september hauls

 

hi guys! so earlier in the month, ulta had a 20% off coupon so i started poking around on their website. then i saw that they were having 25% off on most cosmetic bags and cases. now, my mom's been mentioning how she's been wanting a new makeup bag (and the extras that i have aren't really what she wants), so i got her this one for her birthday later this month. buttttttt, i needed to spend more of teh mulah to get free shipping. it kinda sucked that you had to spend $50 to get free shipping, and that's after you apply the coupon. not your subtotal. ~.~ but on the plus side, the 20% off applied to my mom's makeup bag, making it ~40% off, which is insane. right?! looooove. anyway, i bought some stuff for me too..

you'll notice as the post goes on, that i got a lot of loreal infallible eyeshadows.....but dey so pretteh. ~Lin-chan ^.~

 

left: mom's present: trina makeup bag, the wet brush, elf kabuki brush, asp manicure saver cotton claw
right: the remainder of my ulta order + opi drip dry

ulta order numero uno:

• real techniques powder & blush brushes: i've been really enjoying this powder brush..a lot. so i wanted another, and i decided to give their blush brush a try too.
• opi drip dry & essence nail art express dry drops -- comparison review to come later! every time i've been into ulta, they've been out of the essence drops, so i bought the opi ones. but, i needed a little bit more to make free shipping on the online order, so i went ahead and ordered the essence drops. we'll have to see which ones i like more. (hopefully the essence ones because they're way cheaper! i have not tried a liquid nail-dryer before.)
• update: i returned the drip dry before using it
• tree hut sugar scrubs in tropical mango, coconut lime, original shea; i loved the mango one and since ulta was having buy 2 get one free plus 20% off, i had to get more!
• omg. so the coconut lime reminds me of my childhood. my parents would always buy white rain shampoo & conditioner in coconut. this, i think, is that EXACT scent.

 
 
primer, let's get naked, #luv u, infinite sky, smoldering plum, perpetual purple, amber rush (swatched over milani eye primer)

various locations:

• freeman face masks, covergirl smoochie in #luv u and rimmel london let's get naked: these were all semi-impulse. i had $5 off cvs beauty rewards plus $4 off $20, and the face masks were bogo...so yeah....it happened.
• black radiance true complexion shine control primer -- i already tossed the packaging for this! sorreh! i wanted to try this out, it's a relatively inexpensive drugstore primer, and my usual primer, too faced primed and poreless, is $30/oz! ouch!
• sally hansen flashy fuchsia: i'm kinda sad how the pretty purple shimmer doesn't really show through on the swatch. but we'll see.....
• loreal infallible eyeshadows in infinite sky, smoldering plum, perpetual purple, and amber rush -- i got these on various shopping trips and i'm not sure where i got each one, but anyway. perpetual purple is ok. i wore it packed on the lids and blended outward one day and it looked kinda bruise-y to me. my mother-in-law liked it, but i'll have to give it another go. amber rush is a youtube made my buy it (i think i'll make that a new tag! ytmmbi), thanks to jen from frmheadtotoe. and infinite sky and smoldering plum were to play with since they match the bridesmaid dresses for the weddings i'll be in soon.

 

various locations:

• tresemme heat protectant: i ran out of my paul mitchell hot off the press ($16) and i didn't really want to open up the oscar blandi one ($23) just yet, and this one is only like $4. another ytmmbi. i think this has become the new go-to. 14+ hours later, my hair was still straight, even after using a ponytail for a little while! great stuff.
• eos lip balm in tangerine: have you guys ever had this problem? this is the first time it's happened to me, when i first opened up the balm, the entire product was stuck in the lid. so i used a pin and dug it out, tried melting it back onto the base, then sticking it into the freezer to reharden. but i took it out and left it out, thinking it'd be ok. but once it got to room temperature, it split again. so i fixed it again, and now it lives in my fridge.
• elf lip lock: i told you guys in a previous post that i don't have an invisible lip liner, right? well apparently i did have one in my stash out of sight, out of mind; but i went ahead and bought this one too to try out since elf is a lot cheaper than pixi.
• maybelline
• colorshow polka dots nail polish in blue marks the spot: (see notd post here) it's ok, it needs 3 layers to be as opaque as i'd like it. maybe if you layer it over another polish, it might look better in 1-2 coats.
• fit me foundation in 120 classic ivory: i'm reluctant to admit it, but i think i've become whiter or paler..something. i don't go out in the sun enough, i guess? i have no idea. so i picked out this one because after looking at the numbering on the liquid foundations, i felt like this was the best color match. and sadly, it's spot on; it makes me feel so pale now, 'i wear ivory foundation!' TT_TT ...anyway, so far, i've liked it. it does kind of cling to dry patches or dead skin near acne scabbies (ew, right). but. it does keep me fairly shine-free. i have been applying concealer and powder over it, but i basically rub the stick all over my face a bit, then blend it out with the real techniques expert face brush.
• sally hansen mermaid's tale & gunmetal: so i've been wanting mermaid's tale (see notd post) for a while now because it's supposedly a dupe for deborah lippmann's across the universe, which is $8 vs. $19...or if you want to think of it like this, i got $5 extra bucks for spending $10 sally hansen, and used a $2 off $10 nail polish coupon; so i picked up gunmetal too ^______^

