For my birthday (not on my actual birthday, the week before, my actual birthday is July 24, so next Monday) we went to V2 in France, in a place called Villeneuve-d'Ascq to be precise (who even comes up with these names?).
I'm generally not into these huge malls, but I'm into a lot of things inside this particular one. Like Burger King, sushi, bakery PAUL, Sephora (d'uh), M.A.C (double d'uh), Nocibé and a myriad of other shops. If they had a Monoprix instead of an Auchan then that mall would have been pretty darn perfect (I vastly prefer Monop to Auchan).
Now, because I'm a smart consumer (which you wouldn't say if you follow my blog) I made a pretty strict list of things I wanted to get, and I promised myself I would NOT stray from them.
And I didn't :).
I also made sure to take a cash budget along. And as I'm clever that way, I have my bank card set so I can't use it abroad, I couldn't spend more anyway. (My bank card doesn't have to work abroad, Bert's does and he's under strict orders NOT to front me anything with it). Financial self-preservation is an awesome thing!
So this is most of the stuff I bought.
I say most, because I thought that fitting in the 6 bags of croco pik! and pretty much everything else we got at Auchan was overkill, to say the least. Three of those are my dad's though. My dad loves Haribo croco pik! as much as I do, and we both lament the fact that it's not for sale in Belgium. Although, I'm not sure we'd love it as much if we could get our hands on it non stop.
That aside, let me tell you about my day :).
Villeneuve-d'Ascq is about 2 hours drive from our place. So Bert decided we should leave at 9am, and arrive about an hour after the mall opens. We had decided to go the week before my birthday, because he's on annual leave anyway, and I kinda also wanted to go to Antwerp. So we're doing Antwerp on my birthday and did this first.
He figured, and probably rightfully so, that with the sales being on, going to V2 sooner rather than later was probably the best bet. So we got there a little after 11 (because we stopped on the way), and even though it was a Monday, the parking lot was pretty full. Or at least the part we were in. They have 3000+ spots in their car park (which was free, very awesome) so I don't think it really was that full looking at the global parking area. V2 isn't actually that big, Wijnegem shopping, for instance, is much bigger. I do feel that V2 is pretty confusing, it's probably for a reason they have those really funky touch screen maps. Which I spent much more time playing with than I should have, I admit. But they were just so cool!
I first wanted to go to Nocibé, but we ended up inside the geek shops first, looking for Adventure Time stuff and not finding any.
So off to Nocibé we went, because I had my heart set on brushes. And a few other bits and bobs. Back in February when Bert and I were in Nantes, I had randomly stumbled upon a Nocibé, and liked their brushes. But they were quite pricy and I didn't want to go over budget.
I'm glad I didn't buy them back then, because apparently they discount all their “basic range” brushes during the sales.
So now I got all the brushes I wanted in February, but with a 60% discount!
For a second I doubted about getting the, also discounted, giant slanted powder brush, because it was the softest brush in the universe, and it wasn't even €6. BUT I was good and resisted, because I just wouldn't use a brush like that. I did get a foundation brush, because it's also really good to apply bodypaint. I don't use foundation, but come Halloween season, I am not against bodypaint on the face for Halloween looks :).
I also wanted to go there, because I had seen on the site that they were still getting rid of some things from last Christmas season, and I had my heart set on buying my friend Claire the christmas tree shaped blending sponge. Turns out that there sort-of were TWO Nocibé stores, and that I had to find the Christmas stuff at the other one.
The other one turned out to be a Douglas, which also carries Nocibé in France. Very confusing. That one did have ONE more Christmas brush (an excellent blush/powder one) and ONE more Christmas blender. The clear bauble that houses it was broken, but the blender was still in perfect condition so I grabbed it.
I also found the shimmery orange eye shadow that was on sale in that one. I had seen it in the other one, but they only had testers of that shade, thankfully this store had the actual shade.
I had budgetted to get 3 tapered eye shadow brushes, but ended up not liking them, so buying an eye shadow instead (which amounted to less than the 3 brushes would have) was a good deal. Especially considering I was planning on buying a shimmery orange shadow anyway.
We had a look in M.A.C, because obviously, it was there. But I didn't buy anything.
At Sephora I swatched a bunch of Too Faced things, and realised not buying Chihuahua from their Melted line was a good thing because I didn't much like the colour in real life.
It reminds me too much of Sugar Daddy, from their La Crème series.
Don't get me wrong, I like Sugar Daddy, but I don't need two of that shade in my life.
I did realise that both Too Faced and Sephora do a dupe for Winky Lux' Meow. Or possibly Meow is a dupe of one of those. So I might switch to Sephora's Oh, oh! after I run out of Meow, because it's cheaper, and I like their lipstick formulas.
I had hoped to be able to swatch the gold Too Faced highlighter, but the display was in pretty bad condition, and the only one that was swatchable was the rose gold one. Which is SUPER gorgeous, but not something I would wear.
I have to say that a lot of displays in that Sephora were in pretty bad shape :(. But the staff was really friendly and helpful.
Because I ended up not buying a Too Faced lipstick, like I had planned, I felt like it was legit to buy a Sephora lip stain, which was over €10 cheaper than a Too Faced lipstick.
I do feel the need to point out that I don't appreciate Sephora's antics when it comes to neglecting to list ingredients on cosmetics. The Rouge Shine lipstick I got from them earlier this month also came without. This was also without. I had requested the ingredient list beforehand, and I was given it, but still. I don't know why they're not on there, especially as there's nothing dodgy going on with it (not as far as I can see anyway).
Come on Sephora, do BETTER!
I shall refrain from repeating myself for the umptieth time and not rant any more about cosmetics safety etc though. *Takes a deep breath*.
