Amazon Prime Day has seen shoppers click ‘add to basket’ quicker than you can say ‘bargain’, and not even us as journalists could refuse some of the offers. In fact, the two-day shopping event has seen us stock up on makeup, garden tools, Amazon Kindles, pet toys and essentials.
After writing about Amazon Prime Day for the past week, we’ve quickly learned what makes a good deal, and what’s worth the money, and filled our baskets accordingly. Between us, we’ve spent a grand total of £373.96 - but saved £348.41 on their usual retail price.
The 48-hour event is an important day in the Amazon calendar, and is the second biggest sale event of the year for the online retailer, behind Black Friday in November.
READ MORE: Amazon Prime Day deals on handheld, tower and desk fans to keep cool in heatwave
The sale sees Amazon reduce a number of products across all of their categories, as well as daily deals alongside quickfire 'Lightning' deals that last for a couple of hours or until the product sells out.
Our team of Amazon shopping experts have parted with their paychecks on brands like Elemis, Eylure, Amazon and Anker, picking up both essentials, treats and deals that were simply too good to pass up. Here’s what we ordered:
Bethan Shufflebotham
I had already got a few items in my basket ahead of Amazon Prime Day so that I would be notified of any discounts in my basket straight away. I find it’s better to have an idea of what you want to buy on Prime Day so you don’t fall victim to too much impulse spending.
In my basket there was a bottle of my boyfriend’s favourite aftershave , and a hot glue gun I needed for a craft project - and both of them were reduced on Tuesday, July 12.
My partner gets through aftershave in a matter of months, so it’s always handy to have a bottle ready to give for anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas or Valentines. His favourite bottle of Joop! Homme was down from £58 to £21.99 for 125ml, saving around £36 in total. I shopped around first to check it was a good deal, and seeing as it’s reduced on Boots to £33, I considered my Amazon purchase a bargain.
The hot glue gun might seem a bit of a bizarre buy, but I’ve been planning to make a headpiece for a festival later this month, and seeing as ours has been misplaced - probably broken - I needed a new one. I got the ‘hot glue gun mini with 30 glue sticks’ for £8.78 instead of £10.98, saving £2.20. It may not sound like a huge saving, but every little helps and it was the cheapest I could find on the site.
Also part of my festival prep will be dying my eyebrows. A tint at a salon would cost me around £15-20, but it’s much cheaper to do at home with a kit. I’ve used the Eylure brow tint at home a few times now and consider myself proficient enough to do them myself, and the dye I usually order was down from £7.50 to £4.55 . The kit has more than 25,500 five star reviews, too and will save me a lot of money instead of heading to a salon.
Keen to treat my dogs to something from the deals, I picked up two of the Chuckit Ultra balls. They’ve had these before and they’re such a great toy for power-chewing dogs as they last much longer than your average tennis ball. They’re usually £12 each but are half price at £6, meaning I could get two for the price of one. I’d even be tempted to order another two as backups at that price.
Last but not least was a 128GB SD card for my camera . These can be pretty expensive full price, with this one marked up at £38.99. However, it was reduced to £15.99 and will be perfect for taking on holiday with me this summer, as I plan on taking lots of pictures and video footage. You can also never have too many SD cards as a photographer because they’re far to easy to lose and misplace.
Total spend: £63.31
Total savings: £74.48
Narin Flanders
Like many people I'm preparing for my first holiday post-covid and being an avid reader I'd been plotting what to take with me book-wise. Lounging by the pool I love to immerse myself in the pages of a good book but my usual habit of 99p Kindle books read on my phone in idle minutes waiting at school pickup or while awake with insomnia is scuppered on holiday because my iPhone overheats and shuts off when it gets too hot - in fact, this weekend even my garden was too much heat for it.
With the entry-level Kindle reduced to £34.99 with three month's free Kindle Unlimited bundled in, giving you access to over a million books and audiobooks, selected newspapers and magazines, it felt like a no brainer. I'd easily spend the same amount at least on half a dozen books for my break and this way I have more choice and less weight in my suitcase.
With the Kindle deals going live on Monday, I technically made the order a few hours before Prime Day officially started and it arrived just as I finished my shift yesterday, so I happily got to set it up last night.
There were two options, with adverts for £34.99 and without adverts for £44.99. Having read up on it to find that the ads only sit on the home screen and library screen, so aren't aggressively interrupting me between chapters, I went for the less expensive version with the bigger saving.
