I’ve been slacking on my skincare routine and it shows! I decided to stop being lazy and exfoliating my face every 2 weeks and start exfoliating 3 days a week. I figured I’d get some new products to spice things up. I was looking at several brands and I decided to finally give Lush a try. The sales rep who helped me was super nice and gave me a bunch of samples to try out, some that I didn’t even ask for. After walking around for a while I decided to just go back and just buy some stuff since I’m not near a Lush.

I got a tub of the Ocean Salt Cleanser and Dark Angels Cleanser. I tried the Ocean Salt Cleanser in the store on my hands and it felt so nice! There’s salt to exfoliate and after you wash it off, an unexpected, very thin, non-greasy, soft, and moisturizing film is left behind on the skin. I’ve read reviews about it smelling “nice” but it depends if you like that err… organic smell. The Dark Angels Cleanser is for oily skin and my skin has gradually become dry over time so I plan on only using this as a spot treatment on my nose and forehead for probably once a week.

The Lush rep also gave me a sample of the Mask of Magnaminty, a chunk of Fresh Farmacy, and some body creams which I don’t care for. She said that the Mask of Magnaminty would be moisturizing but my face felt dryer after it. I didn’t like the minty feeling either. The Fresh Farmacy though felt really nice. She said it was great for sensitive skin and I find it to be very soft, moisturizing, and gentle on the skin without being greasy. What I hated about it though is that it’s a bar! I’m so used to using liquid products so having to break off the right amount each time is something I’m not used to. I want to purchase Fresh Farmacy next time though because I really liked it.

Overall, Lush has impressed me with some of their products so I’m going to check out their other face products next time. I think I’m going to try out one of their toners.

I’m kind of put off with the way Lush is made though A kitchen? Well I guess if it’s good enough for food…

I went out to get these items for the intention of using them for Youtube videos since a lot of people whine about artists on Youtube not using drugstore makeup enough. However, the products I got were ones that I genuinely like and I’m not going to purchase whatever just for the sake of videos. One thing that bugs me is when I see people say “Can you do a video of this look but with drugstore makeup?” What some people need to realize is that a lot of us have already established a kit/collection. I think it would be wasteful to go out to buy items to try to replicate a look when you own products that can do the job already. It only takes a tiny bit of effort to figure out a substitute of your own. It’s all about improvising and being creative. If someone uses a black NARS eyeshadow, then use a black MAC, Maybelline, whatever. Upon reviewing my previous poll, it seems that most of you have that down already. If it is that important to get the EXACT same look, then use the EXACT same products *shrug*.

In addition, drugstore products are generally pretty limited to muted down shades, with the exception of maybe L’Oreal HIP, so that just doesn’t fit my niche. Plus I despise how there are no testers for drugstore makeup. I’m not patient enough to do the whole trial and error thing. On a lot of occasions though, I do find items that others have opened and tested so I test them out too. I figure it’s already a damaged product so there’s no harm in using it further. I do still feel wrong doing it though since people still give me weird looks over it. I don’t know why brands just don’t have testers out. People are going to test the products regardless, so might as well have just one labeled tester instead of people using all of your products. Not everyone is going to be like me and find an already tested product to try out. On many occasions, I have found all products to be tested and you couldn’t purchase it even if you wanted to! Regardless, if you do find an item that appears to be unused but it not sealed, I’d still disinfect it with alcohol. The woman working at Walgreens told me herself that she disinfects all her cosmetics just is case and I trust her since she probably witnesses what happens with the cosmetics. Sucks that you have to do that though since you should be buying new cosmetics ya know?

Top: Sally Hansen Sweet Pink lipgloss, Rimmel Airy Fairy with Sally Hansen Sweet Pink on top
Bottom: Rimmel Airy Fairy lipstick, Urban Decay Naked lipstick

Airy Fairy and Naked are incredibly similar, with Urban Decay giving a slightly more glossy look.

Here are some things that I purchased within the past few months. Surprisingly, no MAC. The new items MAC has released in their collections haven’t impressed me much. Many new products are looking like items I already have.

SEPHORA.COM:

Cargo Blush in Catalina – Pigmented, easy to blend clean pink.
Too Faced Candlelight Powder – Similar to NARS’ Albatross but I like it better because it has small glitter and I love glitter!
Urban Decay Primer Potion Set – The eyelash primer was a dud for me, UDPP is okay but I prefer Too Faced Shadow Insurance, the lip primer I can’t even use because it will make my lips ooze puss (ew!), and the two face primers are “eh” to me. I don’t hate ‘em but I don’t love ‘em either. I’ll probably return this eventually.
Urban Decay Lipstick Naked – Super awesome packaging! Clear cap with purple filigree, purple metal tube, and a dagger on the bottom. It’s sort of pointy though lol. Since I’ll probably only have one Urban Decay lipstick ($20 for one, ouch!) I wanted to pick the most versatile shade, and I concluded that to be Naked, a nude pink.

