CVS/Rite-Aid Drugstore Haul

Ok, so I wasn't going to do any more hauling for a while but couldn't resist the great deals that were going on this week.. that, and I needed a little retail therapy!!

Wet N Wild Fantasy Maker e/s duo in Blue Ice, Jesse's Girl Eyeshadow in Champagne, Jesse's Girl Baked Powder Eyeshadow in Night Vision

My apologies for the blurry pics, its nighttime and I have not-so-great light right now.

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Pink in the Afternoon, Cherries In The Snow (reverse order in pics) Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers lipstick in Black

The other items that didn't really need close-ups are the L'Oreal Extra Volume Collagen Mascara in Blackest Black, CoverGirl LashBlast mascara in Very Black, Ardel Spyder Woman Lashes (for my Halloween costume) and the EOS Lip Balm in Summer Fruits. I'm most excited to try out the black lipstick and mascaras.. I'm *really* disappointed with the Maybelline Pulse Perfection mascara I've been using so hopefully these will work out a lot better for me. Reviews of everything will be up soon! :)

Oh, and P.S. I'm also thinking that the black Jesse's Girl eyeshadow is almost an identical dupe of the MAC Mineralize shadow in Cinderfella.. And its $3.99 (vs. $19.50 for the MAC one!)

I'll have a tutorial of this up shortly!

Sephora Haul- UD Book of Shadows 2, Stila Bronzers, etc.

Yay, Sephora haul time! :-) After seeing the preview pics for this gorgeous palette (Urban Decay's Book of Shadows II or BOS2), I knew I would absolutely love it and get sooo much use out of it! (Which is now the screening method I put all of my future purchases through..) During checkout, I noticed that Sephora was also offering a killer deal on Stila bronzers.. $10 for 2 full-sized products that they still sell for $28 and $32 seperately!! The rest of the items pictured are samples that came with the order (the Philosophy set was a special promo that they WAAAAY over-valued at $65.. its not worth any specific dollar amount because they are JUST SAMPLES!???! Its really annoying when places put dollar amounts on samples.. samples are made to be given out for free to entice someone to buy the full sized product or to make sure they like it before purchasing to cut down on returns..just because they've bundled a few of them, doesn't give it a spectacular *value* and especially not a value of $65.. Just my 2 cents...)

View with the top open.. the top part holds a booklet with some fun makeup looks and a large mirror..

A close-up of the shadows.. From top left: Perversion, Gunmetal, Ecstacy, AC/DC

 Nylon, Sellout, Mushroom, Sphynx

 Half Baked, Twice Baked, Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, YDK

Jinx, Flipside, Homegrown, Misdemeanor

24/7 Glide-On eye pencil minis in Bourbon and Zero

Primer Potion mini

Click on the picture for a more detailed look at the shades..

So I've swatched everything but the darker stila bronzer (the top one, gold, is more of a highlighter than bronzing powder) and I have to say that everything looks so gorgeous and shimmery and I can't wait to play around with it and create some gorgeous looks! I will be updating with some FOTD's using this palette very soon!!

LORAC Sexy Swag Makeup Collection w/ Swatches

Ok, I know I said I was going to try to cut back on the hauling.. However, my mom bought this for me, so technically I'm still being (kinda) good.. I was alerted to this stellar deal by my girls on MUA (they're always on top of the best deals within minutes of them being released) and was going to buy it that day but left the screen up at my moms house and she decided to buy it for my birthday present. Well, I got to her house before she came back today and saw the LORAC box waiting, so I asked her about it and she decided to just give me my present early.. Yay! Lol.. So here's the description from the site:

On Screen Duo Eye Shadow/Liner in "Rich & Famous"

Glam Rocks Loose Metallic Eye Shadows in "Pearl" and "Gold"

TANtalizer Body Bronzing Luminizer

Caribbean Heat Bronzer

Croc Mocktail Lip Gloss Collection

Croc Makeup Bag

All for $29.95? Crazy-good deal.. (still available! :)

loraccosmetics.com

So here's my shot of it:
(You can click on any of my pics below to enlarge them :)

The glosses & swatched:

Irish Coffee, Sugarplumtini, Candy Cane Cosmo, Champagne, Spiced Cider, Mistletoe Mojito

These have great pigment, are all scented (not a cloying scent, but nice and fruity or spicy, depending on the shade), all are shimmery, very flattering and have a tiny mirror on the backside of the gloss. This set is also selling by itself on the site for $7.50!

The Glam Rocks Loose Metallic Eyeshadow in Pearl and Gold:

These are really pretty and remind me a LOT of MAC Solarbits.. they get the texture shown here when blended.. otherwise they are chunky little bits of shimmer.

