Makeup Withdrawal

Showing posts with label Cheap. Show all posts

Cleaning Day! + More Walmart HD Brushes

Sunday, April 25, 2010

I spent all of Saturday afternoon rearranging my stash.
Since moving into the apartment, I've slowly taken over the computer desk (where we keep our desktop and also my laptop) with my makeup. Mr. MakeupWithdrawal stood steadfast, refusing to give in, thinking that somehow he might someday reclaim this large desk for his use. But yesterday, Saturday April 25th- I am proud to announce that he has surrendered unconditionally. He not only took the desktop computer off and took apart the jungle of cords that hooked up the speakers, he also moved it to my own corner of the apartment so that I might have better lighting. Another perk was that from this set up, I can easily take videos.

Under the desk, left hand side

I also found some cash that I had squirreled away and completely forgotten about! Mr. M has also promised that when we buy a house, he'll build me a vanity (not holding my breath for this one).

View from the desk

Ok, on the brush review. If you remember, last time I went to Walmart and bought two 'HD' brushes- a big soft bronzer brush and a highlighter brush (read about that here). This time, I thought I would grab one of the synthetic angled blush brushes (Around $6.50) and also a sharpener (98 cents, I lose these about as often as I lose my lip balms). The blush brush is wonderful, silky smooth with a round, angled cut top. At first it had a bit of a smell, but I washed it two times (no shedding or bleeding!) and the scent came out after the first rinse.

It's hard to tell, but I think this brush might even be softer than my Ecotools ones. Yes, really! I see myself using this one a lot for contouring.

I also like the sharpener. At first, I was a bit puzzled at the rubber cover that plugs every opening, but upon further pondering, I realized that it would help keep the sharpener clean and dust free. And it's ridiculously cheap at under a dollar! Even N.Y.C. sharpeners are $1.98 but this one is half that cost and very sturdy. It has two built in sharpeners, one for your standard pencil eyeliner and the other one for jumbo sized pencils like NYX Milk.

Pretty productive day, eh?

All items featured were purchased by me, for my own use.

Cheap Makeup High, Also Some Swatches

Friday, April 9, 2010

I love good deals. They give me a kind of high that I just can't duplicate in any other way. I went to the Dollar Tree again, and got some more stuff. I bought two more Moist & Matte Liquid Colors.I picked up another Charmeuse (a vibrant red) and Chiffon (a hot pink).
I really like these, because the color is really opaque and it doesn't dry out my lips. There is one minor drawback, they smell like nail polish. That can't really be good for your lips, so I wear lip primer as a sort of barrier.

I also bought six L.A. Colors Mineral Eyeshadows and am fairly happy with them. Here's some swatches. Notice how unlike the rest of my fabulous pictures, these aren't done in natural sunlight? That's because I really didn't think they were worth waiting till the next day and trekking outside for. The photos with and without flash pretty much do them justice.

Notes: I thought it'd be overkill to swatch each color four times like I normally do, with all the bells and whistles. Since I assume you are a benevolent reader and would like me to stay sane, I'll just generalize and say that these shadows look better with something underneath or wet. Black is a matte black with the tiniest particles of silver glitter, not really visible to the naked eye. In the last picture of wet shadows, you can see one sparkle. White is odd. It's like matte and pearly at the same time, which doesn't really make for the smoothest application. Beige is a shimmery champagne peach. Gold is a soft shimmery 20 carat gold. Teal is a really smooth, attention calling matte teal (as the name would suggest). Purple is a matte, ordinary violet. I sort of like the unimaginative naming scheme because everything is pretty self explanatory.

In particular, I'm rather fond of the Teal and Beige. Just due to the awesome color of the first, and the soft, champagney glow of the second (which could probably be great even as a highlighter). I think they'are a fantastic value, and I would highly recommend using all of them wet. Well, except for the White. It's just kinda weird.

