Collective Haul: Ulta, Colour Pop, Sephora

MakeupGeek Store First Impressions

Hey everyone! I am really excited about today's post - I received a MakeUpGeek order a couple of weeks ago and was just able to get some swatch shots in the sunlight. I ordered 6 eyeshadows and one of the only blushes that wasn't out of stock.

In the order that they appear in the photos below, I got: Peach Smoothie, Creme Brulee, Gold Digger, Chickadee, Moondust and Cocoa Bear. The blush I purchased was Smitten which is what I have on in the photo below (I am also wearing Cocoa Bear in the outer V). I also purchased a large black Z Palette from the MakeUpGeek Store. 

From my swatching, right off the bat, I can say that the shadows are really pigmented. The matte shadows are a little on the chalky side but are still really blendable and smooth to apply - just make sure you tap off your brush to avoid fallout. It is obvious she tried really hard to give us affordable dupes to many of MACs eyeshadows and  honestly, in my opinion, she succeeded! I think that the color pay off is actually better than MAC.

I have already done a couple of looks with the matte eyeshadows and found that they lasted all day with my usual eyeshadow base (Mac Paint Pot). I can't attest to the more satin but as soon as I play with them I will share my looks and report back! From what I can tell from swatching them, they are buttery smooth.

Descriptions:

Peach Smoothie: A warm matte peachy beige.

Creme Brulee: A soft sand matte shade with a hint of peach undertones.

Gold Digger: A warm metallic yellow gold.

Chickadee: Matte rusty orange.

Moondust; Metallic grey taupe.

Cocoa Bear: A matte medium deep brown with red undertones. 

You really can't beat the price of these shadows. They are $5.99 for the eyeshadow pans which is unbelievable given the high quality feel.

Eyeshadow Ingredients List here 

Onto the blush - Smitten is a gorgeous matte apricot shade. It reminded me a lot of Illamasqua's Lover blush which shattered on me last year (R.I.P. Lover). It's a lighter blush but really brightens up the cheeks nicely. As the product is blended into the skin the color transforms into a beautiful natural flush. Smitten was very long wearing on me. I applied it yesterday morning around 7:30AM and it lasted well through the work day. 

Peach Smoothie, Creme Brulee 

Gold Digger, Chickadee

Moondust, Cocoa Bear

Peach Smoothie, Creme Brulee, Gold Digger, Moonstruck, Cocoa Bear

Chicadee, Smitten Blush

Do you own any MakeUpGeek Products? Let me know your favorites in the comments!

Sigma Brush Haul and Review

A couple of months ago I was itching to purchase some new makeup brushes and ultimately went the the Sigma brand. Sigma has created a great amount of buzz in the beauty community and I really wanted to try out a few of their products myself. I ended up with a few face brushes and a couple of eye brushes. 

 F84 Angled Kabuki: Not that I needed another foundation brush, but what I DID need was an angled dome shaped kabuki foundation brush. Sigma's F84 is dense angled brush with soft synthetic bristles. I love using this to apply and buff liquid foundation into my skin. Prior to using the angled bush, I always used a flattop foundation brush but I find I like this so much better. I never have an issue with streaking when using this brush. I always end up with a very even distribution of product on my face. The angle also makes it easy to get into the tinier spaces on the face like under the eye and around the nose. When I am in a lazy mood, I always use the angled tip to blend my under eye concealer as opposed to using my fingers. 

Sigma F55 Small Duo Fibre: Out of all the brushes I purchased, this one does the least for me. I thought I would get so much use out of this brush for foundation, cream blush, pigmented powder blush, highlighter. The bristles are extremely sparse and 'floppy.' When it comes to applying product to face, the bristles just go limp and it does not make for an even or effective makeup application. Because the bristles are not at all dense, it's very hard to blend out product. I would definitely reconsider if you are going to purchase this brush and go for a brush with more bristles. The only product I like using this brush for is very shimmery highlights - it only picks up a little product to apply so you don't look like you over did it on the shimmer. 

F35 Tapered Highlight: This brush is really great for both contouring and highlighting. The tapered tip is great for applying bronzer to contour and the base is wide enough so you can angle the brush to blend out the bronzer so you don't end up with a harsh line. I also like using this brush to set my under eye concealer with a powder. The one negative about this brush is that the hairs are not as soft as I thought they would be. 

E60 Large Shader: This has become my new favorite brush for applying my all over lid color. The bristles are very soft and it's wide & long enough to cover a large portion of my lid at once.

P86 Precision Tapered: This is a great brush for applying concealer. I use this most of the time to grab product from my Mac Studio Finish Concealer and dot around my problem areas. It doesn't really blend out too well when it comes to spots but it does a nice job at getting around my nose area and blending concealer out in the hard to reach areas. 

Those are all of the brushes I purchased and my thoughts on them! 

Leave me a comment with your favorite brushes or ones you think I should check out!

Drugstore Haul // January 2013 Birchbox

Last Friday I went on a little drugstore adventure trying to find the Wet N Wild Fergie Collection. I failed, but in the meantime I got a few other really great products. 

Revlon Colorstay Whipped Foundation: Up until now I have been a complete high end only foundation snob. For whatever reason I was researching some drugstore foundations. I watched a lot of positive reviews and demo's of the colorstay whipped so I picked it up - full review to come soon.

 

I happened to watch a D/S haul video before I left to go shopping and the video featured these Maybelline Colorsensational Vivid lipsticks. I was also in search for the Maybelline Whispers, but the display I found was whipped out. I purchased 895 On Fire Red and 870 Shocking Coral. 

