MAC Haul!

Hello, everyone!  About two weeks ago MAC sent out an email with a coupon for $10 off any order of $50 or more.  It is so rare for MAC to send out coupons, so after the shock began to wear off I immediately went onto their website and picked up a few things I've been wanting.

I'm not a fan of Miley Cyrus' music, but ever since I saw swatches of the Miley Cyrus Viva Glam lipstick and lipglass I have been dying to get my hands on them.  The lipstick is a bright hot pink with an Amplified finish.  The lipglass is a purpley pink with blue and pink shimmer.

I also picked up a large, single pro palette and an eyeshadow insert.  I've been wanting to buy single eyeshadows for a long time now, but I put I kept putting it off because I didn't have anywhere to store them and I didn't want the eyeshadows to get ruined.  I've looked into purchasing a Z Palette, but those start at $20+ and I didn't want to spend that much money on an empty palette.  Thankfully I saw the empty pro palette and eyeshadow insert on MAC's website for only a total of $10 ($8 for the palette $2 for the insert).  So now I can finally purchase some single eyeshadows!  (I'm looking at you Makeup Geek!)

I also grabbed one single eyeshadow in the shade Vanilla.  I've seen this shade used a lot and it's perfect for adding a matte highlight under the brow and in the inner corner.

I was also given a choice to pick one of three different samples for free with my purchase.  I've never tried any of their face makeup and I've heard good things about their Prep + Prime, so that's what I chose.

 What are your favorite MAC eyeshadows?  I would love to hear your recommendations so I can fill up my palette.

Thanks for stopping by!

Birchbox Cupcakes & Cashmere Box Review

Hello, everyone!  One of my favorite beauty YouTubers is Tati from Glam Life Guru.  She posted a video not too long ago announcing that she had collaborated with Birchbox and had a special offer for new members to receive their first box for only $1.oo.  I had been curious about this monthly subscription service for a while now and decided to try it out since it was only a dollar and free shipping (in the US).

What I got:

Coastal Scents 'Revealed 3' eyeshadow quad in "Desert Bloom"

Harvey Prince "Sincerely" perfume sample

Juice Beauty Stem Cellular CC Cream

Naobay Oxygenating Cream Moisturizer

Number 4 Super Comb Prep & Protect

For starters, my box was a day late.  I wasn't too upset by this because it ended up coming on my birthday so it was like a little birthday gift to myself.  What I was upset about is the fact that one of the corners of the box (bottom right) was soggy when I got it.  Upon opening the box and inspecting the inside, the reason the box was soggy was because one of the products inside had a hole in it and had leaked out everywhere.  Naturally, the product that leaked all over was the Naobay Oxygenating Cream Moisturizer so it got everywhere and there was not much product left inside for me to try out.  :/

Out of the five of these products, I've only tried Coastal Scents before.  I have the 252 Ultimate Palette and the shadows are insanely pigmented.  This quad has four beautiful shades that I will definitely use.  There is only one shade in this quad that I was a bit disappointed in and that's the lightest shade.  It isn't as pigmented as I was expecting it to be.

Swatches:

  

In natural light:

With flash:

I liked what I could use of the Naobay moisturizer.  It has a lovely lemony scent and leaves my skin feeling hydrated.  I didn't have a lot left to give it a proper review, but I liked it during the time I used it.  I also really like that it's natural and organic.

The Number 4 prep and protect is okay.  I don't really care for the scent.  My hair doesn't usually tangle, so it didn't make a difference in that aspect, but I tried it on my niece who has very tangley hair and it didn't do much to help detangle her hair.  It did leave my hair feeling a bit softer though.  All in all, probably not something I'd ever purchase.

I love the Juice Beauty CC cream.  It is just a little bit too dark for me, but I can always add a little bit of a lighter foundation to it.  Aside from that, I love how it makes my skin look.  It isn't full coverage, but that's okay with me.  It doesn't settle into my fine lines or stick to my dry spots.  It just looked like skin, which is what I like.

The Harvey Prince perfume is a nice floral scent.  On the Harvey Prince website it describes the style as "Exotic.  Awakening.  Transformative."  I think the note that stands out the most is the Indian Tuberose.

I like most of the products in this box, but I don't know if I will continue to pay $10 per month for this subscription.  I've received products similar to these for free with purchases from Sephora and Ulta.  I also feel like other boxes I've seen are a better value.

Are you subscribed to Birchbox?  What are your thoughts?  Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Beauty Haul!

Hello, everyone!  I hope you're all doing well.  I've picked up/received a few new makeup/beauty things recently so I thought I'd make a post to share with you all.

