Bloggers Week on BuyaPowa

Most of you will have heard of BuyaPowa. They are quite possibly the best company out there at utilising social media to make their business work and this week is extra special for us beauty bloggers as we've had the chance to choose our very own co-buy. 

"Bloggers Week" has begun. It's pretty exciting and having seen the line up of my favourite bloggers and their recommended products I'm looking forward to grabbing some serious bargains. I do unfortunately feel the need to mention that I am not being compensated in any way for lending my name to one of todays deal. I am as always just pleased to have been asked, I love working with BuyaPowa and it fits in with my blogging ethos perfectly. It's not that I don't like high end products it's just that I don't like their high end prices.. enter co-buying. 

So the product I chose was Benefits latest 'blush in a box' release "Hervana". I can't say it's my favourite product as I don't even own it but having swatched it every time I pass the Benefit counter it has been top of my wish list for weeks but lets face it.. £23.50 for a blush is..well... a bit much! I've been waiting for BuyaPowa to have it on offer so jumped at the chance to get it there myself. £17.50 is still not exactly budget friendly but if your a Benefit blush collector like myself you won't be able to resist!

As I said it will be a week of blogger picks and I will be coming to you with my favourites as and when they go live. I have added the Buyapowa ribbon to my sidebar so that you can check back for the latest co-buys in the meantime. If you're totally new to co-buying you can read my explanatory post here

For now my co-buy is live and kicking and selling fast

Get yours here

Miss BB

Meet Mia

 

I think the day she arrived might have been one of the most special of my life (don't tell the kids)

I have wanted a Clarisonic since.. well probably since I heard of the Clarisonic. the reviews were unanimous, I'd never seen an appliance - or anything for that matter - so consistently raved about before and I knew sooner or later I would have to have one. The initial hurdle was that they were only sold in the US. They were all over eBay of course but they had US plugs and the mark up was insane. Soon enough they hopped across the pond and Clarisonic launched a UK website.. now the problem was the price. The original is £155 which no matter how amazing is just way out of my budget. Last year they launched the 'travel sized' Mia version, you can choose from a range of colours, the charger has had an update and although the overall unit has downsized considerably the brush head has remained the same. This means that the replacement and alternate heads available are interchangeable between models and you're not really losing out on anything but the size of the handle.. and why would you want that to be huge anyway? The other difference between the classic and the Mia is that the Mia has only 1 speed setting where as the classic offers to go down a notch.. but again.. I wouldn't want any less speed so it would be a wasted feature for me. Now I know what you're thinking.. 'but isn't it still expensive?' Yes! Although the Mia is a more compact version it is still £120. For most of us that's a lot of money for something replacing your old washcloth. 

Having only been using this for just over a week I'm not in a position to fully review the system, I can't tell you whether it's worth the investment for you. Only you know if your skin would benefit. If you're a hardcore exfoliator like myself then I would say almost certainly, yes. My skin can never feel too clean, I hate face washes that are missing those little microbeads and the Clarisonic leaves me feeling the cleanest I ever have and my skin has never been so soft.. and that's only a week in. Already I can see my pores are less obvious and even acne scarring seems reduced. I wasn't expecting to see results for at least a month and had heard my skin could get worse before it got better but (so far) that has not been the case. I had a stubborn blackhead which had been standing it's ground for a good two months and it's gone.. I am already just so much more impressed than I thought I would be. 

Now like I said.. I can't tell you how this will work for you, I can't even tell you how it will work for me long term all I can  tell you is that I love my Clarisonic and if I had to go out and replace it I would gladly pay that £120! I am going to follow up with a more in depth post in a month or so and let you know how I'm getting on with her but so far Mia and I are becoming fast friends.

