TKMAXX Makeup & Beauty Haul! February 2017

So recently a TKMAXX store opened up in Lowestoft, this is a big thing to have in our small seaside town. Usually I travel to either Great Yarmouth or Norwich to go shopping there but no it's much more convenient! 

I did in fact go twice to collect the items for this haul, the range of makeup they do have there at the moment isn't very good so finding something I liked was hard. I always look for the higher end products as I feel I'm getting more for my money if I know it is a good brand but at a cheaper price!

On my first trip I picked up three different items. The first was this bh Cosmetics 'Eye Essential' 7 Piece Brush Set. 

In the set you get seven different eye brushes:

101 - Blending Brush

102 - Large Shader Brush

103 - Small Shader Brush

104 - Angled Blending Brush

105 - Pencil Brush

106 - Fine Liner Brush

107 - Small Angled Brush

These brushes cost me £9.99, which I thought was really good since they are £14 on Beauty Bay.

I really like these brushes, they are super soft and have not been shedding at all! I mostly use the 101, 103 and the 105 brushes for applying my eyeshadow. I did try to use the 107 to apply my eyeliner and that's why is all black!

The next product I got is a Too Faced product and its one that isn't really my colour but I couldn't resist it! Its their Melted Metal Liquid lipstick in the shade 'Dream House'.

I think it is a really pretty, bold colour and if I am ever brave enough to wear this shade then it's going to look so pretty on! I paid £5.99 for this which I thought was great as it retails at $21! 

The last product I got on my first trip was something I just randomly picked up! I didn't feel that I had gotten enough stuff from my first trip so I looked for something cheap! 

This is the Stila Sun Gel and it was only £2.99 so I picked it up! I didn't really know what it was until I got home and realised it was a tanning product! Its basically a gel bronzer that you can use everywhere. It's not something I have ever thought of using but if it makes me look less like a piece of paper then that's great with me! What's even better is that these retail at £19 meaning I saved myself quite a lot!

On my second trip I had less money to spend so I only got two more things, one of them was really bad and the other is probably my favourite find of the year!

Firstly I picked up the Stila Lip Glaze in the shade 'Roseberry'. 

This is the product that I don't really like, while it smells great and is a lovely colour it is so sticky and tacky. I always tend to avoid glosses due to this very reason so I probably wont be getting much use out of this product! It was still a good deal though, I paid £3.99 and they retail at £15!

The last product I got is possibly the best thing I've found in a while and it was a bargain at only £2.99! The best part is that it's cruelty free, vegan and its a BODY SCRUB!!

This is the Buddy Scrub's Green Tea Body Scrub and it is amazing! You get 200g of this amazing scrub, it left my skin feeling so soft and clean. They have a whole range of scrubs on their website (http://www.buddyscrub.com.au/) which retail at $14.95 so another bargain once again!

I did get a few clothing items along with these which I show off in my youtube video below! If you want to see the products completely then this is the best way to see them! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5q2FEX9I4k&t=190s

Let me know of your bargains from TKMAXX I would love to know what you manage to get your hands on!

- athriftymaria x

My First Time At Cosmo Norwich!

So I had heard nothing but good things about this restaurant and it was on my list of places to go! With it being Bobby's sister's birthday we all went out for a meal to celebrate. I always thought it was a small restaurant with a couple of tables but I was completely amazed when I walked in. You get greeted at a desk and asked for your reservation, then go up some escalators and get greeted again before being taken to your table. I decided to get refillable drinks, meaning I could have as many soft drinks as I wanted. My drink of choice for the evening was fizzy Vimto!

Now I just want to say if you're looking for a really fancy food review you're about to be shocked. I was amazed by all of the food that you could choose from, there was Chinese, Mexican, sushi, various desserts that looked delicious, hot wings,roast dinners, dumplings, pizza and so much more! I am quite the fussy eater, I don't like trying new things and my taste in food is pretty simple. 

I managed to snap a few pictures before everyone got in and ruined all the nice displays so I'll pop them in while I have the chance!

Because of who I am as a person most of the pictures I took were of the desserts because damn they looked good! 

So being in an all you can eat restaurant overwhelmed me for a while and I just couldn't pick what I wanted. As I mentioned before I'm a very fussy person and even the slightest of change to food I like will put me off it. 

For my first plate of food I wanted to go with something simple that I know I would like. 

That meant chicken nuggets and chips with a Yorkshire pudding, mash and gravy. I told you no professional reviews here I mean what can I really say about this meal? The chips were actually really good, nice and chunky, reminded me of the chips I get from the local Chinese. The mash was really smooth but was seasoned with pepper (which I despise) so I didn't manage to finish that. By the time I got round to eating my chicken nuggets they were a bit cold but still really good.

For my second plate I got a little more adventurous and headed to the Chinese buffet section. They had no plain rice or plain noodles so I had to salvage what I could. In the end I managed to get some plain rice (I scooped up as much with no egg in as I could), some plain noodles (same again avoiding the beansprouts and veg) and a couple of prawn crackers. I would've gotten so many more crackers than I did but there weren't many left when I went up to get some and I didn't want to take too many.

The rice was lovely and fluffy, no egg so I fully enjoyed it. The noodles were in a sauce I hadn't tried before so it took some time to get used to but in the end I didn't eat all of them. Crackers are crackers so I don't think i really need to talk about them. 

By this point I was ready to head home, feeling super full and tired I had completely forgotten about all the yummy desserts!! I don't really like a lot of chocolate or cakes so I took a small range of everything really! I also found the ice cream machine where you could do it yourself and put as much on your cone as you wanted. 

