Shopping the January Sales at Queensgate Peterborough | #QBlogger

I was really happy when I was asked along to my local shopping centre Queensgate to participate in another shopping challenge. This time hitting up the January sales, this girl is on a beauty no-buy this month, a few days in being back at work it was already proving hard and having a gift card to spend (which definitely doesn’t count for the no-buy), was a way to relieve some of the January Blues.

My challenge read…

January weather can really take its toll on your skin and hair. Use your voucher to ensure you are glowing, (even if January isn’t) with gorgeous hair masks, luxurious face creams or maybe some make up to brighten up your everyday look. Remember, you must spend as much of the voucher on yourself as possible and shop the sales. Don’t forget the fabulous retailers down Westgate Arcade!

With a £50 gift card in tow, I hit the shops – I was very limited on time so a speed shop was on the cards. Whilst I did have a quick peek in Boots, I’d already hit their sale last week and snagged everything I had wanted to get in there already, so I perused the other end of the centre – I bought items from three different stores and also took a walk through MAC (who sadly had no Snowball collection items left) and M&S who did have some beauty items left in their sale, but it’s not a particularly huge beauty section in Queensgate – what they had left was mostly bath products and some lavender based sets – both of which if you read regularly will know aren’t for me.

John Lewis

First up I hit up John Lewis. My first point of call was the Origins and Liz Earle counters hoping I could spy some gorgeous skincare sets – sadly other than a ginger themed mini set from Origins neither had any sets in the sale. I still took a walk through the other beauty counters and spotted the YSL “The Shock” Mascara set which was reduced down to £15.50. I’ve been wanting to try this mascara as I mentioned in my YSL Faux Cils review (also bought with a previous voucher from Queensgate). There was plenty of makeup offers still to be found on Lancome & YSL Counters, as well as some beautiful fragrance sets and larger skincare sets that would have eaten heftily into my budget.


Lush

Next stop was Lush. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times – I want to love Lush but as someone who doesn’t like baths it can be really easy to become overwhelmed. I wanted to try and find myself a mini set that maybe had a shower gel alongside a bath bomb, but I stumbled across one shower set packed with a tonne of goodies to try. What I liked most was that whilst most of these were limited edition Christmas scents none of them particularly jumped out at me as “Ooh no, that’s too Christmassy for January”.

The ‘Happy Christmas’ set was reduced from £41.95 to £20.50 – and contained 7 items featuring the Happy Hippy, Bubbly & Berry Berry Christmas Shower Gels, Santa’s Belly Shower Jelly, Baked Alaska & Christmas Citrus soaps and the Christingle body conditioner. It all came boxed in a lovely hexagonal box, which will be great for storage all year as it’s not too Christmas themed and it gives me a load of products to try that I would actually love to try. Lush in Peterborough had a surprising amount of gift sets still left as well as Christmas bath bombs and shower gels still on sale. It’s worth popping in if you were on the hunt for stocking up on a particular favourite.


Superdrug

My last stop was Superdrug – having known I’d already snagged everything I’d hoped to get in the Boots sale earlier in December (although they did still have many sets available, it’s worth popping in, especially if your a Soap and Glory fan they had tonnes left!). There wasn’t a huge selection available left in the Superdrug sale, if you’re a Zoella or Tanya Burr Fan however you wouldn’t have been disappointed. Tanya’s Advent Calendar was reduced to just £6.99, and whilst tempting at that price I knew it was filled with glosses (which I don’t wear) and nail polishes (I know I don’t like her formula). I was hoping to snag an Essie advent calendar, but unsurprisingly they’d all gone.

I was however keen to try Tanya’s liquid lip formula (being the liquid lip addict that I am – I snagged the last set of her Christmas minis – the set featured a gorgeous plum with a slight metallic finish and a red, these were reduced to £1.99 and it seemed like a perfect way to try the formula.

