Little Target Haul (with a couple of shout-outs to enablers)

Hey there girls :) I just got back from a quick jaunt to Target (that's tar-jhay, yo!). I wanted to use up my coupons from the Target Beauty Bag.
I got:

1) Pond's original all day clean with Vitamin E wipes. I'm still looking for the perfect makeup-removing wipes and thought I would try these since I vaguely recalled seeing them on Stephanie C.'s blog.
2) Herbal Essences Hello Hydration Conditioner. Husband likes the smell and we've both been using it for a long time.  I'll step off and try fancier fings, but I usually come back to this.
3) Revlon Colorstay Brow Enhancer in Blonde/Gold.  One of Amy's October Favorites, I was intrigued by her description. I need something to wrangle my brows a little so I thought I'd try it with my coupon.  It's not often you see brow products as a monthly fave!
4) Covergirl LipPerfection Lipstick in Divine. Yes, I have this already, but I've been meaning to pick up a back-up.
5) Sally Hansen Double Duty Strengthening Base & Top Coat. I really need a base coat because I haven't been using one all year and my nails sure look the worse for it!  Plus, my Seche Vite is half-gone, so why not try this twofer?
6) Sonia Kashuk Hidden Agenda Concealer Palette. Lauded by Tiffany of Will Work for Makeup, I figured $1-off-coupon-in-hand meant it was time to go for it.
7) Mountain Dew Diet Code Red 12-pack. I need the caffeine rush to get through the rest of this work day ;-)

Anybody want to pop some Target love below? I'd love to know what you got on your most recent visit.

Sephora F&F 2011 Haul

Hi girls! Tuesdays are often dreary, but today's weather is putting on a face to match :-( I'm supposed to get my Sephora Friends & Family Haul in the mail today, but I fear I won't be able to get any decent light for photos.  Still, I thought I'd share with you my (long agonized-over!) list:

Sleek Haul Part 2: i-Divine Original, Storm, and Sunset Palettes plus a bonus EOTD

Sleek i-Divine Original Eye Shadow Palette, Storm Palette, Sunset Palette

As promised, here are the swatches of the remaining three palettes from my huge Sleek Makeup haul.  For the record, the husband was like WTF that's a lot of makeup at once... I know, I know!  But, with colors this sumptuous, I don't regret it a bit! This is playing with makeup at its best.
To my knowledge these three palettes' shades don't have individual names (the clear plastic inserts were blank).  That makes it a little harder to use these for EOTD, no?

Original Palette. The only matte shade is the black and it needs to be layered a lot, creating potential mess.

Storm Palette. My second favorite of the haul (#1 is the Monaco Palette). It has three matte shades: the light brown, third from the top left, and the darker brown and black which are the bottom two from the right.

Sunset Palette.  Again, the black is the only matte shade but this one seems improved from the Original Palette (could be a fluke).

I did an EOTD using the Storm Palette because it is gorgeous and versatile. I originally intended to do something like I'd wear on a daily basis but it quickly became a smoky defined crease because I couldn't resist amping it up.

With a slanted liner brush, I applied the dark forest green to my entire top lashline and 1/3 of the bottom outside lashline.

The light matte brown is across my entire lid, with a layered crease: first, I put the darker matte brown in the crease and outer v, followed by the shimmery dark brown. Lastly I lightly darkened it using the metallic gunmetal shade.  The inner crease was looking neglected so I used the shimmery light brown (about the same as the matte light brown) to define it and draw in some light.

The lightest shimmer shade was used as inner corner and browbone highlight. This made me remember how much I dislike shimmery browbone highlight and I wish the palette had a lighter matte color with which to highlight the browbone.

Top lashes curled and coated with Makeup Forever Smoky Lash mascara.  Bottom lashes coated with Clinique Bottom Lash mascara.

I only used two brushes: Ecotools liner brush $6, and E.L.F. Studio Contour Brush $3.  I also swatched using the E.L.F. brush, and a big thanks to Steph for informing the beauty community about this great bargain synthetic brush!

All swatches and this EOTD were over Too Faced Shadow Insurance.

I also tried to cover up my currently hideous dark circles using Revlon Age Defying Spa Concealer 001. Mostly success ;)

If anybody can suggest a brow tamer that doesn't feel like sticky wax or jizzy mascara, please let me know because as you can see, my brows need to be wrangled!

Thanks for stopping by and please have a relaxing Sunday!

