Lush Haul: Boxing Day Sale Bargains!

Hi guys! Long time, no blog! Happy New Year... I hope you're all having a lovely 2024 so far. I've decided to blog from time to time, when I've got something to write about. I won't be posting weekly like I was last year, because at times I was having to find things to blog about, just for the sake of keeping up my schedule. But I did buy quite a few things in December, hence this Lush Haul post!

First, let's look at what I picked up, then I'll delve deeper into the products and my Lush online shopping experience. This is a combined Haul, mostly bought online but also a couple of products from the Boxing Day sale in-store.

~ Happy Hippy shower gel (250g)
~ Snow Fairy shower gel (275g)
~ The Olive Branch shower gel (100g)
~ Dirty SpringWash shower gel (100g)
~ Twilight shower jelly (100g)
~ Snow Fairy shower gel (100g)
~ Jingle All The Way Gift
(containing Happy Hippy shower gel 100g + Bouncing Santa shower jelly 85g)
~ Ro's Argan soap sample *free sample* (not pictured)

First of all, can you tell I love shower gels? It's the main thing I buy in a Lush sale and I definitely have my favourites! The two products I bought in-store were the large Snow Fairy shower gel and the Dirty Springwater shower gel 100g, both half price. Being in-store purchases, this all went smoothly.

My online purchases didn't go quite as well. I went straight to the Boxing Day sale section to grab some goodies at half the normal price (since this was my entire reason for shopping) and shopped wholly from there. I had added a Lord Of Misrule soap to my cart which went through as normal at checkout. Later I received an email from Lush saying I was receiving a refund, then a further email explaining there was a glitch in their system and the soap was actually out of stock but the system mistakenly let me add it to my cart. Fair enough, mistakes happen and I was refunded, so I missed out on a half price soap, but that was it.

But something I wasn't too happy about was that the large Happy Hippy shower gel and the Twilight shower jelly I was charged full price for, despite only shopping from the Boxing Day section, where items were on sale for 50% off. I emailed Lush about it and what must have happened was that certain sizes weren't available so I went up to the next size, not realizing that this would be full price (despite being in the Boxing Day Sale section). This should definitely have been made clearer on site and only products that were 50% off should be listed in the BD sale section, not alternate sizes that are full price.

Let's talk about the goodies!

SNOW FAIRY shower gel
'For sparkle like there's snow tomorrow, lather up in candy-sweet suds that shimmer with magic that comes but once a year.'
It's a Limited Edition Christmas special that sweet, fun, pink, pretty and smells delightful. Yes I got both sizes, the small one online, then decided I also needed a big bottle from the city store for this magical cleanser to last me longer!

HAPPY HIPPY shower gel
'A breakfast boost for your body. Full of grapefruit goodness to awaken your skin and enliven your mind.'
I love citrusy fragrances, so the addition of grapefruit juice just makes this gel a zesty, fruity, happiness-inducing experience for me. I love using this in a morning shower to enliven my mood all day.

DIRTY SPRINGWASH shower gel
'A rapturous tingle of menthol crystals, and a crisp breath of spearmint tempts like untrodden snow, galvanising you into action.'
I had never tried this one before, so was excited to pick it up in-store after having smelled it. I was a bit cautious about the menthol, but it's actually rather invigorating. Word of warning - I did get it in a fresh cat scratch and that was not fun (and I probably wouldn't use this on my front bum either lol). The bottle mentions mountain lakes, herbaceous breezes of thyme oil and refreshing open air.

THE OLIVE BRANCH shower gel
'Steadying arms wrap around you, full of sweeping citrus notes and gentle, reassuring warmth.'
This one smells warm, inviting and beautiful. It could almost be a unisex gel. It contains organic olives which are cold-pressed into rejuvenating Fair Trade oil, vine leaf infusion and mandarin juice. No wonder I love this with the citrus theme again!

TWILIGHT shower jelly
'Sleepwalk soundly into the twilight zone with soothing lavender oil lathers.'
Okay I probably shouldn't have bought this online without having smelled it first, because it's not my favourite scent. As explained above, I was charged full price, too!  Oh well, I'll use this at night and hopefully it will help me sleep.

JINGLE ALL THE WAY gift
Contains a small Happy Hippy shower gel + Bouncing Santa shower jelly (pictured below).
I've already talked about Happy Hippy, so on to the Bouncing Santa!