Lastly two items from Zoella’s Christmas line, I picked up the Winter Wonderland hand cream which was reduced to £1.99 – I’ve really enjoyed her original hand cream in the past and thought this would be good to put on my bedside when I’ve finished my next one up. Finally was a mini fragrance set of four of Zoella’s sprays, I know not all of them would be my cup of tea, but I thought some of these at £6.99 for the set would be handy to either put in my desk at work or keep in my handbag. I may pop any of these I don’t think I’ll like in my giveaway next week (the Gingerbread one, will definitely be kept to one side, I don’t like smelling like a bakery).


If you’re a local to Peterborough make sure you head into Queensgate to shop the January Sales – so many of the shops had lots on offer, I walked through the John Lewis fashion section a tiny bit jealous I didn’t have a fashion challenge! There was so many beautiful pieces! I really like hitting the shops a little later than boxing day – the madness has died down and extra discounts are available to snag an extra good deal.

Check out the other Qbloggers and their challenges

Have you snagged anything in the sales yet?

*Thanks to Queensgate who provided a gift card was in exchange for a blog post.

rachael-signature

FacebookInstagram | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr

Helpless Whilst DryingEmail: helplesswhilstdrying@gmail.com

Follow:
Share:

26 Comments

  1. January 7, 2018 / 8:31 am

    I ā™„ļø this post along with the shopping challenge, what a great idea! I popped into most of those shops too and found it a very similar picture, especially in lush as I live the gift sets in there ā˜ŗļø happy shopping!!

  2. Sophie in Wonderland xo
    January 7, 2018 / 10:31 am

    You got some amazing bits! That lush set is gorgeous and so perfect for you! Xxx

  3. Mummy & Moose
    January 7, 2018 / 2:27 pm

    I always feel just the same about Lush too! I did buy some Fun recently which is quite amusing. Love your photos and it looks like you got a LOT for your money x

  4. January 7, 2018 / 4:41 pm

    What a fun challenge! You got some great stuff. It’s great that you found a shower set at Lush, I love their stuff!

  5. January 7, 2018 / 5:39 pm

    Great products! Review them soon?? I would love to hear feedback on everything! Xo

  6. January 7, 2018 / 7:28 pm

    A great haul with quite a lot of products in there! I do love shopping the sales a bit later and it seemed that there was quite a bit left in queensgate when I went this year, unlike some times in the past where two days after Christmas it’s almost bare of sale products. I totally forgot about Superdrug for sale things though, I need to remember them more I think. I used to love lush but have gone off them a bit the past few years. Then this year I went a bit mad in the sales! But they do have some good gift sets, especially at half price.

    • January 7, 2018 / 7:51 pm

      How didnā€™t I know you were close to me?!
      Yeah I feel like as years are going on the stores have more and more stock to just discount it!
      Superdrug didnā€™t have the best selection of deals this time round, it looked like theyā€™d over estimated how popular zoellas stuff would be, there was shelves and shelves of it, by the time I got there thatā€™s pretty much all they had, but it is a much smaller store than Boots and their gifting line does have a much smaller gifting collection.
      I just find lush so expensive for what you get – i feel a little bit ripped off with what I got for 20 quid let alone if it has been 40!

      • January 8, 2018 / 3:50 pm

        Hehe, I don’t think I’ve posted much about where I live and there aren’t that many bloggers around here, that I know of anyway! Yeah, it normally seems to be similar ones left, especially in boots you know they’ll have a No7 makeup brush set and loads of sanctuary and soap and glory in their half price. I started buying lush 10 years ago when it was one of the only brands that my skin didn’t react to and the prices have definitely creeped up over the years, I think a bath bomb cost Ā£2 back then. The quality isn’t what it was and a lot of the scents aren’t as complex so I’ve found other makes to buy as more are using natural ingredients or maybe my skin is getting less sensitive. I do always get pulled in by limited editions and seemed to go a bit overboard this year in the sales!

