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.

Beauty Haul!

Welcome to Thanksgiving week! It's officially the week of stuffing our faces with turkey and getting a head start on holiday shopping. November is always the worst financial month for me. There are soooo many amazing deals going on that I tend to overspend every single year in November. December is pretty bad too, but not nearly as bad as November. But how can I resist all the pretty makeup and packaging and holiday decor and ornaments and treats and etc etc?!

As with every year, I got my 20% off VIB coupon for Sephora in the mail earlier this month and of course, I had to go shopping. I was going to buy a lotttt of stuff because I had to spend $200 to renew my VIB status, but after a lot of thought I've decided to just give up on the VIB program. I've been a VIB member for two years now and have finally realized that it's just not worth it. Every year I force myself to spend $350 on products I don't really use just to keep being a VIB member. And to be honest, the rewards just aren't that worth it. Sure you get exclusive deluxe rewards and stuff and yearly coupons, but I just don't buy that much makeup at Sephora anymore to justify being a part of their rewards program. So for next year I think I'm going to switch to Ulta for all of my beauty stuff. You only have to spend $450 per year, which is quite easy to do if you buy all your beauty stuff there -- cleansing wipes, cotton rounds, Q-tips, face washes, etc...it adds up! They carry literally everything I need from drugstore and high-end sides, and I just feel like I have a much more fun experience shopping at Ulta than at Sephora. The Ulta rewards program also seems much more robust with points contributing to dollar values off, 20% off everything coupons 3-4 times a year, and more points earned per purchase. But I barely shopped at Ulta this year so I figured I'd start that in 2017.

Okay enough chatting. Now to talk about the goodies I got.

Clarisonic Mia 2 in Gray -- yes I finally got a Clarisonic!!! My skin has been breaking out like crazy over the last month. I don't know if it's hormonal or from inadequate skin cleaning, so I decided to try out the Clarisonic brush. Apparently it's way more efficient than manual cleansing, so let's see if my breakouts are really from me not washing my face adequately at night. Clarisonic recently had a sale where the dark gray Mia 2 was 50% off on their website so I jumped right on it and got it for only $85! Steal of the season.

Beauty Blender with Mini BlenderCleanser Solid -- Another beauty staple that I just purchased for the first time. I've been applying my favorite Clinique foundation with a Real Techniques Expert Face Brush for the last few months and I feel like I cake on my foundation. I decided to try the beauty blender to help my foundation go on more seamlessly. Plus, using a brush really drags on your skin, so I'm hoping this causes a little less damage to my skin when applying ze foundation.

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion -- Okay for some reason this was on sale for $10 (it's usually $20). I thought I was going to get the baby size, but nope I got the huge wonking full size one! I have no idea why this was on sale for half off because this product is definitely not discontinued. Maybe they were just getting rid of product in the old packaging? In any case, this is one of my holy grail, everyday products that I was running out of and looks like I'm going to be good on primer for the next five years!!

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Radiant Light -- Hourglass just came up with itty bitty baby sizes of their lighting powders that were oh-so-raved-about two years ago. I never picked one up when they first came out because I'm not one for fancy highlighters and powders (especially when they cost $46 a pop), but when I saw smaller sized ones for half the price I figured I'd try it out. Plus, the Becca highlighters are way too shiny for me, and this one seems like a much more subtle highlight for everyday wear. It looks gorgeous on the swatch so I have high hopes for this product!

Sephora Collection Push Back Cuticle Pusher -- I love doing at-home manicures, but with the winter my cuticles get really dry and start flaking. I've always wanted to buy a cuticle pusher, but they're sooo expensive! When I saw this one on sale for $7 along with my coupon, I knew I had to get it. Hoping this pretties up my nails for an even better at home manicure!

Living Proof Perfect Hair Day Fresh Cut Split End Mender -- I got this as a 100 point perk. I've been meaning to try something for the ends of my hair because they get sooo dry. Not sure if this product is really meant for that. I don't get split ends as often as I used to because I don't heat style as much, but with all the pulling and tugging I do for my curly hair, I'm sure I still rack up a few split ends. The reviews seem good so fingers crossed that my dry hair days have come to an end!



So that's all the gems I picked up at this holiday season's Sephora spree. I know Black Friday is just around the corner and there are sooooo many beauty goodies on the preview ad for Sephora and Ulta. BUT I'm going to be a good girl this year and probably won't buy anything from those sales. Instead my money is going to Kohl's  (and possibly Ann Taylor/LOFT). Kohl's has an AMAZING Black Friday sale every year and I just put in a huge ass order this morning for a ton of wardrobe and home staples I needed.
But anyways I hope you all have a great work week, and expect a blog post up on what I did this Thanskgiving (my first one alone in a new city!).

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.

Sephora & Ulta Makeup Haul

It was my birthday a few weeks ago and like I do every year, I decided to spoil myself and get some new makeup goodies to try! The stuff I'm going to be showing below is a mix of things I had gotten for my birthday and some drugstore makeup I got a few weeks back for the spring season. I figured I'd show everything here since it's all stuff I'm super excited to try out. And I'll also show my super luxurious birthday makeup treat! The box on the right is actually stuff from Colourpop. I was going to combine the two hauls, but when I saw how many things were in the Sephora bag, I decided to split the two into separate posts.

