As we are entering the fall months on this first day of September—though fall doesn’t technically begin here in Canada until September 23—I thought it would be a very responsible idea to enter a low-buy for the upcoming season. After all, I’ve gotta start saving money for those post-holiday deals, right?
Plus, the Canadian dollar is so weak at the moment, and prices are slowly going up. We’re down to 75¢ to the US dollar, guys! It hasn’t been this low since the 90s, I think.
So I have resolved to “shop my stash” more and stop buying so much bloody nail polish until December. You might start to see reviews of things I bought over a year ago…
To get myself in the mood for a low-buy, here’s a roundup of my Winners purchases since about April. That’s about five months, basically since my last Winners haul post, so this post is really more like: Purchases for the Second Half of Spring, and Summer.
Now, I love shopping at the TJ Maxx stores (that’s Winners and HomeSense in Canada, though we also recently got Marshalls, too). They’re obviously a bit hit/miss, but the hits can be fantastic!
I generally like to hit up most of the Winners/Marshalls/HomeSense stores in downtown Toronto, except for that King & Spadina one. Never find anything there. College Park and Bloor are the best locations for all that great “Runway” swag—would love to pick up a Missoni dress for $400 and a Chloé handbag for $1,300, but I just can’t fit them in my wardrobe at the moment, y’know!—but I did drop by the Dufferin Mall store a few months ago and found a great DvF dress (pictured later in this post), so scores can be found in many locations!
Here are the beauty and fashion items that I bought for myself. I’m not including stuff for DH (Michael Kors shirt, Geox boots), DS (Green Toys dump truck, cute clothes, OshKosh shoes), housewares (picture frames, Ralph Lauren sheets, Le Creuset frying pan), and food (chocolate, tea, coffee, Braswell jams and honey).
- Zoya Professional Lacquer in Marry (alternatively, Marry J…think it was named for Mary J. Blige)
- Zoya Professional Lacquer in Aria
- Zoya Professional Lacquer in Mieko
- Zoya Professional Lacquer in Elke
- Essie Nail Polish in The Girls Are Out
- Zoya Professional Lacquer in Kamilah
- Zoya Professional Lacquer in Pia
- Zoya Professional Lacquer in Lianne
- Zoya Professional Lacquer in Creamy
- Zoya Professional Lacquer in Bekka
Clearly, Winners had gotten in a load of (mostly) discontinued Zoyas!
- Ciaté Paint Pots in Island Hopping
- OPI Nail Lacquer in My Signature is “DC”
- Leighton Denny High Performance Nail Colour in Message In a Bottle
- OPI Nail Lacquer in Today I Accomplished Zero
- OPI Nail Lacquer in Dutch ‘Ya Just Love OPI?
- NARS Nail Polish in Orgasm (Thanks for the gift, Mom! Betcha didn’t know it was called Orgasm.)
- SpaRitual Nail Lacquer in Buoyant
- SpaRitual Nail Lacquer in Navigate
- Anna Sui Nail Color in 210
- The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook
- Ellen Tracy Tracy eau de parfum (backup, love this)
- Stila Eye Shadow Palette in In the Know
- Stila Eye Shadow Palette in In the Light
- Stila Crème Bouquet eau de parfum
- Tarina Tarantino Eye Dream Hyperliner Waterproof Eye Pencil in Puppeteer
- Tarina Tarantino Eye Dream Hyperliner Waterproof Eye Pencil in Ultraviolet
- CND Solar Oil
- CND Vinylux Weekly Top Coat
- CND Vinylux Weekly Polish in Steel Gaze
- OPI Nail Lacquer in Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous! (I didn’t notice this was not totally full until a while after I bought it…gah!)
- Lancôme Hypnôse Waterproof Custom-Wear Volume Mascara in Hypnôse Noir
Image: apple.com
And one of my only clothing purchases over the last 6 months:
Image: theoutnet.com
Have you found any recent deals at Winners / TJ Maxx? I love to see what others have snagged!
Thanks for looking, and please wish me luck on my low-buy!
—fz
fivezero 
Wow, amazing haulage! I love the dress! 🙂
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Thanks! 😀
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Oh man. I visit ALL.THE.TIME. I can’t help myself. It’s so difficult not to look.
