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So if you love makeup as much as yours truly, you probably got some Sephora gift cards this year for the holidays. Or perhaps you just want to spend your cash on makeup and need help deciding what to buy. I'm there with ya man. I have 4 Sephora gift cards and there are only a few things that come to mind that I may want to get. I will probably save the majority of mine for Spring launches that will be released shortly but there are some things that have caught my eye already. Also after the holidays is a great time to get left over holiday sets on sale at Sephora, their sale section grows quite a bit actually after Christmas is over, especially from Tarte and assorted skin care lines. This year was no different. So that's where we're gonna start is the sale section. Getting a good deal and the best bang for your buck is always awesome.  The only annoying thing is when you see something in the "Sale" section and get excited and then you click on it it's no longer in stock. Happens to me all the time. So I've went through and found the things that are actually in stock as of right now and selected some good options I believe. Kevyn Aucoin: The Contour Book The Art of Sculpting + Defining. $40. I have this and I really really like it. It's made for your entire face not just your cheek bones, which is why I love it. It's useful in every way and has a very popular shade of highlight (Candlelight) along with some really great brow powders. It has diagrams and tips in the front to show you where you can highlight and sculpt. Also, I would use these shades as eye shadows as well. If you were lucky enough to catch this while the "20% off sale section" promo was going (ends January 1st) then you would get an extra 20% off $40. Making it around $32. For Kevyn Aucoin that is really good. His products are definitely high end but they don't disappoint either. They are consistent with their formula and have a very good name. The only thing that is kinda surprising, I guess you could say, is that this looks like it's a big book online but when you get it it's actually very small. About the size of a Tartelette palette. So that could be a downfall if you were paying the original $59 for this, but seeing as you could potentially get it for about half that, it's not worth complaining about. Smashbox Art. Love. Color. Master Class. $45. This is a very colorful palette. It contains 32 shadows, 2 highlighters, and 6 blushes along with instructional cards. It''s got basically all the colors of the rainbow in it with mainly satin and shimmer finishes, I see a few mattes. The packaging for this alone is beautiful. It's regularly $65 and just went on sale a few days ago. I have the #shapematters palette from Smashbox and really like it and it's a large palette similar to this. When you have large palettes it's often hard for the formula to stay consistent through out the palette. You usually have some duds is what I'm trying to say. That's not the case so far with Smashbox from what I've seen and used. This has a 4 star rating and I find it very appealing, but I do love color. The cheek colors, both highlighters and blushes, are very nice with a good selection of neutrals and brights. The shadows are obviously very colorful. If you like your palettes to contain brown shades then you won't like this, the closest this gets to "neutral" is greys and plums. It's not a "comfort zone" palette in my eyes but I think along with the blushes and highlighters this is a steal. Plus it does come with instructional cards if you like those. Urban Decay Wende's Contraband Palette. $24. This is a 6 shade palette with a 24/7 black eye liner pencil. It's a pretty good neutral-ish palette with a pop of teal and a bright purple to mix things up. Urban Decay always does palettes very well. I would be 100% comfortable in telling you that the formula of this is probably top notch. This was created to be a "travel friendly" palette so it doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles but you can create quite a few different looks with the 6 shades you've been given and I really like that. It's mainly satins and shimmers with a bit of glitter thrown in. It has one of my favorite UD shades, which is Smog. Plus you get a full size 24/7 eyeliner which works really well on the water line, for me at least. It's originally it's $34, which still isn't bad but now it's $24 and like we've already said if you get it by the 1st you can take another 20% off that. Some honorable mentions are: Tarte Poppy Picnic eye and cheek palette, $26. St Tropez Tanning Essentials Express Party Kit, $21.60. Peter Thomas Roth Gentle Foaming Cleanser, $13. Formula X Bottle Service Set, $22 (nail polishes), and Make Up Forever Artist Plexi Gloss Kit, $29. ***last I checked all these were still in stock.  