Post Exams Haul

I have a serious issue. A serious issue regarding shopping sprees.

In my eyes, I'm someone who tries to refrain from impulse purchase which might happen while I'm grocery shopping - that doesn't mean that I don't ever slip up and "accidentally" end up buying three new nailpolishes. 

But because of that, I end up going completely overboard once I actually allow myself to spend some money during a day spent downtown - and as I recently finished my final exams for this semester, I totally did that the other day. And here's what went down.

This time, however, I didn't buy any clothing, which I'm pretty proud of. (I like to think that that's because I have some really strong will power and stayed away from those shops, not because I just couldn't find anything that I liked.)

But if you are interested in the clothes I recently picked up, you should definitely check out my Berlin haul!

But I did pick up some really exciting things - there's some beauty bits, some very much needed Lush products and even a few books, which I haven't had time for in months!

Let's dive into it, shall we?

Beauty wise, Breuninger is the place to be when you're here in Germany. They sell a wide range of high end make up brands, which is why I never spend less than half an hour in their store once I walk through that door.

The counter that I usually spent most of my time at is definitely the MAC one. The lipsticks always manage to lure me in, and within a short amount of time, my hand will be completely covered in swatches and my wishlist will have grown by at least two products.

I already had my eye on the Viva Glam II lipstick, a lighter brown toned nude shade with a Satin finish, back when I was in Berlin, but I didn't really have the time to think about whether the 20€ purchase would be worth it or not, so it ended up staying in Berlin. But when I picked up again while shopping in my own town, I just couldn't help but buy it.

You'll never believe me when I say this, but up to that day, I had never owned a Benefit product. I know, I know. But their counter had always overwhelmed me, there were to many things that were catching my eye at the same time and to be honest, they were all kinda out of my price range.

Somehow, I had left my common sense at home that day, because when I found myself swooning over their Erase Paste, I thought "You know what? Today's the day. Go. For. It" So I did.

Frankly, I did regret spending 27€ when I left that store, but that feeling was forgotten as soon as I used the product for the first time. If you want to know all about how great it is, you can read my review on it here.

Lush is that kind of store that I always pop into when I'm near it, even if I don't intend on buying anything, just to look at all their pretty products and inhale all the scents. Come on, you do that too.

However, I ran out of my trusty Cupcake mask and had heard great things about their Mask of Magnaminty, which claims to exfoliate your skin and fight against spots and blackheads, from various bloggers, so I picked that up for 7,95€.

I also realized that I had only one bath bomb left, so I bought and old favorite of mine - the Fizzbanger, which gives off the most amazing fresh, citrus scent once in the water and relaxes both my muscles and my mind. On top of that, I also got the Sex Bomb, which I have never tried before, It's more of a sweeter scent which has got a hint of floral in it, so I'm definitely excited to check those two out. Each of the two bath bombs were 4,95€.

I haven't been to an actual book store in months now. I mean, I ordered a book or two online, but ever since this semester started, I had absolutely no time to look for new books to read, let alone actually sit down with one.

But now that I'm so close to summer break, I did my annual shopping for summer readings to add to my evergrowing pile.

First off, I stumbled across "PS, I still love you" by Jenny Han, which was 10,49€. It's the sequel to "To all the boys I've loved before", which I talked about in the first installment of my Recent Reads. I really enjoyed her first book, it was such a light, sweet read which left me feeling strangely happy, so I'm really interested in how that story continues.

I also picked up "All the bright places" by Jennifer Niven for 9,99€ after I heard someone talk about it. It's about Theodore Finch, an outcast at his High School, and Violet Markey, who survived the car crash her sister died in. They meet on their school's bell tower when they both want to commit suicide by jumping, but after  they convince each other to not go through with it, the two of them get closer. I've only read the first hundred pages of this so far, but it's really sweet as well, and even though you might imagine it to be kind of dark, there is so much humor in this book as well.

And finally, there is "Love letters to the dead" by Ava Delliara, which was 8,99€. Now, I don't really know a lot about this book, not more than it says on the back anyways. It follows the story of Laurel, who is assigned to write a letter to a dead person for English class, but continues to do so afterwards. She writes about various subjects like school, friendships and her sister May, who passed away. It definitely sound interesting as I've never read a book that consists of letters and letters only - besides The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, which was pretty great. And you can't deny that the cover is rather pleasing for your inner hipster, can ya?

So there you have all the goodies that I picked up on my first free weekend in ages - I think it's safe to say that I shouldn't spend another one of those downtown any time soon.
If you're interested in any of the things I got, let me know in the comments down below - there's going to be reviews of most of these things coming your way rather soon!

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Battling Breakouts With Lush | Beauty

Having oily/combination skin, something that I have to put up with a lot is sudden breakouts.

