Collective Haul for September

This month, I have been very good to my wallet as I haven't spent so much money.  I only bought some of the stuff myself as the rest were all gifts as you will see.

First up, some graduation gifts I received from Mum, Dad & Johan:

Mum & Dad bought me this shift dress from Peacocks for €29 as well as this cute 'Graduation' porcellana statuette which will be nice to feature in my living room when I have my own home, but for now, it graces our living room :)

For my actual graduation ceremony this December, I bought this ponte dress from boohoo.  It was my first time ordering from the site and I will definitely be ordering more.  The dress arrived within a week and it arrived in perfect condition :)

Details of collar and waist belt

 Johan has ordered this set of black Akoya pearls to be custom made for me into a collier and a bracelet.  I wasn't expecting it to be honest but he always manages to surprise me with his gifts :) I have been wanting some black pearls for quite some time and now I have them and I am totally in love them! I have always seen pearls as something chic and being a huge Chanel fan (even though I don't own anything from her), you wouldn't be surprised to know I love pearls as well.  These particular pearls appear greenish in certain angles depending how the light catches them and I cannot explain how fond I am of them :) Thanks love xx

I also received some gifts from my cousins so if you wanna take a nosey, here's the link to the post.

And yes, you probably guessed it... I bought some more polishes off ebay.  This time I got two China Glaze Polishes from their latest collection, namely, Metro for Fall 2011 (Downtown).  I got Trendsetter, a unique dirty shade of mustard with gold shimmer running through it and Westside Warrior, a dark khaki green creme.  These were around €4 each.  I now have my eyes on Traffic Jam from the Uptown part of the same collection.  Swatches are two coats each.

From China Glaze, I also got Lubu Heels which is quite a unique shade representative of the trademark black and red Louboutin shoes.  Being a shoe addict, I couldn't pass this up could I?  In the bottle, there appears to be more red glitter than there will actually be on your nails but still, it is a unique shade and I totally love it!  The swatch consists of two coats as the first coat goes on very sheer.

I have also ordered the only Essie polish which was on my wishlist and I thought it would be my first and only Essie polish in my stash until my cousins got me another two :)  I got the shade In Stitches which is a beautiful  old rose colour and I have nothing like it in my collection.  I paid €5.97 for this.

I also ordered a comedone extractor for which I paid €1.15 as this would come in handy when popping pimples or blackheads without scarring my skin through using my fingernails.  I also bought a business card holder for like €2.  I need this as I am in the process of printing my first ever set of business cards to boost my nail tech business a bit.  Stay tuned for the post in which I will show them to you.  Lastly, I managed to get my hands on a glass nail file while shopping in Valletta.  I have been wanting one for ages and after hearing so many good things about them and how better they file the nails without chipping or splitting them, I was sold in getting one! I got one with a pink handle and some green and silver rhinestones and I parted only €3 for it.

Plaid pattern business card holder

Comedone extractor (the loop is for white heads and the other side is for black heads)

Pink glass nail file

I got a set of three fine nail art brushes for more intricate nail designs.  I haven't used them so I still have to see how they work.

Johan's Mum got me this nail and body care set from her trip to Hungary and so far I have used the cuticle oil and the body lotion and I really like how moisturizing they feel on my skin and nails :)

Mum also bought me a Nioxin shampoo and scalp therapy for my fine hair.  The shampoo was €11.50 while the scalp therapy was €12.95.  I really hope they work!

Finally, I was lucky enough to have won two notebooks from Tally Weijl in an email competition.  I especially like the leopard print one and the pink one has tiny Tally Weijl bunnies all over how cute is that?

What have you bought lately?