 

I want to mention the charger which you can see clipped on the the bottom of the handle in this picture (below). They call it a pLink which is oh so fitting as it's kind of the noise it makes, it's a magnet that kind of 'clips' on to the base with no plug or port of any kind.. it's just plastic on plastic.. bizarre but it works. Once it's charging you get a little acknowledgement in the form of a buzz and a green light in the back of the unit glows through the plastic. It's all very sleek and swish. They've definitely taken some cues from Apple in the design department. The charger is also suitable for use anywhere in the world thanks to its compatibility with multiple volts so you needn't worry about outing the rechargeable battery if you travel a lot. The brush supplied is a sensitive head.. I will probably switch that out for a normal one (brush head are £21) in a month or two when my skin gets used to the daily use. I've not suffered any dryness so far and am using my regular moisturiser (clean and clear dual action) so change there. I've tried two cleansers with the system up to now, Liz Earle and Cetaphil. I've heard conflicting advice on what formula's to use but I thought I'd stick to non foaming for now to be on the safe side. I will no doubt branch out as I read more reviews.

The Mia does come with a 30ml sample of Clarisonic cleanser but it's such a handy size I'm saving it for out Vegas trip. May have to test run it once beforehand to make sure my skin doesn't react though.. boy would that be unfortunate for my honeymoon pictures!

There are so many facts and random bits of information I could give you but this is such a well known product I'm not going to bore you.. ok just one.. Did you know the Clarisonic was produced by the same guy that invented the Sonicare toothbrush? I didn't and found that interesting so maybe you will too...no? Ok, sorry! Anyway...  In summary, if you're in the market for great skin this New Year I would definitely recommend you give this a go if you can stretch your budget. The Mia is available at FeelUnique for £120 where you can also buy brush heads for £21 and delivery is free. 

I, however, got mine from Buyapowa. I'm sure you're all familiar with them by now... although nobody was when I first posted in October (for more info you can find that post here). They have gone from strength to strength and the one product I wanted them to offer was a Clarisonic. You can request whatever you like as a "co-buy" and I campaigned in every video.. 'go and vote for Clarisonic' and low and behold it worked! They got it for just £90!!! It was gone in a day (boxing day no less, when nobody has ANY money).. well I have seen it appear today on their 'Coming Soon' page again.. so I guess it's coming back! Good news for all of you that missed it the first time around. There is of course another reason I'm giving Buyapowa honourable mention here.. and that's because I got mine for FREE!

Not because I'm a blogger, not because they like me (although who wouldn't want to give me free stuff?.. Urban Decay? Naked II? No?) I got my Clarisonic for free because on the day I spread the word and brought in more "co-buyers" than anyone else. Once you've signed up for a product they encourage you to use your social networks to advertise the deals which of course works for them but if you get enough people on board it works for you too and what's the risk? It's already a cut price product but every time you buy you have the chance to win your money back. I don't want to beat you over the head with it but I am so very impressed with everything I've bought from them so far, to get the one thing I was desperate for a discount on for FREE.. how can I not shout about that?

I'm sure everyone on twitter hates me right now 'cause I'm obsessed with this whole get it for free deal but I promise I'll stop. I'm on a 12 step program!

Miss BB

Elizabeth Arden 8hr Cream for £13!!!

Really quick blast to tell you that Buyapowa have Elizabeth Arden 8hr cream (50ml) at 40% off RIGHT NOW. This is NOT a sponsored post, I have bought this deal myself (look for me on the list) and I couldn't keep it to myself. It will go for £13 when it sells out... which of course it will. I had to have it for my hospital bag, I've never actually bought a full sized tube before but what with winter coming and 40% off... I couldn't resist!!!

You can get the offer here

Do any of you consider this a "must have" ?

Also must mention... have you seen their limited edition range for Christmas? 

I might have to treat myself to this bling lip balm to match... even if it is a whopping £19 *eek*

You can pick that up online at very.co.uk

*Again, I received no compensation for the publishing of this post and there was no request by any companies for me to do so, just genuinely sharing a very good deal with my lovely readers!*

Too Faced Fun in the Dark

I was pretty darn excited when BuyaPowa told me this was the next cosmetic co-buy and even more so when I received one in the post on Tuesday. Over the last few days I've tested it (you can expect some tutorials very soon) and I think I'm in a position to review. First up...

The Packaging

Wow! Reminiscent of the Urban Decay BOS III (NY) palette  but not just eyeshadows. The lights are more like the model mirror so many bloggers have raved about and in this handy compact palette the light up mirror is actually useable rather than just a cute gimmick. It's substantial enough that it feels secure in your bag and yet small enough that it will fit in even your evening clutch for a night out.

