View the haul video here:
Feel free to skip the first two paragraphs....It's really not that much, but feel free to just look at the pretty pictures:-)) The info on each item is not going to be as detailed as there are a lot of items, and I plan on doing individual reviews of items that I am particularly pleased with after I have used them for a longer time.
Well, I finally made it back from Puerto Rico a few days ago!
I needed about a week to get settled back into life and recover from travelling. You do absolutely nothing on a plane for 3 hours yet it makes you so tired! Maybe I'm just not factoring in all the running around the airport, lifting and pulling suitcases, getting up early, and waiting in lines....idk... Anyway, I REALLY started looking forward to the trip once I did a location search for a few products on Sephora's website and realized that the one in Plaza las Americas mall in Puerto Rico sells Illamasqua, Bobbi Brown, and CoverFX; the newly-opened Sephora near my house sells none of these except Illamasqua nail varnish, so I was flipping out when I realized I could swatch blushes and concealers to my heart's content when I've never been able to see some of these products in person before! I also picked up a few e.l.f. products at Kress (a clothing store in PR) because they are only $1 and I needed some more brushes.
Yay, I'm a V.I.B.! Oh wait, I sort of already was...
I didn't get a bazillion things because each item from Sephora was over $20 apiece and I didn't want to blow all the spending money we had for nine days in 10 minutes. I would also rather have a few items that really work and that I will use often rather than blindly grabbing a bunch of cheap crap from somewhere that I will hardly ever look at again. I went to this Sephora twice because we ended up having a bit of extra cash. I assumed I would spend hundreds of dollars on clothing, but I was disappointed with Torrid's selection this time around and I just bought two $10 shirts at Kress and a few pieces from Forever 21+. I spent about $320 total at Sephora over the two days...This is not my normal spending amount for two trips to Sephora on an average day AT ALL because I am recently graduated and unemployed, but I could splurge since the spending money was specifically for this trip and we've been saving for a while.
Without further ado, here's what I picked up!
Illamasqua
B.L.U.S.H.! I used to not be a blush person. I had one blush, and I was convinced that it was the only one I needed and the only one that looked good on my skin tone. Well, I have recently been rudely awakened (or not so rudely:-P) and have entered the fabulous world of blush! My love of blush started with NARS, and I recently graduated from one blush to two:-P This second blush, which is a completely different shade from the first, made me see that I can wear different shades that I thought I couldn't. After discovering this love, the first place I looked was Illamasqua (because I already love NARS) because they are known for having great powder blushers. I made a list of four that I wanted, but I only got two because the pickin's were slim as these are very popular! The third one I wanted was Hussy, and I can't remember the fourth to save my life. Long story short, I noticed I hadn't gotten any Beauty Insider points for months and learned I had accidentally created two or three accounts somehow. The nicest Sephora person ever in the forums merged my accounts but I lost my wishlist:-((
Excite:
I had no idea I could pull this shade off, but it can be done if applied correctly! Like NARS, these are super pigmented so you don't want to pack a huge amount on and slap it all over your face. This shade is absolutely beautiful!
Swatched heavily and lightly over MAC Matchmaster foundation in 1.0 and MUFE HD powder:
Lover:
Another awesome shade, Lover is described as a "vibrant apricot" and is absolutely amazing at creating a beautiful blushing effect:-))
It might look kind of brown-ish in the pan, but apricot is an accurate description!
Swatched heavily and lightly over MAC Matchmaster foundation in 1.0 and MUFE HD powder:
I wanted to try a couple of different products from the brand as I can't find them at home, so I picked up a brown Illamasqua powder shadow in Tango after seeing this very pretty tutorial from a guest blogger on the Makeup Geek site that I can't wait to try.
NARS
My one NARS purchase was a replacement, not a new purchase, so nothing too terribly exciting. I dropped my Luster powder blush, the remains of which....well....remain on my bathroom rug. I had just washed and dried that (snow white) rug the day before I dropped my blush, so I have yet to wash it again. Some of it stayed in the container, so I've been using barely-there broken bits of blush and it was making me nuts. To make things better, my local Sephora didn't have Luster.....at all.... I thought I would have to start ordering it online but I found it at the Sephora in PR! Love this shade. It's the "first" blush I had, as mentioned above:-P It's a nice cinnamon color and looks great on my skin tone.
Bobbi Brown
People rave about their gel liners, and I actually got one a couple of years ago from a counter in Belk. The problem was, I didn't really swatch it and I ended up hating the color. I think it's Violet Ink, and it definitely ain't violet... I knew it was the color and not the product that I hated, so I decided to stick with a brown, as I am really into brown liner right now. I ended up getting Espresso Ink. Even though I have access to Bobbi Brown at department store counters, I decided to wait and try another liner here so I can get my Beauty Insider points.
It looks chocolatey brown here but it really has more of a gray-ish color, which I am fine with. It's my fault for not fully swatching before I bought it!
Different lighting:
Here's me wearing it in PR!
I also really wanted to try their concealers. The reason I have two is because I was cosmetic-high the first time I went in the store and I have no idea what I was thinking. I swear I swatched those things for.ever and I still didn't get it right. I'm convinced I either grabbed the wrong shade or swatched the wrong thing, because the first one I bought in "Warm Ivory" was redonk orange on my skin and definitely the wrong shade. I did not return it for two reasons: 1.) I already stuck my finger in it. I know you can return used stuff, but I just felt really bad about that. 2.) I speak Spanish, but not 100% native and that would have stretched my language skills a bit. The employees spoke English to me sometimes, but then it went back to the finger thing. lol
Creamy Concealer Kit in Warm Ivory:
The kit comes with a concealer and a setting powder. I think they both work well together and the powder doesn't warp the color of the concealer.