So after the Sephora.com haul, I told myself that I wouldn’t be buying anymore blushes and lipglosses for a while. My favorite blushes are from Cargo and thankfully they have limited selection. I’m also over frosty/shimmer blushes with the exception of Cargo’s Blu Ray since it has a matte base with tiny glitter. I have all the matte blushes that I like from Cargo. As for lipglosses, I’m not into the extreme glass like lip look anymore. Has anyone noticed I’ve been skipping lipgloss lately? The only glosses I’m into now are NARS glosses since they have a modest shine, and MAC dazzleglasses. I’m still and always will be a sucker for glitter! I have the shades I like from NARS and I have so many dazzleglasses already. That’s not to say I won’t be wearing any frosty blushes and lipglasses that I currently have, I just won’t be buying any new products.

SEPHORA STORE:

Stila Smudgepot in Purple Pumps - Such a gorgeous bright purple shade with GLITTER! Yay! I really hate that it’s not pigmented though. I’ve only tried applying this to one eye and I’ve made a huge dent already. I had to layer on the liner a couple times to get the intensity in the pot. It’s a lot different than the other smudgepots. Smudgepots are usually more thick and intense. I’m actually leaving this smudgepot out to dry for a little while so that it will hopefully get more thick. If it doesn’t work out, I think I’m going to take it back It’s amazing as a cream eyeshadow, but I want an eyeliner, not a shadow.
Stila Smudgepot in Little Black Dress – THE MOST AMAZING EYELINER EVERR!!1! It’s like a gel liner shade of Beauty Marked or Young Punk from MAC! (Loved Young Punk but I found it wasn’t pigmented enough) Black base with fuchsia glitter! mmmm. I’m really really hoping that they will make this permanent because it’s the prettiest eyeliner I own. It’s hotter than the Urban Decay liquid liners I have too and those are pretty sexy… If there’s demand, Stila WILL make this perm as they have with previous LE items so go get this!!
Shiseido Lasting Lift Mascara – It’s the return of Shiseido Lasting Lift! I’ve tried some mascaras afterwards but my love is still the Lasting Lift. I get the best results for what I’m looking for and all with only one coat. I don’t want to spend five minutes layering on mascara. After about 3 months though, it doesn’t perform all that well.

I’ve never been this impressed by Stila products before since I find them to be in general, boring. The whole fresh faced, modest makeup, frolicking through the meadow image just isn’t my thing. I must say that the Barbie loves Stila collection really impressed me. Judging by the out of stock items at Ulta and the low stock at the nearby Sephora, others must be impressed as well! I hope they release more fun shades in the future.

SKINCARE:

After making my skincare routine video, I reevaluated my routine and got some products to maybe add to it.

Biotherm SOS Flash Recharge Mask – (Forgot to mention this in my video) This is the I guess “female” version? They have a Homme version of the flash recharge mask as well so be aware of that. This is a moisturizing mask for fatigued skin. I wanted a mask and it was between this and Yes to Cucumbers, a “drugstore” mask. I decided on this since the cost per once was only about a dollar more. I’ve only used this once so I don’t have a strong opinion of it yet but it hasn’t done any damage so far so that’s good. I do like the smell, it’s like mandarine oranges or something. I got this off the website, with free shipping thanks to retailmenot.com. Biotherm is only available on the website for the US. Bummer it’s not at counters anymore.

Merlot Night Cream – My skin has gotten super dry and flakey as of late even though I’ve drastically reduced my usage of Retin-A (okay, more like too lazy to use Retin-A). The random moisturizers just weren’t cutting it so I figured I’d get a night time moisturizer. They are generally more moisturizing than day creams. I chose Merlot since it’s inexpensive and I use their daytime moisturizer. Been using it for about 2 weeks and I’m liking it so far. It’s also very fast absorbing despite being a lotion.

