What can you buy with £7.8 Million? Well, you could buy a new house, a yacht, half a dozen cars, a couple of football players and 78,000 lipsticks. Or, if you're John Lewis, you could spend that amount on completely revamping your beauty hall! And if you're asking me, I would say it was money well spent!
I just got back from a guided tour of the new beauty hall at John Lewis, and I have to say I was impressed. The hall is built around a town square concept, with the bigger brands around the outside of the hall and the more tactile 'help-yourself' products in the middle. It is also (rather uniquely) zoned: so yes, if you want something from Chanel, you can head straight to their counter and find all their products there, like in an ordinary department store. But you can also go to the skin, hair, nail, or make up zone if you want a specific product, but don't know what brand you're looking for.
Other features of the new beauty hall include:
- The only Topshop make-up counter outside of a Topshop store
- Products and launches exclusive to John Lewis such as the new Clinque matt foundation, the Diptyque 34 collection, or the Floris Royal Arms Diamon Edition perfume. Only 6 bottles of this £15,000 perfume have been produced. One went to the queen, one went to charity, the rest are for sale in the Floris boutique apart from the one which is for sale in John Lewis. Exciting, but out of my budget. However they also have a £99 version available.
- Two on-floor treatment rooms, including one from Lancome. Apparently, this is the only on-floor Lancome treatment room outside of Paris.
- An interactive Chanel fragrance zone to geek out about. You place a fragrance on top of the touch-screen table, and the table will tell you all about the fragrance, including what notes are included in it.
It's not like me to get excited about a department in a department store (they usually all look pretty much the same) but I was very impressed by what John Lewis have done to their Oxford Street beauty department, and especially impressed by the thought and unusual structure that have gone into it. If you're in the area and looking to buy make-up, skin care, or fragrance, then this is the place I would recommend you go!
Love Tor xx
The lipgloss is a pillar box red, so perfect for a night out. It's thick and looks great with just one quick coat but isn't sticky at all. It also smells like candy: i'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing because on the one hand it's yummy but on the other it doesn't taste that way when you try to lick it! I've had it on all afternoon and only had to reapply it once (not to add colour, just to add gloss) so i'm really impressed. 
The blurb about the brand on the side of the box gives the brand a real sense of drama: Conceived amid the dark drama of 1920s Berlin, developed by professional make-up artists, embraced by alternative cultures, made by a unique British brand. Worn by those who refuse to be everybody.
The bonus of buying it in Boots was that they are giving away a £5 voucher for Ruby and Millie/No 7 with every purchase over £5. And given that the No 7 nail varnishes are just over £6, next week I will be buying myself their new teal polish for £1. (because making 2 purchases in one week would just be decadent, no matter the price!) That makes the overall collective cost of the 2 varnishes very reasonable indeed!
First of all I have to say that the box is gorgeous, and that it's amazing something so compact can contain so many products! I loved the double ended brush, and the brow wax has held my brows in place all day. The highlight of the kit? Well, the tweezers are nothing short of a miracle! I will definitely be going in-store today to see if they stock a full size pair!
The intense black shadow didn't go on quite dark enough for my liking, but that could just be the way I was using it; my sister gave it a go and got a much better effect (apparently i'm just a useless make up applicator). Overall the kit went on well, lasted all day, and was very easy to use; made even easier by the cute instruction booklet included inside. I followed them to the letter and it looked great! 
The only con of the set? Well although it is pitched as a complete sexy brow and eye make up kit, the set doesn't contain a mascara. And I don't know about you, but my eyes aren't finished until they've been smothered in lashings of thick lengthening mascara! Still, having to carry a mascara alongside this box is no big deal, considering it saves you having to fit your whole make up bag in your handbag! Overall, a big thumbs up! 
My immediate suprise was some of the colour ranges. Look at the eye catching jewel-bright tone of this coral nail varnish! It goes on like a dream and in only one coat too; could there be a rival to my 
For the rest of the products I relied on my trusty testing panel to give you a thorough opinion.
Amie kindly models the eye quad!
Worth noting is that if you do have very sensitive skin (like my poor guinea pig mum!) then the perfume probably isn't for you; one spritz on each wrist left them red and inflamed for the whole day and the next. It did smell good though!
Although it doesn't say so on the boxes, a quick blog fact search has confirmed that the goodies aren't tested on animals. I've always believed that with make up you get what you pay for; that's why even when i'm broke I always find the money for my Dior foundation and my YSL mascara. But maybe i'm wrong; 
This is the item i want most. In fact I want it so much it hurts! Soft black pleather 14" Hello Kitty doll in a 60’s style black & white dress with pink trim and iconic pink bow. Limited edition. Black and pink? Hello Kitty? 60s dress? It's like it was made for me! 
I love the sickly fluoro pink colour of this lipstick almost as much as I love the retro Hello Kitty casing. Is anyone else sensing a massacre in my make up bag followed by a serious Kitty-fest!?
The thing I love about the blusher is the attention to detail: Not only does it have the same patterned casing as the lipstick (all 60s and lovely!) it also has her face embossed on the powder! Love it! 
Exclusively created for the Hello Kitty collection, a half-lash with criss-cross overlapping effect on the outer corner. Provides the look of big, wide “kitten eyes.” Limited edition. I want kitten eyes and I want them now: Oh to be half as cute as Hello Kitty!
The insights I think you can get from this are that I carry too much stuff, I never have time to put my make up on in the morning so I do it when I get to work and i'm an untidy slob, hence the receipts and used tickets stuffed in every corner. What weird things lurk at the bottom of your handbag?