sales phenomenon

Good morning! It's a relief to get to the end of the first week of the year, and enjoy a relaxing January weekend. At the moment it's hard to get away from the word 'sale', Debenhams plaster their 'Blue cross sale' over every media, Boots slash their gifts to 50% off (and in some years even 75%) and Accessorize are even offering an amazing 70% off lots of their stock.

This crazy 'January sales phenomenon' got me thinking. It's actually bizarre when you think about it, we spend lots of money in December, finding over priced presents for our loved ones, then come midnight Christmas Day, emails fly into your inbox informing you of sales on at every retailer. All the presents you have bought have been slashed in price, and even Next opened at 5am Boxing day last year, so if you really hated all your Christmas presents you could go and bag yourself a bargain then.

It does seem madness, that after all the spending in the run up to Christmas, the January sales are such a big deal in the UK. I can, however, confirm that this year, in my local town, the sales have been disappointing to say the least. Most of the stuff that is in the sale is old season stuff that no one wanted then, and I suspect no one will want now. If they can't shift this stuff, why don't the stores send it all to charity?

Anyway, I digress. I did actually pick one thing up in the sales. And what a bargain it was. And yes I did really need it. I am lucky enough to work within walking distance to the town centre, and often pop in to Debenhams, just to ensure I am not missing out on a bargain or three, and this week, guess what I found:

This beautiful box of Lancome goodies which I scooped up for just £20!!! And as justification for spending money in January after the excesses of Christmas, I had £5 on my beauty card, and a £15 Debenhams voucher my sister in law gave me for Christmas!! And I was going to buy the Bi Facil eye make-up remover anyway, so everyone's a winner!

So what exactly is in the box?

• 125ml Bi Facil
• 125ml Cleansing fluid
• 125ml toner
• 7ml Genifique
• 15ml Genefique repair
• 15ml lifting cream
• 7ml juicy tubes
• 2ml hypnose mascara
• 100ml hand cream

Some of these items are old favourites, and some I have never tried before, so was very excited, and I can never resist beauty boxes like this packaged so beautifully!

Unfortunately I cannot find this set online, but they do have a Lancome sale online which is worth a look at.

What have you found in the January sales? Picked up any absolute bargains? There are not a lot of bargains to be had, but it pays to keep looking and keep your eyes peeled.

Enjoy your weekend and stay beautiful.

Stace x

Winter Saviours

Evening all!

It's the first week back to work/school/uni for many, hope you're all staying positive about the year ahead, and that to do lists haven't got to big over Christmas.

The weather this week in England has been horrible, wind so bad you cannot walk in it, down pours, (especially when you are trying to dash out at lunch!) and today it has been freezing. It got me to thinking about a few new products I have added to my daily routine to help combat the Winter weather conditions, my 'Winter Saviours'.

The first is Aussie's 'Luscious long leave-in conditioner.' Currently just £3.49 for 250ml in Superdrug, and today I noticed in Boots Aussie products were 3 for £10, so if like me Aussie makes up your whole hair routine, Boots is the place to go! (No link as their website is down until the 6th January)

I have never been fond of the idea of putting something in my hair and just leaving it there, but just before Christmas my hair was not feeling the best. It was very dry due to home dying for 15 years and now salon dying, I love long hair so the scissors only frequent my hair twice a year, and the hair straighteners, hair dryer and central heating have turned my hair into a frizzy mess, so I thought I would give this a go, the back of the bottle describes me perfectly 'You flick it. You swing it. You twiddle it relentlessly round your finger...' Guilty as charged.

Very easy to use, you just spray this through damp hair, and then comb it through right to the ends. And as the bottle advise 'don't even think about rinsing out.' You've got to love Aussie.

The scent of the spray is not only apparent on first application, but I can smell it in my hair once it has dried, it's a really pleasant clean smell. The spray has helped to detangle my extremely knotty hair, makes styling in the morning easier and quicker, and as I rake my fingers through my hair now, I can feel a new level of softness. In love with this product right now.

Next we move onto lip care. Now I'm a lip gloss girl by day, but I was starting to find dry lips meant that applying lip gloss was becoming impossible. In my stocking for Christmas, my wonderful husband bought me a Vaseline set. As this was a present I don't know how much the set was, but Vaseline retails for £1-£2.

