I've purchased some beauty bits since the Summertime, and wanted to share with you all what I picked up! I've been on a kick lately with self-care in taking better care of my skin and occasionally doing my makeup more. I'm so excited I got to treat myself and can't wait to give everything a try!
I'll start off with the most exciting purchases, eyes shadow palettes! You all know eye shadow palettes are my favorite, and I ended up picking up 3 during different sales where I received 20% off my purchase, and that included prestige brands. I don't really watch Jaclyn Hill much on YouTube anymore, but her eye shadow palette that she put out with Morphe looked absolutely beautiful. Now with Morphe being sold at Ulta, I'm more inclined to try their products.
I don't have very many MAC products in my collection, but the Cool Neutral eye shadow palette really tripped my trigger. I LOVE cool toned shadows, and I feel like every palette out there is warm toned, so this is a welcome palette to my collection.
Anastasia Beverly Hills makes some amazing products (the clear brow gel is fantastic!), and I typically love their palettes. With the whole Subculture debacle, I was wary of buying any more from them. However, the Prism palette is just so stunning, and limited edition, so I knew I had to have it before it went away for good. I have yet to try it on my eyes, but I'm excited to, even though reviews I've seen are mixed.
Skincare is always my weakness, and I haven't used Dermalogica products in ages. Their Active Moist moisturizer was a favorite of mine years ago when I was in cosmetology school. I figured I'd give it a try again to see if I still like it.
Face masks are my favorite skincare product to use, and I had never heard of the brand Skin & Lab before. They have a few different kinds of masks, but I chose their Glacial Clay Facial Mask, which is said to be a purifying cooling & pore refining treatment with Canadian colloidal & Avena satiba oatmeal. This mask seems to be right up my alley!
I'm in need of replacing my beloved The Body Shop Aloe Calming Toner since it's so pricey now, and with the 20% off coupon, I decided to give the Mario Badescu Keratoplast Cleansing Lotion a try. It seems like a simple toner and only has a few ingredients, so I'm hopeful this is a good one.
'Tis the season for dry hands and lips. I tend to go through hand creams and lip balms like they're going out of style once the weather cools down, so I decided to get the Delectable Dream Cream Ultra Nourishing Hand Cream set, and the Skinfix Lip Fix set. I went through so many lip balms and hand creams when my daughter was in the NICU, and I still seem to go through alot, so I can never have enough!
These Hempz products were a gift with purchase for spending a certain amount, and I had never tried any of these products, so I figured I'd give them a go. It came with the Triple Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner, Hand Sanitizer, Body Cream and Lip Balm.
I wasn't planning on purchasing anything from the recent Rouge/VIB/Beauty Insider sale Sephora recently had, but this was the first year Beauty Insiders received a discount. I'm no longer Rouge, and much prefer Ulta's reward system, but the Kat Von D Saint & Sinner eye shadow palette for Holiday 2017 stood out to me. I missed out on last year's palette, Metal Matte, and I kick myself for not getting it still, so I knew I had to get Saint & Sinner.
I also cashed in 100 points since I rarely buy from Sephora, so I got the Farmacy Honey Potion Hydration Mask. This is a brand I've been dying to try, and my skin needs some extra hydration lately.
Is there anything you've purchased lately from recent sales?
Hello everyone! It's time to look through my trash and see what products I was able to use up in April. I think I used up a fair amount of products, and it's such a rewarding feeling seeing it all.
The first product I used up is the Philosophy Purity Made Simple Facial Cleansing Gel & Eye Makeup Remover. This took forever for me to go through since you only need a tiny bit to get the job done. It was an amazing cleanser for taking off makeup and overall cleansing. I probably would repurchase, but I have so many cleansers to go through right now.
Next up is the Mario Badescu Special Mask for Oily Skin. Unfortunately, when I went to use this, it was all dried up so I had to dump it out. I'm saving the little pot though as I'm sure I'll find a use for it eventually. The Aloe Moisturizer was alright. It felt nice going on the skin, but it never really sunk in and made me feel greasy after a while. The drying cream was also a dried up mess and unusable.
I wasn't much of a fan of the Sephora Supreme Cleansing Foam. It smelled really strongly of flowers and didn't clean the best either. I'm glad it was a sample size that I got through quickly.
The Pangea Organics Facial Cleanser was alright. It was super liquid-y but it did clean my skin nicely. I can't remember where I even got this little sample, but it lasted me quite a while.
Both my husband and I used the Pantene Sheer Volume Shampoo. He's not picky and neither am I really. This was good. It cleaned my hair nicely and left it soft and fluffy.
I used up sample packets of the John Frieda Luxurious Volume shampoo and conditioner while staying at my Mother-in-law's house during Easter. I really liked this alot. The duo made my hair feel so soft and it looked amazing once it was all dry. I'd consider buying full sized bottles once I use up what I have.
I have to throw out the Radha Beauty Argan Oil. It smelled funky when I received it for review, and it smells even worse now. I don't know what is wrong with it, but I have to toss it. I feel bad though because I only used it a few times and I did like what it did for my skin and also my hair when I used a tiny bit.
The Philosophy Peppermint Hot Cocoa shower gel smelled so amazing and made my whole house smell good after I took a shower. You all know my love for Philosophy shower gels, so I won't ramble on about how amazingly awesome they are.
I finally was able to use up the Juice Beauty Hydrating Mist. I hated using it by directly spraying it on my skin as it burned my eyes like hell, even though they were closed. It was much better just spraying some on a cotton pad and swiping it on my skin. It didn't do much for me though. I still am obsessed with The Body Shop's Aloe Calming Toner and nothing really comes close to it.
Last few products! I absolutely loved the bareMinerals Firming Eye Treatment. It made my eye area feel so soft and hydrated, but it wasn't heavy at all. I only used it at night and when I woke up in the morning, the skin around my eyes felt really nice.
The product next to it is the Jack Black Intense Therapy Lip Balm Balm in the Black Tea & Blackberry scent. It got lots of love from me as it usually was the one I brought with me to work. I loved this stuff. It made my lips feel nice and hydrated and it's a great base for drying lipsticks.
The last product is the Urban Decay Complexion Primer Potion. This stuff was like magic for my pores! Seriously, it covered them up so I could put on foundation or concealer and not have to worry about my pores looking like massive craters. I would most definitely buy the full size once I use up other primers.
What did you use up last month?
Hey guys! Today I'm going to be showing you a haul that I did before the new year started. I decided it was time for a spending ban so as if January 1st, I won't be purchasing anything beauty related for at least a month. We're 5 days into the new year and so far, so good! I am tempted with all the new makeup/skincare goodies that are starting to come out, plus I got 2 Sephora gift cards for Christmas, but I want to save them. Anyway, let me show you what I bought!
I'll start off with what I purchased online from The Body Shop. I have to tell a little story about his purchase. When I went to order everything, the entire site was 50% off, which they don't have too often. I'm also a Love Your Body member, which gave me 10% extra off my order. My birthday is in December, so they give you $10 to spend towards your purchase. ALSO, I didn't realize that I had my 8 point gift to use up, which is when they give you $25 to use toward your purchase. After all those discounts, I only spent just under $25 for everything you see above, I kid you not! Can you believe that?! I was so excited and my husband was actually proud of me lol.
Okay, onto all the lovely stuff I bought. I definitely had to stock up on my favorite toner of life, the Aloe Calming Toner. I've talked about this toner more times than I can count, but it's just amazing, which is why I bought three bottles.
I'm obsessed with their Hemp Hand Protector! It's one of the only hand creams that I can use in the Winter because everything else doesn't work. My hands get so dry and cracked, but this hand cream is a miracle worker for me, especially since I have to wash my hands alot working retail. I should mention though, this was actually a freebie because I spent a certain amount online. I honestly don't remember what amount I had to spend to get it though.
I haven't tried much from their Nutriganics line, so I figured I'd try out the Smoothing Night Cream. This is supposed to be a more natural line in their skincare range, but I'm not picky about that honestly. As long as a product works for me, I'm happy. I've been having alot of little dehydration lines on my face because of the weather, so I'm hoping to find something that helps with that.
This wouldn't be a Body Shop haul if there wasn't a body butter invloved, and the one I bought is in the holiday scent Vanilla Brulee. It smells divine and everyone and their mom knows how much I love these body butters.
I haven't tried too many of the masks they have either, so I picked up the Blue Corn 3-in-1 Deep Cleansing Mask. This smells lovely as well, very light and like baby wipes. This has scrubbing particles in it, so after you leave the mask on for 10-15 minutes, so scrube it off your face to get some exfoliation going. I think this will be amazing for my skin.
The last product I bought thanks to Essie Button on YouTube and it's the Honey Bronze Bronzing Powder in the shade 01 Light Matte. The color sure is stunning, and looks like it will be great for my fair skin. Essie Button sure knows a good product!
Now for Ulta. they had a 20% off coupon in December, so I kinda went a little crazy on the website! I've been running low on dry shampoo, so I purchased two scents of Batiste, Wild and Refresh. I typically get the Tropical scent but for whatever reason, they don't have it at Ulta. At least not at mine.
It Cosmetics is a brand that I'm dabbling in and their brushes have intrigued me for a while. I decided to purchase the Airbrush Buffing Foundation Brush #110. I normally use a Beauty Blender for foundation, but wanted to try this since it reminds me of a Sigma look-a-like. Oh my word is this brush soft! I haven't tried it on my face yet, but I have washed it and there was no shedding. I can't wait to try this out on my face. It feels like chinchilla fur or something!
Thanks to EmilyNoel on YouTube, I had to purchase the Mally Beauty Volumizing Mascara. She raves about this mascara all the time, so I bought into the hype and purchased it. Haven't tried it yet, but I will probably write up a review of it when I do!
I needed a blow dryer so bad! In all honesty I've never owned on myself. I always would use my mom's hair dryer if I wanted to blow dry my hair, which was rare. I usually air dry it. I ended up choosing the Bed Head Mind Blower Hair Dryer. I already used it once, and so far I like it! I'm not picky since I don't know much about blow dryers, but it dried my hair nicely and didn't make it feel like a fried mess.
Since I'm on a hand cream kick and seem to be using up alot of what I have, I bought the 100% Pure French Lavender Hand Buttercream. This smells so lovely, and I plan on mostly using this at night since lavender is very calming and relaxing for me.
I love me a good eye cream, so I treated myself to two. The first one is the Tarte Maracuja C Brighter Eye Treatment. I've heard good things about this eye cream so I'm hoping I like it for my dark circles. The other one I bought is the Mario Badescu Hyaluronic Eye Cream. Hyaluronic acid loves my dry skin I've been having, so I have a feeling this will work well for me.
That's everything I purchased! Hopefully this spending ban goes well for me and I don't give into temptation. Is there anything you've purchased recently? Are you doing a spending ban?
Hey everyone! It's been ages since I posted anything, I know, but I've been so sick the past week and a half and I haven't wanted to do anything but lay in bed or sit my butt on the couch watching Game of Thrones. I also still had to work while being sick so that didn't help matters either. Even though I'm still sick, I wanted to share some of the products that I was loving last month.
I only have four products to talk about, mostly because I haven't really tried any new products and partially with me being so sick. When I'm sick, I barely do anything with my skin, so it's not too happy with me right now.
Anyways, the first product I have here is Bausch & Lomb Advanced Eye Relief eye drops for dry eyes. This stuff is surprisingly really good! Usually I only buy the Similasan eye drops because my eyes are really sensitive and that was the only stuff I could use without my eyes feeling like they were being burned. This B&L product does not burn my eyes at all and actually helps with the dryness I get. Plus, this is super inexpensive at Walmart, only about $3.
My next favorite is actually a product that isn't made anymore (sadface) and it's the Covergirl Natureluxe Mousse Mascara in the Very Black color. This mascara is fantastic for my lashes! I love how natural it makes them look, and this color is super black, which I'm a big fan of. I really wish they didn't discontinue this mascara, because it really is nice. I can't remember when I bought this honestly, maybe last year when the drugstores had their clearance sales. I may have gotten this at CVS.
Next up we have one of my favorite Wet N' Wild trios, and it's in Silent Treatment. This little trio makes the perfect smoky look for me. I don't follow the little guide in this and I switch the crease and eyelid shade. The crease shade in here I just couldn't blend out well enough so I use it on my lids and I take the eyelid shade through my crease. Then I use the browbone shade lightly as a highlight and I'm good to go. I wear that look alot to work and I get compliments on it all the time. Great little trio here!
My last favorite is the much talked about Mario Badescu Drying Lotion. This whole month my skin has looked terrible most days, but getting sick and not being able to take care of it normally sent it into a total fit. At the moment, my skin is worse than when I was a teenager. I feel like I can finally take care of it like normal, so I'm hoping it clears up fast. Anyway, this product is a little miracle worker for zits. Pop a Qtip in the jar and then put it on any blemishes, and the next morning everything is either gone or alot smaller than the day before. I've used it quite a few times this past month, but it's definitely gotten a ton of use the past week and a half.
That's everything! I know it wasn't alot, but I totally wasn't expecting to get completely knocked out from being sick. I'm really hoping June is better for me product (and health!) wise!