Now, I have tried and tested a whole bunch of different products to help improve my skin - different kinds of cleansers, toners and serums. But the one thing I keep coming back to are face masks - I'll always pop them in my basket when I'm shopping downtown.

Something else that I simply can't resist is having a look around Lush whenever I pass the store - there's just something about all those scents and pretty colors that always lures me in there.

But even though I keep paying visits to Lush, I have never gone further than buying their bath bombs - shocking, I know, but I was never really brave enough to try out one of their skincare products as I'm really, really fussy with what I use on my face due to my past experiences.

But the last time I was in there, it was different - I was going through a phase of extremely oily skin and bad breakouts, and to say it plainly, I was insanely desperate, so I had a look at all the face masks Lush has to offer and decided that their "Cupcake" mask had to come home with me.

What I love about Lush is that I can trust their ingredients to be natural, so I know that I'm not going to put anything toxic on my face.

Ingredients in this face mask include rhassoul mud, which helps with cleansing and softening your skin, linseed infusion, which acts protective and nourishing as well as cocoa powder, fair trade vanilla absolute and fresh mint, which give off the most amazing scent.

The "Cupcake" mask promises to draw out all the dirt and impurities and give you a deep cleanse, while the fresh mint is supposed to stimulate and tone your skin whilst cocoa powder and linseed soften and moisturise it.

I could already see all of those effects after my second use.

As this is a fresh face mask and you're supposed to keep it in your fridge, this feels insanely cooling and fresh on your skin when you first apply it.

What I also like about this is that while it's on your face for the recommended 5-10 miutes, it smells of fresh ingredients, especially of cocoa powder and mint - because in my opinion, there is nothing worse than a face mask that smells like chemicals.

After I rinse this of with warm water after the recommended amount of time, the majoirity of my blackheads are gone and I feel like my skin can actually breathe again.

Even though this mask is supposed to keep your oily skin at bay, it still moisturises it so it doesn't feel all dry and tense, but very soft instead.

The day after I use this, my spots are a lot less red and visible, some smaller ones even seem to dissapear completely over night.

Overall, I would highly recommend this face mask to everyone who is struggling with oily skin or with bad breakouts.

As it retails at 10,45€, it's rather pricy compared to your average drugstore mask, but the effects of this are a thousand times more visible and you also get a lot more uses out of this than you would of a one use face mask as it's a 45ml pot.

What is your favorite Lush product?

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The Body Scrub That Dreams Are Made Of | Beauty

I'm a bath (and also shower) kinda girl all the way - to me, there is nothing better than running myself a nice, hot bath at the end of a stressful day, and I easily could spend several hours pampering myself.

While there are a few companies that I find myself going back to again and again, I have actually never tried any of Soap & Glory's products - gasp - even though I've seen quite a lot of bloggers talking about them, the main reason being that here in Germany, they're a little pricy.

Naturally, I've been eyeing up some of their goodies for a while now, trying to decide which ones I should give a go, and my Mom randomly decided to get me the "Soap & Glory Flake Away Body Scrub", and let me tell you, it really is glorious.

First of all, almost all of Soap & Glory's packaging is seriously so cute. I'm actually not someone who likes pink all too much, but it's got something about them that makes me want to smile whenever I walk past their counter.

The first thing I noticed about this was the scent that instantly spread across the room when I took off the lid. I think I remember once smelling one of Soap & Glory's products over a year ago and really disliking the smell, but thank god, the Flake Away scrub has a completely different one - it has a very light, sweet scent - a tad of lemon and peaches, with a bit of a rose thrown into the mix. 

Overall, it is very pleasant scent that lingers on the skin for quite some time after you've used it, and even though I almost expected my skin to break out in a rash because of it, none of that ever happened.

The scrub itself is a rather thick paste that contains tiny sugar scrubs which are supposed to exfoliate your skin.

I've found that because the consistency of this body scrub is quite thick, it is very easy to work into the skin and doesn't end up on the floor of my shower. It also leaves a bit of a film on my skin after I'v e rinsed the srub of, which is not at all greasy, but in fact even a little moisturizing.

I was afraid that the scrubs in this might irritate my skin, which they did end up doing - it's not drastic or anything, but if you have very sensitive skin, you should be careful with this and might not apply it with too much pressure.

I've used this product once a week for around a month now, and I have indeed noticed the change my skin has been going through - it used to be very dull and dry, but after using the "Flake Away" body scrub (and some body lotion afterwards) it started getting a bit smoother with every use.

Now, I'm not saying that this is some kind of wonder drug for your skin - even though I might've hoped for something along those lines for a kind of hefty pricetag of 14,99€. 

My skin still tends to get really dry after some time but now I might have found my holy grail product to battle that feeling!

Would you recommend some of Soap & Glory's other products?

Thank you so much for reading!