Phew, I was certainly cutting it fine with getting my latest Superdrug Challenge – the store visit – up on this blog.

The reason for this is that I was planning on taking Gym Buddy along with me. You see, she’s getting married in under a month and has a lovely honeymoon planned in the Maldives.

I thought, seeing as I really don’t need any more beauty products this week, I would give her my £20 voucher to treat herself to some honeymoon essentials.

The problem is, she’s my Gym Buddy, and like I said, she’s getting married this month – so most of our spare lunch hours are spent down the gym at the moment being tortured by instructors who have bodies we can only dream of.

On Wednesday, for example, we went to Legs, Bums, and Tums, which should really have been called ‘Disco Legs and Lying on the Floor’ – the former from too many squats, the latter from being quite unable to do the insane sit-up routine she was trying to make us do.

Then yesterday, I went to a Zumba class – which was kind of a mixture of Latin American dancing and our instructor looked amazing – I however, looked like a plank. A bright red, sweaty plank. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get my shoulders to shake and my butt to wiggle. I just looked like something out of Dirty Dancing – you know, that first scene with Baby and the Watermelon…

*cringe

Anyway, where was I?

Ah yes, the Superdrug visit. Well, we finally pencilled it in for Thursday lunchtime – we had a gym class after work that day – and headed off to the store on Tottenham Court Road.

It’s a large store with the usual layout – make-up first, all enticing and ‘BUY ME, BUY ME’ then nail stuff, hair care, body care and all the things you never knew you needed handily by the till.

What this store also had, was the largest selection of travel miniatures I have ever seen in a Superdrug, which was perfect as these are ideal for honeymoons.

Now, readers of last year’s blog will know I shied away from the store visit last year and reviewed the website instead – read all about it here. And there is a reason for this – I am not good at talking to strangers, especially not of the taking notes and interviewing variety as this does not really go hand-in-hand with lipreading.

So, as all the staff looked busy, I got on with the shopping part of the challenge, while working up the confidence to speak to someone.

Rather alarmingly, top of Gym Buddy’s list was a First-Aid Kit – apparently she’s never had a holiday without a medical emergency! – and this was in the travel miniatures section.

She then spotted a fab Nivea Travel Bag, consisting of wipes, deodorant, shower creme, lip balm and face cream and popped that in the basket.

Next, came the John Frieda shampoo and conditioner – volumising for extra honeymoon glamour

And finally some Imperial Leather Foamburst for shaving and showering!

I then encouraged Gym Buddy to buy something frivolous and as Rimmel had a 3-for2 deal on, we headed there, where she picked up 2 gorgeous nail polishes and a lip gloss that I could personally recommend from my last challenge.

And it was here, we got told off for taking photos by a member of staff.

*blush

I was so embarrassed and knew that I should have just introduced myself the moment I arrived, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

As it was lunchtime, they all seemed very focused and busy, so after ascertaining that I was legitimately meant to be there, they left me to it before I really had a chance to ask any questions.

But this was OK – because as Superdrug is my second home, I know it well, so I didn’t really need any help and I am sure if I had been stuck on which shampoo Gym Buddy should get for her honeymoon, someone would have helped me.

Anyway, all too soon it was time to pay…

And here’s the best bit – thanks to the 4-for-3 offer on travel miniatures and the 3-for-2 offer on Rimmel, Gym Buddy made savings of £5.69. Coupled with her voucher, this meant she only had to spend £1.46 to get her honeymoon wash bag sorted!

AMAZING!

What’s more, never one to be discouraged by my interviewing failure, I popped into my local Superdrug on the way home. I like it here – it’s small and friendly and the staff chat to you as you buy your things at the till. The guy there once gave me a whole carrier bag full of Summer Insider magazines when he discovered I was in it –

‘Just in case my mum wanted one!’

Love it!