I also raped Target today. Yes, that's right. They had the e.l.f. display finally up and yours truly took every last Elements compact left. All eight of them. Was that a little selfish? I honestly needed them- I had about 24 or so eye shadows in limbo ever since I stepped on one of my 28 slot palettes and destroyed it. Well, my sincere apologies to the people in the area of Voorhees and Cherry Hill, New Jersey. You have me to blame for your lack of compacts.
I also bought a single e.l.f. eyeshadow in Moondust, 'cause you know, taupes are my thing and I don't discriminate based on price. It's very soft but the problem is that on it's own it has very little color payoff and doesn't last at all. But pair it with NYX Jumbo Pencil in milk, and you've got a winner. Of all the taupes I own, this one is the least frosty. In fact, it's quite satiny in texture, with the tiniest bit of shimmer. This picture isn't blurred, honest. The shadow just really wants to crumble off my arm.

I also grabbed two more $1 eyeshadow brushes because they're so handy for swatching and for day to day use. The last thing that I found interesting and had to try out was the e.l.f. Complexion Perfection powder quad. I'll write a whole review about it, promise.

And the Greatest Deals of the Month Award Goes to: Me

Monday, March 29, 2010

I made out like a bandit today. I really did. I wasn't even really looking for good deals either! First thing in the morning, I went to Rite Aid looking for a white eyeshadow, matte. I ended up with a Wet'n'Wild Ultimate Expressions Eyeshadow Palette (in Sand Castle) for a grand total of $1.24. Seriously. A dollar and a quarter. I'll admit, the light shades are really sheer and rather indistinguishable, but the dark shades have nice pigmentation. Did I mention that the texture is superb in the dark shades? Mhmm. All for less than the cost of a 20oz. Coke.
In fact, I liked it so much that I went back and grabbed another color scheme- Paradise Cove. That one isn't as nice, the matte shades are really mediocre. Still. Remember that still $1.24. I also reached for a MegaGlo Illuminating Powder in Catwalk Pink (wasn't on sale, but still a nice little surprise).
Now, phase two of my amazing day went something like this:

I wandered into Bed Bath & Beyond not really looking for anything in particular. About a year ago, they rearranged the one BB&B closest to me to include an entire beauty/body care section. It's stocked with drugstore brand makeup lines, as well as an extended array of makeup brushes, body care items, hair care products & accessories, etc. It's like the beauty & body part of a drugstore on steroids, most of it cheaper.

Anyways, I wandered through the tight aisles for half an hour, meandering with no real destination in mind, just taking in the tall shelves and wonderful selection of POSH by Upstage brushes (even that yummy kabuki, which elsewhere is $15, but there it's $12.50). A the very bad, past the aisles full of body sprays and so forth, and you know what I spied, with my little eye? An end cap with big bins full of clearanced items. I rummaged through, and found a lot of Rimmel completely covered in 50% off tags. I grabbed two lipsticks and five blushes and an eyeshadow. At the register, the cashier took another 25% off!You know what each product cost? The lipsticks were $1.34 each and the blushes/eyeshadow where $.76 each. I ended up getting two of the same blushes by mistake, so I omitted it in the pictures below. Here's the lipsticks- Rimmel Airy Fairy & Undressed (also grabbed a Revlon Colorburst Lipstick in Rosy Nude)

What do you think? Get any good deals lately?

All products featured in this post were purchased by me, for my own use.