        • January 8, 2018 / 3:55 pm

          I think most of the scents smell a bit samey – when I was in the shop the sales assistant was shoving the bath bombs under my nose and all I was thinking was they were different colours to the last one, most just smelt generically sweet to me!

          • January 8, 2018 / 4:07 pm

            I think Christmas isn’t the best time for that, they seem to go very sweet and snow fairy is a bit overpowering at times and is probably the sweetest scent ever! They can be a bit over enthusiastic, that’s one thing that’s put me off going into the store before so I normally shop online. There definitely used to be more unisex sort of smells and only a few pink sweet scents, now it seems half the store is sweet!

          • January 8, 2018 / 4:11 pm

            I think it all just seeps into each other in the store, unless something is incredibly strong the scent of the store just takes over!

  7. January 7, 2018 / 8:17 pm

    Love all you got! The Lush setšŸ˜ I like Tanya and Zoella’s products so you got some good stuff x

  8. January 8, 2018 / 7:34 am

    I don’t like baths either and like you have found LUSH overwhelming in the past! Your gift set looks so lovely though šŸ™‚ The Zoella mini perfumes are adorable! I purchased the Tanya liquid lipsticks last year and honestly I’m not their biggest fan (not trying to discourage you, maybe I got a bad set). I don’t reach for them and when I have they have been difficult to apply, they dry so quickly there’s no time for any fix ups šŸ™ Hope you get on better with them! x

    • January 8, 2018 / 7:46 am

      I think if I canā€™t find something in that lush set that I like then lush probably just isnā€™t for me overall!
      I remembered your review as I was buying the tanya ones and if theyā€™d been any more expensive I probably wouldnā€™t have bought them, but at 2.99 I thought they were worth a punt (even if they only get used once for my liquid lipstick comparison post Iā€™ve been working on for months!). I may try one today!

      • January 8, 2018 / 9:31 am

        The red isnā€™t patchy but application of the first coat has to be precise. Blackberry Fudge either applies well or doesnā€™t. Iā€™m not ready to give up on them yet, Iā€™ll keep trying. The formula is actually rather comfortable.

        • January 8, 2018 / 9:55 am

          Iā€™ve got the red on today – I noticed how patchy the blackberry fudge was when I swatched it, I can imagine itā€™s really fun to work with… not!

          • January 8, 2018 / 10:09 am

            It makes me wonder what the permanent matte shades in Tanyaā€™s line are like, the more nudey-pink shades…

          • January 8, 2018 / 10:48 am

            They do stock them in some superdrugs here but I’ve never seen them in person to swatch. I don’t think I’d buy another based on this experience so far!

  9. Leslie Rickerby
    January 8, 2018 / 11:17 am

    “Don’t like smelling like a bakery’!!! Made me laugh.
    If you don’t like baths but want something from Lush, I recommend their Veganese Conditioner. It’s lovely
    Looks like you did well šŸ™‚

  10. January 8, 2018 / 9:03 pm

    I’ve always wanted to go on a game show where they offer a shopping spree, but with certain parameters like only buy green coloured items within 10 minutes or something. šŸ˜›
    You were able to stretch your Ā£50 voucher so well!
    I don’t take baths so the majority of LUSH is completely lost on me. Shhhh don’t tell anyone but I think bath bombs are such a waste of money! šŸ˜‰ They’re as back as sheet masks. šŸ˜†
    Enjoy your goodies!

    • January 8, 2018 / 9:10 pm

      *bad, not back

    • January 8, 2018 / 9:11 pm

      I am completely with you on bath bombs, itā€™s a fiver down the drain every time! At least sheet masks do something (and I donā€™t like going particularly expensive with them because theyā€™re one use) but all bath bombs do is make your baths coloured!
      Both times Iā€™ve done these shopping challenges Iā€™ve had time limits to shop – this time I had half an hour on my lunch break! Coloured theme would be fun, might suggest that to them for the next one!

Leave a Reply and Let's Have a Chat