The Aloe Vera flavour is particularly moisturising and I have added this to my 'before bed' routine, ensuring I wake with super smooth lips, ready for my lip gloss to sweep straight on!

And last but not least is the hands. Just before Christmas I noticed my hands were in an awful state. Really dried out, despite wearing gloves every time I venture outside (I blame too much washing up!). This was not a good look for the party season when I wanted to show off my nails, jewellery etc. So I turned to an old trusted friend, Neutrogena Norwegian Formula concentrated hand cream. This retails for around £3.50 and I picked this up from Superdrug

Yes it is greasy, I know a lot of people say that, but I only use this hand cream at night, so it doesn't matter that my hands are covered in it. I also disagree with the 'just a dab needed' strap line, as I like to really work it in between my fingers. But it really does work miracles. My hands are now super soft, and with hands being one of the main things that give away our age, I am working on making mine look 21 right now!!

So those are the products I am using to help avail the Winter conditions. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this post, do you have any Winter Saviours you would like to share with us?

Mags is back from Christmas break and will hopefully be blogging again soon so watch this space!

Stay Beautiful!

Stace x

A look forward to the year ahead...

We want to wish all our readers a big
Happy New Year!
Hopefully you saw 2012 in in style, doing whatever makes you happy.

I love the New Year. Taking down the Christmas decorations means a chance to really clean up and sort things out, starting the new year in a positive way, writing in your new (mine is Cath Kidston this year) diary is like starting a blank page, looking forward to the year ahead. The time off for Christmas makes us reflect on our lifes, appreciate our loved ones, and make 'resolutions' for the New Year ahead. I say 'resolutions' in inverted commas, because I do not believe January to be the best time to make strict resolutions. I for one still have a lot of food left from Christmas, so a big diet will be out of the question (not to mention miserable!) and with the January weather being quite depressing, any mention of giving up red wine, cutting down on spending money on beauty products, or getting outside to train for a marathon will be the furthest thing from my mind. Instead, I like to think about what I hope the year ahead will bring, and specifically some resolutions I have for this blog.

Mags and I started 'Beautiful You' in 2009 as an outlet for our favourite subject, beauty products. Rather than bore fellow work mates, we decided to make our own space on the web for whatever we wanted to talk about. It wasn't until last year when we started to actively promote the blog on Twitter we realised how big and how wonderful the beauty blogging community is, and we have been overwhelmed by the kind advice and support we have received, as well as the encouragement and most importantly, you, the people who read our blog. So, what do we want to do in 2012 with Beautiful You?

• Beauty reviews will still be our main subject- this is what we love, buying new products, trying them out, and then sharing what we thought before you spend your money.
• We will feature more guest bloggers- my sister Sam reviewed for us on Dove and Nivea products in 2011. We love it when people come and share their thoughts on our blog as it is great to get different perspectives, we hope to do more of this in 2012!
• Improving our photos- Mags has a great camera which takes brilliant photos, I recently got a lightbox for Christmas, making product photos easier to take, and lighting better to control.
• Blog design- we love the look of our blog, but it was designed a few years ago, and there are things we want to change to make it easier for you to navigate around - watch this space!
• Blogging community- we want to get more involved with all the wonderful bloggers in this great community, sharing ideas, attending blogger meet ups etc.

And now a few personal goals for 2012:

• Find the perfect eye cream - I turn 30 this year (eeek, I mean it when I say I don't want to talk about it!!) and I am on the hunt for the perfect eye cream.
• Budget buys- I used to be a high end cosmetic gal, but the beauty blogging world has taught me that sometimes some of the best products don't have to cost the earth, I want to continue reviewing high street cosmetic brands.
• Face of the day - I have done a couple of these now and love them, so will definitely want to bring you more of these! 
• Banish the bad hair day- I would like to rid these from my life...but failing that, find some products that keep my locks under control.

I hope you enjoyed this post, please share with us what your resolutions, aims, hopes, ambitions and goals for 2012 are as we would love to know.

Here's to a great year in the beauty blogging world!

Stay Beautiful!

Stace x

2nd January 2012