Sephora mini haul

So in the craziness of my life (moving, living with my mother-in-law, working, and trying to spend some quality time with my family), I have been less than in the Christmas spirit.  Typically I really enjoy the holiday season.  As a family we decorate the tree, put up Christmas lights all over the house (my sons favorite), make gingerbread houses and Christmas cookies.  This year, even with all of these activities, I just wasn't feeling it.  I think being displaced and the stress of living with my mother-in-law really put me through the ringer.  A few days before Christmas I decided to take the kids to the mall, walk around, and attempt to get into the sprit of things. Of course I just could not resist going into Sephora (much to my sons dislike).  After walking around for a bit I grabbed the Disney Kiss the Girl perfume.  I am finding that with age I am getting very picky with my perfumes.  Some really irritate me and give me a headache.  This perfume did bother my head and I really liked the smell so I grabbed this deal.  The perfume retailed for $58 but was marked down to $41.

I then have saw that some of the Pantone line holiday line was marked down.  The Radiant Cut Shadow Palette was the first thing that I grabbed.  A set of eight jewel-toned shadows that looked so prettying in the display case but unfortunately they didn't have a sample to swatch.  I grabbed this set but then was very disappointed to find that a shadow was broken and had made a mess ALL over the inside of the palette.  I don't have a picture so show since I then returned the set for a refund.  I am pretty relieved that I returned this set since there were some pretty mixed reviews on the Sephora website.

I then got the Pantone eyeshadow Palette.  I really like that the lid completely lifts off of this palette and that the magnets are strong enough to hold the lid in place for travel, plus there is a mirror in the lid. Overall I really like the shadow collection.  Nice color pay-off and selection but I wish that there were a few more matte shadows to complement this selection.

I then grabbed the Precious Metal Mousse Shadow on sale from $18 down to $12.  This item was available in either gold (which I got) or silver.  After swatching this item on my hand I knew that I had a have it.  Great color pay off and I have now used this as not only as shadow base but also as a liner on my top lid (on top of my black liner).   This is really a great product and I am really happy I grabbed this product.

When I went to return the Radiant Cut Shadows and a brush set that I had bought and had a little buyers remorse.  I then saw that they had in stock the Tarte of Giving Collectors Set and Travel Bag.   I have not been able to find this set online exempt for Amazon who had it for about $100 (this item retailed for $59).  I have seen the awesome reviews for this set, not to mention I am quickly becoming Tarte obsessed!  The travel bag is a beautiful purple satin quilted fabric, flip open, and has a removable (with snaps) pouch, two zippered pockets, and a hanger to hang this bag while traveling. With the many back and forth trips to my parents house, I thought this bag would be great for holding some of my makeup necessities.  In the removable pouch there is a small maracuja oil, eye treatment, Amazonian clay blush in Memorable, cheek stain, and mascara.  There are 20- limited edition eyeshadows and 8 deluxe maracuja lip glosses.

12- Hour blush in Memorable and Flush check stain

Lip glosses: sully, john, kam, finn, lizzy, spence, viv, ro

Starting in the upper left hand corner (clockwise): Kim's porcelain doll, Jen's jump rope, Nuria's boom box, Staci's charm bracelet, Scott's skateboard

Leigh's locket, Candace's tap shoes, Claire's cashmere gloves,  Maureen's soccer ball, Ali's bicycle

Steph's pearls, Jess' storybook, Sam's ice skates, Meredith's hula hoop, Erica's dollhouse 

Bianca's coloring book, Anna's tea set, Kate's puppy, Tom's stuffed tiger, Daniel's teddy bear

CVS Haul! (Again)

Thanks again to Nouveau Cheap for posting the CVS clearance list!  I, like every other time I head over there for the clearance end up leaving with a whole bunch of goodies.

It is amazing to me how every clearance can be so different from season to season.  You just never know what companies are going to get rid and add to their line.  Last time I felt like I ended up with a ton of lip colors and mascaras while this time I got a ton of foundations, bronzers and cheek colors!

Just a little overview of my haul!

When I saw that the Rimmel Lasting Finish 25 Hour foundation was 75% off, I knew that I had to get a bunch...or how about all of their colors.   Hello!  $2 per foundation...I am in! With doing other people makeup now and then it is great to have a variety of colors to mix and match to other skin tones.  

I absolutely LOVE Sally Hansen's Salon Effects nail strips.  I typically get about 4 or 5 days out of these nail polish strips before they start to chip or peel off of my nails.  I love the variety of colors and patterns and again, these were down to about $2 a piece.  

I wasn't impressed with the items that Revlon had on clearance but figured I would try the Color Stay eyeshadow sticks and the lip gloss.  

I don't know that I have ever owned a Coty product.  They totally bring me back to watching my grandmother put on her makeup, but since the loose powders were down to about $2 I figured it would be good to have

I currently don't own anything from the Physicans Formula line so when I saw a few items 75% off (bringing them down to about $3 a piece) I figured I would grab them.  I picked up a blush and bronzer that were supposed to gauge the ph level of your skin and match your skin tone.  I then picked up three other bronzer- the top center is the shimmer strip bronzer which can be used not only as a bronzer but as an eye color.  The two bronzers in the center are from the happy booster line.  Finally I picked up the concealer 101 duo- green cream concealer to cover up any imperfections and a cream skin-toned concealer to place on top of the green concealer.  

I was so excited to see the Nicole By OPI nail polishes (the Modern Family and Selena Gomez lines only)75% off!  I grabbed a bunch, as you can see, figuring these would be great stocking stuffers or gifts for some of my daughters friends! 

New Haircut!

