Collective Haul: Ulta, Frends Beauty, Sephora, etc.

It's been a little bit since I've done a Collective Haul. I recently got some cool stuff I feel, and I'd like to share them with you. I know that's a horrible opening line but I've been watching a lot of Kathleen Madigan on Netflix and I've apparently adopted the "to the point" and "matter of fact" tone that she has, which I admire. So there ya go. Moving forward with this haul.

I got a lot of stuff from Ulta from cashing in all my points which was up to $260. I actually halfed it with my friend because it's just fun to shop with friends. So that's what we did. We had our respective mermaid tail blankets, one laptop and a heating pad with some oatmeal cookies in the midst and online shopped for random stuff. It was a great day. Some other stuff is from Sephora, Beautylish even made it into this one, Cover FX and Stila, and as always Frends Beauty because you gotta have Frends.....yes I did do that, no I don't care if it's corny. 

So lets start with Ulta:

I got 4 more sheet masks for #SaturdayNightSheetMask. I'm up to 16 I think now. I got the Tony Moly Snail Hydro Gel Mask because quite frankly it sounded disgusting. So naturally it piqued my interest. I got another mask from Leaders because I really enjoyed the last one I had, when I finally figured it out, and this time I got the Balancing mask. I got a Sea Kelp Mask which I also thought was odd but hey I'll try it. Last but not least I got a "Watery Blue Flower Calming Mask" from Goodal. I love sheet masks because they're an inexpensive way to pamper your self and also an easy way to scare someone since you kinda look like Michael from Halloween.

I finally caved and picked up the Pore Minimizing Primer from Smashbox. Not the big guy the travel size guy because it's pretty much the only Pore Minimizing Primer or Pore filling primer for that matter, that I even like and can tell a difference with. I only use it in my T-Zone because that's my only problem area so thus this little travel size will last me quite a while. Plus I love the texture of this, it's thick and I really like that I feel like that's why it does a better job than other primers.

Next I got two Catrice Camouflage Creams. I got yellow and pink. Both work for under the eyes. The pink is the Wake Up Effect and the yellow is the Anti-Shadow. Which actually I find yellow correctors work well at canceling out minor redness too. They have other shades and they have regular colors as well to use as full coverage concealer. These are something I find need to be worked with a little bit because they aren't super "creamy" meaning they need to be warmed up with your finger to get the right consistency. They definitely are full coverage and they do work. I love a lot of Catrice products actually. I'm a huge fan of their Waterproof Concealers, they are awesome. I also love their All Matt Plus Shine Control Foundation which is $4.49 and it's pretty full coverage as well. I think it's fantastic. There are also products I hate. I've never found a product in this line that was just "ok" I either loved it or hated it. Which is odd but there are far more hits than misses.

I got another Tarte Shape Tape. I went with Light Sand this time instead of just Light. I love this concealer as does most everyone else, so there's no point in me discussing it further.

I got a Makeup Revolution Strobe Highlighter. It's new, it's a duo chrome. I find that I don't care for their highlighters because they never have a sheen to them. The don't act like highlighters and catch the light. This is the same but it does have some color to it and doesn't settle into fine lines or emphasize pores. So that being said it's like the most subtle highlight known to man. If that fits your criteria be my guest to try it out but I feel most people won't like it. I do love their blushes and blush palettes that often have baked shades in there that can pass as a highlight so again they have some hits and misses too.

I got the new Bare Minerals Invisible Bronzer in Tan. Alright let me start by saying, I don't own anything Bare Minerals other than the Bare Skin Serum Concealer. I was talked into that by my friend Edie that works at my Sephora (Hi Edie!) and she was totally right because it is lovely and it's a suitable concealer for everyone in my opinion. So I seen that they released Bronzers and Highlights and they looked very lovely. I decided to go for the bronzer because I'm in a bronzer state of mind right now. I'm going to just go ahead and say I love this and it is probably going to be my go to bronzer for the next foreseeable future. They had 4 shades I got Tan which is pretty dark in the pan but it's beautiful on the skin and just melts in to well with the rest of your makeup. They done a fantastic job. I will probably buy the highlighter now that the bronzer has awoken my soul to the possiblilities that I've not given Bare Minerals a fair shot. I apologize Bare Minerals. 

Lets move on to Frends Beauty:

I'm gonna preface this by saying at least 75% of my makeup probably comes from Frends Beauty. They have, in a lot of ways, a better selection for artists than Sephora or Ulta. From SFX to tools to set makeup and to regular everyday makeup. They have skin care, hair care, self tanning and so on. I love their variety and I love the brands that are accesible to me through them. I know I sound like a broken record but if you join their membership you get 10% off your purchase. It's free. I'm not paid to say that I just think it's nice. I'm not sponsored by them. I bought all this stuff. Although they have sent me stuff in the past, I bought this stuff that you see here. 