Moving on to things that aren't on sale, I'll start with some things that are more of a "treat yo self" type products and then to more necessary things briefly. Right out the gate I would tell you to check out the Make Up For Ever 15 Artist Shadow Palette, $59. It's got a nice range of 15 eye shadows from neutrals to bright colors. Their shadows are "gel-powder formula" which basically means they are so soft they feel almost like a cream. They're highly pigmented and the layout of the palette is basically to be used as "5 trios". Each row, top to bottom, being a trio. Of course I would put colors together however I wanted, but there is a step by step guide included. This palette is quite large too so I think that $59 is a fair price and MUFE always comes through when it comes to formula and pigmentation. Next another cool palette is the Too Faced Love Flush Blush Wardrobe, $36. It has "6 high impact shades that last for 16 hours". I haven't personally tried these but they have very good reviews and the shade range is awesome from neutral to bright to dark blushes and I really love seeing that. Another thing that you might would be interested in would be the Viseart eye shadow palettes. These bad boys are $80 so they are definitely not cheap. You get 12 shades and there are several palettes out. I recommend getting one that you know for certain you would use. Like if I were to get one, I would get the warm neutral one because it would be great for travel and just a "go to" palette that you don't have to think about. The packaging is nothing special but that's because this company is mainly used for day to day set life in French television and film by professional makeup artists. So this is definitely a "pro palette". They have 6 different palettes to choose from in eye shadows. Some quick mentions of nice things to get yourself that you might not would buy if you didn't have extra cash or a gift card would be: YSL Lipstick (especially Beige Tribute) in Satin Radiance (square packaging) and the Silky Sensual Radiance (round packaging), $36 each. The satin line I feel is a bit more opaque than the silky line which I feel is very shiny and glossy. They smell amazing, btw. Tatcha Luminous Dewy Skin Mist (used by Kim Kardashian), $48. Do not buy it if you are super oily is my advice. Dior and Marc Jacobs lip glosses (especially the Dior Lip Maximizer plumping gloss) both are around $30.  Now lets talk about some "go to" products that are definitely worth your money.
A great foundation. I really love Nars Sheer Glow foundation, as well as the Make Up For Ever Ultra HD foundations (I actually prefer the stick form over the liquid, but the liquid is good) I don't mind paying the money for foundation if it's great. For me to consider it great it needs to: be the correct shade and not oxidize as the day goes on, be less inclined to break up on me through the day or wear off very easy, and have a more natural finish meaning I don't want it super dewy, cakey, or matte. I want it to look like my skin but better. I tend to lean toward more full coverage foundation because full coverage can be thinned out on the skin and thus you don't use as much product. Light and medium coverage may require a couple or several layers and therefore take more product, which makes the foundation run out quicker. Next is a great concealer. I recommend the Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Concealer especially for under the eye. I also hear great things about the MUFE Ultra HD concealer that just launched (which is what I'm buying today). Also if you have dark circles it's worth looking into a good corrector but I will say that I love my NYX corrector just as much as my more expensive correctors. A go to blush and highlighter. I love Becca blushes and highlighters. Especially the shades Songbird and Wild Honey for blush and Moonstone and Champagne Pop of course for highlights. Another highlighter I feel everyone would love is the Laura Mercier Matte Radiance Baked Highlight in 01. I don't know why "matte" is even in the name because this isn't flat at all. It's a subtle yet noticeable sheen that literally looks good on everyone. Also Thunderstruck Metal Crush eye shadow from Kat Von D is a beautiful highlight as well as an eye shadow. Another necessary thing to have is a good contour palette. Hands down I choose Kat Von D Shade + Light Contour Palette. Also don't forget your brows. Even if you aren't comfortable with "sculpting" a brow or whatever, bottom line brows frame the face and they need to at least be controlled or lightly defined. You can't go wrong with Anastasia Beverly Hills brow products (she is the Queen of Brows people) like the Brow Wiz and Clear Brow Gel. I also think that Benefit Gimme Brow tinted brow gel with fibers, is something everyone needs. Especially if you aren't sure have to go about filling in your brows it does most of the work for you. Some quick mentions of things that are great to have are: Purity Made Simple Cleanser from Philosophy. If you're oily you may need a good setting spray like Urban Decay De Slick or All Nighter sprays. If you're super dry then maybe a more luminous one especially if you have dry patches that are noticeable. Another thing you may want to consider is a nice moisturizer preferably a day time and then a night time. I love the Origins Ginzing moisturizer and Night-a-mins moisturizer. They usually have some good sets too. A "go to" lipstick in whatever formula you prefer whether that's actual lipstick or liquid lipstick is also good to have. Kat Von D liquid lipsticks are top of the line as well as her Studded Kiss lipsticks. So are the Urban Decay Revolution lipsticks that come in matte formulas as well as regular formula. So there ya have it. That's my shopping advice. I hope it has helped in some way and have fun shopping for new goodies.
