Good morning class,

Today’s post is just a quick wee haul of some goodies which I nabbed at the ever-exhilarating BIG BUCKET DEALS sale!

If you’ve ever been to one of these sales, then you’ll know the stress and excitement I’m talking about. If not, then you need to sign up to their mailer and see when they’re close to you!

The Big Bucket Deals is a makeup sale that feels like it happens all the time, but really, they happen about 3-4 times a year in one area. They travel around New Zealand cleaning out the purses of all those makeup obsessedlike myself.

Inside the elusive ‘Big Bucket Deal’ sale there’s makeup, perfume, skin care and nail polish galore! Buckets to store your purchases, perfume testers, and LOTS of people. The amount of pushing and shoving people depends on the time you choose to attend, and it can make you never want to attend again. I don’t know why women get so pushy and shove-y when it comes to a good sale but it really does grind my gears!

The reason why the makeup is so cheap at these sales is because it’s parallel imported, which means that the makeup is non-counterfeit goods which are imported to New Zealand from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner. It does sound a bit dodgy, but it is actually legal. Often the products are old stock, or stock which has been discontinued. (Sometimes this is a good thing because you can find that discontinued item you’ve been pining for.)

Anyway, on my trip to the sale (after school), it wasn’t TOO crowded which was nice. They had LOTS of perfumes that I wanted (I’m a sucker for perfume) and lots of new brands like e.l.f. and Wet N Wild which I was pleased about. It was a fairly poor week so I didn’t go crazy, and I sadly put down the Escada perfume I’d been pining for myself and walked away with three items.

I got the Paris Hilton ‘Heiress’ perfume in 100ml and two Essie Nail polishes in Stroke of Brilliance and Warm and Toasty Turtleneck.

Don’t judge me on the Paris Hilton perfume! I know it’s cheesy, and that Paris was so 00’s, but this is one of those perfumes you don’t find around anymore and I used to own it when I was about 19 or 20. It smells SO good and it’s quite strong (but in a good way). It smells very very sweet, sort of like a super sweet flower? It’s really nice though and I often get compliments on it! I love cheap perfumes because I use so much perfume at once! I think this one was $39 for 100ml which I thought was a bit of a steal!

As for the Essie nail polishes I absolutely LOVE Essie polishes. They have super cute bottles, (A win for me!) lots of cute colours, they last pretty well with a top coat, and they’re super opaque! I love the formula and the wee brush is the perfect size. I read on my friend Cass’s blog that she said the brush was so wide it could almost coat a whole nail at once – which is so true and something I love about them too!

I picked up the blue shimmery shade ‘Stroke of Brilliance’ because I decided I wanted a thick glittery shade and I thought it would go nicely with the other shade I picked up. Plus there wasn’t anything else that I really liked that much. I quite like a nice royal blue.

Aside from having the cutest name ever, Warm & Toasty Turtleneck is like the most perfect lilac colour ever. It looks gorgeous on the nails and it’s just the sort of shade I’ve been hunting for! As soon as I saw it, it had already made it’s way into my bucket and into my family.

I think the Essie polishes were $8 which is pretty cheap for NZ considering how much they are at Farmers (like $20!).

And that’s all folks! I know I went on about the Big Bucket Sales a bit but I promise you this post is in no way sponsored by them, or anyone for that matter! What gems have you picked up from a makeup/perfume sale? What do I need to keep an eye out for next time?

Let me know in the comments section down below – or follow me on social media for a bit more of a chat!