Eyes

There are four to choose from in this palette, hopefully they show up well enough for you to make them out from the swatches below. Pin Up and Peep Show are more highlight shades, they would make very sheer lid colours. It's a shame because I really love Peep Show, I'm hoping it will be a bolder colour with a primer underneath. Full Frontal and Lucky Charms are really impressive for pigmentation. Full Frontal is a warm almost aubergine/brown and Lucky Charms is a vibrant green like nothing else I have.. always nice to add something new! Overall I think they're great quality shadows I just wish the paler ones had a touch more pay-off.

Face

First I have to mention Sun Bunny. This is uber-popular as a single product so I was really pleased to get to try it. One side (right) is matte and the other (left) has a sheeny finish. It gives a really beautiful natural golden glow. The Blush, Papa Don't Peach (love the name) is a lovely compliment to Sun Bunny. Again it has a kind of sheen to it, it's not quite shimmer just a dewy effect on the skin.

I really liked both of these and that they go so well together.

Lips

In this set you get a lipstick and a lipgloss. Free Love is a barely there pinky nude shade, it's always difficult to get a good swatch from a lip palette. It seemed quite sheer when I applied it but I'm not sure if it would be quite so sheer from a tube. None the less it was a nice shade once on the lips. The gloss didn't give much colour at all. What looked like a garish bright pink in the palette turned out to be just a bit of sparkle. The two were nice worn together but lip palettes are notoriously difficult to get right. It's a nice addition to the overall package.

Prior to this set I'd only tried the Naked Eye palette before which had really impressed me, I'd been looking forward to trying something new from them and this didn't let me down.

To get 40% off this palette visit BuyaPowa who have this on offer today!!!

*sponsored post*

Chanel Rouge Coco Mademoiselle

How excited was I when I got the email about today's BuyaPowa Deal? Very!
I know they've had some great products recently but even I didn't think they'd get Chanel on board. When I worked in a Beauty Department Chanel was the only house not to take part in discount days. Understandably they didn't want to cheapen the brands image but as a result you can virtually never find it at less than RRP.
When I asked you what you wanted to see as BuyaPowa's next deal lots of you put Chanel at the top of your wish list, asking for various different products. I think the tricky thing we're going to find with this site is that as they can only ask for one specific item at a time they're going to lean towards the classic/universal options. This , for example, is in the cult shade Mademoiselle 05, as worn by the beautiful Vanessa Paradis in the ad's. Maybe it's not the colour you would choose but I think they're playing it safe with something most people could wear. I'll admit it's not the colour I'd have chosen if I'd had the whole range in front of me but boy am I glad I have it now. It doesn't look like anything "special" in the tube but on the lips I really do think it's one of those classics everyone should have in their collection. Being the budget hunter that I am I immediately did a sweep of my lipstick drawer to see if I had any drugstore dupes and it would appear this really is a new addition so I'm very pleased with it.

 You can buy the Range of Rouge Coco lipsticks here from Boots.com for £23 each. At that price you can understand why when I received this I didn't want to like it. As you know I'm not a huge lipstick fan so I didn't think there was much risk of using it up and needing to repurchase but y'know now.. I'm not so sure.

It's hydrating, the colour payoff is great (just one swipe and you're out the door) and it lasts!

It gives enough colour to wear out on the town but not so much I couldn't pop it on for the morning school run. You can apply it lightly for a "just-bitten" effect or bold to look perfectly polished.It will replace my favourite Viva Glam V as my handbag staple that's for sure. I will of course keep searching for that drugstore dupe for those of you that just can't quite stretch your budget above Superdrug prices (well done ladies, you have more will power than I) but for those of you interested in bagging the Chanel version at a discount read on...

What absolutely hooked me on this co-buy was the packaging I received it in. Of course it would be fabulous to treat yourself but how cool would it be to hand this over to a friend on their birthday or even (don't hate me for saying this) Christmas! It's closer than you think! I'm tempted to buy another for a Chanel-loving friend of mine who would just melt over this...

No joke, I left this in it's packaging a whole day before I opened it... it was just too pretty to unwrap!

You can view the BuyaPowa deal here Best price is 26% off at £16.99

YSL Touche Eclate for just £13???