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 Alright, if you've been paying attention on social media you have probably seen lip plumping by using a suctioning device. Which is what the Full Lips Enhancer is. This is plastic other products from different companies are clay. These are quite a bit less expensive than the clay ones. I got mine for $15 I think. The clay molds are about $30. Before I get into this review I want to start with.....there is absolutely nothing wrong with your lips and you do not have to purchase this out of necessity because it isn't a necessity. This is just a momentary alternative to lip plumping that is as effective as injection would be only without the price or the needles. Products like these work the muscles around the mouth. The more you do that the longer the result will last. Now, I have heard some say they've gotten bruised from this. I haven't had anything like that happen to me and this isn't supposed to hurt but I done this at 15-30 second increments so perhaps that's why. Basically you suck in as you position this around your lips. It should grab on itself IF you've done these steps: exfoliate the lips, moisturize the area around the mouth or wet the area and use a menthol type balm to prolong the effect. I used a balm, actually a plumping gloss before I used this I'm not sure if it's necessary before but it is after since that's what plumping glosses do is, plump. A Buxom gloss would be fine as well.  So it took about 3 attempts and doing the steps correctly to get this to sit on my lips without me actually have to suck in any harder. When it does you should feel a gentle pulling, it should not hurt or be uncomfortable.  This was my result after about three 15 second increments. It didn't stay like this very long. Maybe 30 minutes but they did stay more plump for about 2 hours before going back to normal size. This is the large circle enhancer there is another shape and different sizes. I wanted more rounded plump lips so that's why I chose the circle. It definitely did that. I used this yesterday as well as today and both times the result wasn't as prominent as this one above but it was a more plump look that helps my liquid lipstick go on smoother and look better. I keep it on for about 30 seconds just one time and then do my makeup. I always use a plumping gloss before hand as well.
So all in all I like this. I can see how it could bruise you because the first time I was doing it way too hard and it hurt. So therefore be careful with this it's not worth bruises trying to get bigger lips. There are other things that elude to plump lips like over drawing and also check out Kandee Johnson's latest video on tricks for plumping your lips on YouTube.  These are the latest release from Makeup Geek. The Makeup Geek Sparklers which is loose glitter. These are getting very mixed reviews. Many people do not care for them. I wanted to throw my two cents in though. I got shades Satellite and Halo. They are what they say they are, loose glitters. They are described as a pigment/glitter hybrid but ultimately to me they are loose glitters with the texture of MAC Reflects. In saying that though, the MAC Reflects line is more sparkly where these have more color where I'm guessing is where the pigment comes in. Now there have been some issues with these saying that they could be applied like a pigment. When they really need a sticky base like a glitter glue. First off let me say, I apply pigments with a wet brush otherwise they get all over my face if I apply them dry. That's just me though. I don't know if that would work with these, it might would stick to the brush but I don't think it would adhere to the lid. So that's where the base comes in. Let me be very clear in saying though that I bought these with every intention of using them like a glitter and with a glitter glue. So I was not let down by the texture because I already knew how I was gonna apply them.  The picture above is the second issue that everyone is talking about. This was when I first opened them. Glitter explosion. Not a little a lot especially underneath the lid of the jars. These do not have sifters. If you watched the introduction video that Makeup Geek put out they did say that they are working on some and that these were very messy. They were right, they are incredibly messy not just initially but every time, granted not that messy like above. There will be sifters later and if you want to wait to get them until then that's completely understandable but it will be a few months. They released these so people would have them for the holidays. I have glitters, big cut glitters, that have sifter and it's still a mess because they've accidentally been turned upside down. So in general I think this is just gonna be more messy than shadows and such although a sifter will help. As far as pigmentation, and how I like them as a product. I really like them. I LOVE Satellite, unfortunately I can not get them to picture nicely for the life of me. There is a small video of them on my Instagram that shows the color shifts and sparkle that they have. The pictures DO NOT do them justice. I use Too Faced Glitter Glue with mine. I haven't tried just a primer since I have glue I just use that. It