Cheap Finds + DIY Freestyle Palette

Saturday, March 27, 2010

So, while my fiance was at Best Buy, getting the last PS3 (which by the way, made him so giddy and happy that he tried to drive home with in his lap) I went to Marshalls, the Dollar Tree and Kmart, getting absolute beauty steals.
First stop, Marshalls. Here's the thing about stores like Marshalls and TJMaxx, in my area (Cherry Hill/Moorestown/Haddonfield, suburbs immediately outside of Philadelphia) these stores are disaster zones. Seriously. It looks like Fallujah after an offensive. I treat it as such too, I go in on a recon mission- look around, scope it out and get out as quickly as I can. I actually have no idea why I keep going back. Mostly, it's because I keep hearing things about NARS palettes and lipgloss sets that some luckly individuals stumbled upon (what incredible finds- that's like seeing treasure washed up on the beach!). Anyways, I wanted to try my luck again. After much digging around (and I mean DIG) this is what I did spot:
-Molton Brown Heavenly Gingerlily Shimmer Oil (Reg $35, spotted it for $19.99)
-Korres Hand Cream (discontinued, I believe- $6)
-Tons of CHI, Biosilk, bigsexyhair products (heavily discounted, seriously don't even go anywhere else to buy it)
I walked out empty handed, because I'm trying to stick to a habit of not buying what I wasn't looking for, but thought I'd give you a good idea at what's in store at the moment. On to the next store! Kmart it is!
Kmart is the only store I know of that actually sells e.l.f. cosmetics. Dollar General does carry e.l.f., but only the tools and brushes. I went in hoping to get a few empty compacts (no such luck) and some single eyeshadows and maybe a few other things. I grabbed the last two eyeshadow singles- Custome Eyes in Pink Ice and Dusk and All Over Color Stick in Pink Lemonade. I have a slight problem with that product being called Pink Lemonade- it's a bright, strawberry pink and I had expected it to be much more mild. I think it stems from the days when I wore Caboodles Lip Jelly Lemonade (do you remember that? It was so wonderful- smelled so good and tasted just like the real thing) and that was a semi transparent baby pink.
Anyways back to the story, disappointed with the lack of e.l.f. Elements compacts, I went to the Dollar Tree with the idea that I could probably make my own in mind. I spotted metal gift card holders. Perfect! I also grabbed a few stackable black mini crates and hauled four Sally Hansen lipglosses. Rumors of these glosses had been the reason why I had initially came to the dollar store and I was happy with the array of colors. I got two Smile Brightening Lip Treatments in Twinkling (dark lavender) and Luminous (dark spicy nude). Also, a Natural Butter Lip Shine Gloss in Bloom (berry) and a Moist & Matte Liquid Color in Charmeuse. This post is getting absurdly long, so I'll talk about those another time.

Here's the good DIY tutorial part:

DIY Freestyle Palettes
Materials:
-Magnets, preferably business card magnets (see pic). These were $7 for a pack of 25.
-Pen or Marker
-Scissors
-Metal gift card holders (Found at craft stores, dollars stores, etc)

1. Flip the metal holder over, and mark out on the business card magnet where you plan to cut it and it it to fit the holder. Round the corners and peal & stick the first magnet.

2. Trim the second one in a similar manner. Use the remnants of the first and second magnet to fill in the remaining gap.
It's a pretty self explanatory process, I have no idea why I decided to write out instructions.
Each one of the metal holders (3" by 5") holds 12 26mm round pans. That's right, 12! Or 4 36mm round pans and 5 26mms. Anyways, you get the idea- it's compact but holds a lot! And pretty too.
The best part? Each metal holder was $1 and two sheets of business card magnets was about $.50. Less than $2? Awesome.

That's all for the night, thanks for bearing with me! <3

All items featured in this post were purchased by me for my own use.

The Glory of Walmart (It hurts me just to say that outloud)

Sunday, March 21, 2010

I never thought I'd be planning trips of Walmart, but I yesterday I found myself with a sweet tooth (so to speak), yearning for some Hard Candy. I bought another blush to add to my collection, having already Pin Up and Living Doll. I also spotted the HD brushes that have been spotted at Walmarts around the country.

First, the blush. I've experienced good things with Hard Candy's blushes, and I thought Pin Up and Living Doll were getting lonely in my blush drawer, so I wanted to buy them a friend. I grabbed the last Honeymoon and was a bit apprehensive about it, because it looks light neon orange with lavender veins. But then, I remembered how I'd been proven wrong about Pin Up (which looks dark orange with black veins, but shows up as a lovely peachy shimmer flush) and decided to give it a go. Now, I've been reading reviews about it on MUA, and here's what irks me: people confusing the terms opaque/sheer and pigmented/nonpigmented. It seems to me that pigmentation refers to how dense the coloring of the product is (more of a term I'd use to describe the quality), and opaque/sheer describes how see-through it is. That being said, a product can be both pigmented and sheer. This would be the case with Honeymoon, it's light and shimmery, but you'll only need a little bit of it. Also, I wouldn't really call this a blush because it's so light in color (and once blended, almost exactly my skin tone) that it actually ends up being a glowy highlighter. I'm surprised that it doesn't make me look orange at all (I honestly thought I'd end up looking like a sparkly Oompa Loompa ). Hooray, another member of my Hard Candy family.