I also picked up sheet masks to take on holiday (for myself and Bert, he picked avocado and algae, the 2 pomegranates are mine) and
a travel size of Benefit's Goof Proof in nr 3 (click here for ingredients). I don't much like Benefit as a brand, but aside from M.A.C, I haven't found brow products that match me as well.
I only use a darker brow for certain looks, so I can't justify spending €20 on a M.A.C brow pencil I can't finish before it expires.
So for now, I have this one, and I'm going to keep a look out for an alternative in the mean time. The plan is not to have to re-buy this one.
Bert found his beard product (after a long search for the TINY men's section in the store, shamefully tiny) and at the cash register the kind shop girl said we could pick a stripy Sephora make-up bag. I let Bert choose and he went for the pink one. Not sure whether or not he's going to use it, but it's in our box of make-up bags. Yes, box of make-up bags. Because you'd really be surprised how many free make-up bags we get in a year (Yves Rocher tends to give several a year, so yeah). This is why I very rarely buy a make-up bag :).
I didn't buy this, but can we take a moment to appreciate the cute of this packaging?
That's also the only photo I took whilst at V2.
By that time we were pretty hungry, so we decided to go find food.
Even though there's quite a few options in V2, we ended up going to Flunch. Mostly because there is no Flunch in Belgium (not that we know of at least) and we had never been there before.
And also because it was cheap.
Basically, you can pick a main course, and you can take as many fries and vegetables to go with it as you want.
Not wanting to take chances with my food allergies, I went for roasted ham, thinking I'd get a small slice and that'd be that and I could fill up on veg.
Turns out I got 3, thick and GIANT slices of meat.
Bert got a giant plate of paëlla, which was equally surprising.
The annoying thing was that you had to pile up your veg on the same plate, and they weren't big and in Bert's case, his plate was FULL with paëlla. So he first ate his paëlla and then went back.
It's kinda like they want you to EAT MEAT or something. Bert had to finish my meat, because after a slice and half I was all: I can not eat more meat! And just ate vegetables.
Would I go to Flunch again?
Maybe, if there wasn't another alternative I might. Or if there wasn't a better alternative (would still go there over McMonsanto).
I would tell them to just give me one slice of meat though!
Seeing we were no longer hungry, we popped by H&M.
Where I found those little super handy pocket wet wipes by the dozens and dozens. In the Antwerp H&M they have been sold out for ages, but here, they still had LOADS. So I got 5 packs.
At the pharmacy we got two boxes of Vogalib (also not pictured) because Vogalib is the ultimate anti-nausia/lifesaver with food allergy incidents drug. Which can't be bought in Belgium. Because in Belgium they feel you should be taking crap that is bad for your heart instead of something decent like Vogalib. Typical.
Luckily I go to France enough for my stock of the stuff never to run out :).
Although I feel that half of it is used up by relatives and friends in need haha. Which I honestly don't mind, I would really appreciate it if someone gave me some of their meds if I needed them, too!
Our last stop was the Auchan supermarket, which was huge and took up most of the mall on it's own. I feel like an Auchan of that magnitude is best compared to a Macro supermarket in Belgium. Minus the bulk style packaging. But lay-out and hugeness wise, they remind me of Macro.
We got a lot of stuff here: a box of apple turnovers (yes, I had to ask my BFF Charlotte what they're called in English, I do admit!), a box of oreo donuts (they really weren't that awesome, I should have resisted buying the Monsanto stuff!), a bottle of a local organic beer, 6 bags of the fabled Haribo croco pik! candy, a small can of mung bean sprouts for Shinto (who is currently giving me the stink eye over my choice of treat for her) and a wet food for Loa (who, ironically, has tried to steal the mung bean sprouts 3 times so far, and has been met by an annoyed dragon chasing him off all 3 times).
I sure was glad I had decided to take my largest, sturdiest shopping bag.
What I really loved about V2 is that the staff was so friendly.
Not just shop staff, but also security and general V2 staff.
There were no random bag checks, and no one moaned about the fact that I was lugging a giant shopper around to put everything in.
I really liked that.
It was a stark contrast with Roubaix.
Sadly, Roubaix is the place that has the cool museum (La Piscine) so I feel like I kinda can't win.
But maybe I can do a museum trip at one point where we go to La Piscine and then the LAM and mill museums in V-d'Ascq :).
It was a little after 5pm when we were as good as home, so Bert parked near the local high street so I could pop into HEMA and get the set of ice cream shaped bubble blowers I had my heart set on.
Because you know, one more store wouldn't kill me :).
So have an extremely dorky day 67/100 days of make-up in 2017 shot of me blowing bubbles.
I probably should have turned the other way so you could see the cute little ice cream part of my bubble blower but hey, c'est la vie :).
Also, my make-up is a little worse for wear because by that time, it had been on my face for over 10 hours and it was a really hot day. Oops!
BROWS:
- M.A.C, brow sculpt in Cork
EYES:
- M.A.C, eye shadow in Amber Lights
- M.A.C, Semi-Sweet eye shadow x 9 in Mocha Minded
- M.A.C, pro longwear concealer in NC20
- M.A.C, technakohl liner in Brass Band
- M.A.C, in extreme dimension colour lash mascara/work it out in Muscle Tee
- Too Faced, Natural Eyes in Heaven and Silk Teddy
FACE:
- Too Faced, Hangover Primer
- Too Faced, Love Flush blush in Baby Love
- Too Faced, Love Lights prismatic highlighter in Blinded by the Light
LIPS:
- Sephora, Honey lip scrub/balm
- Sephora, cream lip stain in Pretty Auburn
- Too Faced, La Crème in Unicorn Tears
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