would need to be a wet/sticky/tacky primer though not something that dries super fast. So maybe like the Too Faced Shadow Insurance, maybe. These are $12 for 4 grams of product. In my own opinion, I think that's a little high. Other glitters are not that expensive from Violet Voss etc. and since packaging isn't hardly finished that's a little much to me cause they're smaller than you would think. There is the added fact that no matter what you do you're gonna lose product when you open them the first time. Unless you open them on something that you can just funnel the excess back into the jar which you absolutely could do. I realize that's a bit annoying though. So I don't regret this purchase. I understand people being let down by them but they were what I expected only a little messier but I kinda expected some of that too. I do think that there are packaging issues and I can see peoples concern especially since you're paying $12 a piece for them but all in all I don't feel like it's bad if you go in with the mindset that this is loose glitter. If you want to wait till the sifters are ready then that's totally understandable and I would probably do that as well.  This look is using Satellite. It does not show the color shift in this cause it's absolutely gorgeous. Even the swatches I've seen don't do it justice. It has purple, copper, and gold reflects, I think. I used it with navy shadows and it was gorgeous. Although it only looks copper in the picture.  This look is using Halo. Again it doesn't do it justice because its a very pale sparkly pink. Although this isn't as sparkly on the lid as it is in the jar I don't think. I used it over NYX Milk pencil and to me this looked more like a pigment on instead of a glitter. Update: Marlena from Makeup Geek has put out an updated video addressing concerns. That link is here. They are reaching out to those who already bought them without sifters as $12 a piece and refunding $2 per jar. I already have gotten an email about a refund and they are discounting them as of right now to $10 while they don't have a sifter. I feel even better about these now, I'm proud of the way they handled the feedback and their steps to resolving these problems. If you have any questions, watch her video addressing everyone's concerns and she'll explain more in depth what the product actually is (a loose glitter) and the confusion of people thinking they're used liked pigments.
Well it's already the end of the year. So I wanted to give you a list of my favorite products of everything. So settle in, it's gonna be a long one.
Foundations:
Now these are the things that have stood out over the year. Some are newer, some I've been using longer than a year. I obviously have more things I could mention but I didn't want to break into sub categories and what not or we'd be here all night. I hope you have a great New Year and a safe one. God bless you all, and lets take on 2016.  Alright so yes, I have another haul, no I'm not sorry and it's all from Ulta but I didn't spend near what you think. Most of this was 50% off and I also had a 20% off coupon for the expensive stuff which was actually just one thing. So here's the run down: Mario Badescue Rose Water Facial Spray. Makeup Revolution Ultra Blush Palette in Sugar and Spice Catrice Liquid Metal shadows in Under Treasure and What do you Sea? NYX Dewy Finish spray Makeup Revolution Matte Blush in Passionate Soap and Glory, Hand Food lotion NYX Under Eye Corrector in Medium NYX HD concealer wand in Yellow Becca Afterglow palette 2B Nail Polish NYX Contour Pro Palette  These are the Catrice Liquid Metal shadows. These are better applied wet. I did two swatches of each one dry and one wet. What Do You Sea? is the Navy/Green one. Under Treasure is the Champagne color. I got these after seeing Kathleen Lights swatch them. These were super inexpensive. I think I got these for like $2 or $3 on sale. Which they aren't expensive anyway. I used Under Treasure in a look already. It was ok, it didn't blow me away but it's a Champagne/Gold color and I used a wet brush to apply it, as you know neutrals aren't my favorite but I really thought it would be more foiled. Maybe if I applied it with my finger it would've been better. I haven't used What Do You Sea yet, I think I will like it more. All in all I don't know if I'll get more, just because I tend to use my palettes more. If you wanna try this I recommend finding a color that is gonna be your stand out color on the lid cause using this in the crease or trying to blend this won't be easy. I think a really pretty pale pink or rose gold would be really gorgeous.  