Hey all. I have an Ulta and Sephora haul to share with you beautiful ladies today.
All these items were purchased before Black Friday. That doesn't mean I didn't do any shopping on Black Friday. Oh no no. I spent wayyyy too much money online shopping as I do every year. Mostly for myself, no shame there. But no, all these goodies below were purchased about a month ago, I've just been too lazy to write this blog post until now.

Let's start with the stuff from Ulta:

Morphe M433 and M504 Brushes
My first ever Morphe brushes! I'm so happy that Ulta finally started carrying the Morphe brand. I've been lusting over their makeup brushes for over a year now, but could never bring myself to pay the hefty shipping price Morphe charges. I haven't used these suckers yet, but I have high hopes. Fingers crossed!

Morphe 35F Fall Into Frost Eyeshadow Palette
Let's just talk about the main feature in this haul here, my very first Morphe palette ahhhhhh. The feeling is surreal. I really hope this palette lives up to my expectations because I've been so excited to start using this. The fall into frost palette was my favorite out of all the current palettes. I think it offers the best shade variety in terms of colors and mattes vs. shimmers. Even the box it comes in is so lustworthy. I so desperately wish this palette came with a mirror on the inside, but I cannot complain since this baby was only $23 for 35 shadows, most of which are very useable shades. I can totally seeing this being my go-to palette this winter.

Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey
This was a freebie gift because I spent more than like $50 on Clinique items. I'm a huge Clinique skincare fan, although I haven't tried a lot of their makeup products besides the foundation and powder. The lipstick is a pretty generous size and a universally flattering berry-brown shade. Not bad for a freebie!

Clinique Stay-Matte Sheer Pressed Powder in "Stay Golden"
I finally used up my old Clinique pressed powder so it was time for a refill. I love using Clinique foundation and powders because they have use good ingredients, are oil-free, have a large variety of shades to pick from, and are relatively affordable. This is holy grail status and a product I'll continue to repurchase over the years because it's just so darn good. It locks in my makeup, removes shine, and adds just a touch of extra coverage to my foundation/concealer regimen.

L'Oreal True Match Super-Blendable Crayon Concealer in "Light/Medium Warm"
My holy grail concealer from Milani was discontinued, so I needed a new concealer. I'm a fan of stick concealers and this one had good reviews. Although the crayon itself has a great formulation and applies very creamy with good coverage, the color is toooooo light for me. I'll be picking up a different shade in this range for sure though because the formula seems promising and similar the Milani Secret Cover Concealer that I've loved over the years.

Moving on to stuff from Sephora:

Fresh Nourishing Naturals Lip Duo
Despite their hefty price tag, the Fresh Sugar lip balms are one of my favorites. Some lip balms end up drying out your lips even more, but this one is extra creamy and rich. I've been meaning to try out their Sugar Cream Lip Treatments, so this set was a perfect opportunity to get one of my favorite lip balms and try out a new lip product.

Tarte Tarteist Pro To Go Amazonian Clay Palette
I got this palette specifically to travel with. I know that ever since losing my Naked palette while on vacation, I've been dead against traveling with high-end makeup products. But I just cannot bring myself to fall in love with drugstore eyeshadow palettes. Therefore, I decided that this $23 mini palette from Tarte is going to be my new travel buddy. I love this for so many reasons. It's tiny, sturdy, it's affordable, it has a mirror inside, and the shadows are right up my alley.

Sephora Collection Baby Z-Palette
Why the heck are Z-palettes are Sephora so cheap?! I got this "baby" size Z-palette to move my blush pans into, so that I could use my second, large-size Z-palette for more eyeshadow pans. But guys, this Z-palette can definitely hold more than 2-3 blush pans and probably even up to 8 eyeshadow pans. I'm very impressed.

