Boxing Day Sales

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How are we all doing today?

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Right so on with the show.  On Boxing Day I did something out of character and that was venturing out to the Boxing Day Sales.  I’m not normally one for going to the sales after Christmas, or in general.  I prefer to shop online from the comfort of my sofa/bed.  However, since I have started blogging I wanted to get out there with the masses to see what bargains were to be had and also practice my vlogging.

I decided to stick a little closer to home and go to St Albans.  The shops there are pretty good, the only downer is that it doesn’t have a Primark, but I guess that means another shopping day to Primark right?  Hee hee.

We set off at a decent hour, our train times were picked, Starbucks was purchased and away we go.  We got to the station and the ticket office was closed and the main building locked up tight.  The side entrance was open though so no biggy, right?  Wrong!  The gate was indeed open but the machines to purchase tickets weren’t working (that should have been clue No. 1).  We took a photo of the machine as we would buy our tickets when we got to St Albans.  There were a few people waiting for the trains going into London but other then that it was really quiet.  I started to do a bit of vlogging when I heard someone yell “excuse me”, it was a fellow passenger informing us that the info machine on the platform had said that no trains were running at all today.  Great!  Now what.  Dave very kindly suggested we get an Uber and luckily there was one nearby.  Yay, crisis averted.  It was shocking though, as the website was showing that trains were running as normal.  I looked up Thameslink on Twitter and the buggers were now saying that no trains.  Anywho, we hopped in our Uber and arrived in St Albans no time.  Let the shopping commence.

We hit up Boots first, as I’ve heard that their sales can get crazy with people queuing really early in the morning.  My goal here was to see what gift set offers were to be had and also purchase my first Liz Earle products.

As you can see there were some good bargains to be found.  I couldn’t get over the deal that was this Elizabeth Arden New York Beauty Must Haves set.  The lady behind the counter said it was worth £90, was originally sold for £60 and was now reduced to £25.  The mascara alone is worth £22 so you pretty much get the rest of the products for £3!  Bargain or what.

This set contains:-

·      Eight House Cream Intensive Daily Moisturiser for Dace SPF15 50ml

·      Visible Difference Exfoliating Cleanser 125ml

·      Ceramide Lash Extending Treatment Mascara Black

·      Cereamide Ultra Lipstick Melon

I’m really excited to try the mascara as I’ve been thinking about researching some lash extending moisturising type enhanced doobery.

Elizabeth Arden New York Beauty Must Haves - Boots

Liz Earle Daily Essentials Kit - Boots

Liz Earle only had one set on offer and whist I wanted to purchase the famous Cleanse and Polish, I wasn’t keen on the other item in the set, that being the eye cream.  If I was going to try out the C&P I figured that I might as well follow up with the moisturiser.  I ended up purchasing the Daily Essentials Kit at full price £45.  I’ll list below the exact products contained:-

·      Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser 100ml

·      Instant Boost Skin Tonic 200ml

·      Skin Repair for Dry/Sensitive skin 50ml

·      Gentle Face Exfoliator 50ml

Dave got himself a new aftershave, Tommy, which was £51 reduced to £17.99, so he was pleased with that.

Our next stop was Clintons as I wanted to see if they had any Yankee Candles on offer.  They did have 50% off of their Christmas range, but I wasn’t feeling any of the scents.  I did end up buying the Yankee Candle Christmas Melts Warmer.  That was half price and I paid £9.49 for it (original price £18.99).  This set contains:-

• Melt Warmer
• Christmas Eve melt
• Cinnamon Stick melt
• Snow in Love melt
• 1 x tea light 

Yankee Candle Christmas Melts Warmer - Clintons

Superdrug was next but their shelves had been raided.  They did have the Real Techniques Ultimate brush set for £48.99 reduced from £99.99 which is not a bad deal, but a little more than what I was willing to pay so I passed on that one.