Alright so the moment has arrived I finally got the NYX Contour Palette. It has 4 highlights 2 matte and 2 shimmer, and 4 contour shades 2 warm and 2 cool tones. My thoughts on this are that....it's really good. If you are on a budget get this. Now my issue is that its so messy and powdery. Which isn't that big of a deal but still it irritates me. The contour shades are very very pigmented and none of them are light really. So use a little at first and then work up from there. Blending this out is harder to do if you use a dense contour brush, if say you use an angled fluffier contour brush or blush brush it works better I think. The highlight shades are amazing. The yellow shade is darker than the Anastasia banana shade in her contour kit I think. So I actually prefer the ivory matte shade. It sets my under eye area better than anything I have ever used. The shimmer shades are really nice as well. I still prefer the Kat Von D contour palette over everything. If you are a beginner this might over whelm you cause it's 8 shades all together. If you were a beginner I would suggest either one contour shade and highlight in compacts like the MAC Careblend Pressed Powder in Dark and MAC Emphasize for highlight which isn't gonna be like a crazy shimmer. If you want intense shimmer I would do a Becca powder or an Ofra highlight. If you want a palette that offers all that I would get the Anastasia Contour Kit it has six shades 3 contour, 2 matte highlight and 1 shimmer highlight. It's $40 where this NYX is $25. I got this for $15 actually, which is the reason I got it. It's a great product and it's a great thing to have in your kit if you freelance cause it offers a lot of options.  This guy above I have been waiting a while to get. I missed the first 20% off opportunity but not the 2nd one. This is the Becca Afterglow palette. It has 3 highlights and 2 blush. I wanted this because I didn't own any of the highlights and they are all staples of the Becca line including: Moonstone, Rose Gold and Topaz and then the two blushes: Wild Honey and Flowerchild. I have Flowerchild but I will be giving that to my mother cause she loves Becca blushes as well. This palette is a little small. So keep that in mind some brushes just wont work with it. It's a really good price I believe its $32. Then there was a 20% off coupon. I think this is great. It's not extremely necessary but it's a great price and product. Especially if you want to try some Becca products.  I really like Makeup Revolution. The brand really impresses me with it's liquid lipsticks and now it's blushes. I got the Ultra Blush palette in Sugar and Spice. There is a second one with more neutral nude shades. This is obviously more pink. It comes with mostly matte shades and then 2 baked blushes. The baked blushes for me serve as more of a highlighter. 2 of the shades are more neutral and I use them more than the rest. The others are very bright and then there is one that is more peach toned. This is a great palette. It was really inexpensive I think regularly it's $10 I believe I got it for less cause it was on sale. I would totally get this if you wanted a blush palette. I will probably get the other palette as well.
The matte blush is in Passionate. This is crazy bright. I regret it. It's amazing formula. It feels just like silk. Probably the softest formula I've ever felt, it's unreal. The color is just too bright even for me. They do have 6 shades so definitely try one. Personally I want Beloved next it's more nude. These are just $5. Which is incredible. So the rest of the stuff I got we will go over briefly. I got the Mario Badescue Rose Water which I've always wanted to try but never did. It's only like $7 I think. It's great. I love it. It's very hydrating and soothing. Next I got the NYX Dewy Finish spray. This doesn't make me dewy. At all. So I'm not sold on this. It was all 50% off though so it was really cheap. Other NYX things I got were, the under eye corrector in medium which is my 2nd one. I love this stuff as you well know. It works better or as good as anything else I've tried. I also got the HD concealer in Yellow which I had a few years ago and loved for baking but I don't remember it being this dark of a yellow. Yellow corrects redness if you're wondering. I picked up some 2B Colours Nail Polishes that were only like $1 a piece or something like that. They are smaller than they look online. I got two glitters and then one for my friend that is supposed to look like denim jeans. They have a leather line and everything. I love the glitters but the jean one doesn't look like jeans to me. The Hand Food lotion from Soap and Glory is a stocking stuffer for someone else and it was only like $4 or $5. It's supposed to be a great hand cream. So hopefully it is. So that's it. That's everything. Most of the stuff I got wasn't more than $3 or $4 excluding the palettes which were still hardly anything. Ulta really kicked it into high gear this year for Christmas. They've been having some great sales and coupons. As always they have $3.50 off $10 coupon for things that aren't brand name. So check some of this out if you're interested.  So I haven't got to do as many Holiday looks that I wanted to do. I'm still sickly. I have managed to put some together though and it's pretty good mix of reds, greens, neutrals, and of course glitter. So you should have something for everything ie: parties, dinners, festive events and so on. Starting with the one above. This could be worn from dinner-parties either one. Depending on how intense you think it is. Products:
 This look is great for parties, ESPECIALLY New Years Eve. Product
 This is great for dinners cause the lip wont' be too big of a deal if it smears. It's very soft mauvey cranberry and some glitter. Products:
 This is a very festive look, so it's great for anything you want to really exude Christmas colors.
