Great news: Boots is finally delivering in France !
In Dubai, by the way, there are Boots everywhere, so I’ve already been able to enjoy this awesome store. The choice of products is not as wide as in the United Kingdom, but there certainly are a lot of new products to try! First, I must confess something : for beauty products, I’m a terribly posh. Up to now, I’ve only been using products that I bought in department stores, in pharmacies or in professional brand stores. I want to be sure of the quality of what I apply onto my skin. And I feel like when I pay a lot of money for it, it’s a proof of good quality (but it’s so not true, I should have known that!).
Hey I’m super posh, I warned you! At the same time, when you see the price at which the makeup is sold in France, between 12 and 15 euros for a mascara, I often preferred to pay 10 euros more and get me the deluxe version without testing the cheaper one. Oh la la, all those a- priori…
Well, I think I’m starting to change my old habits… thanks to Boots!
Boots is a drugstore, and in France, there is no equivalent.
Indeed, in Boots, you can find typical drugstore brands like Bourjois, Maybelline (no, not Gemey as we say in France, I said Maybelline ;)) or pharmacy brands like Vichy, Nuxe for example, but also other mid-range brands like Stila (you cannot find Stila in France any more and it is a shame) and then, other more expensive brands such as Origins (also, sadly the brand has been discontinued in France) along with more classical high-end brands (like Chanel or Dior).
In Dubai, as I already said, the choice of brands is not as vast as in the UK. It’s more typical drugstore brands than high-end brands, but hey, never the less, that means a lot of good and new products for me to try!
At Boots, it’s sales time, all the time!
For example, my favourite promotions are : 1 purchased, 1 free, or even more fantastic: for 2 products purchased, you’ve got 1 for free, and it’s “Mix and Match “, which means you don’t have to take the same 3 products. It can be for make-up, for skincare… So many choices!
The ‘2 purchased 1 free’ offer has killed me, it is far too tempting, it’s ruining me!
So, finally, what did I found in Boots?
The False Lash Effect Mascara from Max Factor:
I heard a lot about this one and for ages!
With regard to mascaras, I’m über difficult. So far, I had only been using high-end ones, and I have been like that for years.
And then, by hearing a lot of good things about Max Factor from different YouTube channels, I thought I’d give it a try.
The choice was tricky, because the mascaras are THE speciality of Max Factor (along with foundations apparently, but I haven’t tried them yet), so there were a lot of different mascaras in front of me when I was in the store…
I didn’t choose the new one, Clump Defy, but a classical one, the False Lash Effect.
I hesitated a lot with the most famous, the 2000 calorie but for my eyelashes, I need a really strong curly effect, and according to what I’ve been reading on most reviews of this mascara, it is supposed to be one of the False Lash Effect functions.
(Well, I just saw on the site of Max Factor there is a version of that 2000 calorie for volume and curl : oops)
(Ah but I saw that Lisa Eldridge, one of my beauty gurus, said the False Lash Effect by Max Factor is one of her all- time favorites, so if it’s good enough for Lisa…)
So, what we have here, is the typical example of the French consumer in a Boots store: completely lost in front of this huge choice of unknown products!
I had to go back several times, to find my way around (ah aha ah, good excuse! As if I didn’t see enough just passing through without buying something new every time!) (Ahem) (Well).
So is this False Lash Effect mascara worth the hype?
Well, I must say that this stuff rocks! And moreover, this baby is 2 times cheaper than my usual mascaras. That’s it. I think a little bell is starting to ring somewhere in my little posh head…
But back to this mascara and the results:
– it gives a perfect volume, it really gets the eyelashes thicker without the clumping effect thanks to its silicone brush (I absolutely love those silicone brushes, so efficient !)
– the curl effect is really there, and it lasts! For a better long-lasting effect, I recommend the waterproof version, but even in the classical version, it really does the job well.
– it is handy, even if the brush is huge, I don’t want to cover half of my eyelid with my mascara (this is important, especially if I just did my best smoky eyes makeup! )
– it does not smudge during the day. That really annoys me, but I sadly have very oily eyelids, and a lot of mascaras tend to smudge on me, but not this one!
– the colour is an intense very pigmented black (some say these types of very intense black mascaras can be hard to remove, it’s because they never tried the DHC Deep Cleansing Oil ;) )
This mascara is perfect, I just love it!
It is available on Boots site for £10.99, (about 13.50 euros).
Long Lasting Finish Lipstick Matte by Kate Moss for Rimmel:
Rimmel is available in France, but there is a lot more choice here in Boots. So more tempting!
I confess that, being so posh, I did not really notice the brand in France but here in Dubai, the huge choice and the “2 for 3” promotion got me, so I picked up a matte lipstick of the collection by Kate Moss for Rimmel, a gorgeous coral/red neon which for once, seems to not appear totally orange on me.
Coral is a colour that I love, but for some reason, it doesn’t suit me all the time; if it’s a coral mixed with pink, I have a chance, if not, I would have to pass.
So here, the colour is stunning, a true red neon! It has really good pigmentation and the lasting effect is correct, it does not last all day, but it really doesn’t matter, since I love to put on some more lipstick during the day!
It also feels super light on the lips, and, for a matte lipstick, it does not dry out too much. But, be aware that the texture tends to accentuate the small cracks, so if you have very dry lips, it would be better to ex-foliate them before.
It is not really an ultra-matte lipstick, it has more of a “velvet” aspect. But it is super nice, and the colour is just beautiful, it’s really a colour that I have been looking for for ages : a true neon red, which instantly brightens up your face!
The icing on the cake : it costs less than 5 euros.
Breakfast Smoothie Scrub by Soap and Glory:
I love the Soap and Glory packaging! It’s pink, it’s girly, it’s fun…but if you want to understand what the product does, good luck! Yes, sure, there is a lot of stuff written on the packaging which is super funny, but to find the main function of the product, frankly this is really not that clear!
Moreover, the brand really offers all kinds of different products : bath and body products, makeup, skincare… and perhaps it’s because I’m a beginner in Soap and Glory products, but I was unable to recognize a range of distinct products, they all have the same colour, the same presentation, whether it’s a hand cream or an eyebrow pencil. Anyway, perhaps it was badly organised in the stores I’ve been to…
So I tried to start with an “easy” one, to find: a body scrub, the Smoothie Star Breakfast Club.
Soap and Glory has 6 differents body scrubs, so for sure the choice wasn’t so easy!
Well, this one looks to be the newest, and the words ” breakfast” and “oat, shea butter and sugar” (yum ) finally convinced me.
This is a real body scrub, not an ex-foliating shower gel. I can’t understand why they decide to call it “smoothie”, because the texture is very thick, not that I’m bothered, but still, choosing that name is quite weird.
I used it on wet skin, then massaged it in circular motions and finally rinsed it off.
It is absolutely gorgeous!
It really polishes the skin off, you can feel the scrubs but it’s not aggressive to the skin, it’s easy to remove and doesn’t leave the skin oily as many sugar scrubs tend to do (I really don’t like the feeling of oil on my skin I can have with most of these sugar based body scrubs and the most important, it ruins my bathtub too!). The skin is super soft, it’s a really good body scrub.
The best of this product ? The smell! It’s a fragrance of maple syrup, I really felt that I could eat it ! It’s like I was using porridge with maple syrup : yum yum yum!
And all this for less than 10 euros!
I made many other discoveries in Boots, but I want to keep on trying those new products before I can tell you more about them…… so stay tuned!
And you, did you made some good discoveries in Boots?
Credits: Boots, Max Factor, Rimmel, Soap and Glory