YOU GOT STILA PALETTES?!!! WHERE! omg. How much were they? I hate the College Park location – people there are savages. Bloor St is my main location. We should do a meet up at Winners LOL. 😀
The main things I’ve picked up have been the cleansing oil from Superfacialist:
http://www.superfacialist.co.uk/product/skin-renew-cleansing-oil/
I bought a bottle ages ago and LOVED it and of course it disappeared. Then I guess they got a supply of more because I started seeing them all over the place, so I snagged a few bottles. I’m all set. And I did get that one Leighton Denny nail polish, the same shade as you, but I didn’t pay for it! 😀
Haha that Complete Irish Pub book is so random. Is it just a bunch of recipes with potatoes? 😛
Great find with that DVF dress!
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You’re gonna hate me – I’ve found three Stila palettes! I got In the Garden around Christmastime last year. All of them were $19.99. I mean, they retailed for about $50 here. I was hoping to find a Kat Von D palette, since they showed up at some TJ Maxxes, but no luck.
I have the advantage of being able to hit College Park in the mornings, so it’s not as busy then! It can be a wreck, for sure. Bloor is nice, but it’s less convenient for me. We need to get to a Winners in a ritzy suburban area, hahaha!
Ooh that cleansing oil looks really fancy. I will have to keep an eye out for it.
And no, the Irish cookbook has gastropub-worthy recipes for seafood, roast goose, and whiskey-spiked desserts! Not just boiled potatoes and colcannon 😀
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Oooh MAN! So jealous about the Stila palettes! 😁 Great score! Yeah I can only shop in the evenings or weekends so I’m with the masses!
The Winners at the Stockyards isn’t bad, although the last time I was there, the shelves were pretty empty.
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Hm, not sure I’ve been to the one at the Stockyards (even though I used to live not too far away LOL).
Yeah, College Park is a no-go zone for me at lunch hour, evenings and weekends! At least Bloor is a lot more civil even when busy 😀
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Have you been to the Marshalls near College Park? It’s SO EMPTY all the damn time. ~waltzes through the store~ I found Chloé shoes there, once, but none in my size 😥
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Yes, I’ve been there, it’s nice but I’m never in the mood to go through the racks in there! Although I did score big in the kids’ section there for gifts – loads of Elsa (Frozen) stuff!
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Oooh guess what? I sighted the Stila In the Light palette at Winners! I didn’t buy it of course. It might have been a different story if I saw In the Know (mattes) – I’ve had that palette on my wish list for ages and now it’s discontinued. Poop. So jealous that you found In the Know.
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Aww, I’ll keep an eye out for you! They only had one of each in my store.
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Well Done!!
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Thank ya!
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LOL at the Irish Pub Cookbook!! (I’m Irish!)
Wow, you got some really great stuff!! Great polishes and I love the dress and phone case.
Our version of TJ Maxx is TK Maxx and I’ve got some nice polishes there, a couple of years ago I got a lot of Lippmanns, including I Know What Boys like, Supermodel, Lady Sings The Blues, Between the Sheets, And Superstar. They were boxless and in bags of three for €18, I was delighted as that’s a third of the price here and even at that they’re hard to find!
Since then I’ve picked up a few OPIs and Essies but my best bargains this year were Illamasqua Muse and Hemlock!
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Heehee! I do like to buy cookbooks, even though I’m not that great at actually knuckling down and making many recipes from them. What’s your fave Irish dish?
I am squealing here, just imagining finding Illamasqua at our stores! Lucky you! 😀 And the Lippmanns were a great deal! I see them here rarely, and when I do, they’re kind of stupidly priced, so I’ve never bothered.
Illas are soooooo amazing!
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I love cookbooks too, have way too many! Beef & Guinness stew is probably my favourite Irish dish, I make it loads in the winter.
They’re the only Illas I have apart from Raindrops so I was delighted to find them!
Guess we’ll have to keep stalking the shelves to hunt for more treasure!
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Thanks for the rec! I do like to make a beef burgundy, so I’ll have to try it with Guinness ❤ some time.
Hope you find more Illas! 😀
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What amazing finds, the only polish I have is Dutch ya just love OPI. Very jealous of your DVF find – would love a wrap dress from there without having to splurge heavily! x
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Ahh, keep looking! Just gotta go in there every week or two. Helps to check out the lesser-visited locations, too. That’s how I snagged mine! 🙂
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I’ll have to look and see if anyone else has found dvf in the UK, I’ve never seen anything as far as I remember
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Ah, well you must get a lot of awesome British/Euro brands that we rarely see on this side 😀 Fingers crossed for you, though!
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Holy crap! You have such amazing finds. I need to get on your level!
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Haha, well I guess if you drop in as often as I did this summer…:D
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