I've had Kindles before but this is genuinely next level stuff. The setup was painless. I connected it to our wifi, logged into my Amazon account and it asked me if it wanted to sync with my existing library. Thirty seconds later I was opening the book I'd previously been reading on Kindle on my phone at the exact page I'd stopped at the previous night. What's more the latest version of the Kindle has four LEDs for reading at night without waking my husband turning on the bedside light as well as the anti-glare screen perfect for poolside. I'm really happy with it.
My other purchases - so far, technically we're only at the half way point - haven't arrived yet. Having spent a soul-destroyingly large chunk of last weekend weeding my patio, I ordered this Bosch pressure washer reduced from £109.99 to £63.69, tempted in part by the different attachments for both car and patio cleaning that come with it for the price. I'm hopeful that 7,265 reviews can't be wrong.
I also had my head turned by the massive savings on Elemis although with it being the wrong side of payday I was, I thought, pretty restrained and picked up one of the lower cost items in my favourite scent the Frangipani Monoi luxurious shower cream, reduced to £5.99. The Frangipani salt scrub is also a third off and is my favourite Elemis product by a country mile, managing to both exfoliate and moisturise at the same time leaving your skin feel amazing in a kind of witchcraft that smells like holiday. But I currently have a tub I'm working through and couldn't quite justify the £30 price tag, even with a hefty discount.
My plan is to try and get through the rest of Amazon Prime Day without buying anything else. Although there are no guarantees a few 99p Kindle books might not pop into my basket along the way.
Total spend: £104.67
Total savings: £81.30
Rebecca Astill
I am generally not an impulse buyer, so long as I ignore sales but for some reason Amazon Prime really got to me this year. It’s probably a combination of spending the day writing about it, and the deals which seem to be better than ever, but my bank account is crying.
First up, I have been on the hunt for a good, well-priced power bank for a good few months. I’m a Anker girl through and through, but their power banks are expensive. Thankfully the PowerCore Essential 20K portable charger was discounted to £26.99 from the usual £40, so that went straight in my basket.
Next I decided to treat myself on a couple of beauty bits I’ve had my eye on. I’ve been suffering with hormonal acne recently and I saw someone on Tiktok say their Foreo Luna Mini was an absolute godsend, so with it discounted to £59.40 instead of the usual £129.62, I couldn’t help myself.
Finally, the talk of the office, the Elemis Amazon Prime Day sale . I caved, and bought the Pro-Collagen Naked Cleansing Balm for £29.44 instead of its RRP £44.
It’s the non-scented version of the Tiktok viral product and I have sensitive skin, so I was chuffed with that discount. My bank account might be weeping, but my Amazon Prime Day purchases have made me very happy indeed.
Total spend: £115.83
Total savings: £123.79
Emily Sleight
Okay, so I knew that Amazon Prime Day was going to seriously break my bank balance. I'm very much obsessive when it comes to buying products, particularly skincare, and I'm guilty of not doing my research before an impulse purchase.
Which begs the question - am I really getting a good deal or not? Well, I'd like to think yes, because the two purchases I made were two things I'd been after for a good while, so why not get them at a discounted price? I've been after the ELEMIS Pro-Collagen Marine Cream for months now, but couldn't make the plunge considering it costs a whopping £89 on the ELEMIS website.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it was down to £55.15, saving me an incredible £33.85. Of course, £55 is still very steep for a moisturiser, but I knew that now was the best time to treat myself with that huge discount. Being a big fan of ELEMIS products, I was chuffed to see a lot of them were discounted for Amazon Prime Day.
My next little present to myself was a new Kindle, which I am VERY excited about. I've had a 10th generation Kindle for three years now, and it doesn't come with the snazzy light. I know I may sound a little overdramatic but it's very annoying not having the light, especially on holiday when I can barely read anything in the sun!
Which is why I decided to buy the 2019 edition Kindle reduced from £69.99 to £35! It comes with an adjustable light and looks a lot more modern and up to date than my old battered Kindle.
I went with the ads option as it doesn't bother me so much, but there's an option to have your Kindle ad free if you'd prefer. As a whole, I'm very happy with my Amazon purchases and very glad that I treated myself.
Total spend: £90.15
Total savings: £68.84
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