What I Got for Christmas (Beauty Related) - Individual Items

I received an abundance of beauty products for Christmas.  So many, I’ve had to split my list into at least 3 posts.  Here is the first, what I’m calling the Individual Items.  These are items that are not kits or sets.  They may have more than one color, such as a palette, but are a single item when all components are held in your hand.

Top row: Fearless, Flawless, Firm, Flirty, Friendly, Fierce
Bottom Row: Fabulous, Faithful, Fit, Feisty, Funky, Fine

·         The Balm Nude Dude Nude Eyeshadow Palette – This palette has been out for a while, and gets great reviews.  It is a well-rounded neutrals palette with a good blend of mattes and shimmers, light and dark.  While swatching, it did seem that the shimmery shades were creamier, while the matte shades were drier, patchy, and somewhat difficult to swatch.  I will know more once I get to use the palette for some actual looks.

·         MAC Retro Matte Lipstick in Ruby Woo – The kiddo put a lot of thought into this one.  I briefly mentioned this the other day.  She picked this lipstick to go along with one of the FunkoPops she picked out for me, and insisted that I open them back-to-back.  I love her imagination and the wordplay (Ruby Woo and Ruby Rhod).

·         MAC Matte Lipstick in Evening Rendezvous – This was another one from the kiddo, and was a huge surprise.  I didn’t know anything about this one, and it’s gorgeous!  I love the packaging, love the color, love everything about it!  It’s limited edition and had to be ordered, since even after asking she couldn’t find it in-store.

L to R: Brown Powder, Taupe Powder, Brow Wax

Kit includes the powders, wax, mirror, and tool kit

·         Tarte Amazonian Clay Brow Tool Box – This cute little kit is included here because it is basically just an eyebrow duo like you could pick up in the drugstore, but better quality, and with a great set of tools.  There’s a brow was, and both brown and taupe brow powders.  The tools include tweezers, a brush, and a spoolie, and are contained in a small, pop-out compartment.

L to R: High, Dirtysweet, Radar, Armor, Slanted, Dagger, Black Market, Smolder, Password, Whiskey, Combust, Thirteen

 ·         Urban Decay Naked Smoky Eyeshadow Palette – Thank you so much Santa for listening to me on this one.  This is the only Naked palette I’ve ever wanted.  I really like the deeper, richer colors of this palette compared to the more subdued neutrals in the other Naked palettes.  I usually wear gold eyeshadow as a base most days, but then change up my other colors.  This should provide me with those options.  (Also available here and here)

Stay tuned for at least two more beauty-related Christmas posts.  What was on your holiday wishlist this year?  Did you get any of it?

Christmas 2015 – Non-Beauty

My family and Santa were very good to me this year. When I first started writing up my list of gifts, a wound up being a four-page document. So I’m going to have to break this up into smaller chunks to make it more manageable.

Most of my gifts were beauty related. I received lots of kits, several palettes, and many individual items. Among the non-beauty related items are the toys, gift cards, and a really interesting book. I also received a new camcorder with all kinds of accessories, so I will no longer have to take videos on my regular camera or phone at the kiddo’s swim meets.

This first post is going to be about my non-beauty related items. This should be the shortest of them, but we’ll see how that goes. :-)