The Onscreen Duo shadow/liner in Rich & Famous and the Caribbean Heat bronzer, the 3 individual shades from the bronzer and then all swirled together.

So of course, I'm very excited about this collection.. I haven't opened the tanning gel yet, so there's no swatch of that. The makeup bag is *really* cute too, so needless to say, its <3 for this set! I'm thinking about buying this one as well, while its still available:

This set is another awesome deal, $18.50 for 10 items.. You get 3 of their incredible eyeshadows, 2 lipglosses, 2 lipsticks, a baked bronzer, eyelining pen and a brush, all full-sized (with the exception of the bronzer).. Just thought I'd share! :)

Fyrinnae Order with Swatches

I was sooo super excited to get this, my first order from Fyrinnae. I have received samples of their shadows before and found 95% of them to be fantastic. Most of them go on very smoothly, have great pigment and gorgeous sparkle. Some of them can be a little chunky but you can still make them work with the right application. So my order consisted of a bunch of their loose eyeshadow samples (which are 1/4 teaspoon for most, 1/8 for others in a little clear jar), their velvet gel silica primer and the pixie epoxy.

The primer is for creating a smooth finish and a *base* for foundation and the rest of your makeup. I've never really used a primer before, however, from what I've heard I will definitely notice the difference for the better. The directions for this product are to use much less than a pea size for your whole face, so in other words, this jar will last me months and months to come. The picture of the product below is from Fyrinnae's website because I couldn't get it or the epoxy to photograph correctly.

The pixie epoxy is a product I am *really* excited about trying out.. its a clear gel that dries slightly tacky (use over your usual eyeshadow base) and is meant to hold on to the pigment in loose shadows so they don't fall out all over your cheeks. The swatches below were patted on over the epoxy and I will say right now the difference was night and day between using the epoxy and not using it. With the epoxy, the shadows came out more vibrant, shimmery, and almost metallic. I will definitely update on whether this product creases after wearing for a few hours.

Now on to the shadows.. I picked out a whole bunch, and from what I gather, they usually send out an extra one as a freebie for their customers to try.. Well, they sent me an *extra extra* freebie because they were having some technical difficulties with their shopping cart when I first tried to place the order and it took a day or so to complete. They wrote a cute apology on the invoice and wrapped the items in the most adorable tissue paper. I really like this company, they have terrific customer service from what I've experienced and will have lots of fun deciding which of these I want to have full sizes of.. Here they are!

Click to enlarge..

From top left: Njordr, Bali Mynah, 1.22 Gigawatts, Nori, Parental Advisory

From bottom left: Newcastle, Boytoy, Arcane Magic-Mystic, Immortality, City Glam-Lights of Las Vegas, City Glam-Lights of Moscow

 Top row: City Glam-Lights of Las Vegas, Njordr, Nori, Immortality

2nd Row: City Glam- Lights of Moscow, Newcastle, Boytoy, 1.22 Gigawatts

Bottom Row: Parental Advisory, Arcane Magic-Mystic, Bali Mynah

Dollar Tree Haul

I rave and rave about the Dollar Tree to all of my friends, family, etc. and this is why! They offer some of the best beauty deals I've seen, some on discontinued or hard-to-find products! Their stock continually rotates to bring in new products, so I always end up picking up a few new things during each trip. The 99cent store is pretty good too, they had L'Oreal HIP lipglosses and Profusion palettes the last time I was there. I guess what I'm saying is don't pass up the store because you think they won't have anything for you or that its all cheap.. The items I got were all sold in drugstores before they were scooped up by the buyers at Dollar Tree. And all of this cost me under $10!!

From top left:

L'Oreal On the Loose Shimmer Powders in Mesmerized and Airy Azure

Maybelline Forever Metallics Metal-Shine Lipcolor in Berry Glossy, Blush Beam, Shell Shimmer

An extra Airy Azure to throw into a swap

Maybelline Cool Effect eyeliner in Chilled Steel

LA Colors 6 Color Metallic Eyeshadow in Dreamy

L'Oreal Hope Eye Sheen Duos in Courage

I won't be posting swatches on these items unless I have a request to, simply because I have no idea if other dollar trees have the same items.