The second time I went in, I made sure I swatched the crap out of every single shade that looked like it would work on me, making sure not to swatch the Warm Ivory or anything darker than that. I got it right the second time with "Ivory"!
I mainly used this for under-eye coverage and it worked very well! I haven't used it enough to form a solid opinion, so I should know something in a week or two!
CoverFX
After realizing, months after buying it, that my MAC concealer was not the right shade (I 100% blame the lighting I was using at the time, for reals), concealers made me sad. Sure, I could have gone back to MAC and looked for a more suitable shade, but this incident made me mistrust my shade-matching abilities in a bad way. I started using MAC Matchmaster foundation and just used that for concealer. Well, I quickly learned why concealer is a different product from foundation. The foundation alone was just not covering all my darker acne scars no matter how much I layered on, even though the foundation as a whole is wonderful. I researched concealers a few months ago and came up with Eve Pearl Salmon Concealer and CoverFX as two top contenders. Like an idiot, I forgot to go to the Eve Pearl booth at IMATS so that didn't turn out so well. I got some Conceal FX on my second trip to Sephora and I'm loving it so far!
This is the Extra Light Shade:
I put this under my eyes and I look TOO AWAKE. I have no idea how that's possible. This stuff is absolutely incredible. I would prefer to use this product with a brush to cover other blemishes, but I forgot my concealer brush on vacation. I will try this out tomorrow and see how it goes!
MAKE UP FOR FREAKING EVER
I'm going to go out on a (very sturdy) limb and say that MUFE is my favorite cosmetics brand. I love love love love to death Sugarpill and OCC, but the wider range of products that MUFE offers is what makes me say this.
As I said on their Facebook page after my Sephora purchases:
"I always know that if I need any item, lip gloss, mascara, foundation, liner, shadow, etc., I can get it from your brand knowing that I will like it, even if I haven't tried it before. I've never had a problem with anything I've gotten, and that's a lot of stuff:-p Thanks for having awesome cosmetics!"
If I need eyeliner, I know I can grab anything from MUFE and I will like it. If I need mascara, the same....and pretty much the same with any product. I have seriously liked EVER SINGLE THING I have ever used from them. That being said, the MUFE section is one of my main stops on any Sephora trip, even if I don't purchase anything from them that day.
I'm in love with their brown Smoky Lash that I recently purchased, so I was of course interested in trying the black Aqua Smoky Lash. It does not disappoint.
At first, the brush might turn people off because it's not huge and fluffy. This product proves that a well-designed applicator and quality product, not a fat, poofy applicator makes all the difference in the mascara world. Makes my lashes super open and doesn't flake!
Pink is my favorite color and I'm always looking for good pink eyeshadows, but WOW. I've had my eye on this for some time and finally grabbed it. When they say Pure Pigment, they mean it! This is #12 and it's so hot hot pink it should be called Hell or Inferno or some other equally warm name.
BEWARE: This next picture IS NOT ACCURATE! I could not get my camera, in natural or artificial light, to pick up this color correctly, and I have a decent camera. This color is simply amazing!
I had such a horrible, awful time getting this color to show up accurately that I resorted to scanning my arm on my Brother scanner/copier/printer/fax to see if that would pick it up more accurately. It turned out pretty well, but still not 100%
I've been wanting a cranberry eyeshadow forever. The two Sephoras closest to my house have nothing anywhere near that color, but the one in PR did! It is actually a powder "blush", but the blushes and eyeshadows are often lumped into the same category on websites and both products can be used as blushes and eyeshadows.
#58, a "vibrant matte raspberry" (okay, so it's the wrong fruit but close enough), was actually one that was on my shopping list before it got obliterated (I'm still not ungrateful for the nice Sephora person combining my accounts and points for me:-)) so I was super duper ooper beyond excited to find this in a store. I admit that I have not tried it on my eyes yet and I've just swatched it on my hand, but I am definitely busting it out this week...
The big surprise of the haul and the mother of them all is my new High Definition liquid foundation! Boy did I work for this one. I stood there for literally 5 minutes (maybe more) swatching shades 117 and 115 on my arm back and forth, back and forth (in rather large quantities, I might add). I'd be surprised if there was any left in those bottles... I also swatched it on my neck, as I already had makeup on my face. Many times. There was foundation lathered all over my arms, but something finally made me settle on #117 and I'm glad I did. This foundation is amazing, and that's all I'll say now. I could go on and on forever right now, which tells me that I need to do a separate review for this!
e.l.f.
Well, what can I say? All I got from e.l.f. was three brushes which I have yet to use, the only reason being I just got back from vacation and have only done my makeup once since then. I normally love their brushes so I'm sure I'll have no problem with those. I am very pleased with the Super Glossy Lip Shine I got and the shade is very pretty! The pressed powder I got ended up being WAY too orange for my skin, but I should have known better when the word "apricot" was in the shade name. I am considering trying that product in another shade just to see what it's like...
Well, I wish everyone happy swatching on their vacations this summer! Go out there and discover something new. I hope some exciting news about IMATS New York 2013 comes our way in the next month so I can look forward to another awesome haul!
*All opinions contained in this blog and post are my own. I was not paid to review any products and none of the links contained in this post are affiliate links.
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