Sephora Collection Colorful Eyeshadow in "Good Fortune Cookie"
I'll be honest, the only reason I got this is to boost my order up to free shipping status. I had low hopes for this, but it's actually quite a beautiful shade upon swatching. It has some glitter flecks in it, but isn't dripping with chunks of glitter. It may be too light for my skin tone since it's a light champagne gold, but I can see myself playing this shade especially over the holidays.

Spring Discoveries ♥

Hey guys! Lonnnng time no talk. I'm finally getting started on packing my things, so things have been quite busy and hectic. I'm pretty much living at my parents house and going to my apartment a couple times each week to move stuff. It's coming along, slowly but surely. I only have my clothes, shoes, and scarves left to pack in my bedroom, sell my furniture, and then clean out the kitchen and bathroom. The thing that took the most energy (and caused alotttt of stress) this month was finalizing my housing arrangement. Long story short, I won't get my permanent apartment until July 1st, so I have to sublet until June 30th. I found a three-week rental on Air B&B in a house really close to the hospital, so I'm excited about that. Only downside is that I have to live with a family, so it's going to be a little different and not as private of an accommodation as I would've preferred. As for my permanent apartment, I managed to score one of the hospital-owned apartments at a really good deal! The rent is only $930/month, and that includes all utilities and is a short 5-minute drive to the hospital. I just have to suffer a bit until July rolls around, but it's going to be worth it!

So now that you know a little bit about this month's struggles, lets talk about some goodies I've been loving these last few months! Most of these are new discoveries I've made over the last two months. Spring has just creeped up and is almost over, so I need to start cherishing it a bit more before the summer officially begins in a few weeks. 

Clinique Even Better Foundation in Cream Caramel -- I bought this foundation over the winter since I needed a full-coverage product. This one is absolutely amazing! It's made with good ingredients, comes at a reasonable price in about 30+ shades, and provides medium-full coverage. It's a very lightweight foundation and has quickly become one of my holy grail products.

Clinique Stay Matte Sheer Pressed Power in Stay Honey -- I bought this powder to go along with my new Clinique foundation. Again, absolutely perfect and I have only good things to say about this product. Plus, look how cute that compact is!

MakeupGeek Eyeshadow in Purely Naked -- Although it looks fairly ordinary and boring in the pan, this eyeshadow is a new favorite everyday eyeshadow color. You can't see it in the photo above, but it has a few specks of glitter and some sheen so it's not a completely matte. It adds a little bit of color and brightness to my lid without looking too shimmery. Great work color!

EOS Lip Balm in Strawberry Sorbet -- I usually hate wearing lip balm. I can never get into my Burt's Bees lip balms no matter how much I try. I purchased this one because, hello it's pink and I love strawberry-scented everything. I can't put this lip balm down! It has a very natural, not-too-sickly sweet scent and leaves my lips extra moisturized. Not to mention, super fun to apply! 

Nivea In-Shower Cocoa Butter Body Lotion -- I never used to be the kind of girl who required daily moisturizing, but I've been noticing that my skin's been more patchy and scaly lately. I still hate moisturizing, so I decided to try this in-shower body lotion. It's pretty good! It definitely doesn't replace the need for a body butter or lotion if you have extra dry skin, but if you just have mildly dry skin like me, it will moisturize and leave your skin feeling smooth. Plus, its light cocoa butter scent is very exhilarating first thing in the morning!

Trim Slant Tip Tweezers -- Chances are that if you read any beauty blog about tweezers, they all talk about the Tweezerman brand, which come at around $25 a pop. Although I've never tried a pair of Tweezerman tweezers, these ones from Trim come for $1.99 at Target and work very well. I've always hated tweezing my brows, but these tweezers pluck hair efficiently and without a lot of pain!