I am so excited to tell you that right now on BuyaPowa you could bag YSL's Touche Eclat for the bargain price of £13!!! I'm even more excited because I asked you all both here and on my YouTube channel what products you would love for BuyaPowa to get at discount and Touche Eclat was something so many of you requested. It just goes to show that the system works when we tell them what we want. There were lots of other things we wanted of course and they want new ideas all the time so if there's one thing on your wish list right now that's just out of your price range PLEASE leave a comment for them to see.. I would love to see them bring on board another must-have that we demanded.

Ok.. on to the product.

I have tried it myself some time ago and like most people, loved it. The only thing that put me off repurchasing was the price. I tried other, cheaper versions from different brands but nothing really seemed to do the same thing so I gave it up as a bad job and moved on.

For those of you that have been making do with less effective alternatives or who just really want to try this cult product now's your chance.

To give you an indication of what else is available in this price range right now..

No7 Instant Radiance Concealer £13.50

Clinique Airbrush Concealer £15.00

But the original Touche Eclat could be yours for just £13!!!

If you're unfamiliar with how BuyaPowa works go to my blog post here where any questions should be answered.. for those already in the know here are the price points, before it even starts the price will be just £17.50 compared to the RRP £24.50...

You can view the deal and join the co-buy here and don't forget to spread the word if you do.. whoever brings in the most people will get theirs for FREE! Now that would be a bargain.

This is a fab deal to get on board for a relatively new company..

If they can do this.. what else could we ask for?

Smokin' Eyes at Smokin' Prices

After the success of the Nails Inc Magnetic nail polish deal I'm really pleased to be telling you about this one. I was as sceptical as the next person and wasn't sure whether the Nails Inc deal would be a one off but its looking like those among us in the market for beauty bargains will grow to love BuyaPowa.. our bank accounts perhaps even more so. The current deal is for Benefit's Smokin' Eyes Makeover Kit. It's a handy handbag sized palette perfect for travelling, touch ups or even to keep in your desk drawer for those impromptu post work drinks. It's all you need to transform your makeup from day to night.

As you can see from the picture below the price drops from £28.50 to £17.50 immediately and providing 75 people buy everyone will pay just £13.00!! Postage is free too!

You can currently buy this palette at House Of Fraser for £31.50 including delivery where it's been given 5 star reviews by customers who've paid full price. If it's a great product at £28.50 then it's a fantastic one at  £13.00, wouldn't you agree?

If you're interested in the offer you can click here to view it live..

By the time you're reading this it could already have reduced in price!

If you have any questions check out my blog post here which hopefully will answer most of them and give you a bit more info about BuyaPowa and how it works.

If you've got a suggestion as to what their next deal should be leave me a comment there.

Social Shopping

I put up a quick post yesterday to tell you about the offer on Nails Inc Magnetic Nail Polish at more than 40% off but I wanted to go in to more detail about the shopping revolution that is BuyaPowa.

I'd like to point out this is not a sponsored post. I'm a genuine fan of this site and that's the last time I'm going to say it! It works for us social media freaks better than anyone else, it has elements of other retail sites we all already use but they have been combined to create something totally new.

Big retailers receive huge discounts from beauty brands when they buy in bulk. The basic premise of BuyaPowa is if enough of us show an interest in a product then we should be able to demand the same price cuts. It doesn't seem unreasonable I was approached by a BuyaPowa rep who likened it to 100 of us going in to Boots together and buying a lipstick, we will still all pay the RRP but if we were a retailer we would get a much better deal. There is so much to know about the site and the clearest way I could think to display it best is bullet points... so here you are.

• Co-Buying

This is what BuyaPowa calls it when we all join together to buy in bulk and benefit from the hefty discounts.

When you purchase anything on the site you are "joining a co-buy"

• Requests

BuyaPowa wants us to tell them what we want to buy but we're not willing to pay full price for. They have a requests section on their site where you can go and review and vote on other trending requests as well as suggest your own. They also have an app you can bookmark so when you're shopping you can hit the BuyaPowa button and tell them how much you'd like to pay for the product.

• Leader Board 

 This is a quirky extra incentive to spread the word about a co-buy you've joined (an item you've bought).