Products:
I will be doing more *hopefully* before Christmas gets here so keep an eye on my Instagram @lovemascara.  "I can't feel my face when I'm with you.....but I love it." Actually I can feel my face, pulsating and like a vacuum cleaner is attached to it.
This is the most INTENSE mask I've ever used. This is the Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay mask. I heard about this by watching Kathleen Lights. She said it was the most powerful mask she'd used to date and I had to give it a try. Specifically she said it literally brought the impurities to the surface. I got mine on Amazon. It was pretty inexpensive. I think less than $10 for 16 oz, which is a lot of product. It was on iherb.com for like $5 but was sold out when I went to buy mine. It's a powder than has to be mixed with either Apple Cider Vinegar (recommended) or water. Apple Cider is better cause it naturally detoxifies as well and makes this go on smoother. That's all I use it with. It fizzes like a science project when you first add it to the powder. I'm not sure if water would do that or not. So I mix about a table spoon of powder and a table spoon of vinegar. It says that it needs to be 1/4-1/2 inch thick layer on the face. For sensitive skin it says to leave on for 5-10 minutes, for normal skin 15-20 minutes. I left mine on for 20 minutes the first time. I didn't feel anything till about the 10 minute mark. It didn't hurt it just felt like something was suctioning my skin. Now this says on the back in big letters "FEEL YOUR SKIN PULSATE". You definitely do. This is an intense mask for sure. So if you're super sensitive I'm not sure I'd go with this and definitely not if you're super dry because right now my nose is kinda peeling after using it a couple nights ago. Now did this pull out all my impurities? No. It did bring some things to the surface. It also seemed like black heads had been made more apparent thus easier to extract. I have had more random blemishes pop up out of the whole ordeal but they leave quickly and they aren't "breakouts". So I think it does "purge" the skin. My skin hurts and is pretty red after this so I immediately use the most soothing moisturizer I have cause it's really dry as well and sometimes I use a soothing mist like Caudalie Grape Water or Mario Badescue Rose Water. I leave it on for the max amount of time though so maybe if I left it on about 15 minutes instead it wouldn't be as sensitive afterwards. It doesn't stay that way for long though especially with moisturizer but I do recommend moisturizing directly after you take the mask off. Taking it off is kinda hard especially if you used a really thick layer. So wet the cloth or your face so it softens the dried clay to help you wipe it off. Final thoughts: I really like this. I will continue to use this every week. It's inexpensive and if you feel like you have a lot of clogged pores or you skin just feels dull and crappy, definitely give it a try. Only if your skin can handle it though. So like I said earlier, don't use this if you're super dry or super sensitive. Other than that give it a shot, and have moisturizer on stand by. **here's a tip: I use this as spot treatment sometimes. Not like dots on the face but just my nose or t-zone, if I feel like my entire face doesn't need this intense treatment.  