Now, the brushes. First up, we have this nice skunk for which I paid about $6 after taxes. I bought it because Target discontinued my favorite duo fibre brush (Studio Tools skunk, which is a dupe of the MAC 187, so in essence I bought a dupe of a dupe of a brush, whose price I couldn't justify). I'm feeling rather ambivalent about it. I don't think it's as nice as the ST one, the black fibers are not as stiff or hardy so the brush head is overall more malleable. It shed a couple hairs when I washed it, and under warm water some of the bristles went haywire and curled. However, it's as dense as the ST skunk, but slightly bigger so I don't mind having it in my arsenal of brushes, especially for the price I paid for it. I do wish that the handle was longer, because it's too short for my brush holder and dwarfed by my other brushes. Great for travel though, fits nicely into my makeup bag. Edit: After using this brush a few more times, it appears that it sheds quite a bit. I wouldn't recommend it.

This brush, excuse my language- is badass. It really is. I paid about $7, and it's most definitely worth every penny. It's so soft, and has the densest bristles I've ever had the pleasure to have held in my hands. It's great for powder foundation, setting powder, bronzer, mineral makeup (though with mineral makeup I feel like there's some waste) pretty much anything where you want to cover a lot of area with a soft, light hand. Hmm, you know what this reminds me of? Pictured on the left, is the Professionnel Platinum Bronzer Brush #48, which costs $35 at Sephora. Gee, $7 or $35? Thanks, Walmart. One thing to note, when washing this brush, you HAVE to dry it upside down. Why? If you don't, water will collect right under the bristles, in the metal cap where it's glued to the handle and after sitting there for a while, it'll smell awful. Learn from my mistake- I had stinky water leaking all of my hands when I tried to use it a couple hours after washing. Now, I tie a string around the handle and hang it from a clothes hanger.
Not bad for $18 total, right? I can't wait to go back there to try some other brushes.

Grouchy Mini Haul

Monday, March 8, 2010

I felt like crap today, I really did. I woke up terribly nauseous and with really painful hormonal acne. At least, I hope it's just hormonal. So I admit, I picked up a few things today, as a sort of retail therapy. I bought a few more Wet'n'Wild single eyeshadows (review of them soon to follow, I promise!), a new Wet'n'Wild lipstick- Just Peachy (903C), two WnW nail polishes, Essie Matte About You topcoat, a few e.l.f. tools, Studio Tools concealer brush and some aloe vera gel.

So I pretty much ruined my no-buy (again). I'm a quitter. I tried to stick to some cheap things, but the problem is when you buy LOTS of cheap things, it adds up. It probably would have been cheaper to bite the bullet and order that LORAC that I wanted. But back to the mini haul.
I started out by running to Target (3rd time this week) to see if they had an e.l.f. display yet. No luck, but I did see that they had stripped the Sonia Kashuk display, so the new stuff will be in soon! I also noticed that they took down the Boots display, I'm guessing e.l.f. will grace that spot. I bought a ST concealer brush (clearance, $1.48) which I think will be great for my delicate eye area, because it's really tiny and soft. Almost reminds me of a lip brush. Also grabbed an Essie matte top coat- I've been really wanting matte polishes lately, but figured a matte top coat would be a better investment than buying a new set of matte polishes. How thoughtful of me.

Now, disappointed by the lack of e.l.f, I ended up at Dollar General, knowing that they carried of few of their tools. Snagged 2 brushes (flat eyeliner and small eyeshadow brush) and a couple extra false lash sets (not shown). The eyeliner brush is really too wide to use with my cream and gel liners, which I like to have complete and precise control over. Also grabbed a eyelash curler, because as soon as my Shu Uemura curler gets here, I'm doing a curler review.
Moving on- I spied a W'n'w display at my grocery store, that wasn't completely molested. I'm serious here, the W'n'W displays at Walgreens look like they've been ravaged by some cosmetics hungry creature- everything good is out of stock. I managed to grab a couple nail polishes, a matte lippie and some single eyeshadows.

