Confessions of a Shopaholic

So I went shopping this weekend (I know, complete shocker), and I just had to share some of the amazing deals I found!  Stores usually have some of their best deals as the seasons are changing.  This is when they’re bringing out all their new merchandise and they have to make room for it all somehow!  While you probably don’t need any of those shorts or bikinis that are on clearance, you never know what else you may find!   

Bath & Body Works currently has all of their fall scents 50% off!  (And we all know what a sucker I am for B&BW!!)  They also had a Facebook coupon last week for a free body cream with any purchase that I hope some of you were able to take advantage of.  I bought a Nutmeg & Spice wallflower refill for 50% off and got this Moonlight Path 24 hour body cream for free!  The Nutmeg & Spice is a great fall scent, and I'm currently obsessed with all things fall.  My first choice in lotion is always Twilight Woods, but I got a free body cream a couple weeks ago in that scent, so I went for Moonlight Path which is probably my second favorite B&BW scent!  Total Retail Value of the two items; $19, I paid $3.56!

Charming Charlie’s is one of the most overwhelming, yet completely wonderful stores in the mall!  If you’re ever looking for a specific color necklace, scarf, or bracelet, it’s seriously the place to go!  They also have a clearance corner that’s full of amazing deals!  This weekend they had a special on all clearance bracelets, 2 for $5.  I ended up buying a silver and gold that I can pair with pretty much anything.  Total Retail Value $28, I paid $5.52!

While I normally don’t shop in Wet Seal, the 70% off sign out front intrigued me.  What the heck; I’m here, I’ve got time, let’s check it out!  While most of what they had was not really my style, I did find a few great items!  My favorite thing I bought was this black and white striped dress!  It’s a super comfortable cotton dress with capped sleeves that is easy to dress up or down!  It was almost 80 degrees on Tuesday so I wore it to work paired with a pink bauble necklace and cardigan!  Total Retail Value $32, I paid $5.40!

Seriously people, I can’t make this stuff up!   Next time you’re shopping, go straight to the clearance racks!  It’s definitely worth checking out.  You never know what sort of treasures await! 

Thanks for Reading!!

~Sarah

October 2014 Ipsy

Ipsy’s October theme was beauty candy.  This month wasn’t really a great one for the products, but the makeup bag that they came in is one of my favorites!  It is a teal quilted bag with a side zipper.

I got 5 items this month with a good variety of products.  (But not enough makeup if you ask me…I know, it seems like I say that every month!)

Figs & Rouge Rose Berry Shea Butter Hand Cream $6.56 full size – I don’t have much to say about this since it’s a hand cream and pretty self-explanatory.  It does smell nice and it’s a great size to throw into your purse or keep at work! 

http://www.feelunique.com/p/Figs-and-Rouge-Rose-Berry-Shea-Butter-Hand-Cream-20ml

MICA Beauty Mineral Eye Shadow; $14.95 full size in Reluctance – I really like mineral eye shadow, so my only complaint with this is the color.  It’s a very pretty shimmery green, but I don’t usually wear green eye shadow. 

http://www.micabeauty.com/mineral-eye-shadow-earth-colors.html

Nourish Organic Moisturizing Organic Face Cleanser with Cucumber and Watercress $13.99 full size, trial size $2.34 – I have to say that I absolutely hate trying new facial cleansers.  There’s just too much of a risk that my skin will hate it and my face’s way of punishing me is breaking out.  I did try this for the sake of the blog but did not like it at all.  It smelled bad.  Like dirt.  Plus I had to wash my face twice to even get all my makeup off. 

http://nourishorganic.com/products/moisturizing-face-cleanser

Skyn Iceland Glacial Cleansing Cloths; Full Size $15, trial size $5 – I don’t normally use face cleansing cloths.  I always feel like I have to wash my face after I use them anyway, so I don’t really get the point.  But I’ll save these for when I’m travelling.  I could see them coming in handy in the airport! 

http://www.skyniceland.com/product-36-glacial-cleansing-cloths

Starlooks Lip Gloss in Guilty Pleasure; full size $12, trial size $6? – I really didn't like this lip gloss at all.  It was sticky and it went on really goopy so even when I tried to blend it in, I could see streaks on my lips.  If this is what all their lip-glosses are like, I definitely warn you to stay away! 

http://starlooks.com/collections/lips/products/lip-gloss

The total value of the items in my bag this month is $34.85.  It’s not as high as it usually is, but not bad for the $10 I spent!  Although most of the products were a complete dud for me, the cute bag definitely redeemed it!