Real Techniques Ultimate Gift Set - Superdrug

I haven’t been in a BHS in such a long time but figured why not pop in and see what they might have.  I found the Christmas gifts section and we picked up some of those alcoholic gift sets you can get.  I love Disaronno so had to get the set with the nice glass in and at £3 you can’t go wrong (all prices were 50% off).  Dave picked a Captain Morgans set with coffee and a really nice looking mug, his was £6 and a good bargain.  I was tempted to buy the Courvoisier set, as the mug was really nice looking, but stopped myself as I didn’t really need it.  The last thing I found was a blanket reduced to £12.50.  I love the design and have been wanted a cable knit type for ages.

Stone Rib Knitted Throw - BHS

We then stopped off in a shop called Love Aroma (they are an authorised official Yankee Candle stockist) again they had the Christmas range at 50% off.  I purchased Season of Peace at £10.99, there wasn’t much else that took my fancy as I was interested to see if they had some of the more normal/usual scents on offer.  We did decide to purchase the Cappuccino Truffle, which smells absolutely divine and is a different scent then what we would usually go for, hence the justification of spending £22 on a candle.

Yankee Candle Season of Peace - Love Aroma

Yankee Candle Cappuccino Truffle - Love Aroma

I popped into H&M to look and see if they had any treggings in stock and also browsed the sale racks.  No treggings, but I did end up purchasing a couple of cardigans which will be perfect for Disney World next year.  The purple-y one was a steal at £3 and reminds me a little of the Missoni design.

TK Maxx was next, now I must confess to never having really shopping in here before.  I think I tried once but it was so messy looking I walked straight back out.  But I thought I would give it another try as I have seen other fellow bloggers find some good bargains in there.  It started off well, I found a Michael Kors bag in there but not a design I would have gone for.  I started to feel the same feeling when browsing the racks, that it was just too much and where does one start.  I think (and this is in no way an insult to any TK Maxx lovers) this is the kind of shop where you really need to be dedicated and give time to searching through all the racks to find that bargain or lucky designer item.  I did manage to find a foundation brush from Eco Tools, I already have one and absolutely love it so seeing another one at £3.99 instead of £6.99 made it worth venturing in.

We were pretty much done by this time, our bags were heavy and we were getting hungry so we stopped off in a local pub for some food and headed back home after that.

Now you would think this post would end here, having been out for the best part of 5hrs, but no.  I had to take back a Christmas present that I received from my parents (duplicate present) so left Dave in our local Vape shop (his fav hobby) and set off for Debenhams (our local shopping park has a good few shops including a Debenhams).  I managed to find a replacement and also some other sale goodies.  The Benefit Pucker up and Party lip set  was on sale for £13 down from £19.50.  I had been eying this one up before Christmas and was very pleased with my find. 

Marvel Wash Bag - Debenhams

Batman Suit Cover - Debenhams

Benefit Pucker up and Party - Debenhams

I also picked up a wash bag for Dave that had gone on sale, is a Marvel design reduced from £15 to £7.50.  This Batman suit cover would be the perfect replacement for his current suit cover and he does like a bit of Batman.  This was also reduced to £7.50 from £15.

I then headed over to Boots to see what they had that we didn’t see in St Albans and let me tell you, this one had way more.  I picked up:-

·      Colours by Technic Eye Collection half price down to £5

·      Soap and Glory Three Times Butter Set half price down to £4

·      A Champneys Nail Polish Collection half price down to £6

·      For Dave I found his favourite deodorant in a gift set, Old Spice Wolfthorne which contains a deodorant, aftershave and shower gel.  That was half price down to £7.50

·      Lastly I got him a L’Oreal Men Expert set which contains  a skin and stubble wash and a skin and stubble moisturiser.

Old Spice Wolfthorne Triple Set - Boots

I figured I had better leave before it got too messy and headed to the checkout and on my way home.

All in all it was a really successful day, lots of bargains to be found and it wasn’t as crazy as I thought it was going to be.  I will try and link below the items that I purchased, but some may already been sold out or not available at all online so I apologise. 

I will be reviewing most of the items I have purchased individually so look out for those posts soon.  I will also be doing a Boxing Day Sale haul vlog and also uploading the vlog of the day itself, so again look out for links to those soon.

As always thanks for reading and please feel free to comment, I would love to hear from you.

Ciao for now 

Stefy xxx