So what did I do right today? I used a coupon at CVS and got free aloe vera, which I had really needed. I also sent off my package to a MUAer (I hope she loves those brushes I picked out for her!).

Swatches tomorrow, scout's honor.

One last confession. I completely lied. I did order that LORAC.

Target Clearance ♥

Thursday, March 4, 2010

I got this stuff a while ago, but I'm finally getting around to reviewing it now. I picked up all of these items at 75% off.
All this stuff is from the 'for Target' lines of makeup, basically spinoffs of high end brands. I've tried NP Set (Napoleon Perdis) and pixi by Petra (pixi) before, and wanted to dip my toes into more of the stuff.
The first thing I got was a pixi palette with a little travel case in No.3 Bronzed Bombshell for around $7.50 (orig $30).

Let me just start out by saying that you'd have to be out of your mind to think that this is worth $30. The little makeup case and brushes are incredibly cheap feeling. However, I'll still use it because... I don't have anything better! The palette itself, I'm feeling a little iffy about. I'm a bit puzzled to be honest. The title, 'Bronze Bombshell' makes me expect, well bronze and various shades of metallic colors. The blush is a sheer brownish rose, the eye shadows are orange coral and brown, and the lip colors are again, a dark shimmery rose brown and a dark strawberry.

I was highly disappointed with the shadows, the coral one has disgusting chunky gold glitter and while the texture of the brown is excellent, it's very sheer and shimmery while I had hoped for more opaqueness. The lighter lip color just shows up with a hint of shimmer on me, no pigmentation there at all. The darker color is a nice surprise, it's actually a lovely cool strawberry, something you don't see all that often that is very opaque and creamy. Now for the best part- the blush. It's soft and buttery feeling, it has such a nice consistency, I wish it was sold by itself. Actually, I ended up depotting the blush for my blush palette (it wasn't hard to do, thanks to the cheap packaging- it popped right out).I get one good blush and lip color out of it, and I think altogether it's worth $7.50 (barely) but I wouldn't pay anymore for it.

Next items!

I bought two NP Set palettes for $4.75 each, what a deal (orig $19)! One is Wanderlust Must (right) and the other is Bon Voyage Baby (right). Wanderlust Must contains all glosses, while the other contains 3 shadows and two glosses. I'll be perfectly honest the sheer glosses look really similar on my lips, with only slight variations in darkness to really tell them apart. The more opaque colors are really nice, good pigmentation and interesting colors that I probably would have never bought on my own. The three shadows in Bon Voyage Baby make me really happy, I've always wanted a light yellow like that, that wasn't too cool or too warm but just right. The brown and shimmery golden orange shade are nothing special, but nice shades none the less. Overall, Bon Voyage Baby is great for when I'm too lazy to properly coordinate shades. I'll do a look with it soon.

The lip colors are used up way too quickly though- they're so soft and seem to melt at warm temperature because it's quite gooey every time I dip a lip brush in them. So I would definitely not pay full price for them. Good steal on clearance!
Oh yeah- did you see my Studio Tools Dual Finish Brush? I've been looking for this highly elusive skunk for YEARS. No joke, capital letters worthy. I'm literally mentally shouting. And when I found out that it was being discontinued, I was really sad because I figured, "There goes my shot at finding it!" However, the makeup gods were on my side that night, because I finally saw one at Target (last one!) and picked it up on clearance for $3 and change.

How about you? Ever get anything great at Target on clearance?

