My (not so) Minimal Black Friday Haul

Hello Lovelies,



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DrHauschka Exquisite Rose set

Hello Lovelies, first of all I wanted to thank every single one of you who read my blog, I really appreciate all of you! So if you are here, huge bear hugs and kisses! Uff, I have to be honest and tell you upfront, in a week's time I will disconnect from social media, not only because of the Christmas period, but also because my mom is flying over for a holiday with us. As we live in a different countries, I see her next to nothing, so I shall cherish that time she will be here, right? 
So for those reasons I have to say that many of blog post I planned for December, will be published in January, as I am simply running out of time. Too much plans, too little time = super overwhelmed Renata, and that is only the blogging part of my life.
Anyway, let's have a look at what I bought in the Black Friday sales this year, shall we? After all, that is why you are all here. Err, before the BF sale started, I thought I will only get "essentials", and honest to God, I thought I did just that, but now that packages are nearly all here, I am thinking to myself "jeeez, woman, what have you done!!" Let me explain myself, and let me show you exactly what I did buy, in order that I bought them and then I can self bash myself later, as I will calculate my total with all of you together.. So far I applied head-in-the-sand method and didn't even added the totals yet. Insert sheepish grin here!

Sooo, my first purchase was a replacement of DrHauschka Rose Day Cream from Love Lula - as you might know, it is my Holy Grail Face Cream of the moment, and a constant repurchase. You can read my review here in the case you missed it. As you can see in the photo above, I chose a set called Exquisite Rose Gift Set, that is the same price as the cream, but it comes with two free sidekicks, both of them I am excited to try. It is still available in Love Lula Christmas shop.
I also included this set in my Love Lula gift guide here. Oh, and this set retails for £30.50, I saved 15% on it, which was the discount Love Lula had for the Black Friday.
Whoops, I totally forgot I added Living Nature Manuka Honey gel to my order at the last minute! Hehehe, finger slip! I am surely blaming finger slip if my husband asks! Shh, don't tell.

So the total for this order is £36.95, let's convert it to euros, and my total so far is 41.84€

Flying Wild Lip Balms - my Holy Grail for Winter

Flying Wild Frankincense & May Chang Honeybotter

Next I ordered a humongous tub of lovely body butter from one of my favourite Irish brands, Bees Flying Wild - it was my first body butter purchase this year, and I knew it will be amazing, as I liked all the products I tried from the brand so far - Arno uses only minimal and very natural ingredients, and it shows in the quality of products (see reviews here and here if you want to). Arno wasn't having any Black Friday sales, but I still wanted to order from him to support a local brand for Small Business Saturday. so that is exactly what I did. This giant tub of body butter (half a litre, no less!) was only 18.50€ and I got some of my favourite lip balms that actually stay on your lips, aka my winter saviours! No discounts as I mentioned previously, but I got two extra lip balms, so that is really appreciated!

Total for this order €29. Total so far 70.84€

Inika Long Lash Mascara

Then the email from Inika popped into my inbox, and I simply couldn't resist their deal, so that's another 21£ or 23-24€ spent. Let me just say, watch this brand come next Friday, as they had amazing deals for four days where they were giving away full size stuff with the orders! The first day offer was free full size of their Long Lash mascara, and this is the more expensive one out of the two they carry. Inika mascara was the exact same thing I used since August, so technically I was due a new mascara, which was a catch for me. While I was mulling over should I get the mascara by itself or should I upgrade to one of their festive set with the mascara and the liquid liner for 25£, it sold out before my very own eyes, as did the cheaper mascara, so that simplified my choice (damn it though!) and I bought one mascara, and got one for free. Plus I got free shipping. Technically a score, but an impulse buy all the same.
Btw, I am due a Inika review, but it is one of those things I will carry over into the next year, as it will be one those huge blog posts, and it makes me tired already, even thinking about it, haha! I have like eight products to write about. 
By the way, Love Lula is doing an amazing deal on Inika now, where you get two free eye brushes for any order above 30£, so if you guys want to, you can get the mascara and liquid eyeliner set I mentioned above, plus something else (it might be a sample kit to bump you up to 30£ limit)