As promised here is my Black Friday haul. Makeup wise, there was some killer sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday or for the entire weekend. Ulta I feel really had the best and they are still doing some killer sales. Right now there is 20% off code that you can use on almost everything with very few exclusions so, you can use it on Becca and other high end brands with some exclusions to it like the Gwen Stafani palette from Urban Decay. The code is good through the 24th and it's on my Instagram (@lovemascara) if you're interested. Now before I hop into this, yes this is a lot of stuff and it's WORTH a lot of money, but the sales like I said we're amazings and I barely paid a fraction of the total cost.  First thing I want to get out of the way is those three HUGE skincare kits from the Body Shop. I got these at Ulta, they were doing 3 for $35 anything Body Shop on Black Friday so I thought it was just lotions, shower gel, stuff like that. No! It was everything so of course I went for the kits. Each one is worth more than $40 and sold for $29 but I got three for $11 and some change, a piece. I got the Vitamin E Hydrating Kit, Tea Tree Blemish Kit, and Aloe Calming Kit. I wanted completely different kits because skin changes a lot through out the year, or at least mine does so any one of these could come in handy and they all come with about 4-5 products in each kit. It was an awesome deal Next I got a Smashbox trio that was super inexpensive for a stocking stuffer. It comes with a brush and a neat little compact of plum shadows. Then I made a palette with Coastal Scents all their stuff was half off pretty much and so the shadows were less than $1. I have always liked Coastal Scents single shadows. They are very pigmented and there are very few "duds" I've found out of the 20+ shadows I own. They aren't as buttery as like Anastasia perhaps, they're a little more dry (the matte ones) but it doesn't change the pigment. So I made a super colorful palette because I love color as we all know. Then I got two sets of lashes from House of lashes in Temptress and Pixie Luxe. They took quite a while getting here because I'm sure it was crazy there and they probably had a ton of orders. This was their biggest sale of the year though so I didn't mind waiting. I got a glitter trio sample stack from Beauty Bar Baby. This is really inexpensive anyway but it was even less for Black Friday. I always get the sample stacks because it's always plenty of glitter and an easy way to try different colors. Then I got the Benefit Majorette blush from Ulta for......$10. It's normally around $30. This time is was $10. That was absolutely amazing. I had almost got this in the summer but decided against it since it's cream to powder, now I'm so glad I done that. Plus it smells amazing. On Cyber Monday Anastasia Beverly Hills did not disappoint. They did an Illuminator plus there #23 brush for $26. That even less than the illuminator alone. I got Starlight and it's gorgeous. It's drier than I expected but applied with a damp brush it's so beautiful. It's beautiful dry too but damp is so much better. I will say that my brush is not good. It either was packaged too roughly or something but the hairs are all over the place and won't keep their shape. So that was kind of a bummer but I did some surgery to it and I think it's gonna make it.  Ofra Cosmetics was having a great sale as well 50% off their entire site. I'm coming to really love this company. I've yet to be disappointed by anything they've done. Their liquid lipsticks is my favorite formula and I love the dupethat collab highlighters. So I got two liquid lipsticks in Atlantic City and Manhattan. I also got a pan of the You Glow Girl highlighter from DupeThat. I already had the You Dew You compact and loved it's peachy tone so I decided to try a cooler toned highlight.