BOUNCING SANTA shower jelly
'Santa Claus is bouncing to town! Making a list, showering twice, gotta find out who's naughty or nice!'
Well that told us nothing lol. But one thing's for sure, my Bouncing Santa sure did bounce around during delivery, because she didn't arrive in the best shape, as you can see from the photo. The Twilight jelly arrived okay, so this Christmas release must have moved around more being inside the gift box. This has a fresh melon infusion, watermelon seed oil and lime juice, making a tropical scent, available only at Christmas. I can't wait to try it!

That's it for my Lush Boxing Day Sale Haul! Hopefully these goodies will last me well into the year.

You can follow my beauty Instagram account here.

Time For a Break

 

Hi guys! After blogging every week since August last year (45 consecutive posts!), the time has come for me to take a break. As much as I love writing, I'm just not feeling it lately, and I'd rather use the time to focus on other parts of my life. This is not the end for Max The Unicorn though! I'm not sure if it will be weeks or months, but I will be back.

You may have noticed that I've also slowed down my Collabs on Instagram. I was originally intending to have a break altogether from Collabs, both on my beauty and food accounts, but I don't mind working on the odd one here and there. Basically I had up to seven Collabs at once at some points in time, and I was overwhelmed, stressed, extremely busy, unhappy and not getting time for anything else. The last few months I've started being a lot more picky with what I'll accept, because it has to be worth it for me now. I'm up in the air about whether I'll get back to continuously collaborating with brands, restaurants/hotels/cafes and PR companies again (I'll play it by ear), but for now it really has to slow down for a while.

I'm feeling a lot happier with my change in priorities, and the balance I'm creating in my life. Specifically on my food account, this will also give me a chance to post all the non-obligated photos I have built up, which I've been wanting to do for a long time, but Collabs always took priority.

If you want to still follow along with what I'm up to, the best place is my food account @imhungrymax where I do enjoy posting Stories every day. But for this blog, I'll see you on the other side of my break! Happy Week, everyone.

Priceline Haul!

 

Hi guys! So I might have done a spur of the moment Priceline Haul last week! I had wanted to try some different volume hair products, and then I saw the Priceline email advertising half price haircare plus double points for one day only, so I took it as a sign and put in an order, lol. How good are sales? I'm so happy with the amount I saved.

Here's what I got!

HASK Biotin Boost Thickening Shampoo (RRP $17, bought for $8.50)
This is my holy grail shampoo and the only one I ever buy. I usually like to wait until it goes on special though, because it's quite pricey. Yes I consider $17 pricey for a shampoo! I love the results I get and that one shampoo gets all the product out. Before I discovered this thickening shampoo I was using a clarifying shampoo followed by a volumizing shampoo, but no need for two washes with this one.

HASK Biotin Dry Shampoo (RRP $12, bought for $6)
Because I love the HASK Biotin shampoo and conditioner it makes sense to try out the dry shampoo from the range, especially since it's half price. It contains biotin for volume, collagen to fortify and coffee to help boost, which I'm hoping together give a nice plumping, volumizing lift from the roots. I'm an absolute dry shampoo fiend, so it was inevitable that I'd try this eventually.

HASK Biotin Boost Thickening 5-in-1 Leave In Spray (RRP $17, bought for $8.50)
Can you tell I'm a fan of HASK? I'm so keen to try this one as I was looking for a product I could spray in that would give my hair some body and va-va-voom action! Let's hope this does the trick. It's actually crazy how many volume hair products I use, basically every product I own is designed to create body in some way or another. That's how fine my hair is!

John Frieda Volume Lift Thickening Spray (RRP $20.99 bought for $10.49)
John Frieda products have failed me in the past, but I'm going to give them another go with this volume lift thickening spray. Surely one of these products has to work, right? There was no way I was paying full price for something I'm iffy on, so a half price sale is the perfect time to try it out. It was either this or the JF Volume Lift Fine To Full Blow Out Spray Styler but that had a bad review so I went with the thickening spray. Wish me luck!

Thin Lizzy Age Reverse Undereye Treatment Concealer (RRP $34.99, bought for $20.99)
I thought I paid full price for this on Sunday (I know I paid $20.99) but Priceline now have Thin Lizzy products at 40% off and the RRP is listed as $34.99, so I must be wrong? How confusing. Anyway I love my Thin Lizzy Concealer Creme, it really covers everything, so I wanted to give this undereye treatment concealer a go. I got the shade Enchanted Rose.

I hope you enjoyed my haul! Have a great week, guys!