Sleek Haul Part 1: Flamingo and Scandalous Blush, Curacao and Monaco Eye Shadow Palettes

Recently UK makeup brand Sleek offered free shipping to the U.S., and I had to try this brand I've been reading about on my favorite British girls' blogs.  I'm not disappointed at all, to say the least; I wish more North American drugstore eye shadows would pack this much pigment!  The colors are unique for drugstore, varied, and well thought-out in terms of putting together a palette of complimentary colors.  In this post, I have swatches of the Caribbean Collection Curacao Palette and (my fave!) the Mediterranean Collection Monaco Palette, as well as the two blushes I got (Flamingo and Scandalous).
My entire haul:

Clockwise from Top Right: Contour Kit with Dual-ended Brush in Light (thanks to Vivianna!), Sunset Palette, Original Palette, Scandalous Blush (red), Flamingo Blush (watermelon pink), Curacao Palette, Storm Palette, and Monaco Palette

The blushes:

Flamingo heavily swatched, then blended/Scandalous heavily swatched, then blended

It wouldn't swatch well, but on cheeks I like using a fan or duo-fibre brush to lightly apply these blushes as they are very, very pigmented!  Even the red can look flattering and natural this way.  My only complaint about these (as is my only complaint with the eye shadows) is that they are very powdery.  This isn't an uncommon issue with cosmetics and it's no big deal! You just blow/brush away the fallout and all is well.  The pigmentation of this brand is totally sick.

Top row of Curacao Palette, without base:

I was really impressed with the concentraton of color without a base (I forgot to put it on at first), but I did find that the matte colors (Blue Hawaiian, Bloody Mary, and Screwdriver) were very sheer without a base, though not chalky and applied evenly!

Curacao Palette with Too Faced Shadow Insurance as a base:

Top Row Shades, Left to Right: Tequila Sunrise, Martini, Blue Hawaiian, Bloody Mary, Screwdriver, Green Iguana
Bottom Row Shades, Left to Right: Apres Midori, Blue Lagoon, Purple Haze, Green Martini, Singapore Sling, Espresso Martini

Man, I am so jealous of our UK friends who can pop over to the high street at any time to buy up Sleek Palettes!

Monaco Palette with Too Faced Shadow Insurance as a base (my favorite palette! My kind of shades):

Top Row: Bamboo (great highlight color!), Aquamarine, Midnight Garden, Sunset (GORGEOUS), Washed Ashore, Magenta Madness
Bottom Row: Summer Breeze, Sand Walker (perfect, creamy lid shade for a natural look), Kiwi Zest (I always gravitate towards lime greens like this!), Lotus Flower (perfect, pigmented lilac!), Humming Bird, Moors Treasure

Obviously, I'm mad about the Monaco Palette; it has natural colors, liner colors, and pops of vibrant colors that work great for my coloring. LOVE!

Girls in the U.S., if you can get free shipping you MUST haul these!  They're only about $10-$16 apiece, which is a total steal for this quality.  I'll swatch the other three Sleek Palettes at a later time but my swatching arm needs a rest :)

Haul: MAC Me Over - My Selections

When I was in Vegas I visited the Forum Shops (connected with Caesars) where there is a MAC Pro Store.  Much to my chagrin, they were slammed that day, every artist's chair full with someone recieving a makeover, so I stood around basically being ignored.  It won't make me love MAC any less, but I think I'd turn around and come back later next time.  The sales guy who rung me up threw a few Zoom Lash samples in my bag and apologized when I checked out.
Also, I'm in the wrong line of work because I knew more about the new collection and was more familiar with the colors in it than the salespeople/artists! Thanks to Temptalia, heh.

I had originally intended to get Stunner blush (a light coral), Curvaceous and Social Light Lipglasses, and Oh Oh Oh lipstick (lustre).  I'd written off Cakeshop Shadestick due to swatches I'd seen, and I hadn't seen any swatches of Plum Fun Lipglass.
Stunner Blush looked like a million other blushes I already own -- pass.  Social Light reminded me of Good Lovin' from the Surf, Baby! collection when I swatched it, but unfortunately they didn't have any in stock to compare. I took my chances and passed.  Curvaceous just seemed like a standard milky mauve to me in person, and I felt like it was so dupe-able when I swatched it.
Cakeshop was sooo pretty when I swatched it I couldn't help myself!  Plum Fun Lipglass looked like nothing else I currently own and makes me excited for the next makeup season.
All the eyeshadows I tried seemed highly dupe-able (I guess a neutrals collection is apt to feel like that). 
Oh Oh Oh still came home with me and I've already worn it for two days!  It looks like a shimmery bronze in the tube but turns into a flattering, subtle plum on the lips that just screams Autumn sophistication to me.
After swatching the MAC Me Over collection, I'm ho-hum about it. But I'm really excited for the vibrant colors and MSFs of the Cindy Sherman collection!
Did you pick up anything from the MAC Me Over collection? 