Along with my Coastal Scents order I picked up a Forever Blush to try. I wanted a super dark blush to try but I didn't know if I'd like it. I got the shade Passionate which is a super dark berry shade. The formula is amazing and it's so inexpensive even full priced so I'm very impressed with it. It's SUPER pigmented though! So be careful, apply lightly. Morphe Brushes was doing 20% off their brushes which is still good because they're very inexpensive as well. I got the M500, M523, G2, and M503. The M523 is the softest brush I've ever felt in my life. It's nothing less than amazing. As well as the G2. I have wanted that for months and just never bought it cause I didn't think I needed it. So glad I got it. MAC was doing 25% off their holiday sets. This is the first time I've ever seen them do this. I got a set of the pigments. It's 3 pigments and 1 glitter. I chose the purple ones. That's usually the only things I ever get from MAC holiday sets is the pigments. Cause they're the perfect size and a good deal. Then I got some stuff from Sephora. It wasn't with the Black Friday stuff it was just in the sale section and I had got the $25 off $50 VIB Rouge card so I wanted to use that and I seen where they had an awesome Korres set for $42 I think. It had two out of three that I knew I would like. It's all sleeping facials and night moisturizers. It has the Greek Yogurt sleeping facial which everyone talks about, Wild Rose sleeping facial which I love, and the Black Pine moisturizer which I haven't used. I also picked up some Elizabeth and James Nirvana White dry shampoo. It smells so good. It does make my dark hair a little ashy though. Last but not least Ulta was selling the Sabastian hair sprays in every formula for $7.99. They are around $20 regularly and they are gigantic. I got them for stocking stuffers too. So that's it. It was a bunch of stuff I know. It was amazing deals though and this was all online. I don't fight the madness on Black Friday in stores I prefer to participate online.  So Christmas is right around the corner, and you've procrastinated in buying presents, or you accidentally forgot someone, or you're nearly done you just need some extra stocking stuffers or something. I GOT CHU. This post is going to be beauty and other things combined. So not just makeup but also some really cool gifts, or accessories that I like and love getting as gifts. Starting with skincare:
 Now for more makeup related items:
  Now on to some non-beauty gifts:
So that's it. I hope that helps. I'll be doing some reviews soon and my black friday haul but I've been very sick for the past two weeks and currently been to the hospital twice so I've not been able to really get my head on straight yet.  So this week I got some Colour Pop products. I got some of the new Raye Boyce collaboration,one of the new Holiday lip colors, a new-ish gel liner, and 3 newer shadow shades.  These are the three shadows I got. Glitterati I was most skeptical about but it's become my favorite. I think it's very similar to Kat Von D Thunderstruck actually just with glitter. It's a silver shade with plenty of sprakle. It's metallic finish and those are some of my favorite finishes in the entire line, those and the pressed pigments. Leopard is this INTENSE royal purple. It's matte and full blown purple. It's gorgeous. Drift is your typical cranberry color that's perfect for the holidays. It's a pearlized finish so it's got a sheen to it more than a shimmer. I actually thought it would be a much deeper red/burgundy but it's not it's a medium toned burgundy. I love cranberry shades they are so overlooked and they shouldn't be because they're gorgeous on everyone.  This is Rayezor, the collaboration with Raye Boyce. It's SO my style. It's just a perfect greyish mauve which I love. If you like Brink, I think you would like this. It reminds me of Underground from Gerard Cosmetics only better. It's just so pretty and very "everyday" in my opinion. I only have the lippie pencil as you know I prefer them to lipsticks. She also created a very beautiful liquid lipstick called Stingraye that I wish I would've gotten. It's a dead on dupe for Jefree Star Androgyny and ABH Veronica. Such popular colors but this one is $6.  This is one of the new holiday colors. It's called Scrooge. Which I though was so cute. It's a very pretty medium berry. It's almost pink but a little too dark to be pink so it qualifies as berry but it's not deep at all. So if you don't like plums or anything dark but you want something that's not incredibly bright, you may really like this shade. Also just $6.  This is the gel liner in Swerve. I just got black because I needed a black gel liner and also I hadn't heard the best reviews on this so I felt black was a safer route. I absolutely love this gel liner. It's very creamy in the pot and goes on very smooth and easy. It dries matte and doesn't budge. I'm not sure if that's why people didn't like them because they dry kinda fast and you couldn't really work with them after that, but I find that if you mess up gel liner anyway you're kinda screwed whether it dries fast or not. I mean if you mess it up and try fixing it it's gonna smudge so at least this really doesn't smudge. I haven't had any issues with it though. It goes on smooth and gives me plenty of time to draw my wing plus it's very easy to take off. A makeup wipe takes mine off. My Makeup Geek liner requires lots of rubbing and eye makeup remover. This was also $6.  So in this looks I'm wearing:
Rayezor on the lips Swerve gel liner Leopard and Glitterati (center of the lid) on the eye. Glitterati is so beautiful, it looks silver but it has a golden duo chrome to it and it's so pretty. |
ErinI'm from Tennessee. I'm a makeup and skincare lover. I have always enjoyed creating looks but I love to help people with product knowledge and application even more. I've been able to start blogging and do these things I love because God has seen fit to bless me with the opportunity. Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me! 
  
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