Holiday Haul

Yesterday I travelled back from North Brabant in the Netherlands where I'd enjoyed a fantastic week with our 6 children, and just a wee spot of polish shopping.....

We've been to this area a few times already so I had a good idea of what brands would be available in the Oosterhout, in the local town.  It's worth mentioning that shopping in Holland is so much more pleasurable for me than in the UK - although Oosterhout doesn't appear to be a particularly affluent area and has a few discount stores, there are no boarded up empty shops, charity shops, amusement arcades, bookmakers or take away joints on the high street.  Most of the shops are small, the only department type store is HEMA (think Woolworths in IKEA style!).
The boys aren't shoppers, so I'm able to drive into town with my daughters whilst they stay playing happily at the holiday park with Dad, leaving my daughters and I free to stroll at leisure.

In addition to a large under cover shopping centre there's a bustling high street, where I was surprised to find a small C&A which I thought bit the dust years ago.........!

 

Oosterhout on a busy Saturday afternoon

 

 

Anyway, on to the polish.

 

I shop in a small chemist in the undercover shopping centre which sells Pupa, Herome, Da, Savina and Collistar in addition to brands available in the UK such as Max Factor, Rimmel, L'oreal and the entire range of W7.

 

I also go into Douglas, which sells high end fragrance and cosmetics, and polishes such as their own brand Absolute, NYX, Anny, Collistar and Beyu.

I adore Douglas, they always offer to gift wrap your shopping (no charge) and put little samples in with your purchases.  The girls in the shop are also keen to practise their English - as this area isn't really marketed towards Brits not everyone here speaks English.

 

The Dutch equivalent of UK chain Savers is Kruidvat; they sell essence, Catrice, Rimmel, L'Oreal and Max Factor.  I also needed some deodorant (there's always one packing failure!) and found gorgeous smelling Bourjois antiperspirants in here too.

 

Here's what I came home with:

 

Essence Polish Removers: Coconut and Papaya (which smells like that first alcopop you tried when you were 14) and Strawberry and Passion Fruit which smells overwhelmingly of acetone with just a hint of strawberry. 

Essence Caring Nail Oil

Essence Nail Art Tattoo Pen

Catrice Polishes in Pimp my Shrimp, Lilactric, I Got the Flower (Limited Edition Shade from the Glamazona collection), Miss Piggy's BF, Petrolpolitan (which is hiding its gorgeous blue shimmer in the photo) and a new shade called Mermaid my Day.

Rimmel Cocktail Colour in Cutie Colada (not available in the UK for some reason) and Anny Never Can Say Goodbye

Beyu Shimmering Top Coats in 784, 787, 760 and 752

 

A close up of the glitters in 760 and 752

 

I also ventured into the nearby city of Breda as the local Kruidvat didn't have any of the peel off gel nail base, or the regular peel off base that I was looking for.  I did find the gel base but alas, none of the regular peel off was to be found.

 

Breda's an interesting city, my daughter and I walked in via the theatre and arty quarter and could have spent hours moseying around in the narrow streets.  I thought I might stumble across Sephora, but not this time.  To be perfectly honest we were quite happy taking in the scenery and architecture.

 

 

Can you blame us?!