HARD CANDY @ WAL-MART:

Hard Candy is now at Wal-Mart! Don’t worry, the prices are Wal-Mart prices too! Nothing over $10 with the majority of items priced at $6. It’s the most interesting drugstore line out there. Why can’t other DS brands be this fun? The packaging and image is far different from what Hard Candy used to be. Hard Candy used to have cutesy pastel coloured packaging. Now, It has black and white filigree and swallows. You can view the display here. The brand looks better AND it’s cheaper too! Yay! There are tons of fun looking products to look at. Body glitter, eye glitter, eyeliners, lipglosses, mascaras, eyeshadows, baked eyeshadows, baked brozners, baked blushes, lipsticks, liquid eyeliners, etc! I didn’t find the eyeshadow sets very interesting because the shades were very muted. The baked duo shadows were more bold but still nothing that I really wanted right now. The lipstick packaging look cute and each shade has it’s own design on the tube. I wanted this red lipstick with cherries and swallows on the design but the packaging was so cheap! Reminded me of the little plastic lipsticks I had as toys. Not very durable and I felt like it would fall apart in no time. I didn’t think it was worth the $6. I did buy the liquid eyeliner in Flip Side, a deep blue colour. It has very tiny shimmer and on the skin, it looks nonexistent. I’m afraid the eyeliner might be too long lasting because the swatch on my hand would not come off after numerous hand washings with soap, a shower, and cleansing oil! It finally came all off when I scrubbed my hand with a bilayered eye makeup remover. I’ll see what happens when I try using it on my eyelids

I also have just a few items that I’ve bought but kept hidden. Showing you know would be a dead giveaway of what my next look will be!

They were also having a BOGO free on the Ulta line of 3-1 bath gels. They normally cost $14.99. I needed to buy body wash since I had run out and had to use a nasty bar soap for emergency. I bought the Buttercream Cupcake scent. it smells just like the Philosophy Vanilla Birthday Cake but is much cheaper after sales and coupons.

THEN, right after that sale, Ulta had another sale where the TIGI bedhead 750 ml shampoos and conditioners (they call them “tween” ) were $9.99 each! THESE ARE STILL ON SALE SO GET TO IT YA’LL! They do this promo like… oh two, three, four times a year? I want to say two, but don’t quote me on that. I haven’t been keeping track of the time these days. Normally they cost about $23-$26! I still have bottles stored from when I stocked up on A TON from Ulta two years ago, but I bought more! I bought them on Tuesday and got them for about $8 each! The first Tuesday of every month, college students get a 20% discount on EVERYTHING in the store off the total purchase. I buy only conditioners because I have to use medicated shampoo for my psoriasis. Plus the conditioners are normally $23ish while the shampoos are $18ish so the savings are greater with conditioners. I normally use the Catwalk for colour treated hair (smells like blueberries or something like that) and Moisture Maniac (smells like Mandarin oranges!). This time I tried buying the Brunette one. I don’t see it doing anything for my hair but my goodness, it smells so good! Like a musky caramel scent. I also bought the Oatmeal and Honey. I hated it when I bought it a long time ago, but I like the smell now because of special reasons

PS. I would stay far away from the TIGI Control Freak conditioner (lime green bottle). That one is just plain weird. It suds up like a shampoo and tangled my hair. I actually thought that I accidentally used shampoo instead of conditioner! Also the TIGI Superstar (pink bottle) smells like Pepto Bismol after you store it for a while.

AAAAND here’s a coupon for $3.50 off $10 (it’ll work for 9.99 too) good until July 25 09. It says one time use only but that’s a bunch of BS. And here’s a 20% off coupon too good until July 18 09. Obviously you can only use one coupon per purchase. Here’s a tip for you guys: Every time you plan on going to Ulta, Google “Ulta coupon” or “Ulta printable coupon” and you’ll get hits for Ulta’s current coupons. That’s what I always do!

China Glaze Summer 2009 Summer Collection

Grape Juice, Strawberry Fields, Orange Maramalade, Cherry Pie, Raspberry Festival

For Audrey, Rich and Famous, Spontaneous, Naked

Strawberry Fields (after only a few days with China Glaze base and topcoat. Don’t know why it chipped so quick)

Grape Juice

Spontaneous

And a random OPI swatch. LOVE this polish!

OPI You Don’t Know Jacques!

MAC Reflects Transparent Teal

This is my very first reflects glitter from MAC. They look amazing but I really wanted to use it on the eye, which I’m technically not supposed to. They are not approved for the eye area but I just caved in and accepted the fact that when I use these on my eyes and go blind, it’ll be my own fault. These glitters are finer than Urban Decay’s chunky glitters that I carelessly use all the time, so I’m going to take the risk with these glitters. I’m surprised at how well they stick onto my lids without any mixing medium. It lasted over 12 hours just sticking onto my eyeshadow, but again… you’re not supposed to do that.

MAC Henna Eyeshadow

I’ve been looking an eyeshadow like this one for a while, so it was a coincidence that the new collection has this color.

MAC Marquise’d Lipstick

Just a light pink nude lipstick.

