Hey guys! I have been really thinking about doing a pan that palette challenge for myself for quite a while now. I've been reading blog posts and watching YouTube videos of people doing project pan challenges, and I was finally inspired by a very lovely girl on YouTube named Jacquelyn and her channel is called FortWorthFamous. She does all kinds of beauty videos, but her panning videos are pretty neat. I've only been subscribed to her for under a week, but I've been watching her videos like crazy lately! She's the one who made me have an ah-ha! moment in realizing that I have so much makeup that hardly gets used.
I've also realized that my palette collection is pretty outta control, and I have yet to hit pan on any shade in every palette I own. I've decided it's time for me to challenge myself and see if I can totally use up an entire palette. I was going through my collection thinking of which one I wanted to pan, and thought that I wasn't going to be able to do it because I love so many different palettes and would be sad to completely use one up.
That's until I saw my theBalm Nude'tude Palette hiding underneath my loved palettes. I've ranted in a past post of how disappointed I was with Hautelook, where I purchased this palette, and that when I got this in the mail, it had already looked used to me with fingerprints. I was immediately put off, but sanitized it, and decided to try it out. I honestly wasn't impressed and have probably only used this palette under 5 times. If I used this up completely, I wouldn't miss it. The mirror is also broken as you can see, so I want it gone asap. I'm setting out the intention to pan this palette completely in 2016.
I have no idea how long it will actually take me to completely use this up, but if I can use it up by the end of the year, I'll be happy. I will continue to use different palettes for review purposes (I have quite a few I still need to do reviews on), but this is the palette I want to continuously reach for. I will still be doing my monthly empties posts because I use up different products every month, and every month is always different in the amount I'm able to finish.
I also want to do updates on how I'm doing with my Pan That Palette challenge, so I'll be posting close-up pictures, like the ones right above here, every month on the progress I've made. Since we're already almost half way through February, I probably won't do an update until the beginning of April. The pictures shown above are what the shadows look like as of right now. Wish me luck!
Have you ever done any kind of project pan chellenges? Let me know! I'd love advice or words of encouragement!
Hey everyone! Yes, I know it's been ages again since my last post. I really hope you can forgive me! Work's starting to get crazy with the holiday's coming up, I've been feeling a little under the weather and I've been having issues with my back. It's weird too, I can't sit, stand or lay down for too long or my back hurts more. Anyways, today I bring you a haul post! Now, I didn't go and buy everything in one shot. I purchased all this within the last 3 to 4 months, and I do have a Sephora VIB haul coming up as well once I get my package in the mail! So, lets get into what I bought!
First up we have products I purchased from Drugstore.com. As you can tell above, I went a little Batiste crazy! This is definitely my all-time favorite dry shampoo and I have yet to find anything better. I purchased the Clean & Classic Original, two of the Coconut & Exotic Tropical, Floral & Flirty Blush and Cool & Crisp Fresh scents. Back in April, I was given the opportunity to try out Batiste for the first time and I picked the Tropical scent. I reviewed it here if you want to check it out.
These products also came from Drugstore.com. The St. Ives Timeless Skin Collagen Elastin Moisturizer was literally only about $3. I wanted to pick this up because since it's gotten so cold here, my skin is drying out pretty bad. I'm hoping my skin doesn't get too much drier because I have other products I want to use up before I open this up.
I also purchased the Boots Expert Sensitive Gentle Refreshing Toner. As you all may know already, I'm in love with the aloe toner from The Body Shop. That toner is a bit pricey for me at $12.50 and the Boots toner was I believe just under $5. I'm hoping this is just as good or better than the aloe toner because I don't feel like spending alot of money on a toner is necessary.
Then I purchased the Norwegian Formula Hand Cream in the fragrance free version. I've never tried this hand cream before, but my hands are also drying up with this cold weather, and I've heard alot of great things about this product. I do have other hand creams to use up, but I have a feeling I may go through those pretty quickly.
I've been wanting to try the Garnier Skin Renew Anti Dark Circle Roller for a long time now. I've heard decent things about this product, and I do have pretty bad dark circles, so I have hope for this. I'm excited to try it out!
I then bought a few products from the Paula's Choice website. I actually purchased the Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Gel from Skinstore.com but I'm lumping it in with the other two. I'm in love with this product and I've talked about it before. Holy Grail product right here!
I've been wanting to get another toner from Paula's Choice since I had tried one quite a few years ago. I decided to get the Hydralight Healthy Skin Refreshing Toner for normal, oily to combination skin. I can't remember if this is the one I tried years ago, but I do remember liking the one I did try.
I also wanted to buy another one of my favorite masks, and that's the Skin Balancing Oil Absorbing Mask. This used to be called the Skin Balancing Carbon Mask, and boy is it amazing! I did a review on this a long time ago, close to when I first started my blog. The review is here if you want to read it. I'll have to warn you, it's not the best review ever but hey, everyone starts somewhere, right?
Next up we have products from theBalm that I purchased from Hautelook! Now I know I did a post here about how disappointed I was with Hautelook, but I reached out to them and everything turned out amazing, which I had also talked about here. Anyways, I ended up buying the TimeBalm Skincare White Tea Juniper Oil-Free Face Moisturizer. I've never tried any skincare from theBalm before and figured I'd give this a go. Plus, it was pretty inexpensive on Hautelook.
I also purchased the Put A Lid On It Eyelid Primer. I've heard many, many good things about this eyeshadow primer so I'm excited to try this out and see what all the hype is about.