•  Sony HDR-CX405 HandyCam with accessory package (backup battery, car and home charger, two sizes of tripods, cleaning supplies, etc.)
• From the little bit that I’ve played around with it so far, this seems like a really nice camera. I film all of the kiddos races at every swim meet. Normally I use my regular camera, which is worked out fairly well so far. With her being a distance swimmer, however, there have been times when her whole race cannot be filmed in a single take and needs to be split into two or even three parts. This will hopefully eliminate that.
• Another thought is that the kiddo or I might start filming YouTube videos. Shout out in the comments if there’s anything you really like to see.
• What camera do you use?
• Adipose (Dr. Who) and Ruby Rhod (Fifth Element) FunkoPops (from the Kiddo)
• These actually need a little bit of explaining. So, I’ve recently lost quite a bit of weight. The Adipose doll represents where the fat has gone. The Ruby Rhod doll went along with the classic Ruby Woo lipstick from Mac (nice play on words kiddo).
• Do you collect FunkoPops?  Which ones do you have?  Besides these, I have a Dancing Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, a mini Jon Snow, a mini Venom, and mini Harley Quinn.  Which are your favorites?
• Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood – Oliver Sacks
• The hubby hears about all kinds of great books on NPR, and this is another one to add to that set. I’m a trained chemist (in a former life) and still a big geek, so I’m looking forward to reading this.
• A goody bag with snacks, hand sanitizer (from my wonderful coworkers)
• I need to thank my coworkers again for this wonderful gift. I woke up from a nap on Christmas evening wanting chocolate, and the ones included here perfectly satisfied my craving.
• A sweatshirt blanket from my department at work
• This warm and cozy blanket has already earned a permanent place as our car blanket, a huge honor since I am always cold.
• Various gift cards from friends and family
• Like I mentioned above, I’ve recently lost a lot of weight. I’m at the point now where I’m going to have to start getting some new clothes pretty soon, so the gift cards will come in very handy.

Well, that’s it for this first “what I got for Christmas” post. Stay tuned for the beauty related posts…

LUSH Haul - May 2015

The kiddo and I went to the LUSH store for the first time last month and came away with a reasonable little haul for the first time.  We had some great help from the sales associates, and once we use these products up, will almost definitely be going back.

What LUSH products do you guys recommend?  Shout out in the comments below!

Our haul included:

·         Whoosh Shower Jelly – This wiggly jelly can be used out of the jar, cold, or frozen, and all over the body and hair.  The Whoosh jelly has a strong citrus smell that totally fills your senses and wake you up in the morning.

·         Charity Pot Hand and Body Lotion – I picked up the small pot of this lotion since I always like supporting charities when I can.  The one I happened to grab supports “Not Far From The Tree”, which harvests and shares the bounty of Toronto’s urban forests per the jar.  It has a nice, light floral fragrance, while the formula is very moisturizing.

·         Ocean Salt Face and Body Scrub – This is a salt exfoliator that can be used on both face and body and has a natural, light scent.    The website does say that if you have sensitive skin you might want to use a gentler product, so I will have to see how this works for me.  I may need to resort to using this on only certain parts of my body or not using it at all.

·         Yellow Fun – I had heard of this moldable soap before going to the store, so when I saw the price, I snatched it up.  It is very much like Play-Doh ™ and comes in 5 colors, but I only have the one for now.  Yellow smells like vanilla, and they actually recommend rolling it out and cutting it with cookie cutters as a way to play before using.

·         Jason and the Argan Oil Shampoo Bar – This shampoo bar is a cult classic in two ways: LUSH shampoo bars are loved by many, and this is of the Rose Jam scent that everyone seems to talk about.  I don’t usually go for rose-scented items, but both the kiddo and I fell for this one hard core.  (Maybe the lemon in it tames the rose?)  I also picked up a storage tin.  What is your favorite shampoo bar from LUSH?  What is the best way you have found to store your shampoo bars?

The kiddo keeps asking when we can go back to LUSH, even if it is just to buy more Charity Pots.  She’s also upset I haven’t started using everything yet while I’ve been using up some other items.  That will probably be changing soon.

First MAC Lipstick!

Since I first saw pictures of the newest MAC collection, Wash and Dry, I’ve been intrigued.  First off, the packaging is amazing!  Even though I know how to make this type of color design on metal, I love the rainbow metallic look.  Also, some of the eyeliner swatches looked to be almost duochrome when I saw them online, so I knew I needed to check them out in person.

The Wash and Dry collection was in stock and right at the front of the store.  The packaging was amazing, but not enough for me to get anything, and the eyeliners unfortunately weren’t what I wanted.  Did you pick anything up from the collection?  Comment below!

There were plenty of sales associates around who checked to see if they could help but were not pressuring, which was really nice.  One was a huge help, and made my whole experience very enjoyable.  I posed the question: If you could only have one lipstick, which would it be?  After giving him some guidelines (not super pale nude, not frosty), he came up with two MLBB options that both went with the lip liner Soar.  I picked the slightly darker Brave to try on, and it was AMAZING!

