Hi everyone and welcome to another week here on lifewithlilred. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of spare time to do hella blogging this summer but I will try my best to at least get a weekly post in via the Monday Update. As you guys know, my family went on vacation to Asheville, North Carolina a week ago and your girl did some amazing shopping there! Take a look at the latest goodies that I added to my wardrobe and beauty collections:

^^^ Hurray!

One thing that I absolutely love to do while I’m on vacation (and basically every day of my life) is SHOP. There is nothing better than exploring the different stores that places outside of your hometown have to offer. Usually during family vacas we dedicate a day to shopping local and hitting up an outlet mall if the area has one. During our shop day, I scored some amazing bath and body care products and my new favorite shirt from Forever 21, so let’s discuss!

While shopping local, we came across the most fantastic store called Appalachian Naturals which offers homemade bath and body care products. The shop was filled with bar soap, shampoos, bath bombs, and even some soap for your four legged BFFs. My mom and I must have spent close to an hour scouring the store, chatting with the employees, and filling a shopping bag with our purchases.

We ended up leaving with twelve bars of soap, a bar of soap for our pups, shampoo, chapsticks, a bath bomb, and a “meatball” made from excess shavings from the soap making process. The meatball was literally a pound ball of over thirty different soaps combined together and it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen…so obviously we had to get it. Pictured above are three of the soaps that I wanted for myself – a face bar, and a Mountain Apple and Peppermint flavored bar soap. I’m very excited to work the complexion bar into my skin care routine after I finish the cleanser that I’m currently using and the same goes for the bar soap for when I finish the shower gel I have open.

At the outlet mall I was able to spend my birthday money on some new treats for myself which was so nice! I’m seriously obsessed with the gorgeous floral blouse that I got from Forever 21. I’m usually not a big fan of wearing white because I’m so pale that all it does is wash me out. However, this stark white top was so different because of the bright, Kimono style floral pattern. The colors complimented my hair and skin so well that the pure white base color made everything pop.

I’ve been trying to incorporate more business casual clothes into my wardrobe and I like that this shirt can be worn to work or my internship but I could still hang out with my friends in it. I purchased this shirt for $22.50 and I thought that it was a steal considering it looks so much like the clothes that I always ogle over at too expensive for me Express!

Speaking of steals, can we please talk about the Semi Annual Sale at Bath & Body Works?! Last year at B&BW’s sale, I discovered my favorite scent – Country Apple. This fragrance only makes an appearance during the Semi Annual Sale because it’s part of the oldie but goodie collection that they bring back special for the occasion. Knowing this, it was a must to stop in at the B&BW at the outlet mall to stock up on my gotta have it body spray.

All of the originally fourteen dollar body mists that were on sale were only $3.75 so, needless to say, I went HARD. I took four Country Apple sprays and four of the Mango Mandarin, too, because it smells amazing and it’s always nice to switch things up a little bit. As I walked up to the register, I remembered that back in good ol’ Ohio, there was a coupon for ten dollars off a forty dollar purchase sitting idly on my desk.

I was already at the thirty dollar mark with my bundle of perfumes and when I explained the situation to the worker behind the register, she was kind enough to provide the coupon for me. I was so incredibly thankful and went back to the front of the store to grab one more Country Apple and Mango Mandarin spray. I was at five perfumes each and I needed one more thing to reach a forty dollar purchase. I debated on which scent to get one more of – the apple or the mango but then realized that getting six of one and five of the other would drive me crazy. So I decided to go for a Sun Ripened Raspberry spray to get me to the price I needed to use the coupon.

Thanks to the kindness of the worker, my total bill for eleven body sprays was $33.44. The coupon knocked each perfume down to $2.86 for an originally FOURTEEN DOLLAR fragrance. Hell yeah! Because I was so grateful to the B&BW employee for helping a sister out, I emailed their customer service center to write her a rave review. I was so pleased to get an email response back from them saying that she would be receiving a certificate from the regional manager for excellence in customer service. She so deserved it! 🙂

So there you have it, this week’s Monday Update: Vacation Purchases Edition! I’m so happy with all of the goodies that I got to return to Ohio with and I can’t wait to start using all of them! Has anyone shopped any good sales lately? What store has the best deals right now? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah