February 2013 Empties!

Hey guys! This month is a sad month for empties. I only used up five products and I also included a product that was so old it didn't even work! Here's what I used up this past month!

The first product I used up is my beloved Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunblock with SPF 55. I've talked about this sunblock multiple times, but this is probably my absolute favorite sunblock ever. It doesn't make my face greasy and it doesn't break me out. I have plenty of backups of this product too so I won't repurchase right now, but when I run out completely, I definitely will.

Next I used up a mini Philosophy Shower Gel in the Scent Bubbly. It smelled kinda like champagne and it actually took me a while to go through because you don't need alot of product. A little bit goes a long way. I have a ton of Philosophy shower gels in my closet to use up so I won't repurchase for a while.

Then I finally used up the Super Hyper Hydrator with Coconut Water. I've also talked about this before and I used this as my nighttime moisturizer. It really helped when my skin was feeling really dry, which for me is rare because I'm usually an oil slick. This winter season has been particularly rough on my skin so I've definitely been needing something heavier.

I used up a little mini sample of the Tarte Clean Slate Poreless face primer. This was a decent primer, but for some reason, and I don't know if it's just my skin or what, but nothing I've ever tried has prevented my face from becoming oily. Now I did notice that I stayed matte for about 3 to 4 hours before I got shiny, but I'm still looking for something that helps my skin stay matte all day while I'm at work. I'm still searching...

The next product I used up is the on10 Lip Balm in the flavor Black Cherry Seltzer. I'm not sure if I've mentioned these lip balms before, maybe I did once, but I love these. They smell so amazing and they're very moisturizing. They also have an SPF of 15 which is really nice. I have alot of these to use up from kits I bought a while ago, but I don't think they're available to purchase anymore.

Now the last product is the old one. Once I used up the black cherry one, I wanted to use the Vegan Hemp Balm in the Orange flavor but when I tried putting in on my lips, it was so dry and icky! I can't remember when I bought this either so I don't know if it's years and years old or fairly recent. Definitely throwing it out since I couldn't even get any on my fingers to spread around!

That's everything I used up! I'm hoping this month I can use up some more makeup and hair care. I'm always using up tons of skincare and body care and I wanna show some variety once the end of March hits! Lets hope I can do it!

My Last Haul For Three Months!

Hey everyone! If you read my 2013 resolution post, shown here, then you might have seen that I'm putting myself on a 3 month beauty spending ban that started January 1st. Once I decided I was going to do this, I wanted to kinda splurge a little beforehand because I know this will be hard for me. I will also say that if I run out of eye makeup remover or cotton pads and stuff I absolutely need before the 3 months is up, I will be repurchasing what need. Just wanted to mention that! Anyways, onto this rather large haul!

First, my things from Walmart!

I only got these three things from Walmart and I honestly can't remember if I got these in the beginning or middle of December, but I definitely know it was sometime in December. Anyways, the first thing I picked up is the Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara in extreme black. Apparently this is supposed to make your lashes appear 117% longer in 30 days. That's a pretty bold claim for a mascara of any price and this was only under $6, so we'll see if this works.

Next I got the L'Oreal Colour Riche Balm in the color Rose Elixir. For some reason, I don't remember ever trying any makeup by L'Oreal so I'm pretty excited to try this. Plus, it's a really pretty pink color that looks like it'll be flattering for my skin tone.

Then I got the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Concealer in the brightener shade. I kept hearing that this one is better at covering dark circles than the concealers with the colors. I have the one in Fair and it actually works pretty well for my dark circles, so I'm interested to see if this one works better than my other one.

Onto what I purchased from Bath & Body Works!

So Bath & Body Works was having a buy 3, get 3 free sale on their body care plus I had a coupon for $10 off of a $30 purchase so these 6 bottles cost me a little over $20 including tax. I got two Coconut Shower Gels and a Coconut Body Lotion to go with it. Then I got an Orange Sapphire Shower Gel, which smells flipping amazing. I'm currently using an Orange Sapphire mini hand sanitizer, which I and everyone I work with loves. I also got a Pink Sugarplum Shower Gel and a Vanilla Tini Shower Gel. Both of these smell amazing too!

Now for The Body Shop!

These were also good purchases. They were having their sale where end of season and discontinued products were like 75% off and I had my 8 point gift to use, which was $25 worth of products plus a free Love Your Body membership renewal so altogether I only had to spend a little over $20, which for all this is pretty darn good! I first got a Vanilla Duo Body Butter which was on sale for $8, when I think normally they're $18. Obviously, I love the smell of vanilla so I had to get this. Then I got the Rainforest Radiance Hair Butter for Coloured Hair. This is just a deep conditioner I thought would be good because my hair is starting to get drier with this nasty cold weather now. Plus it smells awesome! I also got an Eyeshadow Blender brush, because lets face it, a girl can never have enough blender brushes. ;)

The next three products were literally so inexpensive, I don't know how anyone would pass them up. The first product is the Spa Wisdom Africa Ximenia & Marula Oil Shower Cream. This cost me $2. Yep, just $2! I couldn't believe it! I don't think this is going to be a foamy shower gel type thing, but for two bucks, I'll make it work. The next product I got is the Spa Wisdom Polynesia Lime & Coconut Shower Gel. This stuff smells so good and it was only $5. I think this was the last one my store had too because I did look around for more. Then I got the Brazil Nut Shower Cream. I think The Body Shop is getting rid of the Brazil Nut line, or they already did and this was the last they had of it. It only cost me $4. 

Now for Sephora!

Now these purchases were exciting! I placed an order online and of course like 2 days later I got an email saying their clearance section was an extra 20% off with a special code, so I placed another one. The first picture is my first order and the second picture is the clearance items that were 20% off. So first I bought a Super Hand & Cuticle Cream with Yogurt Probiotics. It seems like I'm using alot of hand cream lately because my hands are just so dry and chapped. I really hate winter because of that so I wanted to check out another hand cream and see how it works. Then I got the Nails Inc. Neon & Nude nail polish Collection. I love the colors here, except for maybe the yellow, (not a big fan of yellows) but I might try it and see how I like it. This next product I was super excited for, and it's the Jack Black It's the Balm Limited Edition Lip Quad. I've heard nothing but amazing things about these lip balms and although the brand is geared toward men, I can't wait to try them.


So like I said, the second picture is my second purchase. I was so excited for the Sephora by OPI Tinsel Town nail polish Collector's Set because it was only a little over $25 with the 20% discount. I don't remember what this originally cost, and it's now sold out on Sephora's website, but I thought that was a pretty good deal. I'm getting more into nail polish and these colors looked amazing! I have to leave them in the box to remember the names because they're not on the bottle :(. Then I got the ClickR Skin Care Diamond Dust Skin Polisher. At first I thought it was an exfoliator, but when I read it, I found out it's actually a serum that "polishes your skin, refines pores, and controls moisture to eliminate dullness and restore radiance." That's what it says on the box and I'm pretty excited to try this out. I love finding good skincare but of course, this was on clearance which usually means Sephora isn't going to carry this anymore so if I end up loving it, I gotta find it elsewhere or be sad because the whole line will disappear. I also got my Fresh birthday gift, a free Origins White Tea Moisturizer with a code, and the Hourglass face primer everyone talks about for my 100 point perk.

Finally, my favorite of the haul... stuff from my momma! :)

Yes, these are from my momma's stash and yes, she let me keep them! Love you mommy! So on Christmas when my fiance and I were at my parents' house for dinner my mom wanted me to look through her makeup and pick out some eyeshadows that I thought would look good on her. Then she basically said, "take what you want." I was like "O.O, YAY!!!" If you know me, you know I love my bareMinerals eyeshadows. Yes, they can be messy, but they're still awesome. Anyways, she let me have a bareVitamins Eye Rev-er Upper, which is an amazing eye cream (and she had three of!), and the colors she let me keep were Bikini, Mermaid and Fog from the first picture and Angel, Nob Hill, Pacific Heights, Amethyst and Summer in the second picture. 

I realize this post is incredibly long, and I apologize but I wanted to show you everything I got before I did my 3 month beauty no-buy. I purchased everything before January 1st, and I can't wait to use up what I have in my stash! It honestly will be pretty hard not being able to buy anything beauty related for that long, but hopefully I'll be able to use up things and write reviews for you guys on what I like and don't like. I have some posts planned for this month but if you want to see anything specific, please comment below what you want me to write about!


Love you guys!
Katy

November 2012 Favorites!

I know it sounds cliche, but this month has totally flown by and I don't know where the year has gone! Plus, my birthday is in a week and a half so woohoo to that! Anyways, since it's the end of the month, that means it's time for my monthly favorites! Honestly, it's not much because I still haven't gotten a chance to really play around with stuff, but here are my favorites of November!

My first favorite is a Bare Minerals Glimmer Eyeshadow in a color called Desire. I absolutely am in love with this color and I did a review on it which can be found here. It's such a pretty color, and I rediscovered this in my collection just last week.

My next favorite is a Stila Eyeshadow in the color Diamond Lil. I can't tell you how impressed I was with this shadow. I also have the infamous Kitten eyeshadow and a black eyeshadow that all came in a 3-piece set. I've used Kitten a couple times, but honestly, it's nothing to write home about. This color is just such a pretty taupe-y gray color that made my eyes pop when I put it on and I was super impressed. The color payoff is amazing and it lasted all day too, but I always use an eyeshadow primer first.

My next favorite is a lip butter from The Body Shop in the scent Guarana. This stuff smells amazing! To me, it smells like sweet candy. It doesn't taste like it though, which is a bummer. It's incredibly moisturizing, but the only thing that I sort of don't like is that it can leave your lips looking white, so you really gotta massage this into your lips, or use a colored lipgloss or lipstick over top. I use a gloss over top so it doesn't bother me too much. 

My next favorite is also something I did a full review on earlier this month, which you can check out here. It's the Super Hyper Hydrator with Coconut Water. It's so bizarre, but my consistently oily skin is actually really drying out for once, and this has been a godsend to me. I only use it at night, because during the day I don't need something this heavy. I wake up with really soft, hydrated skin and it hasn't even broken me out either, which is another miracle. 

My last favorite of the month is the Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner Pencil in the color Perversion. I can't believe I waited so long to get this! It's amazing how dark it is and it went on perfectly for my tightline and waterline. It didn't tug on my skin at all. The only downside, which I actually have with every eyeliner I've ever tried, is that it didn't last very long on my waterline. I noticed it was starting to go away after only a few hours. I blame this on my very sensitive eyes that water constantly and my allergies. I gotta say though, this is probably the best eyeliner I've ever tried. The whole 24/7 line is amazing, but I was looking for a really dark black color for the longest time and I ended up purchasing this when Sephora had their 20% off coupon for VIB's. So happy I purchased this!

Swatch of Stila eyeshadow and UD eyeliner

Well there are my favorites of the month! I'm really hoping I can test out a few newer things in December but since I work in retail, I might not have enough time with these crazy holiday hours. Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed reading this and please comment if you'd like to see certain posts that I haven't done or would like to see more of! 

Also, what were your favorites in November?

Review: Super Hyper Hydrator with Coconut Water

Hi guys! I feel like I haven't done a post regarding skincare for a while so today I wanted to talk about a moisturizer that I've been using at night and it's the Super Hyper Hydrator with Coconut Water. This is a Dr. Nicholas Perricone product, but his Super line isn't as expensive as his other products.

This is the jar it comes in. I'm not the biggest fan of jars for sanitary reasons, but I'm the only one who uses this so It's not too big of a deal. I also want to say, I got this at Sephora ages ago and I tried to find it on the website recently, but it says product not carried. I did find it on Amazon though where it's a little bit on sale, along with the other Super products. This moisturizer is fairly thick. I do wake up with a slightly oily face but I don't really care because I don't want my skin to dry out in this colder weather. I also have to work it in my skin a lot too because it doesn't blend in too easily. There are a ton of good ingredients in this to help skin retain moisture, like sodium hyaluronate and coconut water. The coconut water also makes this smell really good too. It's not an overpowering coconut smell, it's just subtle enough to give off a light scent.

Here's some of the product spread on my hand a bit. Like I said, this is a thick moisturizer, so I feel like it's decent for people with drier skin, or people with oily skin that gets drier in the winter. I personally wouldn't use this in the summer as I'd turn into a big oil slick. Once I get this blended into my skin, it looks soft and glowing and I do wake up with my face still feeling soft and hydrated. I'm not sure if I would buy this again because it is on the pricey side at $40 for 1 ounce of product, but a little bit goes a very long way. I've barely made a dent in it and I've been using this for a few weeks now. I also haven't seen any dramatic difference in my skin's texture or anything and it doesn't seem to work any better or worse than what I'd normally use either. It hasn't broke me out, which is nice and I haven't had any other bad reactions either to this. 

I've only been using this for a few weeks, so once I use up the whole jar, I'll be able to decide whether or not I love this product. For now, it's a product in my skincare collection to use up, and it will definitely last me a while, probably through December at least. If I had to give it a grade, I'd probably give it a B right now. Down the road, it may really help my skin, or I'll be indifferent to it. 

Well that's my review! Let me know if you've tried this product, or any of the Super products! 

Also let me know if you'd like to see posts about something specific!