Sephora:

MUFE #26, #09, Aqualina Pink Sugar EDT

MUFE 26 is a bright bubble gum pink shade and #09 is a bright lavender shade that goes very well with the popular #92. I really wanted #09 but they supposedly ran out. The Sephora SA said that she just stocked the MUFE items so what’s out was out. I was really bummed and continued browsing through the store when the associate found a #09 and found me. I thought it was really good customer service for her to do so. She could have just said whatever, but she made sure to find me and give it to me. Take notes Ulta!

I also got the Pink Sugar EDT set. Comes with a 1 oz. EDT, body wash, and lotion. The lotion is very runny! I couldn’t decide between the set or Aqualina’s chocolovers, which is a muskier version. Another helpful Sephora SA gave me her input saying that she liked both, but the Pink Sugar is more suitable for year round wear so I chose the Pink Sugar set. I want some fun for the summer season.

Bobbi Brown:

Light Peach Corrector, Forest Eyeshadow #6

I’m going to be pairing Forest with MAC’s Henna. I think that’ll make a nice smoky olive look. The quality is fantastic, very pigmented. It reminds me of NARS quality.

As for the peach corrector, I actually bought the Light Bisque at first. The Nordstrom site said that the Peach shades are suitable for individuals with olive skin so I was pretty sure I was going to get a peach corrector but the BB associate was determined to sell me the bisque instead. If you read the reviews on makeupalley, you would know that I am not the only one who has experienced this. People have to really fight the associates to get peach because they will most likely always try to sell you the bisque instead! I think because it’s the “safe” recommendation. The associate told me that ALL the correctors have peach undertones, but the bisque shades clearly have pink undertones. I took her word for it anyway because I’ve never bought anything from the line and she works for them, so she must be right, right? Nope. The bisque shades are basically concealers with pink undertones. Nothing special. I exchanged for the peach and it was MUCH better.

Shiseido:

Shiseido Brightening Eye Gel

You might have noticed that I’m buying products for eye circles. The sleepless nights have caught on. My circles aren’t that bad, but they definitely make me look tired on no makeup days, so I’m using the Bobbi brown corrector as a temporary fix and hopefully this Shiseido will help lighten my skin.

NARS:

NARS Frisky Summer, Chihuahua, Pillow Talk

Chihuahua is a nice nude gloss and Pillow Talk is a darker slightly pinky mauve gloss, still very modest. I’m a bit iffy about Frisky Summer because it’s more opaque than I had expected. I’m going to try it out some more and see how I feel about it.

I really like the formula of the NARS glosses, not sticky at all. They are more appropriate glosses suitable for professional environments. They aren’t like the typical overly shiny glosses. The ones I got are sheer, minus Frisky Summer, but can definitely be used alone or with a lipliner.

Sasa.com:

Sasa.com ships from Asia and carries mostly Asia exclusive items. Shipping was $6 to ship from Hong Kong to the US so that’s pretty good considering that’s how much a lot of companies charge to ship within the US. Shipping is free for orders over $75.

Nivea Whitening Deodorant: Yes, I bought deodorant online. I bought 4 of them! Why do I need deodorant all the way from Asia you ask? I’ve had dark pits since I could remember and it’s embarrassing. I hear it’s from the aluminum in deodorant so I switched to a natural deodorant but I haven’t noticed any difference so I’m going to try a whitening one. You can’t get whitening deodorants in the states besides from Dermadoctor, which is a pricey brand. Sassa sells these for only about $5 USD.

Laneige Strawberry Yogurt Peeling Gel: xppinkxx introduced this on her blog and talks about how great it was. I finally got it and wow, it smells SO delicious! Smells EXACTLY like strawberry yogurt. Seriously, if someone just put this in a cup and say, “hey, want some yogurt?”, I’d eat it! It even has little strawberry seeds. This exfoliates but I find it more gentle than harsh scrubs out there. It’s not really a scrub. I’ve used it twice so far and I’m really liking it. It left my skin super soft. Once you try this, you will not want to buff your face with scrubs again! On a side note, why do so many people still swear by apricot scrubs? Those are so bad for you! The uneven sharp granules scratch and rip your skin, not worth it!

Ebay:

I forgot to take a picture of the lashes but I will update later with it. 10 pairs for only $8.10 USD! The seller on ebay is beauty_space88.

Smoke and Diamonds, Go, Grand Entrance (flash)

Urban Decay Smog, MAC Go (no flash)

Urban Decay Smog, MAC Go (flash)

urban Decay Sin, MAC Grand Entrance (no flash)

urban Decay Sin, MAC Grand Entrance (flash)

MAC Sweet Sienna Pigment, MAC Smoke and Diamonds, Stila Diamond Lil (no flash)

MAC Sweet Sienna Pigment, MAC Smoke and Diamonds, Stila Diamond Lil (flash)