Sugar Factory Las Vegas Haul

Have you heard of Sugar Factory, purveyors of bedazzled lollipops to the stars?  They're essentially a Sweet Shop extraordinaire. They also have an amazing brasserie right across from the Bellagio Fountains at Paris Casino in Las Vegas.  This is hands-down the BEST 24-hour restaurant I've ever been to.  Me and the DH had a late-night dinner there and I had a martini that tasted exactly like a sour apple BlowPop (should have taken a picture of it but I felt sure in the darkness it wouldn't come out).  They rimmed the martini glass with bubblegum-flavored Pop Rocks, which has got to be the key to taking a regular ol' Green Apple Pucker Martini to the next level.  They have killer red velvet and strawberry shortcake cake pops (the carrot cake one is just ok).  I also tried my first (French-style) macaroons!

I love their SPF 15 Green Apple lip balm.  I got one last year when we were in Vegas to get married :)
I hauled a couple of cute tank tops that will probably just be worn around my house (haha) and a couple of different Violent Lips designs (Sugar Factory has exclusive designs with the lip tattoo company).  I wanted to try them since I saw 4th of July ones on Scrangie, and since I'm a little spendy whilst on holiday I went ahead and indulged!  Kind of a goofy purchase, I know.  I'll be sure to post up pics here when I try them out.

I know they have Sugar Factory locations all over the strip in Las Vegas, but I have yet to see them elsewhere. Have you seen this sweet store before?

Milani July Exclusives LE Haul

My Milani stuff came in the mail, woohoo!

Yet another back-up of Luminoso is in the mix... I might have to do a giveaway or I will be overrun with Luminosos!

Ulta and Pacsun Micro-haul

Today I went shopping for a short time with DH, and I thought I'd share my tiny haul with you guys because I only spent $17.99, total, including tax! I had Ulta rewards to cash in :)

Benefit So Hooked on Carmella, Macadamia Oil, Maybelline Colorsensational Lipsticks in Pink & Proper, Warm Me Up, and Born With It

The perfume was suggested by The Persian Babe from youtube, and it's so sweet and vanilla-y.  Definitely have to like foodie scents to like this one.  I have a miniature of this same scent I'm currently using, but I got this full-size free with the Ulta rewards.  I'm enjoying my sample of Ojon Damage Reverse Instant Restorative Hair Serum, but I have such short hair and I don't really want to spend a lot of money on styling products.  Why not try this Macadamia Oil for free with Ulta rewards?  Then, I had a $5 off $10 coupon I used on buy-2-get-1 free Maybelline lipsticks.  Born With It is just a back-up, but I thought Warm Me Up looked like a good MLBB nude candidate and various gurus have professed a love for Pink & Proper, so I checked nobody had made a tester out of them and snatched 'em up.

I had wanted floral-print shorts all summer, but I tend to wear dresses more often.  At $7, it was definitely time to indulge.

Do any shopping this weekend? 

Kat Von D Mini-Haul plus swatches, first impressions, and Stila Koi

Good evening!  My latest Sephora mini-haul arrived and I was pretty excited to swatch it because it is Kat Von D True Romance eyeshadow palettes.  If you've ever touched one of these you know that they are really soft, smooth, pigmented, and well thought-out in terms of color combos.  Sephora has these two palettes (Metal Orchestra and Angeles) on sale at the moment for $10 off, so I had to collect 'em! I also own Truth (which I snagged for $15 on sale, but I think they are sold out) and True Love (also on sale for $10 off, but I think I got it full-price... booooo). Photographic swatchery hijincks to ensue.

Urban Decay Lip Junkie Lipgloss (freebie with code) in Midnight Cowboy, Stila Smudgestick Waterproof Eyeliner in Koi ($5 on sale, but might be out of stock now), Kat Von D True Romance Eye Shadow Palettes in Angeles (top) and Metal Orchestra (bottom), $24 each on sale

Wrapped up like pretty presents!

Like Heaven and You-Know-Where

These were all creamy-smooth and pigmented, except for techno and razor gray. However, these were easily buildable so all's forgiven!

 Every last shadow in the Angeles palette was perfectly buttery-smooth. My pictures don't do these colors justice at all : /

UD Lip Junkie in Midnight Cowboy has a lot of silver micro-shimmer, but overall just looks like a really sheer, reflective gloss that's barely there. It's minty-vanilla like all of them, and I like it.  But the color isn't worth a purchase for me.

Stile Smudgestick in Koi. Wow, look at that.  If it wasn't looking a little like a disease, I think I'd be in love!

See how smoothly that Stila liner writes?  My skin isn't gross, that's the UD Junkie gloss swatched below :P

I swatched some other teals that are popular this year just for a fun comparison:

Left to right (all MAC): Shimmermoss, Surf USA, and Jealousy Wakes (ok, that's not teal but I was curious)

Are ya drooling yet?