One woman's unwanted freebies are another woman's new favourite products

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I spent a lot of my late teens wishing my mum was into sky high heels & designer bags, but alas she's a lady who adores Clarks & what I can only describe as old granny-style bags. Maybe it's the fact that she's a quarter of a century older than me or maybe I lack style. Either way, her flat shoes & bright red Osprey bag are not the sort of thing I want to borrow. 

But what my mum lacks in style she makes up in her appreciation of premium brand skincare and make up. And generosity. She's always happy to throw the endless freebies she receives my way, which is extremely kind of her to do. Here are some of my favourite freebies she's thrown my way so far, and may there be many more! No really, I haven't actually bought mascara in 2 years because I just have so many samples to get through...

I'm currently obsessed with the Lancome Hydra Intense Hydrating Gel Mask she was given a full size sample of, which makes me wonder just how much money she spends on skincare.... 

Anyway, I use this twice a week overnight & have found that it keeps my skin nice and hydrated & for some reason helps me keep blemish free too. It'll definitely be on my shopping list once I'm all out of it, unless of course another freebie comes my way.

Another Lancome product I absolutely adore now is the Galateis Douceur Cleanser which is one of the only things I can rely on to remove my mascara properly. It's a little pricey to buy a full size of so its been relegated to my overnight bag & I've been sticking to a massive bottle of Garnier Micellar water at home. 

I'm not sure how, but my mum ended up with a full sized Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate which was immediately flung my was purely because it wasn't a Lancome product. This is not a complaint though. I'm working on staging an intervention for her, don't worry. Luckily for me, I love this product too. It smells amazing I'm not even remotely joking when I say that the smell helps me sleep better.

The last freebie I got was this amazing Laura Mercier Fresh Fig candle which someone gave my mum for Christmas a couple of years ago. She's not a scented candle kind of lady though....

I'm not even sure if Laura Mercier have a candle range any more or if this was part of a gift set of sorts, but I'm absolutely in love with it. It smells divine and the container it comes in is so detailed and beautiful. I did have plans to buy another one but I can't seem to find them anywhere other than eBay so I'm trying to prolong its life by burning it as little as possible. I also have major plans for the container once I've burned the entire candle, because the new, money saving me does not waste anything that can be recycled.

-N