Finally, I picked up a bronzer. I'm not much of a bronzer girl but I heard that the Revlon Colorstay Whipped can pull a little grey, but that it's easily fixed with powder and bronzer. I purchased Physicians Formula's Glow-Boosting Season-to-Season Bronzer. I got this particular one because it was the lightest one. There is shimmer in it but it is not overpowering. 

When I returned home from the drugstore, my first Birchbox for 2013 was in the mail.

It came with:

2 100% pure body creams

the eyeko skinny felt tip liquid liner

Ojon argon oil

an Arie Shimmer perfume

and Embryolisse Laire-Creme Concentrate

 
I love that 2 of these products (the Laite-Creme and the Eyeko liner) are items I would not normally be able to purchase in the US.

Do you subscribe to any beauty boxes? Which ones?

November Beauty Haul: Sephora, Origins, & Lush

Monday Monday! I had a serious case of the Monday's this morning. Didn't want to get out of bed for anything! 

Anyways, my nails won't stop breaking so I haven't done anything too exciting with them so I thought I would do another beauty post and share my November Haul.

For cyber Monday Origins was doing a $10 off $35 or more. Of course I chose one of the few items that did not apply to the sale haha but it was a good deal and I couldn't pass it up. This is the Origins 'Your Perfect World' set. I wanted some sort of anti-aging/wrinkle product so I thought this was perfect. It comes with:

 Full-size A Perfect World White Tea skin guardian, moisturizer with white tea, Age-defense treatment lotion with White Tea (kind of like a very light toner), 

and the Perfect World Face wash with White Tea. 

I only just started using these products but I can do a full post on my experience with this product

On Black Friday I ventured to my mall and discovered that they just put in a LUSH store. I haven't purchased anything from lush in the longest time for whatever reason but was very excited to get some goodies. I got the H'suan wen hua hair moisturizer (SERIOUSLY LOVE THIS STUFF) and Ocean which used to be part of my skincare routine ages ago.

Finally I took a trip to Sephora. I hit pan on my favorite NARS blush (Madly) and wanted to try something else so I picked up Luster after watching Zoella's October favorites video. I also picked up a MUFE Mat Velvel Plus and a Laura Mercier Lip Glace in Bare Naked

Thanks for stopping by

Parlez Vous OPI & a small haul

This was a polish I searched to swap for because I thought it looked great on everybody else. I am unsure about how I feel about it on my skintone. Don't get me wrong this is a really pretty color, I am just not sure it's right for me. I think it looks a lot dustier on me than it does on others. The fomula was nice, a little on the thick side but it wasn't too hard to deal with.

I ended up putting a stamp on it using China Glaze's IDK. The number of the plate escapes me but if anyone asks I can get the number for you. It was very subtle but I like it that way :)

Also a week or two ago I was on MUA from my phone and saw all of tis talk about Lynderellas being back up on her site. By the time I got to ordering the only one that was still in stock was this gorgeous green glitter, I Can Afford It. I didn't want to pass it up so I put it in my cart along with another Glitter Gal I had my eye on!

Thanks for looking!

Kleancolor order!

Last week I heard Beautyjoint.com had Kleancolor's on sale for$1.75!

I had heard so many good things about their Chunky holo's so I had to snatch some up :)

I also wanted to try out some of their glitters

I ended up with these beauties:

These are my first Kleancolor's and I am really excited to try them out!

Did you score any Kleancolord during the sale?

A Tiny Haul + 2 Untried Swatches

The past few months on MUA different users have been in charge of a monthly 'no buy/low buy.'

I have been trying to save money as best I can so I decided this might be a good idea! I also purchased 5th row tickets to the HONDA CIVIC TOUR with BLINK 182 & MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE - my all time FAVORITE band. so that sent me back a few bucks :)

I did do a small Haul on May 30 to hold me over though ;) I had a 15% of coupon to Sally's that expired June 1 so I had to use it!

I ended up with 2 new Orly's (my first one's) and ChG Secret Periwinkle. I had never seen it in the permanent display before so I snatched it up.

From 2011-05-31

I also bought a Confetti and Milani Neon from CVS prior :)

As part of the 'no buy/lo buy' you have to shop your stash and use your untrieds! If you use 5% of your untried you can purchase 1 polish!

So far I have tried:

Funky Fingers Screaming Fuschia with Milani Jewel FX on top

and Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Fuschia Flace

I don't wear a lot of pink so I though I should start with 2 untried pinks!

Nail Mail!

With the help of some lovely MUAer's, e-bay, and my own bank account I was able to

obtain some lovely hard to finds and other goodies.

Walgreens and Ulta also had some deals going on.

Through a few swaps I received OPI Absolutely Alice, China Glaze GT, and

Sally Hansen Nail Prism in Pink Rose Diamond

I am really proud of 'IDK.' I got this through my first e-bay auction. It may be a bad

thing but it was an impulse thing!

Bought this from fabulousstreet.com - can't wait to see it on my nubs

to see if it is a dud

Apparently there are 2 versions of this a deeper pink and then this one.

I am glad I ended up with this one :)

and the beloved glitter AA :)

Ulta had a buy 2 get on free deal going on so I picked up some OPIs. I don't really have a lot of OPIs in my collection.

I prefer China Glaze but I really wanted to try some OPI Shades. I went for ones that I don't have a lot of in my stash.

Greens and Oranges are lacking! So I got Jade is the New Black, Green-wich Village and and A Good Mandarin is Hard to Find. I also had a $5 off $10 so these only cost me a little over $12 :)

And then Walgreens was having a sale on Sinful Colors for $0.99!

I only got two since they didn't have the greatest selection

I also picked up SH pacific BLue because obviously I'm a sucker for blues :)

I also borrowed Essie Watermelon from a friend.

Did you take advantage of the Sinful Sale?