What were some of your favorites in May?
Hey guys! So today's post is going to be a haul! I know I said I was on a spending ban, but with my birthday and Christmas being in the same month, I had saved the money I was given to buy some makeup goodies! Lets see what I got.
Starting off with Sephora, they were having an online sale of their clearance items after Christmas of 20% off so I decided to purchase two items! The first is this Urban Decay Anarchy Face Case.
This is a pretty neat palette. When you open up the top portion, you get 5 different eyeshadows that are called Redemption, Fray, Vaporize, Provocateur, and Revolt. I love these colors like every other UD eyeshadow but my two favorites are Fray (second one in) and Vaporize (third one in). For my skintone, Fray is perfect for the crease and blending out any harsh edges. Vaporize is just such a stunning metallic gray-ish taupe color that I actually get alot of use out of. You also get a decent size of their 24/7 liner in Perversion, which is personally my favorite black eyeliner.
When you open up the second layer, you have two blushes called Fetish and Quickie. *Cough* Anyways, aside from their raunchy names, they're beautiful colors. Fetish is a mauve-pink and Quickie is obviously a bright pink. The highlighter, called Craze, isn't my favorite. I'm not the biggest fan of yellow-toned anything, so I'm not sure if I'll get much use out of it.
I'm obsessed with the Super-Saturated High Gloss Lip Color in Scandal! I put this on and was amazed at how pigmented and beautiful it was. It's described as a bright metallic raspberry shimmer, and that's just spot on. I love how this looks with my fair skin, and with a very neutral eye, it's perfect! I'm thinking of doing a review on this sometime.
The last product I picked up from Sephora is the Lorac Mint Edition Palette. It also came with an exclusive Couture Shine Liquid Lipstick in the color Retro which is a nude-pink shade that's supposed to flatter all skintones. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks a bit light for me, but smells amazing, like cocoa powder!
Inside, you get 8 eyeshadows, 4 matte and 4 shimmer, along with a blush and highlighter. The highlighter in this palette is more my style because it's more of a pinky tone. The blush is a peachy-pink and I love blushes that color.
I won't go into too much detail since I think I want to review this, but the matte eyeshadows didn't really impress me. I bought this for the mint shade, but that wasn't up to par with Lorac's other matte shadows, aka the Pro Palette. The shimmer shades are actually very nice! The taupe shade in the upper right hand corner is a beautiful lid or transition color depending on the look you're doing!
Now onto Ulta! I've been wanting to add to my Real Techniques brush collection because they're great quality but they're pretty affordable. When I was in the store, they were sold out of literally every Real Techniques brush except for two or three, so it was slim pickins. I did want to get the Setting Brush so I was glad they had it! I wanted this primarily for setting my under eye concealer.
I then picked up the much talked about Mario Badescu Drying Lotion. My skin has been crazy lately. It's super oily and broken out one day, then the next day it dries out and I can't control that either. With all my breakouts, my usual zit gel I was using wasn't working as well, so I decided it was time to try this bad boy since I've heard amazing things. Again, I want to do a review on this, but I will say, this product is really nice!
I then picked up the newer Revlon Colorburst Lacquer Balms. They did have a few of the matte balms, but they were all tampered with. My biggest gripe with these is that they're only sealed with a tiny little sticker. I think that's just nasty, but I did find two that I wanted to try (and didn't seem tampered with!). The first one is called Enticing, which is a beautiful red shade. I put this on right away after I bought it, and I actually got compliments! This is a rare red that somehow works for my pale skin. The second color I bought is called Coquette which is a bright pink shade. I know it looks bad in the picture, so I apologize!
Last few products! I decided it was time for me to buy some Prestige mascara. I picked up the popular My Blackest Lashes, but then I also wanted to try My Biggest Lashes. I have yet to open these but I'm pretty darn excited I own these now!
The last products I picked up are these Rimmel Scandaleyes Eye Shadow Paints in the colors Chestnut Taupe, Manganese Purple, and Rich Russet. I'm pretty sure these are new products because they were on a different display away from the other Rimmel products. These babies are flipping awesome! You gotta work fast with these because they dry quickly, but I put some on my lids with the applicator, then take a stiffer blending brush to buff away harsh lines. These literally dry down like paint, but they make an awesome shadow base! I haven't worn these by themselves yet, but I have a feeling they'll last throughout the day.
That's everything! I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and let me know if you've hauled any new products lately! :)