Reviving Gel Liner- What not to do!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

What does Bobbi Brown, Napoleon Perdis and MAC all have in common? They all have a gel liner that seems to dry out in the pot. After a few months of use, I always find that my gel liners harden a little in the pot. Actually, have you ever seen a gel liner tester at a store that wasn't rock hard and shriveled? Now, I hate waste and would really like to be able to use every drop of a product (I paid for it and I want it!), so I set about looking around the internet for a way to revive my liners. Some people said that they used oils, glycerin and Visine, among other things. Oils didn't work for me- neither did glycerin even though I all I added was one small drop and mixed thoroughly with a toothpick. Once I added oil to the gel liner, it didn't dry at all- and completely ruined the finish. Glycerin is a little better, the new mixture felt smooth but because glycerin is so potent, one drop really effected the formula. It just didn't dry well and lost it's staying power.
Eye drops are ideal! Think about it- because it's formulated for the eyes, it stands that it won't cause irritation, right? Least that was my line of thinking. I used my Visine for contact wearers, and just added one large drop but didn't stir. Instead, I waited ten minutes or so and just let that drop soak into the surface of the hardened gel. It revived it completely to the consistency I wanted, so I added a couple more drops to the surface. Hooray for salvaging makeup!

Packages

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I keep receiving stuff in the mail that I ordered a few weeks ago. They really do seem to make my day, like mini presents I sent in advance to myself. It started snowing again last night, so I fear I will be trapped indoors for another two days. This will help tide me over.
My three arrivals were Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream, pixi Eye Bright Kit, and three Prestige Total Intensity liners.

Let's start with the first item, the BB Cream. This was a brand new product that I had never tried the likes of. This is what it's supposed to be primer, foundation, concealer, acne medication, wrinkle reducer, SPF moisturizer and whitener all rolled into one. Mind blowing, isn't it? When I first read about bb creams (blemish balm creams) my jaw literally dropped. I wondered why we didn't have a United States counterpart. But then I realized, a by product of capitalism is that maximizing products was a must- the cosmetic corporations probably would make considerably less if all they had was one miracle product. However, I did manage to get a pretty good deal on this cream. If you buy it directly from the Missha site, it'll run you $25 plus s/h. I bought it from a seller on eBay (based also out of Korea, I believe) and paid about $11 total, free shipping. I've been told that it's quite cheap overseas, and the company that makes it jacks up the price for U.S. customers. Based on the reviews, I picked the shade No. 21 which though matched my wrist perfectly, is a little light on my face. The consistency is like that of tinted moisturizer, but it's much more opaque and offers more coverage. I had hoped that I wouldn't have to wear a primer with it (the ingredients include quite a bit of silicones) but it definitely looks better with a layer of primer. I would definitely also wear lots of moisturizer underneath if I had dry skin. I wouldn't say that it takes the place of all the products that it claims to, more like it's a super foundation with added bonuses. Now, I have only used it a few days, so I'm not yet sure what the effects are like, but I'll be sure to update about it.

On to product number two! Step right up, pixi, let's see what you have to offer. I saw this Eye Bright kit (No. 2) on eBay with free shipping and bid on it. I ended up wining and got it for less than $6. That's certainly a steal, because it's $24 at Target. No. 2 is supposed to be for Medium/Tanned shades, I believe but matches my NW/NC20 skin very well.

It contains 2 concealer shades, one salmon pink correcting shade and a highlighter. The concealer colors are very sheer, but I'll be honest- you have to moisturize like a madman or else the concealer will cake up and emphasize fine lines, wrinkles and dry skin. Also, you want to use a synthetic concealer brush (like this one) and use light brush strokes. 80% of the time, I find that people don't use concealer correctly and blame it on the product instead of their technique. My favorite part of this wheel is the highlighting color. Some highlighters have a lot of pearly sheen (Boots No7 High Lights and BeneFit High Beam, for example). But this highlighter is just softly luminous with very understated shimmer. I wish I could buy the highlighter alone! I don't think I would shell out $24 for this, but under $10? I'd grab more in a heartbeat.

Last, but not least (in fact, my favorite!) are the three lovely Prestige Total Intensity Eyeliners that I bought. I had been craving MAC's Feline Kohl Power, but alas it was limited edition and I couldn't get my hands on some. Someone told me that Prestige TIs were comparable- and the best part? Super cheap! Still, I searched high and low for these babies (5 drugstores, 3 grocery stores) and eventually, managed to get them off of a fellow MUAer. I managed to get Intense Olive, Deepest Black and Bold Brown.