Total for this order 21£ or 23.77€ 
Total so far 94.61€

Terra Nova Cordyceps

Then I started to get sick, and started thinking of the ways to boost my immune system fast, as we opened "sickness season" really early this year, and quite frankly, I am sick of feeling sick! Then I remembered one thing that really helped me to stay well while I was taking it, and that is cordyceps supplement. I have tried Terra Nova Cordyceps, Rhodiola and Ginseng from Love Lula before, and it really helped me. It was my first cordyceps product ever, but I felt it is one of those things that gives the effect immediately. But as that supplement was in powder, I went for capsules this time round (link here), and I bought two bottles instead of one. The instructions say take 1 to 3 a day, so I didn't want to order another bottle really soon. My plan is to start with 3 capsules and then decrease it afterwards. If you are more advanced when it comes to cordyceps and other medicinal mushrooms than me, please tell me more about it, what brands are the best, how long do you take it, what other mushrooms are good for immune system, I want to know it all.

I already lost the receipt for it, so please let me do the math here, 19.75£ x2, with 15% off is 33.6£, let's convert it to euros and you will get 38.05€

Total so far is 132.66€

Neals Yard Remedies order

If there was one thing I waited for on Black Friday, it was Neals Yard Remedies 20% off sale, but they did not have it until like the 8th of December or something. I wasn't keen on spending another hundred euros, and they never have free shipping, which bugs me to no end, but I needed to stock up on their amazing Organic Thyme Cough Syrup, which is like the only thing that works for coughs, I really love the fact that it is organic, and it is like only a couple of euros dearer than the nasty chemical stuff you get in pharmacies. I had three bottles of it from my previous order, thinking it will last me the whole winter, but as I mentioned earlier, we opened the sickeness season early this year. So I didn't mince my words this time, I got five, plus Elderberry and Propolis Throat Spray and some essential oils - eucalyptus, frankincense and myrrh, plus lemon for cleaning. Order happened to be delivered while I was working away on this blog post, so I was able to insert a photo, with some better pictures to follow for upcoming reviews :) They have an array or great skincare, bodycare and make up, plus their Christmas sets are second to none, but I didn't need any of those this time round, so I skipped it.
P.s. If you happen to live in UK, Ireland, Germany or France, you might shop or browse my NYR page?

Total for this order was 101.35€ 
Total spent 234.01€

 

So Natural Beauty Order

*Update a few weeks later. Umm, do you think I stopped there? Nope. I happened to be browsing IG and So Natural Beauty (fabulous Belgian online store) happened to be running a GWP offer that I deemed better than their BF sale, so I jumped in with both feet, and with order above 150€ I scored a full size of Leahlani Meli Glow and a free shipping. I finally got a full size of Mahalo Rare Indigo balm, a couple of soaps from Kopa Kaui (Hawaii brand that happens to be owned by Leah's of Leahlani mother) and a Calia shampoo, finally! I wanted to try it ever since Holistic Habits put it on the market for me a good few years ago. As you can also see in the photo, I also got a mini of Schmith's sensitive skin deodorant, but I am not sure I will go on to purchase the full size of it - in the case you don't know it, the brand just sold out to Unilever, and soon enough we will witness formulation and ingredients change for the worse, mark my word for it! 
Expect reviews for everything in the 2018. In this case I am #sorrynotsorry for wasting another wad of cash - these were the products I needed and really wanted to try, plus the gift with purchase was too gorgeous to pass on! The mask smells gorgeous and I am so excited to dive into it! (unfortunately so is my 5yr old, I might have to hide it really soon, haha!)

Total for this order: 152€
Total total: 386.01!!! 
Whaaat? Umm, if you will need me, I will be in the naughty corner until the next year.


So all in all, that is my Black Friday haul this year. I don't even know how much I saved, all I know I am a bit annoyed with myself for spending that much - it is not like someone threw a couple of hundred of euros in order for me to shop, isn't it?

What about you guys? What did you buy and are you happy with your purchases? Please let me know, I would love to see it all.

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Lots of Love,
Penniless Renata. 

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 P.s. This blog posts features all the items I bought myself with my own money and affiliate links. They are at no extra cost to you, and I thank you so much if you use them xo