Kirkland Signature Pacific Bold K-Cups -- These babies right here are why I'm considering getting my own Costco membership in my new city. K-Cups are super expensive and before discovering these, I was paying around $11 for a box of 18 K-Cups. Not horrible, but I'd be going to the grocery store every other week and was spending way too much on these, especially since I enjoy about 2 cups of coffee a day. I found these on sale at Costco last time I went, and I'm in love. I love me a strong, bold cup of coffee that doesn't taste like burnt -- these are perfect! They compare to the Starbucks medium roast coffee in my opinion and the Donut Shop Extra Bold Medium-Roast K-Cups that I used to love before these. They cost $37 for 100 cups which is a steal. Definitely try if you're a bold coffee lover like me!

The Good Table Parmesan and Herb Sauce and Crust Mix for Chicken -- I have so many food favorites this spring that I should do a separate blog post about all them. This one, however, stood out amongst them all. I love making chicken parmesan, but hate having to buy a big thing of breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese, only to throw them because I can't use the whole thing before the expiration date. This baby just changed my whole chicken parm game! This package allows me to make a delicious baked chicken parmesan in less than 30 minutes! And it's relatively low in the fat and sodium department since you can control how much sauce, crust mix, and cheese you put on each chicken breast. Definitely a must have for busy gals out there!

Massive Winter Haul: High-End Beauty

Hello, hello everyone. Well that hiatus was short-lived, huh? Luckily the situation got sorted out fairly fast and I'm feeling tons better now. With the grace of God, no patient harm came out of the situation. I'm finally getting around to cleaning out my makeup drawer and unpacking my huge beauty haul from this past November/December. Yes, I realize it's three months later...time flies! As you can tell from the flood of personal posts lately, I've been in a really bad mood ever since coming back from vacation. I've been on this constant go-mode since November and I'm just exhausted at this point. And the whole issue with the HIPAA violation just got me really really upset. I've been mustering as much energy as I can, and I hope things will be different now that match day and graduation are approaching. 

Anyhows, enough of my personal bantering, on to the makeup! I split this haul up into two parts -- high end and drugstore. There's just SO much stuff and I would be incredibly overwhelmed if I went through both parts in one post, so hence the splitting. Interestingly enough, the high-end side is much larger than the drugstore side this time. Usually it's the opposite!

So let me go through each product one by one. I haven't used any of the products yet, but I swatched most of them so I can offer my first impressions at least. In no particular order, here goes. The ones without links were limited edition holiday products that are no longer available.

bareMinerals Tutorials: Neutral Eyes -- Let me be honest, the main reason I bought this kit was because I had a 20% off coupon at Ulta including prestige brands, and this set caught my eye as I was about to checkout at Ulta. It's actually a pretty handy. It comes with a (full-size?) eyeshadow duo, a mini size of their 5-in-1 BB cream shadow, a eyeliner, and mini eye brush. Plus, it comes cased in a  gorgeous reusable metal tin. I really like this set, but I am a bit disappointed with the eyeshadow duo. I expected it to be more warm-toned based on the picture on the back, but it's in fact a bronzey-taupey mix. I'm hoping it's still wearable on my super-warm skin tone, and I'm definitely looking forward to using the other products in the set. Neat little gift idea and it would make a good starter makeup set.

Clinique Whole Lotta Chubby Set -- I saw this cute little holiday gift set as I was online shopping for a cream blush stick. I was about to buy the full size of the Amp'd Up Apple, but I stumbled upon this set and decided to buy it! For $25 you get deluxe sizes of five products from their "Chubby" line -- a cream blush stick, an eyeshadow stick, one regular chubby lipstick, one baby tint, and one intense chubby lipstick. The shades are Amp'd Up Apple (blush), Bountiful Beige (eyeshadow), Curvy Candy, Mightiest Maraschino (intense), and Poppin' Poppy (baby tint). Overall, I'm very glad I bought this set since I'm a huge fan of their Chubby range. I never finish a blush, and this set allows me to try a bunch of other shades and products from the line. Also, the sizes in the set are quite generous!