Sally Beauty Haul

After watching a few vids from one of my fave girls on YouTube (VintageorTacky), I knew I HAD to rush out and get a few things from my local Sally Beauty. The *rush* part came from a recent video she did on how to make your own glitter eyeliner/shadow. I'm all about cutting corners in an effort to not spend $15-20 a pop on a product that I either a) can make myself, b) will probably dry up before I finish it, or c) might only use once or twice. So the product she was using was the Sparkle Effect Gel Adhesive for glitter by Sally Girl, available only at Sally Beauty for about $1.29.. She used an empty palette for mixing and combined some of the gel and a dash of loose glitter. The color that she applied to her lids in the vid was the Crystalled Lime (think that was it..?) pigment from MAC over a lime green shadow she already had on and the effect was sooo gorgeous. You can view it here..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMNg1LZ35yw&feature=channel_page
She had also mentioned before in a different video that her friend was obsessed with the Sally Girl eyeshadow that actually hook together... I was in the mood yesterday for some fun and bright shades so I picked up these guys: (Click to enlarge for better pics)

From left: Quad in Moolah, Singles in Emerald, Aqua, Turquoise and Purple Passion

and here they are swatched. And yes, they are backwards, I know :(

In addition to the brights, I thought this Moolah quad looked eerily similar to the new MAC PhotoRealism quad so I picked that up... the colors are not as pigmented and there are a couple differences with the colors.. the dark forrest green on the bottom right should have a little hint of bluish black and the brown on the bottom left should be more of a greyed green but for $.89 instead of $36 I believe it is.. I'll probably just stick with this one and see how I like it before I rush out and get this quad that everyone is loving. At Sallys, I also picked up another Duo eyelash adhesive in clear because the Sonia Kashuk one I had been using before was now irritating my eyes for some reason.. Overall, very happy with my purchases, I believe I made it out of there for under $12 for 7 items (all Sally Girl items were buy 5, get one free!) I'll be posting reviews of all of these items once I have a chance to test em out. Can't wait to play with all the fun new colors!

Victoria's Secret Haul

Now the only reason I keep my Victoria's Secret credit card is for the perks.. Every year, on the month of your birthday, they send a $10 gift card with no strings attached, and this year included an extra bonus of the Slice of Heaven Beauty Rush lipgloss! Fabulous! So I went in yesterday to redeem the card on some underthings for myself, and as always got distracted by the displays of Beauty Rush items in the checkout line. I've always been intrigued by the eyeshadows which look gorgeously shimmery and metallic. And because my VS was out of 90% of the new makeup collection (BUMMER!!) that I was planning to pick up a few fun colors from, I figured, hey why not!? So I grabbed the Slice of Heaven and a Passion Fruit Punch lipgloss, along with a cream eyeshadow in a shimmery champagne shade for my best friend (gave them to her last night so I don't remember the name..) and for myself, I picked up the following:

Wet/Dry eye shadow in (clockwise from top left):

Glamerald

Violet Femme

Blueray

and Lipgloss in (from left)
Red Delicious
Hot Cocoanut

I haven't opened the Red Delicious yet but I'm already in lust with the Hot Cocoanut.. I wore it last night with my Green Smokey eye look and the color is a really subtle transparent nude with sparkly (but not overly glittery) gold flecks. The smell is also incredible- like tanning oil! Yummy...

And here are swatches of the 3 eyeshadows,

from top to bottom,

Glamerald

Blueray

Violet Femme

I'm soooo excited to play around with these shades,

they look so fun and metallic. They are also promoted as wet/dry shades, so I can imagine the brilliance of these colors when applied with a mixing medium/wet base.

Look forward to my reviews on these, as well as some FOTD's using these products!

Discount Store Haul #1

So I was doing a little shopping with my mom yesterday and we were in the neighborhood of one of the places she stops by sometimes and decided to take a peek inside. I was pleasantly surprised by the selection of makeup they had available.. and everything was at the bargain price of 99 cents! The first items I saw were 2 palettes from Kleancolor in #'s 36602 and 36601. At first glace, they appeared very metallic and just gorgeous shimmery colors.. The #36602 has some bronzes, silvers, coppers and purples and #36601 has a great mix of beige, coppers, green and blue. When I got home and tested them out they were very smooth and blendable. The only issue I have is that with this collection, some of the colors repeat in the different palettes. Next, I found a Revlon eyeshadow trio in Show Stopper Copper, which includes a soft, slightly shimmery ivory, a brighter copper with medium shimmer, and a bronze with just a touch of metallic shimmer, all of which are very smooth and compliment each other beautifully. Lastly, I came upon a Physician's Formula wet/dry bronzer in Baked Bronze. This one I think I have some issues with- the color shows slightly orangey on my very fair complexion and the shimmer might be a little but much for daytime. I'm going to play around with it though and update with swatches very soon. 

All of this for under $5. I was definitely a happy makeup addict yesterday!