 
swatches: wonder pencil in light, energy (fully dispensed in top left), thankful blush, fantasy (swatched dry), creme brulee

ulta part dos

• too faced primed and poreless: my favorite primer!! it was part of ulta's 21 days of beauty, on sale for 50% off! yessssss. love. sadface that it was limit 2 online. lol.
• so in your cart on ulta.com, whenever there's a gift with purchase, there'll be a dropdown menu below the item that is a gift to go with a particular item in your cart. somehow i got two options:
• too faced lip injection & shadow insurance; half of a full size eye primer and a lip plumper i haven't tried yet, for free? sweet.
• st. tropez self tan bronzing mousse: why this was a gift with purchase of too faced primer, i have no freaking clue. i'm passing this off to my mom because i'm such a home-body and if i use this and suddenly get a tan, it'll be really weird. and she occasionally tans anyway.
• tarte thoughtful treasures deluxe best-sellers set (holiday 2013, $19): i've really been wanting to try one of their lipsurgence pencil stick thingies and maracuja oil  for a while now, so to me the blush is a bonus.
• maracuja oil
• thankful blush
• energy lip pencil -- great color, it's one of those pH balms and i like the balminess to it
• nyx: eye products were bogo half off
• wonder pencil in light: every single time i've gone into ulta (the one here and back home), neither of them had the light pencil. it's always a crapton of medium or dark. so while i was ordering stuff, i decided to get one.
• single eyeshadow in fantasy: it looked like it might go nicely with the gold eyeshadow from my september ipsy bag
• butter gloss in creme brulee: another ytmmbi. i'm loving it, by the way.

 
never lacque-ing & eternal sunshine (swatched dry)

• walgreens: loreal la lacque in never lacque-ing & infallible eyeshadow in eternal sunshine. these are so pretty! i wanted to try one of the la lacque lipstick thingies... and eternal sunshine is pretteh!
• sally's: asp manicure saver cotton claw. i've been interested in getting one of these recently as teh paul is not so amused when i ask him to remove one of my freshly ruined nails, when wearing gloves or using q-tips just don't work out or can't happen.

 
swatches: houndstooth, argyle

theBalm.com: instain blushes in argyle and houndstooth. toward the end of september, theBalm was having a 50% off everything flash sale, with proceeds going toward a charity. so i jumped on it and got these two!

just peach, ballet twist, nude pink, just beige (sorry for the poor lighting! we were at my in-law's and i was impatient!)

bbb: just a day after checking out nouveau cheap's blog posts, i was able to find the new maybelline color tattoos at our local bbb! so exciting. i didn't get all three because the brown looked too dark for me, and it's matte. i also found the medicated baby lips (i didn't like the first one (blue tube) that i had, but i decided to give these a try: got just peach & too cool. i might give away just peach though, it doesn't look quite as i had imagined it on me. they also had the new loreal butterfly mascara and, i haven't tried one of these before, a covergirl jumbo gloss balm in ballet twist (205). i'm really liking the covergirl pencil, but it accentuates dry lips, and looks horrible at that point.

bb cream, fair/light, light

cvs: so i used my gazillion extra bucks and got these. i've been wanting to try the rimmel london bb cream (in light) but i'm on the fence about it--first impression-wise. i've only done this swatch today, but it dried and oxidized pretty fast, like in 5 minutes. i'll have to actually try it out on my face and see. the wet n wild coverall foundations were 2/$3, so i got fair/light and light. it was so cheap why not get both to test out my color. but by the looks of it, i'm going to have to give the darker one to T to try out. it's pretty orange on me. i also wouldn't call it a "cream" foundation, it's super liquidy for a "cream". and more ytmmbi's or rather, just the loreal total repair dry oil. the frizz taming serum was purchased on a whim. i haven't tried these yet, but i'm hoping that they live up to the hype and/or claims!
update: i forgot that i also got essie's for the twill of it during this trip! here's its notd post.