First off, my husband is an angel, on top of the expensive monitor he bought me for my birthday, he let me pick out some makeup that I've been wanting (some I received early and already posted about).  I decided on a lipglass from the MAC Wash & Dry collection (Domestic Diva) because I don't have a shade like quite like this in my collection.  It's a frosty pink shade with multi-colored shimmer.  It's semi-sheer/semi-opaque and has a pearl finish.  While browsing through MAC's website I stumbled on another lipglass from last year's limited edition collection "Alluring Aquatic".  I was really bummed out that I missed that collection so when I saw the shade Seducing Sound still available I added it to my cart immediately.  Now, I'm a little disappointed with this shade to be honest.  On the website it looks more plum colored than bronze, but after seeing it in person it is definitely more bronze (still pretty though).  The website describes it as a mid-tone plummy bronze.  It is very shimmery.

I was also given a gift card to Ulta for my birthday, so I picked up the Too Faced Country Nashville Nudes palette.  This palette is gorgeous!  I've been wanting it for a while now but I've never picked it up because there were always new things out that I wanted to try so I just never got around to purchasing this one.  I really want to go pick up more of these little Too Faced palettes now.  I hope they're all as good as this one.

Ulta also sent out an email with a coupon for a free Benefit Cosmetics Push Up Liner in the shade Beyond Brown with any purchase so I picked that up at the same time.  I've never tried the Push Up Liner before because I've heard VERY mixed reviews on it, so I'm glad to have received this one for free because I really didn't want to shell out $24 and end up hating it.  First of all, I seriously had to turn the lever on the bottom about a hundred times to get any product out.  I applied a few swatches on my hand, took a picture, and went to remove the swatches with a makeup removing wipe and it was already hard to remove.  It was only on my hand for about 40 seconds and I had to use a bit of force to remove the product.

The June box from Julep Maven was free for anyone whose birthday is in June (just pay $2.99 for s+h).  I've never tried anything from Julep before so I figured I'd give it a shot since it was so cheap.  I received three nail polishes and an eyeliner.  Nail polish shades are (top to bottom) Ming, Shelly, and Heidi (the birthstone shade).  The eyeliner is in the shade Smoky Taupe.

I hope you have a great week.  Thanks for stopping by.

My Birthday Weekend!

Hey, everyone!  I wanted to start by saying I'm sorry for not having a blog post last week.  My husband and I have been extremely busy helping one of his sisters move, helping another one of his sisters and her husband do some remodeling around their house, and getting prepared for having the two kids I watch be at our house full time since their last day of school is on Tuesday.  Between all of that and both of us working full time jobs, we have been exhausted.

Anyway, I had an amazing 27th birthday.  I had a nice, relaxing pamper day on Saturday and in the evening my husband took me out to dinner at our favorite restaurant in town, The Ram.  There are two local coffee shops (Java Crew and Dutch Bros.) that will give you a free drink on your birthday.  Java Crew's iced chai tea is what gives me life, so of course I stopped by to pick one up.  My hubby has been quite generous and has let me pick out makeup that I've been wanting (I'll have a collective haul coming up soon!) for my birthday.  He's also been working on building me a new PC from scratch since my laptop is fairly old and not functioning at 100% anymore, so he surprised me with my new 27" Asus monitor for my birthday.  My PC will be up and running soon and he's going to have it completely set up for me with new photo and video editing programs so I can produce high quality images for my blog.  *He's a keeper for sure!*  ;)  Another nice thing that happened on Saturday was us winning a little raffle contest.  The apartment complex that we rent through draws an apartment number (out of everyone who paid rent on or before the 1st of the month) to win a prize.  Ours was a $30 gift card to Venti's Cafe.  Hello, date night!

Of course, I also picked up my birthday gifts from Sephora and Ulta.  *If you don't know - both Sephora and Ulta give you free little birthday gifts if you're a rewards member. (It's free!  Just create an account on each website and subscribe to their emails and that's it!)*  Mini review time!  :)  The birthday gift from Sephora is a Nars mini lip pencil duo.  The shades are Cruella (red) in a velvet matte finish and Rikugien (pink) in a satin finish.  Both of these shades are stunning!  They glide on like butter and are nicely pigmented.  The birthday gift from Ulta is a travel size Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On eyeliner pencil in the shade Voodoo.  It's a beautiful metallic purple shade.  I also received a $10 off any purchase coupon since I'm a platinum member.  I'm a little bit disappointed in Ulta's birthday gift this year to be honest.  Last year's gift was a full size Calvin Klein CK One Color mascara (0.31 fl oz. worth $18) while this year's gift is a travel size eyeliner (0.03 oz. worth $13?) and it's not the same gift for everyone.  Every three or four months this year they're changing the free birthday gift.  January-April birthdays received a full size Ulta Complete Eye Palette (worth $12).  I don't know why they're giving out different gifts this year, it seems like a lot of people are a bit upset about it.  I can't really complain too much though because it was free after all.

How was your weekend?  It has been very warm where I live.  90+ degrees all weekend and it's supposed to be in the 80's-90's all week.

Thank you for stopping by!  Stay tuned next week for my birthday haul!