Clinique Even Better Makeup Foundation in Cream Caramel -- I've been wanting to get a heavy-duty foundation from a makeup line that emphasizes "good ingredients" and sensitive skin. I'm not a huge fan of the bareMinerals or Tarte foundations, so I thought I would try a Clinique foundation. It's an old formulation, but it got excellent reviews on multiple sites. I'm going to have to experiment with it a bit more before making a final verdict, but so far so good! I put it on my face using a Real Techniques Expert Face Brush and it applied well, blended seamlessly, and was lightweight. Going to have to use it a bit more to determine if it's a good color match and if it's heavy duty enough.

Clinique Stay Matte Sheer Pressed Powder in Stay Honey -- To match my new foundation, I picked up this powder from Clinique. Not much to say about this one. I didn't swatch or test this, but I imagine it functioning like any other old pressed powder. We shall see!

Too Faced Love Flush Blush in Love Hangover -- I've wanted to try a blush from this collection for sooooooo long! Yes, the packaging is definitely what sucked me in. I didn't fall in love with any of the shades in the collection, but I figured I couldn't go wrong with Love Hangover which is a dusky rose shade with a slightest bit of sheen. It's a gorgeous everyday, natural sort of blush. This shade is perfect for the spring and summer!

Burberry Wet & Dry Silk Shadow in Pale Barley -- This product was a total splurge! I love dabbling around with luxury makeup, but I don't have the funds to purchase them on a regular basis. So every time I feel like it's a particularly challenging time of year for me, I splurge on a makeup item and remind myself that I've worked incredibly hard to get where I am and I should be treating myself, not being down in the dumps. This time, it was application and interviewing season that had me feeling really nervous and frantic, and I decided to splurge on one of these shadows. It's one of those products that just makes you feel extra fancy everytime you bust it out of your makeup drawer. The shade isn't particularly unique, but the formula is really silky soft as the name suggests. This color leans more cool than I initially thought, but it's not as ultra-cool as other taupes I've played around with. Definitely not a product you need to rush out and purchase, but definitely check these out if you need a little pick-me-up ;)

Bite Beauty Luminous Creme Lipstick Duo in Pepper/Fig -- Recently, Bite Beauty started making mini size duos of their lipsticks at only $12 a pop. I bought the Fig/Date duo last year, but the colors unfortunately didn't suit my skin tone. This Christmas, they came out with new duo combinations and one of them happened to have Pepper, which I've wanted for a long time! It's a beautiful dusky pinkish-red shade and the perfect MLBB shade. It has the signature creamy Bite Beauty formula and I love the way these duos feel on my lips. Unfortunately, the duo came with Fig, which is in the other duo I have, but luckily Fig looks gorgeous when topped with a pinky gloss!

Fresh Sugar Rose Ritual -- During holiday shopping season, I'm always excited to see Fresh's holiday gift sets. Since a full size of their lip balms are quite pricey at $22, getting a bunch of different colors and types of Fresh lip products in mini sizes is my favorite way to try Fresh. This year, they had quite a few awesome holiday sets to pick from. I ended up picking up one that had both a lip treatment and a lip balm, and was reasonably priced -- the Rose Ritual set was perfect. I love the wash of sheer red the lip balm gives me, and am super pumped to try out the Rose lip treatment counterpart, which is just a glossy version of their lip balm.

Tarte Fanciful Favorites Deluxe Discovery Set -- I bought this at the Sephora black friday sale. I'm a sucker for Tarte's Amazonian clay blushes and so I always pick up a set during the holidays to try out some new shades. The Tarte Amazonian Clay blushes blend so beautifully, are packaged well, and last all day on my cheeks. This one is a nice everyday matte (I believe) medium pinky rose shade that has the awesome Amazonian clay blush quality. The set also contains a sample of the Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara that I have been dying to try and a small bottle of their Maracuja Oil.

Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask -- I believe this was a deluxe freebie Sephora was offering around the time I put in my online order. I decided to include this because it's one of the best face masks I have ever used and does an excellent job at cleansing my pores. Granted this is the only high end face mask I have tried, but honestly it's quite affordable for how well of a job it does. The deluxe sample I got was 1oz, which is very generous for a sample considering that the 1.7oz tube is $17! Hands down my favorite mask and I would encourage anyone, especially those with oilier skin, to try this awesome charcoal mask!

Lorac Pro Metal Palette -- I saved the best for last! Out of all the stuff I bought over the holidays, I'm most excited to try this palette. This is a permanent item, but it was discounted at 50% on Ulta over Black Friday I believe. Or it might have been after Christmas, I'm not entirely sure. I was skeptical on getting this palette at first because I've been buying way too many eyeshadows recently, but after I read some reviews on this palette, I knew I had to get it. I absolutely love metallic pressed shadows and this palette featured a lot of my favorite colors. I could definitely see myself wearing more than half of these shades on a regular basis. It has a rose gold, olive-gold, buttery golden, and a copper which are all amongst my favorite neutrals. I'm also excited to try out the grayish taupe shade and cobalt shade even though they are slightly more cool-toned! The quality on these shadows is AMAZING. Super buttery and richly pigmented, and very very metallic for all of us metal lovers out there. I loved the palette so much that I took a close-up of it below. Isn't it gorgeous? So excited to play with this baby in the next few weeks.

Spring 2016 Makeup Must-Haves

Things have gotten really busy lately. I've been working on my final research report while juggling long hours at my PICU rotation. Getting up at 4am is seriously not fun, especially in your last few months of medical school which are supposed to be chill. I've also been incredibly stressed about my residency rank list. It's really difficult to think that I'm most likely going to have to leave Pittsburgh in a few months and I don't know if I'm as ready as I once thought I was. I haven't gotten the most encouraging responses from the PD here, so that's why I'm really doubtful that I'm going to be ranked high enough to match here. A few months ago, I would've been excited to leave, but being back here for my PICU rotation has got me nostalgic. I'm ranking a New York program as my second choice, which I'm not sure I'm going to get into either because again getting lukewarm/cold responses from the PD, but again not sure if I'm ready to move that far if I do happen to match there. So realistically I may match at my 3rd spot or lower, and not sure where exactly I want to end up. Hershey, Virginia, Philadelphia, Maryland, Ohio....? It's a really emotional decision, to be honest, and a lot harder than I thought it would be. It's pretty much ranking location, prestige, lifestyle, etc.

To be honest, I've been so stressed and busy that I haven't really been focusing too much on makeup. I haven't even dug into the giant heaping bag of makeup I bought in December. But I have been reading some blogs and browsing the Ulta website in my spare time and found some really good pieces I want to try for this upcoming spring. Maybe a stress-relief shopping trip to Ulta is in order this month? YES PLEASE.

• Wet & Wild Ombre Blushes
• Maybelline Color Tattoo Concentrated Crayon
• Maybelline Lasting Drama Waterproof Gel Pencil
• Maybelline Baby Lips Balm Ball
• Essie Spring Nailpolish Collection
• BareMinerals Lovescape Collection READY Color Boost
• Clinique Lid Pops
• Clinique Sweet Pots Sugar Scrub Lip Balm
• Too Faced Peanut Butter and Jelly Eyeshadow Palette

July Beauty Favorites

I cannot believe August is here. This year is flowing by so fast! July was my Step 2 CK month and I'm so relieved that it's finally over. Today I figured I'd chit chat a bit about my July makeup favorites.  Mostly a bunch of rediscoveries that I've been falling back in love with in my makeup collection.

NYX Dream Catcher Palette in Dusk Til' Dawn

Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette (Limit, Nooner, Liar)

Clinique Chubby Stick Shadow Tint for Eyes in Fuller Fudge

Benefit Bella Bamba Blush

Clinique Cheek Pop Blush in Berry Pop

Dior Addict Lipgloss in Delice

Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in Hot Shot

CoverGirl Lip Perfection Jumbo Gloss Balm in Apricot Twist