He also did a great job color matching me for foundation.  He picked the Mineralize Moisture foundation after discussing my skin type with me, and tried a few colors to determine that I was NW15, which was also confirmed by another passing sales associate.  What MAC foundation do you prefer?

All in all, I had a great experience, bought my first MAC products, and got color matched to boot.  I look forward to really putting my lipstick to the test and seeing if it lives up to the hype.

What was your first MAC lipstick?  What’s your favorite?

First ColourPop Haul!

ColourPop, if you have not yet heard of them, is huge right now in the v/blogging world right now.  They have a huge variety of eyeshadows, lipsticks, and matching lip liners.  Recently, they have also gotten into blushes, and will soon (if not already) be coming out with a line of highlighters.

The first thing that should be noted in general about these products is that all of the check and eye products are creams.  *Happy Dance*  That being said, they all come in their own pot, even if you purchase them in a kit so they don’t dry out.  Also, they don’t have a typical cream texture but one that is more sponge-like. 

Finally, the price makes these even more fabulous, especially when considering how great the quality is (and it is!).  All the eyeshadows (including pressed pigments), lipsticks, and liners are $5, while the blushes are $8.  You can’t beat that!

I have totally been loving duochrome eyeshadows recently, and have been wearing at least one almost every day.  So when I discovered that ColourPop carries several, I quickly placed an order and grabbed every one they had.  I also had my eye on a few blushes after watching a video so grabbed those to qualify for free shipping.

Blushes

Prenup – The ColourPop website describes this as a mid-tone plum pink.  It is a light enough blush that I don’t have to be uber careful with my application and it still looks natural.

Trickery – This soft pastel true peach per the website has become my go-to peach blush since I got it.  It’s perfect for lighter skin tones, though might not show up well on darker ones.

Eye Shadows

Girly – I use this creamy vanilla shadow with a flash of pink and gold duochrome finish primarily as a base.  However, I have used it on top of some bolder colors with interesting effects.  To me, it can come across as either yellow or white.  

Cheeky – This is called a mid-toned candy coral pink with a duochrome finish by ColourPop.  So far, I have tried this once, and discovered it is a pink I need to be careful with so I don’t look sick.  I topped it with Girly and it created an orange look.

So Quiche – I find it so hard to describe this shadow, but ColourPop lists it as a soft olive with a highly reflective gold and pink violet glittery duochrome metallic finish.  They say on the website that there are no words in the dictionary to describe this, and I tend to agree.  I guess you’ll just have to try it yourself.  J

Ibiza – I actually thought this bright turquoise with silver and gold duochrome finish would be one of my least used of the bunch, but I have used this several times for a fun look.  I pair this with a more muted purple for a fun, peacock-inspired look.

Slave2Pink (Pressed Pigment) – I haven’t quite figured out how to use this electric neon pink with blue, violet, hot pink, and silver glitter and metallic duochrome finish.  It wasn’t until I received it that I learned that pressed pigments are supposed to be used in the eye area.  Some more thinking to do on this one… 

Partridge – This saddle brown undertone shadow with a green duochrome finish totally reminds me of the bottom right shadow in the Wet ‘n Wild Comfort Zone palette, but as a cream.  I love this! Try it as a single shadow look.

Bae – This rich eggplant purple with an emerald and turquoise glittery duochrome has been my most used of the bunch by far.  This has been my go-to when I want a dark, dramatic eye.  It is also one of the only shadows I ever use as an eyeliner; it gives such a gorgeous color to the lower lash line.

Close up really shows some of the blue

I’ve only tried the blushes and eyeshadows so far, but when I try the lip products out, I’ll share my opinions, of course.

Aside from the basic product pictures on the website, there are also pictures of many of the products applied to different skin tones.  I have found this incredibly helpful since the names don’t usually describe the color well.

So, based on my first order, I will definitely be getting more.  What do you think I should try?  I think a Lippie Stix will be in my next order, but I’m still trying to decide which one.

What are your favorite ColourPop products?  Which ones should I try next?