First I made my first purchase of Viseart. I bought the Warm Matte palette and the Petit Pro palette. I got the Petit Pro first to see if I really did like the formula. I really liked the mattes (there's 4 mattes and 4 shimmers), I wasn't overly impressed with the shimmer they were good just not life altering. So that made up my mind to then buy a full palette of mattes from them and I do not regret it. They are as lovely as everyone says. Their pigment is what gets me. There are shades that look like there would be basically no noticeable difference in the color if you look at the pans. Then, my friend, you apply them with a crease brush no less and see "oh wow that's an entirely noticeable color difference". Lets face it most of the time we see the subtle color change in the pans but not on the skin but this is not the case which is why I'm now sold on Viseart being the MVP of matte eyeshadows. I also seen where the Theory palettes are at Frends as well as Blush palettes and more. 

I got 2 Lorac blushes and it's entirely Rheannon's fault. We follow each other on snap chat, we often talk to each other a lot about either nothing or something and one night we swatched our blush collection for each other based on what the other one would like. I was then convinced that I needed 2 Lorac blushes in my life. They are right up my alley though. They are smooth, they blend wonderfully and they're vibrant but deeper shades and I love deeper toned blushes. I got Technicolor which is a darker peach and Aura which is a berry shade I would say. I also love matte blushes and these are both matte I do believe. 

Frends Beauty started carrrying Inglot last year and I think I placed like 5 orders afterwards. I was so stoked. I will tell you that you are not living life to the fullest in a makeup aspect if you haven't experienced their AMC Pigments. Especially the more duo chrome shades. I got 2 more shades, I think that puts me at 6 pigments in total. I just love them they are so high shine and gorgeous. I love using them with Mehron Mixing liquid on my brush, it's just a good time for all involved.

Now lets move on to Cover FX and Stila:

First Stila. I got the new Magnificent Metal duochromes in all 3 shades. They're mermaid themed. The shades are Into the Blue, Sunset Cove, and Sea Siren. They're beautiful. I've actually not even tried the original line yet and I want to, to compare them since these three are duo chrome. I'm going to do a full review on them I do believe so I won't go into too much detail about them yet. They're available on Stila's website only right now, and I think they will be in Sephora in April.

Now to Cover FX. I went in hard. I got the Full Coverage Cream Foundation in N20, the Natural Finish Oil Free Foundation in G20 and a little radiance duo that had the radiance primer and infusion drops in it. I've not had the chance to really try them all day yet. I can say I do think that I will love one and then hate the other more than likely because they seem very different. I'm waiting to see how they do all day though before I make my final judgements. What I love about Cover FX though is that their products are uniquely different from each other. The coverage is always mind blowing in the best way. Not that it's supreme coverage, some of it is but all of them look phenomenal in what ever category they've been put in. Like Natural Finish is such an odd texture to me but on the skin it's the healthiest my skin has ever looked I do believe. The Full Coverage takes very little product to get to a great coverage so therefore it doesn't feel heavy or smothering in the least. It feels like nothing. Which I find quite amazing.

Moving on to Sephora:

I actually got a Cover FX item there as well. It was in the travel section for $10. I got the Illuminating loose powder. It's actually quite a good size. I love setting the under eye area with it and I do think that's probably all I will use it for. So I believe this container is going to last me quite a while as I don't bake under the eyes or anything. 

I also got the new Marc Jacobs set of lip glosses. Which are 3 full size lipglosses and a makeup bag for $54. I know that's a high price but based on how much they are individually it's an awesome deal. It comes with French Tickler (sheer subtle sparkle peach) Pink Steam (metallic sparkle purple pink) and the new shade Want Me? (opaque nude pink). This is part of the limited edition Marc Jacobs X Julie Verhoeven Velvet Reality collection. The art for the packaging and the makeup bag is bold, colorful and eye catching. Completely avante garde and editorial looking in my opinion. There are more sets than just the Enamoured With a Twist collection which is what I have. It's very beautiful and I love the different turn that Marc Beauty took with this.

On to the other products that were bought for a purpose:

I got the Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish powder in Fair. This is expensive. This is one expensive powder, that even though I do like it I probably won't repurchase. I got this because I'm compiling a 2 part blog post of the best, worst and in between powders both pressed and loose. I didn't just buy it on a whim, I bought it due to the fact that Charlotte Tilbury makes phenomenal products, and that the claims behind this and what people said about it gave me good enough reason to try it. It's supposed to make the skin feel very smooth and look airbrushed (obviously). I will get into it a little more in those posts but the packaging is beautiful and very thin. I thought based on product shots online which was just a front shot that it would be bulkier. No it's very slim and sleek. I like that a lot and it definitely feels luxury.

Now for the polar opposite both in price and product. I got the Coty Airspun Transluscent Loose Powder. I ordered mine from Amazon I think it was around $8-$10. It's quite big. I note that this is an under the radar favorite in the makeup community, especially for baking. So I wanted to try it, my first thought is that it looks a bit pink to me instead of other translucent powders. They either look white or a skin tone shade but this one looks pink and it looks a bit like a satin finish from what I can tell in the container. I have this in mind specifically for baking the jaw line. I've heard about it for so long that I just thought now would be the opportune time to give it a whirl. I'm literally swimming in powder folks. Pressed powder and loose, I have a ton that I'm working through to find out what's really great and what's not so awesome.

So that covers it for my collective haul. I do hope you've enjoyed it. Come over to snap chat (loveandmascara) to see these things as soon as I get them. Follow me on twitter if you'd like (loveand_mascara) and as always follow me on Instagram (lovemascara) and lets be friends. Okay bye.