beauty bargain

i've already blogged about my go-to perfume, bodycology gardenia. 4 bucks at wal*mart and you'll be beating men away with a stick.  i decant mine into a crystal perfume bottle so no one can question me when i say that it's chanel gardenia.  they also sell it at ulta if you feel the need to go somewhere slightly more highbrow. {no judgement from princess picky pants here.  it's just that wal*mart is all we have.}

but i've got a new bodycology obession: vanilla cupcake lotion.  now i am normally not a big fan of anything that smells like food.  i get nauseous within a 2-mile radius of yankee candle at christmas because of that icky christmas cookie scent they have and i still don't quite understand my sweet cousin's borderline obsession with bath and body work vanilla bean noel, which she stocks up on with abandon at their semi-annual sale.  so god knows why i picked up a bottle of this and took a big ole whiff, but i LOVED it.  there's just something a little bit different about it, it's almost lemony.  and after you put it on and the top notes {if there is such a thing as top notes in bargain basement lotions} disappear, you're left smelling like buttercream.  which is awesome.  unless, of course, you have a major sweet tooth, in which case you will be left craving cupcakes all day.

you, sweet readers, are such a great source of beauty info, so tell me, any beauty budget buys i should have on my radar?