Once you've bought you're going to want other people to join anyway because the more people that join the less you will ultimately pay but the leader board bring in the element of competition. When you join a co-buy you get your own link to drive people to the deal, if people click through your link and buy or click on your picture to say you referred them you will move up the leader board. When the deal ends the person who has referred the most buyers gets their item for FREE!! That may seem small fry when we're talking about a £7 nail polish but what if you were buying a TV? Big deal!

For many of you this way of buying may be reminiscent of other retail concepts you've come across such as BidUpTV and Groupon. BuyaPowa always has one current deal, when 75 people buy it hits "Best Price" there's then the opportunity for 25 more people to get in on the action before the deal closes. There is a timer on every deal so it will end either after the timer runs out or after 100 people have bought the item. I am fairly confident that the beauty community is excited enough about grabbing a bargain that all cosmetic related deals will fly off the virtual shelves. When it comes to spreading the word BuyaPowa is much like Sigma and Eyeko, they are offering their own incentives for us to do their marketing for them. They are different in that as of right now there is no affiliate program and we aren't getting the opportunity to make money but we could save a bundle and when it's something that you know everyone is interested in why would you not want to tell everyone about it??

I think I've covered everything I would want to know but if you're still not sure go and check out the website it's fairly self-explanatory but I wanted to get all this out on my blog in my own words for those of you that are sceptical and want a little reassurance. I know myself that before I got involved I did a little research and found other bloggers I trust talking about the company, had I not I don't know if I'd have been as comfortable telling you guys about it let alone placing an order myself.

I'm already excited to see what other deals they have in the pipeline but the thing that interests me most is their request scheme. They tell me that their ideal is for every co-buy they offer to have come from our requests. They want to bring us what we want at the prices we want to pay. Is that really possible? Who knows? But I want to test them. Let's see what we can get if we just ask for it. Tell me your most wanted, overpriced products and let's see if they can deliver.

If I get enough of one request I will set up a poll and you can all vote for your favourite.. Wouldn't it be cool to get our own request made in to a deal? Leave me a comment :)

Nails Inc Magnetic Polish 40% off

I was approached yesterday by the company BuyaPowa. I get a lot of emails from companies regarding sponsored posts as you can imagine and most I disregard as they are irrelevant or I just don't like the look of them. This was completely different. I intend to do a full post about the company at a later stage... possibly even later today but the deal that just went live is too great to miss so I wanted to get something up as quickly as possible. You can view all of the information and how it works on the site itself but to give you an overview it's kind of a cross between Bid-up TV and Groupon. There is one deal at a time and the more people that buy it the cheaper the price gets until it reaches it's "best price". Best price is achieved at 75 buyers and the deal ends once there are 100. You buy at one price and then spread the word (much as we do when there's a great Groupon deal) in the hope you will lower your price. Once the deal timer ends or  100 people have bought you all pay the same price (much like Bid-up TV).
Another great perk is the leader board for referrals. If you refer the most people you get your item for FREE!
Like I said I really want to get in to this in more details and talk about what the company is all about and how it will hopefully work for budget-hunting consumers like you and I but this post is just to make you aware of the general idea and todays offer. I'd like to point out at this stage I have bought this myself with my own money, it was not provided to me and you can see me on the site as the 5th person to buy. You guys know I was already uber-excited about the launch of Nails Inc's Magnetic Nail Polish but I hadn't bitten the bullet and purchased yet and that is because of the price. You can see my original post about the launch and how the polish works etc here.
I've bought the deal at £10 which is a £3 discount already (postage is free) and if 70 more people buy it we will all get it for £7 which is an absolute bargain! The downside is that they only have 1 shade on offer and although I would have probably chosen the silver to get more wear I have more purple polish than anything else so it's safe to say it still appeals. You will also have to wait for the deal to end for the item to be posted to you but as we bargain shoppers know that is a small price to pay for 40% off a recently launched product.
If you've already heard of this site I'd be really interested to know whether you've bought from them before or what deals you'd like to see them offer in the future, that's another great thing about BuyaPowa, they want US to tell THEM what we want so they can get it for us (again... I'll add more detail later)
Anyway I've rambled enough for what was supposed to be a very brief post but I'm really excited about this. If you are interested in the deal you can view it here and if you have any questions leave me a comment or tweet me @msbudgetbeauty for a quicker response.