Birmingham Haul

Hello lovelies,

So on Tuesday/Wednesday I went off on a jolly to Birmingham with all of the girls from my Music GCSE class (there is only 10 of us and 2 people couldn't come :( ). We are all very close and often go on trips and as we are coming to the end of our time at school we decided to go on a trip to Birmingham which a couple of the year 11 classes before us have done. We had a lovely time, relaxing, stuffing ourselves full with food (especially chocolate from Cadburys World), watching a concert in the amazing Birmingham Symphony Hall and shopping the famous Bullring Shopping Centre. My bank balance certainly isn't as healthy now....

So, what did I buy?

1) Accesorize Purse.

I have wanted a new purse for a while but couldn't make up my mind between a Cath Kidston purse or an Accesorize one but with money burning a hole in my pocket and the lovely colours of this design which I hadn't seen before I had to buy it. I love it! It has loads of card slots, a coin bit, space of the hundreds of receipts I always end up with and a pocket on the front for things you don't want to lose in the hundreds of receipts! This retails for £17 but if you don't want to spend that much wait until the summer sale where I'm sure you can get it for much cheaper as they always have huge reductions!

Unfortunately, when I got it home it had some marks on it which I hadn't noticed and the front pocket appeared a little wonky (not what I expect from Accesorize at all :( ) so it's going back to the shop but I am going to exchange it for a hopefully less wonky one.

2) Logitech Ultra Thin Keyboard for iPad

This is something that I have wanted for a long time as I currently don't have a laptop and I'm saving for a Mac, my iPad works just fine until I want to write long essays or blog posts then my fingers hurt and I make so many mistakes but with this typing is effortless. Your fingers aren't all squished up, you can feel every single key press, it is really thin, it works straight out of the box and has up to six months life from a single charge! I'm sure there is loads of other amazing things about this that I'm yet to discover.

The only cons with this are the price and the back isn't protected. This is one of those things that costs an absolute fortune but is worth every penny. It retails for £89.99 in the Apple Store, it is available for £79.99 in PC World but I'm never sure if they are going to go under therefore making your warranty void, so I went for the safe option. This will not work with the Apple Smart Case or any other similar cases, so when the keyboard is docked the back is not protected. There is a solution though, I haven't tried it but apparently if you look on the internet for Smart Cover compatible cases then the keyboard should work with it.

Now onto the Make Up bits...

3) Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint

I purchased this in the colour 311/GNP 3/Watermelon this is my favourite colour what I would call a teal blue/green. I had to buy this product, it has been raved about so much in the bloggershpere ever since they were released, I have my sudden obsession with doing my nails and it's in my favourite colour how could I resist? This retails for £3.99 in most drug stores, like Boots and Superdrug.

I haven't had a chance to use this yet but just like all of the other products on this haul, I'm sure there will be a review up in the near future.

4) MUA Lipstick

This was one of those things that you see for a pound (Yes, just £1) and you have to try! I have never really tried and MUA stuff but I went in to get another product saw this and had to buy it! I bought shade 9 which is a dark shimmery pink shade. I looks really nice on as it is a dark lipstick that doesn't make it look like you have stolen your nan's lipstick. When we were in the store someone pointed out that it didn't taste very nice, but for £1 I don't think you can expect the fruity tastes of a Dior or YSL lipstick.

5) Seventeen doll'd up Mascara

I bought this in Boots (obviously...) because my old mascara had gone gloopy and was definitely past it's sell by date. I chose this one because lengthening mascaras are not good for me as I already have long lashes so I thought I'd try a curl mascara. The vital error however was that I ended up with Brown Black instead of Black. I have grown to like it though, it is nice to have a lighter shade which isn't so harsh, I don't think that it will be making my evening make up collection though.

6) MUA eXtreme Curl Mascara

I bought this basically to see what it was like as I had bought doll'd up and by this point realised that it was the wrong colour. I haven't tried this yet but I'm not holding out much hope. It stinks to high heaven and the brush looks like it has been accidentally bent. I'm not convinced it will be worth the £3 I paid for it.

7) MUA Undress Me Too Palette

This was the product that I actually went into Superdrug to buy because it is the dupe for Naked 2 which I would love but I just can't justify the price tag at the moment, this seems like the perfect solution. For just £4 it's worth a try, it has loads of lovely neutral colours some matt and some shimmery. I chose this over Undress Me as it has nearly all browns but Undress Me has a few blues etc which I'm probably not going to use. I haven't use it yet but I'm sure I'll let you all know.

8) Real Techniques Foundation Brush

This was the one brush missing from my collection of brushes (not real techniques) and I decided to try out the much raved about Real Techniques brushes by the lovely Sam Chapman. I didn't actually go into Boots to get this brush, I was going to get the stippling brush but then I decided that it was going to take me a long time to apply my foundation that way and as I'm always rushing everywhere it may not be the best choice at the moment. I'm sure it will make it's way into my collection at some point but for now I have my foundation brush. I haven't tried it yet as I have been having lazy revision days ever since I bought it, but it feels really smooth and I can't wait to try it out. This brush retails at £9.99 in Boots but can also be found in the essentials set which I think retails for about £20.

I hope you have liked taking a nosey into my purchases,
Some reviews will be appearing in the near future I'm sure,

Maddie x