So this post is all about the stuff I got from Sephora, Ulta, and Marshall's over the past few weeks.

First off, in the corner you see my huge makeup gift this year, the Too Faced Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar Palette. I'm super super super excited to try this palette out!! I lost my beloved Naked palette last year so I really wanted to get another high-end nude palette to replace it. This palette is perfect, smells like cocoa powder, and has a really nice mix of shades. Too Faced shadows are super nice quality as well! I think this is definitely going to be my reach-for palette the rest of the year. I also purchased the Bite Beauty Luminous Creme Lipstick Duo in Fig/Date. I've had this on my Sephora wish list for the longest time and I finally bit the bullet and picked it up. So far I'm loving how creamy the lipsticks are and the nice neutral shades perfect for everyday wear. Lastly from Sephora, I replenished my Sephora Daily Brush Cleanser, which has become a holy grail product for me. Keeps my brushes clean and soft.

The rest of the stuff is from Ulta and Marshall's mainly. I got the Almay Color + Care Liquid Lip Balm in Canteloupe Cream which I thought would be a really pretty shade for the spring and summer. I like the color, but the formula is a bit patchy and not as glossy as I had hoped. I've only used it once so hopefully it's going to grow on me a bit more. Next, the CoverGirl Lip Perfection Jumbo Gloss in Apricot Twist, which was actually on sale at Target! I believe they may be discontinuing these, but I'm not entirely sure since they're still available at Ulta. I heard such great things about these glossy balms when they first came out but I never bought any since I was so into the Revlon Just Bitten sticks. I actually like these a bit more because they're more balmy and more sheer than the Revlon ones. Plus the color is a super gorgeous for the spring and summer. I also picked up another gloss, the Burt's Bees 100% Natural Lip Shine in Flutter from Marshall's. Again, had this on my list forever but I decided to pick it up when I saw how cheap they were at Marshall's. Really nice sheer, glossy raspberry color that reminds me of The Body Shop's fruity lip shines. I love that it has no glitter or sparkle in it, and it's super "juicy" and sheer...I don't know, hard to describe the formula but I'm in love with these types of sheer juicy glosses for the summer. I can see myself wearing it all year long especially in the later summer/fall months. I picked up one of my favorite mascaras from Ulta, the Maybelline Pumped Up! Colossal Volum' Express Mascara since they were 40% off. I love how much volume it adds to my lashes without any clumping. The hot pink tube is a nice added bonus.

Again from Marshall's, I picked up a nice bright red nail polish for the summer time, the Essie Nailpolish in Lollipop. On the site, it's described as a candy cane red which is a great description. I love bright reds in the summer because it looks so refreshing and sophisticated on both fingers and toes. And again, it's a great transition shade for the late summer/fall. And lastly from Marshall's, I picked up a body scrub for the sweaty summer months, the Earth Therapeutics Loofah Exfoliating Body Scrub in Peaches & Passion. Smells super delicious and a nice treat to get soft, smooth skin in the summertime. Plus, I really like the way my face scrub has been cleansing my skin, so hopefully this scrub will smoothen out and brighten my skin. And as a side note, I'm really really loving all the wonderful makeup finds at Marshall's! They have recently discontinued makeup products and shades at more than half their original price, which is super super super awesome for a makeup junkie like me!

And lastly my biggest birthday treat this year, which you can also see in the picture above....




The Dior Addict Lipglosses!!!! This was a totally random, spontaneous purchase for me. We were in the Duty Free shops at Niagara, and I found this beautiful set of three Dior glosses and a cute makeup bag for only $66 US Dollars! That's an absolutely amazing deal for these since each one usually retails at $29+tax. So I was able to get 3 shades plus a cute pink makeup bag (as you can see in the photo above) for roughly $22 a piece. Less than that if you include the bag! Plus, the makeup bag is pretty good quality and not your typical fake pleather stuff. It's pretty large and can hold a good amount of makeup especially for small weekend trips.

The colors in the set were Delice, Diablotine (which is the color I had been wanting for months!!!), and Princess. Delice and Diablotine are my favorites, but I can also see myself rocking the Princess shade. They're definitely targeted towards fairer skin tones, but I feel like these colors are so natural that they would also look good on darker skin tones. I'm definitely the most excited for Diablotine since it's the shade I had wanted for so so long. Such a gorgeous coral-red shade for the summer. If this shade wasn't in the set, I probably wouldn't have gotten it but when I saw that it was included, I knew I had to get it. These glosses are very pigmented and smooth, but definitely not worth spending $29 a piece. They're definitely luxury items and look so classy in their sleek packaging. Not worth getting on an ordinary basis, but a really nice luxurious makeup treat. Sometimes it's nice to have fancy products and feel like a princess :)

So that is it for my Sephora & drugstore makeup haul. I will be posting about my Colourpop goodies soon. And then I also put in another order at Sephora recently. I've been so bad and makeup crazy!!! Definitely going on a no-buy May and June at this rate. Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend!