Hello!

This month I've been treating myself to some of the Freebies lining the magazine shelves. In all honesty I'm not a magazine reader, but there were freebies I really wanted to try and at the price of a magazine it was completely worth it.

The magazines have also gone into my craft collection for an upcoming project - waste not want not!

This months freebies have been awesome, it was hard not to buy them all up!

(Confession 1 - I was embarrassed to by so many magazines I did have to do it in two trips!Confession 2 - Yes, I did have to buy two copies of Marie Claire for the cleanser and moisturiser. Completely worth it!)

So here's the ones I bought:

Clinique - High impact mascara (in Glamour, worth £7.50.)

Radial - Stemcell super-food glam balm LIP (in Red, worth £19)

Balance me daily essentials - Cleanse and smooth face balm

Balance me daily essentials - Moisture rich face cream (both in Marie Claire, together worth £25)

Neal's Yard Remedies - Geranium & Orange hand cream (in InStyle magazine, worth £10)

I had to estimate the price of the Clinique mascara as there was a selection of four products worth £30 in total, so a little math and I went for £7.50. Please let me know if you know the actual value of this.

A nice variety if I do say so myself!

I'm so pleased with my little collection. At a cost of £12.90 for the magazines, I've bagged myself £61.50 in samples, and a nice variety of new products to try.

I would have loved to pick up one of the Clinique chubby sticks which were available with Glamour this month, but for the life of me I couldn't find one anywhere in my town.

Still, I'm really pleased with my selection.

So far I'm yet to try the cleanser and moisturiser but my fingers are crossed. I usually have quite oily skin, but of late my skin has been really dry first thing in the morning so it'll be great to have a dry/normal skin option in my collection for those days when I need a bit more moisture in my skin.
I also got the Balance Me eye cream in my July Birchbox (you can read about it here) that I'm really enjoying. It's not the best eye cream I've ever had but for a more cost effective option I'm liking it. It's definitely cooling on the skin and definitely reduces any puffiness first thing in the morning, so hopefully the new cleanser and moisturiser will be good too.

I'm also really happy with the hand cream. I have some terrible skin allergies and my hands are the most affected place so finding hands creams that don't cause me any pain or discomfort is almost impossible but this Neal's Yard Remedies hand cream is doing wonders for my dry skin. The fragrance is quite intense in the tube, but has a lovely warming scent on the skin.

I'm loving the Clinique mascara. I love Clinique, and although I don't own very many of their products the ones I have I love. This mascara offers a lot of volume and as it says on the label Impact! I'll definitely be investing in a full size when this one runs out, but in the mean time it's ideal for my upcoming travels!

I'm undecided on the Radial glam-balm. I've tried a few plumping lip balms and to date I think my favourite is the Dior Addict Lip Maximizer. Although it doesn't provide any permanent effects for me, I'm confident that it does increase the plumpness of my lips during use, and if I do the 21 day night treatment it does have lasting effects for a week or so afterwards. However I've not yet seen any improvements from using the Radial lip balm. The balm is definitely very moisturising and leaves my lips feelings soft and nourished throughout the day but I'm yet to visibly see any increase in lip size or feel that famous "tingling" that lip plumpers so often have. We'll wait and see on this one.

If you're interested in lip plumpers and would like to see a comparison or review of the products I've used so far let me know in the comments and I'll do one very soon.

I definitely won't be doing this every month because I'm just not a magazine person but for a summer treat I'm so pleased with my spend.

I hope you've managed to pick up a few of the lovely freebies on offer this month!

Until next time!
xx