If you’re interested in trying Ipsy for $10 a month, here’s my referral link! http://www.ipsy.com/r/6b49?sid=ipsypoints&cid=general

I've heard rumors that the holiday bags (November and December) are usually pretty awesome so it may be a great time to give it a shot!!  If you don’t like some of what you end up with, I’m sure they’d make great stocking stuffers and you can still cancel anytime!

Thanks for reading!!

~Sarah

Thank You L'Oreal!

So we all know my obsession with trying new makeup products.  I recently signed up to be a product tester for L’Oreal!  How cool is that?!  I wasn’t really sure if I would ever get selected to test anything, but I thought I might as well try!

Every couple weeks they post a new questionnaire on their website.  If your answers fit into the criteria for the testers they’re looking for then they ask you if you would like to test a certain product.  I got selected at the beginning of September and I got the product in the mail a couple of days later.   They asked me to use the tester for a week and fill out a survey after my first application and another longer survey after the week was up.  It was super easy and really fun!

This blog is not to talk about the product that I tested, but what they sent me as a “Thank-You” for participating!  I really didn’t expect to get anything other than the rest of the full size product that they sent me to test.  But last week I came home to a package with two make-up items in it!  What a wonderful surprise!

The first item was the Studio Secrets Professional One Sweep Eye Shadow in the color Natural for brown eyes.  This eye shadow has 3 different color blocks in one pot.  It comes with an applicator sponge that matches up to the shape of the eye shadow so you can sweep it once and be done.  I’ve used this several times now and I really like it!  These eye shadows usually sell for $9.95.  I don’t know that it’s worth that, but if you ever see them on sale somewhere I would definitely recommend trying it out!  http://www.lorealparisusa.com/en/Products/Makeup/Eyes/Eyeshadow/Studio-Secrets-Professional-The-One-Sweep.aspx?shade=Natural-Blue-Eyes

I am really excited about the second item that I got!  It was the Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner in blackest black.  I’d never tried gel eyeliner before because I thought applying eyeliner with a brush would be too difficult, but I absolutely love this!  I’ve tried liquid liner before, but this is so much better!  You can make the lines as thin or thick as you want and it gives you a super clean line.  I’ve been using this everyday and will definitely buy more when I run out!  It’s $9.99, but Ulta often has their products buy one get one 50% off and with one of their $3.50 off coupons, I can get two for a little more than the normal price of one.  If you use gel eyeliner but haven’t tried this, or if you’ve never tried a gel eyeliner but are interested in trying one, I definitely recommend this one!  http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=xlsImpprod1790211&categoryId=cat80042

So far I haven’t been selected for any more product trials, but I’m hoping that will change soon and I’ll have some more products to tell you about!

Thanks for reading!!

~Sarah

The Benefit of a Birthday

In my last blog, I talked about the Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette that I bought from Ulta for my birthday.  I also bought the Benefit Cosmetics Frisky Six makeup set as an additional gift to myself.  I like buying the trial sizes of more expensive products so I can use them and decide if it would be worth buying the full size.  Most of Benefit’s full size items are $20 and up, so I really don’t want to waste my money if I don’t like the product as much as I thought I would.

Ulta has several gift sets that include some of Benefit’s most popular items.  This set came with 6 minis of Benefit products that I had never tried before.

