Unfortunately heading to Bangkok last week I knew that some big shopping favourites had been destroyed in the recent turmoils (seeing Central World with a huge crater in it made me so sad), so there was no more Topshop, Miss Selfridge or Dorothy P to give me a taste of UK High Street shopping. I was however excited to experience one of my favourite things about going to Thailand – knowing I’ll get a fix of Boots goodness! Boots is a UK chemist, or “drug store” to all you Americans, which as well as selling the usual pharmacy items, also has various fabulous own-brand product ranges which are always innovative and results-driven as well as reasonably priced. The product ranges I particularly recommend stocking up on are: Boots No 7 Protect & Perfect, Boots Botanics, and anything from The Experts line. Boots stores are all over Bangkok, as well as in the airport, so you really can’t miss them!
I finally managed to pick up a bottle of the product that had the whole beauty world buzzing, Boots No 7 Protect & Perfect serum, the launch of which had UK women queueing up outside stores. This super-silky serum feels amazing on application, and promises visible results within 30 days. I do have quite a lot of fine lines around my eyes (I’m calling them laughter lines not crow’s feet!), so I’m hoping to see some improvement. I’m normally quite skeptical about skincare claims like the ones that this product makes, but knowing just how many women swear by it makes me a believer! In fact, I am fairly sure I can even see a very small immediate smoothing of the fine lines around my eyes as soon as I put it on.
I also stocked up on some Boots Botanics Oil Cleanser and Night Cream, both of which I’ve used before and loved, and are great for my dry and sensitive skin. Stretch Mark Oil by Boots The Experts also had to go in my shopping basket as heading into my 8th month of pregnancy I’m feeling a whole lot of stretching going on and would love to avoid those evil little stretch marks!
Do you have a favourite Boots product you’d like to recommend to Sassy readers?
My mum has used nothing but Boots Traditional Skin Cream (about £1.80 for a huge tub) since she was 16 and has better skin at 58 than I do at 30! Seems I may have been wasting a lot of money in the department stores all along…
I rushed to get scar removal serum from their expert line. results visible with dilligent application.
Also just discovered that US website drugstore.com have a range of Boots products and deliver to HK, unlike Boots own website. Some of the prices seem even cheaper than UK, including the Protect and Perfect serum at US$17! They also carry the Expert and Botanics ranges too.
Out of everything I miss in the UK, Boots is pretty much top of the list. It’s just the convenience of having everything under one roof – and all quality brands, not just the random cheap stuff that Sassy and Bonjour are filled with (much as I love them for their discounts!) – and racking up tons of loyalty points on my card!
In UK, Boots sell Urban Decay which is probably my most-missed cosmetics brand, as well as Soap & Glory (founded by Marcia Kilgore, who started Bliss) for amazing body stuff, Dr Nick Lowe for really affordable quality skincare and their own Botanics range for everyday essentials. And at Xmas, they have all these lovely exclusive gift sets on 3 for 2 – I’m getting sad just thinking about it!
Alas, I’ll probably visit UK before Bangkok but it’s great knowing somewhere in Asia still has Boots – I believe Watsons used to sell some Boots stuff ages ago, hopefully they’ll make a comeback here one day!