What it is like working in Retail - Part 1

Image from here

I've been working in retail for almost two years so after seeing a picture pop up on Facebook about what working in retail is like, and seeing a list named "ten truths about working in retail" also pop up on my Newsfeed - I decided on doing a post about it. For us, who already work in retail to share each others pain, but for people who are just starting out in retail, or getting their first jobs in stores to understand what it is going to be like. Please feel free to share your thoughts about what working in retail is really like in the comments! I'd love to hear what you think.

1. If you love a song that is currently in the charts, be prepared to hate it within a week. 

This is the one thing I knew I would have to contend with within the first few hours of my shift on my very first day or working in retail. In those few hours, I heard the same four songs on loop - and nothing else. For me, this was November 2012 and those songs were: Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepson, Hall of Fame by The Script and Will.I.Am, Beauty and a Beat by Justin Bieber and I Found You by The Wanted and then when December rolled around, it was the same three Christmas songs on repeat instead. Being a girl who loves Eminem and Motley Crue, you can image how unimpressed with the song choices that I was forced to listen to 5 days a week.

MAC Alluring Aquatic: Goddess of the Sea

So recently, I took advantage of the 10% off beauty during the Summer Spectacular event at Debenhams and picked up something I had been wanting for a while - something from MAC's Alluring Aquatic collection, and considering I get a further 20% off considering I work in the store - it was definitely an opportunity I couldn't pass up! I also picked up some amazing bargains from Illamasqua so expect them later in the week.

The product I picked up from MAC was the Goddess of the Sea - this was the second choice, as the lipstick I wanted originally was out of stock. This was the only lipstick that was left in stock - so after I purchased this, the MAC counter and no lipsticks from the collection AT ALL. Which meant it was clearly fate I was meant to own this lipstick. 

Revlon Colourstay Foundation in Ivory

As I mentioned in this post  I went shopping with the gorgeous Georgina from SheMightBeLoved.Com last month and picked up a new foundation in my question to see if I can top my beloved foundation from The Body Shop. 

I have heard a lot of good things about this foundation and when I've asked on Twitter and Instagram about people's thought's on this foundation, I had nothing but good feedback and quite a few of bloggers say that this was their Holy Grail foundation and it had been compared to MAC. So, I gave it a try!

The Body Shop Slanted Brush

It's no secret that I absolute adore The Body Shop and they do the best foundation for my skin (nothing has beaten it so far!), the next on my list of favourites from there is their slanted brush. I used this every day without fail, I use it to apply my brow powder and sometimes to apply a soft liner.

LUSH Ultrabland Facical Cleanser & Eau Roma Water Toner

As I said in my April Haul post, I went shopping with Georgina from SheMightBeLoved.com and she helped me massively with my skincare routine, as that was the thing I wasn't very good with (read: lazy). And now, she has helped me so much, and my skin thanks her a lot for it! 

I was going to do this post a week or two a go, a few days after I got the products, but I wanted to give them a proper road test with them being Skin Care to see any long term effects from using them. So now, It's been over 3 weeks of using these every day, I have formed a pretty solid opinion on them.

She explained to me about the ingredients in most skin care items found in places like Boots and Superdrug, how they contain a lot of alcohol and chemicals, so she took me to Lush and telling her about my skin type - which is Normal with an Oily T-Zone, she picked out two items that would go well with my skin. I got the small sizes, as I was trying them out and wanted to make sure that they suited my skin before investing in the larger ones.

First up: Ultrabland Facial Cleanser. 

My Experience with Mica Bella Cosmetics

If you are familiar with Meadowhall, you know that whenever you decide to go anywhere in there you will be bombared with Sales Assistants trying to get you to stop and try their amazing product - either by shouting "Can I ask you a question" or trying to lure you in with free soap. It's literally like an episode of Total Wipeout trying to get to and from work every day.

Anyway, I was bored after work and I walked past Mica Bella cosmetics - which is the most annoying one of them all, and it's situated right in the path I take to work, I stopped. I knew the girl working there, from college although we don't really speak anymore. I got talking to her, thinking "Oh! It'll be a nice catch up" Nope. 

She sat me down straight away and said "do you want me to try things on your face?" I immediately said no. So she tested products on my hand. 

April Favourites

Benefit They're Real Mascara: This mascara is an old favourite of mine, but I recently had been leaving it in my make-up drawer in favour of MAC'S Studio Fix Mascara, however when that ran out, I reached back for my trusty Benefit mascara - and realized just how much i'd missed it. Normally, I hate giving into the blogger hype but this one lives up to all it's expectations and beyond. It gives absolutely gorgeous length and volume and makes my lashes look amazing. Literally, in my opinion, nothing compares to this mascara.