This is what I ended up getting. A peanut butter cup, a chocolate and raspberry swiss roll, a chocolate mousse shot, jelly cubes, the ice cream that I did myself and some toffee dessert (I can't quite remember what that was). I later found out that there were bowls for the ice cream, along with other flavours like chocolate and mint. I pretty much had fancy jelly and ice cream for dessert and it was glorious!

Cosmo is probably now my favourite restaurant and I definitely will be going back again. It was just such a great experience for me and I loved every aspect of the serving yourself buffets. Next time I go I aim to try a few more things because there were dishes that looked and smelt amazing I was just too scared to try them on my first time there. Now I know what to expect I can see this being the place I go to whenever I have something to celebrate!

So that's all I can say about my first time there really! Everything was just so great! Bobby's sister really enjoyed her birthday and it was a really nice night out!

I hope you enjoyed reading this, if you did I'll do some more posts on what I get up to :)

- athriftymaria x

'My Sign' Makeup Revolution London Eyewheel + Lipgloss Review

So for Christmas my sister had gotten me a makeup product that  hadn’t seen before! It was the ‘My Sign’ Eye Wheel  by Makeup Revolution London in the shade Gemini. I was surprised she even remembered my star sign! After looking them up online I found out that there is an Eye Wheel and Lipgloss for each of the 12 star signs. The Eye Wheels are £5 and the Lip Glosses are £3.

This is the Gemini Eye Wheel:

When I looked at the colours I realised that they aren’t really colours that I usually wear, green especially. After swatching them and playing around with them (this was for a YouTube video that I will link at the end) I decided that they weren’t so bad and that I would at least give them another shot! (I know the second swatch looks gold but its actually a metallic green shade)

Each wheel has:

·         An eye primer

·         3 Eyeshadows

·         2 Brow Shades

·         A Highlighter

So on boxing day I went into town to get some bargains in the sale and had to stop by Superdrug to at least check out the other shades. When I got there a lot of the shades were still there which was surprising since every new Makeup Revolution product usually sells out in store pretty fast. After looking at all of the shades I decided to pick up the Taurus Eye Wheel  (it had a lovely gold eyeshadow that I was 

REALLY drawn too) and the Gemini Lipgloss.

This Taurus Eye Wheel I picked because the gold eyeshadow is stunning  (I always tend to wear warm browns, oranges and GOLDS) so this selection of colours was sort of perfect for me really. I actually used some of the brown brow powder to blend in my crease as the darker black colour is a little too overpowering for me.

So all of the swatch pictures were taken in a hurry and I completely forgot to include a swatch of the highlighter and the Gemini Lipgloss so here they are:

The highlighter and the brow powders are the same in each Eye wheel meaning once you have one you’re only really paying for another three eyeshadows! All of the shadows are fairly pigmented and easy to blend in. I haven’t used the primer at all as I tend to use my liquid primer from the same brand. The gloss isn’t tacky or sticky (which is what is despise from a gloss) and is a beautiful colour, only problem is that it transfers quite easily as it doesn’t really dry on your lips.

Overall I really like these products, I would recommend the Taurus Eye Wheel if you want a really nice golden eyeshadow! The Gemini Lipgloss is such a nice colour and not sticky or heavy on the lips at all but does transfer far too easily! If you have any of the My Sign collection then let me know which products you pick!!

I also did a Youtube video on these products, swatching them and doing a full face look with the Gemini products which is linked below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFlYQRGAobw

Thanks for stopping by today to read my review, I hope this helps you decide which products to pick!

- athriftymaria x

Hello!

Hello, and welcome to my blog!

Many of my upcoming posts will follow the theme of being 'cheap' or me sourcing some super awesome bargains. I love to share when I'm able to get my hands on a great deal, whether that's a lovely vintage dress from a charity shop, or a clearance in the makeup isles you can bet I'm always searching for the next great buy!

While I have the chance I just want to introduce myself, so here's 20 facts about me!

1. I am 18 years old
2. I have a YouTube channel which I am very proud of
3. Most of the makeup in my collection isn't used
4. I have 4 cats and one dog
5. I am really into gaming, I play on Xbox One and soon to be playing on PC
6. I have a clothing rail filled with clothes I don't wear
7. My sister is a younger, more annoying version of me and appears occasionally on my social media
8. I live in the most eastern town in the UK
9. I have 4 piercings (it used to be 5 but I took my lip piercing out)
10. I am very cheap, the least I spend the better
11. Most of my makeup/beauty items have been brought discounted, been given to me for free or have been traded for other things
12. I am terrible at saving so I'm basically broke all of the time
13. I work in a little shop, part time
14. Although I have the biggest bedroom I still don't have enough space in here for all of my junk
15. I have to declutter regularly if not I would be dubbed a hoarder
16. I get called a 'fake gamer girl' because I don't have time to play online as often as I used to and that sucks
17. Despite having a fairly good fashion sense I always look like I stumbled out of a trash bag
18. I have a boyfriend who I've been with for two years now, he's a big part of my life! He helps out with editing for my YouTube videos all of the time, so supportive
19. Charity shops end up taking most of my money as I can get some quality items for a fraction of retail price
20. Poundland is probably my second home, please don't judge it's just fabulous

So I know those facts were probably rather boring but I'm not used to this form of expressing myself, usually I speaking to a camera alone in my room, now I'm typing on the bus trying to think of what to write.

I wanted to keep this short and sweet and let you find out the rest yourself, thanks for stopping by and I hope you visit again :)

- athriftymaria x