They're Real! Mascara; Full Size $23, mini $10 on Ulta – This mascara is supposed to give lashes the added oomph of false lashes.  Although I wouldn’t go as far as to say my lashes looked as thick as fake lashes, I did notice more volume and length than I get with my Maybelline Cat Eyes.  I also tried this as a second coat on top of my Benefit Bad Gal Lash Mascara which seemed to work really well.

Lollitint Mini; Full Size $30, mini $9.36 – This is a lip and cheek stain that has a purple-pinky tint.  I haven’t used it on my cheeks because I don’t know if I’ll be able to blend it evenly.  It takes a while to dry so I’m guessing it wouldn’t be difficult but I’ve just been too afraid to try.  I have tried it on my lips but the color isn’t that different from my normal lip color, so I don’t notice much of a difference.

Lollibalm Mini; Full Size $18, mini $1.80 – The most disappointing thing about this is how small the “mini” is.  The first time I used it I tried to twist it up and realized that it was already all the way twisted up, there was that little of it.  I’ve used this a couple times over my Lollitint but there is no way I would pay $18 for this when I can achieve the same look with Babylips for less than $5.

Sun Beam; Full Size $26, mini $7.54 – This is a liquid bronzer/highlighter with an application brush.  I use this on the top of my cheek bones as a highlighter.  I have to be honest that I really don’t notice that it makes a difference when I wear this.

Sugarbomb; Full Size $28, mini $10 – This powder really confused me.  I think that it’s a blush, but I’m not really sure about that.  It’s got rosey peach tones in it that work OK as a blush, but it’s still a little lighter than I normally go for blush.  It has a bit of a shimmery quality to it that I really like, and the sample size is pretty decent.

Ooh La Lift; Full Size $22, mini $7.04 – This is probably my favorite thing from this set.  It’s an under eye brightener and it works really well!  I just put a couple dots of this under each eye and rub it in.  I am not a morning person at all so this helps give the illusion that I’m wide awake!

The total value of the products I received was $45.74 and I paid $27 ($4.50/product).  I’m really glad that I bought this set and was able to try all of these products.  Half the fun of makeup is trying new things!  I think of all the products, I would be most likely to buy the Ooh La Lift in the full size!

I also got a free Benefit make-up bag and sample of the Porefessional with my purchase from Ulta.  The bag is really nice quality and I can always use more 

primer!

Thanks for Reading!!

~Sarah

UD Naked 3 Palette

I have been looking forward to my birthday for the past six months for two reasons; 1) My cruise, and 2) it was my excuse to buy the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette.

For the most part I am not an impulse buyer on expensive things.  After I decide that I want something that is a little pricier than what I would usually buy, I try to give myself at least a few months before I buy it.  This is mainly to reduce my risk of buyer’s remorse.  I’ve found that if I wait a few months before buying something, I‘m sure that it is something that I really want and can justify spending the extra money.

I decided in March-ish that I wanted to buy the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette.  This palette is $54 which is definitely above my normal eye shadow budget.  I decided to wait until my birthday month rationalizing that this is one of the most acceptable excuses to splurge on myself. 

I’d also been saving my Ulta points and was planning to use them to get $8 off.  When I logged into my account I realized that I had received 300 bonus points to use in September!  Score!!  Thank you Ulta!!  This brought my discount up to $17.50 bringing the price down to $36.50!

I absolutely love this palette!  It has a mix of pinky/rose toned colors that suit me more than the brown neutrals of the previous two Naked palettes.  The color payoff is amazing and there are so many different looks you can wear with it!  I’ve done something different every day for the past week and still haven’t even used all of the colors yet.

I was also really excited because my palette came with 4 samples of Urban Decay eye shadow primer.  I was tempted to buy some when I ordered this but I’m glad I got the samples so I can decide how I like it and whether or not I want to buy the full size.

I also got another sample of the Urban Decay Perversion Mascara to add to my ridiculous collection of mascara.  Seriously, who needs 20 tubes of mascara?  This girl!

Thanks for Reading!!

 ~Sarah