The final product I got from Hautelook is the Down Boy Blush. I totally forgot to take a picture of the color and do a swatch, but there are many reviews and swatches on the internet of this blush. I picked this color because it's a pretty baby pink color that I think would look nice on my fair skin.
I also did some damage on The Body Shop website! They were having an awesome 40% off sale, plus I'm a Love Your Body member so I got an extra 10% off, plus I had some points saved up and got an extra $15 off that. I made out pretty well! I wanted to try out a bunch of the new Honeymania line that's out, so I picked up the Body Butter, Body Scrub, two of the Lip Butters and a Shower Gel. When I opened up the Body Butter, I was pretty shocked at the smell. To me, it smells like organic, raw honey. I was expecting something sweeter smelling honestly, but it's not terrible. I'm very excited for the scrub because it's in a creamy base, just how I like scrubs to be.
I also picked up two Aloe Protective Serums. These serums are amazing, I love putting a bit mixed in with my daytime moisturizer for some extra hydration, or using it as a regular moisturizer in the Summer. The last product I got is the Aloe Eye Defense. This is an awesome gel-type eye cream that feels so amazing when you put it on, and it gives me just enough hydration.
Finally, we have a purchase from the Ulta website! They were having an awesome sale where certain brands were 40% off, they were offering free shipping on a $25 purchase and then there was a code for $3.50 off a purchase of $10 or more. Again, I feel like I made out well. I decided to try the Almay Oil-Free Gentle Eye Makeup Remover. I actually forgot about buying this until I looked through all the stuff I bought. I was worried about running out of eye makeup remover when I start my spending ban, but now I feel like I'll be ok. I've never tried this before but I think it'll be alright.
I also decided to try out the NYX Matte Finish Long Lasting Setting Spray. I've heard plenty of good things about this setting spray and I'm excited to try it!
I haven't really heard much about the Neutrogena Healthy Skin 3-in-1 Concealer For Eyes. I can always use a good concealer for my dark circles, so I have high hopes for this product.
And finally, we have NYX Butter Glosses! These babies came to just over $2 each after all the discounts. I ended up getting the colors Vanilla Cream Pie, Apple Strudel, Strawberry Parfait, Maple Blondie, and Merengue. Those are the colors from left to right in the picture. Again, I forgot to take pictures of swatches, but I'm sure there are plenty online. I'll be honest, I don't really get the hype with these. Yes, the color selection is great and they feel nice on the lips, but they're not as amazing as everyone makes them out to be, and I get that dreaded white line around the center of my lips when they dry. I'd purchase more of these when they're on a good sale, but they're not anything to be hyped up about.
Phew! That took a while! I hope I didn't bore you and that you liked this post! I'll have one last haul post hopefully put up by the end of the week, and that's it for a while. It'll be spending ban time. What do you think of these products?
Hi guys! If you don't remember me bashing on Hautelook back in May, you can check it out here. Basically, I never received an item from my very first Hautelook purchase, and the eyeshadow palette I bought already looked used.
Anyways, It's been a while now so I wanted to do a little update post on what happened after I posted my little rant. I did contact customer service with my issues, and I was so surprised with how amazing my experience was. No lie, it was uh-may-zing! I know I've mentioned a bazillion times before that I work in retail, so I know about giving good customer service. I was given a full refund for the product that was never sent to me, which I was honestly expecting.
What I didn't expect was, someone else from customer service contacted me through email, mentioned my blog post bashing Hautelook, and credited me $5 back to my credit card for the eyeshadow palette that looked used. That totally was completely unexpected. I was also given a $10 credit to my account with Hautelook to use up by the end of August. I can say now that I will purchase again from Hautelook and use my credit, but I am a bit worried that something like this will happen again. I couldn't believe that happened to me when I've always heard amazing things about the site, especially with it being my very first time ordering from them.
I'm just extremely pleased with the outcome of everything and I actually look forward to placing another order with them. If anyone from Hautelook reads this, I really want to thank you for the amazing customer service I received. It went beyond my expectations and I know why people love the site so much.
Has anyone else had great customer service from Hautelook?
I have a rant today guys. I placed my very first order with Hautelook on May 3rd, and my package just came today. I had ordered this Nude'tude Eyeshadow palette from theBalm, which I was really excited for. I also ordered a blush from theBalm in the color Downboy, which I was also very excited to try. Like I said, my package just came today, so I've been waiting for quite a while. I open up the box all happy and whatnot, and they never sent the blush! I got pretty upset about that and thought maybe I got an email or something saying they had too many orders and I wasn't getting one and would get a refund. That would be all fine and dandy but I got no email, no nothing and my credit card was charged for the full amount.
After getting upset about not receiving my blush, I open up the palette because I had heard so many amazing things about this. After I open it up, I notice little prints of something on most of the colors. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but in person the colors Sassy, Selfish, Sophisticated, Sexy, Serious, Sultry, Seductive, Silly and Sleek all look tampered with. I don't know if it's finger prints or what, but I'm not a happy camper right now.
I would call customer service, but they're not available on weekends, so I sent an email hoping to get things straightened out. I know I probably won't get an answer til at least Monday, but I'm hoping they'll at least refund me for the blush. My receipt says final sale and that everything is non-returnable, which I understand, but it's a bit upsetting because I was so excited to try both items, when one never came, and the other looks used. It's pretty safe to say I won't be ordering anything from Hautelook again. Ever.
Have you had any good or bad experiences with Hautelook?