Let me just say, that I'm going to have to invest in a good thesaurus to find the words to describe how much I love this eyeliner. The first thing you notice is the amazing consistency, it's smoother than a con artist's lies. I have never, ever used an eyeliner that is so intensely black as the Deepest Black. The closest I've gotten is Estee Lauder's Artist Eye Pencil in SoftSmudge Black, and let me tell you- in comparison, it's a dull charcoal. I'm almost afraid to wear this black everyday- it's such a smoldering black, I'm not sure I can handle it. The brown color is actually very dark, upon my eyelids it looks black (or at least, the kind of black you would get with other brands of liners) but the contrast is much less startling. Olive, is a tricky little fiend. When swatched on my wrist, it looks and photographs as a dirty gold- a sandy brown with shimmer. However, paired with a salmon shimmer shadow on my eyelid, it definitely has hints of dark green.
Before I go any further, I have a confession to make. I wore eyeliner to bed last night. But before you gasp in horror- let me explain! I wanted to put the liners through the ultimate long lasting test. I wore olive on one eye and deepest black on the other. Olive pretty much stayed put, only the corner of my eye lost a bit of liner. There was some smudging with the black- although it was such a sexy, dirty, I-partied-too-hard-last-night and still looking stunning, I can't even fault it for that.
Pros: Insanely rich, deep color- very opaque and pigmented. Long lasting, ridiculously smooth. Cheap! I am definitely going to get my hands on the other colors.
Cons: Not entirely smudge proof. My eyes are a little hooded and oily, so I did get a few rainbows after a couple of hours- but they were faint. The Deepest Black color also made my lids tingle a bit- some wearers might be allergic. Not for tight lining- if you wear it on the waterline and have contacts- it will stain them! Hard to find.
Also, it's a very thick pencil- kinda hard to get a thin line, but wonderful for sultry, imperfect smoky eyes.
Definitely worth checking out.

Whew, what a long post! Thanks for staying for the whole ride- let me know what you think!

A Tale of Two Hauls

Monday, January 18, 2010

Here's a couple haul videos that I've done recently.
Enjoy. <3

Ulta & Me: A Love/Hate Relationship. (Mini Haul)

Monday, January 11, 2010

My history with Ulta has had it's up and downs, much like a crazy relationship with an ex-boyfriend you just can't seem to cut out of your life. My wonderful fiance, when asked by his parents what to get me for Christmas told them to get me a gift card for Ulta because he knew they sold makeup. On one hand, I'm thrilled because it's money... for makeup! On the other hand, I've had my share of bad customer service and just plain rudeness at Ulta. Anyways, I couldn't say no to a gift of makeup and the gift card was burning a hole in my pocket. So I went and splurged on a wide array of things.
Here's what I got: The stars denote things that were on sale.

Ulta brand lipstick in Vegas, Baby!*
NYX round lipstick in Indian Pink*
Essie nail polish in Lollipop*
BigSexyHair Root Pump
Ulta brand automatic eyeliner in Olive, Rasin and Teal Blue*
Andrea Modlash #53 black, my favorite staple falsies
Ardell Brow & Lash Growth Accelerator treatment gel
Stridex pads (ok, not really a beauty item just routine skin care, but still. I love lists)

Not too shabby for $44 bucks, right?
Some of these things are products that I've never tried out before, so I'll be sure to review them soon!

But I can tell you already that the Essie nail polish is amazing. I'll be honest, I used to be very thrifty with purchasing nail polish. I figured, nail polish is nail polish right? The only difference is color? Most of the ones I have are from a drugstore. But now that I tried Essie (regularly $8 but it was clearanced for $4) I can see what all the fuss is about! The quality is amazing. There's no streaks when I apply and it dried quickly to an absolutely gorgeous opaque color. It's just so much easier to get a great application and I'm a nail novice. The color Lollipop is a lovely candy apple red, it's so classy and simple on the hands.