I, like many people out there, get very frustrated with my hair.  I have very thick hair that tends to be very wavy in the font of my head but strait in the back.  After some thought and inspiration I decided that it was time for a change.  While at the trend show I fell in love with the hair of one of the makeup artists- short, dark but so pretty!  I have never been very comfortable with long hair anyway so I decided to go even a bit shorter.  I was a little nervous going as short as the girl whose hair I loved- I may need to work up to it.  All said and done it is a bit of a change but I have gotten a number of compliments on my new do and that the color really shows off my blue eyes.  Let me know your thoughts!

Urban Decay: Ocho Loco2

Those of you who check the urban decay site daily like I do saw that last weekend they were running a 20% off sale on everyone on their site.  I could not resist getting a few items...

After seeing the Ocho Loco 2 eyeliner set that was released about a month ago I knew that I had to get it! For $59  they were offering eight of their 24/7 eyeliners in various colors and the Grindhouse sharpener...I thought that this set was a steal!  I was so excited when I received the set on Friday and had to stop myself from ripping open the package to start swatching!  The colors are as follows: Twice Baked (a deep brown with a bit of silver shimmer), Roach (coppery brown), Crave (deep gray; almost black), Perversion (blackest-black), Deep End (torquois), Mars (emerald green), Ultraviolet (a blue-purple mix), and finally Tornado (deep plum-purple). 

Urban Decay Naked

I know, I know...I am probably one of the last people on the planet (maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration) to actually own the Naked palette.  I finally decided, after feeling that I needed a little pick-me-up, that I had to add this set to my arsenal.  After using this palette a few times I could not be happier with the variety of colors...who knew you could have so many variations of beige shades.

I actually did makeup for a wedding this past weekend and I ended up using this palette almost entirely for the bride's look.  After searching on youtube I found some great videos that gave step-by-step tutorials on how to do bridal looks.

Trend Show

I cannot even believe that we are already to another Nordstrom Trend Show!  This is quickly becoming part of my spring and fall tradition!  This show did not disappoint- lots of awesome trends (leather is hot apparently) and some new items out in the beauty department.  As usual I received a number of freebies and a tote back which was great for carrying all of my gifts.  After the fashion show we headed down to the main floor where I had my skin checked in the skin imaging machine- YIKES!  It was a little scary seeing the damage I have done to my skin over the years of sitting out in the sun but of course they were able to sell me a cream to help cure all of my skin woes!  I purchased Philosophies Time in a Bottle which is supposed to reverse the damage done.  I guess we will see- I will make sure to post something in a few months if I see any changes.  While there I also checked out the new Clairsonic Foot.  This is supposed to safety remove all of the build up on your feet.  I love the concept but I really wish they would just sell head to put on the original Clairsonic as opposed to selling you a completely different product!  I ended my day getting my makeup done at Smashbox.  I am quickly becoming a fan of Smashbox- I have purchased a few pallets.  I really like the color pay off of their shadows and they blend very well.  I especially love their gel eyeliner- it seriously wears ALL DAY.  Overall a very productive day but I really tried to make a point of not going over board.  

I have now started a Youtube channel...please make sure to check it out, like and subscribe.  You can find it under Mikell Nigro on youtube. 

Butter London Haul

As is my spring and fall tradition I went to the Nordstrom Trend show on November 2nd.  This year they had a rep from Butter London.  Oddly enough I do not own one bottle of Butter polish!  I have always avoided this polish mostly because of the price...$15 is a little steep for nail polish!  Well during the trend show if you bought some Butter products you got a manicure on the spot.  I figured that maybe it was time to try Butter out!

 I love nail color but my biggest issue is my cuticles.  They tend to grow very quickly and when I am anxious/nervous I tend to pick at the sides of my fingers (my thumbs especially).  One of the items they were featuring was a cuticle remover and cuticle oil.  After applying the cuticle remover and waiting a few minutes, I used my other nails to push the cuticles back.  I could not believe how they virtually disappeared in front of my eyes.  The manicurist then applied a base coat, a black polish, the deep purple, and then a matte top coat and some cuticle oils to finish them off.  My nails looked awesome!  It was like a deep purple velvet!  I have now painted my nails a few times since the show. I am finding that my color is wearing for about 3-4 days...that is actually a lot for me since it is not uncommon for my nail color to wear off in less than a day.  So far, I am one happy camper!

Urban Decay: feminine and dangerous palettes

While Urban Decay had everything on their site 20% off I decided that I had to grab the feminine and dangerous palettes that I have had my eye on for literally three months now.  For my birthday my BFF had gotten me the Fun Palette which I absolutely adore!  Fine my link for the Fun Palette Here.   So the Dangerous Palette comes in the sleek black patent leather case.  When you open it you find six deep smokey eye shadows and a small lip junkie.  From the top let you find Gravity (a deep purple with flecks of silver), Loaded (a deep emerald green), Evidence (a dark blue), Deeper (a coppery gold), Mushroom ( a dark silvery-gray), and Ace (a deep gray/blue).   

 

 

 

 

 

(not sure why my arm looks so crazy in the pic???)

 

the Feminine Palette is a great purple zippered pouch (just like the fun and dangerous palettes) with a fishnet design on the inside.  In the feminine palette you will find Bordello ( a pinky-red with silvery gold flecks), Skimp (a matte vanilla), AC/DC (a silvery-purple), Gunmetal (a deep slate gray with silver flecks), Hijack ( a satin deep green), and Lost (a deep tan). 

 

 

 

Overall I am so happy with my purchases.  There are a ton of fun colors in these sets that are easily blend-able and can add a punch of color to various eye looks.  My only complaint is the lack of matte colors.  I love me some shimmer, but I do like to break it up with some matte shades once in a while. Another bit of info about palettes is that once you have used up the shades you can remove the interior (it is magnetized) and use the pouch for other items!